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| ROCKY FM |
Dear Dame
My attention has been drawn to a sweetly naive rebuttal by young Rocky Feiling Mellen, stepson of the Earl of Wemys and March.
It appears in the Inde in response to the paper's lucid exposition of the gulf between the rich south of the Royal Borough and the utterly deprived north.
Reading Rock's nonsense makes one realise that he really shouldn't be allowed out on his own!
He says TMO tenants are a happy bunch..mmmm. He obviously didn't read the 240 comments in the Hornet slamming the corrupt and useless TMO.
Rocky owes his job as deputy leader to Sir Merrick Cockell. Sir Merrick, being of lowly stock, loves the idea of consorting with 'the quality' so he ensured Rocky was forced upon Nick Paget Brown.
One loves Rocky's bit about the North.... 'it is also a lively, creative, and very desirable place to live: it is a great example of a mixed community, where people from different backgrounds rub along together......'
One assumes he means all his edgy, arty friends from Bedales loving the idea of living with the frisson of extreme deprivation: after all, we all know artists need a bit of deprivation to produce their best work.
He should try bringing his family up in a mould infested, damp flat in Trellick Tower.
Regards
North Borough Resi
A few recent N. Kensington highlights:
ReplyDeleteThe "excellent" schools include a new academy costing just a fraction of the £100 million lavished on Holland Park School, which provides not a single additional place.
Planning permission given to a private nursery to take over a large chunk of Colville Primary School. No parent or resident was consulted. The chair of school governors married to a senior RBKC councillor.
Gang crime so serious, in the far north, the police have imposed a Dispersal Zone, in an attempt to control it.
Over New Year three local churches broken into, trashed and gifts of toys and food stolen.
Someone's ear slashed off with a machete in the street, followed by an unsuccessful drive by shooting.
While there are many great residents, the stupid young man should be made to live the North Kensington "dream" for a year or two.
Firstly, some corrections:
ReplyDeleteThe Independent article referenced very clearly that 'the Sultan and Mrs Braithwaite' story was from Bloomberg News of 2012; it is perfectly true that subsequent to that, the Council took the Labour Group's advice and first removed the discount, and has just proposed the 50% 'penalty' at our suggestion.
Whether that was due to the shame of being exposed, or finding a residue of conscience, I can't say.
The loss of £100m of the Council's Reserves is very worrying; it was definitely reported as £283m in the Statement of Accounts that went to the Audit and Transparency Committee on which I sit. Wherever has this gone?
As for 'lively, creative and desirable' I think Cllr FM has been reading the ghastly brochures published to sell 'Portobello Village'. Some residents are genuinely hungry because they cannot afford to buy enough food, despite working full-time, and some HAVE been displaced.
North Kensington residents are not straw-sucking villagers and do not appreciate being dictated to or patronised. Cllr FM would do well to remember that the Council's money is THEIR money, and we should listen to them not speak over their heads.
It's rich for Emma Coad to talk of loss of £ 100 million from the Council's reserves. I would be very worried if Labour ran the Council. We would have no reserves because Labour loves to spend on ridiculous things including Diversity and Inclusion.
DeleteEmma,
Have you forgotten the 1974 to 1979 Labour Government calling in the IMF.
Have you forgotten Gordon Brown spending money he did not have with structural budget deficits from 2001 to 2007 before the big crash.
Have you forgotten that Labour run LBHF in 2006 , prior to going Tory, was spending £ 7 million a year on bank interest before it employed one Dinner Lady or Home Help.
EDC. The loss of £ 100 million from the Council's reserves is probably nothing more sinister than a typing error.
DeleteBefore you embarrass yourselves comrades, you would do well to check the facts. At year end 31.3.14 our Usable Reserves were £267m. In October this had somehow risen to £283m. So wherever is the missing money - unless it is a typo, oops.
DeleteAnd for the record we pay £11m - yes £11m - on interest every year.
