A Horsey Story that's a Racing Cert to Run and Run

Anybody following the local community news forum at BrentfordTW8.com could not have helped but notice the big story that has come out of Isleworth over the past few weeks or so, that of the horses which currently graze in the idyllic rural setting of Northcote Avenue, on the Worple housing estate.

The land on which they roam was, before they arrived, open land available for use by the entire community, from the estate and beyond. It was particularly popular with dog walkers. Not no more.

Now ordinarily I would painstakingly relate the whole saga of how a public park became overnight a private facility for the exclusive use of two equines and their owner, particularly in respect of the total lack of engagement with residents and park users. But I understand that this highly entertaining episode will be related in very great detail elsewhere in the near future, so I counsel patience. Suffice it to say that much consideration has been given to whether this rather unconventional annexation of a public facility without a by your leave, far less a proper consultation, was brought about by officers behind the backs of councillors or actually at the councillors' behest.

Ever since the scandal blew up councillors have been (convincingly) acting dumb about the whole thing, although one of them was subsequently discovered to have been the person who actually signed off the authorisation for officers to do the dirty deed!

Like I say there will be much, much more on all of this very soon. But in the meantime let us leave the last word to the Council Leader, whose choice of friends may very well come galloping back to haunt him before his tenure is through:

Bus 267 Summer Sunday Extension to Hampton Court to Cease

I am grateful to forum user Adam O'Neill for posting the following message on the BrentfordTW8.com Community Forum:

"TfL are currently consulting on a proposal to cease operating the Summer Sunday extension of bus route 267 from Fulwell Garage to Hampton Court Palace. If you would be affected or would like to comment please find the link below:

"https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/route-267"

Some respondents have suggested that the service may have been poorly used, although Mr. O'Neill would appear to be of the view that this may have been a marketing issue.

If you would like to help keep this service open, please click the link and give TfL your views.

Hounslow Labour Group - No Change, No Quarter

I commented in a previous thread about Syon Labour Councillor Theo Dennison and his noble sentiments about engaging with the community, albeit from the perspective of a Labour administration.

In that article I noted that Theo had been demoted from the Council Cabinet, and expressed the view that this did not send a good signal to those of us who might be looking for some way in which to try to subsume the now borough-wide movement for a community role in decision-making into the existing political structure so as to negate the need for perpetual electoral challenge, and all the hassle that that entails.

There have been some further developments since I wrote that article, regrettably none of them good.

An intervention on the Comments section of prominent Labour councillor Ruth Cadbury's blog by a well-known Labour supporter from Southall, whose membership status is unclear but who nonetheless involves himself heavily in Hounslow politics, prompted me to comment on the Brentford TW8 community forum.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given his positive approach to local political engagement, Councillor Dennison made it clear that he had no respect for the Southall interloper. In response the latter not only made some unflattering remarks about Councillor Dennison but presumed to do so - interestingly - in the name of the Hounslow Labour Group. In particular, he announced that Councillor Dennison had been demoted due to his colleagues having a low opinion of him as a person.

I enquired as to whether any of Theo's colleagues would be offering any words in his defence, bearing in mind that he is a colleague, anytime soon. In particular they might wish to reassure us that the interloper was not in a position to speak for the Hounslow Labour Group, bearing in mind his status as a non-councillor, non-Hounslow resident and possibly even non-party member.

In reply Theo very honourably attempted to mitigate their apparent lack of support by pointing out that no other member of the Labour Group (other than Councillor Cadbury, a now self-declared mate of the interloper despite having previously told us that she didn't know him!) ever posts on the forum.

No sooner had he done this than another member of the Hounslow Labour Group, a Cabinet member no less, further undermined Theo by herself entering the debate on the forum, not to defend her colleague but to speak out in support of the interloper!

To date neither the Hounslow Labour Group nor any member thereof has seen fit to speak up for Councillor Dennison, despite the fact that he regularly makes it his business to defend them whenever any of them come in for any criticism, even when it is sometimes well-deserved. It would appear that in the Hounslow Labour Group loyalty is very much a one-way street.

One is, very reluctantly, forced to conclude that it is very much the Taylor/Cadbury approach to local engagement, rather than the approach clearly preferred by Theo Dennison, which is in the ascendancy at Lampton Road, and that the show is being run by outside forces with their own agenda rather than by elected members in Hounslow.

It's not looking good.

Can the Old System Survive Social Media and the Age of Mass Communication?

This evening a new poster at the Brentford TW8 community forum expressed the desire that more independents should be elected to Parliament but regretted that, in his view, this will never happen.

I responded to the contrary but feel others may wish to contribute to the debate, which they can do either at the forum or through the Comments section below.

My post on the forum is reproduced verbatim:

"The party system has changed surprisingly little over hundreds of years. The Tories have become the Conservatives, the Whigs have become the Liberals, the latter (largely) merged with the SDP to form the Liberal Democrats and about a century or so ago the Labour Party joined the private members' club and, after a short time as the third party, replaced the Liberals as one of the two major forces in parliamentary politics.

"But in terms of form and substance, it has been the same old same old for centuries.

"However one should never underestimate the power of the Internet. The 'net is probably the most significant invention in the history of man since the wheel. It completely transforms our ability to receive information, and in some cases at least it gives us a chance to better understand that information which we receive.

"The UK and western news media still pumps propaganda quite relentlessly at us, but if we want another perspective Russia Today and al-Jazeera (just to give an example) are just a click away. "Little" people like you and I, with just a modicum of Internet savvy, can spread our own news and views virally through the use of social media, blogs and forums.

