FIRST LABOUR GROUP MEETING....NO JUBILATION!

Where did it all go so wrong?

One Who Knows says.....

Last night Kensington Labour held the first 'ALL Members' meeting since its disappointing council election.  

The 37 members online were addressed by Cllr. Dent Coad (back in what she believes is her rightful position as Labour Group Leader).

But did she display warmth, encouragement, magnanimity and generosity towards her members and her predecessors as Group Leader? 

Don't be silly -of course not.

This is the EDC who, like the Bourbons," learns nothing and forgives nothing". 

Instead, she began by castigating her audience for members not working hard enough during the elections and failing to turn up to canvas. 

She & Cllr. Lari then went on to describe her retired & deselected members as "malign & responsible for the failure to make progress."  

So 'the line' is to be that those who organised the failed campaign bear no responsibility and the causes of the local failure were: the people not even standing as candidates and the vast majority of party members for sitting on their hands instead of obeying orders during the election campaign. (Were it not too distasteful, one might be tempted to draw an analogy with Hitler who, at the end blamed the German people for being unworthy of a leader as great as he.
It was precisely this dictatorial, grim and collegiate lacking attitude which led to Ms Dent Coad's removal as Labour Group leader last time. As Ms Dent Coad surely knows, Marx himself claimed that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce. 

Last night's performance seems to show that, at least in this, Marx may have been right.

THE DAME BOWS DOWN TO THINK!

The Dame suffers mild irritation when she gets sent a link to This Is North Kensington.

For somehow she has that sinking feeling THINK is just a little better researched than her own local political musings.

Still, the old Dame is not one to let envy be a bar to sharing the deeper insights THINK offers.

Well done, THINK...a jolly perceptive  READ

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN HORNTON STREET

The re-arrangement of the leadership team has the fingerprints of a grown-up businessman all over it: well done Kim Taylor-Smith. 

This is a solid team of young, bright potential leaders. 

The Dame would have given Cllr Faulks a wide birth. One assumes she is under Cllr Campbell's protection...a hopeless duo and both deeply unpopular.

The rest of the leadership team is hard-working and committed and the Dame enjoyed seeing such an excellent array of TALENT

The only one of the team tainted by the Grenfell tragedy is Cllr Campbell now that Weale has been 'wheeled off'

If only we could twist Cllr Taylor-Smith's arm to step up it would be one of the most potent teams in local government.

This team must collectively select the next Town Clerk( no more of this Chief Executive nonsense with all the mega packages implied)

CREAM RISING TO THE TOP: K&C LEADERSHIP CHANGES

At last some good news....

The Dame has long backed Sof McVeigh as a leader in waiting; let's hope we won't have to play the waiting game too long. 

In all that she does Sof puts in 100%. The Dame is a great admirer of Sof's papa, Lord Baker, Tory grandee and the last of the 'upright men' of politics.

As a Brompton & Hans Town ward councillor Sof is the 'Go To' councillor. She brims over with enthusiasm. 

There can be no better choice than Sof for the Communities role. 

The other appointments....CYRON, RENDALL, KEMAHLI, WILL, THALASITES AND, OF COURSE, TAYLOR-SMITH make a solid team...a shame that CLLR FAULKS did not go the way of the quite useless and indolent CLLR WEALE. We now need CLLR CAMPBELL to sail off into the sunset.

Gerald Hargreaves, backed up by Sof, had an excellent Mayoral Year: the baton now passes to David Lindsay. 

Lindsay has done a cracking job supporting flood victimised residents. 

Sweating Mayor

Lindsay is a solid pair of hands with great integrity. 

He will be a committed and effective mayor. 

Catherine Faulks moves from Business to Family and Children's Services whilst Mary Weale, the absentee ward councillor for Brompton & Hans Town, is absent from the Team...no loss!

We assume more news tomorrow.....

EDWARD LEIGH MP....ABINGDON WARD RESIDENT GETS A PASTING FROM PIERCE OF THE DAILY MAIL

Good Catholics like to take their lead from the Pope. So one might have expected Tory grandee, Sir Edward Leigh, to have publicly backed the Pope's criticism of the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.

