If Havering had Proportional Representation, there wouldn’t be any councillors because most people don’t vote. There’d be an empty council chamber. Local elections are boycotted and newspapers will only report what is interesting.
Romford Recorder: 30th June 2023
The Recorder gives politicians1 a weekly column. Ray Morgon, Leader of the Council, filed a piece for this week.
He outlined administrative changes in the council structure, which are a Target Operating Model. The key priorities are three areas of activity: “improving our digital offering, improving our customer service and resident engagement.” He then discussed enforcement of littering laws, locking park gates (the majority don’t have gates), and cashless parking meters.
It was fascinating for geeks.
Havering Daily: accessed 3rd July 2023
This is an e-newspaper with a section called, ‘Politics’. They highlight HRA, Brexit, Labour and LibDems.3
Access is excellent: content is terrible. Brexit and the LibDems have articles from November 2019. The most recent for HRA is 5th June 2023 and Labour, 28th June.
Each article is a local issue with one principal member identified with it.
An innovation is the Taylor Talks4 monthly column. There’s been one so far and he doesn’t identify himself as a Conservative councillor. Why? His article focuses on being proud of Romford, showing a tragic lack of ambition. His second article was due on July 1st and didn’t appear. Maybe he has a flexible concept of ‘monthly’?
Notes
1 Andrew Rosindell’s Big Idea – Politics in Havering This blog discussed Andrew Rosindell’s thoughts Recorder 14th April 2023
2 Recorder p33 30th June 2023
3 Conservatives aren’t listed, which could be a considered opinion
4 NEW: Taylor Talks-‘It’s time we take pride in Romford.’ – The Havering Daily
Politics in Havering 