Co-operative Party Backs Referendum on Terms of the Final Brexit Deal

I am recently back from the Co-operative Party Conference where Cllr Janice Long signed the Charter against Modern Slavery on behalf of Brent Council.  The Conference also committed the Co-operative Party to a referendum on the final Brexit deal.  Since the Co-operative Party is the third largest party in the House of commons, that should be a significant piece of news. 

As I write this, it still looks questionable whether any deal can in fact be reached as a result of the Northern Ireland position.  Dublin won't accept a harder border.  The DUP won't accept a divide between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, and the only way to reconcile those positions is to for the whole of the UK to remain in the Customs Union, and probably the Single Market (which is also a position that the Co-operative Party is now committed to).  That is a position which appears to be unacceptable to at least a minority of Tory MPs despite their 2015 manifesto) and I imagine a large percentage of their membership. 

Corporate Plan for Brent

An item on today's Brent Council Cabinet agenda is the latest Corporate Plan.  Other than helping with some officer's infographic skills, it seems of very little use.

Reflections on Harlesden Town Centre

Current planning guidance envisages four obvious areas for redevelopment in Harlesden/Kensal Green.  They are Harlesden Plaza, the Manor Park Road development, the former ambulance station close to the main gate to Roundwood Park) and somewhere near Willesden Junction where (ominously) tall buildings will be allowed.  All this is part of trying to accommodate the huge increase in population between 2001 and 2011.

So far, I really don't get a sense that there is any real awareness about this in the community at large.

Of course, the ambulance station has been vacant for years.  I think more than a decade.  The Manor Park Road was subject to a development proposal opposed by some local councillors.  Willesden Junction may well have a broad range of difficulties due to legal title, working near railway lines and so on.

The most interesting is Harlesden Plaza.  I recall that during the Harlesden Town Charter process it was generally agreed that the Plaza would be the obvious choice as a central focus for Harlesden.  Any development there would probably take a lot of effort and imagination, not to mention the kind of fortitude needed whenever any major projects needs to be carried through.  One aspect that miught not occur to many people is that it really should be made as compatible as possible with the Harlesden Conservation Area.

A Failure of Understanding

The Labour Party has continually shot itself in the foot over antisemitism, and I have been reflecting why that is so.  The arguments that there is a vital "free speech" argument doesn't convince me the adoption of the IHRA definition was rapidly followed by the Conference motion on Palestine where no one appears to have been constrained by definition that the Labour Party had finally adopted.

I think the real difficulty lies in people who consider themselves as anti-racism campaigners as a key part of their identity having to come to terms with accusations that they are in fact articulating racist ideas in the shape of antisemitic tropes.

Part of this problem is the question of whether a binary choice of racist/non-racist is actually appropriate.

I would certainly argue that racism, and other forms of prejudice, tend to be on a spectrum.  Very few people will be entirely obsessed with hating a group of people, and very few people will be entirely free from any prejudice or assumptions whatsoever.  This contrasts with an idea which seems quite common among leftwing activists that there is a group of virtuous campaigners (themselves) and a group of KKK types, and no one in between.

Debate under that model becomes not an act of persuasion to suggest to some one that they a (perhaps unconscious) bias and that they need to correct it, but more an attempt to pin a label on them and then excommunicate them as a result.  The consequence tends to gladitorial combat rather than reasoned debate.

It also tends to emphasize intentionality with surprisingly little attention paid to institutionalised prejudice.

I can recall when the Macpherson Report first came out, and the difficulty many police found with the whole idea of institutionised racism.  They didn't intend to be racist and they found it hard to accept that the way the Met operated might be inherently biased against certain groups through the procedures it had or unconscious bias.  I suspect come Labour activists are going through a similar difficulty.

Black History Month

Black History Month is now in full swing, and celebrated in Brent primarily through Brent Libraries.  Other authorities, such as Tory held Wandsworth, have rebranded this event as "Diversity Month" attracting a number of critical comments.  Personally, I would have thought the whole concept of Black History Month is really quite broad already since it encompasses the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and black communities outside those core areas.  There is still probably a lingering idea as in Trevor -Roper's notorious quote that Africans have no history.  Indeed, such attitudes underlay the controversies over who built the ruins of Zimbabwe or shaped the famous Benin bronzes.  I think it would be quite complacent to imagine that such views have entirely disappeared. 

Ian Hislop at the British Museum

I didn't enjoy the British Museum exhibition Ian Hislop's I Object as much as I normally like British Musuem events. I suppose partly the celebrity marketing grates on me, and the sense that I was seeing something really modelling a TV or radio program rather than an exhibition in its own right.  It also seemed to have quite a thin sense of what dissent was, with most of it focusing on quite a binary sense of authority and dissent to authority rather than any wider context.

Childcare Costs

A short discussion on childcare costs shocks me by the disparity of the UK compared to other countries like Germany and Sweden.  I don't know if the author is right in their prescription, but it troubles me that Angela Rayner is only really talking in terms of pushing more money at the issue rather than trying to reform our system to bring the costs down. 

West London Orbital Connection

Some people in Brent have been arguing the value of a West London Orbital line for many years.  I recall Cllr Shafique Choudhary of Barnhill as a particular supporter and Brent Labour Group decided to approve the idea in principle back in 2011. 

Recent documents give an update on present status. 

Basically, still a very long way off.  For example the whole GRIP stages part generally takes years and has not yet begun.  "Details" like the nature of the rolling stock and the configuration of the platforms are still unformed, so don't expect anything soon.

A Frightening Warning on Climate Change

The IPCC have issued a frightening warning on climate change and its consequences.  The UK continues to ignore this and other problems whilst devoting endless time to Brexit, an illustration of the huge unaccounted for damage that the Brexit policy is doing quite apart from its more obvious negative impacts..

Council Tax Reduction Scheme in Brent

The review of Brent's Council Tax reduction scheme is part of the next Cabinet agenda, published on Friday.  Once again it is recommended to keep the scheme as originally designed.  This is a remarkable tribute to the scheme as adopted in 2013.

