Thanks for a bit of constructive debate.For me, I have lost any faith in Labour leadership in Hounslow. This led to me resigning from the cabinet, being suspended for suggesting council houses which had been ready for months should be allocated to (for example) the family who were living in a sitting room with all their belongings in suitcases because their bedrooms were uninhabitable. They had been promised one of the new houses and told they would move in immediately. A month later they contacted me when nothing had happened and there was no news. Nothing was done until I went public. When I went public I was suspended. I appealed and the appeal was refused. As I had clearly said, if suspended I would resign from the Labour group at Hounslow, and would at that stage would have happily continued as an independent Labour councillor. I was expelled from the party and told I could apply for readmission by applying to the National Executive Committee, but not for 5 years.Good news - 5 families were rehoused a few days later.Many of the Labour (and some Conservatives) I still see as good or excellent councillors, and I wish them well.As to Labour nationally: I have always been loyal to the leadership and campaigned enthusiastically for last year's general election. I have always been on the left of the Labour Party but I supported the 'wide church'.I believe the current national leadership have made a lot of serious mistakes. But they are the government for the next 3-4 years and I expect they will improve.The Greens are much closer to my political beliefs and now have a leader who communicates very effectively. I look particularly at their published values: "honesty, fairness, efficient and competent management, empathy, working for you". They precisely reflect my own values. At present they have only 4 MPs so can have little power (influence is another matter) in Parliament. Their policies and values are much better than Labour and I will be delighted to support them nationally!Back to Hounslow: The Conservatives are clearly a broken party at present. Two of them have already defected to Labour and at least 2 are standing down next year, including the widely-respected John Todd.Reform are a strongly right-wing party, run by multi-millionaires with extensive links to American billionaires and Russian oligarchs. Their approach is completely populist and very obviously untrustworthy. Their leader spends a large part of his time in the USA (where a lot of his enormous income derives from) and very rarely visits his Clacton constituency or his place of 'work' Westminster to earn the 'pin money' (for him) of £94K. Of course he is paid office expenses and I hope he doesn't get in trouble for fraud with that which he was rumoured to have been accused of when he worked (well, he didn't work much really) in Brussels. His deputy lives half the time in Dubai because his rich partner doesn't want to pay VAT on private school fees. Every prominent Reform person is an ex-Tory.I hear one or two of our traditional Corbynistas may have joined the Corbyn Party. Some of them are friends of mine but I never really believed in Corbyn. I never voted for him but supported Labour despite that when he was the democratically-elected lead of Labour. The party values are more important than the leader.As to Theo, I have written about him before. He was good to me when I was a new councillor and I get on well with him. I don't have a clue what his real politics are. Last known allegiance was to George Galloway. What he does now as far as I can see, is simply turn up where there is an audience and a chance for some clicks. He always talks loudly in formal Council meetings and recently has done so at Area Forum. If you want to know what he does beyond that I have no idea. I rarely bump into him in Brentford and I never see him on local media, and his casework numbers are very modest. Of course, he is always available when Brentford TV provides him with an audience.That is a lengthy post, because I believe in communicating with the local people which I can do better in writing. 503 (and counting) blogs demonstrate that, as does my habit of responding quickly to every request from an resident (though I know I am not perfect!). Some people don't like my blogs but the overwhelming feedback I get is positive.
Guy Lambert ● 18d