Join the Wrens!

Random photo time...

Join the Wrens
We still need you

As a loose connection to International Women's Day, a poster from our trip to HMS Belfast last November (which also contains an in-joke for family...)

London Mayor and Assembly elections 2012

Candidates have been announced for the 2012 London Mayor and 25 member Assembly elections on 3 May. See below for Greenwich & Lewisham.

These elections have three parts: you will be voting for:
- the Mayor of London
- the 14 Constituency London Assembly Members and
- the 11 London-wide Assembly Members

So that's a whopping three elections in one go. You will be given three ballot papers when you vote.

1. the PINK coloured ballot paper for your London Mayor vote 

You can make a first and second choice from the list of candidates who will either be part of a political party or standing as an independent candidate. The candidates are:

• BENITA Siobhan - Independent
• CORTIGLIA Carlos - British National Party
• JOHNSON Boris - The Conservative Party Candidate
• JONES Jenny - Green Party
• LIVINGSTONE Ken - The Labour Party Candidate
• PADDICK Brian - London Liberal Democrats
• WEBB Lawrence James - Fresh Choice for London

2. the YELLOW coloured ballot paper for your Constituency London Assembly Member

You can make one vote for the candidate you would like to represent you in your local area. Candidates will be part of a political party or standing as an independent candidate. The candidates and political parties will vary between each constituency, but you can only vote in your local constituency. Candidates here. SE constituencies discussed below.

3. the ORANGE coloured ballot paper for your London-wide Assembly Member

You will be able to make one vote for a political party or an individual standing as an independent candidate. The parties or independent candidates standing are detailed below. Political parties put forward a 'party list' of individuals who will be elected if they get enough votes. You can find out the individuals on each party's list by clicking here. 

For more information visit the ‘How to vote’ page for 'London elects'. You need to register by 18 April to vote.

Homing in on the yellow ballot paper...the current London Assembly constituency map looks like this. That's six Labour constituencies and eight Conservative ones.








About half of the 14 Constituency London Assembly members have just been announced:

Here's Greenwich & Lewisham:

1. CULNANE Tess – National Front Putting Londoners First
2. DUVALL Len – Labour Party Candidate
3. OAKLEY Paul James – Fresh Choice for London
4. RAYMOND Barbara – Greenwich and Lewisham People Before Profit
5. RUSSELL John – London Liberal Democrats
6. SEDGLEY Roger – Green Party
7. WILSON Alex – The Conservative Party Candidate
8. WOODS Roberta – British National Party

Woolwich born and raised Len Duvall was first elected as an AM in 2000, and retained the Greenwich and Lewisham seat in the 2004 and 2008 elections. Interesting that both the BNP and NF are standing in the same constituency, as they are in some others...

And Bexley and Bromley:

1. HANNER Josie - Labour Party Candidate
2. CLEVERLY James Spencer - The Conservative Party Candidate
3. COBURN David Adam - Fresh Choice for London
4. ROOKS Jonathan Scot - Green Party
5. TREANOR Donna - British National Party
6. WEBBER Sam Dunning - London Liberal Democrats

Lewisham born James Cleverly was elected for the Bexley and Bromley constituency in May 2008.

If you're interested, here was the 2008 result for Greenwich and Lewisham:

The London elects website (from which much of this info is drawn) and Snipe are very good on the elections.

Blogging mojo fading and apolcalypse now

I've kind of lost my blogging mojo at the moment. It happens. Life is busy. The odd quick tweet is easier. Twitter just EATS time doesn't it? Much as I'd like to, I have had to stop trying to read every tweet in my timeline. How do people do that? I guess they have smartphones, which I don't. That would EAT even more of my time.

I happened to watch two movies recently of the 'apocalyptic' genre. Apocalyptic moves usually fall into either the biological or climate disaster category. You know, there's a crazy virus out there, we're all gonna die, or there's some crazy climate change, we're all gonna die.

I am, at the same time, both repelled and fascinated by apocalyptic films. I guess, as the directors intend, the themes in these films bring home the vulnerability and transience of the human race, as well as questioning what it means to be human. It's the themes around how society changes which interest me most - how the usual sociological rules change in the face of different dangers. This reaction in me has only really come on since becoming a parent. The thought of our young children being on their own after the mutated virus has got us, eugh, it's scary. It freezes my heart. I couldn't watch 28 Days Later after the first 15 minutes. Anyways...

