Society Syndrome

Nice article in the ‘Hackney Post’ written by Molly Bowcott, a postgraduate journalism student, about the ‘Have Your Say’ event we organised at BSix College.

Sixth Form College welcomes community leaders to discuss critical contemporary issues - Hackney Post Young people shared their struggles on balancing education and their part-time jobs at a sixth form college event.  Several students said they were working two – or even three – jobs alongside their studies to try and make ends meet.  The college welcomed community leaders such as Amina Khalid...

Great Have Your Say event at BSix College, students discussed issues of Global warming, the cost of living crisis, trans issues and how to create a more peaceable world with the distinguished panel. Anyone who wishes to contribute a blog on social issues to our website, should contact us.

The next Have Your Say event will be at BSix College, Kenninghall Road, Clapton, E5 8BP at 11.45am on Thursday, 2nd November. The panel will comprise:

Sheldon Paule - Senior Recruitment Consultant
Amina Khalid - Head of Programme for Sustainable Communities at Initiatives of Change
Cllr Clare Joseph - Founder of Cash Welcome Here, councillor for Victoria ward and an actor
Mannat Malhi - Solicitor, Founding member of the Climate Change Action Group, member of Board of Governors, BSix College.

All welcome - for an interesting and stimulating discussion on contemporary issues.

Last years’ event:

Here’s Nolene Amanda Dube’s important new blog on food sustainability. Nolene is a young entrepreneur with a degree from the University of Salford, she is based in the Midlands.

What she writes, certainly gives food for thought…

We need to be able to cultivate our own food | Society Syndrome Inflation, Cost of Living Crisis, Food Scarcity: these infamous buzzwords, are enough to instil fear and hopelessness of the future into anyone, the problem is, when these words are repeated enough, we become desensitised to them, even start to ignore or even hide from them, especially when, in...

Exceptionally successful and thought-provoking Have Your Say event at BSix College. This years’ panel comprised College Principal, Kevin Watson, the Council’s Head of Legal & Governance, Dawn Carter-McDonald, Sgt Stevie Bull from the Met Police and Andre Langlais, Editor of the Hackney Gazette Group of Papers. Topics covered included education - whether life skills were being adequately taught, the war in Ukraine, the future of television and the age of consent. An eloquent 17 year old from Dnipro, Ukraine, studying at the College provided a dossier with information and spoke with great feeling about what was happening in her country. Some views expressed by students were surprising, others, less so - participants included College Ambassadors and members of the Debating Society.

This years’ Have Your Say event will be at BSix College, Kenninghall Road, E5 8BP at 12 noon on Tuesday, 1st November.

A distinguished panel will answer questions on a variety of contemporary topics:

Sgt Stevie Bull from the Met Police
Kevin Watson, College Principal
Dawn Carter-McDonald, Hackney Council’s
Head of Legal and Governance
André Langlois, Editor of the Hackney Gazette Group of Papers

All welcome; admission free.

Society Syndrome featured in The Guardian today:

Society Syndrome, a transparency thinktank, has put in a complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) relating to the apparent delay in Sue Gray being able to release her report on Downing Street parties.

The complaint is as follows:

We have been extremely concerned that the Metropolitan Police have seemingly delayed publication of Sue Gray’s important report into breaches of lockdown in and around Downing Street, by requesting that any potential criminal events be excluded.

As a report from a senior civil servant, it should contribute to any evidence required by the police, not adversely affect enquiries in any way.

Nazir Afzal, a former chief Crown prosecutor for the North West, said: “This is absolute nonsense from the Met Police. A purely factual report by Sue Gray cannot possibly prejudice a police investigation. They just have to follow the evidence, of which the report will be a part.”

Whilst the Met is very welcome to conduct any investigation, the public needs to have swift information - as will be provided by an un-redacted report from Ms Gray - in order to form an opinion in a democracy - as do Members of Parliament.

There is no reasonable likelihood of any trial by jury arising from the police investigation, it could either lead to fixed penalty fines or a magistrates hearing, there is therefore no rational reason for the report not to be published in full as soon as it has been completed.

If publication is being obstructed by the Metropolitan Police, we wish the IOPC to investigate and recommend appropriate action to enable the report to be published.

The IOPC has been contacted by The Guardian for comment.

Our next Have Your Say event will be at BSix College, Kenninghall Road, Clapton from 12.30 pm on Thursday, 25th November; on the panel will be:

Chief Inspector Lucky Singh - Met Police
Steve Blackshaw - Chair of Governors, BSix College
Cllr Sem Moema - GLA and Hackney Downs councillor
Amina Khalid - Initiatives of Change

There should be a stimulating discussion/debate on global warming, education, creating a more equal society, the impact of the pandemic and policing in London.

This event is aimed at 16-19 years olds, all are welcome to attend and participate, admission free.

In the current lockdown, many voices that need to be listened to are sadly not being heard. Here are the thoughts of one - Annabel Heaton - who penned this thoughtful piece shortly after her 30th birthday:

Annabel's Blog | Society Syndrome I am 30 years (and 2 days old) and feel utterly clueless, I really thought I was supposed to have a notion of how to manage my life by now. In my more philosophical moments I understand that life is about the journey and not the destination, but most of the time I feel like I'm miles behind everyone...

We’ve been trying to ensure transparency in the decision-making about Boris Johnson’s alleged failure to declare an interest when his ‘friend’, Jennifer Arcuri, received significant financial and other support from the GLA whilst he was Mayor of London. Here’s a link to The Guardian article on the issue:

Police watchdog criticised over Boris Johnson-Jennifer Arcuri inquiry delay IOPC accused of dragging its feet over decision expected before general election