Harrow Asian community leaders deplore community exploitation. India-Kashmir politics has no place in Harrow. Proud of good communal relationships.
Context: Bob Blackman, Tory MP for Harrow East, was elected to represent all his constituents on equal footing but he takes sides with the disputed situations between India & Pakistan, like Kashmir, claiming that he speaks on behalf of his “Gujarati”/ “Hindu” constituents.
We sampled this Asian community’s interest in such outside of UK situations.
(Click the play button to play – fullscreen by clicking the fullscreen button – bottom right – last)

Harrow council’s Roxborough Park care home for eight people with autistic spectrum disorder and learning disabilities has been rated “good” by Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The CQC inspects and regulates care and medical services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety.
This care home in the Greenhill ward was inspected by CQC in February this year.
The inspection report published on 27 March 20127 says that the care home staff demonstrated a genuine caring attitude towards people and ensured their dignity and privacy.
Risks to people who used the service were assessed and robust risk management plans ensured a consistent approach from all staff involved in peoples care, the report acknowledges.
The reports informs that the quality of care was reviewed and monitored frequently to ensure that the quality of care was not compromised.
The inspection positively noted that the service did not receive any complaints since last inspection in February 2015.
A Greenhill councillor who has visited the care home is very pleased with the inspection judgement: “on my visit I was really impressed by the caring and thoughtful attitude of the staff.  So I’m delighted with the CQC inspection rating” said Cllr Sue Anderson.

In view of the forthcoming new rules restricting MPs from employing spouses or relatives, Stephen Nolan from BBC radio5alive interviewed Harrow East MP Bob Blackman about employing his wife to run his office having never faced an interview.
Mr Blackman badly waffled throughout the interview, including in answering the following questions:

“You have been handed public money and you are a closed shop for that one position?”
“You are saying that there is no one better than your wife in whole country” for the job?
Regarding his wife’s salary between £35-45 thousands, “who decides whether she is worth £35, 000 or £45,000 – her husband?”
Concluding remark: “Public taxes are paying for your wife and husband decides whether she is worth £35,000 or ££45,000?”

Mr Blackman hopelessly argued that he was advised to employ “whoever you choose” and that they don’t care about equal opportunities.
Regarding employing his ‘staff’, there are also concerns about his controversial assistant who appeared from nowhere and has seemingly overtaken his wife in politics.
On the financial front, media, including the Mirror, reported that Harrow East Tory MP Bob Blackman was ordered to repay more than £1,000 in wrongly-claimed mileage expenses.
All this, along with an ineffective Tory opposition group on the council, does not give a positive picture of Tory politics in Harrow.

Following the crushing defeat at the Roxbourne by-election few weeks back, Tories are desperate to show improvement at the Kenton East by-election.
A fake news is circulating in India and brought to Harrow through tweets etc that an early day Commons motion sponsored by the Harrow East MP Bob Blackman (the only signatory) supporting India and condemning Pakistan regarding the Kashmir region, has been debated and passed by the Commons, even creating a visual illusion of a Commons debate  where Theresa May viciously speaking for the motion (no sound)!!
The motion has never been moved, debated or resolved nor this is likely to happen.
Bob Blackman has not issued any correcting statements to Indian press despite that his assistant, an Indian controlled Kashmir activist and a Queensbury ward candidate who claims to have an Indian journalist background, is well connected with the Indian news outlets.
Not only this, but Bob Blackman has been colluding with the fake news based tweets from India, most probably by the friends of his assistant, by retweeting these without any mention that the news has been faked.
The plot
March, 22: Bob Blackman reported his meeting with the Indian high commissioner in London.
March, 23: Bob Blackman signs the early day Commons  motion re ‘annexation of Gilgit-Baltistan by Pakistan’ in a show of support for India, most probably to influence the outcome of the Kenton East by-election.
March, 25: the fake news was pumped to India and was reported as “A motion was passed in the British Parliament condemning Islamabad’s announcement declaring Gilgit-Baltistan as its fifth frontier, saying the region is a legal and constitutional part of Jammu and Kashmir”.
To prove his decency and integrity, Bob Blackman must publically condemn the fake news revolving around him and implicating not only the Commons but also the prime minister.

At the time when serious efforts are being made to enhance national unity, Harrow East Conservative Association nurtured Bob Blackman MP (Con), who has seemingly calculated his votes, continues to play divisive game, this time most probably to influence the outcome of the Kenton East by-election in Harrow East.
He tabled an Early Day Motion (1107) on 23 March 2017, condemning Pakistan about Gilgit-Baltistan as its Fifth Frontier, asserting that the area is part of the Indian controlled Jammu and Kashmir.
Kashmir is a legacy of the British Empire and a long standing divide line between India and Pakistan relationships, needing a harmonious and sensitive approach by the global community to resolve the matter.
The motion signed only by Mr Blackman has not been debated nor it is likely to be discussed as very few EDMs are actually debated or have any legislative effects.
But an Indian electronic media (India Today)* carried a fake news on March 25, 2017 that the British Parliament has declared Gilgit-Baltistan belongs to India and it called the construction of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as illegal.
No surprise about such a mischievous and false news or the resulting  misleading celebratory tweets from India, but what is most concerning is that Mr Blackman has retweeted many of these (example) rather than condemning the false reporting.
Mr Blackman’s visits to India and Indian high commissioner in London have dramatically increased since he found his assistant Lakshmi Kaul who is an Indian-held Kashmir activist with her own agenda – *she is no stranger to India Today either.
Previously Mr Blackman has actively sided with the negativities associated with Brexit campaign and the last London Mayor election.
He is also well known to give a sense of stirring up emotions for votes by taking side with international situations like India-Pakistan tension.  No one recalls such underhand practices by any previous Harrow MPs.
Harrow is  proud of its good communal relationships and would like to keep it this way, for example by leaving India and Pakistan situations at the appropriate international level rather than bringing it to Harrow by any political groups and stirring up emotions for political gains.

In a sudden move, Harrow Council has announced the closure of the school in Latimer Gardens, Pinner for health and safety reasons.
The geotechnical surveys found an unacceptable risk that the ground beneath the school buildings and playgrounds could become unstable and unsafe, due to the condition of very recently discovered chalk mine tunnels below.
During the summer holidays of 2015, a 3 metres wide and 1 metre deep hole unexpectedly opened up in the tarmac of the staff car park.
The Council and school made the area safe and commissioned specialist professionals to analyse the causes of the hole. They determined that the hole was situated on top of an old, disused shaft. The material used historically to backfill that shaft, they concluded, had only been loosely compacted and had subsided – creating a hole.
The school’s 596 children between the ages of 3 and 11 will be relocated to other educational settings in Harrow in time for pupils’ schooling to resume at the start of the Summer Term.
Council  hopes that they will be able to stabilise the ground and return the site to a safe condition but they have warned that “It may, however, be the case that it is not economically feasible to restore the ground and that the school may never reopen in its current form on its current site”.