Film Review: 'Concrete Soldiers UK'

Silent march for Grenfell Tower fire victims and survivors 14 December © London Intelligence 2017

Londoners who live on council estates are ‘not worth the land they live on’, says Concrete Soldiers UK (dir. Nikita Woolfe, UK 2017), an independent documentary.

Nikita Woolfe’s strident 62-minute film, condemning developer-led, council-backed ‘regeneration’ of London council estates, disdains some conventional journalism practice. Woolfe, if asked what the weather is like, would not say ‘some people say it’s sunny whilst others say it’s raining.’ With Concrete Soldiers UK, Woolfe simply looks out of the window and tells an observed truth that, in fact, it’s pouring with rain. Regeneration rain that socially cleanses London of thousands of working class people.

Indeed, Woolfe chooses war rather than bad weather as the main analogy to describe...

(the full review can be read at:

http://www.londonintelligence.co.uk/concrete-soldiers-uk-a-review/

© Paul Coleman, London Intelligence, December 2017

Level Crossing Safety update 2017: Network Rail, Tina Hughes, Elsenham

Safeguarding the legacy of Liv and Charlie

By Paul Coleman

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The mother of one of two girls killed by a train twelve years ago believes railway level crossings still pose a serious danger to members of the public.

Tina Hughes is the mother of 14-year-old Olivia 'Liv' Bazlinton, who was killed with her friend Charlotte 'Charlie' Thompson, 13, at the Elsenham level crossing on Saturday morning, 3 December 2005.

On the 12^th anniversary of the girls’ deaths, Hughes says: “There are still thousands of crossings on the rail network with nothing but ‘stop, look and listen’ signs. That really isn’t good enough.”

Speaking to London Intelligence, Hughes adds: “Although there has been a real change in the way Network Rail manages risk at level crossings since Elsenham, progress on change has slowed significantly in the last few years.”

The full article can be read at : http://www.londonintelligence.co.uk/level-crossing-safety-2017/


© Paul Coleman, London Intelligence, December 2017