It seems that the bid to become the Borough of Culture has been strengthened with a new appointment to the bid team. The new appointee comes with a wealth of journalistic experience which seems to focus, almost exclusively on LBGTQAA+ issues.

There was a time when Newham Labour was a bastion which sent out canvassers to neighbouring boroughs to bolster their election attempts. We can recall dozens of activists from Newham supporting Labour candidates in Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham and further afield into deepest Essex.

Labour Party members will have been lucky enough to receive a New Year’s message from the Mayor.

We have been challenged!

We were asked point blank, “did we want to see the Galloway event cancelled?” We’d be delighted to see him bugger off to one of the more repressive regimes that he seems to favour. But pending that, we would NOT like to see his talk cancelled.

We see that Newham Independents have chosen a second candidate for Plashet Ward. This brings the running total of male/female declared candidates to 6:1. They have, as yet, chosen not to select any trans or non-binary candidates.

On this occasion they have chosen a former Tory activist and candidate.

A short while ago, we raised the point that Newham has failed to start any new council or social homes for the past three years. We understand that this revelation caused several members of the executive to be upset. So they should be.

Readers will recall that, over a year ago, Cllr Terry Paul and the mayor had something of a contre temps.

In short, at a meeting of the Budget Working Commission, Cllr Paul questioned the mayor on her budget plans. Mayor Fiaz felt “unsafe” when being questioned. Fiaz accused Paul of racism and misogyny. Paul accused Fiaz of bullying.

Twitter has been buzzing with the news of Galloway’s impending appearance along the Barking Road.

It does seem that not everyone is quite as keen as the event organisers to see him back in Newham. Several have asked why Newham Council is allowing their venue to be used by someone they accuse of being antisemitic.

A ceasefire, like the ceasefire that was in place on October 6th 2023? Or a ceasefire like the one Mohammed negotiated with the Quraysh?

The conflict in Gaza has brought back a nationally well known, though not necessarily well-loved, face to Newham. The Newham Independent Group are advertising an event in Newham with George Galloway.

When we interviewed Mehmood Mirza, he was at pains to point out that he wanted Newham Independents to be a broader coalition. He reminded us that he was a socialist and when he was in the Labour Party, he was on its left.

The full quote from Abraham Lincoln is, “a house divided against itself, cannot stand”. It is a salutary reminder to the current administration.

We thought that we would revisit the consultants’ report on the problems between Scrutiny and the Mayor and Cabinet. Have things improved, we ask?

We fear not.

(We’ve taken the liberty of appropriating the NIG graphics, again!)

We know that there will be a minimum of £25m in cuts. Councillors are indicating that the level of cuts could run to £40m.

It seems that the Independent Group are dripping out the news to prolong the suspense, but we see that former Labour councillor, Idris Ibrahim will also go on the slate for Green St West.

The Independent Group promised to begin recruiting for candidates in 2026 immediately after the Plaistow North byelection. They have been true to their word and have announced their candidate for Green St West. The whispers from Labour Group suggest that many of the current crop of Labour councillors do not intend to stand again in 2026. If this is true, Labour will be on the back foot when it comes to candidate selection, probably in March 2026.

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.

A letter, purporting to represent a large number of Muslim organisations in the borough has been written to Lyn Brown MP. Brown, readers will recall, chose not to vote for the SNP cease-fire motion.

The purpose of this series is not to support or challenge the policies that the mayor has reneged on, it is simply to remind readers that there were significant promises made to the electorate that have been ditched once she got into office.

We will touch on this only briefly because we have covered it at length elsewhere. However, we should note that within the space of 12 months, Mayor Fiaz had suddenly dropped the manifesto commitment to 50% social housing in all new developments.

We are anticipating the announcement of cuts totalling £40m. Behind this are the hidden service cuts that have not been announced.

For instance, last year, Special Education Needs and Disability Children (SEND) packages were frozen by the London Borough of Newham. This means that their budgets were not increased while their costs rose.