Avery Hill Park Cafe protest

A bit of very local news...

Avery Hill Park users are protesting against a decision by Greenwich Council about who will run a new park cafe. For the last five years the popular Javier Pias has run Le Cafe in Avery Hill Park in Eltham but his tender for a catering contract has been unsuccessful.

Locals might remember that the previous wonderful cafe burnt down in October 2005 - it really was a haven then for parents with young children and prams (as we were then - I remember warming up many baby milk bottles there...sigh). But mindless vandals saw to that.

Mr Pias has been coping quite well albeit operating out a 'graffitti-art' covered steel container. A few weeks ago the playground area was dominated by building works, and we wondered what was afoot. My photo on the left shows the state of site at the end of March (click to enlarge).

Around 30 people visited the park to protest against the Council’s decision and support Mr Pias - Friday (May 14) is due to be his last day.  It's a tricky one isn't it - the current owner is popular with locals and has become part of the landscape; on the other hand the Council want to improve the services and site and are legally obliged to tender and choose the best business model. What do you think? [Top photo credit: New Shopper]

I wonder how things will be sorted out by the time of this event:

Saturday 10 July 2010, 12 - 5pm   

Avery Hill Parkfest of Music, Dance and Acts

Presented by Friends of Avery Hill Park; near the cafe in Avery Hill Park

You can check out my other local happenings at Eltham/Greenwich Events and Places.

If a picture paints a thousand words

What a story, what drama and emotion this photograph captures from today's service marking VE Day and 65 years since the end of World War II in Europe.

The three leaders of the three main political parties were thrown together side-by-side today as they attended this event this morning.

Yet, following the hung parliament result (captured below for posterity, or as long as this blog lasts...) the three are also at the same time deeply involved in trying to put together a coalition government while keeping their own troops happy.

Will it be Prime Minister Cameron, leading an-all Tory cabinet, with some concessions to Lib-Dem policies? Will this be one of Gordon's last public events in some sort of PM-role? Time will tell.

The election on the BBC Asian Network

If you were interested in my posts on British-Asian MPs and the election, you might enjoy this radio piece (also a downloadable podcast). After the election package, there's also some interesting stuff on Brit-Asian comedy ('the 'Asian Provocateurs'!) and a Brit-Asian canoe-ist, well why not! (you get cold and wet, for starters...)

Six British-Asian women MPs now

Ok, I'm  having a little break from the local politics just to catch up on what happened in the General Election to the 22 British-Asian women candidates I wrote about earlier. From the British Parliament having no such MPs up until now, it seems we now have an unprecedented SIX female British Asian MPs, as listed below.

Interesting that Labour were willing to put up these PPCs in five winnable seats, the Tories only one and the Lib Dems none (though they had less to play with):

CONSERVATIVE:

Bristol East - Adeela Shafi - lost (Labour win)

Witham (Essex) - Priti Patel - ELECTED (on 52%)

Stoke on Trent Central - Norsheen Bhatti - lost (3rd place to Labour win by Tristram Hunt)

Leigh - Shazia Awaan - lost (2nd to Labour's Andy Burnham)

Makerfield - Itrat Ali - lost (Labour win)

Birmingham Ladywood - Nusrat Ghani - lost (3rd place to Labour's Shabana Mahmood)

Glasgow East -Hamira Khan - lost (4th place to Labour)

LABOUR:

Bethnal Green and Bow - Rushanara Al - ELECTED (on 43%) [pictured above, on left]

Ilford North - Sonia Klein - lost (Cons. win)

Bolton South East - Yasmin Qureshi - ELECTED (on 47%)

Bury North - Maryam Khan - lost (Cons. win)

Wigan - Lisa Nandy - ELECTED (on 49%)

East Worthing and Shoreham - Emily Benn - lost (3rd place to Cons)

Birmingham Ladywood - Shabana Mahmood - ELECTED (on 58%)

Walsall South - Valerie Vaz   - ELECTED (on 58%) 

Scarborough and Whitby - Annajoy David Da-Bora - lost (Cons. win)

