The deadly weaponry on this LAV-25 tank was built by a subsidiary of BAE Systems

 Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that at the end of last year the council’s pension fund held £4.9m of shares with seven key players in the defence industry.

 More than a third of the investments (£1.92m) is in BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence firm. The company has been at the centre of controversy in recent weeks for producing parts of the F-16 fighter planes used to bomb the Gaza strip and cluster bombs recently outlawed under the International Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Campaign groups branded the figures as “shocking”. Michael Johnson, who works with Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), said: “It’s not just that these companies make weapons. They make money out of murder - and so does the council.

“There’s been a major outcry against the bombings in Gaza. BAE trades with Israel and Gaza, they have offices there. Where is the action that says ‘we’re not going to profit from the murder of Palestinians?’”

Local politician Jon Notts, a former Green Party parliamentary candidate for Islington North, insisted it was unacceptable for public bodies to invest in an industry that supported unethical powers abroad.

He said: “The Green Party is fundamentally opposed to the arms trade and the sale of weapons to oppressive regimes.

“We are against central or local government investing in this sector in any capacity.”

The council’s pension fund, which represents more than 5,000 members of staff and former employees, states that it aims “to promote corporate and social responsibility” in its investment strategy.

An F-16 fighter similar to those used in Israel's bombardment of Gaza. Parts of the F-16s were built by BAE

But the local authority has claimed that its greatest responsibility is to its investors. 

A council spokesman said: “Islington’s pension fund is regulated by law. The council, acting as a trustee of the pension fund, is legally bound to get the best return on investments and reduce the burden on council tax payers. This is the case for all local government pension schemes across the country. 

“We continually review our policies on socially-responsible investment.”

But campaigners argue that ethical investment funds have matched the FSTE 100 over recent years and can actually outperform other investments over long periods. 

The revelation comes in the wake of a growing trend in public bodies towards more ethical investment policies. In 2006, a report by the CAAT found that 45 universities held more than £15m in companies involved in the arms trade.

Since then, many of them have bowed to pressure from students and campaign groups to withdraw their investments, including SOAS, Goldsmiths, the University of Manchester, University of Wales, Bangor and St Andrews and the previous biggest investor, University College London.

The total value of the council’s pensions fund at the end of last year was around £560m, meaning that arms investments amount to less than one per cent of the total. CAAT argues that this is all the more reason to withdraw them.

 Mr Johnson, 29, said: “It’s such a tiny proportion of the overall investment that selling the shares isn’t actually going to prejudice the overall fund’s value. It’s going to make more difference to BAE in terms of their reputation and how other funds view holding their investment than it’s going to make to Islington.”

But Unite, the largest trade union in Islington which represents many of those with investments in Islington’s pension fund, refused to condemn the council. A spokesman said: “We don’t have a position on the matter.”

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Two of the four horsemen of the apocalypse: protestors from 'G20 Meltdown'

Police fear militant activists will paralyse the City’s Square Mile attacking Underground stations, hotels and banks in co-ordinated “guerrilla-style raids” advertised with slogans like “Storm the Banks” and “Bash a Banker”.

Police are bracing for a “summer of rage” according to Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan police’s public order branch.

Three London police forces will deploy 5000 officer during the summit, which is likely be the biggest operation the Met’s history.

We spoke to Islington’s protestors, asking them what they hope to achieve and if they are fear this peaceful protest might turn violent.

The Missionary

Keith Ewing

Communications manager, Progressio, Catholic Development Agency.

“We’re starting with a church service at Westminster, before we join the march at the Embankment.

“We want Gordon Brown, Barack Obama and the other leaders to take decisions that will benefit some of the poorer countries around the world.

I was in Malawi last week and I asked some local charity workers if they knew about the G20. They said the financial crisis wasn’t of their making, but the consequences are going to affect them. We want the world leaders to bear them in mind.

It will be entirely peaceful. We have done lots of rallies in the past and they have always passed off peacefully. It’s middle-England, it couldn’t be more civilised. We have a big group of nuns coming down.”

The Activist

Tom Walker

Candidate for City University’s Student President.

