On one side ranged the residents led by James and Margaret Thomson and on the other, Merrick Cockell and Daniel Moylan.
'Daniel the Vandal' wanted to get rid of the Square and convert it to cross roads!
It was at this time the Dame first met Victoria Borwick.
Victoria, together with Tim Coleridge, took a principled stand and sided with the residents believing it to be the right thing to do.
In those days you paid dearly for doing the 'right thing'.
Victoria was sent to a sort of Hornet St Siberia and Coleridge dropped from the Mayoral cycle.
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| With Portobello Traders |
Like the rest of the councillors, she could have fallen into line and done the bidding of Cockell and Moylan but that is not her style.
If there is an underdog about you can be certain VB will not be far away.
Most MP's once they get their bottoms on 'the green leather' pay lip service to their constituents.
Their motivation is to clamber up the greasy political pole.
Victoria's motivation was always to continue to fight for constituents whether at the top or bottom of the pile.
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The Dame makes no apology for liking and respecting Victoria Borwick.
Some might say had she trimmed her sails and espoused the Remain cause she would have kept the seat: those who know Victoria Borwick know that she's another who's not for turning.
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| Campaigning |
She was an excellent MP once and will make an excellent MP again.
I was one of the original creators of this blog stimulated by the idea of cleaning up the Council and taking especial aim at Cockell, the the then leader. Cockell, a man of no great intelligence but much cunning, played fast and loose with his expenses and with his £130k taxpayer allowance lived well. We were never able to stop his K but we damaged him sufficiently to block his lusted after his place in the Lords.
ReplyDeleteThe one person who stood up to Cockell and his crew was Borwick.
She always did what she thought was right and that, in a party politically driven council, is suicide. Victoria Borwick is a bit of a hero of mine.
Victoria Borwick is a nasty piece of work.
ReplyDeleteIn the days after Grenfell she described the North kensington community thus:
“These are separate local communities … Rather like gangs, they don’t go into another territory, and we need to understand the makeup of the area.”.
She went on to to say of North Kensington residents:
“There are language problems, lack of education and understanding how anything works.”
Borwick knew about the problems faced by Grenfell Tower residents but did little to help them. She has been interviewed by the Met Police on this subject.
Borwick is not fit for Public Office and the Dame is deluded if she thinks she is!
15:40 There are language problems, lack of educational and understanding of how things work and it's common to most urban areas...only an idiot like you would close your eyes to that. There was also a lot of people taking advantage of the tragedy in order to make false and criminal claims. If Borwicj was referring to the post code gangs then she is 100% right. If one gang moves into the territory of another there will be violence. It's about time people like you faced facts. I also understand the sitting MP was on the TMO Committee responsible for Grenfell....or am I am liar?
DeleteEmma was on the TMO. She knew that the TMO was incompetent and blighted the lives of the many not the few. She was on some Council committee or other where she proclaimed in response to the Grenfell Tower refurbishment plans,
Delete"This proves the Council has listened to residents."
15:40 does more than suggest that Victoria Borwick was interviewed by the Metropolitan Police in regard to Grenfell.
DeleteWe understand this is not the case.
This site is unmoderated and it is incumbent on readers not publish comments which are untrue and potentially defamatory. Please do not use this blog to disseminate lies.
If you have evidence of an interview the 'put up': if not 'shut up'. Your allegation is quite defamatory.
Dear Dame,
DeleteWhen people express lies instead of facts and sincerely held opinions, they should be blocked.
You want facts... Well here they are.....
DeleteDame... sometimes you need to get your own facts straight before you start throwing your toys out of your pram.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/met-investigators-quiz-former-mp-over-grenfell-ncsw202j5
Well, the Dame has the exact facts and they are not the 'facts' retailed in the Times. Newspapers sacrifice veracity on the altar of circululation as this examples.
DeleteDespite being quite personable, she is of the least intelligent people I have ever come across.
ReplyDeleteThe reception our current MP received from local residents at our (heavily conservative) RA meeting recently compared to Borwick when she was in office is extremely telling. The community is very content with the change.
Emma D C...stop blowing your own trumpet!!
DeleteThe Community is happy with a Marxist hypocrite who educates her children at an exclusive school but expects everybody else to put up with shit schools? Maybe you will really happy when her government slaps a punitive tax on your property but you are probably rich enough to be able to pay it.
DeleteYou are a liar: you have just made this junk up!
Why not disclose your identity so we might judge for ourselves your 'heavily Conservative RA?
