Earlier this week, ( 06/08/24), the Overview and Scrutiny Committee met, together with Mayor Fiaz and Finance Czar, Zulfiqar Ali. These senior backbenchers continued to be concerned that the council’s finances might be a problem. In short, their concerns, which had been echoed on this website and in the press, were that Newham is heading for financial disaster.

It seems that several news outlets have taken up the issue of Newham’s pending financial difficulties. This was a matter we broke last week. If anything, the situation is worse than that which the press have picked up. The BBC covered the issue.

The Standard reported that Newham was “hurtling towards bankruptcy”.

It appears that Populo is struggling to meet its debts to Newham. It seems to have run out of cash. (Reported in Room 151)

This is an emotive headline, but what more can you expect from a “right-wing hate site”?

Leaving aside the jibes of political pygmies, the scale of the financial crisis facing Newham is becoming increasingly apparent, to anyone save our elected councillors apparently.

With the Paris Olympics about to start, Eddie Nestor of Radio London reflected on the Olympic Legacy to London, and Newham in particular.

This is not central to this article, (page 1) but can anyone tell us what this verbiage is for? Or indeed, what it means?

The members of London Councils met recently for their AGM and to elect their executive for the new year.

This is an organization well known to Mayor Fiaz, as she was already on the executive.

Behind Cllr Shaban’s bid to replace Fiaz are two women, one a councillor and one a wannabe councillor. Larisa Zilickaja is a relatively new councillor who has yet to make an impression. She has, we are told, been very active promoting Cllr Mohammed’s virtues as a replacement for Fiaz.

We pondered whether by-election results are an indication of the popularity of the council.

We have excluded the results of by-elections held on the same days as the general election (07/05/15; 04/07/24), because the turnout prompted by the parliamentary elections will skew the results.

On top of the victories in Maryland and Forest Gate North, Labour were successful in Beckton and Little Ilford.

This should take the immediate pressure off Fiaz, but the implications for the Labour Party are still not clear. It seems unlikely that the threatened defections by a number of councillors will now occur.

Political motions can be used for a variety of reasons.

At their best, they can influence policy and the direction in which the council moves; they can highlight issues that have been hidden; they can generate a change of thinking.

Prior to the election, Keir Starmer spoke to the Sun newspaper, regarding asylum seekers who had been denied status in the UK and who had exhausted their appeals. The context was that the Tories had reduced the number of repatriations in the months leading up to the election.

After a traumatic few weeks in which firstly he was accused of sexual assault and then forced to stand down as a candidate for the safe parliamentary seat in Barking, only to discover that after the selections, the allegations suddenly evaporated, Cllr Darren Rodwell has chosen to stand down as the leader of the ruling Labour Group in Barking and Dagenham.

Several names have been suggested as potential replacements for Mayor Fiaz. Whatever happens, it seems that the smart money is on Fiaz being given the Spanish Archer before the next election.

Mayor Fiaz has been observed taking credit for the byelection successes in Forest Gate North and Maryland. However, our thoughts are that her assertions that the crisis is over may be a little premature.

Over a year ago, Councillor Carlene Lee-Phakoe resigned from the cabinet. The cause of her resignation stemmed from a major policy difference between her and the mayor. In short, Lee-Phakoe, who had held the community safety portfolio, wanted a policy which included enforcement and moving on sex workers. The mayor didn’t.

Readers may have heard the sad news that former councillor, Paul Sathianesan recently died following a short illness.

We earlier reflected on the way in which allegations against Cllr Darren Rodwell, had suddenly appeared. And then, just as suddenly, disappeared. (Here and here.)

We may be forced to revise our predictions for the Beckton byelection.

With the general election over, thoughts are going to the two byelections scheduled for July 18th. Little Ilford still seems to be odds-on for Newham Independents.

(Picture from The Conversation.com)

Locally and nationally Muslims are openly voting as a block. Not all of them. Not all the time, but the emergence of Aspire in Tower Hamlets (Bangladeshi), Newham Independents, (largely Pakistani) and four independent Muslim MPs in the 2024 election were all the result of campaigns built on the interests of a religious block, (perhaps ethno-religious blocks).