"What has this got to do with anything? Well it means both news and opinion will become increasingly more difficult for the political establishment to channel in the direction in which it wishes it to go. Okay, our governments are still conducting wars under false pretences and are by and large getting away with it but a significant - and more importantly, growing - minority are beginning to ask questions.

"Far fewer people blindly follow the official line of their favoured party than was once the case (although as you can see from this forum there are still those who do).

"What has this all got to do with anything? Well it is my view that the political system as it is currently configured cannot survive a cultural sea change as radical as the one we are currently undergoing. Either our "democracy" has to adapt and embrace more real and meaningful public input on a truly massive scale, or else it will reveal itself to the majority for what it has always truly been and die.

"Independents of one kind or another will dominate our politics within a generation. Most reasonable people would regard this as a positive development. Those who don't either have a selfish personal stake in sustaining the inequalities and injustices of the current system or else they are simply stupid.

"This forum is blessed with some fine examples of both."

LBH Watch: Postscript

Following on from yesterday's blog article on the launch of LBH Watch I have been taken to task on a local community internet forum for referring to the group as "cross party". It is argued that by using this term I am attempting to imply that LBH Watch has the formal support of all the political parties, when what I actually meant was that its founder members are from across the political spectrum. I am happy to provide clarification.

What is more revealing though is the anger that the formation of the group seems to have invoked from forum users with a political axe to grind. My two critics hail from supposedly "opposite" ends of the political spectrum, one being a former Labour councillor and the other having Conservative leanings.

In the case of the Labour critic it would appear LBH Watch is opposed simply because it intends to identify bad practice whilst the Tory just seems generally pissed that ICG members are still active, lending some credence to my theory that the main objective of the recent Conservative election campaign (incredibly, over and above the desire to actually retain office and keep Labour out) was the sidelining of the ICG by means of a pincer movement involving both of the major parties.

I can confirm that LBH Watch will be just the first of many initiatives through which to compensate the community for the democratic deficit that the reversion to two-party hegemony must inevitably bring in its wake.

Doth the Keen Machine protest too much?

My article on Friday in which the possibility of an ethical revolt wihin the ranks of the Labour Party in Hounslow following the party's announcement that it was sticking by Ann Keen seems to have ruffled some feathers.

Over at the BrentfordTW8.com community forum long-time Keen bag carrier Robin Taylor responded to the article in the conventional fashion, "revealing" to bored forum users for the umpteenth time that I had been a National Front member back in the 1980s.

Meanwhile on its sister site at ChiswickW4.com one David McLaughlin, who would seem to be a party hack and possibly a rising star in an increasingly empty galaxy, makes much of the fact that I have not been unreservedly critical of the plucky young men and women who briefly occupied the Keens' Brentford home to highlight the fact that the his-and-hers MPs had been conning us all by claiming it to have been their primary abode while accepting handouts from the taxpayer for the purchase of their alleged "second" home, a luxury pad in Waterloo.

Mr. McLaughlin, I am guessing, is gathering quotation material for a pre-election smear leaflet in the mistaken view that the general public actually give a toss about the Keens or their long-abandoned hovel in Brook Road South. Most of people living in the immediate vicinity seem to be missing the squatters, who proved to be helpful, generous and courteous neighbours during their short tenure.

But let's get back to the substantive issue here - good people who had once given their loyalty and support to the Labour Party for the most noble of reasons. People who believe passionately in Social Justice and Equality but who do not subscribe to the smug, arrogant, unjustified assumption of social and intellectual superiority, and indifference to the inevitable reaction against the same even by so many of their own, which seems to predominate what remains of this once proud party today.

The ICG believes there must be a home, even if it is to be a temporary one, for the many sincere people who can no longer abide the company of the types who reign amid the ruins of the house of New Labour. Such people deserve better than to be consigned, fuming but powerless, to the sidelines of local politics.

We are now talking to several of such people. I repeat my appeal to those who still haven't to get in touch and to work in an organised way, if separately, with others who similarly aspire to restore some decency and honour to our local political debate.

Enforcement - a case for an amnesty?

I keep mentioning Bowen's Blog, but there are some interesting pieces on there about a meeting which took place at the Osterley Hotel last Saturday on the theme "Save Our Homes". A further discussion is taking place on the Brentford TW8 forum.

The thrust of the meeting, it would appear, was some kind of protest against the policy of the new administration at the London Borough of Hounslow of enforcing planning laws and acting decisively against planning abuse by a small minority of property owners in the borough. More than one person who was present at the meeting has told me of a remark made there by Alan Keen, Labour Member of Parliament for Feltham & Heston, to the effect that under the old (Labour) administration Hounslow had operated a dual policy, effectively turning a blind eye to planning breaches at one end of the borough and for one section of our community.

Not surprisingly this has infuriated planning officers, whose collaboration in this self-evidently unethical and probably illegal practice is clearly implied. One former officer of the Council has publicly threatened legal action for defamation against Mr. Keen unless his remarks are withdrawn, or qualified.

I wish him every success. However, in the meantime Mr. Keen's candid comments do raise the additional question of whether trangressors who are now being enforced against were actually misled into thinking that they were immune from action by the Council. If this is indeed the case, one wonders whether there is not a case for an amnesty?

In the interests of debate, allow me to suggest a few conditions which could form the basis of an amnesty:

• construction took place prior to May 2006, that is during the tenure of the previous administration at the Council
• immediate neighbours happy with development
• existence of illegal construction freely volunteered by applicant
• full reasons provided for belief by applicant at the time of construction that development would not be enforced against.

At the moment I have introduced the case for an amnesty purely as a stimulus for debate. But, who knows, we could be having this debate sometime soon at the Council Chamber?