Peter Kent-Baguley

Fairtrade Fortnight in Stoke-on-Trent

The Lord Mayor, Cllr Bagh Ali, will launch the City's FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT at 7pm on Monday 25th February at the Forum Theatre, Hanley.

Fairtrade wines, fruit juices, biscuits, cakes, chocolate...and more will be available for all to taste prior to the screening of the much acclaimed BLACK GOLD: "A moving but scandalous story. Black Gold has extraordinary power."  (Daily Telegaph)

Invitations are being sent to churches, residents' associations, works' groups and schools but the evening is open to everyone. So that we are not turning away disappointed people, however, we are asking everyone to telephone the Lord' Mayor's secretary: 01782 232625 so that we know how many to cater for.

The evening is sponsored by the Co-operative and the City Council. 

In the footsteps of J.B.Priestley to Stoke-on-Trent

Margaret Drabble came up to the Potteries a few weeks ago and her piece in the Guardian's WEEKEND, In the Path of Priestley, affectionately captures the contrasts and contradictions of a place that has produced and exported so much beauty at the expense of its own exploitation. The topographical scars of that exploitation are far less naked now than 35 years ago when I moved to Stoke-on-Trent. Coal mines were still piling high their waste tips, Shelton Bar, one of British Steel's blast furnace centres still spewed about the Chatterley Valley, the Michelin plant produced tens of thousands of tyres and the world-famous pottery industry employed some 30,000 people. Although Priestley, in his English Journey (1934) declared the Potteries "extremely ugly", as Drabble says: "They (the Potteries) defeat his economic analysis, they baffle and intrigue him, they capture his imagination, they repel and fascinate him...The faults and virtues of the region strike him as inseparable...And he found it curiously exhilarating." Drabble similarly finds the place curiously exhilarating. Anyone with a sense of place would. 

Much of the naked scar tissue has been healed; the coal mines are closed, spoil heaps moved or disguised with grass and trees or built over with trading estates "which now employ more than the mines ever did" (as though that makes it all right) and much of the vast sprawl that was Shelton iron and steel works was transformed into one of the nation's Festival Garden sites - the most successful one as it turns out and now a centre for shopping, offices and entertainment. The pottery industry is a shadow of its former self with perhaps 6,000 employees now and the big names in pottery, such as Doulton, Spode and Wedgwood, names more than manufacturing realities since the discovery that the cost of Asiatic labour is one fortieth of that here.

That said, Steelite, Churchill and 5th generation family owned Dudson are three major producers of hotel ware and the more indvidualistic Portmerion and the idiosyncratic Moorcroft flourish within their niche markets as does, the gem of a Victorian pottery alongside Brindley's Trent & Mersey canal at Middleport, (and neighbours of modern Steelite), the delightful home of distinctive blue and white ware of Burgess, Dorling & Leigh. Less than a mile up the hill lies Burslem, the mother town of the Potteries, and which Arnold Bennett, helped to immortalise in his novels. A later C20th Potteries' artist Drabble might have mentioned was Arthur Berry. His portraits and landscapes capture the harshness and nakedness of pre-indsutrial life, for although he was of the industrial proletariat and the woking class and their environment were his canvass, those urban dispossessed were, if not themselves, descendents of the rural migrants, uprooted from the countryside and uprooted from their traditional community life-lines. Arthur Berry captures that separation in a style which spares no sense of the pain and isolation of those lives.

Above: Arthur Berry's widow, Cynthia, beside one of Berry's paintings, The Gardener.

Rogue trader...fraud...the same old story...

 ...by which I mean the defenders of so-called "free market" capitalism (ask the majority of the world's population how free they see global capitalism!) seek the pathology in the individual rather than in the system. So, Jerome Kerviel, is projected as the quiet, techno-odd-ball who misused his expert knowledge to rook the system, to the tune of £3.7bn! And what, precisely, is the system in this particular case? Well, it seems to be nothing more than gambling! Odd, isn't it, the outcry about the proposed location of a super American casino in Manchester some months ago, yet at  the heart of our capitalist economic system is..gambling! Of course such a crude term is not introduced in polite (ie money making) society. The whole process is obfuscated, clouded and obscured by jargon, but which, when all the fancy confetti is blown away, comes down to good old fashion gambling. The dressed-up, obfuscated version is designed to leave you feeling intellectually inadequate. As a defensive technique, it's one that more often than not succeeds in our divided society. So, relatively speaking a handful of people play the derivatives game, gambling on the future possible prices of shares and even commodities themselves. If their hunch proves correct, they make loads of money. When the gamble fails, the trader loses a load of money.

Did The Guardian's Saturday leader comment, Of risks and rogues, hint the slightest disapproval of this thoroughly parasitical carbuncle within global capitalism? Not that I detected. On the contrary. It sounded a throughly professional practice: "Money in derivatives is made by dedicated specialists who master particular markets."

