One of the gifts of living in a city as potentially daunting as London is taking ownership of a corner of it. Nothing anchors you like local knowledge. The longer you stay somewhere, the more emotional it becomes, an esoteric feeling lodged somewhere warmly around the stomach, like a hot-water bottle. That feeling, I suppose, is what we call home. It shapes your worldview. In this respect, London boroughs turn into something like a family member. From within, slag them off to your heart’s content. But criticise them from the outside and you will feel our ire.
Greetings, then, from Tower Hamlets. Local hackles were raised this week when Paul Scully, former minister for London, singled out the borough for criticism, compounding the latest Tory bin-fire lit by Lee Anderson. I heard Scully attempting to untangle himself from it on Emily Maitlis’s frisky political podcast, The News Agents, apologising profusely for declaring parts of Tower Hamlets “a no-go area”.
