Since the riots, it seems that freelance writer and blogger for Conservativehome Graeme Archer has decided it’s time to leave Hackney.
Boldly stating in a column for the Telegraph that “empathy has fled the inner city”, he is now escaping the “repellent antisocial behavior” and “inhuman” occupants he claims populate the borough.
Yet despite proudly declaring his exit with this fanfare of a comment piece, Archer’s move will be quite inconsequential. Indeed, as one Antony Painter, Governor of Hackney Community College and Hackney UTC, blogged, with not a hint of sarcasm; ‘Fair enough…Graeme, we’ll be sorry to lose you.”
And that’s as fine a farewell as Archer can expect, as he joins the ranks of mid-40 year olds leaving the inner city for a slightly bigger house in the suburbs near a successful secondary (dare I say private…) school to send their children.
Has empathy fled the inner city? Of course not, as Painter points out “it has it in droves.” The contingent of highly involved, intellectual people in Hackney, actively concerned with improving the borough is symbolized by the sheer number of projects, community centres and workshops that exist there.
The Riot Clean Up movement was simply the tip of the iceberg. From Centerprise to the Eastern Curve Garden, Rhythms of Life to the Shoreditch Trust, right across the borough people are working tirelessly to help those around them…successfully. Despite Hackney being one of the most deprived boroughs in the country over 80% of school leavers continue into full time further education and crime has fallen by 40% in the last five years. I believe this can be attributed to the proactivity of people who live there.
The real Hackney is a rapidly developing, invigorating, multicultural area, in which most people enjoy the opportunities available to converse, befriend and thoughtfully live with those around them.
Of course, where there really is a lack of empathy in Hackney is from people like Archer who can afford to contentedly sit at the Cat and Mutton gastropub, an “emblem of everything that’s gone well with this patch of Hackney in the past half decade”, chomping on his haunch of venison in a state of complete detachment from reality.
To think that the gentrification he has been enjoying benifits the “gangs of fatherless, swaggering, out-of-control mixed-race youths”, he has described with scathing disassociation in the past epitomises this apathy towards social inclusion which Archer represents.
Hackney is a conveniently affordable borough for many professionals to live, who can playfully benefit from the many luxuries available (such as Archer’s beloved lido), before moving to populate the greener grass of pastures new. Unfortunately this is timed at the exact point when someone should be settling down, properly engaging with their neighborhood and giving their children the benefit of a multicultural world view that a sleeper town simply cannot provide.
In the meantime, there is plenty of opportunity to undermine, insult and antagonize people from lower incomes, or less fortunate backgrounds who eixst in a parallel universe and only become noticed when someone like Archer trips over a takeaway wrapper in the street, or hears about someone getting shot.
The real reason why noone will notice when you leave Hackney, Graeme, is that you never lived there in the first place.
I just made the mistake of starting to read the comments below the Telegraph piece. It seems to attract overtly racist BNP types! If this is the sort of following Graeme Archer has, thank god he’s leaving.
Good riddance. Far from constantly trying to “fix his vision on the beauty” of Hackney afaict the only time he had anything pleasant to say about the borough was when he was pretending to be a man of the people while slagging off the Archbishop of Canterbury for being “out of touch.”
The irony of your piece is very few are “missed” in Hackney – aside from the loved ones they leave behind. I don’t particularly miss the drive-by victims or even mourn them – as I’ve later discovered that most of them had it coming.
I do miss Agnes. She didn’t have it coming to her. She was loved and she had a future. Regrettably, she was shot by gangstas in a chicken and pizza take away.
Graeme’s problem is that he’s seen too much. I’m glad you hipsters love it here. Glad you think some of the edgy-ness will rub off and make you cool.
Have your swipe, Will. What do you do to contribute? Writing blogs doesn’t count. I know Graeme’s contribution. So does a guy named Spirit, formerly of the Broadway market. You can goggle it to educate yourself.
I can’t speak for Graeme, but it gets tiresome listening to the handwringers say that we should “embrace” what makes Hackney vibrant – when they refuse to look at what’s killing hackney – and its inhabitants.
Doing more of what’s not working isn’t going to change anything. Maybe you’re happy with the status quo of murder, guns, drug and vandalism.
maybe Graeme and others are tired of playing King Kanute and are bailing out to the suburbs.
Thanks for your comment Bob.
The issue I am trying to raise is not one about being edgy, nor gormlessley celebrating Hackney as if it is without flaws, but rather to point out that the “lack of empathy” in Hackney is from people like Archer, a minority, rather than from the majority of the people who live there.
I am well aware of the issues surrounding the Spirit of Broadway and, having grown up in Hackney, am well aware of the crime and social problems which exist there too, however I certainly would never conclude that the victims of these “had it coming.”
To hold that view, but claim others “refuse to look at what’s killing Hackney – and its inhabitants” is exactly the lack of empathy which I read in Archer’s columns.
But I suppose that’s the point where we are going to have to agree to disagree.
P.S. Hipsters? I’m not the one eating at the Cat and Mutton!
Firstly, could I point out that I am the first “bob” (Dec 17, 9:14), and not the second “bob” (Dec 19, 4:50) whose views seem to have a remarkable similarity to the views of Archer.
On a side issue, I don’t think the problems that Archer claims he is fleeing are inherently “inner-city” problems – they are problems arriving from poverty, and if Archer were to move to an semi-rural or suburban area experiencing significant poverty (which of course he won’t be) he would see similar problems.
As someone who was brought up in such a poor semi-rural area I can say that I was more adversely affected by the drug-dealing, casual violence (including murders), endemic racism, criminality and bullying than I ever have been in inner-city London.
Where exactly is Graeme’s supposed “lack of empathy”? If you understand Graeme’s involvement w/challenging hackney labour’s Spirit debacle, then it’s difficult to divine the point you’re attempting to make.
As for my supposed “lack of empathy”, I refer you to the murder of Michael McCarthy near Stoke Newington Church street. I was full of empathy, outrage and despair. Then I found out his murder was a payback for the kidnap and torture of the killer’s friends.
On hearing those facts, my empathy for the victim evaporated.
So whilst we’re all BSing, I would be delighted to hear your clarification. Does G lack empathy only because he left?
Oh, and grow up
1. I’m not “Bob”
2. I’m gay, and childless, as a cursory examination of my writing would have shown. We didn’t move to a suburb to school our non-existent children.
3. I’m vegetarian and have been for about 19,000 of your Earth years. “Vension whatever” is a foodstuff I associate with the Leftists who’ve ran Hackney for so long that it became intolerable for normal decent working people like myself and my partner to continue living there.
4. If you don’t think there’s a problem with the desire of 40-somethings to move somewhere with a lower propensity to produce children who set fire to Mare Street then (a) you willfully misread my column and (b) I’d guess you’re part of the problem.
Keep repeating that the 13 years I lived in a borough I love were spent in peevish disapproval, if that helps you feel good about your voting habits (swimming in the Lido makes a political point, are you suggesting? The point defeats me, I’m afraid). But don’t think for a minute that your synthetic disapproval of my piece gets close to the anger I feel about what people like you have done to Hackney.
Best wishes
Graeme Archer.