The leader writer missed the opportunity to make the connection between this aspect of free trade and fair trade which is based on transparently honest trading relationships. With the start of Fairtrade Fortnight on the 24th February, The Guardian will, perhaps, ponder risks and rogues a little further.   

Packmoor Millennium Green

I reckon those Israelites of old were not only keen observers of the social scene but legislating on their evaluations created the concept if not the reality of the sabbatical - the seven year cycle. In theory at least (I'm not sure how diligently it was practised) every seven years was a sabbatical, a fallow year if you like during which the farmers laid aside their ploughs and released their debtors of their debts - nowadays of course, in our capitalist society based on debt, such a sabbatical idea would create a world-wide pandemonium of Northern Rocks! 

All right, I didn't send out reminders to fellow trustees of the Millennium Green for today's tea-time meeting at the Primary School adjacent to the Green, so the only trustees to join me were the school headteacher and vice-chair of governors. Drawing on my old Israelite experience I've perceived a cyclical birth - flourish - decline in a wide range of voluntary organisations, spanning little more than half a dozen years. Sometimes the groups actually fold but others enter a new cycle after a dormant period. Over 450 Millennium Green projects were established across England & Wales; some very small-scale like ours of just an acre whereas others were scores of acres of woodland, lakes and sporting areas.

Our project has hit its sabbatical. The excitement of planning and developing has been overlain with too many seasons of not so exciting maintenance. But rather than viewing the lull of activity as a trough we've decided to embrace it as a time for reflection, re-evaluation and re-assessment of the problems and possibilities the project provides. 

Bidding for Recipes for Health

I spent much of this morning finalising CAFAG's £10,000 bid for a PCT grant to extend our work in the community focused on healthier eating and getting more exercise. Since the deadline for submission was noon today, time was really of the essence! CAFAG is the acronym for: Chell Area Family Action Group, a registered charity and limited company by guarantee established a decade ago. It's Whitfield Valley Centre in Fegg Hayes Road accommodates a doctor's surgery and various ancilliary services. The purpose-built building is a focal point for the neighbourhood which has no City Council community centre and a Catholic church hall which is seldom opened. The only youth work provided in the area is provided by CAFAG. The gym is well used by a wide age range of local people but it is expensive to staff and financially, a "loss leader". A community cafe was launched 18 months ago and quickly became established and valued by local people. From operating just one day a week it quickly became a four-day a week cafe.

We want to extend our service, focused on the cafe and local walks to encourage wider, healthier diets and more, gentle exercise, such as walks around the neighbourhood. As anyone associated with a voluntary organisation will well know, it is a constant struggle seeking and succeeding with funding bids. It is a time-consuming and demanding process and one that relatively small voluntary organisations like CAFAG, with only half a dozen full time staff and very dependent upon volunteers, finds difficult to accommodate. Voluntary organisations' collective bodies, would do well to explore a process whereby Local Councils could fund, or part fund, the infra-structural costs of neighbourhood voluntary groups. That would relieve the pressure on small groups and enable them to concentrate 100% on what they are set up to do, namely serve the interests of the community. As it is, it is all too evident that too much time and energy is diverted from service delivery (to use the jargon!) to the struggle to stay in existence...in order to serve the community needs.  

Governance Commission seeks views about local democracy

I received a very warm welcome and interested hearing this afternoon at the Commission, chaired by prof. Michael Clarke, Vice Principal of the University of Birmingham, along with fellow members prof.Christine King, Vice-Chancellor of Staffordshire University, Ian Dudson, Chief Executive and 5th generation family head of the Dudson Group, one of the remaining large pottery manufacturers, Mohammed Tufail, formerly Chief Executive of The North Staffs Racical equality Council and the Rt Rev Gordon Mursell, Bishop of Stafford.

I had submitted a 5-page outline of the key objectives I feel the Commission should prioritise along with changes I think would help to realise those objectives.

Two over-riding objectives of the next system of democratic local government in the City: i) engage the maximum number of voters (25% turn-out simply isn't good enough) ii) engage the maximum number of councillors in the decision-making process (a cabinet of a maximum of 9 councillors with either an elected mayor or an elected leader simply isn't good enough). This kind of Executive system introduced by Blair's government in the Local Government Act 2000 and still trumpetted in the 2006 White Paper and now the Local Government 2007 Act destroys effective, efficient and transparent local democracy.

Where is the sense of concentrating all political decision-making in the hands of 10 councillors (one sixth of our elected Members?) What are the majority (50) councillors to do? The theory is that they will scrutinise Executive decisions. The reality is little or no scrutiny takes place. Why? Because most of the chairs of the scrutiny committees and the majority of members of all committees are members of the United Front (ie Labour, Tory and Lib Dem members). This kind of arrangement may work in parliament, where for example, Labour MP Gwynneth Dunwoody, leads a rigorous and vociferous Commons' transport scrutiny committee, never afraid to criticise government policy.

