Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea May, 2017,Newsletter (#96)
- On the 5th April, I attended a Citizenship Ceremony with a difference. Since 2004 becoming a British citizen has involved a ceremony. This was the second I had been to and was a moving experience watching 30 or 40 new citizens from all over the world swearing allegiance to the crown and the UK. For those sceptics amongst us, who might have thought otherwise in a post-Brexit world, they included Irish, Italian and Portuguese – it was also a reminder of what a cosmopolitan city we live in.
- This ceremony was,
however, different, because it was also the occasion when the Barbados (Bajan) High Commissioner came to present a certificate recording the contribution John Archer made to both Barbados and the UK. Archer, who lived in Brynmaer Road, Latchmere (see the blue plaque on no.55) was a Liverpudlian of Bajan origin, who in 1913 was elected Mayor of Battersea, the first black mayor of a major UK town and a reminder that London has a long tradition of being home to people from all over the world. He was a Latchmere councillor and I was invited as one of his successors. Here is a picture of the Commissioner with Wandsworth’s current Mayor.
- Three days later I went to the National Theatre to see Twelfth Night – what a disaster. You can read more about it at https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/ where you will find a review that I wrote. Suffice to say that the evening started with problems on the railway and continued through what I thought was a self-indulgent and rather unpleasant production of what is meant to be, in modern terms, a Rom-Com; enough said.
- The next day I went to Battersea Arts Centre for the much more pleasant occasion. It was the “significant” birthday of my friend, Jenny Sheridan, long-term editor of Battersea Society’s quarterly magazine, Battersea Matters. This was a far more successful evening.
- After her Easter break, Mrs May decided to surprise us all with the announcement of a General Election. For those of you not involved in politics, which is no doubt most of you, you may not be aware of what chaos and panic, fun and frantic activity, this involves. In our case Battersea Labour Party did not, but does now, have a candidate (Marsha de Cordova, a Lambeth, Clapham, councillor), agent (me!) or funding. Don’t take this as criticism as I doubt that many other parties or constituencies were in a very different position UNLESS they had a sitting MP. This state of affairs does mean, however, that the last fortnight has been fairly lively.
- With fortuitous good timing, the next day Battersea, Putney and Tooting Labour Parties had a joint fund-raising party at the Civic Centre at the Town Hall. The speaker was Keir Starmer, who is Labour’s spokesperson on Brexit. His speech was good, but perhaps more significantly he was very impressive when it came to the questions and answers.
- As it happened, I already had a date earlier that Wednesday evening at a book launch in the Fulham Road. A Battersea resident read my April Newsletter and was interested enough to write to me saying that “My [i.e. her] writing, about history-enforced exile and uprooting, …., is particularly relevant in
these days of increasing jingoism and xenophobia, which are even leading to crimes in our streets”. Her letter included an invite to her book launch – Miriam Frank’s An Unfinished Portrait. - Miriam (pictured right) writes of her journey through war torn Spain (the Civil War, 1936-38) and Europe and then in Latin America, much of it with just her mother and a suitcase. The book is beautifully and lyrically written and is largely about coming to terms with her difficult relationship with her mother and how central that has been to her life. However, her words to me about xenophobia and the crime on our streets are particularly poignant given that since she wrote them we have had murders in Sullivan Close and Melody Road, both within a mile of Clapham Junction.
- There was a further incident in Tooting, which led to this response from the Borough’s Detective Chief Commander Peter Laverick. He said: “These events are unprecedented for Wandsworth and taken together over such a short period of time has increased the impact. We have had three tragic events over the last four weeks. I understand that people will be concerned but Wandsworth is safe [the statistics show Wandsworth to be the safest Borough in Inner London]. We are committed and are working very hard with the local authorities to tackle this sort of violence. On the whole, we are successful in doing so compared with the rest of London.”
- On the 7th April I went
to the Quaker wedding of an old friend, Edmund Green to Eloise. It was a new experience for me, with the whole ceremony taking place in almost total silence, with their vows exchanged but directly between the two without any supervisory minister or vicar.
