Bob Blackman MP invites Suella Braverman to his Edgware fundraiser dinner and gets a noisy surprise

 

Bob Blackman, Conservative M for Harrow East and Monday Club  Joint Executive Secretary, held a fundraising dinner last night in Edgware.

His special guest was none other than ex-Home Secretary and joint-founder of Wembley's Michaela School, Suella Braverman. Both have strong Brent connections with Blackman an ex-leader of Brent Council (and deputy leader in the Lib-Dem coalition) and Braverman (actual name Sue-Ellen) was born in Harrow and brought up in Wembley. Her mother was a Brent Conservative councillor.

Last night's dinner I understand was held to raise funds for Blackman's General Election campaign but amidst Sunak's problems and Braverman's undisguised leadership ambitions, of wider political significance.

The local community, having got wind of the dinner, marshalled at short notice a mass picket outside the restaurant. It was peaceful but noisy.  Some guests entered through the front door on Mollison Way, others came via an alternative entrance as far as could be ascertained. There was no attempt to stop them entering.

Chants and individual speakers objected to Bob Blackman's stance against a Gaza ceasefire, his admiration for Mahendra Modi and support for the exclusion of caste from equality laws.  Suella Braverman's support for Israel and antipathy to pro-Palestine demonstrations and her 'dream' of deporting refugees to  Rwanda deportations enraged the demonstrators who charged them  both with complicity in alleged genocide. 

The crowd chanted, 'While you dine, babies die.'

Those present at the right-wing Fest must have been able to hear the demonstrators and after two and a half hours of chants and speeches a metal grill was lowered over the restaurant windows and entrance.

Despite the noise and anger the protest was disciplined and when a minute's silence was requested for the victims of the Middle East conflict a total silence fell over the suburban street and the demonstrators dispersed without incident.

 

 

Asylum seekers' protest outside Wembley's Holiday Inn: Homes not Hotels

 

 

When asylum seekers currently accommodated at the Holiday Inn, Wembley, protested yesterday they were joined in solidarity by local people sick of the anti-refugee propaganda put out by the Government and much of the press.

In a leaflet given out at the protest they said:

Homes Not Hotels: The vast majority of us have been waiting for over 9 months for a decision - many of us for two years and more. Imagine what it is like, waiting with daily anxiety and sleepless nights to know if you are safe. With no right to work, nutritionless food, a few pounds a week, guards at the door. Theses are more like prisons than hotels. But with no fixed sentence or check out time.

Compassion not Cruella: We know we're not the only group in need. Other people are using food banks, struggling with rents and health services. When our claims are processed that will be us too! But asylun seekers are being blamed for all the problem of this country. We hope that everyne can see that this is the divisive strategy of Home Secretary Suella Braveman.

Michaela headteacher's anti-woke rant at National Conservatism Conference

 

How much do you love your country?

Enough to tweet under your own name?

To change your child's school to one that is less woke?

To do more than chat to your friends who already agree with you at dinner parties?

For heaven's sake, man, stand up and be counted.

-@Miss_Snuffy pic.twitter.com/e3UQWoBdGg

— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) May 15, 2023

 

The new far-right grouping headed by Suella Braverman, worryingly named 'National Conservatism' has recently attracted media attention. Suella Braverman was one of the founders of the Michaela Free School in Wembley and she invited her school co-founder Katharine Birbalsingh to speak at the conference. Braverman, daughter of an exTory councillor in Brent, was the school's first Chair of Governors.

Kenton's Sue Ellen appointed chief legal adviser to the Tory Government

Following Boris Johnson's appointment of Suella Braverman (nee Fernandes) as attorney general (shortly after she attacked judges as unelected and unaccountable) it is interesting to hear from someone who was at school with her in the 1990s:

Sue Ellen Fernandes (who prefers to be known as Suella, so as not to be compared to a character in the 1980's TV series "Dallas") grew up in Kenton.

Her mother was a Conservative councillor on Brent Council, Uma Fernandes (who, as a candidate for Parliament, managed third place in the Brent East by-election won by Sarah Teather in 2003).

By the sixth form at school, Suella was open about her ambition to be a Conservative M.P., and to become Prime Minister, like her idol, Margaret Thatcher.

She studied law at Cambridge, and went on to become a barrister, specialising in planning law, but also spending time trying to get selected as a Conservative Parliamentary candidate.

One of the roles that helped on her Tory CV was acting as Chair of Governors for Katherine Birbalsingh's Michaela Community School LINK, although her knowledge of planning law did not seem to cover the fact that consent was needed to display a large advertisement over its building in Wembley Park LINK:

The advert had to be taken down after a few days - a waste of taxpayers money that could have been avoided!

Suella was elected for the "safe" Conservative seat of Fareham in Hampshire in 2015. Now, at the age of 39, this "aspirational" junior barrister has been appointed by Boris Johnson as the Government's top legal adviser.

Heaven help us!