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Fiaz Scores Own-Goal

In the final minutes of the game, Jarrod Bowen secured the win for West Ham in the Europa Conference League.

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Labour Ridding Itself of Corbynista Candidates?

The Guardian reported that Jamie Driscoll, a Tyneside Corbynista has been barred from the long-list of candidates for the prospective candidate for Mayor of the North East. An interesting decision given that Discoll is the current mayor for the North of Tyne area. It seems slowly the party machine is grinding its way through the remaining Corbynistas.

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The Fiaz Index

A reader suggested that we compile an index to assist readers interested in the career of Newham Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz. We have put together a short index that will take readers to some of the highlights.

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The Local Parties On-Line

A variety of political parties will be vying for the two seats, up for grabs in the forthcoming by elections. We thought that we’d like to take a look at how the various political parties advertise themselves.

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Keeping it in the Family

We reported a year ago, on the increasingly nepotistic appearance of the Newham Labour Group, in the remarkable number of close relations on the council. Well, it seems that Labour has done it again.

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One Year On, and Another Broken Promise

Gone are the days when simple councillor, Fiaz could side with any protest group and lament the awful goings on under Mayor Wales. All that was needed was a change of mayor and all would be well. Councillor R Fiaz was clearly an ally of protesters and the Focus E15 Campaign in particular.

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Is the Labour Group Going Broke?

It may or may not be known to readers, but the ruling Labour Group collects subs from its members. These are not insignificant sums and are drawn down as a percentage of the councillors’ incomes from their work on the council.

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More Sad Farewells

Luke Charters and Cecelia Welsh are standing down, having served a full one year on the council.

After receiving over 200 applications from party members to stand for council, the Labour Party managed to interview almost a third of them and selected sixty plus, outstanding candidates to fight the seats for Labour in 2022.

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Mayor Loses Control and Trust of Labour Group

Our thanks to all of those members of the Labour Group (and others) who kindly sent in the information that appears below. This was more than we have had for any topic. We’d like to thank you all personally, but of course, we won’t.

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A Massive Labour Win, with some Lessons for Newham?

Now that the dust has settled from the local elections, we thought that we’d take a look at any lessons for Newham.

Nationally, the Tories have done their level best to make themselves unelectable and Labour has been the main beneficiary, picking up over 500 of the 1000 plus seats the Tories lost. As commentators have noted, this puts Labour on track to become the largest party in a hung parliament.

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Why Does Labour Still Have a Problem with Jews?

Jeremy Corbyn might have tried to justify his comments when he equated Jews and Zionists, but it didn’t really work. Readers will recall that in 2013, when Corbyn was speaking at a conference, he stated that Zionists had, “no sense of irony” despite “having lived in this country for a very long time”.

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A New Red-Green Alliance in the Making?

Having scaled the political heights and becoming the unexpected leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn discovered how slippery the greasy pole was. Not only did he lose his position as leader, but he found himself without the whip of the party he had been leading, only months before.

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An Intersectional Conundrum

The Recorder reported upon a clash at Plashet School between “religious and secular staff” with regard to a new equalities policy. It might otherwise be described as a clash between those who adhere to a traditional understanding of sex and gender and those who don’t.

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Oh, the Irony.

We have previously noted Labour’s attempt to smear the Tories over high taxes, (here). Well, it’s just politics and no-one should need to feel sorry for the Tories.

But somewhere, someone must be feeling just a little embarrassed when Newham’s Mayor Fiaz and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, hike their council taxes by almost 15% in one year, (see here).

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