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A new Speakers Corner will be built in Waltham Forest to improve local democracy.
The hexagonal stage in Stoneydown Park, Walthamstow has been inspired by the Hyde Park debating spot where Karl Marx, Lenin and George Orwell have all addressed crowds. The Walthamstow site is the idea of teachers from four local schools, who are working with the Friends of Stoneydown Park.
Marie Pye, Waltham Forest cabinet member for community and housing, said: "This fantastic initiative will stimulate debate and provide a forum for a wide range of issues to be raised by residents.
"I would like to offer my full support to this wonderful initiative."
The council is holding a meeting next Thursday at the Queens Road Community Centre to listen to residents' views.
Reader views (2)
As children, whenever our family visited Hyde Park at weekends, we would usually stop by Speakers Corner. Always there was an assembly of varied speakers in sashes or placards, in full oratorical flow on a wide range of issues and topics.
Stopping by just a few years ago, I found the whole of Speakers Corner filled with only Muslim men, declaiming mostly in Urdu or Arabic. The harsh atmosphere was very tense and they certainly didn't welcome 'outsiders'. The speakers and their entourages outnumbered the male Muslim bystanders. Asking the policemen what had happened to the diversity, they shrugged, explaining that others had more or less been edged out and drowned out, until it had generally become a place where only Muslim speakers and their followers gathered. The general public had also fallen away. I felt angry that the purpose of Speakers Corner, a hard won place where all Londoners can speak out political issues, grievances, proclaim their faith, and generally declaim and entertain their fellow man, had become so hijacked. I've never been back. I hope by now that things may have changed and that it's become the shared space that it was always intended to be.
It's to be hoped the East End Speakers Corner will be vigilantly monitored and used to air wide ranging issues and will be never, ever overtaken by any one group or faith?
- Max, Stevenage, 13/11/2009 14:00
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Nice idea in theory (debate is good) but in reality a really bad idea - given the population mix of the area this will undoubtedly ultimately only be able to used by those holding extreme and opposing religious/political views and sadly inevitable raised tensions in the area and possible violence. We already have a reduced police force in the area - I don't want even more of the limited resources being used up to police the problems that are likely to result.
- Andy, london, 13/11/2009 13:48
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