Labour Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

While I was proud of the Labour victory in Newham during the May 22 local elections, I was really pleased when I heard that we had defeated the Tories in their right wing "flagship London Borough" of Hammersmith and Fulham.

Check the interview here (and hat tip picture) of Labour Leader and my good comrade, Stephen Cowan.

Stephen has his own blog The Cowan Report and most recent Labour Party conferences we have met up for an evening to put the world to rights.  Congratulations to Stephen and the local Party for their fantastic victory.

The Death of Social Housing

It seems that not everyone is as dismayed as I am at today's announcement by Tory Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, that the statutory homeless and vulnerable will be forced into high cost, insecure, unregulated private rental accommodation.

Rachman may be dead but his spirit lives on amongst those minority of criminal landlords who just see the homeless as cash cows to be ruthlessly exploited.

Not only that but we now find that tenants may be evicted from their homes if their incomes rise during their new fixed term tenancies.

So - no more mixed communities then; just ghettos of the disabled, the unemployed and the  poverty stricken.

To complete the misery check out Hammersmith & Fulham Labour Group Leader, Stephen Cowan's report on the future "Housing Benefits Homeless Tsunami?" here

Last month I blogged about the End of Social Housing here following the decision to end capital grants for new build and instead depend on near market rents for funding.

Today though is definitely its death nail. We will have to campaign hard for its rebirth.

Cameron's Councils - David Cameron's real agenda for government

Check out this site about the truth about Tories in power.  "They’ve said it themselves - Tory Councils show both by their actions and by what they say exactly what a Conservative government would look like. We reveal here what Cameron’s Conservative Councils stand for in power".  Hat tip The Cowan Report

Same old Nasty Party – Same old Tories

Hat-tip thingy to Stephen Cowan – leader of the Hammersmith & Fulham Labour group for this video on what really happens to ordinary working people when Cameron Tories take charge.

The Conservative Council leaders are having secret negotiations with property developers in Cannes, French Riviera (of all places) about demolishing H&F local public housing estates. The Tories are determined to export their poorer residents out of the borough. No wonder they are accused of Gerrymandering.

Stephen this morning asked me to send this YouTube posting to UNISON Labour link members to remind them of the nightmare reality of Tory rule.

With pleasure Stephen.

Plug No 2 from London MEP Mary Honeyball

The 2nd positive plug of the week for this blog was from Mary Honeyball , who is one of the few (very few) female MEP bloggers.

She is having a go here at the new “Labourlist” - a Labour Party supporting blog set up by Derek Draper.

She thinks it is too London centric, there is not enough on Europe or foreign affairs, not enough women contributors and not enough from the regions. She also recommends that :-

“Labourlist should also make cleverer political judgments by, for example, remembering that the majority of Labour representatives, including myself, are in opposition rather than power. Someone like Stephen Cowan reporting from the frontline fighting the Tory Taliban in Hammersmith merits a slot. For a Trade union voice active in the Party, LabourList should perhaps include John Gray”.

This is picked up by on-line Guardian blogger, Dave Hill, here

Of course... I couldn’t possible comment (or disagree).

Plug No 1 from “Local Labour Round Up”

It‘s been a positive week for “John’s Labour Blog”.

On Thursday the leader of the Labour opposition in Hammersmith & Fulham Council, Stephen Cowan, here in his blog “The Cowen Report” mentioned my attack on “Why Corrupting Boris is now beyond a Joke”.

He was reviewing Labour supporting blogs.

Camden Labour Councillor and Theo’s Blog author, Theo Blackwell, has had the excellent idea of setting up a regular Labour “blog round up”. Different Labour activists will take turns at reviewing Labour blogs.

What a great idea! I'm trying to do something somewhat similar by posting on public housing issues every few weeks - "housing matters".

The Worse Tories in Britain – Hammersmith & Fulham Council

Stephen Cowan, the Labour Group Leader at Hammersmith & Fulham Council (H&F) writes a very good blog (The Cowan Report) about the goings on at the now Conservative run Council.

In particular I thought his post here about what happens to staff when Labour loses control of Councils to Tories is very apt. H&F switched to the Tories in the last local elections in 2006 after decades of control by Labour. Since then front line staff have had their wages reduced by up to 50% while at the same time Senior Tory Councillors have increased their bonuses by 14-18%. Council services have been “dogmatically” transferred out to private contractors. Over 4,000 staff are being dismissed and re-engaged on inferior terms and conditions. There will be a reduction in maternity pay, dependency leave and extended working hours.

Like Stephen I do still meet La La land Council workers who also claim that there is no difference between Labour and the Tories. Tell that to the UNISON members in H&F who are currently serving out their redundancy notice.

I also posted recently here about the attempt of H&F to build a major housing development with no public (social) housing. This is the Tories gerrymandering at the expense of the poor and vulnerable.

Recently I met up with a local Labour Party member and trade union activist who is normally very critical of the Party and many of its policies. However, he reminded me that he still strongly believed that even on its worse day a Labour government or Council was far better than a Tory one on its very best day. Some people need to remember this.

Mind you are H&F Tories the worse in Britain? There is one heck of a lot of competition.