Time to usher in some new opinions

We’ve lost two great columnists for very different reasons. Mark Seddon, former editor of Tribune, is moving to the USA. As Cllr Gerry Harrison says in a letter this week, his independent view continued a long tradition of radical debate in the Ham&High.

It’s farewell also to Brian Coleman, the London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden, who has taken great umbrage and withdrawn his monthly column following our admittedly scathing response last week to his comments about health provision for stroke victims. This week’s Ham&High letters pages carry a selection of the many responses we had from all over the country to Mr Coleman’s comments.

Rainbow George, or George of Hampstead as he is known to thousands of radio phone-in listeners, treated me to an excellent dinner on Tuesday night, one of those balmy evenings that make Heath Street feel like the loveliest place on earth. Crooner Ronnie Carroll, who has stood (somewhat reluctantly) a couple of times for election on Ronnie’s wacky Ranbow Party ticket, joined us and when they get going together they’re the best double act since Morecambe and Wise. Had a really interesting if occasionally surreal evening and Ronnie gave me a copy of his excellent new CD for my mum back in County Antrim, who was a big fan when Ronnie was topping the charts in the early Sixties. I defy anyone to listen to it and not think instantly of Frank Sinatra.

I went to see a film on Monday night and discovered my new favourite hotel into the bargain. The impossibly chic Soho in, well, where else but Soho, makes better-known establishments look as if they’re marooned in the Middle Ages. It also has a plush 200-seater private cinema where I saw Goal!, Danny Cannon’s thoroughly enjoyable and almost believable film about a young Mexican who takes the Premiership by storm. The match scenes, some of them from actual Premiership clashes, are superbly filmed.

Talking of football again, the lads in the office have been very gracious about Northern Ireland’s 1-0 win over England on Wednesday night. I’m still in shock. So momentous an event was this in the annals of football history that I tried hard to find a way of mentioning it in the Ham&High this week, but just couldn’t pin down that local angle. Still, the beauty of a blog ....!