FlyTheNest

citizenJA wrote:

Eric Pickles takes over ‘rotten’ Tower Hamlets
Crackdown on London borough’s ‘partisan approach to politics’ represents one of his biggest interventions in local government

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... on-borough

I haven't read the article yet. I'm hurting in mind, body & soul.

Wait - I read a bit - what's this shit?

...showed the directly elected Labour mayor, Lutfur Rahman, had sown division and should bow his head in shame at the report’s findings. Executive power had been left unchecked and misused, he added.

I thought that council had elected a former Labour party member who ran as an Independent?

PaulfromYorkshire wrote:Angry Bird Flies retweeted
Mike Sivier ‏@MidWalesMike 4m4 minutes ago
@UKLabour Please sign the petition for Osborne to withdraw his 'tax summaries' & apologise: http://chn.ge/1x0gjPN" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

AngryAsWell wrote:Capitalism Explained. This Is So Accurate It Hurts.
http://www.tickld.com/x/capitalism-expl ... e-it-hurts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rahman was expelled from the Labour Party in 2010. So with that level of poor research and blatant smearing I'm guessing the article was written by Wintour?

TheGrimSqueaker wrote:

citizenJA wrote:

Eric Pickles takes over ‘rotten’ Tower Hamlets
Crackdown on London borough’s ‘partisan approach to politics’ represents one of his biggest interventions in local government

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... on-borough

I haven't read the article yet. I'm hurting in mind, body & soul.

Wait - I read a bit - what's this shit?

...showed the directly elected Labour mayor, Lutfur Rahman, had sown division and should bow his head in shame at the report’s findings. Executive power had been left unchecked and misused, he added.

I thought that council had elected a former Labour party member who ran as an Independent?

Rahman was expelled from the Labour Party in 2010. So with that level of poor research and blatant smearing I'm guessing the article was written by Wintour?

citizenJA wrote:

Ah, rumours - so often much more exciting than the real thing

I don't want excitement; I like to read about exciting historical events from the safe vantage point of a compassionate, well-run democracy. It's hard to fight for justice on a daily basis & the road seems to go on forever.

Tish wrote:

rebeccariots2 wrote:

Scandalously low pay should not be the new normal
A living wage is the kind of policy people expect from Labour, but is Ed Miliband letting it slip away?
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... d-miliband

I don't understand why Labour haven't continued to build on the predistribution speech...

TheGrimSqueaker wrote:

citizenJA wrote:

Eric Pickles takes over ‘rotten’ Tower Hamlets
Crackdown on London borough’s ‘partisan approach to politics’ represents one of his biggest interventions in local government

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... on-borough

I haven't read the article yet. I'm hurting in mind, body & soul.

Wait - I read a bit - what's this shit?

...showed the directly elected Labour mayor, Lutfur Rahman, had sown division and should bow his head in shame at the report’s findings. Executive power had been left unchecked and misused, he added.

I thought that council had elected a former Labour party member who ran as an Independent?

Rahman was expelled from the Labour Party in 2010. So with that level of poor research and blatant smearing I'm guessing the article was written by Wintour?

...showed the directly elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman, had sown division and should bow his head in shame at the report’s findings. Executive power had been left unchecked and misused, he added.

“The abuse of taxpayers’ money reflects a partisan approach to politics that seeks to spread favours and sow divisions”, Pickles said. “Such behaviour is to the detriment of integration and community cohesion in Tower Hamlets and in our capital city. This is a borough where there has been widespread allegations of extremism, homophobia and antisemitism has been allowed to fester without proper challenge.”

Sorry. All that, and I don't even feel better!!

citizenJA wrote:PorFavor

Sorry. All that, and I don't even feel better!!

It's a difficult time now. I'm sorry. It will change. We'll probably have finer times ahead of us - all of us - change will come for sure regardless - take care of yourself first, ask for help when you need it.

Love,

JA

Tubby Isaacs wrote:Sodding Labour supporting this in Tower Hamlets.

Clearly, the areas criticized in the report could do with direct oversight- grants, disposals, and someone should knockheads together to stop Labour and Tower Hamlets First opposing each other all the time.

