We’re Into week three…And I’m loving this local publication thing

Share

Editorial by Reuben Bard-Rosenberg

Dare I say, it’s been another good week for the North London Star.  This is the first time I’ve been involved in a local publication. Though I liked the idea from the offset, I did worry about whether we’d have enough interesting things to write about. My excitement was punctuated by the slight fear that we’d end up publishing multiple articles on the failure of Harringey to choose the right paving stones for the side street off Seven Sisters. Luckily my fears have been proven foolhardy.

At the beginning of the week Jim stuck up a fascinating interview with North London Spanish activists from the My Belly is Mine Campaign – offering an important insight  not only into the draconian anti-abortion laws being pushed in Spain, but also into what it means to be a migrant political activist in North London. Continuing the migrant activist theme, Merylin Moos reviewed a matter of Intelligence, a new book  dealing with the lives of Communist refugees from Germany who settled largely in North London, and who were shamefully harassed, spied on and eventually interned by the British state.

The intervening decades have not blunted Britain’s grim security state. Jim named the names of the many North London and MPs who voted in favour of the government’s snooping bill and the two who voted against. As usual, props to Jeremy Corbyn. Meanwhile, a Haringey-based campaign to prevent Paddy Power opening a third betting shop on a small  stretch of Lordship Lane, sent us a piece about what they’re up to and why, and of course there’s been a lot more.

Needless to say, we’re still working out what it means to be a North London publication. But I’d say the variety of issues and news compares pretty favourably with many national political publications. As one of my NL Star friends said to me, the need to keep things local forces us to go beyond the comfort of the usual lefty subjects, and the burning issues of the news cycle. Feel free to disagree most vociferously.

Despite the site looking relatively awesome and win, we are very much still a work in progress. Once again, we do call on you to come and help make this site even better. If you’ve got an idea for an article, or you’re involved in a campaign you would like more people to hear about do get in touch. And tell us what you’d like to see more of and what you’d like to see less of in the comments below. This week a bunch of us are meeting up to decide how to take the site forward. We welcome new people, so if you would like to be involved, do drop us a line at office@northlondonstar.org.uk

Cheers for your support so far

Reuben Bard-Rosenberg

Acting Witan of Green Lanes

Resident Goblin at the North London Star

Share