Clapton Pond Blog

The Politics Of Fighting Cuts

Meet Gilbert and Lawrence, two very nice members of the Labour Party campaigning outside Palm 2 the other week against the government's public spending cuts. They were rallying support for the big TUC March For The Alternative on 26 March. Of course, there are a number of anti-cuts positions. I saw two very different ones being set out at the Town Hall the other week. One was our Labour Mayor and Council's regretful wielding of the scissors handed to them by Eric Pickles and the other was the "shove your scissors" position of the assorted Outer Left agitators in the public gallery.

Our very own Leabridge Councillors and three others had, for a while, lined up with the "shove your scissors" tendency but changed their minds. There is a problem with Councils defying government orders on spending that wasn't there in the past. If you break or ignore the Law you don't get surcharged or sent to jail. You just can't make a martyr of yourself these days. Instead, officers and men from the ministry set the budget for you. Not much of a victory. I wrote about Hackney's budget night for my Guardian London blog. If you've comments you'd like to make - no trolls, bores or abuse - I'd be very happy to publish them here.

The Politics Of Betting Shops (And Other Kinds)

You might have read about Ken Livingstone's recent visit to the now former Railway Tavern, which has just turned into a Paddy Power. I'm sad to see the pub go, partly because I used to know the landlady (hello Tina) and partly because I agree with Livingstone - and with Jules Pipe Lammy who was also on the scene - that the proliferation of betting shops is going too far. That said, the arguments for halting it need to be solid. Do they really encourage crime and anti-social behaviour? If they do, wouldn't restricting the number of high street bookies just send it elsewhere? Some politicians, including the more libertarian Tories, would probably maintain that these things are better left to the market and point out that betting shops close down as well as open in response to local demand (though they might find a stroll down Chatsworth Road enlightening). Others would complain that do-gooders have no business depriving the working - or non-working - man of a traditional pleasure (a workerist position) or that the real growth in betting is online so getting agitated about a few more high street shops is missing the point (a betting industry view).

Election Results In Hackney

At the start of my all-night election results coverage for The Guardian I wrote that, "Election fever isn't burning as hot here in Hackney as in other parts of the capital: it's a stubborn Labour stronghold." This turned out to be both right and wrong. In terms of how the borough voted, we turned out to be even more solid for Labour than before, with both of our Labour MPs, our Labour mayor and our Labour council strengthening their positions compared with previous elections in 2005 (for parliament) and 2006 (for mayor and councillors).

Vote, Vote, Vote!

I still take a perverse pride in Hackney's obdurate performance at the last borough elections in 2006. All around us - Camden, Tower Hamlets, Islington, Barking and Dagenham - weird and sometimes frightening swings were taking place, but in Hackney the message from the voters was a resounding "Labour: no change". Indeed, practically no change at all. But was I right to read the result as a cantankerous yet somehow endearing indication that we Hackneyites are not fickle or easily swayed by fashionable opinion? Is it really all that clever to be as stubbornly unchanging in our political alliances as we appear to be? Should we rejoice in the fact that the Liberal Democrat surge will scarcely trouble our two Labour parliamentary candidates at all? Is it likely that the Council's Labour edifice will be significantly disturbed and, if not, what will it mean?

Andrew Boff To Run For Hackney Mayor

Dalston's very own 51 year-old, bicycle-riding libertarian Conservative will once again be Hackney Tories' challenger to Jules Pipe. He's sent out a press release containing his main pledges. He says he'd been a "zero cost mayor". I quote:

Hackney needs all the talents

“Hackney Council has been a one party state for too long. I will approach members of ALL non-racist parties to serve as Cabinet members.”

No more Tower Blocks

“Hackney, like Richmond, will not permit any new skyscrapers or Tower Blocks. Tower Blocks belong in Hackney's past, not its future.”

Hackney for families

“All publicly funded housing will be low rise family homes, preferably with gardens, to alleviate the severe problem of overcrowding in our estates.”

Trust the parents

“The Learning Trust has been a failure. Headteachers working with Governing bodies will be given more freedom to deliver from the dead hand of the Learning Trust Bureaucrats.”

Cut the cost of the cabinet to £0.

“The Mayor and his cabinet pay themselves £335,000 a year. The role of cabinet member should be a voluntary one. The honour of public service as a cabinet member should be reward enough. My cabinet will cost £0 in salaries. I will not take a salary and the members of the cabinet will be appointed only if they agree not to take the salary.In 2012 there will be a referendum to decide if Hackney residents want to continue to have an executive Mayor.”

Local control needs local funds

“Each ward will be allocated a £50,000 'Local Fund' which will be spent on local projects by the local Councillors sitting in open session. This will be increased throughout the lifetime of the next administration. Councillors need more power over decisions in their wards.”

Right the injustice of the property sales

“I will right the profound injustice of the small shopkeepers who Hackney cheated out of their properties, including Spirit of Broadway market, during the property sales programme of the early 90's.”

End the neglect of our youth

“Knife crime and the death of Young people in Hackney is directly attributable to the lack of investment in young people in Hackney. I will ensure more support for regular activities for young people by scrapping the £1 million being spent on the Council's free newspaper, Hackney Today.”

End the estates Levy

“Residents on Hackney's Housing Estates have increasingly had to pay twice for street lighting, twice for cleaning, twice for refuse collection. I will make sure that process is halted and reversed.”

So there we have it. In 2006 Hackney's political complexion remained stubbornly unchanged, in sharp contrast to the big swings in some nearby boroughs. I wonder how Andrew will do this time around.

Diane Abbott Everywhere

Lately, I keep bumping into my MP. On Saturday morning I spotted her walking up Lower Clapton Road on Saturday morning from the top deck of the 106 I was riding in the opposite direction. Recently she contributed a comment to a piece I wrote for the Guardian about Ken Livingstone and the recent Progressive London conference, encouraging Ken to think imaginatively about refreshing and broadening his appeal in time for the 2012 London Mayoral election. I thought her remarks important and considered them at length at my London blog. In advance of that we had a quick telephone chat in which she assured me that when she told the Independent that she "wouldn't mind being London Mayor," it was just a throwaway in response to a question about whether she would care to be Prime Minister and not a coded message. And now I see that she's answered a bunch of interesting and penetrating questions put to her by Blood and Property. Well worth a read. 

Bookies

Hello, I'm back, and so is the controversy about betting shops. 

The London Borough of Hackney has applied to the government for stronger powers to control the concentration of betting shops in the borough. There are more than 60 bookmakers in Hackney, which is over three times the local authority average. Hackney has applied under the round of Sustainable Communities Act (SCA) bids which closed on 31 July. Of more than 500 local people responding through Hackney’s consultation e-panel, 64% supported the idea that the Council could get new powers to limit the concentration of betting shops.

Full story from Planning Daily. 

They Love Stoke Newington

Stokey's three Labour Councillors have launched a blog.

Not 4 Obama

Commiserations, Kris.

Ben, Luke & Anthony Browne

In which Mr Locker of Stamford Hill engages intelligently with Cllr Akehurst of Chatham ward.