Please remember to keep gold chains out of sight during the warm weather as these can be a target for thefts.
— Newham MPS | North East BCU (@MPSNewham) June 27, 2014
Making plans for Robin
26 Jun
Scene: the mayor’s office in Building 1000. Sir Robin Wales is meeting representatives from ‘executive recruitment consultants’ Moneyfore Olderope & Co.
Date: sometime in the distant future
Sir Robin: Thanks for coming in, guys. We need some help finding someone to chair the board of our private housing rental business Red Door Ventures. People who can give us the independent advice we need so that we make the right choice for our residents.
Moneyfore: At Moneyfore Olderope we know that’s what really matters. You can rely on us.
Sir Robin: It’s an important job. Red Door Ventures is owned by the council, but operates as a private business. We’ve used the borrowing power of the council – backed by public money – to build 3,000 new homes and buy 500 others. But we’ve done it in a way that means we aren’t obliged to let any of them to people on the housing waiting list. Most of the homes are let at full market rates which, as you can imagine, puts them out of reach of those kinds of people. But for appearance’s sake – after all, we are supposed to be a Labour council – some of them are rented at what we call ‘affordable’ rates.
Olderope: ‘Affordable’?
Sir Robin: 80% of the market rate.
Olderope: So they’re still quite expensive then?
Sir Robin: Oh yes, way too much for people who need social housing.
Moneyfore: 3,500 homes at London rents. Even with a few of those [makes air quotes gesture] ‘affordable’ units you have quite a business there. £5 – £6 million a month in revenues?
Sir Robin: In that ballpark.
Olderope: Which is why you need a big name to chair the board. Give it the profile it deserves.
Sir Robin: But not just any big name. We need someone with knowledge of the local area. Someone who knows how to keep the press onside. Someone the councillors on the board can look up to and respect, who can provide the leadership and vision they are used to.
Moneyfore: So they’d need political as well as business experience.
Sir Robin: Absolutely. And it would be good if you could find a candidate with previous experience as a director on a big public sector delivery project. Like the Olympics, say.
Olderope: [scribbles the word LOCOG on notepad] Go on…
Sir Robin: You know, I always think a title adds a bit of gravitas. A lord, or a Sir. Always looks good on the letterhead.
Moneyfore: Those people are quite hard to find. And they don’t come cheap.
Olderope: Are you thinking this is a full time role, or a day or two a week?
Sir Robin: Part-time. Something that might suit someone who’s recently retired but wants to keep their hand in, so to speak. And earn a little to top up their pension.
Moneyfore: A little?
Sir Robin: We were thinking in the region of £40 – 50,000 a year for a 2 day week.
Olderope: Very reasonable.
Moneyfore: Well, leave it with us Sir Robin. We’ll have a think about possible candidates. Come back to you in a week or so with a list.
They stand up and shake hands.
Sir Robin: Oh, before you go… this isn’t public yet but I’ve decided not to stand for re-election next year. It’s time to wind down a little. But it would be nice to still have a little something…
Moneyfore: … to keep your hand in, so to speak.
Olderope: And top up the pension.
Sir Robin: Exactly. So if you hear of anything suitable…
Moneyfore: Funny you should mention it, but we’ve just received this interesting new brief…
Fade to black
Disappearing act
17 Jun
Photo by Karls Kamera
According to Wikipedia, the oozlum bird is a legendary creature found in folk tales that, when startled, will take off and fly around in ever-decreasing circles until it manages to fly up itself, disappearing completely.
After reading this account of goings-on within Left Unity and this piece on relations between them and TUSC I am pretty sure the definition applies equally to the hard Left.
30 years ago, when I was briefly a student member of the now utterly discredited and irrelevant SWP, it was much the same. Then it was ‘us’ versus the WRP, Militant, RCP, IMG and a whole alphabet soup of teeny-tiny groups, all arguing over paper-thin differences of interpretation of what Trotsky said at some conference in 1937. Like anyone cared.
Now it’s LU versus TUSC. And even worse, within LU itself, the ‘Socialist Platform’ versus the ‘Communist Platform’. The party is less than a year old and already it has a disputes committee. Does anyone think this sort of thing is remotely appealing to the rest of the world?
In the recent mayoral election TUSC got less than 2% of the vote, despite standing against a Labour incumbent with a depressingly right-wing record.
Unless and until the non-Labour Left gets its collective head out of its arse and focuses its energies on engaging real people in the real world about the real problems they face it’s doomed to decades more of irrelevance.
Money (that’s what I want)
13 Jun 
The best things in life are free, but you can keep them for the birds and bees
Details of the allowances paid to the mayor and councillors in the last financial year (2013/14) have been published in the ‘Summer Edition’ of the Newham Mag.
The Mag’s version of the table lists councillors in alphabetic order (except the mayor, obviously, who is always on top) and doesn’t include any totals. So it’s hard to see exactly how much is being paid and to whom.
