There are 54 councillors in Havering’s council chamber. It’s impossible to justify 54 councillors for 250,000 people. This ratio is only apparently democratic. Councillors are expensive and get in the way of good government.

Sadiq Khan, London’s Mayor, represents 8.2 million people.
The GLA has 26 members representing 316,000.
MPs The Romford constituency is about 74,000
Havering has 54 councillors representing 4,600 people each

Andrew Rosindell’s represents 16 times more voters than the average Havering councillor. Do Havering councillors really have so much work that it justifies squadrons of them? What do they do that requires 54 councillors?

The reality is local government is gripped in the dead hand of history. It’s like it is because it has always been that way. And those councillors create administrative clutter. They’re not nimble and don’t represent the people. Havering’s council chamber has become the haunt of the elderly who linger in ‘safe’ seats reflecting a by-gone era. No wonder turn-out is so poor in local elections.

Havering’s local government needs to move out of the era of the horse and cart and slim down. One councillor per ward should be more than enough and then they could be paid a proper salary and held to robust account.

After nine years of Conservative government, Havering has lost 40% of its funding. Havering is a victim of the ‘Age of Austerity’. The pitiless budget* earlier this year was caused by the Conservative government but Damian White is too loyal to say so. In that budget the most vulnerable had council tax increases of 67%, which only raised a million or so. Damian needed more. He turned to car parking charges. Unlike the poor, motorists are politically powerful and were enraged.

Damian doesn’t make evidence based decisions. He seems to use Tarot cards. As a sop to Havering’s motorists, he announced** there’d be six weekends when car parking charges wouldn’t apply. Those weekends are immediately prior to Christmas. This is a period when the council makes a fortune from its car parking charges and is crucial to the annual budget.

The twelve weekend days declared ‘free’ will ‘cost’ the council £500,000 for Romford*** alone. The cost for the whole borough is a million. What’s the strategy? Offering freebies immediately prior to Christmas is insanity. Damian’s freebies should be after Christmas when shops need a boost. Doesn’t he understand why there are January sales?

A post Christmas freebie would have been applauded. Damian’s election prospects in Dagenham and Rainham would’ve been enhanced.

* https://havering.blog/2019/02/02/havering-council-meeting-an-act-of-pitiless-indifference-on-23rd-january-2019/
** Romford Recorder 25th October 2019
*** This is a guess-estimate and is probably on the low side as there’s more intensity at Christmas.

Havering’s Conservative voters were unimpressed to find that ‘Taking back control’ meant immediately handing it over to Northern Irish bigots. Johnson’s deal will end with Northern Ireland unifying with Ireland thereby breaking up the UK. Does Havering care? Probably not. Our MPs however care intensely and they wrecked the May deal to prevent the unification. Johnson’s deal is much worse as it guarantees the unification of Ireland.

Havering’s Conservative voters know what they voted for and it wasn’t Northern Ireland. Cameron’s In-Out question concealed intricate foreign policy, which no-one understood. Yet the Referendum was solely about foreign policy with the EU and the World Community. Both 2016 Remain and Leave campaigns avoided this point. Our current paralysed politics is the consequence of that deception.

Johnson’s defeats of the 19th, 21st and 22nd October illustrate how unsuitable parliament is in negotiating foreign policy. The Referendum result ended the possibility of ‘Remain’ but Havering’s voters feel betrayed. They were presented with a simple question and expected straight-forward answers. Answers which never existed. The ERG’s* ideological posturing ruined Theresa May’s deal and worsened the outlook for Britain.

Havering’s Conservative voters have no where else to go**. This is lucky for Andrew Rosindell and Julia Lopez who are, in a small part, responsible for this chaos and ought to be punished at the ballot box.

* Both Conservative MPs in Havering belong to the European Research Group (ERG). They must be tortured by Johnson’s deal, which will lead to victory for Sinn Fein.
** https://www.havering.gov.uk/info/20046/elections_and_voting/196/election_results/7 They did have somewhere else to go in May 2019 and they went to the Brexit Party with enthusiasm. That party is a one-trick pony and entirely unsuitable for national politics.

When the USSR was a super power it was a closed society and MI6 spent a lot of time working out who mattered. They were called Kremlinologists. They studied official publications and May 1st parades. The Soviet newspaper ‘Pravda’* was invaluable. Meanwhile Havering has ‘Living in Havering’ a cut-price version of Pravda. Do MI6’s techniques help Havering’s citizens understand what’s going on (see addendum)?

