Forum Topic

Isleworth Public Hall

I have just returned from an excellent afternoon helping out in a small way at the Open House event at the Isleworth Public Hall held this weekendThe Isleworth Society celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year and the event was appropriately titled A Celebration of Isleworth as many groups and societies had stalls and there was also a Bijou Cinema showing films of Isleworth from the old daysCongratulations to everyone involved in making the event such a success and the only downside was that none of the Isleworth or Syon councillors could be bothered to attend but that's hardly surprising considering their interest in the wards they claim to represent since being elected

Paul Fisher ● 5678d40 Comments

Have read thread with interest.  Can't help but notice that the list of things the Dear Leader would do if he decided not to pursue his council ambitions does not include getting a job

Patricia Nicholas ● 5657d

I have no doubt that councillors enjoy working with the various groups in their area to the benefit of all, and this nonsense of seeing them as a 'threat' is something peddled by the ICG. What is at issue here is the mob handed presence of ex ICG councillors who cannot seem to let go and allow the new councillors to get on with their duties, expertise is not confined to the ICG. No-one expects them to disappear and if they feel the need to work with various groups so be it, but to criticise constantly the current councillors for what they may or may not be doing when they cannot possibly know their circumstances just looks like sour grapes and bitterness which is what they accused others of frequently. The fact is that people do have jobs as well as council duties to juggle something that some of the ICG councillors weren't bothered with, of course you can be here, there and everywhere when you have all the time in the world, others do not have that luxury, and have to manage their time and should not be held up to constant criticism because of it. The electorate will make the ultimate decision.

Vanessa Smith ● 5660d

So why all the whinging and whining then Robin?Surely following Labour's resounding victory everything is as it was before ICG councillors first assumed office, back to Square One and with all the residents' groups firmly under the iron heel of The Party?Or has it finally dawned on you, after nearly five months, that what you have inherited is altogether different to what you left behind in 1998 and that it is you, not us, who is going to have to "deal with it"?We knew the penny was going to drop eventually and it has been well worth the wait.Has it occurred to you yet Robin that Isleworth now has three Labour councillors who will need to function in a community-led environment?  Or do you really think your councillors have what it takes to turn the clock back?  LOL, bring it on you mugs.

Phil Andrews ● 5667d

The "Organised Community" is what came out in force on May 6th to kick your butts out of power.

Robin Taylor ● 5667d

You beat me to it Neil.  We are a community group and community groups get involved in community work.  It's what community groups do.  It's what the ICG did before we were elected, it's what we did as councillors and it's what we will continue to do now.For someone who keeps telling me to deal with it Vanessa doesn't seem to be dealing with it at all well.Assuming they agree with her - and none of them have been on here to tell us they don't - just what kind of councillor is it that finds organised community activity so threatening?  Doesn't all this rabid hostility rather betray their underlying agenda?

Phil Andrews ● 5667d

VanessaWhy shouldn't past Cllrs continue to be involved in local affairs? If they believe in local communities and a number of local groups exist to promote community involvement surely they should use all the expertise they have gained over many years on these various communities.Why do local Cllrs find it so difficult working with these groups? Do they see these groups/communities as a threat?

Neil Chippendale ● 5667d

Pure BS - and again a twist of the usual deliberate misunderstanding. Please remind me - were any of us to be found haunting you when you won your seats? Turning up at every area meeting and getting ourselves inveigled onto this committee and that? We bowed out, let go and accepted that there are always winners and losers in a democratic process, but that doesn't mean - as you know well, that you don't still have an opinion and the right to voice it and to challenge at the appropriate time. Why do you think that the new councillors should work with you - just who do you think you are? Do you have some monopoly on something the rest of us are not graced with? You are now the beaten opposition, deal with it.

Vanessa Smith ● 5667d

He has gone for a pint with Noel Gallagher

Ian Speed ● 5667d

Incidentally David Milliband must be the first politician in history to quit frontline politics so that he can spend less time with his family.

Phil Andrews ● 5667d

So you have quit gracefully have you Vanessa?  Seems to me we hear a lot more from you now than we did when you were a councillor.But what I really don't understand about you is that you seem to spend half your time telling us to quit and the other making it so difficult for us to do so.  If you really believe the ICG's comments about wanting to working with the new councillors is a false front, why don't you ask them to call our bluff?  From where I'm sitting it seems you are afraid of what you might find.

