From (presumably) a Labour party member:
I was at the meeting last night and it was a disgrace to local democracy. As you say, as soon as the two candidate shortlist was announced, the regional director was subjected to continuous heckling, to the point that ‘heavies’ were brought in to threaten protestors with ejection from the room.
Happy days if you’re a Labour member clearly.
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3 Comments
According to a poster on LabourHome Virendra Sharma has won it.
He’s a Councillor for Norwood Green ward – anyone know anything else about him?
Virendra Sharma is a Brahmin (ie, high caste Hindu) from the Punjab, not a Sikh, unlike Piara Khabra and much of the Southall Asian community. Virendra’s father is (or was) a senior political figure in India, so he has a fair bit of status with the Indian High Commission and the wider Asian community, but not so much in Southall for the reasons given above.
In 1994, Virendra became the first Mayor of the new Labour administration. If he did anything notable, I can’t recall it, but I think he is supposed to have made Ealing better known in India.
As far as I know, Virendra has never held any office on Ealing Council other than the Mayoralty (did he chair the Licensing Panel at one time?), and I cannot recall him ever having opened his mouth in the council chamber.
That was a comment on my blog/ I don’t assume it was a Labour Party Members at all. Or that the writer was even actually in the room, or that the alleged events took place.
These were not reported in the very extensive and reliable accounts of the meeting that I have and if I was even in the slightest bit cynical about Lib Dem tactics and integrity (surely not Chris!) I’d suggest that this “(presumably) a Labour Member” was no such thing and very likely a Libdemologist who was not even at the meeting.