Sunday, 19 August 2012
Hark! The people have mumbled
US President Bill Clinton once said: "The people have spoken, but it will take a while to determine exactly what they said."
He was either referring to the disputed 2000 election that appointed his successor or to the strategic development committee of Tower Hamlets Borough Council.
No hefty political point here. There are plenty of commentators ready to cast the council as the place where democracy goes to die. They overstate the case but there is a sense of disenfranchisement in a more immediate and practical sense.
In the public gallery, no-one can hear a thing.
In fact, can it be said that the council chamber the worst ever?
Let's examine two facets of the structure that perhaps cannot be changed before we look at two that can.
A broad column sits in the middle of the floor as if the technology of distributing weight had never occurred and we're back to tent poles beneath saggy ceilings. The column sits like a white line of dead pixels on a faulty TV. Worse still, witnesses give evidence from behind the column as though they're sharing playground secrets.
Then there's the the ramp walkway between the members' section and the public gallery which is lined by two waist high partitions of glass. Two layers of glass acting in concert is often known as, er, double glazing and particularly noted for its sound-proofing properties.
Here are a couple of tips to re-enfranchise the tax-payer.
Officers and members should sit up straight, enunciate their words and speak as if explaining Sky Plus to a deaf aunt and not as if confessing a shameful incident to their tie clips.
Microphones should be turned up. Officers and members should then address themselves to the microphone as opposed to working on the assumption that the presence of a microphone within the confines of the M25 coupled with the magnificence of their oratory is sufficient to reach the yearning masses.
On Tuesday, those in the public gallery whose lifestyles and property prices were being determined by a white noise over yonder leaned forward, straining to pick up clues to their fate.
In doing so, their chairs squeaked and the squeak of a chair was like the symphonic crescendo of the Onedin Line against the mumbling mouse squeak of far-off officialdom. From such farces, frustrations grow and disillusionment and paranoia take root.
If you hear them talk of the democratic deficit in Tower Hamlets, they're referring to a shortage of WD40.
Legacy: Just take one street…
If there needs to be a hangover cure following the headrush of acclaim that will follow the Olympic Games one of the ingredients may be Lord Mawson of Bromley-by-Bow.
The man from Bradford who has made east London his domain and his cause has a remarkable ability to cajole people from the doldrums. For him, nothing is impossible and it is unsurprising that a decade ago he co-authored one of the earliest papers suggesting the Olympic Games could be staged in east London.
But the message from the serial social entrepreneur is still daunting. We are half way there. Not in this Games phase (let's not forget the Paralympics are yet to come) but in far grander marathon - the multi-generational, 50-year project to put this part of London back on track.
The 58-year-old sees a grand link between the drive of the early scientist-entrepreneurs who made this part of the capital a global economic driving force, and those that will cluster here in the near future in the digital, green, cutting edge sci-tech businesses.
The years in between, marked by the closure of the docks, the ruination of communities, the haemorrhaging of enterprise and the loss of talent, were a tragic break in that long chain.
Talking to The Wharf at St Paul's Way Trust School in Tower Hamlets, Lord Mawson said: "The past present and future is connected and in the Lower Lea Valley - there is a new city emerging, a Water City - if you look at what's happening in Greenwich, the airport expanding, £3.7billion development in Canning Town, Canary Wharf expanding, a billion pound programme in Poplar and, of course, the Olympic Park and Westfield.
"I led a debate in the House of Lords and [Lord] Tom King said when he and Michael Heseltine flew over this area 27 years ago they saw two living things - two foxes on empty docks. This is not true today.
"What's happening is that green technology is beginning to emerge here, UCL is looking to possibly come to Stratford, the whole link with science and technology is beginning to occur even down in Canary Wharf and here is a school leading the way to answer the question: how does Britain become the best place to do science in the world."
The new school, with its lavishly furnished Faraday centre and patronage of Professor Brian Cox, is a microcosm, a test bed, a practical example of Lord Mawson's great belief in collaboration and getting government out the way.
