Tag: london

Mieka Smiles: Senior Plagiarist for the Daily Express

Reach PLC journalists, whose titles include My London, Daily Mirror and Daily Express appear to be in an interlinked conspiracy to plagiarise the work of artists and community bloggers, in order to pass other peoples original creative works off as their own.

Reach PLC journalists, whose titles include My London, Daily Mirror and Daily Express appear to be in an interlinked conspiracy to plagiarise the work of artists and community bloggers, in order to pass other peoples original creative works off as their own.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/146694853?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479
What Does Balfron Tower Mean to You? by Rab Harling, the source of the plagiarised quotes.

Please note, due to plagiarism and abuse, this film has now been withdrawn.

Tens of thousands of people all around the world have now read our exclusive blog post “As buyers reject a regenerated Balfron Tower, we reveal what’s next as all flats are withdrawn from sale“, published on 3rd April 2023, in which Balfron Social Club revealed that the developers who regenerated Balfron Tower- Telford Homes, Londonewcastle and Poplar Harca, have failed to sell a single flat in the socially cleansed Ernö Goldfinger brutalist icon Balfron Tower in Tower Hamlets, east London.

As buyers reject a regenerated Balfron Tower, we reveal what’s next as all flats are withdrawn from sale.

It came as no surprise to us that our exclusive revelations were picked up by other media outlets. One of the first such stories drawing upon the Balfron Social Club blog arrived in Novara Media in August 2023, correctly acknowledging Balfron Social Club as the source of the story and linking to the original article.

‘It’s a Scandal’: How Property Developers Failed to Sell a Single Flat in Balfron Tower

This was swiftly followed by ‘the brutal lessons from Balfron Tower’s unsold flats’ in the Standard on 10th August 2023, which quickly revealed how journalists, especially from a media outlet that had been such an enthusiastic cheerleader for the regeneration of Balfron Tower as the Standard had been, were completely unwillingly to allow a community blog to take credit for an exclusive story, citing Novara Media as the source; the sort of exclusive that they themselves should have written, the sort of exclusive that any decent journalist would have been proud of.

Preceding either of these stories though, on 29th July 2022, was an article entitled “Council tenants forced out of Britain’s ‘ugliest building’ so flats can be sold for £800,000” by Josh Bolton, in a Reach PLC online publication My London.

This article drew heavily upon interviews in a short film “What Does Balfron Tower Mean to You?” (2015) by Rab Harling, founder of Balfron Social Club.

Quote from the Josh Bolton article in My London including appropriate credits

In this short film, which was exhibited in the Wellcome Collection exhibition Living With Buildings in 2018, numerous former-tenants of Balfron Tower were asked one simple question, what does Balfron Tower mean to you?

The results provided a unique glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of some of the inhabitants of this brutalist icon, at a time when they were being forced out of their homes so that the tower could be privatised, removing all of the social housing from this purpose-built tower block, with a plans to sell the 146 flats to bankers at nearby Canary Wharf and enthusiasts of Goldfinger’s distinct architectural style.

As we now know, this plan was a complete disaster and the developers failed to sell even one single flat, a disaster that left developer Telford Homes, recently acquired by CBRE, with a £193 million loss.

The story in My London must have been a success because that same evening another story appeared in Reach PLC’s sister national publication, the Daily Mirror, with a similar title “Council tenants turfed out of UK’s ‘ugliest building’ so flats can be sold for £800,000“, now credited to Josh Bolton and Charlie Duffield. Only this time the source of the interviews had been attributed to My London, rather than the original source.

Quote from the Daily Mirror which now cited the source of the interviews as MyLondon.

Given Poplar Harca’s habit of intimidation towards residents who speak out against them in the media, Balfron Social Club posted a tweet advising those involved in the story that the interviews had actually been drawn from Rab Harling’s short film, and that they had not spoken to journalists from My London, as they had claimed. The tweet also commented that this was no doubt an “innocent mistake”.

Fast forward to September 2023 and Balfron Social Club was contacted by Ruby Gregory, the Local Democracy Reporter for My London, who having read the Balfron Social Club blog post was interested in telling the story of Hugh Thompson, who had been living in a hotel for seven years whilst awaiting a return to his flat in Balfron Tower, now five years overdue.

Balfron Social Club was acknowledged in this article, but the included hyperlink led to an unrelated post rather than to the actual source of the story. At the time, this really felt like a kick in the teeth, but it was decided to overlook this as the story was not about Balfron Social Club, and we felt that it was important that Hugh Thompson’s story was heard, given the appalling treatment of this octogenarian leaseholder by Poplar Harca.

At this point, we had still not joined the dots in realising that this was what appears to be a systemic approach to reappropriating the work of others and passing it off as their own, purposefully obfuscating the original source material.

This realisation hit us squarely in the face when we recently discovered the next article, some weeks after it was published.

On 16th December 2023, Mieka Smiles, Senior News Reporter for the Daily Express published “UK’s ugliest building cost £56million to upgrade with views over a dual carriageway” in the UK national newspaper the Daily Express, another Reach PLC title.

Mieka Smiles for the Daily Express was now linking to the Daily Mirror as the source of the interviews.

This article heavily relied on the interviews with Cindy, a former resident of Balfron Tower, who had spoken to Rab Harling in his 2015 film What Does Balfron Tower Mean to You? Only now, instead of crediting the original source of the interviews, it linked to the Daily Mirror, who had already removed the original source of the material.

As you can imagine, we were not too impressed to discover that this article now included what can only be described as plagiarised content, taking credit for work that was not carried out by the journalist, but through a series of convoluted references had deleted the original author of the work to take credit for work they had not done.