Central Suffolk and North Ipswich - Bhavna Joshi  - lost (3rd place to Cons)

LIB DEM:

Hayes & Harlington - Satnam Khalsa - lost (3rd place to Lab)

Feltham & Heston - Munira Wilson - lost (3rd place to Lab)

Glasgow South - Shabnam Mustapha - lost (3rd place to Lab)

Wimbledon - Shas Sheehan - lost (2nd place to Cons)

Leeds North East - Aqila Choudhry - lost (3rd place to Lab)

By the way, the Valerie Vaz election in Walsall South also sets another record - it's the first time a brother-sister duo has been elected to the House of Commons - her brother is Keith Vaz MP.

I've spotted a probable omission though - why didn't the original BBC article include Salma Yaqoob, standing for the 'Respect-Unity Coalition' in Birmingham Hall Green? Perhaps she's not Brit-Asian? (although she is a psychotherapist...ahem) In any case, she came second, not too far behind Labour.

[Update: nice piece on One World South Asia on some of these British-Asian women MPs: 'Meet UK's new Asian women leaders']

Eltham wards election results

Just to capture all the Eltham wards (following my Eltham North post):

Eltham South ward results (turnout 63.9%)

Name	Party	Results
Lesley ABBOTT	Labour	1,645
Matthew Allan CLARE	Conservative	2,603
Eileen Wordie GLOVER	Conservative	2,677
Jan KING	Green Party	391
Michael John LEWIS	Liberal Democrats	1,476
James MAY	Labour	1,517
Mark Simon PATTENDEN	Liberal Democrats	1,479
Helen Margaret PEART	British National Party	536
Boba RANGELOV	Liberal Democrats	1,077
Adam Michael THOMAS	Conservative	2,128
John TWIDALE	Labour	1,450

Eltham West ward results (turnout 59.4%)

Name	Party	Results
Ian James BENNETT	Conservative	1,172
Eileen Joan COX	Liberal Democrats	667
William FREEMAN	Labour	2,243
Michael Ronald HAYES	Labour	2,255
Carl HOLDWAY	Green Party	307
Matthew Mark HUNTBACH	Liberal Democrats	508
Yvonne NICHOLLS	Liberal Democrats	465
Remi Melanie RAYMORE	Conservative	1,128
Linda TREDRAY	British National Party	528
Sebastian VON TEICHMEISTER	Conservative	911
Ray WALKER	Labour	2,075
Roberta Florence Louise WOODS	British National Party	612

(is that right - two BNP candidates in one ward? That's what the Greenwich Council website is showing.)

Middle Park and Sutcliffe ward results (turnout 64.5%)

Name	Party	Results
Ray ADAMS	UK Independence Party	518
David BRINSON	Conservative	1,587
Robert ELIAS	Green Party	416
Patricia GILLARD	Conservative	1,486
Mary Catherine GREEN	Liberal Democrats	1,521
Mark Stephen JAMES	Labour	2,274
Christine MAY	Labour	2,324
Clare Cecilia MORRIS	Labour	2,247
Paul RAMSEY	British National Party	507
Arujuna SIVANANTHAN	Conservative	1,244
Paul WEBBEWOOD	Liberal Democrats	1,571
Brian James WOODCRAFT	Liberal Democrats	1,552

All Greenwich Council results here.

Eltham North Ward results

Eltham North ward results (turnout 75.1%)

Name	Party	Results
Emily BIRD	Labour	2,338
Helen BLACKBURN	Liberal Democrats	1,073
Bernie BORLAND	Labour	2,395
Rowena DAVENPORT	British National Party	686
Spencer DRURY	Conservative	3,078
Nigel Mark FLETCHER	Conservative	2,968
Janice Mary MARNHAM	Labour	2,330
Dermot David POSTON	Conservative	2,774
Edward John RANDALL	Liberal Democrats	1,126
Elliot SHUBERT	Liberal Democrats	816
David TURNER	Green Party	625

[To compare to previous 2006 Eltham North results, click here]

A not unexpected result. Spencer Drury is obviously a pretty high-profile Tory councillor - Tory PCC for Greenwich & Woolwich and Leader of the Conservative Group. And I'm so glad the people of this ward saw sense about the BNP.
Results for all wards in Greenwich Council can be found here. And there's some commentary already on the 853 blog.  I've now got to stop and will be back to blogging this evening...

