There are of course personal differences in politics, and if it were to be said of me that my interest in the BNI controversy is partly inspired by these I could not deny it. But I will not have this said of the authors of the BNI motion carried by my constituency party, who are sincere people who are simply concerned that money which ought to have been spent helping disadvantaged people in their own neighbourhoods has been misspent and that the Council has a moral duty to make amends.

Neither is john’s statement justified in relation to the officers and members of my Constituency Labour Party as a whole. We have a strikingly pleasant atmosphere at most of our meetings and gatherings, because the good-natured majority have successfully resisted the attempts of the pedlars of poison to spoil things. We have a growing membership, and represent the best of Labour’s traditional values which must surely be the bedrock of a future Labour revival. Join us!

As for john, if he is who I think he is, he is one of the people who attempted to poison the atmosphere of Leyton & Wanstead Labour Party and who have now mostly crawled off to some more congenial habitat. If he is really a member of the Labour Party, he will know who I am because I am using my real name. Perhaps john could throw away the mask of anonymity so that we can judge for ourselves his credentials for making this attack on us.

We don’t blame “Labour” for what has gone on as we know it was the labour government who wanted this money to go to help the poorest neighbourhoods. We know labour MP Harry Cohen has refused to help brush this under the carpet and has written about the issue in his leaflets. We know it is local labour party people who have demanded any mis-spent money be returned to our area.(and been accused of ‘poisonous personal differences because they’ve been brave enough to try and act). But if the national labour party wishes to escape blame they need to act too.

Any money spent on olympics, publicity or other vanity projects needs to be returned immediately and spent properly. It is too late now to save some of our young people who have been crually taken from us but we may be able to do something for the youngsters whose lives could still be turned around.

I think you need to make up your mind about who (if anyone) is at fault.

The facts are as follows.

(a) I first raised concerns about NRF in 2004 and 2005, and, after these were ignored or downplayed, wrote a long and damning report on one particular project, which I presented to the Leader and the Chief Executive in May 2006.

(b) It took another two years for anything meaninful to be done, but by then the horses had largely bolted, in that further large sums had been shovelled out of the door without any controls.

(c) I have evidence, a little of which I cite above, that LBWF has avoided answering my questions, or made statements to me that are frankly misleading.

(d) There are several important issues – concerning Dr Foster Intelligence, the BNI ‘social cohesion’ projects, etc. – that remain outstanding, despite the fact that I have repeatedly brought them to the Council’s attention.

(e) The situation is now judged serious enough for Harry Cohen MP and the local paper to call for a public inquiry, while the local Labour constituency party has also issued a sharply worded statement on similar (though not identical) lines.

So:

Is this the story of a local authority bravely facing up to its responsibilities?

Or is it the story of a local authority seeking to engage in damage limitation, with the aim of protecting political and professional reputations?

In short, has the administration added to, or detracted from, the reputation of the Labour Party?