For Leigh is president of the Catholic Union of Great Britain and chairman of the all-party Commons group on the Holy See.

Earlier this month, Pope Francis called Patriarch Kirill of Moscow Putin's altar boy' after the Orthodox leader — who preaches to a flock of 100 million — fervently supported Russia's barbaric invasion of Ukraine

Curiously, the usually garrulous Leigh hasn't followed the pontiff's denunciation. A spokesman for Leigh insists: 'Sir Edward completely condemns Kirill's support for Putin's politics.'

But why hasn't he said so in public? Could Leigh's reticence have anything to do with the fact his aristocratic wife Mary — herself descended from the Russian Empress Catherine The Great — is a trustee of the charity of the London Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in Chiswick, West London?

This church has ties to Mother Russia, after all.

HELP SOLVE A DAME'S DILEMMA: WHO IS THE LADY?

Who is the lady?

The other day the Dame reported on a party in Hans Road which continued until 2.00 am disturbing residents with music at such a volume it could be heard over a half-mile radius.

Now, here is the mystery....

The Land Registry states that the flat in which the party was held is owned by a Mrs. Yeganeh Eslah, a graduate of the LSE etc, etc...so a solid citizen.

click on image to read an objectionable person objecting

If she was the hostess of the party that ruined the night and early morning sleep of her neighbours why would she care about noise from Harrods when she herself is so anti-social?

Could it be some person took over Mrs. Eslah's flat and held the party without her knowledge? 

Mrs. Eslah? Can you solve the Dame's dilemma?

Can you please deny that it is not you in the image or that someone took over your flat?

We are waiting.....

BEHIND THE SCENES AT OUR ELECTION

When the Dame needs to know what is going on in our Royal Borough she takes a peek at This Is North Kensington.

THINK really is the go-to source for all local political anoraks. 

In its usual witty way THINK  deconstructs the latest election results. 

It's a MUST READ

CLLR SIMMONS SAYS THE DAME RUNS A HATE BLOG!

Meet your Notting Dale Councillor

This strange poseur is the trustafarian hard left councillor for Notting Dale. 

The only thing that distinguishes the hard right and the hard left is their mutual vileness. 

Simmons accuses the Dame of running a Hate Blog just because the Dame has her measure in plenty. 

Hard-left specimens like Simmons are in politics for the thrill. Generally, come from the moneyed middle classes they love to patronise the plebs telling them only posh people can lead them to the sunlit uplands. 

Voters of Notting Dale? 

You have made a great mistake voting this nasty piece of work in. 

WHERE WERE THE POLICE AND COUNCIL NOISE TEAM TODAY?

 

 A NEIGHBOURHOOD MENACE

This lady owns a flat in Hans Road. Until the early hours of yesterday morning, she allowed a huge party to take place in her flat. It ruined the sleep of hundreds of local residents...the old, the young, small children, and the sick.

Despite many residents asking her to stop she refused. Many residents called the Council and Police but absolutely no reaction from either.

Drunk guests leaving

Guest threatening neighbour

ANTHONY BEEVOR AND EDWARD LUCAS TALK ABOUT RUSSIA: JUNE 6th

    

Beevor

There is no better way to understand contemporary Russia and Putin's ambitions than to hear a conversation between two Russian experts. 

Click HERE for details

Sir Anthony Beevor is Britain’s best-selling historian with over 13 books written and over eight million copies sold. 

His work includes bestselling accounts of the Soviet conquest of Berlin in 1945 and the Battle of Stalingrad. His latest book, published on May 26, is Russia – Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921

Edward Lucas is the author of five books including Deception (on East-West espionage) and the acclaimed New Cold War (2008). 

Edward was selected as Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster in September 2021. 

DENT COAD CRACKS THE WHIP AND CEMENTS HER POWER BASE

Herding new councillors

Dear Dame

Back as the leader, the first thing Emma Dent Coad has done is to order her group to boycott all Civic & Council functions.