The St Paul's Way area was in crisis when Lord Mawson took on the transformation project five years ago.
He said: "The question was: How do we create a more joined up community between a school that was failing, a health centre that was in difficulty and 500 homes that needed to be built but nothing was happening.
"So bringing people together developed into the St Paul's Way Transformation Project which I was asked to direct.
"One of the things we had to do was bring £30million of investment together for a brand new school, bring in £1million science complex then, with the housing company Poplar Harca, bring in a health centre across the road.
"We realised that the 11,000 patients of the health service and the education and science programmes at the school are connected. We thought: if that's going to be health centre and that's going to be school why don't we join it together as a campus.
"New ideas don't come out of the clouds, they don't come out of policy papers in Downing Street either. They come out of these collaborations between artists, scientists, engineers and somewhere where people get to know each other, like this street.
"We've got doctors, educationalists, scientists, working together - every week there are new ideas because it's an integrated street it's not a set of silos.
"How do we understand how to do that on a larger scale? Start on one street and understand the devil in the detail.
"If we understand what's going on in one street we can begin to develop it right across a Water City area and suddenly the Olympics becomes a catalyst over the next 25 years for east London to become, once again, become an interface with the world."
So what's his in tray when the cauldron flame is finally doused?
"What I am trying to get together is half a dozen serious businesses who have a long-term stake in this community, in people who live here, and who want to finish the job.
"And finishing the job is driving a vision developing investment opportunities here and making these linkages from education, science and making this a better place to live."
WATER CITY
Lord Mawson's all-encompassing vision for an invigorated and re-focussed east London can be summed up with his Water City initiative.
The name comes from another Docklands champion, Reg Ward, first chief executive of the London Development Corporation.
Lord Mawson said the project was not just a geographical observation- "just fly over it into City Airport and look down and all you will see is islands and water" - but something more urgent.
He said: "Water City is a vision for the future of the Lower Lea Valley. The legacy of the Olympic Park has to have integrity, it has to be built upon the real story of this area. What is the real story? Water has driven the economy of this area for nearly 2,000 years."
The Water City includes the Royal Docks, Canary Wharf, waterside Greenwich and the Lower Lea Valley through to the Olympic Park.
"We need a vision in east London that I can share with entrepreneurs in India and China that they can get in 10 seconds and buy into, not a 50-page strategy document from Government. It has to have integrity based on the real experience of people who have lived here.
"If you get to know East End families as I have, all their parents used to work on the docks. Then something got lost; we need to reinvent ourselves for our own time.
"We need to focus on the next 25 years and science and technology is going to be a fundamental. The Games is a catalyst for the redevelopment of the Lower Lea Valley as one of the most significant investment zones in Europe."
Go to amawsonpartnerships.com.
Water Chariots slip past any problems
The voice of Boris - rapidly becoming the voice of doom - gave plentiful warning - the trip to the Olympic Park would be no cake walk.
Instead, expect jams, delays, armpits, fluster and confusion, he said. It might not have worked out quite like that (thus far) and the alarm, apparently, had its proper effect.
Water Chariots is riding the wave of congestion phobia with its unhurried, 40-minute, VIP jaunt up from Limehouse (or down from Tottenham Hale) to a private entrance direct to the park. Pre-bookings were healthy when I visited pre-Games.
For a ticket, £95 offers the VIP package, £45 for a slimmed down version and many thousands to hire out one of the smaller boats, aimed at corporate customers looking for a bespoke service.
A bit steep was the first reaction - "ridiculous" was the verdict of MP Jim Fitzpatrick - but the operator says this is not a water bus, it is an experience.
Founder Peter Coleman said: "Every day we hear about the potential for delays, disruption and unprecedented congestion. If you have paid for a once-in-a-lifetime experience why not take a stress-free, reliable and uncongested journey straight to the park."
