Archive for July, 2008
31 July, 2008 at 9:46 pm
· Filed under Consumer, Going green
The headlines are full of rising fuel prices.
Last week it was reported that gas bills could reach £1,000 a year. Now British Gas has announced record gas price rises of 35% and also a 9% rise in electricity bills.
As Nick Clegg points out, announcing this in hot weather won’t stop people suffering when winter comes.
The Government could and should take action, by intervening to better regulate energy prices, particularly the higher unit charges paid by the poorest consumers on pre-pay meters.
But there are also steps individuals and households can take to cut fuel bills; and the Energy Savings Trust can help. They produce an energy saving checklist, and also send out a regular consumer newsletter. And there’s more consumer advice available from the Guardian here.
Islington residents can also get advice face-to-face from the energy advice team at the Green Living Centre on Upper Street.
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31 July, 2008 at 2:09 pm
· Filed under Campaigns
My latest Guardian blog is now online. It covers Crossrail and Angel crossing, plus Labour’s holiday mood….
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31 July, 2008 at 12:58 pm
· Filed under Neighbourhood ·Tagged planning, Crossrail, transport, rail, Islington Council, Farringdon
I’m still pinching myself, but it looks as if Crossrail really is happening.
Now the Crossrail Act has been passed, all they have to do is build the thing. It’s been a long-time coming; the original Crossrail Bill was tabled in 1991. The final project won’t open til 2017, long after the London Olympics have been & gone. And there’s still some uncertainty about the funding. But despite all the doubts and delays, Crossrail is really good news.
Islington benefits with a new station at Farringdon. The very ugly Cardinal House should be demolished, and thanks to the lobbying of Islington councillors, there will now be one new ticket hall to serve both Crossrail and Thameslink2000, rather than the original nonsense proposal for two, unconnected buildings (maximum pain for minimum gain).
Now the works have the go-ahead, the challenge for Islington Council is to assist Crossrail, while being probably the only agency involved to stop and worry about local residents. It’s important that someone sticks up for the local community.
Major rail projects aren’t new to Islington. I remember when the Channel Tunnel rail link came through Islington, with major works around the Caledonian Road. The space under the Cally where they planned to tunnel was already crowded with fragile Victorian sewers and gas pipes as well as more modern cabling. The firms delivering the project wanted to close the Cally to through traffic, for their ‘utility mitigation works’ which would have caused chaos locally. The Government could (ahem) railroad through any necessary enabling measures, even if the Council objected. Officers were ready to say yes. So Cllr Rupert Perry & I sat up til 1am at an Islington planning committee, to argue the case against (well-briefed, as ever, by the Cally Rail Group). We ended up with single lane traffic and temporary traffic lights: not ideal, but much better for the locals than the original plans. There may well be similar battles ahead for Farringdon….
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30 July, 2008 at 7:16 pm
· Filed under Liberal Democrats ·Tagged Islington South & Finsbury, Labour, Liberal Democrats, politics, polls
There’s an interesting piece by Jonathan Isaby in the Daily Telegraph this week.
He identifies Islington South & Finsbury as one of the top 5 Labour seats likely to fall to the Lib Dems at the next election. The Telegraph also shows Islington South going gold in its latest electoral map. And both the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail confirm that Lib Dems, not the Conservatives, are the threat to Labour here (although both incorrectly attribute Emily Thornberry’s tiny 484 majority to boundary changes). It’s significant that these are all papers that tend to support the Conservatives; so if they are talking up the Lib Dems, it must be serious.
This all follows Nick Clegg’s summer message, identifying the ways the Labour government has let down its heartlands; and focusing on the 50 seats where Lib Dems are challenging Labour. We live in exciting times! It’s certainly a world away from the new era for new Labour that Gordon Brown heralded just over a year ago.
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29 July, 2008 at 9:34 pm
· Filed under Neighbourhood ·Tagged Angel tube, escalators, Holloway Road
I had a mini-workout today when I walked up the escalator coming out of the tube. Before you sneer, this was Angel tube, which is famously home to the longest escalators in London (indeed, according to Wikipedia, the longest in western Europe).
However, if that’s not enough of a workout, then the claimants to the title of the world’s longest escalator are variously in Japan, Moscow, and Maryland.
I’ve actually been on the famous spiral escalators at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Mind you, there it competes with attractions such as the ‘rain’ in the ‘Arab village’ at the Aladdin, and of course, the indoor ‘Grand Canal’, complete with gondalas, at the Venetian.
What I hadn’t realised was that an early, sadly unsuccessful, version of a spiral escalator was tried out at Holloway Road tube a century ago. Islington would really have been the escalator capital of Europe… Who needs Nevada when you can have N7?
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29 July, 2008 at 8:55 pm
· Filed under Campaigns ·Tagged Amnesty International, China, human rights, Olympics
I’ve received the following update from Amnesty International:
“Tomorrow marks the start of the ten-day countdown to the Olympic Games in Beijing and you’ll have noticed that Amnesty has been studying the Chinese authorities’ human rights performance very carefully since they won the right to host the Games back in 2001. We haven’t liked what we’ve seen.