Mieka Smiles also failed to mention Balfron Social Club as the source of the story regarding the failure to sell a single flat in Balfron Tower, instead attributing the credit to Novara Media, just as the Standard had previously done.

In a post on Balfron Social Club we asked Mieka Smiles to apologise and to correct the article and to add the correct credits. At the time of writing, this has not been done.

Mieka Smiles did however send one single Direct Message to Balfron Social Club in which she acknowledged that she was fully aware that the quotes that she had attributed to the Daily Mirror came from an artists film.

All further contact has been ignored.

It seems very clear that this was a concerted effort to take credit for work that was plagiarised, and over a series of articles has removed the original author of the work and instead credited themselves for interviews that they did not undertake.

Interactions on Twitter have made us realise that this is a systemic problem at Reach PLC titles, who appear to have forgotten that journalists cannot just help themselves to the work of others, and may sometimes have to actually go out and do some original research of their own, you know, the job they are paid for.

https://twitter.com/RayFrsa/status/1742963311740674398

We have advised Mieka Smiles that unless this issue is addressed appropriately, which it has not been, that we would be making a formal complaint to IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. However, our previous experience of any kind of UK regulator has revealed that they are more interested in covering up the crimes of the powerful and corrupt than actually ever taking appropriate action.

If a regulator ever actually did what they are supposed to do we suspect that this kind of unethical behaviour would not be so prevalent in the UK media.

Instead of making a complaint and then waiting months for a cover up which would only protect a plagiarist, we have decided to publish this account of the actions of Reach PLC journalists and editors, and then send it to the regulator for them to take appropriate action.

Once we have received a response we will keep you informed.

Balfron Social Club has operated since 2014 in order to highlight the unethical social cleansing of 146 purpose built social housing homes in Balfron Tower and to demand that a minimum of 50% social housing was retained in the block following redevelopment.

We are completely unfunded, nor have we ever sought funding. We publish our blog in order to expose corruption and social cleansing in attacks on working class communities.

Journalists are welcome to quote the work on the blog, with appropriate credits, but they are not welcome to plagiarise our content and pass it off as their own work.

Balfron Social Club

5th January 2024

As buyers reject a regenerated Balfron Tower, we reveal what’s next as all flats are withdrawn from sale.

Balfron Tower lead architect Ab Rogers made bold claims that he was “honouring the ghost of Goldfinger”, but it appears that Goldfingers ghost may be having the last laugh.

Despite two high profile marketing campaigns for the private sale of all 146 flats in the Ernö Goldfinger designed brutalist Balfron Tower, all flats have now been withdrawn from the market.

The sales effort for Balfron Tower was launched in Summer 2019 with a high profile sales campaign, with marketing featured across a broad range of mainstream media, including The Guardian and the Financial Times, yet genuinely interested buyers appeared to be thin on the ground and the project appeared to be going seriously off the rails.

Balfron Tower was then withdrawn from sale in early 2020 and throughout the pandemic scaffolding once again climbed this 27-storey tower, where it remained for well over a year.

There appeared to be some significant structural problems with the tower.

Meanwhile, leaseholders were waiting to return to their homes.

One elderly leaseholder, Hugh Thompson, 86, has been living out of a suitcase in a hotel since he was forcibly decanted from his home in Balfron Tower in 2016 so that regeneration works could commence.

Initially, he was told that the construction works would take two years, although following a one year delay to the commencement of the project, after the tenants had all been decanted, he was then told that he could return to his home in 2019.

After three years in a hotel, the novelty had worn off and he was eager to return home.

On several further occasions Poplar Harca advised Thompson that he could return to his 21st floor home, which he bought in the 1980’s from Tower Hamlets council under Right to Buy legislation.

Yet, on each occasion he was let down at the last moment and told that he could not return home.

Second marketing campaign

In the Summer of 2022, Poplar Harca launched a second high profile marketing campaign, managed by PR firm Good Relations, perhaps best known for their connection to Bell Pottinger and their legacy of stirring up racial tension in South Africa.

Harca scored a second feature article in The Guardian by Oliver Wainwright, as well as features in the Daily Mirror and The Sun and a collaboration with registered charity Open House to market the socially-cleansed flats via Rightmove and their Open House events.

Harca Lies

Despite Harca’s claims in The Guardian that “more than 1,200 interested buyers have already signed up”, it appears that there has actually been so little genuine interest in actually buying one of these architecturally mutilated flats that they have all now been withdrawn from the market.

Poplar Harca openly boasted that they have sold Flat 130, the home for two months in 1968 of Balfron Tower’s infamous architect Ernö Goldfinger, yet the Land Registry does not include the details of sales of any property in Balfron Tower since Flat 102 changed hands to Balfron Tower Developments LLP for £1,480,000 in 2017.

This transaction raises serious questions about the legitimacy of some of the transactions, and who they may have benefitted.

Poplar Harca openly boasted in BD Online in 2008 that one of the project team had already bought one of the flats, for cash.

Balfron Social Club reiterates our call for an independent audit of Poplar Harca.

The human cost of regeneration

Hugh Thompson’s home in Balfron Tower prior to regeneration.
Photograph from Inversion / Reflection: Turning Balfron Tower Inside Out by Rab Harling

As for leaseholder Mr Thompson, did he get to return to his flat as was promised in Autumn 2022, six years after he moved out, following the second expensive, high-profile marketing campaign?

In short, no. No, he did not.

Mr Thomson has recently been told it will now be September 2023 before he can return home, over seven years since he was forced out.

Seven years in a hotel, in his 80’s.

Hugh’s story is just one brutal story from a catalogue of abuse residents suffered at the hands of Poplar Harca and its staff who appear to thrive on bullying residents, who are treated more as an inconvenience than a community, especially social tenants who live in blocks earmarked for regeneration.

