It took 6 Herts police officers to visit a protesting primary school parent and then cart a lady off to the cells.
So what does the obese £84,000 a year, ex-local cllr, Mr Ash-Edwards have to say about ‘his’ officers antics? Ash-Edwards is the Herts Police and Crime Commissioner. What are his qualifications? None apart from being a fairly useless local councillor
What has he done about this mess? Not very much. He claims he is having words with Chief Constable! Bit late for that Mr Ash-Edwards. ‘Your’ Force has been made to look ludicrous.
Ash-Edwards’s salary is just the thin end of it. His office employs over 35 people so his budget is well over £1 million annually.
Too many pies…a waddling PCC
If the government was serious about making savings Police and Crime commissioners should be binned immediately. All it does it provide an income stream for unemployable ex-councillors like this waste of space.
Trump claims Europe takes the US for a ride. Europe could say the same of US banks; management consultants and accountancy firms
The Big 5 US investment banks; the Big 4 accountancy firms and the dozen or so management consulting firms have been feasting for decades on billions of $’s of fees earned from European companies.
And what about the massive profits generated by Amazon, Google and Meta?
There is a long-standing American attitude has always been don’t do as we do: do as we say”
We know the USA holds us in contempt. This attitude extends to Neutron Holdings, the Californian-based owner of Lime Bikes. Below is the scene today in Sloane Square.
Who else is to blame?
RBK&C promised immediate action with bikes being collected and Lime and Forrest being charged storage fees. So far….just words. This cavalier attitude by Lime and the Council is a slap in the face to all residents.
John Allan, the ex boss of Tesco says young people on benefits could/should be trained up as plumbers as all the Polish plumbers have returned to the thriving Polish economy.
The Dame has the perfect response from her excellent engineer, Nico.
When the Dame asked if he wanted to take on an apprentice he asked if the old thing was joking. “Why would I take the risk of hiring someone who I might not be able to get rid of”
We did not even get onto the subject of NIC. Labour and Conservatives should both be worried. Nico left Italy for this country 40 years ago. He says he will be voting Reform as ‘“it seemed pro-business’“
The Times is doing what this and the previous Tory government should have been doing……finding out where the taxes of ‘hardworking people’ are being squandered.
It seems the new money-making scheme involves ‘students’ enrolling at places like this dump below and then never attending. Hundreds of millions of pounds of ‘hard-working peoples’ tax is being wasted on this thieving by people taking the loan knowing they will never pay it back.
The other day The Times targeted Motobility which costs ‘hardworking working people’ billions of pounds.
The State is providing brand new cars costing tens of thousands with all insurance and servicing included. Yes, there may be cases of need but this scheme is being abused on a wholesale basis.
This country needs a horror like Musk killing government-funded waste. There are tens of billions to be saved.
Sir Richard Sherrif, the one time Deputy Nato Supreme Commander is never out of the news. In the Mail today he tells us that nuclear war between Russia and Europe is about to begin. It is one more in a succession of doom-laden forecasts.
Is the general a voice crying in the wilderness or could his incessant forecasts of imminent war with the Ruskies have more to do with his consultancy, Strategia Worldwide?
Looking at Strategia Worldwide’s accounts, it seems to need a new business injection.
Were the Dame advising the general she would tell him to keep banging the drum. Nothing like a high media profile to get in a few projects.
We have no idea of Putin’s grand plan but the general’s relentless media barrage is becoming boring. The fact that Putin could barely dent Ukraine after three years does not bode well for his greater European ambitions.
Yes, we have to be prepared but the general’s tactics are counterproductive.
As to conscription….can you imagine the mass exodus if that were introduced.
……so what has Andrew Foster got against him and why are the good people of Pembroke Ward being deprived of his services?
The Dame has never met this councillor but she has heard only good things about him. There was a particular and totally untruthful comment which the Dame did not take seriously.
There seems a singular lack of transparency at the local party organisation level. Residents are entitled to know why good councillors are replaced at the whim of some party apparatchik.
Patrick Vallance dominated our lives during the pandemic. He reminds us of those badly handled and miserable days.
The government has a good plan to link two great universities, Oxford and Cambridge. The idea is to link the 66 miles between the cities into an intensive innovation cluster area and, as importantly, a hub for globally renowned science and technology firms in life sciences, manufacturing, and AI.