Yes Emma, but what about Labour in Hammersmith & Fulham spending £ 7 million NINE YEARS AGO in interest before it paid for one Road Sweeper, one Park Keeper or one Town Hall Doorman. LBHF doesn't have any reserves because after forty years of Labour rule (from1965 to 2006) every last penny had to be spent. Remember the illegal LBHF Labour Loan Swaps Deal done under Hammersmith & Fulham Labour in 1989. Hope you're not going to use Labour Speak and try to describe "spending" as "investing," Emma.
DeleteWhatever RBKC incurred in interest payments in 2015 (£ 11 million according to Emma), I suspect that the cost is more than covered by the returns the Council receives from real INVESTMENTS whereas Labour would have us blow the money on diversity and other social engineering daftness.
Oh Emma, you say that you sit on the committee, stop sitting and ask for an explanation as to where the £ 100 million has gone. We might then be able to take you seriously.
It's true Labour would blow £ 267 million or £ 283 million on Diversity or whatever sum of money the Council has in in reserves. Ken Livingstone blew £ 1. 1 billion on Diversity, as Mayor of London, from 2000 to 2008. Not one Black, Irish, Asian, Muslim, Jewish , Gay or Disabled Person was any better off after the money was spent.
DeleteThe clever Emma Dent Coad referred boldly to a LOSS of £ 100 million from RBKC reserves. The term LOSS suggests something improper. AS EDC has not obtained or passed on an explanation as to why £ 100 million has disappeared without her knowledge, will a Tory Councillor enlighten us.
DeleteTypical Dent Coad. She suggests that £ 100 million has been lost from RBKC Reserves. As a Committee Member, she could easily find out why the balance on reserves has dwindled by £ 100 million. But no, Dent Coad eludes that something fishy is going on by saying how worrying it is. On the subject of worrying, Miliband need not worry about losing the election, Dent Coad will do that for him on her own.
DeleteWhat a condescending note from Cllr Fielding-Mellen. No sign of the "common touch" which is an essential part of representative democracy. A walking prat in every dimension.
ReplyDeleteCracking stuff, Rocky!
ReplyDeleteCan anyone explain the relationship between 'Dominic Lawson Planning' who are doing some work in the borough, and Dominic Lawson who is part of RFM's Socially Incompetent Capital? And should we be worried?
ReplyDeleteLawson? Johnson, surely.
Deletehttp://dominiclawson.co.uk/Dominic_Lawson_Bespoke_Planning/Welcome.html
Deletehttp://www.sociallyconsciouscapital.co.uk/our-team
Lawson. Working on projects within the borough. Dodgy?
Lawson.
If it is found that Cllr Fielding is trying to run K&C as an "old boys" network he needs to be shat on from a great hight
ReplyDeleteGive Rock one of ours to drill another hole in his own head with his own hand. The great tradition of the family Mellen
Delete11.58 If Labour tried to run K&C Council like a Trade Union Shop it would be much worse.
DeleteMellen would feel right at home in the far end of Golborne. The children of the rich have imposed their patronising 'upcycling' nonsense on residents, using poorer people to manifest their vision with £150,000 given to them by . . . you:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rbkc.gov.uk/pressrelease/pressreleasepage.aspx?id=4581
It would be fascinating to see some outcomes from this loathsome nonsense, as other funded services are quite rightly required to provide.
Then there's the pub owned by Beach Blanket Babylon that serves locals who have asked for a pint, half a pint - in a jam jar. Because that's the kind of twattery that's being brought to Golborne. Along with a sinister edge of increased drug abuse.
People from different backgrounds do not 'rub along' here: the incoming rich are either money laundering absentee foreign landlords buying up units on the desperate Wornington 'redevelopment' or idle children with self-aggrandising projects. The latter describes Boy Mellen to a tee.
21.08 is on the button, though of course there are long-standing residents, property owners or leaseholders, who love the current mix in Golborne and do not patronise or condescend. It is the super-rich property bankers and Beach Blanketing sybarites and voluptuaries who are ruining the balance and attracting organised crime in the form of Class 1 drug dealers.
ReplyDeleteSo, not 'regeneration' but 'degeneration'.