Mary Reid

I've added some photos to the earlier blogs about my trip to Minneapolis.

Minneapolis and St Paul are twin cities facing each other across the Mississippi River, which is remarkably wide given its long journey down through the States to the sea. St Paul is the state capital of Minnesota, and on the day after the conference proper we set off on a field trip, first visiting the Capitol - does it remind you of somewhere?



We were shown round the chambers for the House of Representatives and the Senate by one of the House members. Apparently, the Minnesota State Legislature meets intensively during the Spring months only - creating new state laws one year, and setting the budget the other year. As with councillors in the UK, the House members are part-time.

There are highly active issues forums in both cities - Minneapolis and St Paul. They inspired the issues forums pilots for the Local e-Democracy National Project back home at Brighton and Hove and at Newham.

We then took off, past fields of corn and turkey sheds to Northfield, to meet up with people from there and also from the twin-city suburb of Eden Prairie. They were all involved in the ReadMyDay blogging project. But first a curry lunch at an English pub called the Contented Cow.


From left, Dan Carlson (Police Chief, Eden Prairie), Scott Neal (City Manager aka Chief Executive, Eden Prairie), Gary Smith (Police Chief, Northfield), and George Esbensen (Fire Chief, Eden Prairie)

We then had a fascinating seminar, hearing about what inspired these and other local civic leaders to start their blogs. You'll find more photos of the events on their blogs as well.

Griff Wigley, who managed the ReadMyDay project, and Scott visited Kingston back in February and presented us with the key to the City of Eden Prairie.

So I took the opportunity to present Scott with an engraved Kingston plate.

A local resident has quite properly asked me whether my trip to the States was funded by Kingston council tax payers. I can reassure him that Kingston contributed nothing towards my expenses. I was sent by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to represent the Local e-Democracy National Project, and funded by them.

Minneapolis is a typical mid-American city - a dominant down town skyline surrounded by miles of green residential roads.

The city also boasts the Mall of America, supposedly the biggest mall in the world. It has an entire theme park at the centre with several white-knuckle rides and a substantial Lego section.



Isobel and I spent a happy few hours exploring it this morning. I discovered Victoria's Secrets whch is always featured in American magazines - they sell gorgeous underwear and perfumes, but more Knickerbox than Ann Summers.

Isobel Harding is the lead on the Local e-Democracy National Project and we travelled together from New York yesterday for the Symposium that starts tomorrow.

She writes about the horrid time she had in New York. I experienced the same problems at JFK airport. The queue for non-Americans to get through immigraton took THREE HOURS! I was expecting high levels of security, especially for travellers from the UK, but this was ridiculous. I waited with thousands of others in this awful heatwave with no air conditioning, no loos, no drinks. It was very difficult for people with young children or the elderly. I was travelling wth other colleagues and we were going to miss our connecting flight so we managed to fast track ourselves after an hour of standing in a corridor.

Finally we got through and made our way to Terminal 3 for domestic flights, and I was shocked again. It was like something from a rural airport in a third world country not from one of the great cities of the world. There were no shops or cafes, no air conditioning again, chaotic checkin procedures and the departure lounge only had a Burger King and a Starbucks that was out of cappucino (OK - hardly a profound problem in the broad scheme of things, but it was indicative of the overall poor management). It was very dreary and dirty, and the loos were inadequate.

I eventually met up with Isobel. The plane was delayed an hour and I finally got to bed at 6.30am London time.

Minneapolis is a pleasant contrast. It has a smart new tram system, which has got the locals out of their cars and into public transport, against the expectations of many critics.

I've just spent the evening in a sports bar chatting with people attending the conference from all over the world. I learnt about the emerging Green Party over here, about how State ministers in Queensland have online consultations with young people, about the growing tourist trade in Alaska from Americans who are nervous of travelling to the UK.

And, not only does God make little green apples, but it also does rain in Minneapolis in the summer time - very heavily with lots of thunder.

This week has been a bit of a disaster - my computer went into complete meltdown on Tuesday morning, and I have only just today got it functioning again. It only underlined to me how dependent I am on it for organising my life and doing my work. The problems it threw up also took up so much of my time in an already greatly overcrowded week.

