I was not surprised to see the immoral vipers at Oakam have stuffed one of their leaflets for loans through my door. They put their vile nonsense with crude pictures of loadsamoney wads about all over the place, trying to penetrate the very darkest corners of the borough with their evil offers. And evil they are. This one is for loans at the unconscionable rate of 76.9% interest. I notice that this rate has been selected with no relation to the general costs of money in the economy, as it is exactly the same rate they were charging for such loans in November 2007. Since then, of course, the Bank of England base rate has fallen to from 5.75% to 0.5% (though it will be reviewed tomorrow). No interest saving of any kind has been passed on to their desperate marks, err, clients, though Oakam still claim in their leaflet that this rate is 'variable'.

They give an example of a £500 loan repayable over one year. A £50 fee is charged up front, (i.e. 10%) making the loan on which interest is charged amount to £550. They claim that the repayments would cost £691.24, though this includes a "bonus" of £125.68 which is "earned" by not making any late payments. This "bonus", of £125.68 is actually a late payment penalty which is charged on top of the £691.24 if any single repayment in weekly installments is even a single day late. As it says in the leaflet "Friendly staff consider all circumstances". If the 'Friendly Staff" are anything like the slutty bitch with bright red lipstick portrayed throwing someone else's money in the air in delight on one side of the slick and glossy leaflet, they only have eyes for the money. Anyone thinking about doing business with these people should think again.

And the second crap leaflet? A very expensive leaflet from our invisible local labour councillor, Liaquat Ali. This came on the same day as some guff from a fast food restaurant, which suggests they paid for it to be put through peoples' doors. This is likely as I am told that the Labour Party does not seem to have many ordinary members left in Walthamstow any more. It is printed by one Simon Wright 'on behalf of Waltham Forest labour Party' of 23 Orford Road, London E17 9NL. (Simon Wright seems to be one of the former Leyton activists who ended up giving evidence in the prosecution of Miranda Grell). The printing work was however not provided to a local printer, but to a firm called "Central" of 39-43 Brewer Street, London, W1F 9UD.

Mr Ali does not take a good photo. He is a rather thick-set gentleman. His wooden photos in his crumpled business suit make him look a bit like an enforcer for the kind of firm which offers loans at 76.9%. Two pictures, in front of the lift at Walthamstow Central tube station, are supposed to give the impression that he uses and is interested in public transport. His spiel claims the lift has been installed specially because he 'fought' for it.

In reality a subway was built in 2005 under Selborne Road linking a new bus station with the Walthamstow Central tube station ticket office. The original plan was to fit out and open the new subway and ticket office in spring 2005 but problems with insufficient power capacity to supply two new lifts, together with planning and contractual errors, delayed the opening. The subway and ticket office were finally opened on 19 November 2007, albeit without the completion of the new lifts (scheduled for completion in 2008) and with unfinished building work. These were finally openned recently. Unless Mr Ali is claiming that he is an electrical engineer who got his overalls and hard-hat on , his campaigning contributed not a sausage to the whole already-planned process. You would not know this from his leaflet, however, in which the big man says "The Tunnel is much safer than the road but I also felt that it was important that a lift was installed and working as quickly as possible, which is why I got involved". He does not explain what that involvment was or how this involvement contributed anything at all.

The inside of his leaflet looks like a piece of standard guff. It has silly headlines provided for the skim-reader to glance at just before they crumple up the leaflet and put it in the bin. Among other nonsense, Mr Ali is pretending that the council has made 'better and more homes for all'. It hasn't, as he well knows. This is because Mr Ali, far from being a tribune of the people who shares the priorities of the ordinary person is apparently in the property game himself, though you don't learn that from reading the leaflet. For another thing, our local arms-length social housing organisation, Ascham Homes, is in a serious mess. Those not forced to live in social housing, and there are many such people who house themselves, probably do their own home improvements without any help from the council at all.

The council has also apparently provided a 'green, clean and safe' environment and cracked down on 'anti social behaviour'. This in a borough strewn with rubbish and suffering from above average crime. The middle page of the leaflet contains a photograph of the inept, much reviled, and soon to be replaced Leader of our council, Clyde Loakes, who is "standing down to spend more time" etc; (i.e. trying to fool the people of Northampton South into electing him as their very own expenses drone in Parliament).

Another deceptive strap line is one that says 'Every child to benefit from £300 million'. Nowhere does the leaflet say where the money has come from, nor do they specify exactly how it will be spent, other than in vague terms that it is an investment 'in every secondary school across the brough': I presume if he could, Mr Ali would be claiming to have 'fought' for it, so something tells me this money is a normal allocation to a deprived area with an exploding migrant population from the central government. The leaflet does not say if this is money to be spent this year, next year or some time before 'every' child grows up to be a voter.

The back page of the leaflet has a laughable photo of Mr Ali, proudly pointing to the sole cultural achievment of the local council, a huge TV screen next to BHS in the town square. He presumably is in the misguided belief that this monument to crassness, awarded by me the 2008 title of "Waste of Money of the Year", is a vote winner: there is a tear-off slip on the leaflet for people inspired by this Orwellian vision to join the Labour Party.