Corbyn: The anti-semitism row
May 9th, 2016
Yesterday Martin Rowson published a cartoon about the London Mayoral elections under which “Press the red button” wrote this comment, later deleted by the Guardian. I agree with the sentiments expressed and believe the entire “anti-semitism” row was an attack cooked up by the Bitterites (so called moderate wing of the Labour party) against Jeremy Corbyn and assisted by Tory Jews in postions of influence. So I’m publishing it here because the Guardian won’t.
Abusive comments will be deleted.
ASH on the Housing Bill
May 5th, 2016
I copied what follows off the ASH FB page. Perhaps I shouldn’t have done I don’t know – but what I do know is that every word of it rings true. This is a fight for the survival of council housing in the UK and if you think that’s an exaggeration then watch the Housing Bill pass and the housing crisis worsen inexorably.
Well, that was worth it. Further proof that the fight for council housing won’t be won in Parliament by the verbal outrage of landlords and company CEOs, but on council estates and by the direct action of the residents whose homes are threatened.
We need to stop asking the people and institutions that want to demolish our homes to give us the means to stop them doing so, and start organising our own resistance on the ground. That starts with the political awakening of every resident to the reality of what they are facing, which is not a policy disagreement between Tory and Labour but a class war being waged by the rich.
I’ve said this from the time we first read this Bill and I’ll repeat it again now. This Bill is not ‘badly thought through’, ‘written too quickly’, a ‘hodgepodge’, or ‘half-baked’ – as the Labour Party and its press have endlessly dismissed it as.
It is carefully designed to do exactly what it intends to do, which is bring about the end of social housing in this country. The Labour Party should understand this better than anyone, as it has been, and will continue to be, its councils that will implement the Bill’s legislation.
It is this truth that we need to face, and quickly, if we are to organise mass resistance to its attacks, not in A-B marches to Parliament, submissions to the House of Lords, or faith in the Second Coming of J.C. to miraculously reverse what’s going to happen to council housing over the next four years.
These measures, which have wasted the time and drained the energy of what limited opposition to the Bill there has been, have only served to divert our attention from what is really needed to oppose it, which is collective resistance by the hundreds of thousands of residents whose homes will be sold or demolished by the Housing and Planning Bill and the mass estate regeneration programmes its legislation will enable. – Simon Elmer
Calling leaseholders on estates under threat
May 4th, 2016
I found this by ASH (Architects for Social Housing) on their Facebook page and it’s too important to leave there so if you are a leaseholder on an estate threatened with redevelopment against your wishes then read, mark, and learn what follows:-
Apart from all this mucking about, one thing that came out of the presentations and discussions, and which was backed up by advice from a barrister and a leasehold lawyer, is that collective resistance by leaseholders forcing Councils to issue Compulsory Purchase Orders against them is one of the most effective ways to resist estate regeneration and save the homes of all residents, leaseholders and council tenants alike.
It costs the Council shitloads, allows us to question the consolation process at legal inquiries, put forward alternative plans and argue that they better represent the needs of the local community, and delays their demolition plans by years. It also casts an uncomfortably bright light on the Plato’s cave of illusions in which the public is imprisoned by the press.
If we can show every leaseholder on every estate in London why they should do this, then the Tory Government, Labour Councils, Savills, and all the other housing associations, building companies and property investors feeding at the London housing table might start to think again about whether estate demolition really is the easiest route to a quick buck. – Simon Elmer
The Housing Bill – read Architects for Social Housing
January 6th, 2016
If you want know all the reasons why the present housing bill will mean the end of council housing then read this.
https://architectsforsocialhousing.wordpress.com/2015/12/22/where-will-we-live/
. . . and other articles on the same blog.
Why sink estates exist II – linked article
December 16th, 2015
Five years ago I wrote “Why sink estates exist” in despair at the course right to buy had taken and the growth of buy to let mortgages. Now Stephen Farrall of the University of Sheffield has written a similar piece only based on data rather than hearsay. I’ve reproduced it here with permission under the Creative Commons Licence. The article was originally published on The Conversation.
