Hi Dame
You rarely seem to beat up Labour so how about informing your readers of what the Times is saying about Labour and the election?
Here's the link to the damning article.
Makes me sick to think that a political party is exploiting human misery in this way.
If Labour or Lib Dems were in charge the situation would have been no better managed.
Best
A supporter of yours
Material I have had through the door from Labour has not mentioned Grenfell same for Lib Dems, whereas Conservatives material has. What is mentioned most is enviromental and EU stuff, I'm more outraged that candidates are more concerned with EU citizens than the residents born and bred here.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a year and very little has been done for the residents of North Kensington. What is interesting is that the council have incurred today a fine £120,000 of our money(£96,000 if they pay now) for releasing the 900 names of those whose properties stand empty in the borough, to cast light on those with empty homes rather than Dizzy Lizzy and her cohorts' inaction.
When I look back through the last four years and further back I will remember the council sold off knightsbridge Fire Station, knocked down Thamesbrook, Knocked down Kensington Odeon, Chelsea Cinema, Curzon Cinema, Marlborough school, Earls Court Exhibition Centre; Chelsea Police station remains empty! The roads are peppered with pot holes, rubbish is dumped everywhere!
The Grenfell disaster is a stain on the Conservatives record in the borough but that is not the only thing they have ballsed up.
Grenfell was a great tragedy that should not be forgotten but for many residents when they go to cast their vote we will remember the corruption of this council whom refused to listen to us when we practically had to beg to be listened to. They thought they were in this job for life, this is their wake up call and a chance for the local COnservatives to mend their ways throughout the borough.
Clare Foges was David Cameron's speech writer she's not exactly the most trustworthy chap, not on our Christmas card list; but the Dame is!
That old chestnut. Of course, there's an element of truth in it, in the sense that it's impossible to talk about, explain, or try to help the true picture of Grenfell over the last ten months without mentioning the complete and utter sheer incompetence, indifference, and downright conscious cruelty of both the government (Conservative), and the council (also Conservative). But one can hardly blame Labour for the fact that the Conservatives' own deliberate behaviour makes themselves look bad.
ReplyDeleteMakes ME sick to think that a party which to some extent CAUSED the inferno and definitely caused and exacerbated the subsequent humanitarian disaster would accuse anyone speaking out about it of exploiting human misery. I mean...I can't even get my head around it. It's one thing to do the disaster, and then abandon and abuse the people still further, but then to have a go at anyone campaigning to improve things and actually help these people...it's inhuman.
ReplyDeleteMakes you laugh - Rock Fielding Mellon , Robert Black , Conservative Cabinet who allegedly instructed the TMO to run down the council stock so it can be sold off on the cheap to their property developer mates. Sorry but go away Cons - 40 years of mismanagement and nest feathering led to this appalling tragedy. Again those in charge should be attempting to rehome families of the disaster instead of attempting to move the blame .
DeleteIt's a good effort, but if you want to see an article that really is damning, try this one, from yesterday's Standard:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/shock-grenfell-dossier-reveals-disastrous-refurbishment-turned-tower-into-a-tinderbox-a3814866.html
Or what about this? (You really will need a sick bag for this one)
https://evolvepolitics.com/kensington-tories-exposed-discussing-how-to-spin-grenfell-for-local-elections-and-saying-survivors-were-milking-the-system/"
Apparently, Victoria Borwick was there too:
https://thisisnorthkensington.wordpress.com/2018/04/10/local-elections-grenfell-just-how-low-can-some-conservative-candidates-get/
Someone really should tell the Conservatives - when you're in a hole, it's best to stop digging. They have had some ten months now in which to demonstrate some human decency, and still they choose not to. You can hardly blame Labour for that.
And yet no one on here comments on any of that ... how strange!
DeleteIt's a total f*cking scandal and this blog's readers need to wake up and get their priorities in order.
You all need to and realise that what has happened goes well beyond party politics and direct to the question of whether many of those currently standing for election should ever be allowed to even enter the Town Hall let alone play any part in running the Council.
