I WAS stunned by a letter I read in Thursday’s Oxford Mail.
The reality of Labour’s record on homelessness is shameful.
The Labour Government has built fewer houses than any other government since the Second World War.
Under Labour there are hundreds of thousands more families in temporary accomodation than in 1997.
Their legislation criminalised the act of sleeping rough.
The repeated budget cuts their Government has forced have left many of the most vulnerable people in our society with nothing to help them.
To top it all off, the positive achievements your correspondent has noted, ie the reconnection policy and the Old Fire Station project, were passed by the Liberal Democrats when we ran the city council.
Mind you, I shouldn’t be that surprised, as our New Labour MP is busy running around trying to claim credit for the compulsory licensing scheme to tackle dodgy landlords that the Liberal Democrats put forward.
Again the reality is that his New Labour Government delayed it for almost two years, while his colleagues on the council tried to push for a voluntary scheme.
Perhaps Labour should stop taking credit for Liberal Democrat achievements and focus on their own.
Or are they so ashamed by 13 years of rising inequality, disastrous foreign policy and brutal attacks on our civil liberties, all topped off with the worst recession in generations, that they have nothing positive to say?
Patrick Murray Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader & Housing Portfolio Holder 2006-8 Barton & Sandhills Ward Cowley Road Oxford
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