From The Sunday Times

November 16, 2008

30 things you never knew about the Prince of Wales

From underage drinking to nude photos, Roland White reveals the unknown Charles

1When he was born, on November 14, 1948, the fountains in Trafalgar Square ran blue “for a boy”

2It was the first royal birth since the 17th century that wasn’t witnessed by a government minister

3There was no worried pacing up and down outside the labour suite for the Duke of Edinburgh: he was playing squash

4Charles was christened using water from the River Jordan, a royal tradition thought to stretch back to the Crusades

5If he succeeds to the throne later than September 2013 - and, frankly, that’s looking pretty likely - Charles will be the oldest person to become monarch of the United Kingdom

6William IV is the current record holder. He became king at the age of 64

7Charles is often criticised for having his valet put paste on his toothbrush, but that’s a royal myth. It was his private secretary - and only when the prince had his arm in plaster after a polo accident

8He was voted one of the 11 best-dressed men in Europe - at the age of five

9He’s a big fan of Leonard Cohen (which won’t help his reputation for being introspective and gloomy, will it?)

10During a trip to Fiji as a young man, he was entertained by topless women who performed a fertility dance for him. “It’s better than the Changing of the Guard,” he said

11Not content with being Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, he is also Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Chester, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. He holds the rank of admiral in the navy, air chief marshal in the RAF, and general in the army

12While he was studying at Cambridge, a detective was assigned to look after the prince’s laundry in case a student prankster was tempted to steal the royal underpants

13His first public speech - in Welsh - was heckled by nationalists who were beaten away by ardent monarchists armed with handbags

14On a visit to Manchester in 1983, somebody threw a custard pie in the prince’s face, having first asked permission

15When he was in the navy, Charles - scruffy and unshaven at the time - was approached by photographers. “Where’s the prince?” they asked, failing to see through the beard. “Oh, he won’t see you,” Charles replied. “He’s a pretty nasty piece of work, you know”

16His Aston Martin Volante, given to him by the Queen as a 21st birthday present, now runs on bioethanol converted from English wine. (Now that’s what you call a vintage car)

17He was caught drinking underage at 14 when he ordered a cherry brandy at the Crown hotel in Stornaway. He didn’t know a freelance reporter was in the same bar

18When he married for the first time, the South London Press newspaper, desperately searching for the local angle, carried the headline: “Kennington landowner weds”

19The Rev Ian Paisley refused to attend the ceremony because Cardinal Hume, the Catholic archbishop, would also be present

20Charles appeared on Coronation Street in 2000, visiting Vera Duckworth in hospital (and risking the jibe that this was the closest he’d get to any coronation for many years to come)

21He also appeared on Jackanory in 1984, reading his own children’s story, The Old Man of Lochnagar

22He is a member of the Magic Circle of magicians

23He spent two terms studying in Australia, where he attempted to throw a boomerang for the first time. It was not a great success. He hit himself on the head, fell over and landed in cow dung

24You can buy a Prince Charles latex face mask on eBay for £14.99, plus a set of Prince Charles ears for £2.80

25Charles exhibits paintings at the Royal Academy summer exhibition under the name AG Carrick (from Arthur George, two of his four Christian names, and Carrick from one of his spare titles)

26As a young man, he was criticised by a Free Church of Scotland minister for skiing in the Cairngorms on the sabbath

27He has his own official harpist, currently Claire Jones from Crymych, Pembrokeshire

28Asked once why he and the Duke of Edinburgh walk with their hands behind their back, he said: “We both have the same tailor. He makes our sleeves so tight that we can’t get our hands in front”

29He is the only member of the royal family to have appeared nude in a magazine. Paris Match once printed a picture of him standing naked at the window of a French chateau

30A video on YouTube claims to offer proof that Prince Charles is the Antichrist

Sex attacker 'kidnapped' baby boy

Sex attacker 'kidnapped' baby boy

A sex attacker raped three young women, made one of them pregnant, and then kidnapped her baby son shortly after he was born, a court was told.

Jordan Shodeke, 26, punched the woman to the ground and grabbed the eight-day-old baby from the pushchair, jurors at the Inner London Crown Court heard.

