The Media Storm

isn't blowing its self out. I notice that buried some where todays BPIX poll has national voting intentions at Con 35% Lab 32% LD 19% which is near identical to the YOUGOV today. Of course the winners are "others" rather than the two traditional opposition parties. 15% for green/respect/BNP/UKIP is an anti politics vote.

On thursday a lack of such candidates and the bigger party machines will hoover up much of this in the end. However some where like leeds where most places have a green/BNP candidate could see some very odd results.

Lots of collegues are enjoying the implosion of Nulabor but lets hope they don't take the rest of us down with them.

The not so Great Student Run

Today we had the "Great Student Run" through Headingley. This was a nationally organised "students only" event from the same stable as the great North Run. Its been promoted by Leeds Met Uni and Marketing Leeds and has doubtless done wonders in marketing terms for both and a few bar and club owners. However as

(a) local councillors and residents found out about in in the YEP

(b) the complete lack of consultation

(c) the sensitivity around student issues in the area

(d) the road closures

This has proved to be as popular as small pox locally and of course we are now "running the council". Now I don't object to a run per se and we would have no large events of any sort if a bit of disruption to residents created a veto. However they should be properly run.

As predicted and was predictable about a 1000 student runners decended after the event in the early afternoon on Headingleys ample bars. When I got there at 4pm the area was filthy, every pub had a huge queue to get in, there was broken glass everywhere, the new public drinking ban was widely flouted and it was generally a sorry sight. It hadn't improved by my next walk abouts at 6pm and 7.45pm

Suffice to say there was not a cleansing operator, police officer or enforcement official in sight. I was particularly angry by some of scenes on Bennett road. A ordinary suburban residential street which now has a superpub at either end.

I've tried hard not to turn into the Leeds equivalent of Clare Short but it is just wrong for the Council to endorse/encourage this sort of event without planning for the aftermath properly. We have campaigned for 6 years to try and get these sort of issues taken seriously and are just begining to get somewhere. It doesn't do much for community empowerment if large commercial companies are allowed to act in this way. This isn't the first such incident from Marketing Leeds and clearly the previous messages haven't got through.

As a small l liberal sustainable communities are the bedrock of my belief and people that live in central Headingley deserve better than this. So I'm going to kick off even if some people don't like it.

Grrr!

I am not going to start a new Middle Eastern War

This is the sort of assurence I feel is needed from any public figure when mentioning religion in the current climate. There aren't many defences of the modern Church of England but as a general rule Evensong doesn't make you want to blow people up.

I was feeling rather depressed after my afternoon in Headingley so I sought solace with a crafty pint of Erdinger in arcardia ale and wine bar followed by Evensong at St Michaels.

Beautiful service as ever. As its still technically Easter I admired the Easter garden and enjoyed the anthem. However the problem began with the prayers. Apart from the standard stuff (world peace) they focused quite a lot of politicans and elected representives and rather took the view that we needed to be saved from our selves and towards the end that people needed to be saved from politicans. Particular concerns were "sexual immorality, corruption and abuse of office". I began to shift uneasierly in my seat and then I could have sworn the prayer was looking at me which of course she wasn't. The amplification of the PA system and the cavenous Church gave the prayers that sort of "voice of god" effect. When the prayers finished I got several sympathetic looks but not of the "we know you aren't like that" but " we are all praying for you" variety.

This is ridiculous. I'm a local councillor. I fill pot holes and listen to complaints about the bins. I don't let 1000's of prisioners free or do anything else important!

Has the reputation of politicans come to this?

The Site Visit

On Thursday morning I had a site visit with senior officers at Alexandra park in hyde park. Anyone who has ever asked "why is it so hard to get anything done?" would have been well advised to observe. Let me say before I am set upon that all the officers who attended were very professional and helpful. I doubt anyone really goes into local government for the money (though perhaps the job security) and they certainly knew there stuff from a technical point of view.

However as is often the case on these occasions the ground rules were set out early on. Within two minutes of the meeting starting the following had been made very clear.

1. There was no money whatsoever anywhere for anything I might want to do

2. I would be expected to pay any revenue costs for any work I wanted as well

3. Certain things that they thought I might want were "impossible".

I have got used to this so set out quite quickly what I wanted, what cash I had, that I thought the revenue costs were debatable and conceeded a few points that I wasn't going to fight for anyway. I know money doesn't grow on trees but I do sometimes wish the default position for everything wasn't the defence of departmental budgets.

