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*Amendments - By-election News. East Ham Central; The Runners and Riders

We are committed to rectifying mistakes. When we get it wrong, we want to correct it. In that spirit we would like to offer our apologies to Ms Sabia Kamali.

In the article By-election News. East Ham Central; The Runners and Riders we inferred that Ms Kamali was the proprietor of the Candy Shack. This is a sweet shop that residents have repeatedly complained about in connection with drug sales in the vicinity.

Ms Kamali has been in touch to say that she is NOT the owner of the Candy Shack. The photos of her at the shop are from a charitable event. We are very happy to correct this and have edited the article accordingly.

She also wishes to assert that she has nothing to do with drug sales. Again we are happy to acknowledge this this. To the extent that this has caused her any distress, we sincerely apologise.

Lastly, she would like us to know that she did not submit her name for the East Ham Central council seat. As she asked us to, we have noted this. She has implied that she will be seeking another council seat as and when one becomes available.

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The Odds. Runners Begin to Declare

We do not have a definitive list. We understand that some 15 women submitted an interest in the vacancy. Here follows our odds on the runners (that we are aware of) in the East Ham Central Steeplechase.

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Open Newham Open Newham

Free Speech Under Attack from Newham Labour Mayor

The increasingly fragile egos of Newham’s Labour Mayor and Councillors are clearly irritated by the existence of websites and social media which expose their actions and prick at their fragile self-image.

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Open Newham Open Newham

Tax and Cut Terry; Auctioning off the Family Silver

For those of you unfamiliar with the reference, Harold MacMillan was a Tory prime minister in the 1960s. As Earl Stockton he was critical of the sale of public assets by a subsequent Tory government under Margaret Thatcher. He referred to it as “selling off the family silver”.

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Open Newham Open Newham

Runners and Riders: Update

We reflected upon the previous election experience of one Sabia Kamali, noting how she had previously fought a local election in Tower Hamlets AGAINST Labour and for Tower Hamlets First, the communitarian party of disgraced former mayor, Lutfur Rahman.

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Parking and Broken Promises

We have attached an open letter from Newham People Power.

In it they express their disappointment in the Mayor and in those councillors whom they see as failing them.

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An Unlikely Hero! And a Local Nero.

It would seem the tables have turned and John Gray, Newham’s former-Deputy Mayor, and one-time Mayor Fiazco’s Defender-in-Chief has now become her biggest tormentor.

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Open Newham Open Newham

Antisemitism. It’s Happened Again

We thought that the revelation last week, that Council Deputy Chair Nazir Ahmed had been suspended over allegations of antisemitism was the last of a line of cases which have bedevilled Newham Council and Newham Labour.

It wasn’t.

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Open Newham Open Newham

Embarrassing? Mayor promotes Local (Drug) Business?

Here is Mayor Fiaz, promoting a local business.

“Good for her”, we hear you say. Except that this particular vendor of highly sugared confections, appears, according to residents and local councillors, to be the local distribution hub for a number of even more unwholesome and illegal substances.

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An Irony Deficit at the Heart of the Council

This is one of those feel-good letters. Mayor Fiaz and her 41 fellow travellers can parade their socialist credentials in front of their comrades for absolutely no cost. They can poke their sanctimonious noses into the industrial relations of a private sector employer in the borough.

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Open Newham Open Newham

Massive Newham Tax Hikes. A Residents’ Rebellion?

You all know the story about the frog. If you throw a frog into boiling water it will hop straight out. If you put it in cold water and bring it to the boil, you’ll get perfectly poached frog legs.

In order to mask her incompetence, Mayor Fiaz is treating the people of Newham like frogs.

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Open Newham Open Newham

No Conflict of Interest Here Then.

The teachers of Little Ilford School are on strike, specifically they object to the Town Hall’s plans to expand the school by adding additional pupils.

This is a policy now championed by one Cllr Sarah Ruiz who is the Cabinet Member for Education and Children Social Care. Sarah was Labour, then Respect and now Labour again, with a dash of Momentum.

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Financial Crisis: Newham Cuts Free School Meals. Another Broken Promise.

For almost a decade Newham council ensured that all primary school children got at least one cooked meal a day. The rationale was varied. Good nutrition was said to encourage a healthy mind. Certainly, ensuring children were not hungry would mean that they were more likely to concentrate on their studies.

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Max Harvey Max Harvey

What do these Two Men Have in Common?

In case you can’t remember, the one on the left (figuratively and literally) is Jeremy Corbyn MP. Until April 2020 he was Leader of the Labour Party and by virtue of that role, Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.

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