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The people of Brent are at the end of their Teather

September 8, 2012 4:25 pm

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Like the prodigal son, the self-styled ‘Saint’ Sarah Teather of Brent Central declared she was returning to spend more time in her constituency after being banished to the backbenches during this week’s reshuffle kerfuffle.

Ever since her sensational election victories in Brent East and Brent Central, Sarah Teather has always modelled herself as the perfect MP. Always on your side, always taking-up issues that matter to you and always just a phone call away.

Since being elevated to the dizzy ministerial heights of Minister of State for Children and Families, Sarah Teather has all but neglected the people of Brent and shamefully trodden all over her Lib Dem principles.

In her maiden speech Sarah Teather, who was then the ‘baby of the house’ lambasted the Higher Education Bill in 2004 which introduced top-up fees declaring:

“This Bill must be defeated. The Government is trying to make access to higher education dependent on the ability to pay, when it should be on the ability to learn.”

Shockingly, six years later Sarah Teather forgot all about her constituents during the winter of 2010 and voted to increase tuition fees to £9,000. From this September young people in her constituency going to university will be straddled with debts of up to £60,000 thanks to their local MP.

Then there was the Airport Passenger Duty Tax (APD). It was widely criticised for taxing travellers more to fly to the Caribbean than to the west coast of America despite being 700 miles closer.Brent has the highest number of people of Caribbean descent in the UK prompting Sarah Teather to lead a high profile campaign against the tax. She labelled it unfair and unacceptable and relentlessly toured the streets with Lib Dem Baroness Floella Benjamin collecting signatures petitioning against the charges. But six months after she entered government, the tax was increased by 25%. It was clear that Teather was more interested in currying favour with the Caribbean community than actually tackling the APD issue.

We all know Sarah Teather is a fast mover as we saw when she was door-stepped during the tuition fees fiasco by SKY TV cameras. But it seems that when it comes to policy positions, Sarah Teather shifts even quicker then that!

She was the squeaky clean MP who never claimed any expenses. But her voting record in government is abysmal and is systematically destroying the fabric of the community in Brent. The welfare reforms will hit 33,000 households in Brent alone. It will lead to increases in homelessness, poverty, and debt in an area which is already one of the most deprived in the country. There are currently 11,000 children living in poverty in the borough, one of the highest in London yet Sarah Teather votes for housing benefit caps, stopping the EMA and is part of a government that is failing to create jobs and tackle unemployment.

She can come back to Brent to ply her usual Lib Dem tactic of pavement politics. But it’s her government that broke the pavement in the first place with their cuts to local government. Her own department slashed Brent’s funding for children and families by £2m including cuts to Children Centres, SEN provision and grants to tackle substance misuse, alcohol and teenage pregnancies.

Brent is a place of traditional Labour values built on a strong sense of social justice, equality for all and opportunity for all. Something I and the Labour Council are fighting hard to uphold unlike fair-weather Teather who has forgotten her liberal roots. She has not only swallowed, but espouses the gospel of one of the most ideologically driven governments.

Sarah Teather is the fallen saint of Brent and this time people will not forgive or forget her betrayal of Brent.

Zaffar Van Kalwala is a councillor in Stonebridge Ward, Brent 

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  • Andwhynot

    Interesting description “Liberal roots” as I have always found Liberals to be leaning to the right and this article strengthens my view as clearly Teather has taken to a Tory Govt. like a duck to water. The Tories are the masters of saying one thing and doing the other and when these LibDems see this happening with no real repercutions they are clearly tempted to jump on the band wagon.
    Labour must make it clear to the electorate that a vote for the LibDems from now on is a vote for the far right wing of politics – a vote for widespread privatisation, a vote for a culture that rewards corruption in the financial sector, a vote for elitism in health, education and in other spheres of life, a vote for attacking the public sector and the vulnerable in society so that these savings can be given to the wealthy, a vote to see further economic decline in this country.
    A LibDem candidate is simply a Tory in disguise.

  • http://twitter.com/RF_McCarthy Roger McCarthy

    Wait,’ Liberal Democrat Baroness Floella Benjamin’

    How many other luminaries of 70s Children’s TV are now in the Lords?

  • http://twitter.com/RF_McCarthy Roger McCarthy

    Wait,’ Liberal Democrat Baroness Floella Benjamin’

    How many other luminaries of 70s Children’s TV are now in the Lords?