It was allegedly the final act of a three-year campaign of degrading, physical violence towards the women.

Mr Shodeke, from Kennington, south-east London, denies six counts of rape.

Charming and polite

He is also accused of kidnap, putting all three victims in fear of violence and falsely imprisoning two of them.

He would brag he could get away with anything he did to them Karen Holt, prosecuting

The court heard that to begin with each of his alleged victims thought Mr Shodeke was "charming, polite, funny and kind".

But it was no more than a facade, behind which lurked a "manipulative and intimidating" rapist, it was claimed.

"When each woman rejected a sexual relationship with this defendant or he suspected the involvement of other men in their lives, he subjected them to incessant harassment with repeated phone calls, threats to them and members of their family, humiliating treatment and, indeed, assault.

"He would brag he could get away with anything he did to them."

He insists all sex was consensual.

The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/london/7736319.stm

Published: 2008/11/18 18:03:22 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Madman's notes throw new light on Ripper case

The medical records of a key suspect finally go public, 117 years after he was locked up

By Andy McSmith
Wednesday, 19 November 2008

Rex Features

During the period when the Ripper was on the rampage in Whitechapel, east London, Thomas Cutbush was wandering the area's streets. And the Ripper, whoever he was, did not kill again after Cutbush was locked up

Lunatic's notes shed light on Ripper mystery

belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Lunatic's notes shed light on Ripper mystery

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

After years of secrecy, the Broadmoor authorities have released the medical records of a Victorian madman who was suspected of being the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.

Thomas Hayne Cutbush was a strange, disturbed and violent youth who was diagnosed as insane in 1891 and remained in Broadmoor until his death in 1903. During the period when the Ripper was on the rampage in Whitechapel, east London, Cutbush was wandering the area's streets. And the Ripper, whoever he was, did not kill again after Cutbush was locked up.

Visitors to the Berkshire Records Office in Reading can inspect the 26 documents that make up the records Broadmoor kept about Cutbush, as well as the letters from Ripper investigators pleading to see the documents.

Disappointingly, the documents do not prove that Cutbush and Jack the Ripper were the same man. There is not even evidence that the Broadmoor attendants or medical staff believed he was a murderer. But there is enough to keep Cutbush on the suspect list.

He was – to quote an entry on his medical records – "very insane", a danger to the staff, other patients and even to his adoring mother. He was convinced that others were plotting to harm him and fantasised aloud about getting his hands on a knife so that he could "rip" the staff and patients.

Until he was arrested and diagnosed, Cutbush had lived his whole life in Kennington, south London, within walking distance of the scene of the Ripper murders. He was born on 29 June 1864, which would mean that he was 24 when Jack the Ripper started killing. His father died when he was young and he was brought up by his mother, Kate, and her sister, who evidently adored him.

He worked as a clerk but in 1888, about the time the Ripper killings began, he went insane. It has been assumed that he contracted syphilis. His death certificate says that he died from "cronic [sic] kidney disease" – although the document attributes his insanity to "heredity and overstudy".

There was certainly madness in the family. His uncle, a superintendent in the Metropolitan Police, shot himself in 1896 in front of his daughter. The reference to "overstudy" refers to the evenings young Thomas spent poring over medical textbooks after he came home from work, until madness took hold. He took to wandering the streets at night, returning sometimes covered in mud or – according to one report – in blood.

He also became convinced that his doctor, Dr Brooks, or Brookes, was trying to poison him. He wrote to Lord Grimthorpe, one of London's leading lawyers, demanding action, but then concluded that Grimthorpe was in on the conspiracy. He was taken to a Lambeth clinic but escaped. While on the loose, a girl was stabbed nearby and another threatened. A memo in his medical notes says: "Through the carelessness of the attendant he escaped. Smeared his face with mud so as to avoid detection. Came home at midnight. Man at Cottons Wharf says he was there when assault alledged [sic] was committed."

