GIPSY HILL WARD OF THE LABOUR PARTY HAVE A NEW CHAIRMAN – TED KNIGHT. LOL!*
Ted Knight, former Lambeth Labour council leader from 1978 to 1986 has been elected chairman of Gipsy Hill ward of the Labour party.
His election is bound to cause outrage of seismic proportions among Lambeth council’s current ruling factions – and has caused much hilarity locally among people of a certain age who remember his leadership of Lambeth council.
News From Crystal Palace understands that Gipsy Hill ward of the Labour party now has a full committee of Momentum supporters – with a branch meeting of Dulwich and West Norwood party set for next Monday which they will be entitled to attend.
That could mean Cllr Matthew Bennett, Lambeth’s cabinet member for housing and a Gipsy Hill ward councilor who is on the Progress wing of the Labour party, having to look for a new seat to fight in the next council elections in May 2018.
News of Mr Knight’s election came in a press statement from Lambeth’s Conservative opposition leader Cllr Tim Briggs who said: “The Labour elite in Lambeth don’t like to talk about Ted Knight and his appalling record, as if by not talking about him, everything he represents will go away, like Voldemort in Harry Potter.
“Labour in Lambeth has been divided for some time between old style militants who support Ted Knight and want to use the Town Hall again to pick daft political fights, and a Labour administration running the council which has become notorious across the UK for its chaotic mismanagement.
“The Labour party in Lambeth is full of divisive characters already. “Closing community libraries and turning them into gyms, disrespecting residents by demolishing their homes without any proper consultation, acting like a rogue landlord by not doing decent repairs – all have gained national coverage, with the Labour council pumping out expensive messages trying to blame everyone else for its own failings.
“The reality is that Labour’s failures in Lambeth have made the dysfunctional brand of politics that Ted Knight represents almost inevitable.”
Cllr Briggs says that what he calls the rise of “the hard-Left Greens” and Momentum in Lambeth will continue “until we get the kind of centre-ground, practical administration that the Conservatives can offer, working hard and working successfully for all of our residents and maintaining the diversity that makes Lambeth special.
“How a divisive figure like ‘The Knightmare’ can help mend divisions in Lambeth by re-opening old ones, is hard to fathom.
“Despite having the largest building site in Europe within its boundaries, Lambeth under the current Labour elite is now the 29th poorest borough in the UK. “Will Ted Knight help make Lambeth more prosperous, and finally realise its potential? “Of course not.”
*LOL – Laugh Out Loud (as in text messaging).
Further reading: The rise and fall of Red Ted’s loony lefties / LAMBETH SCANDAL: It loved confrontation and thrived on tabloid outrage. Will Bennett charts a council’s turbulent times.The Independent Friday 28 July 1995
We need a coalition of resistance against local council cuts Ted Knight: Labour councillors have a choice – they can lead a struggle against a vicious government or stand aside for those who will – The Guardian 30 Dec 2012
In common with Lambeth Labour, Lambeth Conservatives have been trying desperately for the last 2 years to smear Lambeth Greens. Streatham CLP’s Progress faction have taken every opportunity to impugn Scott Ainslie (Lambeth’s sole Green Councillor) because he hasn’t been afraid to challenge the wheeler-dealing of the Cabinet and its members. The Tories too have had Lambeth residents reminded of what an appalling job the Tory/Lib-Dem coalition did for the people of Lambeth.
Lambeth Greens are an alternative, and therefore a threat to the “established order”. The fact that Pete Elliot, the Green candidate for Gypsy Hill ward earlier this year, got within 35 votes of winning the ward against a Labour operation that involved using Dulwich and West Norwood CLP members to blanket-canvass the ward; “dirty tricks” from Labour canvassers involving advising people to vote “anything but Green” and circulating personal slurs against the Green candidate shows just how clearly the two main parties see the threat to the votes they take for granted.
Just to be clear, I’m neither a member of the Green Party, or a supporter of them. What I’m supportive of is the way that the Greens proceed at a ward level from active participation within communities, not just from party members, but from all residents that wish to air a view. Labour and the Tories proceed from the view that residents are useful for just one thing – voting in members of their parties. Not primarily to represent the views of the ward’s constituents – Rachel Heywood has done so and paid the price – but to start their climb up the ladder of political power. The differences between Labour, Conservative and Lib-Dem are differences of detail. Their social and economic prescriptions are much of a muchness, otherwise. The Greens offer at least a local alternative.
Cllr Briggs needs to get back in his box. Hell will freeze over before you tories take Lambeth. Us Momentum members aren’t the same as Cllr Bennet and the like, so stop deliberately confusing the issue. We oppose Lambeth Council for the same reason we oppose you – tory policies that hurt people. Locals haven’t forgotten what your party did, back in the eighties and recently. They loathe you, which is why you keep losing. We’ll deal with the council in good time.
While I agree with most of your reply, I take issue with the final sentence. “Good time” is what some of us – such as the six estates slated for regeneration; Brixton Arches; just about every statutory service – don’t have. Promises of future relief are fine and dandy, but they don’t achieve anything NOW, and resurrecting estates, shops and services for working class locals will be a hell of a lot harder than taking action now through ideas such as “Stand Up to Lambeth Council” (which your group bottled out of in a big way, incidentally) and the various legal actions being taken against the council.
Stop talking a good game, and start playing one, or get the hell off the field and stop distracting the other players.
Notwithstanding that I might not agree with other things said above, let me correct you on one point. We have been very careful not to smear the Greens. Cllr Ainslie has a tough job and the pressure is huge, so we don’t believe for example that it is reasonable to criticise him for not being able to attend every committee. He does what he can. Labour councillors love to personalise everything, make it all about good people and bad people (they are the good people of course), smear individuals, and frighten people into voting for them.
We go hard at Labour as we are the Opposition and Labour is running the council, that is our job, but we try never to make it personal as we all have homes and families and loved ones to go back to at the end of the day