We understand that somewhere in cyber space there are unfounded allegations that we are not letting all comments through.
Well in certain respects that is correct, when we first started this blog many months ago now we did not want to moderate comments at all, and if you remember we put out a number of warnings to that effect when certain people started to play dirty.
We will not go through with you the long lists of really abusive comments that we have moderated out, or the pornographic ones either.
We have managed to get some external help on this and now the only comments that will be moderated are those that contain threats, abuse, pornography, or come from known BNP supporters, yes there are quite a lot of those.
That is now our policy, we believe we are being fair to our readers and our supporters on this, but if you have another view, or can come up with something else we would appreciate your comments.
Wednesday 14 October 2009
Tuesday 6 October 2009
IS THIS A CHALLENGE?
Take a short drive, or even a brisk walk down to the A406 today and you will see the huge billboard poster proclaiming that Richard Barnbrook will be standing at the next general election in a bid to become MP for Barking.
Nothing new about that you might say, but have a closer look at the billboard. NO mention at all of the British National Party, no sign at all of the usual BNP tag. Strange this? no matter how unprofessional we all believe the BNP are there is no way that they as a party would spend anything between £3000/4000 without having their banner flying proud on it.
So just what is going on? There is we hear a very strong indication that Barnbrook is now very distant from his party, they appear to have pushed him to the back of a very long queue.
Now you could take the view that this is a good thing for Barking and certainly for M Hodge and the Labour party if Barnbrook does not have the party machinery behind him.
But, there is we hear another train of thought that this could be an even more dangerous situation, that is if Barnbrook is going to stand as an Independent candidate. True he will not have the party machine, but, don't underestimate the support that Barnbrook can muster on his own.
Even on this blog Graham Letchford has stated that he works with Barnbrook because he is the only person who gets things done.
There is we hear a strong indication that at least 2 of the BNP councillors may also stand as Independents as well, they have both we hear worked their wards and built up a strong following, without being overtly racist.
So how dangerous is this for Barking? how do you fight an Independent? when we are constantly being told that the voters no longer trust the main political parties to deliver and work for them.
This could be a very dangerous time in local politics, and a time when you would have thought that the local party would have been relying on its strongest and trusted councillors to bring in the vote as they have done in the past instead of throwing them on the scrapheap, just to serve an agenda of personal vendetta and corruption.
Nothing new about that you might say, but have a closer look at the billboard. NO mention at all of the British National Party, no sign at all of the usual BNP tag. Strange this? no matter how unprofessional we all believe the BNP are there is no way that they as a party would spend anything between £3000/4000 without having their banner flying proud on it.
So just what is going on? There is we hear a very strong indication that Barnbrook is now very distant from his party, they appear to have pushed him to the back of a very long queue.
Now you could take the view that this is a good thing for Barking and certainly for M Hodge and the Labour party if Barnbrook does not have the party machinery behind him.
But, there is we hear another train of thought that this could be an even more dangerous situation, that is if Barnbrook is going to stand as an Independent candidate. True he will not have the party machine, but, don't underestimate the support that Barnbrook can muster on his own.
Even on this blog Graham Letchford has stated that he works with Barnbrook because he is the only person who gets things done.
There is we hear a strong indication that at least 2 of the BNP councillors may also stand as Independents as well, they have both we hear worked their wards and built up a strong following, without being overtly racist.
So how dangerous is this for Barking? how do you fight an Independent? when we are constantly being told that the voters no longer trust the main political parties to deliver and work for them.
This could be a very dangerous time in local politics, and a time when you would have thought that the local party would have been relying on its strongest and trusted councillors to bring in the vote as they have done in the past instead of throwing them on the scrapheap, just to serve an agenda of personal vendetta and corruption.
Sunday 4 October 2009
FINANCE
We have been reading through our emails over the weekend, looking for a story that challenge North Street to come up with the evidence.
Over a number of posts we have requested information about Barking CLP finances, as we are very much aware that Barking members have had no financial up date for over a year.
Time is rolling on and with any election plan there should be a sound financial plan to go with it. Needless to say in Barking there is no sign of a financial plan. In fact we understand that wards are being told they have to finance their own elections. You should be asking why? You should be asking where your money is being spent.
We have explained to our readers in a previous post how the membership funding is supposed to be split up, but of course in Barking nothing runs as it does in the rest of the country. Wards are we hear expected to do their own fund raising.
