Brownswood Liberal Democrats Blog

The real world - where is it?

2009-12-09T13:21:00.000-08:00

'Talking Point' by Councillor Ian Sharer, leader of Hackney Council's Liberal Democrat group, for the 'Hackney Gazette', 27 November 2009

Sometimes when you wake from a deep dream, you struggle to grasp what is reality. Is it the dream that seems so vivid as your mind emerges into wakefulness? Or is it the still vague apparition of the "real world" as the shadows clear away? That, I am sure, has been the feeling of many observers of the recent political scene.

Amidst the fairy-land pageantry of the State Opening of Parliament, we have had the announcement of an apparently impressive programme of law-making that on closer inspection turns out to be no more substantial than the flimsiest gossamer webs caught in the autumn sunshine. Apparently it's all about political 'dividing lines'. Very clever, I'm sure, in the Westminster hot-house but in reality, can there have been a more cynical and dishonest government since the days of Stanley Baldwin?

Then there has been the farce of the European Union presidential elections. Not, of course, elections as universally understood in any democratic society but elections by cabal worthy of the most retrograde communist politburo. The outcome has been utterly insignificant and, in this strange world of bureaucratic fantasy, that may be an advantage. Yet when politicians bemoan the lack of public interest in what they like to call "politics", can they really be surprised?

My guess is that there are far more people in Hackney talking about Thierry Henry's "Hand of God" goal against Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers than there are those debating the merits of the European Union's new High Panjandrum. There was certainly far more exuberant celebration in Finsbury Park of Algeria's qualification than was evident in the tired jowls and jaded soundbites of our representatives in Brussels and Westminster. Which, then, is the "real world" for most of our citizens?

The danger is that between these two extremes, the really important issues are locked out. And the really important issue in the coming weeks must be the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Crucial decisons affecting all of us and future generations must be taken. They cannot be allowed to fall victim to self-indulgent populism on the one side and political self-interest on the other.

Here in Hackney I hope the opportunity will be taken across political 'dividing lines' for the kind of thoughtful contribution in the 'Gazette' by Councillor Shuja Sheikh on waste and consumerism. That is why I have invited opposition groups on the Council to come together with interested Hackney residents to produce a genuinely alternative "green budget".
It's time for hard-headed innovation, not dreary electioneering.

The party's over

2009-10-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

'Talking Point' by Councillor Ian Sharer, leader of Hackney Council's Liberal Democrat group, for the 'Hackney Gazette', 15 October 2009.

"So the political party conference season is finally over. The good citizens of Bournemouth, Brighton and Manchester can clean out the bars, sweep away the piles of abandoned leaflets and bric-a-brac and batten down for the autumn storms. Delegates from every part of the country are now back home, some enthused, some despairing, most sombre in the knowledge of what is to come.

"I must confess that I was slightly disappointed not to be able to trace the now notorious Hackney Council stall at the Liberal Democrat Conference. Surely they could not have forgotten us? Perhaps they were keeping such a low profile that I missed them stuck in between the Green Liberal Democrats and 'The Liberator' stands. Perish the thought! Unhappily I was not in a position to detect whether they had then pottered along the coast to join their soul-mates in Brighton. Possibly they may even have joined the Gadarene rush of lobbyists, vested interests and quangocrats scenting the shift of political power that always accompanies a moribund and decaying government.

"What does all this portend for Hackney? For a start, who apart from a very small minority pays any attention to the party conferences? I'm sure that 'The Sun's clamorous headline 'Labour's Lost It' will have raised a giggle and even some debate around the pubs. It was also inspiring to hear of Councillor Luke Akehurst's incredibly brave conference address speaking from a wheel-chair. It won't be long until the gloves are off and hard words will be spoken on either side of the political divide but whatever the outcome, the very best of luck to him in his courageous struggle against a debilitating disease.

