Forum Topic

Rotten Boroughs - again

L.B.H. making their umpteenth appearance in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs column.

Vanessa Smith ● 1637d20 Comments

Oh crikey! I'll have a look at the Eye :o

Basil Finnis ● 1637d

Vanessa, could we please get a link on that?

David Lesniak ● 1637d

https://www.facebook.com/BrentfordTV/photos/gm.1145913242837103/1979235198918010/

Vanessa Smith ● 1637d

Did Ealing feature too? Both Labour administrations are very similar, pants and uncaring for certain parts that don't vote for them.

Peter King ● 1637d

Thanks, Vanessa. Sad to see gay rights might be in peril down to Labour leadership. Per the link and comment re diversity, are there any gay Labour councillors in Hounslow? Clearly none on the Curran cabinet. Also, given the recent article in the Chiswick Calendar about local churches dialling back on gay rights, I'd be concerned for all sexual and gender minorities but especially your kids who identify as that.

David Lesniak ● 1637d

Richard Eason who has been de-selected is gay and was also openly critical of the Leadership and opposed the Tesco/Homebase development which is the subject of a public inquiry going on at the moment. Hounslow approved it and it has been called in by Michael Gove. We can only see these selections as a retrograde step for some residents of our borough.

Vanessa Smith ● 1637d

SStarmer seems happy for the female sex to disappear. I wonder if I charged around stating that I self identify as a man people would just agree that, despite physical appearance, I am indeed a man and be able to access all spaces and privileges that accord to that sex? That is increasingly what men are doing - ie self identifying as women.  The NHS asking men whether they are pregnant before a scan is just ludicrous. Very pleased about the cycling decision today.

Claire Moran ● 1637d

I thought Hounslow was award winning. Now they’re double award winning !

Maggie Dodge ● 1637d

It is so disproportionate. It’s quite disgraceful. What a rotten Borough through to the core.

Steve Taylor ● 1637d

What cycling decision is that, Claire?Maybe dial back on the SS stuff especially in light of Boris making jokes about trans people this week? Not that he has a stellar reputation on sexual and gender diversity, mind you.And thanks, Vanessa, I didn't know that about Richard. But it does make one wonder if the gay guy got silenced. Optics don't look good.

David Lesniak ● 1636d

I agree the optics do not look good.People in public office need to be very careful about what they say and do. The culture is set from the top. If the PM gets away with homophobic language then a council leader might very well think they can get away with it into. And that is in no way defending anything a Hounslow councillor has said.And let’s be clear about what the PM thinks of women...´Something must be found, first, to restore women’s desire to be married. That means addressing the feebleness of the modern Briton, his reluctance or inability to take control of his woman and be head of a household’Now, that’s a bad optic, certainly.

Stewart Jones ● 1636d

The Private Eye article is factually incorrect. 40% of Labour councillors are not going to be Muslim. It has been claimed that 40% of the new candidates are Muslim but I have not seen that verified elsewhere.Brentford Today is an excellent resource for finding out what is happening and countering misreporting elsewhere. For instance the claim has been made that Hanif Khan was deselected from his original ward for being 'the wrong sort of Muslim'. This is debunked by Cllr Richard Foote who points out not many people turned up to the original selection meeting, most of them were not Muslim and the main reason for his de-selection was that many felt he hadn't been a particularly good councillor.Any insinuations of some sort of entryist plot risk veering into the territory of Islamophobia. From what I'm told the next leader of Hounslow Council will be a Hindu and most of the current leadership team will remain in place and there will be no major shift in direction. The forty or fifty councillors elected for Labour won't be a total exact representation of the make up of the borough but they will be reasonably close and it would be possible for a minority group of councillors to dictate policies that were contrary to Labour party ideals.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 1636d

So if the next ‘Leader’ isn’t going to reshuffle the cabinet he won’t be much of a Leader if he simply presides of the same bunch of clowns. So the Borough remains rotten with or without Curran!  What percentage of Councillors are currently Muslim?

Steve Taylor ● 1636d

You need to reflect on how your question differs from asking "What percentage of Councillors are currently Jewish?"

Jeremy Parkinson ● 1636d

No I don’t. I am referring specifically to the Private Eye article and your assertion that the article was factually incorrect about the percentage of Muslim candidates. The article doesn’t refer to the percentage of Jews living in the Borough or the number of Catholics and compare them with the number of Councillors. So what percentage of current Councillors are Muslim?

Steve Taylor ● 1636d

It doesn't matter.There was a typo in my early post where I said it would be possible for a minority group of councillors to dictate police. I meant the opposite.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 1636d

It does matter. You assert that the representation will be reasonably close. How can this be if Private Eye asserts that the demographic of the Borough is 14% Muslim with 40% of future councillors being Muslim. I simply asked the question, based on your assertion and obvious expertise, what percentage of current Cllrs are Muslim. Somehow you are reluctant to share this info!! 

Steve Taylor ● 1636d

Cllr. Foote's assertions are really questionable regarding the effectiveness of the two councillors that were de-selected. Are we really supposed to believe that the members of the ward party sat silently for four years, and never asked what their elected representatives were doing - what local activities they were involved in etc. What about regular written reports to ward members - did no-one think to question the  councillors? God alone knows what the ward meetings discussed then, if pertinent questions were never asked. Why would you wait four years then start complaining? I cannot see that Cllr. Foote would really know if there was discrimination at work re Cllr. Khan who is an Ahmadiyya. But none of that should be allowed to play any part in our politics to most of us it is immaterial, as all religious beliefs should be, that these issues seem to be creeping in should worry us all.

Vanessa Smith ● 1636d

And  today Johnson was forced to backtrack on his personal view that conversion therapy is a good thing. The man is a monster.

Stewart Jones ● 1636d

The Labour party have published a full list of their candidates. If you can give one example of someone selected who may be primarily motivated by religion rather than their political beliefs and commitment to the values of the party they are standing to represent, then let's hear about it. Otherwise, all this talk about 'too many Muslims' and a 'creeping' change of influence is just naked Islamophobia.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 1631d