---

Thursday 27th 2008

5 weeks to May Day

Following the presentation of the 3,000 signature petition to keep Dimensions leisure centre pool open there was an excellent question and answer session for some fifteen minutes. That clearly demonstrated the absurdity of proceeding with the proposed closure of the pool until an analysis of the income and costs of operating the leisure centre has been undertaken. Also, it was the general view that proceeding to close the pool before ascertaining i) the cost of decommissioning the facility and ii) the viability of the whole leisure complex without the pool. Certainly, evidence I produced clearly shows that the pool accounts for 50% of the leisure centre's income. The motion, proposed by Labour's Cllr Mike Barnes and seconded by myself, that the issue should be referred to the appropriate Scrutiny Committee BEFORE a decision is made on the future of the leisure centre, was approved without dissent. A significant move in the mood of the Council since the vast majority voted for the Budget a month ago that contained the closure proposal and for which a number of the Labour coalition councillors strongly supported. The positive effect of concerted, co-operative community action was a major influence on this afternoon's change of heart...plus the impending City Council elections in five weeks time!

Thursday 20th March 2008

Public money paying for private control...

New Labour's idea of a public service is that the state via taxation pays the bills for an organization which private companies control! Railways are a good example but there are many more, like school academies. The first 3 academies were set up in 2002. two years later the government announced it intended to have 200 established across the country by 2010. After another two years, in 2006 the government doubled the target to 400. Originally, in March 2000 when the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, launched the academies programme, they were intended to "replace schools in special measures or underachieving." Originally, each academy was supposed to have a business sponsor contributing £2m towards the capital costs of setting up the academy, for which, the sponsor gained complete OWNERSHIP and CONTROL. Yes, the total asset, land, buildings and contents were legally transferred from PUBLIC to PRIVATE ownership! The national curriculum, hitherto almost deified by the government as an indispensable goodness for schools was jetisoned for academies, so they are free to promote whatever version of reality suits them. Yes, they were to be "freed of the constraints of the national curriclum." Academic freedom may thus be seriously undermined. Sponsors (incidentally, no prior experience or expertise in education in general or schools in particular required) were also freed of democratic accountability: they are not subject to normal education legislation; they appoint all governors and were obliged to have only one school staff governor (not necessarily a teacher); and councillors and parents, traditionally the bedrock of school governing boards, are each reduced to one representative. Academies have greater freedom to exclude pupils and to select 10% of their admissions. Some have found ways of increasing that 10% with subtle recruitment methods. And the icing on the privatised cake is the additional funding per pupil they receive. Despite their draconian powers and financial advantages their is little evidence to show that their outputs (management speak for pupils' GCSE attainments) are significantly better than non-academies.

Stoke-on-Trent's Labour elected mayor has pushed through a secondary school restructure which reduces the number of secomdary schools from 17 to 13, of which 5 are planned to be academies, 4 remain faith schools (one of which is one of the 5 planned academies) and the remaining 5 will become trust schools. Thus, at a stroke, Labour have signalled the end of state education in the City in favour of privatised but publicly funded schools. The academy juggernaut is being pushed forward on the back of a massive deception which is encapsulated in the question: "Are you in favour of improving your child's attainment by opening an academy? Yes/No.

Despite the fact that business sponsors have not rushed forward to support academies (particularly since the honours-for-sponsorship debacle) the government presses on relentlessly. Originally, the rationale was that academies would be freed from the negative shakles of local government and business people would introduce innovative curricula and teaching methods with entrepreneurial flair. That hasn't happened so now the bad old local governments are being encouraged to be sponsors! How the wheel turns full circle! Sometime soon someone in government will be brave enough to admit defeat. In the meantime, the voters of Stoke-on-Trent can trigger the defeat on May 1st by NOT voting for Labour, Conservative and Lib Dems - the council coalition cravenly doing the government's bidding. 

For further information about academies: www.antiacademies.org.uk 

Monday 17th March 2008

Chell Heath residents celebrate

I can't remember precisely when I persuaded the Council to withdraw the then recently vacated shop adjacent to the Chell Heath Residents' Association shop/centre from the commercial market but it must be more than two years ago. Not that the delay has been all bureaucratic red-tape. It has taken a recently elected brand new Residents' Association committee to demonstrate a clear need for additional space. On top of that, chairperson Jim Gibson has been a dynamic project manager, securing an incredible amount of support from a whole range of officers. The result is that the two shops are now a single unit and the whole has been refurbished to a high standard by the City Council. This afternoon's formal opening by local resident Brian Smith (pictured) watched by Jim Gibson and some 60 residents and council officers, including the Council Manager/Chief Executive, Steve Robinson. Refreshments provided by the nearby Chell Heath Cafe and a range of delectable cakes baked by Jim's wife Yvonne proved popular with the adults and Kat D (shineekat@msn.com) had a crowd of eager young children queueing for her face painting skills.  

