Background
Emerson Park is Hornchurch’s only Conservative ward. It’s a wealthy area with ten million pound plus houses for sale.1 It’s the fiefdom of Roger Ramsey who’s a veteran councillor He’s smooth, clever, wealthy, massively experienced, a fluent speaker and everything modern Conservatives aren’t. But Emerson Park Conservatives are vulnerable.
Discussion
Over the years, the Conservatives have lost safe seats in Upminster and Cranham to huge Resident Association (RA) majorities.2 The signs are Emerson Park is going the same way. Roger’s holding it together with his personal vote. He’s done 50+ years but even superstars prefer life without whining colleagues. He’s cabinet member for finance, which is demanding even for eager beavers.
The 2014 election brought UKIP into the equation. One seat was won by a man who wasn’t a Conservative, which was his only virtue. In 2018 three Conservatives were elected but the RAs failed by four votes to win a seat. This is an ultra marginal outcome.
2018 was a good year for Conservatives but Roger Ramsey’s stronghold turned ultra marginal. The next four years weren’t been kind to the Conservatives. Bob Perry left and reinvented himself as a ferocious anti-Conservative campaigner in Squirrels Heath after the gerrymandering scandal.
The Conservatives have been in power 20 years. Their image is tarnished by their use of Special Responsibility Allowances which don’t look warranted. Emerson Park Conservatives may well pay the price in 2022.
Notes
1 Correct on 1st November 2021
2 Linda Hawthorn has a 2000 vote majority over the Conservatives in Upminster, which is unbelievable in local elections. Local elections | Election results | The London Borough Of Havering
Politics in Havering 
I don’t care what party they are as long as they do their job and no corrupt not much to ask is it ?
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Thank you for your comment
*as long as they do their job* That’s the problem as there isn’t a job description. The overwhelming number of activities that the council undertakes are government directed: as is the finance. So on one level all they are is a government conduit, which is morale sapping. The small number of things that a councillor can actually *DO* is vanishingly small. Worse: since 2010 there has been an Age of Austerity. Council finances have been destroyed. Limited ambitions and career politicians with too much time on their hands leads them to petty and trivial obsessions.
I agree that corruption is utterly unacceptable.
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Hi Chris
Thank you for forwarding your article I have some thoughts I would like to share with you.
How about promoting Labour rather than the HRAs we are doing lots of positive work in Harold Hill and throughout the Borough.
Angelina is doing good work canvassing and leafleting in Rush Green.
Hope and Jane are doing their Food Bank and taking up residents issues.
Matt and Julia are working hard in the South of the Borough on parks and children’s play equipment amongst other issues.
I am trying to get my team to run as Labour and Cooperative Candidates I have already applied.
We have had some recent successes liaising with council officers directly such as a new park bench on the Manor in memory of the people who have died due to the Covid pandemic we are just waiting for the plaque to be printed.
We have also managed to get some long standing fly tipping removed from two sites and many residents problems with the council solved or improved such as action on the flooding at Taunton Road and improvements to the green at Hitchin Close.
If we keep the seats in Harold Hill and win some in the south of the Borough which is quite likely we will be holding the balance of power come May 22. The programme could be very Labour driven as the HRAs are so divided and they generally only concerned about what is happening in their own wards.
I hope you can promote the Labour campaign more and often in the new year and coming up to the Local elections in May.
Kind regards
Cllr Paul McGeary
Gooshays Ward Councillor
Deputy Leader Havering Labour Group.
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Thank you for your comment.
1 This blog was solely about Emerson Park and the Labour party aren’t competitors there and so were ignored
2 This blog wasn’t about the wider borough election and so all the features of the Labour campaign you mention were ignored
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