Daily Archives: Tuesday, October 29, 2024

  • Councillor-sized bins in BS5

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Yesterday your ‘umble scribe was invited to take part in a site visit to Stapleton Road for councillors on the city council’s Environment & Sustainability Committee. Also in attendance were senior council officers, including the head of the Neighbourhood Enforcement Team, representatives of Bristol Waste Company (BWC) and Easton ward councillor Jenny Bartle. Unfortunately, only two of the members of the committee showed up, although one of those was its chair. 🙁

    House clearance fly-tip outside former Concorde Cinema on Stapleton RoadWe took the best part of an hour to wander up and down a half kilometre section of Stapleton Road, during which some all-too familiar and depressing sights were seen, such as house clearances (right) and piles of trade waste outside closed down shops.

    Both your ‘umble scribe and officers present pointed out that the area was afflicted by many interrelated problems, e.g. pavement parking by selfish motorists combined with fly-tipping makes using the footways impossible in places, particularly for those such as parent with prams and buggies, or the disabled.

    However, BWC’s community engagement team used the opportunity to plan future visits and actions to help residents present their waste and recycling properly. We were also informed how fly-tips were ranked by priority for removal, as well as the special bag collection arrangements along Stapleton Road.

    We also noted changes to the local street furniture, including the installation of councillor-sized bins to cope with the litter!

    Cllr. Jenny Bartle and a litter bin at the junction of Stapleton Road and Oxford Place, Bristol.

    The new bins have appeared at junctions close to where takeaway food shops are concentrated on this section of Stapleton Road and it appears to be part of wider efforts to replace/upgrade litter bin provision across Bristol’s Easton and Lawrence Hill wards.

  • Tory shows how to be racist without using racist language

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Politics

    The British refusal to discuss reparations at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government (Chogm) in Samoa (posts passim) is still having repercussions in national politics.

    Both candidates for the Conservative Party leadership have now voiced their opinions on the matter.

    Talking to the Telegraph, the Tories’ house magazine, the deeply unpleasant Kemi Badenoch has claimed British politicians are “too embarrassed” to oppose Britain paying reparations for slavery, which is a strange way of looking at the problem, as that is what Starmer has actually done. Moreover, Badenoch is now on record as saying: “I would not put my name to any document that mentioned reparations”.

    Smirking Bob Jenrick, a boil on the bottom of the body politicHowever, Badenoch’s arrogance and lack of contrition for centuries of crimes against humanity committed in the name of the British empire is nothing compared with the arrogant ignorance and ignorant arrogance displayed by her rival for the Tory Party leadership, Robert ‘Honest Bob’ Jenrick.

    As today’s Guardian reports, Honest Bob, who as immigration minister, infamously ordered murals of Disney characters be painted over at a children’s asylum centre, is now patronisingly stating that former British colonies “owe us a debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them”. In particular, writing in the Daily Mail, Jenrick stated as follows in the mode typical of apologists for the centuries of crimes against humanity perpetrated first in the name of England and then later on behalf of Great Britain/the Untied Kingdom*:

    “The territories colonised by our empire were not advanced democracies. Many had been cruel, slave-trading powers. Some had never been independent. The British empire broke the long chain of violent tyranny as we came to introduce – gradually and imperfectly – Christian values.

    You managed to leave out invasion, genocide, the introduction of infectious diseases against which the locals had no immunity, expropriation of land, the imposition of lines on maps by the colonisers that cut across traditional cultural, ethnic and religious divides, divide and rule policies, systematic theft, looting and other criminal acts, Mr Jenrick. This surprises me as your Wikipedia page alleges you are supposed to have a first class honours degree in history from St John’s College, Cambridge, although your correspondent notes that the current history course at St John’s does not – except in the broadest terms – mention either colonialism or decolonisation, the latter of which was a module for honours students I took as part of the political science element of my 1970s polytechnic modern languages degree.

    I’m sorry to say this Robert, but the imposition of Christianity, the English legal system and cricket do not make up for all the misery the empire caused and you really should know better instead of indulging in the typical politician’s response to having an open – and in your case ignorant – mouth to any subject.

    Your attitude clearly displays your bigotry and racism even if you managed to avoid using deliberately racist and insulting language.

    * = Spelling is deliberate.