At the same time, the Budget proposals suggest that this is an area for further savings, which I take it would require a redesign.  The discussion in the Council papers does identify substantial savings but also a very big burden on the poorest residents.

Cutting Brent's Library Service

Following yesterday's post, I have gone through the documents to look at what the suggested options for library cuts are.  Four options are listed:

• Closure of all libraries on Sundays
• Substantial cuts to opening hours at weekends, evenings and at least one weekday.  This would probably be done by keeping Wembley and Willesden going, but having only four day opening at Ealing Road, Harlesden, Kilburn and Kingsbury.
• Closure of one branch entirely.
• Late opening of all libraries.

I suspect the third option is simply included because under Cllr Butt, Brent has adopted a practice of including "options" in an officer report that no one has any intention of following.  I am not sure why this is done.  It strikes me as a rather futile activity.  In particular closing a branch when all the branches bar one had substantial investment during the Libraries Transformation process seems an odd thing to do. 

The same meeting that considers this report will consider renewing the lease for Kingsbury library.  If the Council decides to do that and then decides to close it subsequently again that would look very odd.

Even to be thinking about these cuts sits rather oddly with the considerable largesse handing to those who want to operate privatised libraries as well as with the Borough of Culture plans. 

Cuts to Brent's libraries service also raise a political problem that it is a high profile service where Brent can genuinely claim to be one of the best in the UK.  There are few areas of the Council where Brent can make that claim.  I am not sure that the present leadership of the Council have the intellectual clarity to understand that argument.

 

Recommended Budget Savings

Among the recommended budget savings in the forthcoming Brent Council budget agenda are:

• Ending the remaining youth services at Roundwood Youth Centre and making it a purely educational resource.
• Reducing scrutiny committees again.
• Dimming street lights
• Closing the Abbey Road recycling centre
• Cutting adult social services
• closing all the childrens centres
• Drastic cutbacks to Council Tax support
• and part time opening at "some" Brent libraries.

I shall be particularly looking at the details of the proposed cuts to Brent libraries since they are likely to go against the ethos of Libraries Transformation Project, and undermine the impressive achievements of Brent Libraries.  I wonder how many of the library litigants will be concerned?

What Do Libraries Do?

I remarked that people don't seem always aware of the full uses of public libraries.  This often struck me during the consultations over the Libraries Transformation Project where one would meet people who began by saying "I don't use libraries but..."  This would be followed by a highly imaginative description of what that person imagined a standard library user to be like.

For a more accurate account it is worth reading Chris Paling's "Reading Allowed" which is a short account of working in a public library service somewhere outside London.  A copy of this book is also available from Willesden Green Library. 

Ground Shifts from under the Government Yet Again

Politics certainly has the ability to be unpredictable and the sheer scale of Theresa May u-turns yesterday was remarkable.  She hasn't admitted that austerity was a huge error but she appears to commit to more public spending from now on, which effectively means that she thinks Osborne's pursuit of a smaller state was a big error.

Even more startling is the commitment to more Council homes.  Selling off Council stock was a key part of the Tory election strategy from 1979 to the present day and she has just committed to more of them.  I wonder what Kit Malthouse, who thinks of Council tenants as second class people, thinks of that.

It is also notable for some of the things it did not say like addressing the collapse in social care, the growing financial crisis in local government, how the extremely restrictive immigration policies during her watch marry up with the Tory Conference theme of praising diversity, the onmgoing failure of Universal Credit and the holes in the UK's defence capabilities. 

It demonstrates how the underlying basis of politics is shifting and that a whole range of possibilities, including a second referendum, are possible.

The main limit of course is that national debt is much higher than it was in 2010 and all forms of Brexit will hit the economy, some of them very hard indeed.

Libraries and Private Computer Use

I pointed out some time ago that using public libraries for accessing confidential information was not without problems and I have recently had personal experience of this.  Sitting down at a PC in Willesden Library, I could see quite clearly that the previous person had failed to log out and his universal credit application was on open display. 

Libraries are reasonably enough designed to be public places, not least so that the staff can monitor peoples' safety.  They are just not set up to be used as benefits offices.  If the government wants them to be used in that way, they need to be adjusted to be more suited to privacy needs.

Planning Reflections from Martin Francis

Martin Francis has a piece on planning and views of Wembley Stadium on his blog.  It is critical of the Planning Committee for allowing the view of the arch to be eroded after various decisions.  However, the officers' reply that no rules have been broken is quite right, and has to be the approach taken.

Planning policy is a guide not a diktat, and it is perfectly reasonable to judge each case on its merits. 

Indeed to do otherwise would be "fettered discretion" and would effectively make all development in the stadium area impossible.

Therefore it is not so much that a rule has been broken, as that Martin disagrees with particular decisions.

I am no admirer of the way Brent's planning functions appear to have been bent in the last few years, but it is important to distinguish between legitimate, although perhaps questionable, decisions and unethical, illegal or illegitimate behaviour. 

New Dementia Garden

So much news has been depressing over the past couple of years that it is really nice to find a positive story once in a while, such as the new dementia garden opened in Brent.  Well done to Cllr Lia Evans-Colacicco for making it happen.

Modern Slavery

Incidentally it is good to see that Brent Council has chosen to take part in the Cooperative Party and Cooperative Wholesale Society campaign against modern slavery. 

Is Brent Managing Allotments Well?

Allotments have a chequered history in Brent, having been sold off whenever possible under the Tories in the 1990s and generally ignored, they subsequently once again became fashionable.  They now tie in very well with the public health agenda and a wider range of interests that people have in food growing.  I would argue that they can also have a role in creating an area of common interest for a community, binding people together across the usual dividing lines. 

