Monday, 4 June 2007

Low Grade Ethnic Cleansing

Nick Brown MP rightly accuses Newcastle City Council, a Lib Dem flagship, of the "low grade ethnic cleansing" of his working-class constituents, demolishing their council flats and putting up houses to be bought by middle-class Lib Dem voters instead. But why is this only being reported in the North East? And how many more of these stories about newly yellow Shirley Porters are there around the country, each being reported only in its own locality, if at all?
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1 comment:

  1. Inamicus6 June 2007 at 08:38

    Let's look at the facts shall we? When Labour controlled Newcastle City Council they demolished thousands and thousands of council houses - depleting the city's stock by a third and creating a severe housing problem today. They were rightly excoriated for their brutalist top-down approach which involved no consultation and no planning; they built not one new property to replace them.

    Under the Lib Dem regeneration plans - hailed by DCLG as being excellent examples of building sustainable communities and involving local people - Nick Brown is making a big fuss about the demolition of one tower block, in an area which is already over-provided for in terms of small 1/2 bed flats, but which desperately needs new affordable housing to stop the massive long term depopulation and decline of the area. His remarks are disgraceful and he should apologise for them - particularly as he knowns damn well the council is taking this path to comply with the Government's own Pathfinder policy.

    What is desperately needed in Newcastle and elsewhere is the right level of housing mix - which means building new social housing in private areas and vice versa. This is what the council is trying to do.

    Offensive and ignorant comments from Nick Brown and from this blog are certainly not needed.

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