onionbagblog

A delightful luncheon date (cripes) with, um, @AnnaJCowen on Wednesday, as we both cycled the short distance from our SW8 base over to Brunswick House, the recently opened cafe housed within the Lassco architectural salvage yard.

I’ve been hearing good things about the new cafe set up South side of the river. It is run by Charlie and Frank, the two sons of Charlie Boxer, the joint owner of the Italo delicatessen in Bonnington Square.

What is so unique about Brunswick House is that all of your surrounding are for sale. We took a late morning coffee (double shot latte) outside on a beautifully restored mosaic trestle table. The £280 price tag might appear steep, but I know a very good home somewhere on the North Essex coast that would suit the artefact to perfection.

Vauxhall Cross was but a wrought iron gate away from our dining setting. The random styling of the architectural garden somehow managed to drown out all of the hurly bury of the busses and speeding cars passing through the centre of SW8.

With our coffee providing an extra boost, @AnnaJCowen and I set about the task of window shopping for pastures new. We took a leisurely stroll around Lassco, marvelling at the splendour of the period pieces within.

I could happily spend an entire afternoon there, not to mention an annual salary on some of the items for sale. A definite location to return to over the coming weeks, if not for the extra strong coffee, then certainly for the art deco style mosaic garden table.

#lambethcoop, Porto pastry and an out of context moment with a man I usually see half naked each morning - what could possibly go wrong at the quarterly forum organised by the fine folk of the Stockwell Partnership?

I always find it confusing seeing people out of context. Straight outta, um, Brixton Rec showers, and down the Stockwell Road to the Community Resource Centre; I almost didn’t recognise Swimmer David as he greeted me on the door, fully clothed and without Speedos.

But there was little time for chitter chatter about shampooing the short ‘n curlies. It was straight down to #lambethcoop business (yeah, *business*) with the good @LabourStockwell doing his PR pitch on behalf of @LambethLabour.

Councillor Bigham came well prepped. He outlined the overview of the Co-operative Council plans, stating that the objectives are twofold:

“There is a moral need - councils don’t always know better than citizens about how to run services. Secondly there is a financial need - it could be cost effective for the community to run local authority services

The first point is probably just about right, although there are some major concerns over democratically elected officials washing their hands of all accountability and responsibility.

The highest-ranking Co-operative Party MP, Ed Balls, has already dismissed the second point as not being the right reason for @lambeth_council to become a co-operative. The Labour Party leadership contender even went as far as saying:

“Cutting corners is not what a co-operative council is about. Does being a co-operator save money in public services? I’m not sure that it will. I think that it might actually encourage us to spend more money for local people.”

@LabourStockwell then gave examples of how #lambethcoop has been successful during the trial period. He stated the Tenant Managed Organisation of Lambeth Towers at Kennington as a shining example of how #lambethcoop should work. Except a FOI request I made to @lambeth_council earlier this year confirmed:

“Consequently, no savings / losses are incurred as a result of a creation of new TMO.”

The cash saving ethos of #lambethcoop was also justified by @LabourStockwell as a consequence of: “the 20% cuts that are being put in place by the coalition government.”

Nasty, nasty ConDems, but #lambethcoop was part of the @LambethLabour manifesto *before* the Love Me I’m a Liberal Lot sold their soul to the Nasty Party. #lambethcoop was coming, for whatever reason, irrespective of what financial constraints may, or may not, be imposed from Westminster.

I pitched in (get you) with asking about the role of big business within #lambethcoop. The White Paper talks of “interested partners” in a different context to citizens. @LabourStockwell cited the example of Veoila working successfully to help provide a council service.

I cited in return the example of Veoila getting away with not paying staff a London Living Wage, all with the blessing of @LambethLabour as part of this brave new world of co-operation.

The old Lilian Baylis site is apparently another example of how co-operation within the borough is working. I didn’t like to mention how this partnership is currently costing Lambeth Council Tax payers £380,000 a year, and still there is not definite conclusion as to what will be the future of the site.

