Here’s a quick summary of news, events and casework for August 2007 Draft of my speech for opening the new Wells commemoration is now available at - http://www.michaeledwards.labour.co.uk/ViewPage.cfm?Page=19712
August
24th – visit by Jesse Jackson & Equanomics UK to Nottingham;
23rd – attainment by Nottingham students at GCSE improves again; over half of our pupilsget 5 good GCSEs;
23rd – attainment by Elliott Durham year 11 pupils at GCSE improves again; 48% get 5good GCSEs, compared to 22% 2 years ago; pupils featured on Central News;
20th – celebration of 60th anniversary of India & Pakistan's independence at The CouncilHouse & the Old Market Square;
19th – Salop's first league match at the New Gay Meadow;
16th – attainment by Nottingham students at A level improves again;
14th – Salop's first match at the New Gay Meadow;
14th – celebration of 60th anniversary of Pakistan's independence at the Woodborough Roadcentre;
11th – Salop start football season with 4-0 win at Lincoln;
10th – Tony Wilson dies;
10th – launch of electoral registration campaign;
9th – walk Woodborough Road with co-Councillors to review plans to renew the pavements;
8th – Key Stage 2 results up again; improvement by Nottingham children better than thenational average;
6th – Honeywood residents' meeting;
5th – campaigning in Carlton;
4th – grand fireworks display as part of the Riverside Festival on the Victoria Embankment;
4th – foot & mouth breaks out in Surrey;
3rd – walk around Springwood Gardens and Woodthorpe Park;
Requests from the Indian High Commission
Fri 31st Aug 2007
The Indian High Commission visited The Council House in Nottingham today as a part of aweekend of events. Their Minister of Co-ordination, Raj Bagchi, keeps in touch withNottingham because of the 12,000 people of Indian origin living in the city.
He brought two suggestions -
- the Commission are trying to collect diaries and momentoes from people who lived duringthe days of Britain's control of India; they even prepared to pay for material;
- in June, the UN declared (2nd October) the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi as‘International Day of Non-Violence’ and asked that events are organised to mark the day.
On Wednesday, Amir Khan and his opponent in a forthcoming fight, Scott Lawton, were at TheCouncil House for a press conference. We had a chance to chat with Amir and once we'dexhausted the recent 60th anniversary of India and Pakistan's independence, I shared withhim my new found knowledge of ballet. He was well impressed.
code words fail me
Sun 26th Aug 2007
Went to the ballet last night as part of the City Council’s official party. Didn’t particularly wantto, but my partner missed the code words in my question as to whether we really wanted togo and she said yes.
And of course, it’s wasted on me cos I can’t appreciate it in the way many do. Recognisingonly some of the music and that from TV coverage of ice dancing. Stylised dancing that beats“Riverdance” only because it allows the use of the arms. (I’m trying desperately to avoidreferences to lager adverts and “no strides”.)
It was a worthwhile cause, Russian ballet stars performing two sets of dances each for acharity helping kiddies needing operations back in Russia. Very no frills. Recorded music,hardly any special lighting and no programme to read.
The audience loved it. And I’m grateful for the existence of ballet fan bloggers cos it’s theonly way I’ve been able to find out who performed and to what -http://www.ballet.co.uk/dcforum/news/3845.html
Jesse Jackson visits Nottingham
Fri 24th Aug 2007
The Jesse Jackson tour visited Nottingham today, as part of the commemoration of theabolition of slave trades act and to promote the Equanomics UK campaign for greatereconomic equality, especially for black and ethnic minorities.
The coach arrived outside the Council House and in the few minutes it took for Jesse's partyto disembark, quite a number of local people lined up to meet and greet him.
Inside Councillors and leaders of local partnerships met to hear him speak. There were threeparticular messages I took from his speech -
1. that helping people who need help is not a zero sum game, cos more people paying in andnot taking out increases our capacity to achieve more and get more done;
2. he described how greater equality in sports excellence was a social phenomena, because inthe world of sport, the goals are clear and the rules are public;
3. communities could exhort parents to help their children develop more effectively,particularly regarding their education attainment, by adopting a set of rules which weresimply spoken and easily remembered; it's possible the Council could pick up on a version ofthese as part of our community cohesion work.