This arrogant attitude towards local people appears to stem from the very top of Poplar Harca and filters its way down though its directors, who appear to treat Poplar as their own personal fiefdom, and where telling lies to tenants seems to come as second nature.

Meanwhile, Poplar Harca directors were happily associating themselves with some very sleazy individuals, such as developers London Newcastle, highly indicative of the management style emanating from Harca under its CEO, Steve Stride.

References are still often made of the “Balfron Tower casting couch”, the nickname for a nicely decorated flat that was forcibly appropriated by Poplar Harca during Bow Arts so-called Balfron Season in 2015, where agencies such as Arts Council England, English Heritage and British Council turned Balfron Tower into their own personal playground and assisted Bow Arts and Poplar Harca with artwashing the social cleansing of Balfron Tower, all whilst social tenants, yet to be decanted, remained living in the tower.

Poplar Harca also made the flat available to London Newcastle, Telford Homes, Bow Arts and any of their friends to use, as they chose.

The Balfron Tower Casting Couch prior to having been commandeered by Poplar Harca.
Photograph from Inversion/Reflection: Turning Balfron Tower Inside Out by Rab Harling

Poplar Harca’s arrogant attitude towards the local community has ensured that local people have always been hostile towards the regeneration of Balfron Tower.

All social housing was removed from Balfron Tower in a plan that cast local people aside, often to estates already earmarked for demolition creating chaos into the lives of the local population, in order to provide homes for office workers at the nearby Canary Wharf financial district, and took very little consideration for the needs of the local community.

They only cared about the value of the homes people occupied and their desperate attempts to gentrify the community by attracting financial workers to the neighbourhood.

Paul Augarde, Poplar Harca’s Director of Placemaking meets the locals.

The community has not forgotten the brutal treatment by Poplar Harca staff, who bullied and harassed our friends and neighbours from their homes, and intimidated, even stalked, anybody that dared criticise them or obstruct them in any way.

Is anybody really surprised that Poplar Harca’s plans to sell all the flats in Balfron Tower have been a total disaster?

I suspect they alone are, because if Harca are known locally for anything, its for not listening to the needs and requirements of local people, as they court people they want to live in the area rather than those who already do.

They were never listening, they decided what they wanted to do and then went ahead and did it, regardless of the needs of the local community, and just like the Tower Hamlets Labour Party, who lost control of the council at recent elections, their time is up.

What’s next for Balfron Tower?

“The private sales operation for Balfron has been put on hold. The developer (Balfron Tower Developments LLP) has now made a decision to convert the newly renovated homes which had been proposed for sale, to professionally managed rented homes (‘Build to Rent’ or BTR). Subsequent to this Savills have since been appointed to market the BTR element to prospective investment partners.”

It now appears that Poplar Harca, a Registered Social Landlord, that was given vast swathes of Poplar free of charge by the former Labour council, have decided to convert the homes in Balfron Tower into “professionally managed rented homes” using the government’s Build to Rent scheme.

It would seem unlikely that the regeneration of Balfron Tower should be eligible for a government scheme designed for large landlords who have specifically built new-build properties solely for the rental market, but if there is one thing that Poplar Harca & Co. are good at, its lying and cheating their way into large amounts of public funds.

If somehow they do manage to achieve their new aim of Build to Rent then this would ensure that, according to the terms of the Build to Rent scheme, at least 20% of the homes being made available for rent must be made available as “affordable rent” properties, for the long-term.

Balfron Social Club believes that the ghost of Goldfinger will never be happy until Balfron Tower is returned to its intended social purpose.

Balfron Social Club started in 2014 with a campaign for 50% social housing to be retained in the regeneration of Balfron Tower.

Poplar Harca, backed by a Labour council led by (now-former) mayor John Biggs, insisted that there would be absolutely no social housing retained in the tower and that all flats would be sold on the private market.

Now the market has concluded that there are to be no sales on the private market, Poplar Harca plans to rent the properties privately instead.

We do not believe that a token 20% “affordable rent” properties in the tower is acceptable, and we demand that all unsold flats are now returned to the socially rented sector, to help relieve some of the pressure upon people in Tower Hamlets, people in desperate need of genuinely affordable social housing.

Sack Steve Stride

Poplar Harca’s risky top-down plans to gentrify Poplar have failed, and its time for Steve Stride to be sacked, and for the Poplar Harca housing stock to be transferred back to the management of Tower Hamlets council, as has recently happened to Tower Hamlets Homes, under the direction of Tower Hamlets new mayor, Lutfur Rahman.

Meanwhile, 146 families on the Tower Hamlets housing waiting list can be housed in this recently refurbished, purpose-built social housing block, with great views across London.

The flats in Balfron Tower interiors may have been stripped of their period character but they would still make perfectly adequate social housing.

Balfron Social Club

Poplar. 2nd April 2023.

Find us on twitter: https://twitter.com/BalfronSocial

Have you seen “What Does Balfron Tower Mean to You? a short film by Rab Harling?

Just how do you get social housing in Tower Hamlets in just 5 months? We asked Apsana Begum MP.

(text updated 21st June 2021)

A secure tenancy on a £330,000 riverside flat in Tower Hamlets in east London, at social rent? That sounds too good to be true! Tell us how?

We asked Poplar & Limehouse’s newest occupant of their secure Labour parliamentary seat in Tower Hamlets for an answer. Ms Begum, formerley married to a currently serving Tower Hamlets councillor, seems to have bagged herself a secure tenancy on a £330,000 property in the Isle of Dogs region of the Borough.

Balfron Social Club asked her how she did it?

Ms Begum seems to like Twitter, but she must just keep missing our tweets. I’ll ask again.

We still haven’t received an answer.