That includes vital training for new councillors so now residents have ungifted amateurs representing them.

These new councillors are now to take all their instructions from Dent Coad - the Putin of Kensington Labour 

The Tories have decided to take away the scrutiny chairs from Labour because their chairing- especially Marwan-has been so abysmal. 

As a result, the Leader is urging Labour to boycott all scrutiny committees (as they uselessly did for a year 3 years ago under Pat Mason's leadership)  

But this will be even worse & even more pointless. 

During the last boycott, conscientious councillors like Atkinson & Healy attended & spoke at meetings from the gallery. 

I have no confidence that this lot of newbies & incompetents will even do that  

If opposition councillors boycott scrutiny why are they being paid special responsibility allowances?   

Dent Coad will hand out the allowances to her cronies with no work to be done to reflect SRA's

PS When the committee lists are published for Wednesday's council meetings look for the vacancies on the Labour list. It looks like Labour councillors are declining to accept committee posts if they are not paid an allowance for doing so.  

Yours sadly

Redacted

COUNCIL IN SUBSIDISED COMPETITION WITH LOCAL BUSINESS RATES PAYERS

Co-working offices in Kensington and Chelsea struggle with rents and huge Business Rates so it is morally unjustifiable for the Council to set up in competition using Council assets to undermine local business.

click to read

The Council is now able to undercut businesses paying huge rents and business rates and so force them out of business. It has already done this to Justin Downes's low cost co-working space.

This abuse of assets is the 'brain(used advisedly)child of Cllr Lady Faulks.

Lady Faulks works for a business helping multimillionaire clients find high-end London property. 

One thing we can be certain of is this.... Her Ladyship will not be encouraging the Council to set up a property search company....one rule for Lady Faulks....another for the plebs!

THE CRASSNESS OF CLLR FAULKS!

click on image

Cllr Faulks is offering a Fortnum & Mason hamper to any shopper who 'snaps' a Jubilee-themed window display paid for from the 25% share of Business Rates the council claws back!

The supposed purpose of the exercise is to promote local shops hit by Business Rates and sky high rents.

Now, you might have thought that if you are trying to support local small shops it would be a bad idea to offer a prize from a luxury department store in St James's? 

Lady Faulks disagrees: she is a Fortnums's person!

Why not a hamper with baked products from our very own Clarkes...all baked in N. Ken? 

Or, a selection of Portobello Gin? 

Or even a hamper from Harrods or even Whole Foods in High Street, Ken. Even M&S do a "Kensington Tea Time Hamper".

The Dame will send a signed photograph of herself to whoever suggest other places in Kensington and Chelsea where Lady Faulks could have got a hamper from if she had used common sense. 

Local shops are being crushed by Business Rates of which K&C get 25% and yet no one had the nous to think local.

You could not make it up as Cllr Phelps was wont to say!

THAMES WATER AND ITS MILLION PAGE COVER UP

 

Thames Water's million-page report on what caused floods of sewage, dead rats, and other detritus to ruin our homes and our health-physical, financial and mental is out....

It's a classic piece of corporate BULLSHIT the 'baby'of absentee Thames Water chairman, Ian Marchant, the much-criticised ex SSE CEO.

The 'midwife' was the now-departed Thames Water PR man, George Mayhew.

The three Review members are a lady living in Denmark....an ancient water engineer,retired and living in Yorkshire, and Mike Woolgar ably supported by a major Thames Water services provider, Mott Macdonald.

What could go wrong?

A massive volume of emerging evidence suggests homes were flooded with raw sewage because Thames Water failed to turn on vital pumps.

The insurance industry needs to hold its own review. 

That review could find Thames Water guilty of gross negligence by not having engineers on-site to turn on pumps.

If anyone wants to give a view don't waste your time using the Report contact email....it will take up to 21 days to reply. 

Email the organ grinder, Mike Woolgar 

mike.woolgar@atkinsglobal.com

LORDLY MOYLAN OPINES ON PROPRIETY

Since his master, Boris Johnson, threw Lordly the crumbs of a place in the Lords he has become an expert in what is 'proper'.

