Posts

LBWF and Community Ward Forums: a further blow to local democracy

March 13, 2017 Cllr. Chris Robbins, The Conservatives in Waltham Forest, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

I have written previously about LBWF’s gradual strangulation of Community Ward Forums, and it would appear that this unfortunate trend is now reaching its logical end point, with, perhaps unexpectedly,  Conservative hands on the wind pipe. A motion presented by Conservative Councillors Siggers and James to the Council meeting in December 2016 sounded the death knell. It argued that though Community Ward Forums had been ‘very successful’ in providing support to ‘many community groups’, they had been ‘far less successful’ in reaching and engaging with ‘hard to reach groups’, whose needs well might be greater. Indeed, as the motion put it, ‘[a]ll too often’ Community Ward Forums were ‘attended ... »

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Waltham Forest and Islamist terrorism

March 8, 2017 Cllr. Chris Robbins, Prevent

This week, the Henry Jackson Society’s Hannah Stuart published a report entitled Islamist Terrorism: Analysis of Offences and Attacks in the UK (1998–2015) which contains profiles of all Islamism-inspired terrorism convictions and suicide attacks, ordered chronologically by date of arrest or incident. One finding is of considerable local interest: ‘Across…[1998 to 2015], East London was home to half (50%) of London-based offenders, while the three most common boroughs – Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham Forest – contained the offenders’ residence in 38% of all Londoner IROs [Islamism-related offences]’. Responding, LBWF Leader, Chris Robbins, tells the Waltham Forest Guardian: ‘“Waltham Fore... »

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Momentum in Waltham Forest: the promise and the reality UPDATED

January 30, 2017 Cllr. Saima Mahmud, Cllr. Shabana Dhedi/Qadir, Momentum, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

As is well known by now, Momentum promises a ‘new politics’, one characterised by, amongst other things, openness, transparency, and enhanced democratic participation. Since this blog has always supported such unarguably laudable values, it is worth asking whether the Momentum group here in Waltham Forest is walking the walk, that is living up to the aims of the organisation as a whole. Predictably, Momentum Waltham Forest communicates most extensively on Facebook, and so an obvious starting point is to look at what it has been posting. The bulk of the material revolves around calls to support a familiar array of left-wing causes – from the striking rail unions and the junior doctors, via th... »

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Dave Hill on ‘Mini-Holland’ in Enfield

January 20, 2017 Mini Holland, Uncategorized

Writing for his blog, the Guardian‘s Dave Hill, who has his favourites but is sometimes moderately iconoclastic, surveys how ‘Mini-Holland’ is evolving in our neighbour, Enfield: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/davehillblog/2017/jan/17/the-long-war-of-mini-holland-in-enfield One sentence jumps out: ‘Meeting Rogers [‘Clare Rogers, local resident and mainstay of a group called Better Streets for Enfield’] made a nice change from encountering cycling zealots on social media, whose sanctimony, viciousness and weird conspiracy theories – these from the core of a privileged social stratum – never cease to amaze’. ‘Sanctimony’, &... »

STOP PRESS: Coghill replaces Robbins as Labour Group Leader

January 6, 2017 Cllr. Chris Robbins, Cllr. Clare Coghill, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

Labour councillors have just completed voting for their new Group Leader, and the results are as follows: Clare Coghill 30 Nadeem Ali 9 Gerry Lyons 1 Two of those eligible to vote did not attend (one was away, one sick) while another is currently suspended. It is said that Gerry Lyons’ single vote was cast by….Gerry Lyons. Amusement aside, however, it will be interesting to see what if any changes Cllr. Coghill now institutes. Will she act on her ‘little list’? Will there be a ‘new direction’? Or is she, as some have suggested, simply a more human face for the old, and now discredited,  Loakes-Robbins show pony? I am reminded that in a 2015 post (‘Cl... »

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