There is not a lot wrong with Alexandra park but not a lot right either. All I was looking for was some more flowers, a few extra mature trees and some habitat work to encourage bio diversity. It being about 20 metres by 120 metres square its not that big and rightly largely devoted to a big piece of green space used for ball games. My aim was trying to get some more imaginative uses for the pockets of land at the edges which are very visible from the road.

The good news is we agreed an action plan which they can work on and come back with a "menu with prices" which we can then go to residents with. I also got to the bottom of the £50,000 fence. I had asked for the cost of repainting the rusty fence and had been quoted this cost! I was a little more convinced than I was as aparently it was all to do with the wrong sort of rust proofing being used a few years ago and the need to completly scrub this off before repainting. I have learned not to ask questions such as "why was it given the wrong sort of rust proofing?" as this would have put anything on hold.

Given that we are now in late April it will be a real push to get a scheme agreed for planting next year but such are the timescales of local government! The other slightly depressing fact is this sort of thing rarely happens without a politican pushing it forward which makes it personally satifying and frustrating in equal measure.

Things fall apart

I notice with interest that the latest Yougov poll for tommorrows Times (Lab 32 Con 35 LD 18 others 15) shows the same surge for "Minor" parties as other recent ones. I can't help but draw a parallel I have felt for a while with the 2004 Euro Elections. I always felt the massive UKIP vote was a really a vote to kick the political establishment in the balls rather than being about Europe per se.

I suspect we may seem something similar next week. Most Green/BNP voters will get the the polling station and discover that they have no candidate to vote for (though not in Leeds sadly). However I suspect some odd results as voters try and express "the plague on all your houses" mood that is afoot. What does amaze me though is given the sheer scale of the anti labour coverage at the moment is how little progress that opposition parties have made.

The long term trend from the second world war onwards has been a steady decline in the combined votes for the two "Big" parties. I can't help but wonder if this isn't about to be replaced not with a three party system but a multi party one. In the end this will have to lead to voting reform. Its assumed that Labour winning a majority on 36% is a one off. If in the current media storm the Tories can only get 35% then perhaps it will become the norm.

As for Labours travails its got to the point where I almost feel sorry for them. I wonder what Labour councillors and candidates are feeling at the moment as all there local campaigning is being drowned out by the national comedy of errors. The John Prescott debacle is a personal matter as far as I am concerned. I appreciate the argument that the affair was with a civil servant but she was a mature, consenting adult and so in my view its a private matter.

1. Of course that doesn't stop it being politically catastrophic. What worries me more is the Home Office cock up. Its a high risk strategy to talk up the BNP at the best of times however you shouldn't do it if you have a high profile policy disaster with foriegn criminals about to break. All these people had served there time and had not unreasonabley ben released. There was never any gaurentee that they would have been deported its just that it was never considered. Having lived by the sword labour is dying by the sword. The media isn't interested in the nuiances in cases like this. As I type the land is being stalked by 1000 foreign murderers, kiddie fiddlers and rapists. But then if you run election campigns on rightwing scare tactics about crime and anti social behaviour you will be hoist by your own petard.

My only hope is we don't end up with some brown skinned attacker reoffending for polling day and further petrol is poured on the flames of racism. The BNP must be laughing.

School Reunion

I could have shed a few tears of joy and sadness over tonights Dr Who episode.

The role is David Tennents after just 3 episodes and it felt a bit like sitting down and eating a box of chocolates all in one sitting. The subtle dig at Jamies school dinners made me laugh out loud and Anthony Head as the evil head master was inspired casting. However what enraptured me was the Sarah Jane Smith story line. This could so easierly have been a "in joke" that hard core fans would have loved but the writer turned it into a series study of love,obsession and loss. In a way the K 9 sub plot fulfilled the geek quota (as well as setting up another christmas toy franchise!) and allowed the "assistant" role to be explored.

What must it be like to love the seemingly sexless doctor? How do you ever come to terms with loosing your place on the TARDIS and returning to a humdrum life? Elizabeth Sladens performance really did justice to the themes of unconsumated love and unfulfilled lives.

But more important than the toys sales at Christmas, tonight another generation of Children will dream about what it might be like to run away with the doctor on the TARDIS. and quite a few big kids like me as well.

On the Front Line (4)

More stuffing, folding and delivery in Harehills on tuesday and wednesday. Its amazing how spirits fall and rise on the basis of a single opinion poll of set of canvassing figures. However the general mood across the city still seems remarkably positive with Labour on the back foot. We will see in due course.