“The abuse of taxpayers’ money reflects a partisan approach to politics that seeks to spread favours and sow divisions”, Pickles said. “Such behaviour is to the detriment of integration and community cohesion in Tower Hamlets and in our capital city. This is a borough where there has been widespread allegations of extremism, homophobia and antisemitism has been allowed to fester without proper challenge.”

This is beyond satire. The council have been praised by Stonewall. It's hardly their fault there are homophobes outside.

TechnicalEphemera wrote:

Tubby Isaacs wrote:Sodding Labour supporting this in Tower Hamlets.

Clearly, the areas criticized in the report could do with direct oversight- grants, disposals, and someone should knockheads together to stop Labour and Tower Hamlets First opposing each other all the time.

“The abuse of taxpayers’ money reflects a partisan approach to politics that seeks to spread favours and sow divisions”, Pickles said. “Such behaviour is to the detriment of integration and community cohesion in Tower Hamlets and in our capital city. This is a borough where there has been widespread allegations of extremism, homophobia and antisemitism has been allowed to fester without proper challenge.”

This is beyond satire. The council have been praised by Stonewall. It's hardly their fault there are homophobes outside.

Sorry, but the mayoral election was fundamentally worthy of Russia. In my view the whole thing should have been re-run and a number of the mayors supporters jailed.

There is no place for that sort of regime in the UK, even allowing for the fact Pickles is an arse.

AnatolyKasparov wrote:I have to also disagree with Tubby about Rahman - TH would be better off without him and his "boss" politics.

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

AnatolyKasparov wrote:I have to also disagree with Tubby about Rahman - TH would be better off without him and his "boss" politics.

He's not going anywhere, that's the silly thing about this. We'll now just have constant arguments with the Commissioners, as well as with Labour.

The grants are rightly criticized, but the main reason he does well is that the council has done lots of good stuff, with schools and development money. The idea he's bribed his way to victory is rubbish.

Lord Ashcroft ‏@LordAshcroft 1h1 hour ago
My wider marginal seats survey will be published tomorrow at 11am. Note to bookies...it's interesting especially in the following seats...

Tim MontgomerieVerified account
‏@montie
@LordAshcroft can't wait Lordie

9:06 AM - 4 Nov 2014
Lord Ashcroft ‏@LordAshcroft 1h1 hour ago
@montie you'll have to montie

Nick Faith ‏@nickfaith82 1h1 hour ago
@montie @LordAshcroft I do wonder if Osborne's Northern love-bombing will have any effect on some of those marginals.

TechnicalEphemera wrote:
Sorry, but he has got to go. If you are prepared to allow the election process to be contaminated, God knows what is happening behind the scenes.

One assumes this action will seriously limit his ability to distribute funds to his allies.

Alastair Campbell retweeted
British GQ @BritishGQ · 5h 5 hours ago
Get an exclusive preview of @campbellclaret's interview with @TristramHuntMP: http://gq.uk/aSEBLQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TheGrimSqueaker wrote:In other news the Mail lied (again) and people bought their lies (again).

http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/2014/1 ... t-t-shirt/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Response to PwC report
In response to comments today by the Secretary of State, The Mayor of Tower Hamlets said: “We need to be clear that there was no evidence of fraud or criminal activity identified in the PwC report published today.
“All governance issues identified in the PwC report have already been highlighted by our internal processes and are being rectified accordingly.
“Given that Tower Hamlets Council is one of the highest performing local authorities in London, and the wider UK for service delivery to our residents, I am surprised at the Secretary of State’s comments today in the House of Commons.
I believe that there is a huge disparity between the detail of PwC’s report and the level of the Secretary of State’s comments. ”We will be responding to Mr Pickles in due course.”

Dr Éoin Clarke @LabourEoin · 9m 9 minutes ago
The movie the Tories do not want you to see. A Free Download of "The Sell Off" documenting NHS Privatisation " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Last Wednesday, the DWP continued to battle the information commissioner and hostile judgments in the courts, ordering it to reveal where possibly hundreds of thousands of people are being sent to work without pay for weeks and months at a time.

At a tribunal on Wednesday, the DWP argued that if the public knew exactly where people were being sent on placements political protests would increase, which was likely to lead to the collapse of several employment schemes and undermine the government’s economic interests.

“We are not naming the charities and community groups involved in the scheme in order to protect them from those who seem intent on stopping us helping people into work.”

