Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs has recently signed a letter expressing solidarity with migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, and affirming the moral and legal right for refugees to claim asylum in the UK.
The letter, signed by over 30 Labour MPs, articulates that it is often aggressive wars led by the UK and our allies that forces people to flee their homes and that this gives us a special responsibility to these people.
As expected the letter has not been signed by Harrow West Labour MP Gareth Thomas who actively supported Blair attack on Iraq that killed innocent people and damaged the country. He was also one of the  Labour MPs who voted for bombing in Syria , out of line with their then party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and  remained active in undermining Corbyn.
The letter says rather than treating these people with hostility, with threats to deploy military vessels to deter crossings, the UK should provide safe and legal routes to people seeking to claim asylum.
As usual, the government is playing ‘immigration’ card when chips are down.
Latest drive by the Conservative government is a blatant attempt to distract from their calamitous handling of Coronavirus, which is leading to economic turmoil that will devastate working people’s livelihoods, reminds the letter.
The work of the social campaign group is supported by many including the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour Councillors – the national convenor Brent councillor Jumbo Chan and a prominent  member Harrow councillor Pamela Fitzpatrick. The group believes acting as conduit for socialist values in local government.
Although the Labour ‘civil war’ under its present leadership is not that big in Harrow, the next Harrow elections would be quite interesting as many Labour voters associate the party with socialism, and could react to the in-party drive against the socialists and might not vote.

A total of £683K has been allocated to Harrow for the programme to deliver pedestrian space, low traffic neighbourhoods, strategic cycling and school streets as the government is keen to reopen the economy, despite concerning spikes of Covid19 cases in the UK (1,328 cases in Harrow).
The Mayor of London launched the London Streetspace Programme with government funding support to transform London’s streets to accommodate increases in cycling and walking as government C19 restrictions are eased.
Harrow could do with more and better physical exercise as the evidence indicates that a third of people in Harrow do very little physical activity and two thirds are overweight and both these factors increase the risk of developing diseases such as diabetes and/or cancer.
According to a Traffic and Road Safety Advisory Panel report, the Harrow programme aims to support the changes in the way the public travel during the health crisis through the measures including:
(a) To reallocate carriageway to pedestrians by suspending sections of  barriers to extend pedestrian space in 9 key locations in the borough, including Station Road, Harrow – Civic Centre, shops & Mosque, and High Road, Harrow Weald.
(b) To support the delivery of strategic cycling measures e.g. meaningful measures that reallocate road space from vehicles to cycles and provide physical segregation – primarily at Honeypot Lane, Sheepcote Road, Greenhill and Uxbridge Road Harrow Weald.
(c) Restricting the streets surrounding a school to traffic at opening and closing times except for local residents living in the street – three primary schools and one secondary school have been proposed – Grimsdyke School, Newton Farm School, Marlborough School and Park High School.
Apparently an online information and engagement portal was set up by the council in June 2020 to be a focal point for residents and businesses with regard to the Harrow Street Spaces Programme but not well publicised as usual. Very interesting that only the percentages of comments rather than the number of people participated in the  ‘Public Engagement Portal Feedback’ have been documented – therefore no way of knowing the level of public ‘engagement’!!

Harrow council has made bold and somewhat ambitious commitment to becoming an anti-racist council (council meeting 11 July) by improving how council works and cares.
Key areas of focus include learning programme for councillors and staff on race, racism and unconscious bias; the BAME (‘Black, Asian and minority ethnic’) workforce, their pay gaps, their representation at senior levels, and developmental and mentoring programmes for them.
Another key area is to review and amend council policies which particularly impact on BAME residents.
Perhaps this Labour administration stands a better chance to drive the anti-racist agenda as previous similar initiatives finished up being photo opportunities, self promotion and fizzled out, needing to start fresh in July 2020.
In a Labour administration eighteen years ago: “The London Borough of Harrow is committed to achieving equality of opportunity both as a large employer of people and as a provider of service”: Forward to London Borough of Harrow Race Equality Scheme 2002 – 2005, signed by  leader of council Archie Foulds and chief executive Joyce Markham.
To implement this, the chief executive appointed two senior officers for overall responsibility for the day-to-day management of the scheme who were to report directly to the chief executive. In addition, a ‘steering group’ was set up to oversee the process and to help co-ordinate different activities.
Nothing substantial resulted from this well defined programme. All this becomes more concerning considering that there have been two Asian leaders of the council in the past fifteen years (their experience is not a pleasant story though) and the civic centre diverse population has rapidly increased.
Without a shift in the ethos of the council and criteria of its services and provisions, effectiveness of the diverse council members and officers has not been any different than others.
Big challenge for the council has remained, how to practise ‘different needs are equally important’ in policy formation and determining the criteria for the services the council provides – first step in becoming an anti-racist council.

