Archipelago of Truth

There is a rather splendid website called Poem Hunter where people of a tearful and melancholic bent can go or even those who simply want a wry smile or a rhyme to flicker across their lips.

On it are the poems of Robert Auton, who lives in Walthamstow. Here is one he performed earlier.

I see that the hoardings in front of Wilkinson's new shop in the High Street have come down. They are not far off from opening by the looks of things - there was a cherry-picker in use yesterday afternoon by a couple of workmen giving the frontage a final spray paint, while through the still shuttered windows, the shelving systems can be seen in a fairly advanced stage of construction. It will be a great boost when the hole left by Woolworths is finally filled, though I suspect that some of the pound shops in Walthamstow will now find they will have to work harder for a sale than they did when sleepy old Woolies was their most obvious competition.

The sight of a new neighbour to bring footfall seems to have cheered up some of the other businesses - Style Overdose, directly opposite was having its own signage washed and polished yesterday as well. Style Overdose, by the way is a shop I once royally slated for stocking gangster clothes, but I do notice that they have weathered the recession. They seem to have done this by having a much more thoughtful, fashionable and also softer edge to their offerings. These have been very carefully and as a result attractively displayed.

Freewheeler has been quoted in the Guardian looking forward to the Coming Of Miliband:

"Apparently Ed Miliband is coming to Walthamstow this month, to lecture us all on climate change. I'm sort of looking forward to that, as our Labour-Lib Dem council is about to introduce five neighbourhood "improvement schemes" which involve a massive re-allocation of pavements and cycle lanes for car parking."

Freewheeler's "first solitary rifle shot" in advance of "the heavy artillery" was fired in his usual style, mocking the preachy local council for running pseudo-green enviro-campaigns while never quite getting round to practicing what it preaches.

His subsequent salvos continue to hit the mark.

Bob Belam, who as the man in charge of pot holes, car-parking and bins is a much maligned man locally - with a job which his Labour partners in the council rarely try to make any easier - did respond to Freewheeler and is quoted in the Guardian, though the statement does to me have some of the bland linguistic traits of having had the life kicked out of it by a vast committee of council spin doctors:

"We are committed to improving the safety of all road users in our borough. The highway improvement scheme in Forest Road will make transport safer and reduce the number of injuries to all road users as it is designed to reduce vehicle speeds between Hale End Road and Woodford New Road.

The scheme will involve reducing the width of the carriageway and adding cycle lanes on both sides of the road. Meanwhile pavement parking bays will be installed. Double and single yellow lines will be installed to eliminate parking across the cycle lanes and the white lines which mark the central reservation will be removed, as research shows this is a proven method of reducing vehicle speeds."

As even I have noted, the roads in question can have as many cycle lanes as the council likes to spend our money on, but if the council continues to employ people to block them by deliberately parking their own vehicles across the lanes, the rhetoric will continue to be unconvincing.

Here is quite an interesting piece of footage from an unfinished documentary about cinemas in Waltham Forest. It includes footage of the now closed EMD Cinema on Hoe Street before its demise, the defunct Dominion on Buxton Road and the St James Electric Theatre.

The captioning is now out of date in that there are no cinemas locally.

Big hat-tip to Tilski though, who I hope will be able to complete this work one day.

I suppose it was because I had only recently written a post about RSM Darren Chant, but the window display at Crest really caught my eye this evening.

The window to the left of the door now contains a Union Flag and reproduction of the Kitchener recruitment poster from World War One. In front of this is a stand with a wreath of poppies with the insignia of an unidentifed military formation.

This is accompanied by a helmet from some non-British provenance and is surrounded by a small collection of relevant books. These include a copy of David Lloyd George's War Memoirs, Martin Bell's 'In Harm's Way', Tonie and Valmai Holt's 'Battlefields of the First World War', Elleston Troud's 'The Killing Ground', Gilda O'Neil's 'Our Street' and a volume of Lorca's poetry. There are also a number of videos, such as The English Patient, War and Remembrance, The Great Escape and Pearl Harbour.