Some previous election posts:

David Gold congratulates Eltham's Clive Efford

David Gold, the Tory PCC now has this tweet-message on his website:

"Congratulations to Clive on his win. I am sorry my positive agenda wasn't what Eltham wanted this time. Thanks to all who supported me. - 2 hours 23 min ago"

To be fair that's gracious of him. (Though he never did publish one of my comments on his website nor answer my questions about the subject of my earlier post here.).

South-East London General Election results on the morning after

Good morning. I see that it's not Tory-geddon but looking hung-ish...

[read this post bottom-to-top!]

Main news: 
CLIVE EFFORD (Labour) HAS HELD HIS ELTHAM SEAT.

Scroll further down for figures.

 Some other local headlines:

• Bexley constituencies go as expected
• Clean sweep for Tories in Bromley
• Tories triumph in Dartford, take seat from Labour
• Lewisham Council denies breaking law over late votes
• Adam Holloway hangs on to Gravesham seat for Tories
• Tory Michael Fallon retains Sevenoaks seat, which includes Swanley
• Police deny trouble at Brockley polling station

08.05am: Jo Johnson wins Orpington
MAYOR of London Boris Johnson's brother Jo has held the Orpington seat for the Tories.
The Tories won the seat with 29,200 votes, with the Lib Dem candidate, David McBride, getting 12,000.
Labour's Stephen Morgan polled 4,400 votes, while UKIP's Mick Greenhough received 1,360.
BNP candidate Tess Culnane received 1,241 votes, while Tamara Galloway of the Greens had 511 and Chriss Snape of the English Democrats received 199.
The Tories received 59.7 per cent of the vote, with the Lib Dems on 24.5 per cent and Labour nine per cent.
The seat saw a 12.2 per cent swing from the Lib Dems to the Tories.
[from New Shopper]

What a swing - maybe the celebrity factor played a part. BNP candidate Tess Culnane received 1,241 votes - oh dear oh dear. I shouldn't think she's on course to be Mayor of Lewisham where she also stood - those results later.

07.50am:  Results for Greenwich & Woolwich
NICK Raynsford has won the Greenwich & Woolwich seat for Labour.
He received 20,262 votes, ahead of Conservative Spencer Drury, who polled 10,109.
Liberal Democrat Joseph Lee received 7,498 votes, while the British National Party's Lawrence Rustem got 1,151.
Green candidate Andy Hewett received 1,054 votes and Edward Adeleye from the Christian Party got 443.
Topo Wresniwiro from the English Democrats polled 339, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate Onay Kasab received 267 votes and Tammy Alingham, who stood as an independent, got 65.
Labour received 49.2 per cent of the vote, the Tories 24.5 and the Lib Dems 18.2.
The constituency saw a 5.1 per cent swing from Labour to Conservative.
[from News Shopper]

07.45am: Results for Eltham just in:

CLIVE EFFORD HAS HELD HIS ELTHAM SEAT. (hoooooray!!)


[Tweetphoto - Eltham announcement. L to R: David Gold, Steven Toole, 2 unknowns, Andrew Graham (Independent candidate), Allan MacCarthy (Mayor of Greenwich), Clive Efford]

The Labour candidate got 17,416 votes, finishing ahead of Conservative candidate David Gold, who got 15,753 votes.
Liberal Democrat Steven Toole finished third with 5,299 votes and BNP candidate Roberta Woods got 1,745 votes.
UKIP candidate Ray Adams got 1,011 votes, finishing ahead of Green candidate Arthur Hayles, who received 419 votes.
Mike Tibby, standing for the English Democrats, got 217 votes, while Independent candidate Andrew Graham finished last with 104 votes.
Mr Efford's majority is 1,663 votes and the voter turnout was 67 per cent.
[from New Shopper]

Election results night

[Read this post back-to-front - it starts at the bottom ...]