Cutbush was never convicted of a crime because the jury at his trial in April 1891 concluded that he was insane. His mother protested that he had done nothing. But the medical notes accompanying his arrival in Broadmoor suggest that he was dangerous: "Is dazed and at times incoherent, strange and shifty in appearance. Has ideas of persecution, specially against Lord Grimthorpe".

"His aunt, Clara Hayne, says at times he has been violent or destructive, breaking glass and chandeliers. He has at times said he is poisoned and has refused all food except what she would prepare for him."

In May 1891, an attendant wrote: "At 8.20, I was talking to Gilbert Cooper in the gallery. Cutbush came up and without a word struck Cooper a violent blow in the face." Another report warned: "Thomas Cutbush told Att. [attendant] Slater at dinner twice that he would stick a knife into any of us if he had one."

A few days later, Mr Bailey, the night attendant, reported: "[Cutbush] was using some very disgusting and threatening language: said that if he had a knife suitable for the job he would rip up the Atts or anyone else that upset him as soon as look at them."

He also threatened his mother, who visited him in April 1903, two months before he died. As they left, "Mrs Cutbush tried to kiss her son. He tried to bite her face and then commenced to swear at them".

The finger of suspicion was first pointed at Cutbush in 1894, by a tabloid newspaper, The Sun, which was no relation to its modern-day successor. The report claimed that despite the popular supposition that the Ripper was dead, he was in fact a mental patient. The Sun's detailed description was clearly that of Cutbush. The suspicion was that the Met covered up his guilt to avoid the embarrassing outcry that might have followed the revelation that the country's most feared serial killer was Superintendent Henry Cutbush's nephew.

One book has named Cutbush as the No 1 Ripper suspect but others have poured cold water on this theory. Its main weakness is that the last known Ripper victim died in November 1888, at the end of a killing spree that lasted 11 weeks. If Cutbush was the killer, it seems odd that he should commit five murders over so short a period and then stop for more than two years before committing one more assault, which his victim survived. But there is almost no chance that the case can ever be solved and so for as long as the 120-year-old myths persist, Thomas Hayne Cutbush remains on the suspect list.

300,000 Londoners face negative equity trap

News

Police probe 'officer in BNP' claim..... Own stem cells save woman's lung..... Government to launch vice crackdown..... Immigration figure rises to 237,000..... Schools are failing pupils - report..... 900 jobs to go at insulation firm..... Protest ahead of HBOS takeover vote..... Shannon mother: 'Plan went wrong'..... Free hijacked crew, Miliband urges..... M&S slashes prices in crunch fight.....

Still sitting pretty: The Standard's Nick Curtis

300,000 Londoners face negative equity trap

Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Affairs Editor
19.11.08

Hundreds of thousands of London home owners are heading for negative equity as the economy slides inexorably towards the uncharted territory of deflation.

Property prices that are already around 20 per cent below their summer 2007 peak will keep falling all through next year - though at a slower pace - say some of the gloomier City forecasters. When they touch bottom at a predicted 25 to 30 per cent down, some 300,000 London houses and flats could be worth less than the loans taken out to buy them. By then the British economy could well be in its first period of deflation since 1960, bringing a host of unpredictable consequences.

It used to be said that a healthy dose of inflation was good for the economy, like the dirt that is supposed to boost the body's immune system.

It certainly helped property owners because in an era of fast rising prices and wages, mortgages magically shrank in size, in real terms at least.

A £100,000 mortgage taken out on a £30,000 salary suddenly seems a lot more manageable when a few years of healthy inflation-plus pay rises have taken it up to £50,000.

But those days are over. In an era of zero or even negative inflation and non-existent pay rises those vast mortgages taken out at the top of the property boom just do not seem to get any smaller.

Worst-off will be those who lose their jobs and cannot pay their monthly mortgage bills. Up to 370,000 Londoners are forecast to be made jobless in the recession. Many will be in negative equity and will have their properties repossessed. The lenders will put these homes on the market at knock-down prices.

Slightly better off will be those still in work who clambered on to the property ladder with 100 per cent interest-only mortgages last summer. Not only are they sitting on growing chasms of negative equity, neither are they chipping away at their debt like anyone on a traditional repayment deal. At worst they will have to give up their home at the end of their mortgage term to pay off the loan.