Speaking before the Games and referring to the high end packages, CEO Bill Doughty, pictured, said: "Imagine you're in charge of corporate hospitality. Your worst fear is that you've taken two tables of 10 in a prestige suite.
"These are your nine best clients and you're looking at the two empty spaces at the table and you're thinking 'where are they' and someone rings up and says 'I'm stuck in Stratford in a queue at the station' or 'the DLR has broken and it's all gone wrong'. The stress is incredible.
"You just want the security of getting there and arriving."
Besides, this is no fly-by-night, here-today-gone-tomorrow operation, he said.
Water Chariots is part of the legacy with a contract to run the service for 15 years and with a self-imposed commitment to train up injured ex-servicemen. This was the dream of Mr Coleman whose son had done tours in Afghanistan and who is now working with veteran charities to make it a reality.
I took a preview trip to the Park in rare sunshine, up to the park on one of 17 smaller boats, which cater for 10, and back down on one of the 13 large boats, which take 70. It cost £3million to bring the fleet together.
The water is only three feet deep in most places so no cumbersome lifejackets are required ("stand up" would be the advice to the man overboard) and the sights of east London from the water are invigorating and informative.
From the delightfully named Bow Locks, the cottage where Zig and Zag ruled The Big Breakfast, the first glimpse of the Orbit, the old evocative warehouses with broken windows and fluorescent graffiti, the new converted warehouses, their balconies filled with pot plants.
Three Mills, where Danny Boyle was masterminding the celebrated Opening and Closing ceremonies and the eclectic gathering of riverside buildings. Tanks and armoured vehicles, we were assured, are just props from the studios but the soldiers pedalling the towpaths or under camouflage are unnervingly real.
On the tour, Mr Doughty told me the story. He said: "Originally, it was born out of an idea by Peter Coleman who is a passionate boaty type but has never been involved in any commercial boat operations.
"Two years after the Olympics were announced, he said to the ODA 'you've done nothing with the canals' and it said 'that's a good idea'. British Waterways said it would do a public tender to run a canal service exclusively down to the Olympic Park using the River Lea.
"He tendered. His was a whole romantic notion and he won. He played around with it for a bit - a nice idea, maybe a few boats, all very interesting.
"He didn't realise how interested people were, particularly event companies thinking 'we've got a completely unique experience now'.
"My background is in private equity and I have a philanthropic investment boutique that I run as well. I said if it's a partnership with British Waterways and if you can make 15 year legacy deal then I'm interested - I'll raise the money for you, I'll get you the boats, I'll do all of that, build you a team and bring the operation to life."
Expect it to be a hit. Especially in the second week once the horror stories of the first have filtered through and panic measures are deployed.
Go to water-chariots.co.uk
Instead, expect jams, delays, armpits, fluster and confusion, he said. It might not have worked out quite like that (thus far) and the alarm, apparently, had its proper effect.
Water Chariots is riding the wave of congestion phobia with its unhurried, 40-minute, VIP jaunt up from Limehouse (or down from Tottenham Hale) to a private entrance direct to the park. Pre-bookings were healthy when I visited pre-Games.
For a ticket, £95 offers the VIP package, £45 for a slimmed down version and many thousands to hire out one of the smaller boats, aimed at corporate customers looking for a bespoke service.
A bit steep was the first reaction - "ridiculous" was the verdict of MP Jim Fitzpatrick - but the operator says this is not a water bus, it is an experience.
Founder Peter Coleman said: "Every day we hear about the potential for delays, disruption and unprecedented congestion. If you have paid for a once-in-a-lifetime experience why not take a stress-free, reliable and uncongested journey straight to the park."
Speaking before the Games and referring to the high end packages, CEO Bill Doughty, pictured, said: "Imagine you're in charge of corporate hospitality. Your worst fear is that you've taken two tables of 10 in a prestige suite.