DeleteVictoria Borwick as a backbench Tory Councillor listened to people when they brought to her attention problems with the TMO. She had a very good understanding of what was going on at the TMO and tried to influence others at the Council to think differently. If the arrogant, self assured, money grabbing Tory elite in Hornton Street (who were hell bent on the destruction of estates for the benefit of property developers) had bothered to listen to Victoria we might not be where we are today with the tragedy that befell Grenfell Tower.
ReplyDeleteI have not forgotten the compassion and kindness that Victoria showed to the late Major Vickers who was being bullied out of the home he had rented for around sixty years by a money grabbing property developer.
I am not a Tory voter but credit where credit is due.
Kind regards,
Borwick's lack of intellect was immediately apparent at our first meeting when I sought her assistance in her capacity as my MP. She was totally out of her depth and could not grasp the facts. I cannot say for sure I thought she was nasty, but I most certainly found her to be lacking in compassion. She is not intellectually in the league of Emma Dent Coad and her predecessors, Malcolm Rivkind and Michael Portillo, and I hope she doesn't have the hubris to try for public office again!
ReplyDeleteYou cannot even spell Malcolm's name!!
DeleteAnd, if Malc is such an intellect how come he fell for a pretty transparent 'sting'. I want my MP to have common sense.
Sorry, Dent Coad is not very bright if she thinks no one will notice her cunning little ploy to grab her Councillor allowance having said she wouldn't....now that was stooopid
Running a country should be no different to running a successful company. The magic ingredient to both is leadership and leadership involves picking the right people and then inspiring them to do great things. Emma is not a leader....she was proven in her role at RBKC to have been divisive and devious and that's why she was 'terminated with extreme prejudice'. Intellectuals( and EDC is not one) are in the main hopeless at running anything but baths and then they let them overflow as they cogitate on detail!
ReplyDeleteProf. Sloane, you make me die. The very though of Emma Dent Coad "cogitating on detail!" She cogitates on trivialities
DeleteEmma Dent Coad MP vegetates and stagnates on detail. She cogitates on minutiae in the mistaken belief that she is focusing on detail.
DeleteEmma is a class conscious snob, an elitist and a hypocrite. As far as I know, Victoria Borwick has never plumbed the depths of racism to make a political point. If you want a racist for your MP VOTE LABOUR.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Borwick was supportive of Save Sloane Square-it was former Councillors Coleridge, Corbet Singleton and Edge that did all the work on their residents' behalf.
ReplyDeleteShe was a good MP but her contribution to saving Sloane Square was minimal.
There are better potential MP's, many, very many. Former MEP Syed Kamall for one, or former MP Richard Fuller, or Jane Ellison, but not Borwick who is a unpopular with the residents (As every council candidate knows), a liar, totally untrustworthy, and hated by her own association
ReplyDeleteA liar and hated by residents....you sound a bit unbalanced!
DeleteI don't see how anyone can vote for Pooter Corbyn...I mean he's just one of those boring middle class guys who go into politics because they are pretty mediocre. Has he really ever done any heavy lifting?
ReplyDeleteJust sponged off the State or some trade union; I would be so embarrassed to vote for a failure like him or McDonnell
Corbyn left school with two A Levels at Grade E. Very poor academically; his mother was a middle class Maths teacher and he only managed to scrape a Grade E pass in Maths. He dropped out of North London Poly's Trade Union Studies degree because he thought they should be running the course his way.
DeleteDent Coad is like most career politicians a thundering liar.
ReplyDeleteLie 1.... I won't be claiming my councillor's allowance...she did
Lie 2....I will represent everybody. Like all upper classes she hates the middle classes so never helps anyone in any other part of the constituency-apart from those in the extreme north who she thinks she can harvest votes
The Kensington Labour Party should beware that General Elections are decided on the voting outcomes in thirty to fifty marginal constituencies. Corbyn is pushing for a General Election. Is your Party's best chance of retaining Kensington with Emma Dent Coad?
ReplyDelete07:58 Good point.
ReplyDeleteCould Ian Henderson be Dent Coad's Nemesis?
In these comments EDC or one of her sycophants has been boring us with how 'intellectual' Emma is.
We don't want 'intellectuals' representing us: we want people who know how to get things done which brings me on to Ian Henderson.
Henderson would crease himself with laughter at the idea of being 'intellectual': he would probably think you were insulting him!
And ask Ian what he thinks of Victoria Borwick and you might be surprised that they are both similar in being 'dogs with bones' when it comes to using commonsense and charm to get things done.