Saturday 15th March 2008

Dimensions demonstration

Last year an incredible 700 young children learned to swim at the Dimensions Splash Pool. Parent after parent told me at this morning's demonstration, staged to show the breadth and depth of feeling against Labour's Budget decision to close it down, just how how safe and secure the pool is for young children who so easily and quickly overcome their fears of water. In my brief speech I said that when the Labour Elected Mayor releases the accounts for Dimensions, everyone will be able to see that the pool is far from being a drain on the Council Tax.

 photo courtesy Local Edition

I also said that it was irresponsible of Labour not to publish the cost of decommissioning the pool - thought to be as a high as £1m! As I had at Budget Council, I emphasised that in fact the closure had nothing at all to do with running costs but was all about the thin end of the wedge of privatisation. The Elected Mayor claims to consult and listen but he has not done so on this issue. My call to the Elected Mayor NOT to go ahead with his plan to close the pool in a matter of weeks at the end of the financial year met with unanimous support. Let's have at least six months during which time meaningful consultations and discussions can be held. It makes no sense to close a much used, much valued sport/leisure facility, particularly at a time when government and council policy is encouraging more physical activity! Labour's Cllr Dave Conway, Burslem North, did not attend the Budget Council but spoke against closure this morning at the rally. Potteries Alliance Cllr Ted Owen, Burselm South, who voted against the Budget and closure said how important the pool was for young children and elderly people with a frailty as well as people of any age with a permanent or temporary disability. Stoke North MP, Joan Walley, underlined some of the points I had made, especially about a a coherent strategy and policy for sport and leisure and the inappropriate time to close the pool before full discussions have taken place. There was a very positive buzz amongst the 70 or more demonstrators and a determination to press the case against closure. Many took petition forms, determined to add to the 3,000 name petition already submitted to the Council.  

Friday 14th March 2008

All smiles for another City Co-op store

The Co-operative launched their brand new store along Leek Road, Joiners Square in the City this morning. Store manager and enthusiastic Fairtrade supporter, David Leese (far right) and board director Patrick Grange next to him were in justifiable upbeat mood about the quality of design and layout of the new store and confident that it will attract a lot of local customers as well as those travelling along the busy Leek Road. With a useful carpark and a well designed ramped access leading up to the mini-terraced corner entrance, the store is a very attractive venue. City Councillor Adrian Knapper, member of the Co-operative Party as well as an active member of the Members' Relations, Committee which is responsible for funding a variety of local voluntary initiatives, was all smiles too. "I think they've done a really good job here." he said, "It looks really attractive."   

Thursday 13th March 2008

High Street consultation

Displayed on the windows of the Local Centre at Tunstall Town Hall and also inside the nearby library are architect's draft drawings of three possible design solutions for the Tunstall War Memorial Group's plan to have the names of the war dead added at the Tunstall Garden of Remembrance. The centre piece of the Garden is the well-proportioned, slender stone war memorial obelisk. It has never carried the names of those who died fighting for Britain and the Empire. Members of the public are invited to fill in a consultation form so that the Group, councillors and council officials gain an idea of what a wider number of people think about the proposals. The consultation is planned to end on Monday and the Group will meet on 10th April to consider the results of the process.

Wednesday 13th March 2008

Direct Action: 1

A spontaneous Save Dimensions Splash Pool campaign launched only days ago has already gained the support of several City Councillors (including, curiously, a couple of Labour ones who voted FOR the Budget which has cut the funding for the Council-owned Dimensions Leisure Centre) and the Labour MP for Stoke North, Joan Walley. A public demonstration is planned to be held at Dimensions on SATURDAY 15th March at 11.30am. With a liberal imagination it could be seen as welcome home crowd for our cost-cutting Labour Elected Mayor who is currently running up a £900 bill for three days accommodation at the most expensive hotel in Cannes. Oh, yes and £900 for his deputy too! The six officers are quartered in an apartment, cost as yet unknown. Mind you, sooner or later after one of these overseas jaunts in the name of regeneration, regeneration will be a reality, if only be sheer coincidence.