Does this state of affairs mean that whatever money, if there is any, in Barking CLP's account will only pay for the MPs election?
We are reliably informed that Dagenham CLP will not have this problem as they are very well supported by the Unions, but, it seems that Barking (North Street) have not made the same efforts to befriend the unions and we are told it is very unlikely that they will see much help coming from that quarter.
Members at their next ward meetings should be raising the question about the financing of the Local Elections, and they need to start doing that now, because if they leave it to the last minute raising that kind of cash could be a major problem for a lot of the wards in Barking.
Don't say you were not warned, ask to see the finances, find out just what your money is being spent on.
Over a number of posts we have requested information about Barking CLP finances, as we are very much aware that Barking members have had no financial up date for over a year.
Time is rolling on and with any election plan there should be a sound financial plan to go with it. Needless to say in Barking there is no sign of a financial plan. In fact we understand that wards are being told they have to finance their own elections. You should be asking why? You should be asking where your money is being spent.
We have explained to our readers in a previous post how the membership funding is supposed to be split up, but of course in Barking nothing runs as it does in the rest of the country. Wards are we hear expected to do their own fund raising.
Does this state of affairs mean that whatever money, if there is any, in Barking CLP's account will only pay for the MPs election?
We are reliably informed that Dagenham CLP will not have this problem as they are very well supported by the Unions, but, it seems that Barking (North Street) have not made the same efforts to befriend the unions and we are told it is very unlikely that they will see much help coming from that quarter.
Members at their next ward meetings should be raising the question about the financing of the Local Elections, and they need to start doing that now, because if they leave it to the last minute raising that kind of cash could be a major problem for a lot of the wards in Barking.
Don't say you were not warned, ask to see the finances, find out just what your money is being spent on.
Friday 2 October 2009
Part 5
This posting includes, allegations,rumour,observations,anecdote, historical memory/fact and written evidence.
At the Eastbury ward EGM we are told that further statements were read out from a number of ward members who had been visited by Mr Riaz and they too were asked to sign bits of paper, some were asked to sign a paper to support Mr Riaz in his bid to become a councillor.
Several statements told how they were not only visited by Mr Riaz, but, he was accompanied by Laila Butt and Mr Aziz, we are told that evidence was provided to confirm this as the two of them left their business cards. It seems that the approach when visited by the 3 of them was different. Ward members were told that it was believed that members at Eastbury ward were racist and would not put forward any BME candidates to be councillors.
Of course the 3 of them were very selective which of the ward members they visited together.
At the finish Eastbury ward we are told voted to write a letter of complaint to the General Secretary of the Labour Party asking him to investigate these matters. Ward members were pretty confident that this would all be sorted out it is said.
We have been told that meanwhile the Chairman of Eastbury Ward wrote a letter to Ken Clark at London region telling him that he would be raising this matter at the Barking CLP AGM.
Many of our readers and supporters will be very much aware of what happened on that evening, not only were Eastbury ward members banned from entering the building where the AGM was being held, but, so were many union delegates and long term members of the party who only the week before had received a letter inviting them to the AGM.
Ken Clark wrote back to the Eastbury Ward members telling them that as far as he was concerned the AGM had to be re-run and it would be managed by London Region, although we hear he did remove Mr Riaz from the membership list of Eastbury.
Eastbury ward members were not at all happy with the response received from Ken Clark, but to move on they agreed to take part in yet another AGM, where we are told the outcomes were exactly the same as before, other than of course none of the nominations that Eastbury had put forward to Barking CLP were taken into consideration.
We are reliably informed that Rob Chapman had a very uncomfortable evening at the meeting.
Now the complaints from Eastbury Ward members is still ongoing as with all things there is a twist in the tail.
It seems Mr Riaz telephoned one of the ward members to thank him for all of his help in getting rid of the ward secretary and further damaging her prospects of being re-selected as a councillor, we know that this member has made a further written statement on this.
But, this is not the biggest twist in this, now if you go back over the time frame we have laid out for you, and bear in mind that it is alleged that Mr Riaz was a very active party member, working in M Hodge office as a part of her Action Team.
Then why??in early January did Mr Riaz call at the home of the Leader of the Lib Dems in Barking and Dagenham and tell her that he was a very active member of the Lib Dem party in the borough, he had spoken to a senior officer in the parties head office and they had agreed that he would be 1 of the candidates for the Lib Dems in Eastbury ward for the 2010 Local elections.
