LAMBETH may have trouble keeping track of its houses (as we learned this week when a squatter won the deeds to his home after the London council forgot it owned the building). But there’s plenty to trumpet in education.
Councillors have just held a bash to mark “a year of successful partnerships” with the private sector - running an action zone with Shell, flogging off its schools to housing developers, that kind of thing.
The Diary was most struck by the invitations. Beneath the logo Celebrating Education in Lambeth was a copy of a poster in bright, childish crayon, reading simply “Brixton has HOPE”. A note added it was seen “outside Iceland supermarket, April 1999.”
We were touched by the notion that Lambeth’s kids were so fired up by the rejuvenation of their schools that they’ve started a campaign.
Alas, the truth is sadder. The poster was put up by a defiant Brixtonian after the racist nail bomb attack outside Iceland that month. It had nothing to do with education - or business for that matter.
Still it’s good to know the New Labour types who now run Lambeth can spot a good PR opportunity.
