The Carnival is Over
It’s actually remarkable how quickly West
London recovers from Carnival. Westminster Council sometimes
leaves crash barriers for a couple of days, and this year TFL had left
confusing temporary signs on Elgin Avenue which were still there two days
later, but mostly it went very quickly, and of course the councils make sure
the rubbish is removed very quickly indeed. You meet people who are shattered,
having spent Bank Holiday Monday dancing all day, and see others who are
clearly not up to social interaction yet thanks to their Monday intake.
Generally, though, the most noticeable residue is a general feeling of
goodwill.
This Year Was Different
Only this year the goodwill (and lots of people were saying
that it was the best Carnival for years) was punctured by the Police Federation
moaning about Carnival. They pointed to 450 arrests, which is a lot, until you
compare it to the number of arrests at other large-scale events (Glastonbury
Festival, for instance) to which the arrests are quite proportionate. It’s also
not the case that an arrest means that a crime has taken place. People this
year certainly saw individuals arrested for apparently no reason, and we all
know that when a crime has certainly taken place many people are arrested for
the purposes of investigation but never in fact charged. Nor is it quite as
horrifying that a number of policemen were taken to hospital when you learn
that several of them were taken to hospital because someone spat on them. Now
that’s not to say that spitting is acceptable, but it’s a misleading statistic.
The Metropolitan Police themselves pointed out that the number of arrests this
year could be expected to be higher than in the past because they were
enforcing the new Psychoactive Substances Act (which recently banned what were
previously known as “legal highs”). Since the streets of Notting Hill were
peppered with nitrous oxide canisters it is no surprise that this resulted in a
number of arrests. What was different this year was that the Metropolitan
Police Federation felt able to decry Carnival (perhaps emboldened by the
post-Brexit mood, which apparently licenses being rude to foreigners and people
of colour).
Constituencies
We know that the MP for Kensington, Lady Borwick, wants to
close Carnival down. She has made that very clear, and sent out a nasty
“survey” to constituents inviting their complaints earlier in the year. I don’t
doubt that lots of wealthy Notting Hill residents would much rather have the
Carnival go away, and probably I would hate it if I lived on the route, but
then I would either join in or go away for two days, which is in fact what many
residents do. But Carnival is not unique: the same problems are faced by
residents of Twickenham, for instance, albeit on a smaller scale, but much more
frequently. I’m sure that a section of Lady Borwick’s constituency wants to be
rid of Carnival as an inconvenience, but she should be aware that lots of
businesses regard it as a gilt-edged opportunity. She clearly doesn’t care
about her constituents who enjoy Carnival (of whom there are many, of all
backgrounds) but you would suppose that she might worry about what businesses
thought. It’s worth pointing out that Karen Buck, the other MP whose
constituency is part of Carnival, is a consistent supporter of the event.
Success Story
It seems to me that Lady Borwick (and the Police Federation)
should be celebrating the success of Carnival, which is the second-biggest
street festival in the world, and which attracts tourists in large numbers. Did
you not see them? Foolishly festooned with cameras and photographing the most
mundane things? More than ever this year. That is because it is generally
peaceful and cheerful. People enjoy it. People (in huge numbers) come to London to enjoy it. It
shows off the diversity of London
in a pretty authentic way. When it started 50 years ago it was a chance for
West Indian people to gain some self-respect by celebrating their culture in an
environment which had greeted them with racism, and that story still needs to
be heard. But it’s more than that today, as the samba bands demonstrate (not Caribbean at all) and as a glance at the participants
will show. Vast numbers of young people regard the music being played at
Carnival as their own, whatever their background, and they are happy to take
part, and are welcome to do so. This is a reflection of the London
that most of us enjoy living in, cosmopolitan, multi-cultural, vibrant and full
of artistic endeavour, the London
which is the world city that most people seem to want to live in. That is
surely a success, and something that should be celebrated, not moaned about.
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