If the Labour Party want to keep the seat they need Henderson. I know quite a few Tories who admire the man. Certainly he seems to have made a mark on the Council in a way EDC never was able to. Why? Because he doesn't see Council work as being an ideological battlefield.
I think Henderson should stand for parliament. He's been great on local issues. When he took on the big guns of social housing he did not get any money from the Council. He's achieved more in an unpaid capacity than Dent Coad or Borwick who have had plenty from the Council's bottomless purse.
DeleteIan Henderson would not draw his parliamentary salary and go after another 11 Grand from the Council just because it was there for the taking. Dent Coad conned us. She has still not provided a cogent explanation.
DeleteGood point we have been conned. What else has she conned us about that we have not as yet discovered
DeleteI didn't think Labour politicians believed in jiggery-pokery. She has conned and lulled us in to believing that she was giving up her Councillor's Allowance for good when she was really waiting for the main chance to reclaim it surreptitiously.
Deleteshe claimed it again when the dust had settled on her announcement that she was not getting it.
DeleteBorwick was a triple dipper! The Telegraph reported in June 2015:
ReplyDeleteRevealed: The 'triple dipper' Conservative MP who is paid nearly £100,000 a year for three elected jobs
Victoria Borwick, the MP for Kensington, is paid an extra £30,000 a year as both a councillor at Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and member of the London Assembly
Dent Coad is a "double dipper." That wouldn't be so bad if she had not politically grandstanded about giving up her RBKC Councillor's Allowance She conned us all when she furtively started drawing it again. She thought that she would not be caught double dipping and like most people regrets now that she has been caught doing the double
DeleteShe's a Double Agent by claiming an allowance giving the impression that she's not. She might be colluding with Tories on the quiet
Deletedoing the double, what's next.
DeleteInteresting blog. This is a nasty Tory selection. Very nasty. More than 50 applications for the position already (including Cllr Taylor-Smith) and the short list of 3 will be decided by the end of this month.
ReplyDeleteThe Conservative Association selection Committee has been "nobbled" and told to delete Borwick's name from the applications. At a recent Tory Garden Party, one of the Selection Committee members (Cllr Max Woodger) was openly briefing against Borwick.
This fellow Bodger...is he an OE? Possibly, he sounds a common little oik.
DeleteDon't like to hear that my Party is trying to fix the selection result. Borwick is a good filly and should be given a fair chance. Labour tactics are not appropriate in Conservative circles
ReplyDeleteConservative Chairman Andrew Foster is under enormous pressure to de select Victoria Borwick as the Parliamentary Candidate for Kensington and to stop her name going forward to the open selection by Tory Members on 11th July.
DeleteUntested Foster is playing a canny hand. He has distanced himself from the Sifting Committee that decides which names will go forward for the open selection. Unusually, he is not a member of this Committee. Remember last time around? Association Chairwoman Cllr Mills was Chairman of the pre selection and drove it like a bulldozer. She saw off Central Office pressure who wanted to stuff the list with Cameron and Osborne favourites.
Unfortunately, the new look Tories in Kensington have abandoned fair play and have decided to adopt Momentum tactics. It is surprising that Association Member, MP Greg Hands, is allowing his name to be associated with this skullduggery
Readers are off message. This blog is about Borwick's prospects. Not about Dent-Toad shortcomings
ReplyDelete10:54(Cllr Matthew 'the Dimwit' Palmer)
DeleteAre you on the short list? That would be good for a larf!
Emboldened by his high profile role with Grenfell, Deputy Leader Cllr Taylor-Smith is using muscle with the Conservative Association in North Kensington to try and corner the market to be selected as the next Parliamentary Candidate for Kensington. He learnt the lesson of carpet bagging from his dizzy Leader. Remember how lizzy rushed back from her sailing trip in America to pinch the Leadership from Paget-Brown? The Sloane saw her opportunity and seized it with all four hands
ReplyDeleteYou were on the TMO Board for years. What did you achieve at the TMO with your strong intellectual bent?
ReplyDeleteIntellectuals believe that reason will provide solutions to all of society's problems. I believe that reason is and only ought to be the slave of the passions and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.
Have you ever tried an empirical, pragmatic, approach where dogmatic ideas are committed to the flames in the light of experience?
Have you read any Kant?
Shane Carter
Shane Carter is on the button with his analysis of the unfortunate Cllr Taylor-Smith: consumed by hubris and straining to get a leg over Westminster
DeleteI think Shane was referring to Emma Dent Coad. She was a TMO Board Member for years. If Shane did not address his remarks to Emma Dent Coad then, I am now directing his comments to her.
