Is Clissold Park the worst place in London to be an animal?
“…Shocked witnesses watched as a Staffordshire bull terrier dog bit the Canada goose’s head off near Runtzmere Lake in the park.”
The Hackney Citizen reports on a man arrested for failing to control his dog.
The paper also carries this, from a spokeswoman for Clissold Park Zoo Watch:
“Clissold Park Zoo is a bizarre, inhumane anachronism, more suited to the nineteenth century than the twenty-first. It’s time to close it down.”
Read background, including deer and rabbit death, and the council’s response, here.
09 Jun 2011
The See Hear Club @ Dalston Roof Park
9th June A new collaboration between music industry polyglot Anika Mottershaw, Luisa of Lulu & The Lampshades and Peggy Sue’s Rosa, this series of outdoors audio-visual events runs throughout the summer at new London venue Dalston Roof Park. The concept is succinct – “one band, one movie” – but will include extra touches like BBQs, blankets and popcorn to warm the cockles. The series kicks off on June 9 with Sam Amidon (film TBC), with other scheduled performers including She Keeps Bees, Sea Of Bees (x2), Tasseomancy, The Mariner’s Children, Melodica Melody & Me, Lulu & The Lampshades, Peggy Sue and Tristram. Tickets start from £6.
09 Jun 2011
London agenda for Thursday 9 June
1. Check out BBC’s Concert Orchestra tackling an Aphex Twin number and an ode to Joseph Beuys presented by Jarvis Cocker at Electronica III [Le Cool]
2. Settle in for an evening of telly—live!—with Margaret Cabourn-Smith & Zoe Gardner presenting Thick of It star Justin Edwards, stand-up Danielle Ward and sketch trio The Trap at King’s Place [Run Riot]
3. See what the kids are drawing at the University of Arts Summer Show
4. Hear historian Philip Davies explain how Victorian London was transformed in to a great Imperial capital before the devastation of wartime bombing altered it forever at Lost London [Ian Visits]
5. Celebrate Dickens Day [Tired of London]
6. Go up on top of the Dalston Roof park and listen to The See Hear Club [John Rogers]
09 Jun 2011
Havering Councillors order themselves 17 iPads
Havering Council has been accused of wasting money on “luxury toys” after purchasing 17 brand new iPads for its councillors.
Council officials claimed the £10,000 worth of devices would reduce printing costs “substantially” and also claimed that they were a cheaper alternative to laptops.
However, at almost £600 each, critics have pointed out that many far cheaper alternatives are available.
One councillor in the ruling Conservative group boasted on Facebook that he is “loving his iPad,” that it is “great fun” and told another councillor he would be “getting yours soon.”
Havering Council admit that they are planning to procure even more iPads “where 3G connectivity is required.”
Local resident Lorraine Moss whose Freedom of Information request revealed the purchases told The Scoop:
I was completely shocked to discover that Havering Council are wasting money that residents pay in Council Tax on these luxury gadgets. In my view an Ipad has very limited use, they do not even have USB ports or disk drives. Their attempts to justify this complete waste of money is pathetic. In Havering at the moment, there are plans to close day centres for vulnerable people and cuts to Youth Centres. The money being wasted on these luxury toys should be spent elsewhere.
Havering Council has previously been criticised for claiming some of the highest allowances in London.
Earlier this year auditors announced that they would be investigating 16 cases of fraud at the Council.
09 Jun 2011
Tory walkout scuppers Blackfriars cycle safety vote
Mayor Boris Johnson’s allies walked out of a London Assembly meeting this afternoon, stopping members from passing a motion condemning plans to raise the speed limit on Blackfriars Bridge.
Transport for London plans to allow traffic to move at 30mph on the bridge, despite it being a notorious accident blackspot for cyclists.
Green assembly member Jenny Jones had drafted a motion to express members’ opposition to the scheme – but Conservative members walked out of the meeting rather than discuss the issue. Under assembly rules, the meeting had to come to an end after the walkout.
While the vote would not have been binding, it would have given campaigners a boost in their push to make sure TfL scraps its plans.
The walkout by Roger Evans, Gareth Bacon, Kit Malthouse, Victoria Borwick, Andrew Boff, Tony Arbour, Brian Coleman, Richard Tracey, James Cleverly and Richard Barnes came a day after the victim of a cycling accident on the bridge appealed to the mayor to rethink his plans.
Royal Society of General Practioners chair Clare Gerada, who suffered multiple fractures when she was caught between two vans, said in a video for the London Cycling Campaign.
“I tend not to use Blackfriars Bridge. I don’t like it because traffic seems to be much faster on that bridge. I hate the junction. I always have to do a right to go into the City. It’s a really difficult job. I wouldn’t recommend any cyclist to use Blackfriars bridge at all. It is a horrible junction. I will never use Blackfriars bridge again.”