"These are your nine best clients and you're looking at the two empty spaces at the table and you're thinking 'where are they' and someone rings up and says 'I'm stuck in Stratford in a queue at the station' or 'the DLR has broken and it's all gone wrong'. The stress is incredible.
"You just want the security of getting there and arriving."
Besides, this is no fly-by-night, here-today-gone-tomorrow operation, he said.
Water Chariots is part of the legacy with a contract to run the service for 15 years and with a self-imposed commitment to train up injured ex-servicemen. This was the dream of Mr Coleman whose son had done tours in Afghanistan and who is now working with veteran charities to make it a reality.
I took a preview trip to the Park in rare sunshine, up to the park on one of 17 smaller boats, which cater for 10, and back down on one of the 13 large boats, which take 70. It cost £3million to bring the fleet together.
The water is only three feet deep in most places so no cumbersome lifejackets are required ("stand up" would be the advice to the man overboard) and the sights of east London from the water are invigorating and informative.
From the delightfully named Bow Locks, the cottage where Zig and Zag ruled The Big Breakfast, the first glimpse of the Orbit, the old evocative warehouses with broken windows and fluorescent graffiti, the new converted warehouses, their balconies filled with pot plants.
Three Mills, where Danny Boyle was masterminding the celebrated Opening and Closing ceremonies and the eclectic gathering of riverside buildings. Tanks and armoured vehicles, we were assured, are just props from the studios but the soldiers pedalling the towpaths or under camouflage are unnervingly real.
On the tour, Mr Doughty told me the story. He said: "Originally, it was born out of an idea by Peter Coleman who is a passionate boaty type but has never been involved in any commercial boat operations.
"Two years after the Olympics were announced, he said to the ODA 'you've done nothing with the canals' and it said 'that's a good idea'. British Waterways said it would do a public tender to run a canal service exclusively down to the Olympic Park using the River Lea.
"He tendered. His was a whole romantic notion and he won. He played around with it for a bit - a nice idea, maybe a few boats, all very interesting.
"He didn't realise how interested people were, particularly event companies thinking 'we've got a completely unique experience now'.
"My background is in private equity and I have a philanthropic investment boutique that I run as well. I said if it's a partnership with British Waterways and if you can make 15 year legacy deal then I'm interested - I'll raise the money for you, I'll get you the boats, I'll do all of that, build you a team and bring the operation to life."
Expect it to be a hit. Especially in the second week once the horror stories of the first have filtered through and panic measures are deployed.
Go to water-chariots.co.uk
Prof Brian Cox ignites spark of scientific intrigue
The sun was shining, the classrooms shut, exams over and youngsters in Tower Hamlets had decided how best they wanted to spend the first days of the treasured summer holiday.
With the prospect of challenging some of the best science brains in Britain, they returned to St Paul's Way Trust School on Friday for an innovative summer conference, hosted by TV presenter and particle physicist Brian Cox.
For Prof Cox, the summer school was the ideal way to promote his own campaign which also doubled as his headline for the summer school - Making Britain The Place To Do Science.
His campaign is aimed at prompting the Government to invest in the science sector as well as finding and inspiring the "raw materials" - the future scientists.
Run with sponsorship from reinsurers, and school partner, Catlin Group, and using the drive of energetic East End social entrepreneur Lord Mawson, the school aims to help seed the Lower Lee Valley's revival as a centre for science and innovation.
Prof Cox told The Wharf he had visited the school previously to open the Faraday Science Centre there. "I was genuinely impressed by what this school was doing because it fits in with something I have been trying to promote for a long time which is that science and engineering and, more broadly, knowledge-based industry, is the foundation of our economy.
"This is an example of a school that was doing something I hadn't thought of but which is obvious once you see it in action - by focussing on science here they've raised the numeracy and literacy levels.
"They've transformed not only the school and the chances of these students but they've also transformed the area as well. These places should be little centres of excellence that start spreading influence out into a community.