Phil Andrews ● 5667d

I think that the Dear Leader should look to David Miliband for an example of grace and humility, I think that his decision is mature and sensible, and absolutely right. Sometimes you just have to learn to come to terms with the fact of your disappointment that you lost something close to your heart. But that is the nature of life, and especially politics - some you win some you lose, that's the chance you take when you throw your hat in the ring. Hovering around and clinging on to the vestiges of what once was starts to look quite sad. No one says you have to disappear but you do have to be circumspect, and know when to butt out of the frontline. It is quite often the case that you will get another chance to contest a result, and I'd bet my last penny that's what will happen in 2014, as I have said there is absolutely no way that the D.L. won't join the fray, in spite of the false modesty we have been fed. Anyway there's always North Korea in the meantime.

Vanessa Smith ● 5667d

Here here!

Phil Andrews ● 5668d

A day in the life of a dedicated communityhttp://tiny.cc/o6361

Phil Andrews ● 5668d

Look, Vanessa, let me explain.Like most Messiahs, Phil feels that he has a certain "calling".His mission is simple: to ensure that all local groups are allowed to be truly "independent" (i.e. controlled by him).Of course, in order to selflessly give his services in this way, he will need a small recompense from the public purse: nothing much, just the odd £25,000 (plus expenses).Personally, I think it's excellent value for money.

Robin Taylor ● 5668d

Following Labour councillors around en masse?  Good grief girl, IBAC is a public meeting and we could hardly be accused of "following" them to the Isleworth Public Hall for the TIS event because if you remember, they weren't there!Please do get a grip.It already looks like it's on for 2014 then if these breathless rants are indicative of the party mood.  Lawrence will be pleased anyway...

Phil Andrews ● 5668d

You really have a knack for deliberately 'misunderstanding' things don't you?. You know full well, by 'butt out' I meant that showing up mob handed to anything you can think of smacks of intimidation, and that this is part of your ego trip because you just can't accept that life, and indeed civilisation, can muddle through without your glorious prescence. In spite of all the old cobblers about how you will watch the councillors and hope that you won't 'have' to stand again to rescue Isleworth from a fate worse than death because you really don't want to, but you will make the supreme sacrifice if called upon. You know as surely as night follows day you'll put yourself forward in 2014. That's what its about - challenging and giving people a choice, but at least try being honest, you'll do it even if the Labour councillors walked on water and fed the population with loaves and fishes, they could be the best thing since the invention of the light bulb it wouldn't make a scrap of difference to you. I cannot remember, and I'm sure we'd have heard, about Labour party members following you around en masse and dogging your every move, no, you got on with whatever you did without any interference. You just want the taxpayers of this borough to provide you with a living - do what the rest of us did -get a bloody job.

Vanessa Smith ● 5668d

LOL.

Phil Andrews ● 5669d

"who is Lawrence Brown and what should we be getting on with?" Lawrence seems to stalk Robin Taylor as his posts appear right ater Robin's as an add-on :-) You can't take him seriously though - he doesn't know the difference between 'here' and 'hear'

Steve Taylor ● 5669d

RobinAre you coming to the Magpie & Crown next week?

Neil Chippendale ● 5669d

I agree with Phil.It's obvious that Labour haven't learnt the lessons of their victory.Err... hang on a minute...;-)

Robin Taylor ● 5669d

Butt out?You mean accept that, due to the unusual coincidence of a general election being held on the same day as a local election, my community should revert to the situation it was in in the 1980s and 1990s, with every facet of community life having to be controlled and directed according to the whims of a self-styled political elite and that all the gains we have made on the engagement front over the past 17 years should be casually cast into the bin?Do you know what, I do believe you are right.  Call it ego, call it pride, call it conscience, call it anything you like, but I certainly am not prepared to accept that.What I would like to see, if it were down to me, would be some kind of acknowledgement that working with people, alongside people, respecting people rather than perpetually bossing them about is actually a better way, and one that need not be feared by politicians who have confidence in their own abilities to represent their constituents properly.  To be truthful I am picking up positive vibes from one or two of your councillors in this regard but one or two is frankly not enough.  Sue's (sorry, Councillor Sampson's) outburst on this forum over the weekend suggests to me that nothing at all has changed in your party's psyche.  It is complete and utter control or nothing.  Under these terms you could well be left with nothing, because a whole lot of people in Isleworth have got used to self-organisation and a relationship with their councillors based upon mutual respect and these are the people who will be turning out to vote in 2014 when the Gumbys revert to staying at home.In case you think these are empty words just consider that in just over a year I will be fifty.  I have been involved in politics of one kind or another since I was at school.  I enjoyed my twelve years as a councillor but it would be no wrench whatsoever, none at all, for me to hang up my rosette for good.  My continued interest in working for my community could quite easily be satisfied by doing something for The Isleworth Society, my local RA or my Church.But I am not going to do this in the knowledge that a freak election result (your words if you recall) has wiped out everything I and my colleagues have achieved and returned everything to Square One.  Would you?In fact, when the ICG won in Isleworth and Syon did the Labour Party party "butt out", or did it stand for election again the next time around?I don't expect the Labour Party in victory to suddenly go all democratic and community-friendly on us.  I can only speak for myself but I would be content to see it shift half way.  But the abusive, smug, superior, triumphalist, self-worshipping entity that I still see on this forum and hear about writing letters to community groups and associations telling them who they can and cannot invite to their activities seems no better than the animal we were dealing with a decade and a half ago.This mentality was captured perfectly by "Lawrence Brown", a poster on this forum who bragged at the weekend that the Labour Party wanted the ICG to continue as a political force because he believed that we and the resurgent Conservative Party he for some reason expects to see will divide the anti-Labour vote and keep Labour councillors in office.  It is a hope based upon a series of bad misconceptions, but that's by the by.  As to who he really is, well I'd been kinda hoping that you'd be able to throw some light on that for me.