This Fenland Silicon Valley is to be driven by Vallance.
This is atypical of all governments. Instead of thinking outside the box, it picks an ageing safe pair of hands.
This job should have been given to a young and fiery transatlantic entrepreneur: a man or woman able to relate to the new generation of tech entrepreneurs. One can just imagine what a turn off he will be to young tech pioneers as he drones on about his glory days. Now….someone like Chris Huhne? Different kettle of fish.
The other night Nigel Farage held a £25,000 a head party at a vulgar Mayfair club called Oswald’s. The intention was to raise money.
Dom Perignon, the preferred champagne of the parvenu flowed and ‘distinguished’ guests like James Marlborough and George Cracknell danced away with Lady Vicky Harvey until the small hours having gorged themselves on foie gras and Beluga.
Harvey
Yes, the Dame, a fearful snob would love to have been able to wear her new gold lame frock and mingle with the cream of society. But, how does all this resonate with Farage’s grassroots supporters?
Many are struggling small business people and most have rather Cromwellian and puritanical views of politics.
These dreadful and ostentatious displays of wealth set a nasty tone:
Farage, being a bit ‘middle’ middle class loves to be surrounded by aristocratic dross and ex celebs.
Serious potential donors like Dyson, Ratcliffe and other industrial titans will be very put off. Tarnishing one’s reputation by rubbing shoulders with some of the celebrity ex cons would not go down well with shareholders.
Persuading RBK&C’s FoI department to come clean on costs is like pulling hens’ teeth.
In the last couple of years just under £2 million has been spent or budgeted for.
This is a huge amount of money. The PR department under Price-Thompson has become an empire with around 16 staff beavering away. It would be understandable if there was tangible evidence of some sort of positive outcome but that is not the case.
The Dame knows a little about the PR Game. Over the years she has consistently advocated outsourcing to a grown-up consultancy or sharing the resource with neighbouring councils.
The publicity material put out by the Council is just embarrassing and unread and whatever advice is given to the Leader still leaves her floundering.
It is time the winds of change blew through the Council and a new, younger, leader untainted by the past put in the driving seat.
Is Henry Tufnell MP backwards in coming forward(back in image)?
There is nothing contemptible in an aristo being a Labour MP.
What is contemptible is pretending to be what you are not.
If Tufnell had been open about his background no one would have given two hoots. However, his gauche efforts at clambering up the greasy political pole by pretending to be common (like the Dame) are just embarrassing.
Wayne Ting, boss of Lime claims the council needs to ‘give’ his multibillion company more space. His words are his smooth as his looks.
Ting….Smooth operator
No matter now much space you give his riders they will still feel entitled to drop bikes as the fancy takes them. This is why on every London street we see the results of his company’s miss-management. He attempts to claim he is on some sort of divine social mission to enhance our streets. Most of us think he is looking to make easy money out of public spaces. Santander manages to have a socially responsible docking system but that costs money.
This is what Miss Pleasant, a PR operative for Lime wrote in response to yet another complaint. She also claims to be replying on behalf of a ‘Dominic’ who is responsible for Forest ‘excuses’.
Thank you for your email and sincere apologies for the issues you are experiencing at Hans Road and Walton Place, this is not acceptable. I am responding on behalf of myself at Lime and Dominic at Forest to let you know that we take these issues incredibly seriously and will be looking to take action here.
Both operators have a system of warnings and fines for users who do not park appropriately. Repeated offenders are also banned from our services. We also have teams of staff who monitor bays, redistribute overcrowded vehicles and tidy bays such as this. We will allocate additional resourcing here to ensure that we are keeping on top of these locations and moving vehicles away from them swiftly.
The issue here is caused by overcrowding as a result of high demand, we will be working with the council to see if there is further space that we can add parking to reduce pressure on the Hans Road bay as well as private parking locations in the area.”
Miss Pleasant attempts to present this as an isolated incident: it is not. It is greater London wide and is the result of lousy logistical planning by a money making private equity backed monster.
It is time RBKC got to grips with this. There is a mass of legislation it can deploy yet the officer involved seems out of his depth and passes the buck back to Miss Pleasant.
If you park your car badly it gets a fine and /or impounded. The Council should be doing the same with these bikes.