Depressing to find a few BNP voters though thankfully when they get to the polling station they won't find a candidate. However I do really feel politicans need to engage with what is making people vote this way.

Its got to that stage in the campaign when we have a big pile of opposition literature to slag off. Enjoyable stuff over a glass of wine at the end of the day. However the Labour stuff has got better but I suspect that it'll be another few years till it gets to Focus standard across the city.

We need to keep one step ahead.

On the Front Line (3)

Lots of stuffing and folding tonight. Very interesting mass delivery session as well. You can do quite a lot of damage with 8 people in terraces like Harehills. Very thought provoking but I will reflect on this post election.

The negative part of going campaigning straight after work is that I'm knackered at the moment and neglecting ward email. The plus side is I'm being very well fed at the campaign HQ. Home cooked fresh food with, dear god, fruit and vegatables.

The thing that stood out most though was the tension in the actual candidates. You forget what its like to actually be on the ballot paper. I got home and rattled through some council email and did a envelope of case work up to send into the group office. I'm also heartend and a little surprised by the good ICM in tommorows guardian. I'd thought if we were going to get a boost from all the loans stuff it would have happend by now but there we are having a mini surge at Labour's expense. However I never believe individual polls even when they tell me what I want to here.

The Rules of the Game are Changing

I have just received my "Headingley Rose" election special. Once upon a time it was the "Labour" rose but its party political affiliation seems to have been down graded for some odd reason. Never the less I was really pleased to see it.

All sucessful political parties define there opponents in the end. In politics people always get sick of you and boot you out eventually. All you can do in the meantime is try and be honest, apply your principles to the problems of today and hope to leave your legacy. And a crucial part of that legacy can be winning intellectual arguments and getting your opponents to move onto your ground. I can't help but wonder if the Headingley Labour party hasn't just begun to make that journey.

Any " Focus" writer would have cut the word count in half ( political activists assume everyone is as interested in politics as they are. they aren't!) but setting that failing aside the leaflet isn't bad. Reasonable choice of local issues but fundamentally its an attempt to engage in grass roots campaigning. I particularly enjoyed the community action day the Labour candidate has organised to redo the flower beds on some of the "Harolds" in Hyde Park. These have apparently been "neglected by the Coalition Council". This is actually true but no worse than under Labour. However as I live round the corner I suspect a dig may be being made at me.

In effect by shamelessly borrowing the style of the Focus leaflet and a veneer of community politics they are accepting that they work and are popular. In Headingley this is an enormous shift from the tactics of colonising some local community groups and shreiking at everyone. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and on this occasion I did smile to see it.

However a word of caution to those that think they can apply a coat of paint to local labour parties in Inner City areas. Community politics isn't intrinsically liberal (dear god even the BNP does litter and graffiti clean ups these days) but its a lot easier to sustain if you are liberally minded. One replanting of a flower bed is a stunt, 100 such acts is a record of service. Community politics has to be the bedrock of what you do, not the salad and tomato on the Big Mac of state control and centralism.

So for what its worth I'm going to check who is responsible for those flower beds and give them a kick. But I don't mind because its a sign we are slowly winning the debate about local politics is about.

On the Front Line (2)

Have just returned from East Leeds again. A delivery round in Burmantofts and Richmond Hill Ward followed by much more folding a stuffing in preparation for the final week push. It was interesting to have a quick peep at the Becketts Street Cemetary which is looking much better than it did when I last visited two years ago. I'm not suggesting its now the Garden of Eden but it has clearly turned a corner and I know the Council has a refurbishment plan.

I don't generally do PPB's but this is an example of the Parks Renaissance scheme slowly beginning to bite. Closed Burial grounds may seem a bit creepy but a large area of semi open space in an inner city area is to precious a resource to waste and I look forward to it being safe enough for general use. Of course you have to take people with your project as the current Woodhouse Moor car park proposals show. However I will keep my powder dry on that subject for a few weeks more...

The folding and stuffing was fun as it was, as ever, accompanied by much gossip, ploting and second guessing of campaigns. It was interesting as the day went on to hear reports from across the City. Of course things never, never turn out how you think they will.

On the Front Line

I have just returned from the Gipton and Harehills ward in East Leeds after a day of folding and delivering. Quite thought provoking but in order to avoid a "Jody Dunn" moment all considered thought on the political scene in Leeds will not be posted till after the elections!

