The Count 2024 Episode 0

This “follows on” from the previous post about the count. But preceding the count was the canvassing. I get asked quite a bit about this and how it is to knock on the doors of strangers. And it is actually alright. People are generally not anywhere near as bad in person as they are behind a screen.Or they are but you don’t notice it as much as it is hidden behind politeness.

I am not a huge ”street” campaigner to be honest, and I prefer to be the “data guy” where I can but within the last year, leading up to the expected 2024 General Election, I did visit a few constituencies for “door knocking” sessions (see this blogpost on telling to see what some of this leads to). These were as follows and, as you can see, all but one were Conservative held seats and so were “battlegrounds” or “marginals”. It is also worth saying that in the one Labour seat, major campaigning was effectively blocked by shutting down the system^[1] that supported it as a prod to activists to go further afield. In fact, when looking for events for my postcode, the system suggested other constituencies in all cases and at all times including when there were events locally. This did definitely mean that we did not have access to the same number of activists as often “stronghold” seats would also have activists that would not want to, or be able to, go further afield.

Why did I go to these places?

I don’t particularly want to make political (policy) commentary here and my intention here is to show the difference in operational approach that may be the result of different strategic approaches.

So let us say, very simplistically, you have 100 activists. You may get 60 of them campaigning locally in a stronghold (S) and 40 of them going to marginals (M). So you get an increase in visibility and an increase in votes in both the stronghold and the marginal.

If you shut down the opportunity to stay local, you may get 0 locally and 60 in the marginal. So you have greater help where you think it is needed but a lower amount of help overall. So maybe you see an increase in the M seat and a decrease in the S seat. That may mean you win two seats.

I think that is more efficient in winning the vote but there is definitely an argument to say it is not considering all the externalities in such a simplistic model. And politics isn’t about winning to win but to win, effect change and stay in power.

The S seat has probably also got more untapped activists that might be able to grow your 100. The actual voters in an S seat may also note the lack of activity and remember that at the election and in the future reducing the strength. The M seat does have more space to grow into and the likelihood is that they don’t have as many activists to begin with so an extra 5 on 5 may be hugely noticed in a way that an extra 5 on 100 is not. In the “first past the post” system, you need to pass a threshold and any more than that is effectively unnecessary headroom. But you might lose the interest of 40 activists in a seat.

This is a little like goal difference in football and as a fan, I have seen big victories followed by narrow defeats so many times and thought “if only we could have spread the goals better”. But (topically) the Greek side in Euro 2004 did similar with efficient 1-0 victories to take you to the trophy. They were not able to effect change and stay in power… It was seen as an aberration and there have been no other (successful) countries wanting to follow that model.

I think this is a difference in the approaches of the two most recent leaders of the Labour Party and I am not making a judgement on which approach is correct or not. The “more activists and deep victory” approach is a people powered movement, Lots of people are involved and can be enthused by it all. The “fewer activists placed carefully” approach is about doing “more with less” and needs people that are enthused already as the whole movement will be less fun. In a nutshell, that is my experience of the approaches.

Locations canvassed

I went to a few constituencies but it is also worth noting that Britain is a very mixed up country and each constituency is made up of vastly different components and so the parts I visited may not be representative at all. I know that from visiting them but that may not be as clear to those reading a pithy little take and a 3 word review. Please note that the boundary changes mean that the maps are not exactly on the same boundaries but give a sense of it. Click the maps to see a better quality image of the deprivation measured in these constituencies to get a sense of the voter base.

[Con] Cities of London and Westminster

This was the first place I went of the actual campaign and we were in an area that might not be called traditionally Labour. The feedback here was not always positive but it was far more friendly than my previous visits to these kinds of areas. I would say it was neutral rather than hostile. To give an indication of the place, I was told that “no parent would vote for Labour” because of the policy around requiring private schools to pay tax like other similar businesses. One notable thing here is that many of the doors were inaccessible but you could ring at the gate and they would let you in or speak to you from the door. It was odd to hear people shouting in the street (effectively) that they were voting Labour in this neighbourhood. I also had a chat with one person that was quite irritated (and made that clear, but also clarified a few times that he was not with me personally) that people were chasing his vote now but had not spoken to him in years. This could be for a number of reasons but he was at least cognisant of the fact that I was from a neighbouring constituency and not in a position to be complained at. Speaking to people face to face is pretty disarming and the conversations are generally quite nice.

3WR: Money, Money, Money

Result: Labour MP - Rachel Blake

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001172

[Con] Finchley and Golders Green

I had not been here for a while but this was supposedly the seat with the most Jewish electorate in the country and so had been quite a target in previous elections for those wanting to make hay. This meant it was an oddly “local” election as in 2019, the Labour leader was consistently branded as anti-semitic and so it was expected to move quite differently to the underlying political movements. I also grew up locally although not in this constituency and so was familiar with the rhythm and bass of the place if not necessarily the melody. The atmosphere was good in the sessions with good humour and effort. The candidate was also known to me as she lives locally to me although she grew up in this constituency. My most notable conversation here was based on asking about whether Sarah was local (or local enough) as she lived about 4 miles away from the household I knocked at. I am hopeful that the person, who was going to complete her postal vote that evening, was able to use that conversation to make her decision - she did note that Sarah had been active in the community for many years. The conversation itself was fairly long and pleasant with the voter also commenting that it was nice to have people (meaning activists in general) showing an interest. Another notable interaction was someone telling me that I should not be campaigning for the Labour Party at all due to Gaza. It was a reminder that a constituency does not have one voice. I did go here a few times and each time, I was reminded that this was a summer election and we don’t have those often.

3WR: This feels nice

Result: Labour MP - Sarah Sackman

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001238

[Con] Hendon

This was a Barnet borough seat that I went to on a larger “action” day and even managed to persuade an acquaintance^[2] that lived locally to come along with her dad. As I did not really speak to many constituents and was running a board and helping some first-timers, I cannot say too much here. I was walking with the candidate though and it was impressive to see how many people he wanted to speak to. The level of effort and determination was pretty impressive and I really wish more of the electorate were aware of how hard some of these candidates work for these roles. And before the roles! The geography of the area around Hendon central seemed familiar although I had not been there before due to the suburbia feel to it. A place where it is simultaneously difficult and easy to lose yourself.

