GRENFELL DISRESPECTED

There is something crass about using buildings as billboards....

When the site of multiple deaths is abused in this way it goes well beyond crass. An apology is required from the perpetrator.

LABOUR PANNICK OVER VAT ON EDUCATION

Wes Streeting claims for the first time the Cabinet would be made up only of 'working class people'!

What an odd country this is: no European politician would bother to make such a boast. There would be nil interest in the social background of politicians. 

Human rights expert, Lord Pannick, is now backing legal advice that suggests making private schools subject to VAT was likely to breach ECHR law.

He opined, “It would be strongly arguable that for a new government to impose VAT on independent schools would breach the right to education"

This vindictive and envy-driven grab is devoid of economic sense. The government pays £100k to put a child through the state system. 

The government saves £100k for every child educated privately. Parents who cannot afford the 20% uplift will now be moving their children to the already overcrowded state system!

British private schools save the British taxpayer tens of millions of pounds. 

There is another less visible tangible. The British private sector educates a huge number of foreign children.

We have little global influence but the private sector gives us substantial soft power.

If Labour insists on this idiocy restrict it to foreign-paying students though it should remember the billions bought into the UK as invisible earnings.

The Dame imagines this vindictive idea comes from the feeble mind of our deputy prime minister in waiting...and yes, the Dame doesn't like 'this one'.

CAMERON CONNED YET AGAIN

We know that Milord Cameron is easily conned. We had the example of him lobbying for scandal-hit Greensill.

Now we have the embarrassing hoax call with a man claiming to be a former Ukranian president.

During the conversation the Russian hoaxer got his Lordship to discuss future UK policy on Ukraine. Gawd help us!

In a clumsy attempt to defend the Foreign Secretary, the Foreign Office claimed it was "straight out of the Russian Playbook'. In other words, they played Cameron for a fool.

Can one imagine the likes of Robin Cook or Lord Carrington falling for such a trick?

PASTICHING PORTOBELLO

 

No transparency

My Dear Dame

Yesterday evening there was a considerable flutter in the RBKC hencoop. 

The Dame’s many readers may remember that RBKC has shown clear signs of wishing to see the end of the world famous Portobello Market. 

Cllr Faulks even managed to exclude all mention of the Market from RBKC’s recent Report: “Live Learn & Work: The Future of the Local Economy."

Cllr Kim TS - deputy leader of the council - took over the project. He has masterminded a 'top secret' plan to sweep away the glorious, chaotic and life-enhancing Portobello Market. This was to be achieved by stealth, cunningly hidden within the complexity of RBKC’s current plans to ‘improve’ the local public realm.

Towards the end of one of the seemingly endless discussions on the supposed issues, a mere resident so far forgot her place as to announce RBKC’s true intention - to get rid of the street traders. 

This end was to be fiendishly cleverly achieved by banning street traders' vans from parking in the Market. This will work because over the years RBKC has systematically sold off almost all the traders’ traditional storage. So it’s simple. No vans; no Market. Job done.

KTS’s “Covent Garden’ style Nirvana of scores of expensive restaurants etc replacing real businesses for real local people, is within touching distance. Five hundred to a thousand working people will of course, lose their livelihoods. But their sacrifice will be worthwhile. The local commercial landlords will be happy. So KTS is happy. Job done.
The pesky resident hadn’t finished. She further pointed out that for RBKC to suddenly demand and additional £250,000 a year from the street traders, is simply unreasonable. This renders it unlawful under the Market's legislation.

The meeting broke up and poor old KTS retreated to plan his next assault on working people and the wider N. Kensington community.

Yours ever so 'umbly

Mrs A. Peasant   

WHAT A JACKASS!

There is a common thread running between Alistair Jack and Kevin Craig: they are both rich. 

Whatever made them think that betting on a sensitive event was an honourable thing to do?

Jack is a rich man with a £30m fortune which he loves to boast about. He should be ashamed of himself.

A MODEST LABOUR CANDIDATE BETS AGAINST HIMSELF!

Kevin Craig

Central Suffolk and North Ipswich Labour candidate

Kev on the left has come up with a new betting strategy: he bets against himself winning but the brutes at party HQ still suspended him. 

This despite him quickly coming out with this bullshit...."I intended to give any winnings to local charities"

No wonder we all have a generalised low opinion of our political masters.

TORY LORDS LORDING

 

Dear Dame

Being such an old 'knowall' you may know the answer.

The Tories will have just a few seats in the Commons yet masses in the Lords. 

