onionbagblog

Never interview your intimate ideological heroes - you’ll only make an arse of yourself. But with @billybragg standing next to me at a freezing cold Speaker’s Corner, it was an opportunity I couldn’t let pass by. You only get to make an arse of yourself once with your ideological hero.

Billy was at Speaker’s Corner as a timely reminder for his campaign to withhold income tax payments in protest of the publicly owned RBS still paying out bonuses to bankers.

It’s an issue that holds considerable resonance with me. Twenty-five years ago and it would have been withholding payments to the Treasury in protest against the increase in nuclear proliferation. How times have changed. The Cold War may be over, but the Class War struggle still continues. All under the name of a New Labour government as well.

It’s rare to hear any sense coming out of Speaker’s Corner on a Sunday morning. Bill took the wise strategic move to situate him well away from the religious freaks spurting out their bile and bigotry.

A crowd of a coupe of hundred gathered to hear Bill take to his stepladder (oh yes!) shortly after one ‘o clock to read out some notes. Even as firm flag waver for all things Boy Bragg, I approached the event feeling cynical. It’s easy for the rock star to take the £100 Treasury fine for non-payment, not so easy for a freelancing blogger / photographer with no monthly fixed income.

I was expecting a five-minute media friendly speech, repeating the message that Bill has been putting across so strongly online over recent weeks. I’m greatful to @markrock and the wonderful @audioboo for having recently upgraded my account to longer than the five minute package: half an hour later, Bill finished speaking and we were left pondering what was in effect a rallying cry taking in the past twenty five years of his political struggle.

Defeating Thatcherism, electing a Labour government and then back to where we started with right wing politicians still trying to defend the free market as an excuse for inequality. You break our legs and we say thank you when you offer us crutches.

Answers weren’t given, apart from the personal gesture of withholding your taxes. It seemed more like a rally cry of despair, wondering what the past quarter of a century has all been about. The Miner’s Strike, the pulling down of the Berlin Wall and electing a mixed race President of the United States. Yet still we have a party of the people (pah!) prepared to pay out million pound plus bonuses to bankers who are responsible for the collapse of the economy.

Bill received a round of applause, and I experienced the exact same feeling of some twenty-six years previous when Billy Bragg boarded the counter at Selectadisc, Market Street in Nottingham, and bashed out three chords whilst shouting out:

“If you look the part you’ll get the job
In last year’s trousers and your old school shoes
The truth is son, it’s a buyer’s market
They can afford to pick and choose.”

Phew - rock ‘n roll.

A few more media appearances and then a general mingling with supporters followed. Mark Thomas was also in the crowd; the pop star and the comedian, now taking on the publicly owned bank. How the hell did it come to this?

I hovered around with my iPhone, wanting to doorstep Bill for a brief @audioboo. I’ve interviewed millionaire rock stars in a previous life and have been blasé about it. I thought they were all tossers and wasn’t at all intimidated.

But Billy Bragg, in the cold light of day at Hyde Park? My hand hovered as I tried to press the start button on my audioboo app.

I think I just about got away with it. Bill spoke of how he felt alienated by the current political system with no choice come the ballot box in a couple of months time. Nu Labour has “failed to turn the back the tide of Thatcherism.”

I can only write about what I know and what I see happening around me on a local level. Here in Lambeth and we have a Labour led administration that is allowing the private sector to run our schools, talking of a “financial tsunami” in the local health service and yes, privatising leisure centres.

What the hell have the past twenty-five years been all about?

The crowd slowly drifted off to the pub, and I cycled through Hyde Park, playing back my brief audio flirtation with my ideological hero. I’ll be paying my taxes before midnight (needs must) but will wake up on Monday morning, still ready for the fight.

The trouble is I don’t know who exactly I’m fighting now.

Albert Bridge, SW11, The Way We See It.

“Another week, another bridge! This week we’re heading down to Chelsea for the Albert Bridge. This one really does have quite an interesting history to it. It’s one of only two bridges on the Thames in central London not to have been replaced.