Phil Andrews ● 5669d

'Spoiling for a fight' - no - that's you, you just won't butt out and accept that you lost. You prefer to attempt presenting an intimidating front to people. At the risk of being completely thick - or possibly pre Alzheimer's, who is Lawrence Brown and what should we be getting on with?

Vanessa Smith ● 5669d

I did want to hear the answer Vanessa.  I just consider it unfortunate when there is potential to lay the old ways to rest and maybe achieve something new and constructive that certain of you just seem to be spoiling for a fight all the time.  However "Lawrence Brown" has now explained the thinking behind it, so let's just get on with it.

Phil Andrews ● 5669d

Well -  you shouldn't ask the question if you don't want to hear the answer.

Vanessa Smith ● 5669d

It's no good, Vanessa.You can't reason with the great one.

Robin Taylor ● 5669d

Vanessa, do you know what a self-fulfilling prophecy is?

Phil Andrews ● 5669d

I take it you have heard the term 'A Sprat to catch a Mackerel?'. This is what I think you and you group are doing by turning up anywhere and everywhere, and then criticisng local councillors for not doing the same. You just can't bear the fact that you are no longer cock of the walk, so you seem to have decided to be councillors in waiting like large spiders waiting for their prey to waltz into the web. Hence 'Hounslow Watch and turning up at area meetings, you just can't bear to let go - can you? You are more than entitled to have a view of what goes on locally and to criticise when justifed, but most of us fade gracefully into the background and just get on with life once we are out of the hurly burly of politics at the Civic Centre, whilst still taking an interest of what is going on that affects us. Fair enough if you want to turn up at the opening of an envelope I don't much care what you do with your time, but it's this feeling that all you are doing is biding your time and keeping yourselves in the spotlight just to slag off other people who have now been elected, in the hopes that you'll be in a prime place to pounce come the next local elections. All this nonsense about giving the new councillors a chance etc. piffle! You have no intention of giving an inch, you need to remember you didn't hold down a job whilst being a councillor, others choose not to ask the council tax payer to support them and anyway can't afford to, just because they don't rush around getting their faces shown everywhere all the time doesn't mean they're not carrying out their duties to their constituents, it means they don't have the luxury of the time you apparently have. No doubt if they were able to not to work they'd have more time on their hands too.  So - the sprat is you saying - look at us we're here looking as if we're really involved, the mackerel being this is used as proof of how wonderful you are to justify why you should again be kept at the taxpayer's expense come 2014.

Vanessa Smith ● 5669d

Vanessa  Your posting consisted of one somewhat cryptic three-word phrase, viz. "Sprats and mackerels?"I responded as follows:"Are you telling us it was some kind of strategic boycott Vanessa?"If so I find that disappointing.  TIS, by your own admission in a previous post, is not a political organisation and if the local councillors staying away was part of some long-term strategy to try to bring it into the party's orbit then I think that is utterly shameful."Or have I misunderstood your posting completely?"My reply, as you can see, took the form of a question.  It also concluded with an acknowledgement of the possibility that my interpretation of your comments, though based upon my many years of knowledge and experience of your political mentality, may have been erroneous.I suppose it would be asking too much for you to simply explain for the benefit of this forum's users what it was you meant in the first place?

Phil Andrews ● 5671d

'Your constant sniping at former councillors and other members of the community lends you no dignity'. Pots 'n' kettles spring to mind! Sue is quite right, when you are holding down a job and on the council, weekends are often crammed catching up and/or doing a surgery on a Saturday. As usual anything I have said has been completely deliberately misinterpreted.