This ensemble is tastefully framed by some black ribbon, more silk poppies, a card of remembrance and a wooden pedestal adorned with artificial ivy.

The Labour Party has draughted in an Insider's Insider to Walthamstow to try and bolster its chances for the election next year and no doubt obtain a few photos of members of the out of touch elite rubbing shoulders with a carefully choreographed bunch of the common folk. As with Nick Clegg's visit on behalf of the LibDems a few months back, I look forward to open invitations and/or the news that this is a genuinely public event and not just an exercise in astroturfing.

Thus it is that we are told that Ed Miliband is to attend a "community meeting" in Walthamstow at Willowfield School in Clifton Avenue on Thursday, November 26. This is for a discussion about "the environment" between 6.30pm and 8.30pm.

I presume this is part of the local party's attempt to counter activists' perceptions that the LibDems may be out-performing them locally. Ed Miliband is an interesting choice. He is said to be quite well liked in higher political circles (unlike his stuck-up brother the foreign secretary). Nevertheless, despite also being reasonably clean on expenses, his background as an elitist does not automatically mean he will stem the rot. Ralph Baldwin in Labourlist sums up the issue thus:

"Political assistents, think tank researchers, sycophantic suck-ups of the PM and pals with a guaranteed trip to Parliament are reminiscent of the final days of Tory rule back in 1996 when Tory candidates secured their seats by heavy donations and similar arrangements. There is consequently too little practical experience entering Parliament; the majority sweeping in from the educational establishments into the Parliamentary establishments and relying on think-tanks and PR, without the first clue of how to relate to those who they will fail to properly represent. To these institutionalised elites, the electorate have become a nuisance; they cannot afford to speak and debate with the local people for fear of being exposed."

Like Ms Creasy, Ed Miliband sadly seems to fit the bill for this critique. He seems to be the type of out-of-touch and gilded carpet bagger who has wrecked New Labour: After graduating from university, Miliband had a very brief and unsuccessful career in the media, basically going straight into a job in politics as a Labour Party researcher. No doubt his father Ralph's reputation as an influential Marxist helped him secure a role as a speechwriter and researcher for Harriet Harman. That was in 1993. In 1994 he switched his personal allegiance to Gordon Brown. By 1997, following Labour's landslide election victory, Miliband was appointed as one of Gordon Brown's special advisers with specific responsibility as a speechwriter. Guess who paid his salary. You did.

He rose to become one of then-Chancellor Gordon Brown's confidantes, being appointed Chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers.

In late March 2005, just weeks before the General Election, Ed Miliband elbowed aside Michael Dugher, a local candidate (though also a "special adviser" to Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon) to be the Labour candidate in the safe Labour seat of Doncaster North. The shortlist for the seat was drawn up without consultation with the local party. Miliband 'shrugged off concerns of some local party members that he had no previous ties to the area', just as we are told Ms Creasy has shrugged aside the still rumbling concerns that she was also "imposed" through an exercise using a restricted shortlist in Walthamstow.

Miliband has only 4 years experience as an MP. He was elected Labour Member of Parliament for the South Yorkshire constituency of Doncaster North in the 2005 general election. After only two years as an elected MP, Brown appointed him Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office. On 3 October 2008, Miliband was promoted to Secretary of State at the newly created Department of Energy and Climate Change in a reshuffle. He is also a Privy Councillor.

It is presumably in his capacity as minister in charge of the Department of Energy and Climate Change that he today announced his support for nuclear power. On 16 October he'd announced that the British government would legislate to oblige itself to cut greenhouse emissions by 80% by 2050, rather than the 60% cut in carbon dioxide emissions previously announced.

It is no doubt a pure co-incidence that his partner is a lawyer who specialises in environmental, planning and international law.

The Grenadier Guards are some of the most famous soldiers in the world. This is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army, and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. It is a regiment with a very proud 353-year old tradition, not only at square bashing and ceremonial, but at the sharp end of most of Britain's wars. Battle honours are too numerous to list in their entirety here.

