Artists against Artwashing

 

With as usual due acknowledgment given to the likes of Southwark Notes's posts on the matter, a smaller personal note about how artists are great - and would be even better if allowed to get on with their work - but artwashing is not. Rather it's another nasty little side effect and hustle. 

It is used mainly to get people on side with the council and their plans and to help get planning permission, to pretend that the council and developers are making plans to benefit the locals in the area they see as just another exciting and lucrative project, and as a distraction while homes are destroyed, promises broken, deals made, communities dispersed and land grabbed, it's unclear how many of the people invited to art clubs and the like truly benefit in any way that compensates for how they are treated, or really want such things suddenly available at all. When councils, councillors, mayors and local recycling businesses support such new schemes, how many truly benefit - especially when people working in the arts (or trying to, while also fighting to be treated fairly by a council showing an eagerness and impatience for demolitions and threats of bills they never do when dealing with repairs, compensation etc.) who are benefitting area organically and from within while supporting estates and neighbours they have formed good relationships with, are being priced or pushed out, or feel they want to move just to get away from the council, its behaviour, its attitude and its plans? How many who do/can stay will remain when the next predictable stage of regeneration, the inevitable super-rich influx, takes place?

As with claims of caring for the environment while chopping down trees and building on green space, claims to care for art, artists and culture, and the ways it can and does improve an area - if people are left to get on with it rather than being bought up and used by authorities - claims to be supporting estates, local lives and mental health while destroying all those are so much, well... artwashing. It remains to be seen how much support art clubs and enterprises will really get once the plans the council truly care about get through. Hopefully all this sudden rise for the support of creativity is genuine, I would love that and for it all to truly benefit and succeed and enrich the area. Support art, artists, those enabling in their communities, culture and its help to the economy, cultural life, mental health. See through, mistrust, artwashing.

Above a photo of the Elephant and Castle, taken recently.

bump

http://lifeontheokr.blogspot.com/2017/05/when-i-grow-rich.html

More than ever. 

Artists are great. Artwashing is not. 

The one-stop council-refuting Twitter posts

It's hard to know where to start with the many assaults local people are facing from Southwark Council as hey attempt to cover their plans and deeds. Perhaps by saying why, if it elicited any groans, it needs to be from Tweets - as will be shown, and if you didn't know already, Southwark councillors themselves have taken to Twitter to among other things troll locals who highlight the at least highly questionable behaviour of the council. It is a good place to start - many self-congratulatory, back-scratching tweets fade away as the platform allows for refutation of the claims, more immediately and directly than a puff-piece on a paper, or in a ridiculous Channel4 PR campaign. Michael Scorer was recorded walking around on one estate no doubt wanting to show how local communities should be engaged with and how Southwark's regeneration plans were so delightful; him being told that the council had run the estate down and were to blame for the problems now being faced by tenants and residents made only the cutting room floor, along with the rest of that particular segment. So here we have more direct rebuttals, ready for the inevitable propaganda campaigns as they attempt another Heygate while pretending it isn't going to happen and they've learnt all the lessons from that debacle, shifting blame shamefully and shamelessly onto their victims - or, trying to...

Thanks to the many campaigns who are linked to in the tweets. Hopefully this will help bring together the answers in a helpful way - that is the intention. This will focus mainly on the Southwark cesspit but also show how it is an even wider, seemingly deliberate, attack on homes. A land grab. Something that will ultimately affect us all.

Headings will help, but there will of course be crossovers - should the behaviour of Peter John be under 'Dodgy' or 'Numbers' - as it is he gets his own as he merits. I'll start with what is for many innocent leaseholders, blamed on top of everything else when they've done nothing, a particularly painful situation:

R.T.B. - not the problem 

The rest will be more to the point but I have to say something about this, mainly for the many lives I'm seeing sadly ruined by people believing the council lives and thinking this is to blame. Again, as we shall see, the council likes to blame the victims of its actions for the those actions and the distressing outcomes. Nowhere is this more apparent and has it been so evident over many years than with right-to-buy. RTB is not to blame - the council's planning and behaviour is. Nobody has suffered more from this than leaseholders. Labour, the current Mayor, like to go on marches and call out the catastrophic consequences on people's lives when millionaire leaseholders are landed with bankrupting bills for cladding, but the way local Labour councils - especially Southwark - have treated less well-off locals just trying to buy a home as others not from the working class neighbourhoods have the opportunity to do, they are not only never defended but actively demonised. A convenient red-herring and scapegoat for the council's actions. The council, through managed decline and lack of proper consultation and scrutiny of how they arrive at their figures, treat these non-millionaire leaseholders as (in the words of Harriet Harman many years ago) 'cash machines'. 

