Massive Fire Clears Way For Broadcasting & Media Centres

Hat-tip to Dave Hill for posting a dramatic video of how yesterday's collapse of Hackney Town Hall and the subsequent massive plume of smoke looked from the Council press office window opposite. And hat-tip to the chap I heard on a bus who, when asked what was going up in smoke, replied: "My bloody Council Tax, mate".



Just kidding about the video... but I bet quite a few of you were clapping loudly and pouring another beer. The truth, of course, is that when you took a more careful look at the fire you could see that it was, in fact, just over a mile due east of the Town Hall.



What a lot of people won't have realised, with the media all going on about a fire in Stratford, was that although the inflagration wasn't taking place in Mare Street, it certainly was in Hackney and not over the border in Newham.

Past my ward, down in that part of Hackney Wick which constitutes Hackney's contribution to the Olympic Games.

Those of you who remember the public service announcement published on this blog over a year ago will recall that Hackney is proudly hosting four Olympic sports - the boring, old-fashioned contests of Hockey and Handball and the exciting New Labour events of International Broadcasting and Media Manipulation. The map published back then was not very clear, so I've reproduced it with the seat of yesterday's fire clearly marked.

Now you're beginning to get the idea.

The Independent gave the game away with: "The fire started in a building being prepared for demolition on the western edge of the Olympic site at Waterden Road, next to a travellers' site where residents are refusing to be relocated to make way for the 2012 development."

Time is running out and we need to get the media and broadcasting centres up and running. We've invested a massive amount (somewhere between £10.2 billion and £62.3 billion of your Income Tax and Council Tax to be precise) and we can't have that jeopardised by a bunch of gippos travellers, can we? So a little fire was simply God's little helping hand for Harry, England, media spin and St. George.

Stop Press: Thanks to my good friend and MP for Hackney North & Stokie, Diane Portillo, for mailing me this photo of the fire she took just down the road from her home, in Millionaires' Row, London Fields.