Those who did buy with repayment mortgages last year but are now deep in negative equity face 25 years of hard labour paying off debts that dwarf the value of their home.

Ben Reed, managing economist at forecasters CEBR, says prices will not get back to their summer 2007 levels until 2013. People with large chunks of negative equity will find it almost impossible to move so have little choice but to hunker down and hope for the best.

But it is not all bad news in the age of deflation. Borrowers who took out tracker mortgages that follow the Bank of England's base rate - around a third of all borrowers - have already seen massive reductions in their monthly mortgage bills. Further cuts in interest rates are inevitable, with at least a half-point and possibly more, coming in December. Indeed many economists believe rates will fall to an all-time low of one per cent or even zero in 2009.

Those with most to cheer about are the several thousand who took out a fabled Cheltenham & Gloucester discount tracker mortgage last summer. This is priced at 1.01 per cent below the base rate so their interest rate is already down to 1.99 per cent. If base rates do get down to one per cent they will be "paying" minus 0.01 per cent, in effect nothing.

Not all commentators believe that the outlook for the market is unremittingly bleak. Ray Boulger, technical manager at brokers John Charcol, says: "The big plus is that interest rates are the biggest driver of property prices. Even if unemployment goes to three million, that still means more than 90 per cent have got a job so the majority will benefit from lower interest rates. So I think we will see interest in the property market starting to pick up next year with prices starting to rise in the second-half of 2009."

But he added: "The big problem is the lack of funding. It is very difficult to get mortgages unless you have got a 15 per cent and preferably 25 per cent deposit. Even in the depths of the late Eighties and early Nineties there was never a shortage of mortgage finance."

For those Londoners in work who have watched the value of their homes fall faster than David Cameron's poll ratings, there is little to do other than sit tight and reflect that the money lost is money that was never really owned.

What our homes are worth now ... FOUR evening standard writers monitor the meltdown

VANORA BENNETT

What: five-bedroom townhouse in Kentish Town
Value March 2007: £995,000
Value April 2008: £995,000
Value now: £800,000-£850,000

Clive Nunes at our local Winkworth says that his office is selling quite a bit. The price has dropped but as he said: "If you're buying and selling in the same market it's not a problem.

"I've worked in this area since the 1980s," he says. "I was working in the last recession and we were selling properties then. It's just the same now because Kentish Town is well located, central and not expensive."

So we're staying put. There are good schools and doctors. We have the Heath and the British Library on our doorstep, plenty of house for our money and lovely neighbours. There's even a deli on our road. True, we are working harder than before on paying off the mortgage, in case of a credit crunch fallout later, but we don't have any plans to leave.

LUCY CAVENDISH

What: four-bedroom village house with outbuildings in Oxfordshire
Value March 2007: £895,000
Value April 2008: £800,000-£850,000
Value now: £750,000

Nicholas Brown from Knight Frank in Henley-on-Thames says that the area has held its value yet somehow my house is worth rather less that it was.

He says sales are still buoyant in the commuter areas west of London - Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and parts of Gloucestershire. Areas further away, such as in Devon and Dorset, have crashed, so this would be a good time for us to move there.

He believes if we priced our house at a realistic level we would sell: "The reason most properties don't shift is because agents overprice them."

Brown would like to see a suspension of stamp duty for a year and for HIPS to become voluntary.

We are not worried about our house price as we are happy to remain in it. We are extending it next year as it seems better to put our savings into bricks and mortar than the bank.

NICK CURTIS

What: four-bedroom, Victorian, semidetached house in Oval with small garden.
Bought for: £185,000 in 1996.
Value in March 2007: £650,000
Value in April 2008: £685,000
Value now: £575,000

Nigel Fields of Winkworth in Kennington says prices on my kind of property are down by 15 per cent, "although it's hard to be accurate as nothing is selling in any volume at the moment".

Not that I mind. Long before the current troubles my wife Ann and I had decided to stay put. Recently I earmarked some money to buy the derelict garden behind mine: that attempt failed so I used the cash to reduce my mortgage.

