While nationally Tory party asks for supporting the “One Nation movement in Britain”, Harrow East Conservative Association has selected Lakshmi Kaul as a candidate for the diverse and peaceful Queensbury ward for 2018 council election.
Apparently an Indian national, she is a fierce Indian occupied Kashmir activist, showing lack of confidence in our democratic process. How would such a character help the quality of life of the Harrow and more specifically Queensbury residents?
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.

In view of strong public feelings about the ongoing and recent Indian Army actions in the Indian held Kashmir, Commons debated and overwhelmingly passed a motion on 19 January 2017 regarding the breaches of international human rights on the Indian side of the Line of Control in Kashmir – the only two MPs who voted against the motion included Mr Blackman, well known for using emotions for votes.
Viciously criticising the democratic outcome of the Commons debate on Kashmir, led by the Conservative MP Mr David Nuttall, Lakshmi Kaul wrote  (in case this page is mysteriously removed, we kept an image): “It was a mockery of democracy especially because all the MPs representing the Pakistani and Pakistan Occupied Jammu Kashmiri population were speaking almost off a common hymn sheet”.
A good mix of Tory and Labour MPs, most of non-Pakistan background, spoke – several sensible and non divisive Indian-origin UK MPs didn’t bother to turn up for impressing Indian background voters.
She then provoked Indian nationalistic feelings by questioning: “where were these same people who claim to be proud Indians when their motherland was being insulted in the UK Parliament by utter twisting and partial representation of facts?”
Lakshmi Kaul’s article, supposedly about the Kashmir debate, is full of toxicity about Pakistan, one of our friendly allies.
For example, she said, “It is important to not forget that the fundamental reason for the situation in Kashmir is the cross-border terrorism sponsored by Pakistan” and that “As for the information of David Nutall and his colleagues, Pakistan’s support has been instrumental in spreading terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir, but also in Punjab and North-eastern Indian states through military, logistical and financial means” – this is not the government nor Tory party position.
Wonder why Lakshmi Kaul, who works as assistant to Harrow East MP Bob Blackman, could not make political progress in Brentford & Isleworth Conservatives Association from where she resigned. Could it be that they had no time for such an activist and where her boss Mr Blackman has no influence?
Harrow has many councillors and council candidates from Indian or Pakistani backgrounds but there is no history of showing divisive one-sided extreme attitudes.
We would like to believe that Harrow East Conservation Association was not fully aware of Lakshmi Kaul’s rather divisive political standing and profile at the time of her selection but now they are.
There are many recent national examples of forcefully questioning and holding the political parties responsible for the attitudes of the people they select or appoint. The Tory party has to fit within the same mould as the Labour party has been forced to shape in.

Like some other London councils, Harrow uses opportunities to raise funds by offering its premises to film-makers on a paid basis.
Scenes of the Entebbe hijack film, filmed in UK and Malta, have been shoot at the civic centre – filming in Malta is allowed after original was banned 39 years ago.
Areas across Harrow Civic Centre are being used for the major scenes for the movie under a Location Agreement which has various non-disclosure clauses to maintain confidentiality on the finances.

“The council has covered all its costs plus made considerable revenue which goes back to the general fund to help meet the overall budget challenges” chief executive office asserts.
However, this fundraising is not good enough for the Tory opposition leader who avails any opportunities to attack the administration, now through petty Internet outlets.
During the filming, some inconvenience to the civic centre users is inevitable, mostly due to the parking suspension last week, but the civic centre has been working smoothly.

Dear Mr Hunt
Surely by now you know the professionals and public outcry about the NHS crisis, including that ten-minute GP consultation standard is inadequate for patient care.
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”.
Here, we draw your attention to some basic examples of how ten-minute consultation practically and adversely affects patient care.
From what we know and understand, following is a summary of the complaints:
While it is possible to request longer consultation for complex or long-term medical problems, these appointments are very difficult to get or one has to wait much longer to get these.
GP consultation feels like a mechanical process, with one eye on the clock.
On taking patient history, some GPs are reluctant to track previous history (even where the patient history has been computerised), saying ‘it would take longer to do so’.
In the case of simple but multiple patient care needs like taking BP, evaluating higher pulse rate, side effects of the drugs to reduce BP, writing to refer for ECG, which take longer than 10 minutes, some GPs deal with some of these matters in one session and ask patent to have another appointment for the rest.
When prescribing a new drug, not enough time to explain pros and cons of the medicine or its possible side effects.
Not much time to address the psychological aspects of the biological problems, including biological and psychological aspects of ageing.
We look forward to hearing from you how you are going to address serious shortcomings in the patient care.
Regards
Dr Pravin Shah, Coordinator, Harrow Monitoring Group

Councillor Bob Currie’s bold fight against cancer came to an end – he sadly passed away on 14th January.
Bob represented Roxbourne ward on Harrow Council for almost 20 years, was Harrow mayor in 2001 and served as Portfolio Holder for Housing.
He was humble and enjoyed working with the community.
Harrow Monitoring Group has good memories of Cllr Currie’s receptiveness in Housing matters.
“Cllr Currie was passionate about everything he did and I know that a huge number of people within the Harrow community have benefited from his tireless and dedicated work. On behalf of all Council staff, we are really saddened by the loss of a great person, who did so much for the Council and made a difference to so many people’s lives. He will be sorely missed” said Harrow Council chief Michael Lockwood.