The Times' correspondent is right. Emma Dent Coad MP has made political capital out of the Grenfell disaster. She has used Grenfell Tower survivors and victims as pawns. But can she or her party really claim the moral high ground?
ReplyDeleteIt is high time that much more is made about her service and gutlessness as a Council Nominated Non-Executive Director of the Tenant Management Organisation for four years. During those four long years, she was told time and time again by tenants who were shat on by the Tenant Management Organisation that the TMO was a mess. Wjhat did she do about it? Precious little ! Years ago she went public and said that she stopped TMO Board Members having "jollies" at the TMO's expense.
Now for what really happened. In the middle of her four year stint on the TMO Board, the Council published the Memoli Report outlining serious problems at the TMO. It later came to light that a former police officer who assisted the Memoli team had unearthed fraud which was suppressed by the Council seemingly with Emma Dent Coad's complicity. Our MP failed to go public about the fraud. By the time she left the TMO Board, some two years after the publication of the Memoli Report there had been no improvement in the Organisation's performance and by the time that Grenfell Tower went up in flames the TMO had deteriorated to an all time low. Any politician with a shred of decency and an honest interests in the welfare of those at the bottom of the pile would have resigned from the TMO Board and blown the gaff sky high without serving on the TMO Board for four years.The first time that we heard her make a statement with the right sort of impact was when she told the House of Commons how dreadful the TMO had been. She referred to tenants being bullied and those who refused to roll over being put on the blacklist. Just contrast what she told parliament with what she told the Royal Borough Scrutiny Committee on the 8 November 2012, when she praised the refurbishment announcement of the Grenfell Tower which she said showed that the Council had "listened" to residents.
Yes, theTories with their bullying TMO Officials and their pathetically weak Council Officers have much to answer for but so does our MP who only managed to make all the right points after 71 people lost their lives.
She lay down with dirt and fleas at the TMO and got infested.
DeleteThings suppressed by the council? I wouldn't go into that if I were you LPM, unless you want more tory dirt dredged up at this sensitive time...
Delete13.22 Labour Party Morality here. I don't care if dirt is dredged up about Labour or the Tories. What a Shower they both are! They're both unfit to govern and both incapable of sorting out RBK&C. I level the same criticism against Condon Simmonds as I do against Dent Coad.
DeleteNow 13.22, Blackmail is very unedifying. Now we know what the Labour / Dent Coad camp is really like.
Delete@13.22. So the TMO covered up a fraud and Emma Dent Coad knew about that fraud and did nothing about it.
DeleteI was on the TMO with Emma. She knew about the fraud that the copper dug up and went along with covering it up. She spent all of her time having a go bitching about Juliet
DeleteJust goes to prove that you cannot trust Emma Dent Coad. I think we can trust Blakeman.
DeleteLooks like the 'Cons' are trying to spin Grenfell here - shocking !
ReplyDeleteLike the Captain of the Titantic trying to blame the crew for the disaster .
ReplyDeleteIts pretty clear the Conservative's had a no 'social resident ' policy. Mary Weale - ' we listen but we don't here' . Utter contempt for the electorate. They ran the place like North Korea with all opposition being crushed or ridiculed. Let see just how much they have changed their views when it comes to the Sutton Estate public enquiry . Well i can tell you now. If the Tories get in - it will be business as usual . After Grenfell how can anyone with any kind of conscience vote for them .Cruel cruel people. No humanity. No idea.
ReplyDeleteHow can anyone for EDC? She has blood on her skirt too.
ReplyDeletePalmer is that you?