Damian White’s personality cult is alive and well. Havering’s communications department needn’t worry about salt mines. This edition features Damian with eight photographs and three quotations**.

But which cabinet members should be looking over their shoulders? Damian’s has six cabinet members. Previous evidence pointed at Osman Dervish and Robert Benham as an ‘inner cabinet’. This edition has Osman enhancing his position with a cheery photo sharing a pint with Damian and two quotations. It’s all positive stuff. Robert? No photographs and an anodyne four line quote. Worrying times.

Joshua Chapman has two photographs. He’s lurking near Damian looking happy. The remainder of the cabinet aren’t photographed. Viddy Persaud has two quotations in compensation. Political submarine Jason Frost is invisible as is Havering’s ‘Grand Old Man’ Roger Ramsey. Multi-millionaire Roger was unavailable for photographs. Maybe he was counting his money?

To the uninitiated eye ‘Living in Havering’ is a Conservative party propaganda publication. The finest legal brains in the Town Hall disagree. Who could possibly argue?

Addendum: As tenants in tower blocks aren’t on the delivery list not every taxpayer in Havering is given the chance to ‘know’ what’s going on. Are they second class citizens? ‘Living in Havering’ allegedly serves every resident in Havering. Indeed this is their boast,
“Living in Havering is delivered to every home in Havering free of charge thanks to the support of our advertisers.” p4
Do advertisers know that coverage is deliberately incomplete?

* Pravda = Truth in English
** Analysing the syntax, grammar and sentence construction of cabinet member quotations suggests there’s only one author. If true, and that single author is a Havering employee, a full scale investigation is essential.

Politicians are people who resolve challenges and create compromises where none seem possible. They can make even those that have sacrificed the most, feel good. A statesman is a person who does all of this but in extreme situations. The most recent example was Tony Blair and the Northern Irish Good Friday Agreement,* which built on years of negotiations by both the Thatcher and Major governments. Damian White is moving towards being a politician.

The long standing dispute over the designation of New Zealand Way and Gooshays Green as housing opportunities has been withdrawn. This is notwithstanding the fact that it would be entirely within the legal rights of the council to build on both amenity areas. Campaigns led by local residents and councillors crystallised the principal areas of debate.

Although passions were raised, the campaign was remarkably civilised. Damian has had to consider a world where compromise is necessary. He’s become a politician because he’s mediated conflict. He’s as much a victor as the communities which have benefited. The issues were debated successfully and Havering is the better for it.

* 10th April 1998

Nigel Farage announced his party wont stand against Conservatives belonging to the extremist European Research Group (ERG)*. He also said he holds their future in his hands**. Johnson has denounced Farage’s offer of an electoral pact as unacceptable. This leaves Andrew and Julia in a difficult position. Farage’s Brexit policy is ‘No Deal’. This means breaking the law. Johnson has declared he wont break the law. So where’s the wriggle room for Andrew and Julia?

In February we discussed whether Andrew and Julia were real Conservatives***. Farage believes they aren’t. The challenge isn’t using Farage to make sure they are re-elected. The challenge is what happens if Johnson conjures a deal and demands support.

Johnson slung 21 senior MPs out of the party for voting against him. He added that what was ‘good for the goose was good for the gander’ when questioned about ERG members. Buying off Rees-Mogg with a cabinet position is one thing, but that leaves Andrew and Julia in the cold. Principles, or hold your nose and vote for a deal which must include a compromise on Northern Ireland? That’s the question.

* Both Andrew and Julia are in this group
** https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/11/nigel-farage-boris-johnson-no-deal-brexit-election-non-aggression-pact
This feeling is reflected in the analysis at a local level see https://havering.blog/2019/09/07/andrew-rosindells-nightmare/
and more generally https://oedeboyz.com/2019/09/12/boris-johnsons-nightmare-peterborough-2019/
*** https://havering.blog/2019/02/17/haverings-brexit-mps-are-they-conservatives/

After the crushing defeat in the Euro elections, Conservative central office realised how much trouble they were in. They ordered Damian to, ‘Do something!’ The something was the Conservative favourite, ‘Law and Order’. £900,000 was allocated to pay for a Rent-A-Cop scheme. This got a sergeant and four officers for three years. It’s an abysmal deal.

Damian and Viddy Persaud hadn’t read the small print. The deal didn’t include overtime, bank holidays or police cars. It did include the right of the Metropolitan police to withdraw any, or all, of the officers to fulfil duties in central London at any time without notice.

New PM Johnson is a showman who likes flamboyant speeches. He proposed 20,000 new police officers at a cost of £750 million. This trumped Damian’s five. The mature response would have been to withdraw the proposal because Johnson’s 20,000 additional officers meant 50 for Havering.

