Addendum: After her almost daily statements regarding Muslim ‘radicalism’/ ‘extremism’, symptomatic of Islamofobia, now the Home Secretary, PM-hopeful, publicises that attacks on Muslims will become specific hate crime!
Back in Harrow, some Harrow MP candidates are trying to impress certain faith groups in a variety of ways, for example:

Bob Blackman, struggling for Harrow East
In calculating his votes, Mr Blackman has sought endorsements from interesting Hindu priest Parmar and Jewish Rabbi Lew, in his recent leaflet.
Soon after demonstrating his anti Gaza position and the subsequent backlash, Mr Blackman showed similar one-sided attitudes towards Kashmir.
Israel: “I voted against the state of Palestine”.*
Jammu & Kashmir: “The Hindu Pandits were forced out in a process of ethnic cleansing … I stand as an unabashed friend of India to defend India’s position in the conflict”.
Uma Kumaran, Harrow East
Israel: “Settlements are wrong and illegal … I am proud to be for a Palestinian state”.*
Islamophobia: “I am committed to review legislation to ensure racial and religious hatred are on an equal footing”.*
Education: “I support faith schools in Stanmore”.*
Gareth Thomas, Harrow West
Palestine: “I believe that Palestinian statehood is not a gift to be given but a right to be recognised”.
Israel: Mr Thomas managed to have a sort of acknowledgement by the Jewish Chronicle, “Mr Thomas, Labour’s Shadow Middle East Minister, says he is well aware of the concerns of Jewish voters in the area”.
What we need are the MPs who are not divisive or extremists and don’t stir up residents emotions but could really represent the welfare and interests of all their constituents in a most balanced way!

* leaflet from a muslim forum of Middlesex, distributed at the mosques

It would be naive to expect reasonable political honesty before the fast approaching general election. However, there are limits to what Harrow MP candidates could wrongly assert or claim.

In his electronic newsletter, Harrow East Tory MP candidate Mr Blackman implies that any funding coming to Harrow projects from the government’s pre-allocated funds for hospitals and schools is somehow his doing as an MP. While Hannah David, his fellow Tory candidate for Harrow West, tries to impress by her apparent support from the visiting prime minister and London mayor through her recent glossy ‘My Plan’ leaflet.
Also, Ms David wrongly claims that Wealdstone has been re-designated as an Opportunity Area in the revised London Plan because of her lobbying! Wealdstone, a most deprived ward in Harrow East constituency that was first designated as an Intensification Area well before 2010 when Ms David was nowhere near Harrow, meets the criteria for re-designation anyway.
Both have failed to focus on some of the key local concerns, including:

• the Tory made cost of living crisis where bills are rising faster than wages e.g. residents squeezed by soaring energy bills
• just under half (48.9%) of jobs in Harrow West alone pay less than the London Living Wage
• the level of cuts already seen to the police, with 109 uniformed police lost in Harrow since April 2010
• Harrow health profile
• more GP practices in Harrow are in the Care Quality Commission high risk bands than in the neighbouring boroughs
• following the closures of the nearby A&E departments, the pressure on the A&E department at Northwick Park Hospital has been alarmingly increasing

Some never learn!

Like they did before the last council election, Tory big guns are dropping in Harrow, this time to support their MP candidates, despite that such visits have not been fruitful as the Tory support has been declining due to the attitudes of the Tory group on the Harrow council.
Prime Minister David Cameron visited Harrow last week and criticised Harrow council budgeting. Today, leader of the Commons William Hague, a former foreign secretary, visited North Harrow where Independents have been defeating sitting Tory councillors.
The Home Secretary Theresa May visited Rayners Lane (Harrow) before the last council election to support a remaining Tory councillor in the ward who then lost her council seat.
Similarly David Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osborne visited Harrow before the council election to support their wobbly leader of the Harrow council who was accidently voted in by the breakaway and collusive Independent Labour Group (ILG) in a highly controversial move in September 2013.
But Cllr Hall could only lead her Conservative group to another miserable defeat, setting a pattern of defeats (Councils in 2010 & 2014 – five sitting Tory councillors were defeated – and 2 by-elections in 2013).
Background of Cllr Hall’s short-lived council administration

While we are trying to understand the quality of transparency in the organisational and outsourcing work of the NHS and its agencies, and waiting response to our previous findings/questions*, following is a further puzzle:
As Alexandra Avenue clinic in Harrow is bleeding in the sense that Harrow has committed huge sum (nearly a million pounds a year?) of rent and there is plenty of vacant space at Alex, why Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) rents private space at Pinn Medical Centre (Pinner) whose senior partner is the current chair of Harrow CCG?
On 30 January 2015 we were alerted about and we reported on the closure of the Wasu Medical Centre in Rayners Lane to the public as soon as seizure of the premises by official receiver was announced.
Probably NHSE knew that there is a problem brewing at the practice for sometime but they left the things to the last minute. Their chaotic action to direct patients to certain clinics has caused unhappiness in the South Harrow cluster GPs and patients -– this is concerning.

