31 October 2008

Statutes of liberty

Statutes of liberty

From the Magna Carta to CCTV, a new exhibition at the British Library tells the definitive story of the nation's fight for liberty. Historian Tristram Hunt is inspired

Underground poster referring to CCTV cameras

Underground poster referring to CCTV cameras. Photograph: Tony Kyriacou/Rex features

Cancel every school trip; abandon every civics class; relocate every citizenship ceremony: anyone interested in the history and meaning of British liberties needs to head to the British Library in London. For the first time, our constitution is on show.

It was the late Lord Scarman who once suggested that the British constitution was not so much "unwritten", but just "difficult to find". While Americans queue round the block of the National Archives building in Washington to pay homage to the Declaration of Independence, the diffusion of Britain's constitutional record has systematically neutered any popular enthusiasm for this past. It is as if, down the generations, Britain's rulers have never dared to let daylight in upon the magic of their governance.

Now, the neon lights are well and truly on. Beginning with the Magna Carta of 1215 and taking in the death warrant of Charles I, the 1832 Reform Act, the Holloway prison diary of suffragette Olive Wharry, and concluding with the Beveridge Report and the Human Rights Act, this is the definitive story of British liberty told through the printed page. And what these dry parliamentary acts, Hogarth prints and raucous election leaflets all point to is just how hard-fought these rights have proved.

In contrast to Kenneth Baker's planned "museum of Britishness", this is not a Whiggish tale of simple, glorious progress. What the minute-books of the outlawed Corresponding Societies of the 1790s, the photo of the Chartists' 1848 rally on Kennington Common, and the Race Relations Act highlight is the ongoing struggle which enmeshes this history. Liberty and democracy were never handed over on a plate: they were taken by the British people from under the cosh of the policeman's truncheon and the bench of "special juries".

As historian and co-curator Linda Colley points out, Britain - the so-called "mother of parliaments" - was in fact remarkably backward when it came to giving people the vote. "After 1850, the UK increasingly lagged behind other parts of Europe, the US, and even some of its own colonial dominions in the access it afforded to the franchise," she writes in an accompanying essay. "Despite Reform Acts in 1867 and 1884, the UK electorate at the start of the 20th century was one of the narrowest in Europe." Such historical clarity is a useful corrective to our self-congratulatory rhetoric of timeless British freedom.

Indeed, the chauvinism of Gordon Brown finds no echo in this exhibition. What the copies of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's will, the US Declaration of Independence, and an excellent display of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man all point to is the foreign influence on supposedly indigenous, British notions of freedom. True, many theories of democracy and toleration originated here, but then had to be re-imported back to us from William Penn's Pennsylvania or the French national assembly. The much vaunted "golden thread" of British liberty is clearly best approached as an international, Enlightenment phenomenon.

Yet what is particular to these islands is an abiding belief in the rule of law. Sir Edward Coke, the jurist and MP who caused Charles I so much trouble, put it best when he described Magna Carta as "such a fellow, that he will have no sovereign". It is this sense of the righteousness of the law in protecting personal freedom from arbitrary governance (often far more important a liberty than the vote) which has for centuries provided such a powerful vision of the British birthright - and was so recently on display in the House of Lords debate over 42 days detention. The great virtue of Taking Libeties is to make flesh these rather ethereal notions with copies of the Habeas Corpus acts, the 1689 Bill of Rights, as well as suffragette posters of the 1900s all demanding freedom as an uniquely English, then British, attribute.

The exhibition also demands we take part in the process. Today, no museum can afford not to be interactive and, in a clever swipe at the surveillance society, as visitors enter the exhibition they are allocated an electronic tag that then allows them to vote at touch screens on issues raised by the historical documents: does CCTV keep us safe? Do we agree with 42 days detention? Should the NHS treat people who are irresponsible about their health? At the exit, answers are collated on a constantly updated computer screen to reveal a rolling response to modern-day views of liberty. Instantly, the grand narrative of the Petition of Right and Hobbes' Leviathan are made powerfully, if parochially, intelligible. In the shadow of the past, our current battle for rights - to smoke in public places, to drive fast, to refuse to give our DNA - seem both desperately trivial and yet, such is the reach of the modern state, a pathetic fag-end to the freedoms we once enjoyed.

