The new Mayor, alongside his majority Labour council has now taken office in Tower Hamlets. We wish them well in the tasks ahead, but residents will expect a change of direction in the management of the council.

The new administration cannot allow the recent history of mis-management to go away. It will not, and there needs to be a thorough cleansing of the operation of the authority. This in itself will make political decisions and policy easier. Governance is tested on scrutiny and the strength of the opposition. There is a reason under the UK’s unwritten constitution as to why the opposition is called the ‘loyal opposition’ and as to why it is granted both status and certain privileges. It is not only expected to be the Government in waiting, but to test the government of the day on a regular basis on the delivery and implementation of policy.

A system where opposition is muted soon lapses into malfunction and worse. The failure to accept any contrary opinion was what eventually sent the former administration into the spiral of corruption which must still be fully investigated.

Looking at the national scene, the tragic legacy of the Iraq war bought untold death and political instability to a whole region as well as the collateral political damage in this country.

The delay in the release of the Chilcot Report into the conflict is a scandal and the whole nation deserves to know how and why this disastrous conflict was undertaken.

When we actually know exactly what happened, and only when, can we reach closure on Britain’s biggest foreign policy disaster since Munich.