I'm off to bed now. Will I wake up to a hung parliament or Tory-geddon?

The count for Greenwich is underway at the vast former Beckham Academy next to the O2 dome. Apparently there was some nervousness about the Cheryl Cole and Black Eyed Peas fans clearing off after their sold-out O2 concerts there tonight. 

Nice to see two wonderful academics being called on for some TV political punditary. Profess Robert Hazell (from UCL's Constitution Unit) and Professor Peter Hennessey, from Queen Mary London and expert on British political procedures and Whitehall.

That's three women MPs returned so far...

23.40hrs:  Sunderland Central
BNP: 1,913
Cons: 12,720
Lab: 19,485   Julie Elliot   ELECTED
lib Dem: 7,191
UKIP: 1,094
[LAB HOLD. Swing Lab to Cons 4.8%. Turnout 57%]


23.20hrs:  Washington and Sunderland West
BNP: 1,913
Cons: 8,157
Lab: 19,615   Sharon Hodgson  ELECTED
Lib Dem: 6382
UKIP: 1,267
[LAB HOLD. Swing Lab to Cons]
Labour's 11th safest seat. Turnout 54%.

22.48hrs: News that 'hundreds' of people have been unable to vote, locked out, at polling stations in Lewisham (and Manchester, ealing, Hackney and Dalson). Reports that Police officers at a polling station in Brockley in Lewisham, south-east London, tell a BBC camera crew that voters are still being allowed to vote at 10.30pm. Police were called to a polling station in Manwood Road, Lewisham, south London, where around 300 people had yet to vote by 10pm, Scotland Yard said. There were reports of similar situations in other parts of the country.

22.51hrs: Houghton & Sunderland South
BNP: 1,961
Lib Dem: 5,292
UKIP: 1022
Cons: 8147
Lab: 19,137 Bridget Phillipson ELECTED
Ind: 2,462
[LAB HOLD. Swing: Lab to Cons just under 7%]

If this swing replicated across the country, then the Tories would have a majority!!

22.00hrs:  A joint BBC/Sky/ITV exit poll says:
Conservatives would have 307 MPs (up 97 on 2005)
Labour would have 255 (down 94)
Lib Dems 59 (down 3)
Nationalists and others would have 29.

David Cameron would fall 19 seats short of a Commons majority. It would also mean that Labour and the Lib Dems together could not have a majority. Poll based on 17,607 voters at 130 polling stations across the UK.

Get the BBC results charts here. I'm going to record a few happenings here for the couple of hours or so that I can watch the results and follow the Election Night Live Blog at Liberal Conspiracy.

[read this post bottom to top!]

Vote Labour today

I can't put it any better (or quicker, got to do some work today...) than Hopi Sen:

"Vote Labour on Thursday.

For the right strategy on the economy, for lower unemployment, for investment in schools and protected spending on frontline services.

For support for industrial R&D and capital spending, for better transport networks, for fairer working condititions and a society that is more tolerant and more.

For support for Working families, for those looking for jobs, for people trying to pay their mortgages.
Vote Labour for a better, fairer Britain.
 That is all." 

Although Sunder Katwala of the Fabian Society also has a really good, though more detailed, piece at:

Why I am proud to vote Labour today

Election Day, 6 May 2010

So the day has finally arrived. The closest UK election for a generation. Liberal Conspiracy is quoting YouGov President Peter Kellner’s prediction of the outcome, as follows:

Conservative: 300-310 seats
Labour: 230-240
Lib Dem: 75-85
Others: around 30

That is still not believed to be enough for Cameron to form a majority government.

The Harris poll, as reported by the BBC on 5 May, is more optimistic about Labour's chances. If people voted like this (to the left) at the general election there would be a hung parliament. Labour would be the largest party, but would be short of a majority by 54 seats.