"That said, we are now well into what will probably prove the longest election campaign in British political history. Isn't it always the longest? It will also, I guess from some of the party leaders' speeches of the last few weeks, be one of the nastiest. I'm not so sure that the rather silly slanging match at the recent Council meeting in the Town Hall was a sign of things to come. There are far larger issues that promise to raise political hackles and provoke angry exchanges. Whatever the colour of the government in power this time next year, decisions will have been taken that can only have an injurious impact on the great majority of Hackney residents, whether they are public sector workers, entrepreneurs, parents and carers, young people starting their careers or our older citizens. Inevitably tempers will be frayed. That is the stuff of democracy.

"This, then, is the time for honest political leadership preparing the ground for some very tough times. It was only intermittently evident at the party conferences. Is it any more apparent on our own patch emanating from Hackney Town Hall? Well, I deliberately leave that as an open question. What I am sure none of us want in Hackney is the extension of that rotten political culture that has taken hold in the last twelve years: the black art of the personal smear intended to intimidate and discredit; the deceitful distortion and withholding of information that should be in the public domain; the cynical attempts to grab credit for other people's hard work. Hackney people deserve and expect better than that."

VTF1255

2009-09-23T04:46:00.000-07:00

VTF1255. Yet another anonymous number on a nasty-green steel security door. "Warning. These premises are protected by Hackney Council". The "premises" were once a home, a family, a life. For VTF1255 it was the home of Lilian Karpin, committed Labour Party member when - long ago - that meant fighting for genuine values and integrity. She was a wonderfully generous and fair-minded lady. Did any slick, busy, promotion-hungry New Labour politician ever pass by to say hello? Maybe at election time. Maybe to make sure of the vote. Maybe.......

We salute Lilian Karpin and the many decent, honest folk like her. And damn VTF1255.

3 September 1939

2009-09-08T03:09:00.000-07:00

'Talking Point' by Councillor Ian Sharer, leader of Hackney Council's Liberal Democrat group, for the 'Hackney Gazette', 3 September 2009

I'm sure there are still many Hackney residents who will remember where they were this day seventy years ago. They will have heard the lugubrious tones of the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, declaring over the radio that this country was at war with Germany. How many, I wonder, realised how profoundly that short announcement would affect them over the succeeding years? And how many of us now have any real understanding of the impact of that moment on our present lives?

It was only a month previously that the 'Hackney Gazette' had assured its readers that "the ordinary citizen may go on his holidays without any alarms or qualms". It seems ironic that it was glorious weather at the beginning of that September. Thoughts of battle and bloodshed appeared deceptively unreal. Yet throughout Hackney sandbags were being assembled and air-raid shelters prepared. Trenches were being dug in Stoke Newington. Evacuation was in full swing in Hoxton: according to the 'Gazette's reporter, "Thousands of parents, principally mothers, accompanied their children to the school gates. Here there were many affecting farewells but for the most part mothers and children accepted the situation as inevitable and did their best to brighten up."

Evidently the new black-out regulations didn't go down well with some citizens - complaints abound of over-officious wardens and police call-outs to break up squabbles - and there are sightings of a new "road pest", the local authority official dashing around the streets with 'Air Raid Precaution Priority' emblazoned over his car.

Some emergency measures, however, look as if they might be singularly sensible today: the Defence Regulations order prohibiting the purchase of excessive amounts of food, for example, or the provision of 'growing spaces' for residents to grow their own food with help to purchase plants and tools - a project remarkably similar to Islington Council's imaginative 'Edible Islington' initiative in the present day.

Inevitably normal life went on. A young hooligan, put on probation for harassing his neighbours, is described by the local constable as suffering from a "swelled head". Stores of potassium chloride and detonators for making bombs are discovered in Clapton. Arsenal, as always, "are confident that the coming season will be more successful". 'The Secret Service of the Air' is showing at the Stoke Newington Savoy starring Ronald Reagan. The ruling Labour group on one of the local councils dissolves in acrimony amidst shouts of 'Dictator!' hurled at the Mayor. There are protests about "the adverse effect of delayed rebuilding whereby large and ugly vacant spaces are left derelict to the detriment of local residents". Nothing new there, then!

