On Saturday morning I attended the Ilford Synagogue in Beehive Lane to participate in the special Shabbat memorial remembrance service organised by the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and women.(AJEX). It was very moving and the AJEX choir were really good.
I spoke to the Redbridge Pensioners Forum event at Ilford Town Hall on Thursday afternoon.
Here is what I said
(more…)
This morning I visited Chadwell Heath High School to speak to sixth form students studying politics and economics. There was a very interesting discussion and a wide range of questions . I then went into the House of Commons for the votes on the dormant bank deposits bill . Business finished earlier than usual for a Monday and I was able to get home by 9.15 pm to catch the second half of “Spooks”.
Today I attended the Council of Gurdwaras South East celebrations of the 300th Anniversary of the Gurgaddi Diwas. the year when the formal status of Guru was awarded to the holy book of the Sikhs the Guru Granth Sahib. The event was held at Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College in Roding Lane Chigwell. I was pleased to be there to hear a thoughtful talk by Inderjit Singh OBE, who is well known to listeners to “Thought for the Day” on BBC Radio 4, about the origins of the Sikh faith. I was also delighted to return to my old school once again. I had spent seven happy years there when I was a student at the then Buckhurst Hill County High School for Boys between 1964 and 1971. The school was closed by Essex County Council in the 1980’s and was reopened about ten years ago in its current role as a Sikh faith private school
Last week I held two surgeries. My regular appointment based advice surgery was as usual held on Friday afternoon . It was very busy as usual and on Sunday morning despite appalling wet conditions I was out in Mayfield ward meeting constituents with my team of councillors and supporters. We picked up a number of issues to take up with Redbridge Council including complaints about dirty streets and anti social behaviour by an inconsiderate minority.
On Friday morning I had another regular meeting with Chief Superintendent Peter Terry the Redbridge Borough Commander to discuss local policing issues.
I was delighted to be able to get to the AGM of the Healthy Living Projects at the Welcome Centre of Ilford high Road Baptist Church last Wednesday evening and see the vital work done by this group of dedicated and compassionate people so ably led by Phil Herbert and Rev Barry Cheesman.
I attened the Redbridge Green Fair Association public meeting on Thursday 23 October and had the opportunity to let people know about governent initiatives, including the Climate Change Bill settting up the Department of Energy and Climate Change, to deal with global warming.
You can read what I said in the rest of this post.
I have actively supported the campaign to keep a swimming pool in Ilford for a long time. I took part in the march to save swimming in Ilford and to protest at the closure of the Ilford pool by incompetent Redbridge Council this Saturday. You can read my speech to the marchers at Ilford Town Hall in the full post or you can listen to it [mp3; 5:17], plus my assessment of the march and turnout [mp3; 0:56] and the speech made by the GMB union representative [mp3;1:28].
Photos of the march are available on my flickr photostream.