Not RTB – a handy thread. Refutes seemingly quite effectively (given the way the arguments change course) that RTB is to blame and lays out why many leaseholders now are simply trying to make a home, and maybe this was always the case, rather than being some cruel landlord investor (and though not my concern or focus here, of those that are buy-to-let, many of their tenants seem to have better conditions than if they were, um, 'cared for' by the council's management, as they cannot get away with what council landlords do). Many people who don't 'get' RTB perhaps need to realise many leaseholders were not even born when their apparently still unrequited fixation with Maggie bloody Thatcher started. If Labour provided truly affordable homes - a phrase that we will come back to - in the area, rather than the unaffordable they claimed for a while to have built, perhaps the gap between haves and have-nots would not be increased with the attacks on RTB, which is the only outcome of the council's cruel behaviour towards those sacrificing and saving to try and make a home:

Not RTB and leaseholders to blame – a thread

https://twitter.com/NasCostomano/status/1418966970897256451?s=20

London Tenants – again, not RTB

https://twitter.com/LondonTenants/status/1423592587072528384?s=20

Help To Buy okay, RTB (and live in) not The real, only difference? About £300k

https://twitter.com/ShouT_Southwark/status/1432268551323373568?s=20

A lot RTB, as is affordable to them, being blamed

https://twitter.com/ExplorerDale/status/1428293724375748614?s=20

RTB figure claims refuted and not answered by RL

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1435556445802618881?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1431298328558510083?s=20

not RTB – again

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1437489762336747525?s=20

Service Charges are very high and need outside scrutiny. Where's the money going?

https://twitter.com/SaveBells/status/1437513433902092290?s=20

where should leaseholders go? Somewhere that doesn't stop councillors grabbing land? Figures massaged again?

https://twitter.com/Swtra5/status/1445207014410530818?s=20

no reply to LHs

https://twitter.com/Hamburgerluette/status/1448675864728715269?s=20

leases should be different – for all

https://twitter.com/leasehold_abuse/status/1438937180915834891?s=20

shared ownership worse (but still offered on regenerated estates)

https://twitter.com/STimea3/status/1439274537082834946?s=20

sale okay, especially now?

https://twitter.com/ana_captures/status/1451843241444352010?s=20

RBKC LH cash machines (?)

https://twitter.com/RBKCLF/status/1453108782146461702?s=20

Cladding

https://twitter.com/suejbright/status/1439520346730860553?s=20

LHs lumbered

https://twitter.com/suejbright/status/1430444480415641600?s=20

LH cash machines

https://twitter.com/ShouT_Southwark/status/1442079378901405705?s=20

truly affordable

https://twitter.com/DemolitionsLdn/status/1449507880726667267?s=20

PETER JOHN

Deserving of his own group, and probably of more investigating.

PJ signing Heygate to LendLease, now works for lobbying firm with LL as long term client

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1425493702269706248?s=20

As above - Terrapin

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1425761943843913736?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/SouthwarkNotes/status/1425895359923068932?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1425781767575851014?s=20

&

4 Sitting Labour cllrs as lobbyists

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1426185588470947840?s=20

PJ celebratng

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1431904683879194624?s=20

PJ confirming his priority

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1428114301697527821?s=20

PJ unclear again

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1441327006457548803?s=20

bloody cheek. I believe this is gaslighting

https://twitter.com/peterjohn6/status/1436388262155857923?s=20

PJ investigated

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1451473901159075842?s=20

NUMBERS

Prices

https://twitter.com/DemolitionsLdn/status/1430411569901486081?s=20

How many houses really?

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1431571348007043079?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1431741968250511363?s=20

How many losing?