“The housing crisis remains at the top of the political agenda, its scale laid bare by the Covid-19 epidemic . But despite the media spotlight, the stories of those affected by the  chronic shortage of social housing in the United Kingdom, including in Tower Hamlets, have often been left out of debates on housing.”

https://poplarandlimehouselabour.org.uk/index.php/events/

We agree!

The housing crisis in Tower Hamlets is catastrophic for local communities, after years of corruption at the very top, with a mayor who used to be a lobbyist for property developers; billions of pounds of public assets have been passed into the hands of their friends and associates, which are then quickly passed into the hands of property developers, redeveloped and sold with the most minimal of public housing provision; typically 0% in direct comparison with traditional social tenancies.

Instead, properties, which still meet the criteria to be classified as “affordable” housing, require a £90,000 income in order to buy a 25% share of a tiny new-build property; a property built on the graveyard of social housing and the communities that once lived there.

But Poplar & Limehouse has a brand new MP- young, female and ambitious, what’s the problem?

The problem is that Apsana Begum jumped over 18,000 places on the official Tower Hamlets social housing register. This register recently had tens of thousands of names removed from it, and many more people, including myself, have simply been refused permission to add our names to the list.

So, if there are 18,000 people officially on the list, how many people are there that Tower Hamlets have deemed un-listworthy?

Including myself, I estimate there to be at least that number again; sofa-surfing, sleeping on floors, in vehicles, in overcrowded or unsafe homes, garages, sheds, doorways, squats etc.

So, how did Apsana Begum MP get a secure social tenancy on a £330,000 riverside flat on the Isle of Dogs, next to the now near-abandoned Canary Wharf international banking sector?

We have asked, repeatedly, but we have still not received a reply.

To be fair, I am not the only person asking, and I don’t think anybody has received a reply. Corruption and social cleansing seem to come as standard equipment in Tower Hamlets, under Mayor John Biggs, with a number of entire buildings mysteriously changing hands or being sold to friends for just £1, and dozens of entire estates facing “regeneration” as our social housing is asset-stripped and replaced by business models that suits banks and property developers, not buyers and certainly not the local community.

Housing policy in Tower Hamlets is overt social cleansing.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10390219/labour-candidate-probe-council-flat/

Tower Hamlets Social Housing Case Studies

As official figures provided by crooked politicians on social housing simply cannot be trusted, and their PR closely resembles the genre of fantasy fiction, I thought I would share a few stories about people who weren’t lucky enough to be given a secure tenancy, at social rent, in a riverside property, in only 5 months.

Classic Move

Having been hand-picked to stand for election, in 2019, in the secure seat of Poplar & Limehouse in Tower Hamlets, east London- a borough renowned for corruption, Ms Begum seems to have decided that it would be a good idea to spin herself into position as a saviour of social housing.

Dispossession: the Great Social Housing Swindle

Watch Dispossession: the Great Social Housing Swindle for yourself, the Balfron Tower excerpt, co-produced and even featuring a guest appearance by myself, is available to watch below or on YouTube, free of charge.

You can watch the full documentary here.

Dispossession: the Great Social Housing Swindle. Dir: Paul Sng 2017.

A tradition of corruption

In a Borough as corrupt as Tower Hamlets, you would think that a “model” Labour council would be more careful about corruption, especially housing fraud, given the scarcity and price of such a limited resource.

This is not the first time a Labour politician in the area has been caught, accused and convicted of housing fraud.

Mohammed Haran, was convicted of housing fraud and sent to jail, shortly after being elected as Councillor for Lansbury, site of the hotly contested Chrisp Street Market regeneration proposals, which were unanimously approved by crooked Labour councillors in the pockets of property developers.

https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/muhammad-harun-admits-housing-fraud-1-6305345

Stop the corruption! Stop the social cleansing!

The people of Tower Hamlets have had enough. We have had enough of the fraud and corruption and the Sino-Soviet style entitlement to public assets by politicians in Tower Hamlets.

Another event providing a platform for Apsana Begum to spin her way out of corruption allegations.

Drop the act, Ms Begum. You jumped the housing queue, trampling over 18,000 people to receive housing that you are not entitled to. That is fraud, and you should go to jail for blatantly stealing social housing from people in need.

Dear reader, if you were really looking for an answer to the opening question then we apologise, as we are still a little unclear as to how we can get social housing in just 5 months as well.

Why not ask Apsana Begum directly, maybe she will be able to help you.

apsana.begum.mp@parliament.uk
0207 219 6826

UPDATE:

On 14th September 2020, Apsana Begum MP blocked Balfron Social Club on Twitter. No answer has ever been provided as to how she skipped over 18,000 places on the social housing register to receive social housing in just five months.

Despite being blocked, we will keep asking.

Representation by UK Labour Poplar & Limehouse MP Apsana Begum

UPDATE (21st June 2021)

Apsana Begum MP has been charged on three counts of housing fraud and will appear before a Judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 21st July 2021.

Further information can be found here:

https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/apsana-begum-housing-fraud-trial-date-set-8066658

Balfron Social Club

Poplar

26th August 2020

Shock, hypocrisy, as London housing activism group @Homes4AllUK provide platform for social cleansing.

London housing activism group @Homes4AllUK, run by Glyn Robbins from the London School of Economics, are providing a platform for Labour politicians deeply involved in corruption and social cleansing.

Hopefully nobody is going to notice how many Labour politicians in Tower Hamlets have been jailed for housing fraud, or that local Councillors like Bex White are sponsored into office by “a family friend”, the CEO of Poplar Harca, or that 1000’s of socially rented homes have been dismantled into the hands of luxury developers, or that Apsana Begum MP herself was given social housing in just 5 months…

Are we just going to ignore all the housing fraud and corruption carried out by the current crop of Labour politicians and their crooked connections to luxury developers ripping apart the social housing in Tower Hamlets?

