An inspiring new partnership for London…
Bob Crow of the RMT has shown an early and unlikely solidarity with new Mayor Boris Johnson, by insulting the people of Liverpool. Brilliant.
Essex Road Post Office: victory!
We finally got the news today!
Post Office Ltd have issued this announcement: “Public consultation has been held on a proposal to close Essex Road Crown Post Office in N1 but Post Office Ltd announced today it has been decided not to proceed with the closure of this branch at this time as discussions with a potential franchise partner are now underway. If these negotiations are successful there will be a six week consultation on a proposal to franchise this Post Office® branch.”
It’s a triumph against the odds (and against the government) and a tribute to a great team effort. We made it very clear that we did not want Essex Road post office to close.
I can’t believe it’s a year since we launched the petition with Jo Swinson MP; since then thousands of Islington residents have signed up to our campaign against the closure. We’ve also had fantastic support from local businesses, voluntary groups and the Council.
It’s also a bittersweet victory as other branches in Islington are still set to close - part of the government-backed restructuring voted for by Labour MPs, including Emily Thornberry. But we’ve saved Essex Road for our community - and that’s something to celebrate. !
Essex Road Post Office: judgement day is nigh….
Now that the election ‘purdah’ is out of the way, we’re expecting an announcement very shortly on the future of Essex Road Post Office.
I’m hoping against hope that it’s good news. Local people & I have worked so hard to save it. We launched our first petition nearly a year ago. Since then, as well as our 5,000+ signature petition, the Save Essex Road Post Office campaign has held a rally complete with video on YouTube. We have enlisted the support of the local newspapers, the local Council and the celebrity OAP singers the Zimmers. We have set up a dedicated campaign website and a Facebook group. We have taken our protests to Islington Town Hall and to Downing Street.
My submission to the Post Office on behalf of the Save Essex Road Post Office campaign made objections on the following grounds
- Islington is the 8th most deprived borough in the UK
- Essex Road Post Office serves a cluster of elderly person’s homes & sheltered housing
- Essex Road Post Office provides the only banking counter on Essex Road and serves a thriving business community
- Essex Road is Islington’s most accessible post office building both as a building and in terms of transport links and parking; closing it could be a breach of the Disability Discrimination Act. At Upper St, wheelchair users have to be served in the street….
- Islington has already lost over 10 sub post offices thanks to the Government’s closure programme
- the remaining post offices are all too busy to cope if Essex Road closes
- Islington’s population is growing, it’s madness to close another main post office now.
Islington residents do not want Essex Road Post Office to close. Have the Post Office listened? Have we lived up to our name and Saved Essex Road Post Office? Watch this space….
Business as usual?
On Saturday we went for a stroll in Islington. Instead of leaflets to deliver, we had Eggs royale at Med Kitchen, overlooking Islington Green; bliss. Then on to Camden Passage, where we bought something lovely & vintage for my sister in law Ros (a belated birthday present). I’m not going to say what in case she reads it before she receives it...
Camden Passage is seeing the arrival of more chains (albeit upmarket ones - Reiss, FrostFrench, LomBok) replacing some of the independent antiques traders that give the area its unique character. Now there are lots of reasons why London’s upmarket international antiques trade has been suffering; weak dollar, fears of terrorism, modernist decor, economic downturn etc. And if an individual trader chooses to relocate or retire that’s their privilege. But there’s a specific threat in Islington.
The Mall, home to dozens of small units, has changed hands, and the developer has applied for permission to knock out the internal partitions, effectively evicting them. Two or three of the units are already vacant as traders have anticipated the worst and moved elsewhere. But Islington Council is having none of it; last week the South Area planning committee threw out the application. They had to do it on historic building grounds; there’s no planning law protecting one type of retail over another. That’s something the Sustainable Communities Act could let communities change, but despite a waffly bit of guidance, there’s no sign of action to implement this from the Government yet.
Reading the runes
It felt quite extraordinary to be waking to a London with Boris as Mayor. We are so used to the Islington electoral landscape of Labour vs Lib Dems, that Tory victories are a bit of a shock It’s a healthy reality check to find that everything looks the same as usual in Islington this morning; Labour activists apart, people seem very relaxed about the result rather than having a collective hangover.
The media reported the Mayoral election as the Ken vs Boris show, and that in turn unfairly marginalised Brian Paddick. Brian really grew as a campaigner during the election; he didn’t lose the straight-talking honesty that really reached people when he met them, but he did get more relaxed and confident at hustings and with the media. If all voters got to hear from all the candidates, Brian’s vote would have been much higher. He brought a serious approach to the issue of how we tackle crime and violence in London, from which I hope the new Mayor will learn. It will take more than a new generation of City sponsored boys’ clubs to tackle this problem.
Londoners clearly found Boris an acceptable and electable alternative to Ken Livingstone. Boris rightly recognised that this does not mean that London has suddenly turned Tory; Islington certainly has not.But there’s no doubt that the celeb cred of Boris combined with the meltdown of the Labour government – and the desperate response of local Labour activists - made Lib Dems vulnerable to an anti-Tory squeeze in Labour areas.
We do not yet know the breakdown of votes in Islington, but Meral’s vote across London NE (Islington, Hackney and Waltham Forest combined) was significantly ahead of the London-wide trend, making her the most popular Lib Dem GLA candidate north of the river.