That’s not to say that it got off to much of a better start in life. The bridge was upgraded twice in it’s life to make it more sturdy, and as such has become a hybrid of three types of bridge.

What we need to know is that it’s bright and colourful (so as to be noticed by passing river traffic and not bumped into,) and is more so at night when it’s light show comes in to effect. It’s certainly the peacock of Thames bridges.

The bridge is Grade II listed and is in a sorry state of repair structurally. Apparently it’s not all down to road traffic; dogs relieving themselves on the way to nearby Battersea Park have apparently been weakening the timbers with their wee.”

* ouch!

I’m not sure which society mysociety.org helps to enable online, but I don’t think it’s the same society that my local MP, the Right Honourable Kate Hoey exists in.

I wrote to the MP for Vauxhall on 1st December 2009, via mysociety.org. I know that the communication was sent successfully as just before Christmas, the good people at writetothem.com, asked me for some feedback on my MP’s performance.

I’m not sure if I was being asked for evaluation on the response from my question, or to pass judgement on the overall performance of my MP. I suppose the latter can be sorted out at the ballot box in a couple of months time.

Anyway - it was a perfectly reasonable, and very pertinent constituency question. In the absence of any response from the Right Honourable Kate Hoey, I am repeating the question here, should someone with slightly more knowledge (and better communication skills) than my MP be able to assist with an answer:

Dear Kate Hoey,

I am concerned about the increased level of aircraft activity over Stockwell. I accept that living in the capital city is going to generate the extra need for flights. The volume in both plane numbers, and aircraft noise seems to have increased in the past twelve months.

Do you know what time in the morning is permitted for the first flights into Heathrow and City airports? We are regularly being awoken at 5am with a quick succession of overhead traffic.

I would appreciate any information regarding the extra air activity that you may be able to share.

Yours sincerely,

Jason Cobb

I’m not alone locally in observing the increase in air traffic over the early morning skies of SW8. The good folk over at the Albert Square and St Peter’s Association posted up a wonderful video, highlighting how this is a very real issue for people living locally.

It seems that my local MP is more concerned with more worthy causes, such as Zimbabwe, waving the sports flag for Boris and sticking up for the Countryside Alliance. All of which have little or no relevance to my little patch of South London.

Hey hoe.

But anyway: the increased air traffic. Any collective ideas?

It could be a vote winner, y’know.

“It’s great to see how delivering the Decent Homes Standard in Lambeth can really make a difference to the quality of life of residents.”

Councillor Lib Peck, Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration, Lambeth Life, 1st February, 2010, p3.

“Lambeth Council has double the number of empty homes of any other London authority, figures released under the Freedom of Information (FoI) act show.”

Streatham Guardian, 27th January, 2010.

The next set of local elections will be held on 6th May.

Sumner Street, SE1, The Way We See It.

“Sumner Street is a strange old street. It’s fairly well documented, but alas lots of what was once here is now departed. The street was named in recognition of one John Sumner, Bishop of Winchester. In it’s time it’s had a large (if somewhat austere) church and it’s own school. Sadly both of these are now gone. The church was completely destroyed in WW2.

What is there now are some great views of the back of Tate Modern. Not terribly interesting you might think, but come back in a few years and you won’t recognise the place. This is where the new Tate extension is to be built. It will be nice to capture this street for posterity.”

Rejoice! Hang the bunting outside Lambeth Town Hall! I’ve found the mythical fool’s gold here in La La Lambeth Land. Lucky me. Looks like the leisure “success story” than Labour Councillor Nigel Haselden was trying to spin out to me last week can be found right here on my doorstep.

Fresh off the printing press, and the latest issue of ‘information newssheet’ Lambeth Life leads with the good news story of a “12m long temporary pool” being loaned out to the disused Lilian Baylis old school site in Kennington.

Well slap me in the face with a wet pair of Speedos and force me to have a cold shower with the entire Labour led Lambeth cabinet.

Cripes.