Including Apsana Begum herself?

Labour Party MP candidate Apsana Begum faces council investigation into social housing

Do #BlackLivesMatter & @GrenfellUnited not take exception to @ApsanaBegumMP co-opting your worthy causes who, via her party, has helped systematically dismantle social housing into the hands of property developers & then personally jumped the housing queue because she “needed housing“? All the while participating in creating ghettoes, such as that at Chrisp Street Market, so they can then justify social cleansing, or as they keep referring to it-regeneration.

Spin

Apsana Begum recently appeared on a q&a panel for Paul Sng’s feature length documentary Dispossession: the Great Social Housing Swindle, an online event held exclusively for Labour Party members.

Here’s the excerpt from Balfron Tower, co-produced by myself.

How can housing activists seriously justify giving her or her local party a platform?

Homes 4 All website states that they’re supported by @unitetheunion, @DCHcampaign, @radicalhousing & @LambthHousngAct.

Could anybody from above groups please explain why you are providing a platform for @ApsanaBegumMP, following years of social cleansing & corruption in Tower Hamlets?

Deafening silence surrounds housing allegations against Apsana Begum MP

Would you be so pleased to see Peter John, Neil Coyle & co. being given a platform to spin themselves out of the devastation they have caused to your communities?

@Homes4AllUK we need answers. Stop giving platforms to crooks.

I’m not going to provide an exhaustive list of links about fraud, corruption and social and ethnic cleansing in Tower Hamlets, as you don’t seem to care (Labour cult?) about the damage these people have done to our communities, our families and our lives, though you can find many more instances in this website http://www.BalfronSocialClub.org or the recently relaunched https://www.eastendenquirer.org/ which provides “investigative journalism for London’s East End”.

I would however be fairly certain that groups like Homes 4 All are connected to UK Higher Eduction establishments, establishments that have routinely treated working-class communities as mere case studies, as they divert attention away from the devastating impact these institutions are causing to London’s working-class communities- invading, colonising and then demolishing them in cynical attempts to gentrify and socially cleanse the community, as happened recently on the Teviot Estate by University of the Arts’ London College of Fashion, where a deeply suspect poll claimed 86% of the tenants of the estate voted to demolish their own homes, on an estate where flats rent for up to £600 per week.

However, here is one, as you specifically referenced this one:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-12-10/news/labour-in-2m-skyscraper-bribe-scandal-kvxd80t6s

One rule for them, and another for us.

Six years ago, I was thrown out of Tower Hamlets housing office into the street by police, for refusing to leave as I had nowhere else to go, following eviction by Bow Arts who were assisting Tower Hamlets crooked cabal of social cleansers aggressively cheat the working-class community from their homes in Balfron Tower, so they could be sold off to the wealthy and the vulgar, with zero social housing at all.

I was refused any support at all and was refused entry on to the waiting list for social housing, & I’ve been insecurely housed / homeless ever since, and I am still not included on any housing register.

Meanwhile, Apsana Begum was given social housing in just 5 months.

As some people have questioned, there may have been extenuating circumstances surrounding Ms Begums very brief appearance on the waiting list, such as fleeing domestic violence.

However, as Ms Begums partner was and remains an elected councillor in Tower Hamlets, then surely this information should be made available as being in the public interest?

Questions raised over Labour candidate’s £330K council flat

However, her response was that she “needed housing”.

Obviously a damn good excuse, one I wish I had thought off because I have thoroughly appreciated 6+ years of sleeping on floors and sofas, down to the kindness of some good people to whom I am very grateful, and a socially rented flat worth £330,000, as was rented at a social rent to Ms Begum, would have been of no use to me at all.

Meanwhile social housing continues to be dismantled in this east London Labour stronghold, and with organised, and presumably funded, housing activism groups like @Homes4AllUK clearly turning a blind eye to corruption, fraud and brutal attacks on working class social housing communities amongst their Labour cronies, and instead providing them with a platform.

Surprisingly, @Homes4AllUK don’t seem to feel much need to answer questions about their hypocrisy in providing a platform for this politician, and by extension her party, who are routinely involved in fraud and corruption of Tower Hamlets precious social housing.

Utterly shameful stuff @Homes4AllUK. You should be thoroughly embarrassed to be complicit in the PR cover-up for the social and ethnic cleansing of multi-billion pounds worth of socially rented homes, transferred by Labour politicians into the hands of property developers, especially as this was something that they once campaigned against, as questioned by Balfron Social Club in 2018.

Thank you for your solidarity. You are failing the people of London to defend crooked politicians involved in social and ethnic cleansing.

Balfron Social Club

Poplar

1st July 2020

Guinness Homes are killing nurses & bus drivers by building Leaside Lock.

We will not forget selfish company directors that consider their developments more important than the lives of our friends & neighbours.

Balfron Social Club recently wrote about the Guinness Homes construction site Leaside Lock in Bromley-by-Bow in Tower Hamlets which has remained open during the #Covid19 lockdown, which is still open on 14th April, weeks after everybody else has been forced to close down their businesses and stop going to work.

Weeks have now passed and many construction sites such as Leaside Lock by Guinness Homes at Bromley by Bow in Tower Hamlets remain open.

Construction at Imperial-by-Lea during Covid-19 lockdown.
Published by Balfron Social Club on 2nd April 2020.

Construction workers need to travel to and from work, and whilst NHS staff and bus drivers are dying in droves, the directors and board of Guinness Homes seem to think that their profits are more important than the lives of key workers- workers risking their lives on the front line of a global pandemic, to try and keep us safe.