I watched one of each of the biological or climate disaster films. In the former category, I Am Legend (2007), with Will Smith in which "Years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure." [IMBD]. I watched most of the film with my heart in my mouth. It had huge holes in the logic no doubt but it was a powerful film with some poignant moments.

The other night we caught up with what is becoming a modern classic, Danny Boyle's Sunshine (2007) in which a team of astronauts set off on a last gasp mission to re-ignite the dying sun and save humanity on an earth which is darkening and freezing over. Fascinating and, occasionally, baffling. Is the earth worth saving, and is there a higher power? It also includes that common dilemma in such films - should you take a particular action which will save humanity but which will take away from yours personally?

I mention having watched these type of films because, listening to the news recently, it occurred to me that the more imminent threat to society and everything we are used to might lie in another direction. What would happen if the worldwide banking system, capitalism and the money system collapsed? Our usual financial priorities would be subverted and we would be forced to barter goods, food and produce on a different kind of E-Bay or swapping websites? Is there a film which covers such a subject?

Eltham's Mecca Bingo Hall burglary attempt

Just received this news via the News Shopper:

"FIVE people were arrested when police foiled a burglary at Eltham’s Mecca Bingo hall last night.

Part of Eltham Hill was closed off for three hours following the incident, which happened at around 11pm. Police say four people wearing balaclavas had entered the premises carrying a hammer and cable ties...." Read more.

It must have been awful for the staff there, thankfully it wasn't worse. They do sound like hopeless burglars though...

More Eltham posts here.

Joining the London blogosphere (soon!)

Oh how very nice. From the Guardian's, David Hill's Metropolitan Lines last Friday:

"London blogosphere
Last week I declared my firm intention to get a whole load more London blogs added to my Top London Bloggers aggregator page. I have, of course, failed to do this. I offer in mitigation my assurance that this noble work is just about in progress and the following links to some of the blogs that will benefit from it in a tiny but tenderly-meant way: Crosswhatfields; London Masala and Chips; The Charlton Champion; E-Shooters Hill; Chislehurst News. Visit them all. And watch this space."

Look forward to it!

In the meantime, just to remind you that David Hill is currently running round parts of London for charity. He's raising money for Shelter. You can sponsor him online at his Virgin moneygiving page.

He is documenting his runs on his Guardian blog. At the top at the moment, there's a lovely write-up about 'Leg 21 - Bexley to North Woolwich', amongst other SE London areas, complete with delicious bits of history and links.

What should a diary be?

Nice little piece which might interest bloggers, since many of us are writing diaries of a sort, aren't we?

From the BBC: Point of View: The art of the diary

"... Perhaps Virginia Woolf, whose own diaries are exhilaratingly wonderful, sums up best what a diary should be.

"What sort of diary should mine be," she writes. "Something loose knit but not slovenly, so elastic that it will embrace anything solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind. I should like it to resemble some deep old desk or capacious hold-all in which one flings a mess of odds and ends without looking them through. I should like to come back after a year or two and find that the collection had sorted itself and refined itself and coalesced..."

The London blogosphere: I've been noticed!

I was pleased to see this rather nice mention in that nice Dave Hill's column in the Guardian, the other week. In the 'Metropolitan Lines' section, under the heading "London blogosphere" this appeared:

"She calls herself Raven and describes herself as, "a woman living in south-east London, working at a London university, raising two children with my husband, and with a research interest in sociolinguistics." Her blog, London Masala and Chips, looks at film, gay love in a Bollywood film, exhibitions, drama, identity issues, books, politics and things to do to entertain your kids. Not forgetting sociolinguistics."

It was really flattering to be picked for his London blog spotlight in his excellent regular London column. As a result I've had a quite a spike in visitors, thanks very much (though still only very shy types!). The only slight concern is that the article appeared on 1 April...

Pimped my blog

It's still me here! Well, I finally got round to updating my blog - not perfect by a long way but at least ...er...unique. Though I have to admit to a sentimental fondness for template '565' which served me well for quite a while. Would be interested to know what you think?