What comes across so strongly from the local press reports seventy years ago is the all-pervading poverty, the domestic violence caused by necessary penny-pinching, the lack of decent clothes for evacuated children, the poor health. Little wonder that even as the first air-raid sirens were sounding, the 'Gazette' was demanding completion of a previous Liberal Government's health insurance reforms - soon to be realised in the attack by another great Liberal reformer, William Beveridge, on "the Five Giant Evils of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness" and the creation of the National Health Service.

'Mouthpieces'

2009-08-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

"I went to this meeting. I don't know why. I've been to so many meetings that were a complete waste of time. You know, someone from the Council stands up and says how wonderful everything is going to be, then someone I've never seen before but calls himself a 'community representative' stands up and says how wonderful everything is going to be, then they ask for questions and someone complains about the blocked drains, then they say that's alright then, everyone's agreed and there's tea and biscuits at the back. So everyone clears off without any idea of what's been going on. Only thing is, the drains still haven't been fixed.

"So what's new after ten years? Nothing at all. Different lot of council people saying the same thing. Different lot of 'community representatives' saying the same thing. 'Mouthpieces' is what I call them. They just say what they're supposed to say and feel rather good about it. When they find out that no-one's taking much notice of them, then they hop off and there's another 'mouthpiece' takes over. So it goes on and the politicians are laughing because they say they're 'consulting with the community' but nobody actually gives a damn about the community because if there ever was one, it's long since vanished. So really, what's the point? Better to stay in and see what's on the telly".

So much for "community consultation", one of New Labour's more insidious confidence tricks and a primary cause of alienation from the political process. But is it really possible to consult genuinely with a whole community, even if that community is just a street or a block of flats? After all, even surveys and questionnaires need to have questions set. Who then decides on the questions? Another set of surveys and questionnaires just for that purpose? No, the only possible way is talking to people on the doorstep about their concerns as they perceive them for themselves. Time-consuming and untidy and often a vehicle for a deal of pent-up anger and frustration but ultimately the only legitimate means of "community consultation". It's called democratic politics.

Woodberry Down: the true story

2009-07-20T02:13:00.000-07:00

At its inception in 1949 the Woodberry Down Estate adjoining the Stoke Newington reservoirs was the largest public housing estate in Western Europe. It was a pet project of Herbert Morrison, a former Mayor of Hackney, and was designed as a model London County Council estate with integrated schools, shops, communal facilities and a health centre. Its influence can clearly be seen in other similar estates such as the White City Estate. The original residents consisted in the main of families from the East End displaced by wartime bombing and the general turbulence of the immediate post-war period. In consequence there has always been a strong community spirit that has easily accommodated successive waves of newcomers, especially from the 'New Commonwealth', until fairly recently.

A marked decline began with the transfer of the estate in 1982 from the Greater London Council to Hackney Council. Housing resources were concentrated on traditionally Labour-voting areas nearer to the centre of Hackney, routine maintenance and repairs were neglected and the quality of housing management noticeably deteriorated. The estate increasingly attracted problems of squatting, drug-dealing and inner city deprivation. It nevertheless retained a robust tenants' movement and an enviable record for effective community policing.

In 1999 residents on the estate voted overwhelmingly for housing management responsibilities to be transferred to Paddington Churches Housing Association in the face of strident opposition from the Council's Labour group. Although resources remained restricted, there were some immediate improvements in the provision of basic services to the estate and useful innovations such as the pioneering introduction of neighbourhood wardens were funded from efficiency savings.

