Andrew Rosindell, Romford MP, is an expert on Conservative councillors. He lashed out at them saying they do “Literally nothing.”1 In his eyes they do nothing for either their constituents or, worse, the Conservative party. He’s personally suffered from their idleness with increased workload.
Councillors have Town Hall commitments that aren’t onerous. Analysing Town Hall meetings for April, shows that Andrew is correct: many councillors do “Literally nothing”. There are few meetings and attendance is far from 100%.
Six committee meetings were scheduled for April and three were cancelled.2 If there had been full attendance at those three meetings a maximum of 19 councillors were involved.3 Seven councillors were absent.4 36 councillors weren’t scheduled to attend any committee meetings.
Andrew Rosindell says Conservative councillors don’t do ward casework5 and don’t attend Town Hall meetings either.6 Ward casework is unmonitored and it’s up to councillors whether they work hard or not. Conservative councillors might be uniquely idle but it’s unlikely.
Where councillors are monitored is in their attendance at Town Hall meetings. It’s probable that slacking off there is evidence about their overall commitment.
Notes
1 Romford Recorder 19th April 2024 p4 One outcome of this outburst was three Conservative councillors defecting to HRA. To be fair he did name two that were OK.
2 Agenda for Planning Committee on Thursday, 18th April, 2024, 7.30 pm | The London Borough Of Havering Planning committee
Annotator Player (sonicfoundry.com) Joint Health o/s committee
Annotator Player (sonicfoundry.com) cabinet Two councillors attended this meeting as observers. They were Keith Prince and Martin Goode and both spoke. The council’s attendance list has an opportunity for noting additional non-slated attendance but on this occasion doesn’t do so in either case.
3 Monthly meetings calendar – April 2024 | The London Borough Of Havering There is a full list of meetings for the year. During April 43 councillors didn’t attend any scheduled meetings at all.
4 None of the Conservative councillors on the Planning committee turned up. John and Philippa Crowder might have been on strike or, in between parties. Additionally, Oscar Ford, Gillian Ford, Barry Mugglestone, Carol Smith and Christine Smith were absent from their meetings. This is a 38% absenteeism rate.
5 Romford Recorder ibid
6 Councillors attendance summary, 29 October 2023 – 22 April 2024 | The London Borough Of Havering Every councillor is listed noting their attendance over the last six months. Damian White has attended one meeting out of a possible six in the last six months
Politics in Havering 
Like being savaged by a dead sheep as Denis Healey noted.
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Actually I disagree with you. Healey was commenting on the quality of the opposition party. Andrew was passing a comment on the people he is relying on for active support in the forthcoming General Election. At the very least this has to be unwise.
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Rosindell can say what he likes as he will get voted in by the people of Romford anyway. They’d vote for a dead sheep with a blue rosette on.
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In 1997 a cast iron win for the Tories ended in defeat so why are you so certain this time?
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That’s one of the strange things about this strange article. “Praise in public, even if you reprimand in private” is Man Management 101. Rozzer must know this.
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Damian White had exactly the same problems when he was Leader and he too was cack-handed. Bob Perry walked at that time. I think that it’s a problem of politicians trying to impose their very positive attitudes on people who really couldn’t care less. It’s also very difficult being a politician in a party that’s in decline. Labour were in power until 2002 and by 2010 had a single councillor and have only recently started to claw their way back.
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Since Rosindell made his comment, slagging off his colleageues, 3 of them then quit and joined the HRA. Tells you everything you need to know. The Tories are eating themselves alive
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Seven Conservatives have defected since 2022 and so it might be co-incidence that the three went after the Rosindell outburst.
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You should start a poll on who will defect next.
Top contenders:
Taylor
Best
Dervish
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As an unbiased political commentator I really can’t comment on your interesting suggestions. Really it all comes down to: Who is a true believer?
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