AN UNENVIABLE JOB BUT SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT

K&C
A GLOBAL MAGNET

Running housing in Kensington & Chelsea is a job you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.
Every year tens of thousands move-or try to move, into one of the world's most popular destinations.


K&C is a small borough with very limited property and land resources. Those that remain are finite

Housing the world, his wife and his children in one of the most expensive districts is putting a huge financial strain on existing residents-rich and poor.
So should K&C alone have to share the entire burden or should housing this overwhelming influx be shared amongst each and every other London Borough.

It is sheer madness to think that Kensington & Chelsea can continue to 'magic' property out of the air and the emphasis has to be looking after the needs of key workers.

NO ROOM HERE, OSBORNE SO BUGGER OFF!

Clearly running a failing freesheet has lost its appeal for the horrible George Osborne.

SEEDY PIECE OF WORK

Perhaps he's getting worried his weird Russian friend and owner of the skanky Standard is running out of dough.
Lebedev is being investigated over the re-financing of the Standard by dodgy Arabs.

OSBORNE'S SINISTER FRIEND

Osborne is telling CCHQ that he might consider being selected to fight Kensington and if successful thinks he can re-ignite his political career by greasing up to Johnson. 


Osborne may want Kensington but Kensington doesn't want nor need a failed editor of a grubby freesheet.
There is one advantage....maybe Osborne will be able to stop all the Russian and Arab supercar drivers....after all, he's well in with them all.
You would need to hold your nose if voting for this nasty piece of work.

BORWICK SUPPORTS 'FREEDOM FIGHTER'

A number of MP's have dropped by the embassy of Iran to lend support to Richard Ratcliffe as he enters his 12th day of a hunger strike.

Let us hope that the religious nutters who run the country will soon free Nazanin.

BROKEN, DEGENERATE KNIGHTSBRIDGE......

RADIONOVA

This is a Russian lady with the odd name of Daria Radionova!
According to Hilaire Belloc, the English upper classes liked nothing better than the sound of breaking glass.


New Russian and Arab money likes nothing better than driving around the streets of Knightsbridge creating a degree of noise that makes life here unbearable.
Poor Knightsbridge...squalid and tawdry.

VULGAR,VULGAR, VULGAR
REG: DARIA!

Her 'tool' for making our lives a living nightmare is this monstrous car covered in vulgar Swarovski glass chips.

One gentlemanly Englishman politely asked why she needed to cruise the area creating a deafening roar. 

He was roundly abused for his impertinence. 

"it's the natural sound of the engine not my driving'' was her retort.

No other country would allow vulgar visitors to use its capital city as a playground.

CORBYN TOOK £20,000 FROM IRANIANS

Here's a picture of Pooter Corbyn(yes, he does look like old Steptoe) 'supporting' Richard Radcliffe in his hunger strike outside the Iranian Embassy.

A BEARDED HYPOCRITE

Can this be the same 'useful idiot' who took around £20,000 from the mad mullahs for appearances on Iran state television? HYPOCRITE


At the same time, Pooter made these appearances he was aware this quasi-dictatorship allowed the stoning to death of women-the strangulation by hanging from cranes of gay people and the torture of human rights protestors.
The strangulation generally takes quite a few minutes.

A particular specialty of this hideous regime was this.
Women of sixteen or so would be allowed to keep their babies until the day of their execution-their eighteenth birthday.
On the morning of the execution, the guards would drag the baby from its mother's arms and take the mother screaming in anguish to the hanging chamber where she would be suspended until dead.

This is the regime that has been supported by Corbyn and Livingstone.
How civilised Labour supporters can be led by this cretin is 'incroyable'!

RBKC:TRANSPARENTLY NON TRANSPARENT

The good Doctor Quirk and his gofers, Cllrs Campbell and Taylor-Smith are full of 'mea culpa's' for past non-communication with residents. Nothing has changed....

Doc Quirk
Borough Doctor!

How seriously should we take their claim 'communication' is now the order of the day? Not very....

The Dame warned this trio of a dangerous Middle Eastern gang wreaking havoc with residents' lives by illegal subletting on an industrial scale with violence offered to those who got in their way.
You can read about them HERE. 

This illegal activity falls directly into the area of Taylor-Smith's responsibilities. 
Is he too busy 'on manoeuvres' to get shortlisted as the parliamentary candidate to reply?

Kim Taylor-Smith MP?

