Sunday 27 April 2008

Recycling, Seed bombs, media training and Voting tactics.

Some updates:

We've finally got recycling in our street! Well, for our block at least. Oh, and it's co-mingled. But hey, better than nothing! And what's more - people are actually using it! I am overjoyed, though not so happy that it's currently overflowing. Come on Haringey, you're usually so good at picking up recycling and rubbish. Oh, wait a minute...

Our complaint about Homes for Haringey has now gone to Stage 2 level, which means we might actually get to see some improvements soon. I am also in the process of organising the estate's 'Gardening Day', which is going to be on May 11th. I attended 'Haringey Independence Day' yesterday, where I learnt how to make 'seed bombs' using soil, compost and wild flower seeds. I then came home and lobbed it into some wild, inaccessible ground between two blocks on the estate. I think it's be great to get the children making them on Gardening Day.

I had some media training the other day, so know I know how to evade questions and ram home a key message again and again...and again. The problem is, I, like a lot of people, hate it when politicians do that. I prefer to answer the question honestly and openly. More fool me.

It seems our mayoral candidate, Sian Berry, has the same policy, and this slightly backfired on her this week. When we went on our dinosaur hunt in Mayfair a couple of weeks ago, we had the audacity to take a taxi to transport four of us - myself and Sian included - along with all our placards, pith helmets and safari jackets. Sian admitted to this scandalous car journey and has been lambasted as a climate criminal in that bastion of quality journalism, The London Paper. I've written a letter defending her heinous crime - we'll have to see if it's published.

On a serious note, I am really hoping that Sian does well on Thursday, and also that the Green Party succeeds in getting more London Assembly members elected. Furthermore, I have actually been losing sleep about the possibility of Boris Johnson tasting victory in the mayoral race. It would be a disaster for London and all Londoners, plain and simple. Goodbye congestion charge, hello pollution and traffic chaos. Farewell to an Olympics that is any way sustainable, hello big business and multi-nationals. And let's wave goodbye to a London that celebrates multiculturalism and instead witness a man who tried to block the Stephen Lawrence enquiry attempting - and failing miserably - to try to run the most complicated, sprawling and diverse city in the UK.

In short - vote Sian 1, Ken 2! I have a feeling it will be close and those second preference votes will make a difference.

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