The government hasn’t announced its social housing funding allocation for London, but Burnham is already rowing back on his pledge to invest in council homes.
To put the housing crisis in context, in just the three London boroughs of Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets there are around 78,000 households on the local authority housing register, and almost 15,000 households in temporary accommodation.
Shadows
You’ve noticed this, maybe?
You’re in a room with high windows, facing the sun. You can see, you are, casting a shadow.
Maybe you hold your hand out towards your leg. And, the shadow of your fingertips and your leg merge just before you expect it.
Wait. What?
Try it. Look. See the shadows straining to merge. They curve outwards and connect.
I call this the “penumbra”.
Look, I don’t know what other telekinetics call it. They will have their words for it. We don’t exactly wear our weirding badges in public.
Let me tell you a secret, though. The penumbra - that space, the gap, where the shadows bulge and merge - that is where I move things with my mind.
Try it. You’ll know. Try it.
If it is necessary to demonise and brutalise migrants to “restore faith in the immigration system”, perhaps it is rather more necessary to tax the wealthy and address inequality to restore faith in liberal democracy.
When you’re trying to fly, do a downstroke over water. It’s not easy to describe: but the water kicks up hard - harder than dry land.
Johnny, won’t you come on home: it’s a warning from the past for the Labour government of the future.
Johnny Come Home - Fine Young Cannibals. More: www.crucialtracks.org/profile/m…
Folks who’ve been following my hopeless attempts at flying - let me tell you, us humans are not cut out to “land” (hit the water) like a duck.
Atom Bomb. Baby got a Nobel Prize. Almost 30 years ago.
Atom Bomb - Fluke. More: www.crucialtracks.org/profile/m…