There was a time, months ago, when the Dame proposed putting down her pen and retreating to her Capri bolthole. 
Sadly, that now cannot be....

Thanks to the many thousands of Hornet's Nest readers it can claim to be the 'go to' source of real council news: the fact that the Chief Executive and his two 
lackeys don't bother replying shows 'we want to hear you' is just so much flimflam.

DECAUX AND RBK&C...WHAT'S GOING DOWN?

On the left, you see a receipt for breakfast with a senior executive of Decaux.
Yes, £70 for a breakfast paid for by us taxpayers does seem somewhat excessive but only the best when ex Cllr Moylan was in the chair!

But a £70 breakfast is the least of our memories. 
Our real worry should be the proximity between the Council and the multi-billionaire Paris based Decaux family.
This family seems with the greatest of ease to be able to install their monstrous advertising wherever they wish in the Royal Borough. Corruption? We will never know....
Anyway, not just in this Borough but throughout the UK the worm is turning. Residents have had enough of their councils being complicit in the destruction of visual amenity.
In Wandsworth residents have started this FIGHTBACK

The Dame says good luck to them...

LADS WITHOUT DADS ARE A DANGER TO THEMSELVES AND ALL OF US

This country wastes so much money.....
From foolish vanity projects to dodgy overseas aid projects.
Children without fathers are frequently a danger to themselves and to those around them: they are often lost souls looking for purpose.
The best ideas are always the simplest which is why we should all look carefully at this charity , LADS NEED DADS

Sonia

The founder, Sonia Shaljean has started something so simple that it should have no difficulty finding 100% funding.
Here is a great piece in the Evening Standard ES






Cllr Emma Will is a good egg and this charity is right up her street.
Emma? 
How can the Council help and work with this brilliant initiative?

Why Lads Need Dads

Lads Need Dads believe prevention is crucial in reducing the growing number of boys coming from fatherless homes each year who under achieve at school, struggle with their mental health, are excluded from school or engage in offending behaviour.

At Lads Need Dads we believe in early intervention and in walking alongside boys during the critical years of 11-15. We provide a team of vetted and specialist trained mentors who work in group and long-term. A large part of our work focuses on increasing emotional intelligence and resilience, so boys can recognise and express other emotions, aside from either anger or indifference.

We provide opportunities for the boys to be stretched both mentally and physically by engaging with the outdoors and teach them practical life-skills which they get the opportunity to practice by volunteering in the community. We provide opportunities to be inspired by men from the community and to train as leaders and peer mentors.

REBELLING RESIDENTS TO STOP SLOANE ST SUPER CAR RALLY

NO MORE LAWLESSNESS

Dear  fellow residents,

The supercars make our lives a living hell.

It's no longer foreign number plated cars in the summer but UK clones who race around our streets all year.
We residents need to take our own affirmative action.

Supercar Sunday on14th July in Sloane Street will close the street and create widespread chaos in adjoining streets.
No permission has been given by the Council.

THE COUNCIL NEEDS TO SEEK AN INJUNCTION NOW TO STOP THIS ANARCHIC ABUSE OF OUR ROADS

Direct action against the drivers and owners is needed.

By standing in Sloane Street around these cars we can halt their movement.

There's a strong precedent. The climate change objectors did this some months ago in Oxford Street/ Marble Arch
Result? The police took no action.

These massive engined cars add to pollution but continually break the law by speeding and creating excessive noise

To make our point we need to make it a fun event to attract residents, children and grandchildren and keep them there.

It would be good to have some face painting, some mime artists, a mariachi band and other activities.

All ideas and support and contacts for activities would be appreciated via this website and directly to me please?

Most of all we need you and your families and dogs, please.

Jennie Mills

jenniemills@btinternet.com

Chairman 

Walton Street Residents Association

THE PRICE OF MR PRICE-THOMPSON

PRICEY PRICE-THOMPSON?

Our calamity-prone Council appointed an ex-local newspaper hack, Mr. Price-Thompson to do what he claims is  'reimagining' how the Council could, in the words of our glorious leader, cure "the fact that some people had lost faith in us completely. 
They had lost faith in the Council."

The Dame has always been interested in spinning and PR hocus pocus having founded what is now one of the UK's major communications consultancies(yes, she's a busy old thing!)

She had never heard of this particular PR sleight of hand called 'reimagining' so decided to find out how much it's going to cost the poor, bloody council taxpayer. 

This is her Freedom of Information request to the Council. Let's hope that the 'need for transparency' piously called for by Mr. Price-Thompson extends to its answer of the FOI below.