"Of course it's true that if you're looking for the best scientists in any area then it's ridiculous to look just in, say, Chelsea. One of the main indicators of whether you went to university is if your mother and father went to university. That's silly."
The school took the form of a series of 18 minute mini-lectures - the first by Prof Cox himself - offering an appetising array of sciences on offer. Prof Cox told the pupils that in a few years' time they could be working at the cutting edge.
Speakers included polar explorer Pen Hadow, zoologist Prof Matthew Cobb, of Manchester, molecular biologist Prof Paul Brickell and leading geneticist Dr Gordon Sanghera.
Prof Cox said: "Everybody I asked to speak said 'yes'. That's because everybody knows that places like this are the foundation. It would be ridiculous to build a new university sector if you had no students.
"The message is that it's hard work but you can do it. Very sadly, it's harder work if you come from an area like this but the point about this place is that it's making it less hard, narrowing that gap.
"What I find with kids is that you don't have to do much once you've shown them.
"You're not going to teach someone about biology in 18 minutes but once they're interested it's the ideas that carry them away.
"We want this to be the first of many events, the more interest in science there is, the better placed our country will be to meet the challenges of the future."
ON PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING
"It is true that science on television is a driver. So I play a role in that. It's very important but sometimes unpopular to point out that the BBC plays a huge role.
"So the BBC did have a year of science, which coincided with the 250th anniversary of the Royal Society of which Wonders Of The Solar System which I did was part. There are academics that the BBC have bothered to train so they can present TV programmes. These are things that other channels simply can't afford to do."
ON THE REASONS FOR A SCIENCE REVIVAL
"I think it's a happy coincidence of a lot of things - the focus in the media, some of it the popularity in schools."
ON OUR WORLD-LEADING UNIVERSITIES
"By every measure we're second only to the US except in efficiency where we're by far the best. We have one per cent of the population, three per cent of the investment, 15 per cent of the highest cited papers in the world. We're only second only to the US in Nobel prizes, citations, big impact papers.
"Investment is the biggest threat. It's silly because it's a tiny amount of investment. The argument that we haven't got the money to do this doesn't count because you're talking about single figure billions.
"You look at the amount of money that can be generated - it's naive but look at the amount generated by QE but you're talking about tens of billions, hundreds of billions.
"We probably have the best university sector in the world so it doesn't matter what the other nations do, you can't buy it - but you can destroy it through under-investment.
"My challenge is that, given that you're talking about single figure billions at most, probably hundreds of millions, you can transform this sector again with a tiny the amount of will."
ON SPONSOR CATLIN GROUP
"They have thrown down the gauntlet to a lot of companies in this area, the City and Canary Wharf. There's a model here of science and industry working together."
With the prospect of challenging some of the best science brains in Britain, they returned to St Paul's Way Trust School on Friday for an innovative summer conference, hosted by TV presenter and particle physicist Brian Cox.
For Prof Cox, the summer school was the ideal way to promote his own campaign which also doubled as his headline for the summer school - Making Britain The Place To Do Science.
His campaign is aimed at prompting the Government to invest in the science sector as well as finding and inspiring the "raw materials" - the future scientists.
Run with sponsorship from reinsurers, and school partner, Catlin Group, and using the drive of energetic East End social entrepreneur Lord Mawson, the school aims to help seed the Lower Lee Valley's revival as a centre for science and innovation.
Prof Cox told The Wharf he had visited the school previously to open the Faraday Science Centre there. "I was genuinely impressed by what this school was doing because it fits in with something I have been trying to promote for a long time which is that science and engineering and, more broadly, knowledge-based industry, is the foundation of our economy.
"This is an example of a school that was doing something I hadn't thought of but which is obvious once you see it in action - by focussing on science here they've raised the numeracy and literacy levels.
"They've transformed not only the school and the chances of these students but they've also transformed the area as well. These places should be little centres of excellence that start spreading influence out into a community.
