“We’re Not Broke Yet”

To reflect the dire situation, it is believed that Newham is considering replacing its ship and crossed hammers coat of arms, with the ten axes.

Mayor Fiaz held a private briefing for Labour councillors on Monday 30th October. It was a courtesy to the comrades to let them know what was happening before the truth was revealed to the opposition members. Fiaz, it seems has woken up to the fact that “the situation is serious”. 

She hasn’t announced the level of the cuts to the council, but we are assured that there will be cuts. We are told that cabinet members have been told the global figure but not what level of cuts will be levied on their departments.

Of course, none of this is her fault. We understand that during the course of the evening, Robin Wales was blamed, presumably for leaving her only £50m in reserves instead of £100m. Her officers were blamed, apparently because she was “trying to do transformation, but the officers don’t know what transformation is”. 

We are now very familiar with the fact that Mayor Fiaz is never responsible for anything, but surely these officers, the ones that “don’t know what transformation is” are the very officers she recruited to deliver on her agenda.

At some point she has to take responsibility for her actions.

Some members, we are told did ask questions. We understand that the former finance cabinet member and friend of Robin Wales, Cllr Lester Hudson asked whether the free school meals programme was going to be cut. He didn’t receive an answer and his question was left hanging.

It may be that councillors are able to garner this tit-bit of knowledge from the mayor in due course. But if not, it may be a question that residents of Plaistow North ward would like to ask of candidate Aktharul Alam. 

“Is Labour going to cut the free school meals programme?”