One of the loftier questions posed is whether there should be an English parliament. The documents emphasise the clear disparities between what has historically constituted English and British rights: at one end of the display is the 1706 Articles of Union and a garish notebook detailing various designs for the new Union flag, and at the other the Laws of Hywel Dda (Wales's answer to Magna Carta) as well as the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath, in which the Scottish signatories declared they would never "on any conditions be brought under English rule". More controversially, the curators have also showcased the 1916 Sinn Fein Rebellion Handbook. In the month when the women of Northern Ireland were once again denied the same abortion rights as those on the mainland, the documents highlight that long tradition of strange things happening to British liberty as it crosses the Irish Sea.

As such, the exhibition hints at the recurrent historical tension between the British system of liberties and its imperial implementation. Despite our slave-trading industry, in 1701 Lord Chief Justice Holt could rule that "as soon as a Negro comes into England, he becomes free: one may be a villein in England, but not a slave". This was the language of free-born Englishmen, but it belied our arbitrary practices abroad. Indeed, the actions of officials and soldiers in the British empire often served as warning of the perils of lost liberty. According to Colley, "One of the persistent criticisms levelled against the empire by reformers and jurists was that such abuses overseas might in due course threaten and infect the quality of liberties at home." In ascending order, what happened in a colony today may be done in Ireland tomorrow and England hereafter.

Beyond the legal perimeters of trial and detention, Taking Liberties tackles head on Isaiah Berlin's two concepts of liberty: the "negative liberty" of freedom from interference (celebrated in a copy of JS Mill's On Liberty), as well as the "positive liberty" to achieve human potential. So, the section on "Freedom from Want" looks at the growth of welfare and state support from the friendly societies of the 1800s via the People's Budget up to the founding of the NHS in 1948.

In doing so, the exhibition opens itself up to a Tory critique. Arguably, it was the post-war welfare state that killed off much of that civil society - the dense, social fabric of clubs, associations, and charities - that constituted an essential element of British freedom, in contrast to Continental centralism. On one reading, the great clunking fist of Whitehall smothered the little platoons of British self-help. Conservatives might also detect a subtly anti-royal sensibility with little treatment of the 20th-century monarchy in preserving the constitutional settlement. Disappointingly, the exhibition also dodges today's debates over cultural rights and freedom of speech. There is a scholarly treatment of John Milton's Areopagitica, but nothing on The Satanic Verses.

Instead, the show culminates with an advert from Charter 88 and, with it, an implicit call to arms. British subjects have been very effective over the past 800 years at reining in the power of monarchs. But, in the process, we have taken our eye off parliament. The Levellers of the English civil war were amongst the first to point out that politicians were as dangerous as princes when it came to attacking personal freedom. And now we have ended up with monstrously unchecked governments able to make war and law with all the temerity of an elective dictatorship. The Human Rights Act was one attempt to curb this executive excess, but the political agenda behind these myriad documents and complex charters is to make the case for a modern, written constitution and bill of rights.

But that is not what I took away from Taking Liberties. Instead, the exhibition only served to affirm the fascinating complexity surrounding the British story of liberty and the redundancy of trying to reduce it to a single document. Quite simply, the history is too rich.

Cop shop closures to be reviewed



News

Cop shop closures to be reviewed

Wednesday, 29 October 2008

Streatham police station could be closed

Streatham police station could be closed

TWO police stations have won a stay of execution after the Met’s governing body agreed to review the decision to cut them.

Met Police Authority (MPA) members will look again at a major reshuffle of Lambeth police proposed by the force’s asset management plan.

Implementation of the plan was set to run alongside borough commander Sharon Rowe’s reorganisation of the borough command structure.

Under the reshuffle – named Operation Walrus II – the borough looks set to lose one command centre at Streatham and the town’s superintendent.

Lambeth will be run from the two other existing command centres in Kennington and Brixton, overseeing policing in the north and south of the borough.

