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Global equality

I have not been asked to carry the following message from Peter Tatchell's human rights campaign group but clearly the utterly grotesque and barbaric injustice needs the widest possible global response. Please read and respond as suggested:

Iranian judges defy their Supreme Court to hang teen

URGENT ACTION:
At the end of this article, see the action you can take to help save Ebrahim

Must a man hang because he is accused of being gay?
By Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
Evening Standard - London - 6 August 2010
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23864280-must-a-man-hang-because-he-is-accused-of-being-gay.do

Eighteen year old Ebrahim Hamidi has been sentenced to death by a court in the Iranian city of Tabriz, on charges that he sexually assaulted another man. His accuser has since withdrawn the assault claim in a sworn affidavit, admitting that he lied under parental pressure. But Ebrahim is still scheduled to hang.

Two years ago, the alleged sex attack victim was caught by Ebrahim damaging his father's crops. There had been a history of feuding between their families. A fist fight ensued, involving Ebrahim and some friends. During the fracas, the accuser's trousers slipped down 20cm, which he claimed was evidence of a sexual assault.  

Two hours later, Ebrahim and three friends were arrested on sodomy charges and tortured in a detention centre for three days. Ebrahim was hanged upside down by his legs and badly beaten. To stop this abuse, he signed a confession.

There is no evidence that Ebrahim is gay or that a sexual assault took place; just the word of one person against another and a confession under torture, which was later retracted.

At his first trial in 2008, Ebrahim was sentenced to hang on the the basis of the "knowledge of the judge" - a bizarre legal protocol whereby, in the absence of sufficient evidence to convict in sodomy and adultery cases, a judge is free to assess that a person is guilty.

Ebrahim's death sentence is in defiance of the Supreme Court of Iran, which has twice rejected the local court's guilty verdict and ordered a re-examination of the case, citing  errors in the legal investigation and an "issue of doubt." These two Supreme Court rulings against conviction and execution have been ignored by the judiciary in Tabriz.

At the third and most recent trial in June, Ebrahim's three co-defendants were acquitted. He was not. Two of the five Tabriz judges cleared him of all charges but the other three upheld his execution order.

Soon afterwards, a third appeal was submitted to the Supreme Court. Alas, at this crucial stage in his appeal, Ebrahim suddenly has no legal representation, which puts him in great peril. His lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, was forced into hiding after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He has since fled Iran, fearing that the government was planning to jail him over his highly publicised efforts to stop the stoning to death of a 43 year old woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, on charges of adultery. She, too, was sentenced by a Tabriz court.

Without a lawyer, Ebrahim cannot further challenge the death sentence. If the Supreme Court this time confirms his execution, he could be hanged in a matter of days. Hanging in Iran is not by the trapdoor drop method, which breaks a person's neck swiftly. It is by sadistic strangulation. The noosed victim is hoisted by a crane, which causes them to writhe and convulse. They die a slow, painful death from asphyxiation.

Ebrahim's case highlights the flaws and injustices of the Iranian legal system. It is further evidence that innocent people are sentenced on false charges of homosexuality, often after torture.  

To avoid the hangman's noose, Ebrahim's best hope is to persuade the Chief Justice of Iran, Sadeq Larijani, to veto his hanging. I have written to the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, urging him to press the Chief Justice to halt Ebrahim's execution, annul the death sentence and order a re-trial. I hope MPs, and the public, will lobby the Iranian Ambassador, to save both Ebrahim and Sakineh.

What you can do to help save Ebrahim

Write a polite letter of protest to the head of the judiciary and to the supreme leader of Iran, urging Ebrahim's release:
 
Head of the Judiciary
Sadeqh Larijani
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary)
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri
Tehran 1316814737, Iran
Email: info@dadiran.ir or via the official website: http://www.dadiran.ir/tabid/75/Default.aspx
First starred box: your first name; Second starred box: your family name; Third starred box: your email address
 
Supreme Leader of Iran
Sayed Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Iran
Email: via the official website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=letter (English)
http://www.leader.ir/langs/fa/index.php?p=letter (Persian)

Thank you, Peter Tatchell.

Friday 6th August 2010

Lord Mayor opens unique exhibition

Stoke-on-Trent Lord Mayor, Cllr Denver Tolley was clearly fascinated and absorbed by the range of designs, colours and sizes of the exhibits, most of which enjoy their own names. As I wrote in my press release, circulated by the City Council's press department: 

"Where can you find a hooded square, a Babylonian or a Heaps Cyclone not forgetting a Half Moon Square Buff? A small Quaker, a Tall-Boy Tulip or a Duke of Sutherland? All these and more are splendidly displayed in the Ceramica new building at the heart of Burslem. They are a small section of the 2,500 chimney pot collection at the Chimney Pot Museum, Longport.

