"What have you done today to make you feel proud?" sang Heather Small. Well, I've just returned from a Council meeting at Hammersmith Town Hall in King Street where I voted to cut the Council Tax for residents in Hammersmith and Fulham by 3%. The second year running this will be achieved. The hard work in finding the savings was carried out by colleagues more senior than I am. The Council Tax is still much too high, still much higher than Wandsworth. But I am still proud for my part in reducing the burden of this hated, pernicious tax which falls most heavily on the poor.
The Labour councillors spoke against the measure with great synthetic moral outrage. But sensing the popularity of what we are doing abstained when it came to the vote. Why did they bother turning up? Perhaps they were inspired by Frank Maguire, the independent republican MP from Fermanagh and South Tyrone, who turned up in Parliament to "abstain in person" in the 1979 motion of no Confidence which brough down the Callaghan Government. If they really believe the savings that have made the Council Tax possible to be so wicked how can they look at themselves in the shaving mirror after abstaining? Goodness knows what Heather Small would make of them.
