THE SPURTLE WRITES....

Dear Dame, 

I understand that the Council has been trying to establish what tenants and leaseholders think about the Housing Management Service following the abolition of the former and much denounced Tenant Management Organisation (TMO). 
Surveys often give a very misleading snapshot of the true situation. The TMO carried out surveys with regularity considerable expense. 
The TMO repeatedly made the spurious claim that between 72% or 80% of residents thought the TMO was "excellent" or "very good" at managing the housing service. 
It is a pity that it took the tragedy at Grenfell Tower before the truth about the TMO emerged.    

Perhaps, your commentators and hornets have something to add.

Yours sincerely, 

The Spurtle.   

DOUBLE TROUBLE IN BRUSSELS

Boris and Daniel running Brexit....this should be interesting and could presage a nuclear war.
Every job Boris has given to Daniel has ended in disaster. MOYLAN IN CHARGE OF BREXIT POLICY

The Dame wonders who the writer might be....

"However, one former acquaintance of Mr Moylan described him as a “classic courtier type” who was essentially a “little-leaguer” who would be “eaten for breakfast” by serious diplomats."

IT'S A GIRL!

So, the new candidate for Kensington is a totally unknown banking lawyer. Step forward, Felicity Buchan!



Apart from being the Association treasurer, Flicka has done little in the past for local people-unlike Borwick who as councillor and MP loyally served the people of Kensington: this makes no sense at all.




A further point to reflect upon is this....
The selection committee grumbled that VB was a Brexiteer in a Remain constituency so why choose someone who actively campaigns for Brexit?

Darren Henry may not have lived in the constituency but did have the gravitas of a distinguished service career.

MATT OBEROI SAYS UK PRISONS NO OBEROI'S

Greg Hands is an ex-banker so he will have some interesting professional chats with another ex-banker, Matt Oberoi
Matt is Labour's choice to unseat Greg. Sadly, Matt's banking career stopped before it started!

CROOK CANDIDATE

Normally, when you do work experience at a bank you don't use it as an opportunity for doing 'stuff' on the side.
Matt and his dentist dad worked up a scam so Matt would let his old man know what deals were upcoming and then buy the target stock. This earned them both over £100k and a spell at Her Majesty's Pleasure. 
You can read about in the Dame's fave paper HERE
What sort of father encourages his teenage son to steal on this scale especially as the father was a well paid dentist?

Matt is BAME which for those not to be au courant with Rubbish Speak means he identifies as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic....that should be good for a few votes and help him in his mission “I didn’t join Labour for redemption. I joined because I want to change our world.”....

The Dame asked her dear friend, the Maharaja of Jaipur whether he was BAME and got a withering look for her trouble.
The perfect candidate should have been the very well liked Ian Henderson....a mad world!

OLD BOYS CLUB?

The Dame hears that Cllr Squadron Leader Darren Henry handled questions from Cllr Group Captain Hammond, a member of the Selection Committee, with skill and aplomb putting Cllr "Fathead" Matthew Palmer firmly back in his box.
The Dame is sure old service loyalties did not intrude so as to impinge upon impartiality

Cllr Hammond in service days

Squadron Leader Henry

The Dame wonders whether these chaps knew each other from their service days....

THE DAME GETS A HAMMERING OVER HANDS

The Dame is used to abusive missives but this one affected her so much that she had to take to her Empress size bed.
The Dame doesn't censor but would her 'correspondents' remember that she has feelings too....

MONEY HAND OVER FIST

Dear Dame,

You really are a very nasty piece of work.

If there was anything better to read, blog wise, you would not get the 4000 unique weekly views you never stop boasting of.

Why have you never written about the £9,000 a month paid to Greg Hands for just 4 hours work a month for Remainer bank, Paribas?

It's time he explained just what the £108,000 a year was for.

With his £86,000 a year MP's salary plus this Hands is pulling in close to £200,000 a year.

I hope you have a horrible Sunday, you old witch....

Mrs. G. Pepper-Bradley

EMMA DENT COAD GLOATING.....AND A BARONESS CALLS THE DAME!

The Dame's siesta was rudely disturbed by a gloating Emma Dent Coad.
"Dame, I can breathe sigh of relief. Have you seen who the Conservative Association has shortlisted to fight me?"

The Dame had to admit she hadn't. 
What a shock when she saw the dimwits had put up....two nonentities and a GLA has-been!

Tony in mad professor
mode

Up first ...Tony Devenish whose sole claim to fame is as a GLA member. The Dame hears colleagues are desperate for Tony to be selected: they want to be shot of him so not a ringing endorsement.

Then we have the Association treasurer as a shoo-in. 



Not much to say about Felicity Buchan. 
Is there anything interesting to know about Felicity apart from her being nice and struggling in South Shields.