My fully clothed swimming partner made a great point from the floor. He pointed towards the, um, Stockwell Partnership as a model that #lambethcoop should be looking at to see how genuine citizen involvement can be successfully implemented.

The Stockwell Partnership has spent the past ten years securing investments for the local area, and then consulting with local people about how best to distribute the funds for the benefit of the whole community. Local residents get to sit at the top table and make decisions.

Meanwhile the #lambethcoop Citizen’s Commission still hasn’t appointed any citizens to sit alongside the three high ranking members of the @LambethLabour cabinet.

It was jolly decent of @LabourStockwell to put forward the justification by @LambethLabour for walking away from all local responsibility. Cynical, jaded and in disbelief (me, *not* @LabourStockwell) but still I applaud the information that is finally coming our way.

The exact mechanics of how #lambethcoop will actually work are slowly, slowly trickling down from the top table, with more events planned around the borough to try and pull off the PR trick on behalf of @LambethLabour. But any genuine citizen power is still not part of the deal.

Time for a break. Time for some Porto dancing.

Hurrah!

And so it was straight outta #lambethcoop and best foot forward as some rather ace young Porto kids gave us a brilliant demonstration of how the traditional meets the contemporary, Sunny Stockwell style.

It was hungry work just watching. Which all boded rather well for the table laid out with Porto food, all kindly donated to the Stockwell Partnership Forum from the good folk of the local Porto cafes.

Now that’s what I call co-operation.

A brief break, and then a Q and A followed with Ian Beaver, a planning expert who represents the Stockwell Partnership. Ian outlined some of the major developments that are heading our your way over the course of the next few years.

The thirty-three-storey Vauxhall Sky Garden is an interesting case in how developers can backtrack on all original promises, and yet somehow come away with a done deal that suits the commercial agenda, and not that of the local residents.

The original planning application contained fifteen floors of social housing, a bonkers two floor space of an indoor garden, and then fifteen floors of high rent, high class commercial property.

The joined up thinking that ticked all the correct boxes in terms of council corporate talk of inclusiveness, is that the garden would be the common ground. Quite literally.

Never the twain shall meet however. The revised plan, now accepted by @lambeth_council, contains the small detail of pushing the social housing out towards a separate site on Wyvil Road. The implication is that the bonkers indoor garden is out of bounds for social housing residents.

Clever. And quite a con as well.

The fifty-storey Vauxhall Tower was next up for discussion. When complete, this will be the tallest residential tower in all of the country.

Cripes.

Completing the trilogy of Vauxhall high rises is the Octave Tower on Bondway. Having had the wisdom to turn down the original plan, the appeal starts next week at Lambeth Town Hall. It will be interesting to see how close @lambeth_council wants to cuddle up to commercial partners in an attempt to justify this new age of *shhh* co-operation.

Ace Porto food btw.

It’s crunch time this evening for the Stop Kev (unsettle Hoey) campaign that is being carried out by the right wing of the @LambethLabour party. Thursday sees the AGM of the Vauxhall Constituency Labour Party, and the vote to see if @kevindcraig remains as the Secretary.

You may remember how a squeaky clean (and recently newly elected) Lambeth councillor was given the task to unsettle the left of the party, remove @kevindcraig, replace him with a Nu Labour puppet and then allow the Poster Boy to take on the power of the fragrant Mss Hoey.

Blimey.

But even with the local branches seemingly turning their backs on the Nu Labour project and endorsing @kevindcraig, the Coup d’Vauxhall is still in the balance. No surprises that the Oval branch backed the Poster Boy 11-3, but a bit of an eyebrow raising moment when Bishop’s ward went the way of the left.

The AGM, being held at the Wheatsheaf Community Centre this evening, will see the branch delegates voting on the decision. This should be a formality, but a last ditch attempt by the squeaky clean (and recently newly elected) Lambeth councillor has now come into play.