DeleteI refute the suggestion that the Labour Party has sought to exploit the tragedy of Grenfell for political advantage during the current Local Elections. We have sought to present a detailed manifesto which covers the whole spectrum of local issues and indicated policies which will benefit all our residents. What we have consistently tried to focus on is the sheer incompetence of the borough's Tory administration during and after the fire. (But I have always taken issue with those who claimed that the fire could have happened anywhere & i believe that the catalogue of errors in last night's Evening Standard shows once and for all that the Grenfell contract and works were appallingly and disastrously managed from start to finish.) However in terms of the current election you need only look at Tory Minister Savid Javid's statement to the Commons on March 22nd to show that even the 'new' Conservative administration of this council, ten month's after the fire has failed in its primary tasks of rehousing the survivors and building trust with residents. "By their deeds shall ye Know them " and the Tory Council of Kensington and Chelsea continues to fail all our residents. This is not to exploit Grenfell but simply to cite relevant facts. Further if less lethal examples of local Tory incompetence include the shambles of the last General Election count when Kensington was the last constituency in the country to declare and the shocking waste of the BT Shared services contract that has cost more than £10 million to sort out and caused untold misery for those who depend upon the council for payments and settling bills
ReplyDeleteEmma Dent Coad has exploited the Grenfell Tragedy whenever she has felt like it.
DeleteAnonymous 12:46 - by "exploit", do you mean "worked and lobbied on behalf of her constituents for a more humane response from the council and government"? How dare she do such a thing, what a dreadful woman!
Deletedreadful, she is
DeleteEDC is a self serving, egotistical, woman. When she was on the TMO, she used people and dropped them like a hot potato when they were no longer useful.
Delete^ Everyone is entitled to an opinion and that's all there is to it. Let's not speak it as if it's a fact though.
DeleteIt is a fact. We could air the evidence in public
DeleteGo on then. I'm sure the Dame will provide you with a platform if your evidence holds up.
DeleteOh don't worry, I will have a go at her as the local election campaign gets going. Less time for acolytes to defend her and confuse others.
DeleteThe local election campaign started last month. We are less than two weeks from polling day.
DeleteAnd you do understand that Dent Coad isn't actually standing for election, don't you?
She is standing in Golborne Ward according to the nominations published by the Council.
DeleteI doubt that. Windbags. No trousers. Sad.
ReplyDeleteWhat I learn from reading these comments is that (probably) one person seems to be excessively hostile towards Emma Dent Coad. This much I think we already knew, but the desperation of this person is palpable. Embarrassing even.
ReplyDeleteI am just one of the people who has written on here. She is not popular.
Delete19:42
DeleteLet me remind you that Eddie Daffern was similarly scorned by Dent Coad and sycophantic supporters like you for his relentless determination to expose the truth. The problem with the likes of 19:42 is that fair minded criticism of a hypocritical and dissembling politician like Miss Dent Coad is labelled 'hostile'. One should always be hostile towards those who try to portray themselves as saints when we know them to be sinners.....
Councillor Emma Dent Coad MP is an obstacle to social progress. She has been an obstacle to Eddie and the Grenfell cause.
Delete"Excessively hostile" and "hostile environment" are current Labour Party buzz words. Emma Dent Coad MP has been excessively hostile to anyone who does not agree with her particularly if they are Tories
ReplyDeleteDear Dame Hornet,
ReplyDeletePlease forgive me for being so blunt.
Ms Dent Coad collaborated with the TMO for four years by being a Director of it from 2008 to 2012. Throughout that time she has admitted that she knew the TMO was failing. Some might call it opportunistic for her to be wise after an event in which 71 people were burned to death. Others might say she is insincere running with the hare whilst a Director of the TMO and by keeping with the hounds post Grenfell. During her four years of collusion in the tenant mis-management organisation she knew that tenants' lives were a misery. Her position as a politician, local or national, is now untenable as a result of her connivance in tenant management. Her actions condoned tenant management in Kensington and Chelsea
Do the people of Golborne Ward need a Socialist collaborator representing them? We can only hope the opposition parties bring up her collaboration and collusion in the TMO in the local election campaign. Why should't they exploit her hypocrisy? She thinks nothing of being hateful to the Tories- especially Black ones
Describing the TMO as "tenant management" is a real stretch. It was management by the Council by proxy. The proxy being the CEO and Exec team who effectively reported to the Director of Housing at the Council rather than anyone serving on the Board, whether resident, independent or Councillor.
DeleteThat accusation could be levelled at every single serving RBK&C Councillor irrespective of whether they served on the TMO Board.
