The Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Reforming local government (2) an agenda from Tower Hamlets

October 28, 2015 LBWF, Local government reform, Lutfur Rahman, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets

On the subject of local government reform, it is notable that another of our neighbours, Tower Hamlets, also has begun examining the status quo, in this case through the medium of a Transparency Commission, described in an August press release as follows: ‘The council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee has launched an Overview and Scrutiny Transparency Commission (OSTC) to identify actions the council should take to improve transparency, openness and accountability. The Commission began its work at the July 27 Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) meeting. The OSC meetings in September, O... »

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Reforming local government: (1) an agenda from Newham

October 23, 2015 LBWF, Local government reform, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

In a recent post on his blog about the downsides of one-party administrations in local government, John Gray, councillor for West Ham ward in Newham, writes as follows: ‘Finally, I think just as important as electoral reform, local government needs structural and legislative reform. Such as making the role of scrutiny committees much more robust and truly independent of the Executive; beefing up Standard Boards; time limits on Council leaders; stopping backbench Councillors being refused information by Chief officers for no substantiated reasons; being open and transparent and stop restricting... »

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LBWF in Private Eye, again, this time over Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers

October 14, 2015 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers, LBWF, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

To no-one’s real surprise, the current edition of Private Eye once again features LBWF, with a fairly long piece tracing the Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers’ fiasco (see below, from No.1403, 16 October to 29 October 2015), also covered in previous posts here.  This is further embarrassment for local councillor and Liberal turncoat Keith Rayner, who despite claiming to have lived in one of the Towers sometime in the hazy past, and being given to lachrymose descriptions of Tory-induced poverty, now parrots his new senior Labour colleagues’ line that the planned privatisation, a... »

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A week in the reign of our Leader….or is it?

October 1, 2015 Cllr. Chris Robbins, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

A reader gets in touch to say that he has found a document in one of the Town Hall skips, and thinks it is a page of a diary feature that the Leader was preparing for WFN. Personally, I have my doubts, no least because of the Bon Jovi comment (its widely known that Cllr. Loakes is a big Northern Soul fan and so would have chosen Al Wilson’s ‘The Snake’ ). Maybe one of the many Robbins-ologists out there can give me an expert opinion? I don’t want to end up with egg on my face like that nice Mr. Trevor-Roper. ‘Monday Day off! Mondays off for the Leader of the Counc... »

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Cllr. Johar Khan and the E11 BID Co.

September 29, 2015 Cllr. Johar Khan, E11 BID Co., the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

During his relatively short time in the public eye, Cllr. Johar Khan has attracted a fair amount of publicity, little of it flattering. The commentariat has had fun with his personalised number plates and ostentatious wedding. Peers have been less than impressed by his appetite for work, with one, the illustrious James O’Rourke, alleging: ‘When he and I were Councillors in High Street ward he did sod all’. And the fact that Cllr. Khan was not only much involved in the machinations that prefaced the implosion of the local Liberal Democrats, but also then jumped ship to Labour, has hardly burnis... »

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The Barnett v. Dhedi fallout: things are getting nasty

September 15, 2015 Cllr. Chris Robbins, Cllr. Peter Barnett, Cllr. Shabana Dhedi/Qadir, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

If a recent exchange of correspondence is anything to go by, the Barnett-Dhedi affair (covered in two previous posts) has turned decidedly nasty. Writing on behalf of the Waltham Forest Council of Mosques to Cllr. Robbins, Media Officer Irfan Akhta’s stance is predictably shrill. Cllr. Barnett’s infelicitous language is ‘Islamaphobic’ and ‘grossly offensive’. Religious viewpoints  must be ‘respected’ and ‘understood’. The fact that an internal Labour Party investigation found Cllr. Barnett had no case to answer only adds insult to inj... »

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Cllr. Liaquat Ali and the Queen: so near, yet so far

August 27, 2015 Cllr. Liaquat Ali, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Mention of Clli. Liaquat Ali as always brings a weighty postbag, with those who have met the great man eager to share their memories. So by way of a thank you, I reprint some photos of when our local benefactor to the otherwise homeless met the Queen. It’s a slightly odd sequence, because the warm handshake that seems about to happen in fact never does. I’ve always wondered why. But no doubt our monarch had her reasons…. »

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Cllr. Liaquat Ali hits the Andy Burnham campaign trail

August 27, 2015 Cllr. Chris Robbins, Cllr. Liaquat Ali, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Good to see Cllr. Liaquat Ali out supporting Andy Burnham on his recent visit to Waltham Forest (see http://kashmirlinklondon.co.uk/?p=6862) I hear from well placed sources that should our Andy win the Labour leadership, he will make Cllr. Ali one of his key advisers on solving London’s housing problems. PS Of course every picture tells a story, and here it is interesting to see the aged Leader of LBWF, Cllr. Chris Robbins, relegated to the back row, right – he certainly does not appear to have appreciated the joke. PPS There is surely, too, an unintended irony re Cllr. Liaquat Ali... »

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Cllr. Liaquat Ali in Private Eye, again

August 19, 2015 Cllr. Liaquat Ali, LBWF, Private Eye, Waltham Forest Labour Party

Great to see Cllr. Liaquat Ali make Private Eye again (see below, from No.1399, 21 August to 3 September 2015). Who will ever forget the outpouring of rejoicing when he received his MBE, for which see the comments box here: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/9429878.WALTHAM_FOREST__Councillor_made_MBE/ »

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Barnett v. Dhedi: the denouement UPDATED

August 11, 2015 Cllr. Peter Barnett, Cllr. Shabana Dhedi/Qadir, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

Regular readers of this blog will remember my earlier post describing a spat between Cllr. Peter Barnett and Cllr. Shabana Dhedi (sometimes Shabana Qadir), the essence of which apparently revolved around a late night Facebook exchange, the possible excuses that could be made for the Charlie Hebdo murderers, and some intemperate Anglo-Saxon. What was an obvious molehill soon became a mountain, with the on-cue involvement of sundry third parties, the parading of bruised feelings, and impassioned accusations of racism and ‘Islamophobia’. The upshot? Cllr. Barnett found himself suspended from the ... »

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