Apologies for not getting things done

Blood and Property has not been updated since mid December. Apologies. My excuse is that I have been trying to tackle a dangerous cocktail of hoarding, procrastination and day dreaming.

I'm hoping to find the cure in some ideas outlined in a book called "Getting Things Done". I may have misinterpreted the instructions but a room in my flat has now become an "inbox" and as there aren't many rooms in my flat it seems reasonable to prioritise sorting out this inbox ASAP.

Unfortunately that's the only priority I'm allowed to make. So, until the task is completed, I have to process everything without prioritising - doing the top thing on my inbox list (finding homes for instruction manuals, guarantees, old notebooks, statements and other rubbish - as well as ideas about what to do with this blog). So I haven't got much time spare.

In the meantime the gap since my last post has become embarrassingly long. Last week Dave Hill kindly mentioned this blog in a piece on the Guardian website (thanks for that!) and I thought I better explain why I haven't done much for a while... I hope someone will still be reading this by the time I get back to it, hopefully next week.

This attempt to sort things out started before 2011 but it's now become a new year resolution.

And if there's anyone reading this... happy new year! And I hope you're having a better time with your resolutions than I am.

Hackney Gazette and ELA leave East End (after 144 years)

(OTHER STORY THIS WEEK: How many people in Hackney work in the public sector? 16,000 or 130,000?)

The Hackney Gazette and the East London Advertiser are moving offices from Bethnal Green to Ilford. The two papers currently share an office in Bethnal Green (Cambridge Heath Road) not far from Hackney but will be moving on November 26.

The Gazette has been based outside Hackney for quite a while but the ELA has been in Tower Hamlets for 144 years covering Jack The Ripper (who turned up in 1888 20 years after the paper was established) and surviving the Blitz.

Sad to see it move - especially when its owners seem to be making money (as pointed out in this Guardian Article). May be the council papers: the weekly East End Life and the fortnightly Hackney Today were also responsible. Whatever the reason it'll be harder for journalists to do their jobs properly now. (But for Tower Hamlets politics try Trial by Jeory)

I worked at the ELA for four years starting a few weeks before 9/11 (2001) and leaving a few weeks after the 7/7 (2005) bombings. Not long after I arrived the then editor Richard Tidiman (now dead) opened an envelope containing a white powder and a note claiming it was anthrax. When the police eventually turned up - there were a lot of anthrax scares at the time - they said it was probably talcum powder (no tests just said we should wait until we got ill before worrying).

But we were all pretty obsessed with terror. I took the picture below because of the stupendous terror events these billboards claimed to be reporting - I don't remember any of them.

The picture was taken in June 2005 (The date can be seen above Ricin 'Terrer') when East London was buzzing with terror threats.

Some more pictures from the good old days...

Down at Tower Hamlets Town Hall in 2005 when councillors walked out ...

George Galloway after his election.

Oona King before she lost the election....

The move is covered here by the Guardian:http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/oct/28/archant-downturn

Also here is Press Gazette story: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=46197&c=1

Oldreporter said: "A pal of mine, a good sub, was made redundant a while ago and did some shifts at one of these "subbing factories." (Like the new Ilford office) After a few days he began to realise that good stories were being down-played because of the formatted pages and crap stories were getting shows. He raised the matter with his chief-sub or equivalent and was told: "Don't worry about it. We're not here to do anything other than get the pages away." A little later he was given another story sub which had the makings of a splash for the title he was working on that day. He approached his boss again and told him with a couple more inquiries made by the reporter in the area and a little tweak the story was much better than the one he had subbed as the splash. Again he was told: "Forget it." That's what people who care are up against. If the bosses don't give a toss neither do their minions. And weeklies will continue to go down the pan.

Another comment came from 'Localreporter': I work on one of the above papers, about to be moved to Ilford - miles off patch.Since the centralised CMS system was introduced not long ago, which is obviously enabling this move, it has been evident that quality has declined. We are often being told to "write to fit" the space provided, so stories with worth are being squeezed into nib size, and rubbish that would normally be used as space fillers is being given more room than it deserves. All so that pages can be "sent off" to production, and all part and parcel of this centralised subbing system. Working in Ilford, several miles and over an hour's journey off patch, is going to be yet another recipe for disaster. All very demoralising..."

Hackney Gazette has new website that allows comments

Yes, the Hackney Gazette now allows people to leave comments. Blood and Property left one under the Hackney cuts story. Not sure why, but the comment, left on Saturday, had yet to appear on Sunday night.

Other story this week:

Turkish crime Turkish Politics

Correction re £2 bullets and surge in blogosphere

A recent Blood and Property post called "£2 bullets and conspiracy theories: Hackney's worst enemies this summer" said "Are the police selling guns and drugs in Hackney? A significant chunk of Hackney residents appear to believe this." This has now been corrected to "a minority of Hackney residents" after it was pointed out that the original was misleading.

Also, it may not have been clear that the issues discussed were raised by the audience and were not the views of Black Parent Community Forum which runs these monthly meetings. It was pointed out that Blood and Property coverage wasn't particularly helpful - so apologies. It was an impressive and friendly event (with the head of London's armed police fielding any questions thrown at him) and I'd recommend anyone going to the next one - I don't think it's been decided yet who the guest will be.

OTHER NEWS: The role of the blogosphere in Hackney seems to be growing as websites provide a platform for unprecedented numbers of comments in the wake of the London Fields shooting.

Criticism of Mayor Pipe's immediate comments (Hackney Citizen) and Hackney Hive appears to have led to him making some new ones.