How will nice Sir Kier smoothly progress legislation with such opposition?
Will he need to urgently reform the Upper House....or am I missing something?

With best wishes

Lord D*****l M*****n

BOSS OF LLOYDS AND HIS POLITICAL AGENDA

Charlie on the left

Why is Charlie Nunn so keen to cosy up to Labour?
The Dame has a thought. 

Directors behind Lloyds Development Capital, the bank's private equity arm, make multimillions a year.  

Private equity tycoons are taxed in a remarkably generous way. The last thing Charlie wants is the rules changing and the flight of his Masters of the Universe. 

Could this be what he is lobbying Rachel Reeves over?

Several Lloyds employees earn ten times more than the CEO doing private equity deals.

CONSERVATIVE CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS GAMECHANGER

Dear Dame, 

I hope you will keep this to yourself: it's supposed to be under wraps...

A CCHQ AI expert!

In a last-ditch attempt to smash Reform, the campaign team have recruited a top AI team. 

The plan? To recreate a hologram of Mrs Thatcher endorsing Rishi Sunak. 

Evidently, the prototype is so vivid and lifelike that it gave her old nemesis, Lord Heseltine near cardiac arrest!

Mrs Thatcher is seen patting Rishi on the back and extolling 14 years of Conservative success and record-breaking tax cuts. 

At the moment the lads are not sure how it will be used.

In a typical 'Iron Lady' pose she says  Mr Farage is not a Thatcherite and Rishi is!

Best wishes, dear Dame

The Inside Guy

A PROPER DAME!

Some(or, more likely one) who posted vulgar and crude comments will be upset to see the Dame has removed them: if they are upset this Dame is delighted.

Dear Dame ,

I know you to be a woman who values quality above title so l am sure that you will share my delight that the recently retired and widowed Karen Buck is to be made a Dame in the forthcoming Birthday Honours?

Karen Buck is universally admired and very widely loved across North Kensington as the best MP who has ever represented the area. 

A tireless advocate of reform to Housing and the Alleviation of Poverty she was famous for the quality and tenacity of the casework that she undertook on behalf of her constituents. And she was also the first MP to campaign effectively against the excesses of AirBnb, basement developments,the shocking neglect of St Marys Hospital and the increasing severity of cross borough gangs and drug dealing. 

She was the scourge of poor policing, unresponsive and under-resourced Health Authorities and shockingly neglectful and disorganised Housing authorities and the darling of her constituents.

 It is greatly to be hoped therefore that her 'Damedom' will shortly be upgraded to a Peerage so that the expertise that she has developed over the decades can be put to use in the Upper House by the incoming Starmer government.  Your acolytes have recently reminded us of the calibre of Joan Hanham and Shireen Richie and it would be entirely appropriate for the elevation of three great women to have set the precedent for Baroness Karen Buck to succeed them.
It is also to be hoped that RBKC council will be generous enough to welcome the honour given to Karen Buck at its next full council meeting and for our useless and ever diminishing bench of Labour Councillors to rise to the occasion and praise the contribution made by Karen Buck to the welfare of all that she has served in her decades of public service.
I remain,dear Dame your not so 'umble, Servant

UN.... FUN FACT!

The old Dame was shocked to see that 54% of the population or 36 million people receive more in benefits and health care and education than they pay in tax! 

When you have such an out of kilter economy something has to give.

It's all very well driving out the non-doms but they put in far more than they take out. 

The non dom exodus has started and we may all live to regret it.

NO HONOURS FOR K AND C

 

Baroness Hanham...quality

Dear Dame, 

 

When the dust settles on the result of the General Election, Rishi Sunak will start compiling his Dissolution of Parliament Honours’ List. I do hope that he will think very carefully before he ennobles any of the Tory faithful at Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall. 

 

I remember Joan Hanham deservedly being elevated to the peerage after serving as Leader of the Council for twenty years. Joan, a paternalistic Tory, improved children’s education in the Royal Borough when the Council took over education responsibilities from the Inner London Education Authority in 1990. She also took a very keen interest in the welfare of the elderly. 

 

I also have fond memories of the late Councillor, Shireen Ritchie, who was elevated to the peerage in 2010. I recall the marvellous work which she did in protecting girls from female genital mutilation. Joan Hanham and Shireen Ritchie are among the Greats of Kensington and Chelsea’s Town Hall.

 

I think Rishi Sunak would do well to give Councillor “Dizzy” Lizzie Campbell a wide berth when drawing up his final Honours’ List. Lizzie served on the Board of the now disgraced Tenant Management Organisation along with Councillors Maighread Condon Simmonds, Quentin Marshall and Emma Dent Coad. All of these Councillors knew that the TMO was a disaster - a litany of incompetence and mismanagement long before the dreadful fire at Grenfell Tower - but they were all responsible for letting the plebs, who paid rent, suffer. 

