What is the unemployment level in your ward?

Are the streets of Hackney lined with gold?

Three new 'cash for gold'/pawnbrokers have opened up next to the Pembury Estate in Hackney since the riots in the borough last year. This means there are now seven stores offering to buy and sell gold on Hackney Central's high street the Narroway. 

The newest players in this gold rush are TGS Pawnbroker (pictured above) which looks up Clarence Road, the scene of pitched battles with the police in August last year. 

12-year-old injured in Clapton shooting

A 12-year-old boy was  injured after a shot was fired on Sewdley Street in Clapton on Monday night (about 9.30pm?). A 15-year-old was stabbed in the chest in Homerton earlier in the evening.

The police issued this statement about the shooting:

Is Tower Hamlets vote fraud really unprecedented?

It is clear from the comments following this post on Trial by Jeory and recent national newspaper coverage that concern is growing about election fraud in Tower Hamlets. Councillors say the evidence is unprecedented.

In his piece Ted Jeory writes: "The council consistently tells us there isn’t a problem. They point to the lack of prosecutions and boast of their stringent controls."

Here's an example of how council officers dealt with unprecedented election fraud evidence back in  2006 - just in case anyone expects them to do anything helpful.

Today (Sunday): Hustings for Hackney's GLA members

A ‘question time’ for the candidates standing for the London North East seat on the Greater London Assembly will include these four candidates:

Caroline Allen: Green
Jennette Arnold:Labour
Naomi Newstead:Conservative
Farooq Qureshi:Lib Dem

The even has been organised by Hackney Unites which said:

Drug dealer car chase and smash

Cycling down Englefield Road this afternoon I ran into a scene full of crashed cars and policemen arresting a man in a grey hooded top. I didn't hang around but took a couple of  these bad photos. More details are available from the Hackney Gazette in a story called: "Suspected drug dealers ram three cars in Hackney police chase leading to innocent man being cut from his vehicle."

UPDATE: Mabley Green travellers now on Millfileds?

(UPDATED  with meeting details) Travellers moved into Millfields Park this week and the number of caravans on the site has increased since the first wave on Wednesday.

Dodgy evidence sees council win two more cases against Charedi schools

Hackney Council fought-off an attempt by a Stamford Hill school to have a long-running legal action thrown out court using evidence that magistrates branded as a "red herring". In another case a planning inspector doubted the evidence of witnesses.

George Galloway: Bradford vs Bethnal Green (UPDATED August 2012)

Update 14 October 


The Guardian assesses the effect of his rape comments on his Bradford spring: ' He insisted his comments had not caused a setback in Bradford. "I haven't lost support in Bradford, no. The people who spoke to you, or the ones you are speaking to me about, never supported me in the first place," he said. While it is true that national membership of Respect continues to grow – having reached 2,000 now, compared with just 300 before the Bradford byelection, according to the party secretary Chris Chilvers – it is disingenuous for Galloway to claim he has not lost support in the constituency.

At the beginning of this month George Galloway said he would sue the NUS (BBC) for accusing him of being a rape denier.

George Galloway sues but he probably won't sue you

According to Bradford's Telegraph and Argus newspaper, George Galloway is taking legal action against a Labour councillor for sending an allegedly libellous text in the run up to tomorrow's by election.

Synagogue losses appeal in which Hackney Council accused witnesses of lying

A long-running planning dispute between Hackney Council and a synagogue in Stamford Hill - in which the council accused Ultra Orthodox Jewish (Charedi) witnesses of lying -  has been won by the council.

George Galloway: Bradford vs Bethnal Green (UPDATED again)

Will strikes shut Hackney Jobcentre Plus?

I am unemployed and I went to sign-on on Wednesday. When I got to the Mare Street Jobcentre Plus I was told that I didn't have to come in again for a month (it's usually every two weeks) because the centre would be shut by a strike on 28 March.

Blood and Property interview with Rabbi Abraham Pinter

Rabbi Abraham (Avraham) Pinter answered a number of questions about the Charedi Community in Stamford Hill and its effect on Hackney.

Rabbi Abraham Pinter: I hope Stamford Hill will stay multicultural

Rabbi Abraham Pinter: internal competition drives land grab

Rabbi Abraham Pinter: Charedi leaders not to blame

Rabbi Abraham Pinter: amazed any words are left in Charedi dictionary

Rabbi Abraham Pinter: Cllr Mulready does not represent the whole community

Rabbi Abraham Pinter: Will the UK see segregated bus services?