Harrow council video-linked meeting (11 July), resolved to welcome the decision to light Harrow Civic Centre purple in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement globally.
Labour motion for ‘commitment to fighting systemic racism’, carried despite voted against by the Tory opposition, reminded that the killing of George Floyd at the hands of American police has created a powerful global movement around the cause of tackling systemic racism in society.
The motion included series of measures needed to address racism and what the Harrow council could focus upon, including to stand united against racism, injustice and racial inequalities, recognise the contributions that all communities, races and cultures have made to Harrow in the past and will continue to make in future and to give its support to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Mentioned in the motion is that the Harrow council has a plan to tackling entrenched inequalities, which disproportionately impact people from BAME (‘Black, Asian and minority ethnic’) backgrounds! Town hall archives are full of such plans, collecting dust – hope Harrow is an exception.
Racism affects black and while people both, but differently, and it is this specific focus on the difference that is missing from the Tory group’s motion and which is too general. However, in proposing and seconding the Tory motion good example was set for their group members to see how to speak sensibly, avoiding any racist overtone! For example, to learn that a toxic reference to the Black Lives Matter movement could be taken as anti-Black.
Harrow council ex-leader Cllr Sachin Shah, highlighted the key differences between the Labour and Tory motions: (click to listen)

A special Harrow council video meeting on 7 July marked the commitment and diligent service of Alderman Keith Toms as a councillor of the London Borough of Harrow, and unanimously conferred on him the Honour of Freedom of the Borough.
“I’m greatly honoured by the Freedom of the Borough in a safest and most diverse borough where people respect others and the law” said Alderman Keith Toms.
“We have worked hard on race relations and pleasantly experience very positive communal relationships” added Mr Toms who stands for social justice and equality.

Alderman Keith Toms was first elected Harrow councillor in 1974 and served continuously until 2006 when he stood down having completed 32 years as a councillor of the London Borough of Harrow.
As a councillor, Alderman Toms served on all the major council committees and was Leader of the opposition. He was Harrow Mayor in 1996/97.
From 1998-2002 he was deputy leader of the council and in this role he presented Harrow on the Association of London Government. The Association appointed him Ambassador for London in 1998.
In July 2006 Harrow councillors unanimously voted to invest him with the title of Honorary Alderman. He has been warmly and actively performing this honourable civic duty since.

Harrow East MP Bob Blackman (photo) voted against commissioning specialist domestic abuse services for victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse.
Tory majority at the Commons voted down to add the commissioning clause to the Domestic Abuse bill on 6 July.
This new clause would have established a statutory duty on relevant public authorities to commission specialist support and services to all persons affected by domestic abuse, including refuge and community-based services; specialist services for groups with protected characteristics; services for children and young people; services for perpetrators.
The services were to include counselling and other support, advocacy services, access to welfare benefits, perpetrator programmes, financial support, legal services and helplines.
The clause was to legislate that it is the duty of relevant public authorities in England and non-devolved relevant public authorities in Wales in the exercise of their functions to commission sufficient specialist services for all persons affected by domestic abuse regardless of status.
The clause would have ensured compliance with the duty where public authorities must regularly assess population and support needs changes in their area as well as take account of any strategy to end violence against women and girls adopted by a Minister of the Crown and to co-operate to discharge the duty.