DeleteALL Councillors knew the TMO was dysfunctional. ALL Councillors knew it was making the lives of many residents a misery. How could they not? The likes of Merrick, Nik, Colridge and Rock would have received plenty of correspondence from residents about how poorly they were bring treated, as would every single Ward Councillor with any TMO managed properties on their patch.
The question is how many of them had it within their power to do something about it. Merrick, Nik, Coleridge and Rock certainly did. Did the rest?
Very good 10.41 and 10.33 but you don't get Councillor Emma Dent Coad MP off the hook quite so easily. Of course Tory Councillors knew the TMO was a pathetic failure. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought that Socialists were supposed to be moral, ethical, people; better than the greedy money obsessed Tories; or don't these standards apply to the ever so saintly Emma.
DeleteAbove all else, I thought that the Labour Party in Kensington and Chelsea was supposed to be an OPPOSITION PARTY that means opposing the Tories not collaborating with them by being a Director of one of their companies. Correct me if I am wrong but Councillor Emma Dent Coad MP is and always has been a Labour politician so why did she collude with the Tories by playing their game.
10.12 and 10.58 makes an excellent point. They present Emma and her supporters with a circle that cannot be squared. She collaborated and knew that she was collaborating and her position in politics is untenable.
Delete@10:58. In reality most politicians claim some form of moral superiority, not just those on the left. The question is should any of our local politicians have played along with the farce that was the TMO and the answer is clearly "no, (with hindsight) they clearly shouldn't have". But they did. That obviously includes Dent Coad but it includes many more, most of which are members of the majority party not the opposition and I don't see you harping on about them. Where are your accusations against those Tory councillors with constituents living in homes that the TMO mismanaged for many years and who are just as open, if not more open, to accusations of "collusion"? Or are you really just the anti-Dent Coad brigade?
DeleteWhen tenants in Emma Dent Coad's constituency were fighting the TMO at every turn she collaborated with the Tories and, never once broke ranks with collective responsibility imposed by the TMO Board
DeleteCouncillor Maighread Condon Simmonds once stated at a public meeting in her Chelsea Riverside ward that the only option for the management of the Council's housing was the TMO. It was what the Council wanted and if the Council did not get their way the Council would simply "sell the lot off". I happen to think she was likely to be talking total bollocks, as is her way, but I am sure many of those present at the meeting believed her.
DeleteBut if that is the line the Cabinet were pushing to their own party then it is obvious how all this alleged "collusion" may have come about. Even amongst the majority party there are plenty of Councillors who would have been put off complaining too much about the TMO for fear of the selling off all the Council housing.
@12:11. I suggest you talk to her constituents. Your view is not commonly held. Quite the opposite in fact. Sadly I suspect that despite having lived in TMO-managed property for many years you don't actually know any of them and have no idea what they think of their Ward Councillors.
Delete12.20. I do know what some people think of their Ward Councillors. I spent a lot of time around Grenfell Tower after the fire and listened very carefully what people we're saying. People spoke highly of Judith Blakeman and less kindly about others. Despite your claims to the contrary, I also know what people think about Councillors all over the Borough from North to South.
DeleteGrenfell Tower and the Lancaster West Estate are not in Dent Coad's ward. Her ward is Golborne not Notting Dale. Have you spoken to any of the residents living in Council housing in Golborne? Those living in Trellick Tower, Edenham Way, the Swinbrook Estate, Hazelwood and Adair Tower, Manchester Drive and the rest? If not then I am sorry to say that you still have no idea what her constituents actually think irrespective of whoever else you may have spoken to up north or anywhere else.
Delete@12:14. Maighread is a blabber mouth and was probably telling the truth. Her fondness to blab is what convinced the Tories to get rid of her not the fact that she was monumentally useless and corrupt.
DeleteIn RBK&C indiscretion is a mortal sin, whilst incompetence and corruption are merely character traits.
Delete@12.07. 10.58 here. I have never denied that the Tories have much to answer for over the TMO and for going along with the disaster. Everyone blames them including Tory voters to whom I have spoken. What I dislike is Socialist politicians who either expressly or by implication blame the Tories without accepting their part in keeping the TMO a float for years.