“When the banks were first nationalised there was a protest in the City. There were some bankers looking down from their windows and someone shouted ‘Jump’ and then the rest of the crowd started chanting, ‘Jump, Jump, Jump’.

I don’t think bankers are going to come to any harm, but there are people who want them to suffer.

If you are having a march with thousands of people there are going to be people who might decide to smash a McDonalds.

We didn’t cause this crisis, so we shouldn’t pay for it. Why should ordinary working class people lose their jobs just because a bunch of bankers decided to take risks?

They’re still getting their bonuses because the banks were bailed out, but they don’t get that they did anything wrong.”

The Feminist

Margaret Turner

President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

“The march has the slogan, ‘Put people first’, well we’ve added to that, ‘Don’t put women second’. In times of economic hardship women suffer more than men, they have lower paid jobs and they’re often the first to be laid off, even in rich countries.

The organisers are aware there might be trouble at the march, so we’re marching under our official banners. What more can we do?”

The Campaigner

Dave Tucker

Trade campaigns officer, global-poverty charity War on Want

“The G20 has a business-as-usual agenda. In those circumstances bringing London to a halt for a day isn’t unreasonable.

The threat of violence is talked up by the police. There’s not going to be burning buildings and people turning over cars, that’s just scare-mongering.

We need radical reforms of the global economic system, we need to abolish tax havens and take the money spent on bank bailouts and spend it on renewable energy.”

The Unionist

RMT strikers

Alastair Gittins

National policy officer for the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)

“The climate is a big issue for us. We need a sustainable transport system to get people out of their cars and onto buses and trains.

There are already a number of train companies threatening redundancies, and we’re balloting for strike action.

We want this to be a big peaceful protest. If there’s any violence it will only undermine our message.

We’ve got 30 branches from all over the country sending members. We’re going to be colourful and loud, with hats and regalia and a brass band.”

“I was getting really tired and felt exhausted all the time,” she says. “I woke up one day and I just stayed in bed. I stayed for three days and I couldn’t get up. That was it. I’d stopped being alive.”

Michelle, 23, lives in Islington and is one of the estimated 2,500 medical students who suffer from mental illness in the UK. As a medic, she is also 16 times likelier than those in other professions to experience work-related stress when she graduates.

“The types of people that are medical students usually want to be the best at what they do, so they are naturally hard on themselves,” says Michelle.

Around 2,500 medical students in the UK suffer with mental health problems

“You live your life making other people feel good, and you end up unable to look after yourself.”

Under the current system, medical students are allocated their choice of jobs based on performance under continual clinical and academic assessment.

“It gets really stressful,” says Nick Szepiack, a junior doctor at King’s College Hospital, London. “As a doctor you don’t stop taking exams until you’re in your thirties.”

Nick, from Islington, has been battling alcoholism since his first year in clinical school. Now aged 25, he acknowledges that he is lucky to still be in the medical profession.

“I remember at one point in my fifth year I was really stressed out. I probably didn’t go into hospital for three weeks. I’d start drinking first thing in the morning and I would just carry on all day. I’d drink maybe half a bottle of gin and a bottle of wine, wake up and start over again.”

A recent research paper by Norwegian doctor Reider Tyssen found that physicians who are showing signs of mental illness are over six times more likely to make a clinical error. It’s not just doctors who are affected by their mental illness, it’s also their patients.

“Definitely, [alcohol] affected my performance,” says Nick. “You fall behind at work and you don’t learn properly. Although I never drank before going in, I was often extremely hung over. I felt like I was a ghost and I must have looked dreadful.”

Nick says there is an unspoken rule that doctors don’t get ill. “You’re not meant to be unhealthy. If part of your job is telling people not to drink or smoke excessively, and you’re doing it, that’s highly hypocritical. How can you expect to look after others when you can’t look after yourself?”

A group, Doctors in Difficulty, advises NHS trusts on how to deal with medical staff who display signs of mental distress. A report in January outlined more proactive measures for hospitals to take in order to prevent professional stress leading to longer lasting mental illnesses.

A spokesperson for the group explained how the nature of hardworking doctors is linked to their susceptibility to mental disorder.