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1450024597819166723?s=20

Fewer homes

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1431149694110011392?s=20

More lost homes

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1439514757158117381?s=20

Do they do what they say?

https://twitter.com/sarahklymkiw/status/1446088717702156288?s=20

Could go with 'rubbish planning'?

https://twitter.com/DemolitionsLdn/status/1449286873550045185?s=20

Could go below...?

https://twitter.com/ffssouthwark/status/1442769105258487816?s=20

DODGY

IMPORTANT! OKR land sales

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1438455241582723073?s=20

& cont'd

https://twitter.com/london_pacific/status/1438501147610738689?s=20

OKR Skyscrapers promised – but now (+ value) land for sale

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1416381403281960962?s=20

Heygate

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1446400654432428036?s=20

Council hiding original plans

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1426160850612666369?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1425936778649821186?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1427243107767230465?s=20

RBKC CONsultation even post Grenfell

https://twitter.com/gillkernick/status/1426818488887283714?s=20

Deletes Twitter account

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1426636978854969346?s=20

Rigged, re-run ballots

https://twitter.com/DemolitionsLdn/status/1427376024497569796?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/SayNoSlippers/status/1428493622039785473?s=20

Pollak basically excused

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1428668429033254916?s=20

Maybe because -

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1436282181857521665?s=20

Broken promises

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1429005577204682752?s=20

A say

https://twitter.com/PhinHarper/status/1450216428922195968?s=20

UK local government corruption

https://twitter.com/TransparencyUK/status/1429348865443078146?s=20

Pretty sure JMB were involved in the leaseholder centre which was going to be so wonderful. What happened to that?

JMB CBS

https://twitter.com/BallcourtGarden/status/1452964784702468106?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/BallcourtGarden/status/1453667552907907072?s=20

Vids. No consultation.

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1453864625875869702?s=20

Investigate Southwark Council

https://twitter.com/AlbionSalter/status/1451543643278483463?s=20

Delancey

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1451835903056482310?s=20

Guardian - Aylesbury sold at a loss

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1429730399027146755?s=20

Councillor meeting developers?

https://twitter.com/DanicaPriest/status/1451863798420283396?s=20

Anything to ease through their plans?

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1452672317037977611?s=20

More Pandora Papers

https://twitter.com/ShouT_Southwark/status/1434205336223748098?s=20

Seaton

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1449642776921059330?s=20

Kim Humphreys

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1450558221337440261?s=20

Right

https://twitter.com/leaftoleaf/status/1435898157532172289?s=20

Managed Decline

https://twitter.com/nehagohil24/status/1448725029911474178?s=20

&

Aylesbury

https://twitter.com/nehagohil24/status/1448725024316313605?s=20

Ah. Pandora Papers

https://twitter.com/daviduw92/status/1445395103019847690?s=20

Will they say – draw – and promise anything?

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1445599570633773058?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1445724796277465088?s=20

Ballots

https://twitter.com/soul_bouy/status/1432996059945525252?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/daviduw92/status/1445771934206074893?s=20

No large meetings / tenants friend

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1431536616976306180?s=20

Monitoring Officer report

https://twitter.com/AlbionSalter/status/1431961915970961417?s=20

Contracts?

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1447136370078756865?s=20

No mice

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1446188769737121793?s=20

Heygate - broken promises

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1443501398843396096?s=20

chasing repairs

https://twitter.com/LedburyAction/status/1444363739571105793?s=20

appear corrupt

https://twitter.com/savecentralhill/status/1441214695839436801?s=20

we have to chase up repairs too

https://twitter.com/ConcernedResie/status/1441118473153703936?s=20

where is money going (underground)?

https://twitter.com/AydinDikerdem/status/1439869611906895872?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/TsiresyDomingos/status/1439894914804895747?s=20

Oops...

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1446782819787812865?s=20

EMPTIES

Maydew House promise...

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1423950491587862529?s=20

Empty Homes on Aylesbury

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1424327507797581824?s=20

Aylesbury empties – to demolish, for...?

https://twitter.com/Jason_S_deSouza/status/1438553715519234054?s=20

Empty flats

https://twitter.com/mossysue/status/1430805629086715909?s=20

Still empty

https://twitter.com/mossysue/status/1448547637855141893?s=20

Empty Maydew again

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1441720321090936832?s=20

More empty

https://twitter.com/StaffordshireST/status/1440749369519525891?s=20

BLAMING VICTIMS

See also RTB, above.