It is this august body of men that Darren Chant rose through the ranks to become the Regimental Sargeant Major of. He has been described as a man who was “carved from the rock” that forms the foundation stone of the Grenadier Guards. His rank made him the most senior soldier in the most senior regiment in the British Infantry.

He was born in Walthamstow on 5 September 1969. He completed his basic training at the Guards Depot, Pirbright, in 1986 and was deployed to South Armagh, Northern Ireland, in 1993.

After an attachment to the Pathfinder Platoon from 1997 to 1999, he returned to the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards before being posted to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) as a Colour Sergeant instructor until 2003. At Sandhurst WO1 (RSM) Chant quickly made a name for himself with his straight-talking, no nonsense approach to training and soldiering.

After two years at Sandhurst, WO1 (RSM) Chant rejoined the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards. As the Company Sergeant Major of Inkerman Company he deployed to Bosnia from September 2004 to June 2005 as part of NATO's, and latterly the European Union's, peacekeeping operation.

On return from Bosnia he was posted back to RMAS as a Company Sergeant Major from August 2005 until December 2006 where he met his future wife. After a year at RMAS he returned to the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, firstly as a Liaison Officer for the battalion while deployed to Afghanistan on Operation HERRICK 6 in 2007.

On return to the UK he took up the post of Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant (Technical). In the summer of 2008 he was appointed Sergeant Major and moved with the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards to London and on to pre-deployment training. In September 2009 he deployed to Afghanistan on Operation HERRICK 11 as the Sergeant Major of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards on operations at the town of Nadi Ali in central Helmand.

Instead of returning, however, Darren Chant, was this weekend being honoured on Remembrance Sunday as yet another casualty of the war in Afghanistan.

RSM Chant leaves behind three children from his first marriage and a grieving widow who is carrying his unborn child. He died last Tuesday at the hands of an Afghan policeman believed to be called Gulbuddin, who turned on him and four other British soldiers who were also killed when they were resting in a compound.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Darren Chant's mother Elizabeth said his wife had to send the London-born Grenadier guardsman a duvet because he was not given adequate bedding to cope with the bitterly cold Afghan nights.

The 59-year-old said: "My son said Afghanistan was a living hell. They need more of everything, more equipment, more troops, more rifles and more clothes and boots which fit properly.

"Gordon Brown is a joke. He should never have been put in power. Darren's wife had to send him a duvet - bought out of her own pocket - because it was so cold at night".

Then let us fill a bumper
And drink a health to those
Who carry caps and pouches,
And wear the loupèd clothes.

[Updated 9 November 2009]

There are thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of books on Leadership, and a google search of the word will come up with some 121,000,000 entries on the web. It might be silly therefore to argue about what makes a good leader or mock someone for their lack of leadership qualities, when there are so many different definitions. You can get Phd's on the subject apparently and still not know what it is.

There is probably an idiot's guide to leadership suitable for everyone. Just about any self-deluded soul can find the guidance to say that they have exactly what it takes to be a good leader. Even Gordon Brown, one of the most unpopular leaders this country has had since, say, Tony Blair, no doubt has some pamphlet by his bedside from a guru or somesuch who lets him think he has the Right Stuff, if only one written by one of the sychophants and chancers who make up and support the modern Labour Party. (With some honourable exceptions, such as Frank Field MP, who once said of Gordon that his "premiership is inept and the party standing is pitiful.")

So in criticising someone's Leadership skills and potential, I think it is good to stay away from the big sweeping vision stuff which people legitimately argue about. Nor am I going to go on in this post about style, charisma or looks or about what it is the leader wants people to follow them to do (though it is important that it makes sense, will benefit the public and can stand up to the competition of ideas which are at the heart of democracy). Instead I think it best to concentrate on something more basic.

At a very fundamental level, leadership involves making it possible for people to follow, no matter what it is being asked of people. For instance, a leader must have basic skills of organisation and communication. A real leader needs to be able to clearly tell people where and when they want them to be in order to do what they want to ask them to do.

