Public enjoy Birchen Grove Allotment Fair

Briefing the judges

Prize sweet peas

Best dressed vegetables

Some on the competition entries

The first Allotment Fair at Birchen Grove Allotments, Kingsbury went off well today with many members of the public touring the site and chatting to the gardeners about their produce. Many enjoyed sampling my mulberries.

There were not that many entries for the competition and it wasn't taken as seriously as on some allotments where there is intense rivalry and accusations of skulduggery. This was a relaxed affair with tongues firmly in cheeks for most of the time and plenty of humour.

The only controversey reported by Cllr Roxanne Mashari, one of the judges, was whether you could measure around the bend of a runner bean to establish its length or just measure a straight line from top to tail. I can't remember what the ruling was but modesty prevents me from telling you the winner!

After Tariq Ali, the thoughts of Chairman Mo on Labour Leader election

Chairman Mo

As voting begins for the Labour leadership the Burnham Campaign has sent Brent Labour Party voters this message from  Cllr Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council. Note that Muhammed appears to have made a mistake in the spelling of his own name.
  

In the next few days, you should be receiving your ballot papers for the Labour Party leadership contest. I wanted to write to you to explain why I absolutely believe that Andy Burnham is the right choice.

This election is now a contest between two big visions for the future of our Party and our country.

I've worked closely with Andy and we know he has what it takes to lead our Party; someone who is Labour through and through, who can unite us and who can win back the support that we’ve lost.

Andy’s vision is one that our movement can believe in. His manifesto offers credible economic alternative based on a high-wage, high-skilled economy. An economy that drives growth through a new industrial strategy, where unions are partners, not demonised by government. A truly comprehensive education system with opportunity for every child that isn't determined by the postcode of the bed they are born in. An ambitious house-building programme to ensure that everyone has an affordable home to own or rent. And a national health and care service that is there for you from cradle to grave, with social care full integrated into the NHS.

This is a vision built on true Labour values. It can win in 2020 and deliver the Labour Government that our country so desperately needs. Repeated polls have shown that Andy is the only candidate who Labour voters and the general public will get behind.

As a council leader, I have seen first-hand what five years of Tory policies have done to the capital - we can’t go on opening more food banks than schools. We need a Leader who can take the Tories to task, fight for Labour values and deliver a Labour victory. That leader is Andy. So let’s unite together, move forward and move our focus to beating our real opponents: the Tories.

Will you say you’re with Andy and be part of the change?

I'M BACKING ANDY

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Best wishes,

Muhammad Butt
Leader of Brent Council 

Butt also signed this statement on Labour List LINK

Come down to Birchen Grove Allotments tomorrow - discover more than just the longest runner bean!

We were crossing our fingers down at Birchen Grove Allotment near the Welsh Harp this afternoon - not over the weather for tomorrow's Allotment Fair (Noon to 3pm) but because we recognised that the warm,  damp weather is ideal for late blight which affects potatoes and tomatoes.

In previous years we have left our healthy looking spuds and tomatoes late afternoon and found the lot brown and withered the next day on our return. The blight goes through the allotment like a tsunami with only the greenhouse tomatoes surviving. Even then they often eventually succumb.

On a positive note the rain has brought the runner beans on beautifully and courgettes should do well.

So fingers crossed that all will be well tomorrow and we can celebrate National Allotments Week in optimistic mood and maybe persuade some people to start growing their own.

Please do come along. There will be music, vegetable class displays, light refreshments, tea cakes and biscuits for sale, insect and bird homes for sale and to make and a chance to have a look around this pretty and busy allotment site.


Bring a container if you fancy doing some blackberrying between the allotment and the Greenhouse Garden Centre or over on the Welsh Harp.  I sampled some this afternoon and they are beautifully juicy after the rain.

PS I wonder how Jeremy Corbyn's allotment is doing while he is otherwise engaged?

The Birchen Grove Allotment has a fascinating history. The land was set aside for a Lawn Cemetery and a Shelter and Chapel built but was never used.  The land is still consecrated:

Tariq Ali on 'The Corbyn Factor'

This popped up on my Facebook page and I thought it was worth sharing. I hope Tariq won't mind me posting it here.

THE CORBYN FACTOR

As Stalin discovered early on in his political career the last thing he needed was inner-party democracy. It appears that the bulk of the PLP, virtually every ghastly pundit from the Tory idol, Ganesh in the FT, to Pollyfiller Toynbee in The Guardian, Murdoch's minions, all with with a sprinkling of bland Runciman sauce and even worse ingredients are horrified by this experiment in party democracy. It works so well in the US primary system and the French Socialists used it to elbow aside candidates marginally more left than Sarkozy. The operative word is marginally. So why not England. This is not so much the Mediterranean effect, but the Scottish one. England's youth are repeating the Scottish experience albeit within the framework of the LP. Would it have happened had JC not stood? Abandon the thought. The commentariat trying to boost the creepy Cooper is comical beyond belief. Blair's ghoulish appearances have been helpful.