It was also agreed by a majority vote on the Council, again despite Labour obstruction, that the inclusion of Woodberry Down should be sought in a long-term regeneration programme centred on renovation of the housing stock and provision of enhanced community facilities. It was recognised that tenure on the estate would need to be opened up and opportunities for private development and finance maximised in favourable locations, especially where the condition of the existing dwellings made refurbishment impracticable or uneconomic. In 2000 the Government agreed that Woodberry Down should receive Single Regeneration Budget funding on that basis.

The following year the Council returned to Labour majority control. For Woodberry Down the intervening period has been marked by contant changes of plan, incessant consultations, a marked decline in housing and estate management services, increasing blighting and a collapse in residents' morale. Many have got out. Elderly residents complain that they are being dragooned to shift into inappropriate sheltered accommodation elsewhere. Whether older people or young families, remaining residents are fearful of a protracted period of increasing environmental degradation and deteriorating housing conditions. Leaseholders are left in limbo with the Council unwilling to give them any information or take decisions that would enable them to move on. Properties have been boarded up or increasingly occupied by short-let tenants. Hackney's old bane of dubious practice in the housing letting process appears to be re-emerging. There has been a significant increase in illegal occupation of property, drug-dealing and gang activity. Perhaps unsurprisingly many residents are convinced that Hackney Council has long been intent on surreptitious 'social cleansing' in an area where Labour's political support is limited.

The most recent proposals approved only nine months ago and still subject to continuing modification foresee the complete redevelopment of the estate over a period of ten to fifteen years very heavily dependent on private finance and a concentrated scale of social housing that appears tailor-made to reproduce the tower block squalors of the past. Fears that the principal developers, Berkeley Homes, would pull out as a result of the 'credit crunch' and last year's problems in the housing market have been temporarily assuaged by an injection of funds under the 'Kick Start Programme' but the whole project still appears fragile and the essential public funding element vulnerable to adjustments in public spending programmes inevitable in the next few years.

As always, the most telling comments on this saga of mismanagement and broken promises are by the residents themselves. Fairly typical of the complete alienation felt by many is the following: "Last time I voted Green, this time BNP. I don't care for either of them but I want to get my protest in".

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The people's game

2009-07-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

It was salutary to see the recent comments of the chairman of the Hackney & Leyton Football League, Mr Johnnie Walker, about the adequacy of the plans for supporting grass-roots football on Hackney Marshes. He's not happy - and with good reason!

As the founder of a London-wide football league struggling to survive shortages of pitches and referees - the reason I became a qualified referee myself! - Hackney Marshes was a godsend. Even so, for most of our student players from overseas it must have been a strange introduction to British sporting life getting up at an unearthly hour on a Sunday morning, struggling to find the Marshes by public transport, taking a long walk to the very furthest pitch and finally recuperating under cold showers on a concrete floor in what appeared to be an overcrowded tin shack. What bliss when the first wonderfully-surfaced football pitches were laid out in Finsbury Park.

Mercifully, that was all a good time ago. Proposals for "world-class facilities" on Hackney Marshes are all the more welcome. However, they must not result in the kind of disruption that can shatter the morale of many amateur leagues and players. I guess Mr Walker knows what he's talking about. It looks like he also knows the need to keep up constant pressure to ensure that politicians' and architects' 'visions' actually work out for the benefit of ordinary people. All power to his elbow.

Transition Town Finsbury Park

2009-06-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

A truly motivating meeting last night under the auspices of 'Transition Town Finsbury Park'. It's amazing how a reasonably-sized group of local people clustered in an echoing church hall on a mid-summer evening can fizz with so many good ideas and so much hard-won experience.

Probably it''s hardly surprising in Finsbury Park that there was a consensus on traffic as the main obstacle to any kind of community-driven environmental improvement. But what was particularly encouraging was the realisation that there was great scope for bringing together 'streets' and 'estates' not only in building sustainable communities but also in supporting the small-scale initiatives that have a lasting impact. Usually there seems to be a great divide between 'streets' and 'estates', politically, culturally and economically. All the more welcome, then, was the emphasis on the potential for pooling often separated assets for the common cause.