3WR: Keep it moving

Result: Labour MP - David Pinto-Duschinsky

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001279

[Con] Chipping Barnet

This was a seat I had spent a long time in over the years but not politically. In the miserable 2019 campaign, I remember coming out here in the rain to run a (paper) board out to very rude constituents. This was, again, the rudest constituency I found but there was also some politeness and positivity. I grew up in Chipping Barnet but there is an area between the M25 and the High Street which is almost unknown to me. It is an area to drive through and has many large houses - the kinds of places with names rather than numbers. This was a polling day visit and so traipsing around here where the housing was very low density and very rich felt inefficient to me. There were other areas which were more accessible but other people without access to cars had done those so I went to the very north of the constituency with one person that had a car. I had two notable interactions in this largely “against” area. One man decided to swear at me and told me that I should not be campaigning on polling day as it was not allowed. I was not sure if he had a different interpretation of the laws to every political party in the land but I did not find out which way he was voting. It left me a bit shaken and annoyed, to be honest but this is something that you just have to push yourself not to be too fussed by. I had seen worse. Another man, whom we had expected to be supportive, rushed over to me from across the road where he was doing something to his car to speak to me. This felt risky but when I asked him, he said he had surprisingly put the tick in the same box he had for 40 years. He was very pleasant though, and explained to me that he liked what he saw but found something against Angela Rayner. That he was impressed with her personally but could not imagine her speaking with foreign dignitaries like Macron (“but maybe Trump wasn't a good example!”). I know that there has been a Conservative campaign against her but this was the first I had heard of it. I think even he knew there was not much to it as he said she was actually very impressive. Anyway, he said good luck to me and let me carry on. Afterwards, when we got back in the car, he came over again and told me to have a glass of bubbly for him that evening! Again, the atmosphere was pretty pleasant.

3WR: Is this Barnet?

Result: Labour MP - Dan Tomlinson

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001169

[Con] Uxbridge and South Ruislip

I visited this seat in the previous year’s by-election but that was less than a year ago! That time was when the Conservatives kept banging on (inaccurately) about ULEZ and so, as it was pre-implementation, the scares were working. I knocked on a lot of doors of people that had compliant cars that did not want to vote for Labour because of the charge. And lots of people that did not seem overly concerned about poorer constituents in any other situation except where they would have to pay a charge for polluting the air. This was a long time ago now, and that particular by-election was not successful. That would come later.

3WR: Massive cars everywhere

Result: Labour MP - Danny Beales

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001558

[Lab] Holborn and St Pancras

A relatively “dull” canvass as this is a place I have been many times with little to learn - but a great way of getting into the swing and understanding the new software and approach. I absolutely love this constituency though with the varied feel across it and mini-communities hidden away in the estates. People were positive on the doorsteps but that was fairly early in the campaign. I have always told people that if they want to canvass, they should do so on safer ground first (such as this) so that they are not too stressed by it all. That will make them able to be more effective as it counts. I ended up in a chat with a person that was studying politics at university - their first political memory at all was seeing their parents seeming distraught at the Brexit result. That’s a sobering thought about the march of time.

3WR: Home Sweet Home

Result: Labour MP - Keir Starmer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001290

[Con] Corby and East Northamptonshire

This was an entirely new constituency for me and the type of constituency that I had not always been drawn to. Especially post-Brexit, I have been uncomfortable (see my thoughts on Brexit Day) about going to non-urban spaces (Corby itself has high and low-density areas) and have also suspected that having non-white London accents at the doorstep may be counter-productive. These sessions were different to those I had done before with drives required to get to the streets and lifts needed timed to train journeys.

I generally run boards and so stay less visible but I did have one longish interaction with a Labour/Reform voter that was undecided between the two parties. This started badly from his first response but it did continue into a conversation. This was a man that had been part of the London Transport workforce and even been door knocking for John McDonnell, but was now wondering whether Reform or Labour were right. Reform, I am told, were honest and not afraid of telling the truth and were not racist. He spoke of refugees and how they travelled across the continent and then mentioned Schengen. He asked me about it. I did not expect to be discussing Schengen on the doorstop a full eight years after the country decided not to join Schengen and leave the EU. But campaigns do this, they make people say things. I explained what I understood of Schengen and that we could not have been following the rules of Schengen as we were not part of it. I likened it to the Common Travel Area we have with Ireland. He was surprised. He did not know this. But he did not react badly to it, he did not act as if I was patronising him, he acted as if he did not know it and it was further information. The conversation continued, he was a nice guy that had suffered from a stroke, had suffered from “long covid” and was just happy to still be alive. I noted a “Griffin Park” sign and commented on Brentford FC and he joked about my accent for a Liverpool fan^[3] and we parted. It was a long talk and a reminder of why I usually run the board from an operational perspective but it was something that left me pleased and frustrated. I was hopeful that I had left a positive impression on him. But then I thought about what that meant. Would speaking to a non-white person who was speaking to them normally have had a positive impact on his view of all non-white people in some way? I have spoken of my feeling of “representative” status before (see fn7 of this Vietnam blog post) and how that can change people’s minds. I am always concerned about doing that the wrong way but could I also do it in the right direction? Should I have been doing this earlier?

I’ve had a recent conversation elsewhere about the pain of being a pioneer and “identity politics”. That someone so often has to take the hits so that others don’t have to and a phrase known among many second generation immigrants is that “they walked so that we could run”. But walking is hard.

3WR: Eye opening interaction

Result: Labour MP - Lee Barron

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001179

I hope that these vignettes have been somewhat enlightening for those unaware of the process. I would strongly suggest giving it a go once if you can. Although I am not always one of them, however much I “love a chat”^[4], many people do love these door knocking sessions and many of them had no idea that they would. I am not expecting there to be a General election soon but canvassing goes on around the year and around the country so maybe give it a go.