Gipton and Harehills is a deprived and multicultural ward just up from St James Hostpital (Jimmys). Its currently split 2 lib dem and 1 labour and labour is defending this year. Our candidate Andrew Tear is a former councillor for the ward and well worth reelecting. It was good to see people I haven't seen for a while and have a good gossip. As usual the predicted results across the City depend on who you talk to.

What I would say is that despite loosing control in 2004 Labour are still on the defensive. Far more of there wards are being attacked than they are attacking in and what in any circumstance should be safe Labour wards are running defensive campaigns. Wether that will materialise into further losses we will know soon enough but the predictions of them bouncing back after 2 years have proved unfounded.

what seems interesting given recent headlines is the lack of BNP activity in east Leeds. However apparently they are putting up a strong fight in some of the wards in South Leeds. If something big comes off for them then the debate will rumble on as to wether Margaret Hodge was seer or cause of the surge.

In Praise of ... The Scarbourgh Hotel

This is my new "thing". An antedote to trendy bars its a fairly traditional small pub just by Leeds City rail station. Traditional decor with amazing red leather arm chairs. However the real attraction is the scrumpy. Along side the real ale they stock a guest selection of scrumpies some of which are organic. you have to watch the % (one is 7.5%!) as you get a 3 for 2 effect on pints at that level. I haven't tried the food yet but it looks like its a kind of deluxe version of tradional pub food with an emphasis on sausage and mash and fish and chips.

The crowd is very eclectic. old codgers supping real ale, trendy city types and quite a few goths. I like the mix - its sort of like a wetherspoons without the corporate hell conotations or funding anti Euro campaigns!

On of the disadvantages of commuting at the moment is the temptation for a crafty post work visit every day. However i recognise my renewed interest in such places is part of becomming old. I may even have to join Camera at this rate.

The Debate

Have just watched on More 4 the Presidential debate between Santos and Vinnick. I undertstand it was a "live" episode in the series swan song of season seven. I agree with the description of the show as "political pornography for liberals".

Love it dearly thought I do I accept it never really recovered from the loss of Aaron Sorkin. However it is going out in style with trade mark fantasy senarios about what a Clinton presidency would have been like had he kept his trousers on. I love it becuase it shows politics as noble and decent and slags off triangulation as a political method.

Tonights debate episode was another "porn" one. The candidates throw out the debate rules and really go at each other in a clash of philosophies extraveganza. However at one one it did look like it was going to turn into gerry springer.

I shall miss this series enormously when it finishes as it is a sort of psychological refuge from the horror of the Bush Presidency. However I suspect they were right to finish it now while its still respectfully good. Meanwhile I will be hooked till polling day. Go Santos!

In Praise of.... The Retro Bar

Apologies to the Guardian.

I spent a delightful few hours in the Retro Bar on Sunday night just down from Charring Cross Station. Its a oasis from global McGay (TM) bars and a miserabilists Heaven.

I worked my way through a couple of broadsheets while killing time waiting for my train listening to Radiohead, Morrisey, Kate Bush etc. I felt like I was in "Cheers" as I was on a bar stool receiving personal attention from a caring barman. The slightly alternative feel to the place was reinforced by him being kitted out in indie gear but heavily pierced and with a chain and padlock round his neck. The whole place had that multi dimensional feel. The arm chairs and excellent service, the small size and ecclectic crowd make you feel you are in a country pub some where. yet of course you are in central london in what looks like a student house shares living room becuase of all the music memorablia. I'm becomming increasingly militant in defence of "community" pubs and this definately felt like one.

Just for a very odd community. Go see your self.

Big Brother

Where should Hyde Parks' new CCTV cameras be?

I'm not an uncritical fan of CCTV. I'm less keen on the traditional Civil Liberties grounds for objecting but more on practical ones. I always remember a night shift I did with the police in Holbeck in south Leeds. I was with the duty inspector and he took me to watch the divisional CCTV centre. It was full on a saturday night of screens recording live, Vandalism, Fighting and Anti Social behaviour. The inspector asked me what I thought to which I replied " you have all this infomation comming in and no resources to do anything about it".

I got brownie points for this. A look which implied "you aren't quite as stupid as I expected in a politican." followed and we had a good chat.

I think CCTV can breed a false sense of security and is only useful if the infomation it gathers is followed up. What convinced me to successfully campaign for two new fixed cameras in the Hyde Park area is (a) the astonishingly high rates of "volume crime" (b) the social make up. The ever changing student presence means the areas ability to self police is badly damaged. Its a slightly sinister thought but if our local social structures are so so badly diluted then we need a bit of automatic surveilance. "Natural surveilance" as the police would call it (neighbours looking out of each other) is badly broken.

