So what do you do if you cant get rid of those pesky MBIs through the ballot box - you try to bully them into submission by evicting them form their offices in Morley Town Hall with the forlorn hope that that will somehow give you electoral success.
The MBI office in Morley Town Hall has been around for over a decade and is a local spot where people can go to get help and advice on many issues. If people need help with the bedroom tax or other social security problems, or they need rehousing or their bins emptied - they drop in the office so we can help them. Direct access and direct accountability. Unlike the Labour Party - who will ask you to wait for their monthly surgery at Asda (if you are lucky) - we try and deal with your problem as quickly as possible. Surely that's what being elected is about - being in the heart of and accountable to your community? Not according to Labour. They wanted us evicting in a desperate last ditch attempt to try and retain the poor substitute that is their lone City Council Labour Councillor. The eviction will actually cost Taxpayers more - not less - with a 30% plus increase in charges but this pales into insignificance when compared to the whopping £750,000 a year it costs Taxpayers to cover the overtly politicised Labour Group Office at Leeds Civic Hall. The Comrades might talk about cuts and defending services but are much keener in defending their own enhanced political position than dealing with the challenges to the vulnerable.
How do the Labour Party justify this horrendous level of party political bullying. They don't! They can do as they like and the Chief Executive of Leeds and other senior offices aren't prepared to do anyhting about it. Its institutionalised Political Bullying and cannot be described as anything else.
But are we surprised at Labour? Not really. Over the last few years they have systematically removed any representation of Morley Councillors from any of the major decision making bodies in an attempt to centralise power at Civic Hall and remove any localism that may have existed under the previous administration. First they removed Morley from the Executive Board, then from the Housing Committee and in a recent Area Committee meeting from the local Area Panel giving grants to tenants groups - using their majority to stuff these committees with Labour Loyalists who are desperate to get on within the Peoples Party.
Labours eviction of the MBI group will hit local residents especially Older and Disabled constituents who will have to drag into Leeds City Centre if they want to be seen. As ever - Labours commitment to the vulnerable is shown to be veneer thin.
We won't take this lying down. We will find an alternative way of delivering a face to face service to our constituents using Morley Town Hall.
And what of the future? Perhaps we need an in out referendum - like the Scots - to see if we wish to remain within Leeds City Council or to run our own affairs from Morley. This would put us in charge of what happens locally with planning, housing, roads, parks and libraries. We would not have to depend on the democratic deficit and hope Labour will somehow look for ways of giving Morley a fair deal. Its about returning power back to the people and away from those who decide Morley's fate but are not elected by Morley Folk.
