8 Treasures

Listen up folks: just opposite Ealing Broadway tube station is a Chinese restaurant called "8 Treasures". Let me tell you, the quality of the food in there is really top drawer. I don't know who it is they've got in the kitchen, but it's as good as any Chinese food I've tasted anywhere in London. But every time I go into the place -- and I've been in maybe half a dozen times in the last few months -- it's virtually empty.

I'm not sure what the problem is, but the previous occupants of that retail unit, Chandler's freehouse, also didn't do much as much trade as might be expected for such a prime location, and eventually had to close their doors.

Anyway, I know times are hard, but please folks, reach for your chopsticks and get going to 8 Treasures for a really special Oriental treat -- the food is gorgeous. Use it, or lose it!

Here's the website:

http://www.8treasures.co.uk/

Pip pip.

Labour Party war criminal publishes memoirs

According to Blair:

"I can't regret the decision to go to war... I can say that never did I guess the nightmare that unfolded, and that too is part of the responsibility."

Indeed it is. But many people did predict the nightmare -- myself included. I vividly recall those who said a war in Iraq would unleash a hellish intensity of tribal violence -- like Northern Ireland, but a hundred fold, said one. Blair, who had seen at close quarters the dynamics of sectarianism in Northern Ireland, should have known exactly what to expect.

While those on the left of the Labour Party are now, quite rightly, demonizing Blair for his record on Iraq, we shouldn't forget that he wasn't alone in this policy. For example, who can forget Jack Straw's performances on the Today Programme and elsewhere, day after day, where his weasel words gave political cover to Blair's iniquity. What about the rest of the cabinet, what were they saying at this time?

The Labour Party is stained for a generation. Good riddance.

Diane Abbott for Labour Leader!

I was delighted to hear that Diane Abbott has managed to collect enough nominations to progress to the next stage of the Labour leadership contest. I for one will be campaigning for her, and encourage all Labourites to give her their support!

It's such a mouth-watering prospect to imagine that someone even less electable than Michael Foot could soon be taking charge of the Labour helm. And you know, such an act of collective stupidity is by no means beyond the realms of possibility where these clowns are concerned. I mean... look what they did to the economy.

At the very least, fingers crossed, it looks like we might have seen the last of her on the "This Week" sofa. Imagine that! No more rolling of the eyes ... no more of those rude interruptions, talking over the top of everyone else... no more of that smug self-satisfied smirky smile.... wonderful!

Thank you Diane, and of course: GOOD LUCK!

More Balls

In his forlorn bid for the Labour leadership Mr. Ed Balls has been trying to reconnect with the grass roots of his party. The invasion of Iraq, he's been telling us, was a "mistake"...yep, that's right, a mistake. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought a mistake is like when you forget to buy a pint of milk in the supermarket, or when you miss your train...

The war in Iraq however, I'd call that a murderous act of aggression unleashed on the people of Iraq from hell, courtesy of Mr. George W Bush and his nasty little poodle, Tony Blair.

Why then wasn't Mr. Balls telling us about these "mistakes" before the election?

Why? Well it's because, like most of the rest of the Labour elite, Mr. Balls couldn't really give a damn about the innocents in Iraq his party shamelessly helped to kill.

The war in Iraq was not a mistake -- it was a crime. It was the deliberate work of a greedy Labour leader trying to earn himself some political capital whatever the consequences. In May 2010 it's about Blair's prospective successors trying to do exactly the same. The only difference is, these days the wind is blowing in a different direction.

Why did anyone vote for Labour in the recent election? Beats me.

Ealing Council Elections 2010 -- Labour Win

Four years ago, amid recriminations over the abortive west London tram project, Labour found themselves unceremoniously dumped in Ealing's local council elections. But tonight they have seized back control.

Of the 69 seats in 23 wards, the result was:

Labour 40
Conservatives 24
Lib Dems 5

If this was a response to the Tories cavalier attitude to town planning, (Arcadia and Dickens Yard), then frankly, they too probably deserved a lesson in humility. It remains to be seen however, if Labour will have the same success in keeping down the council tax.

For details of the general election result in Ealing click here.

