onionbagblog

Crime is an issue that concerns many around my little patch of South London. Not wanting to sound like Nick Ross, but it’s usually a fear of crime, rather than crime per se, that is often the real threat.

Our friends over at Stand Up For Stockwell have published their response today – a video which looks at the Conservative party’s national policy on crime, rather than addressing the real issues on the ground here in Stockwell.

At least this move is in line with @LambethLabour’s election policy of uploading videos to youtube that criticise others, rather than offering any genuine local solutions.

I’ve managed to have a look at a presentation delivered by the Safer Lambeth Partnership, an organisation that includes the council, police force, probation service, health agencies and other organisations who work together to deliver the Community Safety Strategy.

The data presented was used to assist the Police Tasking and Coordination meeting in the allocation of resources to help reduce crime in Lambeth over a two-week period in February.

It must be emphasised that all data relates to only reported crime. This is often distorted, with bizarre policies such as having to report the disappearance of a wheelie bin as theft.

But hopefully by looking at some of the micro level crime taking place around here right now, it will offer a more positive response to crime in Stockwell than simply posting up a fear of crime video.

The Burglary Performance is steady around my area. The Oval and Larkhall wards both report a rise of one. Stockwell shows a decrease of two, showing that the figures are more or less stable over the previous period. Ferndale and Tulse Hill have been highlighted as priority locations.

The recommendations are for Lambeth Living to identify vulnerable homes. This is an issue that the @LambethLabour #labourdoorstep team have been electioneering with over on the Bolney Meadow estate area of late. I’m still not sure why a party in power has to organise a petition to get security grills placed on council owned stock. I’m not alone, either.

Speaking of door knockers… My personal policy is to never answer the door unless I am expecting someone at my home. This may mean that I don’t get to engage with the good local door knocking politicians; it also means that I am unlikely to be taken in by the many chancers that come door knocking with their tales of endless woe.

As the presentation identifies, door knocking is also used as a tactic to assess if a property is empty or not. I usually get around this concern by playing rather loud music.

It’s incredibly depressing that I can’t feel safe to open my door to strangers. The constant tales of needing bus fare to visit a sick relative, or a girlfriend about to give birth, sadly means that community around here has been reduced to living behind a bolted door.

I feel very uneasy about the deployment of mobile CCTV as a safeguard. I feel equally uneasy about the current fear of crime. It’s a tough balancing act, and one that is hard to equate. Possibly the timely call for a higher policing presence on the streets is a solution?

On a micro local level and it seems that CCTV is being employed to tackle “night time economy issues.” This is a euphemism for binge drinking and drug dealing around Clapham High Street.

The presentation includes details of the new Antisocial Behaviour Reporting Line. This is a brilliant move, especially so around the Police Dispersal Zone in SW8. I hope the phone line has more success in curtailing ASB than my recent efforts in approaching three officers to deal with Mad Rupert of SW8.

Sticking with ASB and I was rather shocked to see that Larkhall suffers from the highest level of substance abuse in the borough. Twenty calls relating to substance misuse were made in the Larkhall ward during the two-week period.

This is a figure higher than areas such as Brixton Hill (17) and Coldharbour (7) where blatant drug dealing is seen as the norm. I wonder why the figure is so high for Larkhall? My only thought is that Larkhall Park becomes something of drug dealing hotspot once the evening falls.

The presentation concludes by stating that the Partnership Action Team will be deployed at the weekend around Clapham. This is once again related to the nighttime economy.

There is nothing new in the presentation to suggest that crime around my little patch of South London is running at a level that I wasn’t previously aware of. It’s not a positive news story, but at least it is being addressed.

It would be useful if our friends @labourstockwell addressed the local issues, rather than point towards the national picture.

Ah – lookey here – the party political propaganda piece, as put out by those caring, sharing sorts @LambethLabour has been removed by youtube. It seems that a “copyright issue” over an image of Lambeth LibDem leader Ashley Lumsden is the technicallitiy that tripped up the highly offensive offering.