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

TheGrimSqueaker wrote:In other news the Mail lied (again) and people bought their lies (again).

http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/2014/1 ... t-t-shirt/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wow.

So complaints to that knew tigerish regulator?

PorFavor wrote:Goodnight, everyone.

Rolls-Royce to cut 2,600 jobs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29900087
... It is not clear where the cuts will be made from Rolls-Royce's global workforce of 55,000, 24,000 of whom are in the UK.

However, the Unite union told the BBC there would be 800-1200 engineering jobs cut in Derby and Bristol...

Those with good knowledge of the company have told me that the 2,600 job losses will be split between civil and defence aviation in the UK and the US, with two-thirds of the losses coming in the UK...

LadyCentauria wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/public-leade ... ster-mayor

Did we cover this? The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (which voted firmly against having a directly elected Mayor only two years ago) is to have a temporary Mayor appointed in January 2015 then elections in 2017. This Mayor will have wider-ranging powers (in theory) than in London, as Health & Social Care will be under his or her control...

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

LadyCentauria wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/public-leade ... ster-mayor

Did we cover this? The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (which voted firmly against having a directly elected Mayor only two years ago) is to have a temporary Mayor appointed in January 2015 then elections in 2017. This Mayor will have wider-ranging powers (in theory) than in London, as Health & Social Care will be under his or her control...

What a surprise.

Strategic planning and regional oversight good for everything except Education- which is to be run by private trusts.

I think imposing a mayor on the region is fair enough- it's different to the City of Manchester mayor voted on before. And it's a way to proper devolution in England. But surely the elected mayor has to happen straightaway?

"I was quite a senior politician. I don’t think I ever read the manifesto. Have you ever met anyone who ever read a manifesto. I like the right policies in government but people aren’t going to read a manifesto for heavens sake, of course they're not."

HindleA wrote:Not only do I read manifestos I keep them for posterity (sad git)

rebeccariots2 wrote:

Dr Éoin Clarke @LabourEoin · 9m 9 minutes ago
The movie the Tories do not want you to see. A Free Download of "The Sell Off" documenting NHS Privatisation " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe someone else can embed it here - beyond me I'm afraid.

Tubby Isaacs wrote:I said the mayor should be elected and start immediately.

But this is a chance to get meaningful regional devolution happening, and for that I think you need the region to be directly elected- otherwise you're electing people to boroughs who then decide which of them get sent up to work on what ought to be more important stuff at the regional level. That puts things in the hands of party whips.

I think the mayor systems's worked pretty well in London, though I'd want some of the powers to overrule boroughs over eg affordable housing to be curtailed. But you could leave out the mayor, I guess.

Tizme1 wrote:

rebeccariots2 wrote:

Dr Éoin Clarke @LabourEoin · 9m 9 minutes ago
The movie the Tories do not want you to see. A Free Download of "The Sell Off" documenting NHS Privatisation " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe someone else can embed it here - beyond me I'm afraid.

I'm going to a showing of it on Friday in Surrey. Evening all btw.

Some local news. Here in Watford, we have a 'Watford Local Hero' thing. People are nominated, and then its opened up to the public to vote. This year, Sara Jane Trebar from Save Farm Terrace Allotments has been nominated. The award is presented to the winner by....................

............... The Dotty Mare.

Wouldn't it be supreme irony if Sara Jane won?

But the link to vote seems to be broken. Could anyone check it for me and see if they can get to it [ta nicely thank you very muchly]?

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/1 ... _now_open/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

refitman wrote:

Tizme1 wrote:

rebeccariots2 wrote: Maybe someone else can embed it here - beyond me I'm afraid.

I'm going to a showing of it on Friday in Surrey. Evening all btw.

Some local news. Here in Watford, we have a 'Watford Local Hero' thing. People are nominated, and then its opened up to the public to vote. This year, Sara Jane Trebar from Save Farm Terrace Allotments has been nominated. The award is presented to the winner by....................

............... The Dotty Mare.

Wouldn't it be supreme irony if Sara Jane won?

But the link to vote seems to be broken. Could anyone check it for me and see if they can get to it [ta nicely thank you very muchly]?

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/1 ... _now_open/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It looks like they've either taken the page down, or released the link prematurely. They have been tweeted about it (" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). I assume someone will pull their finger out and fix it at some point