The smaller Cavendish Road police station in Clapham also faces the axe under the asset management plan because its facilities are not up to the job.

Instead, the Met proposed setting up new fast response centres in the borough and using Streatham and Cavendish Road for just front counter services.

The plans have sparked a campaign to save the threatened police stations, with protesters saying they should be refurbished.

And in response, at a meeting of the MPA’s finance committee on Thursday, members agreed to set up a special panel to review the proposals.

Streatham Lib Dem councillor Julian Heather told the committee about strong opposition to the plans from residents.

He said: “Residents want real police stations staffed by real police officers – not just a police shopfront as is currently being proposed.”

Chris Nicholson, the Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Streatham, also handed in a 2,200-signature petition against the closures.

He said: “I am pleased that the MPA has agreed to set up a panel to review the closure plans.

"We have won a battle but we have still some way to go to win the war to save our local police stations.

“We will be looking to ensure that there is proper consultation with residents so that they have the opportunity to give their views on the plans.”

Email: leon.watson@slp.co.uk

Outrage at Lambeth Living cutbacks



News

Outrage at Lambeth Living cutbacks

Wednesday, 29 October 2008

tenants on estates like the Ethelred are facing increased charges and service cuts

tenants on estates like the Ethelred are facing increased charges and service cuts

IT was supposed to end a borough’s social housing woes – but just months since it was set up, the private firm that runs council estates in Lambeth is hitting tenants with major cutbacks.

Lambeth Living Limited – an arm’s-length management organisation – was supposed to bring great improvements for the tenants and leaseholders of 33,000 council-owned homes.

But a major financial crisis in Lambeth council’s housing department, which is millions in the red, means Lambeth Living is having to make drastic cutbacks to services.

Tenants already face rent hikes of up to £14 per week from next April and the council is ramping up heating and hot water charges by 65 per cent, and lighting charges by more than 30 per cent from next month.

And now Lambeth Living is slashing services and cutting jobs in a bid to save more than £2.5million over the next 18 months.

It wants to close four housing offices in Norwood, Stockwell and Clapham.

This would force tenants and leaseholders who wanted to pay their rent, or have problems that need to be sorted out, to travel to the three remaining housing offices in Streatham, Brixton and Kennington.

The office closure plan comes on top of earlier closures that have seen more than seven housing offices shut down.

A home redecoration scheme for elderly tenants has been axed, the replacement of out-of-date gas fires stopped, as well as the upgrade of communal boilers.

Almost 50 “capital projects” on estates will also be canned, including lift and window replacements and works on roofs and drainage.

Almost 70 jobs are to be axed across departments – including maintenance and repair staff.

A total of 130 jobs are expected to be cut in the next year.

Opposition councillors have slammed the cutbacks which they claim will hit long-suffering tenants hard.

Lib Dem councillor Jeremy Clyne said: “With this swingeing round of cuts, tenants – especially elderly, vulnerable residents – are paying for Labour mismanagement of the housing service, and this is before the double rent rise hits them.

"It is an absolute shambles.”

A Lambeth Living spokeswoman said the firm hoped to keep the service cuts to a minimum.

She said an “impact assessment” would be conducted before housing offices were closed and there would be a full consultation with staff and unions before any job cuts were made.

Email: newsdesk@slp.co.uk

Cops search for gang weapons



News

Cops search for gang weapons

Wednesday, 29 October 2008

Stockwell Gardens was among those searched by armed police (Magnus Andersson)

Stockwell Gardens was among those searched by armed police (Magnus Andersson)

ARMED police scoured three estates in a two-day crackdown on gangs using hidey-holes to stash weapons.

Cops launched the co-ordinated sweep of open spaces in the Vassall, Larkhall, and Coldharbour wards of Lambeth.

Ten rounds of live ammunition were found, with one unspent shotgun cartridge, a quantity of class-A drugs, two blades and two false car registration plates.

The searches took place on Wednesday and Thursday on the Angell Town, Myatts Field and Stockwell Gardens estates.

Officers said it was part of a drive to suppress gang-related activity, reduce serious youth violence and reassure the community.