That’s a shame. I would have preferred for the video to have been removed for simply being a bit rubbish. As stated in the previous post, it added absolutely nothing to the political debate in Lambeth as we head towards the local elections.

It only served the purpose of putting across the manifesto that the Labour led administration plans to use – name calling and negative campaigning. The electorate within Lambeth deserve a more constructive form of political campaigning.

The Facebook comments posted by the Nu Labour chums talk of censorship, and further negative campaigning to come. Shame on them. To confuse censorship with vile electioneering is not an easy mistake to make.

Publicly calling the leader of the opposition party “Slumsden” sums up the juvenile nature of some of our local politicians. I wonder if such robust language is used when the campaign teams do their much hyped #labourdoorsetp thing every Saturday afternoon?

The video represented all that is rotten at the core of Lambeth Labour – portioning blame elsewhere for present failures, arrogance and a complete betrayal of the answers that the electorate want to hear right now.

Here is the justification from Lambeth Laboour leader @cllrstevereed in using the video nasty as part of a progressive local election campaign:

The good Councillor once again totally overlooks the positive campaigning that we want to see around here. In the absence of any uplifting message from the #labourdoorsteppers, the electorate will be able to judge for themselves on 6th May.

And so after the working party last weekend in SE24, early Saturday morning and we were ready to roll out for another season of outdoor track cycling at Herne Hill Velo.

Chapeau!

I’ve got big plans for this season: to try and finish it. It’s a hell of a long stretch from the Ides of March, all the way through until the autumnal days of October.

In-between there will no doubt be days when the weather gets the better of us, and with larger plans looming elsewhere come the end of summer, best to make hay ‘n all that.

If you have told the fine folk at VCL three weeks ago that we would be rolling out in rotation on Saturday morning, you would have been suspected of having taken a particularly bad knock to the head without wearing a bicycle helmet.

But woh – where did that cold snap go? Bright blue South London skies awaited my arrival at Herne Hill. The track looked splendid following the spring clean last week.

I really think the new racing schedule is going to work well this season. 9-10 am for the juniors removes the novices from bunching with the kids, as well as keeping the track clear for the intermediates only at 10am.

Ah yes, the intermediates. This is the banding of which I’m supposed to belong in. Technically a veteran, but still hanging on to hopes of Herne Hill glory.

Shortly after 10am, I cleated my ride, and rolled out nervously around the first bank. It was like I had never been away. The first breakaway group got my heart rate up. By the second and I could feel the blood pumping through every vein in my body. This is what it’s all about. It’s got to be better than the weekly supermarket shop on a Saturday morning.

Holding back the novice riders until after the intermediates, also allows VCL to experiment with the schedule. Bumps and Lumps was a new discipline for me, and one which I found rather hairy.

You follow the lead rider in a single string, as a route up and down is weaved all the way around the historic Herne Hill track. The thinking is to improve your awareness and handling abilities. The reality for me was that I almost ended up with a bump and a lump.

Rotation finished the first session of the season – a ride of stamina as the pace picks up with each lap. This was more like it, although I bonked as the pelaton broke away for a sprint finish.

But it’s early days down in SE24. I’ve got seven months in which to refine my track riding skills. There is much work to do.

It’s surprising how smooth the transition from road racing to the track is. You soon remember the small things, such as the idiosyncratic track hand signals, or the need to stick with the pack, else suffer the fate of bonking alone on the banks.

Come midday, and I de-cleated and hit the shakes. From my shoulders down to my fingernails, my arm and hands were in freefall. The cycle back to Sunny Stockwell on the Moulton had a fair share of bumps and lumps along the way.

Same again next Saturday.

Chapea!

Here’s the latest party political propaganda piece, as put out by those caring, sharing sorts at Lambeth Labour. Pretty vile, isn’t it? Of course I’m completely aware that by embedding the offensive video on m’blog, I’m giving it a *slightly* wider reach. All news is good news, ‘n all that.

But nope – I give the electorate in Lambeth a lot more credit than the current Labour led administration clearly does. The video would be comical, if it weren’t so negative.

