Harry’s Place

How do I get to Waltham Forest?

We mustn’t interfere with the internal affairs of a sovereign borough.

This is what one gets when a government ceases to be accountable, and there is no real power (electoral or police) to hold them to any high standard.

The Met seems more interested in harassing petty criminals than investigating high-level corruption in minority communities. Keep putting the band-aids on the sucking chest wound - it’ll only work a bit longer.

Is Graham Sinclair of the minoroity Caithnessian community?

It doesn’t seem to matter nowadays what political stripe is in power, common sense has completely gone out the window.

Sleaze (not sleeze) doesn’t mean any old wrongdoing by someone who happens to hold elected office; it’s defined as “corrupt or immoral behaviour in public life”. Taking your child out of school in term time is not sleaze; it’s a minor peccadillo. Beating your wife is disgusting and a crime, but it’s not sleaze.

The rest, yes.

Waltham Forest’s problems dont stop with its councillors’ private behaviour.

Those interested should check BBC Radio 5 this Sunday:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/donalmacintyre.shtml

Sorry to make a comment off topic, but I’m still a bit amazed tha you think the Souh African sweeties named “Nigger Balls” were not an (albeit odd) symptom of racism. There is a UK sweetie called a “black jack” (kind of like a liqorice penny chew) which played on similar race stereotypes. Products like “nigger hair tobacco”, “sambo axle grease” , and indeed a restaurant chain called “coon chicken”. they were all symptomatic of, and encouraged, racist stereotypes. Calling dogs “nigger” did the same, even when the dog owners were heroic pilots.

What’s wrong with having a teenage wife? Brett’s buddy, Saint Peter Tatchell thinks 14 year olds are fair game. http://www.petertatchell.net/age%20of%20consent/consent%20at%2014.htm

Or is it just the marriage bit that Brett objects too?

Clearly the trees of Waltham provide cover for some seriously shady goings-on.

There is no such place as “Waltham” in the borough: the name “Waltham Forest” is a derivation of the biggest settlement there (Walthamstow) and the largest, and most beautiful, natural feature that runs through a large chunk of the borough (Epping Forest)

Sorry to make a comment off topic

There’s an active thread, also by Brett, just two down which is still in full-swing. But, now you’ve hijacked this one in order to get your name near the top, I might as well respond.

Please provide any evidence… a single shard will do… that Guy Gibson entertained or practised, in any way, violent or intimidatory racism, and that calling his dog “Nigger” in 1940s Britain was any more offensive and pandering to whatever you think is a stereotype than our, nowadays, speaking of Afro hairstyles. Until then, your argument is worthless.

Failing that, please provide a rationale as to why everyone everywhen should be obliged to conform to sensibilities laid down in the early 21st Century. Or whether we in Britain should stop calling spies or ghosts “spooks” because of the offensive someone tells us it causes someone else somewhere.

Do any of our Jewish readers take offence at the heebie-jeebies?

Corruption and sleaze in local government is nothing new. In fact it’s been going on almost as long as, well, reproductive sex etc.

I was recently rejected from a Job with the Local Authority. I was told that though I was the best candidate I was not the best performing at interview.

Any business would have fired that manager. Not Socialism.

You mean you were the best candidate on paper, but when they actually met with you they thought you were not up to the job?

You should try brushing up your interview and social skills. After all, being able to pursuade people and get results is part of most jobs, “socialism” or no socialism.

Alternatively, Zin, as I’ve experienced, she may have performed perfectly on the job and had the requisite experience… just not been able to act well enough at interview. Then told to live with it by some Vicar of Bray who’s always the first to bend over and cry, take me with the double-ribbed condom. Always that group and not those which simply perform well without being unsympathetic and abrasive right-wing chancers who’d shaft their own grandmother for a deal.

Add to that, a reactionary who sooner titter about homosexuality than even comment about physical assault of teenage girls.

Now I’m getting confused. Someone applies for a job with a local authority. Their application looks good on paper but they fluff the job interview. And that’s proof that the local authority is managed by “abrasive right-wing chancers” and riddled with corruption?

Might there be a simpler explanation? Someone fluffed a job interview. Er. Period.

I was referring to Zin.

“What’s wrong with having a teenage wife?”

Nothing. Did I say there was?