<sup>1. This closing down of the system, ostensibly to try to ensure that limited resources were applied effectively has been subject to some odd commentary about abandoning places. In the case of the Camden seat that I live in, there has been regular canvassing for years and a recent GLA election to give good data.↩
2. Her father was in the Ghibli Club that I sort of ran during part of the pandemic lockdown.↩
3. These things are somewhat related, and maybe not consciously. Football, for me, was a television thing for a long time. In the eighties, most Asian kids would not even dream of going to football because most Asian parents, correctly, would not even dare to dream it was a safe place. There was a part of me as I walked away thinking, “it is probably due to some other people that are currently voting Reform and were shouting racist abuse that I did not follow a club in London”. I used to be more bothered by the glory-hunter jibes but not so much now. ↩
4. I was told, somewhat recently, that I “love a chat” by a colleague and it has had an odd effect of making me question my self-image. I don’t think I do but other people have backed this up and, you know what? Maybe I do. I am aware that I am much more conversational on holiday than when I am not - and there is no real reason for this. If you know me, why not let me know if I do actually “love a chat” or not.↩</sup>

The Count 2024

Context

I was fortunate enough to be at the count for the elections run by Camden council - these took place in the Camden Council offices in Pancras Square and covered two different constituencies. I was also fortunate to be at the similar count in 2019 which took place at a nearby sports centre but with quite a different atmosphere.

In 2019, I had been “running a room” set up quite locally which I had done a number of times (and would do so again for future local elections). In 2024, I had gone to two other constituencies in order to assist other candidates and finished up a little early in order to be able to help with the count. In both cases, we needed to be set up for 10pm so that we could see the release of the exit poll and be ready to go for the counting of postal ballots which had been delivered to the building already. It was that exit poll that people were there for though and part of what has been both haunting and motivating for me, personally, is that moment. That particular moment in 2019 was sickening. The guttural roar and braying from the Conservatives in that sports centre in 2019 is a strong memory and one that still pops into my head every so often. In hindsight, we probably knew there was a defeat on the way but that was the point at which you realised the scale and the types of people that wanted it. A majority built on an active lack of scrutiny by the news, as we were sadly to find out quite soon after. But that was just the start of the night, we had work to do and quite quickly, we had to ready ourselves. I did the same “job” both times, which was to be a “counting agent” at the count itself.

Counting Agents

A counting agent is there on behalf of the candidates to help make sure the count is run properly and also to run a sampling exercise. This is the only time when the count is disaggregated enough to see granular ward level information. In actual fact, it is the point before it is all aggregated and, in Camden at least, the only point when you can see how particular areas voted. This is all done before the actual counting stage during what is called “verification”. Here the ballots are counted and they are verified by box - and each box is taken from particular locations. That means you can see how people have voted but you cannot count them at this stage. What we can do, however, is sample and so we take a count of a random selection of ballots as they are being verified. Agents cannot touch or interfere with the counting and so stand there watching and counting on a little tick sheet. This is a random selection and this is done by tens of people across all parties in order to have a) advance information for the result that day and b) have some sense of the geographical spread of the count. That is then all collated and used to generate a view of the spread and also let the candidate know what type of face and speech to prepare! In 2019, I did the collation but this time, I used my excellent eyesight to sample counts.

The logistics of the count

Camden Council set up, in my honest opinion, an excellent count for the unique situation it found itself in. The polls over the last few months had been highly suggestive of an overall Labour victory and pointed to a high likelihood that one of the MPs they were counting for would be the new Prime Minister and thus they needed to have appropriate facilities for that. The location used was the office at 5 Pancras Square (which also has floors for a library and a leisure centre) and multiple floors were used with one floor for speeches, one as an effective “break out area” and then one each for the counting of each constituency. The staff involved were all dressed in quite neat, grey “Camden Elects” T-shirts and placed at many rows of tables to work as teams per ballot box.

From what I could work out, the process was made up of a number of steps (this might not be correct, but is what I saw and surmised):

Ballot box delivery

Ballot boxes from across both constituencies were delivered to tables to be ready for the next steps. Postals were counted first and the other boxes were delivered to tables that had space as they arrived.

Vote verification

Here, the votes were counted to ensure that the correct number that had been registered were in the box. At this stage, the sampling can take place as the boxes are known (and so polling district) and no aggregation has taken place and no counting or separation is taking place. This means that spoiled ballots are also part of the count verification. The sampling here is based on watching the verification and making a note of which box has been ticked on the ballot as this verification takes place. We would take a random selection/run of papers and the sampling is done without any intervention in the counting process at all. The ballots were then bundled into tens and then hundreds and verified again.

Vote separation

Once votes were verified, trays were set up and the verified votes were placed into the trays depending on what the counters saw in the boxes. The team I watched were counting for 12 candidates but they did not have 12 trays - they used major parties and “Others”. In the case of this particular election, “Others” was stacking up quite quickly but these others would then be separated further in another sweep. The other trays of note were a “doubtful” pile and a “spoiled” pile. It is at this point when it might be when the counting agents may note that the votes were being separated incorrectly and there might be a challenge. I did not make any challenges but any made were then placed on the “doubtful” pile.

Vote contention

Once the initial separation was completed, “doubtful” pile would be looked at and the counting agents would then also look at these to ensure that they were able to see anything they felt was contentious. The doubtful ballots would then be added to the relevant candidates’ pile.

Vote count

With the votes separated into “piles”, these would then be counted into bundles as was the case for the verification process and there was also a full reconciliation of the count to split spoiled ballots along with each of the candidates.

Announcement of results

Although I was not fully involved in this part, the result is told to the candidates (and agents) a few moments before the Returning Officer takes to the stage and then the Returning Officer makes the announcement to the assembled crowd. I was in the assembled crowd and the winners made acceptance speeches (In Starmer’s case, along with some heckling) before the end of the night. Or do I mean before noon - it was about 4am.

