Restless residents form new party in Barnet

A group of angry residents based in Cricklewood has set up the Residents' Association of Barnet (RAB) to stand in the council elections in May. Here's a Times series report of their initial meeting.

I suppose this is where we were headed when we launched Barnet Community Campaign. We were active around Future Shape and sheltered housing wardens but the campaign has been marking time, withouting getting as far as discussing candidacies. Anyway, this is the RAB platform as told to the Times:

Among the initial policies drawn up by the groups founders Ms Badrick, Morton Morris and Gina Emannuel, are to call in the Brent Cross Cricklewood plans for a public inquiry.

They have also pledged to stop controversial changes to warden services, which were blocked by the High Court last year, and scrap the Futureshape scheme, dubbed EasyCouncil.

On the face of it, would I support this party? My bottom line is trade unionism: I think that the trade unions are the nearest thing there is to an organised voice for working class people. Political parties, however good their policies look, go adrift (and drift to the right, usually) when they are not anchored to something more substantial in society. I would still, on the whole, support the Labour Party in politics, not because I don't know how awful they are, but because the trade unions have not been able to break from Labour yet (and don't look like doing so soon).

I'll try to get to RAB's meeting on 3 March, and see where they are coming from!