The best thing possible if/when JC wins would be a mass desertion of Labour-Libs and Lab-Tories to their real homes. A single party that unites the Extreme Centre is in their best interests. What would speed the process is further democratisation by restoring the rights that the Blairites confiscated from CLPs. They should be allowed to choose their own candidates and not have them removed or imposed by the NEC. Once this is in place then they can elect the Shadow Cabinet or whatever. Once this is implemented the Labour-Tories will leave or split. They're unlikely to do the decent thing UKIP-style and force by-elections because they'll be scared of losing though not all will. So if they think that the programme of measures outlined by the JC Left are too ultra, why not let the electorate decide in a mini-election?

If JC loses which I hope he doesn't then the choice depends on our side. A continuing campaign on these issues is fine but does not offer a medium term solution. For who will represent these forces in parliament. JC and the dozen or so MPs who really support him? Of course but that is not enough. Try and win next time? But the Blairites and Brownites (b&b's) are bound to end the democratic experiment . I think this excellent campaign has shown the Labour Left the direction they should be taking with the unions who want a different route map. When structures are outdated new foundations have to be laid. It's a big leap forward, but has to be discussed openly.

Meanwhile, fingers crossed.

Brent Council: Same two questions – why no answers?

Philip Grant wondered if Wembley Matters readers could stand another posting on 'The Two Questions' when he submitted this guest blog. One of Brent Council's strategies is to continue to stonewall until complainants give up. Philip's persistence is admirable and should be supported.

Some “Wembley Matters” readers have been following the saga of my two questions to Christine Gilbert about the probable “pay off” by Brent Council to its former Director of HR, Cara Davani, and the explanations given as to why she cannot answer them. This is the latest round. Anyone who wishes to see the earlier rounds can find them at LINK and LINK and LINK  .

If you are interested enough to read the exchange of emails below, I would welcome your comments. Are the reasons given by Brent’s Chief Legal Officer reasonable? Even if you think they are not, do you feel that I should give up now, and let those at the top of the Council get away with what appears to be a cover-up? Or do you support my efforts to get to the bottom of this matter? If the latter, then please show your support, not just by adding a comment below, but by emailing your local councillors to say that Brent must answer Philip Grant’s two questions, and explain why it believes that any “pay off” to Cara Davani is justified, and not a misuse of funds that the Council should be spending instead on services for local people. Thank you.

THIS IS A LINK TO COUNCILLOR TELEPHONE AND EMAIL DETAILS

Email from Fiona Alderman, sent at around 10pm on Wednesday 12 August 2015:-

Dear Mr Grant

I am replying to your recent correspondence to the Chief Executive and myself.

It is accepted that, under the Data Protection Act 1998, information relating to individuals can be disclosed if it is necessary and reasonable to do so and there is an overriding public interest justification. However, in respect of employment matters, individual members of staff have a legitimate and reasonable expectation of privacy and confidence and it is not appropriate for the Council to answer your enquiry. 

In relation to your separate question regarding compensation, the remedies hearing in the case of Ms Clarke has not yet determined any compensation award and, as such, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.

I will provide a copy of this response to Councillors Warren and Kansagra.

Regards 

Fiona Alderman

Chief Legal Officer

Email from Philip Grant, sent at around 5.30pm on Thursday 13 August 2015:-

Dear Ms Alderman,

Further to my acknowledgement of the email which you sent me yesterday evening, I am now writing to reply to the latest reasons you have given for Brent Council not answering the two questions which I put to Christine Gilbert on 9 July 2015.

My questions were raised in the context of serious concerns which many local people, including Council staff, expressed when rumours emerged two months ago that Cara Davani was to receive a “pay off” from Brent. The Council had announced that she was leaving at the end of June, to take a “career break”, so there appeared to be no reason why she should receive any further financial benefit.  She was already a controversial figure, who many thought should have resigned when her actions against Rosemarie Clarke in 2013 became public knowledge, through the publication in September 2014 of the Employment Tribunal judgement. It seemed inexplicable that Brent appeared to have taken no disciplinary action against her then for gross misconduct.

The possibility that Cara Davani might also be “rewarded” when she finally did leave the Council generated those serious concerns, and I sought answers from Christine Gilbert to find out whether the rumours were true, and if so, what was the justification for any such “pay off”. Those are still the matters which need to be resolved, and they will not be resolved by the Council continuing to be evasive over providing the answers. I realise that you are probably only carrying out the wishes of those above you in trying to defend that prevarication, and I will explain now why the reasons you have given do not stand up, by reference to the questions that I still believe Brent must answer.

