We built our own Big Society – now they want to sell it

Published: 9 December, 2010
by JOHN GULLIVER

BARRISTER Bob Latham couldn’t help himself as he mouthed the words “Big Society” to me at the crowded opening of a new restaurant in Parkway, Camden Town, on Saturday evening.

And he gave a big grin as he repeated the words.

I knew what he  meant. He was referring to a Camden Council threat to sell off the Mornington Sports Centre – and as a free-thinking Labour man, he saw the irony in what his colleagues plan to do.

David Cameron has made a big play out of his new idea – the Big Society.

And if it means anything at all, it could be said to mean that volunteers should be encouraged to do what the state does.

And that is what happened in 1982 when a much younger Bob, a London councillor, Charlie Rossi and a local activist, Terry Hargrave – nicked-named “Mr Camden Town” – fought for the council to buy an electricity sub-station and convert it into a community building.

They won – and with the support of a younger finance whiz kid, John Mills, then a key Labour councillor now owner of  mail order empire JML – the council bought the sub-station, and the Mornington Centre was born.

Nearly 30 years later, Labour councillors, many with no sense of local history, want to sell it off.

To them, it’s a chance to convert a “physical asset” into a lot of hard cash.

Do any of them care about the local men and women who poured their heart and soul into translating a dream into a reality?

Do any of them care about the people of Camden Town who knew all about the words “Big Society” long before David Cameron turned it into a gimmicky phrase?

Many Labour councillors, as well as the Mayor, were enjoying themselves at the opening party.

But only Bob Latham saw the irony in what these representatives of the people of Camden plan to do with what is now a state-of the-art sports centre, just a stone’s throw away in Arlington Road.