Election 2010 -- Ealing Results

If I get a moment I'll put up a detailed table of results, but the main news from Ealing is that Ealing Central and Acton has turned blue. Notionally this new seat was very marginal, and as of last night it wasn't altogether clear which way it was going to go. But at 8:25 this morning it was declared for Angie Bray, former Tory leader of the London Assembly, with 17,944 votes on a high turnout of 67%. Labour's Bassam Mahfouz came in second with 14,228 votes. Jon Ball of the Lib Dems came a close third with 13,041 votes. This represented a swing of 5% to the Tories.

Elsewhere, Steve Pound, in spite of a spirited campaign from Tory Ian Gibb, comfortably held Ealing North with 50% of the vote, and no swing to the Conservatives.

As expected, in Ealing Southall, Virendra Sharma held his safe Labour seat in spite of a heavy swing to the Tories of of 8.3%. He polled 22,024 votes with the Conservatives coming second with 12,733.

The council election vote is currently being counted.

UPDATE: for Council election results, click here

The state of the economy

The last of the three TV election debates was supposed to be about the economy. For me it was ninety tedious minutes of blather and posturing from all three men. So, as a public service to my kind readers, this is all you need to know about the economy:

The UK economy grew at an average of just 1.7% per annum over the last decade -- not only is that lower than during either of the two previous decades under the Tories, it's actually the worst growth since the 1940s.

Unemployment is now 8%, that's the highest it's been since 1996. It's going to go up.

Exactly ten years ago the FTSE stood at 6373, today it's 5618. The UK stock market has suffered its weakest performance of any decade since the Great Depression, according to Morgan Stanley.

Our national debt as a percentage of GDP has more than doubled since Labour came to power.

With decreased GDP per capita and deteriorating exchange rates, the UK standard of living is currently below 2005 levels -- and getting worse.

Things are just about to get really really bad -- for years to come, no matter who ends up in Downing Street next week. Soon you'll no longer have to take my word for that. But why would anyone think the people who've landed us in this disastrous economic mess are in any way qualified to get us out of it?

By the way, if anyone can explain that one to me, I'd be most grateful -- seriously.

Education

Labour massively increased the Education budget -- doubled it in fact! So was that money well spent?

Here's my collection of thirty or so gems reflecting upon education in Britain today. Take a deep breath, and enjoy...

• One in five children leave primary school with a poor grasp of maths. According to a report, around 30,000 pupils started secondary school last year with the maths skills of a seven year old.
• More than three million children have started secondary school without a proper grasp of reading, writing and maths since Labour came to power.
• In a study, 1,300 of the brightest 16-year-olds were presented with questions from old O-level and GCSE papers. An average of one-in-seven questions from tests taken in the 60s and 70s were answered correctly. Even pupils awarded elite A* grades in corresponding GCSEs last summer struggled with traditional questions.
• Students who sat a science exam under the Oxford and Cambridge and the RSA (OCR) board managed to achieve grade C results by scoring as little as 18 per cent on one of their chemistry papers.
• English: fewer 14-year-olds are reaching Level 5 in the subject than in maths or science, according to statistics from the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The data reveals that almost 23 per cent of 14-year-olds, 129,400 in total, did not reach Level 5 in English, the standard expected of the age group. In maths, 21 per cent — 118,500 pupils— did not reach Level 5, and in science, 128,600, or 22 per cent, also failed to achieve this standard.
• One in seven children cannot write their own name after a year at primary school, figures showed.
• Tests carried out in 1980 and again in 2008 show that the IQ score of an average 14-year-old dropped by more than two points over the period. Among those in the upper half of the intelligence scale, a group that is typically dominated by children from middle class families, performance was even worse, with an average IQ score six points below what it was 28 years ago. The trend marks an abrupt reversal of the so-called "Flynn effect" which has seen IQ scores rise year on year, among all age groups, in most industrialised countries throughout the past century
• Clever boys are "dumbing down" at school to avoid being bullied and branded swots, according to research.
• Imperial College London, is introducing its own entrance exam after admitting it struggles to cope with record numbers of students applying with straight As at A-level.
• Universities have been accused of dumbing down after the number of first class degrees doubled in a decade.
• A study of written work produced by British final-year university students revealed that, on average, they had 52.2 punctuation, grammatical and spelling errors per paper compared with just 18.8 from international students.
• A decision has been made to make A-levels tougher -- or "recalibrated" to stem the fall in standards presided over by Labour, but Ofqual, the exams regulator, admitted students may be able to pass with lower marks than in the past.
• A pupil with seven GCSEs has been enrolled to an adult literacy course, because he can't read or write properly -- seven GCSEs, how does that work?
• More than two million children are being taught in schools that are mediocre or failing, Ofsted inspectors have said
• Millions of school and college leavers are 'not fit for work', the boss of Marks & Spencer has warned. Chairman Sir Stuart Rose said too many didn't even have a basic grasp of the three Rs.
• In a survey, 26% of under-16s thought bacon came from a sheep

