Nursery campaigners surprise Biggs at suffragette event

IN A TRIBUTE TO the direct action of the suffragettes, Tower Hamlets Save Our Nurseries campaigners pressed their cause with John Biggs, Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets, on one of his first engagements outside the Town Hall since he was re-elected earlier this month.

Campaigners remind the Mayor to support the nurseries.

John Biggs was speaking at the preview of a new exhibition which explores the little known story of Sylvia Pankhurst’s radical East End suffragettes. Campaigners decided to give a practical example of the kind of direct action which the suffragettes used to promote their campaigns for women’s rights.

One of John Biggs’s first actions was the Council AGM last week – where he increased the allowances paid to top councillors he has just appointed to help him run his Administration – but the Save Our Nurseries campaigners called on him to find the money to keep the last three Council nurseries going.

“During the First World War, The East London Federation of the Suffragettes worked tirelessly to support the local community through the terrible poverty it caused,” said a spokesperson for Save Our Nurseries.

Campaigners remind the audience how important the nurseries are, as John Biggs tries to explain why he supports women having an equal role in politics.

“They even turned a local pub into a crèche called The Mother’s Arms. Now, Tower Hamlets has the worst child poverty in the country – over 53%. We need John Biggs to follow the suffragettes’ example and put children first.”

Nearly two years ago John Biggs came up with the idea of handing the three last nurseries over to the private sector. In a formal consultation, some 84% of respondents said this was a bad idea and that the Council should keep the nurseries. Since then, major contractor Carillion has collapsed and the Government has had to take the South East Rail service back into the public sector – throwing doubt onto the theory that almost any public service can be run well by the private sector.

As John Biggs spoke, women held up banners asking the Mayor to re-examine his plans to sell off the nurseries. Unfortunately, the Mayor gave no commitment to do so. “The suffragettes didn’t win in an evening,” said one of the women campaigners at the end of the meeting. “Just as they kept going till they won, so will we.”

•The Women’s Hall can be seen at the Tower Hamlets Local History Library until 20th October. Admission is free.

•For more information about the Tower Hamlets Save Our Nurseries campaign, go to:
https://www.facebook.com/saveournurserieslbth/

•Read more about it:
Biggs sells off nurseries: fury grows
Biggs refuses to bow to public pressure on nurseries

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