I don't mean to be smug but prices have a long way to fall before I'm in negative equity. I'm now having a couple of rotten windows fixed: any spare cash will go on reducing the mortgage further.

The house isn't an investment, it's our home. We love the proximity to the West End and the City. Ann can walk to her new job on the Strand. We like the mixed area, being close to the Thames and having a garden.

PETE CLARK

What: three-bedroom terrace house in Shepherd's Bush
Value March 2007: £570,000
Value April 2008: £513,000
Value now: £450,000

Paul Jorgensen of Jorgensen & Turner sounded surprisingly upbeat. "I'd say the price of your house is down around 12 per cent since July/August, whereas less desirable properties have dropped as much as 20 per cent.

"This winter will be slow but the bail-out of the banks will have a trickle-down effect and, by mid-spring, it will be better. There are still buyers around, although not in such large volumes, and sellers will just have to bite the bullet on house prices."

While I would not consider selling at this time, an alternative had presented itself. My wife and I had just come back from Cambodia and liked the idea of living there for a year or so. Paul said renting out houses was increasingly popular and the rent would cover the mortgage repayments and leave a tidy monthly profit. This is seriously being considered.

Half Price seats for Kennington Association

Can't read this email? Click here We have a limited number of full-price tickets available at 2 for the price of 1 for friends of Kennington Association to see this wonderful show on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd November: call Oval House Theatre's box office and quote KA Offer to claim your discount and pay just £12 for 2 tickets!
	The Ali Collective present Muhammad Ali and me Written and produced by Mojisola Adebayo. Performed by Charlie Folorunsho, Jacqui Beckford and Mojisola Adebayo. Directed by Sheron Wray. Designed by Rajha Shakiry. Original music by Juwon Ogungbe. Lighting Design by Crin Claxton. Visuals by Sue Giovanni. Dramaturg Amani Naphtali. Sound Design by Debo Adebayo aka Papa LaBass. From the makers of the Time Out Critics' Choice 'Moj of the Antarctic' Following the parallel lives of a Gay Girl Child and a Black Male Hero, Muhammad Ali and Me tells the story of a black child growing up in care in 1970s London and her fantastical friendship with the legendary Muhammad Ali. Ali was always full of surprises. He danced in the boxing ring, rapped at press conferences, recited poetry in interviews, preached Islam from the back of a Cadillac and invoked revolution in a generation. In the spirit of Ali, Muhammad Ali and Me is a rich story told through poetry, music, dance, boxing, African acapella singing and integrated British Sign Language. Ali even makes a guest appearance through verbatim text and original, rarely seen fight footage. Tues 11 - Sat 29 November Tues-Sat 7.45pm. Tickets £12/£6 concs Matinees Sat 29 October, 3pm Previews Tues 11 & Wed 12 Nov: all tickets £6 Post Show Talks (admission included in your ticket) with Special Guests including Lemn Sissay and Valerie Mason John Tues 18 November: Young, Shifted and Black: Black Children in Care Tues 25 November: Fight The Power: Boxing, Masculinity and Identity Schools For schools performances and education workshops contact Bid Mosaku on 07875 092469 or bidmosaku@btinternet.com Jacqui Beckford's character performs in British Sign Language Audio Described Performance: Thurs 20 Nov with Ruth James and Tony McBride BOX OFFICE: 020 7582 7680 Oval House Theatre 52-54 Kennington Oval, London SE11 5SW Nearest tube is: OVAL (Northern Line, 1 min) or VAUXHALL (Victoria Line and BR, 15 min) Access: Induction Loop. Flat ground-floor wheel chair access. Car park: For disabled visitors only, flat on-street parking after 6.30 (not in Congestion Charge area) Café: Open theatre nights for drinks and meals With many thanks to ESPN and ESPN Classics and Peggy Ramsey Foundation

Open Evening on Monday 1st December 2008 from 6-9pm at Lilian Baylis Old School

On behalf of the North Lambeth and North Southwark Sport Action Zone and Partners we would like to invite you to an

Open Evening at the Lilian Baylis Old school on Monday 1st December from 6pm-9pm

The aim of the evening will be to showcase what we do on site and what we hope to do there.

