PATHETIC AND WEAK TORIES AND LIB DEMS ABONDON DERBY

I WONDER if there has ever been a local campaign to lobby Government that has prompted personal interventions from both the Prime Minister and his Deputy.  Yet that is exactly what the Fair Deal for Derby campaign, which highlights the disproportionate cuts affecting the city, has achieved.

The thousands of people who signed the petition demanding that the city be given a fair deal should feel proud of standing up for Derby.

Unfortunately, Derby’s Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups have taken a different view. 
Perhaps they think it is fair that Derby taxpayers have been hit by cuts equating to £75 per head, while in more affluent areas the cut is less than £10.  They claim the campaign, and in particular the commendable role Derby City Council has played in it, has been wasteful and ineffective.

How wasteful can it be to properly consult Derby’s residents over a budget bounded by the most devastating regime of public service cuts in living memory?  The Labour-led council has shown great courage by laying its cards on the table and telling the public: “This is the impact of the Government’s cuts to our funding – something has got to give.”  As for ineffective? I’ve never heard such nonsense.

The truth is that it is precisely because of the effectiveness of Fair Deal for Derby that the Tories and Lib Dems have withdrawn their support.  It is no coincidence that Tory leader Philip Hickson made his announcement days after David Cameron visited the city and was asked about it directly by this very newspaper.

But while Mr Hickson was still busy making his excuses, his Lib Dem counterpart Hilary Jones failed miserably to mask the reasons behind her party’s decision.  Instead, she openly admitted that her party “decided” to withdraw its funding after she met with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg.

How pathetic. How weak. How predictable!

Derby’s Tories and Lib Dems have clearly put national party politics before local responsibility. 
If they didn’t want to support the Fair Deal for Derby campaign, why didn’t they say so when it was debated by Derby City Council only a few months ago?

The fact is neither the Tories nor Lib Dems ever really supported the campaign, they just felt obliged to publicly back it for fear of recriminations if they didn’t.  I’m not aware of a single Tory or Lib Dem councillor among the thousands who signed the petition. I’m quite certain none of them joined myself or others in canvassing for support, even when it did have cross-party backing. Indeed on one occasion, a prominent Conservative Councillor refused to sign when I was collecting signatures for the petition in East Street.

At least now they’ve nailed their colours firmly to the mast. A fair deal for Derby? It’s simply not on their agenda or in their vocabulary.  Mr Hickson and Mrs Jones would do well to remember it was not their allies in Westminster who elected them, but the people of Derby.