Labour councillor Awale Olad ‘fed up of getting on saunas on wheels’

JUDGING by the number of politicians buzzing around simple community events like summer street parties, a new season of elections must be on the way.

In this rather cynical safari, you may have even seen the lesser-known London Assembly members trying to find people who know who their local representative is.

This is a trend not exclusive to Camden. Across the city, it is a precious few who follow the often anodyne ramblings at City Hall – a set-up crying out for productive reform.

Since 2000, wherever you live, you may wonder which London Assembly members have made any meaningful difference to life in the city.

In Camden, our best known representative over the years has probably been Brian Coleman, but only because the Conservative was such a committed controversialist. Most of the others blend into the wallpaper at City Hall under a presidential system where the Mayor is king.

This week, we found one of our councillors doing their job for them by taking Transport for London to task about the summer heat on the city’s buses with such carefree verve that it clearly surprised his fellow committee panellists, (TfL chiefs told to sort out buses that are ‘saunas on wheels’, September 13).

If you have been on the top deck during the recent hot weather, you should listen back to Cllr Awale Olad’s determined inquisition.

He showed some courage and maturity to ask these questions as they reflect negatively, to some degree, on the Labour mayor. Sadiq Khan has now had seven years to repair the mistakes of his predecessor including the sauna buses.

Of course, Boris Johnson’s dogmatic commitment to wild projects like a new Routemaster bus, a cable car and a garden bridge created more problems than solutions, but Mr Khan and, presumably, the current Assembly members are there to fix them.

We need local politicians who want to get a grip of problems, big and small, rather than be engaged in a stream of fete openings.

Robert Peston on lead vocals, singing Teenage Kicks

Chumocracy?

The sight of Robert Peston and Ed Balls firing out guitar hits could not help but bring a smile at the York Rise Street Party, but it’s not too hard to see why some may wince – and not simply at the racket they were making on Sunday, (WATCH: Robert Peston and Ed Balls in band rocking out at York Rise Street Party).

It is strange enough that Balls, close to the top of UK politics for so long, now interviews other politicians on GMB in the mornings. Are there really no other presenters or journalists without his partisanship?

Peston’s musical friendship with Labour’s top brass – Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband were there to enjoy his performance – will only add grist to the mill of those who feel the relationship is increasingly blurred between the media and the politicians they are supposed to be holding to account.