{"id":8484,"date":"2016-04-22T15:07:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T14:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8484"},"modified":"2016-04-22T16:17:07","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T15:17:07","slug":"thumbs-up-tory-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8484","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Thumbs-up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Tory shame"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gloating Tory councillors have shamelessly posed for a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098thumbs up photo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 right in front of a children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centre they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve axed to save cash.\u00c2\u00a0 Portsmouth council leader Donna Jones, children and education councillor Neill Young and sports and culture member Linda Symes, were all snapped smiling and holding their thumps up outside the Southsea Children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Centre during a campaigning day recently, ahead of the local elections.<\/p>\n

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Last month Cllr Young decided to take away the centre\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ofsted-recognised programme in order cut back the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget.<\/p>\n

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In total, Young is scrapping four children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centres of their Ofsted status in the city to save \u00c2\u0141205,000 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c leaving the families who rely on them for support out in the cold. Young dismissed allegations that the picture was insensitive or taken as an opportunity to gloat and defended his decision to close the centre, which is housed in the Havelock Community building.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Happened to be outside\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

He told the Portsmouth News, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anything to do with the children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centre, we happened to be outside. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat we are doing is changing the way we are delivering the children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centre service. There will still be some services out of the Havelock centre. There will just be a different way of providing it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite community Portsmouth and district chair, Silvi Veale, who is standing as the Labour candidate in the Hilsea ward against Portsmouth council leader Donna Jones, wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t convinced by Young\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s explanation. Veale condemned the cuts to children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s services, which she said were, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bessential for parents and children\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and blasted the councillors for not apologising.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bCouncillor Young assured parents that children’s services will still be delivered but ‘in a different way’. This ‘different way’ got rid of paid staff and replaced them with volunteers, and, in effect, was a swinging cut to children’s services across Portsmouth.
\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Angry and upset\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMany parents were already angry and upset about these cuts and particularly about Tory councillors ignoring their concerns. So, to see a picture of Tory councillors giving the ‘thumbs up’ outside Havelock Community centre was like rubbing salt into the wound,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut senior Tories then carried on rubbing in that salt by refusing to apologise for taking and publicising such an insensitive picture. Instead, they dismissed criticism of their action as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098paranoia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIssuing an apology would at least have shown a degree of understanding and empathy, but the lack of an apology, together with the response about \u00e2\u20ac\u0098paranoia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, demonstrates that Portsmouth Conservatives not only show a complete lack of understanding of local people and their concerns, but also a total lack of compassion.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer for local authorities, Fiona Farmer, said cuts in Portsmouth were symptomatic of a wider attitude within the Tory party, one that sees the needs of young families as unimportant.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite believes in kids not cuts but unfortunately the Conservative\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s do not feel the same way. Heralding the closure of services for young and vulnerable families as a success is a clear indication that the Tory\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t value future generations.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gloating Tory councillors have shamelessly posed for a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098thumbs up photo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 right in front of a children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centre they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve axed to save cash.\u00c2\u00a0 Portsmouth council leader Donna Jones, children and education councillor Neill Young and sports and culture member Linda Symes, were all snapped smiling and holding their thumps up outside the Southsea Children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Centre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[349,44],"wps_subtitle":"Local cllrs smile as children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centre is axed","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8484"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8495,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8484\/revisions\/8495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}