Peter Kent-Baguley

Place your bet - put your Coate on it!

There must be quite a few people across the City who would love to communicate their political views directly to hundreds, if not thousands of householders, about the system of governance that should replace the present Elected Mayor and Council Manager system which is abolished next May. Unfortunately, not many people have the necessary staff, technology and money to do it. One person that does have all three is multi-millionaire Peter Coates, owner and chairman of a global on-line betting company as well as being owner and chairman of Stoke City Football Club.

Peter Coates feels the need to write to individuals to tell them that he believes "that the Elected Mayor and Cabinet system is the best system for Stoke-on-Trent." Mr Coates either suffers from limited understanding of the situation or suffers from considerable make-belief for he appears to believe the present Elected Mayor will be the next Elected Mayor if the referendum vote favours an Elected Mayor and Cabinet system. Mr Coates seems to have missed the small point of the need for an election should that situation arise.

Coates' unsubstantiated claim that "We now have strong leadership from the Elected Mayor, who is making a real difference and bringing investment into our city" is laughable. What is the evidence of strong leadership? Look a little closer, Mr Coates, and you might discern that chaos and reversal are more the order of the day. Mr Coates has made a fortune out of other people's betting, but honestly now, Mr Coates, how much of your fortune would you bet on Mark Meredith winning an Elected Mayor's election?

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Establishing an Appointments Committee

A special meeting of Full Council has been called for next week, Tuesday 5th August, so that an Appointments Committee can be established to start the process of finding a successor to the Council Manager, Steve Robinson, who last week announced his resignation with effect from 1st October. The Committee must reflect the political balance of Full Council so it is likely to be at least as big as the one set up nearly three years ago following the resignation of the previous Council Manager. That Committee had 11 Members. One of the first major tasks of the Committee will be to agree the job specification and person profile. It will also need to decide if the appontment of an interim Manager is necessary given the time these processes take - nine months last time in 05/06. Additionally, it may be deemed desirable to appoint an interim until the current system of governance, unique to Stoke-on-Trent, ie Council Manager and Elected Mayor, expires next May. After May we shall have a new system of governance: either an elected mayor & cabinet or a leader appointed by full council and cabinet. From thereon, the post of Council Manager ceases and we return to having a Chief Executive.  

Glasgow East : Personalities or Policies?

The obsession with personality robs the acres of newsprint commentary on the outcome of the Glasgow East by-election of any serious analysis. Playing the music to see who drops in the prime ministerial chair when the music stops is hardly a serious response to the electoral meltdown Labour has experienced since May 1st. The cult of personality ought to be jettisoned along with all things Blairite. If there is to be a point for Labour's fourth successive General Election success then they need to return to their historic role of serving the interests of the majority of the population, the waged workers rather than pandering to the rip-off get richer by the year profiteers on the stock markets, commodity markets and world trading. Blair's appalling domestic legacy is the imposition of the market on to all spheres of public services: health, education, social services, community services, transport and so on, all based on a faith that the market offers maximum consumer choice at the most economical rate. The faith of the market is based on the fundamental flaw - ceteris paribus (meaning, all things being equal). The economists' recourse to Latin I have always supposed was designed to add a bit of gravitas to the assertion! The point is, whenever are all things equal?! That plank of the free market ideologues is one big con.

The marketisation approach holds that if all public services were run like businesses they would be both efficient and effective. Of course it's a nonsensical notion; public services are NOT businesses and nor is there any sound reason therefore pretending that they ought to be. I say pretending because I cannot really accept that anyone seriously believes the nonsense. It is a pretence in an attempt to add a veneer of justification for making profit out of vital public services. The other major weakness of the argument of course is that the world of business is full of bankruptcies, not to mention grossly uneven outcomes.

Labour has been rumbled, finally. For all their smarmy spin, clearly the majority of people have finally rejected their rhetoric because they can see the reality is very, very different. Appeasing the super-rich, allowing the multi-national conglomerates to avoid paying £billions in tax and disposing of public services to the private sector has increasingly impoverished the majority of people. It was happening anyway but the "credit crunch" has thrown the reality into sharp focus.  

