In suggesting that Liverpool wanted to “engineer” confrontation with the government in the 1980s, after he praises Kinnock’s mendacious attack on the council in 1985, David Brindle (Report, 11 November) regurgitates the childish notion of so many detractors that Liverpool really didn’t face a crisis but that the “Militant council” just fancied a joust with Thatcher. The reality is different.
In 1983, Liverpool Labour inherited an appalling social and financial crisis. The defeated Liberal-Tory alliance had budgeted for 2,000 redundancies and unallocated cuts of £10m, about £25m in today’s money. Between 1977 and 1983, 60% of Liverpool’s manufacturing was destroyed; the docks industry had halved; council rents were the highest in the UK outside London. Heseltine had slashed £100m in grants from the council budget; 30,000 families were on the housing waiting list; not a single house for rent had been built by the council in the previous two years.
We were elected on a programme of defending the city from further degradation and were proud to adopt the slogan of the jailed Poplar councillors that it was “better to break the law than break the poor”. We refused to implement cuts and clawed back funds cut from our budget to build houses, cancel redundancies, create jobs, and decisively improve the living standards of thousands. That is a record to be celebrated. If today’s “Labour” councillors emulated our stance, this current illegitimate government could be compelled to retreat.
Tony Mulhearn
Ex-councillor and Liverpool Labour president
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