'Let's all meet up over there and save the world/tell each other how fine we are/decide what to do'

It's pretty basic stuff, as important as telling people what they will be doing if they decided to follow the great leader. Now, astute readers of my blog will be wondering what all this is leading up to. An analysis of the leadership abilities of Anjem Choudary maybe? He is the over media savvy man who told his followers to demonstrate in Westminster against the evil forces of the oppressive British state and non-Shariah legal system last Saturday and then meekly followed the police's advice that such a demonstration might not be a such good idea and they would be safer playing their silly games elsewhere. (A rational decision by the way, and one that suggests that the guy is not so loony as he appears - he is clearly capable of taking advice from someone other than his nutty supporters).

No. Sadly for the people of Walthamstow, whose hopes may come to rest on her as their Member of Parliament, it is Stella Creasy I find myself discussing. She is a professional spin doctor who currently makes her living trying to convince children and the world that her boss, Bear Gryllis, AKA Chief Scout is not a fraudulent show-off but rather a 'role model' and wonderous example of where it gets you if you would only 'be prepared' to join the scouts.

Stella Creasy, is also an aspirant to replace the honest Neil Gerrard as MP for Walthamstow. As such she spends far less time than you would think communicating directly with ordinary locals but instead seems to rattle around in an echo chamber of her own tiny clique of surviving Labour supporters, she sometimes also tries to campaign via her website. This shows her as a champion of the cause of bats and the EMD Cinema. Unfortunately for the many local families affected she chose these causes over a lot of other more important issues. These include the disproportionately high numbers of local unemployed people or the local businesses, groups suffering as a result of Gordon Brown's recession.

However, she has now decided to meet the public and 'take on' the BNP, despite the poll evidence that their influence locally is negligable. This is an opportunity, after all to show what a Great Leader she is and follow up on the recent leaflet drops her party has been conducting locally. I shall quote her in full. This is not just because as an opponent of the BNP and all it stands for, I do not wish people to think in any way that I might not agree with her sentiments on this topic. Even if I think her way of tackling the extremists is a tad feeble (will they will not sleep soundly knowing she is eschewing the internet to personally set up a street stall?) I think I should be fair and let people know what she is actually saying to them. I would do this for her challengers, the LibDems, Independents like Paul Warburton, the Greens or even the Tories if they could be bothered to do any real politicking locally:

"Lest We Forget: Tackling the BNP through Hope Not Hate
By Stella Creasy on November 3, 2009 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I'm organising a street stall on Saturday 7th November to tackle the threat the BNP pose to our society.

On the 7th, we'll be holding a leafleting session to gather support for action being taken by Hope not Hate. Organisations like Hope not Hate, and Unite Against Facism, are taking on the BNP and the politics of hate and fear that they stand for. They're bringing people together from a wide variety of backgrounds to say that this vile party has no place in modern Britain. If you feel the same, please come to this stall on Saturday between 11am and 2pm to take some leaflets to deliver to your neighbours. Together we can spread the message about what we can all do to help the fight against the BNP, both here in London and across England. Please email if you would also be able to help with staffing this stall during the day itself."

So why bring up the issue of leadership and question Stella's abilities? Simple. She doesn't say where the stall is going to be she wants people to meet her at. All it says is there will be 'this stall' and it will be at 'the street'. Doesn't she have any colleagues in her team who can proof-read?

I suspect she has many great qualities and no doubt will prove good at talking the Chief Scout up into a fine upstanding citizen, but where the demonstration of simple organisational skills and communicating the basics is concerned, all I can say is that for very basic reasons, Stella Creasy is currently falling short.

A major hat-tip is in order for Pietro0072000's Channel on You Tube for these atmospheric images of Walthamtow High Street last Saturday evening before the cleaning crews arrived. It starts with a left turn at the Mall (facing the Police Office) and continues down to St James's Street. I don't know who the musicians are. Ten and a bit minutes.