My count

I got to Pancras Square while there was still light in the night sky at about 9:40 pm. This in itself was quite odd. There was a little bit of a security process and my bags were checked before being given a key card and wristband that allowed, and disallowed, us to go to particular places. Once we were onto the relevant floor, it felt like quite a hive of activity. As mentioned, this was a high-profile count and there were many TV cameras around the area with some news programme segments being presented from the count. Camden did a good job here setting them up on one floor looking back on the counting floors and the central stairwell. A number of us gathered together in front of some televisions to be able to watch the exit poll come in - me near the front so that I could at least see it. The noise came before the vision for me as the cheers from those around me came well before my brain could take the result in. I tried to make sense of it but, in all honesty, the first thing I saw was the double digit number^[1] for predicted Reform seats. On this day of victory, the first thing that entered my brain was defeat^[2]. I did then see the rest of the results and I was a bit more pleased^[3].

After a few moments of letting that sink in, much like I expected would be the case for the new MPs, we were then off to work. Everyone spread out to cover different tables and chatted while waiting. There were counting agents from across the spectrum and we had been warned that some of those other agents may try to provoke us and that we should be fully aware of that and that we may also be approached by the media. Both of these things turned out to be true.

I dutifully completed the sampling but there were a number of gaps and breaks as the stages were completed and I got to a little bit of chatting to the Camden Elects counters. As I “love a chat”^[4], I did take the opportunity to speak to the people in front of me and I was very struck by how ethnically diverse the staffing of the count was. One of the things that I have noticed in my years of local/community involvement has been how it is often not as ethnically diverse as the areas served. I have often thought that there is some work to do on this and making places more inclusive seems a key to greater community cohesion to me. Anyway, a lot of the people were local to the town hall and this pleased me greatly. They were also often fairly young (I would guess the anti-social hours may explain this to some degree). One thing that came up was how late it was but “at least we [as in us] are all getting paid for it”. I explained that “No, we are volunteers” and that seemed to be quite a shock to a lot of the table. I explained how long the volunteers had been on their feet (since the morning in most cases) and that they were not paid for any of that. I just feel a lot more people need to be aware of how many people are involved without some weird form of corruption to keep them there. They are just trying to get a different government and giving up their own time to do that. When knocking up, many people are totally aware of the fact that we are just volunteers and I think it really helps take some of the poison out of the process.

On the flipside, I did “overhear” some provocative comments from other candidate teams as predicted but I do not think anyone rose to the provocation. The team for this particular independent candidate (Andrew Feinstein) had been doing things that may not have necessarily been within Electoral Law through the campaign and so it was a known risk. I did also see one person that had recently started supporting an independent candidate that I knew. That was quite gladdening and although he was no longer a member, I am sure he could be pleased for much of what was offered or at least the change from where we were.

Once the verification was over, and all the data was collated (by someone else this year), I did have a walk around to watch the TVs and see the media operation. And get a hot drink! A BBC reporter also took this opportunity to sidle up to me and ask if I was prepared to talk about the count and the expectations for the candidate counts. I did not give much away and said that I did not really know how people were feeling - we were too busy working.

After the verification (and connected sampling), the next task was to watch the vote separation and ensure that it was being done properly. In this stage, we could see that the “Others” trays were being filled fairly quickly and that the sampling showing a strong performance by Andrew Feinstein was correct. This was also the point where we could see the doubtful and spoiled piles and I found the complaints often scrawled on the spoiled ballots quite interesting. One that I was quite impressed with was where they had put a letter in each “tick” box to state their complaint. Another was where they explained that no candidates could explain what a woman was. The “doubtful” ones were less interesting and were usually not that doubtful with ticks outside the box etc. These would be added into the right pile later without much difficulty.

It was within this stage where I noticed a woman with a parasol and a fake moustache. As I still "love a chat"^[4], I mentioned the parasol and got chatting. She was accompanying the Monster Raving Loony Party candidate and had done so for decades since she was fifteen! She went to the Leader of the Opposition’s seat and so had been to Doncaster, Islington North and now Holborn & St Pancras. I was pretty intrigued by the whole process of joining the party and what they did between elections. She said she was not involved but there was a policy unit of sorts. She was also seemingly genuinely excited at seeing real votes so I did point some out to her later. The candidate was, effectively, a joke candidate which I have some issues with overall, conceptually. They were quite fun though and did not take many votes.

Once the counting was complete, we were told that the candidates were on their way and we created a little celebratory welcome for the likely next Prime Minister and got ready for the acceptance speech. Within the crowd, Camden Elects had placed a few people to ask the crowd to not put their phones/cameras too high due to the broadcast cameras behind. This felt like a truly thankless task although it was a bit easier for the second announcements for the Highgate and Kilburn constituency.

After the announcements were over, people went their own ways with some off to the Tate Modern and Downing Street for PM celebration events with others off to a Camden based “watch party" for the results. Me? I was off on the walk home. This was actually the thing I had been most looking forward to. I have done that northbound walk too many times with disappointment and I have desperately been wanting to remove that memory. Walking north after the recent Mayorals was good but this was the real deal. Walking up Royal College Street, specifically, was what I had wanted to do. In the end, that was all I wanted for the last five years. That feeling. There must be a better way, but until I find it, I guess the struggle continues.

[Episode zero to explain what canvassing meant before the election] 

<sup>1. The eventual result put Reform on a significantly lower number of seats but that is still the gut feel.↩
2. This reminded me later of collecting my exam results at school and the first thing that jumped out at me was my worst result. The other things just merge into the background and I wonder how much this really defines me as a person.↩
3. Apparently, this particular moment was broadcast on the news which I knew from messages I received later asking if that was me. I guess I was more visible wearing red.↩
4. I was told, somewhat recently, that I “love a chat” by a colleague and it has had an odd effect of making me question my self-image. I don’t think I do but other people have backed this up and, you know what? Maybe I do. I am aware that I am much more conversational on holiday than when I am not - and there is no real reason for this. If you know me, why not let me know if I do actually “love a chat” or not.↩</sup>