Before my PC died I had just put the finishing touches to my presentation to the International Symposium on Local e-Democracy in Minneapolis next week. Panic set in, but the file was rescued for me by a miracle-worker, and I was able to get it on a CD, then email it over to the conference organisers, using a computer at the Guildhall.

So this is by way of an apology for not updating my blog this week. It is especially embarrassing because my blog was publicised in the Surrey Comet this week, so I wanted it to look at its best - but, heck, this is real life and sometimes things go pear-shaped.

How do you think young people can be involved more in the democratic life of the Borough, and in the Council in particular?

Some of the members of the Kingston Youth Council discussed this with me this evening. They are a very impressive group - responsible, among other things for the outstanding Youth Unlimited magazine.

On the one hand, do we encourage them to learn how the Council works, and how to use the system to get their items considered? Or do we go out to them and trawl their opinions where they are? And even if we can get smart 15 to 18 year olds actively involved, how do we give a voice to younger ones, especially at primary school. And what about those with learning difficulties or other needs?

I'd welcome your ideas.

I have just spent most of the hottest day of the year at a conference for school governors in Kingston. But it was worth it.

The main speaker was Ann Holt, an adviser to the DfES and schools, who gave us inspirational common-sense. She had a wonderful way of challenging us with the obvious, then offering wise and straightforward advice on how to improve the governance of schools.

She quoted Tim Brighouse on leadership. Leaders should:

- display unwarranted optimism
- regard crisis as normal and complexity as fun
- have an endless supply of intellectual curiosity
- have a complete absence of self-pity and paranoia

I love that use of 'unwarranted' .........

This message has been widely circulated to organisations in Kingston in the last couple of days, and it has been read out in places of worship, including my own church.

I have been asked by Chief Superintendent Angela List, Kingston’s Borough Commander, to pass on the following message in relation to the atrocities of 07 July:

The Metropolitan Police is currently working hard to bring those responsible to justice, and we continue to ask anyone who has any information, no matter how insignificant this may seem, to contact us. We particularly express our solidarity with those caught up in the attacks.In Kingston, our key aim is to deal with the potential impact on our community and we will continue to work together with all our partners in order to maintain public confidence. We recognise the value of community advice, which will guide our decisions and actions: in the days that followed the attacks, Angela List consulted representatives of the various faith groups in Kingston and other community leaders, and a press release calling for unity was agreed and published in the local newspapers. This process will continue at the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames Inter-Faith Forum on Monday and beyond in other meetings.

Police activity in the coming weeks will be directed towards reassuring everyone in Kingston. Initially, we posted additional officers to our town centres, railway stations and bus garages to maintain the confidence of the travelling public. There will continue to be extra patrols but we do assure you that these are not mounted because of any specific local threat.

We are particularly concerned that none of our communities suffer any form of discrimination as a result of these attacks. You have our assurance that we will take robust action against any form of harassment or victimisation of any section of the community, and, to assist us in this, we urge anyone who is threatened, abused or attacked to report it to police.

The community of the Royal Borough is represented by many nationalities and faiths, all of which are valued, and we want to remind you that Kingston is one of London’s safest Boroughs. This has been achieved with the help of all our communities working together, and we look forward to your continued support.

Angela List
Borough Commander

15 July 2005

If you live in the area you are very welcome to attend the next Neighbourhood Committee, next Wednesday at 7.30pm at Tolworth Girls School. You can contribute to the discussion about any of the items on the agenda, or can use Question Time to raise any other local issues.


The previous Neighbourhood meeting - the gap was my seat which I left to take the photo.

The agenda includes:
* Road, traffic, parking and other improvements in Ashby/Gilders/Hemsby area, Gosbury Hill, Selby Close, Somerset Ave.
* Planning consultation on the changes to Hook Youth Club to provide new services for older people
* Neighbourhood grants to local organisations - they can apply for up to £750
* Budget outturn for 2004/5 - we want to carry unspent funds forward
* 281 bus route - bus lanes, again
* Consultation on the K+20 plan - options for Kingston Town Centre for the next 20 years
* Income recovery strategy - dealing with rent arrears

I might get home by midnight! But we have an ingenious system of pink slips for residents - fill one in with the number of the item you are interested in, and the Chair will take the items in order of popularity.