Please provide the following information:

1. The salary and pension costs of Mr. Price-Thompson, Head of News.

2. The number of  full and part-time employees, directly and indirectly, reporting to Mr. Price-Thompson and the aggregated remuneration costs

3. The number of external consultancies retained or used ad hoc by Mr. Price-Thompson's department and their cost.

THIS ASSET OF COMMUNITY VALUE NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

Since 6 April 1938, when the Postmaster General signed the first lease, there has been a post office branch at 41 Old Brompton Road, where it is an integral part of the Art Deco complex Melton Court. There is only a one minute walk (120 metres)  between the tube station and the Melton Court post office. Due to its unique location, it serves a large and very densely populated catchment area of local communities stretching across four wards: Courtfield, (in which it is situated) Stanley, Queen’s Gate, Brompton and Hans Town. The post office is conveniently located for easy access within yards of the South Kensington tube station and several bus routes. It doesn't only serve the local community, which has a significant number of pensioners, but also patients from the Royal Marsden and Royal Brompton Hospitals, Imperial College students, local workers and visitors to South Kensington museums, customers of local shops and large numbers of tourists. Now there is the proposal to close that post office, with no alternative offered. We, the Kensington Society, along with our affiliated societies, have voiced our outrage and have lodged our objections to the state-owned Post Office Ltd through their public consultation. Our opposition will not stop any post office closures.  What can be done is for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to designate the site as an Asset of Community Value.  This will ensure that the site remains in community use,  just as it has been for the last 71 years. We ask you all to lend your support to our ACV  application, which can be found on the council’s planning website via this link, by writing a supporting comment under the Comment tab.  Please note that you need to change “Reason for commenting” from “General comment” to “Support” in order for your comment to be regarded as supportive. The deadline for comments is 5 July 2019. The Kensington Society

SUPERCAR DRIVERS BACK WITH A VENGEANCE...SPOT THE DEP LEADER

CLLR TAYLOR-SMITH-SMYTHE AT THE CONTROLS?

A gentle reader has reminded the Dame that the bane of all our lives is massing with a massive 'two fingers to residents' display of sheer vulgarity. 
He tells us that Sloane St will be the main drag.
Will the police do nothing, he asks? 
They did nothing last year causing massive noise and disruption.

Have a look at this and see if you can spot  SMITHY

Supercars in London June 2019

Will the police act like last year? It still was nearly complete shut down until late

P.S. note the site is going commercial with gadgets and men's clothes! 

NO ANSWER CAME THE STERN REPLY

Five days ago the Dame contacted the leader, deputy leader and CE raising the serious issue of gang-driven illegal subletting in the Royal Borough. She has not had the courtesy of a reply....so much for listening to us residents-even the old Dame with her thousands of daily unique views!

Campbell and Taylor-Smith

What happens is this. The gangs pretend to be legitimate long term tenants and use bogus documentation to obtain tenancies. 
Immediately, the gang lets the property on Airbnb and other sites causing massive disruption, violence, and noise to other residents.

It takes months and tens of thousands of pounds to regain possession and in the interim no rent can be taken and block insurance is invalidated.

On the day possession is granted the 'tenant' disappears leaving a trail of unpaid utility bills...and this should interest our leader....substantial amounts of council tax written off.

But worse are threats of physical violence are made and carried out against those who complain.

This council has form for ignoring danger signals leading to terrible tragedies. 
It seems by ignoring the warning Cllrs Campbell and Taylor-Smith thinks the problem will go away: it won't...it's a clear and present danger to residents.

Someone is going to get hurt by ignoring this mass criminal activity.
One assumes Taylor-Smith is too busy polishing his classic Ferrari and readying himself to become our MP to waste much time on such matters!

"Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose"....as 
the Dame's governess would say

A FLATTERED OLD DAME!

"Hornets Nest is a fantastic initiative, and it would be wonderful to see similar initiatives rolled out country-wide. Right now, nobody oversees council behaviour, and council officers are not accountable to anybody. 
The Ombudsman is run by former council workers, and the Standards Board which was supposed to oversee council conduct was abolished in 2012. 
Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs column highlights some of the most egregious behaviour nationwide, but a Hornets Nest equivalent in every borough would be a great asset in this current vacuum of council accountability in which council officers (and many councillors) do as they please with impunity."

THE HORNET HITS 5000: THE DAME IS A MEDIA STAR!

