Restore the blue plaque for Kenneth Williams!

King's Cross Labour Cllr. Jonathan Simpson and I have written to English Heritage to call for the restoration of a blue plaque to the comedy icon Kenneth Williams removed from Malborough House during the British Land redevelopment of Osnaburgh Street.

We are writing as the two local ward Councillor for Regents Park and King’s Cross wards regarding the blue plaque for Kenneth Williams ( formerly at Marlborough House, Osnaburgh Street, NW1).

Due to the redevelopment of Regent’s Place by British Land, Malborough House was demolished in 2007 and therefore the blue plaque for one Britain’s most loved comedy icons has been removed.

Kenneth Williams had a long historical link with the London Borough of Camden and we very much hope that English Heritage could find an alternative site for his plaque. We have two suggestions of suitable sites that could be used in King’s Cross.

The first is Queen Alexandra Mansions on Judd Street and the second is the famous barbershop at 57 Marchmont Street that Kenneth Williams father owned and ran for many years. Marchmont Street has the well-known bookseller “Gays the Word” across from the barbershop, so this may be an ideal position.

It is tragic that on Britain’s comedy legends does not have a plaque at present and would urge English Heritage to research this in the coming months. Given Kenneth Williams historic links to the area there is widespread support from local community for this.

Anyone wishing to support this campaign should write to:

Dr Simon Thurley
Chief Executive
English Heritage
1 Waterhouse Square
138 - 142 Holborn
London EC1N 2ST

2008 London Assembly: Camden results

Here are our results based on share - good to see Regent's Park still up there. Notable Labour achievements include Cantelowes (39.3%), Gospel Oak (38.3%) and Haverstock (37%) - which we lost bar one seat in local elections. Winning just Cantelowes - would put Labour and Lib dems on a level pegging at the Town Hall.

Greens scored well in Highgate and Kentish Town. The Lib Dems really should be asking some questions...

2008 GLA member results for Hampstead and Kilburn

A quick cut of the London Assembly member results from the 2008 election, and a comparison from 2004, shows that in the new Hampstead and Kilburn constituency the Labour vote held up - winning in 5 areas - the Tory vote did well while the Lib Dem vote totally tanks in a number of areas: particularly Kilburn (3rd place), West Hampstead (3rd place), Belsize Park (3rd place) and Hampstead Town (3rd place) in those areas Labour came 1st, 1st, 2nd and 2nd.

More analysis soon, but needless to say this makes some of last week's ignorant editorialising in the Ham&High seem pretty downright out of touch with what its local readership actually did in the polling booth! (Interesting to note that the rant has now been withdrawn fro the website...)

Boris: it woz the Lib Dem vote wot won it

A leading Camden Lib Dem argues that it was the Lib Dem vote which pushed Boris over the threshold to win in the 2008 Mayoral election, confirming that the anti-Labour protest vote is one which largely attracts those from the right, who prefer voting Tory, rather than the progressive left. This explains the retincence of Brian Paddick to join Ken's progressive alliance - he know his voters wouldn't wear it.

Brian Coleman's 'King of Bling' speech

View this clip from the Hendon Times on Brian Coleman's extra-ordinary outburst at the 2008 Camden and Barnet count.

Lib Dems squeezed in Islington

The 2008 votes from Islington confirm a bleak picture for the Lib Dems in north London. No wonder, if the campaign was run as badly as Brian Paddick says - don't fancy his chances in the future after he rubbishes Clegg and co.

New links

I’ve added a couple of new links here recently:

Red Booms, a Camden Labour blogger and Manchester Labour’s Chris Paul.

I moved house over the weekend to Oakley Square, in Regent’s Park ward. Sad to leave Chalk Farm Road, as it was quite bustling. Over the last 3 or so years Chalk Farm Road has seen something of a regeneration, thanks in part to the work of Camden Town Unlimited, the business improvement district.

Key to this has been the Roundhouse and the Proud Gallery, which have helped Camden’s burgeoning live music scene. This year out went the Misty Moon, replaced by the Monarch, the old name for the ever popular Barfly. Up the road, the Enterprise is a popular pub, as is the Marathon Bar for a late-night kebab.

All things going well, this year’s redevelopment of the Stables Market should also act as a spur to the market, and we await the reopening of the Hawley Arms after tha Camden Lock fire.

Camden round up: 1

I thought I’d add a new element to this blog – the Camden round-up, highlighting issues that local people have raised over the last week/weeks.

Mick Farrant complains that the council has just hiked a builder’s parking permit from £10 per day to £33. A constituent of mine has pointed out that if you have more than one job going on in your home, this could set you back a huge amount - the Town Hall needs to look at this again.

Legal columnist and Camden Town resident Marcel Berlins argues that the council’s youth council idea is an unrealistic one.

