Although Brexit currently, 2016-9, dominates British political life, the climate emergency is more important. The climate emergency is a consequence of independent actions and therefore we’re all implicated. We’re all in the front line of a climate emergency solution, as it were.

Havering isn’t paralysed into inaction. The administration’s street lighting initiative is a fine example of acting local. Sodium lights are being replaced with LED, which will, in turn, be improved upon. There’s currently, August 2019, a six month assessment* period related to street light dimming. Finally, work is being done to identify unnecessary street lighting, called trimming(information from Cllr. Osman Dervish**).

Havering’s policy is the London Plan. This has been adopted by the administration as it’s off-the-shelf and robust. Osman’s approach is ‘light touch’ for ‘signposting of efficiency and cost savings’. This is synonymous with tokenism.

Astonishingly Osman doesn’t mention Havering’s fleet of vehicles. Investment decision-making for the climate emergency is critical in relation to fleet management. Havering’s procurement power should exert opportunities for technology upgrades. Havering’s partnership with ELWA, of which he is chair, is a very powerful weapon. This should be used to incentivise manufacturers.

The default management system should be that which has been adopted in relation to street lighting. Introduce new technologies in phases, assess and then roll-out borough-wide. Councillor scrutiny is vital to this as shoddy short-term investment decision-making destroys long term objectives.

*I’m looking forward to a report in the autumn from the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
** Email 15th January2019

The astonishing taxpayer funded Living in Havering magazine hit a new low in the south of the borough.* The south of the borough is hostile territory for the Conservatives and it reads like an election leaflet. Damian White looks like a candidate for the Dagenham and Rainham constituency in the forthcoming Brexit election. This magazine has gone way beyond his usual personality cult in the Living in Havering magazine.

First, the Damian personality cult PR photo count. This time there’s five Damian photos. That they are PR photo opportunities is demonstrated by the front cover. Damian stands in the centre of a group in a suit, with everyone else wearing yellow safety vests. Damian is literally the focus of the viewers’ attention. His adoring acolytes,** Robert Benham, Osman Dervish and Joshua Chapman are grouped on Damian’s left and three ‘privileged’ workers are to his right.

Damian’s attempt at being more than a photo opportunity is reflected in his domination of the written word. His Leader’s Welcome is a full page, where he identifies the closure of the Chafford Leisure Centre as a possible ‘error’*** He also says that the replacement is an aspiration, which is denied later in the magazine when he says that the council is, “committed to deliver a new leisure centre …. by 2020.” This announcement has all the credibility of a Boris Johnson ‘promise’ which is political hot air.

This outrageous taxpayer funded magazine should be subject to the normal council rules about inappropriate expenditure as it is little more than a Conservative party propaganda sheet.****

* At time of writing this isn’t on the Havering website.
** There’s another acolyte photo with Keith Prince and Osman tucked away
*** Obviously he doesn’t actually say this. He actually says that he’s ‘listened’ which is code for a disastrous decision.
**** Did the Special Edition require a separate budget and how was that authorised?

“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?” John Maynard Keynes

My long held belief was that Conservatives were lackeys of business. They loved small shopkeepers, favoured car ownership, hated stealth taxes and were competent. These beliefs have collapsed like a pack of cards. Boris Johnson’s infamous ‘F—k business’,* was his colourful pivoting away from traditional allies. We’ll soon see if this was empty rhetoric now he’s PM.

Havering’s Conservatives are catching up. Havering has the highest number of cars per 100 citizens in London. Car owning elderly people will use their vote to punish those they dislike. (The Cranham by-election and the Euro elections, both 2019, illustrate this rather well.) Handing out punishment beatings to voters who vote, isn’t a good idea. And especially not when you’re a minority administration. **

Therefore ferocious increases in car parking charges isn’t politically clever, as numerous letters in the Romford Recorder illustrate. Boris Johnson has destroyed Viddy Persaud’s scheme of five additional policemen with his allocation of 50 policemen for Havering.*** Johnson has given the Conservatives a graceful way of backing out, without loss of face. Additionally he’s released £300,000 with immediate effect. Candidates for this money include Chafford’s leisure pool but it could also pay for 30 minutes free parking. For everyone! Now that is a vote winner.

Destroying the high street is irrelevant for Damian and Viddy but Johnson’s half billion pound announcement (bribe?) has rescued them. The loss of the free 30 minute parking period means people aren’t ‘popping’ to the shops any more. The effect on thousands of elderly voters, living on fixed incomes, is political dynamite. The 30 minute free period should be reintroduced immediately.

* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44618154
** The Conservative administration works hard at keeping the council tax as low as possible even when it’s political insanity like in the 2019 budget for example.
*** My recent blog explains the apparent merits of Viddy’s scheme for Havering’s Conservatives. Johnson has used the same logic but on a national scale. https://havering.blog/2019/06/22/two-conservative-party-leaflets-and-one-cunning-plan/

Johnson’s in No. 10 now. Not my choice but then you can’t have everything in life. His catch phrases, “Do or die!” or the 2016 “£350 million each week for the NHS,” are government policy. Johnson has established a Brexit war cabinet under Michael Gove, which doesn’t fill me with confidence. Let’s hope he doesn’t need to employ Dad’s Army as well.

Meanwhile on Planet Emerson Park, Bob Perry is dissatisfied. In a heartfelt article in the Romford Recorder* he expressed frustration with Conservative politicians. Bob’s a councillor in Damian White’s minority administration, which means Damian needs Bob more than Bob needs Damian. Bob has noticed this and could use it as a lever in the future.

Johnson is utterly shameless, that’s part of his charm. He ignores missed deadlines as, ‘just one of those things’? He doesn’t worry about trivialities like keeping promises. Bob does. All those expecting promises to translate into action should bear that in mind. So on the 1st November, 2019 if Britain is still in the EU, what will Bob do? Will he too shrug his shoulders and write it off as ‘just one of those things’, or will he rebel? Maybe he’ll join Farage.

Alternatively Johnson might change the habits of a lifetime** and stay focussed.

* 7th June 2019 p14
** Unlike when he was Foreign Secretary when he remained feckless.

Viddy Persaud’s ludicrous Rent-A-Cop scheme(1) was buried on the steps of No 10 in Boris Johnson’s first announcement on the 24th July, 2019. Unlike Shaun Bailey and Keith Prince who’d been tipped off, Viddy didn’t know her scheme for five ‘Bobbies on the Beat’ would be shot down. Shaun and Keith postulated that 40+ extra police officers were necessary to make Havering safer. Not five! They were very confident about this as their promotional leaflets demonstrated.(2) But Viddy didn’t know.

Boris has announced 20,000 extra police officers in the near future. Havering would get about 50 of them on my calculations.(3)Both Shaun and Keith knew that five additional police for 250,000 people spread amongst 18 wards was useless. That Viddy didn’t know that 5 police officers were useless, this is shocking.

The good thing about Boris’s statement of intent is that Havering’s Conservative administration now has £300,000 of funds looking for a home. Chafford’s leisure pool is an obvious first choice during a long hot summer.

1 https://havering.blog/2019/05/19/damian-white-and-viddy-persauds-rent-a-cop-scheme/
2 https://havering.blog/2019/06/22/two-conservative-party-leaflets-and-one-cunning-plan/
3 Shaun estimated 56 and Keith a more modest 42.

The Sun newspaper ceased publishing its page 3 photo feature in 2015, forty five years after it began. Page 3 photos are synonymous with topless girls. Amazingly, Living in Havering has resurrected a politicised version of page 3.

The April issue (1) of Living in Havering had seven page 3 photos of Damian White, Leader of the Council. July’s issue also has seven page 3 photos. Seemingly this is the optimum number for a subliminal message: Damian – Man of Action.

Damian has four more photos in the July magazine. Robert Benham (2), Osman Dervish (2), the Mayor (2) and Romford MP Andrew Rosindell (2) also feature. This PR blitz isn’t illegal according to Havering’s Section 151 officer. (see Addendum).

Turning to Havering’s At the Heart magazine for ‘tenants and leaseholders’(2) there’s more of the same. Damian and Joshua Chapman are on the front page. (Joshua has two more photos in the magazine.) These magazines are paid for by Havering Council tax-payers. The bill is tens of thousands of pounds ~ perhaps scrutiny is in order here?

Addendum: Are Damian White’s appearances in Living in Havering legal?

I put this question to the Section 151 officer who, after a lengthy delay, glibly pronounced that there hadn’t been breaches of Council rules or government guidance.(3)

The relevant government guidance says, ….it is acceptable for local authorities to publicise the work done by individual members of the authority, and to present the views of those individuals on local issues. This might be appropriate, for example, when one councillor has been the “face” of a particular campaign. If views expressed by, or attributed to, individual councillors do not reflect the views of the local authority itself, such publicity should make this fact clear.(4,5)

Six of the seven page 3 photos of Damian are pure PR. They’re carefully curated. None illustrate leadership of ‘a campaign’. In fact, none of the 19 photos of Conservative politicians in the July 2019 Living in Havering magazine, are campaign related. A common sense reading of the quoted passage implies taxpayers are paying for thinly disguised Conservative PR.

The Section 151 officer might wish to review the opinion sent to me on 17th June, 2019.

