East End is being sold short
By John Biggs
We are of course all concerned about the economy but different political parties have different solutions for dealing with it.
The next few months will clarify whether the worst is over, and in the next few years we will understand whether we made the right choices.
I am, however, clear that without an active Government we would have been in a bigger hole than we are now.
The test will not, in the end, be about "fat cats" or overpaid bankers. It will be whether more modest folk, including most Canary Wharf workers, get jobs, keep them, and feel good about the future.
Which is why I was concerned by the doom-filled column the other week of one of our local Tory councillors.
I think he is selling the East End short. If we look just at Tower Hamlets, unemployment has recently risen but this is after many years of falls, and there are still vacancies.
The qualifications of school leavers and the numbers going into higher education have risen higher in the past decade in Tower Hamlets than virtually anywhere else in the country.
The number of East End families moving, as they always have done, to their first home in the suburbs, has grown massively in the past decade.
The Tories seem to want to paint a picture of doom and failure. I think the real picture is of hunger and success.
Contact me at: John Biggs AM, City Hall, Queens Walk, London SE1, or, email john.biggs@london.gov.uk.
- John Biggs is London Assembly Member for City and East
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