- My last newsletter must have had an appeal to authors! On the next day, I had coffee with another author, Camilla Ween, who is an urban planner and has written a book called Future Cities. Camilla is keen to help me (and the Council) improve the quality of the urban landscape and design in Wandsworth. As we talked of possibilities we came up with an interesting idea for environmental improvements in North Battersea, which we agreed to work on. We are both busy people but if, and I emphasise IF, we come forward with an interesting plan then you heard it first here!
- On 22nd the Council had a ceremony to commemorate the three Victoria Cross winners won in World War I, but I was not there because on the same day I attended the unveiling of a blue plaque on Northcote Lodge School, 26 Bolingbroke Grove. The plaque commemorated blind, great Battersea jazz pianist George Shearing’s time at school there. George was born in 1919 of working class parents. His father was a coalman, when coal was delivered by horse-drawn wagons, and his mother cleaned railway carriages, no doubt at Clapham Junction depot. He was brought up in Rawson Street, where there is now Rawson Court. He went to Sellincourt School for the blind and then on to Linden Lodge, now Northcote Lodge, where he learnt to play the piano. In 1947, he moved to the States, where he became the only British musician to hit the big time in jazz. You can hear his signature tune Lullaby of Birdland at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zJnoQiIqDU. You can also read his autobiography, co-scripted by Alyn Shipton, in Lullaby of Birdland (2004).
- The irony is that
the two old London County Council schools, which once gave blind kids an education and in Shearing’s case an international jazz career, are now (respectively) a private block of flats and an expensive private prep school. Two of the Northcote Lodge pupils entertained us with some jazz but next term they are off to Harrow and Sherborne. Good luck to them but still ironic: we need more state schools but we have spent the last 30 years privatising them! - One nice feature of the day was the dozen or so members of the Shearing family, who attended and some of whom are pictured here – looking remarkably like pictures I have seen of Shearing himself.
- On 24th April, I attended the Passenger Transport Liaison Group – often very interesting about rail and bus improvements but not particularly on this occasion.
- Two days later, I had the Planning Applications Committee.
Two applications were of importance for Battersea. The first was an application from the Flower Stall (pictured here), which stands outside the main entrance to CJ Station. The officers recommended that we refuse the application for, what we, the Councillors, considered to be, purely technical reasons. We thought that if we stuck with the technicalities we’d become a laughing stock with the public. So, we approved the proposal and good luck to the flower-stall romantics.
- The second was a major application for 343 residential units, a 15-storey block and three others at nine storeys on the Homebase site, Swandon Way. Again, we councillors ignored the officers’ recommendations and turned down the application, on the grounds that the large and dense development would overwhelm “the Tonsleys” and result in massive congestion at Wandsworth Town station.
- At the same meeting, I also submitted a paper about the use of zinc in back and roof extensions.
You may remember, from last month’s newsletter, the picture of a roof extension seen from Frere Street – one or two of you commented that they were not surprised that it was unpopular with neighbours. Well here is the same extension seen from Atherton Road. There is nothing that the Council could do in retrospect about the extension as built. However, the Committee agreed that the zinc addition was incongruous in a street, of properties largely built with London stock brick. We resolved, in future, to take more note of materials, when considering such future applications.
- On 27th April I went to a charity lunch in support of
the Ammadiyya Muslim Community organised March for Peace on 14th May in Newham. The Ammadiyya community consists of 200 million people world-wide, who have their world headquarters in Putney, largely because the Community are on the receiving end of much persecution in many Muslim countries. The prejudice towards them is a tragedy, given that the Ammadiyyas are noted for their attempts to be peace-makers between the current warring religious factions in the Muslim world. Without notice, I was asked to speak and found myself, as a member of the opposition, rather ironically, welcoming them on behalf of Wandsworth Council and councillors!
- Earlier in the month, I visited the developing St. Peter’s Church
in Plough Road and the new flats, recently finished and now largely occupied. Some of you have asked if and when the church is going to be completed; I was assured that they expect completion in late autumn this year. - It was a little difficult to tell what the church is going to be like but it is certainly very modern. As for the flats; they appear very smart with a fascinating view over York Gardens and the many, major developments taking place, as you can see, in North Battersea.
My Programme for May
- I am sure the month will be dominated, for me, by the June General Election but I do have a Council surgery on 6th May at the main library on Lavender Hill.
- On 15th May I have a meeting of the Heliport Consultative Committee and the day after there is the Planning Applications Committee. After that, on Wednesday, 17th May, there is the Annual Council Mayor Making evening – a very simple, formal evening.