Shame on the Stockwell branch, who having voted to back @kevindcraig, is now sending the right wing of the party to try and tip the vote. @RichardAngell and Councillor Bigham will be doing the best for their Poster Boy later this evening at the Wheatsheaf.

The outcome is still far too tight to call. The only certainty is that if the right wing puppet Paul Gadsby is put in place as Secretary, Hoey will start to look wobbly, leaving the path open for the Poster Boy come 2015.

And so it looks like the Vauxhall Stop Kev campaign has, um, stopped. You may remember how a coup d’Vauxhall (cripes) developed, with a squeaky clean (and recently newly elected) Lambeth councillor being behind the campaign to oust the man behind Kate Hoey MP.

@kevindcraig’s role as the Secretary of the Constituency Labour Party (CLP) was crucial here. Stop Kev, put in a right wing puppet, and then open the backdoor for the Nu Labour Poster Boy to take control of the constituency, come 2015.

Or at least that was the plan put in place by the squeaky clean (and recently newly elected) Lambeth councillor. It turns out that the local branches have finally found their balls after all.

The Nu Labour Attacks Dogs of War have failed to add the CLP to accompany the control that the right wing of @LambethLabour now has within Lambeth Town Hall. They don’t like it up ‘em here in the north end of the borough.

Vassall ward branch was out of the starting blocks first, backing not only @kevindcraig to remain as Secretary, but also coming out with some fighting talk in defence of the suspension of Councillor Kingsley Abrams, after the botched email hacking attempt from the right wing of the party.

The Vassal support was to be expected, following the dirty tricks campaign against an incredibly popular local politician from within the ward. What seems to have muzzled the Nu Labour Attacks Dogs of War however is opposition from around the other local branches to putting up the Poster Boy against Hoey.

Larkhall, Stockwell and even Clap’ham Town have all now nominated @kevindcraig to remain as Secretary, a direct kick in the shiny teeth of the squeaky clean (and recently newly elected) Lambeth councillor, now clambering somewhere near the bottom of the South London greasy pole.

The strength of support for the left of centre candidate even came from the most unlikely of sources, with @LambethLabour cabinet member, @cllr_robbins turning his back on the Stop Kev campaign. It was a similar situation over the ward boundary in Clap’ham Town, with Councillors Haselden and O’Malley both coming out in support of the left of centre @kevindcraig.

Stockwell showed some resistance, but still the branch members ignored the political careerists within, trying to prop up the Poster Boy. @richardangell proudly tweeted that he had “been elected Secretary of @LabourStockwell.” Well done that man. He certainly has experience of this role, having had a similar job at the Brixton Hill branch until he was defeated by the fine chap @brixtonalex to become the ward candidate.

With @Morganmc77 also putting some paste on the paintbrushes down in Sunny Stockwell ahead of the campaign for the Poster Boy, it was with some surprise that the Stockwell branch also backed @kevindcraig, and not the right wing puppet Paul Gadsby. Even a strong endorsement from Councillor Bigham failed to swing the Stockwell branch to the right.

So far it is only Ferndale that has been convinced that the Stop Kev campaign has any legs. Even the Nu Labour love in that is Prince’s ward doesn’t have the stomach (or ambition) to take on Hoey, deciding instead not to make any nomination.

The Oval and Bishop’s wards have yet to vote, but the sums simply don’t stack up for the squeaky clean (and recently newly elected) Lambeth councillor who has been trying to line up the Poster Boy for Parliament.

The botched Stop Kev campaign now looks like letting the fragrant Mss Hoey to carry on doing whatever it is that the fragrant Mss Hoey does around these parts for some time to come.

Hoey has a reception at the House of Commons later this week, to thank her supporters within Vauxhall who helped her return to Westminster once again. Invites have been sent out; posters haven’t been put up.

And so as Civil War looms around the rest of the country, no real surprises in Lambeth as the results for the general election were declared. Congratulations to Kate Hoey for (surprise, surprise) being returned to Westminster via Vauxhall, and well done @ChukaUmunna for winning what has been a jolly decent campaign in Streatham.