“Some of the qualities that contribute to good doctoring - such as conscientiousness, attention to detail, commitment to caring and stoicism - also, paradoxically contribute to the factors that predict vulnerability to mental health problems.”

Although support and counselling services for fully qualified doctors are increasing, many medical students feel that, as trainees, their emotional needs are overlooked.

Michelle is now seeking external counselling for her condition and, while she admits that the road to recovery is long and painstaking, she says her hardest battle has already been won.

“I’m slowly realising that it’s not selfish or needy to sometimes crave for other people to look after you,” she says. “It’s only natural.”

Delores shows off the Zimmers' top 40 hit 'My Generation'

There can be few 66-year-olds who have been for a backstage drink with the infamous Pete Doherty and Babyshambles.  But then, there are not many 66-year-olds like Dolores Murray.

A lifelong resident of Islington and now a local celebrity in her own right, Dolores was one of the founding members of The Zimmers, a band that have become an international music phenomenon.

Formed in 2007 during the course of a BBC documentary which aimed to raise public awareness of the elderly, The Zimmers - a band which consists entirely of old aged pensioners - has since taken the music world by storm with their unique cover versions of rock and pop classics.

Dolores refuses to let the hype get the better of her, despite being regularly recognised by fans on the street.

“I don’t think of myself as a celebrity. There is a bit of celebrity that comes with the band but we’re not into all that, we’re just us,” says Dolores, sitting in her front room and surrounded by Zimmers memorabilia. 

But despite her assertions to the contrary, the band has undoubtedly changed her life.

“Before the BBC formed the band, I just used to stay at home doing whatever it was I doing,” she says, proudly flicking through photographs of herself with celebrities such as Chris Tarrant and Tony Blackburn, “but now we’re off travelling around the world and doing shows.

The Zimmers on a video shoot at Abbey Road Studios

“Performing with the band is fantastic. It makes you feel young, all your aches and pains go away when you are up on stage. It gives us all such a boost in life when we are singing.”

It is a wonder then, with the gigs and parties that Dolores attends, that she has time to do anything else at all. But she remains a tenaciously active resident of the borough.

This month her achievements in the local community were recognised when she won a prestigious Mayor of Islington Civic Award for her fostering and campaign work.  Since 1980, she has taken in over 23 children and fought tirelessly to keep her local post office and bingo hall open.

But Dolores remains modest about her achievements:   ”I don’t do all these things to be in charge or for the responsibility - it’s about getting out there and trying to do the best that you can for others,” she explains.  Having the energy to foster and campaign comes from within, she says, and the patience and commitment required for fostering is something you have to be born with and cannot be learned.

And with a Zimmers concert planned for the O2 arena in April, Dolores is showing no sign of slowing down. 

“I’ll be in the band for as long as they keep The Zimmers going and for as long as everyone enjoys doing it and people enjoy listening to us.

“Like I say to the other people in the band, some people in the audience laugh with us, some people will laugh at us, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter because we’re having fun.”

Adebayor: 6,000 mile round trip for 90 minutes on the bench

The most controversial selection is Togo manager Jean Thissen’s decision to recall Emmanuel Adebayor after weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury. Wenger has received assurances from Togolese coaching staff that the striker will play no part in the game versus Cameroon, meaning Adebayor faces a round trip of 6300 miles for no football.

Wenger remains hopeful that Adebayor will be fit enough to face Manchester City on April 4.

Elsewhere, up to three of Arsenal’s back four could start for France against Lithuania in Vilnius on Saturday. Gael Clichy, Bakari Sagna and William Gallas could also play in the return fixture four days later.

Mexican forward Carlos Vela faces a gruelling 9000 mile round trip to play Costa Rica on Saturday and Wenger will hope that Eduardo, newly restored to fitness, can make it through 90 minutes against Andorra on Wednesday.

One player who will definitely miss out is England’s Theo Walcott, who injured his right knee in a freak injury sustained while walking back from training last week. It was initially feared Walcott would miss the rest of the season, but scans have since revealed the injury is less serious than Wenger had thought.