Scores of manufacturers of chimney pots existed throughout the country in the C19th providing a bewildering range of designs and sizes for the millions of chimney stacks atop the millions of new houses which accompanied the rapid industrialisation of Britain. 

Designs not only varied to cope with the different draught demands of fireplaces but also as symbols of wealth. “Look at my pots”  - they’re big, they’re fancy, they’re telling you I’ve made it! But even pots of more modest size and design are seldom so plain as to be boring. And always the pots are a vital part of a building’s architectural integrity. Remove the pots and leave a stunted chimney stack and the architectural skyline is humiliated.

Lord Mayor, Cllr Denver Tolley, opened the exhibition, pictured with from left Lance Bates, collector & Museum curator, Stephanie Bates, young Mason Bates and local historian Fred Hughes.

The Clean Air Act 1956 marked the beginning of the end for the illustrious role of the chimney pot. How strange, how incomplete a new house looks without chimney stacks and pots. Now there are only two manufacturers of chimney pots in the country. Their skilled work force is able to reproduce any historical pot, whatever the size and design as they often do for heritage organisations. Redevelopment of whole streets and areas has meant the demise of millions of pots but fortunately local collector Lance Bates, curator of the Chimney Pot Museum and owner of some 2,500 pots, has saved valuable parts of our architectural heritage from the crushing machine.  

The Chimney Pot Preservation & Protection Society, a registered charity, is developing the museum so that it not only provided delight and interest for adults but becomes a useful learning centre for school visits. The Society gives illustrated talks and offers grant support for the re-installation of chimney pots on blanked-off chimney stacks."

Thanks to the support of the City Council press department considerable media interest was generated with Radio Stoke covering the exhibition with interviews on their breakfast late morning show and items throughout the day. The City's independent on-line blog group, pitsnpots, carried the story and the local daily paper, The Sentinel, heralded their full page 6 report with a large front page picture.  

Thursday 5th August 2010

City Regeneration at the Crossroads

In view of my previous post perhaps it was not a surprise that heads have begun to roll in the City Council's regeneration department. The limping North Staffordshire Regeneration Partnership is without partners - both Staffordshire Moorlands and Newcastle-under-Lyme District Councils have in effect withdrawn - so its Director, Tom Mcartney's resignation announced yesterday is to say the least timely, either by accident or design. No reason for the resignation has yet emerged; as usual seldom are things straightforward at the City Council. Nor is there clarity about whether Mr McCartney continues at his desk until his departure in September (no date given) or as rumour has it, he is away on garden leave.  

With the government's recent announcement that regional development agencies are to be abolished with the promise that economic investment will be devolved to local authorities, associated in a LEP - Local Enterprise Partnership, this is indeed yet abother critical moment for the regeneration of the City. Detail from the government to date is scant though a White Paper is promised by the end of the summer, whatever date that may mean.

However, local authorities have until 6th September to submit proposed LEP arrangement. At Full Council this afternoon, Members agreed to delegate the task of negotiating our LEP with neighbouring authorities to the Council Leader and Chief Executive. Bids for project funding will have to be submitted to government before the end of December this year! It is to be hoped that this unusually tight time-table facilitates a sound outcome with substantial economic support for the much needed developments in Stoke-on-Trent. 

Tuesday 27th July 2010

City Regeneration in Crisis

Following the admission that the creation from scratch of a so-called Business District in the City Centre at Hanley will be scrapped if substantial progress of its planned start has not been achieved within 12 months rumours are rife along the corridors of the Council bureaucracy that heads are about to roll. 

I wrote on 14th June:

"The problem, the huge problem, of regeneration in Stoke-on-Trent and parts of the surrounding areas requires co-ordination but that does not mean a vast organisational nightmare need be created. We need to move away from the unproductive knee-jerk creation of unnecessary bureaucracies to deal with problems to a more pragmatic and practical response of co-ordinating and co-operating with relevant parties as and when nescessary.

"Not only would this get some actual regeneration off the ground a considerable number of salaries would be saved and a vast amount of dissatisfaction, disenchantment and disengagement of a large number of people would be avoided. 

