Posts filed under 'Local News'
This week we learned that Boris Johnson has failed to intervene in a bid by Hammersmith and Fulham council to scrap all the proposed rented social housing units from a key development in Shepherd’s Bush.
I am stunned at this volte-face on the part of the Mayor in failing to insist that Hammersmith and Fulham ensure that a reasonable proportion of affordable homes are available in the development at Bloemfontein Road. By not intervening in the process the Mayor has effectively removed all the social housing units originally planned for this development – around 40%. It is directly contrary to Boris’ own words at the July Mayor’s Question Time meeting where he said that he would ‘certainly’ use his Mayoral powers to direct refusal of a development if he felt the application was ‘not achieving targets that would be for the benefit of London.’
This looks like a political decision on the part of Hammersmith and Fulham council – led by Councillor Stephen Greenhalgh, who sat on Boris’ Forensic Audit Panel. If this is going to be the Mayor’s future approach to such matters then I am extremely concerned about the precedent this could set for other key housing developments. Questions certainly need to be asked about the Mayor’s views on the value of social rented housing and whether he understands that for the poorest Londoners, shared ownership is still not an affordable option - we need to know what he is going to do to help this group.
It’s another example of the Mayor saying one thing and doing another. Despite his waxing lyrical at Mayor’s Queston Time on the need to protect London’s playing fields and open spaces, he didn’t stop his chums at Kensington and Chelsea selling off part of Holland Park School’s playing fields for development. If this is a sign of things to come I’m very worried.
August 6th, 2008
Whatever your view on the outcome of the Sikh girls Sarika Watkins-Singh court case to win her right to wear a sikh bangle to school, what l found most poignant about the matter was Sarikas happy willingness to call herself a ” proud Welsh and Punjabi Sikh girl ” in front of the high court.
I think we have become accustomed to some people defining themselves simply by their religion, without taking into account other key aspects of their identity - in reality we have many other dimensions to our identities, ethnic and civic for example.
Our sense of who we are and where we are from can also be relative - depending where in the world one is. For example, the place where l feel the most British is when l am ever in the United States.
The fact of the matter is you can be all or any facet of your identity at any one time and Sarika’s statement clearly illustrated this well. And this is something secularists like the Indian Amartya Sen, in his writings has always indicated.
So while most other commentators have noted the significance of the case in the papers over the last few days, l would suggest her comments in front of the High Court are probably much more important then the verdict of the case, illustrating well that young people can deal with multiply identities, more so then is readily acknowledged.
August 1st, 2008
The by-election in Church St Ward on the 24th of July called after the untimely death of Councillor Tony Mothersdale, saw for the first time in living memory a Tory Councillor for this ward in the City of Westminster.
Coupled with the obviously very disappointing result for Labour in Glasgow east, it is easy to write Church Street off as another casualty of national factors, but it is important that other local factors are also taken into consideration.
The turnout in Church Street was very low - 24 per cent - which resulted in a Tory majority of 303. More usually the turnout is around 30-35 per cent - a low turnout can have a significant effect on the results, particularly in a by-election. In this case, it is unsurprising that lcaol voters were feeling jaded and not inspried to vote, having only recently been caleed to the polls for the Londdon Mayo and Assembly elections just two months ago.
It is also interesting to note the figure for each of the three polling districts in Church Street Ward, notably that which covers the Lisson Green Estate where the Bangladeshi community voted for the Bangladeshi Conservative candidate. Therefore l feel the result had relatively little to do with national policies and more to do with politics of ethnicity in a London Estate. I’m not saying that the national picture didn’t also play a part, but local factoras can not be underestimated, especially in a low turnout by-election, which comes on the heels of a major regional poll.
I’m also sorry to say that the campaign was also marred in its final stages by the allegations of homophobia and intimidation. The outcome of further enquiries on this is yet to be seen, but most professional and principled politicans of all parties would prefer to see a fair fight.
Whatever else, l can sfaely say that Tony is spinning in his grave as a result of this outcome. As always we will need to consider carefully the implications of the loss of Church Street and work with the whole community to ensure that when we go back to the ballot for the ward in 2010, it will have a much higher turnout and return it to the party that truly represents normal people.
July 28th, 2008
Having read Mayor Johnson’s columns in the Telegraph over the past few weeks, its quite apparent to me that he’s a frustrated sports commentator - which is no bad thing. And the veiled volley exchange between him and Steve Norris was quite entertaining, illustrating well who is actually running the show in London. But the idea that the attendance of politicians at major sporting events – such as the Wimbledon final - will encourage the future prospects of British sportsmen and women is pretty deluded. What would really help is investment in sporting infrastructure – for example making sure all neighbourhoods have access to community sports facilities - not just affluent parts of town like Chiswick, and protecting what playing fields we have already from being sold for development. Moreover, as well going to the glitzy, high profile sporting events, he should try and attend events like the BB London Youth Games, which took place last weekend in Crystal Palace. This is where we are likely to see some of London’s best future Olympic prospects emerge. It’s a question of priorities and commitment, and this is something Boris has a chance to influence as Mayor, rather than just enjoying the big moments as a privileged spectator.
July 10th, 2008
As another thrilling football tournament comes to an end with the pre-tournament favourite Spain winning Euro 2008 last night, many of us will have withdrawal symptoms in the pubs and front rooms of the country.
Even without a British team involved in the tournament hosted successfully by Austria and Switzerland, it was not to hard to be absorbed into the nightly entertainment and drama as many were in the UK, very often adopting other national sides as their team. This bodes well for how it is possible for people’s loyalties to change from solely nationalist ones and be driven by which is the more entertaining side as teams like Holland, Russia and Spain were happily adopted by the British public.
Also credit has to be given to those hosting such events, as to all intents and purposes all those travelling fans who went to Euro 2008 enjoyed themselves. I witnessed this for myself most recently when I went to the Champions league final in Moscow in the spring – it was clear that a great deal of good organisation had gone into a successful and safe event and the host nations must be congratulated.
In an increasingly secularised Britain, I wonder if football is not beginning to take on almost the resonances of a new kind of organised quasi-religion? The Church of England’s regular attendance figures are continuing to steadily decline while a whopping 8.9 million viewers tuned in to the match on Sunday evening. As a football fan myself I regularly experience, alongside thousands of others, a kind of Saturday afternoon pilgrimage to the hallowed turf of my favoured team and stood united in worship of our chosen idols.
It would be interesting to compare and contrast numbers of those regularly attending matches and watching them on television and those regularly attending worship – across all organised religions. Is football taking over a role in our culture previously occupied by those religions and if so why? It is certainly an interesting debate which could throw up some interesting conclusions about modern society!
June 30th, 2008
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