Direct Action: 2

All three City Council opposition groups have called-in the Executive's decision on the restructure of secondary schools in the City. The spokespersons for each group will present their cases at a special meeting of the Children & Young People's Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Thursday 20th 2008, starting at 10am. The meeting is open to the public and everyone with an interest in the issue and the democratic process is urged to attend the meeting at the Stoke Town Hall.

12th March 2008

Labour drowning in a mire of insane decisions

In my posting for the 28th February, City Council budget day, I wrote that I had spoken strongly against the apparently penny-pinching cost-cutting attack on Dimensions, our major leisure centre in the north of the City. Labour Elected Mayor, Mark Meredith, announced the closure of the Dimensions' pool, and later several of his sycophantic supporters protested that it had been such a "difficult cost-cutting decision"! Just how disingenuous can these Labour councillors get? It is nothing of the sort. It has little if anything to do with cost. It has nothing to do with saving £60,000. If money were really that short at the Council, would an Elected Mayor in his right mind have spent more than half a million pounds (yes, £500,000 +) on refurbishing the Civic Centre offices? of course not!

The plain fact is simple. It is a straight-forward introduction of the thin end of the wedge of privatisation of all of our leisure centres.

Meredith won't be content until he's sold off all Council assets and hived off all Council services to the private sector. He is the puppet for the Labour government's privatisation agenda. Who would have thought that the Labour party would so cruelly betray the interests of the working class? Meredith jumps to every single diktat from Whitehall. He has betrayed the interests of ordinary people by allowing, no, welcoming 5 academies in the restructured secondary school system in the City. Thank goodness it is little more than 7 weeks to the 1st May City elections. We are stuck with Meredith until May 2009 but voters can say goodbye to 11 Labour councillors up for re-election. I only hope the people turn out in force as they have never done for years and vote in councillors who will join with the current opposition and put a stop to Labour's madness.

Meredith has no right to withdraw a valuable facility to a whole cross section of the community, from tiny children to the elderly frail. Already a 3,000 signature petition has been presented to the Council. More action will follow. More direct action is needed to kill this crass decision in the water.

Saturday 8th March 2008

Conference against academies

Tony Benn was in fine form displaying his trademark clarity of class analysis and setting the development of City Technology Colleges and their successor City Acadamies firmly within Thatcher's "counter-revolution" continued by Blair and Brown. More than 170 delegates from across the country and from a wide range of unions, including GMB, Unison, Unite, NASUWT and NUT assembled for the day at the TUC's HQ, Congress House, a stone's throw away from the Chinese terracotta statues at the British Museum. 

Ken Purchase MP, a leading Labour party critic of Academies emphasised how "we mustn't surrender to private profit" and Francis Beckett, author of essential reading The Great City Academies Fraud systematically exposed the myths Blair and Adonis created in an attempt to disguise their naked attack on equality of educational opportunity. Angela Ansell, speaking as a parent member of the Save Rhodesway School Campaign in Bradford highlighted the extent to which parents had become politicised by the government's imposition of academies.

For the first hour after lunch delegates devided for a choice of four workshops. Building local campaigns was led by campaigners from the Isle of Sheppey and the Northumberland county secretary of the NASUWT. Their presentations led to very interesting contributions from a large number of campaigners from around the country. Some crucial key lessons were shared.

The afternoon concluded with a number of useful speeches not least that by Frank Dobson MP, Fiona Millar and Christina McAnea, head of education at UNISON. Hosted by the South east Region of the TUC in conjunction with the Anti Academies Alliance, today's conference reminded me just how refreshing and rejuvenating a well structured conference with a clear purpose can be! 

Wednesday 5th March 2008

Lord Mayor's Annual Fairtrade Civic Reception attracts record numbers

Nearly 200 people packed into the Jubilee Hall at Stoke Town Hall this evening for this annual Fairtrade event in the City. Organised by Stoke-on-Trent Fairtrade Group and sponsored by the City Council the event has a young people focus. This year, students from Haywood High School presented Cottoning On... scripted by Cally Wright of the Fairgame Theatre Company based in Cheltenham. Performed in the round, with the audience in cafe style seating, the young people worked well as a team and delivered with a new found poise and confidence. They well deserved the extremely warm reception that greeted their performance.