So much for standards, what about the curriculum?

• Next year pupils will be tested on text messaging as part of their English GCSEs.
• Teachers should liven up lessons with games such as bingo, Blockbusters and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? to prevent pupils misbehaving, the Government's school discipline tsar, Sir Alan Steer has said.
• Under new rules, sixth formers study just four topics for A-level history, compared to about ten a decade ago, ensuring that great swathes of British and world history are left out.
• English lessons are being killed off in schools, with children no longer able to read for pleasure or express themselves through writing, a union leader has said.
• The Cambridge Primary Education Review, led by education expert Robin Alexander, found that schools are producing a generation of 'philistines' as science, history, geography and the arts disappear from the curriculum.

Or how about these gems...

• Independent schools, that educate only 7% of the school population produce more straight A pupils at A-level than the comprehensive system.
• Ed Balls wants to tear up the traditional ranking system for school league tables in favour of grading schools on their pupils' health and wellbeing as well as their exam results.
• Dr Carol Craig, chief executive of the centre for confidence and well-being in Scotland, said children were being over-praised and were developing an "all about me" mentality.
• Teachers believe pupils' behaviour has worsened in the past few years, with children being disrespectful, insulting and even physically aggressive in the classroom. More than eight in 10 said they had been verbally abused and insulted, while more than half said they had faced threats or been sworn or shouted at.
• Nearly 30% of school staff have been the subject of a false allegation of misconduct by a pupil, a survey by a teaching union suggests.
• More than 40,000 children aged between four and seven were excluded from their primary schools last year.
• As many as three-quarters of state schools are failing to push their brightest pupils because teachers are reluctant to promote 'elitism', an Ofsted study has said.
• Labour's flagship, Sheffield Park Academy - opened last year by the Duke of York following a £30m redevelopment - will become the third of the schools to be placed in "special measures".
• A report by the think tank Politeia found that teachers in England are the least qualified in the developed world

...and I could go on, (and on).

So, if you care about education -- then why would you vote for Labour?

Humphrys and Davis: Hubris and Sneer

If sneering and partisanship were the mark of excellence in radio news journalism, then recent editions of "The Today Programme" would sweep the awards.

Yesterday it was John Humphrys with Michael Gove, today it was the turn of Evan Davis with Chris Grayling. Not that I'm a big fan of Mr. Grayling either, but it would be so nice to go back to those good old days when the BBC really did pay more than just lip service to professional standards -- when people like Robin Day could deliver interesting, insightful and moreover, tough interviews that focussed on well-researched facts, and without the need for grandstanding or for couching questions in sneering and insulting language. Go listen to the interviews here, if you want to know exactly what I'm referring to.

I used to be a very vocal defender of the BBC and of the licence fee, and to be fair I still regard it as value for money, but these days I find there's a lot less to defend, and much more to criticize.

It's been a life-long observation of mine that programme makers, and particularly BBC programme makers, never ever (ever) accept any criticism of their programmes....ever. If they should continue in that vein, against a tide of evidence to the contrary, then quite frankly, they deserve all that's coming to them.