Those of us who knew him before he started dressing up in ermine-trimmed dresses thought of him as the Brum Boor. 

We are surprised by the transformation.

click to read.

CLLR MASON TAKES THE HIGH ROAD TO BONNIE SCOTLAND

The Dame is uncharacteristically and perhaps unexpectedly out of sorts to learn that Cllr. Pat Mason has left the borough and quietly & with unassuming modesty returned to his native Scotland? 

Pat Mason worked tirelessly for his constituents in Golborne for almost three decades.

Mason  was one of those widely respected Labour Councillors who in a fair system should have served as Mayor of the borough to which he showed such a strong commitment  

Whilst relentlessly dour and sometimes called 'The Savonarola of the Labour Group'  he served a valuable & respected function as the conscience..... and 'would-be' Council historian. 

He also earned himself the soubriquet 'Spin Dryer' from his habit of repeating a good debating point over & over until he had squeezed every drop of sense out of it. This clever and affectionate title was invented by another well-known blog but was so appropriate that it was quickly taken up on both sides of the council chamber. 
Tory councillors might lay bets on how quickly at Council meetings Mason would remind them of what he had warned them against 20 years previously but, unlike some others, the Council will be all the poorer for losing Clr Pat Mason. 

He was a man who served the council and his community to the very best of his ability. 

He never spoke ill of individuals even when enthusiastically fighting the generalised class war.

EDWARD LEIGH MP SAID WEST SHOULD ACCOMODATE RUSSIA'S OCCUPATION OF UKRAINE

Leigh on Extreme Right

A row flared when the Commons All-Party Russia Group attended a lunch hosted by hardline pro-Putin diplomat Yakovenko on Tuesday.

Its Tory chairman, Sir Edward Leigh, whose wife Mary is descended from Russia's Romanov royal family, showered praise on the country's 'language, culture, people and beauty', and repeatedly pressed diplomats to arrange a trip to Moscow for MPs.

In 2014, Sir Edward said the West should 'accommodate' Putin's occupation of Ukraine because it was 'part of the Russian soul'.

INSURANCE COMPANIES NEED THEIR OWN INVESTIGATION INTO THAMES WATER NEGLIGENCE

Association of British Insurers, Lady Morgan....needs to act

If you are a policyholder or insurance company shareholder you will have suffered a financial loss if proven that Thames Water acted negligently in not activating pumping stations on the evening of the 12th of July last year.

You join the other victims of the floods whose homes and lives were destroyed. 

There is a growing belief that the flooding was avoidable if Thames Water had done its job.

The Rt.Hon Baroness Nicky Morgan

Chairman 

The Association of British Insurers

One America Square

17 Crosswall

London EC3N 2LB

7th May 2022

Dear Lady Morgan,

On the evening of 12th July last year I was just one of the thousands of Central London residents whose homes were destroyed by floods of raw sewage.

The elderly and the vulnerable were particularly tragic victims. For many, mental and physical illness followed the flooding. For others, financial ruin.

According to Thames Water, the floods were the result of intense and unprecedented rainfall. 

Thames Water has set up an independent review into the extent and causes of the flood. One member of the Review lives in Copenhagen; another retired living in Yorkshire!

Increasingly, questions are being asked about what really happened on that day. Victims are no longer accepting the Thames Water version of the cause.

Questions are being asked as to why certain equipment was not turned on, especially as when pumps were activated the sewage drained away instantly.

We are not the only victims. If the conjecture about the inactivation of pumps is accurate then your members and their shareholders are also victims of Thames Water’s negligence.

May I suggest that ABI members set up their own review of what happened on that fateful evening of 12th July?

Please respond by email should you wish.

Kind regards

REDACTED

TORY MP'S WIFE AND HER 'SPIRITUAL' TERROR SUPPORTING 'LEADER'

The Dame has made three requests to Sir Edward Leigh MP demanding to know whether his wife, Mary is a trustee of the charity behind the Russian Orthodox Church in Ennismore Gardens. Leigh refuses to respond.

