At a time when most Newham councillors, at least those wanting reselection are polishing their Starmerite credentials whilst airbrushing their Corbynite past from Facebook, one member stands out for her refusal to tow the new party line. Perhaps this is because the Labour Party isn’t actually the party she supports.

It seems that various councillors have decided that their chances of advancement now lie with Mayor Fiaz.

Plans have been shared for a new housing development in Manor Park.

We have commented previously on the wisdom of appointing Jayne Fisher as Head of the Mayor’s Private Office.

We have reported elsewhere about the bullying atmosphere on the council, where almost half of the council have reported Mayor Fiaz to the Labour Party for bullying.

Promises, Promises… Time was when it all seemed so easy. All you had to do was promise something and it seemed like it was really going to happen.

Newham in a financial crisis; redundancies; increased dissatisfaction with the council; increased taxes; new charges for residents; a Labour Group riven with antisemitism and Islamophobia; the local Labour Parties suspended.

You’d think that these issues might occupy some of the time of our local political leaders.

It seems not.

Never willing to let a band-wagon pass her by without jumping on, Mayor Fiaz has become a recent convert to the idea of women’s safety.

Of course, she is not promising to do anything. That responsibility belongs to the police. But she feels that it is very important.

The trouble is that community safety is not just a policing matter.

As the signatures on the petition climb ever closer to 50,000, we wait to see if this will be the next U-Turn from Mayor Fiaz. Will she meet with the protest organisers?

They say that fact is often stranger than fiction. Here we have an example. In a week when Newham was branded the dirtiest borough in the country we find that they have been shortlisted for their work to reduce fly-tipping. Except they haven’t.

Mayor Fiaz is under assault from all sides it seems, including many in her own party.

Not a great achievement. Three years in office and Newham is branded one of the filthiest boroughs in the country.

Nearly 40,000 people have signed the petition to save the City Farm and they are on course to reach 50,000 signatures.

There was an interesting article in the Recorder recently. Cllr Easter suggested that the current obsession with deleting history (or names) that we no longer like, might not be a wholly commendable idea.

The national trends suggest that Labour should be running close to the Tories. opinions in Labour are divided as to why Starmer has as yet failed to overtake Boris.

As Newham Council conducted their meeting on 21st September 2021 a protest organised by Newham People Power was held outside.

We hear that the knives are being sharpened at the Town Hall. It may be the mayor’s financial incompetence which has brought them to this point, but it will be the staff at Newham Council who pay the price.

Having served their purpose and now that the winds of change are clearly blowing in a different direction, Mayor Fiaz has had to extract herself from yet another faux pas where she is linked to the far-left.

Every year, Sadiq Khan distributes the largesse from Westminster to deliver on his promises to massively increase the housing stock in London. There was a time when Newham topped the bidding war for government money to support the building of new homes.

It seems that the longstanding third-sector group supporting people from minority communities in Newham is about to go.