All this theory is nice but we need good sites with clear sight lines. I'm personally lobbying for the cross roads of Hyde Park Road with Royal park Road and Mooorland Road. Thsi would cover heavy predestrain foot fall and a good diagonal of the corner of the park. However we have funding for 2 cameras and there are lots of choices. by all means email on davidmorton306@hotmail.com if you have a view.

However when they are up we need to campaign hard that the feed from them is actual used by the police to crack down on petty disorder not just for big events after the event.

President Windsor

I am a Republican.

Well I try. If you were starting a society from scratch then frankly you wouldn't impose a monarchy. It institutionalises class, deference and social imobility. You certainly wouldn't impose one on the British model which on some levels still seems to assume we have an Empire and its still 1953.

The problem as ever is "What would you put in its place?". We aren't starting from scratch and wether some of us like it or not the monarchy is an important national symbol respected by many. I suspect we are in the first stage of the kind of national debate which might lead to post-monarchy but we are no where near yet. The kind of dialectic set up by the "world in one city" olympic bid and then 7/7 the next day is corrosive to Monarchy it seems to me. What can a Linnar, White, Anglican monarchy say in this debate about national identity?

The answer I suspect is quite a lot in a "hold onto nurse for fear of finding something worse" way. But this can't last for ever and certainly not past the reign of Liz.

Despite my love of the West Wing I find the idea of either Blair or Thatcher with an Executive Office frightening so I presume we are left with a German/Irish/Italian Cerimonial Presidency. My problem with this is that having voted to set the thing up I would immeadiately launch the Elizabeth Windsor for President Campaign. If you want some one to act as a national focus , cut ribbons and meet foreign dignitaries then frankly who has a better CV? the Queen has been excellent at this for 50 years and the akward sod in me now sees her as a useful cultural counter point to Hello magazine and celebrity TV hell. The fact she is so, well, dull aint that bad in my book.

But all good reigns come to an end. I still feel that the loss of such a iconic national figure and the collosal social changes that have taken place while she has been around that the old "The Queen is Dead, Long live the Queen!" routine won't work this time. So I salute the Queen on her birthday and I sincerely hope there are many more to come. However as Augustine almost said

"Lord make me a Republican, but just not yet!"

The Liberation of Lewisham has begun *

I was in London over the weekend and managed a few delivery rounds and canvassing session in both Blackheath and Lee Green wards of Lewisham. This was in support of my previously Loyal retainer Brian Robson and his deputy assistant Chris Maines.

I taught Brian all he knows. **

The Labour vote is clearly very soft and on the entirly scientific basis of my two visits in the last month I predict big gains. It has different problems than Leeds but all the signs of long term labour complacancy and neglect are there. I attended the campaign launch thingy a few weeks ago and was struck by the youth, diversity and quality of the paperless candidates never mind the ones that are going to win ( I think people know me well enough to know I wouldn't say this out of party loyalty!)

I do wonder if we are heading for a similar situation in London as happened after the Welsh "all out " Council elections a few years ago. Lets hope we can see fresh liberal voices sprout up in positions of power and begin the slow, slow process of renewal.

* apologies for paraphrasing Dick Cheney

** Not absolutely true

I luved the Manchester passion

This is what I pay my licence fee for. I'm kicking my self now for not going but I'm off to London tommorrow and wanted to save a bit of cash and have a early night. However I did watch the BBC 3 live performance tonight and "luved" it.

The BBC's left/liberal bias was out in force and I particularly enjoyed Jesus being charged with "glorifying terrorism" and "promoting religious hatred" and of course the orange jump suit for the judgement scene. However I was sceptical about the token Muslim in the Cross procession who seemed bolted on for box ticking purposes rather than adding anything to the discussion. BBC left/liberal bias is rather like the House of Lords defeating the government, I'm all in favour of it when I agree with them!

The songs worked and reminded you of what Manchester has produced. The Judas looked a bit sterotypical but I loved the bit when his mobile went off during the last supper speech. Very funny but yet true to the text.

What intrigued me though was the decision not to show the cruxificion. A sort of passion without the passion. However it worked in dramatic terms because of Keith Allens short speech about the details of Crucifixtion. Perhaps the religious iconography of the cross is so well known that a narrative has more power?

Anyway "two fingers" to the skeptics in todays press (including John Harris in the Guardian GRRR!) and well done to Auntie Beeb for the vision and the balls to risk this. What with the good Doctor tomorrow I'm getting my Licence Fee in one weekend.

