The Bedroom Tax Farce

A recent debate in Norwich City Council chambers over the proposal to prevent any tenant being evicted over bedroom tax arrears became high farce, reports Georgina Moles from Norwich Left Unity.

A feel-good overture from the Lord (High) Mayor had the incongruous self congratulations of Norwich City Council, deeply proud of its recent record in finding homes for – homeless dogs! A good way of warming up the protesters crowding the public gallery, and hopefully ensuring they had good feelings to ‘dumb’ animals wishing no doubt this level of empathy would transfer to Councillors. This was then followed by – a stellar performance from the Deputy Leader of the council Alan Waters aka Prince Charming. Prince Charming’s honeyed words oozed empathy and he wore his kindly heart on his visible sleeve. He gushed the plight of low income Norwich residents injured by the Tory policies. “This council will do all it can to ensure no tenant will be evicted due to the bedroom tax. All the support would be available to save any tenant falling into arrears.” Alan then splashed out seeking a united front from the demonstrators crowding the public gallery. The protesters were clearly moved. Prince Charming, encouraged by the near audible swishing of tails of his audience, appealed for a coalition of the willing against the wicked witch of North Norwich (one Chloe Smith, MP) and the big bad wolf of South Norwich (Simon Wright, alleged MP) who had thought the bedroom tax a fine idea and had supported its passage through parliament. Sadly for Prince Charming, in his midst there were traitors to his noble cause!

The Greens strummed their wee harps in gentle warning: it would be 18 months before a new government would form. And it was not certain that the Tories would be evicted from their under-occupied residence in the House of Commons themselves. 18 months is a long time to wait for an uncertain resolution of a personal financial crisis and tenancies and sanity will be at risk. Reassurances of non eviction should be given now! This brief interlude of peace was backdropped by the inevitable buffoonery of our twin hatter in the form of Bert Bremner.1 He huffed and puffed his way throughout the debate. His role in all panto plays – I meant council meetings  – is that of the mad hatter. He performs regularly and publicly in Norwich and Norfolk council chambers, a show not to be missed, and for us hard pressed citizens its free entertainment. He hisses like a kettle and his imprecations muttered may be coherent thoughts. Or not. Perhaps he could emulate Whittington and Morris dance his way to London….

(AKA “SHOW TIME”) Del Boy in form of Mike Sands Labour Councillor (ironic lead for customer contact)  and his mate Trigger – incarnated, for the evening, as Paul Kendrik Labour Councillor, took their turns at the wrecking ball of consensus. Dell and Trigger wanted no truck with this nonsense of do-goodery. They favoured an enlightened “pay up or pack up” policy as if they were working for a shady pay day loan company. Just visit those defaulting tenants with baseball bats! That ‘ll larn ’em! Trigger (aka Cllr. Kendrick) claimed special insights to the minds of fellow council house tenants from poignant personal experience. He claimed if he could pay his rent why shouldn’t everyone else? After all in Trigger’s Labour utopia all are the same!  Our intrepid duo then turned their diminishing intellectual fire-power on the demonstrators accusing them of being Marxist-Leninist Trotskyist plumbers, an assertion that brought wonder to the face of all listeners. (We wonder if Paul Kendrik had his leader in mind when referring to others as socialist plumbers; plumbers can stem the flow of Waters, after all…). And Del Boy Sands allowed facts should not get in the way of a good rant: he invited the observing protesters to walk to Westminster just like Kett had done. More than any other words this caused the historical materialists to groan at the lack of erudition displayed. He meant of course Dick Whittington; when the panto season is upon us we often get confused. (“Oh no we don’t”) Then that measured diplomat Sands prudently referred to the demonstrators as ‘that lot:’ as if a new genesis of Norwich slime had polluted the chambers. These two words destroyed Waters’ plea for a coalition of the willing. At the end of this act the warm self congratulatory feelings brought to the chamber by the Lord (High) Mayor on saving the wayward hounds of Norwich slouched off stage pursued by the baying “Labour hounds of the Baskerville.”

The unity so seamlessly crafted by the deputy leader was sunk by the tsunami of his own backbenchers. It sank without a trace in the deep Waters.

Proceedings were brought to a blessed halt when a protester decided “enough of the niceties of life!” In the middle of this rancorous debate she decided to advise various councillors of another’s alleged misdemeanors. All carried on quietly for a bit; perhaps it had been much the same on the Titanic after the berg had done its dirty; a mendacious comfort break was called to effect the eviction of said protester.  On the other hand, the ship (of the Labour council) desperately holed below the waterline was listing hard to the right and clearly sinking; perhaps the protester at least got a berth on a life boat to fight another day.

Sadly Norwich citizens are now aware that the concept ‘duty of care’ is not grasped by all their councillors. Nor is simple courtesy to their constituents.

Councillor Prince Charming Waters made a promise no one will be evicted  because of the bedroom tax. Dare we believe him? Prince Charming deputy leader of the council must pray that Labour will form the next government. Otherwise this promise will come back to haunt him.

We can laugh at the antics of our councillors but we are aware that for so many of our Norwich and Norfolk citizens the bedroom tax is no laughing matter. It is a great sadness that some of our Labour, Lib Dem, Conservative politicians do not understand or even seem to care about the plight of fellow citizens having an unsustainable burden of debt around their necks for months and maybe years to come. We have through humour tried to demonstrate the uncaring nature of some councillors’ words.  Their unwillingness to stand up for the people of Norwich  because they prefer to “play” at politics is unsettling. 

Welcome to Norwich – a Fine City.

 (1) Twin Hatters are those Councillors who have been elected to the Norwich City Council and Norfolk County Council.