Operation Dacres was also launched to reduce the risk of injury to front-line officers patrolling the estates.

Ten officers were used in total.

They were from Lambeth’s Proactive Firearms Team, safer neighbourhood teams and Kennington’s Task Force.

Specialist officers from the Met’s CO19 firearms unit and firearm recovery dogs from CO11, the public order branch, were also used to sniff out weapons.

Officers searched estate stairwells, lifts, electric cupboards and grassy areas before carrying out street briefings to tell residents what they’d been doing.

Detective Inspector Nicola Church, of Lambeth’s firearms team, said: “This operation has highlighted that those involved in serious violence are secreting their weapons and ammunition in public places.

“Working together with Lambeth safer neighbourhood officers and with assistance from CO has proved very productive.

"It is our priority to make Lambeth a safer place.”

No arrests were made.

Email: leon.watson@slp.co.uk

U-turn means Luke-John could die



News

U-turn means Luke-John could die

Wednesday, 29 October 2008

Nickola Copley with son Luke-John

Nickola Copley with son Luke-John

A MOTHER caring for her terminally ill son is furious at health bosses’ U-turn on lifesaving treatment.

Nickola Copley has been advised her son Luke-John Copley needs an RSV vaccine to stave off potentially fatal infection.

Luke-John, five, has Down’s syndrome and a catalogue of other conditions, leaving him with a very weak immune system.

For most people, the common RSV virus, which attacks the respiratory tract, produces only mild symptoms, but Luke-John’s body would be unable to cope.

Lambeth Primary Care Trust (PCT) wrote to Ms Copley on September 3.

The letter said: “Regarding your son’s Synagis [RSV vaccine] treatment ... I have discussed the details with the paediatric cardiology department and your GP and it has been agreed that Lewisham Hospital will provide the injection.

"I hope that everything goes to plan.”

But the “everything” didn’t go to plan because, just six days later, Lambeth PCT wrote to Ms Copley questioning the benefit of the injection.

It said: “The PCT can only agree to fund treatments like this when they receive an application from a medical practitioner which includes information about the benefits to the individual patient.”

Ms Copley, 30, cares for Luke-John round the clock at their small flat in Hotspur Street, Kennington, with her mum Linda Upton.

She said: “I’m very confused, hurt and upset about this.

“It has been very stressful because Luke-John is the most important thing in my life.

“He already has a short life expectancy and this situation is making it even more painful.

“I believe this U-turn has been made to save money.

“Because my son is terminally ill and not expected to live a full life they are worried about wasting money on the treatment, which will cost about £1,000 a year.

Lambeth PCT communications manager Kelly Hastings said: “These decisions are best made by those directly involved in the patient’s care.

“In this particular case, specialist consultants caring for Luke-John are working together to agree the best course of action.

“Lambeth PCT will fund the medicine in question if the consultants agree it is appropriate.”

For more on this story see Tuesday's South London Press.

Email: lawrence.conway@slp.co.uk

South London's haunted tube stations




News

South London's haunted tube stations

Friday, 31 October 2008

Elephant & Castle tube

Elephant & Castle tube

HORROR lovers out celebrating Hallowe’en should be careful they don’t bump into any real ghosts in one of South London’s four haunted Tube stations.

A new book called Haunted London Underground, by David Brandon and Alan Brooke, charts the ghosts and ghouls that people claim to have seen on the Underground.

It says the stretch of Northern line between Stockwell and Oval stations is haunted by the apparition of a track-worker killed by a train in the 1950s.

When the Victoria line was being built in the 1960s, workers reported seeing a mysterious 7ft tall man wearing brown overalls and a cloth cap at Vauxhall.

And staff at Elephant & Castle station claim to have heard someone running towards them at high speed when the station is closed – although no one can be seen.

At Kennington, Tube drivers have reported seeing strange figures on a deserted stretch of track called “the loop” where trains turn around, even though passengers never travel in the carriages.