When I was lead member for allotments, we became very concerned at the length of the waiting lists and the inefficiency of the administration.  We therefore passed a food growing strategy and had a dedicated officer assigned to making it happen.  We also updated the rents paid, which was more controversial.  In principle, it should be perfectly possible to set the rents at a level that allows the employment of some one to manage the allotments.  This would allow people to see themselves getting a service as a direct result of the charges made.  Without being followed up in this way, the rents will not be collected and some of the sites are much more likely to fall into disuse. 

This will leave everyone feeling unhappy, yet it appears to be the route that Brent Council is going down.  It is a pity that the Labour Group's away day yesterday was cut at such short notice as the Group really needs to put a long term strategy together. 

A Lack of Censorship at Labour Conference

I rather doubt that holding a debate on Palestine is quite the pressing issue that many delegates at the Labour Conference apparently feel it to be.  I would have thought, for example, that half a million people killed in Syria, eleven million displaced and the fate of those in Idlib was probably a more urgent subject if you really want to concentrate on the Middle East.

However, is there any evidence that anyone there was inhibited from expressing their views on Israel and Palestine by the recent adoption of the IHRA definition?  If not, perhaps we can acknowledge that the Summer of bitter resistance to the definition adoption has been something of a wasteful distraction from opposing the government's disastrous policies?

Government Wasting Time over Concealment

The Guardian carries a story here of the government gratuitously wasting time and money concealing our much its Minister for the North actually went to the North.  This seems all too common a fault in bureaucracies.  It is partly instinctive and partly to try to kill a story politically by destroying its timeliness.

Walking in Cities

Some interesting ideas on improving walking in cities in this long piece in the Guardian.  It is surprising how neglected this subject is despite pedestrians being recognised as at the top of the road user hierarchy, and being seen as crucial to neighbourhood success as far back Jane Jacobs' classic "The Life and Death of Great American Cities".  

Afterword on Kiln Theatre Renaming

With the success of the new season of plays at the Kiln Theatre looking fairly established, I thought I would reflect on the rebranding process.  There is an article with a short take on rebranding theatres here. 

To those who have never been part of a rebranding process the whole thing can seem a bit farcical, but it does often touch a nerve as the Kiln rebranding demonstrated.  I must admit that I am not quite sure what or whose nerves were being touched during that controversy.  The protesters seemed to be drawn just from one section of the community, and the reported comments seemed not always related to the theatre and sometimes unduly personal.  I did wonder whether there were wider anxieties than those being articulated at a work here.

By the way, for those interested in what makes up the Kilburn community Brent Council provides a short summary using 2011 census data. 

Kiln Theatre Facelift

One advantage that I hope will come from the Kiln Theatre rebranding is that hopefully even the laziest picture editors will drop using old photos of the Tricycle like this one:

And start using new photos, more like this:

Or even this:

Haringey Demonstrates Housing Solutions for Slow Learners

I suggested that when the NEC took its extraordinary stand on housing in Haringey that it might live to regret it, and it looks as if that suggestion is turning out to be true.  The case concerns some apparently unsafe buildings in the Broadwater Farm estate.  It shows that delivering local services is actually a more nuanced business than sloganising. 

Community Division in Preston

The Brent Times report on the latest development proposals at the former school annexe in Preston are a reminder that the community never has just one voice.  Brent Council appears to have got some sort of special deal with just one group in the community.  This leaves open questions around planning permission, ACV status and use of CIL money. 

Regeneration is More Complex than You Think

There is an interesting story about the redevelopment of the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark that has not had the attention it deserved.  It illustrates how complex the calculations around these things can be, as I have pointed out before.

The Aylesbury estate was notorious as one of the worst in Britain even back when Tony Blair was first elected in 1997. 

All these years on, it still is. 

Southwark, having failed to tackle the problem over so many years, now has yet another plan, but this one appears to be guaranteeing the profits of the private partner.  The Council has to accept not getting a return in the case of a house price crash (which seems not unlikely) and in any case makes a big loss on the redevelopment. 

Whether that is the best deal that they can get is a matter for Southwark, but it is reminder that you cannot just wave a wand and see redevelopment without risk.

Kiln Cinema Reopening

I see that, following the successful reopening of the theatre, the Kiln Cinema is reopening as well.  This will be from 27 September.  It is really good to see the Kiln getting back into operation after the inevitable dark period.  I look forward to the street café whenever that becomes available.

Homelessness and Enforcement

The Home Office has been caught out deporting EEA nationals against the law.  Their offence appears to have been to be homeless, and the government gives an assurance (contrary to previous practice) it now wants to make sure that all homeless people get accommodation. 

Of course, the previous Labour government had pretty much achieved this but the measures it put in place had been dismantled by Theresa May on becoming Home Secretary in 2010.  The example also illustrates how the immigration debate helps destroy our civil society in ways that the Home Office probably simply fails to predict.

Ann Black Departs

Ann Black is leaving the Labour NEC after many years.  During those years her regular reports on the NEC have earned her great respect, and the last of them is now published.  It paints a sad picture of a Labour Party spending too much time obsessing about its own procedures and internal rivalries and not enough on the big issues, especially our relationship with the European Union.

Cheating for School Places

I mentioned the Kiln's opening production Holysh!t before.  Reports in the Guardian seem to confirm that the issue of "cheating" is widespread, although I don't think it is confined to the middle classes.  One might wonder whether it is legitimate to put people under such pressure to make religious choices that they don't really want.

Cuts in Somerset County Council

Somerset County Council is another facing a round of severe cuts just to stave off a Northants style breakdown.  The surprise to me is that Tory councils seem to be falling apart first even the Labour areas have tended to be the ones with the worst cuts.  It may be that the Tories were the most eager to dig their own graves with Council Tax freezes.  Again perhaps the awareness and the knowledge that the government really didn't care about them made the Labour authorities more financially responsible at an earlier stage.  They were less prone to the illusion that the Tory central government simply would not allow services to collapse.

