Walthamstow To Get Speakers' Corner

Ever at the forefront of trying to improve democracy, councillors in Waltham Forest have decided to erect a Speakers' Corner in the borough. A stage in Stoneydown Park, Walthamstow, will be the venue for picking apart the thornier issues facing borough dwellers. According to one cabinet member, the initiative will "stimulate debate and provide a forum for a wide range of issues"; if only they'd done a little research in Hyde Park, they'd have discovered that the "debate" nowadays usually consists of unsolicited hectoring by religious cranks, unemployed bloviators, the mentally disturbed, and Socialist Party members defending the Warsaw Pact. Whether that offers any difference from Walthamstow on a sunny Saturday is another matter. (Image / buckaroo kid)