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 06: eat Tokyo

Eat Tokyo, although it does have a genuinely terrible name, is a mini-chain of Japanese restaurants around London and so must be fairly successful. Having been before, I can totally understand why and have seen how popular it is with queues out of the door on a regular basis. The reason? Good value Japanese food (although not Misato level value) with a really broad menu makes this a very accessible place to try Japanese food. This also meant, buried in there somewhere, there was gyudon on the menu so it popped on to our list.
I'd not been to the Holborn branch and thought it'd be a good pick as it was in a slightly different area than other restaurants we'd been to - you have to find bits of variety in something like this. Meeting relatively early in an area not renowned for nightlife, I wasn't expecting to wait but it was already full at 6:45 so we waited, briefly, to be seated and given the menu. Taken upstairs, the space was quite nice but it was also fairly loud and with a plethora of languages too so I can't help but feel that it may have found itself into a guidebook (there was also quite a few suitcases downstairs being stored, suggesting similar) or two. We were seated next to some girls from China (I think from their speech patterns) who happened to be fairly raucous and it was very much that kind of place - we struggled to hear each other.
The menu was vast, illustrated and covered in plastic (which I think I have only seen at Japanese restaurants). Most of it seemed to be taken up by sushi and that also seemed the most popular choice looking around - which of course was irrelevant as we would be having a gyudon each. The sides we went for to go with it were spinach gyōza and pumpkin korokke - both items that I had not seen before.

The food came quickly and first, surprisingly, was the gyudon in large bowls and liberally sprinkled with spring onion to go with the small amount of pickled ginger. Accompanying the gyudon was miso soup which was unexpected as it had not been mentioned but it was a pleasant addition. The bowls were large but, also quite full which is often not the case so it was a good value dish but with quality vs quantity a constant balancing act, I was not holding out much hope. With the first mouthful, I was impressed with the rice and meat which was chunky and properly covered the rice. Was it gyudon or just beef on rice? I wasn't sure but I liked it. The second mouthful confused me though - it tasted different but I wasn't sure why. The beef was fatty and wasn't marinated fully, I thought… But then the third mouthful changed again and I liked it again, it was an odd experience but I could not quite comprehend. The gyōza arrived with the korokke providing a change of flavour and texture. Both of the sides were excellent with the spinach gyōza being like nothing I'd tried before. Bright green, I wasn't sure what to expect but they had the right texture and were paired with a nice chilli sauce too to give a kick. The pumpkin korokke was pretty sweet but had the right texture to go with the chewy gyudon. Oh, the gyudon? Well, the portion was massive so actually, the sides were almost like a respite. The meat was enjoyably cheap and fatty making it closer to the gyudon I remembered but it was probably a bit too chewy. Especially for the portion size which made it quite an effort for us both which is quite a surprise for 2 mains and 2 sides between two. It was very good value and the gyudon was good. One thing that I felt let it down was the rice - or more accurately the way the rice had been flavoured. Normally, with the beef at the top, the sauce seeps into the rice making it take on the flavour but to varying degrees as you go through the meal. In this case however, and almost certainly not prepared like that, it was as if the rice itself was marinated and the beef put on top so you did not get the changing of the rice. I think that contributed to the feeling of the gyudon being massive as it was, effectively, the same dish throughout rather than being altered by ratio. That is nitpicking a little though.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the gyudon and soup combination as it was great value and reminiscent enough of gyudons past to hit the spot. The restaurant itself was better than I remember but it is not a place to linger due to the noise and pace of it - it is great for groups with such an extensive menu. I would recommend the gyudon but, ideally, it would be better shared in some way in order to break up that wall of taste. Had we had half a bowl of gyudon each (and half a bowl of something else), that would be more satisfying for me. I'd had thought a more mixed meal would also be enjoyable - I think I'll return with a larger group some time. You should probably give it a go too.

Cost of gyudon (w/ soup): £9.00

Eat Tokyo (Holborn branch)
50 Red Lion Street, London, WC1R 4PF

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 05: Sushi Waka

This would be the third restaurant that we went to that appeared to specialise in a particular kind of Japanese food but none of them had been gyudon. Sushi Waka seemed to be a sushi place, so it was still not specialising in gyudon, and took us to North London or Camden to be more specific. This was pretty convenient for me as I didn't live too far away and I know the area quite well. As a result, I had been to Sushi Waka before but had been to some other Japanese restaurants more often. My favourite Japanese restaurant is in Camden and is called Asakusa close to Mornington Crescent station and I also rather like Seto Ramen which is also nearby. As far as I am aware, neither does gyudon and so Sushi Waka it would be.

Camden is a bit of a nightlife area and there is a fairly "old" feel to the establishments in the area with the atmosphere having been set a long time ago rather than as a result of more recent redevelopment but there is still plenty of new to go with the old. Nearby the multiple Camden markets bring plenty of tourist footfall to the general area but Parkway is not so close to the market and so I imagine the restaurant does rely on regulars rather than drop-ins.

The first thing to note is that there was no "gyu-don" on the menu, only in set form. The restaurant feels different to each of the ones we've been to so far with very little pretentiousness which comes with being a more local kind of place. Sushi Waka itself must be of a certain vintage as it has a sign that gives that away if you know the details^[1]. This little fact, I love.

Camden has a few Japanese restaurants and parts of LB^[2] Camden have long been home to Japanese people which lends itself to less touristy restaurants, I hope. It was a pleasant restaurant inside but was not particularly modern feeling, or even "refreshed" with old looking décor and rather odd dining chairs which looked like conference or meeting chairs. It did not feel upmarket or downmarket, it just felt a bit local and quite unimpressive as a location. There is also a Japanese (tatami) room upstairs but we did not see that.

We didn't pick so many dishes and supplanted the order of 2 gyudon sets with vegetable korokke and some house salad and decided we'd get more if necessary. The sets came with miso soup, pickles and fruit so we felt that had enough variety, initially at least. The food didn't all come together and was served, effectively, as courses with the korokke, soup and salad coming first, followed by gyudon.

The korokke was pretty creamy and tasty but nothing particularly noteworthy (it was just something I'd not had in a while) but it reminded me of supermarket food in Japan - in a good way. The salad was fairly plain and seemed to be more an accompanying dish rather than a course but we still finished it before gyudon was brought out. Interestingly, the table was clear as we sat down with no condiments, such as soy sauce and shichimi^[3] at all so the restaurant was obviously confident in seasoning appropriately. I was less confident and so asked for some shichimi to put in the soup but only wanted to have it with the gyudon.