A RECORD 5000 UNIQUE DAILY VIEWS
CLICK FOR DETAILS

ROTTEN STANDARDS

Totally corroded with rust

This sight should stimulate our CEO, Barry Quirk, into asking some hard-hitting questions. Relatively new, these lamp standards cost taxpayers a small fortune and there must be hundreds around the Royal Borough. 
This lamp in Knightsbridge has its base totally corroded with rust. It could have killed or seriously injured a passer-by when it fell.  This now means each and every lamp needs to be examined. Who will pay for this exercise? The poor bloody taxpayer, of course!
Who commissioned this tat?

Resting 

THE HORNET HITS A DAILY 1300 UNIQUE PAGE VIEWS TWO DAYS RUNNING!

Click to enlarge

A DESERT FOOL IN KNIGHTSBRIDGE

Here's one example of a Middle Eastern driver going out of his way to create massive amounts of noise as he tears around the streets of Knightsbridge.
It's clear he derives considerable enjoyment from the racket he creates.

MASSIVE DECIBEL OUTPUT
REG: P10 JVC

Residents have been asked to report noisy/speeding supercars....but is there a point?

TEARS BEFORE BEDTIME WITH BOORISH BORIS

The Dame has never made fun of Daniel Moylan's working-class background. 
She may have laughed at his cut-glass accent but that was the limit.
The Dame believes that everybody should have the same opportunities.
Moylan's late father and mother did the most extraordinary job making sure that their son's undoubted intellectual capabilities were properly nurtured.
The only pity is that Daniel 'can't take oats' and finds it difficult carrying people with him. 

This takes the Dame onto 'Boorish' Boris Johnson- a silly and overrated man and no gentleman-despite his attempts to play the eccentric upper-class Englishman: difficult as he's full-blooded Turkish.

At Daniel Moylan's 60th birthday party Johnson made a clumsy speech referring to Boris Buses and alluding to the fact that Daniel's father was a bus driver....how unutterably vulgar on the part of Johnson.

Moylan's father was clearly quite special to have made the sacrifices he did to ensure the very best for his son.

The Dame fears it will be 'tears before bedtime' with the untrustworthy and unpleasant boor, Johnson in power.

MOYLAN JOB HUNTING

It didn't take long for Daniel Moylan to get his hooks into poor old Boris.
The Times has a picture of Moylan squeezing himself into a Johnson family picture.

GHOST AT THE FEAST **

Boris called up the Dame moaning that Danny says he is 'owed one' for all his help at City Hall.
Boris says he doesn't quite see it like that and he paid him back by giving him juicy sinecures-all of which he managed to screw up royally.

The Dame has advised Boris to block Danny's nuisance calls.

** for the benefit of dimwits like Cllr Palmer 
From Macbeth: "a person or thing that brings gloom to an otherwise pleasant occasion."

SUTTON ESTATE'S UNSUNG HERO'S

Jane

Brian

Crucial to saving Sutton Estate from the ravening property developers posing as a charity was Jane Solomon, Richard Burgess and the vicar of St. Luke's, Brian Leathard

It was they who initiated the petition to include Sutton Estate within the Chelsea Conservation Area. 
Its inclusion was something the Council should have done yet never did.
There were many others involved but these were the prime movers.

LOCAL PEOPLE ONLY NEED APPLY?

For years rumours of corrupt practices have swirled around the Environmental Health Dept chiefly in relation to waste disposal and noise and nuisance. Let's hope Tim Davis can clean up a tarnished reputation

click to enlarge

Dear Dame

Some of our councillors are aware that RBKC has something of an integrity problem within certain council departments. One of the contributing factors to this integrity problem is that the overwhelming majority of RBKC officers live outside the borough. With no “skin in the game” these officers may be more inclined to take a self-interested and exploitative view of the residents for whom they supposedly work. Once officers are appointed it is extremely difficult to remove them. Officers don't leave, they cannot be removed for being incompetent or lazy, and they have the full protection of the council unless serious wrongdoing can be proven. 

One of the interesting initiatives that have been introduced to deal with this problem is a policy requiring that the council hire RBKC residents wherever possible to fill vacancies as they arise. 

Our borough has many good and talented people looking for work and willing to be trained. We should, as a community, support this initiative in an attempt to try to take back control of our council so that it works on behalf of residents, not for the benefit of council officers!

