"SAVED!!! Friern Barnet Community Library"

Link to Barnet Press
(on the assumption their story is updated)

"The trustees of Friern Barnet Community Library have now received an amended licence from the London Borough of Barnet, to allow them to be in the library legally.

"They will have two weeks, with the promise of a renewal of the licence if necessary, to negotiate a lease and other matters. LBB has shown a willingness to amend the licence to their satisfaction.

"There was a meeting tonight (Thursday) at 7 pm, where it was agreed that Occupy will hand over the keys to the building on:

Tuesday 5 February
at 12-midday
EVERYONE WELCOME!

"The local residents thanked Occupy for a fantastic occupation.

"Occupy encouraged Friern Barnet Community Library to continue to fight for a paid librarian, and said this victory was not just about a local library but about the national campaign to save libraries everywhere."

---

Link to additional comments from

'Citizen Barnet'

---

Champagne Socialist Mrs Angry, and the Elephant in the Barnet Committee Room

Link to 'Broken Barnet' web site

"Item 6 was about the restructuring of the Revenues and Benefits department - just as it is being trussed up, gagged, and handed over to Crapita for their own private pleasure.

Labour's Barry Rawlings went to the committee room doors, opened them wide, and with the assistance of Mrs Angry, Mr Mustard, and some other helpful friends, pushed a large grey elephant into the room. .

'The Judicial Review ... ' said Barry.

The room fell silent.

'Does this not mean that everything is put on hold?'

North London Waste Authority: "Our new billboard on the A406 at Chingford". (That is all. Carry on.)

---

Welwyn & Hatfield Times; "New Barnfield incinerator to face public inquiry"

Link to web site

"Government minister Eric Pickles has intervened in the face of huge opposition to the 380,000-tonne-a-year plant.

"... The application will now face a public inquiry. The waste burner was granted planning permission by Hertfordshire County Council last October."

The Guardian/Observer: "A Green Deal but not a great deal"

Link to The Guardian

"The Green Deal, the government's flagship programme to make millions of homes more energy efficient, goes fully live on Monday. But will it be a case of "Deal or No Deal" once homeowners have looked at what's on offer and done the maths?

"This major scheme is a new way for people to improve their homes without having to shell out large sums upfront. It's basically a type of personal loan where you pay for the work over time through your electricity bill. The aim is that your monthly repayments will be covered by the savings you'll make as a result of having the measures installed.

"... But there are growing doubts about whether the maths is going to add up."

"Why the Green Deal could
make your home a hard sell"

"Homeowners who sign up to the government's new energy efficiency 
savings scheme, Green Deal, could find that they are hit with a big bill
when they come to sell their property, according to some sources.

Starting tomorrow, the government wants householders to sign up
to the deal, which will allow them to pay for energy efficiency
improvements in their home with no, or little, upfront cost;
instead, they will be funded by a loan repaid through
their electricity bill.

Don't Panic! Alexandra Palace 1938 Colour Film and Commentary

"[Film of an Alexandra Palace] television outside broadcast, showing the workings of an anti-aircraft battery and the defence of London in the advent of war.

"The original film footage was silent, but a sound recording of the actual television programme has been included in certain sections.

"The presenter of the programme was Leslie Mitchell (the senior male announcer)."

Transmission: 18th Apr 1938, 3.30 -- 4 pm & 9.30 -- 10 pm

This film footage is from the Desmond Campbell Archive Collection, held and administered by the Alexandra Palace Television Society.


A separate description on the archive video web site 'Jewels from the Palace' says:

"This truly beautiful and evocative colour footage by Donald Campbell is enhanced by Simon Vaughan having synchronised sound recordings of the television broadcast. These were taken from 78 rpm discs, made by the BBC programme organiser and producer D. H. Munro."

Independent on Sunday: "Bill Nighy: tackle tax avoidance to put an end to world hunger"

"Poor countries lose three times as much from multinationals' accounting practices as they get in aid. Sarah Morrison reports"

Link to web site

"Corporate tax avoidance is costing developing countries an estimated £70bn a year, according to a coalition of more than a hundred leading charities. If taxes were paid in full, campaigners suggest, the money could be used to save the lives of 85,000 children under the age of five in the world's poorest countries every year.

