Another crushing defeat for Tory opposition!

As expected, the Labour candidate Maxine Henson very comfortably won the Roxbourne Ward by-election held on 9 March 2017,  due to the sad death of Cllr Bob Currie.
Labour’s share of votes at the ward (62.8%) has improved and remains much higher than Tories who have been facing  crushing defeats under Cllr Hall’s leadership – previously lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 and two by-elections in between.
At 21.5% now, the Tory share of votes is lowest since 2002.
Cllr Hall now leads a highly divided group as 42.31% members of her group did not vote for her at the last leadership election (leadership challenge is imminent this year).
People rightly say that the Tory opposition group under its politically immature leadership can’t be taken seriously, for example they failed to present a shadow budget at the last Council meeting to enrich the financial decision making – they owed this to the residents…. read more by clicking here
Added to this is Cllr Hall’s concerning conduct at the council meetings and childish social media encounters.
Many believe that the pattern of Tory defeats would continue at the Kenton East by-election for Roxisimilar reasons.

Such is the state of comic that on the polling day campaign, the Tory candidate team tweeted a photo taken at Lynton Road which in Rayners Lane and not in Roxbourne ward!

Tories all set to lose another Harrow by-election, many say!

Seemingly the Labour candidate Maxine Henson is all set to comfortably win the Roxbourne Ward by-election on 9 March 2017, called due to the sad death of Cllr Bob Currie.
Labour’s share of votes at the ward was 31% higher than Tories at the last council election.
Added to this, Tories have been consistently facing defeats under Cllr Hall’s leadership – lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 and two by-elections in between.
Cllr Hall now leads a highly divided group as 42.31% members of her group did not vote for her at the last leadership election.
People rightly say that the Tory opposition group under its politically immature leadership can’t be taken seriously, for example they failed to present a shadow budget at the last Council meeting to enrich the financial decision making – they owed this to the residents…. read more by clicking here
Many believe that the pattern of Tory defeats would continue at the Kenton East by-election for similar reasons.

Keep Our NHS Public

National NHS demonstration: ‘Keep Our NHS Public’ – ‘Our NHS is not for sale’.
Demo on 4 March 2017 was called by Health Campaigns Together & the People’s Assembly.
Over 250, 000 people marched from Tavistock Square to Parliament Square. Support by many in Harrow.
Jeremy Corbyn and his speech very warmly received.

Click the play button to play!

Poets’ Corner!

poets-coner2
Harrow Council is consulting about the redevelopment, called Poet’s Corner, at the present site of the civic centre when it moves to Wealdstone.
Harrow stands on the brink of its biggest regeneration opportunity in decades, led by the chief executive, and needs wider support to deliver the programme in a borough that has diverse population and different but equally important social, cultural and religious aspirations.
The project, developed in a minimum of two phases, aims to provide between 800 and 900 new homes along with a community facility, which is likely to be a school, workspace, retail and public realm. Most new development is expected to be between six and eight storeys high.
The ‘Heart of Harrow’ area, comprising Harrow town centre where Station Road is located, was granted housing zone status by the London Mayor in 2015, meaning it will benefit from a share of a £31.5 million fund from the Greater London Authority to support the development of new homes.
The council’s planning policies require that 40% of the new homes be allocated as affordable.

Cllr Mitzi Green passed away

We share the sad news  – Councillor Mitzi Green passed away yesterday after a period of illness.
Cllr Green was a Harrow councillor (Lab) for almost twenty years and recently a Kenton East  councillor since 2006. She held several positions at the Council, including the Children’s Services portfolio.
mg2Cllr Green was friendly and passionate about the children and young people in the council’s care.
We have some good memories of Cllr Green’s receptiveness in children’s services matters.
Life goes on, and soon Kenton East by-election will be called. Following are the likely candidates from the main political parties:
Nish Patel, chairman Harrow East constituency Labour party
Nitesh Hirani, a member of the Conservative action team for Kenton East