ReplyDelete@13:02. The Tories get the blame because they were, and still are, in charge. If you're in power you don't get to offload responsibility for the outcomes of your decisions onto the other political parties who are not. Unless Labour had the ability to veto Council proposals and decisions and intentionally chose not to do so your argument amounts to trying to apportion blame for decisions made by the Council to those without any power simply because you happen to dislike some of them for ideological reasons or otherwise.
DeleteAs far as the Tories themselves are concerned: recent stories in the press about attempts to "spin Grenfell" suggests that many of them have learnt nothing. 70-odd people are dead and the wilfully ignorant still get to play politics in the Council playground.
12.43. I know where the boundaries are in the Borough's electoral wards. I know that Grenfell Tower is in Notting Dale, formerly Notting Barnes, and that Emma Dent Coad does not represent the ward. However, when I spoke to people in that Ward in the aftermath of the fire, Judith Blakeman was mentioned in very warm terms as both a Councillor and a TMO Board Member. Not surprisingly, Emma Dent Coad was also mentioned in her capacity as a newly elected MP and former TMO Board Member.
ReplyDeleteNo, I have not devised a representative sample of Golborne residents to carry out a value free survey about Emma Dent Coad's effectiveness as a Councillor or TMO Board Member. I suspect that you have not done so either. As you rightly say, I lived in TMO managed property for years and I came across people from all over the Borough. I know what people have said to me about a host of Councillors of all political hues including those involved in the TMO and in housing. References to correspondence about the TMO being ignored by Councillors of all parties were common. I readily accept that this is anecdotal evidence but nonetheless interesting.
As Socialist politicians claim to have higher moral standards to their Tory counterparts, I am entitled to comment when those standards fall short.
The correlation between political views and higher moral standards is weak. You can be a Labour politician and morally corrupt or a Conservative and of high morals. One facet does not preclude or imply the other and there are plenty examples of both, and of their opposites. Unless our local Labour politicians have been going around proclaiming sainthood rather then criticising their opponents and the Council (the leaflets I receive suggests not) I think you're barking up the wrong tree.
DeleteYou can't be on the left politically unless you have "high moral standards." Hard left wing political views derive they authority from morality and justice. I do not agree that the correlation between left wing politics and higher moral standards is as weak as 13.38 would have it.
DeleteI don't think Emma Dent Coad would want to go down in history as a "morally corrupt' Labour MP. I could be wrong.
DeleteLabour Councillors knew that the TMO was bad and not fit for purpose. That being accepted, there can be no justification for any Labour Councillors agreeing to serve on the TMO Board.
ReplyDeleteIt is not good enough for Labour to say we had no power in the Council or on the TMO Board - what else could we do? As Labour Councillors are now acknowledging that there was nothing they could do about the TMO to ensure that people were treated decently then they were all morally bound to refuse to refuse to serve on the TMO Board. If they had taken this course of action, there would people from all over the Borough signing up to support them including me. The ever so powerful Tories would have had the wind taken out of their sail and a serious problem on their hands. I recall that as far back as 1997, the Tories always argued that the TMO had the support of both Labour and Conservative Councillors- a clarion call that the Tories repeated from then on when the actions of the TMO were found wanting. As someone above has noted, Labour was supposed to be in opposition but they went along with tenant management at the expense of residents who were trying to get something better from the TMO.
I am sure politicians of all persuasions openly supported the TMO back in 1997, when it was first created. It also had the support of many residents at the time, most of whom have subsequently changed their minds (to put it politely). But I doubt you'll be able to find anything published by any Labour Councillor in the last 10+ years openly supporting the TMO. I even doubt you'll be able to find anything published by the Council in the same timeframe claiming multi-party support for the TMO. The Council didn't even do that when things were going distinctly pear-shaped back in 2007, we were having an EGM every couple of months and dear old Merrick took it upon himself to write to all the residents expressing his undying love for the TMO!
ReplyDelete@14:39. Actually I believe that letter led to a bit of a tiff within the Labour group. Something about someone signing up to something without prior agreement ...