Celebrating the history of our neighbourhoods
Fri 24th Aug 2007
A handsome mosaic to celebrate the history of one of our neighbourhoods was opened today.
(Picking up on Lyons' exhortations for us to be place-shapers) the mosaic celebrates thesource of a brook which was converted to a pool and for centuries was where people called inby, on the way south to Nottingham, through the Sherwood Forest, or to bathe & takeadvantage of the water's healing qualities.
Time and the march of progress buried the brook and got rid of the well, but the St.Ann's Wellgave its name to a large part of the modern city and it's time to celebrate its existence androle again, as part of giving the Wells neighbourhood in Mapperley ward a new sense of placeand pride.
Helped by 2 artists, the mosaic was made by local people and children during the schoolholidays.
The opening speech, with a fuller explanation of the history of the well, is available at -http://www.michaeledwards.labour.co.uk/ViewPage.cfm?Page=19712
Doubling the rate of attainment
Thu 23rd Aug 2007
It's a sign of the times that I now show more interest in the GCSE grades of the pupils at thecomprehensive secondary school that I chair, than I ever did for my own O-levels.
Back in the late seventies, you'd wait a day (yes, a whole day) for the results to posted on toyou by the school using the postcard you'd set out.
One lad actually went into to school to get his results - very strange - although now I thinkabout it, he did go on to be head boy.
The culture is so different now, which is part of the reason for progress.
My school probably serves the most challenged cohort in the East Midlands. And today, 48%of its year 11 achieved 5 good GCSEs. Up from 32% last year, 22% the year before, and notmany years on since only 7% or so did. So over double the rate of attainment in just 2years. (And it was a pleasure to see pupils from the school featured on regional ITV in theevening.)
And for the first time, over half of Nottingham schools' year 11 have achieved 5 good GCSEs.
A different culture concerning attainment is part of the reason for progress, but other reasonsinclude a focus on improvement, in the quality of teaching, learning, leadership andmanagement. And we'd have gone nowhere without the extra resources in Nottingham,made possible by the Labour government. Huge increases in revenue spending andsomething like 40 times the amount of capital for improvements and repairs (and that'sbefore you start counting school replacement and renewal programmes like Building Schoolsfor the Future & the new Academies).
Under the Tories, we were going nowhere, despite all the revenues from oil. Annual cuts instaff and moving money away from the children who needed help most.
Britain in the near future will only have 500,000 unskilled jobs. And we needed to ensure ourmost needy kids get a better chance to achieve in life.
So, a day to be proud of what our children and schools have achieved, and of what Labour ingovernment, national & local, has done for the country.
60th anniversary of India & Pakistan's independence
Mon 20th Aug 2007
On Sunday, Nottingham held a celebration of the 60th anniversary of India & Pakistan'sindependence.
Events included poetry reading in The Council House (including some by my local shopkeeper)and a fashion show in the new Old Market Square where the models held strutting poses forlong times against Indian music with a heavy beat. There were stalls in the square andmusic & dance. (Unfortunately, the rain took away a lot of the casual visitors that the eventswere geared to reach). Much of the emphasis of the week's local events has been to lookforward.
The BBC 2 documentary "The Day India Burned - Partition" (shown last Tuesday) raisedserious criticisms of the handover. Complaints included the lack of British troops at thehandover and not telling the public the proposed boundaries of the new countries until afterindependence was declared.
Keeping pedestrians in mind
Sat 18th Aug 2007
The latest review of ideas for new policies for the Tory Party is universally recognised as astep to the right.
A surprise is the very detailed aspects of parts of the review. Why get into advocating rubberwheels for trains? It can work and could be part of a solution for expanding the capacityavailable on a railway line, but so can lengthening trains and introducing moving block signalcontrol systems.
And what about something as universal as allowing left turns at a junction against a redlight? In my ward, we have problems enough with existing signalled junctions.
A local T-junction between major local roads was recently renewed to provide biggerpedestrian refuges for parents pushing babies in chairs, or for carers helping others inwheelchairs. And the signalling changed to reflect the new layout, with the introduction of left& right-turner egress lanes for the side road.
