Things are hotting up in the east, where the proposed compulsory purchases (to make way for the Olympic village) are being met with fierce resistance. A few months ago, we reported on the case of salmon smoker Lance Forman, whose business was established in the East End exactly one hundred years ago... the work of Jewish immigrants who brought the curing tradition to London from Eastern Europe. Since then - as every other smokery has relocated to Scotland - H Forman & Son has stayed put (in Marshgate Lane) and flourished, surviving both fire and flood, to become one of the world's leading exponents of a subtle culinary art, and providing food to Fortnum & Mason and some of the country's top restaurants. Lance Forman complains that the forced move will cripple his business - the land has been (it is suggested) undervalued, it takes time and money to build a site capable of his very specialised business, and the area the London Development Agency intend to shift him to will leave the company with an insurmountable traffic burden (effectively stopping him makin deliveries to London restaurants within the necessary time). According to the Independent, here, angry victims of the proposed compulsory purchases clashed with Livingstone at a London Assembly meeting, and compared his behaviour to Mugabe's. As we said back in July, this is just one of hundreds of East London businesses facing compulsory purchase. They'll lose, the big building firms will win... good for Londoners?