WBTimes report that “Floella Benjamin ditched the teddy bear props” when she joined Lib Dem candidate for Brent Central, Sarah Teather this week. Floella joined Sarah on Harlesden High Street to collect signatures in Harlesden, to sign up residents to a petition urging the government to reform air passenger duty. Air Passenger Duty (APD) is an excise duty which is charged on the carriage of passengers flying from a United Kingdom airport....
The North West Two Residents Association held its AGM on the 22nd April at the Windmill Pub on Cricklewood Broadway. NW2 began in September 2007 as a group local residents who wanted to improve the sense of community in the Cricklewood area. As Carol Granger, Committee Chair, writes “The Association was founded first to try to improve the sense of community in the area and provide opportunities for people in the neighbourhood to get together, and to get to know each other and maybe help each other out; but also to improve the appearance of the area (litter, graffiti, etc); to try to improve relationships with Brent and the officers who look after services for the area; try to make sure Cricklewood didn’t stay the Cinderella of Brent / Barnet / Camden....
Brent councillor James Powney laments the threat and use of legal writ to silence debate, tending towards an environment where ‘legitimate freedom of speech could be restricted by self censorship.’ Legal writ has its strength though. When Brent Labour distributed a leaflet with false claims about Sarah Teather, the Brent Leb Dems took appropriate legal measures. In the face of the legal action, Labour have now admitted their story was false and agreed to pay the Lib Dems legal costs....
More on Atiq Malik, independent candidate in Brent Central, on this weeks WBTimes front page. They don’t disclose the nature of the allegations against him for ‘legal reasons’ and the internet isn’t throwing up rumours for me to link to, not even on Labour Cllr James Powney’s blog - although there is a great archive of items on Atiq Malik’s views on women and optioning aspects of Sharia Law for UK Muslims....
The Willesden and Brent Times spoke to local candidates standing as independents or for the smaller parties, including Shahrar Ali for the Green Party and Atiq Malik. Atiq Malik is Brents' own ‘controversial’ candidate. An ex-conservative councillor in Queensbury ward, jumped/pushed from the party in 2008, he has previously been referred to the Standards Board for England, the standards watchdog for Councillors and other officials. He was subsequently cleared of misconduct....