Invite to the Norman Conquests Understudy Production

Invite to the Norman Conquests Understudy Production
Alan Ayckbourn’s Norman Conquests has now successfully opened at The Old Vic
“A BRILLIANT REVIVIAL” The Observer
“A FIVE STAR EXPERIENCE” Time Out
“A FLAWLESS TRIUMPH” The Sunday Times
On Friday 14th November at 2:00pm, the understudies will be performing their version of Table Manners, the first play of the Norman Conquests Trilogy absolutely FREE!
The actors starring are:
Victoria Boreham
Paul Brendan
Alistair Cape
And Mary Ryder
If you would like take the opportunity to come along to this FREE production, please read the flyer below for more information.
Lucy Ayre
OLD VIC NEW VOICES
020 7902 7593

TABLE-TOP SNOOKER TABLE AND SET OF BALLS

TABLE-TOP SNOOKER TABLE AND SET OF BALLS
32" x 62" ( 81cm x 158 cm )
Free to anyone who can collect from Vauxhall area.
Contact Pauline on 020 7735 2260

Sewing Class in Kennington

Sewing Classes

Every Tuesday

11am – 2pm

Kennington Park Community Centre

8 Harleyford Street

Kennington SE11

020 7346 6584

Volunteer Cook required

Volunteer Cook required

with Food Hygiene certificate

The Community Lunch is an opportunity for residents on the Kennington Park Estate and people in the Kennington / Oval area to come together once a week to catch up, to take part in training, and enjoy an exercise class or local history walk.

The lunch is a very successful carrot used to get people together and in this credit crunch climate it’s value for money at just £1.00 per person.

If you are well organised, like to cook, know what makes a good balanced meal and want to meet new people. Give me a call – 020 7346 6584

Hyde Community Lunch

Bangers and Mash

Spaghetti Bolognese



Sticky Toffee Pudding

Fruit Crumble



Toad in the Hole

Shepherd’s Pie



Rice Pudding

Sweet and Sour Chicken



Shepard’s Pie

Chicken Curry



Chocolate Sponge & Custard

Roast with Yorkshire Pudding

Where can you get good home made food for 1.00?

Get to meet new people, get an exercise class thrown in (if you’re up for it) and decide what’s on the menu

Hyde Community Lunch

Every Wednesday 12.30 till 2pm

Unwaged £1.00 Employed £3.00

Venue

Kennington Park Community Centre

8 Harleyford Street

Kennington
SE11

020 7346 6584

Call to book or pop in for a look

The lunch will be dovetailed by an information session around health and maintaining personal well-being

Dracula - the musical! 2 for 1 for KA!

Dear Neighbours
Quote 'KA' for two tickets for the price of one for any show of Dracula at The White Bear Theatre Club.
Best wishes
Cathy
Dracula
By Bram Stoker / Alex Loveless
28th October – 23rd November
Tues - Sat @ 7:30pm, Sun @ 5:00pm
Presented by The Okai Collier Company, the White Bear Theatre and Fallen Angel Theatre Company (www.fallenangeltc.com)

A stunning new musical adaptation of the Gothic horror. Returning to Bram Stoker's original story, enter a world of sensual excess, shattered desire and an indefinable terror. When your love is torn from you; when freedom means death and when your soul is a demon's prey, your only hope lies in those around you, and you must unite to fight the darkest of all foes. Fallen Angel Theatre Company returns to the White Bear after last year's Time Out Critics' Choice production of The Custom of the Country:

"'A fresh gripping and witty mini epic.'"
– Robert Shore, Time Out
Box Office:
Telephone: 020 7793 9193
Leave a message with the number of tickets you wish to reseverve and on which date. We will only get back to you if there are no seats available.
Our Address:
138 Kennington Park Road
London SE11 4DJ

28 October 2008

Man shot dead in London



Paramedics and the air ambulance were called but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Man shot dead in London

Updated 08.05 Sat Oct 18 2008

A man has been shot dead in south London, Scotland Yard said.

Officers were called to White Hart Street in Kennington, south London on Friday evening.

Paramedics and the air ambulance were called but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

They found a man with gunshot wounds.

Paramedics and the air ambulance were called but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A member of staff at the nearby White Hart pub in Kennington Lane said customers at the front of the building had heard gun fire.