To know more about this Putin infiltrated church read THIS

Lady Mary's 'spiritual leader(circled) cavorting on his £5 million yacht

The Ennismore Gardens church is under the direct spiritual control of Patriarch Kirill. 

It means that Lady Leigh's spiritual leader is this vile, greedy man whose priests bless nuclear missiles threatening the West.

Blessing the NUKE

Lady Mary Leigh is the wife of a senior Tory MP albeit a rather dull one. 

It is a very bad look that his wife seems unwilling to condemn the actions of her church in supporting the massacre of innocent civilians: worse that she recognises this corrupt man as the leader of her church.

Lady Mary's spiritual leader and his $50 million Bombadier Express!

K&C 'COMRADES' CRUSHED....NO REVOLUTION YET!

Dent Coad...what went wrong?

Dear Dame

While Labour swept to power in the Boroughs of Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet, the Comrades of Kensington failed to make any progress in the Royal Borough.

Not only did Dent Coad's merry band fail to win a single additional seat but, even though the electorate allowed them to retain all 13 of the northern seats, it demonstrated a distinct lack of confidence in several of those Labour Councillors putting themselves forward for re-election. 

One might ordinarily expect returning councillors to 'top the poll' in wards where their co-councillor candidates were inexperienced and unknown 'newbies'. 

But in Golborne, Colville,St.Helens and Notting Barnes wards Messers Lari, Bakhtiar, Thaxter and Elnaghi all received fewer votes than one of their new juniors. 

This would appear to demonstrate that the electorate prefers to put its faith in the new people rather than in those that have represented them for the previous 4 years. 

Not only have the 'retreads' failed to cultivate a personal following but it appears that the more familiar the voters are with the candidates the less inclined they are to give them their vote. In truth, the differences in votes between candidates of the same party are not huge but it is striking that in 4 of the 5 wards held by Labour 'experience ' counts for so little. ( And even in Dalgarno ward Cllr.Ali's winning vote was far far less than that the electorate had previously given to former Cllr Healy)

Perhaps the new members of the Kensington Labour Group will take this as encouragement from the voters to strike off in a new direction and look to the Labour Victors in Westminster & Hammersmith as their role models and not the squabbling, idle and unconvincingly 'pseudo lefties' remaining from the previous council.

Kind regards

Political Observer.

HAMPERS? STOP HAMPERING LOCAL SHOPS WITH BUSINESS RATES

 Click to enlarge upon this nonsense

The childishness of this Council in its dealings with local, struggling business plumbs new depths.

No councillor or officer understands business: most have worked for the public sector in one degree or another. 

Business Rates are killing businesses and idiotic posters in shop windows will do nothing to help.

The Council should be lobbying C. Government to reform this business stifling tax but we hear nothing from Cllr Faulks. 

Why? 

Because the Council gets a 24% handling fee to waste on idiot promotions like this.

CONSERVATIVE MP's WIFE ACCUSED BY THE DAME...STEP FORWARD LADY LEIGH

Lady Mary Leigh is the wife of Sir Edward Leigh, MP.

She is a trustee of the charity behind the Russian Orthodox Church in Ennismore Gardens. 

This church lies under the authority of Patriarch Kirill, the billionaire ex KGB agent who is a 'spiritual' adviser to the war criminal, Putin. Kirill got his millions by the importation of cigarettes.

So far, not one of the Trustees has publicly condemned the 'Special Military Operation' or war against Russia's sovereign state neighbour.

The several other trustees of the Moscow-affiliated cathedral/church have been notable for their silence in not condemning the brutal attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine. 

This fat overdressed fellow here calls himself 'Count' Tolstoy-Miroslavsky but of course, we all know that counts don't count here in England. 

This particular 'heavily discounted count' was accused by another Tolstoy of misrepresenting his Geneology...or lying!

TRI BOROUGH TRIBULATIONS

How we share services with Westminster

The Dame always warned about the TRI BOROUGH arrangement....but oh, no.....Pooter and Campbell knew best!