I’ve taken the data, added up totals for each councillor and sorted them into rank order:
| Name | Basic* | SRA | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| RA WALES | 0 | 81,029 | 81,029 |
| AR BAIKIE | 10,734 | 31,042 | 41,776 |
| IK CORBETT | 10,734 | 31,042 | 41,776 |
| RJ CRAWFORD | 10,734 | 31,042 | 41,776 |
| U DESAI | 10,734 | 31,042 | 41,776 |
| CW FURNESS | 10,734 | 31,042 | 41,776 |
| LT HUDSON | 10,734 | 31,042 | 41,776 |
| C MCAULEY | 10,734 | 31,042 | 41,776 |
| A KELLAWAY | 10,734 | 26,901 | 37,635 |
| EH SPARROWHAWK | 10,734 | 22,765 | 33,499 |
| E ROBINSON | 10,734 | 22,720 | 33,454 |
| Q PEPPIATT | 10,734 | 18,624 | 29,358 |
| F HUSSAIN | 10,734 | 18,039 | 28,773 |
| RA MIRZA | 10,734 | 17,877 | 28,611 |
| RN MANLEY | 10,734 | 14,488 | 25,222 |
| AB MCALMONT | 10,734 | 14,488 | 25,222 |
| T PAUL | 10,734 | 14,488 | 25,222 |
| WT VAUGHAN | 10,734 | 14,488 | 25,222 |
| NJ WILSON | 10,734 | 14,488 | 25,222 |
| A SINGH | 10,734 | 10,347 | 21,081 |
| K SCORESBY | 10,734 | 9,362 | 20,096 |
| J ALEXANDER | 10,734 | 5,176 | 15,910 |
| F BOURNE | 10,734 | 5,176 | 15,910 |
| S BRAYSHAW | 10,734 | 5,176 | 15,910 |
| A CHOWDHURY | 10,734 | 5,176 | 15,910 |
| D CHRISTIE | 10,734 | 5,176 | 15,910 |
| R RAHMAN | 10,734 | 5,176 | 15,910 |
| L SHAH | 10,734 | 5,176 | 15,910 |
| J GRAY | 10,734 | 3,621 | 14,355 |
| PW SCHAFER | 10,734 | 3,449 | 14,183 |
| S AHMAD | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| PM BRICKELL | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| L CAMERON | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| NK CHADHA | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| AA CHAUDHARY | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| B COLLIER | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| MS COLLIER | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| JH CORBETT | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| C FIBERESIMA | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| O GANGADHARAN | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| A GRIFFITHS | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| PM HOLLAND | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| KJ JENKINS | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| KR KAZI | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| JH LAGUDA | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| S MAHMOOD | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| C MCLEAN | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| P MURPHY | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| F NAZEER | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| FA NEKIWALA | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| M NICHOLAS | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| M PATEL | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| S PATEL | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| G PEARSON | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| P SATHIANESAN | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| PJ SHILLINGFORD | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| MM SKYERS | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| R TALATI | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| A TAYLOR | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| S THOMAS | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| H VIRDEE | 10,734 | 0 | 10,734 |
| Totals: | 644,040 | 560,700 | 1,204,740 |
*net of £95 deducted at source for home use of a council-supplied computer and data registration fee
A few things worth noting:
- 29 out of 60 councillors received some kind of ‘special responsibility allowance’ on top of their basic
- The top 10 recipients of council cash, including the mayor, were all men
- Only one woman, Forest Gate’s Ellie Robinson, is in the top 20 earners from councillor allowances
- Of the 29 councillors with ‘special responsibilities’, just 6 were women
- Including the mayor, 14 elected members got more in allowances than the average Newham household income
- Prior to the change to the mayoral system in 2002 councillors received a basic allowance of just £533 a year
There has as yet been no public announcement about the allowances to be paid to the cabinet members and mayoral advisors Sir Robin has appointed following his re-election, but you can bet that they won’t be stinting themselves.
Public service can be so rewarding.
World in motion
12 Jun
The Guardian’s football writers have made their predictions for the World Cup. Here are mine:
Who will reach the final?
Brazil will play Argentina.
Who will win? Who knows, but it will be a cracking match.
Who will be the leading scorer?
Karim Benzema – France
The French have a straightforward group in which they will score a lot of goals. They stuffed Jamaica 8-0 in their final warm-up game and look to have a settled, happy group of players, all pulling together. The decision to leave the disruptive Samir Nasri behind will pay big dividends.
Who is the player to watch?
Angel Di Maria – Argentina
His performances for Real Madrid at the end of the domestic season put higher profile team-mates like Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo in the shade. Reproducing that form will be key to Argentina’s chances of winning the tournament.
How far will England go?
Out in the group stages. Obviously I hope I’m wrong, but I can’t see them winning a single game.
Most looking forward to
Seeing how far Belgium can go.
They have a really good squad, with quality all over the pitch: Courtois, Alderweireld, Kompany, Van Buyten, Vertonghen, Chadli, Dembélé, Fellaini, De Bruyne, Hazard, Januzaj, Lukaku, Mirallas. They could be the surprise package of the tournament.
Least looking forward to
The inevitable tabloid monstering of Roy Hodgson after England limp out. And getting up in the mornings.
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