He said: "We saw loads of police cars around and we heard that someone had been shot or was firing a gun.

"A couple of the guys at the front said they had heard gun shots."

The area has been cordoned off while police officers investigate.

Abdul Momen, who works nearby, said: "That's quite shocking, we make deliveries to that street. Normally it's just car accidents in Kennington Lane but this is very serious.

"There's so many gangs in this area so maybe it's linked to them."

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.

Gangland hit on own doorstep | The Sun |News|Sun Justice

Gangland hit on own doorstep | The Sun |News|Sun Justice
The killing happened on Friday night in Kennington, South London — an area notorious for drug dealing and gun crime.

Week in pictures: London

Week in pictures: London

kennington shooting

Police cordon off the streets around Kennington after 20-year-old Ashley Kemete was shot dead in White Hart Street.

'Gang' shoot man is named

'Gang' shoot man is named


Tape ... cops cordon off scene where man was shot dead

Picture: Johnny Green/PA Wire

By STAFF REPORTER

Published: 18 Oct 2008
A MAN who was shot dead in an apparent gang attack on Friday night has been named as Ashley Kemete from Kennington, south London.

Cops were called to White Hart Street in Kennington at 9.10pm last night were they found a man with gunshot wounds.

Paramedics and the air ambulance were called but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Shots

A member of staff at the nearby White Hart pub in Kennington Lane said customers at the front of the building had heard gun fire.

He said: “We saw loads of police cars around and we heard that someone had been shot or was firing a gun.

“A couple of the guys at the front said they had heard gun shots.”

Abdul Momen, who works at Taste of India takeaway, said: “That’s quite shocking, we make deliveries to that street.

"Normally it's just car accidents in Kennington Lane but this is very serious.

“There’s so many gangs in this area so maybe it’s linked to them."

A 21-year-old woman neighbour, who refused to give her name, said: “We heard the gunshots and thought it was fireworks. We heard ’bang, bang, bang’ and I thought, it’s a bit early for fireworks.

“Then we heard there was a boy on the floor and he’d been shot four times.

“I know the boy who it was, we used to hang around together with other youngsters when we were kids though I’ve lost touch with him since.

“I saw him a few days ago, it’s shocking to think that now he’s dead.

“The time was when people used to fight with their fists, now it’s all gone crazy.”

The area has been cordoned off while police officers investigate.

Real names that sound like a joke

My Sun

Tuesday, October 28, 2008


Cruel parents or just unlucky? ... Phil Graves is just one of the hilarious real names in new book

Cruel parents or just unlucky? ... Phil Graves is just one of the hilarious real names in new book

Real names that sound like a joke


SOME parents can be cruel – or down right stupid – when naming their kids. Other people are just born with a surname that makes you titter. Now the funniest have been collected from British records of births, marriages and deaths dating back centuries. Here TIM SPANTON picks out some of the best.

SUE AGE

Born Glasgow, 1849.

PETER PIDDLE

Baptised Fowey, Cornwall, 1649.

ENEMA BOTTOMLEY WOOD

Died Huddersfield, 1904.

SEYMOUR BUST

Born Halstead, Essex, 1841.

PLEASANT TITTY

Baptised Margate, Kent, 1768.

(She was named after her mum — so the family had a pair of Pleasant Tittys.)

SEXEY BUTT

Born Dundry, Somerset, 1803.

EFFING DICK

Born Glasgow, 1848.

WILLY MUSCLE

Born Holme, Huntingdonshire, 1685.

GOLDEN BALLS

Baptised Aylsham, Norfolk, 1813.

KENNETH McSHAGGER

Born Scotland, 1841.

WILLIE STRETCH

Born Winsford, Cheshire, 1894.

NANCY BOYS

Born Brighton, 1842.

MAD LOONEY

Died Warwicks, 1894.

CONSTANT PAIN

Born Hackney, London, 1901.

MINNIE BAR

Baptised Galston, Ayr, 1761.

AL DENTE

Born Whitechapel, London, 1900.