"Strangely, the withdrawls, (of both neighbouring Council partners in the North Staffs Regeration Partnership) resignations (of Board members) and press comments so far have stopped short of naming names. Strange because all agree some "thing" needs to replace the NSRP and I suspect in their minds there is also the thought that some people need replacing."

Faced with with draconian government cuts to the City Council's budget, plus a freeze on Council Tax increase, the City cannot afford unnecessary organisational structures populated by itinerant expensive officers who stay briefly and contribute little of substance.

A major re-structure of the City Council's organisation is overdue. We can afford neither unnecessary nor incompetent officers. The ruling quadrupled party coalition appears still not to have addressed this vital issue. The longer they ignore it the greater the damage they inflict on every man, woman and child in the City.

Friday 16th July 2010

Major First for Stoke-on-Trent

The premiere of the first UK film about Northern Soul will be screened in Stoke-on-Trent, and music fans are being given the chance to party all night to celebrate.

SoulBoy, which pays tribute to the Wigan Casino, a legendary music club in the 1970s, will be shown in the King’s Hall, at Stoke Town Hall on Saturday 21 August – a full week before it is released in cinemas nationwide. And the film, which was shot almost entirely Stoke-on-Trent, will be followed by an all night party featuring the best of Northern Soul DJs and special guests.

Made at the end of 2008, the Kings Hall was chosen as the backdrop for the film because of its close resemblance to the Wigan Casino club. Hundreds of local people were recruited as extras for the film’s big dance scene. SoulBoy is a coming of age story set against the backdrop of the Northern Soul movement and stars young British actors Martin Compston (Sweet Sixteen), Alfie Allen (The Kid), Nichola Burley (StreetDance 3D) and Felicity Jones (Cemetery Junction).

Director Shimmy Marcus said: “We couldn’t have made this film without the support of the people of Stoke-on-Trent, so it’s only fitting we return here for our premiere.” Star Martin Compston said: “It’s very exciting to premiere our film back where it all started. It feels like I’ll be coming home.”

Stoke-on-Trent, like Wigan, was a hotbed for Northern Soul in the seventies and staged all-nighters at Tunstall’s Gold Torch and Hanley’s Top Rank. Film producer Christine Alderson added: “This is where the music and the scene started. We filmed on the same street as the Torch once stood. It is going to be a great night not just for the film, but for the music too.”

After a VIP reception at 7pm, the film will be shown in the Kings Hall from 7.30pm, complete with appearances by the cast. And after the film, the hall will be turned into a dancefloor from 9pm until 7am, featuring music from original Wigan Casino DJs Russ Winstanley, Kev Roberts and Dave Evison. The 10-hour DJ set will also include Keb Darge, Jo Wallace, Liam Quinn, Eddie Piller and Fun Lovin’ Criminals frontman Huey Morgan, who has a cameo role in the film.

The event is being held in association with the city council and Screen West Midlands. Dan Lawson, head of production and development at Screen West Midlands said: “We’re delighted that following on from a barnstorming showing at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (leading the audience vote until the very last day), SoulBoy will get its public premiere at its rightful home in Stoke-on-Trent. The night promises to encapsulate what SoulBoy is all about: great music, great dancing, and people having a great time. Dress code is 1974(ish).”

Tickets for the premiere and all-nighter cost £20 and are available to purchase from www.sodapictures.com or contact Stoke-on-Trent Tourist Information Centre on 01782 236000 or by email at stoke.tic@stoke.gov.uk.

For more information about the film, visit www.soulboythefilm.co.uk.

Monday 12th July 2010

Shabby, sham consultation quiz launched

So, here we go again. A virtually leaderless Council trying to convince residents that their ideas are important rather than admit they have no ideas themselves!

The Council's press statement released this morning states: "Residents are to be asked what they would like Stoke-on-Trent City Council to prioritise its spending on for the next financial year, on the back of stiff government cuts. The authority, which has a budget of £209 million, needs to save approximately £30 million next year – a 14 per cent reduction. The consultation which starts today and continues until 20th August will include:

• Face-to-face surveys carried out in local centres, shopping centres, markets, libraries, museums and bus stations
• An on-line survey via stoke.gov.uk/letstalk
• Billboard advertising to inform people about the consultation
• A dedicated phone line – 01782 235104 – where people can give their views in person.