DeleteAh yes. The fall of dear old Cunningham (couldn't have happened to a nicer chap). But that does tend to suggest that much of the Labour group were less than happy to be forced into an amorous threesome with Merrick and the TMO ..!!
Delete14.39, 14.43 and 1500 hours.
ReplyDeleteOh no you don't!
The Labour Party actively supported tenant management by allowing its Councillors to serve on the TMO Board. Your attempt to suggest anything to contrary is partial and disingenuous. If the Labour Party did not support the TMO, (and we all know that it did) its elected members should not have been serving on its Board. Labour Councillors should have had the courage of their so called "convictions" and mobilised the support of all those people who attended two EGM's of the TMO to oppose the Company's practices and mismanagement of their homes. You might recall there were some very stroppy people at those meetings demanding change at the TMO from below. I thought demanding change from below was the stuff of Socialist dreams and Labour Councillors. Instead these Socialists on the Council allowed those from above, that is the Tories, to impose their conditions which in turn denied residents a 'real,' meaningful, say in the management their homes. Shame on the Kensington and Chelsea Labour Party, I say.
Before the EGM's in 2008, Helen Evans, the then CEO of the TMO told me that the TMO had the support of Labour and Conservative Councillors exemplified by the Cunningham letter and Councillor Emma Dent Coad's appointment to the TMO Board.
Between 2008 and 2012, various officials of the TMO (one in particular) told me in writing more than once that the TMO had the support of Labour and Tory Councillors. I could not argue otherwise given that Councillor Emma Dent Coad was a Labour Councillor serving as a Non Executive Director of the TMO. I would not expect any Socialist with high moral standards to be serving on the Board of a Company if they did not have confidence in the Company. It is hard to see how Emma could have been confident about anything the TMO did.
I did not find it very helpful trying to challenge TMO service failure inaccurate service charge bills every time the final account was rendered or to address poorly executed major works on my small block of flats amounting to well over a quarter of a million pounds when the TMO repeatedly prayed in aid of
inadequacies its cross party political support.
I rather like the use of the word "collaborated" attributed to the Labour Party's support for the TMO. Labour would do well to think about not exploiting anything to do with Council housing or TMO failure in Kensington and Chelsea- which is the point that this blog started off making.
I appreciate that you feel hard done by. And that you did not receive the support you believe you deserved from the Labour Councillors serving on the TMO Board. Fair enough.
DeleteBut your experience is not universal. Other residents living in TMO property have found them very helpful. Just as Cllr. Blakeman's constituents many of whom, by your own admission, hold her in very high regard.
And the suggestion that the TMO would have ceased to exist had no Labour Councillor served on the Board is pure fantasy on a grand scale and quite frankly likely to mislead anyone who hears it and might just believe it.
There is absolutely no requirement for the political opposition to serve on the Board of an ALMO and there are plenty of ALMOs across the UK that operate without any. It is quite simply not a prerequisite and they have not all disappeared in a puff of smoke as a result.
16.03. Once again your argument is partial and partisan to the Labour Party.
ReplyDeleteThose Labour Councillors who served on the TMO Board gave succour to the Organisation. They collaborated with the TMO. They did not have to do that.
They did not have to suck up to a Tory Council by playing the phoney tenant management game. By accepting a Directorship of the TMO, these Labour Councillors were under a legal duty to act in the best interests of the TMO at all times. I believe that things at the TMO were so bad that the TMO was incapable of acting in the best interests of tenants and, therefore, not worthy of any Labour Councillors support; their involvement in the TMO cannot be defended.
As I have already suggested, Labour Councillors could have done things differently; something you conveniently pass off. Anyone reading what you say might just believe that these well-intentioned Socialists had no option but to play the tenant mismanagement game by co-operating with the Tories.
They could have actively opposed the TMO by refusing to serve on its Board and by setting up a Borough-wide group to oppose the organisation. This would have given the many, not the few, a voice and may have had more of an impact than you might care to admit.