The good @chukaumunna, Labour’s PPC for the Streatham ward, took issue last week with my use of the phrase the ‘Rotten Borough.’ We talked about how as Lambeth locals, we should be celebrating the area, and creating a positive image for outsiders.

I rather like yer man Chuka and he won me over. I took his points on board. Sadly it seems that his local party on the ground, the one that he has been trying to distance himself from, isn’t so understanding when it comes to the negative portrayal of Lambeth.

What makes the video even pithier is that some fool has actually sat down and spent some considerable time creating all the content. They either have a very lot of time on their hands, or are seriously concerned about the outcome of the forthcoming local elections.

I’m often accused of picking political points (usually by the very same local politicians I think political points needs to be picked with.) I’d find it a very soul destroying task however to come up with such a pessimistic manifesto as portrayed in the video.

I don’t want to hear about allegations of past failures in Lambeth. If we’re going down that particular route, then you may as well overlook yer Rotten Borough metaphors and trace the route right back to Loony Lambeth.

I don’t want to see a Petri dish of a social lab experiment road tested in a borough that suffers from some of the most extreme social deprivation in the country.

I want to talk about the future. I want to find solutions for an area that has become a political playground for career politicians that should know better.

And so yeah, I’ve embedded the video in the hope that others can see what a complete pile of twaddle it is. It tells you all you need to know about the priorities of the current Labour led administration in the Rotten Borough (ooh – get you) and little about the people that really matter in Lambeth.

Shame on you.

Dear old Shaun Ryder, swagggering around on page four of Lambeth Life – blimey. Having had Hooky appear in a previous edition of the council printed paper, it seems that some young pup on the editorial desk at the Town Hall has a Madchester past.

Overlooking the fact that Ryder is plugging a Black Grape gig taking place over the borough border in @lb_southwark, I can’t but help think that our friends from Lambeth Life have got their headlines mixed up. All at the Council Tax payers expense, as well.

With tickets for Banky’s pop up cinema at the Lambeth Palace Theatre entering into silly money on Ebay, @AnnaJCowen and I considered doing the dirty ahead of the screening of Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Two hours later, having sat through a film comprising part documentary, part farce, part comedy, all shown within the surrounds of a Victorian tunnel with water dripping on your head, and I’m pleased that we didn’t sell out.

Which in a round about way neither has Banksy. The limited screening, twice a day down in the Old Vic Tunnels, is a long way from the red carpet treatment of Leicester Square. The constant rumble of overground trains up above gives Exit Through the Gift shop an added ambience.

It’s perhaps best to talk about the setting first and then the film second. Leake Street and Banksy have history. The Cans Festival may be officially finished, but the spirit of the spray cans lives on.

An uninviting South London cabbie rat run is now a genuinely vibrant public piece of art. Staging the debut film from the most famous street artist within the tunnels running along Leake Street makes perfect sense.

Once past the bouncers and you enter into a cavern then has little resemblance to the entrance at your local Odeon. Banksy work adorns the walls. Familiar themes of anti-Establishment are in place, as well as some rather disturbing dancing sausages.

The toilets are a work of art, with an IRA authentic dirty protest lining the walls of the gents. Art or arse? I hope it was the former; it certainly didn’t smell like the latter.

And then come curtain call, and we were ushered into the 150-seat pop up cinema. Settees serve as the luxury seating at the front, with more traditional cinema seats steeping up towards the back.

Everyone in the auditorium is taking photographs. Oh the irony of a CCTV camera in the tunnels, watching over the Banksy lovers and his own use of CCTV in his stencil imagery.

And that really is all that you need to know about the evening. It was a genuine experience and excitement entering into the vaults. The film itself was a mere secondary thought.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is essentially a film about a struggling documentary maker who wants to make a film about the street artist enfant terrible. In the end, we are given a film about the street artist enfant terrible making a film about the struggling documentary maker who becomes a highly successful (and rather crap) street artist.

In between, a potted history of Invader, Shepherd Fairy et al is provided. The star draw is always going to be Banksy, but the Bristol boy remains hooded, and with his voice disguised throughout.