    • Mr Arthur Cook

      I understand they are joining forces to provide a Christmas review for MPs children.  Offers so far include:
      Ms Teather herself as Roadrunner
      Eric Pickles as The Fat Controller
      George Osborne as Baron Hard Up
      Michael Gove as the Child Catcher
      And last – the grand finale will be Nick Clegg as Pinocchio singing “I’ve got no strings to hold me down”.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQC5bQKPj6o

  • http://twitter.com/RF_McCarthy Roger McCarthy

    Wait,’ Liberal Democrat Baroness Floella Benjamin’

    How many other luminaries of 70s Children’s TV are now in the Lords?

  • AlanGiles

     ”She was the squeaky clean MP who never claimed any expenses”

    A great improvement then on the previous MP Dawn Butler who was claiming for asecond home…. even though the first home and the second home were both in london and both less than 30 minutes from Westminster.

    I won’t bother to go on about the welfare reforms Ms teather supports, because I don’t recall Ms Butler raising too many objections to Freud/Purnell in 2009.

    Does the writer of this article want Ms Butler back?

    • Redshift1

      Dawn Butler is one thing but surely there is a great opportunity here to kick out a Lib Dem who has supported every scrap of this government’s horrific agenda and replace her with a Labour MP? And if Labour Party members in Brent make their voices heard during the selection rather than just letting it become a contest between a couple of careerists, then I’m sure it can be one we’d all be proud of. 

      I have to say if I was an ex-member, I’d be rushing to rejoin the party because you need 6 months membership to be able to vote on the selections and most of them will be in summer 2013 for marginal seats like this one. There is a great opportunity for people on the left who’ve left the party or never been in the party to join/rejoin and influence the nature of Labour’s 2015 intake of MPs.

      • AlanGiles

         My concern is that Ms Butler might well be nominated in 2015, just as Tony McNulty is  aiming for in his ex-c0nstituency where he was booted out for the same reason – the second homes scandal, and behaving in a way which he and she must have known was highly questionable.

        Sadly “towing the party line” as Ms Teather has done seems to be increasingly acceptable, even when it goes against their principles – the way in 2009 everyone rushed to endorse Freud is a good example of that.

        I think this “rehabilitation” of offenders, as we saw with Laws this week, alienates more people and leads them to think that there is very little difference in politicians.

        I hope Brent finds an honest candidate who does not try it on with a second home or expenses.

        • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

          I don’t think Tony McNulty is aiming to get back into Harrow West.

    • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

      So you support Sarah Teather. Okay, at least we know where you stand.

      • AlanGiles

         I support honesty over dishonesty.

        Don’t you?

        • http://www.facebook.com/ric.euteneuer Ric Euteneuer

          So Sarah Teather was ‘honest’ when she lied about Tuition fees then ?

  • franwhi

    You really have a cheek taking Sarah Teather to task  when MPs of all parties are so unaccountable to their electorates as the expenses scandal proved and very little has changed. Even beyond the expenses scandal which caught out MPs of all parties those Labour MPs with ministerial posts or with chairmanship  of parliamentary committees are no better. None of them are accountable enough if you ask me and don’t even get me started on their remuneration which even for the lowliest MP is so many more times the national wage. Maybe Sarah isn’t the best constituency MP and maybe she’s had to abandon long cherished principles to stay in Govt – but show me an MP who hasn’t . There may be some but they’re def in the minority. Also, I don’t think these personal attacks on MPs of other parties work but just tend to reflect badly on all elected members. There are so few young people with political aspirations I think those who succeed in getting elected should be celebrated. All MPs, like other public servants, should be appraised annually on the constituency and parliamentary work that they do and judged against consistent standards. If that happened you may have a lot more to worry about from inside your own ranks than Sarah Teather.   

  • Mr Arthur Cook

    Ms Teather’s  main concern peppered her responses when she was on Question Time. “My political career”…”as a minister”….”my political career”….”as a minister”.

    …..another career politician…..but without a career!

  • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

    I hope Zaffar goes for Brent Central. I saw his excellent work tackling youth crime as part of the Mayor for Young London campaign. It would be great to see him defeat Teather.