I knew our good friends at @lambeth_council wouldn’t let us down. The good Councillor Haselden stressed that he was “alarmed at my observations” that the leisure policy in Lambeth has failed the electorate.

I thought I was being objective in my observations. Streatham and Clap’ham pools are both shut, and Brixton is the only place in the Rotten Borough where Lambeth residents can now swim (but only between 7-9am, and with no recognised changing room.)

But nope. Looks like the two-month loan of a Lego swimming pool in Lambeth is the success story I’ve been searching for. Councillor Haselden mocked the idea of a temporary pool after we had finished recording our podcast. Seems like his Labour colleague Rachel Heywood, Cabinet Member for Culture and Communities, hadn’t informed her colleague of the Kennington paddling pool.

Any swim is a good swim, but twelve metres is just poxy. A kick off from one side of the temporary structure and then you’ve touched down at the other end. With the local election looming, it’s this exact form of panic-driven policies that has come to be the legacy of the current administration.

Whatever next? Tents at Brockwell Park to cover up the £1m spunked up the wall to housing consultants during a six-month period last year? Something wicked this way comes. It’s called a ballot paper and so best make sure that temporary arrangements are in place, to see us through until May.

It is with apt timing that Lambeth Life has decided to share the leisure “success” story on the exact same day that the Audit Commission took the spineless decision to allow local authorities to continue to publish this blatant form of political propaganda.

A front-page picture led splash (aha!) in Lambeth Life, yet diddly squat mention of the closure of the three main pools in the Borough. I’m surprised that my Lambeth Life delivery boy doesn’t actually knock on the door wearing a big red rosette, grinning like a buffoon and asking to kiss a baby before leaving me with the latest Lambeth Labour endorsed literature.

Oh, and top marks for the use of kids swimming in the La La Lambeth Land Lego Pool for the picture. Once again it has been conveniently forgotten that the current administration pulled down the 25m pool at Stockwell Park High School, despite concerns from local Labour MP Kate Tally Hoey. It really is saying something if it takes the fragrant Tally Hoey to tick of an administration for cutting public services.

And so the good people of Lambeth are left with a temporary Lego pool in the Rotten Borough, and a local election looming. Leisure shouldn’t be a political hot potato; it should be something that any local authority supports and funds, aware of the wider benefits to the local community.

The electorate can see the privatisation of leisure in Lambeth by the Labour administration as evidence where priorities lay for the current party in power. Knee jerk policies as the election looms are always the sure sign of a party that is sinking. Even in a poxy 12m temporary Lego pool.

Pathetic.

I’m all for extending the festive season slightly longer than the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas, but even I think the SW8 decorations in Palfrey Place have outstayed their welcome.

The perpetual fly tipping around my little patch of South London was the inspiration for the most un-festive of Christmas blog posts. Exactly one month later and the bags of Lambeth Council recycling still remain in place.

They’ve survived the South London Big Freeze, and now look like going all the way through to the spring. At least I won’t need to scratch my head to come up with an idea for a Happy Easter blog post.

It’s *shhh* not our friends from @lambeth_council who are at fault here. As I’ve observed in my previous Palfrey Place posts, the Environmental team in Lambeth do a pretty fine job. Bins were emptied, and recycling was taken away during the cold snap.

And so why does Palfrey Place remain cluttered up in crap? It’s all about the lazy locals that have drifted into the habit of using this stump of land as a public tip.

It’s pathetic, and shows no respect for both your surroundings and fellow community members. I’m a firm believer in the One Broken Window theory for community improvement. If a minor repair is carried out quickly, this will act as an incentive for further improvements and investment to be made to the area.

As long as the Palfrey Place dumping continues, then the area will continue to decline. Graffiti has started to appear once again, and South London Yoof caught up in the SW8 PDZ have now taken to hanging around Palfrey Place, before the police… disperses them.

Another email to my rather friendly local LibDem councillors looks to be the best bet. The local team succeeded in temporarily cleaning up the previous Palfrey mess. Sadly it seems that a prosecution is needed to permanently clear up my neighbourhood from all of this crap.