This doesn’t distract from the unfolding story. Banksy is as a natural storyteller as he is an artist. The failures of Mr Brainwash are told with great comic timing, yet still with some affection.

But ultimately, the real star of the evening is the Lambeth Palace pup up Theatre itself. The screening of the film in the old Victorian tunnels highlights the potential for this space (and others) to offer a new perspective on an otherwise staid activity. There are direct parallels with what the wonderful @spacemkrs are doing in Brixton right now.

I wouldn’t go rushing to buy the Bansky Blu Ray for your own home entertainment system in the luxury of a front room. But then given the limited run of Exit Through the Gift Shop, it may be your best bet to catch the Banksy action.

Two weeks following the re-opening of The Canton Arms along South Lambeth Road, @AnnaJCowen and I decided to dine out at what is now our local boozer.

The old Canton was a decent drinking place, but it became a cropper with the decline of the traditional pub business: cheap booze in supermarkets, over-priced pints and shunting smokers out into the cold South London night, treating them like social lepers – which they are, of course.

Something had to give.

That something has re-surfaced in SW8 with the new look Canton positioning itself as part pub, part restaurant. Don’t even begin to mention the ghastly gastro word.

The space at the Canton suits itself perfectly to this new arrangement. There is ample bar room at the front of the building for all the bustle of the local boozers. Likewise the area behind the main bar allows diners to enjoy their food away from the buzz (and glare) of the bar room thinkers.

It’s a tough act to balance booze and nosh – even tougher to try and do it by keeping both constituents happy. The Canton pulls this off perfectly by not pigeon holing customers upon arrival.

We walked up to the bar, and an eager chap hovered, one hand on a pint glass, one hand on a food menu. We asked if it a table was available, and were led towards the back space and some seating in the corner.

There’s a whole new team in place along the South Lambeth Road, fronted up by legendary chef Trish Hilferty. Foodies out east will be familiar with Trish’s fine talents from her days spent in the kitchen at The Fox over in Shoreditch.

The rest of the Canton team is more or less made up of the fine people behind the Anchor & Hope on Great Queen Street. A local touch has been added with all bread provided by the lovely @bakermanisbakin from Di Lieto along South Island Place.

This was our first food for the evening. A generous helping of incredibly fresh bread, the best this side of the river. A bottle of water was served, as we selected from the wine menu. A bottle of Bergerie de la Bastide was brought along, providing a warm taste to match our surroundings.

Some fine conversation followed with a couple of members of staff. We asked about the business, and the prospects for the local economy. Although only two weeks into trading, the future is looking healthy.

We rightfully celebrate the uniqueness of Little Porto, a short distance down the South Lambeth Road; but to find a boozer restaurant that has some variety away from the staple of fish and olive based dishes in SW8, should equally be held in high esteem.

Chicken saltimbocca received my endorsement. @AnnaJCowen went with potato gnocchi and chestnut mushrooms. I was slightly disappointied to find that the side dish of greens and potatos were charged extra for my course. But for the slight sum of £2.50, I experienced a side serving of boiled cabbage that was actually a joy, rather than a chore, to eat.

With life still left in the Bergerie, we went with the desert menu. My Little Chocolate Pot was indeed little, although incredibly filling. I was unable to help out @AnnaJCowen with her generous serving of pear and almond tart.

It’s not just the evening menu that is starting to attract attention at the new Canton either. Toasties are fast attracting a reputation as the finest food around these parts for your lunchtime snack.

This seems to fit in with the carefully thought out business model in place. Locals are being courted with a new dining experience on their doorstep, in parallel with a ploy to attract diners from outside of the SW8 area.

The new Canton pub sign reflects this, incorporating the traditional crest with the addition of cutlery. I like to think of it as a win win situation. I haven’t just gained a new boozer, but also a new restaurant. This probably gives me good reason to return soon for a beer session.

We settled the bill, with some loose pocket change coming out of a fifty-pound note. The front bar was buzzing, proving that both food and fine ale can live side by side. Or even both together.

Chin chin.