Dame
I and others are curious as to why you have not written up the Advance Launch; most odd when you claim to have been present.
Anyway, seeing as you were probably not present I hope you will publish this-my own reaction, to what went on.
What struck me initially was the reaction of the audience to the man who asked a perfectly innocent question about the quality of the research carried out by Advance.
The gentleman was heckled and bullied in a most distasteful way. Miss Mullin even suggested that there was no need for questions and that we could all 'chat amongst ourselves'!
But, proceeding that was a parade of speakers who expressed, in the most disjointed and amateurish way, their naive thoughts on how they were going to change the lives of residents.
Having heard them I felt a frisson of fear for they seemed really quite unintelligent and inexperienced.
Officers will run rings around them.
Clearly, the launch of Advance has cost someone or some organisation at least £40,000. A smart PR company is on board and nothing has been spared in the design of material.
I was also interested to read in the Evening Standard that Miss Mullin says K&C residents will be willing to pay more council tax to fund housing. Well, I for one won't. We pay enough tax in this country as it is.
Two other things; in the Evening Standard Mrs Mullin has given the journalist the impression she lives in the Royal Borough: she doesn't; she lives in Lambeth so she won't be worried about paying more K&C council tax!
She also says her mission is to break the one-party system of governance in K&C.
Well, why doesn't she first deal with the really corrupt one-party system in her own home borough of Lambeth?
I suppose Lambeth is a bit too hardcore for her.
Anyway, the Advance manifesto seems purely about chucking more of resident's money about and I for one would never trust them to manage this Council.
With Advance it would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
I like the work you do, Dame, but it would help if you had made the effort to ask the questions that I have raised.
Thank you.
It was absolutely the intention of the Dame to write up the meeting. Sadly, the room was rather full and the Dame had a fit of the vapours.
ReplyDeleteI thank you Dame for bringing Advance to our attention. I'm sure her intention was all good, giving a new organisation benefit of doubt, sort to speak and not biased etc.
DeleteIf Lambeth, her turf, is too tough for her and she came over to K&C for easy picking then it is a sign that we, residents, must give off. We must get tougher like Lambeth, let this be our lesson. I appreciate these findings alone.
Kensington and Chelsea Council is the biggest land owner in the Borough. And it is mostly brown field land too. Why has this Council not taken the lead with a major affordable housing programme using Council land?
ReplyDeleteBecause such a strategy would wipe out the opportunity for brown envelopes.
Here is one big opportunity for ADVANCE to create an election promise and start to manage the Royal Borough for Royal Borough residents. Put an end to buy to leave.
Remember. Empty flats do not spend in the community and support local business. Empty flats do not house workers who do jobs that add value to the economy and pay income tax. Empty flats are big luxury flats that make inefficient use of space. Big, empty luxury flats make £ millions for spiv developers who do not give a stuff for schools, the NHS, the old and infirm.
ADVANCE, please give us hope.
With voter turn out so low we want to highlight local politics and the need for reform. I am dazzled that someone thought the launch cost 40k. I am sure the man who donated the design work and the digital will be thrilled! I have forwarded the email. A local vendor recommended a cheap wine, was it really that good? We were joking yesterday that we should start #notfundedbyBlair, this morning we will go with #notfundedbyLebedev. We have raised some cash but almost everything else has been in kind. A lot of people want to see reform in the way this borough is governed.
DeleteThe writer says he will not not pay more tax for housing. He should remember that we all paid £300 million too much Council tax to fund vanity projects like the £30 million Exhibition Road refurbishment (pink granite from China). This money was stacked up in reserves doing nothing. And then Grenfell happened. And the stupid woman Dizzy and her even more stupid CEO (the quaintly named Quirk) are busy blowing this excess taxation away to buy £1 million luxury flats for social housing.
ReplyDeleteIts what happens when you get your knickers in a twist and have to respond to a self inflicted crisis.
Dear Waspy Wasp:I agree, but you must realize that RBKC MUST spend MILLION(S) on luxury flats, as there NO other vacant abodes available in RBKC. I would suggest buy a complete wing of the empty Knightsbridge One opposite HN from the Qataris.