We glean bitterness and concerns amongst local patients and some GPs about very poor communication with them and the way patients of the Wasu practice have been managed and directed to certain surgeries.

We would like the NHS England (NHSE), Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Care Quality Commission (CQC) to come clean and explain:

Previously we have raised concerns regarding the following Harrow specific NHS matters:

Good that popular Harrow council chief executive Michael Lockwood, forced out by the short-lived Cllr Hall administration, is back today, but of course bad for the opposition leader Ms Hall who now has to work with the same Mr Lockwood.

Not only this embarrassment but also another defeat for the opposition leader who has been repeatedly leading her Conservative group to defeats (Councils in 2010 & 2014 – five sitting Tory councillors were defeated – and 2 by-elections in 2013).
Councillor Hall’s elected-mayor style Tory administration, grabbed through a highly controversial process, was marked by the resignation of the chief executive, followed by some key directors leaving – seemingly Hall-style administration was not possible with a strong chief executive in place.
Background

On 30 January 2015 we were alerted about and we reported on the closure of the Wasu Medical Centre in Rayners Lane to the public as soon as seizure of the premises by official receiver was announced.
Probably NHSE knew that there is a problem brewing at the practice for sometime but they left the things to the last minute. Their chaotic action to direct patients to certain clinics has caused unhappiness in the South Harrow cluster GPs and patients – this is concerning.

We glean bitterness and concerns amongst local patients and some GPs about very poor communication with them and the way patients of the Wasu practice have been managed and directed to certain surgeries.

We would like the NHS England (NHSE), Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Care Quality Commission (CQC) to come clean and explain:

Previously we have raised concerns regarding the following Harrow specific NHS matters:

We have been sent the following snap shot of the notice regarding a GP surgery and have heard concerns about the NHS follow up actions!
We don’t know the full circumstances of this GP practice but Dr Paramjit Wasu surgery was in a lowest risk band (Band 6) as recently assessed by the Care Quality Commission and it enjoyed £311,364 total funding, including £22,617 cost for the premises.

Seemingly NHSE has agreed for the WASU Medical Centre patients to be seen at the Ridgway surgery – we don’t know who contacted who for this arrangement but have become aware of the concerns about the inadequacy of information to the practices, including the surrounding practices.

None of the Harrow schools are within the top 100 schools in England with the best results at GCSE, according to the recent release of the school league tables.
All or the vast majority of their pupils attained the benchmark of five A*-C grades in GCSEs or equivalent qualifications, including maths and English GCSEs.
These top 100 schools include schools in Barnet, Enfield and Redbridge.
The situation regarding A-Level results is no different. With the exception of the independent Harrow School and North London Collegiate School, no other Harrow schools are in the lists of 100 schools and colleges in England with the best A-level results.
Schools in Haringey, Barnet, Redbridge, Southwark, Camden, Ealing and Enfield are included in this top list.
Harrow’s absence in the top ten of a series of Department for Education tables on higher education, in some cases more than Brent, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, is a further let down for parents who expect best education opportunities and results for their children in Harrow.
Harrow’s position in the top leagues is disappointing and becomes more concerning considering that Harrow has a thriving private tutoring.
It was not very long ago that Harrow stayed at the top in many education areas.

In circulation petition to drop plans for £75 Brown Bin Charge appears to be less impressive as it has been heavily signed by Tories, including by the party members, the leader of the Harrow opposition Cllr Hall, chairman of the Harrow East Conservative Association as well as past and present Tory councillors.
Harrow Council proposes to charge £75 a year for the collection of the brown waste bins as it has to save £25million this year, as a part of the £75million of savings over the next four years because of the government cuts.
As usual there is no sign of a shadow budget by Councillor Hall to suggest how the required savings could be made – such is the quality of her council budgeting that when she presented her budget during her short lived council administration, it was heavily defeated.
Furthermore, her group has shown no apparent interest in demanding appropriate government funding for the borough – so much so that the Tories were nowhere near the recent Harrow protest against cuts and austerity measures.
While we expect the council to reconsider the proposed bin collection charges, we deplore such point scoring by the Tory group on the council.

Worrying to hear that the Conservative opposition group leader Councillor Hall has been conspicuously missing from the Conservative campaigns and fundraising events in the Harrow East constituency.

Given such relationships with his group on the council, can Mr Blackman effectively serve his constituents, especially as many resident issues relate to the work of the council. But then the political suitability and effectiveness of Mr Blackman, sitting MP and MP candidate for Harrow East, has been a matter of concern for long.

A recently released public opinion snapshot shows a five per cent drop in Harrow East Conservative popularity since 2010, narrowing the gap between them and the Labour to only three per cent.
Now he has not only been investigated about his claimed expenses, but he comes out as extremist and divisive in that he shows a lack of democratic sense to represent all his constituents and uses sensitive international situations to generate political support from the selected communities by siding with them in an unbalanced way.