Policies aside (and I *really* tried not to ponder some of the bonkers proposals whilst at the ballot box,) and the most promising after thought to come out of Vauxhall is the half decent 57.7% voter turnout.

This favours rather well when compared the dire 46% back in 2005. It shows that the majority of voters in Vauxhall take an active interest in local democracy, even if that means returning the same MP for over two decades.

Of course the downside of democracy is that pictures of funny men waving silly flags also get be published during the campaign. The self-proclaimed “intelligent” Tory Boy, Glyn Chambers, polled an impressive 9,301 votes.

Vauxhall is an up and coming affluent area, I tell you…

Green Joseph Healy polled a respectable 708 votes. I’m surprised that Anticapitalist PPC @VoteDrinkall only managed 109 votes, in what has been a very vocal (and decent) online campaign.

As for Daniel Lambert and the Socialist whatever party? Slightly higher with 143 votes, but the traditional Left rally call of “Splitters!” is probably coming out of the hardcore of South London right now.

Over in Streatham and it was a win win situation for the electorate. Yer man Chuka and @Chris4Streatham, his LibDem rival both would have made for strong constituency MP’s.

20,037 people voted for Chuka, with Chris coming in a close second with 16,778 votes. A turnout of 62.8% of the electorate is very impressive for what has been a constituency that has had to suffer a complacent MP for the past eighteen years. Pity the poor tenants of Lambeth Living.

The future is looking good for the fine folk of SW16 - build the Hub and hold Tesco to account.

The 6am declaration of the Lambeth vote shows just how high the voter turnout has been. Here’s hoping that participation in the local council elections is just as positive.

Don’t expect talk to turn towards a @LambethLabour / @LambethLibDems coalition.

Oh Lordy…

Here’s an interesting pre-election night story coming out of South London as we prepare to select Parliamentary candidates who are going to be directly accountable to us (yeah, right…) for the next four or five years (or even four or five months - cripes.)

The results have been counted, and the good people at @democlub have published the #hyperlocal answers to the #hyperlocal issues that were raised by @democlub activists back in February. I was at the Kennington meeting of @democlub, and helped to formulate the questions that I wanted answering from my future MP.

The rationale for selecting a Westminster MP seems to have changed since that miserable South London evening sheltering from the SE11 rain in a Kennington boozer. The Leader’s Debate has made the general election a beauty contest, and an old woman in Rochdale who went out to buy a loaf of bread has changed the world.

But back in my little patch of South London, and the key issues for me remain the same: housing, leisure, cycling and the local economy. It is with these thoughts in mind that the South London branch of @democlub came up with ten questions to put forward to the PPC”s.

Six of the nine PPC’s for Vauxhall responded to @democlub. I wouldn’t seriously suggest that your voting decision is in any way altered by the failure of Jose Navarro (English Democrats Party), Larna Martin (Christian Party - Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship) or even Tory Boy Glyn Chambers to bypass @democlub.

But then again, if they can’t be arsed to answer a few simple online questions, then I can’t be bothered to put a cross next to their name.

But anyway - what of the issues?

Daniel Lambert of the Socialist whatever party is strangely “neutral” on the question of:

“The council should commit to running their own leisure services as all three swimming pools in Lambeth are operated by third parties and are closed or under limited operation.”

Kate Hoey agrees with the statement, which is not surprising seeing as though the current Labour MP has given @LambethLabour something of a rough ride over the meltdown of leisure in the Rotten Borough.

Green Joseph Healy strongly agrees with the statement, as does @VoteDrinkall, showing that yes, both Left candidates have a good grasp of the local agenda and the problems that Lambeth leisure users have had to suffer over the past six months.

At the risk of writing a Labour party love in, Hoey also comes out fighting in answer to the question of:

“Extra public money should be spent on more safe cycle storage in the neighbourhood.”

