ryansoton

Since the recent local election I ahve had on going printed correspsondance in the local Southern Daily Echo.
it started when i claimed that UKIP was the only party in Southampton to campaign for no increases in council tax. This prompted a response from cllr Alec Samuels tory group leader claiming that they too campaigned for no increase(they actually campaign for no increases above inflation)
Today the daily echo printed a letter from cllr alec samuels stating that in fact they did wish to increase council tax but not above inflation.
UKIP Southampton 1 v Southampton Conservatives 0
We will keep up the pressure on them bringing their lies to the forefront and making them admit the lied. Cant wait til next may when we will really show them what we can do.

HarryUKIP

Having looked at your blog you consume most of your efforts on attacking the Tories. If you want to garner the protest votes at the next election you need to focus on the Lib Dems who are the party running the Council for 3 or more years.

Or are you just trying to reduce the Tory vote and not really bothered about winning a seat on the Council?

When did the Tories last run Southampton Council? 20 years ago?

What the LD's do is Focus attacks on the incumbent ruling party and run negative campaigns on them. I suggest you re-think.

Westcountryman

Indeed. I also don't think criticising the Tories for rises in line with inflation is a good thing. Their way, there'd be no cuts in services, in your plan there would be.

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under my rock

If the Bromley result showed UKIP one thing then it should have been that we cannot progree by knocking the Tories at the expense of all elese. Farage promoting himslef as the "real Tory" didn't work in Bromley and will never work in Labour or Marginal seats. UKIP have got all the dissafected Tories we need, lets try looking elsewhere for our support. What about all the Eurosceptics currenlty voting Lib-Dem, and there arer a lot of them, who won't join UKIP because they see us as an offshoot of the Tories.......

Dissafected currently means Lib-Dem. We need any dissafected = UKIP not just Dissafected Tories = UkIP

Independent UKIP

Whilst I'd certainly agree with making credible criticisms of the Lib Dems (and Labour) at every opportunity the previous criticisms of the ryansoton post seem a bit excessive. Tories exposed in claim to oppose increase in council tax is a good result for UKIP in my opinion. ModernTory, firstly public sector inflation is way ahead of the state declared inflation. Secondly you imply that UKIP and Tories would spend the available resources the same way and that there are no efficiences to be acheived at Southampton Council that UKIP could realise. I suspect you are wrong on both counts.

David Holland

I agree 100% with this. I really wish that we would attack the other parties not just the tories.

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mkpdavies

Nationaly I agree, attacking the Tories alone is no use to anyone.

However, on a local level, you really have to take into account the situation at level.

For example, in Woking attacking Labour would be soley to get the empathy vote, as everyo one hates them anyway. The Tories are top dog at the moment, so are the number one target, followed by the Lib Dems.

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Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

ryansoton

We do attack the local Lib Dems weekly through Southamptons local newspaper along with regular postal drops.
This thread was intended to point out that we forced the local tories to admit that they lied when claiming they supported no increases in local council tax.
Message to the Tory who posted earlier. The Conservatives in Southampton did want to cut services. They wanted to close a local leisure centre with no alternative locally. They also supported collecting rubbish fortnightly instead of the weekly collection we now have.

BASILDON BOY

So how would a UKIP run council propose a nil % increase in council tax - without sacking staff or cutting services?

No good having a soundbite policy with hard facts to back them up.

Every year Central Government gives councils more responsibilities and work to do while reducing the amount of money to pay for them.

For instance the free bus passes for pensioners - the Government only gives council two thirds of the money to pay for it - so the surplus is paid for by council tax increases. Electricity prices are going through the roof - the increase in lighting and heating the thousands of lamposts street signs and public buildings comes through the increase in your council tax as central government are not going to pay your local councils gas and electricity bills. The shortfall in the council employees pension scheme is paid for through your council tax. The council staff pay increase, the increase in employers national contributions are paid through your council tax. Land fill tax, freedom of information act, various EU waste disposal regulations, childrens act etc etc are all paid through your council tax. Bringing all council properties up to a decent home standard are paid through your council tax.

How can your UKIP branch claim a nil% increase in council tax without taking any of the above into consideration and without sacking staff or cutting services?

You must have more than a soundbite if your going to play politics with the big boys and if you want the public to take you seriously.

One big failing of UKIP is that it has not produced a guide on local government finance and how local councils are run, financed and managed. Grass roots activists must have a detailed understanding on how local councils are run etc before launching campaigns.

Otherwise our inexperience will be exposed by the LibLab Con.

tamashi

I agree, up to a point, the point being that maintaing services is a sacred cow that needs to be challenged. Not all services need to be maintained! Identify those that are unecesary and cut them. However, the LIB/LAB/CON always threaten to cut Libraries, Schools, bus services, etc, main services that do need to be kept.

How about cutting Council PR Departments? Why do we need expensive people issuing press releases about how good the Council is. The people know on the streets how good or bad the Council is. Why not cut Newsletters and Council Magazines, once again expensive ways of telling people how good the council is. Cut needless repetition of "Consultation" where residents are consulted over and over again before the Council does what is was going to do anyway. Cut Senior Officer posts, anyone earning more than £100,000 a year, there would be job cuts most people would support.

Reduce the number of Council buildings. let people work from home, reduce council energy bills by fitting solar panels, conerting council vehicles to gas, every school to have a windturbine....

Give Council Officer's bus passess instead of Company cars!