DeleteBut there are lovely empty blocks of flats RBKC can buy. Sutton Estate! Even if they had to refit bathroom and kitchen, still works out better.
DeleteThe only hope Advance will give is making a bugger's muddle of things. Good intentioned maybe but totally without any intellectual or admin backbone.
ReplyDeleteThe question is as the piece asks; "why doesn't Mullin sort out her own patch in Lambeth: that's where she lives"
Intellectual backbone? Admin backbone?
DeleteCampbell, Cockell, Ahern, Coleridge, Fielding-Mellen, Warrick, Weale......
Need one spell it out?
Ex lib dem councillor : is that Andrew Lomas, has he joined advance ?
DeleteIts happening. The Tories are on the way out.
ReplyDeleteThree cheers.
Indeed. I was surprised to see a pompous officious middle aged man, with arrogant aura of a Cabinet member, to strut in, halfway through the meeting, as he owned the venue. Obviously, one of the Cabinet members.
DeleteWhat the f***k are you on about?
DeleteOdd how no wonder asks who's funding Advance....
ReplyDeleteIt could be any number of reprobates
So, it's the Russian Lebedev family who are part funding Advance. A couple of Ruskies, one of whom who worked for the KGB.
ReplyDeleteHow do we know? Easy. The co-founder of Advance is Simon Kelner, ex ed of the Inde and a close friend of the weird Eugeny Lebedev.
This shoud have been declared by Annabel M so we all knew who was behind it.
Does Kelner live in K&C? We should be told.
I thought so. The advance design is the spit of the London live idents. It would be nice if Advance would tell residents who their backers are. For transarency.
DeleteDame are there any other independents out their?
The policy set out by Rejoice above has been the policy of the K+C Labour Group for years - constantly rejected by the ruling Conservative Group. So what hope would Advance have with their strange assortment of dubious backers and groupies? And what on earth is the highly intelligent Melvin Akins doing with them?
ReplyDeleteBut Labour did not manage to do anything about it. A useless opposition. ADVANCE has taken the moment and will get into power and make the changes. Labour missed the boat.
DeleteLabour got a seat in the House of Commons for the Kensington seat. People were told to vote Lib Dem as an Anti brexit vote and they all went to Labour instead. Go figure.
DeleteThe Lebedev influence explains the very odd puff for Mullins in the Evening Standard - but why did she lie about living in the borough?
ReplyDeleteGets better by the moment. A newspaper backed party is a powerful contender. The Standard is everywhere, every weekday. And the Editor (Osborne) is no friend of the current bunch of Tory chumps. Add in the experience and background of Kelner and the proven campaigning ability of Mullen and guess what........
DeleteDizzy and her gravediggers are toast
Labour supporters who were at the launch say there were a lot of posh old ladies in pearls there - which means the Dame must have been present. So where is her report?
ReplyDeleteA bit of research shows that a PR company, Seven Dials, owned by Mr. Kelner is behind the Advance campaign. Seems odd that a new political party should be run and organised by a PR company. Oh, well....
ReplyDeleteKelner is a respected academic, reporter and pollster. He understands politics and is disillusioned Labour. Better to have people of background, experience and brains involved instead of the ego centric publicity seekers like Cllr Elizabeth Campbell and her crowd of grave diggers.
DeleteHe is NOT disillusioned Labour. He is a Lib Dem!
DeleteTypical idiotic Fly on the Wall.....
DeleteYou are, as usual, confused as hell. PETER KELLNER is the Pollster and YouGov guy. Simon Kelner is rather different...a journo and PR
Get a grip or I will spray you with insecticide
Lib Dem = disillusioned Labour (and more now than ever before)
DeleteOh my goodness, the early morning fog has been a problem. Of course, dear disgraced ex Cllr Phelps, you are correct. Thank you for pointing out the error.
DeleteNot at all disgraced....just interested in the human form
DeleteGreat start for ADVANCE. They have put the skids under the useless Tories and Corbynites in the Royal Borough.
