Southwark – Peter John – the full ABC interview
November 17th, 2016
UPDATE: Read Heygate profits north of a hundred million by 35%.org
HT @adjournist retweet
This interview has triggered thoughts I’d tried to bury about the entitlement of leaseholders to be treated as fairly as secure tenants on a council estate, complicated by the fact I detest right to buy but count two leaseholders (second generation) among my friends. I will attempt to unravel the interwoven threads of the conflict with reference to the comments of Peter John in the interview linked above.
Glasgow – shipbuilding and architecture on film
November 12th, 2016
Films
All Our Working Lives – The Shipbuilders.mp4 (download and play)
Original 1984 documentary of one hour then a half hour update programme
British Connection Clydebank – Kelso.mp4
BBC Alba – subtitles in English – Clydebank forms the first half hour
Dreaming the impossible: Unbuilt Britain – A revolution in the City
BBC Four 58m59s
The Secret History of our Streets – Duke_Street.mp4
BBC Four – subtitles – 59m22s
“Presstheredbutton” speaks out on Corbyn
July 12th, 2016
I keep an eye on various commentators to the Guardian. Presstheredbutton is one of them. I don’t agree with everything they write but when I do I think it’s worth repeating here:-
As the results of the local elections and mayoral elections were being announced, Polly’s colleague, Anne Perkins, identified the Bristol mayoral election as the real test of Corbyn’s leadership. Marvin Rees, the Labour candidate, won handsomely. Perkins’ response? Silence.
When the mass resignation of Labour’s front bench happened, the aim was to cripple Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.
John Harris – Progressive Alliance London 5th July 2016
July 6th, 2016
“The problem isn’t that half the country are racists, it’s that the racists now think that half the country agrees with them.” – Anon
Thank you. I am a journalist I also write a column for The Guardian once every two weeks I haven’t really got enough to say to write one once a week.
But I’m not a columnist I think we’ve probably got too many columnists in this country and we’ve not got enough journalists.
[Applause]
We certainly haven’t got enough reporters. [pause] That’s what I do.
Another look at migration
July 4th, 2016
I found this the other day while browsing some Facebook pages I link to. While one hears from time to time about the New Labour Polish influx in 2004 it’s easy to forget about the effect that had on the country unless you go to buy a coffee of course. When’s the last time you were served by somebody British born?
I’m certainly not a racist and I spent half my working life traveling the world so I’m not going accept lessons on foreign cultures and their problems. But I think the text below by Simon Elmer is a well written and timely reminder of how immigration has altered our country.
The fight for the Left
July 2nd, 2016
The events of the last seven days have been so tumultuous and the determination of Jeremy Corbyn to stay in place for the people who support him so tenacious, in spite of all the forces ranged against him that the situation necessitates a temporary but different emphasis on the blog so I’ve shunted the student reading list off to its original home while I accumulate relevant links and quotes to put here.
Owen Hatherley on Slow Burn City by Rowan Moore
May 30th, 2016
“Both mayors elected so far, and the two major candidates this time, have offered the same solution, differing only in degree—a relentless offsetting, whereby the proceeds of runaway property speculation are proposed to be redistributed, usually by a legal requirement that developers build a percentage of “affordable” housing on or off the site, or pay for a bus stop, or fund some nice pavements and benches.”
“All of this relies on trying to inveigle the private sector into behaving more nicely. In a city where for nearly a century public bodies once directly built and directly owned thousands of high-quality homes and let them to people on low incomes at low rent, this is a staggering failure of imagination.” – Owen Hatherley writing in Prospect Magazine.
269 Leigham Court Road – sheltered housing under threat
May 25th, 2016
Once again I find myself reading an important piece about social housing under threat, this time in Streatham, which needs wider publicity but instead is tucked away on a private discussion group. So I’m giving it a wider view at risk of copyright violation. I’d like to make it clear that what follows was not written by me but I agree with it as written and trust the judgement of the author.
This is 269 Leigham Court Road in Streatham, currently sheltered housing, with 45 flats that are home to 50 residents, all over the age of 60, all on secure tenancies. Despite being designed by architect Kate Macintosh specifically to house elderly people, a duty it has performed since 1975, in January 2013 Lambeth Council suddenly declared the estate ‘unfit for purpose’, told residents that it was too expensive to do the repairs and maintenance they had neglected for years, and declared the site was to be ‘sold as cleared land.’
Why Open Garden Estates? – extracts
May 23rd, 2016
Why Open Garden Estates?
The aim [is] to help banish the myth of council estates as concrete jungles that are home to anti-social behaviour and crime, and show them to be what they are – some of the last instances of community living left in London, and perhaps the only remaining places where the mixed communities we hear so much about in the speeches of politicians have a chance to survive the encroachment of gated ghettos of predominantly white, middle-class wealth.
ASH presentation to Lambeth Council – Central Hill
May 19th, 2016
I think it needs to be known how Lambeth Council behave when confronted with alternative proposals to their demolition plans to the estates in the borough over which they presently have political control.
If you don’t follow ASH on Twitter or are not a member of the Facebook group or read their blog you will probably not be aware of the hostility they are up against on a day to day basis in putting forward an alternative method of dealing with the housing situation in Lambeth.
Once again therefore, rightly or wrongly, I feel it necessary to publish what happened the night ASH tried to present their alternative proposals for Central Hill to Lambeth Council.
You can read about the presentation itself on their blog here:-
https://architectsforsocialhousing.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/ash-presentation-to-central-hill-estate-residents-engagement-panel/
What you’re less likely to read is what follows, as published on the Facebook page. Once again I don’t know if I ought to be doing this but I think you are entitled to know, if you have any interest in the housing situation in London.