The evening will begin with a short presentation in the Assembly Hall by Brian Dickens MBE and Kate Hoey MP. Films and tours around the school will be available. Partners will be present and will have their areas open and accessible to explain what they do and the young people they help. There will also be opportunities for guests to take part in some of the activities.

There will also be display of partners’ work and projects in the assembly hall.

Refreshments will be available in the lobby area.

Please RSVP by Monday 24^th November 2008 to either Nilgun Direncay (Nilgun.direncay@southbanklondon.com) or Sonia Oscar (sonia.oscar@thesportactionzone.org)

We hope to see you there.

Kind regards

Nilgun Direncay

Nilgun Direncay

Programme Support Officer

Sport Action Zone

103 Waterloo Road

SE1 8UL

Tel: 020 7202 6900

Fax: 020 7202 6904

www.thesportactionzone.org

South Bank Employers Group
Registered No. 2974600
Registered Office, 103 Waterloo Road, London, SE1 8UL
Registered in England & Wales

Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre AGM Sat 13th December 11am

VAUXHALL GARDENS COMMUNITY CENTRE

100 Vauxhall Walk

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Saturday 13^th December 2008

11am – 1pm

Come and hear about the exciting plans for a new building and long term future for the Centre.

The AGM will consider:

· the minutes of the previous AGM

· the annual report

· the annual accounts

· election of the Management Committee

To be followed by:

- Discussion of the proposals for the Centre

- Introduction of the new outreach worker for local estates

- An exhibition and presentation by Lambeth Council of their planning proposals for Vauxhall.

VGCC information and membership 020 7793 1110. thespringvgcc@yahoo.com

Christmas Bazaar Saturday 6th December

Blake Weekend at Roots & Shoots 29th-30th November

The Springtime of the Peoples - Tuesday 18th November

The Friends of Kennington Park invite you to a talk & the launch of their new booklet:

The Springtime of the Peoples

Celebrating the 160th anniversary of the Chartist rally

on Kennington Common 10th April 1848

Tuesday 18th November

Doors open 6.45pm, for 7.15pm start

Durning Library, 167 Kennington Lane, SE11

Free entry and booklet

£2 donation towards refreshments

Booklet production costs are supported by O2 It's your community.

Booklet by Rob Pateman. Organised and published by the Friends of Kennington Park.

Working Together to Create a Better Park

The Friends of Kennington Park is a voluntary group working hard to improve the park. We cannot continue its transformation without your urgent support, so please join or make a donation now. And help us create a park to be proud of.

Jumble Sale St Agnes Hall Saturday 15th 10am - 12pm

Jumble Sale

Saturday

15^th November

10am - 12pm

St Agnes Hall

Kennington Park Gardens

Beaconsfield - Late at Tate and John's House: Patricia Osses

PATRICIA OSSES
John’s House

extended to 21 December 2008
revised gallery hours Wednesday - Sunday 11am – 4pm

John’s House is a digital body of work in progress: a response to the spaces within and beyond the former home of the playwright John Osborne. In solo performance, photography and in collaboration with improvising singer Phil Minton, Osses reawakens the spirits of place. South American artist Patricia Osses has been in conversation with Beaconsfield before, during and after her British Council placement in England. This exhibition continues that dialogue.

For further information, please contact Beaconsfield on
t: 020 7582 6465
e: info@beaconsfield.ltd.uk
w: http://www.beaconsfield.ltd.uk/
Beaconsfield, 22 Newport Street, Vauxhall, London, SE11 6AY
Tube: Vauxhall, Lambeth North, Waterloo
Buses: 3 (W.End) 77 (Waterloo) 344 (Liverpool St) 360 (Elephant&Castle)

“Vauxhall may not seem a very likely site…but contemporary art gallery Beaconsfield has been welcoming all kinds of bonkers creative endeavours since 1995” Time Out

We regret that the Beaconsfield’s Upper Space is not wheelchair accessible.

