Last month I reported on Marxist infiltration of the Labour Party in Hammersmith and Fulham via the group Momentum.
They are holding a gathering tomorrow evening at Askew Road Methodist Church (of all places). On the agenda:
“Establishing the purpose and direction of Hammersmith and Fulham momentum.”
No prizes for guessing that deselections of (relatively) moderate Labour councillors will be on the work agenda.
I worry that the 16 of them that endorsed Tessa Jowell to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor will be labelled Blairites and thus targeted.
I happen to think the Blairite label is unfair (or overly generous depending on your point of view). Cllr Sue Macmillan tried to scupper the Fulham Boys School from opening. Tony Blair – and true Blairites such as Lord Adonis – support free schools. Also surely Cllr Stephen Cowan’s bizarre choice of Michael Mansfield QC to review the NHS in West London will help pacify his Corbynista tormentors? Cllr Lisa Homan can plead for mercy by pointing to her opposition to the right to buy. A true Blairite would avoid attacking aspiration.
Tomorrow’s meeting will be addressed by James Schneider, the national leader of Momentum who is a Hammersmith resident. He voted for the Green Party at the General Election last May. So the Labour councillors will have to justify their reselection amidst pressure from someone who didn’t even vote Labour just eight months ago.
Schneider was a pupil at Winchester College, Corbyn’s spin doctor Seamus Milne also went there. John Betjeman regarded Old Wykehamists as a rather dubious bunch but they can hardly be blamed for where their parents sent them to school. However it does make it rather absurd for Momentum to keep attacking David Cameron and Boris Johnson for having been to Eton. The Corbynistas rhetoric of class hatred is not just unpleasant but hypocritical.
Hammersmith and Fulham Forum 
Councillor Stephen Cowan – the man who never replies – has led the council for eight years. He has had an able team of councillors, as has the opposition: he has had a large majority.
So what has he achieved in this time.
He has knocked down the ugliest building in Hammersmith: its replacement is being built very slowly.
Drug crime, leading to knifings, has increased sharply. Cannabis is being traded in parks and cemeteries and openly smoked there.
Planners have permitted several tall buildings even after the horrors of Grenfell, nearby. The planning department has passed plans clandestinely, that had already been rejected by the planning committee.
Social care seems to be a costly mess. I saw 8 people, spending one hour dealing with a resident with mental health problems.
With Hammersmith bridge,it is hard to know who to blame. The initial error was made in 1986 when the gift of the bridge was accepted. But since it was discovered that the piers were cracked there has been no progress for vehicles. Wide cycle lanes have slowed traffic movements in several streets, with little obvious benefits to cyclists.
Starmer wants to fight the local elections on the rising cost of living. But neither Councillor Stephen Cowan – the man who never replies-
nor the opposition leader is responsible for this.
His main interest seems to have been to get his photo into as many leaflets and pamphlets as possible. This bizarre narcicissism is hard to understand. Surely it will not win votes.