Many Tory MPs and councillors have been reported  as members of the Conservative Debating Forum, now changed to the Conservative Politics Forum.
The exposed Facebook group contained Islamophobic, homophobic and racist comments about some public figures like Sadiq Khan, Diane Abbott and anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller.
Comments, part of the evidence collected by Red Roar blog, include demands to “expel the London mayor”, “send back” immigrants, that “Islam should be banned” and homophobic remarks about Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, posted after she announced that she was pregnant.
High profile Tory MPs such as the Tory leadership hopeful Jacob Rees-Mogg, as well as the Conservative Chair for Youth Ben Bradley were both among the ten Tory MPs reportedly found to be members of the openly racist Conservative Debating Forum group, informs the report.
On a local level, Cllr Paul Osborn, leader of the opposition Tory group on the council, is included in the list of the councillors named in the forum where it was possible to join by invitation or by permission of moderators.
In assuring his passion for the Harrow diversity, Cllr Osborn told us: “It was not a group I chose to join or a group of which I was aware of any of its content. Facebook allows people to be added to groups without their consent and lots of people have signed me up to lots of different groups. I have now gone through and left most of them”.
“I abhor the comments reported to have been made within that Facebook group. I totally and completely reject and condemn the comments at the Facebook Group” he said.
Perhaps Cllr Osborn’s honest rejection of far right elements could be followed by the Harrow East divisive Tory MP Bob Blackman who seems to be in a habit of endorsing far right extremists.

There have been complaints regarding the new red seats installed on the bus stops, like the one in front of the civic centre or further down the Station Road.

“The new bus stop seats are too high and too back that you can’t sit on them, especially old ladies who are not tall enough.  Even if we try to sit with our feet hanging, the benches are fixed in such a way that our back touches the back of the bus stop shade, we cannot sit properly on them as we slide back” explained one female complainant.
“The old bus stop with proper seats was much better, like the bus stop in front of Super Drug in Harrow with lower seats which are fixed in such a way that we can sit on them comfortably” she said.
We took up the issue with Valerie Shawcross, the then deputy mayor for transport, and have now heard from the Traffic for London.
“Unfortunately there is no longer a design available similar to the one in question that used to be featured in our older designs.  Our shelter seats are now manufactured and pre-attached at factory source according to a predetermined height and as per the initial design specification” said Carl Eddleston, TfL head of asset operations.
“We agree that the older versions may have been more comfortable but we are confident that the frequency of buses has now improved greatly throughout London so sitting on a seat in a bus shelter is down to a minimum unless there are delays due to unforeseen circumstances”  Carl Eddleston added.
Bit difficult to follow the logic –  less waiting for the buses means  designing less comfortable shelter seats?

An interesting difference between the previous Tory group leader (Cllr Hall) and the present leader (Cllr Osborn) is that he recognises ‘compromise’ being a key quality of good leadership.
Therefore, the allocation of shadow responsibilities for the council work reflects good compromise – rewarding those who elected the leader and keeping those under wing who could rebel.
While such strategic appointments might help in running the group, there is another aspect which is more important. Both the council administration and opposition need to work together, pooling abilities and resources, for providing effective and better council services to the residents. In this context, there seem to be some anomalies in shadow positions. For example:
Council finances are quite complex and challenging but the councillor with finance expertise (Cllr Bharat Thakker) has been placed at the planning committee instead of giving him shadow finance portfolio.
Another challenging area of the council work is the planning, a dynamic process that is constantly evolving in response to changes within the community and which involves both control of existing and new development. Harrow has to strike good balance between meeting the housing demands of local community and preserving Harrow characteristics like 29 conservation areas, each having special interest derived from its architectural, townscape or landscape qualities.
Very unfortunate that the Tory planning expert  (Cllr Ashton) who held the planning portfolio in pre 2010 Tory administration and who masterminded  Harrow’s Core Strategy*, has been kept away from the planning since her comeback to the council in 2011 by-election because of the internal situations within the Tory group.
Some other shadow responsibilities like performance or safety make no real sense.
[*it includes land use policies that form the legal basis for deciding planning applications, allocating land and encouraging investment; also it specifies how much development will happen in the borough and where, when, and how it will take place].