Harrow needs healthy opposition

The Tory opposition leader  tweeted “Labour’s inability to control the budget will cause many problems for our residents in Harrow”, but she failed to present a shadow budget at the Council meeting last Thursday to enrich the financial decision making – the opposition owed this to the residents.
Budget-making is a key function of the council where the opposition can play a positive role by suggesting budget alternatives.
But then the opposition Tory group, enjoying over £250,000 public money in allowances per year, is very weak under Cllr Hall’s punch & judy style leadership.
For example, the Harrow Times reported on 14 Oct 2016, “Cllr Hall continued to ask questions, despite being told her allocated time was up. She held up a megaphone created from a blue piece of paper, which she had made before the meeting, and said to Cllr Shah: I’m tired of you turning my microphone off.”
Criticising the administration is one thing but hateful personal attacks as indicated by the Cllr Hall’s tweets  about Cllr Sachin Shah taking his shoes off at a cabinet meeting and the way he was sitting, again reported by the Harrow Times, is a very different and concerning matter.
What is also concerning is that Cllr Hall appears to have no confidence in or respect* for the chief executive since his return to the post   that was ‘unilaterally and wrongly’ deleted by her short-lived fluke administration , forcing the chief executive Michael Lockwood to go.
*(hopefully some Retweets, seemingly by her, of the Childish impersonation of Michael Lockwood by @MikeJLockwood are still at @Councillorsuzie (e.g. her retweets of 18/1/17 & 16/2/17) – warning: in a hit & run action, some tweets and retweets are often deleted – we try to image these).
SH D3Therefore, no surprise that the Tory group members wish to use their voice to make an impact and aim for change of direction to unite and demonstrate strength to voters (Tory group lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 as well as two by-elections in between, under Cllr Hall’s leadership).
Cllr Hall now leads a highly divided group where 42.31% members of her group did not vote for her at the recent leadership election (the leadership challenge is likely to be more successful this time – for example, the potential challenger from Harrow East is taking active part in the forthcoming Roxbourne by-election in Harrow West).

GPs free to organise their work – says Hunt!

drsBased on Harrow experiences, the Harrow Monitoring Group in an open letter to the health secretary Jeremy Hunt asked:
In view of your various and rather confusing statements about the GP work, we are not quite sure what exactly you expect the GPs to do, but focussing on the 10-minute appointment slot, the NHS Choices website does state that “GPs spend an average of 8-10 minutes with each patient” and advises patients to “plan ahead to make sure you cover everything you want to discuss”.
His reply of 16 February 2017 11:55 to us, informs, “as self-employed contractors to the NHS to provide primary medical services, it is largely up to GP practices how they run their surgeries” – almost declaring GP independence!
The NHS England that commissions primary care services had previously said, “How long to allocate to individual patient appointments is at the discretion of individual GP practices, based on patient need, and there are no national limits suggesting 10 minutes should be the norm”.
If what these good people are saying is true, then the government needs not to interfere in the work of the GPs, and the GPs should not be mindful of the clock ticking when attending to the patients.

Would Tories be punished again at a Harrow by-election?

Seemingly Labour candidate Maxine Henson is all set to comfortably win at the Roxbourne Ward by-election, called due to the sad death of Cllr Bob Currie.
Labour’s share of votes at the ward was 31% higher than Tories at the last council election.
Added to this, Tories have been consistently facing defeats under Cllr Hall’s leadership – lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 and two by-elections in between.
Cllr Hall now leads a highly divided group as 42.31% members of her group did not vote for her at the recent leadership election.
Furthermore, the Tories keep selecting ‘divisive’ candidates in a harmonious and peaceful Harrow.
Harrow East MP Bob Blackman is well known for stirring up emotions for votes by taking sides in Asian or Middle East conflicts. Similarly, he shows no respect to strong British feelings against Trump ideology (see the footage below), as indicated by his collusive letter.
Not only this, but the Tories have also selected Mr Blackman’s equally ‘divisive’ assistant for the Queensbury ward.
(Click the play button to play the video, fullscreen by clicking the fullscreen button – bottom right – last )

Sad ending of a seat of learning!

(Click the play button to play the video, fullscreen play by clicking the fullscreen button – bottom right – last )

Buckingham College in Hindes Road, Harrow, moved to this prime location in 1937. The independent school, dramatically closed last year, served pupils well – like 79 per cent A* to C grades in GCSE.
Demolition is in progress to provide multi-storey retirement living units.

Thai Pongal 2017

Thai Pongal is a harvest festival, equivalent to Thanksgiving, held every year on the first day of the Tamil month.
The event on 5 February 2017, organised by Harrow Tamil Community Association included cultural performances and refreshments.