DeleteIf Selection Committee Member Cllr Woodger is openly briefing against Borwick then this is disgraceful behaviour and he should be dismissed by Chairman Foster and replaced by a more responsible and balanced person.
ReplyDeleteThis is not acceptable conduct in Kensington Tory circles.
Widget is a young buck with little experience of life. Some power without responsibility has gone to his head.
DeleteThe more worrying aspect is that Conservative Association Chairman Foster is using his position to "pack" the Selection Committee to do his dirty work for him.
Lesson No 1 for Widget: you are being used, mate.
At the end of the day Kensington needs a hard working MP who is in touch with residents and understands the issues. The purpose of the open selection process is to put three good candidates in front of the Tory Membership on Thursday 11th July for the final selection.
ReplyDeleteVictoria Borwick has many years of service as Ward Councillor for Abingdon Ward. Elected time and time again and rated an outstanding Councillor by residents. She then served two full terms as Deputy Mayor for London and built a reputation for getting on top of her crime and social services briefs and gained the respect of the Metropolitan Police and the Social Services Departments. And then she was elected (again) to become the first woman MP for Kensington and won the selection with a massive first vote majority to be MP for Kensington.
This is a person who should surely be presented for selection at the 11th July Association meeting??????
Blah, blah, blah. And she lost the last Election
DeleteJust like Emma will lose the next election.
DeleteI hope that a good photographer manages to freeze-frame Emma's face when she loses just like a canny photographer freeze-framed her face when she one. The photographer who snapped her when she won, one caught a very worrying facial expression - the expression of a control freak. If you are in doubt take a look at Emma's hand gestures- very controlling.
Emma Dent Coad looked manic or demented in that freeze framed photograph. Not sure which, but manic or demented probably both.
DeleteShe may have many qualities but VB representative of her constituents? A firm Brexiteer in a seat that most definitely is not? A Brexiteer in a seat where many have already suffered job losses - real job losses not 'Project Fear' nb - and that will see more downside and no upside if Bozo and other similarly unfit PM contenders get their way (happily, they will not)? Part of a party that still outrageously continues to treat those many EU citizens here as political pawns? Please!
ReplyDelete1. There are many, many MP's standing in Leave constituencies who voted Remain...Rory Stewart is one and Soubry another. Should they be de-selected?
ReplyDelete2. What are these constituency job losses? UK employment has risen in the last two years.
3. Political pawns? Don't be an effing dimwit. The first thing May agreed to was that all EU citizens in the UK would be 100% secure: in fact. the Home Office sent a letter to my French wife virtually begging her to stay and offering her citizenship. Not much reciprocation by EU countries. If you want to make a bloody fool of yourself keep posting rubbish but remain anonymous so you don't get laughed at!
Cllr Woodger is a great friend and political playmate of the near certifiable Cllr Palmer.
ReplyDeletePalmer has spent several years briefing against Borwick to such an extent that Nick Paget-Brown told him to get back into his box....Palmer & Woodger....a couple of bodgers
15.41 (blah, blah) needs to pause and consider the facts surrounding the loss of Kensington to Labour. A difficult time was promised for the Tories in City constituencies and in their wisdom, Central Office and the Chairman of the Kensington Tories decided that there would be no canvassing in Kensington. All resources were diverted to neighbouring Boroughs.
ReplyDeleteBorwicks private polling was showing the shift to Labour and many times her requests for pollingresources were turned down. There were serious rows with the Association Chairman who refused to budge. Borwick was forced to rely on family and friends to canvass and was denied the help of the formidable Tory voting machine. Kensington was lost by Central Office and the local Conservative Association. Everyone needs to be very clear about this.
Dent Toad only made it by 20 votes. The Tories learnt their lesson and will have the machine on the ground for the next Parliamentary Election.
DeleteHaving got the fright of their lives after the Borwick loss, and post Grenfell when obliteration was forecast at the local elections, the Tories hit the streets running and canvassed 30k households in Kensington and Chelsea. Against the odds, and ALL the predictions, they held on with the loss of ONE WARD!!
How stupid was Central Office to screw up the Kensington Parliamentary seat.......
Man Up Tories and stop looking for a scapegoat. And Tory Chairman Andrew Foster needs to remove the influence of Borwick hating Cllr Palmer, and his Poodle Woodger, from the selection process.