Vanessa Smith ● 5671d

Councillor SampsonMy posting on the Syon floods thread addresses most of your points here.I did not slag you off for not attending the TIS event, I merely pointed out the fact that you were not there.  Please read my posting again.I did question what appeared to be a boast by Vanessa that your non-attendance had some kind of tactical significance and stand by my view that if this was the case it was unacceptable.Your allegation that I questioned why you had been invited to the ROWE event is a complete fabrication.  My fellow ROWE committee members will confirm that whenever the question of inviting ward councillors has arisen I have always spoken in favour of inviting them and of developing as good a relationship as possible with them, whilst being mindful of the need to protect their independence as an association. You are now an elected councillor Sue, the dynamic has changed.  Your constant sniping at former councillors and other members of the community lends you no dignity.  Please concentrate your undoubted talents on your new role and give Isleworth ward a new team of councillors to be proud of.

Phil Andrews ● 5671d

I don't have time to post on the forum all day like EX-councillor Andrews does but here's my reply.I did send TIS a card giving my apologies. The reason I couldn't attend was because I was busy finishing off all the casework that you were too lazy to deal with - because I do most casework, visits and surgeries at weekends because as you know I WORK during the week - like the benefits casework from last AUGUST which you didn't resolve because you told the constituent it was in the election period. But you carry on going to gatherings like the important person you are and I'll carry on serving my constituents, so that will keep everyone happy. Some other examples of where the ICG failed to serve their constituents is that you didn't deal with the barriers, damp problem in Crane Avenue, parking in South Street, the asbestos check for the ROWE centre, housing & repairs issues - and you wonder why you lost the election.You like slagging me off when I can't make a meeting but when I went to the ROWE meeting I overheard you questioning why I had been invited. As usual, I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't.

Councillor Sue Sampson ● 5671d

Are you telling us it was some kind of strategic boycott Vanessa?If so I find that disappointing.  TIS, by your own admission in a previous post, is not a political organisation and if the local councillors staying away was part of some long-term strategy to try to bring it into the party's orbit then I think that is utterly shameful.Or have I misunderstood your posting completely?

Phil Andrews ● 5674d

Sprats and Mackerels?

Vanessa Smith ● 5674d

I have just received some raw data on this event held last weekend.A total of 244 people signed the visitors' book and there were of course a very large number of attendees, possibly a majority, who didn't.All six of the former Syon and Isleworth councillors attended, including Genevieve who as we know has been unwell during recent times.  Five of us were involved in assisting with the organisation - e.g. Shirley and Paul Fisher manned the door on consecutive days, Caroline Andrews manned a stall on the second day and I acted as "porter", assisting with moving sometimes heavy and awkward equipment into the building on the opening day.Sadly none of the current councillors for either ward appeared the event at any point during either day.I don't intend to be drawn into a political squabble about this, I am simply presenting the raw facts.  For all I know there may have been a good, valid reason for the absence of our current elected representatives, but whatever the reason I would implore them hitherto to take a more active interest in community-led events even where they operate outside of Labour Party discipline and influence.  The Mayor's attendance and contribution was appreciated by all of us.

Phil Andrews ● 5674d

Your continuous loyalty to anyone with a red rosette is admirable Vanessa but I would lay good money that even you have heard how utterly useless the new councillors are and how they have failed those they claim to represent by being totally out of their depthAll six of the Isleworth and Syon councillors were invited to at least pop their head in the door and least pretend they had an interest but not one of them bothered over the two daysToo busy deciding how many staff to throw on the dole perhaps?

Paul Fisher ● 5677d

If this is true then why aren't you telling them that they should report these errant councillors to the Leader of the Council? As regards going to Isleworth Public Hall, as you know you can't all show up everywhere at the same time, and perhaps they didn't know, or only found out after they had made some other arrangements, often happens. God - that view from those pedestals must be quite something.

Vanessa Smith ● 5677d

Shame that the event wasn't publicized on this dear Forum!

Jim Lawes ● 5678d

You would have thought that this was one event that they should have attended. The Isleworth Society has done much to preserve Isleworth.

Neil Chippendale ● 5678d

Not at all Robin but many residents who voted for the new Labour councillors in Isleworth and Syon have been telling me they feel extremely let down and have been conned as they have been nowhere to be seen since May 6th and are completely ignoring any correspondence to themAny sign of the Syon councillors holding a surgery in the near future by the way as many are asking how to see them face to face seeing as they refuse to respond by e-mail or letter?

Paul Fisher ● 5678d

"...the only downside was that none of the Isleworth or Syon councillors could be bothered to attend..."Bitter.

Robin Taylor ● 5678d