The Planning Inspectorate has ridden roughshod over houseboat dwellers, RBK&C and all who love this stretch of our river. The ‘Mysterious Moffats’ have been allowed to park their hideous mega boats despite 100% opposition: what a negation of democracy.
The Inspector’s decision can be challenged in the courts if there has been an error in law. If that is a possibility the RBK&C should fund the challenge.
The Dame’s many long-term fans will have followed this story for years. RBKC’s traditional markets are controlled and protected by parliamentary legislation: the London Local Authorities Act 1990. Council charges for market services must be “reasonable” and agreed with licensed street traders. Unreasonable, unagreed charges are unlawful. All unspent revenues must be returned to individual traders. The Market account is currently £200k in credit; funds are owed back to the traders.
RBKC has long proved itself incapable of tolerating the existence of publicly owned assets, particularly in the north of the Borough. Numerous, attempts have been made to steal and/or destroy them. These are a few fairly recent attempts by RBKC to sell off and/or demolish:
*North Kensington Public Library – RBKC declared the interior stone staircase unsafe for children. Despite this, the building was leased to a private primary school. When the public objected, RBKC ‘reversed’ the lease.
*Morely College provided higher education for N. Kensington residents, for decades. It was set in spacious grounds; so was sold to a ‘private’ educational company – be demolished for luxury flats. Several hundreds residents attended a public meeting. RBKC’s Cllr Taylor Smith publicly announced the reversal of the sale. The College now flourishes.
*Portobello Court – 300 flats. RBKC drew up early plans to demolish the estate; replacing it with private luxury flats + shops. The Chair of the Portobello Court Residents Association knew nothing of the plans. Lawyers for the Grosvenor Estate wrote to RBKC. If the flats were to be demolished; the Estate would take back ownership of the land on which it sits. Shortly after WW2 it was leased in perpetuity to Kensington Council for public use. No more has been heard of the plan.
*The Old Laundry and half the playground in Colville School was sold to a private French Nursery. The Nursery had recently lost its lease. Enquiries followed.
The Nursery owner was a baronet, who had evicted his own business from his own villa in Oxford Gardens.
No Colville School parents or local residents had been consulted over the plan.
The husband of an RBKC councillor was then Chair of Governors. Once the story was made public, RBKC backed off and Colville School continues to thrive.
Returning to the Markets; RBKC has long ’secretly’ planned to steal Portobello & Golborne Markets from public ownership. It will sell assets it does not own to the highest bidder. Successive public consultations have failed to deliver the result required to move forward. In 2017 RBKC published a report local tourism. Portobello Market has 6 million visitors a year. In 2019 Cllr. Faulks’ report on the local economy provided a detailed analysis of the Borough; without a single reference to or image of Portobello or Golborne Markets. In 2022 a rash of licence applications mysteriously appeared for hospitality tables and chairs to replace market traders. The public objected. All the applications were rejected. In January 2023 RBKC omitted to advise the public of 3 alleged public meetings to be held on one day. All were allegedly to discuss the future of the Markets. Days before the phantom meetings, the Dame published details. Hundreds of residents attended. By evening Cllr Kemahli rode back on the plan. Yet the current, £100k+ public consultation seeks to ‘improve’ Portobello Road, while co-incidentally preventing future market trading. This is the 4th or 5th consultation that’s failed to garner the required support for RBKC’s supposedly secret plan. Local residents know what’s intended and continue to refuse to accept the destruction of 500 people’s livelihoods. Kim Taylor-Smith claims to have “dealt with” the Grenfell survivors and now intends to “deal” with the street traders in a similar manner by unilaterally forcing up rents and other expenses. This, apparently without thought given to the possibility that by doing so, RBKC may breach parliamentary law.
To protect residents, street traders and the public; this is a matter for the Leader of the Council; Chief Executive and Borough Solicitor. It is their duty to uphold the law and protect the public, rather than support the ambitions of a local politician.
The Dame is a bit of a PR expert. She knows the tricks PR people get up using pseudo-scientific nonsense to get leaders to ante up more dough.
Mr Price-Thompson, the K&C PR boss, has built up a huge empire convincing Elizabeth Campbell all her troubles could disappear by pouring out endless drivel read by no one.
