Thursday Soapbox: Politics, monarchy and homes

It’s time for some grown up politics

Conservative councillor Tony Janio , who represents Hangleton and Knoll, has issued an open letter to Conservative and Labour councillors on Brighton and Hove City Council .

IT has now been 16 months since the voters of Brighton and Hove elected the first Green administration, and the only significant occasion where the Conservative and Labour groups, acting independently, have been forced to stop a Green policy was during the last budget vote. Quite sensibly, we were able to prevent the destructive rise in council tax that the Greens had proposed.

Since the election, the city has appeared to function normally, but has seen the departure of the chief executive, and this is a clear signal that all is not well within the council.

Indeed, it is an open secret that the top management teams are in turmoil.

In my ward of Hangleton and Knoll, I have noticed a gradual deterioration in the delivery of the basic services that our residents deserve, and, more generally, the adoption of poor policies across the city.

These include the proposed building on green fields, crime and disorder policies that have seen us become the city of protest, the toleration of illegal traveller occupations, the poor control of finances, a denial of ideas that would allow the expansion and creation of good schools and, of course, the crippling parking charges.

But I do not lay all of the blame on the Green Party.

The Conservative group proposed a plan to retain control, with Labour, over the main decision-making committees within the council, which would allow a veto over some of the more bizarre Green policies.

It is a great pity that the Labour Party can only sit back and allow the Green Party to use Brighton and Hove as a test-bed for its policies, perhaps with the hope of destroying the Greens at the next election.

I believe there is a third way.

We can allow the Greens the trappings that go with the mayoralty and council leader, but I am appealing to the leaders of both the Conservative and Labour groups to end the ghastly Green experiment before it goes too far.

I am pleading with them to sit, behind closed doors if necessary, and agree formally to a basic set of principles that will enable the city to survive another three years of Green administration.

I would probably be the very last person to suggest this cosy relationship be repeated at a national level, given the recent record of the Labour Party in Government, but I plan to live out my final years in Brighton and Hove, and do not want to be a witness to the gradual destruction of our great city.

It is time for some grown up politics.

If monarchy is not important now, why not abolish it and save lots of money?

James Simister runs the Sussex group of Republic, the campaign for an elected head of state.

THE Jubilee and Olympics this summer have given the royal family far more publicity than usual, often appearing with rock musicians and sport stars who are such notable successes in modern Britain.

Apart from Zara Phillips competing in Olympic equestrian events, the royal family are only there because of birth, and not because of any talent or personal qualities they have, or any hard work they have done.

Most people respect the Queen but that does not mean that she should be head of state. She is only there because of her descent from conquerors who once exercised absolute life and death power.

If monarchy is not important now, let’s abolish it, save lots of money and use its vast estates to help balance the public finances.

After all, what the monarchy ‘owns’ was once part of general government coffers.

But it matters who our head of state is and the position must not be limited to one family out of 60 million people but elected.

Every law-abiding citizen – we are not “subjects” – should have the right to stand.

The monarchy still wields much influence or soft power and it should therefore be accountable to the people; but it is a relic of past ages when Government was reserved for ‘nobles’, and most people had no say.

This summer has shown that Britain can be both welcoming and successful.

We still have one of the world’s largest economies and many great scientists and engineers as well as creative and sports stars.

We are often told that ‘the Queen is good for tourism’ as if visitors would not come to Britain if we elected our head of state. Yet France, Italy and the USA still attract millions of visitors each year.

By night we fall in love, by day we are evicted

Alex Casper is speaking on a panel on ‘Activism and Alternative Media’ on October 11 at Caroline of Brunswick, as part of the Brighton Photo Biennial.

Two systems: in one, we see criminalised squatting and crackdowns on travellers and ravers.

Council properties are privatised, hostels are shuttered, meaning that home ownership is forced upon people.

Large numbers of young people neither need nor want to own a house, as they lack stable, long-term employment.

Yet when the alternative is an overcrowded family home, or the street, and when banks are eager for new debtors, thousands will be pushed into dangerous mortgages.

This is the system that has been in place for decades in the United States.

Most houses chosen (by squatters) require substantial repair to even get basic necessities: electricity and running water.

Clothes, rooms and mattresses are shared. By night, residents go out ‘skipping’, checking supermarket bins for the careless waste of a gluttonous civilisation.

We help each other with homework, languages, travel plans. By night, we fall in love. By day, we get evicted.

We’re affluent, but only because our wealth is not measured in riches.

We’re political, but then who doesn’t hate the Government these days?

Under the coalition, desiring an education is an act of civil disobedience, as millions are denied the opportunity to study.

Appreciating the arts is an act of civil disobedience, as arts funding is slashed.

If our salvaged, Third World homes are to be destroyed with slightly greater efficiency, it comes as no surprise.
They want our lives to be as empty as their properties.

We don’t particularly care about what we have certainly never referred to as ‘Weatherley’s law’. We will go about our business: the business of architecture is to establish emotional relationships by means of raw materials.