Council not building as they could and should, are to blame

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1440964636472397829?s=20

Council dont replace, blame others

https://twitter.com/ffssouthwark/status/1445512624418947091?s=20

Council to blame for loss of green

https://twitter.com/Walworth_Greens/status/1440620990040457222?s=20

Our problem too!

https://twitter.com/SaveBells/status/1433120702572466180?s=20

Shifting blame, again

https://twitter.com/ellenrgibson/status/1450115663528435714?s=20

shift blame, guilt – more time on better plans less on this

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1447171771891920907?s=20

Response to claims of misinfo

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1444956657692336132?s=20

Nobody said don't develop – just do it fairly. Setting up a strawman.

https://twitter.com/SaveBells/status/1438161873703165957?s=20

Council mistakes, now we pay by losing green

https://twitter.com/DemolitionsLdn/status/1432438919212290048?s=20

Regen prices out

https://twitter.com/RyeHillTRA/status/1432654164773978115?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/NasCostomano/status/1432716928196435974?s=20 – to London Pacific (was Victorious Sponge)

Wanting to get away with it

https://twitter.com/LeahJon44810904/status/1448587452994699270?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1448587952095907847?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/BenRymer/status/1448604925571784708?s=20

yimbys don't won''t get it

https://twitter.com/mossysue/status/1432417728397205515?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/mossysue/status/1432421110893760517?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/georgiehodgess/status/1432757072374943744?s=20

Jack

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1448345306609881099?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/AlbionSalter/status/1448538316727595011?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/Jonifty/status/1448667356339781633?s=20

Sanctimonious Labour. Liking to convince themselves they're helping poorer people but just doing what their ego demands, despite all evidence that they're harming those same communities and storing up problems for them, just to benefit developers (and themselves). Do they really believe what they say, choose to convince themselves or know it's nonsense? Hypocritical, patronising, self-serving, ego-massaging dishonest sanctimonious rubbish.

https://twitter.com/slooshbag5/status/1437327155764027393?s=20

Not really good enough

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1437457347723636739?s=20

Cult

https://twitter.com/AlbionSalter/status/1448540673922240513?s=20

managed decline

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1438952893076344835?s=20

Why parks are gardens now (for some)?

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1446065055510958080?s=20

They care about people apparently – these are the same, does same await those being 'helped' now?

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1434507153927249925?s=20

Who suffers?

https://twitter.com/Swtra5/status/1436076389720109070?s=20

BAD PLANNING

Livingstone, everybody's mate – until, as we've seen,  he's called out and stops replying. Doesn't even take the magic word ('audit') for him.

https://twitter.com/LeahJon44810904/status/1447460743994085377?s=20

Fire Safety

https://twitter.com/LeahJon44810904/status/1447460743994085377?s=20

LendLease offices

https://twitter.com/SaveKingstonEst/status/1440310831183327232?s=20

New build Aylesbury less energy efficient

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1425743965572186112?s=20

Council lying about just wanting homes – they demolished then sold land cheap to LendLease

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1426536429035864072?s=20

Lambeth sold off co-ops to developers

https://twitter.com/PeoplesAudit/status/1427340831183282179?s=20

Council build on parks

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1426163709316108300?s=20

Subsidence, RTD's

https://twitter.com/ShouT_Southwark/status/1431298831774330892?s=20

Gardens are for the rich only. Disruptors – but again only rich ones?

https://twitter.com/leaftoleaf/status/1433003260126900224?s=20

Private green spaces, anyway

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1434079023274020870?s=20

Building is posh – plan application you thought people wouldn't have

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1433765405114392577?s=20

&

a vid

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1433817286335401990?s=20

Flammable

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1431651616550232066?s=20

NRP is green, being built on

https://twitter.com/FriendsofNRPark/status/1432044769912496137?s=20

Just build doesn't work

https://twitter.com/mossysue/status/1432595442060169222?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/OfKentish/status/1432363542901104649?s=20

just build – no, listen – yes

https://twitter.com/SaveBells/status/1437397539419000835?s=20

flood risks, yes - still happening

https://twitter.com/berglund_oscar/status/1443658982820810754?s=20

more muck ups

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1443918492277870594?s=20

roof gardens are less

https://twitter.com/hughpearman/status/1438892705531244545?s=20

OKR High Density

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1439490407713239047?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1438965698559102977?s=20

Just build no good 2

https://twitter.com/SaveBells/status/1440068729736335363?s=20

RTD's

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1436664232204980227?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1436833143089156096?s=20

unsafe

https://twitter.com/Swtra5/status/1441155836756181001?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/Southwark_News/status/1441096309901979656?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1441653271513509889?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1441712573758443520?s=20

& good

https://twitter.com/UpTheElephant_/status/1441457820147195904?s=20

FT

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1434121165791023112?s=20

Sad

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1438426535069896706?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1433036249581998084?s=20

Conclusions

Social cleaning

https://twitter.com/LorettaCLees/status/1430447281191460869?s=20

Fencing up

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1430819765212360708?s=20

Will Southwark go Green?