Middle class guilt/angst debate(Hackney Citizen) and here for criticism of middle class angst debate (uncarved.org).

The Hackney Gazette also has a statement from Hackney's borough commander on the event.

Hackney Citizen's grand design

I was ensnared by the Hackney Citizen's general election debate late last night. I don't know what I was expecting but I only aimed to look at it for a maximum of 10 mins. May be an hour later I found myself composing a comment (by then it was 1.30am) which I then posted by accident - and then had to post again to dig myself out of a hole.

But the Hackney Citizen (and Hackney Voice) project is worth a look. There's an impressive response rate from candidates but the real story might be in who didn't answer what questions.

Hackney Raving Loony PR stunt success

The BBC reports the Hackney North and Stoke Newington Monster Raving Loony Party candidate's plans for Londoners to use floating bicycles.

Meanwhile these Hackney blogs/websites have put in some hours to investigate issues in the borough.

Loving Dalston exposes idiotic bicycle rules on East London Line.

East London Lines uses Freedom of Information Act to investigate unused property in Hackney while 15,000 are on the housing waiting list.

Stokey Talk talks about the value of votes in Hackney
and more recently about the East London Line extension and general election in general.

Hackney Voice unearths the precarious fate of Hackney Wick's artist community

And Hackney Citizen sets up online Q&A with candidates from the borough's two constituencies (you need to register before 5pm on April 25th to take part).

Bloggers and tweeters vs Hackney Gazette: History

Tweeter Northsixteen (any relation to N16?) and blogger Raggydeeann chart the misdeeds of the Hackney Gazette and crime reporting. As far as I can tell, the Gazette tried to credit the source for a story - but got it wrong. This looks like it might be an improvement on the bad old days:

Dave Hill had a run in with the Gazette back in 2008 - "It was all about bloggers and how they're a bunch of nutters who have no business complaining if, by some miracle, they publish something of interest that a newspaper - such as the Gazette - helps itself to without acknowledging its source."

Hackney Labour Councillors - Budget defence by blogging

Hackney Central's Labour councillors appear keen to crush their opposition as early as possible.

According to the Hackney Central Labour blog, the Greens offer "reckless proposals" in their alternative budget that will hit the poorest hardest.

The blog criticises the Conservative Party saying: "They have shown how unprepared they are and how little effort they have made in offering the people of Hackney an alternative. Right before our elections in May - the Tories have failed before the firing gun has even been set off."

The Lib Dems got off lightly with HCL briefly saying that their policies would be annoying and unhelpful if they were ever put into practice.

Hackney Central Labour sounded unworried. This may have more to do with a historically loyal electorate than any policies. The 2006 election results (with a 32% turnout) and the 2002 election results (31% turnout) in the ward both saw Labour win comfortably.

Over at We Love Stoke Newington the mood wasn't quite so aggressive - the only criticism from its Labour Councillor authors was for an unnamed free local paper - (might that be the Hackney Heckler?)

We Love Stoke Newington said: "There have been some misleading reports in a local free newspaper about budget cuts - we'd like to reassure you that this is not the case - these are different economic times, but due to managing the Council's finances well, we're able to freeze council tax and continue to invest in key services."

(Could this article in PR Week, by Hackney's head of Communications, Polly Rance, also be described as misleading too? "Talk of spending cuts in an election climate often sends a chill through communications departments. Comms teams know full well that their budgets are a prime target for cuts in manifesto pledges. Now is the time, more than ever, for us to prove our value, not just to our organisations, but to the residents we serve.")

Labour Councillors in Stoke Newington Central face a more real threat than their colleagues over at Hackney Central.

The 2006 local elections results for Stoke Newington Central show that Labour Councillors faced a threat from the Green Party - two Green candiates won more than 700 votes each while the poorest performing Labour councillor won around 900 votes.

The results for the 2009 by-election in Stoke Newington Central - to replace Labour Councillor Jamie Carswell - saw Labour with 48% of the vote compared to the Green's 32%.

The results for the 2002 elections in Stoke Newington Central showed a more comfortable lead for Labour suggesting that support for the Green Party in the ward has gained momentum since 2002.

Blog updating problem

Over the last couple of days there seems to have been a problem with this blog updating its blog list. Over there on the right. This is supposed to provide a kind of rolling news service of what other bloggers in Hackney are saying. Sometimes these are not updating. I'm not sure why. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be grateful to hear them.

I found this discussion on blogger, it looks like its a problem elsewhere (unless I've mis-interpreted it - quite likely as my understanding of how any of this works is minimal):
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=21e1258a11f6817a&hl=en
I've scanned through it but it looks like the problem is still a problem with no solution.

Hackney: home to London's most mysterious newspaper

Conspiracy, hoax? Then the The London Weekly launched. Still lots of questions. The answers are apparently brewing away at 203 Mare Studios, E8.

The company claims to have backing to the tune of £10.5m but a number of inconsistencies have been pointed out by James Ball also: Helpmeinvestigate
and: Journalism.co.uk (5th Feb - The London Weekly Paper exists) and Journalism.co.uk (2nd Feb - The London Weekly: Some unanswered questions) and Guardian (Jan 27).

Libel and Leabank

Leabank Square blog hit the headlines yesterday with a story that has now been followed-up elsewhere.

Evening Standard: Olympic chiefs threaten to sue 'noise and dirt' blog

The offending material has been removed but blogger Sona Abantu-Choudhury insists: "...down here in the East End of London – it’s called a lie. The person telling the lie – is called a liar. Simple as!"

Good luck!