“The scan [on Friday] was reassuring,” said Wenger. “We will have another scan to see if that is confirmed. We were a little bit worried about cartilage or even the cruciate but there was none of that.”

Arsenal have three games next week, including two Champions League ties versus Villarreal and Wenger will be hoping his squad emerges with a clean bill of health.

The low-security prison, on Caledonian Road, has registered accommodation for 813 prisoners but it currently holding 1,098, according to the Ministry of Justice.

Pentonville prison is overcrowded (Photo: Ben Sutherland)

Andrew Neilson, assistant director of the Howard League of Penal Reforms, the oldest penal reform charity in the UK, said overcrowding meant prisoners often did not receive adequate attention and support.

“Pentonville is part of a national problem of overcrowding in prisons, which has come about because the government has overused sentencing which does not take into account the needs of prisoners,” he said.

“Pentonville is a typical London local prison, and it does not have the facilities to help prisoners with drug or alcohol dependencies, or mental health issues.”

Mr Neilson added that Pentonville had a rapid turnover of inmates, because many are on short sentences, or are awaiting sentencing.

“This means you have got people serving sentences for only a few weeks or days at a time, getting released, then re-offending and going straight back [to prison] because they have issues which have not been addressed.”

Islington’s other prison, HMP Holloway, had CNA for 500 inmates but an actual population of 449.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said: “The Government is building more capacity in the prison estate as part of the response to population pressures and continues to investigate options for providing further increases in capacity.

“Capacity increased by over 3,300 last year. We will increase it by a further 2,300 this year and are committed to increase net capacity by 15,000 to around 96,000 by 2014.”

Across the UK as a whole the prison population exceeds levels of registered accommodation, which includes prison and police cells, Secure Training Centres and Secure Children’s Homes - by ten percent.

Breaking the law: pedestrian groups say cyclists must improve safety (Photo: Saadeya Shamsuddin)

Cycling numbers have been rising at between 10-20 per cent year on year in the last three years, and cycling groups expect the new spending to push numbers even higher. John Ackers, of the Islington Cyclist Action Group, expects the 20mph zone in particular to have a “definite positive impact”.

But as the number of cyclists grows, some groups have expressed fears that the safety of other road users will be put at risk.

Christine Mabey, of pedestrian campaign group Islington Living Streets, insists that “the extent of anti-social behaviour by cyclists has significantly increased in the last few years, coupled with an almost complete lack of action by the police and other authorities”.

Cyclists not wearing helmets and riding on pavements are just two concerns (Photo: Saadeya Shamsuddin)

The group recorded at least two hospitalisations of pedestrians mown down by cyclists on pavements last year, and one blind person was struck as they walked along the side of Holloway Road.

Cyclists themselves are being hospitalised far more frequently - according to primary care trust figures released last year, cases of cyclists admitted to hospital jumped from 422 in 2000/01 to 819 in 2006/07.

But despite lobbying, the council has allocated only £100,000 to cycle training this year, and made no provision for policing of cyclists. Ms Mabey has asked that the money be used to distribute a code of conduct to all cyclists in the borough, but is not hopeful that her members’ chief complaints, listed below, are going to disappear anytime soon.

Cycling on the pavement:

By far the biggest gripe of pedestrians, with good reason - cycling on the pavement put at least two Islington residents in hospital with broken hips last year.

Danger spots: The Angel intersection, Highbury tube station, Upper Street, Pentonville Road

Ignoring banned turns:

A dangerous habit for pedestrians, motorists and cyclists themselves, but with role models like David Cameron, who was filmed committing this offence last year, cyclists show no sign of giving it up.

Danger spots: Clerkenwell Road - Farringdon Road, Essex Road station

Cycling over zebra crossings:

Can earn a cyclist a fine of up to £2,500 for dangerous cycling, but according to TfL figures is virtually routine - 90 per cent of bike-riders go straight across them.

Danger spots: Tollington Road, Holloway Road, the Angel

Ignoring red lights:

Another offence inadvertently endorsed by David Cameron when he was filmed cycling to work last year, running red lights is so commonplace it barely raises an eyebrow. In half an hour at the Angel intersection Islington Now counted 24 examples.