We are told that the Lib Dem Leader was not at all comfortable with his approach and indeed did check him out with senior party officials who told her, yes Mr Riaz is very active in the borough especially in Eastbury ward and he was just what they needed and wanted as a candidate in the next local elections.
We are told that this information has been passed back to Eastbury members and they have insisted that a further letter be sent to the General Secretary drawing his attention to this and again putting forward their concerns about the data protection act.
Now we are not making any judgements on this further news, it has been passed onto us and we will leave it up to our friends and supporters to make their own judgements, but, just how much of all of this were Laila Butt and Mr Aziz involved in? please bear in mind the relationships between them that we have outlined at the begining.
Also another very important question to be answered - Why? were so many members banned from attending the Barking CLP AGM, despite we are told many of them attending for years in the past, and despite many of the receiving a letter from the CLP Secretary only the week before inviting them to attend.
This post contains allegations,rumour,observations,anecdote,historical memory/fact and lots of written evidence.
At the Eastbury ward EGM we are told that further statements were read out from a number of ward members who had been visited by Mr Riaz and they too were asked to sign bits of paper, some were asked to sign a paper to support Mr Riaz in his bid to become a councillor.
Several statements told how they were not only visited by Mr Riaz, but, he was accompanied by Laila Butt and Mr Aziz, we are told that evidence was provided to confirm this as the two of them left their business cards. It seems that the approach when visited by the 3 of them was different. Ward members were told that it was believed that members at Eastbury ward were racist and would not put forward any BME candidates to be councillors.
Of course the 3 of them were very selective which of the ward members they visited together.
At the finish Eastbury ward we are told voted to write a letter of complaint to the General Secretary of the Labour Party asking him to investigate these matters. Ward members were pretty confident that this would all be sorted out it is said.
We have been told that meanwhile the Chairman of Eastbury Ward wrote a letter to Ken Clark at London region telling him that he would be raising this matter at the Barking CLP AGM.
Many of our readers and supporters will be very much aware of what happened on that evening, not only were Eastbury ward members banned from entering the building where the AGM was being held, but, so were many union delegates and long term members of the party who only the week before had received a letter inviting them to the AGM.
Ken Clark wrote back to the Eastbury Ward members telling them that as far as he was concerned the AGM had to be re-run and it would be managed by London Region, although we hear he did remove Mr Riaz from the membership list of Eastbury.
Eastbury ward members were not at all happy with the response received from Ken Clark, but to move on they agreed to take part in yet another AGM, where we are told the outcomes were exactly the same as before, other than of course none of the nominations that Eastbury had put forward to Barking CLP were taken into consideration.
We are reliably informed that Rob Chapman had a very uncomfortable evening at the meeting.
Now the complaints from Eastbury Ward members is still ongoing as with all things there is a twist in the tail.
It seems Mr Riaz telephoned one of the ward members to thank him for all of his help in getting rid of the ward secretary and further damaging her prospects of being re-selected as a councillor, we know that this member has made a further written statement on this.
But, this is not the biggest twist in this, now if you go back over the time frame we have laid out for you, and bear in mind that it is alleged that Mr Riaz was a very active party member, working in M Hodge office as a part of her Action Team.
Then why??in early January did Mr Riaz call at the home of the Leader of the Lib Dems in Barking and Dagenham and tell her that he was a very active member of the Lib Dem party in the borough, he had spoken to a senior officer in the parties head office and they had agreed that he would be 1 of the candidates for the Lib Dems in Eastbury ward for the 2010 Local elections.
We are told that the Lib Dem Leader was not at all comfortable with his approach and indeed did check him out with senior party officials who told her, yes Mr Riaz is very active in the borough especially in Eastbury ward and he was just what they needed and wanted as a candidate in the next local elections.
We are told that this information has been passed back to Eastbury members and they have insisted that a further letter be sent to the General Secretary drawing his attention to this and again putting forward their concerns about the data protection act.
Now we are not making any judgements on this further news, it has been passed onto us and we will leave it up to our friends and supporters to make their own judgements, but, just how much of all of this were Laila Butt and Mr Aziz involved in? please bear in mind the relationships between them that we have outlined at the begining.
Also another very important question to be answered - Why? were so many members banned from attending the Barking CLP AGM, despite we are told many of them attending for years in the past, and despite many of the receiving a letter from the CLP Secretary only the week before inviting them to attend.
This post contains allegations,rumour,observations,anecdote,historical memory/fact and lots of written evidence.
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