Motion A concerned Hornchurch FC., “…this Council congratulates Hornchurch Football Club on their promotion to the National League.
Unwittingly the Labour group (1 hour 17 minutes)1 revealed Keith Prince’s hypocrisy. The council meeting was moved because of England’s semi-final game. Keith knew seven councillors would be absent but changed the date anyway. Democracy comes second to football in Keith’s world.
Motion B concerned a ‘Faith Champion’. It was drivel (1:24).
Motion C concerned the Climate Emergency (1:28) Reform’s policy was ably set out by Gary Payne. He dislikes tricksy statistical modelling, which is unfortunate because it commands respect in the wider political world. Gary did, however, think for himself and consulted Havering Friends of the Earth before the meeting. I think Reform is Greener than they seem. This was emphasised by Alex Donald’s contribution. (1:38)
Keith’s closing speech was astonishing. (1:45) He challenged the legitimacy of HARA’s amendment. This should have been done prior to the debate. The principal legal officer rose to the occasion, with icy politeness, and rejected Keith’s interpretation. He should have spoken to her in his office to discuss his worries. For Keith to use his position as Leader of the Council to challenge a ruling and lose, is an aberration. Perhaps he realised he’d won the vote but lost the argument?
Motion D concerned ULEZ (1:51) Fundamentally this was idiotic. The information demanded is unavailable because it isn’t collected in the way Reform believes. Trevor McKeever’s speech was a masterful (1:57) destruction of the basic premise. Every Reform/HARA contribution had an unstated opinion that respiratory deaths were a price worth paying.2 It would be nice if they came into the open and said flat out how many deaths are acceptable.
Best Speech: Trevor McKeever
Best Sniggering (joint winners) Martynas Cekavicius and Bailey Nash-Gardner
Notes
1 Motions.pdf All four motions are here For the webcast go here Annotator Player All timings refer to this webcast.
2 Speeches from Khuram Ali (1:51), Gillian Ford (1:55), Luke Barry (2:02) and Keith Prince (2:05)
ULEZ Havering’s ULEZ Data (davidtaylor.online) indicates the number of lives saved and the quality of lives of those not suffering respiratory diseases
Politics in Havering 