My views on East End Life are well known to regular readers of this blog, although they’ve softened recently since sometimes it seems to be the only paper covering Tower Hamlets.
However, the splash in the latest edition, which has just dropped through my letter box, sums up everything that’s wrong with it.
It says:
THE London mayoral elections went right down to the wire on Friday with second preference results still being counted as East End Life went to press.
The two front-runners–Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone–were neck and neck in a count beset by delays. [etc etc].
ie pointless bordering on the absurd. We all know the result (it came through on Friday night) and for those readers who were waiting on tenterhooks for the council paper to arrive today, they’re still none the wiser. I wonder if they’ll splash on Boris’s victory in next week’s edition.
The paper’s editor is Laraine Clay, an experienced journalist who surely would have known how ridiculous it was to have devoted page 1 to a non-story would have been out of date by today. In any case, the council paper is meant to be there to inform residents about events in our borough.
A look at the inside pages reveals plenty of contenders for the front: personally, I’d have gone for Lutfur Rahman’s excellent page 5 pledge to help fight the stigma of mental health in the borough (it’s a particular problem among many Bengali women). However, they could also have gone for residents’ objections to the MoD’s plan for missiles in Bow (p3), or if they were intent on a political story, why not Labour’s victory over Lutfur/Respect in Weavers?(!)
And therein lies the problem, I suspect. I’d be amazed if the hands of Lutfur, and/or Takki Sulaiman, and/or Murziline Parchment were not involved in the City Hall Goes To The Wire splash. Methinks they got just a little bit too over-excited as Ken’s team did better than expected on Friday.
The strap-line under the paper’s masthead says, “News from tower Hamlets Council and your community.” I think Ken’s groupies forgot to read it.
Trial by Jeory 
Yeah I was thinking much the same about this week’s copy. An article about nothing really. Unlike you I tend to like EEL as it does let me know what’s going on in Tower Hamlets and when I don’y get a copy through the door I [sadly] miss it!
By the way on LBC radio on Saturday, Ken was responding to a caller from Bristol hoping that having their own mayor would end the political infighting in the SW council. Ken’s comment was that having one in Tower Hamlets hadn’t done anything to end the political infighting there and if anything had made it worse.
I wonder what the Evening Standard (and a lesser extent the Metro) is going to fill the paper up with now they’ve no need to print acres of ken-knocking articles. There should be a law against having such a partisan press – the bias must have been enough to swing the result.
I think the way there is only one newspaper for London is terrible for politics. If Ken had done something about that during his eight years maybe things would be different now. London is one of the most liberal (small L) and progressive cities in the world and instead we have the London Evening Standard which is at best reactionary, right wing, slanted, cash-rich celebrity focused piece of band-wagon propaganda. Their magazine is so out of touch it is like a print version of ‘Made in Chelsea’ and come election time the rag is nearly always strongly biased towards the Tory Party. Lebedev and relaunch has changed nothing – the ex-Daily Mail hacks still there are still the same.
There should be a choice – one to the left of centre and one to the right of centre. The London Paper (Murdoch) was also right of centre and thus did not assist in plurality.
I am sure if someone revived a left wing version of the ‘London Daily Sketch’ or the ‘Illustrated London News’ it would be a roaring success… but sadly the Evening Standard has a complete monopoly on newspaper distribution outside stations and I cannot foresee Boris changing that cosy relationship any time soon.
You know, sometimes we worry about you, Ted. You write a perfectly good media story about a mistaken front page in the local paper, but instead of leaving it at that, you have to go off on some barking mad conspiracy theory about Lutfur again.
Don’t you think he’s got better things to do with his time than dictate what goes on the front page of the newspaper.
Re-read his diary appointments to see how much time he devotes to East End Life, Dan. I suspect the front page is one his major weekly interests. And quite rightly so.
I never read this waste of paper anyway! Why is the local authority publishing a newspaper? It should be closed
“And therein lies the problem, I suspect. I’d be amazed if the hands of Lutfur, and/or Takki Sulaiman, and/or Murziline Parchment were not involved…”
Or indeed the Libel Queen of Old Mulberry? She’s quite in with Takki it seems.