PEOPLE have been asking today about the snippet of Eric Pickles posted on the site last night in which he tells Camden Labour councillor Sarah Hayward to take an anger management course. I’ve been asked how it fitted into his after dinner speech. It was actually part of his opening marks and the broader context is the dispute between Conservative ministers and Labour councillors about the rules on business rates relief and how they might be used to help The People’s Supermarket in Holborn.

Listen for yourself – here’s the full section, you will hear Mr Pickles referring to Cllr Hayward’s letters as ‘bile’ and a claim that Camden could, if it wanted to, offer full rate relief to the co-op style shop in Lamb’s Conduit Street. He says The People’s Supermarket is important in promoting the co-ops of The Big Society.

“If you have some something as important as this, why would you want to diminish Camden?,” he says, before suddenly bringing in the closure of care services at Netherwood in West Hampstead and Shoot-Up Hill in Kilburn as further irritations.

CLICK TO LISTEN:

PART ONE: Eric Pickles begins his speech in Hampstead on Wednesday night.

PART TWO: Eric Pickles continues speech in Hampstead on Wednesday night.