- On 28th May, as part of the Wandsworth Heritage Programme, I am leading a History Walk from the Latchmere pub to Battersea Arts Centre, via a few historical sites. If you are thinking of coming then please do contact me nearer the date, by email, for details.
In my view, we in Battersea should, therefore, vote for the candidate most likely to argue (and vote) against Hard Brexit, whatever that is, and fight still for a Remain position. To be fair, the Lib/Dem candidate represents a party, which is committed to that position – strange given that it is so indecisive on almost every other issue! But the reality is that given the electoral situation in Battersea there are only two realistic winners: the Tory Party candidate, who is a member of the Government negotiating Brexit, and the Labour Party candidate, who is anti-Brexit and will take every opportunity to fight for our membership of a customs union and the open relationship we have had with the rest of Europe for 40 years. The choice seems simple enough!
Do you know?
Last month, I asked why are the York Road estate blocks, some soon to be demolished, named Inkster, Penge, Chesterton, Pennethorne, Holcroft and Scholey? I got no responses! Obviously too difficult or not very interesting to many of you but the answers are, I believe:-
- Chesterton House: G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton, was a writer, poet and literary critic (1874-1936), who moved into Overstrand Mansions, Prince of Wales Drive in the late 1890s.
- Holcroft House: Might be named after Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809), who was a radical Englishman, who travelled to Paris, during the French Revolution and probably knew ant-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce, but I have no definite evidence.
- Inkster House: Major Inkster was a serving officer in World War II, who was a member of Battersea Borough Council’s Housing Committee, when the York Road Stage 2 estate was being planned in the 1960s.
- Penge House: Simon Hogg tells me that In the nineteenth century Penge was, apparently, a detached hamlet of the parish of Battersea. He and I guess that the naming of Penge House comes from that connection – but I am not totally convinced!
- Pennethorne House: William Pennethorne, was a principal architect and designer of amongst many other things Battersea and Victoria Parks, as originally conceived in the 1860s.
- Scholey House: Might be named after the Lord Mayor of London (1812) who, I am told, was also the churchwarden in Battersea, but somehow I doubt it. Apart from anything else he was an East Londoner.
Promoted by Tony Belton on behalf of Marsha de Cordova at 177 Lavender Hill, SW11 5TE. Produced by Tony Belton at 99 Salcott Road, SW11 5DF
Two prescient Blogs from 2014
I was just trawling through some old blogs and I came across two, of which I am pretty proud. Just scroll down the right side of this screen to July 14, 2014 and October 7, 2014 and take a look.
The first is titled School Governance and Governors, and it bemoans the demise of local councillor representation on school governing bodies and the rise of the technocrat. I didn’t know it but it presaged last week’s announcement of the “end” of parent governors. After all parents don’t know anything about running schools, their expertise being merely to have kids and local councillors equally don’t know much about running schools – all they know about it is the local community and the need to plan for school provision and school places. Obviously just the kind of people that Cameron/Osborne would want to kick out of school administration: parents and local representatives! The Tory version is, of course, to have technocrats and the private sector under the pseudo-guise of educational charitable institutions.
The second was titled The Tory Party faces a disaster called Europe. The one thing I got wrong in that blog was the date of the crisis, which I had down for 2017. I didn’t know that Cameron was going to plump for June 23, 2016 as the Referendum Day. I predicted Tory division and disaster and potentially its demise for a generation. I hope that I am right. It is beginning to look that way!
And my punt for 2016? Against all the punditry and all the apparent trends, the economic problems and climate change issues demand a collective solution. So my prediction is that 2016 sees the start of the rejuvenation of social democracy.
Come on Jeremy raise the stakes: get tough, get leading
The Tory Party is seriously on the back foot. The Brexit wing needs no help from us, though it might get plenty from traditional Labour voters, but the Cameron “mainstream” desperately needs Labour help for this crazy referendum campaign.
Here we are the largest party in the country, by a country mile, and we are being shafted by a Government, which assumes that Labour will do the right thing. We are always doing the “right thing”; we are always taking the “one nation”, “all in this together” approach whilst the Tories stuff the pockets of the rich and the rentier class.