1 If you wish to see what Living in Havering looked like immediately before Damian became Leader go to https://issuu.com/haveringcouncil/docs/5348_living181_issuu
2 https://issuu.com/haveringcouncil/docs/5658_at_the_heart_spring_19_issuu
3 email dated 17th June 2019
4 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/5670/1878324.pdf
5 The government clearly anticipate that opposition councillors will also feature in Council magazines. “If views expressed by, or attributed to, individual councillors do not reflect the views of the local authority itself, such publicity should make this fact clear.” This hasn’t happened in recent years but regional Conservative politicians have featured recently: Keith Prince the GLA Conservative member for Havering for example.

Damian White’s a right-wing extremist who oozes machismo fuelled malice whilst inflicting spending cuts. His tragic lack of political aspiration only extends to keeping, “council tax increases as low as possible..”(2) (my emphasis)

Damian reduced Havering’s budget by £2 million when he defied government approved increases. The two million would have saved the library service and kept Chafford pool open.

Damian presents his political choices as though they’re inevitable.

“The funding Havering Council gets from central government has reduced by over £29 million since 2014/15 and £7 million more will be lost over the next two years.”(3)

This seems to tell us that cuts have been inflicted by the government. They haven’t. If the government’s proposition had been followed, libraries would have been saved. The 1,196,805 library users were sacrificed because they aren’t valued by Damian.

1,196,805 users of the libraries are victims of Damian’s obsession. His choice over Chafford leisure pool is a political punishment beating for the 100,000 users in an area which doesn’t vote Conservative. This pool allegedly needs £233,000 of maintenance, which is unaffordable.(4) If you deliberately reduce revenues then it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that essential services become unaffordable.

Damian’s minority administration should be stopped before irreparable damage to Havering is done.

1 https://consultation.havering.gov.uk/communications/haveringfrontdoors/supporting_documents/Havering%20front%20doors%20consultation%20PDF.pdf p7 Havering’s population is about 250,000 and therefore four times more than the total population use the library service.
2 ibid p3 The figures are: libraries cuts will yield £1.14M and another £233,000 from Chafford. Putting both together they are comfortably inside the £2 million not raised from Council Tax.
3 ibid p6 Damian is trying to protect the Conservative government by dating this from 2014. George Osborne’s austerity programme began in 2010. If we take that as the starting point then we find that there has been
“49.1% real-terms reduction in government funding for local authorities, 2010-11 to 2017-18.” This translates into a,
“28.6% real-terms reduction in local authorities’ spending power (government funding plus council tax), 2010-11 to 2017-18.” https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Financial-sustainabilty-of-local-authorites-2018.pdf p6
4 https://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/rainham-s-chafford-sports-complex-set-to-close-1-5943625

Damian’s 2019 budget was a vain effort at mitigating the Conservative government’s austerity programme, which has hollowed out Havering’s services. His response was a moral disgrace.¹ It attacked the vulnerable,² the bereaved and charities. Havering’s finances are challenged by demand pressures from social services for the elderly and vulnerable children. Damian needs to ‘Think the Unthinkable’.

Damian’s the victim of an extremist government who squander money. Without even bothering to highlight Chris Grayling’s farcical failings,³ the catalogue of major abortive programmes is, seemingly, endless. HS2’s budget has been extended to £30 billion to reduce the journey time to Birmingham by 20 minutes. This makes Crossrail look cheap. Brexit is costed at £26 billion, which doesn’t look like value for money.

So Damian has to ‘Think the Unthinkable’ and call out the government. In 2017 Surrey’s council leader, David Hodge, did precisely that when he proposed a 15% Council Tax increase! The proposed increase was withdrawn, presumably after a sweetheart deal was done.⁴ Havering could do with a deal like that instead of repressive immoral attacks on the poor.

1 It was a moral disgrace because Damian chose not to increase Council Tax by the amount authorised by the government. The difference was made up by attacking the vulnerable and disabled. This attack was a choice by Damian to cause harm in order that he should have bragging rights in ‘keeping Council Tax low’.

2 Council tax arrears for 2018-9 was £4,743,189. To increase Council Tax by 67% for the vulnerable and 33.4% for the disabled could well mean that those arrears will increase for the year 2019-20. Piling debt and stress onto the vulnerable and disabled doesn’t appear to me to be a sound programme. Tax arrears information from Freedom of Information reply AIR 17906 C dated 25^th June 2019

3 £500 million on the Probation Service changes was the most costly of his errors.