Inquiry

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1443623644660436993?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1444252805141876737?s=20

Labour cllrs should go through it

https://twitter.com/WhyDemolish/status/1443247955813732354?s=20

tories

https://twitter.com/rubbishfriend/status/1446181725533519875?s=20

cons...

https://twitter.com/RBKCLF/status/1447263301356957696?s=20

not for us

https://twitter.com/Swtra5/status/1454400392746475524?s=20

pretty much

https://twitter.com/MGrimnasty/status/1444248727745703936?s=20

success!

https://twitter.com/court_sw16/status/1447305262453477379?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/PeoplesAudit/status/1447528472650424327?s=20

&

https://twitter.com/EstatesofMemory/status/1450889332353536007?s=20

audits – the magic silence spell

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1437512763551723520?s=20

audits are a right

https://twitter.com/ShouT_Southwark/status/1438029331452899337?s=20

AUDIT!

https://twitter.com/partridgebirdie/status/1450524109385965570?s=20

Obviously much more, basically every argument of a deluded self-regarding councillor refuted in the many campaigning Twitter accounts. Please take a look for more. If the council and suspiciously enthusastic yimbys spent as much time in meetings really caring and listening to what locals are saying as they seem to on coming up with vicious bullying tactics for on and offline harassment, and dodgy rule bending to favour developer mates, we might get somewhere. Southwark Council needs intervention. Don't say we didn't tell you so. Hope this helps.

Monopole

A 20m Phase 8 Monoploe it says. Of course, again we must say that the prior (in?)famous status of the Old Kent Road on the Monopoly board is up for review in any new editions. Obviously I shall let, and perhaps more so in future, the wording speak for itself. Just a photo blog - this (quite pleasing to look at) speaking as an image and with just the title, something like 'Monopole'? 

Not too far from the Tustin, so I'm probably putting it down as one of that, or the estate as part of the whole OKR project.

photo organisation memo 31/1/2021

Note / diary entry kind of to self, and whomever it may concern:

Because organising things is sometimes helpful, not procrastinating.

As is buying some new, affordable stuff. Like the keyboard. 

Why does blogger force portrait mode, even on a tablet?

Google phootos is storage. Will use up some of the drive allowance, but lower quality for blog may be enough so 14-ish gb may be enough, too. Not for self or solely sale though - need 1TB SSD at some point. Sorted by companies and personal. Also videos.

Google Albums sorted by:

Postcode. Kind of less of a thing now?

'Better Grammer': deliberately misspelled. For better quality instagram snals. Will get round to making sure they are eventually - or does worrying too much kind of defeat the purpose?

'For Blog': put on LotOKR, not necessarily OKR. Film photos, photos, other areas/subjects (maybe).

'Pilgrim's Way': All Old Kent Road for blog, still kind of like the title (also tried 'Knocked 'Em Down' (sic: because they're knocking things down...) but probably will stick to -

Life on the Old Kent Road: For blog of the same name. From about later 2019.

Now project concentrated on T. and surrounds? See what's what and possible. Rejected title: 'Once Upon a Time in... ' but long-standing shoot it like a musical still possibly a nice idea if, um, tricky... 

Other - whatever.

Blog posts bit easier to produce, more possible, regular? 

Write that thing. By...April!? Summer? Christmas? Probably the priority. Title okay, I think.

Also important - Get his story - video? Via Il Prof? Title is sorted. 

Maybe draw a bit.

Clear mind for a while.

Earn lots and lots of money, very quickly.

The Pilgrim's Way, again.

On Ilderton Road, SE15 (this part is anyway), near the Tustin Estate and Manor Grove, looking towards Hornshay Street. The headlining estate in the photo is the Canterbury Industrial Estate. Just out of shot to the right, under the passing train, is a vintage ambulance station which I think was apparently protected, now will if not pulled down definitely be affected by the many new builds that are going to line that side of the road soon. The Tustin is facing demolition, apart from Manor Grove, saved for many reasons but the main one, despite what the council may say according to at least some of those living there, is because the council could not afford to buy out the freeholders. Manor Grove voted to save their part of the estate in the ballot, but although they got what they wanted others have not been quite so lucky. When unwanted demolition of homes is the preferred option, either to avoid the massive bills those in the three tower blocks face or because some homes have been allowed to fall into disrepair by the council, then obviously something is not right. 