Grounds Maintenance

It is perhaps comforting to find that one part of Brent Council works as it is supposed to and that is the Housing Scrutiny Committee. 

One example was a free days ago when it was engaged in the unexciting topic of grounds maintenance.  The kind of things covered contract monitoring, helping vulnerable residents, ensuring quality control and so on may seem uninteresting but they can have a disproportionate impact on public perceptions.  I note that the Council still seems to deal with its Council Housing using a dedicated team rather than a wider team from the public Realm Contract.  I presume that is as a result of the accounting needs of the HRA regimen. 

Finally Borough of Culture details

Some detail on the London Borough of Culture activities is at last available via Brent Council's next Cabinet papers.  Promised projects are:

• Thoroughfare: A street party on Kilburn High Road on 12th July 2020.

• No Bass like Home. An affordable concert in Wembley Arena and a festival in Harlesden celebrating the reggae heritage of the area.

• Museum of all Brent Life: the 6 Council libraries and the 4 community libraries will work with an artist on site specific commissions.

• Seen and heard: a partnership with Quintain and the LSE to produce a policy framework for the creation and management of public spaces which welcome young people

• Brent Lives: a partnership with Vice to tell Brent stories

• Lost and found: a programme with Brent Schools

• The Anthem: a new composition to be performed throughout 2020

• Spacebook: an online platform to allow local people and community groups to book affordable creative spaces throughout 2020.

 

That does not sound like all that much, but I assume that other projects are being worked on. 

 

 

Brexit and Local Government

The coming negative threats coming for local government, including Brent, from Brexit have surveyed by Buzzfeed.  These includes threats to the supply of affordable housing, early years provision and a possible increase in hate crimes.

I still can't think of any countervailing advantages from Brexit.

Schools and Accountability

There is a weary predictability about future schools policy.  The reduction of local authority control that started back in the 1980s with local management of school has gone too far.  Hence this plea to increase management at a local level.  The pressing need for more local accountability was obvious years ago. 

Why do we have a political environment that appears to produce really bad policy and persist with it for so after it is apparent that it is bad policy?

Still Flogging the Kiln Theatre

The Camden New Journal is still flogging the Kiln Theatre rename story.  I have remarked before that, at best, I think this is a minor issue compared to getting a rebuilt and substantially improved theatre. 

One detail strikes me as particularly strange.  They keep on referring to Indhu Rubasingham as a "new" Artistic Director.  In fact she was appointed in 2012, and had her first production in that role later that year.  I thought that play, Red Velvet, took the whole institution in quite a different and interesting direction, and there been many more since. 

During the same period she was working hard to get the funding together to rebuild the theatre to improve the 1980s style disabled access, improve important basics like seating and toilets and theatre lighting and make it a more welcoming venue in general.  Her critics seem to just take it for granted that money was coming Brent's way. That really isn't the case.  Raising that much money and making sure it gets properly spent is a major job in itself.

At the same time, she had to keep her team going and active, which she did at least partly through what I thought was a very welcome and imaginative outreach programme specifically designed to  get to people without traditional theatre backgrounds.  Again, there are all kinds of barriers to achieving that sort of thing successfully. 

It must have left all the people responsible feeling pretty exhausted.

Do the name change protesters really just not get what a blessing to the area they seem to be trying to drive away?

Ealing Road Library Redevelopment

The Ealing Road library redevelopment I referred to some time ago is finished giving some much needed good quality public space to the Wembley Central area.  As far as I can see this has been given no publicity whatever by anyone, including Brent Council.

Why We Get the Wrong Politicians

It was interesting to read Jess Phillips MP on Isabel Hardman's book in the New Statesman.  My interest is not so much in Hardman's new book Why we get the Wrong Politicians as in some of Phillips's own observations.

She does not regard herself as part of the "political elite" despite being a MP.  If "political elite does not include MPs then who is in this (obviously extremely exclusive club).  Would anyone admit their membership?  There is a story about Nye Bevan being told political power resided in the District Council, only then to be told to go to the County Council, only then to be told to go to Parliament, only then to be told to the Cabinet.  Sadly, he didn't reveal whether he found power once he really was in the Cabinet. 

Another interesting point is that she believes that "A politician from a pit community or raised by a single parent is, pleasingly, no longer that uncommon." Actually, I think it used to be a lot more common.  I think if she compares the 1945 PLP to now she would find a much wider range of backgrounds.  If she is referring to regionalism, I suspect she would find the same thing. 

The third thing I notice is that she doesn't mention the much wider ethnic and gender spread of today's Parliament compared to that of yesteryear, although I am sure she must be very aware of the huge effort required to achieve that.

Altogether an odd piece I thought.

Boundary Carve Up

As duly reported in the Kilburn Times,the Boundary Commission are planning a dramatic carve up of Brent constituencies.  This would lead to no fewer than five constituencies in Brent.  It is a hangover from David Cameron who did a squalid deal with Nick Clegg to redraw the boundaries in return for electoral reform. Many Tory MPs are threatening not to vote the deal through in the Autumn because they are afraid of being removed from their seats.   By now the population figures on which the whole exercise is based are hopelessly out of date so that there is a good case for simply dumping them and starting all over again.   

Meanwhile a wholly separate process is underway for local boundaries.         

Shisha Cafe Award

Nice to hear that Brent Council's innovative work on Shisha Bars is up for an award.  This has been a problem in Brent for years and was first researched by the Brent Youth Parliament and ward working.  That was important to changing the Planning Policy.  Brent Council has now followed up with a programme of enforcement.  It has taken a long time to get here. 

Kiln Theatre Finally Reopens with New Season

Finally got to the reopened Kiln Theatre for its new production, Holysh!t, on Saturday and thereby got my first look at the new theatre. 

Kilburn High Road Entrance

The Kilburn High Road frontage is broader with a yet to be opened café sharing the frontage with the old entrance in what used to be the Forresters' Hall.  Behind that are the toilets as go up the corridor towards the auditorium.  The signage is somewhat confusing and I saw women trying to get into the male toilets and men into the womens'.