DeleteOtherwise Foster will be guilty of bringing the local Party into disrespect
Dear Dame,
ReplyDeleteOver the last six weeks, a number of people have engaged with you to comment about our Emma Dent Coad MP. How many hits have registered on the Dent Coad pages? Do tell
Roughly 1000 though there's probably a bit of double counting. As a matter of general interest the Dame was worried about a decline in readers some few months back. However in the past months been a substantial bounceback and there are now a 1000 plus or so unique daily views.
DeleteShe is still waiting for the new 'reimagining' head of RBKC PR to ingratiate himself with her.
Wow, Dent Coad must be worried. 1,000 hits on Dent Coad news bringing an improvement in the Dame's on-line circulation.
Deletenever thought emma would do anything to help the dame
DeleteI will attend the selection meeting on 11th July and hope that the three candidates put forward by the Conservative Association will be worthy. There are so many applicants that this should not be in doubt. There is also the issue of fairness and an open selection process. There is no doubt in my mind that Victoria Borwick should be one of the candidates put forward for Memebers to decide.
ReplyDeleteOh dear! I so want to vote for a Tory MP, but if my choice is Borwick or Labour, I will hold my nose and vote Labour, as I did last time.
ReplyDeleteSo, you will vote for a party likely to degrade this country to the level of Venezuela and with a determination to implement Marxist policies?
DeleteYou sound criminally stupid!
So, you vote for woman who wants to turn us into a republic? Dimwit
DeleteThis is a message for Andrew Foster, Chairman of the Kensington and Chelsea Conservative Association.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, you are running a voluntary organisation. You need to manage the task in hand (in this case the selection of a Parliamentary candidate) and also maintain and grow the enthusiasm, loyalty and inspiration of the volunteers. The constant challenge is to ensure that justice is seen to be done.
I do not understand the ins and outs of this particular selection but I do understand the tricks and deceptions that are waiting to be deployed when there is power broking. You need to be rigorous in managing the selection process, choosing the selection committee and ensuring fairness and transparency.
The threads in this blog are worrying. There seems to be an element of finding a local scapegoat for an election that was lost last time because of a miscalculation by Central Office. There seems to be a movement to deny the Conservative Party members the opportunity to consider and vote for Victoria Borwick who has an outstanding record of public service over a long period. And who has been elected time and time again. (Of course, this is not to say that she is the best candidate this time around). And it seems that a person you have chosen as a member of the selection team (Cllr Woodger) is openly briefing against Victoria Borwick.
All of this shows the Chairman in a poor light and it runs the risk of humiliating long service volunteers in public. In my career, I would never allow a situation like this to develop.
Deputy Leader Kim Taylor-Smith is briefing furiously against Victoria Borwick. Expected behaviour from a property developer spiv but unprofessional coming from part of the Leadership team in Hornton Street.
ReplyDeleteTaylor-Smith no doubt believes that his authority as Deputy Leader gives him wisdom and a duty to share his views. But he should not do this when he himself is hoping for selection as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, has put his name forward, and is trying to undermine Victoria Borwick.
"Harlot of the ages", "authority without responsibility", "prat", are sayings that all come to mind.
Association Members are sure to see through this self seeking nonsense. And how can an afterthought like Taylor-Smith imagine that he compares favourably with the track record of a long serving Councillor, a Deputy Mayor of London, and a once elected MP?
Prat. Shallow prat. And self inflated wind bag.
Conservative Members for Kensington should be given the opportunity to vote on a shortlist of candidates that has been correctly selected. The final list of three should include Borwick
ReplyDeleteThere are many public servants and volunteers (paid and unpaid) in the Kensington and Chelsea Conservative Party, including Victoria Borwick who has worked hard for many years and been elected on repeated occasions. As an example to others, she should be offered again for the open selection so that the Memebership has the opportunity to make a new choice AND so that the other volunteers and public servants can see that hard work and dedicated are treated with respect and fairness. This is important to retain motivation and a feeling of correctness
DeleteMany Conservative volunteers and hopefuls will be watching carefully to see who is on the short list for selection. They will also be thinking "when will my turn come". "Is my hard work appreciated". "Will I be treated fairly and with respect". These are vital questions in a voluntary organisation. If Borwick applies, and after her long service and repeated election to a number of different posts, she should be included in the final selection. It will be a message to the volunteer movement.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Foster must make certain that his selection process is not corrupted by the historical bile of Cllr Palmer, the ambition of Cllr Taylor-Smith, and the naivety of inexperienced Cllr Woodger.
Woodger is Palmer's poodle and Taylor-Smith looks down on Foster.......
ReplyDeleteThe politics of Kensington is broken because Emma Dent Coad only believes in herself.
ReplyDelete