"The figures, released days after the Prime Minister said tackling tax avoidance was one of the UK's priorities for its G8 presidency, put the scale of the issue worldwide into perspective. The actor and tax campaigner Bill Nighy told The Independent on Sunday last week they were 'breathtaking'."

High Speed Two announcement on Monday - but what about Crossrail Two?

The leaks to the weekend newspapers have started, regarding High Speed Two. 

London's 'Crossrail Two' (via Alexandra Palace?) may also be announced on Monday, ready for the London boroughs and the public to be consulted later this year. Crossrail Two could be built after Crossrail One opens in 2018 or 2019. 

Update:
Tues 5 Feb: "Launch of London First report on Crossrail 2, with Boris Johnson and Andrew Adonis"

"London First is delighted to welcome Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to the launch of its report on Crossrail 2. The report outlines new route options for a potential SW-NE line to support London's continued growth over the next two decades, and has been overseen by a working group of members, chaired by former Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis."

---

Link to Financial Times
(free registration)

"George Osborne’s attempts to bolster Britain’s growth potential will run into a full-scale Tory revolt in his own backyard next week, as the coalition unveils the northern route of the new high speed rail network."

Daily Telegraph: "Close encounters with polar bears in the frozen Alaskan wilderness"

Click on nose for more

SciAm: "Does Increased Energy Efficiency Just Spark Us to Use More?"

Link to web site

"By 2025, the fuel efficiency of US vehicles will be required to double.

"As a result, oil consumption is predicted to fall and—given that the U.S. remains the world’s largest consumer of oil—global crude prices might fall as well. That makes using oil cheap again, encouraging yet more consumption, that ends up reducing the energy saving impact of the initial policy. 

"That is the story of the so-called 'rebound effect', more properly called Jevons paradox, after W. Stanley Jevons, the British economist who first proposed it in his 1865 book “The Coal Question.” Jevons paradox is undoubtedly real and has to be considered in any energy efficiency policy."

---

Plus: Link to:

"How Much Will Tar Sands Oil Add to Global Warming?"

Bounds Green & District RA: "The fight to save Pinkham Way is far from over!"

"Those of you who thought that Pinkham Way had been saved, need to read the documents being circulated by Haringey Council for the Wood Green Forum & Committee Meeting on Tuesday 29 January 2013.

"To save you the trouble, we've extracted the incriminating wording below, which was tucked away towards the back of the agenda:

"An application to register the Pinkham Way site as a Village Green will have an informal public enquiry in Jan 2013, the final decision being made by Haringey Feb-March 2013 (Licensing Committee).

A successful TVG application will lead to alternative waste site locations being required in the North London Area, failure of the application retains the site for consideration for waste management use.

The Council expects a further planning application from the NLWA and Barnet Council after the TVG application decision (presuming failure of the TVG application."

"The suggestion that a successful TVG (Village Green) application will lead to alternative waste sites being required in the North London area is entirely speculative, and not really supported by the facts. However it is true that a successful TVG application will mean that the Pinkham Way site is probably not available for waste management purposes, or the relocation of Barnet’s Waste Truck Depot from Mill Hill.

"It is interesting how our elected representatives view these things – there does not appear to be much support at Riverside House for ecology, the environment and the retention of nature conservation areas. These words also seem to 'presume' failure which doesn’t sound particularly fair.

"Please come and join us to have your say about this and other things at the Wood Green Forum next week."

Tuesday 29 January

Cypriot Centre, Earlham Grove, N22 5HJ

Meeting starts at 18:30.

bgdra committee

Evening Standard: "Mortgage deposit for first-time buyers will hit £100,000 by 2020, says study"

Link to web site

"The average mortgage deposit for first-time buyers in London will soar beyond £100,000 by 2020, a major report warns today.

"That will make home ownership an 'impossible dream' for all but the wealthiest young Londoners, as foreign investors and City professionals snap up most new flats and houses, it says.

"The grim prediction comes as an Evening Standard analysis of Greater London Authority figures found levels of home ownership in freefall among the under-35s."

[Reposted from Mar 2012] Politicians start Crossrail (with Crossrail 2 to Alexandra Palace in ten years' time?)

High Speed Two and Crossrail Two announcements now rumoured to be made on Monday 28 January 2012!