One aspect of this is 'garden sharing'. There are some beautiful gardens around Finsbury Park and not just in the privately-owned properties. Quite a few become neglected and overgrown because older residents can no longer cope with their upkeep. Such, I well remember, was the case of a dear Turkish lady living near to Manor House who often used to invite me and the unbelievably caring beat policeman, Robin Redmond, to take our pick of the blackberries. So doesn't it make huge sense for local volunteers willing to lend a hand with simple gardening jobs to help produce some good fresh fruit and vegetables at the same time?

And another thing........... There were so many pensioners out yesterday enjoying the late afternoon sun, yet often in the most uncongenial circumstances: crammed on a crumbling Woodberry Down balcony in a wheel-chair, for example, or occupying a tiny handkerchief-size piece of grass virtually on the street in Queen's Drive. Surely yet another aspect of the scope for 'garden-sharing', given good-will and a modicum of community effort.

So what a let-down this morning to read the dreary details of local councillors in Finsbury Park trying to grab political credit for themselves by climbing on the back of the local community regeneration group, FinFuture. An old, old trick by the Labour Party in Hackney, of course, and it leaves a very nasty taste of deception and dishonesty. But it won't discourage genuine community volunteers, certainly not those who attended yesterday's excellent 'Transition Town' event.

Politicians v The Rest

2009-06-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

'Talking Point' by Councillor Ian Sharer, leader of Hackney Council's Liberal Democrat group, in the 'Hackney Gazette', 11 June.

"It’s certainly been an interesting few weeks in British politics. I’ll bet there’s not many residents of Hackney who ever counted a duck house or a manor moat amongst their possessions, let alone knew they were paying for them out of their taxes. Is it any wonder that people feel betrayed, especially in a borough where so many still lack decent accommodation and amenities for themselves and their families?

"There can be no doubt that there is deep and widespread anger in Hackney as elsewhere. It can be seen in so many faces, especially amongst working people on the estates. On election day last week, despite all the predictions of low turn-out, there seemed to be a determined mood amongst voters to vent their feelings at the polling station. It has not been a comfortable time for any representatives of the political parties in Westminster.

"Even so, it is all too evident that many career politicians still “don’t get it”. There is a public mood of resentment that just won’t be mollified by sound-bites and false promises. Am I alone in thinking that pretentious talk of “the need to re-engage with the public” not only misses the point but its patent emptiness and contempt for the public actually provokes disgust with present political practice.

"One aspect of that practice that should be jettisoned forthwith is the black art of the political smear. British politics has always been robust, never more so than in Hackney. If the price of public accountability is sometimes the bruised feelings of a self-important or venal official, that is in a good liberal democratic tradition. However, the calculated smearing of personal character is a very different matter and, as we have witnessed only recently, it seems an embedded feature of the New Labour "project" locally and nationally. Is it any wonder that in this respect ordinary people don’t make fine distinctions between political parties and so all politicians become tarred with the same brush?

"One local politician who always stuck with the conventions of respect and courtesy for political opponents, whatever the heat of the moment, was Hackney’s former Mayor Joe Lobenstein. Love him or loathe him, “Tory Joe” always represented a more embracing, less viciously exclusive order of municipal politics. So it was interesting to read his comments in the ‘Gazette’ a few week back about the emasculated role of councillors in the current set-up of mayor and cabinet. I disagree with his prognostications since I firmly believe that the main role of councillors should be in the community, not in Town Hall committee rooms. Nevertheless, there should be debate and I hope that the present questioning of our political system may promote that debate in Hackney.