It appears all very democratic and proof that we have a "listening" council. But wait a minute, just look at what people will be asked to "say what is important to them": 

• Encouraging more jobs and businesses
• Reducing anti-social behaviour and fear of crime
• Looking after the environment and tackling climate change
• Improving health and well-being
• Repairing and maintaining roads and pavements
• Keeping streets clean
• Improving educational achievement
• Supporting and protecting vulnerable adults and children
• Increasing recycling
• Providing sport and leisure facilities
• Providing decent and affordable housing

This is the same list used six months ago. It was heavilly criticised then and the criticisms remain. Who would say no to any of the 11 areas? And, from the Councillor who has always maintained that redundancies and cut backs would not adversely affect front line services finally admits the truth:

"Councillor Kieran Clarke, cabinet member for finance, performance and governance, said: 'Residents views are always important to us, but are even more so given the cuts that need to be made. Saving £30 million is a very hard task and will simply mean that we will not be able to deliver some of the services that we have been doing.

'The government’s emergency budget made it clear that we will not be allowed to raise council tax next year to help pay for services, so it is crucial to know what services are important to residents to help identify where the savings must be made.

'I urge as many residents as possible to respond to the consultation. By getting a good range of views from across the city, we will be able to take their views into account when setting the budget.'

Cllr Clarke should be ashamed of himself for uttering such platitudinous rubbish. Why doesn't he, along with his Cabinet colleagues and his near-invisible Council Leader, set out a policy framework clearly showing potential, if not already decided actual, service CUTS? They don't because they lack the capacity and backbone to provide political leadership. 

This is a shabby, sham exercise. How can anyone sensibly respond to such questions without the answers to scores of questions each of those areas raise? If I say yes to jobs, will that necessarily mean no to swimming pools? What has rasiing educational standards got to do with money? Do I know that the government expects the Council to recycle more not less so that is not an area for cuts? Who doesn't want clean streets? What is the cost of improving health and well being?

I hope Cllr Clarke is flooded with questions demanding to know the cost of each of these areas and how the Cabinet propose to provide them more efficiently and effectively without cutting any of them. People may also like to know how responses to the questions will remotely affect the outcome of next year's budget.

Saturday 10th July 2010

Protest against uncivilised brutality

The image shows a woman who recently protested in Brussels at the inhuman Iranian interpretation of Islam. Who was it who said: "Let him without sin cast the first stone."? And the onlookers dropped their stones and walked away.

  Yesterday a massive global outcry stopped an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, from being stoned to death. But Sakineh still faces hanging, and today, fifteen more people await execution by stoning - people are buried up to their necks and large rocks are hurled at their heads.

Sakineh's brave children's international campaign shows that worldwide condemnation works. Let's turn this family's desperate appeal into a movement that ends stoning for good - sign the petition and send to everyone: 
To Ayotollah Ali Khamenei and the leaders of Iran
We call on you to finally put an end to capital punishment by stoning and to reverse the unjust judgment in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

15 people are on death row awaiting death by stoning in Iran, but yesterday a woman was saved from this brutal killing by a massive international campaign. Global voices of condemnation saved her. PLEASE consider signing an urgent petition to the Iranian government to put an end to this sickening brutality once and for all. Your support could save lives.

To support the protest, please go to the website:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_stoning/98.php?CLICKTF

Wednesday 7th July 2010

Fairtrade at the Federation

I was invited to speak about Fairtrade at a local Women's Institute yesterday evening. I thought this may have been a little like taking coal to Newcastle but I was wrong. The officer charged with giving the vote of thanks revealed that her shopping bag seldom carried more than one Fairtrade product. Then, at the tea break I discovered I was drinking Yorkshire Tea which is supplied free to all W.I. branches that request it. We were meeting in the local Methodist Church hall which is a Fairtrade church so perhaps they could have a word to all who hire their hall and stipulate that Fairtrade tea and coffee must be used on the premises! 

Although all W.I. branches are autonomous they are part of the National Federation of Women's Institutes which has an excellent Fairtrade record. It was one of the six founding organisations which established the Fairtrade Foundation in 1992. Yorksire Tea is NOT Fairtrade certified. The Federation has advised all branches to stop receiving free tea from Yorkshire Tea but as the W.I. Campaigns Officer told me, the independence of the individual groups means that they can only be advised and not commanded!

The W.I. Federation is campaigning with Traidcraft to persuade the big 5 tea companies, PG Tips, Tetley, Twinings, Typhoo, and Yorkshire Tea, to convert to purchasing Fairtrade tea. Together, the big 5 account for 75% of tea sales in this country. Not only would their change make an enormous difference to thousands of tea growers it would send a positive signal to the remaining companies to follow their lead.