The Chinese government promised that the Olympics would help bring human rights to China. Wang Wei, Secretary General of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee, said in 2001: “We will give the media complete freedom to report when they come to China. (…) We are confident that the Games coming to China not only promotes our economy but also enhances all social conditions, including education, health and human rights.”
But what we’ve seen is increasing repression. In preparation for the Games, the Chinese authorities have locked up, put under house arrest and forcibly removed individuals they believe may threaten the image of ‘stability’ and ‘harmony’ they want to present to the world.
Our new report, “The Olympics Countdown: Broken Promises” looks at four areas related to the core values of the Olympics: persecution of human rights activists, detention without trial, media censorship and the death penalty.
Local activists and journalists working on human rights issues in China are at particular risk of abuse during the Games. Human rights activist and writer Hu Jia is still serving a three-and-a-half year sentence for “inciting subversion” by writing about human rights and giving interviews to foreign media. Hu Jia suffers from liver disease due to a Hepatitis B infection but the authorities have prevented his family from taking him medicine. Other activists from outside the capital have been told not to go to Beijing in August. You can take action for him here: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=407
You can find out more about the report when it launches at 10pm tonight (UK time) at www.amnesty.org.uk/news. Hope you can give it a mention.
Amnesty also releases False Start tonight, the last (and best, in my view) of our hard-hitting, animated viral films. It highlights the persecution of people who speak up for human rights in China, depicting a cartoon Olympic protester being shot by a Chinese security official. You can get a sneak preview and find the code to put it on your site at: www.amnesty.org.uk/videospecial.asp using the login amnestypreview and the password: A1film.
We’ve also launched a new website – In both English and Chinese – called The China Debate (www.thechinadebate.org) which aims to raise awareness of human rights violations in China and promote a balanced debate on how improvements can be achieved.”
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26 July, 2008 at 7:52 pm
· Filed under Movies, media, music & culture, Neighbourhood ·Tagged Angel, Kings Cross, Tribune
The Islington Tribune has letters on two of our current campaign issues. On Kings Cross access, campaign organiser Sophie Talbot and Lib Dem Cllr Marisha Ray have both written in urging support for the new bridge.
And on the Angel crossing, there are letters of support from James Graham and Cllr Jyoti Vaja – plus one from Avis Baldry, who doesn’t support having the crossing moved. But at least people are taking an interest.
Mind you, had history taken a different path, Avis would have had a more direct lobbying route to TfL than writing to the local paper. Her husband Ken Baldry was one of the contenders to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London, back in 2000 when Ken Livingstone was still an independent. His campaign diary (Ken B not Ken L that is) is certainly an entertaining read.
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26 July, 2008 at 5:17 pm
· Filed under Neighbourhood ·Tagged Angel, road crossing
There’s still time to respond to TfL’s consultation on the route 38 improvement programme – which is our big chance to get Angel crossing sorted out. You can read more about the plans and download a consultation document here; the consultation period ends on 31st July (next Thursday). Say YES to Option A to get the crossing moved.
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26 July, 2008 at 4:10 pm
· Filed under Going green, Local history ·Tagged Eagle, Finsbury, Finsbury Health Centre, wind turbine
We were out in Finsbury again last week – highlighting the threat to local health services from the proposed closure of Finsbury Health Centre. We ended up in the nearby Eagle pub on Farringdon Road (London’s first gastropub).
The old nursery rhyme Pop goes the weasel talks about ‘going up & down the City Road, in and out the Eagle’; but that’s a different Eagle pub, at the corner of Shepherdess Walk, just in Hackney.
In fact, there’s a bit of a bird of prey theme in the area. Also on City Road, nearly opposite the Eagle pub, there’s Eagle Dwellings. They are 19th century flats – the childhood home of music hall artist Lily Morris - now in use as supported accommodation by a local housing association.
Further up City Road are council tower-blocks, Peregrine & Kestrel Houses. A few years ago, the Council placed nesting boxes on some blocks to encourage the return of peregrines. It would have been great to have them on Kestrel or Peregrine – but neither was suitable.
However, Kestrel House is still doing its bit for the environment: from Goswell Road you get an excellent view of its new wind turbine. From the ground the turbine doesn’t look very big, but it’s actually 12m high, and now powers everything in the block from the lights, lifts and water pumps to the concierge office and CCTV. It’s a fantastic scheme – helping fight climate change and cut tenants’ energy bills at the same time.
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25 July, 2008 at 2:14 pm
· Filed under Consumer, Liberal Democrats ·Tagged EU, HIV, human rights, Sarah Ludford
Good news that the campaign to get the USA to lift the visa ban on people with HIV has paid off. And congratulations to our local MEP Sarah Ludford for her role in making it happen.
It’s a great example of how the EU can work to defend ordinary people’s rights against unfair government or corporate policies. Like getting a better deal for consumers on roaming mobile phone charges. Not something you’ll hear from the Eurosceptics…
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