Harrow council announces marking Windrush Day today, honouring Britain’s Caribbean community.
Harrow council says, “This year we will be celebrating online. It is an important time for us to remember and value the contributions of the Windrush Generation who came to Britain to help rebuild the NHS, transport and public services following the Second World War”.
The recent political scandal about Windrush black people was the government wrongly detaining them, denying their legal rights, threatened them with deportation, and, in at least 83 cases, wrongly deported them from the UK by the Home Office.
Many of those affected had been born British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973, particularly from Caribbean countries as members of the “Windrush generation” (so named after the Empire Windrush, the ship that brought one of the first groups of West Indian migrants to the UK in 1948).
“There has never been a greater need to commemorate and celebrate the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush, the people on board and those who followed. The men and women who answered the call to help rebuild Britain did so with optimism, energy and passion” the council reminds.
This celebration comes at a time when the Black Lives Matter campaign has once again rightly highlighted racism and inequality in the society.
Harrow seems to have a mixed picture about black matters.
One Harrow MP, Bob Blackman, voted to prevent the release of secret documents about the Windrush scandal.
Harrow Labour Left organised ‘Black Lives Matter’ demonstration early this month but attracted illusive reaction seemingly from within and outside the local Labour party: far right style scaremongering on social media, organisers of the demo heavily criticised, a London assembly member seemingly asking to ban the demo and a Harrow icon Katie statue boarded by the council (however, the demo was graceful and peaceful).

In an open letter to the Labour leadership and executives, concerned socialist Labour party members in Harrow have articulated that ‘Sabotaging a General Election whilst being paid by our membership fees is not okay’.
The leaked  internal report ‘The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014 – 2019’, described as a “hyper-factional” environment among Labour party staff hostile to Jeremy Corbyn, has caused anger within the party over Labour’s handling of antisemitism cases, and led to calls for party members named in it to be suspended.
Although Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) has now appointed a panel to investigate the report, the report has not been submitted to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) as an intended  part of the material presented to the commission regarding anti-Semitism handling within the party nor any named members in the report have been suspended.
The letter, signed by 85 local socialists, asks the Labour party to move swiftly to address the genuinely concerning issues raised by the content of this report.
“We urge you to focus on the serious allegations contained within this report” they said.
They emphasise that “the evidence available from the leaked report suggests that the antisemitism investigations appear to have been mismanaged deliberately. Because of this practice, the integrity and reputation of the Party, including and especially that of Jeremy Corbyn, have been called into question and reputations grossly and manifestly unfairly tarnished”.
They demand that the report is submitted to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) as part of its investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party, and that all persons against whom there is prima facie evidence of misconduct are suspended with immediate effect, pending further investigation.

UPDATE: Following our provocative article below, Cllr Graham Henson, leader of the Harrow council has now said:
“I wanted to take this opportunity to reassure parents that our biggest priority is the safety of our residents – and that includes school children. With the government’s announcement to re-open schools, it is natural that parents will have a level of anxiety and worry.
“We have made it clear to schools that we expect them to open when they are ready and feel that it is safe to do so, and they have my full support. Their preparations to increase the number of pupils attending will be based on a thorough assessment and to a timetable that they will judge is safe for our pupils”.

---

At the time of closing schools in March due to C19 risks, Harrow council said it is doing so in the interest of  the health and well-being (“We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused, but hope you will understand that health & well-being is our priority”), but it is now silent about the government obsession to reopen schools on 1 June, endangering  health and well-being of the school population/parents and carers.
Eighteen English  councils and as many as 1,500 primary schools could defy government recommendations as local bodies query the decision to loosen lockdown measures for primary schools during the coronavirus epidemic which has resulted in at least 35,341 deaths  in the UK so far (527 known cases of coronavirus in Harrow out of a local population of 250,149 – a rate of 2107 cases per million – the 13th highest rate in England).
The government has come under increasing pressure over the decision with teachers, parents, unions and councils questioning the reopening date.
Nearly 29,000 members of the teachers union NASUWT across England, found that around nine in 10 teachers believe that social distancing will be impossible, or will present major issues and a similar proportion are not confident that the proposed measures will protect their health or the health of pupils.
In a letter to the Education Secretary, Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, said the union remains “unconvinced” that wider reopening of schools from June 1 is “appropriate or practicable”.
Hope Harrow council would be able to issue a statement about reopening schools next month, keeping in view serious concerns by teachers, parents and carers.