Proposed bust of Christopher Hitchens in Bloomsbury reopens old scars
Labour councillor Awale Olad, of Camden, opposes a proposed bust of the late Christopher Hitchens in Red Lion Square. The Camden New Journal has the full story.
Some thoughts:
1. A bust of Christopher Hitchens is unlikely to have any effect on social cohesion. To suggest otherwise overrates the power exerted by busts of dead writers. I doubt Christopher Hitchens affected social cohesion one bit while he was alive. He’s not about to start now. Most people will never even know the bust is there.
2. To those who are engaged, Christopher Hitchens remains, as councillor Olad says, a divisive figure. He had strong opinions. He supported the Iraq war and disbelieved in gods. Neither of these should disqualify him from commemoration. Had Voltaire been a town planner he might have said this:
“I may not agree with what he said, but I defend to the death the right for an image of his face to be made into a bust and plonked at the side of a square if his supporters really really want to.”
A good guiding principle.
3. A better argument against Hitchens’ commemoration is put forward by councillor Julian Fulbrook, also quoted in the Camden New Journal’s story (read it.)
“My main problem is that Hitch left for the United States in 1981 so any link with Red Lion Square would have to be fairly tenuous.”
It is with this sort of pragmatic reasoning that the question should be settled. Not a million tortuous reruns of whether or not we should invade Iraq.
4. There’s an argument that London has too many statues and memorials for its own good. Ronald Reagan, an American President with limited connections to London, has one. Peter Pan has one, despite being immature, thoughtless and fictional. Ledley King has one in Mile End Park, despite being an always injured footballer. The animals of war have one, despite the fact that animals are only really able to appreciate statues as objects to piss on.
5. However, this argument ultimately fails when pitted against the fact that each of these memorials is an addition to the richness of the streets. Statues of dead people can’t hurt us. It’s the living who do that.
See also:
Is this tarmac-surrounded statue the most endangered Victorian architecture in London?
Has the endanged elephant sculpture of Victoria trumpteted its last?
English Heritage’s round up of London’s newest listed buildings
Stop going to tourist attractions that don’t exist. It’s embarrassing
26 Oct 2012
Imperial's online tree of life: a good resource for anyone into the imponderable immensity of existence
This video introduces this new website frome the biology bods of Imperial. It’s a clickable, zoomable, generally mess-aroundable tree of life.
When you start scrolling through the branches, zooming effortlessly through the vast generations of beings of the world, you feel a great sense of power. Your web browser has become a window looking out upon a vast panorama of life.
Then you realise that this sense of power is an illusion. In the context of this great tree, your life, and the life of your web browser, is of nothing. You are as lowly as a louse who’s just fallen out of a fuck off big oak tree. You are nothing.
So think on.
25 Oct 2012
Veronica Wadley denies cronyism allegation
Boris Johnson’s new volunteering adviser has denied that she was only appointed because she is a “crony” of the mayor.
Veronica Wadley who as editor of the Evening Standard vigorously supported Boris Johnson’s election said yesterday that she was only appointed because she has “the capabilities to fulfil the job description.”
Wadley was given the £95k a year role without any other candidates being interviewed. She is a former colleague and long time ally of the Mayor’s.
She denied that she was a hypocrite for taking the job after running an Evening Standard campaign against cronyism at City Hall under Ken Livingstone.
When asked by the London Assembly Committee what experience she has in volunteering, she admitted that whilst she had done some since leaving the paper, she had not done any whilst editor, because she had “a fairly busy life” in which “my volunteering efforts were focused on my family.”
Members of the committee became increasingly frustrated with her inability or unwillingness to answer questions on her new role with one Tory AM accusing her of stonewalling their questions.
Questions on sponsorship, her role in working with London boroughs and even her job description were met with vague answers, references to ongoing reviews, and the much-repeated statement that “I have answered your question.”
Even a question about the uniforms volunteers will wear was evaded.
After repeatedly failing to get any answers to their questions Conservative AM Tony Arbour told Wadley that:
“I very rarely agree with my [Labour] colleagues over here but you really are closing off any kind of discussion at all.”
Labour Assembly Member Jennette Arnold also accused her of showing “absolutely no enthusiasm” for the job.
In her biography, Just Boris, Sonia Purnell reports claims from one former colleague that Johnson was scared of Wadley and felt compelled to find her a job in order to prevent her going “on the warpath”.
The source also claims that Wadley had a “crush” on Boris who would often refer to her as “Mrs Robinson.”
25 Oct 2012
Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
Behind The Light from Victor Martinez on Vimeo.
This film by Victor Martinez is 5 minutes of warmth on a grey day.
24 Oct 2012
Has the endangered elephant sculpture of Victoria trumpteted its last?
Barry Baldwin’s sculptures of endangered animals at Allington House in Victoria face a grim extinction. Historian, tour guide and blogger Peter Berthoud is on the case.
The building is due to go, and developers Land Securities intend to obliterate Baldwin’s triptych with it.
In it, animals burst forth from the stone for a final roar at all the commuters, the passers by, the tourists, the humans, the destroyers of their worlds.
Perhaps we should be heartened that the chosen species are going to outlive their own memorial. You might have got good odds on that when the work was commissioned in the 1980s.
But now it is uneconomic, the developers say, to save them.
Peter has not given up hope. He believes a new home for the creatures could be found, and concludes his post with a call to action:
“Please support the campaign to save them and spread the word via social media. Perhaps there is still time left to persuade Land Securities not to engage in their planned act of corporate vandalism.”
Read Peter Berthoud’s blog post for the full details.
The campaign’s Facebook page is here. And a petition to save the Allington house sculptures is here.