"Of course Joe Lobenstein comes of an older generation that suffered and fought in genuine battle for democracy and civil liberty. Amidst all our preoccupations with a dingy and grasping bunch of politicians, it was so good to be reminded of the Hackney D-Day veterans revisiting the Normandy beaches last weekend. Their example of modesty, integrity and courage should inspire us all. "

'Talking Point: time to halt the junk mail menace

2009-04-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

'Talking Point' by Councillor Ian Sharer, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Hackney Council

"One of the dilemmas facing any councillor or active political worker nowadays is the proliferation of 'No junk mail' signs. That all-important election leaflet, is it really junk mail? Do we risk the wrath of an offended householder by slipping it in the letter-box and tip-toeing swiftly away? Experience shows it's all in the eyes of the beholder. For some the leaflet may be relevant, even interesting information. For others it is no better, if that, than the routine home-delivery pizza handout. So the dilemma remains.

And then what about the impressively burnished plaques, again becoming ever more common, enjoining 'No junk mail or free newspapers'. The piles of discarded copies of 'Hackney Today' littering doorsteps and entrance foyers show that the purveyors of that unloved propaganda sheet have the same problem.

Actually it warms the heart to see so many of these stern warning notices popping up on every letter-box. Whether from well-founded environmental concern or frustration at the unceasing intrusion of unsolicited waste paper, there is a growing resentment at this intrusion.

So why then is nothing being done? Here we are facing a global crisis of unimaginable proportions, obvious to all except Hackney's small band of sun-spot theologians, yet one of the most blatant everyday manifestations of environmental thoughtlessness, this 'tsunami' of junk mail, appears beyond human wit to tackle.

There is absolutely no reason that I can see why this should be. I'm sure the usual "rent-a-soundbite" official can be wheeled out to assert with great confidence and pomposity that it's all being considered. Of that I have absolutely no doubt. The Greater London Assembly are considering it. The local authority associations are considering it. The Government are, of course, considering it. The Welsh Assembly is actively considering it. Maybe even Hackney Council are considering it although whether actively or not they give no indication. Yet the problem remains.

I would agree there are some knotty issues in contemplating an outright ban. How, for example, is 'junk mail' to be defined? Should it cover what many would regard as the perfectly innocuous leaflet advertising the local school summer fair or a tenants' association meeting? Would a ban on this form of advertising harm the prospects of small businesses that we would otherwise want to promote? Should a ban be entirely voluntary on the part of each householder but legally enforceable? Do we want still more restrictions on freedom of information which the present government introduces at every opportunity? On the other hand, how far does the whole business of door-to-door junk mail deliveries jeopardise household security and reflect labour exploitation in the black economy? To my mind these questions are tailor-made for a citizens' referendum.

I know some will say, "Why make such a big deal over such a small matter?" I don't believe that for many exasperated residents it is a small matter. In any case events like the G20 summit in London and last week's fraudulently cynical Budget are making us realise that we cannot rely on the "political class" for honest action on environmental degradation and climate change. Citizens' action starts small and starts from the grass roots. Let's welcome it."

Wollstonecraft v McBride

2009-04-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

How often it is that the inspiring so often meets with the utterly degrading in political life. This morning came news of a series of events later this month celebrating the life of Mary Wollstonecraft and particularly her associations with the religious and political dissenters of this part of London. Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the great radical protagonists of her time, fervently espousing the equality of women in society, in her own tragic and tragically short life helping to nourish the roots of that political tradition that eventually produced the modern Liberal and Labour Parties.

And then the reality of the present-day Labour Party in power! The despicable poisonous smears of political opponents orchestrated by one of Gordon Brown's senior lackeys at the heart of the government machine. Haven't we seen it all before on "a good day to bury bad news"? Will they ever learn that their tribal viciousness degrades and discredits the whole political process? But, of course, they can never comprehend the basic decencies of civilised political debate. Can anyone doubt that we'll see this muck again, whether nationally or locally, just as soon as another election looms that New Labour fears losing.

Incidentally, where would the likes of Damian McBride have been carrying out their nefarious trade in the age of Mary Wollstonecraft? Probably amongst the dregs of Soho's pot-houses fomenting spurious charges of sedition and moral corruption for the benefit of Lord Eldon's hired informers, I guess. Nothing changes much. At least it puts the personal courage of the defenders of liberty and civil rights of that time into so much sharper relief.

