John Thank you for your response. Having seen for myself how some New Labour councillors operate, and in that I mean several of those of the Feltham mafia and others, I was sorry to read of your expulsion. I was however aware that a very dirty and very public campaign had been launched against you by certain local New Labour party officials. I can only assume that you were too good at what you were doing and therefore far too much of a threat to those who lack political accountability for you to stay within the party. Had the leadership of the local New Labour group been in possession of any sense they would have censured those party officials and councillors who are bringing the party down brick by brick rather than letting them get away with slow and painful ruination, which is what some of these recent issues seem that the New Labour group are hell bent on doing. If your concerns on the way that the party is operating locally have not been picked up by New Labour locally, regionally or indeed nationally, then it seems to me that locally, regionally and nationally, New Labour are more than happy to condone the antics of a number of rather idiosyncratic party officials and councillors which I can only suppose that Alan and Ann Keen are more than happy to support. The support from the Keen’s would appear to be rather short sighted in that if the local party are deemed to be out of touch with the electorate, coupled with voter disillusionment on several fronts on national and international issues, then surely the chances of re-election by Alan Keen and Ann Keen must be diminished. Outside of the General Election, in the Local Election, through these recent local events there exists a very real chance of a large number of wards within the borough being effectively taken out of the control of New Labour with New Labour losing seats in the east of the borough and in turn, New Labour potentially losing overall control of the borough. The way in which certain of these branches operate seems ludicrous in that if the membership of these branches are not genuine New Labour supporters and have no interested in politics but are only shipped in to rubber stamp nominations for ward councillors, the nominations of which may or may not reflect the make up of the electorate, then New Labour deserve the ward councillors these branches back if indeed the wards return such New Labour councillors. Such antics won’t work in the long term because these undemocratic machinations disillusion genuine party supporters who have a very real passion for politics, fractionalising support, leading to a weaker overall party. Hardly the vision that New Labour needs or one that Tony Blair keeps telling us that he wants. Talk of social exclusion at its worse.
Gareth Evans ● 7366d