It's difficult to know where to start with this article in The Evening Standard ... A Town Hall is poised to ban open-plan design in new housing developments because it is unpopular with Asian families. A six-month investigation by Tower Hamlets found affordable units in the borough — aimed at key workers and people on low incomes — were vacant. But there are more than 22,000 people on...
More than 300 people flee their homes in Peckham fire About 310 people have been forced to leave their homes after a fire broke out in south London. More than 180 firefighters are tackling the fire, which engulfed the whole of a construction site in Carisbrooke Gardens in Peckham at about 0430 GMT. It has since spread to two blocks of maisonettes and a pub. Four people, including one police officer,...
Last week saw Simon Hughes and Martin Linton bring up the question of the South London Line in Parliament. Although it doesn't really add hugely to the debate, the dialogue between themselves and Chris Mole, representing the Department for Transport, does neatly set out some of the perspectives on both sides of the SLL debate. With this in mind, I believe it's worth summarising it here. As the parliamentary...
The journalist / businesswoman and Conservative Party parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (London metro) writes about liberal stereotypes about her party (hat tip: Walaa Idris ): "I am angered by the constant taunts from the Left that Conservatives are 'toffs' . Some may be upper class – Eton and all that - but so what? Is it a crime to benefit from a privileged background...
Thanks to everyone who took part in the poll asking Is Halloween Too Commercial These Days ? A resounding 94% thought it was too commercial, while only 5% thought it wasn't. I guess 1% were unsure. Although the poll is closed to votes now, you can still see the results at the bottom of the page on this blog at the moment. I'll be doing a new poll some time in the near future. And if you were unable...
Cllr Fiona Colley<br/> Labour counc (Free subscription) | 12/11/2009
I'm sure a lot of readers will have been following the ongoing news coverage about the shortage of primary school places in London. Nunhead hasn't had too much of a problem so far, but there were problems this year in East Dulwich and the latest projections suggest that extra places will be needed here soon too. I've been doing a lot of work on this in my role as Chair of Overview & Scrutiny on...
• [Nov 05] Simon Hughes (North Southwark & Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat): ' . . WE can afford to be bolder and braver than we have been, and I look forward to the Government ratcheting up the pressure and working on other countries, particularly the big ones, to deliver a braver outcome in the next few weeks.'
I've been sent the minutes of the London Regional Labour Party Board Meeting from 2 November (written by Luke Akehurst), and very interesting reading they make too. Firstly, this... Claude[Moraes MEP] has been to Washington DC where Obama administration key players made it clear they don’t want to have to deal with a Eurosceptic Tory Government here as they want to be able to deal with the EU...
The London Nobody Sings is a site I really should have come across before, as it's right up Transpontine street. The simple premise is to post a song about London, or a part of London, every day. This intersects with the ongoing project here of documenting and indeed encouraging songs about South East London . South London songs covered at London Nobody Sings so far include: - Roots Manuva - Baptism...
One hundred years ago today, two suffragettes poured ink and chemicals into two polling boxing during the Southwark by-election, reports London SE1, in a bid to disrupt an election in which women were not given the right to vote. But...
Tenants and leaseholders living in Lambeth have been told that fire safety assessments will be carried out on all high rise homes by March 2010 as planned. Many will be complete before the end of 2009. It follows a fatal blaze at Lakanal House in Southwark this July which brought the need for the fire safety assessments into focus. Six people died in that fire, which was started by a faulty television....
• [Oct 21] Simon Hughes (North Southwark & Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat): '• . . FOR the Liberal Democrats, "It's not possible" is not an answer. I remind Ministers of what the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said to his party conference: "It is the idealists and optimists that make change happen." We are idealists and optimists, but we are also political...
We have a General Election due next year, back stop June 10th. The three main political parties are vying with each other over who can cut the budget by the most to deal with our nation’s unprecedented level of financial debt. But there is another debt that is not being addressed – it is our ecological debt. We are in deep do-dos in both. Step forward Simon Hughes MP, Liberal Democrat,...
Looks like the national post strike is going ahead tomorrow, with SE London expected to be one of the strongholds of strike action. In an earlier walkout in July, there were picket lines outside all 28 delivery centres in south-east London, including New Cross, Peckham, Kennington, Mandela Way and Catford. Out of a unionised work force of 1,500, only 28 people went to work ( see report ). I would urge...
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