Timelapse of construction at Imperial by Lea still operating weeks after covid19 lockdown

Construction companies may have issued guidelines for workers to keep 2 metres apart, but it is very clear that this is not possible for many of their insecure, poorly-paid construction workers, and it is evident in photographs that this is routinely not happening.

As I write, over 11,000 people in the UK have been officially confirmed dead due to covid19, and this figure excludes many thousands of people who have died at home or in care homes.

An incompetent government, spineless politicians and company directors who don’t care who dies have rapidly made the UK one of the worst affected countries in Europe from the Covid19 pandemic.

Keeping 2 metres apart at Imperial by Lea is not possible for construction workers.

Whilst our friends, family and neighbours including NHS staff and bus drivers are dying in droves, there is no doubt that the Directors and Board of Guinness Homes will be firmly locked down and isolating in their homes, or second homes, because it has become very clear that there is one rule for us, and another for them.

Whilst they Zoom, we die.

I do not believe that the privilege of these people should allow them to go unpunished for what is tantamount to the murder of critically important key workers, people risking their own lives to save the lives of our friends and neighbours in the fight against the Covid19 pandemic.

Guinness Homes building shite (sic) at Imperial-by-Lea, Bromley by Bow in Tower Hamlets

I have therefore compiled a list of the directors and board of Guinness Homes and am publishing it below, along with their details.

These people made purposeful choices that their profits are more important than the lives of key workers.

Enough is enough, it’s time to shut the sites.

Social distancing does not work on building sites

Each of the following people has the blood of NHS staff, bus drivers & key workers on their hands for keeping their construction sites open during #covid19 lockdown.

We will not forget their selfishness which has led to the deaths of key workers.

The following are Directors of @GuinnessHomes.

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We will not forget selfish company directors that consider their developments more important than the lives of our friends & neighbours. 

The following Directors of @GuinnessHomes feel they are more important than the lives of NHS staff & bus drivers (repeated here in text so that their names are picked up by search engines and their actions are never forgotten).

Angela Maria Drum.

Philip Michael Day.

Ian Joynson.

Jonathon Milburn.

Catriona Ruth Simons.

Peter Hedderly.

Trafford Wilson.

Paul Watson MBE.

The following are board members of @GuinnessHomes.

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Neil Braithwaite.

Mike Petter.

Amanda Calvert.

Phil Morgan.

Samantha Pitt.

Chris Wilson.

Chris Stevens.

Linda Sanders.

The following Twitter poll is live. Please click to vote.

It’s one rule for us, and another for them. If they were building homes that our local community could afford, we might have more sympathy for them.

But, they’re not. Whatever they tell you “affordable” housing is not affordable for our community. It’s a scam designed to fool you.

Does the image below look representative of the community of Bromley by Bow? Does it look representative of Tower Hamlets?

Do the Directors of Guinness Homes look like your neighbours? Or of our community?

Developers hoarding at Imperial by Lea, looks nothing like Tower Hamlets residents to me. Its clear who they’re building for.
https://twitter.com/RabHarling/status/1249970324319371266

Once again, the capitalists have clearly shown us that their profits are far more important than the lives of our friends and neighbours.

The directors of construction companies like Guinness Homes need to be held to account for the deaths of our friends and neighbours, for the deaths of people across London as people die in huge numbers, and they did nothing to help flatten the curve.

They need to be held to account for showing us how much contempt they hold for us.

Social distancing does not work on construction sites.

But where are our politicians, you may ask?

We know exactly where they are.

They are in the pockets of the developers.

Former lobbyist for property developers Mayor John Biggs fits nicely into the pockets of luxury property developers.

Mayor Sadiq Khan was sponsored into office by property developers and proudly splashes his brand all over construction site hoardings, like this one at Chobham Manor, in Newham.

Mayor John Biggs, in Tower Hamlets, who used to be a lobbyist for property developers, does nothing unless he is filming it for his PR.

Tower Hamlets has financial reserves of over £500,000,000.

Shut the sites. Protect our communities.

I reiterate my call that all of these sites should be requistioned and converted into 100% social housing. We have had enough of politicians and developers lying to us, telling us they are building “affordable” housing when the reality is anything but.

We will not forget.

Balfron Social Club (in lockdown)

Poplar

14th April 2020

The Prince and the Poplar (block of garages)

Did you know the social cleansing of Teviot Estate in Poplar was supported & funded by #PrinceAndrew?

Did you know the social cleansing of Teviot Estate in Poplar was supported & funded by #PrinceAndrew?

View image on Twitter

https://thetrampery.com/2017/02/20/duke-york-opens-trampery-republic-new-space-creative-innovation-east-india-dock/

100+ garages were annexed to build a #fashionhub, ahead of planned estate demolition, with Poplar Harca claiming 86% resident support, for the demolition of a purpose built estate, where flats cost up to £577 per week.

Apparently 86% of the residents of Teviot Estate voted for its demolition.

Thats 86% of residents, on a purpose-built council estate, stolen from the taxpayer, voted to have their homes demolished, where ex-RTB flats cost up to £577 per WEEK.

That’s right. EIGHTY-SIX PERCENT.

“The ballot concluded with residents giving a clear mandate to Poplar HARCA to proceed with the estate regeneration proposals – with a turnout of 81% and a positive majority of 86% of voters supporting the plans.”

https://www.electoralreform.co.uk/case-studies/poplar-harca/

So, a massive THANKS to all the housing activists, community, Labour Party, journalists, academics & everybody else involved in another landgrab on social housing, that YOU ALL COMPLETELY IGNORED.

First comes the fashion hub, then comes the evictions, then the bulldozers.

Perhaps if Anna Minton & co had actually done any real community based work, instead of ripping off the work of others & doing deals with Harca, people like Gavin, featured in @paulsng‘s Dispossession wouldn’t face being kicked out of their homes again.