TfL still plans to squeeze in an extra lane for motorists at the north end of the bridge, despite an outcry from cyclists, who held a go-slow protest there last month.
The actions of the Tory members were condemned by Labour, Lib Dem and Green opponents, and by cycling campaigners.
London Cycling Campaign chief executive Ashok Sinha said:
“We don’t mind losing a fair fight by reasoned argument – that’s part of debate. But it appears that some members of the London Assembly would rather make political gestures than debate the crucial issue of road danger reduction. That’s bad for cycling, bad for road safety and bad for democracy.”
The Cyclists In The City blog, which has led the campaign on the Blackfriars issue, said: “The Conservatives seem to have decided they don’t care about London’s transport policy, at least not as far as pedestrians and cyclists are concerned. They can’t even be bothered to debate it.”
But Conservatives were unrepentant, indicating it was part of a row over who becomes chair and deputy chair of the London Assembly, whose members earn £53,400 each year for scrutinising the capital’s policies.
Andrew Boff tweeted:
Asked to elaborate further, he singled out:
Audioboo coverage of the walkout is available, but no video is available to embed here.
Instead, here’s a 1991 episode of much-loved children’s classic Rainbow, featuring the late Roy Skelton as Zippy, which some may feel contains a much more mature level of debate.
08 Jun 2011
Accolades by Maybe She Will
Cargo Records are giving away a free 12-track mixtape. Cargo Collective June 2011 features the likes of Secret Cities, Le Butcherettes and The Victorian English Gentlemen’s Club. Check out Le Corbeau – coming across like a heavier, grungier Absentee – and the devastating, instrumental sucker-punch of Maybe She Will, below. You can download the entire compilation over at This is Fake DIY.
Le Corbeau – Another moment when time stands still by snipelondon
08 Jun 2011
Attention miserly alcoholics: map of all the Sam Smith's pubs in London
I’ve been after one of these for ages, and it turns out James Gretton has made one here. Useful.
08 Jun 2011
A somewhat comprehensive list of London-set detective shows, with descriptions thereof. Part 1
The Adventures of Fu Manchu (1955)
Fu’s wife and child are accidentally killed by a British officer, so he vows to destroy the West.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (passim)
Drug addled layabout and his dull mate get in the police’s way.
Agatha Christie’s Poirot (passim)
Lonely, asexual Belgian potters round 1930’s art deco London.
Ashes to Ashes (2008)
Flogging a dead horse.
Barlow at Large (1973)
Spin off from oiky Scouse cop show Z Cars.
The Bill (1984)
Downtrodden cop Reg Hollis just misses out on an exciting case.
Bulman (1985)
“You wrote the book on detection in this city, George. You were born to be a detective, not a clock mender.” Antique shop owner turns private eye.
The Chinese Detective (1981)
1980s show helps breaks down racial barriers while simultaneously reinforcing them with overly literal title.
Colonel March of Scotland Yard (1956)
Boris Karloff in an eye patch works at Scotland Yard’s Department of Queer Complaints. That’s queer in a 1950’s sense of unusual, as in “unusual as folk”.
Cribb (1981)
Victorian set crime series. Episodes titles included Wobble to Death, Abracadaver, and The Detective Wore Silk Drawers.
Dixon of Dock Green (1955)
Nice man gives cheeky lads a clip round the ear, and everything’s absolutely fine again.
Quotes and much research taken from the sensational Boxtree Encyclopedia of TV Detectives, by Geoff Tibballs (1992). Dates refer to year of first transmission. Some shows have been omitted on grounds of tedium.
08 Jun 2011
1000 drunk students outside your window at 3 am won't wake you up, say council
“If you are there on a Wednesday when we kick 1,200 students out at 3am … fairly drunk, let’s face it … it’s pretty disruptive and that noise goes on for 45 minutes.”
Ministry of Sound CEO Lohan Presencer argues against building some new flats next to his club. Southwark council say build it anyway, and if you move in and the students wake you up, it’s your own fault. Town planning is hard. [Via SE1]
08 Jun 2011
London agenda for Wednesday 8 June
1. Listen to Ross Perlin, author of Intern Nation, debate a panel on the world of hiring interns [Le Cool]
2. See Ellie Doney, Stephen Cornford, Joe Duggan, Sophie Windsor Clive & Liberty Smith and Andrew Dodds reveal glimmers of unfathomable layers of reality at Elemental [Run Riot]
3. Hear some zippy pop with Battles at Heaven [Flavorpill]
4. Disbelieve that London has been a city of sin for 1,000 years [Ian Visits] That’s far too short.
5. See hand-drawn London [Tired of London]
6. Hear the incredible voice of tUnE-YaRdS at Scala [Odhran O’Donague]
08 Jun 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
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