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. Our sources tell us that Cllr Gray is bringing a motion to the next Labour Group meeting on 26 January seeking to halt the disaster that is the ‘emissions-based Parking Tax’. Gray who was once an avid environmentalist - now seeks to stand up for the disenfranchised and beleaguered motorists of Newham! “Hoorah” they need all the help they can get, I hear you say. Maybe.
Gray seems to have taken on a leadership role since rejoining the back benches, after he was unceremoniously booted from the Cabinet? Or was he? It is widely believed on the council that he walked knowing the Titanic was sinking fast! He wanted no part of the psycho drama that is Newham’s Fiazco Cabinet.
Could John Gray’s sudden care for the driver be anything to do with the fact that the Mayor and her team are mere moments away from capitulating and scrapping the “emissions-based parking tax”? Like a fire sale, they went from a 20% discount offer to a 40% discount, desperately seeking to placate the rogues on the backbenchers.
Clearly, he along with other influential back-bench councillors have forced the Mayor into a corner and it doesn’t seem to be one she can easily get out of. Having been led down this particular path by Councillor James Asser, Fiazco is now lumbered with a policy that nobody likes and more crucially, very few people can defend during a raging pandemic.
In normal times one would expect such a catastrophic policy failure to mean that a Cabinet member would have to fall on their sword, but James Asser gets a pass because there simply is nobody willing to replace him. We will be taking a collection so that Nero Asser can receive the appropriate instrument, a fiddle, to pass his time as the cabinet disintegrates around him.
We will keep you updated on the political tussle that is about to take place. Our money is on the former eminence grise; he may now have reincarnated as a grey-man but he looks likely to score a major victory over his former boss, we shall wait and see…