Harrow East MP Bob Blackman (photo) is in the news again for his divisive politics – he is in a habit of ‘do first, apologise later’!
The Sky News reminds that  last October, Mr Blackman hosted a parliamentary event attended by Tapan Ghosh, a Hindu nationalist who describes himself as “determined to fight against Islamic aggression and expansion” – Mr Blackman said he was unaware of Mr Ghosh’s past comments.
In March, Mr Blackman expressed “regret” after being exposed for sharing a Facebook post from an anti-Muslim US website – he previously shared a Twitter post by disgraced Tommy Robinson “in error”.
This week he was revealed to have been a member of a number of far-right Facebook groups – he refuted this saying he was added to Facebook groups without his knowledge or permission.
Even the Harrow council has condemned Mr Blackman interactions with far right.
Some leading Tories have been raising concerns, including Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, that there is a “simmering underbelly” of Islamophobia in the party.
The Tory party chairman Mr Lewis has launched a code of conduct for MPs and local election candidates and encouraged members to email him if they hear of bigotry but Mr Blackman, seemingly endorsing Islamophobia, remains an MP!
All this could be quite embarrassing for the Harrow council opposition group, particularly the incidents like Harrow on the Hill residents hatefully throwing away Tory leaflets last council election mentioning Mr Blackman (Tories lost all seats held in the ward, including that held by the then deputy leader of the opposition group).

Harrow’s Headstone Manor is one of six projects in London to be awarded funding for green space improvements – as part of the Mayor of London’s push to make London the world’s first National Park City.
£300,000 will introduce new and attractive wetlands at the historic grounds, which will also help preserve a 14th century moat. There’ll be new ponds, improved water quality, better and protected river networks and increased biodiversity.
The awards were made as part of the Mayor’s Greener City Fund and go towards funding the upcoming major improvements planned for Harrow’s Headstone Manor Park. This will include the construction of new ponds, reeds beds, and wetlands to help preserve a 14th century moat; improve water quality and increase biodiversity. In addition there will be works to improve public access; new playground facilities along with employment and volunteering opportunities.
“For too many Londoners, nature simply doesn’t feature in their daily lives. That’s why we’re aiming to become a National Park City, with more than half of our capital green. Today’s funding will draw even more people into our outstanding parks by making green spaces more attractive and better for the environment” said the London mayor Sadiq Khan.

UPDATE: good news:  James Walters, deputy chief operating officer at London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, has assured us that the reception facility at The Wealdstone Centre will not be now closing.
He said that the Trust will continue to fund a receptionist until July when the responsibility for providing the 0-19 services that they currently provide at the Wealdstone Centre is transferred to CNWL.
“Interim cover has been agreed with the CCG, until they resolve longer term arrangements.  Our priority remains overseeing a smooth transfer with the minimum of disruption to patients” assures  Mr Walters.

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We hear concerns that the check-in for the NHS services at the centre would be closing next month which would not only lose the first point of contact for the services but also the vigil about who accesses the services, mostly offered in isolated rooms.
The check-in has a waiting area, holds the appointment list, deals with patient enquiries and directs them to the right rooms.
The NHS services offered at the centre include the diabetic eye screening, other screenings, GP requested blood test as well as health advice and support.
As far as we gather, the rooms providing these services, mostly by a single member of the staff,  have no means, like a  panic button, to raise an emergency alarm. This raises a question about the safety of the staff which becomes more significant once the central check-in is lost.
The centre is in High Street Wealdstone, the Harrow area which often hits headlines about violent crimes.
We have raised these matters with James Walters, deputy chief operating officer at London North West Healthcare NHS Trust – watch this space for his response.
It might be appropriate for the Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to chip in and provide much needed NHS front desk at the Wealdstone Centre, once the existing one is gone. We would like to hear from the HCCG as well.

At the annual council meeting on 24 May 2018, the Labour group running the council has announced the cabinet, cutting down one portfolio but retaining most of the previous portfolio holders.
Particularly good to see former mayor Councillor Krishna Suresh joining the cabinet to lead Community Cohesion & Crime.
Krishna Suresh under his stage name of “London Baba”, is an internationally known Tamil film actor and is well known for his passion for the community.
At the committee level a social justice practitioner Councillor Jeff Anderson got the chairmanship of very important Overview and Scrutiny Committee, internal watchdog for the council work.
Jeff Anderson is committed to social justice and challenges unjust situations.
One of his famous tweet said:
“Anyone who has read the Tories pledges in Harrow will recognise the arrogance and the pretence that Harrow is somehow immune from the effects of austerity”.
Regarding the opposition, it would be interesting to find out their shadow team but it looks that they don’t take their council role seriously – for example, yet again they have bypassed their planning expert (Cllr Ashton) and have given two planning committee positions to the councillors with no known sense of planning.
Considering the Harrow characteristic and the housing situation, planning in Harrow is a matter of great importance to the residents, requiring both the administration and opposition to share planning knowledge and experience where available for best outcome.