Auditorium

The actual auditorium has obviously been the focus of a lot of thought.  As promised the sightlines are much better with a fuller view of what seemed to me a wider stage.  More importantly the seats are more comfortable, numbered and accessible via an aisle either side.  That may not sound important, but it meant that the audience could get in and out before and during the interval much quicker and without all that standing there waiting to get past someone trying to pick up their bag or coat. 

The distinctly 1980s disabled access appears to have been replaced by more modern arrangements, and according to press reports, all the lighting and so on is now much more modern.  The bar and box office seem to be largely the same, although there is a very big homage now to the history of the theatre, similar to the feature on the Kiln Theatre web site. 

This may be intended to try to assuage the people still angry about the name change.  Personally, I think such people might do well to appreciate just how hard it is to achieve what the Kiln Theatre team have now achieved.

Holysh!t

Which brings us to Holysh!t the play, which is after all the real heart of any theatre.  It was a much darker play than I had imagined it would be, revolving around the cultural politics of identity, fairness and parental anxieties.  The whole play climaxes with a scene involving victim hierarchies which is all too accurate.  It may be that I particularly feel this after the Labour Party's torrid Summer dealing with antisemitism, which has been more than a little demoralising. 

However, the return of the theatre as a going concern should be an enormous benefit to Kilburn High Road.  The premises have a 24 hour licensing application, I believe, under consideration at the moment, and assuming that goes through it should be able to become even more effective. 

UPDATE 11.09.18

Whatsonstage has an interview by Indhu Rubasingham explaining her thinking in the rebuild project. 

Pigovian Levies and Brent Council

The Brent Times reports that Brent Council is still investing in fossil fuels "indirectly".  If you look at the story it seems to be based on an assumption, more bluntly a guess, rather than hard figures.  Yet, I am not sure how practicable it is do otherwise so long as Brent uses "pooled funds."  The funds will presumably follow an investment strategy for all their clients together, which is why the funds are "pooled".  If the Council want to disaggregate it will have to manage its own funds directly.


That said, I suspect this is one case where the market may be moving against companies that have bad pollution.  Sooner or later big extraction companies are going to face clean up bills.  Indeed in some jurisdictions there are already requirements such as bonds to put money aside for cleaning up once the extraction ceases.  There is also a some point in the future a likelihood that such companies will face a Pigovian levy to clean them up.  It may well be a lot smarter for an investor to get out before the regulators catch up with not just the local damage caused but also perhaps the longer term climate change damage.

Brexit Legislation

Seema Malhotra MP has uncovered that the sheer mechanics of Brexit seem to require an awful lot of extra legislation still.  I can't say that I am reassured by Andrea Leadsom's answer, which seems to be yet another attempt to paper over the cracks in the government's Brexit strategy.  Apart from anything else, it is remarkable that the government still doesn't know how many statutory instruments it needs, so the assurances that it will not need extra time don't really count for much.

There is a video available Seema of raising this issue in the Chamber. 

Drinking Fountains for Brent

One of the changes of the past few years which might actually be positive is the decision to allocate public health spending as a local government responsibility.  In principle, this could lead to a more responsive and prevention led approach to public health.  In practice, the funding was shortly after cynically cut.

One area where it would be used to good effect would be through the increased use of drinking fountains, which in turn would cut plastic use.  If Brent Council were under more imaginative leadership it would examine this idea. 

Ealing Road Library Remodelling

I am not quite sure why, but the remodelling of Ealing Road Library that I mentioned quite a while ago never actually happened.  I am told that it is still planned although it is unclear when. 

Little Free Libraries

The Guardian praises the little free libraries scheme in Leeds.  I think this actually shows one of the problems with the way libraries are reported.  Schemes like this and volunteer libraries are seen as heart warming stories by journalists, but the merits of a properly run public library service are overlooked. 

This is partly, I suspect because the journalists have little or no idea how modern libraries work and what they can do in promoting the arts, encouraging mental well being, acting as social centres, linking in with other services, promoting literacy, educating people and helping people access other services.

Labour Party and the IHRA Definition

The Labour Party NEC will be meeting today to discuss the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.  Hopefully is will re-adopt the accepted definition with all the examples that it has already been using since December 2016.  As Ann Black says, the whole thing has just got the Labour Party into a nasty confrontation with the Jewish community that is deeply damaging to our reputation.  I attended the very successful JLM conference on Sunday and there is no doubt of the depth of feeling on this issue.  It has drained the Labour Party's effectiveness all through the Summer and we should never have tried to revise it for all the reasons that Gordon Brown explained.  The full text of Gordon speech is now available. 

I gather that a range of people, many obviously anti-Labour, are urging the NEC to try to invent quibbles to keep the argument going.  I think these people do not have the Labour Movement's best interests at heart.

UPDATE 12.17pm

I notice that the usual assortment of people are out protesting on this return to the December 2016 policy.  The very phrase "Israel Lobby" as if all Jewish people were part of an organised conspiracy rather than just people concerned at racist discrimination against them well illustrates the way in which racism has so entered some of these peoples' thinking that they are not even aware of it.  We would never respond to concerns by, say, Sikhs as part of a "Sikh Lobby" organised by a foreign country.  

These people are inflicting damage on the Labour Party's reputation and the effects are already likely to last for years.

Cuts to Local Government and Civil Society

I fear John Tizard is being overoptimistic about the Tory government's views on Civil Society.  He is quite right that local government has a really important role in supporting civil society and that the budget cuts to Councils are making that role impossible. 

Yet the whole "Big Society" debacle actually demonstrates that the Tories really do have an engrained culture that local government simply has no value.  Part of that ideology, which is so embedded that it is not even articulated, are that the public sector in general is simply a burden on the private sector in the manner that right wing tropes such as "Tax Freedom Day" imply.  They assume that running public institutions needs no skill and very little money and that anyone working for the public sector is essentially a parasite.