POSTHUMOUS MINCE

Died Greenwich, Kent, 1839.

AGNES ETTA PEPPER

Born Ipswich, 1881.

EASTER BUNNY

Born Yorkshire, 1851.

KITTY LITTER

Born Marston, Cheshire, 1839.

HOLLY BERRY

Born Barnsley, 1880.

PEARLY GATES

Married Westminster, 1996.

RICK O’SHEA

Married Kennington, London, 1864.

SENSITIVE REDHEAD

Born Bridlington, E Yorks, 1873.

JIMMY RIDDLE

Born Melrose, Midlothian, 1648

PETE SAKE

Born Cheshire, 1840.

PECULIAR BUTTERY

Married Wolverhampton, 1871.

ALICE MAY FALL

Born Shoreditch, London, 1894.

NICHOLAS STREAKER

Born Durham, 1747.

LETTICE SPRAY

Baptised Greasley, Notts, 1633.

IRIS TEW

Died Chester, 1985.

DICK BRAIN

Born Stoke-on-Trent, 1871.

TURD COLLAR

Born Ireland, 1821.

TERESA FARTWANGLER

Born Usk, Monmouth, 1828.

PHILIP PLONKER

Baptised Shalford, Surrey, 1632.

WILLY LEAK

Born Poplar, London, 1886.

ANICE BOTTOM

Baptised Dewsbury, W Yorks, 1837.

IVA LONGBOTTOM

Born Balby, S Yorks, 1899.

TRANNIE PICKUP

Born Portsmouth, 1853.

SILLY TROLLOPE

Born Doncaster, 1894.

DICK HANDLER

Baptised Earls Colne, Essex, 1585.

JOYCE MOODY NUTTER

Died Braintree, Essex, 2001.

HUGH SWELLING

Born Ireland, 1811.

PHIL GRAVES

Died Rotherham 1879.

DEMOSTHENES CUPPA

Married London, 1886.

BASIL LEAF

Born York, 1895.

LARGE BEE

Born Notts, 1829.

LOW FEE

Married Chorlton, Cheshire, 1908.

COLLY FLOWER

Father of girl married in Soho, London, 1797.

MAUD STALE BUN

Born Sunderland, 1851.

LOW FAT

Married Cardiff, 1905.

FAY KING

Died Bromley, Kent, 1998.

SANDY BEACH

Born East London, 1899.

DAILY BONER

Born Hernhill, Kent, 1898.

Taken from Potty, Fartwell & Knob, compiled by Russell Ash, Headline £6.99.

Three bailed over fatal shooting

Three bailed over fatal shooting

Three people held over the fatal shooting of a man in south London have been released on police bail.

Ashley Kemete was shot three times

Ashley Kemete, 20, was found in Kennington on the night of 17 October and was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 15-year-old youth has been bailed to return to a south London police station in early November and two men, aged 23 and 24, in early December.

Officers from Operation Trident, which looks at gun crime in London's black communities, are investigating.

A post-mortem examination found Mr Kemete died of three gunshot wounds.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/london/7687183.stm

Published: 2008/10/23 15:18:03 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Police name fatal shooting victim

Police name fatal shooting victim

A man shot dead in south London has been named by police.

Ashley Kemete was pronounced dead at the scene

Ashley Kemete, 20, was found on White Hart Street, Kennington, on Friday night and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Metropolitan Police officers have said they are keeping an open mind about the motive for killing.

Officers from force's Operation Trident team, which looks at gun crime in London's African and Caribbean communities, are investigating.

Det Insp Tony Broughton said: "This murder happened in a busy part of town, just after nine o'clock on a Friday night.

"We know there were many people in the area.

"Several witnesses have already come forward, but there will be others who saw something or know something. We need those people to get in touch with us."

A member of staff at the nearby White Hart pub in Kennington Lane said: "We saw loads of police cars around and we heard that someone had been shot or was firing a gun.

"A couple of the guys at the front said they had heard gunshots."

A post-mortem examination was being carried out on Sunday.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/london/7678613.stm

Published: 2008/10/19 11:04:04 GMT

© BBC MMVIII