The gyudon was brought out in quite large, solid bowls that felt more like bibimbap bowls, such was their heft. This is relevant as it made it enjoyable to hold when eating ^[4] with chopsticks. The big bowl meant quite a decent portion of rice and meat – and the meat was quite dark with a little sprinkling of pickled ginger. That, however, is just the mechanics, how was the taste? In all honesty, I was not expecting much with the colour not looking quite right. And that taste was very good. Surprising, but very good. The meat was sweet – far sweeter than I expected or probably (thought that I) wanted but quite easy to eat. Coupled with the rice, it was a great combination as the rice soaked up a bit of that sweetness. As I mentioned before, there were no condiments on the table and so no extra pickled ginger either but the sprinkling that was in the bowl was also very good and wonderfully sharp providing an excellent counterpoint to the meat and rice. I was genuinely surprised about how good it was. I was also heartened by the quality of the miso soup which felt deep and flavoursome which again was improved by the addition of a little counterpoint which the shichimi provided. Being picky, as I devoured the bowl, it did feel a spot dry but Paul said it was a bit "wet" for him so it may just have been the way we ate it. There was no egg to top the dish but we were both in agreement about this one – it was not missed. We both left our bowls without even a single grain of rice remaining and that sweetness of the marinade goes so well with the rice by the end, having seeped through such that the balance is spot on. It is a bowl that improves through the meal which is quite an odd sensation. Eventually, after being asked about whether we wanted anything else, we were presented with small fruit plates as a sort of dessert (although there is an actual dessert section on the menu) which was at turns very Japanese but also quite uncommon – I think the first time we have had it. It was a very satisfying conclusion to the meal which cleansed the palate and also gave a fresh ending ^[5] .

As ever, it felt a bit bad to miss out on much of the breadth of the menu (in this case, sushi) due to the project but it was not such a disappointing turn of affairs as it was in Machiya. The "gyu-don set" is a good meal in its own right and the surroundings are pleasant enough but I was truly impressed by the gyudon. It was not particularly nostalgic for me, but at the same time, it kind of was. I don't think the gyudon I used to enjoy in Japan was quite as sweet and it did not set off any repressed memories (as for the Koya meal) about gyudon so it was different to what I was expecting but not a fundamental diversion so it did tick the boxes. I would definitely recommend a visit to most people as the gyudon was really nice and the restaurant presents an atmosphere of a Japanese restaurant that is not quite as prevalent as it used to be. That lingering feeling of the past and not quite modern interpretation of Japanese décor is one that I really appreciate and is not replicated too much anymore. The gyudon was great and I'd be intrigued to try some more from the menu.

Cost of gyudon (set): £12.50

Sushi Waka
75 Parkway, Camden Town, London NW1 7PP

<sup>1. The Sushi Waka sign has a phone number that does not work any longer and has not worked since 1999 as Inner London's area code for telephone numbers changed from 01, to 071 to 0171 to 020 within about a decade.↩
2. LB meaning London Borough. LB Camden is fairly dense and, although an inner London borough and so smaller than others, covers Covent Garden in the south to Highgate in the north. The Finchley Road area had traditionally had quite a few Japanese ex-pats. They weren't immigrants, they were ex-pats.↩
3. Shichi-mi tōgarashi also known as nana-iro tōgarashi or simply shichimi, is a common Japanese spice mixture containing seven ingredients.↩
4. I like to eat bowls of rice held in my left hand rather than from the table but I have to say that I rarely do it in restaurants in the UK. I don't think I have been doing that on the gyudon project either but it felt really nice here. It is all part of the process.↩
5. It was not a true ending though, of course – it was only 8pm. Not too far away on Kentish Town Road, we went to the "Dirty Ice Cream" emporium Mamason. This is a fairly new Filipino ice cream bar that I had been to before and thought it worth checking out again for a dessert and/or drink. With a selection of ice cream and sorbet flavours that are rarely seen in London, such as ube and lychee, we thought it worth a try. And it very much was as the ice cream was excellent.↩</sup>

2013 Favourites

2013 has been an interesting mix of rubbish and excellence - often at the same time. These are my favourite things of the year within music, film and games, though some may have been released at other times. There are many reasons that could be given but this is a subjective choice and so could be very different had things had happened at a different time. But you all know that, right?

Thomas Was Alone (Original review)
This was released on Playstation plus as an included (free) game but I think I'd have bought it anyway. As part of cross-buy, the PS3 or PSV versions were accessible. I was very taken by this in a way that reminded me of my youth - though it is a short game.
Gaming is a simple feeling of control and the simplicity of control can strengthen that feeling. Platformers, 2D platformers especially, do feel as if they are from a different age and they can still captivate. The coherence of the concept is what kept me in it but what drew me in was the atmosphere. The graphics are simple, the sound is simple and the game is easy,but the easiest thing of all is the easy charm of the characters. The characters are wonderfully rounded with narration from Danny Wallace and he gives them all a sense of purpose within the world that you want to help them with. And, yes, they are "them" rather than "you".

Helter Skelter  (Original review)
Deconstruction and destruction are quite different things but I felt this had both. It won't be to everyone's taste, of that I am fairly certain. It is pretty kitsch, ridiculous and nonsensical but who doesn't like that? Beautiful, quick and melodramatic - the ideal woman. Possibly?

Ufabulum
I probably listened to the album Entertainment by Sekai No Owari the most this year (original review) but not sure it ended up being my favourite musical thing of the year (maybe my favourite interview though). One of two albums that I remember really connecting with me after hearing them live. The concert for this was at the Roundhouse but I actually had booked and then cancelled an earlier performance in 2012 due to a wedding. The wedding was great fun so I don't regret that one but I was fortunate to get a chance to go again. Squarepusher is an acquired taste, no doubt, but seemingly each time he releases something, I think "this is the most accessible thing he's done". As was the case for this.

