New Isleworth and Syon councillors "at the top table"

If I have read this article correctly it would appear that new Labour councillors Theo Dennison and Ed Mayne, who represent Syon and Isleworth wards respectively, have been appointed to serve on the London Borough of Hounslow's new Executive.

Whilst I criticised the last Labour administration for nominating first-time councillors with no experience to the local authority's most senior committee, responsible as it is for most of its decision making, the selection of two local members will at least hopefully ensure that our wards are not forgotten. I believe both of them have what it takes to stand up to their colleagues where necessary and to ensure that Syon and Isleworth receive their fair share of services and resources. I was particularly impressed by Ed's intelligence, humility and enthusiasm when I chatted with him at the election count last week. He is a decent young man and deserves the chance that he has been given.

It is also good to see that Councillor Jagdish Sharma has been given the opportunity to lead the Labour Group and the Council after having been in a position of responsibility for such a very long time. With the re-election of John Chatt and Colin Ellar many feared there would be an unseemly scramble for the top job, which doesn't appear to have materialised.

In the Tory camp Councillor Peter Thompson has "retired from frontline politics" and has stood down as Leader of the Conservative Group. I like to believe I enjoyed a good relationship with Peter based both on personal chemistry and mutual respect and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his support during the last administration and for the frank and honest discussions and also one or two laughs that we had along the way. He is replaced by Councillor Mark Bowen, who was sadly unsuccessful in his efforts to topple Alan Keen in Feltham & Heston at the general election and whom I consider a good friend.

If I haven't found myself a proper job by then I might look in from time to time when all the new and not so new players are exchanging banter across the floor of the Council Chamber.

The New Labour selection circus comes to town

According to an article in this week's Hounslow & Chiswick Guardian there is some bad stuff going down in the Hounslow Labour Party yet again as it sets about selecting its candidates for next year's local elections.

Locals and regular readers will be familiar with the shenanigans of New Labour on our estates and in our communities, with the perpetual scheming, plotting and factionalising as they beaver away likes ones possessed to establish control of everything from the Neighbourhood Watch to the village philatelic society while the rest of us are working to build a more harmonious and cohesive environment in which for us all to live.

Once every four years, however, the sharks turn upon each other and in so doing provide the rest of the local political world with a feast of free entertainment. We frequently read and hear of selection meetings with more votes cast than people present, and half-decent councillors deselected and banished to a far-off ward - if they're lucky - because theirs is not the faction that is presently in the ascendancy.

The current row is about female representation. For a party that presumes to lecture the rest of us about equalities it is worth recording that the Labour Group in Hounslow has almost the lowest proportion of female members of any group on the council. The Community Group is 50% female, the Conservatives 43%, the West Area Independents 33%. And yet the Enlightened Ones of the Labour Group have just 25% women amongst their councillors - six from a total of 24.

It would appear from the article that Labour in Hounslow is in a mood to ignore party policy by not standing at least one woman in each ward, having selected all-male slates in the "safe" Labour wards of Hounslow West, Heston Central and Heston East. Preferred candidates would seem to include such political giants as former council leaders John Chatt and Colin Ellar. Now the London Labour Party has intervened and seems to be suggesting that the selections are all to be considered null and void.

Meanwhile there promises to be much more fun to come as the displaced ones search desperately for another home in progressively less winnable wards. We could end up with a flurry of distraught female wannabe councillors led by Peta Vaught, currently of Heston but now deselected, fighting it out for the right to do battle with us here in Syon and Isleworth. Voters in this neighbourhood could be spoilt for choice.

The joys of membership of such an organisation really are difficult to imagine.