One bit of wisdom was to persuade those celebrating Diwali to use electric candles as normal candles caused fires!
The Dame decided it was time to see how much Thompson and team cost taxpayers.
Such information should be available at the touch of a button so why is her FoI taking weeks to answer?
No council needs an in-house PR team.
PR would be economically and efficiently managed bought in from external consultancies.
The Milner Street Area Residents’ Association holds it 2024 Annual General meeting on Thursday, 28th November at St Simon Zelotes Church at 7pm.
After the meeting, there will be a party so residents can meet with local luminaries and, importantly councillors, the police and Joe Powell MP.
Peter Bazalgette, described as the most important man in British television, will give an address. The Dame was fascinated to read that his parents never allowed him to watch television until he was 12. What are his thoughts on smart screen usage by the young?
Those flooded by sewage a few years back might also get his views on Thames Water’s poor upkeep of our sewage system…Peter’s Victorian ancestor engineered the first effective London sewage system.
MISARA is a very proactive campaigning association.
We complain that our views are frequently ignored but MISARA is a powerful vehicle to amplify our voice and thus deserves our support.
I am a former employee of Inc&Co. Despite exiting ….. years ago, I am still in touch with many great people who work in the companies and many people who have left over the years and here is some information to help provide factual information on the setup.
Dylan is not actively involved in the day-to-day operations of any of the companies he claims to have ‘founded’. Neither is JM. Instead, Dylan meddled and focussed his time at the group level, likely skimming off profits, racking up legal fees and ‘removing’ £13.7 million from Barclays. JM focus in group was craving validation spending all this time in the mirror or on his failed quest to become the next Steven Barnett, as a LinkedIn influencer. Neither one of these two individuals have any credit to take for any of the companies successes under the umbrella.
All company finances are centralised at Inc&Co, with decisions on payments tightly controlled at the top with an iron grip (THE FD who reports into SD). this includes the lack payment of staff pensions and also sale fees to former company heads. Individual businesses have no access to banks, budgets or funds and everything is managed and owned by Scott and hidden behind multiple layers of finance personnel within Inc&Co. JM was nothing more than a puppet craving attention, a distraction from the real operator and most likely developed by Dylan to take the fall. The staff at Inc&Co and the businesses have had the rug pulled from under them. He is a master fraudster and it beggars belief that Barclays have allowed this devastation. He doesn’t operate in plain sight, he hides behind multiple layers of group staff given he has no value to offer any of the companies. Most people haven’t even seen him in the flesh. Sometimes he would turn up for the odd board meeting refusing to put his camera on, but mostly he would use the sessions to discuss himself and his prior successes, a great opportunity for him to Gaslight the domain experts in the companies themselves.
Scott claims to invest in these companies, but in reality there is no investment, he siphons money, avoids paying creditors, and destroys thriving businesses. He’s a compulsive liar who thrives on manipulation. When challenged, he doesn’t hesitate to threaten livelihoods, pulling companies and jobs as leverage. He often takes to LinkedIn to spew abuse, masking his actions with smoke and mirrors all over the press and claiming complex PTSD. There have been many instances where JM has challenged SD and staff have been left unpaid. Despite being JM grade A arsehole, SD is the puppeteer. The FD? Few question marks there.
A RARE TRIBUTE FOR ALLCOCK FROM A PENTONVILLE PRISONER. IF HE IS SO GOOD AT SEARCH RESULTS MAYBE HE COULD SEARCH FOR INC FUGITIVES?
We know that Mr Dylan likes changing his name. Here that he has changed name yet again…. to Dylon!
When the Dame was a young thing she tie-dyed her T shirts with Dylon
The journalist’s trade mag, Press Gazette, the New Statesmen and PR WEEK have investigated PR Fire, Manchester PR company run by one Sam Allcock. It claims that he runs a series of websites purporting to be independent local news sources.
Below is an another Allcock ‘publication. 2 issues. 1. the genuine Financial News is not happy with this passing off. 2. Dave Antrobus listed as a journalist is on the run so one assumes ‘working remotely’!
PR Week the trade mag also looked into Allcocks’s activities…
These websites are nothing more than vehicles for paid releases put out by Allcock. Some of the stories on his various websites have been written by one Scott Dylan. The Dame has comprehensive evidence that Dylan, now serving time in Pentonville for contempt of court, is well known to Allcock.