For good reasons the Tustin warranted some photo project anyway, as others seem to have noted. Now we shall see if photos speak for themselves about what is happening. Tustin is a place of memories and character, home to many proud of where they are and come from, though looking after things as they should be is apparently a bit like holding back the tide in the face of 'managed decline'. Many homes, looked after as they should be, are strong, spacious, warm and dry, close to green space, shops, transport and a welcoming school. It is an amzing location, the Old Kent Road a key point in London, and about to become more so. The Monopoly board will probably need updating. Change is coming, whether it will be for better or worse remains to be seen. There have been positive noises about the most recent plans, the architects apparently listening to ideas and concerns of tenants and residents we been guaranteed a new place on the rebuilt estate, but Southwark Council are always able to row things back and ruin things until the last moment. 

We shall see.

                                                                        Pilgrim's Way

The Old Kent Road in the time of a pandemic

Taking an essential walk, for medication, down the Old Kent Road today and you would not know anything was wrong. This is not a good thing. As Nicola Sturgeon said, "life should not feel normal" at the moment. For many it seems, apart from there being more free time, things carry on very much as though we are not in the middle of a global health crisis. Those walking in the middle of the pavement, or jogging there, just carry on when you try to move away from them; they may give you a 'look', but graciously accept that people are trying to stay safe at the moment. The thought it actually doesn't make much difference when others try to move away if they themselves don't keep their distance too, making it impossible to stay two metres from them, doesn't seem to occur. A bus stop is crowded with people, so many it would be a great surprise if they were all from the same household, so to stay two meters away from them too you need to dodge traffic. The road is filled - how much is really necessary is debatable. As is how much pollutants contribute to the virus spread. Refuse trucks and towel delivery, presumably for hospitals, seems understandable. Large scale building materials (for sites where workers are still called in) car washes, so many private vehicles, coughing cyclists - really? The cyclists have no helmet as is usually the case either; it's just apparently a time of less, not more, restrictions.

In Tesco supermarket, the queue outside is marked by 2 metre spacing and the security manage one in one out (though paths cross as this happens). But inside is different. Already coming into the place, past the groups scattered outside, it is necessary to go all the way round to the side entrance to keep contact to a minimum. But inside is the worst. The floor is again marked with 2 metre distance markers, but the aisles themselves are not wide enough, people are not kept to a single file, they turn corners and back round so so walk past anyone coming the other way, people wander about or stand in the middle including staff who must re-stock shelves and you have to squeeze past, so the so-called 'distancing measures' are useless, a bad joke this April Fools'. 

The PM's 'advice' is not getting through. The economy won't be up to much, if this is all about protecting it, if there's no-one left to buy anything. At this rate, after today, it feels like we're heading for a massacre. God I hope I'm wrong, but somebody needs to get a grip. A priority should be to close all stores, and concentrate all resources on home deliveries - good luck booking one of those. Perhaps smaller stores could stay open. At least there must be stronger controls over what is happening in shops - Aldi seem to have it sorted, only a few in at a time, so it can be done (UPDATE 3/4/2020: no they do not. Iceland seem the only place to have it sorted now - we'll see if this lasts UPDATE 27/4: Aldi much better now). Also we unfortunately need people to get the message that everything is not just 'alright'. This isn't about a police state, though that will come if things don't change, it's a heath emergency, and the things that need doing - helping others, being considerate, being aware - are still the preserve of the minority. The message has to be clearer and stronger. Is Johnson surreptitiously going ahead with the 'herd immunity' nonsense - because most scientists say this should happen when you have a vaccine, not before - trying to cull those who he'd claim didn't follow the rules so it's their own fault (even though those following the advice/rules may be at risk because of those flouting them)? Or is the advice the best, and we'll be grateful in the end? Nobody is sure it seems. Personal responsibility cannot be blamed if the message is weak but, at the same time, more people need to do what is clearly right, rather than putting others at risk as they do treating this as a long holiday. We need some sort of grass-roots campaign (don't we always at the moment, whatever that tells you) - #BeAware, #WakeUp, #Don'tBeSoBloodyStupid, or something. In the meantime...

Another note (2020)

The image in the first post this year is probably right for this, too. Not changing, kind of starting over, doing the same but, hopefully, better.
I still miss being able to arrange things as you are able to in Flickr, but Google photos it is, until I can justify the (understandable) fees since SmugMug took over.

