Tag Archives: Conservatives

Cross-party consensus

19 Apr

Newham Voting for Change leaflets

All four major political parties in the borough are supporting the committee structure in the forthcoming governance referendum.

In January, Newham Liberal Democrats voted to campaign for the committee system, saying “[we] are against concentration of power in a single person… this
concentration of power means that different perspectives and the whole range of views the citizens of Newham have gone unheard.”  

In February, West Ham Constituency Labour Party passed a resolution calling on members to campaign and vote for the Committee Model in the Newham Governance Referendum, stating that “the Committee Model ensures that there is greater equality between council members, with less of a hierarchy, as the council leader and committee chairs are elected by full council and all councillors belong to a decision-making committee.”

Last month, East Ham Conservatives agreed to support the committee system. “The Mayoral system is not working for Newham. We have seen too much power in one office leading to decisions being taken without proper public consultation or concerns taken into account… on 6th May 2021, Newham, we ask you to vote with us for the Committee system.”

Announcing their candidacy for East Ham Central last week, Newham Green Party convenor Danny Keeling said, “We have a real opportunity to inject democracy here in Newham… vote for the committee option in the Local Governance Referendum.”

Politics in Newham is often fractious and partisan, so it is good to see that on this key question of local democracy and governance there is consensus across all the parties that we need change.

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Outgunned

16 Apr

Yesterday in Canning Town South…

Labour & Co-op Party canvassersTory party canvassers

The Co-op Party’s first ever canvass in Newham drew a rather larger group of campaigners than the Conservatives managed.

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Tory candidate selected

21 Jul

Rahima Khan, Conservative mayoral candidate for Newham

Rahima Khan, Conservative mayoral candidate

Newham Conservatives have selected their candidate for next year’s mayoral election.

And their announcement throws a good deal of shade at their Labour counterparts

Conservatives in West Ham have come together with fellow members from East Ham for a full open democratic selection to pick Rahima Khan as the Conservative candidate for the directly elected Mayor of Newham, to be elected on 3rd May 2018, the same day as the election for Newham Council.

“A full open democratic selection.”

When the Tories can claim the democratic high ground, you know you’ve got a problem.

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Conservative candidate selected

20 Jun

West Ham Conservatives have selected John Oxley as their candidate for the Forest Gate North by-election.

They have issued the following statement on their website:

John has lived in Newham for four years. He is a barrister working in family law and has worked with a number of legal charities. If elected, he will work hard to address the problems caused by the council’s neglect of Forest Gate, including the poor state of the roads and fly-tipping. As the only opposition voice on Newham council, he will hold the Mayor and council to account on behalf of the whole borough.

John says “The current council are complacent, and are failing to address the day to day issues in Forest Gate. I will tackle fly-tipping, work to improve the roads and boost facilities for cyclists. A one-party council is bad for the whole borough. As a Conservative opposition, I will fight for better, more cost-effective services and an end to council waste.”

According to his biography on his law firm’s website:

Outside of work, John maintains an interest in the cultural history of Victorian England and the history of dress. He enjoys watching Yorkshire play cricket and endures supporting Sheffield Wednesday FC.

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Cheap shot

10 Feb

Tory fundraiser WHU

The Conservatives held a fund-raising auction on Monday night. One of the items up for sale was match day hospitality in the Directors’ Box at West Ham.

It won’t have fetched much. We know from councillor Lester Hudson’s register of gifts and hospitality that it’s only worth £25.

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Spot the difference

19 May

stefan mrozinski and robin wales

Here are ten policy statements. Five are from Sir Robin Wales, the “Labour” candidate for mayor, and five are from Stefan Mrozinski, his Tory counterpart. Can you tell who said what?

  1. Support the building of thousands of affordable family homes in Newham
  2. Getting a job is perhaps the best thing an individual can do to improve their long term health
  3. Offer free English language lessons to all Newham residents
  4. We need to do more to make our streets more pleasant and make our residents feel safer
  5. Stop any further betting shops opening in Newham
  6. Demand and expect more from people we previously thought unable to contribute
  7. We need more effective CCTV, dispersal orders that work and a no-nonsense approach to violent crime
  8. Provide a range of support to responsible residents
  9. Work relentlessly to support those who work hard, play by the rules and want to get on in life, irrespective of where they come from and where they grew up
  10. Health is not just about living longer, we also need to work to extend the length of good quality living

Not easy is it?

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

– Animal Farm, George Orwell

Sources: Mayoral election statements booklet; Newham Labour Local Government Manifesto; voteforstefan.co.uk; Conservative mayoral election leaflet

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Never gonna be respectable

12 May

Respect Tory

There is an old saying that the older you get, the more right-wing your politics become.

If that’s true there’s a bunch of former Respect candidates on day release from the geriatric ward.

Having stood in 2010 for the George Galloway fan club Abdul Karim Sheikh (Green St West), Abul Mohshin Kazi (Plaistow North), Ashfaq Ahmed and Kamran Qureshi (both Green St East) are all now Conservative party candidates for Newham council.

I assume the Tories knew their political histories when they selected them. Which either tells you a lot about the state of Newham Conservative party and its desperate desire to run a full slate, or a lot about the ideological flexibility of the candidates.

Of course these four aren’t the only ones who have moved to the right in search of electoral success.

Former Respect councillor and 2008 London Assembly candidate Hanif Abdulmuhit (Green St West) is now wearing a Newham Labour rosette, along with Forhad Hussain (Plaistow North), who is a rising star in Sir Robin’s administration and has already ascended to cabinet rank.

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