From yesterday’s Evening Standard: ‘A survivor of female genital mutilation today told how she had been attacked in public over her outspoken campaign to confront the barbaric practice in London’s schools. Hibo Wardere, 46, who fled Somalia’s civil war at the age of 18 having suffered FGM aged six, has made it her life’s work to educate and speak frankly about the brutal surgery which ... »
LBWF’s response to Freedom of Information Act inquiries has, in my experience, always been pretty hit and miss, but recently things seem to have deteriorated sharply, ostensibly due to the fact that the system has been automated. I reproduce a letter that I have sent today to LBWF Chief Executive Martin Esom, as it well illustrates the kind of muddle that the innocent inquirer now can so eas... »
In previous posts, I have discussed North London Ltd. (NLL), and pointed out some of the mysteries that surround it. To recap briefly, NLL was a private company that (a) was handed hundreds of thousand of pounds by public authorities (including LBWF, both directly, and through the Waltham Forest Business Board); (b) according to its accounts, paid generous ‘director’s remuneration and other benefi... »
The LBWF councillor code of conduct requires each member to answer questions on a register of interest form at the beginning of their term of office, and then update as necessary, with the results being published on the authority’s website. In 2012, the Waltham Forest Guardian reported that councillors were finding this requirement challenging. Some had missed out crucial details, with, for exampl... »
We published Part 1 of this story some months ago (see the link below in Related Posts). Our correspondent now provides the sequel. ‘The Christian Kitchen has been feeding the homeless in Walthamstow for over 20 years. On the 17 April 2013, LBWF revoked its longstanding licence to operate from the Mission Grove car park (located just behind the High Street), citing the apparent incidence of associ... »
The portly one gets the full GF treatment: http://order-order.com/2016/03/18/will-khan-name-and-shame-the-ali-family/ How long will ‘Strong Leader’ Robbins keep standing by this embarrasing liability? »
A local resident writes as follows: ‘Waltham Forest Council (hereafter LBWF) wants to demolish Selwyn Primary School in Highams Park and replace it with a modular building block of the same capacity. Executive head teacher Maureen Okoye appears to be spearheading the plans. Shortly after she took over running Selwyn there were allegations that she had a “dictatorial” style, and treat... »
A corespondent with his finger on the pulse of Labour politics revisits the Cryer flit: ‘Back in July 2015, we reported that one of our local Labour MPs, John Cryer, had moved to Lewisham two months after retaining his seat in the General Election, prompting various wags to call for the house he had sold to be awarded a blue plaque in honour of his relatively brief residency [see ‘John Cryer... »
A correspondent writes as follows: ‘No doubt so as to further underline his left-wing credentials, John Cryer has always presented himself as anti-EU, and a good example of this occurs in the latest of his (very infrequent) parliamentary reports: “Report from John Cryer Dear Member, The big news has been David Cameron’s much-vaunted renegotiation of the treaties of the EU. In fact, he ... »
In the mid- to late 2000s, Delta Club (hereafter DC) was one of the most high profile organisations in Waltham Forest. Incorporated as a private company in 2003, with sometime Labour Cabinet portfolio holder Cllr. Afzal Akram on its board, DC seemed to have established itself as the ‘go to’ authority on, and provider of, training, especially where ethnic minorities were concerned. A self-penned pr... »