Ben, you are just dim. Sorry if you don’t like plain speaking, but frankly if you talk nonsense it deserves short shrift.As for council bashing, well plenty of other people criticise the council, and rightly so. It has consistently shown itself to be self-serving and incompetent.An example for you, and I’ll use easy to understand language to help you.For 12 years Ealing Labour said there’s no money owing to government funding cuts. We saw services chopped and the blame laid squarely at the for if the coalition and then Conservative governments.In May 2022 Labour increased its number of councillors in Ealing, largely as a result of a negative campaign against the national government rather than any achievement managed under Julian Bell or Peter Mason.What was the very first motion passed by the new council? To increase councillor allowances, amounting to an increase of a million pounds over four years. Suddenly no mention of cuts or lack of funding! Now that is self-serving.The list of lies, failures and brass-necked cronyism is lengthy. Take your pick from the Ealing Town Hall saga, the ‘no more tall towers’ pre-election pledge by Mason (handily forgotten), failure to produce legally required Authority Monitoring Reports for five years (gifting planning appeals to developers at taxpayers expense), the Lammas Park earthworks, Gurnell, etc, etc. Years and years of the stuff, all recorded on this site but not widely disseminated to the population because there’s no effective local media, just the taxpayer funded Around Ealing propaganda sheet.Arthur mentions consultations. He knows a lot about that subject, as do I, and the flagrant disregard for the legal requirements on the part of the council is breathtaking. You probably don’t care or don’t understand. That’s your choice, but other people still feel the duty to highlight such matters.Labour now has nobody to blame at national level. Already making themselves unpopular there and you notice how the local left have gone very quiet over issues such as child benefit caps, winter fuel allowance and national insurance hikes, things that will impact a lot of people negatively in Ealing in the not too distant future. That will take some explaining in 18 months when the next local elections are due.Standing as an independent is pointless in most places in England. Eric Leach, who is an excellent community representative for West Ealing, tried and failed and that underlined how unengaged many are with local issues - until they are directly affected by them.Which brings us to LTNs. The opposition to those was huge. 3,500 attendees at two marches. Maybe you missed it, but the facts are the facts. They took the roadblocks out and Bell lost his job. You can’t rewrite the narrative now.You seem to think you speak for some silent majority, but you really don’t.Oh, and Philippa is boring. Really tedious. That’s an opinion and you can lump it.
Simon Hayes ● 192d