Hammersmith and Fulham Council

Here's Justin - capturing utterly the contempt that those with means have for those without.

Marvellous piece of writing, and exactly what I'm trying to get at when I talk about the viciousness with which wealthy Tories are pursuing the poor in Hammersmith (see story below). They will always try and squeeze those few extra dollars and services out of people who can least afford to part with either. Meanwhile, bankers walk free with our money.

Will be posting more on this soon. Have a look at the link above to Chicken Yoghurt, though - I'm hard pushed to think of anyone in the mainstream or online press who writes quite so succintly, or well.

Just heard that all 4200 employees at Hammersmith and Fulham council have been issued with redundancy notices, as the charming Tory council there pushes through new contracts and worsened terms and conditions.

My contacts tell me the unions have been told that staff must sign new contracts, or get lost.

You can expect standards in care, education, and housing services, etc, in Hammersmith to take a dive (if they continue at all) from now on.

Have a look at this if you want to know more about the terrible effects that Tories cuts are having on staff and public services at local councils. Don't EVER buy into David Cameron's fluffy Tories salespitch - these people are vicious, and interested only in destroying the health, education and care services that people who aren't fillthy rich (ie most of us) need.

Am going to do some interviewing this weekend on this, so will be back with more soon. 

Another interview for Black History Month:

(Photo: Protestor at 2007 Hammersmith voluntary sector funding cuts demonstration).

Helena Ismail is British, very nicely-spoken, clever, committed to her community, and able to take a measured view of life's many shambles - except, perhaps, local and national politics. Right now, for instance, she seems pretty close to flattening whomever next claims that David Cameron's Tories are reformed and almost human. 'They (the Tories at Hammersmith and Fulham Council) have cut our throats,' she says tightly. 'They are targeting us. I tell you this. Why are they doing that?'

Ismail has run the much-admired Shepherd's Bush Somali support group Horn of Africa for 20 years, where she and her team provide an annual average of 3000 to 4000 poor, usually desperate, people with the immigration, employment and schools advice that they needed to settle in the UK, and get jobs, etc. Horn of Africa also does a good second line in helping newcomers to the country fill in forms and to get their heads round obligations like council tax. Horn of Africa will also help if you need to know how to deal with the many zealous coppers who play a large part in your life if you're poor, young and black.

The party's more or less over, though. In April this year, Hammersmith and Fulham's ghastly Tory council took a decision to cut exactly one hundred percent of Horn of Africa's funding (some £55,000 a year), as part of a charming borough rape of black and ethnic minority voluntary groups (other Somali groups like the youth support Hope 4 All organisation got nothing, while African and African-Caribbean support group Nubian Life got less than half the funding it received in 2006. You'll find the full funding report here pdf 404kb). The cuts took effect this month.

Photo: users of Hammersmith voluntary services protest in April about funding cuts

So... your funding dries up on Monday if you're one of the Hammersmith and Fulham voluntary sector groups that Hammersmith and Fulham Tory Council has targeted for funding cuts.

It's been six months since the council's cabinet voted to direct funding away from longstanding, left-leaning groups like the Hammersmith Community Law Centre and towards less bolshie organisations. (The Tory council claims that it's not cutting funding overall to the voluntary sector, but the Labour group begs to differ: they say funding drops significantly from October (ie Monday) and even more significantly in the 2008 to 2009 year, when projections are for an overall cut of more than 25%).

The legal action taken against the council by three people who've used voluntary sector services in Hammersmith and Fulham came to very little this week. The three aimed to argue that the council hadn't consulted properly about the cuts, or talked with the people who were going to be most affected. This seemed a likely argument - a fair few organisations heard about the proposed cuts to their funding on the grapevine, not through any formal council process.

In April, when the cabinet voted for the cuts, people like Helena Ismail from the Somali support group Horn of Africa, which lost all its funding, said they hadn't received as much as a phone call from the council about it. She found out when the Hammersmith Community Law Centre rang her and told her. The Hammersmith Community Law Centre only found out because one of its lawyers happened to see the council report that recommended the cuts.

Hangbitch was (were?) in close attendance at last night's public meeting/debate on the Hammersmith and Fulham Tory Council's cuts to voluntary sector funding. Will post a report on the event shortly (update: here it is), but in the meantime, here are some photos to enjoy.

Your man on the right getting a Guinness in during the debate is Tory Councillor and Evening Standard hack Harry Phibbs.

What a cracker he was.

Isn't Phibbs the greatest name a politician ever had? Ten points for pushing on with it.

PS: could the worthy Tories who keeping emailing/spamming us with the news that abortion rates up are get lost, please? We are pro-abortion and you are not, so probably spam is going to PISS US OFF.

Many thanks.

...more interviews with Hammersmith Law Centre clients as we speak.

News in the meantime: on 18 June at 7.30pm, Polly Toynbee and others will be taking part in a debate in Hammersmith on the issue of funding in the voluntary sector. The event is being organised by the Hammersmith Law Centre, who, as readers of this site will know, are having 60% of their own funding removed from them by those charming Tories at Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

The debate will be held at the Irish Centre is on Blacks Road, Hammersmith. Twill be a public meeting, all, so get yourselves along.

You can read more about the Hammersmith and Fulham Voluntary Sector Funding Campaign here.

Having a discussion with Hammersmith and Fulham Tory councillor Paul Bristow over at his blog at the moment. We're talking about the proposed voluntary funding cuts at that council and the effect this will have on the Hammersmith Law Centre in particular. (Naughty Paul actually pinched a photo taken by one of the contributors to this site and put it on his site - see right. That was kind of how we all met each other. Ten points for taste, though - they are pretty good photos).

Anyway - trying to get Paul and council leader Stephen Greenhalgh to agree to an interview on the voluntary funding at Hammersmith and Fulham topic.

...in their attempts to close Hurlingham and Chelsea School in Hammersmith ....

Will be updating this site shortly with more interviews with people affected by the voluntary sector cuts at Hammersmith and Fulham.
Still doing interviews now.

Hangbitch New Statesman watch on the Hammersmith and Fulham Tories

This story: the Cabinet at Hammersmith and Fulham's Conservative Council meets to accept the Voluntary Sector Funding report which cuts funding to central and longstanding voluntary groups.

Photo: Hammersmith and Fulham Council leader Stephen Greenhalgh.

Introduction and background to the voluntary sector funding controversy at Hammersmith and Fulham

Photos from the protest at the Monday 16 April Cabinet meeting

Splendid scenes at Hammersmith and Fulham Town Hall this week, when several hundred furious locals shouted the council's largely pale and male Tory cabinet members out of the meeting hall, and down towards the Town Hall latrines - the very place (I'm sure I've got this straight) where the H&F Tories first spawned.

The locals had turned up to protest about the council's plans to cut ('prioritise' is the word that the Tories are using at the moment) funding to Hammersmith and Fulham's voluntary sector.

Groups that work very closely with some of Hammersmith and Fulham's poorest communities have lost all their funding, and they are not thrilled. The Hammersmith and Fulham Law Centre - a group of 12 experienced and committed lawyers that has been the legal brain of the Hammersmith voluntary sector together for nearly 30 years, and so often successfully highlighted council and government uselessness - has lost 60% of its funding.