Robin Wales and his parallel universe of lies and deception!
Focus E15 campaign went along to Newham’s Annual Council Meeting on the 18 May. This is a big gala event. 250 people heard Robin Wales make vainglorious speeches about how wonderful he has been for Newham. It was grotesque. Robin Wales made a speech about his work programme for 2017/18 and spoke of Newham having the best services in London, compared to 25 years ago when the borough was, an “incompetent backwater”. It was hard not to feel sick.
He then went on and blamed the housing crisis on the Tories and explained that Newham Labour are standing up against criminal and rogue landlords. He promised that Newham Labour are putting “power into the hands of the residents”. Robin Wales ended his speech by concentrating on the Newham borough motto, which is, ironically, considering the amount of social cleansing that has been going on, Live, Work and Stay. He repeatedly emphasised that Newham is a place where people CHOOSE to live, work and stay, knowing full well that for those who are sent out of borough and out of London for housing, there is no choice at all in gentrified post-Olympic Newham.
As the applause started and the standing ovation began Focus E15 campaigners stood up too and started shouting questions about Lobo loans, financial mismanagement, social cleansing, slum living conditions, the empty council housing on Carpenters Estate and then broke into chants of Repopulate the Carpenters Estate! Robin Wales shrugged his shoulders and mumbled in to the microphone about 2018 council elections. He was then mobbed by his sycophantic supporters while ‘We’ll meet again’ was played very loudly over the public address system and Focus E15 campaigners shouted YES WE WILL.
Leaving the Old Town Hall in Stratford the reality hit – almost in every doorway in the old shopping centre was a bed space for a homeless person tucked into a sleeping bag on cardboard. Homelessness and rough sleeping is rising and Newham has the highest number of residents in temporary accommodation in London and is one of the boroughs moving the highest number of people, who it has a statutory duty to house, outside the borough and outside of London. Outrageously, after over a decade, the Carpenters Estate in Stratford still stands mostly empty. Newham council is continuing its attempts to empty these homes, remove the residents and demolish the estate while claiming there are no homes in the borough.
Join us on Saturday 20 May to tell the real news of Newham. Meet outside Stratford station from midday and tell the truth about what is going on in the borough. Please share this facebook event
Focus E15 Campaign 
Reblogged this on and commented:
Well, our previous post: Three more weeks of hot air and then what? – https://southessexstirrer.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/three-more-weeks-of-hot-air-and-then-what/ has certainly generated a reaction…one that was quite hostile to our position! A fair bit of that hostility has come from Corbyn supporters and people intending to vote Labour. If these people seriously think Labour has the answers to the housing crisis in London, they need to look at the dismal record of Labour run councils in Greater London and their complicity in the social cleansing resulting from so called ‘regeneration’ schemes. This post from the Stratford based Focus E15 campaign shows up the complicity of Newham council in social cleansing. Bear in mind that Newham council have been sitting on three empty tower blocks on the Carpenters Estate for years waiting for the right offer from a developer while they continue to move people out of the borough and homelessness in the area continues to soar. As we’ve written before, what happens in London as a result of so called ‘regeneration’ and the subsequent social cleansing has a direct impact on the housing crisis in the area we operate in along the Thames estuary: The housing domino effect… – https://southessexstirrer.wordpress.com/2017/03/07/the-housing-domino-effect/ So this is why despite the ardent pleadings of Corbyn supporters, we cannot in any way, shape or form, endorse the idea of voting for Labour in the coming general election…
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Reblogged this on Wessex Solidarity.
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