When?

2009-04-08T03:20:00.000-07:00

Alongside the mountain of rubble that used to be Alexandra National House just off Seven Sisters Road, a plethora of signs announcing, "This site will be delivering more affordable housing for Hackney". Underneath, a savvy local has scrawled, "When?"

Says it all, doesn't it.

Corporate secrecy - it's not just G20!

2009-04-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

Why is it that the default response of council officials faced with the impertinence of requests for information from the Hackney residents who pay their generous salaries is to go completely doggo? Ask about the surreptitious withdrawal of recycling waste collections from Hackney's housing estates? Response: silence. Ask about the long-overdue academy in the north-east of the borough just at the time that many families are desperate for good-quality secondary school places? Response: silence. Ask about the amounts of regeneration funding siphoned into the pockets of consultants, developers, bureaucrats and their friends? Response: silence.

Is it too much to say that this is part and parcel of the institutional contempt for public accountability that is provoking the G20 protests just down the road? Pity that, as so often in the past, this popular reaction looks like being hijacked by the ego-fuelled freaks and vandals noisily clamouring for their few seconds of media space. It masks a great deal of pent-up exasperation shared by thoroughly decent people with the culture of corporate arrogance and immunity that has blighted far too many lives for far too long.

Fighting apathy and extremism

2009-03-28T04:35:00.000-07:00

Up to the 1990's Hackney had one of the lowest voter registration counts in the Country. Nowhere was this more true than in the old Brownswood wards. "Typical of many inner city areas", it might be said. True, to a certain degree. Obviously there are deep-rooted problems of disproportionate transience, social and economic exclusion, understandable cynicism and alienation.

But much was done subsequently to encourage as many people as possible onto the voter's list. Now it looks as if those glaring gaps in registration are reappearing, just like the prevalent rubbish tipping and dereliction. This is no complaint against the invariably assiduous and cheery foot-sloggers of the Electoral Registration Unit. But isn't it strange how their efforts are concentrated on those areas where the Labour administration in Hackney Town Hall might be expected to have the greatest electoral interest.

Whatever spin to the contrary, Labour has always subsisted on low expectations, low levels of political engagement, low voter turn-out. This has been an open invitation to the British National Party and other extremists in parts of London and elsewhere to fill the gap. In advance of the European elections and the threat of BNP representation through sheer inertia, it is going to be vital to boost voter registration and confront those who would provoke inter-community hostility, especially in such diverse areas as Finsbury Park and Manor House.

The disgrace of Woodberry Down

2009-03-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is what Sarah Marsh, member of the Brownswood Liberal Democrat 'Focus' team and resident on the Woodberry Down Estate, wrote to the 'Hackney Gazette' last week:

"I'm sure many people on the Woodberry Down Estate are angry and frustrated at reports that the long-promised regeneration scheme there may be stalled yet again. Nevertheless, it's rather misplaced for Councillor Coggins, the Conservative group leader on Hackney Council, to claim that the estate is so "notorious" that it will scare away the developers and bankers on whom funding is supposed to depend. After all, in this crazy world of Mr Bean economics, it's these same developers and bankers who depend on funding contributed by the taxpayers - including, of course, the residents of Woodberry Down themselves! If Woodberry Down is "notorious", it's certainly nothing to do with the residents who have struggled for decades against neglect and mismanagement from the Town Hall."