Despite the minister for women and equalities Penny Mordaunt previously agreeing to meet Harrow East MP Bob Blackman regarding the caste discrimination legislation, he still asked her to meet about the same at the Commons debate (Protected Characteristics: Caste – 17 May 2018) to propagate his divisive marker.
The parliamentary debate has led to a statutory requirement to include caste in the Equality Act itself as a separate aspect of race – Labour supported in 2013 for laws to outlaw caste discrimination – in 2013 a clause against caste discrimination was inserted into the Equality Act 2010.
The Tory government, seemingly under pressure from its UK financial supporters likely to be caught exercising ‘caste’ discrimination in employment, announced in 2016 that it would consult on the pending enactment of the clause on caste discrimination in the Equality Act 2010.
Mr Blackman (photo), well known and condemned for his divisive politics, has ‘championed’ caste being removed as a protected characteristic from the legislation, dismissing the caste system in the UK that gives rise to discriminatory practices in socio-religious and employment situations, as indicated by some court cases (i.e. upper class employers treating lower class ‘jatis’ less favourably).
[According to the Explanatory note to Equality Act 2010, the Caste in the Indian context can encompass the four classes (varnas) of Hindu tradition (the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra communities); the thousands of regional Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Muslim or other religious groups known as jatis – some jatis regarded as below the varna hierarchy (once termed “untouchable”) are known as “Dalits.”]
Referring to 2015 Harrow East Tory campaign, fortnightly columnist at Hindustan Times Sunny Hundal‏ tweeted, “This is astonishing. Tory MP in London playing Hindu divide-and-rule caste politics with leaflets for Hindus. Nasty”.
Commenting on the Bob Blackman’s divisive campaign, London assembly member and 2017  parliamentary candidate for Harrow East Navin Shah said, “The general election also saw the same old issues like Kashmiri Pundits and caste legislation dragged out for the Tory propaganda to find cheap favours amongst Indian / Hindu voters”.
Also read Blackman not supported!

Councillor Graham Henson (photo) will be confirmed the new council leader at the next council meeting.
As a member of the cabinet, Cllr Henson has held the portfolio for Environment which includes streets, parks, other green areas and waste collection.
In the Labour group leadership contest last night, Mr Henson, Roxbourne ward councillor since 2006, won by 9 votes (22/13), defeating Cllr Sachin Shah, the group leader for the past two years.
Labour in Harrow have done very well at the council election 2018 and have increased their majority.
Cllr Henson is well known for working closely with the officers and supporting them. It is eminent that the acting chief executive post would be substantial soon.
Cllr Henson’s ex-councillor colleague Bill Phillips describes him as:
Note: Bill Phillips is not HAD chair now as they rotate their Chair.

Hearing public concerns, the Harrow Monitoring Group sought London Mayor’s help in having a bus shelter at the South Harrow bound Baptist Church bus stop in High Street Wealdstone.
The bus stop is widely used by elderly, more so by those who go to the nearby church or the Mosque, but it has no shelter nor there is any other shelters like a shop canopy in the vicinity of the bus stop.
Exposure to rain, while waiting for a bus, is a particular health risk for the elderly and much more serious in winter/snow.
Valerie Shawcross, Deputy Mayor for Transport, has acknowledged that “TfL’s assessment shows that this is indeed a good example of a bus stop where a shelter could be installed”.
But she said “TfL does not currently have budget to accommodate requests for additional bus shelters. TfL has also spoken to London Borough of Harrow, who have advised that unfortunately they too do not have the budget to install a shelter at this time”.
Ms Shawcross informs that Transport for London (TfL) is operating in a very challenging financial environment at present. London’s population has grown considerably faster than that of the rest of the UK, while Government grant funding for the cost of operating London’s transport network has reduced significantly, with TfL losing an average of £700m of Government funding each year.
London assembly member for Brent and Harrow Navin Shah has been interested in the shelter – we wonder if the Harrow East MP Bob Blackman would also be interested in this issue in Wealdstone, the ward that he does not target for votes!