Morning update 25.09.15: The best pubs in Camden
PUBS, PUBS, PUBS…
ONE of the pet subjects for our councillors at the Town Hall is pubs, specifically saving them from closure. Who’s not going to vote for somebody who saved their pub? Or tried to save it? Or at least said they liked it? The colour of their rosette rarely matters, nor whether these hubs of the community charge £2.50 for a pint or £5.75, local politicians want to save your pub. Now. Keen followers will remember one recent full council meeting at which councillors left their speeches at home and just began listing the names of pubs. Take Sally The Tsunami Gimson, who rattled out an impressive catalogue of bars from in her Highgate ward, declaring them the best in Camden.
Sadly for the Bull and Last in Highgate Road, close to the top (see music track: The Pubs Of Highgate vs Belsize Bitter) of her list of namechecks, Tsunami’s love for the pub does not extend to backing their plans to build an infill extension and its idea for a bed and breakfast, the kind of enterprise that some might argue could bring in a few extra pennies to help the long-term battle for survival facing all pubs. She supports the pub, really she does, planners are told in her letter raising concerns about the extension. But she adds: “There is justifiable worry about the development of a much larger basement.” And: “Early morning deliveries already disrupt immediate neighbours and would be concerned that this problem is not made worse”. It’s a planning application which has split the views of living locally, but I’m assured Sally has not been barred for raising her objections at the Town Hall.
FIRST DATES
AN interesting anecdote for local spotters fell out of the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth when former council leader Keith Moffitt revealed the great distrust between councillors when Camden’s own Lib Dem and Conservative coalition was formed in 2006. “I think people knew there was a lot of tension when we started,” he said. “I remember Alison Lowton, the then borough solicitor, being surprised when we had our first executive meeting as we had never sat down around a table together before. Literally. It was because we were so distrusting. The first time we had sat together was in a public meeting.”
HUNT THE FOX
JEREMY Corbyn probably hasn’t had much time to get up to his allotment in East Finchley in recent weeks. He has his first conference speech to prepare. Back at the N2 ranch, however, there’s been a bloody scene. In a nearby plot to Corbyn’s row of veggies, a fox dug a tunnel below a wire fence around a chicken enclosure at the weekend to help itself to its largest ever Sunday dinner. At least six were found killed and many more of the chickens, owned by the lads from the Portuguese deli in Camden Town, are missing.
TWEETS
THE mockery over Haringey Council’s nw logo is catching…
@NewJournal drawn this should ur council now feel outshone by Haringey. £43000 fee pledged to your local charities :) pic.twitter.com/nMYO16jkeG
— Invisible Mum (@invisiblemumuk) September 25, 2015
YUP…
So Jeremy Corbyn gave the world exclusive on his leadership bid to The Islington Tribune.Proper media whore :http://t.co/FBhciuaEJe
— Update: Earthquakes (@Earthquake_rt) September 25, 2015
Richard Osley 
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My dear friend Keith’s memory has a small lacuna. It’s true there was distrust in the early days (not from me!), but he and Flick will remember that they had dinner with Piers Wauchope and me in Gung Ho restaurant in 2005, months before the 2006 election. Keith said they had very good candidates in Kilburn, Piers said there was no chance that the LDs could take Kilburn. I do realise that this anecdote is of interest to about half a dozen people, but thought that Richard you might appreciate it. Btw, we certainly didn’t plot a coalition on the council at that dinner; we were just talking in very general terms about the Labour council and how we were each getting on.
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