I had an absolutely smashing day out at the Waltham Forest Mela 2007 on Sunday.
The sun were shining, the bhangra was pumping and the yummy yummy food was hot, hot, hot!
Many thanks and a huge well done to the excellent organising committee, of which my good colleague Cllr Asim Mahmood is a key member.
I know that Cllr Afzal Akram, Waltham Forest Council’s Labour Cabinet Member for Community Safety; Jennette Arnold, Waltham Forest’s Labour Member of the London Assembly; and the excellent Neil Gerrard MP, Labour’s Member of Parliament for Walthamstow (all pictured with me above, left – right), all had a very nice time too 
July 31st, 2007
As Leyton residents will know, I’ve been banging on about housing ever since I was elected as a local councillor last year. I am therefore delighted the Government published a new Green Paper on Housing earlier this week setting out new vision on the future for Britain’s housing.
Alongside watching my new Casino Royale DVD (Daniel Craig = yum yum) and engaging in some military pampering I’m going to try and have a good read of this extremely important document over the weekend.
Have a good weekend!
July 27th, 2007
This is really excellent news. A bit of shame that over in twenty first century Britain, however, our great Parliament still doesn’t contain even a single female Asian MP. Is this a priority for our three main political parties? Some of us sisters are beginning to wonder…
July 21st, 2007
Just got home from Coventry, where I spent the weekend on the final module of the ‘Fast Track’ programme of the Improvement and Development Agency’s (IDeA’s) excellent Leadership Academy for local councillors.
Since January, myself and other “young” councillors from all over the country have travelled up to the University of Warwick for some really great training on our role as councillors and almost everything involved.
This weekend, we took part in a really excellent sessions on the role of scrutiny, handling the media and a voice coaching and confidence session led by the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts (RADA).
For my part, It’s been great to find out that I’m not the only ENTJ in the local government world
Above is a picture of my course’s bunch at our “graduation” ceremony back in June (I missed the photo because I was too busy off chatting elsewhere as usual).
They are all really lovely. Despite our totally different political, geographical and personal backgrounds, we got on like a house on fire. Thanks to Tory Ben, in particular, for making me laugh out loud on more than one occasion 
Through the course, it’s also been really nice to get some space to “think out of the Waltham Forest box”, alongside my excellent colleague, Cllr Afzal Akram (pictured above right, at the Graduation Ceremony, with myself and Cllr Faiz Yunis, who was also on the Leadership Academy but in a different group to us).
As I’ve written on this site many many times before, Afzal is an extremely talented politician and is a great role model for kids in our local area, which – like me – he also grew up in. Afzal has a bright political future in our borough. Waltham Forest is lucky to have him.
I’m sure Afzal and the lovely Faiz (pictured above left ) won’t mind me thanking all the staff at the IDeA, on all our behalves, for the excellent sessions you’ve provided us with over the last few months.
I would thoroughly recommend this course to any “young” councillors who haven’t yet done it.
Click here for more information.
July 15th, 2007
