Tag Archives: History

Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader may be frightening indeed. But Corbyn as Party Martyr would be even worse

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Alex Grant

I like Jeremy Corbyn. I met him once on a dark railway platform in Blackpool, catching a train back to London towards the end of a Labour conference in the early noughties, and we got talking. Although I was a … Continue reading →

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Jeremy Hutchinson’s life tells us why civil liberties matter – and how Labour was largely to blame for their erosion

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Alex Grant

Just occasionally, you meet someone with a life story so extraordinary that you pinch yourself as you hear it. Jeremy Hutchinson – one of Britain’s leading criminal barristers throughout the 1960s and 1970s, former chairman of the Tate Gallery, former … Continue reading →

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A storm in a teacup: the Guardian misses the point about Charles’ black spider memos

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Alex Grant

Dear Minister, Thank you so much for joining me at the inaugural symposium of my Global Bear Preservation Initiative at Clarence House recently. I know that I will be lampooned by so-called “modernisers” as a inexcusable old stick-in-the mud, but … Continue reading →

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Eight media myths about the 2015 election – and why they are wrong

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Alex Grant

I missed the start of this campaign: for the first ten days of April I was in France, in a house without Wifi or even a telephone. Coming back to the UK on April 10th I scanned the papers and … Continue reading →

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So long, Greenwich. I predict that by 2050 you’ll swallow up Lewisham and Bexley. The Thames Barrier will be a boutique hotel. And everyone will be mad as hell about air pollution

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Alex Grant

I’m moving out of London later this week, with my partner and our daughter, after 35 years living in the borough of Greenwich – the last 16 of them as a Labour councillor here. There are few things more boring than ex-councillors … Continue reading →

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Far from being “dismal”, Euston’s Concourse is one of the best public spaces in London. Let’s hope HS2 doesn’t wreck it

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Alex Grant

A curious bidding war has been going on in London in the last few years: who can say the rudest thing about Euston Station. Last year, when it emerged that Euston’s 1960s building might be remodelled rather than demolished, Building … Continue reading →

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A Garden Bridge? No thank you, Joanna Lumley: London is ‘Bosky’ enough already

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Alex Grant

What’s not to like about the proposed Garden Bridge across the Thames? It’s designed by Thomas Heatherwick, a walk-on-water design superstar who came up with the Olympic Cauldron as well as the new Routemaster bus. It would, we are told, … Continue reading →

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Labour can take pride in its school rebuilding programme. Even if this one was finished nine years behind schedule  

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Alex Grant

Last Monday (November 3rd) I was at the grand opening of the John Roan School in Blackheath (the school lies in the ward I represented as a councillor until May 2014, and I used to be a governor there). Despite the big … Continue reading →

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The new University faculty is the best thing built in Greenwich for decades. Critics should be careful what they wish for

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Alex Grant

There’s a paradox about development in Greenwich (the town, not the borough) in the last 15 years. Schemes that commanded near-universal support when they were first proposed (the glass bubble around the Cutty Sark, which makes it look like its … Continue reading →

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Memo to the Left: 1 Nationalism should always be viewed with suspicion. 2 Press freedom needs to be fought for. 3 And an independence referendum is not a conference workshop

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Alex Grant

A political leader who has spent much time cosying up to Rupert Murdoch faces difficult questions from a broadcast journalist, a few days before a crucial electoral test. The leader accuses the journalist of “heckling” him. The press conference has … Continue reading →

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