Stephen Farrall, Professor of Criminology, University of Sheffield
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Loss of lifetime tenure – Karen Buck
December 16th, 2015
Five years ago I attended Progressive London 2010 at which Karen Buck was speaking, among others. She identified then the problems that will come to pass with the Governments recent attack on tenure.
Karen Buck was superb with a long talk about the possible loss of secure tenure of council tenants should a Conservative Government be elected and implement the plans outlined by Localis in Principles their now infamous document on Tory proposals for council housing.
She drew a parallel with the experiences of black migrants from the American South coming to Chicago in the 1940s and becoming the victims of slum landlords while suffering the indignities of being “frequent movers”, people unable to take their place in society for want of a stable home address. [The Promised Land – Nicholas Lemann] Karen put forward the view that in the absence of secure tenure and having only an AST with two months to quit, council tenants would become a transient population, unlikely to be registered with a GP, their children changing schools, unlikely to be on the electoral register and to vote. She pointed out that Conservative think council tenants are second class citizens.
Karen Buck is always worth listening to about housing.
Council tenants lose lifetime right to live in property – The Guardian
At Home with the British (Home from Home) – BBC4
December 16th, 2015
Please be aware this article is out of date and has been superseded by these three:-
Dan Cruickshank: At Home With The British – Pt3 – BBC4 – preview
Dan Cruickshank: At Home With The British – Pt2 – BBC4 – preview
Dan Cruickshank: At Home With The British – Pt1 – BBC4 – preview
RIBA Exhibition designers – click link for details
If you choose to read on be aware what follows is information I found while trying to find out about the programme before it was broadcast.
UPDATE 2nd May: Stoneleigh
At the beginning of August it began to unfold: the BBC was interested in using Stoneleigh as the basis for a programme on domestic architecture. A series called Home from Home [At Home with the British], presented by Dan Cruickshank and made in collaboration with [the] RIBA, will be aired on BBC 4 in the New Year and charts the architectural development and social history of three typical British house types – the cottage, the terraced house and the flat.
Over the past eight weeks the director, presenter and researcher have made many visits to Stoneleigh finding out about the village’s history and its past connection to the Abbey. Very many houses have been visited and as this goes to press filming will begin at the Food Beer and Craft Market, at the Club and at the Abbey itself. It already seems that everyone you bump into has chatted to them at some point! It will be interesting to see how the project progresses; watch this space!
https://www.stoneleighvillage.org.uk
Stoneleigh is a Warwickshire village close to Kenilworth, Leamington Spa and Warwick and less than 4 miles from the centre of Coventry.There are 68 listed buildings in Stoneleigh.
Corbyn – the Right takes fright
August 25th, 2015
UPDATE: 26th Serwotka banned – the PLP have really lost the plot. | Steve Bell nails it.
This comment from the Guardian, posted under Polly Toynbee’s latest epistle is worth reading, Especially the last paragraph. I’m reproducing it here in full along with the link.
[Polly Toynbee] – He made front-page FT news yesterday with his assault on “ludicrous” corporate pay, attacking Rupert Murdoch’s empire and telling bankers to wake up to Britain’s “gross inequalities”. Who disagrees with all of that? But if being right was all it took to win elections, the Tories wouldn’t be in power.
So you’re advocating being wrong?
It’s got to be Corbyn – Scotland speaks
August 19th, 2015
So Andrew Brewer was right. When he said in a letter to the London Evening Standard that:-
They voted for the SNP because there is no Left-wing party currently in Westminster politics.
He was telling the truth.
Jeremy Corbyn appears to be the only person in politics at the moment capable of winning back some or all of the 40 seats Labour lost in Scotland to the SNP.
Jeremy Corbyn – one step at a time
August 18th, 2015
The mainstream media or MSM as they’re now known and the various New Labour grandees who have been wheeled out to tell the rest of us what morons we are (McTernan), or how we need a heart transplant (Blair), or how Labour needs a credible, radical leader (Brown), all appear to be labouring under the delusion that electing a Leader of the Opposition is equivalent to electing a future Prime Minister.