In what seems like a complete reversal on the Vauxhall MP’s previous “lycra lout” stance, Hoey seems to have found a new cycling agenda. Or maybe even votes in embracing a cycling agenda.

Either way - well done Kate for putting your name next to such a progressive idea for our constituency.

Other statements that the candidates are asked to rate include:

“The 17% raise in Lambeth council tenants rent is not justified.”

“Extra public money should be spent on an increased provision of social housing.”

“The deadline for the Elephant and Castle / Aylesbury Estate redevelopment needs to be established.”

“Driving a car in South London should be more expensive.”

“The expansion of the Brixton pound concept should be encouraged.”

The answers are no substitute for a sustained, local debate, but they do at least give an overall indication as to what type of ideology we are being asked to vote upon in the next twenty-four hours.

The mostly “neutral” response from the Socialist whatever candidate draws a similar response from me, in terms of my commitment to endorse him as my next MP.

The @democlub exercise is not so clear-cut in the neighbouring Vauxhall constituency of Streatham. With the big guns (and Gordo) being rolled out in SW16 over the past few days, make no mistake - Streatham has now become a key national political battleground.

Which makes it all the more disappointing that Labour’s @ChukaUmunna hasn’t answered any of the questions asked of him by @democlub. The Guardian endorsed online initiative has found nationally that it is the Tories who aren’t taking part in the exercise. Only 6% of Dave’s Tory toffs decided to reply to @democlub.

Buy why has the Streatham PPC managed a very decent online campaign locally, yet hasn’t answered the simple questions that his LibDem rival, @Chris4Streatham has kindly offered his opinion on?

The Streatham question (a bit like the West Lothian question…) asking:

“The Streatham Hub is, on balance, a good thing for the area,”

…plus the supplementary Streatham Question of:

“Tesco must be closely monitored during the Streatham hub development,”

…really should be the bread and butter for Chuka and his SW16 campaign. Chuka has been incredibly approachable offline, happy to talk to anyone about any issue. He passionately backs the cause of Lambeth leisure users. It would have been decent though to have this data online, and on record for all to see.

Causing slightly more embarrassment for the Labour PPC may have been the statement:

“There is a conflict of interest in having the local MP as the Chair of Lambeth’s Housing company Lambeth Living.”

Ouch.

So has @democlub been a decent exercise in local democracy? Maybe not so much in terms of the actual responses given, but it has been an interesting exercise in understanding which candidates are actually committed to putting their name by specific policies.

The real benefit will not be seen until the next Parliament starts to mature. It is only then that we can go back to the data, and truly hold our local representatives accountable.

Perhaps this is why Labour’s @ChukaUmunna hasn’t participated? Let us not forget that it was a local @LambethLabour candidate that asked me back in February:

“What mandate do you and @democlub have for criticising elected officials?”

*every* mandate, my friend, especially so when candidates don’t have the decency to put their name to their polices as part of a national campaign that has been rolled out in collaboration with The Guardian.

This dropped through the letterbox, late Thursday afternoon:

Soon followed by this:

Ouch.

It must be fun out there on the campaign trail, walking the mean streets of Sunny Stockwell with your nemesis right behind you.

I wouldn’t say it was a reverse ferret (or even fox) on my behalf, but having listened to the political views regarding local issues in Vauxhall, I’d rather have Hoey as my MP than a second rate comedian.

Hoey isn’t perfect (see voting record on homosexuality and lesbian rights) but then which MP’s are? Hoey was incredibly dignified at the Vauxhall hustings on Tuesday evening, with childish provocation from the Animal Protection party candidate.

The leaflet from the Animal Protection party’s PPC, James Kapetanos, makes some interesting points. It’s a shame that James wasn’t able to back them up, face to face, with the candidate he has been so critical of.

Hoey needs to be held to account on some of her more unsavoury non-South London interests. Sadly I think the Animal Protection party has overlooked the wider picture, not to mention the opportunity.

*Friday 30th, 18:30 update*

More analysis over here on the ‘campaign’ being run by the APP.