From the ALLCOCK MEDIA GROUP!!!!Some of Allcock’s ‘papers’ go under these titles…the Bolton Gazette, Rochdale Gazette and Manchester Gazette. He has several others. We should be told whether Allcock was paid by Dylan. Step up to the plate, Allcock and tell us.
It would not be so bad if these ‘newspapers’ were standalone but they are not. They all connect back to Allcock.
Many K&C residents got badly burnt when on the run convict, Jack Mason, bought it. Deposits mysteriously disappeared and complaints soared on Trustpilot over quality and dire customer service.
Until very recently Mason was still running it but scuttled back to Spain when the police wanted to chat to him.
With an arrest warrant out on him and Judge Rajah attempting to seize assets the business is now in the hands the hands of a man who also claims to be resident in Spain. The word on the street is that Mason has passed over control to his friend, Bradley Coulson. The Dame thought that Mason was barred from transferring assets so what’s going on? Jonathan Sen….can you help us?
It is rare for the Dame to get plaudits from mysterious readers but when she does she purrs like a Persian or Iranian cat!
Her only wish is that Jonathan could have provided a true email address so she could invite him to one of her fabulously amazing functions where the good and the great assemble to pay homage to the old thing
Jonathan, don’t be a shy boy….send the Dame your address and you receive one of her much sought-after invitations.
Dear Dame,
I have been a loyal reader of your amazing blog for more years than I ever care to remember.
Never unkind….always balanced; you have been an inspiration to us all.
Never ceasing to fight the good fight against corruption and mean-spiritedness your blog sets the highest standards of civic life.
Yes, bad local political actors may wince as you lay into them but the good un’s always know that you back them to the hilt.
Your pursuit of the villainous Scott Dylan the Villain was a masterpiece of investigative work.
Now he languishes in rat-infested Pentonville soon to be joined by his fellow gang members, Mason and Antrobus.
Dame, this is a Royal Borough and your regal presence amongst us is to be treasured.
Thank you, Ian Henderson, for a wonderful story of how things change when tenants took over the care of their property at Wandsworth Plain Armoury Way.
Poorly kept outside areas have been transformed.
Before
After
Well done, Ian and all the tenant gardening group…an inspiration to us all!
Above is the convict Scott Dylan…. a very lucky man. He squats on a £13.7 million fortune ‘extracted’ from Barclays; a bit less as he splurged £150k on private jet hire for holidays for his ghastly low life friends.
The Dame hears tell the assets are neatly tucked away in the BVI and Delaware….well out of reach of Judge Rajah.
Some were even shifted between Mason and his boyfriend just weeks ago….so much for freezing orders!
So who ‘won’…….apart from Scott Villain and his criminal confreres?
Barclays poured millions into the pockets of the legal eagles but to what end?
Why did it not report the gang to the fraud squad at the outset? Had it done so Villain would never have had time to move the assets away. Especially as Barc must have known about his early life.
The whole thing is a pantomime. Mason, Dylan’s patsy, had his passport removed by Judge Rajah who could smell a bad ‘un. What happened next? Mason goes blubbing to the Court of Appeal saying he has nowhere to live and needs to get back to Barcelona. Sadly, the useless court of appeal agreed and that was the last seen of Mason.
So the winners are Scott Villain and his gang.
We don’t yet know what Tony Peto KC and his underlings and Evershed-Sutherlands charged but legal big boys don’t come cheap.
The losers? Barclays customers and shareholders….they have lost millions….oh….and us poor bloody taxpayers who pick up the legal aid bill.
This photo of Gen Bashir Mohamed Jama (R) and his senior adviser (seated behind him) at the Women, Peace and Security Focal Points Network event has caused a storm on X
Cllr Kasim Ali Labour Group Leader and one time Somali government adviser
So, Cllr Ali…tell us what you think about these women despising idiots?
Outrage has erupted on social media after Somalia’s Family Minister Gen Bashir Mohamed Jama shared photos on X of himself and another male delegate representing Somalia at a UN meeting about women’s issues.
“It is tone-deaf for the Somali government to have men on the frontline, representing women at the conference,” Fathiya Absie, a well-known Somali author and human rights activist, told the BBC.