Here’s Gavin, in Dispossession, talking about how he was homeless and moved into Balfron Tower. Then they kicked him out and put him on Teviot Estate. Now they’re kicking him out of there too, as they demolish the estate to build homes for rich people.

Balfron Social Club has been writing about social cleansing of Teviot Estate since 2015.

Read Brutalism {Redacted}- Social Art Practice and You exploring the role Hannah Nicklin subsequently took on Teviot Estate, which has now led to its demolition.

Brutalism [redacted] – Social Art Practice and You
Read Brutalism [redacted] – Social Art Practice and You

Hannah Nicklin responded to our criticism, but ultimately admitted that the role she played was artwash for Poplar Harca. Now the Teviot Estate is facing demolition (with a claimed 86% approval), we can see exactly what was being artwashed, and why.

https://poplarpeople.co.uk/artwashing

Tweed House was the first block on Teviot Estate to be demolished, in recent years. We wrote about that in 2015 too.

Tweed House RIP
Read Tweed House RIP

In May 2018, we asked The Trampery some questions. They have never answered.

I asked @electoralreform if they have anything to do with claimed approval rating on the regeneration of Teviot Estate. Here is their reply.

So, basically another bought & paid for consultation by Poplar Harca, delivering the results they ordered.

This is social cleansing, with a Royal seal of approval.

Balfron Social Club

26th November 2019

Big Issue issues an award for corruption & social cleansing

Homelessness charity The Big Issue gives working-class communities in London’s east end a slap in the face, as it rewards Katharine Hibbert & Dot Dot Dot for helping property developers to dismantle social housing.

From the Telegraph 3rd March 2015:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/11445284/Making-an-empty-house-a-home-how-some-people-are-living-rent-free-in-London.html

Give me a chance to sort it out: a Poplar Harca Placemaking Case Study

Paul Augarde, London Film School graduate and Director of Placemaking for Poplar Harca, asks residents for a chance to sort out the annexation of Poplar’s lock-up garages.

Ok, Paul. How long do you need?

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/poplar-parade-of-garages-to-become-4m-east-end-fashion-hub-a3164031.html

image by Rab Harling; Copyright 2019
image by Rab Harling; Copyright 2019
image by Rab Harling; Copyright 2019
image by Rab Harling; Copyright 2019
image by Rab Harling; Copyright 2019

Um, yeah. Cheers Paul. Well done. Have another promotion, mate.

Courtesy of Canton Street residents, Poplar.
lol
Not so lol now though, is it?

Want to read more about Paul Augarde, Poplar Harca and how they deviate public funds towards a property developers agenda?

https://balfronsocialclub.org/2018/04/16/artwash-and-the-rhizome-the-social-cleansing-of/

What Does Balfron Tower Mean to You?

What Does Balfron Tower Mean to You? by Rab Harling

As its five month installation in Living with Buildings at the Wellcome Collection draws to a close on 3rd March 2019, Inversion/Reflection: What Does Balfron Tower Mean to You?, a short film by Rab Harling, is now available to watch, free of charge, here on the Balfron Social Club website.

If you are able to visit Living with Buildings at the Wellcome Collection in central London, we highly recommend a visit to the free exhibition.

Please note that this film is displayed here for personal viewing only. Commercial or educational screening of this film is unauthorised without prior consent. Please use the Contact button for all enquiries.

Find out more about Living with Buildings on the Wellcome Collection website.

Living with Buildings at the Wellcome Collection until 3rd March 2019

Doreen Fletcher: artwashing the east end with Bow Arts

It is beyond question that Doreen Fletcher is a talented painter, and her paintings display a nostalgic sentimentality for a rapidly changing east London, an east London whose communities have faced a turbulent time over the past 20 years, as the east end is changed beyond recognition.

Bartlett Park by Doreen Fletcher. Bartlett Park in Poplar has seen heavy residential development, and now houses an arts organisation under the control of Poplar Harca.

Fletcher has been adopted by the East London Group, which promote the works of painters such as Albert Turpin and Harold Steggles, “mostly working class, realist painters whose formal education had often stopped at elementary school”, they portrayed a grimy smoke-filled vision of the east end. Doreen has been promoted as a “lost artist”, an artist previously ignored by the art establishment, whose work is now being brought to the attention of the public by Paul Godfrey, aka The Gentle Author. Godfrey has published the monograph Doreen Fletcher: Paintings under his own Spitalfields Life publishing house. The book is published to accompany her exhibition with Bow Arts at The Nunnery.

Doreen’s paintings at best visually fit the canon, and at worst are derivative of the East London Group, who primarily worked in the first half of the 20th century. At the same time as the East London Group were painting the streets of east London, a wider revolution was happening in British society. In Poplar, a rates rebellion had led George Lansbury, a Labour Councillor that fought and was jailed for fighting for the rights of the working classes in his community, to become MP for Bow and Bromley and Chairman of the Labour Party. The horror that had been the 1st World War led to a boom in the building of social housing for working class communities, and the fallout from the 2nd World War led to the creation of the welfare state; free medical coverage, free education and most importantly, a safety net for those who fell through the cracks.

Shakey’s Yard in Winter by Albert Turpin

However, in post-Thatcher austerity Britain, a neoliberal agenda is being pursued by everybody from government, education to the arts. In the current turbulent political climate, comfort can be found in a romantic painting of an east end long since vanished, and Doreen provides plenty of comfort for us to reminisce over the past.

Godfrey’s claims that Fletcher is a lost artist however are all part of a smokescreen, an illusion that preaches community and integrity and celebrates the working class artisan, whilst imposing its singular view upon us; that of white, middle-class gentrification.