Older students from St Margaret R.C. High School presented a very confident Faitrade cotton fashion show. It was a stylish, attractive and polished performance and again the large group worked very well together. The song Water which another group from St Margaret Ward's sang after the fashion show was exceedingly professional and incredibly evocative. The audience were deservedly appreciative.

After the Lord Mayor's welcoming speech, I started the evening with a screening of the award winning Pick Your Cotton Carefully from the Environmental Justice Foundation (www.ejfoundation.org/joinus) which shows the result of unsustainable cotton production in Uzbekistan, the former state of the USSR, in Central Asia. Over-irrigation with water from the Aral Sea has shrunk the vast sea to a shadow of its former self, leaving fishing boats on dry land 80miles from the nearest water. Over-spraying the cotton plants with toxic chemicals exposes workers, many of them young school children forced to work in the coton fields, to all manner of phyiscal and biological illnesses. The ten minute film was an excellent scene setter for the evning's theme: Fairtrade cotton.

Wednesday 5th March 2008

Fairtrade national bus tour hits town

The Fairtrade Foundation's partial open-top double decker, liveried for Fairtrade Fortnight, arrived in the City centre at Stoke-on-Trent today shortly before lunch time on its return journey to London. Although the moment of exposure shows the entrance area to the Potteries shopping centre to be deserted the city centre was in fact very busy. The bus immediately attracted widespread attention and the first person I spoke to said she always bought Fairtrade products whenever possible. It was an unscheduled stop to provide a photo opportunity. The tour through the norhern part of the City was a bonus because the bus was bound for Newcastle to boost their bid to gain Fairtrade Town status. The City gained the accolade in Fairtrade Fortnight 2004.

Tuesday 4th March 2008

Alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour

Blaming the corner shop for selling alcohol to under-age young people, bemoaning the widespread availability of cheap alcohol in supermarkets as well as neighbourhood off-licences and cricising the police for not "doing more" are each legitimate criticisms, up to a point. I heard them all once again at a residents' association meeting in my Ward this evening. What do I mean up to a point? While I happily agreed the critcisms are valid I felt the need to point out that we do not have to respond to the widespread availability of alcohol by getting inebriated, and further, become thoroughly inconsiderate, objectionable and down-right threatening. The widespread alcohol culture in our society is based on something more than the drink's ready availability. Moreover, that pervasive alcohol culture is, by and large, differently expressed according to a range of social class factors. An obvious difference in expression is that amongst the richer, upper class, drinking is a much more 'privatised' affair, within rich housing ghettoes, expensive clubs, board room binges etc. Amongst the poorer, working or even workless, class, drinking is a much more 'socialised' affair, in public houses, spilling into the public spaces. Working class drinking is a bigger problem because it is, numerically, a much larger group. More and more public houses are closing down while alcoholism and alcohol related social problems are rising. With the changed and more prevalent availability of alcohol the social form of consumption has changed too. It is less contained (within the pubs) and appears to be more anarchistic, more public, more threatening. Apart from the enormous damage the heavy drinkers are inflicting upn their own bodies they are also inflicting enormous social damage on many other people, within their families but also within their neighbourhoods. A hard line crackdown appears a superficially attractive solution. However, it won't work. A more fundamental cultural change is required. It's time we started talking more about values and living by them.

Monday 3rd March 2008

Celebrating two newly formed City Youth Forums

 

Because only twenty two candidates presented themselves for election to the City YOUTH FORUM, the number of seats on the Forum was reduced from 20 to 14. Reasoning? So that not just two people would be losers! The two candidates with the highest number of votes were also elected to be the City's two Members of the UK Youth Parliament. They are Shanna Taggert and Lyndzi Burton. Not all elected Members were able to be at the celebratory presentation hosted by the Lord Mayor in the Council Chamber this evening. I hope that does not herald the level of involvement for the duration of their period of office. The proceedings became more animated after the formalities over the delicious buffet. My message to both Youth Members and youth workers was to strive for regular involvement in mainstream Council meetings and events to avoid being a mere marginalised, token body. This could be a valuable experience and a potential training ground for a new generation of City Councillors! I wish each of them an interesting, challenging and fulfilling term of office.