Update:
Tues 5 Feb: "Launch of London First report on Crossrail 2, with Boris Johnson and Andrew Adonis"

"London First is delighted to welcome Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to the launch of its report on Crossrail 2. The report outlines new route options for a potential SW-NE line to support London's continued growth over the next two decades, and has been overseen by a working group of members, chaired by former Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis."

---

"Sorry, am I boring you?"
(Link to Crossrail web site)

"The Mayor of London and the Secretary of State for Transport today revealed the giant 1,000-tonne tunnel boring machines that will carve Crossrail’s tunnels under the capital.

"Almost 40 years after the new railway was proposed, this marks a significant milestone in the delivery of this major transport infrastructure project, set to add £42 billion to the economy and create thousands of jobs.

"Today, the first of eight enormous machines, each 150 metres long and weighing 1,000 tonnes, will begin their journey to the Royal Oak Portal in west London from where, next week, they will start tunnelling 6.4 km (four miles) east to Farringdon via Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road. The machines are equivalent to 14 London buses end to end with enough force to lift over 2,900 London taxis."

---

Link to 'New Railway to Alexandra Palace?'

And don't forget the 'North & West London Light Railway' 
(as if you would) ...

---

Link to HOME (see all posts).

BBC: "Why are vandalism rates falling?"

Link to BBC web site

"Vandalism in the UK is falling at a quicker rate than almost any other type of crime, according to official figures. What are the possible reasons behind this?

"There has been a reduction in vandalism incidents per 1,000 households of 37% since March 2007, according to the Crime Survey of England and Wales [involving interviews, not police data].

"Criminologists are already at a loss to explain why overall crime levels, which are meant to increase during tough economic times, are currently falling. Even less research has been done on why vandalism is falling faster than most other types of crime. 

"But there are a few theories..."

Anti-hunger campaign 'If' launches with call for G8 to act

Link to The Guardian

"A coalition of 100 UK development charities and faith groups will on Wednesday launch a major campaign to lobby David Cameron, the prime minister, to use Britain's presidency of the G8 to leverage action on ending global hunger.

The If campaign is the largest coalition of its kind since Make Poverty History in 2005, the last time Britain held the G8 presidency. But this time, organisers are pushing for more radical change. Although pegged around hunger and malnutrition, the campaign focuses more on addressing the underlying causes of hunger, such as 'land grabs', tax avoidance and a lack of transparency over investments in poor countries."

If Campaign

Barnet's 'easyCouncil' faces judicial review over outsourcing

Link to The Guardian

The 'easyCouncil' model of no-frills local services is set to go on trial this spring, after the High Court announced it will review a £320m services contract due to be outsourced by the Conservative-controlled London Borough of Barnet.

"The case is being brought by Maria Nash, a 67-year old disabled resident who says she fears for her life if support services are removed, if and when the private outsourcing firm, Capita, takes over. The judicial review of the legality of the contract means the signing of the deal, which was supposed to happen at the end of January, has been delayed.

"Capita was to take over services in April – just ten days after the hearing is expected to conclude in late March. It declined to comment on the legal battle."

Boris Johnson says snow casts doubt on climate change science

Link to The Guardian

"Boris Johnson, the eye-wateringly well-paid Telegraph columnist who also does a nice turn as the mayor of London, needs to be viewed in an altogether different context. He is, after all, widely touted as the next prime minister of this country.

"Unfortunately, this means we must take his latest Daily Telegraph column seriously. Calculated buffoonery and Bullingdon japes aside, this man might actually one day hold the key to 10 Downing Street. His views are, therefore, important and deserve interrogation.

"...  Through columns such as this, he is signalling - with his trademark playful nudge and a wink - to the deep blue, right-wingers in the Tory party, who lap up climate scepticism, that he is 'one of them'. But in doing so he is also signalling to the wider electorate that he treats science as a political plaything that can be tossed about, or ignored, at his convenience."

Link to Daily Telegraph

BBC iPlayer: "Gadgets 'made waterproof in an hour'"

Link to BBC web site

"Gadgets have a habit of getting wet, whether that be the rain or receiving a text message when in the bath - not to be recommended.

Now imperceptibly thin nanotechnology is hoping to lengthen the lifespan of wet gadgets, as Richard Taylor explains."

