The Joy of Stench Pipes

I was at the Patrolling the Streets Scrutiny Commission tonight giving an update on the introduction of the 22 new Police Community Support Officers we as a Labour council have invested in. I have a feeling the Commission was supposed to report its findings at the beginning of the year, but here we are in May. Could this have anything to do with it being chaired by a Lib Dem?

Anyway, I was followed in the hotseat (bear in mind this was hardly the Spanish Inquisition) by Cllr Jackie Meldrum, the Deputy Leader, who was answering questions about our plans for greater community engagement.

Jackie prefaced her remarks by expressing her views on the literally hundreds of council staff who patrol Lambeth streets, from highways engineers to refuse collectors.

She then went slightly off the page, and I was unable to force back giggles, when she told the assembled councillors, officers and single member of the public that: "I'm very interested in stench pipes."

I may have giggled at the sudden remark, but there is a seriousness to the situation, both in terms of sanitation and conservation. She was referring to the 158 stench pipes there are (apparently) dotted around Lambeth, only about six of which the council and Thames Water actually know the location of.

So I'm publishing a picture to give a general indication, in case anyone bumps into one (not literally I hope). They are taller than lamp posts, Victorian in design and probably looking a bit the worse for wear since they have been forgotten about. So support your local stench pipe, if you can find it first.

Deputy Hopefuls Come to Streatham South

This afternoon 5 of the 6 candidates for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party came straight from a large hustings in Coventry to a branch social in Streatham South. We had laid on a good spread for Peter Hain, Hazel Blears, Harriet Harman, Jon Cruddas and Hilary Benn, and a large number of local party members came along to enjoy the sunshine and pick the contending brains. Some people came with very searching questions about party democracy, Iraq, equalities issues, poverty in Africa and a host of other subjects.

It was slightly surreal standing in the garden while the contenders mingled with Streatham members. It was all perfectly amicable and the members were chuffed to bits that these busy political figures had taken time to come to SW16 to hear what the members wanted to ask them before they made their decision about who to vote for.

There's an article in the New Statesman about it here, which rather misses the point that it was intended to be a small, friendly and intimate event, to contrast with the big hustings we will see in the next few weeks:

www.newstatesman.com/200705220003

Letter to The Times

I've written the following letter to The Times after reading the obnoxious article today by Mr Weak himself, former prime minister John Major, who attempts to throw vitriol on Labour's record over the past ten years.

Dear Sir

John Major accuses the Labour government of being “a waste of time” (The Times 2nd May).

Does John Major consider the minimum wage or two million more people in work to be a waste of time? Or the huge improvements in the NHS and education? Or the ban on foxhunting, which David Cameron wants to repeal as a priority of any new Tory government?

This shameless and arrogant piece is an insult to the millions of people who wasted their time on the dole under Major's disastrously weak and uncaring government. I recall his own Chancellor, Norman Lamont, saying the country's slump was “a price worth paying'” - a piece of spin strangely resonant in today's Tory party under his former spin doctor, David Cameron. Meanwhile, his trade secretary Michael Heseltine, who had promised “to intervene breakfast, dinner and tea to help British companies” busied himself before one breakfast in 1992 by making nearly thirty thousand miners redundant before lunchtime. Leaving aside the worst recession in British history, what achievement can Major really be identified with? The cones hotline?

Yours faithfully

Cllr Mark Bennett

Labour Councillor for Streatham South

Major's article is at: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article1733740.ece