UPDATED EVERY
FRIDAY
Last Update:
Friday 7th October, 2005
 
PUBLICATION
By RICHARD OSLEY
  
ISLINGTON
WEST END EXTRA
 
SECTIONS
MUSIC
THEATRE
RESTAURANTS
HEALTH
 
NAVIGATION


With Google
 
 
 
Almo battle at conference

A LABOUR party member broke ranks with her Hampstead and Highgate branch colleagues during Thursday’s conference debate and urged delegates to reject the campaign for cash for council housing.
Jacky Peacock, who lives in West Hampstead, made a desperate bid to derail a motion calling for direct investment in homes, which had earlier been moved by Camden Town ward councillor Pat Callaghan.
Ms Peacock told the conference that tenants in Camden had been hoodwinked by a publicity campaign and scare tactics against the proposed transfer to an Arms-Length Management Organisation (Almo) in January 2003 – a move often described as “back door privatisation” by opponents.
She said: “The tenants voted no because of targeted publicity by people who don’t share Labour values, people from parties on the far left who have presented a range of lies, who have presented Almos as privatisation, who have targeted vulnerable and elderly tenants to tell them that their rents are going to treble and that they could easily be evicted. It is misinformation and it will stifle the debate.”
Ms Peacock was not chosen as an official delegate for the Hampstead and Highgate branch but got onto the main stage because of her role in a policy forum group.
Members in the north of the borough have distanced themselves from her comments.
Mike Katz, chairman of the branch, said: “The actual delegates from Hampstead and Highgate were in support of the motion. The branch feels this is an important issue and that the most important thing is that Camden gets the money it is owed for housing and tenants. The branch’s position would be different from what Jacky was saying.”
Official delegate Bernie Moss said that a lot of members had been “troubled” by her comments.



It’s time for ‘sell by’ dates on wines

TELEVISION chef Rick Stein claimed in The Daily Telegraph in August that “the wine revolution that had swept this country was leaving the French behind,” ....
FULL STORY

A local team for local people

WE all know the lengths football fans will go to to support their team...
FULL STORY

   
   
 
All content © New Journal Enterprises, 2005