The concert started with a little tenderising massage as the sound system flexed the bass it could produce as almost a sine wave for about 5 minutes. It was bizarre and brilliant. After that, the man on stage with lights for eyes played through the album, track for track with an amazing light show to match. It was great and there is something hugely satisfying about knowing what is going to play next as each song goes on. He then ended with a classic version of A Journey to Reedham (7AM Mix) which was unexpected. A great gig that made me think it was great album.

The Pergola

The Pergola and Hill Garden?

A few weeks back, I was feeling a little bored so decided to walk through the heath - unsure of where to go, thought I'd make my way to Golder's Hill (entering near gospel oak for obvious reasons). I thought of heading north towards Kenwood through the wooded section but got a little lost... A map may have been useful.

What is a pergola? I was intrigued so I walked over.
It is there on the maps, Hampstead Heath is hardly the shrinking violet of London's green spaces but I've since not met a single person that has heard of it let alone been there. What a delight. Both to go there and also to let other people know of it. Mainly to let other people know.
As described here [link], the space has an interesting past and a lovely interlinked tube connection - some of the positive knock on effects of the tube where it was actually thought about. A smaller version of a Berlin mound [link] I saw whilst there in 2010.
For me, it was entirely unexpected so as I walked near it, I had no idea what it was. It looked grand - and grandeur is not lacking around these parts. The pergola itself is fenced off and the garden appears gated so I assumed it was private. The gate, however, had a closing time...

Walking in, it felt rather evocative, but I'm not exactly sure what of.

The pergola itself gave good shade from the sun and was not busy. There were people there but few enough that you could often look around and nobody else would be in view most of the time. My personal musical accompaniment of the Shadow Of The Colossus soundtrack [link] may have helped it really felt like a faded beauty - a space where once ostentatiousness was normal.

The actual building is not so big, and even the garden is not massive but it is large enough to feel lost in and empty enough for the same feeling. The grounds are well tended with nice flowers, a little pond and a sloping garden seemingly designed for sunbathing.

Here's the map:

View Larger Map

And here are some photos that might be a little clearer than the ones embedded in the post!

Pergola and Heath

Immigration, race and David Goodhart

I have let some time pass (about a week) to see if I would change my thoughts after a period of reflection - I didn't.

------------------------------------

On my travels, I saw a moderately interesting speaker called David Goodhart [@David_Goodhart]. David Goodhart is one of David Cameron's [@David_Cameron] favourite xenophobes as he somehow believes that he adds some legitimacy to his obvious racism. The reason for this legitimacy is that Mr Goodhart heads up a thinktank that has said it is of the left - Demos. I have a feeling that Cameron may like him for his views and his former school (guess - it is Eton, of course) - though not sure which is more important. Similar to all the (more vocal) people that cross the divide of left to right, he seems to have realised a little late that his "comrades" did not seem to believe in the divisiveness of singling people out for their place of birth/skin colour and attacks the apparently homogenised "left" with the zeal of a born-again evangelist. For some context, this is in the same week as #racistvan[1] stories were in the press and the continuing EDL campaign ran on.

He is touring (this could be rhymed with a leading "h" sound) his anti-immigrant/immigration book at the moment "The British Dream" (named with a deliberate allusion to the American Dream) which has had a mixed reception. The usual suspects have jumped on it as with any debate around immigration - those that are numerate have called it incoherent, those that are in the Right-Wing Press have called it a damning indictment of Labour's open door immigration policy. I sometimes worry at the apparent lack of Venn diagram intersection there sometimes.

This review [link] in the LRB by Jonathan Portes [@jdportes] could be good context. I had not read the book or the review at the point of the discussion. Interestingly many of those that disagreed with him in the last CIF piece I read of his [here] kept calling him Portas - a delightfully subtle way of showing that you had not read the piece or could not handle detail.

The talk was in London (Camden to be a little more precise) and the city, for all its faults, is a diverse place with plenty of differing people and ideas intermingling.

Or so I thought.

Apparently, it wasn't as it appeared and we live parallel lives where we pretend to all get along but actually it is all a façade - we are deeply divided on racial lines. He then used a load of statistics that may have been entirely accurate as data points but were not quite supportive of his points as he was using them as proxies to mean something else. And this is so common in immigration debates as you are often using these proxies to talk about people to other people that are ignorant of what they mean. I don't mean this pejoratively (maybe I could have used a better word, the fact I didn't may suggest something), but many people genuinely do not understand households outside of their immediate community. One that annoys me a lot is the use of "first language" or "mother tongue" statistics to point to an idea (and it always seems to be used for that) of a bulk of immigrants that cannot speak English competently, or at a native level. [link]

The statistic that often goes with it, to emphasize the sense of "other" and parallel lives, is households that do not predominantly speak English at home. Needless to say, I fall into both categories. I didn't speak English at home, my parents do not speak English with each other and so English is spoken in my family home only between myself and my sibling. My parents both had "professional" roles in their English-speaking workplaces and myself and my sister have both been through higher education in English-speaking environments - I have even been in gainful employment teaching it.

This writing here may not always be of the highest standard, it may sometimes be incoherent and there might be some problematic sentence structures, but it is clearly at a native level. Isn't it? Or am I labouring under some misapprehension that I can communicate (maybe not effectively, but less a linguistic issue, more communicative...)?

Interestingly, there is census data that captures whether people do not speak English^[2] that could be used directly rather than trying to ascertain from other bits of information.

138,000 (note the UK population is approximately 60,000,000 - so about 0.2%) [link]

And then this "does not speak English" data is actually used as a proxy for something else anyway. But what does it even mean? Is someone who does not speak English now unintegrated and also impossible to integrate? The thrust of these articles is that there are "these people" who live here and don't understand and will not (try to) understand.

Census data is a snapshot in time - it does not show intention and future expectation. It is entirely unclear what happened to those 138,000:

Were they here temporarily and so never learnt English? Did they then learn English? Were they actually mute?