Blood Money

The Iraq war, we were absolutely assured, was not about oil. Come to think of it, what was the Iraq war about? Tony Blair's hubris? His need to grandstand on an international stage, clinging to the USA's coattails? Over the years, the official explanation has morphed a few times to serve the political exigencies of the day. However this weekend we learnt that among Tony Blair's colossal £20m earnings, there is an undisclosed fee (for "advice") from oil giant UI Energy Corporation, a company with strong business interests in ...erm ...Iraq. Yep, so definitely not about oil then. It turns out Blair has been battling for the last couple of years to keep this one secret. Well no wonder. And no wonder he couldn't find any expression of regret while addressing the Chilcot Enquiry. Kerching. What a nice fellow.

I expect the families of our dead service personnel, and those of the dead children of Iraq will have some "advice" for Mr. Blair. And I bet they'd give it to him for free.

Montys on High Street: no more

Monty's restaurants are an institution around Ealing, and until the end of last month there were four of them. Sadly Dipendra Karki's Nepalese curry house on the west side of the Broadway Centre in High Street is now gone. Blaming prohibitive rent and rates, the restaurant closed its doors for the last time and is relocating to West Hounslow. As if to add insult to injury, it will be replaced by Poundland -- an unfortunate sign of the times, and a blow to Ealing.

Decades ago there was just one Montys restaurant with three chefs. Soon the three went their own way, each taking with them entitlement to use the Monty's name and brand. One of those was Bishnu Karki whose Northfield Avenue premises is still thriving. It was this restaurant I used to frequent most, until I discovered that his son, Dipendra, was running an outlet on High Street. I've eaten at all the Ealing Montys, and as I discovered, Dipendra was definitely serving the tastiest food -- making it all the more unpalletable that this is now the one to go.

...Saturday evenings will just never be the same again. Ho hum.

Children's Services in Ealing are performing well

Today Ofsted, (the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills), has published its annual children's services rating report for 2009. According to Ofsted:

"The ratings look at performance in 152 local authorities in England for 2009 ...is a wide-ranging and robust assessment of the outcomes for children and young people in every local authority area which is strongly based on the evidence from inspections."

The rating is scored 1 - 4, where 1 indicates: "performs poorly: an organisation that does not meet minimum requirements", and 4 indicates: "performs excellently: an organisation that significantly exceeds minimum requirements"

As outlined in this letter (pdf) to David Archibald, Ealing's Executive Director of Children and Adults, children's services in Ealing are rated: 3, ("performs well: an organisation that exceeds minimum requirements").

The detailed performance profile is available here (pdf).

Ealing Arcadia Centre Development: Rejected

Good news for Ealing: John Denham, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has rejected the Arcadia redevelopment proposal for Ealing Broadway, previously rubber stamped by Conservative-run Ealing Council and London Mayor, Boris Johnson.

Denham's decision, which follows last summer's public enquiry, is a victory for common sense and will come as some considerable relief to those of us who live or work nearby. Politicians come and go, and London is littered with evidence of their bad planning decisions. Long after the politicians are gone, it's ordinary folk like you and me who have to live with the awful consequences. This proposal was a monumentally dumb one from the get-go. Ealing Council's unremitting stubbornness over the issue has bordered on the unforgiveable. It's as if they learnt nothing from the previous Labour group's experience who pushed an equally dumb West London tram scheme proposal, running roughshod over the wishes of local people: and were unceremoniously kicked out of power as a direct result. We won't have to wait long to see if a similar fate awaits the Tories.

Latest betting for the next mayor of London

Betting odds courtesy of William Hill (click table for bigger image)

At this rate Livingstone will be looking to LBC for his pension top-up, and not to you and me. So much the better. As far as I'm concerned, he makes a far better radio presenter than he ever did mayor of London.

UK recession continues

This morning the Office for National Statistics reported a sixth consecutive contraction of UK GDP (-0.4%). That makes the current recession the longest on record. France, Germany and Japan all moved into growth three months ago, but the UK's economic woes are looking ever more like a depression.

Yes, this was a "global downturn", it started in America, and of course, Britain was "best placed to weather the global economic crisis"...."we have reduced government debt"....remember all that crap?

Yeah, well remember it next time you're in a voting booth.

