FAIREY FLIES AWAY

 

More Earthquakes in Courtfield Ward

Last year the Dame brought news of a spectacular personality clash between the Chairman of Courtfield Ward, James Fairey, and the odious Cllr Sir Anthony Coates Bt. BSc. MD, FRC Path, FRCP etc etc etc.

It got to the point where Fairey could no longer sit in the same room as the rude, ugly and obnoxious Coates so he resigned as Ward Chairman. Horrified Committee members also resigned in support and solidarity with Fairey. 

Man in the Middle

 Ranking Ward Councillor, confirmed bachelor, Cllr Tony Holt, did his best to smooth feathers. He persuaded Fairey to stay on as Chairman until a replacement could be found. Fairey, genuflected to Holt and reluctantly stayed on, arranging one or two more Ward events, including a £130 a head event for socially avaricious residents with his close friend, disgraced but famous Lord Archer.

In a new twist to the Courtfield soap opera, James Fairey has now resigned his membership of the Conservative Party in protest at "Dave" Cameron's support for gay marriage. This is unsurprising. Like Daniel 'Boys' Moylan, Fairey is a cradle Catholic(St Richards, Downside) so he follows Church dictates on the matter.

This has put ranking Councillor Holt on the spot. His own settled affairs with his long term partner makes it inconvenient for him to argue with Fairey in a second attempt to "bring him round" while odious Coates gloats in quiet satisfaction. But in a perfect Conservative moment, the Party has rallied around. An ambitious young Westminster seeker, Ms Ali, has made herself available as interim Chairperson of Courtfield Ward. For the time being no one knows what anyone is thinking, but the party goes on......

CLLR WEALE TO SPEND TIME WITH RESIDENTS

An Absent Councillor

Residents of Hanstown Ward may soon get value from one of the Rotten Borough's most insolently indolent councillors.
However, The Dame has been soundly ticked off by 'one who knows'. According to owk, it is wrong to say she is unpopular as no resident knows who the hell she is. The Dame accepts the rap over the knuckles.

Cllr Weale will no longer be wheeling in and out of her job in the City-according to the Dame's 'man in the box'. Clearly, the new Dutch owners want a full timer-a bit like the Hanstowners!leaving

However, through good fortune-and a slavering devotion to Pooter  she has garnered a few juicy Special Responsibility Allowances: they should keep the wolf from the door......oh and pay for the Eton school fee.

This is the councillor who thought she was being witty when she said about residents, 'we hear........but we don't listen!'

At the Rotten Borough it is a case of 'not what you know, but who you suck up to.'

Residents have long remarked on Weale's obliviousness to their concerns, so they are hoping that she will now have time to focus on the job she is being paid close to £35,000 a year to do.

So, Cllr Weale, turn over a new leaf.... and start to do your job. It might be one of the reasons that you have never became a PPC....news travels!

POOTER ENDS HORNET BAN

Dear Leader Pooter's Inspiration

 Has Pooter gone quite mad? That's the question worried colleagues are pondering. Deep in his bunker, below the car park in Hornton Street, Pooter was hard at work on plans to destroy his near nemesis, The Dame. Fear lurked in the eyes of his inner circle as they nervously huddled around him.

“Get Holgate down here” he screamed, spittle showering his entourage.

"Have you seen that Hornet piece by some officer I fired?”

Rounding on Holgate-one of the best and most ethical of the senior officers, Dear Leader screamed, “From today you will block Hornet: no one using my RBK&C server must be able to access her anti democratic rubbish”

Mild mannered Holgate attempted to warn Dear Leader it would just encourage staff and councillors to read and comment from their homes. It might even, warned Holgate, get into the national press. "What happens if the Standard or Telegraph pick it up? We will be called Stalinist," said Holgate..

"Do as I say... Mr Fitzpatrick  censors rude press comment about me in the councillor media digest. Fitzpatrick is a good man: he knows how to grovel. 
So this poor, sad apology of a leader, Pooter Cockell, thinks he is some sort of  Internet Canute, able to stop the tide of truth sweeping him out of Hornton Street....silly little chap!

An officer writes....

"Increasingly, Officers trying to access comments posted on this blog are blocked by the Council's web-nanny software. I say increasingly as there are, almost daily, new criteria for its censorship. For example, the piece called "Barkhordar-A Champion of Democracy?" is blocked because it apparently contains "adult material". At least the IT department are in work. No redundancies there for the foreseeable. A frightened regime - but residents AND Councillors must do something to oust Pooter - a lot of talk here but what is actually happening?"