As London Pedant reminds us, the reference to the “trees of Waltham” shows dubious geography. But not as dubious as such council initiatives as its current “war on fried chicken” (see http://www.the2012londonolympics.com/forum/printthread.php?t=10510).

Brett

Well. you made a big point about the wife-beater’s wife being a teenager, so I assumed you morally disapproved, which struck me as odd considering Outrage’s position on the age of consent. I personally wouldn’t marry a teenager, but then I’m not interested in girls half my age. I don’t know how old the wife-beater is, and I’m not in a position to comment on their marriage other than to say that wife-beating is wrong, obviously.

Alex

The thought of shafting my grandmother (God rest her soul), is even more unappealing than idea of marrying a tennager. The latter, at least, is legal. And who is “tittering about homosexuality”? I didn’t mention the subject, let alone titter. If you’re genuinely interested, I have always privately and publicly supported equal rights for gays and lesbians. I do not, however, support lowering the age of consent to 14.

On the failed job interview: Meeting the job spec is only part of the appointment process. Interviews do matter, because they test other skills. If Jeyne was given the job on the basis of being the best candidate on paper, then no doubt the successful applicant would complain that she was turned down despite being the best on interview.

“Well. you made a big point about the wife-beater’s wife being a teenager, so I assumed you morally disapproved…”

Oh do try to keep up. The joke here is that Miranda Grell had falsely claimed that a another LibDem councillor had a teenage boyfriend.

I am considering a complaint because I actually do the job. Schmucks.

Complain away Jeyne, just don’t do it here unless you are prepared to provide full disclosure. Otherwise it just looks like like sour grapes and comes across as a bit wierd. If you have a valid case, I wish you good luck and hope you receive adequate compensation and an apology.

Zin, I have enough experience of bureaucracies [1] and being apparently trusted to preform the relevant duties for extended periods and interact with colleagues only to be denied the benefit of permanency or higher pay solely on the basis on a half hour interview. I have witnessed individuals who are *known* to be less suitable being advanced solely on the basis of such interviews. I have even witnessed individuals who, on paper, are clearly less suitable, but still receive advancement because of said interview.

And Jeyne appears to have concurred with me.

As for age of consent. I would disagree with lowering it to 14, and even have my doubts about 16 (of both stripes). Brett posts enough about gay affairs to discuss it then. This story, however, related to the separate issue of, as I said, physical assaults on teenage girls.

[1] And of ChrisC’s support of the party system to know that if it contested the moon were made of cheese, he’d agree.

Sorry Brett, it’s too complicated to follow. Anyway, I hope that the wife-beater learns his lesson, they all stop libelling each other, and no one messes around with underage girls or boys. Given the allegations flying around, they might all be well advised to stick to partners over the age of 21 for the time being. Glad I don’t live in Waltham Forest.

21?

…just to be on the safe side

On the Graham mayoral elction logic shouldn’t Waltham Forest be expelled from London anyway on grounds of distance?

No question waltham forest council (basically lab-lib with several changes of Council leader/cabinet the last decade) has been singularly useless and incompetent. (though I suspect its fellow Olympic boroughs and more traditioal one-partry states Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets have dodgier stories to tell)

It is only the local popularity of its two old 1980s left wing MPs, Neil Gerrard and Harry Cohen, that has kept the local Labour party in functioning order - bizzarely, given the millions of pounds of regeneration cash wasted on consultants in the area, the Walthamstow councill leadership has singularly failed to support a local campaign to re-open a Grade II listed 1930s art deco cinema (where teh Beatles and Frank Sinatra played - see mcGuffins site- http://www.mcguffin.info/) despite a hugely successful local campaign and public inquriry victory five years ago against the deeply unpopular and somewhat dubious owners the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

The petty bureaucratic excuses for inaction by the current Council cabinet (which also kept another prime site empty after a cock up with developers) have left the borough without a cinema - despite and this is the bizzare bit the huge local popularity (cf; Lambeth or Islington) historic local cinema buildings attract.

If you want to see some of the things that routinely go on in Waltham Forest, check
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/walthamforestnews/walthamforestnews/display.var.2194839.0.waltham_forest_antifraud_rules_broken_over_flawed_contract.php

the cinema went out of business because no-one used it - and no one wanted their Council tax to prop it up. A group of middle class arties want it reopened - but have no real way of making it pay.

Its very simple really.