I once walked across the main road at the junction, as prompted by a green man, only to findmyself in conflict with a driver who had to stop quickly, having come out of a left-turnerslane.
And why? Because the new signals were introduced to change together for left and right-turners alike, unless a pedestrian had pressed a button whilst waiting to cross the main road. (The plan had been to maximise traffic flow.) Quickly learnt behaviour meant some driverswere no longer watching the red light for the left hand lane, but setting off at the same timeas the right-turners.
Pedestrians have complained. Changes have been implemented, including a delay to left-turners, but it's taking months and extra signage to get the learnt behaviour changed. And itwon't be of much consolation to the John Redwoods of this world that the complaints arecoming from residents of the most right-wing voting estate in my ward.
Getting the numbers of people killed and seriously injured down has taken some seriousinvestment and application over many years. We are down to level of reviewing individualjunctions and refining existing provision.
A blanket change to the meaning of the red light will have un-measurable costs andconsequences.
Is it possible that John Redwood didn't have pedestrians in mind when he advocated such apolicy?
Sat 18th Aug 2007
The Guardian have summarised all the proposals at -http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,,2151008,00.html
The transport ones are - ·Increase the use of private money to build roads, followingthe example of the M6 toll motorway ·Re-phase traffic lights to give priority to majorroads ·Allow traffic to turn left at a red light ·Remove bus lane restrictions at off-peaktimes ·Place cycle lanes on pavements rather than roads ·Introduce flexible speedlimits, for example temporary 20mph limits outside schools at the start and end of theday ·Make lorries pay by the mile for using roads. This would be balanced by areduction in either the tax on diesel or the lorry's vehicle excise duty. The reviewclaims that this will enable UK hauliers to compete more effectively with otherEuropean drivers who pay less for fuel and vehicle tax ·Decentralise Network Rail,allowing train operators to own the track they run on ·Fit rubber wheels to commutertrains to improve braking and acceleration, allowing 40 trains to run per hour insteadof the current 24 ·Explore the feasibility and costs of introducing high-speed maglevtrains ·Redevelop Heathrow to increase intercontinental traffic ·Streamline theDepartment for Transport by amalgamating the Driving Standards Agency, Driver andVehicle Licensing Agency and Vehicle and Operator Services Agency; privatise theVehicle Certification Agency and Government Car and Dispatch Agency
I only reviewed one idea. I'm concerned by some of the others. For instance, I worryabout the cycle lane proposals. We'd want to keep our cycle lanes - I wonder what thecost would be of extending pavements out to take in cycle lanes. I also worry aboutthe message that might send about cyclists being legitimate road users where no cyclelanes exist. And what would David Cameron's view on this one in particular be, givenhis first PR stunt as a party leader was to ride a bike.
Sat 18th Aug 2007
It is intriguing to delve into the document a bit in the areas you know something about(full document is available at - http://www.conservatives.com/getfile.cfm?file=ECPGcomplete&ref=GENERALFILE/3585&type=pdf ).
For instance, the people who've done the transport section are largely representativeof hauliers and not of local government. And so they say some strange things.
"GDP growth and transportation are inextricably linked" - but Nottingham has brokenthat link; We've had growth, more jobs, but only marginal increase in car use.
"cities like Sheffield and Nottingham, are snarled up" - No, but where we do haveproblems, it's not in the city centre.
"Busting congestion is ... the best way of improving road safety ..." - No, slowingtraffic down is the best general way to improve road safety, but actually, but we'reoften focussed on tackling road safety in location specific ways.
"the measures taken have often been ineffective or even unintentionally dangerous (asin the case of artificial chicanes)" - just wrong - such chicanes have taken stretches ofroad in Nottingham that had 11 deaths (all pedestrians) in 13 years and seen nodeaths in 18 years since their implementation.
"Provide safer crossings for pedestrians, whether footbridges or underpasses" - this isthe thinking of the fifties and sixties - our experience is that pedestrians can often feelvery insecure using such facilities and we've just phased underpasses out of much ofNottingham city centre (one remaining and set to go when a shopping centre is re-built).