It can only be good that Harrow is intending to bid for up to £13million to become a Sport England pilot area to attract local people who don’t already do much physical activity.
Harrow has higher proportion of inactivity and performs low in required levels of physical activity (including active travel) compared to the national and London average. Areas of low activity coincide with areas of deprivation, low access to green space and those areas with high obesity levels.
1 in 3 adults in Harrow are inactive (less than 30 minutes activity per week). Two thirds of adults are obese.
Harrow council is responsible for providing sport and leisure services locally.
Guidelines for adults aged 19-64 to stay healthy include at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity such as cycling or fast walking every week, and strength exercises on two or more days a week that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).
Physical activity levels also vary by household income. In England, 76% of men in the highest income quintile reached recommended levels, compared to 55% of men in the lowest income quintile. Harrow has areas of high deprivation.
The GLA has recently published a suite of 33 bespoke guides for each London borough describing the links between health and some of the key environmental determinants including Active Travel & Transport, Air Quality and Green Spaces. The guides aim to influence local borough decisions and how budgets are decided and allocated.
“We want to ensure that our planning, transport and regeneration programmes promote and encourage active lives from the moment our residents step out of their front doors with pleasant and safe spaces for walking, cycling, exercise and social activities” said councillor Sachin Shah, leader of Harrow Council.
Research shows that interventions in the walking environment for example, can lead to higher numbers of people taking part in outdoor activities and spending time outside their homes.
Hope the leader’s good intentions are fully reflected in the council budget.

How very interesting that a complaint has been made to chief executive of Harrow Council about the conduct of last cabinet meeting and the leader of the council who was chairing it, knowing well that the chief executive has no jurisdiction over either of these matters.
Also interesting that while the call out by a resident at the meeting when the Tory opposition leader Cllr Hall (photo) was speaking has been capitalised, no similar concerns have ever been reported to the council about Cllr Hall’s disruptive behaviour at the cabinet meetings chaired by Cllr Sachin Shah (photo).
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 on its leader, whoever he might be, as indicated by the Cllr Hall’s tweets, again reported by the Harrow Times, is a very different and concerning matter.
Regarding the call out by the resident at the meeting, mature politicians have/ should have the ability to take it on the chin – you can’t just tell the member of public off for spontaneous and emotional outbursts, especially regarding sensitive matters like mental health.
It is very worrying that when elected, some councillors feel untouchable and look down at the residents.
There are many examples of harsh comments/ interruptions at some cabinet meetings where no action was ever taken against the residents for showing respect to the resident’s right to emotional expressions.

For example, during the last council, the chairing leader of the council at the time was regularly personally targeted, including inference to his spoken English.
We hope there is no build up to topple another Asian leader* of the council.

*In mid-2013, a breakaway Independent Labour Group, snatched the council administration from Labour with the support and encouragement from the Tory group leadership. Few months later, the Tory group grabbed the council administration through a highly controversial process and ousted the ILG’s Sri Lankan leader of the council. Harrow finished up with an elected-mayor style short-lived Hall administration and three different council cabinets and administrations within a short period.

While Harrow primary schools are doing well against the national benchmarks overall, there are significant variations in the performance of the schools.
The primary (key stage 2) results announced this week show big gaps. For example, 90 percent of pupils meeting the expected standard at a top school and only 28 percent at the lower end, against the 53 percent national average for all schools.
Majority of the schools are above but fourteen percent below the expected standards.
Similarly the percentage of pupils achieving at a higher standard varies between 24 and 1 percent where 18 percent are below the national average (5%).
With some variations, Harrow average of disadvantage pupils meeting the expected standard (47%) is higher than the national picture (39%).
No surprise about such variations as the narrowing the gap in the achievements – both at the pupil and school levels – has remained a big challenge for Harrow.
The well organised Harrow School Improvement Partnership (HSIP) works well to ensure that schools in Harrow have access to high quality, locally available school improvement provision but there is a limit to what they can do under the available resources – only 5 active advisers and barely adequate budget.
Further implication is the increasing government demands on the schools to do more and more with a shrinking budget.
Added to this, schools are set to lose further money from their budgets as a result of the government’s new funding formula.
Under the government’s recently announced proposals, more than 9,000 schools in England will lose funding, with money moving from London and other urban centres that have been well funded in the past to schools in areas that receive less money.
Already about one third of Harrow Primary schools are below the national income per pupil (£4,732) – sum of grant funding and self generated income.

The rift between Theresa May and Boris Johnson became obvious as Downing Street said that foreign secretary Boris Johnson was not representing the government’s views on Saudi Arabia when he recently accused the state.
Both of them have been in Harrow to support unpopular Tory group leadership that has failed in making any election gains since 2010. 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, contested by Cllr Marilyn Ashton, past chairman and a powerful officer in the Harrow East Conservatives Association.
Like in Harrow, Theresa May appears to be self imposed leader as many think this unelected prime minister is not prime minister material.
The recent prime minster and foreign secretary gap has led to interesting social media activity and has prompted questions like ‘Would a Foreign Secretary in any UK government before 2010 have gotten away with what Boris Johnson has on Saudi Arabia?’
The following tweets by someone who has campaigned for Mr Johnson indicate the distorted relationships between the prime minister and foreign secretary:

Harrow is well known for its greenery which can only be good but with the greenery comes the need to maintain good environment – for example, to keep public footpaths hazard free in leafing season when the dead leaves make walking surfaces slippery.
The Harrow council seems to be doing reasonably well in clearing leaves from the major roads but the side streets which are used more by residents and pose equal or more serious health and safety hazard are full of the leaves and need more than any scheduled clearance.
We have drawn the council attention to this concerning situation and presented a photo sample from a side street (photo: right).
It is good that the council took serious notice of our concern and the Harrow Pride team informed and cleaned the sampled street promptly (photo: left). But there are many other similar streets that require prompt action – we hope that the Council would find a slice of its shrinking budget for leaf clearance in the borough.