Danger spots: Roseberry Avenue - Farringdon Road, Chadwell Street - St John’s Street, the Angel.

“Don’t look at your feet - look proud!” yells Nuria García over the army of ruffled skirts swishing in a studio in north London. “Dance with your eyes girls. And if the people in front of you don’t move, trample them.”

The guitarist strikes a dramatic chord and thirty women throw up their skirts and stamp the floor in unison.

Nuria is the head of Escuela de Baile, the largest school of flamenco outside of Spain, and a leading teacher and choreographer for the annual Flamenco Festival at Sadler’s Wells theatre. Once a year dozens of renowned flamenco artists descend upon Islington and unleash a wave of feisty dancing that attracts hundreds of fans, selling out weeks in advance.

But right now, with the festival ending in three days time, Nuria is back to her favourite role - teaching. “I love to teach and see what people get out of this dance - so come along,” she had said the day before, “but be warned, I run a hard class.”

At flamenco for beginners, held at Havistock School in Chalk Farm, in neighbouring Camden, the sweat runs down our backs as we hitch up our skirts and stomp and click and twirl.

Flamenco celebrates the independence of women (Photo: Javier Suarez)

“Make it sexy, make it sensual,” demands our teacher. “Push your arms like you’re pushing against water,” and we curl our aching arms over our heads for the tenth time, black heels pounding holes in the floor.

“She’s a slave driver,” says Phillip, one of two men in the class, as he wipes his face with a towel. But he’s grinning. “Stop, stop,” Nuria shouts, “I want a nice clean rhythm, in unison.” And we start over again.

Nuria’s zeal for perfection, which calls for her to restart the dance every time she hears a click out of beat, was instilled in her from a young age. She started dancing in Spain and fell in love with the freedom of flamenco and what it meant to women.

“Flamenco is a melding of the Muslim, Jewish and Christian cultures, bought together by persecution,” she explains. “It is about spirited women throwing off their shackles and celebrating their pride, independence and dignity. When you stamp” - and she shows me how I’m doing it wrong again - “it is not petulance, it is expectation.”

Escuela de Baile is running an Easter Flamenco course with Spanish choreographers from April 10 to 13 at Dance Attic Studios, 368, North End Road, SW6 ILY. For more information on the Flamenco festival see http://www.sadlerswells.com

Goldman Sachs' building in London (Photo: mermaid99, Flickr)

This week town hall officials revealed that a “systems error” by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which helps run part of the pension fund, resulted in Islington Council bagging £6m.

The good news came at a time when most pension schemes of councils across the country have been hit hard by the recession.

The fault occurred on a currency hedge - a strategy used by investors to minimise risk on investments and guard against unstable foreign exchange markets.

On this occasion the pension fund benefited from the error, but the mistake left it vulnerable to unpredictable economic fluctuations. The council would not reveal for how long contributors’ money was at risk, but said they would reinvest the £6m this year.

John Belgrove, an investment consultant at Hewitt Associates, said: “Mistakes happen but they do not usually fall butter side up like this one.”

Liberal Democrat Bunhill Councillor, Jyoti Vaja, who contributes to the pension scheme, was thrilled at the news of the bank’s ’slip-up’. “As far as I’m concerned it is absolutely fantastic,” she said. “This will go some way in plugging the shortfall in the pension fund. It’s great for me as a councillor and as a future pensioner.”

John Gilbert, the council’s executive member for finance, was not concerned about the future performance of the bank. He said: “We have not lost confidence in Goldman Sachs. They are obviously one of the market leaders in managing funds and mistakes do happen. I am sure they would compensate us if it went the other way in the future.”

Goldman Sachs manages only two per cent of the pension fund, which has been valued at £560m. Other elements of the scheme are run by UBS, Standard Life and Capital International.

But the £6m boost will provide little comfort to council officials who manage the scheme - at the end of last year it was revealed that the town hall’s pension deficit had reached almost £400m.

This was a marked increase on the £333m announced when the council’s accounts were published in May. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.”