Arranging photos.
If to sell, Then, on hard drive, as is. Else...
4 above - part of the Flickr 'archive'  From the album 'Better Grammer'.
Other Google albums for me to note from now on:
                                  Life On The Old Kent Road. As it says.
                                   For Blog. Photos taken really only for this blog.

                                    The postcodes. Staying, and photos from there/from Flickr could be reproduced here too.

                                       Pilgrim's Way. Was Life On... (as was Knock Em Down, New Old Kent Road and a previous LotOKR which I don't recall creating).

                                       Churches. This and any other projects TBC.

All could be used here.

Flickr albums... yes, the archive.

Getting things Done.

                     

Upon the (probable) retirement of the EOS 3000n

It's not only a little difficult; it's probably just not worth shouldering you around any more. It's not you - you can still do so much - but I have to move on. We can still be friends but just, probably, not like we used to be...

The relief.

Here are 7 photos taken with my old friend the Canon EOS 3000n. Kodak Gold 200. 28-80 mm lens. Maybe the last. At least for a while.

crossroads

SE1 - The Flyover

2019 ticks over to 2020. At a bit of a crossroads, locally and nationally and, probably, internationally. Should we believe in the optimism, allow a type of Stockholm-Syndrome to wash over us and take the easy route, or remember the many lies we've been told? To get back some sort of balance, we need to sort out an effective opposition to this thing (I don't think they really know) we have on the government benches at the moment. In an early post I said it was a conspiracy mindset, and whatever else that that entails, that allowed Brexit to take hold. I also said it was an act of self-harm, and so a cry for help. This may still be true - people saying they voted Brexit/Conservative (more specifically Johnson) to 'shake things up' - but the xenophobia behind much of the rhetoric is clearly much more of a driving factor than I thought. There are reports of seeing more people feeling emboldened in these sorts of views now, thinking (rightly or wrongly) the government is on their side. It is this hate - and fear and whatever else that brings with it - that has allowed Brexit to really flourish as an ideology, a cult. The 'national desire to be heard' reasoning was maybe too generous. People voted, perhaps, not so much against Corbyn (though obviouly they did) but for Johnson. I think honesty will allow us to see that it simply comes down to wanting to follow, to be told what to think and not have to think and be told that you're exceptional, one of the gang, trusting in a leader. It may be why so many religious believers support this type of politician too. There is scary talk of us being in an age of the 'strong-man', and even in a post-democracy - terrifying, hopefully an over-reaction. But Johnson succeeded where supply teacher for the public schoolboys May who was - you can easily imagine Francois and Rees-Mogg sniggering - never could. And so, depressing as it may be, let Labour not be too lofty in their ideals - for the moment at least - in appointing their leader. Johnson and the rest are likely to be most cowed by Starmer, and for them - and apparently much of the the electorate - the posturing does count for something. Don't waste any more time allowing Johnson to think he really is king, dictator, just freely in charge of everything. That's not good for any leader of a democracy. Labour should give the job to Starmer and just get on with it. Get it done, as some might say. Perhaps Philips could be a challenge to him, but I dont think any of the others still in the running could. Not that Starmer is a bad person for the role anyway; surely he'd surround himself with a diverse group of ministers to challenge the untrustworthiness and apparent paucity (though some more is being spoken about now than just Brexit) of this government's current pledges, and seemingly he's already prioritised leaving no doubt about eradicating all anti-Semitism. What has been reported - that people said they would have voted Labour if Starmer was leader - is something I heard too. Labour are just going to have to fight dirty, else the tactics used by the Conservatives will probably continue to trump any idealism. As when Labour members in clips from the time apparently wanted Blair as leader (ahead of Prescott and Beckett) because he 'looked good', if Labour want to avoid irrelevance and to be an opposition the government won't just dismiss, the thinking probably has to be similarly cynical. 

There is room for optimism of course, a few reasons at the moment actually and not just the ones our PM wants us to trust him with (I'd like to but can't; Johnson lies...). One reason is this: someone I know who's proven to be very perceptive about things over many years, says the first 'big shock' will be in 6 months. People will realise it's maybe not what they were promised, that there are too many lies, and that is a bad thing but unsustainable. 

So much feels like 'we shall see'. 

The photo is of the flyover at the Bricklayers' Arms, SEI, London, pretty much joining the Old and New Kent Roads. A double exposure on Kodak colourplus 200 with my old Canon EOS 3000N.