1. Can Brent Council confirm that there has not been, and that there will not be, any financial payment by the Council to Cara Davani in connection with her leaving the Council's employment as Director of HR and Administration, other than her normal salary payment up to 30 June 2015?   YES or NO.

You have said:

‘It is accepted that, under the Data Protection Act 1998, information relating to individuals can be disclosed if it is necessary and reasonable to do so and there is an overriding public interest justification. However, in respect of employment matters, individual members of staff have a legitimate and reasonable expectation of privacy and confidence and it is not appropriate for the Council to answer your enquiry.’

It is already in the public domain that Cara Davani, former Director of HR and Administration, left the Council at the end of June 2015, and that there was an agreement with her, even though ‘the council cannot legally disclose any details of the arrangements relating to Ms Davani’s departure’, which are presumably contained in that agreement. By simply answering “yes” or “no” to my question 1. above, the Council would not be breaching any ‘reasonable expectation of privacy and confidence’ that Ms Davani might have, especially given the context of this matter as outlined above (which I believe does provide ‘an overriding public interest justification’).

As I have said before, to Christine Gilbert, if the honest answer to question 1 is “yes” (i.e. that there was no financial payment other than her normal salary up to 30 June 2015), that is the end of that matter. However, if the answer is “no”, then Ms Gilbert does need to explain what justification there is for having made an additional payment (even if the amount of any such payment can only be given, in confidence, to those Council staff and councillors who need to know it). If the Council cannot show that there is a valid justification for any additional payment to Ms Davani, then such a payment could be a misuse of Council funds, and should be open to public challenge. That consideration must surely override the “privacy” of a person who may have received such a payment.

2. Can Brent Council confirm that it has not agreed, and will not agree, to pay any award of compensation, damages or costs made against Cara Davani personally, as a separately named respondent from Brent Council, in any Employment Tribunal or other legal proceedings in which she and the Council are named parties?   YES or NO.

I have already dealt with your ‘expectation of privacy and confidence’ point above, but you also say:

‘In relation to your separate question regarding compensation, the remedies hearing in the case of Ms Clarke has not yet determined any compensation award and, as such, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.’

I thought that I had already covered this point in my email to you and Christine Gilbert on 3 August, making clear that the fact that the remedies hearing has not yet been finalised does not prevent Ms Gilbert from answering my second question. However, I will spell it out again here.

If the Council has not agreed, and will not agree (as it should not, for the reasons below), to pay any award made against Ms Davani personally, then the answer is “yes”, and that is the end of the matter.

If the Council has agreed to fund all or any part of any award which the Tribunal may make against Ms Davani personally, then the answer is “no”. The question is not asking for any amounts, so it does not matter that those are ‘not yet determined’.

I accept that the Tribunal has not yet made any awards in this case, but given its findings in favour of Rosemarie Clarke in the judgement of September 2014, it is likely to make awards at the remedies hearing. It may decide to make its awards solely against the first respondent, the London Borough of Brent, the employer. However, as Cara Davani is a separately named respondent in the Employment Tribunal proceedings, it is open to the Tribunal to make an award against her personally. If it does that, it will be doing so on the basis of its findings of fact, after reading and hearing detailed evidence.

In these circumstances, I believe that it would be wrong, and a misuse of Council funds, if Brent were to pay any award made against Ms Davani personally. That is why it is important that my second question is answered, and answered now, so that if the honest answer is “no” Ms Gilbert can explain why she, or whoever on behalf of the Council agreed such an arrangement, considers that it is justified for Brent to pay any such award

I am sure that the Tribunal will only make an award against Ms Davani personally, if it does make such an award, if it believes that award reflects her own liability on the facts of the case, and not that of the Council. Surely it is right that councillors and the public should be able to challenge any possible misuse of Council funds. To conceal the facts, when they have been openly requested, in a way that does not require the Council to breach its secrecy agreement with Ms Davani over the details, just as surely cannot be right.

I am copying this email to Cllr, Kansagra and Cllr. Warren, and will forward a copy to the other councillors who were copied into my previous correspondence with Ms Gilbert on this matter. I will also make it publicly available, as I informed you this morning.

In conclusion, I hope that you will now provide the two “yes” or “no” answers to my two questions. If you do not feel you can do so in Ms Gilbert’s absence, please confirm that you will advise her to provide the answers on her return from annual leave, and let me know, please, when that is expected to be. Thank you. Best wishes,

Philip Grant.

'The Great Gatsby' screened at Preston Library on Sunday amidst uncertainty about the future

Members of Preston Community Library are invited to a showing of The Great Gatsby at 6pm this Sunday August 16th. If you're not a member of the library, you can join on the day.

The licence from Brent Council for the group to  use the library building has been extended until August 16th when this film is being shown. The future beyond that is very uncertain according to the Community Library and Hub organisers. 

