Banging his own drum
Labour members in Newham received an email from the Dear Leader yesterday afternoon. Even by his own Orwellian standards it is an extraordinary mix of Doublethink and Newspeak, served up with good dollop of self-aggrandisement on top:
Dear Comrade,
You will be aware of the large listening exercise carried out by the Council recently to explain to residents the challenges facing the Borough as a result of savage Tory cuts and listen to their views.
The good news is that we discovered that the values of our residents are the values of myself and the Council. We stand as defenders of our people against Tory attacks but go further in supporting them to build successful lives.
As part of our listening campaign members of my cabinet and executive visited many Party members to ask what they thought of our progress.
I’m pleased to say that the vast majority of members are proud of the achievements of Newham Labour in general and of my administration in particular.
However, it also became clear that many members were unaware of just how uniquely successful we have been over the last few years. For example, the fact that we:
- Have avoided meaningful cuts to our services,
- provide the best jobs brokerage in the country (Workplace),
- were the first to provide free school meals for all primary children,
- were the first to implement a Borough-wide licensing scheme for privately rented property,
- are the only Council to offer a free musical instrument and teaching to all children
- have responded uniquely to the housing crisis in London
the list goes on and on.
So, now that the London Mayoral election is out of the way – with a great win for Sadiq Khan against a racist Tory onslaught – I thought it might be useful to write to you every couple of weeks to update you on our achievements and our plans for the future.I thought you might like to see the speech that I gave recently at the Council’s AGM and the latest report on our Manifesto promises (originally published in the Newham magazine). I will send these to you next week.
I will write again following the referendum. Can I, in the meantime, urge you to get active in the referendum campaign in support of the remain campaign. I recognise that some of our members have misgivings about Europe, often for good and sensible reasons, but overall, the arguments to remain in are compelling.
Be in touch soon.
Best wishes,
Robin Wales, Labour Mayor of Newham
If anyone was in any doubt that Sir Robin wants a fifth term as mayor and expects a grateful party to hand him its nomination on a plate, they won’t be now.
forestgatedotnet 
l am sick and tired of the same of shit from( blame the tories) Wales, who’s been running the council, who took lobo’s, who loaned West Ham money, who pay himself and his cabinet with astronomical salaries when Newham is one of the poorest boroughs in London. Why do we have the highst paid chief ex in the U.K. This is the short speech would you like the long one.
he is a career politician and I would not expect anything else than advertising himself as he approaches the trigger ballot ,what we forget is that not many people know what is going on and not many people care .only folk who are interested in politics understand and look at blogs like this . I bet if you were to ask a member of the public what a lobo loan is they would not know even though its been the subject of a tv investigation ,that’s what politicians like rw rely on best the lack of understanding .as for the ceo the borough is paying him for just being there rw tells him what to do and he just does as he is told .if he was anywhere else he would be lucky to get a ceo position .bring back joe duckworth he had his own opinion of the heads of newham services and what they did for the high wages they got , he might have been the top ceo paid in Britain but he took no prisoners and he was head hunted by lbn but the backstabbers colluded and got him out then created lies about him .I gather he is writing a book — that should be interesting .