Tzipi Livni and Jeremy Corbyn

It is difficult to keep up with all the stories coming out now quoting Jeremy Corbyn on Israel/Palestine issues, but this one caught my eye.  Extraordinarily, it quotes Jermey Corbyn as saying in 2009 that he had never heard of Tzipi Livni before.  As well as being Leader of the Opposition now, at the time of the quote she had been a Cabinet Minister in Israel for the previous eight years, and was serving as Israel's Foreign Minister at the time.  As such she was a key figure in any attempts to create a peace agreement.  How can it be claimed that Jeremy Corbyn was even interested in any peace process if he had never heard of her?

Kiln Theatre Reopening

Only a few days before the rebuilt Kiln Theatre reopens with its new season.  I am really looking forward to seeing how it is changed.

Meaningful Votes on Brexit

Huffington Post has a story dominated by the anti-Semitism distraction, but with some interesting comments from Ann Black about the forthcoming Labour Conference having votes on Brexit.  I really can't see how any rational person with the slightest interest in promoting democracy within the Labour Party (rather than just factional dominance) can deny the importance of a "meaningful vote(s)" on the issue.  Remarkably however there are currently moves under way to do precisely that.

Review of Local Government Boundaries

The Local Government Commission for England has announced its review of electoral boundaries in Brent with a dedicated Brent web site.  It sets up a whole number of problematic issues, not least of which is a consequence of Brexit.

Assuming Brexit goes ahead, I would imagine that EU citizens would lose their right to vote. This would mean that the average size of the Brent registered electorate would diminish by something like 16%, or by something like 25% like Alperton.  That would be an enormous change.  It also makes it very hard to work out any proposal for new boundaries since the size of the electorate could be so different to what has come before.  It will also make life more complicated for councillors since many of the people they represent would no longer be voters. 

It is also interesting that Brent Council believes that between December 2017 and July, the registered electorate increased by 23%.

The only seeming certainty at the moment is likely to be that Brent reduces to 57 councillors from the present 63.  Brent Council has already made a submission to that effect.

Open House London

Open House London is coming up again for September 22 to 23.  This is a showcase for when you can see some of the Capital's most interesting buildings, including a number in Brent.

Brent Allotments and Public Health

I am saddened that Brent Council no longer has an allotments officer.  One was introduced as part of the effort to contain the spiralling waiting list, and the absence is likely to lead to the problems re-emerging.  This strikes me as an area where the Council's ringfenced public health budget might usefully be brought into play. 

Rees Mogg and Brexit

Jacob Rees Mogg is apparently suggesting a return to "Troubles style" border inspections in Northern Ireland, which sounds to me like a harder border which he had previously seemed to say he was against.  Does the man have no consistency whatsoever?

Aleppo by Jenny Savile

I recently came across this picture entitled Aleppo 2017-2018 in the Scottish National Gallery by the artist Jenny Savile.  I find it a moving use of traditional artistic language to highlight the suffering of people in Syria. 

Brent Council Complaints

The Brent Times carries a story about complaints at Brent Council.  I can recall the days when the number of complaints about Brent Council were improving.  I can't say that I find the blame central government cuts altogether convincing.  True, the huge reductions in budgets do make things much harder, but I am not convinced that the Council has always handled them as efficiently as possible at a strategic level.  In the Brent Times piece Cllr Maggie McClennan sounds rather defensive (as usual Cllr Butt goes to ground as soon as anything difficult turns up).  The key objectives should be to use complaints as a resource, and to seek to design budgets so that the demands on staff are reasonable and deliverable. 

That would mean have a well thought out strategic plan for how Brent should structure its budget to meet key needs, and require some tough choices about what not to do.

Irreplacable Councils

The latest suggestion in Northamptonshire is for the local university to pick up the role that the bankrupt Council can no longer perform.  I am all for civil society doing what it can to be socially aware, but the fact is that local authorities cannot be replaced this way for two reasons: scale and kind.

In terms of scale, a local Council has such a range and scale of responsibilities that other organisations cannot replace unless someone, central government, provides funding to do so.  Anyone who thinks otherwise is falling for David Cameron's Big Society narrative years after it was tested to destruction in 2011.

In terms of kind, the proposal ignores the key of ELECTED local authorities in making political decisions around the use of resources.  Resources are always the subject of competition between different lobby groups that quite legitimately want more.  It is the job of elected local councillors to decide how much each of the available resource each group/cause gets.  This has always been true but comes into much sharper relief because of the unprecedented pressure created by the Tory government's decision to load cuts disproportionately on local government. 

Co-operatives in Brent

As a co-operator, I am pleased to learn that two new Co-operative stores are coming forward.  One is opposite Brent Civic Centre in Olympic Way, Wembley, and the other in Queens Park just up the road from Kilburn Library. 

Unlike most supermarkets, the Co-operative has no shareholders and has a degree of democratic control.  Buying a certain level of goods there gives you voting rights and the ability to determine the policy of the organisation.  Hitherto, Co-operatives in our part of London have been outside the Borough boundaries.

You can learn more about Co-operatives at the Society's web site, and the Co-operative Party on the Co-operative Party web site. 

The Last Blockbuster

Reading this about the last Blockbuster reminds me of the many pieces I have read on public libraries that focus on some one's childhood nostalgia.  Obviously in the case of Blockbuster that has been insufficient to keep them going.

With libraries on the other hand there are plenty of reasons for the service to stay open, not least in terms of raising digital literacy, their use as arts venues, and their uses as social hubs for all sorts of other activities. 

Kilburn Baths

An interesting snippet of local history about Kilburn Baths.  Striking that communal baths were still being opened just before the War. 