The Observer: "There's a price to be paid for our cheap food" (This was BEFORE horsemeatgate)

Link to The Observer

"The government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) is 13 years old this year, and has not impressed. 

"Its critics say that its expensive information campaigns under slogans such as 'Love Food Hate Waste' lack targets and convincingly audited results. Like so many toothless quangos, it can only cajole business, rather than bring it firmly to heel.

"More households may be portion-planning and recycling now, because of Wrap's adverts, but the slight reduction in the tonnage of food estimated to have been thrown away in British households (from 8.3m in 2006/07 to 7.2m in 2010) is probably accounted for by the price rises and stall in incomes that followed the global economic crash of 2008.

"Here we come to the uncomfortable core of the problem. Price is the key factor in our behaviour with food, and food may, simply, be too cheap. Certainly, in Britain it is cheaper than at any time in history: we spend less than 10% of household income on food and drink. In 1950, we spent around 25%."

Evening Standard: "Litter louts? Follow my tried-and-tested deterrent"

Link to Evening Standard

"Even in my suburban bit of London, so far north it takes a good while to get to the underground bit of the Underground, frosty London did look pretty. 

"Not just because, as every bride knows, white is a flattering colour. But because the trappings of rubbish — the crisp packets that, noisily blown along the street, always make me turn around to see who is there, and all those Subway wrappers and the dark pavement spots where a piece of chewing gum went to die — were covered up.

"London has a litter problem. It’s not as bad as some of its other concerns — semi-bankrupt councils, empty holes where shops used to be, queues of people who used to work at those shops outside the Jobcentre. And it’s perhaps not as bad as in some other countries: in Bali last summer it seemed to me as though some roadside verges had actually been planted with rubbish.

"But it’s ugly. And it’s something we can easily and cheaply fix."

---

DOBBINGATE CRISIS: "The Great Horsemeat Scandal" from British Pathe

Link to British Pathe
(opens in a new window)

[Reposted, with 2013 update] TransportXtra: New railway to Alexandra Palace?

Mock-up of Crossrail ONE station,
which is the east-west London line, opening in 2018.
Crossrail TWO will be SW London to NE London,
to open in the 2020s, banking crisis permitting.

Update:
Tues 5 Feb 2013: "Launch of London First report on Crossrail 2, with Boris Johnson and Andrew Adonis"

"London First is delighted to welcome Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to the launch of its report on Crossrail 2. The report outlines new route options for a potential SW-NE line to support London's continued growth over the next two decades, and has been overseen by a working group of members, chaired by former Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis."

Monday 18 Jan. 2013: There will be announcements about the two routes of High-Speed-Two north of Birmingham, and possibly more inormation about HS2 within London.

---

Crossrail TWO: Sunday 15 Jan 2012: Rumours indicate that the Alexandra Palace option is doing best in detailed evaluations, possibly then taking over all trains on the Bowes Park branch of the Kings Cross line. 

(If all Welwyn Garden City stopping trains were to be diverted from 2018 on to Thameslink (above) at St Pancras International, that would leave the Finsbury Park-to-Moorgate line without any trains. Which might revive plans to reopen the Finsbury Park-to-Highgate line!)

---

"Transport for London has outlined options for building 'Crossrail 2' – the Chelsea-Hackney link – as either:

• an automatic metro railway (first picture below), or 
• a regional railway (second picture) that would open up new journey opportunities beyond the capital."

Link to TransportXtra,
inc. subscription details

[A blogger 'Rational Plan' reports:]

... In the second case, the line diverges into two tunnels at Angel, where one line goes to Hackney and then Tottenham Hale, before surfacing and taking over the West Anglia line to Hertford East. The other line goes to Dalston, Seven Sisters, Wood Green and then Alexandra Palace.

More detail:

---

Link to Transport in North London (on Brent Cross Coalition web site) 

plus: "Brent Cross Railway: The Wilderness Years" 

plus: "Politicians start Crossrail (with Crossrail 2 to Alexandra Palace in ten years' time?)"

plus: 19 April 2012: Letter in Haringey Journal.