FINDING WORK FOR POOTER

 The Dame has heard the most bizarre of stories.Certain senior Conservative councillors have been doing some 'thinking outside the box'(yes, difficult to believe) in an effort to see how they can encourage Pooter Cockell to 'move on'.

The issue they have identified is money. Evidently Pooter, not having made money in the private sector is extremely reluctant to be dislodged from his £130,000 a year non performance related sinecure.

What was the result of the brainstorming? Yes, you guessed it: headhunters.

Pooter Job Hunting

Cllr F. Buxton is one; and Oirish Ahern was married to one. Both have agreed to submit Pooter's cv to see if there any suitable jobs for a man of his 'talents and experience.' One idea floated was that his West African fag selling experience might be useful to former 'bad boy' resident, Ely Calil. 

Evidently they are not unknown to each other and a lucrative 'roving ambassadorial role' for the Calil empire could be on the cards.

So readers, if that one does not play out, what ideas do you have so Pooter can slip into the private sunset? And no...Cllr Palmer, he does not need your career advisory service...

CELEBRATING THE UNIQUE 100,000 VISITORS TO THE HORNETS NEST

THE PENTHOUSE SUITE

0ne hyde park

knightsbridge

london sw1w 8hp

Dear Lady Mayoress

I have been wracking my poor old brains. What is the best way to celebrate the success of our little blog...the Hornets Nest?

His Worship, The Mayor, will have drawn your attention to the little rap over the knuckles we administered when he invited his dear and disgusting friend, ex Cllr Phelps to the Civic 'do'.

But no dwelling in the past: let's 'move on' as they say....

Lady Mayoress.... we are both powerful ladies. We tell our menfolk to jump and they ask, “yes, but how high?”
So here goes....with you behind The Dame we can float this one.

In a week or so, 100,000 unique visitors will have 'checked in' to our little site anxious to read all the things that Cllr Cockell wants to keep quiet:his first class air trips, swish,luxe hotels and intimate $600 dinners for two with crooks like Mr Clements. 

We even stopped him using the new Bentley so you and Chris could clamber in the back from time to time.

So how about The Dame getting one of Mayor's Awards? Oh and don't forget we booted out Mr Phelps for his dirty emails(I hope Chris did not get any!)

So no one has done more than the Dame for getting a bit of democracy going in the Royally Rotten borough.

You lay on the medal and The Mayor's Parlour and we can have a right old royal knees up!

Yours ever so respectfully

The Dame

PS Young Ludo will get the 'champers'-he knows someone 'in the trade' who will 'get him a deal'

An Officer Slams Cockell

The observant will have noticed  The Dame has a new personal and highly confidential email address. Any choice titbits will be welcomed and treated in the discreetest possible way. The Dame would love to hear from you(not you ex cllr Phelps with your vile emails!) dameathome@yahoo.co.uk
Anyway the first incisive contribution comes from someone describing himself as, 'Soon To Retire Officer'
Pooter and Myers should read it!
 

Reading the recent blogs it is quite clear just how serious the problems in Kensington & Chelsea are. Everyone reads the Hornet and we all have a good laugh at the exploits of the Dame and her hopeless nephew. But behind the irony there is the reality that things are going very badly wrong in the Borough. The fiasco of the BT high speed Broadband is just the tip of the iceberg. There is now no leadership and the services for residents are being taken over by Hammersmith & Fulham that is emerging as a much stronger force than Kensington & Chelsea in what is effectively a struggle for hegemony.

A Demotivated Officer

Councillor Cockell has never been a manager. He never ran anything another than a tiny and very unsuccessful ‘import-export’ business. Just himself and a dog in a basement belonging to the local Conservative Association and rented at a soft rent. . What management there was at the Council came from Derek Myers. We hardly see him now. The ideas came from Councillor Moylan, many of them idiotic, but ideas none the less. Now even if Councillor Cockell did have any management ability he no longer has the time or the inclination to manage anything. Most of his time is spent at the LGA and what time he does have at Hornton Street is spent in ensuring that he is surrounded by people who will not challenge his position as Leader. This group have no conception of just how bad things are. If they want something all the stops are pulled out. But for everyone else, service and response is dropping fast. He can’t afford to lose his position as Leader as he needs the money! Now there is no management and no ideas and Tri-Borough marches on with the standards falling to the low level of H&F.
I know that the Conservative councillors are all hoping he will go to the House of Lords. Two problems. First who would take over from him? The old guard are all two tainted with having been his gofers and helping to prop up his position, in return for what? The younger ones have no management or political skills. This is really why he is still there. The second problem is that the Conservatives, with or without their coalition partners stand not a snow ball’s chance in Hell of winning the next election. Unless he goes quickly (and there seems to be no sign of this) he will be there until he is in his wheelchair.