Here in the City however, despite Labour leader Cllr Tappin and Tory leader Ibbs claiming they had set aside party differences (what differences?) and were pursuing a "mature" approach to politics (implication the rest of us follow an immature approach) with their United Front they have nevertheless singularly failed to display the vaguest hint of political maturity in their response to questions and criticism of their Exectuive decisions!

The result is that the Scutiny Committees lack the capacity to do what they are supposed to do!

Moreover, effective scrutiny is on-going, integral to the decision-making process. This is how it is on the Regulatory Committees, such as the Development Control Committee (planning) and the Licensing Committee. All members are involved in the decision-making process. So, if it can be done with planning and with licensing, each very busy, very important committees, then why cannot that system be used for all areas of the Council?  

At a stroke, such an EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE system would eliminate widespread feelings of disengagement, disillusionment and disempowerment amongst the vast majority of councillors. A co-ordinating cabinet of committee chairs would ensure that the overall direction was in tune with policies agreed by Full Council.

At a stroke, importantly, all councillors would have the potential to be involved in the decision-making process - surely a central feature of the democratic process.

In short, if the choice is either an executive elected mayor elected by the whole electorate or an executive council leader elected by the councillors, then the choice is little more than window-dressing. What follows from each is pretty much the same as outlined above. 

16 Weeks to 1st May City Council Elections

The democratic process should be a major and urgent election issue. First, we must encourage MORE people to vote. How better to encourage than to convince people that their vote WILL make a difference. Make sure your vote counts so make sure your vote is counted is my main election cry.

What will convince people that their vote will in fact count? A basic first step is to make sure ALL candidates make clear what values, aims and policies are important to them. You have a right to know what kind of person will represent you. Party labels have become less and less useful and in fact in many cases are pretty meaningless. Candidates owe you an explanation of their views and position on key issues. You also have a right to know if someone standing as an INDEPENDENT will in fact remain so or within a week or so of being elected go and join the Tories!

What do you want to know before you give a candidate your vote? 

What's in a name?

Stoke-on-Trent has been blessed with a government imposed GOVERNANCE COMMISSION. Prior to its imposition at the end of last year, I had sought Council approval for the establishment of a DEMOCRACY COMMISSION but my proposal was crushingly defeated in Full Council. I wonder what the difference is in reality between a DEMOCRACY COMMISSION and a GOVERNANCE COMMISSION? There might not be anything in the name change. I may be looking for problems where there are none. However, with history (not to mention the current world) dominated by dictatorships, it is not hard to see that democracy is not necessarily desirable nor even necessary for governance.  

The Commission provides an excellent opportunity for everyone to think about what they want of local democracy if indeed they want local democracy anyway. With little more than a quarter of all registered voters bothering to cast their vote in City Council elections, I think it is safe to say there is a massive sense of disengagement between the people and the politicians.

Addressing that for me is the core of the issue rather than being obsessed with the form of governance at the Council. At my meeting with the Governance Commission on Friday afternoon I shall be proposing some radical and wide-ranging changes aimed at encouaraging, engaging and enlisting the majority of voters into a revitalised decision-making political process. 

»8:19 PM    »1 comments (0 )     »4 TrackBack(s)     »Send entry    

   in: NEWS

17 Weeks to May 1st City Council Elections

Elected for 4 years, the 60 City Council councillors are elected by thirds in each of three successive years. The fourth, fallow year, became the Elected Mayor election year when the Elected Mayor & Council Manager system of governance was introduced in 2002. May Day, May Day 2008 is really a most important signal for the relief of democratic distress in the City.

May Day 2008 is an opportunity for all City voters to deliver a demonstrative democratic blow to the complacency of the majority of the Labour-Conservative-Lib Dem united front coalition that has shown such contempt for parents, children and teachers through their support of SERCO's  mindless proposals for High School re-organisation which involved closing all 17 High Schools!  

As my 19th December entry made clear, the Elected Mayor's press statement indicating a potential climb-down is likely to be little more than a ploy to defuse the anger of the widespread opposition for the insane proposals of Trojan horse, SERCO, the private company he welcomed into the City Council to restructure secondary education in the image of their government paymaster rather than the needs and wishes of the people of this City.

So, let the countdown begin. 17 weeks to polling day and hopefully, 17 weeks to the end of the ruinous United Front. Since the three main political parties have lost the will to differentiate themselves, declare their allegiances and defend the interests of ordinary people, let them be swept away  from office.

Let May Day in Stoke-on-Trent be the end of self-serving councillors and the dawning of people power with community councillors committed to serving their communities.