At 11.55am everyone in the building where I was attending a meeting walked out into the sunshine. We were close to Parliament, and the first strokes of Big Ben were overlaid with chimes from a higher pitched bell. It became very quiet as we remembered the victims, and very moving. After two minutes the high bell - probably from Westminster Abbey - rang again.

The Mayor of London had asked us to go out into the streets for this act of remembrance as a gesture of defiance.

We're not afraid. And that is the name of a remarkable website that displays graphical variations on the theme submitted by Londoners and supporters from around the world.



(Thanks to Chris G)

Later

I found Rachel's blog on the BBC site very powerful - she survived only feet away from one of the blasts, and has recorded her journey over the last week, ending at the vigil this evening.

The excellent Youth Unlimited magazine is out now.

This is written, edited and published by young people in Kingston with the support of youth workers.

For the first time they have used professional designers to give it a strong and colourful style.

Young people can find the magazine in schools and youth clubs, or you can download a pdf version from the YoungLivin' website.

Having received three emails about ICE in 24 hours I thought I would share this simple but effective idea here.

The recent bombings in London have given added emphasis to a recent In Case of Emergency ( "ICE" ) campaign started by the East Anglian Ambulance Service with the support of war hero Simon Weston.

The idea is that you store the word " ICE " in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted "In Case of Emergency".

In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them. eg: ICE-Valerie–wife. For more than one contact name use ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc. eg: ICE2-Philip-friend

The bridge under the railway line near TGI Fridays (at the back of the Bentall Centre) has been transformed

from this ...........................................to this.




This is another extraordinary project of Save the World Club. I wrote about their community environmental work before - this time 1800 people were involved.



If you follow round the corner to Canbury Passge which runs beside the railway embankment you can see that the mosaic is 150 metres long! The design is inspired by the work of the Austrian designer/architect Hundertwasser. You must go and see it for yourself.

Rose of Kingston, our embryonic theatre, has a fascinating exhibition of children's artwork in the windows. Titled TheatreScape, it is on the theme of 'What Theatre means to me'.

Catch it before the building is handed over to the contractors for the final fitting out.

(I couldn't get rid of the reflection in the window - you'll have to go along to see how impressive the display is)

The Make Poverty History campaign has commented on the G8 outcomes.

... Today's announcement marks a turning point in the human story, but it falls far short of the plan that would truly make poverty history. To do that, and secure a place in history, world leaders must go a lot further at 2 crucial talks later in the year - the UN Millennium Development Goals summit and World Trade Organisation talks - and we need your continued help to make sure they act.

Edward Davey's website has had a bit of a revamp. Hope you like it.

I'm back at home, shaking and thinking about what could have happened if I had tried to catch the earlier train. Of course, my story is only one of inconvenience, and nothing compared to the tragedies that are being revealed, moment by ghastly moment.

I was planning to catch the 10am train from Kings Cross to Harrogate, where I was to speak about e-democracy at an evening fringe meeting at the Local Government Association's annual conference. I changed my mind at the last minute and aimed for the 11am.

When I picked up a train at 9.30am from Surbiton to Waterloo, an announcement came through saying the Tube network was not working due to an electrical fault. So I got off at Wimbledon hoping to get the Thameslink train directly through to Kings Cross, but they were being cancelled as I got on to the platform. Back on a train to Waterloo, and this time I got off at Vauxhall, hoping to get a taxi to Kings Cross, thinking that Waterloo would be packed. Waited for 30 minutes - not a chance.

The mobile phone networks were overloaded but I did manage to get through briefly on WAP and find out what had happened. Buses stopped running. Eventually I came back home, and phoned my apologies to Harrogate.

Family OK. Major incident procedures are in place in Kingston Hospital and Ian is now on standby as duty chaplain.

Update at 5.30pm

Scott Neal, the City Manager at Eden Prairie, Minnesota, has linked to this blog. Scott and Griff Wigley visited Kingston earlier this year.

And Griff has just phoned as well to ask how things are in London.