Fletcher’s CV reveals she is far from that of a lost artist, with paintings held in the collections of many civic and financial institutions. The lost artist claim serves to build up Fletcher’s mythology; to sell books, to sell paintings, but even more sinister: to sell the east end to an affluent class of investor, for them to romanticise its history; nostalgia for displaced communities that they themselves are replacing.

Stop the Blocks campaign poster featuring Balfron Social Club

Paul Godfrey, aka the Gentle Author, first came to my attention in 2015 over his involvement in the Stop the Blocks movement. Stop the Blocks first appeared in June 2015 and disappeared just a few months later. Stop the Blocks campaigned to “save Shoreditch from the shadows” and a well attended rally was held and glossy leaflets and a large poster were produced. The poster featured local activist campaigns, including Balfron Social Club and Save Chrisp Street, accompanied by hand drawn pictures of the territory we were fighting for, including Balfron Tower.

Godfrey wrote about Balfron Tower:

Built as council housing, designed by Erno Goldfinger in 1963 and made a Grade II listed building in 1996, Balfron Tower is now being sold off by Poplar Housing & Regeneration Association. Current long-term residents are being forced to sell and moved out while the famous block is being fetishised in a sixties-style marketing campaign to attract private owners. The circumstances at Balfron Tower are a prime example of how social restructuring is devastating London’s working-class communities. Another layer of social division was added when artists renting emptied properties were co-opted tacitly into PR for the sell-off – a process that has become known as ‘art wash.’ 

And he wrote about the campaign to Save Chrisp Street Market:

‘Save Chrisp St Market’ is campaigning to inform local residents and traders about the proposed ‘regeneration’ of Chrisp St Market by Poplar Housing & Regeneration Association (HARCA). The plans include ‘luxury’ housing and stores, at the expense of shops and accommodation affordable for local people. Traders will be booted out for the period of redevelopment, or longer – if they cannot afford the increased rents. Traders say they have been left in the dark about the future of the market. Save Chrisp St intends to do their own consultation in parallel with­­­ Poplar HARCA’s, by going door-to-door asking people about what they would like to see for the area. So far, many people have said they want the market to be improved, but not at the cost of their ability to live there. Save Chrisp St are working to make sure that the community has a proper voice. 

Stop the Blocks, August 2015 (pic: Rab Harling)

Despite involvement in two of the campaigns featured, no contact was ever received from Godfrey, or any of his associates before publishing the Stop the Blocks campaign poster. Stop the Blocks claimed to be a “network of grassroots Tower Hamlets campaigns fighting gentrification and social cleansing,” but seemed to be co-opting other groups, many grateful for the exposure for their campaign, for their own short-lived cause. So, it later came as no surprise to discover Godfrey had joined forces with Bow Arts.

Bow Arts had been at the forefront of the recent trend of using artists to help property developers displace communities. Their poorly managed occupation of a number of estates managed by the housing association Poplar Harca had imposed arts-led gentrification across a number of sites in the process of being socially cleansed in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The Albion Public House by Doreen Fletcher

The use of artists as the foot soldiers of gentrification had various levels of success, depending upon who you asked. The Bow Arts Balfron Tower Case Study, which was no doubt lapped up without question by housing association Peabody when choosing Bow Arts to help artwash their social cleansing program in the London suburb of Thamesmead, told of a fantasy that existed inside the head of Bow Arts CEO Marcel Baettig, a fantasy where artists benefitted from targeted harassment, monitoring of their social media accounts and happily donated their landlord, a registered charity, thousands of pounds a year as a donation, taken illegally from their rent.

Bow Arts purpose was clear: it was, and remains, a publicly-funded charity who supply artists to property developers to help artwash the social cleansing and the dismantlement of social housing. Their involvement in the artwash and social cleansing of the infamous Balfron Tower serves to remind us of the direction being taken by Arts Council England, to take the lottery receipts from the Heritage Lottery ticket customers, and use it to artwash the dismantlement of our social assets.

So, is Fletcher innocent for turning a blind-eye to how Bow Arts operate? I certainly made Fletcher aware of how Bow Arts operate many months ago, but like so many artists, she chose to ignore the behaviour of who she is working with, giving them her endorsement, as well as the endorsement of the East London Group. Godfrey’s prior co-optation of sites of contestation in the east end, such as Balfron Tower suggest he was already fully aware of Bow Arts controversial role in the artwash of the east end, but chose to collaborate with them regardless. No support was ever received by Godfrey in our campaigns to save Balfron Tower or Chrisp Street Market from gentrification.

It disheartens me that artists allow their art to be deployed as a weapon against society, artwashing the reputation of some thoroughly greedy individuals and organisations, and there is no doubt that this is what Fletcher’s retrospective at Bow Arts does. Fletcher’s baby-boomer narcissism may allow her to ignore, support or collaborate in the social cleansing of the communities that she painted, but the rest of the East London Group, now deceased, have now had her ethics imposed upon them. This association with Bow Arts damages the legacy of the East London Group of painters; painters unable to object.

Balfron Social Club

Poplar, 25th January 2019

Notes:

Doreen Fletchers website https://www.doreenfletcherartist.com/

East London Group on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_London_Group

George Lansbury and the Poplar rates rebellion on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poplar_Rates_Rebellion

Closed House Weekend by Stop the Blocks in Design Exchange Magazine http://www.demagazine.co.uk/architecture/closed-house-weekend-spitalfields-life

Balfron Tower: the Artwash of an Icon by Rab Harling in Urban Transcripts Journal http://journal.urbantranscripts.org/article/balfron-tower-artwash-icon-rab-harling/

Artist squares up to Regulator over “manifestly unreasonable” fundraising investigation by Christy Romer https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/exclusive-artist-squares-regulator-over-manifestly-unreasonable-fundraising-investigation