"London Underground By Design"

Link to 'Design Week' web site

"A new book 'London Underground by Design' distils 150 years of Tube design by telling the stories of people like Frank Pick, commercial manager for the Underground from 1912, who worked with a 'design fit for purpose' philosophy in mind, and commissioned typographer Edward Johnston to create a new letterform.

Daily Telegraph: "Law saying 'woof' to police dog, and calling police horse 'gay', to be changed"

Link to web site

"Home secretary Theresa May said the Government will accept a House of Lords amendment to remove the word 'insulting' from Section 5 of the Public Order Act.

"The amendment had been promoted in the House of Lords by Lord Dear, a former HM Inspector of Constabulary.

"Six years ago police tried to prosecute Oxford student Sam Brown after he said to a mounted officer: 'Excuse me, do you realise your horse is gay'?"

Sunday Telegraph: "Green Philosophy by Roger Scruton: review"

Link to web site

"Eco-warriors are afraid of many things: global warming, GM food, nuclear power. But now there is an even more terrifying force trying to take over the planet: the Tories want the environmental agenda back and they have one of the best philosophers of our time leading the charge. Roger Scruton, an Oxford don better known for his books on beauty, music and sex, wants to reclaim conservation for the Conservatives with Green Philosophy.

"... Unlike many on the Right, Scruton not only believes that climate change is happening but that it could make many parts of the planet uninhabitable. Climate change is a great enough threat to 'try anything', he suggests, but the Tory thinker is cynical of any attempt by the United Nations to make 192 countries agree a global treaty.

"Instead, he argues, the world should be investing in research into clean energy, such as solar, and making these discoveries available around the world."

---

"Now no one can deny that the world is getting warmer"

'The Observer' Comment:

"Last week's report by America's National Climate Assessment reveals the full horror of what's happening to our planet.

"The draft version of the US National Climate Assessment [click on the image below] which was released on Friday, makes remarkable reading – not just for Americans but for all humanity. Put together by a special panel of more than 240 scientists, the federally commissioned report reveals that the US is already reeling under the impact of global warming. 

"Heatwaves, droughts, floods, intense downpours, rising sea levels and melting glaciers are now causing widespread havoc, and are having an impact on a wide range of fronts, including health services, infrastructure, water supply, agriculture, transport and flood defences.

Nor is there any doubt about the cause of these rising temperatures. 'It is due primarily to human activities, predominantly the burning of fossil fuel,' the report states."

"Future generations of Americans can expect to spend 25 days a year sweltering in temperatures above 100F (38C), with climate change on course to turn the country into a hotter, drier, and more disaster-prone place.

"The National Climate Assessment, released in draft form on Friday , provided the fullest picture to date of the real-time effects of climate change on US life, and the most likely consequences for the future.

"The 1,000-page report, the work of the more than 300 government scientists and outside experts, was unequivocal on the human causes of climate change, and on the links between climate change and extreme weather.

"... The White House was exceedingly cautious on the draft release, noting in a blogpost:

"The draft NCA is a scientific document—not a policy document—and does not make recommendations regarding actions that might be taken in response to climate change."

Tues 5 Feb: Transition Highgate: "Controversy and Catastrophe: Climate Change and the Media"

8pm, Tuesday 5th February,
10a South Grove, N6 6BS
 
"Transition Highgate are holding a very topical public meeting about how the media reports climate change with guest speakers Vicky Pope from the Met Office and Ben Webster from The Times. This would be a good chance to ask Vicky about coverage of the recent Met Office report, which was widely misinterpreted in the media as a slowdown in global warming.

"The BBC Today Programme were particularly poor at reporting this minor revision of a short term climate forecast which in no way changes the long-term picture of climate chaos. See here, here and here for more on the climate change slowdown controversy. If you want to complain to the BBC about their coverage of climate change, please email feedback@bbc.co.uk.

"Ironically, as this story broke the Australian Meterological Bureau were having to add a new colour - a psychedelic purple - to their temperature charts to deal with a catastrophic heatwave of 50°C+."

Source:  CamdenCAN

Sunday Telegraph: "Eric Pickles: Bin fines will be scrapped"

Link to web site

"Eric Pickles said it was 'ludicrous' that people can currently be fined for putting their rubbish out on the wrong day, failing to recycle or overfilling their bins.