With this initiative in mind, I would like to bring to the attention of possible candidates who reside in our borough, a job opportunity within the RBKC Environmental Health Department. 

click to enlarge

Tim Davis, the Head of Public Protection, is looking for a Senior Area Noise and Nuisance Officer. This is a rare opportunity to inject some competence and integrity into a department sorely lacking in both. To date, RBKC residents have been poorly served by the noise and nuisance team, and once an officer is appointed, he will likely be there for a very long time. Take, for example, the current Senior Area Noise and Nuisance Officer, Keith Mehaffy, who proudly boasts that he has been an environmental officer at RBKC for more than thirty years! 

Mr Davis would be well-advised to appoint to this position a competent officer who understands the law he or she is supposed to uphold (currently lacking in the noise and nuisance team), who understands that his or her duties are to all residents, not just the wealthy ones, and who has integrity and a good dose of common sense to go along with it. 

If you know someone who lives in the borough who meets these requirements, please encourage them to apply for this position, to raise the standards of this very flawed department, and who will support our community with honesty and integrity. The closing date for applying for this position is 16th June!

Please spread the word!

Yours sincerely

Engaged Resident

AROUND ONE THOUSAND UNIQUE DAILY K&C VIEWS

CLICK TO ENLARGE 

THE DEVIL AND LONG SPOONS

Resident and tenant associations have a vital role in calling the council to account when it attempts to ride roughshod over them.



The Dame hears that Cllr Weale has insinuated herself into the development of an Ovington Square RA: this is folly on the part of residents.



Weale thinks that by cosying up to residents she will have some influence.
Residents Associations should remain fiercely independent and not in the pocket of the Council.

The Council has a Gold Standard Award for well behaved RA's. 
Winners get £500 and a chance to hobnob with the Leadership Team in the Mayor's Parlour....silly stuff and to be avoided.
If residents want help in forming an association much better to ask the advice of existing and successful associations like MISARA or Hillgate Village RA.

CHAIRMAN OF CANDIDATES CALLS THE DAME

The Dame's telephone tinkles....
It's young Damian Collins, a CCHQ big wig wanting some advice.....



"Dame, you're a wise old bird. 
Ex Cllr Moylan and Cllrs Taylor-Smith and Weale have pushed themselves forward for inspection. 
What do you think?"

Well, the Dame is not one to hold back and this is what she told Damian...

"Dear Boy, is it sensible to have as candidates three so intrinsically linked to one of the greatest tragedies of our time? I think not....
Former Cllr. Moylan is a man of many mysteries as well as being the deeply unpopular deputy leader of the Council....so unpopular, in fact, he was 'blackballed' in the leadership battle....oh and a fervent Brexiteer and leading light in the Bruges Group. 

Cllr Weale has a well-earned reputation for indolence. "hard work never killed anyone but I am not going to test the claim" she is reported to have joked.....

Another, when challenged by residents was, "we hear but don't listen". 

Deputy Leader Kim's political credentials are somewhat thin besides which he will be heavily engaged in defending the Council's role over Grenfell."

Will young Damian listen to the wise old Dame or will he allow the Association to put forward three candidates all with Grenfell baggage?

KILLING TWO BIRDS WITH ONE ACOUSTIC CAMERA

Acoustic Camera

"Motorists with vehicles breaching legal noise limits could face fines if new "acoustic camera" technology is developed, the government has said."

The unnecessary roar of speeding supercars makes life intolerable and on the basis that their noise equals speed these devices could be the solution to the seemingly insoluble issue of noise pollution and speeding monster cars.

The Department for Transport will test noise-detecting cameras in various locations over the next seven months.
You can read about it HERE

This is just what is needed in Kensington and Chelsea and the Dame is delighted to hear from Cllr Sof McVeigh that the Council is looking into whether the deterrent can be trialed in the Borough.

A NERD LECTURES THE DAME!

Hi old Dame,

How you doin' this fine, sunny Sunday?

I am a bit of a politics nerd and having been transplanted here by my bank thought I would get immersed in local politics.
Well, I see that your local Labour Party is run by these Momentum guys.
Do you want my take on why some overseas firms are pulling out of the UK?

Well, it's got a bit to do with Brexit uncertainty and a massive amount to do with the possibility of the country being run by a bunch of stoopid Marxists with a predilection for stealing assets for nothing/or paying peanuts.

Britain Post McDonnell and Corbyn

After all, why take the risk of your corporate assets being nicked and your country of operation reduced to the state of Mr. Corbyn's much-admired Venezuela?

Loving your blog....