"Of course it's true that if you're looking for the best scientists in any area then it's ridiculous to look just in, say, Chelsea. One of the main indicators of whether you went to university is if your mother and father went to university. That's silly."
The school took the form of a series of 18 minute mini-lectures - the first by Prof Cox himself - offering an appetising array of sciences on offer. Prof Cox told the pupils that in a few years' time they could be working at the cutting edge.
Speakers included polar explorer Pen Hadow, zoologist Prof Matthew Cobb, of Manchester, molecular biologist Prof Paul Brickell and leading geneticist Dr Gordon Sanghera.
Prof Cox said: "Everybody I asked to speak said 'yes'. That's because everybody knows that places like this are the foundation. It would be ridiculous to build a new university sector if you had no students.
"The message is that it's hard work but you can do it. Very sadly, it's harder work if you come from an area like this but the point about this place is that it's making it less hard, narrowing that gap.
"What I find with kids is that you don't have to do much once you've shown them.
"You're not going to teach someone about biology in 18 minutes but once they're interested it's the ideas that carry them away.
"We want this to be the first of many events, the more interest in science there is, the better placed our country will be to meet the challenges of the future."
ON PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING
"It is true that science on television is a driver. So I play a role in that. It's very important but sometimes unpopular to point out that the BBC plays a huge role.
"So the BBC did have a year of science, which coincided with the 250th anniversary of the Royal Society of which Wonders Of The Solar System which I did was part. There are academics that the BBC have bothered to train so they can present TV programmes. These are things that other channels simply can't afford to do."
ON THE REASONS FOR A SCIENCE REVIVAL
"I think it's a happy coincidence of a lot of things - the focus in the media, some of it the popularity in schools."
ON OUR WORLD-LEADING UNIVERSITIES
"By every measure we're second only to the US except in efficiency where we're by far the best. We have one per cent of the population, three per cent of the investment, 15 per cent of the highest cited papers in the world. We're only second only to the US in Nobel prizes, citations, big impact papers.
"Investment is the biggest threat. It's silly because it's a tiny amount of investment. The argument that we haven't got the money to do this doesn't count because you're talking about single figure billions.
"You look at the amount of money that can be generated - it's naive but look at the amount generated by QE but you're talking about tens of billions, hundreds of billions.
"We probably have the best university sector in the world so it doesn't matter what the other nations do, you can't buy it - but you can destroy it through under-investment.
"My challenge is that, given that you're talking about single figure billions at most, probably hundreds of millions, you can transform this sector again with a tiny the amount of will."
ON SPONSOR CATLIN GROUP
"They have thrown down the gauntlet to a lot of companies in this area, the City and Canary Wharf. There's a model here of science and industry working together."
Greenwich Comedy Festival: Robin Ince
COMEDY
Robin Ince
Greenwich Comedy Festival
★★★★✩
IN A NUTSHELL
Happiness Through Science may be Robin Ince's creed but he has enough residual anger to keep us laughing.
REVIEW
Science is good meat for comedy. Life is essentially absurd, biology a bonkers lottery, particle physics so ridiculous that scientific theory flirts with surrealist flights of fancy without raising an eyebrow.
Robin Ince explores this seam with an amateur's eye for the wonderful and the cynic's exasperation with the flat-earthers.
Happiness Through Science is his unashamedly niche show where he parades prejudices and champions the scientific method with an asterisk (*check on Google before repeating his conjectures as facts).
He is the excitable kid with the chemistry set and singed eyebrows rather than the check-shirted coffee shop fact digger.
In his quest to shake science free from the cloying mud of the "deliberately stupid" he takes a tilt at newspapers, new agers, climate change deniers and Luddites.
He rhapsodises on his heroes, including Richard Feynman, Peter Singer and Charles Darwin and - to the delight of the masses - presents his Infinite Monkey Cage pal Professor Brian Cox as a wistful Orville to his Keith Harris ("I wish I could fly / faster than the speed of light but I can't... Oh.")
