Cllr Williams to stand down

[Rockets]

2 hours ago, Sue said:

Any hatred of Corbyn was whipped up by the right wing press.

No, he was utterly un-electable. Any sensible, non-Momentum, Labour member knew this. Corbyn likes to blame the press but that is the far-left modus operandi - find someone else to blame when the problem lies at your doorstep. I know someone who was on his team and they convinced themselves that they had won on the basis of social media. He was a disaster for the party and only Covid and the incompetence of the Tories allowed Labour to recover. Corbyn was on Newsnight last night clearly putting himself back on the circuit in the hope of a Starmer downfall. 

This is why Labour HQ does not want McAsh leading the council - they are trying to purge the party of the far-left due to the damage they have done to it and I believe any swing to a more far-left leadership in Labour HQ would be an unmitigated disaster and just be rolling out the red-carpet for Farage. But the far-left won't care they see another opportunity to take over after they fumbled the ball massively in 2019.

[jazzer]

3 hours ago, Sue said:

The country didn't "hate Corbyn".

Labour under Corbyn got more votes than Labour under Starmer, if memory serves, and it was only due to our weird electoral system that they didn't win the previous election.

Any hatred of Corbyn was whipped up by the right wing press.

The Labour Party has completely lost its way. It doesn't seem to know what it stands for any more, and its members have deserted it in droves. Including me.

Anyway, this is probably for the lounge, not being directly relevant to the subject of the thread.

Well that says it all really, communism is well and truly alive in ED then.  Perhaps that's why he got thrown out of his own Party. 

1 hour ago, HEC said:

The tories didn't lose their way towards the end. They destroyed the country over 14 years.

on no they didn't..........................................

1 hour ago, Earl Aelfheah said:

100%.

Many of the problems that Labour have (after 1 year in office) are down to that 14 year legacy. They have very little room for manoeuvre. UK debt is around £2.925 trillion and the costs of borrowing are rising. The government is at the mercy of the bond markets.

Meanwhile many services are on their knees and people are demanding investment.

Try taking off the blinkers. 

59 minutes ago, Rockets said:

No, he was utterly un-electable. Any sensible, non-Momentum, Labour member knew this. Corbyn likes to blame the press but that is the far-left modus operandi - find someone else to blame when the problem lies at your doorstep. I know someone who was on his team and they convinced themselves that they had won on the basis of social media. He was a disaster for the party and only Covid and the incompetence of the Tories allowed Labour to recover. Corbyn was on Newsnight last night clearly putting himself back on the circuit in the hope of a Starmer downfall. 

This is why Labour HQ does not want McAsh leading the council - they are trying to purge the party of the far-left due to the damage they have done to it and I believe any swing to a more far-left leadership in Labour HQ would be an unmitigated disaster and just be rolling out the red-carpet for Farage. But the far-left won't care they see another opportunity to take over after they fumbled the ball massively in 2019.

Rockets has hit the nail bang on the head. Sense has been spoken. 

Edited July 3 by jazzer

[Sue]

53 minutes ago, jazzer said:

Sense has been spoken. 

If you think that is sense, I'd hate to think what you would describe as nonsense 🤣

[jazzer]

Well we're clearly at opposite ends of the spectrum, or put another way, we'll agree to disagree 

[Earl Aelfheah]

52 minutes ago, jazzer said:

 

2 hours ago, Earl Aelfheah said:

100%.

Many of the problems that Labour have (after 1 year in office) are down to that 14 year legacy. They have very little room for manoeuvre. UK debt is around £2.925 trillion and the costs of borrowing are rising. The government is at the mercy of the bond markets.

Meanwhile many services are on their knees and people are demanding investment.

Try taking off the blinkers. 

Whilst 'try taking off the blinkers' is a really insightful comment, could you expand a little? What do you disagree with - the £2.925 trillion, the role of the bond markets, or the demands for investment in public services?

[kiera]

Back to the topic of this thread.

The vote for leadership of Southwark Council is being re-run today.