So what does this mean for residents and officers? Falling standards for residents, poor working environment for officers. 'I’m all right, Jack' for the Leader.

ROTTING RUBBISH-ROTTEN ROAD-ROTTEN BOROUGH

If a picture is worth a thousand words then these below say it all. This is how Exhibitionist Road looks on the eve of the Jubilee. One of the Borough's major roads now brings shame on the Borough.
Upholstered with pink granite from that bastion of human rights, China, at a cost of £26 million or so, this life threatening road is a disgrace to it's promoters, Moylan and Cockell.
The Dame has reported that the annual cleaning bill is nearly £4,000 a week, but even the cleaning is not working.

Take a look and feel angry. It is your money that these two egotistical idiots have squandered!
But in the Olympics Year imagine what visitors think?

It Was Pink Granite!

Even The Pigeons are Disgusted!

Squalor On Exhibitionist Road

BT Superfast Cabinets "Too Vulgar" for the Royal Borough!

It seems as if residents won't be getting superfast broadband anytime soon. The Dame hears that
BT has decided to pull out it's engineers.
RBK&C has complained that the equipment cabinets are too ugly and are not design consonant with the historic borough landscape.
As BT said, The historic borough can now have historic broadband'!

Now The Dame has never seen one of these cabinets, but it might be a good idea for residents to be able to inspect an artist impression of the cabinets in a 'street setting.'
Now the Dame is getting quite a few comments that someone is going out of their way to favour Virgin: so why would they do that? Surely, there cannot be venal reasons.....or can there?

Prettier than the old one on the right!

In this way we residents can form a judgment. Missing out on superfast broadband holds back business in the Borough.

So put up an image  on the Council website so we can make a judgment.....after all 34,000 homes and businesses are at risk of being left behind in the superfast broadband revolution.

The Dame has found a pic and frankly thinks the Council is being petty.

You can read all about it in the Guardian and below an extract from a internal BT memo with a vital comment from Baroness Jo Valentine, chief executive at London First, said: “London business needs world-class communications infrastructure and delaying broadband rollout in Kensington and Chelsea is bad news for local businesses and residents.
“BT is able to work with other boroughs with conservation areas - Kensington & Chelsea need to up their game."

 

BT pulls plug on fibre broadband for top London borough

Published on Thu 31 May 2012 10:40 GMT

BT has withdrawn its rollout of fibre broadband in a top London borough after rejection of almost all its applications for the siting of street cabinets.

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​This unusual move has resulted in Openreach engineers being withdrawn from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and being redeployed elsewhere.

Fibre broadband currently delivers speeds of up to 76Mbps, compared with the UK average of 7.6Mbps, so it means that 34,000 homes and businesses in the borough are set to miss out on the high-speed revolution.

Openreach, which supplies providers including Talk Talk and Sky as well as BT Retail, has already installed more than 4,000 fibre street cabinets across 31 London boroughs - including ones with many conservation areas.

But in Kensington and Chelsea, it has had 96 of its 108 applications rejected or put on ice.

A BT spokesman said that, after dozens of meetings and calls over many months in which BT has tried to find middle ground with the council, the company had been left with no option but to go elsewhere.

More than ten million homes and businesses can now order fibre and that will rise to two-thirds of the UK by the end of 2014.

The spokesman said: “We're passing more than 100,000 premises with the technology every week, which is one of the fastest deployments in the world, and so we can't afford to let local red tape get in the way.

“It's a major political priority for the current government who have said they want the UK to have the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015.

“The borough seem to find the cabinets ugly and so their priority is to leave the streets as uncluttered as possible.”

He said it wasn’t practical to site the cabinets underground, and added: “Other councils, including those of neighbouring boroughs, have shown a greater eagerness to enjoy the benefits of fibre broadband.

“We will, therefore, re-focus our engineers' efforts in other areas where planning authorities have taken a positive approach and are keen to ensure their residents and businesses can benefit from this technology."

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/10266686?fb=native