Right wing Lib Dem Cllr. Paul Braithwaite takes a pop at Transport for London staffing salaries, ludicrously arguing that “TfL poaches large numbers of our staff, particularly engineers, having used this borough as its training ground, and then pays them way over the boroughs’ market rate – thus creating staff shortages here in Camden to prepare and install schemes at the grassroots. TfL has literally dozens of excellent ex-Camden staff and this is causing us real recruitment and retention problems.” This is a silly argument - perhaps he should pay Camden staff a bit more for their work, rather than patronising them that TfL pays over the odds.

My letter on the benefits to the Regent’s Park estate of the Osnaburgh Street British Land development was published in the CNJ.

Philobiblon – aka Regent’s Park Green Natalie Bennett – analyses the elections from a Green perspective.

On biased editorials

Post election there are a lot of things to analyse. On the whole we feel that Labour posted some good results in north London, from a lower point 2 years ago.

Here in Camden we’ve had to deal with the extraordinary bias of the Ham&High, as evidenced in this week’s editorial - which I had to buy contrary to my post below (I don't by it that often anyway, we get free clippings at the Town Hall).

Rather than the Labour meltdown argument that the editor chooses to propagandise in a very political editorial - the actual election stats show that across north London Labour fared far better than elsewhere in the country.

Across London Ken Livingstone vote increased by 30% in first preference, an amazing achievement for a candidate seeking a third term. In Camden and Barnet the share of our vote increased by 3.6%.

In 2004 we polled 36,000 Assembly votes – in 2008 this was up to over 52,000.

Labour actually gained neighbouring Harrow and Brent from the conservatives and fought off a challenge in Enfield, which the Tories were heavily tipped to win.

Yes, Boris did win Camden and Barnet – but the nominally more Tory voting area is a third larger than the Labour-voting south - a whole constituency.

The Labour vote was still up –and for the first time the a ward was decisively held by 'progressives' i.e. the Green, then Labour - a development not to be dismissed.

And where was the opposition? As I’ve said, the Tories must have been disappointed but the real story was how the Lib Dem vote tanked in the area to 12%.

While there are national problems, local Labour has been emboldened by our mayoral results. With Boris taking London and the Tory/Lib Dem coalition pressing ahead with a massive cuts programme Labour is very much in an ‘underdog’ position, which many relish.

I do hope papers which proport to be local (but are in fact owned by giant media conglomerates) would actually take a local analysis when they sound off about politics. This week the Ham&High seems to be taking the national narrative, rather than a Camden analysis. But what do you expect? The Ham&High is part of Archant group – and is about as local as a TESCOs Local.

I'm not in the newspaper business but I do wonder whether (a) running a BNP ad in a highly diverse area followed by (b) slagging off a party which 60,000 local people just voted for, is really such a good idea...

What do I do with all this money?

This week's total so far is £2 from not buying the Standard on the way home plus £2.40 from not buying the Ham&High for the last month.

Keep you posted.

Camden gets 4 stars for Labour decisions

Camden Council's 4 year assessment, covering the period from 2003/04-2007/08, has resulted in Camden being named the best council in the country.

Camden Labour pays tribute to the hard working staff, past and present, who hard worked to achieve this - their extra day off is well-deserved.

I'd also like to flag up the really hard work of former colleagues Phil Turner, who really improved libraries over the last few years, John Thane - who despite his unpopularity over parking was a stout improver of the public realm. Jane Roberts steered through a radical expansion of Surestart child care and play services, we were the first borough in the country to 'roll out' the programme. Meanwhile John Mills developed Camden's reserves to a prudent level and we were radical in developing ASBOs - including the one against Diabolic Liberties for illegal flyposting.

Existing officers who served during this time deserve praise (although it would be unfair of me to name them on this blog) as do those who have left - particularly Ian Walker MBE.

The award is quite unique in the sense that it was given to an authority which went from Labour to no overall control halfway through this period. While the new administration is praised for its cost-cutting successes, most of the receognised achievements - Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre, Kings Cross Construction Centre and the King's Cross development - came about pre-May 2006 under Labour. The quote from the Ham&High makes this point but doesn't actually cite our quote on the council's press release - for some reason.

While we disagree with the new adminsitrations over-emphasis on cuts - we think this will lead to fewer face-to-face services and more privatisation - we recognise that this is what they set out to do, and what they promised, so fair dos. There has also been greater discussion around green issues, reflecting national trends, although we wait to see funded, practical action in this area.

However, we always saw the CPA assessment as a health check, not the ultimate approval. This is because council services aren't just about raw data and focus groups, they are also about what happens beyond that. Cutting services which helped tackle deprivation, like the Welfare Advice Services, small voluntary groups, play centres and youth clubs might not factor on the inspectors list - but they do signal a shift away from a social inclusion approach.

By the same token, the council has hiked fees and charges up since 2006 - discounting any small saving people would have receieved in year one's coubncil tax freeze by a long way. This is an area I will pursue as Chair of the new Corporate Resources Scrutiny Committee where I hope investigate just how much these fees have gone up by - part of Camden's hidden story.

In terms of Town Hall politics - the council leadership plans to have an event on 21st May to celebrate - and despite this being a four year review, as things stand the Lib Dems are refusing to let previous leaders of the council speak. If I were them I'd be relaxed about it, however, you do get the sense that they are slightly insecure over their record if they don't!

