Storm in a Political Teacup?

Readers will recognize that Open Newham is not above the salacious; nor opposed to rummaging through the political detritus every now and again.

But even we were unsure about how to deal with this story.

Our first response was that it is a bit of a storm in a teacup. A bit of, “he said, she said”. A difference of opinion and a bit of a slanging match. We’d put it on a shelf and see if anything develops.

It was therefore something of a surprise to be contacted by advocates of both sides anxious to put their side of the story.

Briefly, Green St Councillor, Lewis Godfrey and the Independent Group are in a dispute, most of which is being played out on social media.

The genesis appears to be the complaints made by and against Cllr Godfrey on the day of the Plaistow North byelection.

Godfrey asserted that Independent Group monitors were intimidating voters. The Independent Group lodged a complaint against Godfrey, (this is currently on the desk of the Monitoring Officer).

It comes via a spat over a protest by market traders, against the mayor when she launched the bid to become the Borough of Culture at Queen’s Market. Time passed and the council came to discuss a motion on the situation in Gaza, tabled by the Independent Group members.

An amendment was offered by Labour Cllrs Whitworth and Das Gupta. This was agreed and accepted into the motion.

It appears that the mover of the original motion, Cllr Mirza, voted to agree the amendment. And then he voted against the substantive motion. Which does seem to be a little illogical.

Out in the community it is said that Mirza did not vote for the amendment. And, in the spirit of the pantomime season, we are entertained by cries of “oh yes he did” and replies of “oh no he didn’t”.

Underneath it all, we think that the Godfrey camp wishes to portray Mirza as untruthful (see how sensitive we are in our choice of words!) and therefore as unreliable. The Independent position is that this was simply a bit of a mix up about how the procedure for debates works.

We remain unclear as to the importance of this spat.

If the Godfrey camp succeeds, Mirza will be labeled as unreliable and untruthful. If the Mirza camp succeed, Godfrey will be labeled for making mountains out of molehills, perhaps in an attempt to divert attention away from the complaint he faces from the day of the byelection.

So here it is, blow by blow:

The Genesis.