His comedy, often delivered by means of a rant, lands with light touch. He's very much into scratching chins rather than punching lines but he is bursting with things to say - a comedian with a strident message - which he delivers with infectious passion and palpable bemusement.
Of course this preachy fire and brimstone may be in the genes. This militant atheist is - and here's the irony - the product of generations of vicars.
To a liberal, enlightened Greenwich audience - sprinkled with scientists ("unlike Scunthorpe") - it was delicious comedy for converts.
Book review: Criminal, by Karin Slaughter
BOOK
Criminal by Karin Slaughter
(Century)
★★★✩✩
IN A NUTSHELL
Karin Slaughter's grisly crime thriller is an epic sweep across 40 years where two similar murder cases bring up some chilling memories.
REVIEW
Crime author Karin Slaughter takes her readers into a world of degradation, defilement and decay. She returns there frequently during the course of this razor-sharp story and each time the stomach churns.
No less sly and vile are the gender divisions of '70s Atlanta which occupies half her timeline as she explores the roots of a key character (rookie detective Amanda) and a crime that ripples through the decades.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent is looking to put a difficult past behind him with a new love. He's on low-level duties and can't figure out why his enigmatic boss Amanda Wagner is keeping him off a high-profile disappearance.
In the summer Will was born, 40 years early, Wagner was trying to step out the shadow of her notorious father. But other shadows await, notably the sexism that makes the Atlanta Police Department a vile boys' club.
But a neglected murder case gives her the opportunity to make her name and launch her stratospheric career. Little did she think that the case of a lowlife junkie and prostitute would revisit her four decades later and become entwined with the mystery of Will's parentage.
Both need to face demons from the past to find closure - and end a case that has the capacity to grow into a sinister terror.
There is authenticity, cracking detail and ambience as well as sufficient twists and turns to make for a compelling and, in places, uncomfortable read.
Pipe dreams of Tech City entrepreneurs
So who is right in the battle for broadband? BT, which proclaims that London is the No.1 choice for businesses because of its high levels of connectivity (tethered to a multi-billion rolling upgrade in infrastructure).
Or the entrepreneurs working at the silicon-face of the east London Tech City dream.
Their champions, such as Tech Hub's Mike Butcher, have amassed considerable evidence of foot-dragging by the "monopolistic" BT, which holds the whip hand.
Mr Butcher, and others, quote the data that puts the capital outside the top 30 performing cities in a winner-takes-all global beauty contest.
Chairman of the London Assembly economy committee Andrew Dismore said: "London's broadband is becoming the 21st century equivalent of tin cans on a string. There is no doubt that this is having a detrimental effect on the capital's competitiveness and is hampering both old and new businesses, as well as many residents."
Poor infrastructure, sluggish service, the Catch 22 of start-ups which cannot order a link until they rent an office and cannot rent an office without revenue and cannot earn revenue without a link.
This is the sorry story for many start-ups, we are told - green shoots of hope trampled by the tractor-factory mentality of the monolith.
(BT, for its part, says the average turnaround for an order is seven working days, says anecdotes are no basis for policy and proffers other independent surveys putting the capital as a business leader in this arena.)
Either way, the argument is connectivity and it is, ironically, beset with problems of joined-up thinking.
This argument, going in circles much like Shoreditch's famous roundabout, is costing status. As Mr Butcher and other provides told the London Assembly last week, Berlin is white-hot, gigabit links are commonplace in Seoul and little Moldova offers free wifi.
London is an elephants in fishnets - desirable but unwieldy.
When an industry scans the world for a place to stick its start-up, London has many advantages - but insists on making its entrepreneurs suffer for their decision.
As the Olympics quickly fades and business gets back to normal, this will become an issue of greater importance. As seems likely, iCity will take over the Olympic Park media centre, stretching the boundary of Tech City further east, which is welcome.