    • robertcp

      To be honest, I would have voted for Teather because of New Labour and Iraq.  She will almost certainly lose in 2015 when many Lib Dem voters return to Labour.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aobq-Kwaku/100003145423365 Aobq Kwaku

       And Dawn Butler did a lot for youths, particularly those in Brent, when she was Brent South MP and minister for Youth Engagement

      • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

        I know she did, she was a great Young Citizens Minister (which is probably why Alan Giles hates her!) but I think she should stand for another seat this time. I would like to see her return to Parliament.

        • Akwele

          Young
          people in Brent were inspired by Dawn, and she gave them hope. I will
          certainly like to see her back as MP.

      • AlanGiles

         Dawn Butler did a lot for herself – TWO homes both within 30 minutes of Westminster?

        As for young Mr Anjeh below – as he used to accuse me in his previous incarnation of “hating” people. I don’t hate anybody – I do however have a very low regard for anybody who fiddles their expenses, regardless of what else they have donw. I do wish he would stop using such ridiculous langauge.

        Are you somebody else who excuses dishonesty, Aobq, provided they wear a red rosette?

        • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

          My previous incarnation? As I’ve said I have no clue what you mean and if you keep on making wild accusations I will report you for it. She was a good MP, a good whip and a good Youth Engagement Minister. She was not from a highly political clique but from an ordinary family in the East End, we need more people like her in politics. Why is it that you have not attacked people on the left of Labour for scandals or bad expenses?

          • AlanGiles

            Two points: I have attacked people on the left – just this last week I have made mention of Harry Cohen and Michael Meacher for example. I dislike fiddling whoever does it, regardless of party or sex. Any fair-minded person who reads what I have written without prejudice, and without a desire to start a row will know that I meet out the same contempt for ALL expenses swindlers. I don’t think coming from an “ordinary family” excuses doing things which at best could be described as greedy and at worst, dishonest.

            As regards the other point: one of the great things about having been a musician is that you have a great ear for inflections – every musician has his or her own little “pet phrases” if I may put it that way – transcribed into writing this means favourite words used often inappropriately. In music, for example the late Charlie Parker could never resist quoting from “Country Gardens (P. Grainger) however inappropriate it might have been in the context. You might say it is like an oral fingerprint.

            Whatever else I am – I am no fool.

            You never answered my question I posed the other day BTW – are you suggesting it is OK to fiddle your expenses provided you wear a red rosette, or is, by wearing one, making it a lesser offence?

          • jaime taurosangastre candelas

            You are certainly not a fool, Alan.  I don’t regard myself as old (only 47, and not a wrinkle, gray hair or tooth filling in my life at all – my wife tells me I’m as old as the woman I cuddle, so I am nearly 44) and you probably do not either, but I do find two things from “going around the block” a couple of times:

            I find greater probability (of my instincts being correct) in life as I have more experience, but increasingly less certainty as there is always a youngster with some new and unthought of new way of seeing things.  The end result is dither:  I think I am right and probably am, but who knows what youth can see that I don’t?

            Actually, that will be the way I think in 3-5 years.  Right now, everyone tells me I am at my prime, a veritable Caesar of my little micro-niche in life with a confluence of youth, experience, and power.  I must be a nightmare both professionally and personally (there is no need for 100s of LL readers to affirm this, I know it already).

            It will only last for a couple of years, even if they are correct. But I do have a new dog, which is good.

            Youth argues with a passion that age and experience deliberately abate.  Both are correct, at least in politics if not the physical sciences.

            In short, don’t you or I argue with Renie:  he will run rings around us with the frequency of comments, and passion displayed and sometimes outright brilliance, because his world does not work like our’s.  Equally, For every 10 comments he makes, he will quietly sit back and look at your one comment and think “actually, Alan is right” (at least, I hope so). 

            Anyway, as you were saying about that disastrous early 70′s government…

          • AlanGiles

             I am glad you kept the dog, Jaime. What are you going to call him?.  How about “Rover|” as he roved?.  My first dog was called Rover. I was 7 at the time, but he only roved a few yards down the road, as a puppy.

            I have no problem with anybody holding an opinion, but it is the presentation of that opinion that is important. When it is done in the tendentious terms it is often done by the poster we are discussing, bearing in mind he has no personal experience of what he is talking about (in the case of welfare and employment issues, for example), and the arrogant manner often employed, is when I get rather annoyed. It is the fake naivety that annoys me more than anything else, because that is plainly an act.