Another statistic, quoted by Goodhart, is about how many people now live in areas where they do not have "white-British" neighbours and this is used as evidence of ghettoization. Again, I do not have two sets of neighbours that are exclusively "white-British". As it happens, I believe one of my neighbouring flats has a couple with a white partner and non-white partner (not sure if they fulfil "white-British" criteria) which would be further "proof" of my ghettoization as I am now in a non-white-British part of town and we have separated ourselves from white people. Goodhart also uses the loaded term "white flight" with gay abandon and when questioned over this, he says that he writes his pieces for a more academic audience which will be aware of the meaning of this and it is not inflammatory as a result. I'm not sure if he genuinely believes that or if he is fully aware of the significance of these words.

I'm not the most opinionated person, and I'm not the least but I could not completely ignore his disregard for the effects of anti-immigrant feeling that regularly spills into racial, and other forms of, discrimination as he spoke of Woolwich and how even though tensions had been raised by his friends in the press, there had been little to worry the Islamic community so I interjected:

"What about the ongoing bombing campaign taking place around the mosques of the country?"[link]

His callous disregard for the loss of life (in islamophobia attacks) and the genuine feeling of fear that people understandably have was remarkable. Given the opportunity to comment, he said something about it not being that bad... And played down the statistics of islamophobic attacks with other statistics. I didn't go back to him on that point but discussing with others later, I did mention that the effect of any terror campaign cannot be captured by the statistics he talks about as people are scared to leave their houses.

He also talked of being in a post-racism world where people of all races were not subject to large levels of racism and were not held back in a meaningful way. Most people disagreed but there was one man, needless to say another white man, who agreed and said that the link between immigration and racism had been broken. He pointed out, as if to prove it, that immigrants from different communities have differing outcomes and that, for example, the Chinese community had higher levels of income and attainment than the "white British". And then, to show his incoherence, as held them up as proof that immigrants themselves shoulder the blame for their difficult circumstances, he also pointed out that they do of course have lower levels of income when compared with those that have similar levels of education... He gave an example of a small business not employing people with different sounding names being entirely reasonable as a small business is like a family and you have to be aware of a cultural fit. It was incoherent, frankly - as it seems he had a conclusion and the facts did not need to get in the way.

As he wrapped up, questions were sought and dealt with in groups. Of course I had questions but I reiterated my point about the on-going bombing campaign (and islamophobic murder before Woolwich [link]) and also tried to explain how difficult it is when people talk of a post-racist world when you then suffer any form of discrimination.

When a lot of people tell you something does not exist and then it happens to you, it can be a tricky one to process. If racist abuse does not happen, then why did it happen? Is it something special about me?^[3]

I asked about the statistical work he had done to control for the conclusions he was making. He spoke a lot about bogey-areas around London and levels of migration, immigration, employment engagement etc. in order to show how immigration had affected those areas. I simply asked him what he had done to control for the fact that urban areas will often be home to a younger, more mobile population and that in order to isolate the effects of one cause, you should isolate the others as much as possible. I wanted to know how much less integrated and successful were these immigrants than other people with the same level of income, savings, educational attainment etc etc. As he was an ex-journalist for the Financial Times, I did expect some level of numeracy and understanding of raw data.

As he dealt with the answers in groups, he ignored the substance of my question and spoke of other statistics. It was really frustrating.

I found the disregard for the difficulties that immigrants, and the children of immigrants faced to be quite disheartening actually, as if the fact that they were inconvenienced by having worse outcomes, suffering racist abuse and discrimination was not a problem.

To be fair to him, he took more questions than he had to (extending the time) and also came to the pub afterwards to talk (and even offered me a drink). In all honesty though, his viewpoint was fixed which is understandable as he has done the research and looked into it with the methodologies he believes in (I don't agree with the methodology but the raw data is fine).

What some people always say is "the public wants less immigration so it is not a party political point - democracy has spoken".

I think this is a little disingenuous.

Firstly, democracy is not the simple matter of counting votes and doing what more people want. This is the simplistic way that it is initially taught so that people can conceptually understand but democracy is also about enfranchising people - recognising them so that they can effectively be part of that democracy. That is why you have minority rights in democratic nations and those minorities are treated equally (to a greater or lesser extent) to allow them to be empowered and involved. Democracy only works if everyone is given a voice before the vote.

Secondly, what anyone wants is based on what they know - or more accurately, what they think are the facts on the ground. It is a simple (input - process - output) loop but if the inputs are false, it is difficult to see how you would get the right output (except by pure chance). What the population think is the case and what actually is the case can be vastly, vastly different to each other. [link] So they want less immigration than what they think is happening. Which is what we have right now -  significantly less immigration than they think is happening..

What does that mean? Should we ignore the concerns of people who see one thing happening which they associate with something else? I think this is the real question of democracy in the modern age actually.

I don't know how widely thought of the concept of "materiality" is but basically, deal with the big problems first. And don't guess at the problems, actually find out what they are.

If there is a problem with housing, it probably isn't immigration that is causing it (it might be a factor but you need to look into the causes), it is probably housing policy.

If there is a problem with education, it probably isn't immigration that is causing it (it might be a factor but you need to look into the causes), it is probably education policy.

If there is a problem with employment, it probably isn't immigration that is causing it (it might be a factor but you need to look into the causes), it is probably employment policy.

^{1. It may not have been racist had it been targeted in areas other than those with large brown-skinned communities exclusively. And had translation services for languages other than Indic ones. It was, and it didn't.↩}

^{2. This type of census data is quite weak anyway (it may be higher than 138k - or lower) as it is self-assessment... The global economic situation should have taught you to be wary of self-assessment and self-regulation. When I lived abroad, I'd have said that I was unable to speak the language were I asked in a form - but they could have asked me that question in that language and I would have understood.↩}

3. I have been fortunate about direct racial abuse and can only remember one instance in recent years in the UK that was directly at me and I was flabbergasted. But part of the reason for that is that you do not have a defence mechanism and it is all the more shocking for that. I have not been particularly affected by it and the vast majority of people are entirely liberal about it.

I don't know how successfully I have "integrated" into British society but I have tried and it is not made any easier by that feeling of anxiety and discomfort that some of this chat engenders in me. I'm not an idiot, I know I am treated a little differently but it is offensive to suggest otherwise, frankly. Victim-blaming is an all too common occurrence at the moment and it needs to be checked.↩