"Under current rules, council officials can start criminal proceeding resulting in fines of up to £1,000 for ‘household waste offences’.

"Mr Pickles is also expected to tackle on-the-spot penalties of up to £80 for waste offences issued by council 'bin police'."

BBC: "Tube 150th anniversary: Steam train takes commemorative journey"

Link to BBC web site

"A steam train which carried passengers in the 19th Century has returned to the Tube, to mark 150 years since the first London Underground journey.

"Ticket holders travelled along part of the original Metropolitan Line - now the Hammersmith & City Line.

"They travelled in coaches pulled by an 1898-built steam engine, known as Met Locomotive No 1."

"The employers and the MPs are the real shirkers"

Something of the Knight about him
(he will become the 18th Baronet of Ballentaylor)
Link to the New Statesman

" 'Shirkers versus strivers' – those have been the terms of this week’s biggest debate, over the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill.

"... [But the last Labour government] swallowed hook-line-and-sinker the neo-liberal line about Britain being able to abandon food-growing and manufacturing – importing essentials from developing nations, plundering their water and soils, exploiting their grossly-underpaid workers – while relying on the 'genius' of bankers, and the luxury industries servicing them and their friends, as a foundation for the British economy, a foundation that it turns out was built on shifting sands of fraud, incompetence, and incomprehension of risk. 
[In the glorious future, people will write shorter sentences.]

The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra

Source: "Green Thing":

"This is one the most heart-warming and inspiring videos we’ve seen this year. Or last year.

"It is the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra - a group of very talented kids from a slum in Paraguay, playing instruments made from rubbish dug from the landfill that they live on.

"You have to watch to see just how incredible these musical instruments and musical teenagers are. But prepare to be amazed at how beautiful the music sounds.

"If you want to donate to help get the film about these amazing children made, then click here."

'Wembley Matters': "Better data needed to monitor successful recycling" (One borough's story)

Link to web site

"Green groups in Brent expressed fears that the new co-mingled recycling (everything put into one bin and emptied into one truck) would produce more contamination than the green box system, where different materials were sorted at the pavement stage and put into different compartments of a lorry. 

"This would result in more material being rejected at the recycling plant and ending up in landfill.

"Now that the scheme has been running for some time, I put in an Freedom of Information request to see if the amount of recyclates collected, which have increased now that some plastics are collected, was affected by increased contamination."

'The Rubbish Diet': "Don't let food waste be next year's shock headline - my two penneth"

Link to 'The Rubbish Diet' web site

"Well Happy New Year everyone. I can see it's kicked off in fine style!

"Having just got used to my back-to-school routine and having my first day at the laptop, this morning I found my Twitter stream awash with the topic of food waste and the media's shock that statistics published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers reveal that 30%-50% of the world's food never gets eaten.

"These are huge figures to contemplate, whichever way you look at it, with growers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers all playing a key part or being affected.

"But this isn't the first time that the headlines have been full to the brim with the horror of food waste. Here's a random sample, taking us back to 2007, when I first became aware of the issue. ... ..."

Daily Telegraph: "Dark city: atmospheric photographs of London streets by night in the 1930s"

Link to web site

"This picture gallery features atmospheric images of London streets in the 1930s, before the Blitz, before the Clean Air Act, before sodium lighting.

"It was a city of gloomy back streets lit by dim lamps, with forbidding alleys and the occasional welcoming light.

"The photographs are from a book called 'London Night', by John Morrison and Harold Burdekin, which was published in 1934. They were recently posted on The Library Time Machine, a fascinating blog run by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Library Service."

Barnet Times

"The Golden Age of Trams: A Streetcar Named Desire"

"Move along the car! Timeshift takes a nostalgic trip on the tram car and explores how it liberated overcrowded cities and launched the age of commuter. The film maps the tram's journey from early horse-drawn carriages on rails, through steam to electric power.

"Overhead wires hung over Britain's towns and cities for nearly 50 years from the beginning of the 20th century, until they were phased out everywhere except Blackpool. Manchester, the last city to lose its trams was, however, among the first to reintroduce them as the solution to modern day traffic problems.

"The film includes a specially-recorded reading of his short story Leeds Trams by Alan Bennett and contributions from Ken Dodd and Roy Hattersley."