Intriguing headlines in the Southwark News. (The full articles are only available online to subscribers.) :-

Sarah King says she will contest James McAsh for council leadership in enforced vote re-run

The Cabinet Member for Housing drew with McAsh in a closed door meeting of the Labour group on Monday

 by Issy Clarke.     4th July 2025

And

Exclusive: Southwark Labour broke its own local party rules in leadership vote proxy debacle, and despite ‘issue being flagged’ before ballot date 

Fresh revelations raise further questions around why proxy voting was not raised as an issue until after McAsh had been declared the winner

[Spartacus]

Let's see who wins this time or if they will go wirh third time lucky 😆

[Spartacus]

Oh my

Sarah King won, but will McAsh challenge? 

https://southwarknews.co.uk/area/southwark/sarah-king-elected-new-leader-of-southwark-labour-but-will-james-mcash-challenge-outcome/

It's more exciting than an episode of Cross Roads  😀 

[Sue]

55 minutes ago, Spartacus said:

Oh my

Sarah King won, but will McAsh challenge? 

https://southwarknews.co.uk/area/southwark/sarah-king-elected-new-leader-of-southwark-labour-but-will-james-mcash-challenge-outcome/

It's more exciting than an episode of Cross Roads  😀 

Not as exciting as the death cap mushroom case 🤣

[Spartacus]

38 minutes ago, Sue said:

Not as exciting as the death cap mushroom case 🤣

Careful, incase James gets funny ideas 😅

[KalamityKel]

🥳

that is all

[Sue]

Oh. I see Neil Coyle was involved.

These concerns about the election were raised a bit late in the day, weren't they?

I hope somebody didn't wait until James McCash had resigned from his primary school teaching job before raising them, because on the face of it that would seem really vindictive.

🙄

Edited July 9 by Sue

[OutOfFocus]

Can i clarify. Is leader a full time job whilst cabinet positions are not?

[ianr]

The Leader of the Council gets a larger Special Responsibility Allowance than plain Cabinet members: £58,427 in 2023-24, rather than somewhere in the £30k+ range.  See https://www.southwark.gov.uk/about-council/councillors-and-mps/councillors/allowances, which includes links to full tables of payments made to all councillors for the past seven years.  There's a list of Cabinet members at https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgCommitteeMailingList.aspx?ID=302

Edited July 9 by ianr

[Rockets]

5 hours ago, Sue said:

I hope somebody didn't wait until James McCash had resigned from his primary school teaching job before raising them, because on the face of it that would seem really vindictive.

Politics is a nasty business and very vindictive at times - especially when internal party politics are concerned. Perhaps this is revenge for the leadership challenge and was being served cold. I do hope Cllr McAsh has understanding employers and can get his job back if that part of the story is true.

[alice]

They used to be clear dates when teachers could resign from permanent positions.  now isn’t one of them.  Any school receiving a sudden resignation at this time of the year wouldn’t be able to advertise andappoint a permanent member of staff by September.  They would probably use agency staff. 

[Spartacus]

It's an interesting philosophical question. 

As an employer, if someone quits due to a better offer which then doesn't exist, and they come back cap in hand, would you take them back knowing they are looking for better opportunities? 

I suppose it does depend on how good the employer / employee relationship is !

Outside of that, congratulations have to go to Sarah King as the first female leader in ages. (Not that Gender is important here) 

[alice]

Sex sex not blunging gender

 

But it’s good to see now it seems they’ve got their house in order

Edited July 9 by alice

[Spartacus]

24 minutes ago, alice said:

Sex sex not blunging gender

ALICE , I am shocked by your blatant offer there , blushing, but if you insist see you behind the school bike sheds later on 😅

[Pugwash]

My daughter is a teacher for 14-18 year olds, If she wanted to start a new job or leave teaching in September, she would have to hand in her notice at the beginning of the summer term. However, she is in West Sussex so may have different contracts, Also she specialises in Special Needs which is a 'shortage area'

[ianr]

Has anything emerged as to how the reported misinterpretation of rules ruling out proxy votes occurred, or what the specific fault was?  I've found and looked through

https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Labour-group-model-standing-orders-2023.pdf, which afaics seems to be a prime relevant document.  It allows for local council Labour groups making minor amendments to cater for their council's particular form of organisation.  I've not seen any _explicit_ mention of proxy voting in the model SOs document itself.  I'm  attaching my notes on it.
 

 

re_Labour-Group-Model-SOs.txt

Edited July 9 by ianr

[Rockets]

Was it the two proxy votes that had swung it for Cllr McAsh in the first round? Interesting that he lost by two votes in the second.

One wonders what the next move for Cllr McAsh is and whether the infighting will continue between the various factions within Southwark Labour?

[CPR Dave]

Any chance that he will now be prevented from further meddling with our car parking?

[Rockets]

Someone has tried to kneecap his political career.

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

Ignore, sorry

Edited July 12 by Dogkennelhillbilly