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

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