Meral’s been a brilliant candidate, engaging people who don’t normally get involved in politics, both from the Turkish community and across the borough. One email I got yesterday said “I voted yesterday for your colleague Meral Ece. We have yet to find out whether she won, but as the only candidate who took the trouble to canvas me (and I am not registered as one of your supporters) I felt she deserved my vote.” So this is a personal achievement by Meral and one that reflects well on the local campaigning in Islington.
Nationally Liberal Democrats got a bigger vote share than Labour, a shift that would see Westminster seats like Islington South & Finsbury go Lib Dem. Although if I were in Gordon Brown’s place I’d not be contemplating a General Election any time soon. We didn’t elect him last year, and we certainly wouldn’t elect him now.
The morning after…
My feet are still on voicemail after yesterday’s 22 hour day.
Every election day has its little highs that keep us going. Like reassuring a Turkish family who wanted to vote for Meral but couldn’t find their poll cards that they could still vote, and seeing them leave for the polling station five minutes later; or recruiting a new deliverer for my old ward 30 minutes before close of poll.
We had a fantastic team out, including my darling parents. Dad is such a charming ‘teller’ that some voters were writing their poll numbers on their hands in biro in order not to let him down.
Meral’s been a great candidate and the whole campaign – a few minor wobbles aside - has been upbeat and well-run.
Generally the atmosphere on polling day is cheery and courteous to the opposition although there was a bit of a ‘rival football fans clash’ feel when we met some Labour activists in the pub. One tired and emotional woman told me “We’re voting for KEN because he’s a SOCIALIST!!”. “So how do you rate Jennette Arnold?” I asked. The reply: “Who’s that?” Our point entirely.
And as the results come in, ‘mayday’ certainly seems to be living up to its name for Labour.
And how was it for us in London NE? As soon as my feet respond, I’m off to the count to find out.
VoteMatch
Elections are all about voters making a choice and deciding who to support this time. So it’s ironic that for most political activists, this central decision barely impinges on all our campaigning; we know who we’re voting for, thank you very much.
So the 2nd choice in the London Mayoral election gives us committed Lib Dems a refreshing dilemma; obviously we hope Brian Paddick makes it into the last two. And with support like this and this (and even this) he could. But if he doesn’t, should we vote for Ken or Boris or waste our 2nd choice on a party that’s certain to get knocked out first – or not use the 2nd choice at all. Aha – but we fought for a fairer voting system; so it’s a bit sad not to use that 2nd vote now we’ve got it.
This is where VoteMatch comes in. It’s a handy website that asks you to react to various policy statements and then matches you against the Mayoral candidate closest to your views. You can even weight the answers so that if, for example, pigeons matter more to you than police, then that is reflected in the results.
I do have some quibbles with it. It feels a bit like those magazine quizzes where you express your preference on Italian vs sushi, and it announces that your ideal man is George Clooney. (By the way, it’s not me who needs to know: just tell George.)
More seriously, I think it’s got some of the policy a bit wrong, or interpreted it wrongly. One question asks if you agree that “the Congestion Charge should be the same for all cars regardless of their engine size or exhaust emissions”. Well, we have criticisms of Ken’s new policy of charging some gas guzzlers extra, while suddenly lifting the charge for lots of smaller cars which are not carbon neutral and will increase congestion. But we don’t want to introduce charges for the electric cars or emergency vehicles or taxis which go in free. So no, Lib Dems don’t think it should be the same for all; but VoteMatch seems to think we do.
And I was very disconcerted to find that by changing my answer to one or two questions, my result moved from Lindsay German to Boris Johnson. Or maybe that exposes some interesting overlaps in their agenda….
But overall, VoteMatch is a great way to engage people in thinking about the Mayoral election. And who knows, it might even help me choose that elusive 2nd preference.
Fire and flood
Paddy Ashdown used to tell the story of how he visited a constituent whose home had been flooded. After having a cup of tea and listening to the long history of their case, Paddy realised he was desperate to go to the loo. Finally he asked if he could use their facilities, yanked the old-fashioned chain with relief – and pulled the cistern off the wall, flooding them again.
I’ve never had an experience quite like that. Or not until today. I was canvassing with one of our councillors, and we called on a lady who wanted to show us a problem in her flat. We duly went into the basement and were checking it out when suddenly the smoke alarm went off. There was a pan simmering on the gas hob, and the roll of kitchen towel nearby had gone up in flames. One damp tea towel and the fire was out; no damage done. In fact our host insisted she was delighted we’d called and we all had a nervous laugh about our memorable visit. She even took a Paddick poster. Well he does have a background in the emergency services….
Stormy weather
There’s a cracking thunderstorm over London at the moment. Which explains something about last night.
Around 5pm I started to feel quite headachey and became increasingly nauseous and light-headed. I sent my apologies to canvassing for once, took Syndol, sipped tea on the sofa, tried to watch the news but couldn’t – and ended up going to bed very early.
My Dad also gets sick headaches in the run up to a thunderstorm and I’m sure we’re not the only ones. But a bit like PMT, it’s only afterwards you realise why you felt so awful at the time….
Toxic chickens
There was a ‘toxic chicken’ alert on Radio 4 this morning. Bird flu? An environmental disaster?
No, it’s the striking phrase chosen by Robert Peston to describe the state of the economy; toxic chickens coming home to roost…