The Farmer feeds them all
Wed 15th Aug 2007
Went to a funeral in the very rural Shropshire / Herefordshire borders today. Such a contrastto Nottingham.
The funeral was of my Mum's cousin, who was a farmer.
Printed in the order sheet, after the hymns and prayers was a poem - "The Farmer feedsthem all". The poem starts -
"The politician talks and talks ... "
and holds forth on a range of professions & occupations before ending
"art and science soon would fade, and commerce dead would fall,
"If the farmer ceased to reap and sow, for the farmer feeds them all."
Why so hard on politicians? Don't they know party politics is the sign of a free society? Didn't they hear Tony Blair say that "politics is where people stand tall"?
Fortunately, no-one asked me what I did for a living today. (Oh, Michael? He joined BritishRail, as a computer programmer.)
Still, I suppose we all want people to celebrate what we do. (I am waiting for that first tributeto computer programmers. And no, the Alexei Sayle song doesn't count.)
As for my relative, well, the man's care, concern & love for the countryside & the animalsshone through in the tributes.
The full version of the poem is available at -http://www.drainage.org/newsletters/LICO%20March%202005%20Newsletter.pdf - page 11;and was attributed to the Creemore Echo, March 18, 2005
the New Gay Meadow
Wed 15th Aug 2007
Salop's first competitive game at the New Gay Meadow. Capacity of 10,000, currently licensed to hold 8,000 and 3,069 turn up. This when playing in the cup against a side 2divisions above us and on the bounce from a 4-0 away win.
Way too early to form a judgement - maybe Colchester just aren't a draw. And we won - sowhy be miserable.
Standing pitch-side before the game, a steward asked whether I needed help finding my seat. "No, just taking the scene in". "Great, isn't it." "I prefer the old Gay Meadow." "But, it's somuch better. The toilets at least". So I tried them and went back to complain. "No toiletpaper." The lack of ivy growing down the side of the cubicle was to be regarded as somecompensation.
The new stadium is so different. No raised touchlines to keep the River Severn out and theball in. No trees overhanging the stand. No stanchions blocking the view from the side.
But other features remain the same. The ability to tilt the pitch 5 degrees to help the sidethat's gone a goal down with 10 minutes to go in a cup tie. It led to numerous runs at ourdefence and the inevitable (cast-iron) penalty. (The penalty save was less predictable.)
The arrangements are to be proven and it was a sight to see hundreds of people walking incolumns down the sides of the old A5 for a quarter of a mile or more.
The worry remains that facilities, be it shopping or football, need to be at the heart of towns and cities, so that all the existing transport arrangements support a decision by potential visitors to go.
Tony Wilson
Sat 11th Aug 2007
A shame to hear that Tony Wilson has passed away. Not that you can eulogise about him -films and commentary cast some doubts on his motive or character - and he joined in with a lot of it.
But he was an advocate for Manchester and helped give Manchester a powerful identity. He gave opportunity to musicians who would stand no chance in an X factor world of pop music.
4-0 and the doubts start to creep in
Sat 11th Aug 2007
The opening day of the football season - way too early. August bank holiday was better -intense heat for the first day kinda guaranteed the weather for the weekend too.
What's worse Salop were at Lincoln, an easy trip for me, but a place where Salop often fails toget what they deserve. And they finished above us last year. So I had to drag myself to thegame.
Fortunately for us, so did the Lincoln players. Salop had better presence & skill and werecomfortably on top from early on.
For all that, Salop didn't have many chances until the second half - and then Salop won by 4. We're top of the league.
Jimmy Sirrell once said the targets for the beginning of the season were get a point, score,get a win, have a clean sheet; and then do that all again away from home. Well, full house inone day.
Trouble is, have we had our best day on day one - with nothing like it to look forward to? Ordid it really say that we so needed to win that play-off in May cos the third tier is the level wedeserve? Just see how the doubts creep in.
Register to vote - it can be to your credit - 02:19 pm, Fri 10th Aug 2007
Another idyllic summer lunchtime in the new Old Market Square, with an African drum anddance group turning up to perform.
Today, the Council is holding a stall as part of the launch of registration for the new electoralregister (for 2008).
And who knows - this register might be for the next General Election.
