Promises, Promises… Time was when it all seemed so easy. All you had to do was promise something and it seemed like it was really going to happen.

Mayor Fiaz is under assault from all sides it seems, including many in her own party.

Never willing to let a band-wagon pass her by without jumping on, Mayor Fiaz has become a recent convert to the idea of women’s safety.

Of course, she is not promising to do anything. That responsibility belongs to the police. But she feels that it is very important.

The trouble is that community safety is not just a policing matter.

They say that fact is often stranger than fiction. Here we have an example. In a week when Newham was branded the dirtiest borough in the country we find that they have been shortlisted for their work to reduce fly-tipping. Except they haven’t.

During the Corbyn ascendancy, little could stop Mayor Fiaz appearing on a stage or attending a protest with Stand Up to Racism. Back then it was a sign of her attachment to the cause.

We thought that we’d take a look at the progress Mayor Fiaz is making after three years in office. In her campaign she asserted that she was “Building Newham’s Future”. Let’s see how she is doing.

While some of you were doing interesting things, like watching paint dry, some of us were reflecting upon the activities of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission.

We’ve been having a bit of fun at the expense of the incompetents in the Town Hall and at their personal ambitions. What this disguises is, that real people in Newham have begun to suffer and notice the drop in quality of services across the council.

You may have heard things along the lines of “it’s the government’s fault”, or “It’s Robin Wales’ fault, (he only left a balance of £54m and we’ve used it up!)”, or “we have great plans about how we spend your money”.

Readers will note that we have been critical of Mayor Fiaz in the past. Generally, the criticisms have been about her ability (or lack of it); her willingness to abandon promises made only weeks before; her flip-flopping in her personal politics from Blairite to Corbynite and now somewhere on the way back again; and her personal behaviour towards subordinates.

You would think that we had become used to the hypocrisy of the current regime. But then, something new happens and you realise that it can get worse.

Readers who vote using postal ballots will have received their ballots and some of you will have filled these in and sent back your ballots for the Mayor of London; for the GLA member; and for the Referendum. All sorted.

But if you are fortunate enough to live in East Ham’s Central ward, you will have the chance to vote in the by-election for a councillor to replace Julianne Marriot.

If you take a look at the Newham website, perhaps looking for back issues of the Newham Magazine, you will find that somehow, mysteriously, they have disappeared.

Just who is the Labour Council representing now? It doesn’t seem to be those working on low incomes.

After three years, you’d think that the Mayor might start taking some responsibility for her actions, but listening to the last council meeting, perhaps not.

You might be forgiven for thinking that candidate Fiaz was a little confused in her education promises.

So Bad, They did it Twice.

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.

Newham Labour Facebook pages have been busy covering the appalling levels of fly-tipping in the borough.

We reported a few days ago on the disarray in Mayor Fiazco's cabinet over their new Parking Tax. You know, the one to really help Newham’s hard-up residents get over the pandemic!