Our thanks to all of those members of the Labour Group (and others) who kindly sent in the information that appears below. This was more than we have had for any topic. We’d like to thank you all personally, but of course, we won’t.

Now that the dust has settled from the local elections, we thought that we’d take a look at any lessons for Newham.

Nationally, the Tories have done their level best to make themselves unelectable and Labour has been the main beneficiary, picking up over 500 of the 1000 plus seats the Tories lost. As commentators have noted, this puts Labour on track to become the largest party in a hung parliament.

The above picture comes from an article in August 2022. We have noted the failure of Newham Council to address the issue of street homelessness on several occasions.

Mayor Fiaz (pronouns: she. her) and the Green Coalition?

In an approach which seems to have the active support of the two Green councillors and the Mayor, (but precious few Labour councillors), Newham has announced its change of policy for the control of prostitution; to a policy of not controlling prostitution.

Firstly, they are both MPs elected under the Labour banner.

Secondly, they represent north London constituencies.

Third, they were both lovers.

Jeremy Corbyn might have tried to justify his comments when he equated Jews and Zionists, but it didn’t really work. Readers will recall that in 2013, when Corbyn was speaking at a conference, he stated that Zionists had, “no sense of irony” despite “having lived in this country for a very long time”.

Having scaled the political heights and becoming the unexpected leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn discovered how slippery the greasy pole was. Not only did he lose his position as leader, but he found himself without the whip of the party he had been leading, only months before.

The Recorder reported upon a clash at Plashet School between “religious and secular staff” with regard to a new equalities policy. It might otherwise be described as a clash between those who adhere to a traditional understanding of sex and gender and those who don’t.

We have previously noted Labour’s attempt to smear the Tories over high taxes, (here). Well, it’s just politics and no-one should need to feel sorry for the Tories.

But somewhere, someone must be feeling just a little embarrassed when Newham’s Mayor Fiaz and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, hike their council taxes by almost 15% in one year, (see here).

In a table of the worst councils in England and Wales for repairing potholes, Newham has managed to take the top place, yet again.

It seems that our correspondent has fallen into the same trap as that which caught out poor Cllr Vaughan. It was entirely accidental. 

Mayor Fiaz (Pronouns: She / Her), has announced her new cabinet line-up.

She informed colleagues that she would be delivering “those services that matter the most to our residents in line with our sound Budget plans”.

There are holes in Newham’s draconian parking regime. It seems that law abiding drivers, who pay their fines get stung. Those who evade the penalties, get away with it.

We are indebted to The Spectator for much of the following.

As Cllr Keeling noted, the census revealed that significantly less than half of one percent of the population in England and Wales identified as transgender, that is to say, some 262,000 people plus say roughly 40,000 nor so (to account for N. Ireland and Scotland.

We did have a pause to wonder whether we were being unkind to the Green councillors on Newham Council, and their obsession with gender politics. It’s okay. We weren’t.

In 1977 the Newham City Farm was set up. In 2021, Newham Council resolved to shut it down.

The loss was keenly felt, not only by the staff and the volunteers, but by the many families that used the farm and the children who enjoyed a unique learning experience.

In this personal letter from Keir Starmer to the thousands of Party members, it seems that the Labour Party has discovered that regressive taxation aint good

Wednesday 29th March 2023 saw some strange goings on at East Ham Town Hall.

Three Scrutiny Chairs, (Councillors Masters, Booker and D. Lee Phakoe) plus Cllr Chadha ‘called in’ the decision of the mayor and cabinet, to approve the additional spending of £24m on the redevelopment of James Riley Point.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee has been working.

On 29th March, they met to discuss James Riley Point and the escalation in costs.

Readers will recall that at a fractious meeting earlier this year, the former close comrades (Cllr Paul and Mayor Fiaz) found themselves in a hostile confrontation.

Basically, Paul suggested to Fiaz, quite strongly we are told, that her sums did not add up.