And this was the 'Gazette' editorial a few days later:

"More worrying is the billion pound Woodberry Down plan in the north west of the borough. The ambitious plan, hatched up in brighter economic times, is to demolish 2000 crumbling flats and replace them with a mix of more than 4000 council and private homes as well as community facilities over the next fifteen years......If Berkeley Homes, the prospective developers, pulled out, the local authority would face a tough time finding another partner and would then face the prospect of having a massive unbudgeted liability to restore the remaining blocks. Town Hall chiefs insist the project is long-term and will be completed. The 'Gazette' certainly hopes so for the patient people of Woodberry Down who have lived far too long in overcrowded and substandard living accommodation"

Minds alike! Talking to long-time community activists on Woodberry Down like Debbie and Klaus and Josie just met by chance on the pavement, morale is rock-bottom. So much for a decade of false promises and dithering bureaucratic mismanagement by Hackney Council. They're not going to get away with this one.

'Talking Point': public censors, private carers

2009-03-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

'Talking Point' by Councillor Ian Sharer, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Hackney Council:

"Over recent weeks I have been searching my copies of that bizarre publication 'Hackney Today' for an apology to Iain Sinclair. Alas, in vain. New Labour doesn't do apologies - except, of course, where there are easy votes to be garnered.

"It may be recalled that Iain Sinclair is the Hackney-based author whose wonderfully evocative description of local life and characters, 'Hackney: that Rose-Red Empire', was published earlier this year. In its wisdom Hackney Council banned its presentation on council premises ........... perversely since excerpts were already being read in a regular BBC radio series! The subsequent public outcry led to the inevitable and graceless climb-down.

"What intrigued me were the reasons given for this ham-fisted censorship. There seems to have been a consensus that the author's well-known stand on the damaging impact of the Olympics juggernaut was responsible. I'm not so sure. In a telling comment one fortunately nameless council officer argues that publicity for the book should not be supported because "it actively promotes an opinion which contradicts our aims and values as an organisation”. That phrase, so redolent of bureaucratic arrogance and self-defensiveness throughout the world, sent a shiver down my spine. Come off it, this is Hackney Town Hall, not the boardroom of a rapacious international conglomerate or the central committee of some arid post-communist statelet.

"The problem, it seems to me, is that 'Hackney: that Rose-Red Empire' gives some very realistic snapshots of Hackney life, instantly recognisable to most Hackney residents, stimulating in their perception but uncomfortable and sometimes unnerving. This is not the stuff of good corporate image.

"However Hackney Council is not a self-contained business organisation. It is, believe it or not, a democratic institution representing the people of Hackney and accountable to them. All too often it's easy for councillors and officers to lose sight of that elemental fact. In the days when every barmy political project had the ready support of Hackney's "loony left", it was "their" money they were spending on "their" ephemeral schemes - and, incidentally, "their" right to censor opinions disagreeable to them. Now it seems we've gone to the other extreme in which the corporate ethics of big business and the international banks prevail, yet still with the same arrogance and contempt for democratic accountability.

"There are great dangers when an organisation becomes too inward-looking. We have seen the disastrous results in neighbouring Haringey. At the present time it is more important than ever to be actively responsive to the needs of that very complex society that makes up Hackney – so well described, of course, in ‘Hackney, that Rose-Red Empire’. How many Hackney people, for example, are working usually unrecognised as carers for others. Many are under great economic pressure, yet they are the backbone of our local community. So it was disappointing that my own proposals that would have helped carers of mentally disabled people were rejected by the Labour administration in this year’s council budget debate. This is a claim that I feel fully justified in continuing to press."

Brownswood: a Saturday afternoon in March

2009-03-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

It was a lovely afternoon to be walking down Blackstock Road. Spring definitely in the air and at last a really good result at the Emirates. Wonderful how many small children there are with shiny red and white scarves. A reminder of days past in the 'Family Enclosure' at the old Highbury Stadium. My own youngsters earned their pocket money for a month picking up the coins that irate Millwall supporters were hurtling towards the North Bank.

And a lovely afternoon to be round and about. So many residents planting flowers, sprucing up window boxes, tackling overgrown foliage. Yet also, dishearteningly, the equally evident signs of "public squalor": boarded-up windows, piles of garbage, dangerous pavements, overflowing recycling bins. Local people don't deserve this. It's time to get to work!