I can’t be the only Labour activist who seriously wonders whether the future of this country isn’t more dependent upon defeating the Tories, possibly for a generation, than it is on staying in the, let’s face it, struggling EU. Its pretty much an “on balance” decision for me and many other party sympathisers.
Now what would swing it for me would be a few concessions from Cameron. Take your pick from attacking “welfare”, abolishing Bedroom Tax, scrapping the Trade Union Bill, opening real discussions about boundary redistribution, stopping “right to buy” housing association properties, ending so-called schools reforms and NHS restructuring, ending the continual and vicious attack on immigration and immigrants.
Jeremy: this is a wonderful opportunity to get the Tories talking some sensible politics. You have a great opportunity to earn their respect, grudging though of course it will of necessity be, and to win the support of the country. Your best bet for winning support in the PLP is by winning respect from the Tories and you will never have a better opportunity than when Cameron is down, with his face in the sand.
The Tories face a disaster called Europe
There will always be a right of centre party – of course – but every now and then the Tory Party faces a disaster, a cataclysmic event from which it takes them 10 or 20 years to recover. This happens when long-cherished immovable beliefs and policies come into conflict with financial, political or economic reality.
The examples that come to mind are the 1846 Repeal of the Corn Laws and the 1902 struggle over Imperial tariffs – both in effect about trade policy and import tariffs. In 1846 the interests of the English aristocracy and their farming businesses were beginning to come into conflict with those of the new industrial and commercial elite of Victorian Britain. The catalyst for the 1846 Repeal of the Corn Laws was the Irish Famine. Five years of one of the worst famines in recorded history (the Irish population fell from over 8 million to 6.5 million, which is what it still is to this day) forced Sir Robert Peel to repeal the protectionist Corn Laws.
The party split and it was not until one of the rebels opposed to Peel, Benjamin Disraeli, managed to make the Tories relevant to the new might of British Imperialism with his “one nation” Toryism that they again achieved a parliamentary victory. Disraeli’s win in 1874 was their first since 1841.
Half a century later in the early 1900s the Tory party once again tore itself apart over trade protectionism. This time it was fear of the new growing industrial might of Germany and the USA, which posed the political problem. Joseph Chamberlain resigned from the Government in 1903 to lead a campaign for Imperial Preference levies in opposition to the free trade policies pursued by Prime Minister, Balfour. Chamberlain thought that putting a tariff round the Empire would protect British trade, particularly in India, Canada and Australia, from these aggressive, rising competitors. Balfour wished to maintain the free trade essentially created by the 1846 Repeal Act.
The dispute over free trade or protectionism resulted in big victories for the Liberal Party in the 1906 and 1911 elections. Once again it was 20 years later in the totally different post-WW1 1920s before the Tory Party resumed its “normal” role as the party of Government.
And now in 2014-17 I think we face a similar prospect of Tory division and defeat over trade policies, where once again cherished Tory party notions come into conflict with the political realities. This time the Tory notion is the nostalgia for the UK as a great power and our collective failure even today to come to terms with the truth – that we are an important European nation, dependent upon our relationship with the rest of the continent. The external reality, which is posing the issue so starkly, is the EU.
David Cameron, with his tactics over the Juncker/European Commissioner vote, has made himself uniquely unpopular in Europe and put himself into a truly awful negotiating position for the post-Election “reform” of the EU. As a result it is almost inconceivable that he could win terms from European politicians, which would be remotely acceptable to a large number of Tory MPs or with anyone with UKIP tendencies.
Cameron, therefore, now faces a major dilemma over the 2017 Referendum vote. It’s almost inconceivable that Britain’s industrial and commercial elite would accept or fund a Government and party, which wanted to opt out of the EU, but it also beggars belief that the current Tory party would support a pro-EU campaign. Where would that leave Cameron – dependent upon Labour votes?
There is, of course, one way out for Cameron and that would be to lose the May, 2015, General Election. But assuming that is not his plan then his leadership seems to be leading the Tory Party inexorably into a cul-de-sac and another split over trade policy, with the right wing eventually merging with UKIP and becoming a Tory Party devoid of any real electoral prospects for a dozen years or more. Meanwhile do the pro-EU Tories hitch themselves to the by-then surely divided Liberal/Democratic party? It is an intriguing prospect and holds out great prospects for Labour.
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 