John,I recognise that you are going to oppose much of what I say - for the obvious reason that you see me as a cheerleader for the Keens (and for Hounslow Labour Party in general).Clearly, your current status as an Independent councillor (having previously been Labour leader of the council) reflects upon the personality clashes that have occurred within the Labour group over the years.In many ways, this sort of thing makes me glad that I am on the "periphery" of Hounslow politics - because it means that my enthusiasm does not get undermined in the way that it would do were I to get continuously bogged down by the personalities and double-dealings that I'm sure go on in any political organisation.Although you have at times been a little scathing of me in your various posts, the enmity does not work the other way: you may not now be a member of the party, but if nothing else I respect your track record as being one that belongs to an anti-racist who fights for the underdog.Fwiw I, too, am disappointed that no Muslim councillor is likely to be sitting on the Labour benches after May, and I raised my concerns about this with Ann Keen and with others as far back as June. Ann shares my concerns, but at the end of the day there is little that she or anyone else can do if the members choose to vote a certain way in the selection meetings. It is always important for us to respect democracy and not to jump to conclusions about why people may have voted one way or another.I think Nisar Malik (who is, by the way, a strong supporter of Ann) is a good councillor, and I did try to persuade him to go for the Hounslow Heath selection after he lost out in Central. I'm not sure if he has tried for it or what the current status of the selection is, but it's possible that now he is trying to manage the halal meat section in Asda (as well as looking after his own shop on Kingsley Road) his time may be taken up with other things.My view about Nisar is not in any way meant to be a criticism of those who won the Hounslow Central selection. I don't think it's top secret information for me to mention that Pritam Grewal was obviously concerned when his wife lost the selection in Hounslow West, and wanted to move her to Central.As for Lily Bath, she is one of the nicest people I've ever met in politics - and does not have a spiteful bone in her body. She is definitely parliamentary material.Part of the difficulty that Nisar faced in Central was the one woman rule (by which each ward's slate of three candidates must include a female). Well, I agree with that rule and the good thing is that we now have two women standing as our candidates in Central. That should go some way towards bringing about more gender balance (the lack of which is something that Phil Andrews and others have criticised the Labour Group for on this forum).Of course, race and religion should not matter, but what we now have in Hounslow Central is three Sikh Labour candidates versus a Tory team that comprises a white woman, a Sikh Woman and a Muslim man. For the record, the Hindu community is (narrowly) the largest part of the Asian community in Central, with Muslims being slightly more numerous that Sikhs. Most Asian people will ignore the religion of the candidates they vote for, but for those to whom religion does matter (and remember here, that Asian electors will be able to instantly decipher a candidate's religion just by looking at the name printed on the ballot sheet) the line up could cause complications in a close race.That said, having done quite a bit of canvassing in Central this year, it does not strike me as a ward which is about to elect a Tory councillor. The Tories have clearly targetted it - that much is clear - and having come within 150 votes of snatching a seat there last time, they clearly think it's a stepping stone on their road to an overall majority.One final thing: although it would be good for Labour to have Hindu, Sikh AND Muslim representation in the council chamber, the party should certainly take no lectures from the Tories or the ICG about diversity: you and Jagdish Sharma quite rightly spoke out when the SDC stripped power from the Heston & Cranford committee. We can see clearly from this precisely where the centralising Tories really want power to reside: what were the words you used? "Characteristic of fascist regimes".From my point of view, if I can use my tiny influence to help stop the Tories gaining (or holding) a seat here or there, then that makes it just that little bit more difficult for them to implement their nasty, spiteful anti-diversity agenda between 2010-14. You can't blame me for at least trying.
Robin Taylor ● 6002d