4 There were four Cabinet ministers with Surrey constituencies in 2017.

See https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/19/surrey-confirms-plans-to-raise-council-tax-by-15 and for the withdrawal see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-38895493

The two leaflets are intouch with you and News from Shaun Bailey. Conservatives in Havering were obliterated in the 2019 Euro elections and this is their attempt at retrieving the situation.¹

Hornchurch’s leaflet leads with a banner front page More Bobbies on the Beat. This refers to five police officers Havering is sponsoring for £900,000 over the next three years.

The leaflet refers to Viddy Persaud’s Rent-A-Cop scheme. Her proposition is:

1. Five additional police officers will patrol Havering, which has

2. 18 wards including Romford, Hornchurch, Collier Row, Harold Hill and Rainham, which has

3. 250,000 people, who

4. will feel safe and grateful to the Conservative party.

Leaflets like this heighten expectations but make unachievable promises. Worse, voters might feel £900,000 could be better spent elsewhere.

Shaun Bailey sent me News from Shaun Bailey. He’s the Conservative Mayoral candidate. Shaun isn’t delusional in the same way as Viddy. His proposition is:

1. 1800 additional Met police officers, which means

2. Havering gets 56 more police officers, which means

3. 18 wards will get three additional police officers each, which means

4. 250,000 people will feel safe and grateful to the Conservative party.

Shaun’s delusion emerges when he says, “I’ll cut waste at City Hall,” to pay for these police officers.² Even the Conservative GLA candidate, Keith Prince, disagrees with him because he’s only got finance for 1400 additional police officers from the same ‘City Hall waste’.

Neither candidate comments on the billion pounds the Conservative government have taken from the Met’s budget, which is why the Met is understaffed in the first place. The Conservative austerity programme has left Havering without sufficient police to fight crime.

Conservatives face oblivion in the GLA elections. The Rent-A-Cop scheme is meant to bolster Conservative credentials for that election. Baldrick’s cunning plans usually ended in disastrous failure perhaps Viddy’s Conservatives will go the same way?

1 Both were delivered week beginning 10^th June 2019.

2 Shaun is committed to about £18 million once all the costs are included like: senior officers, cars, administration staff and buildings.

On our Council estate in north-east London we have a diverse group of people including some very obnoxious individuals. At the repulsive end of the spectrum our caretaker came across a woman sleeping rough in the basement of one of our tower blocks. She was sleeping on a two seater sofa and smelt to high heaven. When challenged she was clearly either drunk or on drugs. Notwithstanding the famous film The Lady in the Van which portrayed the kindly, tolerant Alan Bennett she wasn’t dealt with in that way. She was a nuisance to be removed as quickly as possible. A knee jerk reaction but what did it reveal about us and our society?

Give our caretaker his due he persisted in a non-aggressive way as he knew she wasn’t a resident. She claimed to have been visiting friends. This proved to be true when the woman actually named two of our residents. He reported back to the office, and our Estate Manager immediately contacted the police.

This was the first step. Already the rough sleeper had been promoted to being a threat when in reality all she was was a vulnerable person with catastrophic low self-esteem. She was only a threat to herself as anyone could see. But no steps were taken to ascertain what simple, compassionate things could be done for her. Simple non-threatening things like showing her where the shower was; getting her a sandwich and a cup of tea; asking if anyone could come and pick her up and whether she was on a social worker list. No. The police were called to potentially criminalise her.

The second step happened when the police arrived. Our Manager and a woman PC went to see if she was still there. She was. Whilst being spoken to by the police officer, the Manager noted how filthy she was and she had horribly ulcerated legs. When asked how she came to be on the sofa, she said “a bloke had dragged it out of one of the pram sheds for her.” The officer was reluctant to arrest her, and the Manager only wanted her off the estate, so she was told to go! Everyone in authority wanted to sweep this woman under the carpet- Out of sight, out of mind. So even though they knew that she had been rejected by her friends and was clearly ill the solution was to put her back on the streets.

The woman’s friend told us that the woman had a serious drug and drinking problem. So much so that she had slept around in order to raise cash for her habits. Her ‘social’ life resulted in her having seven children over the past ten years. Whilst she was living in her own council flat, she had gotten into trouble several times for shop-lifting. However, with the drinking and the unruly behaviour she was evicted for non- payment of the rent. Everyone knew that she led a chaotic undisciplined life but they still applied the ‘rules’ associated with making yourself intentionally homeless. Without cash or savings she was now homeless and the downward spiral of her life accelerated.

She tried a housing associations and two charities but the court order was implemented in two weeks leaving this vulnerable woman on the streets. The system was hostile to her. At rock bottom of the ladder called humanity she once again turned to prostitution to finance her life.

Alan Bennett showed that even the most vulnerable and weakest members of society deserve compassion but I’m afraid that he is very much the exception. This vulnerable woman wandered off the estate to everyone’s relief and became a problem for someone else.

Mike