Meanwhile, the Royal Docks has the potential to become a sci-tech campus of considerable heft.
The very least that these two centres will require is the latest in ultra-fast connectivity with the most robust pipes, the broadest bandwidth, free wifi and all the trappings of a modern, fleet-of-foot Singapore-style start-up environment underpinned with a clean-driven, always-on, service-with-a-smile coffee shop culture.
It is likely that a mixture of dull-but-necessary pump priming public money (enterprise zones, transport infrastructure, wholly reformed education etc) and private capital is the only way to create critical mass.
(It is interesting to note the virtuous "arms race" between infrastructure and entrepreneurialism in places like South Korea where big pipes have helped create a large gaming industry and vice versa.)
All this feeds directly into the undisputed (by the main political parties) route out of the current malaise and provides a template for growth for our little, offshore island fighting for traction in a post-finance world.
What happens in east London in the next few years will be the measure of what happens to Britain.
High growth, geographically promiscuous players drawn here by the fast-moving, holistic, immediate sci-tech and digital economy able to draw skilled young people from a driven education sector. Or dead docks.
Or the entrepreneurs working at the silicon-face of the east London Tech City dream.
Their champions, such as Tech Hub's Mike Butcher, have amassed considerable evidence of foot-dragging by the "monopolistic" BT, which holds the whip hand.
Mr Butcher, and others, quote the data that puts the capital outside the top 30 performing cities in a winner-takes-all global beauty contest.
Chairman of the London Assembly economy committee Andrew Dismore said: "London's broadband is becoming the 21st century equivalent of tin cans on a string. There is no doubt that this is having a detrimental effect on the capital's competitiveness and is hampering both old and new businesses, as well as many residents."
Poor infrastructure, sluggish service, the Catch 22 of start-ups which cannot order a link until they rent an office and cannot rent an office without revenue and cannot earn revenue without a link.
This is the sorry story for many start-ups, we are told - green shoots of hope trampled by the tractor-factory mentality of the monolith.
(BT, for its part, says the average turnaround for an order is seven working days, says anecdotes are no basis for policy and proffers other independent surveys putting the capital as a business leader in this arena.)
Either way, the argument is connectivity and it is, ironically, beset with problems of joined-up thinking.
This argument, going in circles much like Shoreditch's famous roundabout, is costing status. As Mr Butcher and other provides told the London Assembly last week, Berlin is white-hot, gigabit links are commonplace in Seoul and little Moldova offers free wifi.
London is an elephants in fishnets - desirable but unwieldy.
When an industry scans the world for a place to stick its start-up, London has many advantages - but insists on making its entrepreneurs suffer for their decision.
As the Olympics quickly fades and business gets back to normal, this will become an issue of greater importance. As seems likely, iCity will take over the Olympic Park media centre, stretching the boundary of Tech City further east, which is welcome.
Meanwhile, the Royal Docks has the potential to become a sci-tech campus of considerable heft.
The very least that these two centres will require is the latest in ultra-fast connectivity with the most robust pipes, the broadest bandwidth, free wifi and all the trappings of a modern, fleet-of-foot Singapore-style start-up environment underpinned with a clean-driven, always-on, service-with-a-smile coffee shop culture.
It is likely that a mixture of dull-but-necessary pump priming public money (enterprise zones, transport infrastructure, wholly reformed education etc) and private capital is the only way to create critical mass.
(It is interesting to note the virtuous "arms race" between infrastructure and entrepreneurialism in places like South Korea where big pipes have helped create a large gaming industry and vice versa.)
All this feeds directly into the undisputed (by the main political parties) route out of the current malaise and provides a template for growth for our little, offshore island fighting for traction in a post-finance world.
What happens in east London in the next few years will be the measure of what happens to Britain.
High growth, geographically promiscuous players drawn here by the fast-moving, holistic, immediate sci-tech and digital economy able to draw skilled young people from a driven education sector. Or dead docks.
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