---

TERMINAL
Beaconsfield at Tate Britain

5 December 2008
6pm - 10pm

Late at Tate
Tate Britain
Millbank
London
SW1P 4RG

Vauxhall's best kept secret art laboratory, Beaconsfield, curates Late at Tate, adapting Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries and transitory places to create a terminal space, with an array of arrival and departure points, in which only the surreal applies.

Is this a dream or is it purgatory? Check-in for a few hours then pinch yourself and see…

Live and eclectic!

Artists include Katherine Araniello, Dave Ball, BAW, Annie Davey, Minna Haukka, Susannah Hewlett, Howard Jacques, Hayley Newman and David Crawforth, Liz Murray, Bob & Roberta Smith/Andrew Poppy/Leonardo Ulian/Nicolas Bourriaud, Kim Noble, Jessica Voorsanger, WITH…

For further information, please contact Beaconsfield on
t: 020 7582 6465
e: info@beaconsfield.ltd.uk
w: http://www.beaconsfield.ltd.uk <http://www.beaconsfield.ltd.uk>
w: http://www.tate.org.uk <http://www.tate.org.uk>

Football battles to prevent gang "war"

Football battles to prevent gang "war"

3:40pm Saturday 1st November 2008

By David Lindsell »

Football-playing teenagers have kicked off a tournament designed to tackle the scourge of youth crime.

Around 50 young people aged between 8 and 15-years-old battled for supremacy today on the Power League five-a-side pitches in Turtle Road, Streatham.

But off the pitch the aim was to unite boys from 11 teams from different parts of south west London by a shared love of the game.

Action for Children project worker Michael Ekwue said: "The tournament was about coming together and putting young people from different backgrounds and different postcodes in one place without all the upsets that young people face in today's society.

"A lot of young people we work with have low self-esteem but today went really well. We have had awards and trophies.

"More of this will help communities and give young people more things to do and lower crime."

Sharon Hanson handed out trophies to the winning teams and certificates to supportive parents.

She said: "We got the money from Team England when our ex-manager put in a bid for £5,000.

"We have had a good turnout and they seemed to enjoy it.

"Where these boys wouldn't mix or there would be a war between the different communities, they are supporting each other."

Jamaine Wellington, 16, from Kennington, was one of the young people praised at an after-tournament ceremony in the clubhouse.

He said: "I have ordered the kits, got people to go to train, call people to let them know what the team is.

"It was quite hard doing it and it would have been nice to have been given a trophy," he joked, but said he was happy to be thought of as a kind-of assistant manager.

Action for Children works with vulnerable Afro-Caribbean and mixad-race young boys to tackle injustice, deprivation and inequality.

For more information visit www.actionforchildren.org.uk

Housing office shut thanks to projected £10m overspend

Housing office shut thanks to projected £10m overspend

12:30pm Thursday 30th October 2008

Norwood housing office is to shut as Lambeth Council tries to make up a projected £10m overspend by its housing department.

Only three housing offices are to remain in the borough - in Streatham, Brixton and Kennington Lane as a raft of cuts are implemented by Lambeth Living as officers try to balance the books.

The details of £2.5m worth of cuts were also revealed and approved by the council's Arms Length Management Organisation (Almo) at its board meeting on October 22.

The cuts are expected to cause a number of tenant management organisations - who manage Lambeth's council estates - to collapse as their funding is dramatically reduced.

Planned maintenance work will also be postponed where possible with exterior painting works, a decorations scheme for accommodation for the elderly, the replacement of out of date gas fires, and improvement of communal boilers all stopped.

The exterior decoration of the Valley Road estate in Streatham Common has also been delayed, despite police saying the state of neglect has contributed to antisocial behaviour on the estate.

Planned exterior work on the Tulse Hill estate will also be cancelled.

To help meet a £1m cut in its management fee from Lambeth Council, the Almo also plans to axe 24 staff and another 24 are anticipated to volunteer to leave, with further job losses expected.

The council hopes to balance the rest of its overspend through a double rent rise, of up to 14 per cent, which will hit tenants next April.

Pandora: Real story behind PM's 'novice' quip

By Henry Deedes
Friday, 7 November 2008

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Gordon Brown talks to Barack Obama in the garden of No 10 on 26 July

Why must they cut services?

