Little Nicky's slings and arrows of outrageous mockery are usually aimed at the "great and good" of the New Labour project. So it is understandable that some readers feel we are a tad unfair in branding all New Labour supporters with the same mark. There are still, I am sometimes told, decent hard - working councillors out there doing sterling work in the town halls.
Take for example Steve Bullock, Labour mayor of the London Borough of Lewisham.
Las year there was a battle in the borough when the Labour council decided to close and demolish the popular Ladywell baths to make way for a new school to be built under a PFI contract.
The baths were immensely popular with residents and a Save Ladywell Pool (SLaP for PR purposes we hope) campaign was organised. During the campaign which enjoyed almost unanimous support from the public Mr. Bullock repeatedly issued statements to the effect that the council had made the right decision and he would no be changing his mind. He even went so far as to tell the local paper that opposition to the "project" (everything is a project with these people) was confined to a "small group of pathetic, backward looking people."
Since then Labour has lost control of Lewisham council, proving the old political maxim "round here they'd vote for a dog turd if you stick a Labour rosette on it," no longer holds true in London.
Last month when the new council announced the baths would stay open and the school be built elsewhere (Alabama for preference) Mr. Bullock's press release burbled "its great news, the result I was always striving for," and went on to say the campaign's success was an example of how the campaingn was an example of how local people, working together, could make their voice heard in the decision making process.
I did have a bon-mot prepared to finish but it has slipped my mind. I think the words "bastard" and "two - faced" were part of it.