 

The Youth Arts Forum was only established last October, but six months on, it burst forth this afternoon on the stage of the Mitchell Youth Theatre in a dazzle of dance, film and music to launch itself publicly. Fiona Wardle, one of the City's celebrated Cultural Sisters arts group was the artistic director for the day, working with young people from Burnwood, St Peter's and St Wilfred's Primary schools and Birches Head High School. (two schools dropped out at the last moment) All 76 primary and 17 secondary schools had been invited to participate. The Arts Youth Forum is open to all young people aged between 11 and 21 years inclusively. The group has devised its logo (as seen in the picture) and their web site will go live shortly. Already they have raised £10,000 worth of funding. The Forum's dynamism, determination and direction all point to one thing - capturing, working and releasing the enormous diverse and creative talent amongst our young people throughout the city. Clearly exciting times are promised. Congratulations to all involved.

Sunday 2nd March 2008

To 10 FAIRTRADE wines - taste good and you can feel good about drinking them!

There are now some 30 Fairtrade wineries, in South Africa, Argentina and Chile. The UK is the largest market for them, with two million litres sold in 2006! "Few would quibble with the concept behind Fairtrade - disadvantaged producers in the developing world are guaranteed stable prices and a better, fairer deal..." wrote Jonathan Ray in the Telegraph. While all leading supermarkets now sell Faitrade wines, Sainsbury sell 9 varieties and Tesco 7, the Co-operative remains the leading retailer with 16. The Co-operative pioneered Fairtrade wine sales launching the first label in 2001. Jonathan Ray wrote: "When I first tasted a sizeable range of Fairtrade wines a couple of years ago I was underwhelmed, but the latest vintages are vastly improved. In my top 10, there isn't one I wouldn't happily drink on a regular basis. They taste good and you can feel good about drinking them." 

Apart from Jonathan Ray's No 1, Heaven on Earth Organic Sweet Wine from South Africa (at £6.99 the most expensive) the other nine are vailable in a range of supermarkets and the price range is from £4.99 to £5.99. Considering the Co-operative led the way with Fairtrade wines it's good to see they make the Top Ten with their Reserve Malbec from Argentina (£5.99) at number 9.

Who knows, perhaps there may be the odd glass or two of Fairtrade wine for tempting tastings at the Lord Mayor's annual Fairtrade Civic Reception on Wednesday 5th March at 7pm at Stoke Town Hall to which everyone is most welcome.

 

Saturday 1st March 2008

Shake your brain - read the Telegraph on Fairtrade!

If you feel you've been stagnating intellectually recently, shake yourself up with a touch of the Telegraph's brain-power! To get started, try Janet Daley's article: Fairtrade - only free trade can lift people out of poverty.

Daley asserts (without a hint of justification) that: "...the Fairtrade operation helps to keep poor countries and undeveloped economies exactly that - poor and undeveloped." and in the next paragraph claims (again no evidence given) that: "...the proven route out of mass poverty is through free trade, not Fairtrade."

Just in case the "intellectual" foundations of this kind of rant haven't been made clear enough, Daley goes on to assert: "Disparities of wealth are a sign of a dynamic free-market economy in which some sectors are invariably expanding while others contract: at any given moment, some people's lot will be improving ahead of others." So there you have it: the more dynamic the free-market economy is, the greater the gap between the richer and the poorer, where dynamic = good, desirable, sensible etc etc.

Fairtrade is "bad" because it challenges the free-market economy. Daley sees it thus: "It transpires that a very small number of farmers are getting a subsidised fixed price for their produce under Fairtrade franchises and that this is at the expense of most other farmers in their regions, who are actually worse off as a result." 

Note how she blames Fairtrade for "making" the majority of farmers poorer! And we campaigners had been thinking their poverty was something to do with the handful of commodity market traders and the multi-nationals like Nestle who manipulate the markets!

Actually, I really despise the naked ideological propaganda of rants like this from columnists like Janet Daley, who, in order to sustain her sneering drivel has to be so biased as to make ABSOLUTELY no reference to the enormous SUBSIDIES and TARIFFS the USA government and the European Union pay their farmers. Over-production and over-subsidised USA cotton and European sugar, to give but two examples, means such cotton and sugar are sold in producer Developing countries at prices BELOW the cost of production in Developing countries - such is the grossly unfair so-called FREE TRADE system of the rich nations. Free Trade in fact does not exist, has never existed nor is it likely to exist. Why not - simply because it is absolutely unsustainable. The ideology of Free Trade is a con, a massive lie. The reality of Free Trade is massive subsidies and tariffs deployed by the richer, therefore, stronger nations, to maintain their economic supremecy.

Fairtrade, it is true, benefits relatively only a small proportion of all producers but it is a start. Furthermore, it is spreading and more and more producers are in fact experiencing the real benefits of Fairtrade.