Merger of Authorities in Northants

The Guardian reports on the coming merger of authorities in Northamptonshire, which is forced by the financial collapse.  The merger will make some savings, but also require one off costs in terms of redundancy payments and merging systems, which is what the Council's reserves can properly be used for.  Since Northants announcement that it would run out of cash, there have been news that both East Sussex and Torbay are going to stop all non essential spending.  The merger will not in itself solve the crisis as even a local Tory MP has noticed. 

This is a predictable crisis that requires central government to fundamentally reform local government finance across England. 

Public Libraries and Diversity

I often see volunteer libraries claiming that they do things that public libraries just don't do.  Before making such a claim, it is worth finding out a bit more about what UK library services do do.  You can do that by reading a recent Arts Council report on libraries and diversity. 

Beyond Incredulity

Jeremy Corbyn has told the BBC that "I don't share platforms with terrorists," and "I don't believe in killing people.  "I have attended memorial events for those that have died in the sadness of all of these conflicts, and that is my position."

I really find it hard to imagine how anyone could attend a PLO Conference without expecting some of the other people there to have had involvement in terrorist activity.  Similarly, the much publicised meetings with Gerry Adams and other people linked to the IRA.  Is Jeremy Corbyn the only person who does not believe that Gerry Adams has links to terrorists?

The whole atmosphere of this is starting to remind me of Darkness At Noon. 

Momentum Learns about Democracy

I don't normally do comments on the internal politics of the Labour Party on this site, but this piece from labourlist is interesting in revealing that Momentum is rather less monolithic than the twitter bots might make it appear. 

Similarly, Stephen Bush has an illuminating piece on why the Jewish community is so concerned about the possible escalation of what Jeremy Corbyn has referred to as "pockets" of anti-Semitism. 

Temporary Reprieve for Northants Libraries

One of the legal challenges to the library closures in Northants has been successful.  This may not be the great news that the campaigners in Northants no doubt hope for.  As I explained back in April, Northants just has run out of money.

There will now be a delay as the Council has to go through the decision making process again, but the disastrous budgetary situation remains, so I imagine any changes to the policy will be very limited.  The challenge was successful, judging by press reports, on the grounds that councillors had not considered the full impact.  Once they do consider them, they might in principle decide the same thing.

However a delay in the decision probably also means a delay in sending out redundancy notices, more staff consultation and so on, so the court case may have the effect of making the cuts somewhat deeper than they would have been.

Brent Borough of Culture

I have alluded to the award of Borough of Culture status for Brent, but there still appears to be very little detail on what will actually happen.  Brent Libraries, which is likely to be the lead part of the Council on this, have a strong reputation due to the Transformation Project, but so far the only detail is fairly thin. 

Cllr Muhammed Butt and the Kiln Theatre

I opined that the OurTricycle campaign had largely run out of steam, and I still think that is basically true, but it still managed a brief appearance in Private Eye this week.

The piece makes two points.  One is to suggest that there is some form of deception in fund raising for the theatre rebuilding without making a specific point about the name change.  I regard this as really odd, since I think the actual name of the Theatre is a very minor matter compared to the benefits of the rebuild and the potential regeneration benefits for Kilburn. 

The Play's the thing, as someone once said. 

Secondly, it comments on the apparent ignorance of Cllr Muhammed Butt about the name change.  It is said, through a FoI request, that the Council Leader only became aware of the change on 28 November 2017 despite the fact that the Board discussed it much earlier.  I can't help but be sceptical of this.  Cllr Muhammed Butt seems to have had a long and surprising record of ignorance and odd decisions over the Jewish Film Festival, the NHS in Brent, pub protection, Council Tax, Planning, school academies, Brent Council's procurement decisions, the closure of Youth Centres the rules of the Labour Party, efforts to exclude Labour councillors from the Group, whether Labour councillors are suspended and even whether members of the Labour Group he leads are alive. 

To come back to the Kiln, my view would be that however that decision was arrived at, it is now a done deal and there is no real point in trying to reverse it.  I think that anyone who wishes the Theatre and the Kilburn community well should just embrace the new season and enjoy the benefits of the new Kiln Theatre. 

Brent Central Political Parties and Antisemitism

The whole antisemitism story continues to develop in its dreary and depressing way, including a mention for Brent Central Labour Party on the front page of the Sunday Times and subsequent follow ups.  One does have to wonder about either the good faith or the the competence of these Labour Party officials who are apparently unable to identify long standing and active members.

Subsequently the Times had a story on Shahrar Ali, a familiar figure in the Green Party, who I understand no longer lives in Brent.  Shahrar Ali denies antisemitism.  He is quite a prominent figure having stood for local elections in Brent as well as Parliamentary elections and also national office within the Green Party itself. 

Harlesden Plaza Redevelopment

Brent Council is now asking for comments on the further development of Harlesden Town Centre.  As far as I know there is still no real funding for this.  The Harlesden Plaza is obviously a key landmark, but it is also in private ownership so I am not sure what would be the way forward for any vision that was developed. 

This question is crucial for public engagement as I remember well from the previous Highways scheme where people only really came on board once they became convinced that something would actually be delivered.

Details of the current Planning Documents are to found here. 

The Dire Position of Northants County Council

The Guardian and other papers carried more reports and analysis of the grim position of Northants CC now that it has pretty much run out of money.  This is a position that Brent has so far managed to avoid through taking a series of difficult decisions during the 2010-2014 period, which allowed cuts to the budget to be made in a more measured and less painful way.  Subsequently, my impression has been that the regime has got a good deal laxer, with for instance a fairly kneejerk reaction on fire safety. 

The problem now facing Northants is that after significant prevarication, it is being forced into making all its cuts at once.  That makes it far harder to manage the process rigorously.  It also means that finding alternative routes through other institutions becomes much tougher.

For instance, if Northants were to seek to have cushion either the closure of libraries by handing over to volunteers or (say) the moving of childrens centres from those libraries it would be much harder.  There is now a ticking clock to make the cuts happen within budget.  Any delays from legal action or delays in staff consultation will lead to extra costs and therefore even deeper costs.  Any one off payments necessary to the process will bite into a much lower level of reserves, and the reserves in Northants seem to be much lower than they have historically been.