Image – The campaign’s Facebook account
See also:
English Heritage’s round up of London’s newest listed buildings
Is this tarmac-surrounded statue the most endangered Victorian architecture in London?
23 Oct 2012
Boris Johnson's cable car attracts just 1,400 regular users
Mayor Boris Johnson’s £60 million cable car across the Thames has attracted just 1,400 regular commuters since it opened in June, it has been revealed.
The dismal user figures for the link between Greenwich and the Royal Docks, which has already come in for sharp criticism after a fall in passenger numbers after the Olympic and Paralympic Games, appear in a written answer from the mayor to Liberal Democrat Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon.
Asked how many passengers had been given a discount for regular use, the mayor said “nearly 1,400” had received a discount in the three and a half months since it opened – which would include those who used it frequently during the Games, as well as those using it regularly now.
The Emirates Air Line costs Oyster card users £3.20 for a single journey, whether or not they have a Travelcard loaded onto their card.
But users who make five or more journeys in a week get half that week’s fares refunded to their Oyster card, knocking the price down to £1.60.
The low usage figures will add to questions about the viability of the Emirates Air Line, which links two venues used during London 2012, the O2 and the ExCeL centre.
There have been calls for it to be included in the Travelcard scheme after it was revealed just 229 people per hour used the service each hour the day after the Paralympics ended, less than 10% of its capacity.
Even that figure may be generous. I cycle underneath the cable car most mornings, and have never seen more than a tiny handful of people on board – if there’s any passengers at all.
This week sees Transport for London publish posters and leaflets trying to whip up interest in the service.
One slogan, “The O2 to ExCeL in less than 10 minutes”, sums up the Emirates’ Air Line’s problem – it’s a journey very few people need to make, and those who do can do it cheaper by using the Tube and DLR.
TfL says it is “raising the profile in the local boroughs” – but even then, most of the borough of Newham can get to the O2 easily via the Jubilee Line and DLR; while much of Greenwich borough can take the DLR from Woolwich Arsenal to ExCeL.
Unless you live in parts of Greenwich, Blackheath, Charlton and Canning Town, the Emirates Air Line is little more than a scenic diversion, rather than a serious form of transport.
With opening hours now cut back to 8pm in the evenings – despite TfL’s website imploring us to “take a night ride” – it could be a cold, lonely winter ahead for London’s most baffling form of public transport.
23 Oct 2012
MPFree: Zero Sum by Alec Gross
Let’s ease ourselves into the week with a little help from New York folky Alec Gross. Simplicity is key here – a Ryan Adams-esque vocal is accompanied by nothing more than a guitar and a mandolin, but the sound fills the speakers like a rush of air into a vacuum; anything more, you feel, would be superfluous. His Sorry Sorry Sun EP is out now and available here.
22 Oct 2012
Brian Coleman charged with assault
Senior London Tory Brian Coleman has been charged with “assault by beating” following an incident in North Finchley last month.
Coleman is accused of assaulting the owner of Cafe Buzz Helen Michael on 20th September.
He is also facing a related charge of “driving a mechanically propelled vehicle on a public place without reasonable consideration. “
He will appear before Hendon Magistrates Court on November 5th.
Brian Coleman is the former Chairman of the London Fire Authority and a former Conservative London Assembly Member.
He lost his seat on the Assembly in May following a vigorous local campaign by activists including Helen Michael.
22 Oct 2012
Val Shawcross to stand for Labour in Croydon North
Labour London Assembly Member Val Shawcross has put herself forward to be the party’s candidate in the upcoming Croydon North by election.
Shawcross is currently the London Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark and was Ken Livingstone’s running mate at the last election.
She was also the former leader of Croydon Council.
If selected, Shawcross would be expected to resign from the London Assembly, prompting the first ever by election to the body since it was set up in 2000.
The Croydon by election is to be held later this year following the sad death of Labour MP Malcolm Wicks.
The deadline for Labour candidates to put themselves forward is Monday lunchtime.
The Conservatives have already selected Andy Stranack and the Lib Dems have selected Marisha Ray.
20 Oct 2012
James Cleverly needs to develop a thicker skin
Boris’s fire chief James Cleverly got himself into a tizzy this afternoon over our report on proposals to close seventeen fire stations across London.
James clearly wasn’t happy with how we covered the story. You can read my whole exchange with him on Twitter here and judge for yourself.
However, I was reminded of another occasion when James got himself into trouble over cuts to emergency services.
Back in 2008 when Labour were still in power, the accident and emergency unit at his local hospital Queen Mary’s in Sidcup was threatened with closure.
James went on marches, wrote blog posts and even took part in a candlelight vigil against the plans.
He was joined by a Phalanx of other Tory politicians including Boris Johnson and the world famous Tory council leader Ian Clement.
Local voters understandably got the impression that if their local Tory MP, Tory council, Tory Assembly Member and future Tory Mayor were against the plans, then the hospital would be safe under the Tories.
Well the Conservatives formed a government in May 2010 and lo and behold the Accident and Emergency unit at Queen Mary’s was swiftly closed.
It has not re-opened.
Now I’m not blaming James for this. I’m sure the decision was well out of his hands and he did all he could to lobby against it.
But the very least he could have done is apologise to those people who voted for him believing that he would save the unit.
Instead he has repeatedly tried to pass the blame onto his local hospital trust and the previous government.
That’s all well and good, but when you’re elected to do something, the very least you can do is take responsibility if you fail.
I’ve always liked James and was pleased when he took over from Brian Coleman.
But over the next couple of years he is going to be the public face of big cuts to London’s fire services.
When people lose their local fire station, they are going to hold him personally responsible for it and he will no doubt get some abuse.
When that happens James is going to have to take responsibility and at the very least develop a thicker skin than he has so far shown.
18 Oct 2012
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