            One of the advantages of being older is that you no longer have to pretend you agree with things that you do not, for the sake of expediency. I don’t have to make excuses for the expenses cheats who happen to wear a red rosette, I can say, quite openly and in terms, that I have as much distaste for, say, Dawn Butler as I do for Chris Grayling, as much for Harry Cohen as for Hazel Blears.

            Dishonesty should never be condoned, wherever it oiccurs,and the fact that a lot of Parliamentarians were knowingly exploiting the expenses system AT THE SAME TIME as they were tut-tutting about benefit claimants playing the system to bolster the Freud/Purnell scheme puts them in the gutter of hypocrisy. These facts are well known but seem to have been forgotten by large swathes of my ex-party, many of whom appear to have slept through 2009.

            As I have no political ambitions I don’t have to look over my shoulder and defend the indefensible,  or pretend that an already over-rewarded departing minister deserves a special award for doing his/her  job.

            If this is what has to be done these days to get the foot on the ladder, I am very glad I have folded my ladder up!

          • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

            I have only made about two comments on welfare, whilst I have been posting on this site. I do have personal experience seen as my mother used to be unemployed when I was a lot younger, thank you very much.

          • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

            I thought you were not responding to my comments? Anyway, are you or are you not going apologise for making wild accusations and complete rudeness. I might be young but I am very interested in blogging and I should have the right to hold an opinion without being patronised. By the way, I am no musician.

  • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

    We will not take lectures from a Lib Dem troll who is trying to excuse the treachery of Sarah Teather.

    • franwhi

       I’m just saying they’re all as bad as each other – they cost too much for what they do and other workers in the country would put them to shame for a tenth of the money and perks these jokers earn. However, I think Sarah T is probably the lowest hanging fruit and easiest to target. No trolls here – only a citizen looking for better value from the political classes in these hard times.

  • AlanGiles

     Despite the predictiably overwrought and OTT response from another source, I think you are quite right.  The Brent case is typical of the arrogance of the main parties. Labour lost Brent because of the behaviour of their former Labour MP – they knew, just as the party in Harrow knew – that they had been fiddling on the second homes front, but their local parties chose not to de-select them (the Conservatives did the same thing, and Laws for the Lib-Dems is another shop-soiled exhibit who would appear to be “safe” when he comes up for re-selection). That the voters decided they didn’t want to be represented by somebody playing the system is to their credit.

    There should have been – at the very least – a great many more deselections undertaken by all parties after the 2009 revelations, and frankly, in some of the cases, the fiddling was so blatant that there should have been prosecutions – not least in the cases I have mentioned here.

  • AlanGiles

     Despite the predictiably overwrought and OTT response from another source, I think you are quite right.  The Brent case is typical of the arrogance of the main parties. Labour lost Brent because of the behaviour of their former Labour MP – they knew, just as the party in Harrow knew – that they had been fiddling on the second homes front, but their local parties chose not to de-select them (the Conservatives did the same thing, and Laws for the Lib-Dems is another shop-soiled exhibit who would appear to be “safe” when he comes up for re-selection). That the voters decided they didn’t want to be represented by somebody playing the system is to their credit.

    There should have been – at the very least – a great many more deselections undertaken by all parties after the 2009 revelations, and frankly, in some of the cases, the fiddling was so blatant that there should have been prosecutions – not least in the cases I have mentioned here.

  • williamtheconker

    Did she REALLY style herself as a Saint?

    Oh dear Sarah Teather,
    We’re all in this together,
    To the top of our slippery necks.

    You didn’t do much,
    For students, and such,
    So your career’s become a sad wreck.

    Oh dear Sarah Teather,
    They say you’re fair-weather,
    The facts are a little more simple.

    A lie is a lie,
    The truth is the truth,
    You don’t know the latter – oh strewth!

    Cont. p.94

  • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

    Then why are you excusing her treachery. She betrayed students, voters in Brent, hard-working families and even Lib Dem councillors in Brent cannot stand to support her and have defected. It’s quite shocking really. She has been a Minister of State (one level lower than Secretary of State) in a rightwing Tory government, and that is not what the people of Brent voted for.

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