Potted bios.

Good morning all,

thought it might be a good idea to set out a potted bio of who or what we are up against.

Now of course we have to accept that a lot of this will be rumour and allegation, but, enough of us have been around for a long time so we know how much weight can be put to the allegations.

It would be greatly appreciated, that where you feel you can add too, or possibly totally disprove any thing said in the bios we will of course make the necessary adjustments.

Lets start at the top M Hodge, back in 1994 the fight was on, Barking had lost its best constituency MP ever Jo Richardson. We were viewed as the safest seat in London, and Hodge did everything she could do up town to make sure she would be selected (we are told)

The fight in Barking was bloody and awful, she and her supporters did not care one little bit about how they fought, they were just out to win, it was dirty and nasty and a lot of really good people got hurt and hurt badly.

Its the nature of politics I suppose that those people who supported and worked for her then were convinced that as a well known name etc she would lift the name of the borough and bring it out of the darkness. Funnily enough now those same supporters who fought hard and dirty for her will readily admit that they were wrong, they hold their hands up and apologize and in fact the only one left still hanging on to her coat tails is George Shaw but more of him later.

In the intervening years all we can say is that yes M Hodge did start to raise the profile of the borough, and yes Barking was often mentioned in the house. BUT

While doing this she was also raising her own profile climbing the slippery ministerial pole and once she got there the mentions of Barking were over.

So what has brought us to where we are today, in 2005 during the General election campaign M Hodge was regularly heard to say to councillors I will be all right but you lot have had it. Then 2006 local elections what happens M Hodge opens her mouth to the press and we end up with 12 BNP councillors.

Things have obviously changed a lot for M Hodge since 2006 she is no longer a minister for a start, there are 2 stories going the rounds on this, firstly that she went to Gordon Brown and asked for compassionate leave because of Henry, who we all had great affection for and he is a sad loss. Secondly that Gordon Brown sacked her.

Whichever story is true she knows she is now stuck on the back bench and will never ever be a minister again, and power is like a drug for her she cannot and will not live without it, so she has decided that she will now run Barking & Dagenham council through her puppets, her trolls.

The only sure fine way she can get that to happen is to get rid of the strong, hard working and trusted councillors, who would fight her and stop her getting what she wants.

How did she set out to do this? well she physically could not do it herself could she, but, she has a little man who could and we will come to him next, Mike Haywood.

As said at the begining of this post, this is a gathering of rumours, allegations and conjecture.