Councillor Phil Taylor calls for Censorship

There were fun and games on Ealing Today's community forum last week. One upset resident is claiming that Ealing's parking enforcement is turning a blind eye to parents who park illegally at a primary school near where he lives. The resident pointed out that the local ward councillor is also a member of the school's board of governors, and has previously expressed her indifference to the residents' concerns. He asserts that her membership of the board of governors is a significant conflict of interest with her duties and responsibilities as an elected representative of that area.

Now, whether or not any of this is a credible analysis of the facts has become slightly beside the point, (for now). What was astonishing however, was Councillor Taylor's reply. It wasn't so much the pompous, preachy tone that we've now all become accustomed to, but after making his point he finishes off by writing:

"I will ask the site editor to remove your comment as I believe that it is unacceptable."

I have to say, it was very generous of Mr. Taylor to confess to this authoritarian instinct of his. Whereas most reasonable people would prefer to discuss the relative merits and truth of a comment according to evidence, and within a free and open discussion, Taylor just wants to "remove" unwelcome or inconvenient opinions without properly addressing them.

To silence people according to some dumb concept of acceptability that exists among Phil Taylor's beliefs is, quite simply, political censorship -- and nobody needs it. Happily however, it seems the site editor in this case has not found it necessary to remove the offending comment, and all is still well in the free world. There you go Phil: omniscient, ubiquitous (certainly), but not quite omnipotent...

Another new hotel for Central Ealing

This time last month I mentioned that planning permission had been granted for a new hotel in Bond Street, in Central Ealing. Well, like the buses, you wait for ages, and then two come along at the same time!

As reported in the Ealing Gazette recently, Travelodge is planning to build a ninety-nine room hotel, complete with cafe and bar at 77 Uxbridge Road, previously the offices of Prince Evans solicitors. No expected date of completion was noted.

Located at X on map

Boris Johnson gets it right

"And if you want one decisive example of the terminal lunacy that afflicts this government, I give you the case the other day when a pair of female police officers discovered they were not allowed to babysit for each other, unless they both secured OFSTED credentials in baby-sitting.

Who is sitting there in OFSTED handing out degrees in baby-sitting to female police officers?

I don’t know – but I know that whoever it is no doubt draws a handsome salary and benefits and bomb-proof public sector pension and that is where the axe should fall.

Get rid of the nonsense, but don’t chop the investments essential to the UK economy. Cut the baby-sitting monitors, but don’t cut Crossrail. Cut the baby-sitting monitor human resources department, but don’t cut the tube upgrades. Cut the baby-sitting monitor equal opportunities action day but don’t cut the great projects and investments that will deliver jobs and growth now, and make London more attractive for generations to come."

Amen.

How refreshing.

New hotel for Ealing town centre

The next meeting of Ealing Council's planning committee is scheduled for tomorrow, Sept 2nd. I don't see anything of note on the agenda this time, but in case you missed it, at August's meeting they granted planning permission for a brand new hotel to be developed in Bond Street, right in the centre of Ealing town. The intention is to transform four storeys of the empty Swiftcall office block, (26-42 Bond Street -- adjacent to Ealing Green and above the now defunct Old Orleans restaurant), into a fifty bedroom hotel. Under the plans, Old Orleans would become the hotel's reception, lobby and hotel restaurant.

On the face of it, this looks like good news. To me, the west side of Bond Street near the Green has never looked right, and now looks more bedraggled than ever. Why we've never had a large modern hotel in central Ealing is something I've never understood -- so this is long overdue. Unlike the Arcadia nightmare, it looks like a positive step in the town's regeneration, and for once we can all look forward to seeing the arrival of the builders. The application was submitted in May, so I expect the negative impacts of the current economic climate have already been factored into the development's financial planning.

Ealing Jazz Festival 2009 -- some more photos

Photographs taken Saturday 1st August

CLICK ON THE PHOTOS FOR BIGGER IMAGES

Mike Westbrook and The Village Band (Mike Westbrook on euphonium, Kate Westbrook singing)

Mike Westbrook and The Village Band

The Township Comets featuring Miss Pinise Saul and Lucky Ranku playing some old Zila numbers. As expected, they brought the house down, and played three encores!

The Township Comets

My wrist band

Had a wonderful time. See you next year, same time, same place.