So what happened? Damian runs Havering’s communications department as a personal PR machine, never missing a photo opportunity. Where is his front page photo in the Romford Recorder as he champions the fight against the forces of evil? Or, has the Rent-A-Cop scheme been quietly dropped? The protesters against increased car parking charges need to be told.

Reversing that policy could finance a restoration of 30 minutes free car parking.

In 1997 Michael Neubert, Romford’s MP, had a job for life,* until he was hit by a shift in the tectonic plates of politics. Tony Blair’s charisma, John Major’s haplessness and Sir James Goldsmith’s Referendum party** finished his political career. Goldsmith’s party destroyed Neubert much to the delight of the young Andrew (see table one). Neubert’s political demise freed up Romford for Andrew. Sure enough in 2001 normal service was resumed and he’s been MP ever since.

Like all MPs, Andrew believes he’s loved. In all due fairness, he’s got better claims than most and definitely ranks above Neubert. Being loved isn’t, however, enough in politics.

Andrew’s 2019 tectonic shift is Boris ‘Genius’ Johnson and Nigel Farage’s bombastic simplicities. Johnson’s pre-election strategy appears to be to split the Conservative party. His negative charisma is such that he’s united the warring opposition in parliament into a coherent force, which given his minority government is a disaster. Farage has some very good lines provided you don’t analyse them too much. Andrew’s in peril but isn’t doomed.

Neubert faced a well-known and experienced campaigner unlike Andrew. Andrew is very well-known with a supportive Conservative council. He’s in peril because of Brexit. This was demonstrated in the 2019 Euro elections (see table two). Rock solid Conservative Havering was crushed into 4th place and Andrew’s ‘Genius’ leader has just added to the chaos.

Table One: Romford Election 1997

Table Two: Euro Election 2019

Meanwhile Damian White is licking his lips and wondering if 1997 will be repeated.

* Young Conservatives referred to MPs like Neubert as ‘bed-blockers’ a peculiarly offensive epithet expressing their right-wing arrogance.
** Their radical programme stated they wanted to stay in the free market but not be involved in the political side of the EU. This was revolutionary stuff in 1997

[Sub-committees should develop] mechanisms for addressing cross-cutting issues and for preventing duplication of work. Where matters fall within the remit of more than one O&S sub-committee, to determine which of them will assume responsibility or set up a joint ad-hoc body;* para 2:4

There’s confusion amongst Havering’s Overview and Scrutiny committees. Where does this come from? Is it Damian White’s desire to have additional committees so he can pay allowances to Conservative colleagues? Or, maybe a lack of critical thought?

The paradigm example of confusion is the Crime and Disorder and the Children and Learning committees. Earlier this year, 2019, there was a fatal stabbing in Harold Hill. Jodie Chesney, was murdered in a gratuitous act of violence.** Havering’s weak Overview and Scrutiny committee understanding of their responsibilities was revealed.

On the 14th February 2019, Children and Learning committee received a report on knife crime.*** This report wasn’t shared with the Crime and Disorder committee. Viddy Persaud, the cabinet member, wasn’t brought to committee to explain Havering’s position on this vital issue. Neither Judith Holt or Bob Perry, the relevant chairs, understood their responsibilities though they are crystal clear,

sub-committees consider issues by receiving information from, and questioning, Cabinet Members, officers and external partners to develop an understanding of proposals, policy and practices (my emphasis)****

Was Bob Perry’s chair of Crime a douceur keeping Damian’s administration afloat? Committee secretaries should run training programmes explaining to chairs their responsibilities. Not a single chair has asked for a formal committee meeting with a cabinet member in 18 months of this administration. These meeting should be bi-annual at the least. Damian White hasn’t been in front of the Board on a single occasion. This is a massive democratic deficit.

* http://democracy.havering.gov.uk/documents/s13153/Report%20-%20Terms%20of%20Reference.pdf
** https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47521329
*** http://democracy.havering.gov.uk/documents/g5962/Agenda%20frontsheet%2014th-Feb-2019%2019.00%20Children%20Learning%20Overview%20Scrutiny%20Sub-Committee.pdf?T=0 Knife Crime and Children pp33-124 The Havering strategy was due to go to cabinet in March 2019.
**** http://democracy.havering.gov.uk/documents/g5874/Agenda%20frontsheet%2028th-Feb-2019%2019.00%20Crime%20Disorder%20Sub-%20Committee.pdf?T=0