If Brent chooses to honour Labour's election pledge to support community-run libraries and to let them use the library building for a peppercorn rent, then the library will re-open on weekends from 29 August.

 Monday, 10 August,  pub quiz at 7.30 in The Preston off Preston Road, opposte the library building.

Camden seeking Sustainability Engagement Officer

Readers will be aware of the cuts made in Brent Council's environmental department. Interesting then to see this job advertised in neighbouring Camden:

SUSTAINABILITY ENGAGEMENT OFFICER

Sustain our community

Our team

Sustainability and Green Space is a busy, high-profile team working across the organisation and with external partners and the wider community, currently based at 5 St Pancras Square.

The role

You’ll lead on the design, delivery and promotion of green community engagement initiatives and events and develop partnership approaches aimed at increasing green actions and green activism amongst Camden residents and communities. The key focus of the role will be on domestic energy efficiency and affordable warmth, air quality and food growing and nature conservation. You will be responsible for coordinating the provision of green advice, information and resources through a variety of channels.

In collaboration with the communications team, you’ll be responsible for managing the design, project management and promotion of green community engagement initiatives, ensuring their successful delivery through cross working within the council and with partners, leading internal and external project teams. You’ll also provide or commission advice and training on green issues to internal staff and the wider community.

Applying analysis and intelligence skills, you’ll conduct research on best practice and the latest thinking relating to community engagement, synthesising findings, contributing to proposals and recommendations that fit the organisational and strategic context in Camden.

Full details HERE

Some lessons for Corbyn from attacks on Harold Wilson?

The revving up of the campaign against Jeremy Corbyn, within and outside the Labour Party and in the press, including the Guardian, reminds me of a period in recent British history when Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson was under similar attack.

The documentary above is rather slow moving but well worth viewing for those who weren't around at the time.

This was the cold war era and also that of the IRA campaign in Northern Ireland. What was clear then and demonstrated by the documentary is how the Establishment saw Harold Wilson as a threat to their privilege and used a range of dirty tricks and what the documentary calls 'black propaganda' against him using the media, MI5 and the CIA to undermine him. In addition of course Wilson earned US ire by refusing to send British troops to Vietnam.

I think Wilson puts his finger on it when he says:

They would naturally be brought up to believe that a socialist leader is a communist.

This assumption, whether really believed or not, is behind much of what is being said about Corbyn today.

Major General Alexander Greenwood, a stock broker from 1963-1976, talking in the documentary about the situation in the UK under Wilson, says:

You know, the people in the City of London, they weren't liking it. The people who work as stock brokers, they usually come from the best schools. A lot of them have titles you know. They weren't liking it at all. 

Our current City workers come from a wider range of backgrounds but they aren't 'liking' Corbyn' at all' either.

All this of course led to discussions of a coup involving Lord Mountbatten, Cecil King and the Queen Mother and the need to put a 'strong man' in charge of the country. LINK

I am not a conspiracy theorist but is is clear that Corbyn will be resisted by the Establishment and they will resort to dirty tricks to thwart democracy if they feel it necessary. The cold war has gone and Corbyn's democratic credentials are such that trying to label him a 'Communist' will probably fail. The MI5/6/CIA/KGB operations have been replaced by more sophisticated operations.

Tony Blair's dire warning about Corbyn may well reflect his concerns over Iraq and the Chilcot Inquiry. Corbyn was straightfoward when asked on News Night about war crimes and whether Blair should stand trial:

If he has committed a war crime, yes. Everybody who has committed a war crime should be.

Not something that will please the military or secret services.

In Corbyn's case, rather than Moscow being the focus of dirty tricks and smear campaigns, it might well be Palestine. He has been attacked for his pro-Palestine positions and accused of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah in the press and on Labour blogs. LINK  LINK

Former Tory MP Jerry Hayes suggests on his blog that rather than the Establishment, the threat against Corbyn could come from elsewhere:  LINK:

 Rogue elements within the security services, Mossad, American NSA veterans and a whole host of the weird and the not so wonderful could be very tempted to remove Corbyn and his chums from the scene. rogue elements in Mossad may present a threat to Corbyn.

Tongue in cheek Hayes advises Corbyn to get a food taster.

Of course Corbyn is a long way from being leader of the Labour Party, and much further from winning an election and being Prime Minister, but it is  worth  bearing in mind the lessons from the Harold Wilson era as events unfold.

Note:

I was working in a lowly job in Fleet Street between 1964 and 1971 compiling stock exchange reports for Reuters Economic Services, but it did mean that in the Fleet street pubs I was hearing many of the rumours and conspiracy theories referred to in the documentary.

I was in the weird position of cultivating stock brokers as part of my job in order to get inside information on share movements and also being a militant trade unionist representing  Natsopa clerical workers in RES.

Contradictions, don't you love 'em!