The surprise for me was the number of people making an effort to register becauseregistration can affect your credit rating.
Overall though, registration has been too low in Nottingham and we need more people to geton roll.
unforeseen or unexpected
Tue 7th Aug 2007
I was making a pitch for the City Council on Monday and ended up in the new Old MarketSquare to show the degree of our ambition we have for the city, showing off the new facilities& the large number of people using them.
As I pitched, some CND members were walking silently around the square with placards,reminding people of the anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and ofthe 140,000 who died.
A new and perhaps unexpected use of the arena we've created.
In the evening, I attended a residents' meeting at their new community centre in Honeywood- The Brickyard - to hear of progress and concerns on crime & tipping.
A key concern is the separate garages created for residents when the estate was built in thesixties, but many of whom have given up on, such is the misuse and abuse.
Surveys are not yielding enough information to allow for decisive action. It transpires thatwith the loss of the old rating system, there's not been a need for the council to keep a log ofthe ownership of garages. An unforeseen consequence of the introduction of the Poll tax. The land register is supposed to have been updated with every sale for the last 15 years orso, but it's not clear how effective the requirement has been.
Step change witnessed - 11:31 pm, Sun 5th Aug 2007
A beautiful sunny Sunday - the warmest day since April - so yeah - the Tiger Squad wentcanvassing. This time in the neighbouring & marginal constituency of Gedling.
And the results were good, 9 gains and 1 loss (someone didn't like the bans on smoking). One lady even came out to give us cartons of orange juice as we canvassed.
The scores reflect the step change in Labour’s poll fortunes since Gordon Brown’s arrival.
Of course, canvassing is never that scientific, so it's nice to know that the good news is alsobeing reported by the “Electoral Calculus” website - http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/
The Sunday Express, of all papers, had 60 suggestions for David Cameron on what to do toimprove Tory party fortunes. Towards the end, it got pretty light-hearted. One was a civilpartnership between him and Boris Johnson. Another was dragging Britain towards an oceanisland so that the Tories never had to answer a question about Europe again.
Replacing the civic cars
Sat 4th Aug 2007
There comes a time when you have to do something, and you know you're gonna get akicking for it. One of those times is the replacement of the cars used by the Lord Mayor andthe Sheriff of Nottingham.
Oh, don't worry says the political correspondent of the local newspaper. We'll treat it with therespect it deserves and we'll give the public a chance to express their view.
And so it was that they published a considered article with - in the last sentence - asuggestion that the civics, going to events here, there & everywhere, whilst wearing dress &civic chains, could do so by public transport. And lo, the web-surfers of the local newspaperhave joined in with 58% of them saying, yes the Lord Mayor should travel by public transport.
Postscript - having published an article to encourage people to say the Lord Mayor should usepublic transport, the local newspaper then published an opinion piece by one of its columniststo say a big civic car was needed.
Taking Liberties
Sat 4th Aug 2007
“Taking Liberties” was shown at the Broadway cinema this week. Reviews of the film generally praise it for shedding an important light on what the reviewers say is an illiberal new Labour government.
The film contains animation sequences to emphasis why civil liberties are important. Onesequence saying how the loss of liberty in 1930’s Germany led to “Kristallnacht”. And yet the film ends with one of the peace-loving civil liberties protestors saying the way to protest was not just to write a letter to Tony Blair, but to wrap the letter around a stone and throw it through Tony Blair’s window. Presumably, a justifiable “Kristallnacht”.
This doesn’t negate the film. Although you get a much better view if you check outalternative descriptions of the episodes portrayed in the film, as described in Wikipedia.
And what about the measures that the Labour Gov’t have introduced on civil liberties? Human Rights Act. Freedom of Information Act. Equalised the age of consent for gay men. Introduced civil partnerships.
(Saw “Moliere” the next day - that I can whole-heartedly recommend.)
I’m not clear if anyone will ever put together a riposte to the film or offer a bit of balance. So I’ve had a go, largely, it has to be said relying on wikipedia. Cos of its length, I've nowmoved it to dedicated web-page - http://www.michaeledwards.labour.co.uk/ViewPage.cfm?Page=21983
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