ReplyDeleteSlotted this in the wrong place earlier!
ReplyDeleteWith voter turn out so low we want to highlight local politics and the need for reform. I am dazzled that someone thought the launch cost 40k. I am sure the man who donated the design work and the digital will be thrilled! I have forwarded the email. A local vendor recommended a cheap wine, was it really that good? We were joking yesterday that we should start #notfundedbyBlair, this morning we will go with #notfundedbyLebedev. We have raised some cash but almost everything else has been in kind. A lot of people want to see reform in the way this borough is governed.
ADVANCE is correct in this analysis. There is a 30% turnout in Kensington and Chelsea at Local Elections and 60% of the voters vote Tory on autopilot.
DeleteWake up the masses and it will be a landslide for ADVANCE
The design work and PR work all came via seven dials PR and the cost underwritten by Lebedev.
DeleteWhy not answer the questions in the blog:
1. Why did Mullin lie to the ES journalist by insinuating she lived in K&C
2. Why does she not direct her efforts at ending one party domination by focusing on Lambeth Council; after that where she lives!
Come on, don't be shy....'fess up!
I just wonder how many of the contenders ever had/have a REAL job? You know, where you must have knowledge not only of REAL business, but also local government? I am astonished that there are not RBKC residents interested in these posts
ReplyDeleteWhat is your real job Sad Badger? Rummaging? Digging holes?
DeleteGet off the patch. You are long overdue for culling.
Sad Badger is spot on and that's why Fly Swatter is angry. Fly Swatter's only job was in some lowly pest control council unit. Always a taker...never a maker
DeleteYou have got to be kidding me! Annabel Mullins says K&C residents will be willing to pay more council tax? Has she not read Private Eye?!!!!! Aside from having hundreds of millions of £ in reserves, this council is said to have spent £200,000 on a petty neighbour dispute on behalf of the “well-connected Baptistas”. The genuine pleas from the vulnerable residents of Grenfell Tower are treated with contempt! Not a chance I will willingly pay more tax so that “well-connected” wealthy residents can have the taxpayer fund their disputes. Grenfell Tower burns and the rest of us have to fund our own disputes!
ReplyDeleteThis much I agree with Mullins, voters need to remove the former cabinet members who are so mis-using our money and are currently being investigated for corporate manslaughter: Ahern, Coleridge, Faulks, Feilding Mellen, Hargreaves, Lightfoot, Paget-Brown, Warrick, Weale, Will, - they should all step-aside or be forced out of office at the next elections!!!
This is just unsavoury opportunism in place after the tragedy of Grenfell Tower. There won't be any money left by May so no one, Labour, advance or the toxic Lib Dems will be able to do anything meaningful to help the residents of the borough. And the council tax will have to go up by at least 25%. The case for extending the council tax bands is now unanswerable, why doesn't May and her struggling government do this? It would be very popular in most other parts of the country. The idea of a party funded by Russian oligarchs running K+C is extremely distasteful.
ReplyDeleteWhy od you think the Tories wont have to raise Council Tax by 25%?
DeleteQuite agree.
DeleteWHY should people who have scrimped and scraped to pay their mortgage each month during their life times, now subsidise people in social housing who do not pay market rent?
ReplyDeleteOn Facebook, Mrs Mullin says that Kelner is the Chair of Advance and that he was at their launch. That there is already a Board of Advance and that Kelner's company Seven Dials PR is doing their PR. Thought this was all about grassroots, listening to residents, "advancing together". I don't believe in Advance.
ReplyDeleteMullin has a bloody nerve. She lives in Lambeth and has the cheek to tell us residents that we will be happy to have our council tax hiked. Take a hike, Mullin
ReplyDeleteFroth on baby. Mullen knows how to take Tory votes. Just watch her do it again
DeleteShe took Tory remainer votes, dimwit. The game's changed.
DeleteWhy did she get kicked out of the Lib Dems and why doesn't she focus on her home borough, Lambeth? It's not like she going to stand as a PPC
No answer came the stern reply!