Editorial: Introducing the new letters page, and hoping for a slightly noisier September

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Editorial by Reuben Bard-Rosenberg

Sorry I’m late sir. The dog ate my printer. As proper fans of the North London Star will know, the editorial is meant to come out on a Monday, and today is indeed Tuesday. Feel free to call me a nasty name like Arnold or Gertrude. Anyway I do come bearing some exciting news. We now have a letters page.  Dear readers you are still very much encouraged to send us articles and blogposts, just as you are encouraged to comment in the boxes below. But speaking to some potential contributors, we got the feeling that perhaps people might also like another way of contributing to the site. And thus we have The Letters Page. Please do send things in, and let’s see what happens.

August has been a bit quieter than the preceding month. We have haven’t had loads of comment articles, but we’ve continued to bring much good news on our noticeboard of awesome, radical local events. We are hoping for more content in September so do get writing. I was excited to read Jim JEPPS’s confessional piece last week: he read Julie Bindel and he liked it. My excitement was justified. Go over and have a read. Jim also interviewed North London author Tansy Hoskins, whose recent anti-capitalist book on the fashion industry has been making some waves.

Focusing on trying to shop ‘better’ is the wrong way of approaching the crisis in fashion. People need to stop looking for individual solutions to this crisis – like looking for that one ‘perfect’ brand of clothing – and instead start thinking systemically. I always think – what is the point of making yourself feel good about shopping choices when people and planet are still enslaved?

The use and allocation of road space is something that really does shape our lives in this heaving city of many squillions, yet all too rarely is it framed as a public and political issue. So it was good to read Phil’s report of a community meeting at Winchmore Hill where the needs of cyclists, the needs of motorists and the implications of speed limits for the whole community were discussed. It sounds like there was something of a  “not at the expense of motorists” feeling with regard to any potential changes. Yet Phil also got the feeling that “If people can come together to put an argument about improving one’s environment, and it matters to people, then, especially in an area like Winchmore Hill, an issue as simple as this may be just right to get change occurring.”

Looking forward to this week. We do have some good articles coming up, but we’d love to have more. So do get writing for us.

Reuben

Goblin in Residence

North London Star

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