Update at 7.30pm

37 dead and hundreds of injured. I feel quite embarrassed at having twittered on about my attempt to travel to Kings Cross. When I got back to Surbiton and switched on my car radio I started to piece the whole story together. I cried most of the way home.

When something awful like this happens you seem to focus right down to the here and now because the bigger picture is too painful to grasp straightaway - which I suppose is why people remember what they were doing when they heard about JFK's death or 9/11.

I went to the New Statesman New Media Awards 2005 last night, held in a subterranean nightclub with trains rumbling overhead.

As you can see from the logo I got no further than the shortlist - but neither did anyone else in the Elected Representative category. The judges decided not to award a winner.

The New Statesman commented: But it was not because [the judges] felt their sites were lacking in effort, rather that they were lacking support, both from the parties they represent and the government.

They also mentioned that there have been some efforts to redress the balance and quoted ReadMyDay. This is the project on civic leadership blogging that I took part in, which produced some very interesting guidance and evaluation. It was one of the pilots in the Local e-Democracy National Project.

There is an issue underlining all this, which maybe the judges didn't understand. If councillors create websites that are funded (or even hosted) by the local council then they are not allowed to be political on their sites. But that, of course, completely undermines their role as politicians, which is why I chose to run my blog on the independent ReadMyDay platform.

The same applies to MPs - they are only allowed to use public funds for their websites if they avoid being political. It's a bit of a farce, really. Hopefully the New Statesman's stance will wake someone up - how can we connect politicians to the people if such shortsighted rules get in the way?


Colleagues from the National Project at the Awards - on the right is Chris Quigley of DemGames and next to him is Fraser Henderson, the project manager for ReadMy Day and other pilots.

Very pleased that TheyWorkForYou won in the Contribution to Civic Society category - congratulations! Now anyone can scrutinise the performance of their MP.

People have told me that I am not cynical enough to be a politician. Cynicism is a powerful tool when you are in opposition - and as Liberal Democrats we have plenty of experience of that. But it doesn't grace leadership very well.

Tim Brighouse's definition of leadership has optimism as the first criterion. I know that my own enthusiasm about the projects I am involved in has sometimes been interpreted as naivity. But vision must precede pragmatics - if you never look beyond the obstacles then you will never get started.

Recently, along with the other members of the Executive (ie the Cabinet) at Kingston I spent a day undergoing a political leadership development programme. We were subjected to the usual psychological profiling, and were then observed through individual and group exercises. This confirmed that my leadership style is one in which I do expect the best in people, but that it does leave me vulnerable when I am let down.

It is all to easy to protect our sensitivities, to dismiss criticism and to exonerate failure by creating a cynical shell. I for one would prefer to have the exhilaration of following a dream even if it does bring moments of despair. And over the last year I have seen a number of dreams fulfilled, most notably the success of the Local e-Democracy National Project which I chair, and the plans for the opening of our theatre, Rose of Kingston, next year.

It's achievements like that which make involvement in public life so satisfying.

Anything I could write about Live8 would seem trite. So I just want to quote Bob Geldof, speaking on Radio 2: "This is the biggest democratic mandate in the world."

It seemed everyone on the train to Waterloo this morning had a picnic with them. I enjoyed trying to work out whether they were going to Live8, the Gay Pride march, Wimbledon, Lords, or Lambeth Palace.

Lambeth Palace? - well 3000 of us were heading for the gardens to celebrate the centenary of the Diocese of Southwark. I joined the choir that performed at the service at the end of the day.

Earlier in the week the Archbishop of Canterbury had said that the policy of returning asylum seekers to Zimbabwe was immoral, and he repeated that in his talk this afternoon.

This was made even more pointed because the Diocese is twinned with the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe, and three of its bishops were sharing the stage with Rowan Williams. One of the bishops spoke simply and movingly, asking us to support them.

Have you ever thought of being a school governor? It's an interesting way of getting involved in your local community and using your skills in a voluntary capacity.

Kingston Council gives advice on becoming a school governor.

One of my tasks as the lead member for Children and Young People's Services in Kingston is to ensure that we fill all the vacancies for Local Authority governors in our schools. If you'd like to find out more then do contact me directly, or follow the contact link on the Council site.