Comments on: ‘Like a canoe to the aid of the Titanic’ http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2008/09/26/%e2%80%98like-a-canoe-to-the-aid-of-the-titanic%e2%80%99/ News, features and comment from Britain's left-wing magazine Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:32:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: leslie turner http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2008/09/26/%e2%80%98like-a-canoe-to-the-aid-of-the-titanic%e2%80%99/comment-page-1/#comment-4992 leslie turner Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:22:28 +0000 http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2008/09/26/%e2%80%98like-a-canoe-to-the-aid-of-the-titanic%e2%80%99/#comment-4992 Terry McGrenera's (article "Like a canoe to the aid of the Titanic" has come to the aid of the Party by exposing the history of Labour's lack of policy on housing. The absence of a Housing Minister who stays long enough to make a difference is another cause of failure to come anywhere near to meeting the needs of all those 1.6m on the waiting lists of LAs. Leaving policy to be implemented by The Market has ensured failure in construction numbers,and out of control prices and now a free-fall,and diminishing new social homes and sell-offs of council houses all amounts to a betrayal of the lower paid and now the inability to reverse the falls in prices is a betrayal of those better paid who believed in the mantra that buying must always be best. This deliberate neglect of voters who normally vote Labour and the piecemeal bits of policy recently by Flint has already gone far to sink the Party which not even all the applause at the Conference for her will not alter. It is doubtful if the remaining couple of years will be sufficient to rectify it even if a reversal of policy was put in place now - reliance on The Market to block up the hole in the Titanic without a strong government imperative and empowerment of local councils to man the life boats is the minimum. Leslie Turner. Terry McGrenera’s (article “Like a canoe to the aid of the Titanic” has come to the aid of the Party by exposing the history of Labour’s lack of policy on housing. The absence of a Housing Minister who stays long enough to make a difference is another cause of failure to come anywhere near to meeting the needs of all those 1.6m on the waiting lists of LAs. Leaving policy to be implemented by The Market has ensured failure in construction numbers,and out of control prices and now a free-fall,and
diminishing new social homes and sell-offs of council houses all amounts to a betrayal of the lower paid and now the inability to reverse the falls in prices is a betrayal of those better paid who believed in the mantra that buying must always be best. This deliberate neglect of voters who normally vote Labour and the piecemeal bits of policy recently by Flint has already gone far to sink the Party which not even all the applause at the Conference for her will not alter. It is doubtful if the remaining couple of years will be sufficient to rectify it even if a reversal of policy was put in place now – reliance on The Market to block up the hole in the Titanic without a strong government imperative and empowerment of local councils to man the life boats is the minimum.

Leslie Turner.

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