Closed Circuit: enemy of the people

Since being elected as London mayor, Sadiq Khan has not hesitated to use his powers to call in planning applications.

But in doing so, it seems he has made some frightening enemies at Barnet Council, having intervened in two of their decisions (a Barratt development in Mill Hill and Genesis’ regeneration of the Grahame Park Estate, for those interested).

At a full council meeting last week, Conservative councillor David Longstaff put forward a motion declaring Mr Khan “an enemy of the people”. It was, he explained, a clever reference to Henrik Ibsen’s play of the same title.

After a long and fierce debate, the motion was eventually narrowly voted through.

Unfortunately, Closed Circuit feels compelled to point out that Ibsen’s great work is actually about a man who becomes vilified by his peers because of his unwavering commitment to do what is right.

So was Mr Longstaff secretly praising Mr Khan and laughing up his sleeve at his less literary colleagues? Closed Circuit concludes it is more likely that he hasn’t seen the play.

Promoting diversity could never go wrong, could it? Maybe that’s what CIH Futures was thinking on Monday morning when it tweeted: “What does diversity mean to you?”

It could, however, have chosen a less controversial candidate to answer its own question than pro-Trump American political commentator Tomi Lahren. Attached to the tweet was a GIF of the television presenter with subtitles reading: “True diversity is diversity of thought, not diversity of colour.”

Doubtless, the tweeter was unaware that Ms Lahren’s next line was “I don’t see colour” as part of her defence from accusations of racism, made in an interview with The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah, or indeed that the commentator once referred to refugees as “rape-u-gees” and called Black Lives Matter “the new KKK”.

CIH Futures said it wanted a spectrum of opinions, but we’re not sure it meant to start quite this far to the right. Ah well. We followed some of the rest of the day’s conversation, and we can confirm it was a very interesting, un-alt-right debate.

Monday was the Confederation of British Industry’s annual conference, attended by Jeremy Corbyn, Theresa May and a host of housing association figures. But how to stand out among the big names in the world of business?

Ruth Davison of the National Housing Federation had the right idea, arriving at the London conference in true style – by boat.

Ms Davison tweeted a picture showing that she was heading to the conference in a vessel adorned with a Union Jack. Very impressive. We expect David Orr to arrive by parachute next year.