Friday 13 February 2009

Reflections on the seamless rise of a community movement

One thought that obviously taxes me from time to time is where the ICG goes from here.

Perhaps as a statement that sounds more pessimistic than I had intended it to. But let us take stock of the situation as it stands, and visitors will perhaps form a better idea of where I’m coming from. Much of what I’m about to say has been said before, in different situations and sometimes to different audiences. But if the topic is to be considered fully, it is necessary at times to revisit it all the same.

The history of the ICG since its formation in 1994 has been one of unrelenting progress. Membership and public support has continually improved, to the point now where in the town of Isleworth at least practically everyone who is interested in building a strong and united community is already on board. The four statutory local elections which we have contested have seen us develop from unsuccessful protest vote (unsuccessful because nobody listened to the protest, hence our continued electoral involvement), to one councillor elected to "pariah" status (thanks, Pat!) by a two-vote margin, to three councillors elected into opposition with large majorities, to six councillors also with large majorities becoming partners in a coalition administration.

We took the Executive posts we had wanted, and drove changes through in accordance with our commitment to empowering communities. Councillor Paul Fisher, as Lead Member for Community Engagement, has been a revelation. Work is underway which will drastically alter the way in which we engage with residents and their associations, and reprogram the mindset that has been allowed to prevail for so long.

Under the auspices of my Housing portfolio I have set a similar process in motion on our social housing estates after having spent my first year spelling out to a horrified political establishment in Housing how it was going to be through the vehicle of the Hounslow Homes Management Review. I have also now established a helpful channel of communication with our Registered Social Landlords with a view to encouraging them to work more closely with their tenants and to improving tenant involvement.

With my Community Safety hat on I have worked closely with both Paul and with the Leader, Councillor Peter Thompson, to help drive a robust and respected Community Cohesion program which has, I think, finally grasped the paradox that is diversities and equalities. In this work I have been blessed with an absolutely superb driven and enthusiastic team of officers who for so long had to pay mere lip service to a cause about which they clearly feel passionately.

But for the first time our future may now lie outside our own hands. The next local elections fall in May 2010, and as I see it there are any one of three possible outcomes – a return to a New Labour administration, the election of a Conservative administration or the return of another coalition in which we may or may not have a role to play.

I feel with the benefit of hindsight that I at least, and maybe some of my colleagues also, underestimated the amount of time it would take to change the culture of the borough. Four years is a long time when it is ahead of you, it is but the blinking of an eye when it has passed.

Let me not overstate the severity of the dilemma. The ICG has achieved a million times more than any of us had imagined possible in 1994, when we’d almost certainly have settled for a private acknowledgement from the local political establishment at the time that the community would be allowed to become more engaged than had previously been the case, and even then I’m speaking only about the community in our humble little village rather than the borough. Events since that time have catapulted us into a position we never envisaged being in. But we are here now, and we want to use it to the maximum benefit of our wider community.

For me we need another four years – at least – to cement the changes that we are making in a way that they could never be reversed. Our preference, of course, would be to convince all concerned that better community engagement is a good thing and not something to be frightened of, so that a future Labour administration (and there will probably be one some day) would not even want to move things back to the bad old ways. But that is still for the future – there are sadly no signs at all of it happening yet.

Would an administration in which we weren’t involved continue to drive this process through to where it needs to be? Obviously New Labour wouldn’t. That much was made clear when they opposed our plan to give our tenants a say in how £4m of their own money should be spent. Would the Conservatives? I like to think they would, they have after all been supportive of our aims as partners in coalition. But would they prioritise it? Maybe, maybe not. They have, after all, a program of their own to deliver.

Assuming that the ICG is involved again, I hope the voters of Isleworth and of Syon give us the opportunity to finish the job. But, for the first time, our ability to do so now also depends on the voters in other wards, in which we have no influence.

For their part, the Labour Party have made it clear that they would prefer an all-out Conservative administration to a coalition that included the ICG. A strange position to take for a party that has its historical roots in socialism, some would argue. But those residents on our estates who have been the victims of local Labour's obsessive meddling and control-freakery in the past would not be among them.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

All fine and dandy Phil, but let's face it, Labour played an absolute STINKER in Isleworth & Syon last time round.
Surely they won't perform as ineptly in 2010, will they ?

Phil Andrews said...

@ H4PM

It's not for me to tell Labour how to fight an election campaign, but all the signs are they'll stick to the tactics that have proved to be so successful against us in the past.

In 2006 they had this masterplan, you see. The ICG was too small and inexpert to fight a big campaign in more than one ward simultaneously. After all THEY were the political experts, weren't they? Let's face it, their whole philosophy hangs on the community being incapable of organising itself!

So the plan was this. Throw everything into Isleworth, and reveal the fact of my past associations to all the voters of that ward - they were sure to be just horrified by such a discovery, especially with a bit of insinuation on the doorsteps (unwritten, naturally) about my colleagues too. Scare the minorities out of their wits and throw in a few dirty tricks for good measure. The ICG will then have no choice but to come back and defend their own backyard in the face of such an impressive campaign and forget any notions about winning seats elsewhere.

Meanwhile Labour could sit back in Syon and do sweet FA, after all the ICG doesn't have a presence anywhere in Brentford.

Worked a treat, didn't it?

Anonymous said...

Well it had you going didnt it if you need to plant fries to win council seats typicle nazi fashion!

Phil Andrews said...

@ Anonymous

I've allowed this one through but I don't understand the point of it. What do you mean by "plant fries"?

Anonymous said...

FIRES, idiot!

Phil Andrews said...

Well I'm sorry David but it would appear that you are the idiot, as you clearly wrote "fries".

But one doesn't "plant" fires in any event.

One can of course "plant" a bomb. Are you trying to tell me that that sad effort in Woodstock Avenue has now been elevated in NuLab mythology to a bomb? Do you STILL not understand that you are fooling nobody but yourselves?

How sick you must have been when the Chronicle, whose deadline it was timed for, took an editorial decision not to report it until after the election. Still, there was always the scumbag Gilligan wasn't there?

Like I said David, at the end of the day it really paid electoral dividends didn't it? Four more years in the wilderness in Isleworth and out of office for the first time in 35.

And this numbnuts calls ME an idiot!

Anonymous said...

Who cares WHAT you think, noone reads youre 'look at me I'm impotant blog' and the isleworth and syon nazi party is on its way to oblivon that is what you get for being Torys lickases!

Phil Andrews said...

Fair enough David. I accept that you never read my blog.

Anonymous said...

I wonder id antone from Hounslow Homes reads your Blog Phil?

Right I`m off for a stroll to the shops id I can find my Jackboots!

Phil Andrews said...

Paul

If you keep striking erroneous keys people are going to start thinking that you've morphed into David Hughes. ;o)

Anonymous said...

Cllr Fisher

Not only do people at Hounslow Homes read Cllr Andrews's blog, but one or two of them like to sit and read it through a thing called Netdisaster, which you might have heard of.

I've sent him the names of a couple of them. He might feel that people who have time to waste spreading cow dung on his photo while the rest of us are slaving away could be more usefully deployed doing something else.

Anonymous said...

They fit perfectly, now when can we start yomping 'round the borough planting fries ?
In fact, when can we start terrorizing/victimizing all the people we've supposed to have been terrorizing/victimizing for the last ten years ?
Building a 600 space car park without permission would be a start.
It's not fair, we never do ANYTHING naughty !

Anonymous said...

King David has spoken - THE ICG PLANT FIRES !
Game over Phil, you can't possibly survive this.
Only a matter of time before your superior opponent finally delivered the fatal knockout blow.