Let's see what happens. Roll on the results.  I will try to stay up as late as possible tonight, though work and kiddy-duties will mean I might have to give in to sleep.

Election night results at Queen Elizabeth Hall

If you want to join a crowd in London to track the election results tomorrow night, this sounds a fun (and free!) event, from 10pm onwards:

"Watch the election results live, and join in discussion and debate with leading commentators, comics and political experts in an informal 'open salon' in the foyer of Queen Elizabeth Hall. Featuring big-screen live TV and Twitter feeds, a late bar, reactions, gossip and more, with Martin Bright and guests. Whatever the election result, join us for what promises to be a stimulating evening.

This event has been organised by Southbank Centre Artists in Residence New Deal of the Mind. New Deal of the Mind is a coalition of artists, entrepreneurs and opinion formers who recognise the huge value - economically, socially and culturally - of Britain's creative talent."

More information at the The Front Room at QEH, Election Night Special.

Why no-one should vote for the BNP

Transpontine has just blogged about the latest alarming case of BNP violence:

"Yesterday, Cormac Hollingsworth, standing as a Labour candidate for Council in South Bermondsey, was leafleting an estate in the area 'when he was punched three times in the face and kicked. Meanwhile the attacker kept up a stream of insults and shouted pro-BNP slogans'. (full story at TMP online)."

This is the problem about the BNP. When people say that they merely another political party and that they are being demonised for simply talking about immigration, I say which other party attacks its fellow candidates and members of the public?  Apart from their supporters, BNP politicians themselves, and aspiring ones, are not exempt from criminal behaviour. We're also reminded that:

"David Clarke, the BNP candidate for Heathfield ward (Croydon Council) was convicted last week of two separate assaults on anti-racist campaigners who had been giving out leaflets outside East Croydon station. Full story at Croydon Advertiser."

Co-incidently, yesterday the Raincoat Optimist had a brilliant post about why people should not vote for the BNP, focussing on the Barking and Dagenham where Nick Griffin is standing. He also had this useful digest with lots of interesting links:


"Other reasons for not voting fror the BNP, from other wesbites, are:

• they make bad councillors (many racist, many more just moronic)
• their high profile members are not simply racists, but immature and are ashamed of it
• their PR stunts with “army soldiers” are shite
• they do silly things to other candidates
• they have no plans about job cuts (a bit like Thatcher)
• Hitler is still a good influence on some of their top brass
• When Griffin thinks no one is looking he says really stupid stuff
• for such a relatively small party, it has a large number of criminals in its team, and not those noble “PC crimes”
• ethno-nationalism is a pointless exercise anyway, but to suggest this can be deciphered over the phone is insanity – and talking of insanity." 

Greenwich Council has BNP candidates standing in most wards and constituencies - let's hope the electorate are not taken in by them.You really don't want these people running anything.

The PM in Eltham today

Turns out Gordon Brown made a quick stop in Eltham this morning as part of a whistle-stop tour. The Guardian's Dave Hill reports on having had a brief interview with him. When asked, Brown disagreed that Lab-Con marginal voters (such as those in Eltham) should vote tactically for Lib-Dem - carry on voting Labour was his advice, though others seem to disagree.

Photo above: Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown walks with Clive Efford (Labour PPC) and members of the Metropolitan Police and the Safe Neighbourhood Scheme, in Eltham, south London, 2 May. (REUTERS/Lewis Whyld/Pool)
 
Gordon Brown went to visit Dulwich and Brixton. Tomorrow South-East London sees Nick Clegg, the LibDem leader, touring - he'll be in Blackheath, Montpelier Vale at 10am....

Tarnished Gold for Eltham

WTF!

I was shocked to see this comment (red-circled to the left) on the website of the Tory candidate for Eltham. As he is a candidate in a marginal Labour constituency it is a bit chilling that he may become our MP next week.

Would David or any of his team care to explain the implication of the quote? Or confirm that this reprehensible quote will be removed?   It seems to be a scrolling 'vox pop' box by the way so the comment is not static, in case you look for it.