The streets around my house have now been cleaned, shops have opened again and any trace of the colour-packed, music-filled event that is the Notting Hill Carnival has disappeared. The event was a success. Towards the end, police did fight a battle with about 40 youths and ended up arresting 330 people – up from 246 last year. But overall, the event went smoothly with about 850,000 people enjoying the music, floats and the alluring energy of African-Caribbean popular culture.
So why, one week after the event, am I writing this blog? Because I think that the event needs to move on. Rather than plan next year’s event, the organisers – the Notting Hill Carnival Trust Ltd – and Mayor Johnson need to use the carnival to do to London’s poorer boroughs what it originally did for the poverty-stricken Notting Hill
Let me explain.
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