Now we have a situation where RBKC is inextricably linked up in supplying services with socialist Westminster CC.

Instead of the Council bearing down on its costs, it's now in thrall to Westminster CC.

CHINA CHAINS PUTIN

Dear Dame,

A good friend who has just retired from the US intelligence industry sent me this extraordinary appraisal of a potential mess Putin has got himself into.

Regards

An avid follower 

Chaining the little man

"President Xi is a perceptive man with a plan. 

A year or two back the PLA and the Russian Army carried out a joint exercise. Senior PLA officers reported to Xi Russian military capability was seriously degraded in many areas. 

Xi also has very good intel so would have known that taking Ukraine would be no 'walk in the park'.

When Putin told Xi that the Special Operation in Ukraine would take just a couple of weeks Xi must have thought his friend quite mad but, being the inscrutable Xi, kept his own counsel.

The cost to the Russian economy through sanctions and the war is reducing this pariah state to being chained to China for decades ahead. Putin thought that he would be an equal partner with China in reshaping the rules-based world order. That was never what Xi had in mind.

Xi, by encouraging Putin in his adventure, has turned Russia into a client state dependent on China for its economic survival. This servitude means China can now plunder Russia's natural resources at bargain basement prices. With no other buyers around Russia becomes just another weak country China can prey upon.

Putin will rue the day he fell in love with China. There will be a big price to pay....oh, and he can forget about using nuclear weapons: the Chinese will never allow him to screw up its long terms plans to dominate the world."

JOHNSON.....OUR CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

 

Johnson's cynical hijacking of Churchill to defend himself from attempts to unseat him is quite mercenary. 

How anyone can take this man's attempts to 'play Churchill' seriously beggars belief. 

It's as embarrassing as Liz Truss trying to con us all into thinking she is the incarnation of Thatcher.

But the serious part in all this is the danger Johnson places us all in. Through his continual limelight theft, he alienates NATO partners and gives the impression to the Russians and our enemies there is no cohesive plan to aid Ukraine.

The sooner this not very pleasant man buggers off to write his memoirs the better.

SENIOR RBK&C OFFICERS 'ON THE TAKE'

Like a ghost ship

The Dame's young friend, The Rt. Hon Mr. Mogg, tells her it's not just Whitehall civil servants ripping us off. 

Senior K&C officers are working from their homes in the leafy Home Counties whilst simultaneously claiming a fat London Allowance. 

This is an insult to hard-pressed K&C taxpayers struggling to make ends meet.

If the Leader had any teeth she would be issuing a command..."I want you back in the office full time or you lose your London Allowance"

On the subject of teeth...one of the Dame's dear friends is Guy Oliver. Guy fought tooth and nail to save Kensington's Art Deco Odeon cinema(the cinema has now been so destroyed there is not a vestige of it left)

Guy had a great idea....why not bulldoze the Town Hall and develop the land for mixed housing? 

A radical idea.... but not then of its time. 

However, if senior council staff persist in defrauding us the Town Hall offices become redundant.

There is a good precedent for knocking down Spence's Neo-Stalinist horror. A new council chamber could be built in the north of the Borough....

Cllr Nicholas Freeman (older members slaver over this awful fellow) did exactly that with the beautiful old Town Hall in the weekend before it was listed....a nasty piece of work.

NON FLORENS THE 'SOCIALIST ETON'

Newman

The £100 million Holland Park Academy is far from flourishing. 

Cllr Elizabeth Campbell's proud boast was that the school cost nothing to build as it was paid for by flogging off council land to developers! 

When pointed out to the lady that it still cost taxpayers £100 million she still looked puzzled and bemused!

What a financial ingenue....

Anyway, the die is cast. Money which could have built 3 or 4 'ordinary schools' is down the drain.

The departure of the £280,000 a year head, Colin Hall has done nothing to stabilise the failing academy.

Things are so bad that the parents have got together HERE  exercised over the Governors' plans to turn the school into a United Learning Multi-Academy Trust

Things are now so bad that the Council was forced to put out this strange PRESS RELEASE