'Tag' Email chain

Luke Akehurst has snared me into an email tag chain, requesting that I:

Pick up the nearest book

Open to page 123
Find the fifth sentence
Post the next three sentences
Tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you

The book is “Behind the Oval Office: winning the Presidency in the nineties” by Dick Morris, Clinton’s chief strategist.

“Even my idea of backing zero tolerance for teen drinking and driving – whereby any amount of alcohol in a teen’s bloodstream would constitute drunk driving (after all teen drinking is illegal) – was shot down because he hadn’t cleared it with the Democratic governors.

"The White house staff blocked or delayed my proposals and were happy if every day we recycled Gephardt’s leftover speeches attacking the Republican budget cuts. The staff seldom had ideas of their own.”

Hopi Sen
Labourista
Tom Watson MP
Chris Paul
Tom Miller

Ken Livingstone's thank you letter to activists

Ken's letter, below, shows the other story of this election - the one that the journalists are not writing about.

Obviously we did not win, but what was achieved in a very difficult national context was remarkable.
Overall my first preference vote increased by 208,239 - 30 per cent, over 2004 - increasing in every GLA constituency except Bexley and Bromley. In the context of Labour's lowest national vote for some decades that was a remarkable achievement.

In the London Assembly Labour actually won an additional seat and performed better than the national average. In the Mayoral context, I polled nearly 14 per cent more than the Labour vote nationally and nine per cent more than Labour in the London Assembly who themselves polled above Labour nationally.

That achievement of our campaign could not overcome the scale of the swing to the Tories throughout the country and in some London constituencies, notably Bexley and Bromley, Havering and Redbridge and West Central.

The swing to the Conservatives was assisted by the collapse of the Liberal Democrats in London, in part due to the conservative nature of their London Mayoral campaign.

It is noteworthy that a number of parties to the right of the Tories notably the BNP polled much higher in the Assembly list than in the Mayoral vote, suggesting that some of their voters voted tactically for Boris Johnson. The BNP got 61,004 votes more in the Assembly list than in the Mayoral election, for example.

In the City and East division there was actually a 2.9 per cent swing to me in the Mayoral election.

Overall, with more than a million votes the election showed a powerful progressive alliance in London.

There is no doubt that the new Mayoralty will inaugurate decline and division.

I hope you will therefore share my view that progressive London should remain organised and ready to face the challenges to come - including a general election.

Interesting that Ken singles out the "conservative" campaign of the Lib Dems. In London, as in Camden now, the Lib Dems are very content to assist and share power with the Tories - just for the sake of power.

Ken's progressive allaince with the Greens, is something we should explore further - as it represents a non-neo liberal consensus.

On "narrative follies"

There's an excellent post on the intertwining of policy and communications by Hopi Sen in narrative follies on his blog.

At the moment, Brown is very much stuck in the commentariat's narrative - following the Johnson win in London and the loss of so many seats in the election. This line of thought says that Brown can't win in 2010 - but I dispute that.


Developing a coherent narrative is a must for Brown premiership - as Hopi points out in this important article, it worked for Bill Clinton after the disasterous mid-terms in 2004:

"Clinton managed to fight back by dramatising again and again his differences with the seemingly dominant republicans, while staying firmly in the centre ground."

This narrative must, however, be stronger than the 'steady as she goes' story coming out of Labour HQ.

Camden Labour elects Nasim Ali as Deputy Leader

At our AGM last night I'm pleased to say that my fellow Regent's Park councillor Nasim (Nash) Ali, has been elected as Deputy Leader of the opposition Labour Group.

Nash, who has lived in the borough for over 30 years, grew up on the Regent's Park Estate and attended Netley Primary and South Camden Community School. Previously Mayor of Camden in 2003/2004 and Executive Member for Community Engagement (2004/2005), Nash manages three youth centres in Camden and has unrivalled experience in dealing with people from all communities in Camden.

Nash, who will be deputy to leader Anna Stewart (Somers Town), is the highest ranking councillor of Bangladeshi-origin in our history and will help shape our approach to uniting people from all neighbourhoods threatened by the next round of Tory/Lib Dem cuts.

As the outgoing Deputy Leader, I wish my friend Nash all the best and I will be working closely with him and Anna as our spokesperson.

I will now be the new Chair of the influential Finance and Corporate Performance Scrutiny Committee, taking over from Julian Fulbrook. My job will be to hold the Town Hall to account over their cuts programme and where they focus their remaining funding.

Our feeling is that the Town Hall has lost its way on where they focus their resources: there is evidence - for example with youth funding - that some of our areas most in need have lost out since 2006 for no good, evidenced-based, reason.

We will also dig deep on the £40 million cuts programme, and uncovering the Town hall spin on how these are all "efficiencies".

More here soon.

In other elections Jonathan Simpson remains Chief Whip and Heather Johnson is Chair of Children, Schools and Families Scrutiny - looking again at flawed Tory/Lib Dem plans for our schools.