The TMO may well have continued to exist without Labour Councillors with Tory nominated directors. If Labour Councillors had done the right thing and refused to support the TMO, the company would not have been able to hide behind a veil of respectability with both major political parties in the Borough showing a united representation by serving on its Board. Who knows, the TMO may have had its wings clipped and 71 people might still be alive today. We shall never know because the Borough's opposition party sat back and played the Tory Party's housing management game.
May I remind you that residents from any ward in the Borough are entitled to approach any Councillor serving on the TMO Board to request representation. I heard good things about Judith Blakeman from people in the vicinity of Grenfell Tower although they did not all live in her ward. I also heard a number of people complain that correspondence to Maighread, Emma and Judith had not been answered. I also heard plenty of complaints about Tory Councillors throughout the Borough ignoring emails about the TMO. Shame on the lot of them!
I think even you have to admit that your Labour Councillor mates made a serious error of judgement and were ultimately misguided every bit as much as the Tories; possibly for different reasons that none of them have deigned to explain.
I do not believe they had no choice but to serve on the Board and never said so. They could have quite easily decided not to. I am not however under the illusion that not serving on the Board would have curtailed the TMO's existence in any way. I don't think it would have made any difference whatsoever. And your moral outrage appears to stem from that. From the fact that other people's assessment of the situation is quite different to yours. From the fact that the Labour councillors concluded, like myself, that such actions would amount to "pissing in the wind" rather than those, like yourself, who seemed to believe that it would have sounded the TMO's death sentence. Were they wrong? Possibly. But I consider your propositions completely fantastical and I am sure I am not the only one.
DeleteThe rest of your argument basically amounts to "they didn't do what I wanted". You wanted them to help you with your specific complaints and they didn't, or not in the way you wanted. And you wanted them to make some kind of ideological stand against the TMO and again they didn't. And you're pissed off with them because of that. Fine. But that doesn't change the fact that for every Shane that is unhappy with what they've done there's probably at least one other TMO resident who appreciated the help those Labour Councillors were able to provide precisely because they were serving on the TMO Board. TMO residents living in Wards with Tory Councillors who could not give a sh*t about their poorest constituents, for example, who would not otherwise have anyone else to turn to. You're probably more far more eloquent than they are, and clearly far more able to defend yourself, but their vote counts just as much as yours.
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ReplyDelete20. 57. You still don't have the guts to give your name, therefore, I should treat you with the contempt that any snake in the grass deserves. However, I will not be intimidated and will incur whatever wrath you feel I deserve as I believe that I am doing the right thing.
ReplyDeleteI am entitled to criticise those who I think have not acted in the best interests of Council tenants and Labour Councillors do not emerge unscathed for the reasons that I have given. I accept that you are entitled to disagree but your vituperative tone and indignation shows that your argument is on thin ice. Labour Councillors did not have to collaborate with the Tory TMO. They could have tried OPPOSING it. I do not expect Councillors or anyone else to agree with me but I am entitled to present a diametrically opposed argument to the distorted one that you want to present.
Just for the record, a couple of points about Labour Councillors for you to think about-
One RBK&C Labour Councillor used me for information about the derelict basements in Elm Park Gardens and then failed to engage with me thereafter. The same Councillor did not even have the decency to let me know how the information that I provided, and she used to criticise the Tories, actually played out. Against this background, I knew then that I could not expect much from that Labour Councillor about anything to do with the TMO. In short, I was used by a Labour Councillor for some silly political point scoring in the Council chamber but not worthy of having my views about TMO failures considered and followed up. I may not be very good at socialist strategy but I knew that things at the TMO had gone seriously wrong and were not improving under the watchful eye of the Councillor concerned.