The problems facing local government were predictable years ago, and have been made worse by Central government.  At some point many of the cuts being imposed will have to be reversed.

Schools and Sprinklers

This is an important story about sprinklers and schools in Brent from the Kilburn Times.  Apparently all the school fires in Brent in recent years have involved schools without sprinklers, which are not mandatory.

As I recall sprinklers were a mandatory feature of new schools built under the Building Schools for the Future programme, which Michael Gove abolished as overly bureaucratic.  He was supported in this by Sarah Teather.  Gove's replacement scheme, when it eventually appeared, did not require new schools to have sprinklers making a marginal saving in construction costs.  Now the LFB suggest that the sprinklers would actualy save significant sums in damage and possibly also help in terms of fire safety.

Seven Day Cafe at a Seven Day Library

Willesden Library Cafe is now opening seven days a week as hoped for.  It has also revamped its food offering.  I hope it thrives despite the recent set backs with the water supply.  Altogether it has been quite a saga. 

The Uniqueness of Roundwood Youth Club

Labour recently pledged to rebuild youth services if it comes back to power. It that happens, Roundwood Youth Club is likely to the centre of Youth services in Brent.

This partly because it is so new.  The current building was opened in late 2012, having been saved from central government cuts back in 2010.  Roundwood is the only survivor left after the cuts to youth services in Brent in 2015.  The widespread cuts to youth services around London have been blamed for the subsequent rise in knife crime. 

Staffless Libraries

A wheeze that seems to appeal to Library managers trying to avoid closing buildings rather than keeping library services is the staffless library.  An example has now been the subject of a complaint in Barnet. 

Staffless libraries seem generally to work by allowing access to people with library cards and pins (i.e. existing users), but excluding children.  I don't know how places like Barnet cope with the public safety implications of having an otherwise empty building without staff.  What do they do about vandalism or drug users or possible attacks/inappropriate behaviour by users?

Given the disproportionate impact on children this may indeed be a challengable policy.

Youth Services

Another reminder from Haringey that condemning your predecessor's schemes is the easy part.  Getting a new scheme together is difficult.  Haringey have recently decided not to go ahead with a "youth zone".  I don't know the details of the Haringey scheme but I suspect the main drivers of the decision to abandon it will be (a) the ongoing revenue cost (b) the fact that there is no real statutory duty to provide youth services.

If Haringey is like Brent, the opinions of the public would be that they want more youth services not less.

Update on Knotweed

I have long had an unfashionable interest in Japanese knotweed.  This invasive species has now been the subject of a landmark legal case which should worry every land owner.  This is one of those problems that rumbles along unnoticed until one day it doesn't.

IHRA and Censorship

One of the reasons given for opposing the standard wording of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, including the illustrative examples, is the supposed threat to freedom of speech.  Opponents of the standard wording argue that thy would be inhibited from criticising Israel. 

I would argue that this is simply untrue.  A quick google shows up plenty of criticism of Israel and its government in all sorts of subject areas, and none of it appears to have been blocked by the definition.  Martin Francis meanwhile thinks he has found an example of Barnet Council trying to use the definition in this way.  The motion concerns the BDS movement and their use of Council facilities in Barnet.  Martin doesn't appear to find the proposed Boycott of a Boycott movement in any way ironic.

In the event the discussion appears to have kicked back to another Committee i.e. well into the long grass. 

I suspect this is because the wording of the motion is probably illegal.  It calls for the BDS campaign, or even individuals associated with it, to be banned from use of any Council facilities and shunned by society in general.  I think that case law going back to the 1980s probably doesn't allow this.  In particular, back then Haringey Council tried to stop its libraries from stocking Murdoch newspapers as the Wapping dispute was in full swing.  Haringey lost. 

The only way as I read it for any Council to refuse the use of facilities otherwise commercially available would be if they were being used for something illegal e.g. inciting racial hatred or violence.  Even then the Courts tend to set a very high standard of evidence before they convict of incitement. 

Martin should therefore rest easy.

Yet he might also want to reflect on the nature of boycotts and how divisive and damaging they can be even if people don't intend them to be so. 

How Much Weirder Can it Get?

The Times has a front page story today in which David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, apparently referred to Jeremy Corbyn in approving terms when he was elected back in 2015.  This whole story is getting rather out of hand.

Lessons for Brent Council from Northamptonshire

Recently the Guardian did a big feature on the horrific financial position of Northamptonshire County Council, which has essentially declared itself bankrupt.  The coverage points partly to political incompetence in kicking the can down the road and partly to the sizeable cuts that local government in general is suffering from.

This is what would have happened to Brent if it had taken Green Party advice and simply not managed its budget.  Instead we were able to manage a number of political choices.

Northamptonshire by contrast are being to force through slash and burn tactics just to make their budget add up.  Any delays, from a successful legal action for example, will have to be made up by cuts elsewhere in the budget.  The introduction of Commissioners and abolition of the Council in two years further underlines how refusing to take political decisions would simply have led to a propaganda victory for the Tories. 

Lack of Brexit Plans

Central government seems to have little clue about what its plans are for Brexit.  Even Dominic Raab's promise of "adequate food supplies" seems to be more a vague hope than plan.  There is some speculation that this is because either there are no plans as with David Davis' impact assessments or they are so terrifying that the voters might change their minds.  However, local authorities are publishing their own plans which in some cases do indeed sound scary. 

It would be interesting to what Brent Council is doing to assess Brent's own needs. 

Not in Dispute

Remarkably, given the huge amount of publicity that the subject has generated, it is only today that the Labour Party is advertising jobs in the Disputes unit that will deal with allegations.

Free School Waste

The Guardian reminds us of the sheer wastefulness of the government's free school programme.  Not least this is because the schools are being put into inappropriate buildings as has been the case in Brent.  When is the government going to admit defeat on this?