 

I remember Lizzie sitting with other TMO Board Members on the platform of a meeting convened to expel two Non-Executive Directors of the TMO Board. I shall never forget the scornful expression on Lizzie’s face when the participants of that meeting rose up in revolt against the oppressive Tenant Management Organisation. She appeared to look down on the great unwashed. 

 

Rishi Sunak should not ennoble any Kensington and Chelsea Councillor who served in the Cabinet during the period that decisions over the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower were made and that includes Dizzy Lizzie Campbell. Campbell was a Cabinet Member when those Grenfell Tower refurbishment decisions were made and is accordingly bound by Collective Responsibility for those decisions which had such horrifying consequences.    

Regards

redacted

BRING PROPER POLICING TO LONDON

"If you turn up to work, if you’re a female officer, you tie your hair up, if you’re a man you’ve had a shave, you press your clothing, you polish your boots, you look smart, and you look professional. We’re very uncompromising on that. When you see the Grenadier Guards outside Buckingham Palace, there’s never a problem with smartness or with uniform standards. I think we can take a leaf out of that book.”

Whether it be through adulterating the uniform with pins and badges and having all manner of florid social media accounts – these are all things that I don’t think have a place in policing,"

In three years, Stephen Watson, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police has turned a failing force that was on its knees into the one rated most improved by the official police watchdog.

His aim? To make GMP the country's top force or as he says....“good in all things and outstanding in some.”

Getting bobbies back on is a 'policy pillar'

Watson has the bearing of a military man and his father and grandfather are Navy men.  His back-to-fundamentals, anti-woke approach has transformed the second-biggest force in England and Wales.

Arriving in 2021 GMP was in 'special measures'  with a record 80,000 crimes gone unrecorded.

The sooner Watson replaces the lacklustre Met Commissioner the better and safer our lives will be.

Watson is an instinctive leader of men...

THINK ACCUSES EMMA DENT COAD

click to enlarge

Cezary Bednarski

'Gross Hypocrisy'....that is how THINK describes the actions of Emma Dent Coad. 

On her nomination paper is this man, Cezary Bednarski.

So why is THINK so furious?

As usual, THINK gets us THINK-ING

OSBORNE? HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME!

hanging his head in shame

George Osborne is quite odious but that goes with the territory: few politicians would ever be invited to the Dame's magnificent Capri villa...a haven for cultured, arty types like Mr Hockney and Sir Tom Stoppard.

Osborne is especially nasty. Most of us remember the famous letter detailing his West Country 'Ugandan Activities'.

The other day Osborne claimed Conservatives would scrap IHT...... such a liar with his empty promises. 

He made one promise about lifting the threshold to £1m and then reneged.

But the Dame has been following the curious case of the nicked British Museum artefacts and Osborne's role as chair of the trustees.

In 2022 Osborne was warned over 2000 items had gone walkabout yet waited two years before calling in the cops.

The government granted the BM nearly £70m in 2022-23. Osborne had a duty to do much more to protect our treasures yet he did too little too late. By doing bugger all he made it even more difficult to retrieve the loot.

He should resign without delay....but of course, these types don't do 'honourable resignations'

FACTORING IN FARAGE

 

Dear Dame

I am a Conservative voting resident and have been for many years: in fact, Sir Merrick Cockell knows me very well as I have canvassed with him.

Now, Dame, we are told you have a 'political proboscis': it would seem so from the picture.

the Dame's 'political nose'

Now that Mr Farage has decided to become leader and chance his arm in Clacton, I wonder whether I should throw my lot in with Reform. Mr Farage is certainly charismatic and his policies seem very Conservative. Many of my friends are swaying towards Reform but are keeping mum.

Do you have a view, dear Dame

Mrs S. Griffith

Earls Court

THE POINT OF STREET WARDENS?

Nothing infuriates the old Dame more than seeing these Street Wardens wandering purposelessly around our streets. 

They look as if they should be policing in some banana republic. Badly dressed and sloppy looking....most un-British!

They have no powers of arrest; no proper training and cost as much as a proper police constable. 

The Dame shared her view with a proper local bobby. He rolled his eyes in agreement but diplomatically said nothing.

It looks as if some entrepreneurial type has persuaded the Council that a few of his Street Wardens would shut up residents complaining about a lack of police presence on our streets.

It won't work...