Another point comes to mind involving a different Labour Councillor on the TMO Board. I discovered a fire in a TMO bin room (not in the building where I used to live.) I reported that fire to the TMO and asked them to write to every resident in the block of flats in question requesting that residents take greater care when disposing of smoking materials in to the rubbish chute. I expected any responsible housing provider to attend to this request promptly. True to form, the efficient and responsible TMO dragged its heels and did nothing until I lodged a complaint about them doing nothing. The TMO then had the effrontery to dispute what I said about the fire without any evidence to dispute what I said. They were attempting to play down the seriousness of the fire that I discovered by claiming that it was a "minor fire" and the paladin bin that I found ablaze was not directly under the rubbish chute chamber. In my report of the fire, I explained to the TMO that the rubbish chute chamber was acting as a chimney for smoke to escape in to the bock of flats above. (I was the only person present during the fire until Firefighters arrived. I telephoned the Brigade. A Freedom of Information Act request later established that the Fire Brigade had not given the TMO any information to dispute my evidence about the fire) As there can be no excuse for the TMO arguing the toss about anything as serious as a fire, I complained to a Labour Councillor on the TMO Board. The Labour Councillor to whom this fire safety matter was reported sided with the TMO saying in an email of just a few lines that they did not believe that the TMO Officer had lied. What would you call it when a TMO Officer disputed my first hand account of a fire in attempt to excuse the organisation's failure to promote fire safety following discovery of a fire.
Should I have been treated in this way by both of these Councillors? None of us are perfect but I am not a crank.
The people on the TMO Board were as bad as the Guardians of the Poor Law were to people in the workhouse in 1834 back in Charles Dickens' time.
ReplyDeletePoor Mrs Jarndyce with her housing problems. Her problem was
"fog" in Hornton Street, "fog" in the Kensington and Chelsea Council chamber "fog" in Charles' House, and "fog" amongst the crafty, clever and artful people on the TMO Board.
Don't forget the "fog" in Labour's Town Hall Committee Room. It's usually full of hot air.
DeleteGreat Expectations lol. Dickens' fictional court case of
DeleteJarndyce-v- Jaundice was in Bleak House not Great Expectations. I expect you knew that and were just taking licence by being sarcastic using the name of another Dickens' novel "Great Expectations" Everyone had Great Expectations of the TMO but these were dashed.
Ironically, the TMO Boardroom really was a "Bleak House" with vapid tenant members and Councillors Maighread, Emma and Judith tagging on. lol
Joy, you make me describing the TMO Board, "Bleak House."
DeleteThe TMO used to have administrative offices called "TMO House," in Earl's Court. Perhaps, that should be renamed called Bleak House. How Martyn Kingsford, the late Doris Besant and the late Michael Beverley must hate to see the high and mighty TMO reduced to a fag end being flushed down the loo.
@20.57 I bet this Emma Dent Coad writing. It took 71 people to die before the TMO's death sentence came from the lips of the Prime Minister.
ReplyDeleteNow look 20.57, Labour Councillors "pissed in the wind' by going on the TMO Board.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like Shane is outraged that 71 people died not because Labour Councillors failed to help him or do what he wanted. I wonder if you have ever been on the TMO and mastered their stock-in-trade, attack is the best defence.
What is the point of Labour Councillors? I do not understand why they now admit that the TMO was unsatisfactory. They only bothered to go public about it when until Grenfell Tower went up in flames. I just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI am appalled that a Labour Councillor gave Shane the brush off when he found the TMO's attitude wanting about fire safety. Can you imagine what the Labour Party would have made of this politically in the aftermath of the Grenfell fire if any Tory had shown such a lack of proper concern about fire safety.
ReplyDeleteThey're as unprincipled as the Tories. Cannot rely on them or trust them. We have been warned.
ReplyDeleteCouncillor Linda Wade is the only one who can be trusted. We need a dozen more like her.
DeleteShocked to read that the TMO "argued the toss" with Shane about a fire. Even more shocked to hear that a Labour Party Councillor dismissed his concern about poor fire prevention practices. Does the Grenfell Tower judge know about this?
ReplyDeleteDear Dame,
ReplyDeleteWould you please tell your devoted followers how many times this page has been viewed?
Just read this.
ReplyDeleteDon't vote Labour. Can't trust them.
Labour Councillors were shamefully indifferent when they collaborated with the Tories over the TMO.
ReplyDeleteThe double standards and unethical practices of high and mighty Labour Councillors
ReplyDeleteIn 2009, the TMO had to get rid of an Executive Director who had pornographic images of women on his computer. Emma was on the TMO Board in 2009, what did she do about this?
ReplyDelete