I had a Dream

Well a nightmare really. I had travelled forward in time until 2009. There was David Cameron waving on the steps of Downing Street. He had foppish hair and was all dressed in a greyish pinstrip suit and was... holding Bille Piper.

In my nightmare it all started to go wrong in 2007. Russell T Davies had won every Bafta going for Series 2 of Dr Who and was bored. He had succesfully renewed the biggest clapped out franchise in the business. Dr Who had once been enormously popular product loved by all. However it had had its hayday and never really covered from the departure of its Iconic figure, Tom Baker.

By the mid 1990's it was tired, out of ideas and a shadow of its former self. Viewing figures were in free fail and in the end only a few die hards muttered when it was put out of its misery.

Given that M and S, that other great British franchise was on the up what else could he turn his talents to? He was glum until the Phone rang.

" Hi, its Dave! we should talk ".

And so it was. A bit of PoMo geek chic, a bit of Cool Britannia and with the cream of British character actors in Cameos the Tories were reborn. It wasn't easy. Central Office fought like mad against the move to Cardiff. Many members didn't understand when they were told that they were like an old blue box whoes Chameleon Circuit has broken. UKIP adopted the daleks as a mascot.

But it worked.

As Russell T looked on Dave and Bille made being tory cool again. The Ultimate of failed brands was dragged into the 21st Centuary

I woke up in horror this morning. Surely this was just a bad dream? But then surely Russell T can do ANYTHING?

Palm Sunday

Beautiful evening service tonight. J.S Bach and the best of the english hymnal.

However I was completely thrown by a line that found its way into the dramatic readings from Holy Week. The choir was taking it in turns to act out scenes from the passion narritive. When we got to Jesus's arrest in the garden the temple guards shouted out "Resistence is futile!"

Now I'm all for inclusive worship but should we really be quoting the Borg Queen? I'm tempted by next fridays passion in Manchester which is to be televised on bbc 3. However that one line set me thinking of a Russell T Davies passion narritive, perhaps with Bille Piper as Caesers wife and Penelope Wilton as Mary Magdelene.

This distraction was a pity really as the service had set up the easter themes so well. Setting aside the spiritual aspects of Easter which many people won't share I always love easter anyway. It seems such a long time since christmas that everyone needs a break. Its originally a pagan fertility festival and even in a grim inner city area like hyde park there is so much new life about at this time of year its impossible to not feel optomistic. It also helps that I have the long weekend off work this year which doesn't always happen.

My plan as always is to try and spend a bit of time reflecting on life. Certainly the themes of sacrifice, renewal and forgiveness seem apt at the moment. But I'm also going to fit in some campaigning and a break.

Wrong

I spent several hours today in the Arcadia Ale and Wine bar in Headingley. I always feel slightly shame faced when I drink in here as I devoted so much energy in stoping it being built.

I argued that yet another pub in the area would increase the town centres problems with Anti Social Behaviour. It was a "kitchen sink" campaign with street letters, public meetings,media coverage and an appearence at the plans panel. The low point was the public meeting where the applicant (market town taverns) explained why the they had selected Headingley. He told everyone that the company targeted demographic where they thought people would appreciate "Real Ale" specifically communities with (a) large number of graduates (b) large numbers of guardian readers (c) lots of Lib Dem voters. At that point about half the meeting turned round and stared at me with one woman mouthing "so its your fault".

I was of course completely and utterly wrong. Its turned into a delightful little bar and a real oasis from the revolting super pub culture in the area. I spent a very happy few hours along with fellow odd balls reading the broadsheets and getting through some organic cider. I was a bit disappointed at the lack of cider choice as even wetherspoons does a few and literally at half the price. I also clocked up more hypocracy points by eating at Pita which I also tried to stop opening. It had the best houmous I had had had in ages and served fairtrade coffee and had recycling facilities in store. Certianly better than the dreary burger and chips places that clutter north lane. All in all I felt slightly Bohemian which is a brand the area needs to trade on but it did rather cause a crisis of confidence.

As I saw the sun going down from the wine bar window it was setting over the "stables" at 83a otley road. These are derelict Grade 2 listed buildings and it is said the oldest existing buildings in Headingley centre. There is about to be a application to convert it ito a Starbucks with vulgar extensions and horrible windows. I was of course geering up to fight them as I have successfully the last 2 applications on this site.

However I wonder perhaps if one day I will sit in the same starbucks and muse about wether I was right?