The really interesting one is Darren from the depths of bucolic Wiltshire...
Imagine the snobbish Dame's excitement when a Baroness Scott called her! 

Milady Scott

The Baroness put the nervous old Dame at her ease saying, "call me Jane, dear...everybody does"

Darren

Now "Call me Jane" is the ex-leader of Wilshire CC and seconded to RBKC to advise on Grenfell. In truth, no one has ever listened to her ramblings and bonkers ideas.
But it seems the Association did listen when Jane insisted the only way to win over the north was to present her friend, Darren Henry.


Darren just happens to be a Wiltshire County Councillor and Baroness Scott just happens to be ex-leader of that Council.

Talk about carpetbagging!

GET RID OF THE £1 BILLION A YEAR POLICE & CRIME COMMISSIONERS....NOW!

The Dame's blood is boiling.
One of Dave Cameron's really stupid ideas was the setting up of Police and Crime Commissioners....41 throughout the UK.
PCC's are drawn from the ranks of deadbeat local councillors and are despised by police chiefs.
An example of their costs is a woman called Mountstevens, PCC for Avon and Somerset. She picked up £85,000 a year with a support structure cost of £1 million. 
She has had two bright ideas: 
1. Advising smugglers to ignore Dover and smuggle into Torquay as there is no customs presence!
2. Police sponsored 'chat bench' where the lonely can sit hoping someone will chat with them...probably conmen preying on the vulnerable...

£1million idea from the Avon & Somerset Dimwit PCC!

The PCC for Sussex, Kathy Bourne is a laughing stock in her neck of the woods. The other day she donated £12,000 to a cats charity to help stop domestic violence....you work the connection out. Her other blunder was confusing Adur with Arun but locals have drawn up a list of her stupidities.

Dimwitted Bourne gave £12k to a cat charity

But there is a serious side to this. 
Police and Crime Commissioners cost well over a £1billion a year.

To put 20,000 extra police on the streets of London and other cities would cost just over £1billion....
Something has to give and the Dame knows what it should be.

AN ARABIAN NIGHTMARE

Dear Dame,

Arabs are everywhere...even to St Marks Road.

Where the Westway crosses St Marks Road was a dismal spot, dark, grubby and fly-tipped. 

Then about 10 years ago it was suddenly cleaned up with new paving, lighting, artistic glazed tile roundels in the pavement, and a huge abstract mural in rectangles and circles in bright colours (by the same people who did Ladbroke Grove and Portobello Road railway bridges) - yellow, orange, scarlet and verdant green. 

This was perhaps not to everyone's taste, but was harmless and cheered up the location considerably.

Suddenly about two weeks ago this was painted out with the help of scaffolding and a new mural appeared:

Together with a notice, since removed, explaining that it 'represented the contemporary experience of Arab youth'.

click to enlarge

What does it mean? 

Who paid for it? 

What connection does it have to the locality? 

Not 'Muslim' note but 'Arab'. 

As far as I can see (I haven't checked the census) the area is still predominately white or Afro-Caribbean. 

Does it have any connection to Grenfell ? (no).

And it is in dark and sombre colours, in an already dark area. The whole thing is a fiasco.

THE NARROWING OF THE NORTH END OF SLOANE STREET

The Chelsea Society's response to the Council's proposal can be found HERE

TAKING TO THE STREETS AGAINST THE SUPERCARS THIS FRIDAY, 5 JULY

PLEASE CIRCULATE


Hardworking Brompton & Hans Town councillor, Sof McVeigh wants local residents to join her on a resident and officers street patrol this Friday @ 8.30pm

The purpose of the patrol is to record and prevent the negative impact of the supercar tribe on local residents.
Sof comments, "it may only be for a few hours but sends the message that anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated"
Please do come along as the more the better and it will be a good chance to talk to officers & councillors as well.

We meet at The Hourglass pub on Brompton Road at 8:30 pm and walk north, past the Cadent gas works, towards Knightsbridge and along to Sloane Street.

Please let me know if you can make it and please spread the word. 

If  you can’t make it we are holding another one on August 16th."

	15:24 (1 hour ago)

'DOC' QUIRK? SERVE AN INJUNCTION

WAITING FOR THE OFF

It's bad enough for residents to endure the day and night roar of super(and not so super) cars careering around our streets. Now they plan to rub salt in our wounds by massing in Sloane St.
On the 14th July these IDIOTS are planning to close down Sloane St and adjoining roads by inviting the owners of supercars. As usual, the police will do nothing.

The Council says it's difficult to find out upon who to serve an injunction: nonsense, the Dame's boy, Ludo got to the bottom of it in minutes.
There are around seventy solicitors working at the Town Hall so plenty of hands to get on this pump