[g8-sheffield] Council Meeting

[julie w]

Eammon from the Green Party wrote this - i thought it was very informative.  
Julie x

All,

A report from a momentous day in the council chamber.

I promised myself to sit through the entire council meeting and was the only 
person left in the gallery at the end. Happily I had earlier been joined by 
around 25 people, 18 of whom asked G8 questions, including Steve M, Richard 
Roper, Deacon Dave and Mozaz. The Samba Band thumped out an opening message 
outside the town hall prior to a relatively restrained public gallery during 
the council meeting. Now is not the time to give the police excuses to clamp 
down so probably for the best. Before the meeting Jillian provided copies of 
the motion amendments from Labour and Lib Dems - it was clear this was going 
to be the big debate.

A Stop the War person presented the G8 petition eloquently but, as is often 
the case, went on a touch too long. Questions followed petitions and a 
number of people took the mike with confidence to ask questions on a range 
of issues. Jan Wilson answered them in fours but was a little exasperated 
that she had to as she wanted to cover them in the debate that followed. It 
was agreed that one hour would be allocated for the debate but a 
misunderstanding led to a further half hour for the LIb Dem amendment which 
left Jan Wilson seething. JIllian presented the motion and finished with the 
suggestion for an alternative G77 summit describing how that would operate 
in comparison to the G8 meeting - fully accessible, open debate, exchange of 
cultures etc.

Some comments (Quotes may not be totally accurate)  : Steve Jones (Deputy 
Leader) : "The G8 will showcase the achievements of "Closing the 
Gap",cutting crime etc to the G8 ministers. We welcome what it says about 
Sheffield's place in the world. The summit is a hope for the future of the 
world - starting in Sheffield".

Anne Smith (Tories) : "This disgraceful motion could be an incitement to 
protest. The G8 nations are successful nations who should spread their 
success to benefit other nations".

Peter Price (Labour) :  "It's good to talk - it will bring more peace in the 
world.". He then used make Poverty History to justify the G8 but pointed to 
the corrupt leaders in Africa as responsible for many of their problems 
rather than the G8 nations.

Pat Midgley (Labour) "It is not about promoting the city" - yet that was the 
major focus of Jan Wilson and Steve Jones and others in the debate. " The 
reference to inhumane treatment of asylum seekers is unfair to those who 
have settled in the UK and the record of Sheffield".

Alf Meade (Labour) : "We should milk this for all it's worth" before going 
on about the 4000 who died on 9/11 and the need for action on terrorism.

The LIb Dems trump card was the Labour briefing for the meeting which they 
had obtained advising councillors to not get drawn into a debate about civil 
liberties by the Lib Dems. This (the briefing) became the focal point for 
their attacks and they banged on about the right to protest without too much 
conviction. Sylvia Anginotti was the only Lib Dem to get to the heart of the 
matter quoting stats for US trade subsidies and US aid to Africa. She spoilt 
it by then attempting to get back at Labour's "Closing the Gap" record in 
Sheffield. Jillian thought they had missed a real opportunity to attack 
Labour on ID cards and anti-terror legislation.

Jillian got a further chance to speak and made it clear exactly why asylum 
seekers are treated inhumanely. She also outlined the motivation for the 
motion - the initial extreme reaction of police to the demonstration 
proposed for the Wednesday. The Labour amendment was passed - it covered all 
of Jillian's motion so it was not voted on.

My overall impression was that once you go beyond the city boundaries into 
the rest of the UK and beyond, the average city councillor, cabinet member 
and even leader has little understanding of what is really going on and this 
showed in the debate. Labour tried to focus on Make Poverty History as a 
justification the G8 as a whole and linked their flagship policy "closing 
the Gap" to it. Getting together to talk was a good thing - there was no 
recognition that the G8 could be doing anything other than looking for 
solutions to world problems. The Lib Dems fulfilled their role as opposition 
but, in the same way as Labour, could or would not focus on the real issues 
instead harping back to the normal council chamber slanging match subjects. 
The Tories provided strong evidence that the unelectable national party is 
alive and well in Sheffield and not amenable to change. It was clear to me 
that the public gallery was full of people who knew their subject and the 
council chamber was not. JIllian's motion was portrayed as extreme and 
inflamatory but as each attack came I referred back to the motion and few or 
none of the attacks were justifiable. This does not seem to matter in the 
Punch & Judy environment of the chamber.

On the motion itself I think the 90 minutes spent woke up councillors who 
had failed to query the holding of this meeting and now it was too late. 90 
minutes to consider exactly how the G8 meeting will showcase the city. The 
debate highlighted how a want to be left wing Labour council is neutered 
under an increasingly right wing Labour government. These were people who 
had marched with the miners who were now arguing in favour of the G8. They 
are only too aware of the untenable situation they are in. They cling 
desperately to little victories such as "Closing the Gap" and that "Make 
Poverty History" will happen. But, with no opportunity for the awkward squad 
to put their heads above the parapet in the chamber, there must be quite a 
few unhappy councillors considering their futures. The Lib Dems just oppose 
for the sake of it and there is real venom on both sides between Jan Wilson 
and Paul Scriven.  The failure to exploit the G8 showed the "chancers" 
really aren't very good at taking their chances and we can expect them to 
continue to resort to dirty tricks - later in the meeting Paul Scriven 
delivered an underhand attack on Jillian on Affordable Housing.

What about the Greens - er the Green ?. What I saw was a "novice" councillor 
who had engineered a 90 minute debate in council and showed real authority 
on the floor despite all other councillors ignoring what she says at times 
(the LIb Dems only listen to Labour to pick up things to attack them on and 
vice versa). JIllian's actions over the last 10 days show a veteran's 
understanding of how to get our voice heard and win over sympathetic people 
to our cause. Jillain has done a huge amount of work on this and I regret 
that we were in a position to offer only limited help. This load can be 
shared when she is joined by further councillors and this must be our 
priority over the next 11 months. We got good coverage in the Star today and 
may get more tomorrow.

What I saw today suggests that the opportunity to make big strides in the 
council over the next few years is there. Provided we keep up the hard work, 
supporters will continue to come over to our side in numbers. Well done 
Jillian - the first big council motion within the first 12 months. Quite an 
achievement.

Eamonn