I just hope that all those ladies who heard me talking about Fairtrade remember my opening remarks, repeated at the end, that although we are all concerned about the cost of the products in our shopping baskets we do need to stop and think about the cost of those products for the people who produced them.

We all need to pause to look behind the supermarket shelves, as it were, and reflect on the human cost borne by thousands of producers in Developing Countries who so often fail to receive a price which covers their costs of production leaving them in abject poverty without the basic necessities we take so much for granted - water on tap, a local school or even a local school room, a local medical facility, electricity, decent roads and not forgetting the taken for granted job or benefit.

Fairtrade changes lives and in many cases saves lives. It's nothing to do with charity but all about treating others as we would wish to be treated. My hope is that all W.I. branches will stop using "free tea" (who is paying the price?) and start buring their own Fairtrade brands. After all, it's rather crazy to belong to a Fairtrade pioneering Federation which continues to campaign vigorously for Fairtrade and yet not actively support Fairtrade locally.

Wednesday 30th June 2010

Masterclass in Member Manipulation

I was an outspoken opponent of the Elected Mayor and Council Manager (Chief Executive) system during the campaign leading to the local referendum which narrowly voted in the system that commenced in October 2002. I remained opposed throughout the duration of the system which was voted out by a second referendum which ended the incredibly anti-democratic system in June 2009.

It was deeply flawed and skewed totally against democratic representation because constitutionally the Elected Mayor gave political advice to the unelected Council Manager (the top bureaucrat) who could accept or reject the advice. Thus it was not even an elective dictatorship!  

So, given the constitutional reality the Council Manager could do pretty much whatever he liked. However, in June 2007 the Council Manager sought the approval of Full Council for the sale of the City Council's shares in the Stoke City Football Club's Britannia Stadium. The deal was, we were told in a brief report, that the Council would be paid £4.5m cash and an additional £500,000 worth of Community Benefit over five years.

We were never told that in fact far from being a cash deal, the secret deal was that the £4.5m was to be paid in three annual installments without interest!

We were never told that in fact a contractual agreement detailing the Community Benefit elements had not been drawn up.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Full Council had been deceived.

But why the deception when in fact there was no constitutional requirement for the consent of Full Council?

The District Auditor's report on the sorry debacle, debated at the City Council's Audit Committee today, fails to answer that question while in fact the District Auditor condemns the inadequate governance processes.

This sorry saga illustrates all that was wrong with the Elected Mayor - Council Manager system. That's gone, thankfully, but are the processes now any more democratic, rigorous and transparent?

Thursday 24th June 2010

Chorus: "We're all in it together" Tune: various

The structural deficit has certainly been a blessing and not so disguised for the new Tory government and their poodle Lib Dems. And how they are milking it for their undisguised attack on the public sector. Having supported the public sector bailing out billions for the banks they are now so eager to pull the plug on real public sector spending providing vital social services. How Osborne has the gall to call his public sector slash and burn policy tough but fair goodness knows!  

At least those who weren't quite sure what voting Tory at the General Election might bring forth are left in doubt now.

The increase of VAT from 17.5% to 20% obviously clobbers everyone but hits hardest those on the smaller incomes. After all, if like so many of the government you are a millionaire it's not going to have the same effect as it will on someone on benefits or a low wage. 

But fair? Well as a nod in support Osborne bravely imposed a £2bn levy on the banking sector. It's not a very convincing nod since the reduction of corporation tax from 28% to 24% will nicely save the banking sector about, yes you've guessed it, £2bn!

A further major attack on the delivery of public services is the freeze on Council Tax. What is the justification for that? None forthcoming. Under the false guise of "we're all in it together" the Tories have seized their chance to further diminish what is benevolently called local democracy. How do local people make decisions that are most appropriate for their areas without the funds to implement them?

There is little doubt that the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government has delivered a major full frontal attack on public services, local democracy and the low and middle income people while protecting the interests of big business and the rich. How this is interpreted and translated in to policy decisions by the City Council's ruling Labour Group disguised as a quadruple alliance with the Tories, Lib Dems and City Independents will be interesting to watch.

Those councillors committed to the much talked about "good of the City" should be opposing these unwarranted attacks on the less affluent and struggling cities such as our own. Doubtless we can expect considerable verbal acrobatics and pathetic pleas of powerlessness to do other than vote through measures agaianst the interests of the overwhelming majority of people in Stoke-on-Trent.

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