News

Why must they cut services?

Friday, 07 November 2008

I have read your article (“Concierge cuts ‘will fuel crime’ ”, South London Press, October 24).

I live on the Ethelred Estate in one of the blocks.

My opinion is that Lambeth Living should not cut these services, but find other ways of saving money. Our concierges don’t earn a large wage to begin with.

Why don’t they get rid of some of those at the top who earn big wages for sitting around pen-pushing?

The concierge service is good to have.

If anything goes wrong, they are there to report it to. They are also helpful.

Without them there would be vandalism and who knows what else. We don’t want it to happen and, even if the shifts are cut, we will still have to pay the same amount.

Lambeth Living has put up the cost of everything.

They could save money by turning off the lights – left burning all day, all night, 365 days a year.

These used to come on and go off at a certain time, but not any more.

It’s the same in the garages.

Why can’t they put the lights on a timer to come on when you go in and switch off when you leave? It all saves money. All the extra costs they pass on to the tenants and leaseholders.

My husband and I are pensioners and we don’t want to see our concierges go and we don’t want cutbacks. I think it stinks what they are doing and so will a lot of other tenants.

Mrs MHJ

Kennington

news.PinkPaper.com

Saturday, 8 November 2008

29 October 2008
Peter Lloyd

Vauxhall and I

Next month will see the arrival of Vauxhall’s first multi-purpose gay social space.

The John Bull Community Centre – named after the British equivalent of Uncle Sam – is based in a former pub on Tyres Street and opens on 8 November, following 10 months of negotiations.

At a cost of £55,000, local gay entrepreneur Adrian Flack is single-handedly trying to expand queer community facilities in the south London region.

“We have a gay village, but it doesn’t have a heart. Yes, I could’ve opened the place as another club, but there’s a definite need for a focus for our community. Since the press release yesterday, the response has been amazing.

“The opening of the centre will provide the LGBTV and TG with a dedicated community
centre in Vauxhall.”

Host to weekend club night Play Pit, the newly–renovated space will also accommodate self–defence classes, keep fit aerobics, art exhibitions, teaching English as foreign language and private hire parties throughout the rest of the week.

Other facilities include a coffee shop and an internet cafe.

Anyone lost a cat?

A male, neutered, longhaired, grey and white cat has been found with no collar. Microchipped in 2004 to an address in Mitcham.

Please contact me for more information.

Very many thanks
Best wishes
Cathy

25 Nov 08: Battersea Dogs & Cats home tell me that George was rehomed on 19th November and is very happy!

No benefit of costly CCTV

Letters

No benefit of costly CCTV

Friday, 31 October 2008

RE: “Concierge cuts ‘will fuel crime’”, South London Press, October 24).

Lambeth council, by cutting our budgets, is fuelling crime.

Our estate has had CCTV installed for a number of years (although only turned on last November, I believe).

My service charge this year went up from £200 to nearly £600. Although the CCTV is recording, it is not staffed. So where is my £400 going?

I believe it’s into the ever-increasing failures of the housing department.

Our TMO budget has been slashed again and again, resulting in having to make four staff redundant.

From April 1, 2008, when residents of the Ethelred [Kennington] started to pay our extra service charge for CCTV recording (and this does not include the added extra charges for the door entry systems or video/audio links), 27 crimes were documented up to last month.

They were reported to Lambeth police and possibly recorded by our CCTV.

However, although our safer neighbourhood team has access to the CCTV room, they cannot staff it 24 hours a day – and why should they? – so these recorded crimes are not being dealt with.

I was told that the extra service charge was an estimate.

We are still waiting to receive our estate accounts for 2007/08, due in September 2008. (the previous year accounts were a shocking 18 months late) and yet they are guessing an amount for CCTV which in effect is useless as it’s not staffed.

I am £400 poorer each year and services are cut on my estate so I just ask one question to Lambeth council on behalf of my friends and neighbours: Where is our money going?”

John Roberts

Resident on Ethelred Tenants Management Organisation

Kennington