Save Catford

Two south london court cases this week in relation to knife assaults:-

Exhibit A

A Teacher has been sentenced to five years in prison for stabbing his friend with a steak knife

Exhibit B

A crazed knifeman who believed he was the Messiah and stabbed his best friend to free him from the devil is back living just yards away from his victim

Gordon Brown on off balance sheet finance:-

I think the problem that we got to a year or two ago was that we had so much off-balance sheet not disclosed that a lot of the major banks and institutions didn’t know themselves what their liabilities were.

There’s no doubt that off-balance sheet activities by the major institutions and in the sub-prime market more spectacularly have led to problems for the big institutions

The first thing we have to agree is that the financial institutions will deal with the off-balance sheet activities,

Amount of PFI related, off balance sheet liabilities that Gordon Brown refuses to report in the transparent manner that he urges others to do - £29bn

Number of homicide victims, england & wales - 2006/2007:- 784

Number of occupational deaths at work - 2006/2007 1,400

Rate of homicides per million population - 14

Rate of occupational deaths per million workers - 38

Violent street crime consumes enormous political, media and academic energy. But, as hundreds of thousands of workers and their families know, it is the violence associated with working for a living that is most likely to kill and hospitalise.

HSE enforcement notices fell by 40% and prosecutions fell by 49% between 2001/02 and 2005/06. The collapse in HSE enforcement and prosecution sends a clear message that the government is prepared to let employers kill and maim with impunity

Male life expectancy in Rushey Green ward, Lewisham 1999 to 2003 - 72.1 years

Male life expectancy in Rushey Green ward, Lewisham 2000 to 2004 - 71.8 years

Male life expectancy in Gaza Strip, Palestine (2008 est) - 71.01 years

Male life expectancy in Queens Gate ward, Kensington & Chelsea, 2000 to 2004 - 86.8 years

London Figures Gaza Strip Figures

I’m currently away in Bournemouth at the Labour Party conference….all the talk here is of the fine job Gordon Brown is doing as our new Prime Minister…..Most of all he [Gordon Brown] articulated what many of us already knew; that he’s a safe pair of hands in a turbulent and rapidly changing world.

Our local Labour MP, Bridget Prentice, 26th September 2007

Our long-term objective is a lower starting rate of income tax of ten pence in the pound

Labour 1997 Election Manifesto

Cost of bringing up the excalibur estate to decent homes standards - £8.4m (rejected by council)

Cost of scheme to improve the environment and housing in a predominantly private sector area - £10.2m (approved by council)

I’m all for money being spent to improve all areas of the community, but it’s somewhat galling to see money being pumped into making largely cosmetic improvements to (an already fairly decent) privately owned housing and surrounding areas whilst estates like excalibur & milford towers are left to rot

(thanks to The Man From Catford for the link to the story about the excalibur estate)

Number of homeless households in lewisham as at April 2005 - 1,245

Number of homes in lewisham that have been empty for up to 6 months as at March 2005 - 1,308

Number of homes in lewisham that have been empty for between 6 and 12 months as at March 2005 - 242

Number of empty homes taken into posession by Lewisham Council under powers available to them through Empty Dwellings Management Orders (EDMO) in order to use as social housing - as at Nov 2007 - 2