LIVERPOOL Town Hall was transformed into a fortress last night. Getting into a Buckingham Palace garden party would have been easier.
Civic officials remembered last year’s budget meeting when protesters crashed their way in through the front door to reach the council chamber.
Did Tony Mulhearn expect the council to
listen to the protesters? 'No,' he told me.
'We’d need 50,000 people here to achieve that'
This time the solid double door was barricaded, the cast iron gates were padlocked, and a pen-like entrance system was put up at the side entrance.
Inside most of the 90 city councillors gathered to fix the council tax for the coming year.
Outside around 200 people gathered to vent their anger. There were union members, parents, children, left wing activists and a large police presence.
Protestors surrounded two police horses and were physically trying to push them. The horses won. Despite the noise, the intimidation and the provocation, the police took everything in their stride. Just one protester was cuffed and taken away.
Tony Mulhearn
During the big debate in the council chamber the din from outside could be heard, especially the messages transmitted by megaphone.
Amongst the protesters was former city councillor, left-wing Socialist Tony Mulhearn. In the days of Militant, Mulhearn stood shoulder to shoulder with Derek Hatton and the council decided to take on the Thatcher government rather than implement savage cuts.
It led to Mulhearn and 46 other Labour councillors being surcharged and banned from office for five years. Just two of those 47 still serve on the city council, John McIntosh and Roy Gladden.
Did Tony Mulhearn expect the council to listen to the protesters?
"No," he told me. "We’d need 50,000 people here to achieve that."
In the mid-80s he had witnessed something like that number parading from Shaw Street to the Town Hall for that historic vote.
The marchers filled the entire length of Castle Street. Tonight people were more interested in Coronation Street than Dale Street.
Even so, those who could bear to tear themselves away from Facebook caused peak time chaos in the city centre, with buses heading to the Pier Head diverted as police closed off a number of roads around the Town Hall.
In the council chamber the decision was inevitable. It was a rubber-stamping exercise. The council tax will be going up by just under 2 per cent, a programme of cuts worth £32m was agreed along with some of the consequences of those cuts.
Liverpool is now governed by an elected mayor, Joe Anderson. But under the law the budget has to be set the councillors. It is one of a small handful of duties given to councillors.
As Mayor Joe’s Labour Group dominate the council chamber there was never going to be a battle of the budget.
Yes the Lib Dems sounded off and the Green Party put forward what would have been a most unpopular alternative budget, increasing bills by 4 per cent for householders. And worse still: taking parking permits off the councillors. That idea didn't even reach first gear.
The meeting was at times irritable, leading Lord Mayor Sharon Sullivan to try to bring order, adding otherwise she might as well be at home doing the dishes.
Some of the protesters were all too eager to direct their anger towards Mayor Joe. But his arms were tied by a Coalition Government seemingly so uncaring and unlistening. If it turned out they were an alien force masquerading as human beings nobody would be surprised.
The amount of money given to Liverpool by Whitehall is being slashed in half during the lifetime of the Government. The bankers did this to our national economy, and it’s all Liverpool who is going to have to pay, seems to be the mantra.
It wasn’t as though the Mayor could console his councillors and the citizens with the message things can only get better.
He knows, things will be even worse next year.