At a City Council level, we should be fighting to retain our public services. I have called-in the Executive's insane decision to start the process of privatising our workforce to kick-start the much hyped, little justified, private business quarter in the City centre. The poverty of thinking is truly incredible: sacrifice the workers in the public services for the gamble of possibly kick-starting the private sector's business quarter. Haven't we somehow come full circle? Isn't it the private world of business that claims to be so efficient? So efficient it cannot kick-start its own business quarter? May it be that the world of private business don't want a business quarter then?

Anyway, apparently, were Glasgow East's 22% swing against Labour to be replicated across the UK at the next General Election (which of course it wouldn't, but never mind that) there would be only a score of Labout MPs in the House. The three Stoke-on-Trent MPs would not be there on that basis so perhaps, just in case the swing were replicated uniformly across the land, perhaps our three Labour MPs should be pressing strongly for a return to Labour's core values. 

Shaker's Shock Stratagem

After two years of continuous and continuing organisational restructuring, the Council Manager has resigned with effect from 1st October to become the Chief Executive of the new West Cheshire Unitary Council, to be established next April. Politicians, officers and community members throughout the City have expressed shock, dismay and in some cases, disgust. On appontment not two years ago, Council Manager Steve Robinson gave the impression he was here for the long haul; to see through some major changes to successful completion rather than leaving the organisation still adjusting from massive and continuous structural and personnel changes that have left some key areas of the council reeling from shortage of officer expertise and experience.

This has come at a time when only last Friday, Full Council accepted the controversial 14 recommendations of the government-appointed Governance Commission. With the prospect of a further controversial and acrimonious Full Council on 11th September when Members are required to decide which of the Commission's two forms of Executive should be named on the Referendum question, likely to be held in October this year.

The legislative farce of the referendum question has been known for years, yet only at this late stage has the Eelected Mayor declared the law to be an "ass". If that isn't playing politics I don't know what is. He must know that the minister has absolutely no intention of changing the situation now. So, since the law requires that only one question be put (ie not any number of questions for the voters to tick the ONE they support) AND that if the majority vote against the question, the FALL BACK position is that we would have an Elected Mayor and Cabinet of Councillors appointed by the Mayor.

Since, the government, through its Governance Commission, has stated categorically that there are only TWO forms of Executive to choose from, namely:

Elected Mayor & Cabinet

or         

Leader elected by the Councillors in Full Council with Cabinet of Councillors apppinted by the Leader

then clearly it would be STUPID for Full Council on 11th September to decide that the question should say would you like an Elected Mayor? Why? Because if the majority say NO, the FALLBACK position is (wait for it!) elected Mayor!!!

So, why do we need a Full Council to decide the obvious? Why should Full Council be put in the position of appearing to recommend one or other of the alternatives?

Why is the government so fearful of Executive Committees? The Development Control (Planning) works well enough; the Licensing Committee works well enough, and not just in our Council but throughout all local councils. Those are executive  committees, politically balanced, allowing all shades of opinion to be expressed and debated. Why can't education, care of the elderly, environmental services, housing and so on be organised in a similar way with exectuive committees? The chairs of the executive committees could be cabinet members.  This is a manifestly more INCLUSIVE approach which does NOT emphasise structural pary-political differences. It does not deliberately set out to create an opposition in the way Labour's elected Mayor Mark Meredith has done with his party-political obsession to bolster at any cost the declining fortunes of Labour.

The people don't want party-politics in the local council. They are absolutely fed up with the childish antics and pernicious manoeurvres of Labour, intent on pushing through the unwanted privatisation agenda of the New Labour government. 

K6 Defence Campaign enters the House of Commons

Congratulations to neighbouring Newcastle-under-Lyme MP, Paul Farrelly, for tabling Early Day Motion 2125 regarding BT's current consultation period (ends 6th September 2008) about their proposal to remove some 4,500 public payphones nationwide, a large proportion of which will be the classic Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed Jubilee K6 red kiosk, like the one pictured near Swythamly in the Staffordshire Moorlands. 

EDM 2125 posted 21/07/08 reads: That this House notes that British Telecom has launched a consultation regarding the possible closure of up to 4,500 telephone boxes across the country; recognises, with the take-up of mobile telephones particularly, that many of these are becoming increasingly uneconomic and that BT has to strike a balance between subsidy and provision of a national service; notes, however, many are in rural areas, where they provide a reassuring presence in the event of an emergency; further notes that many are classic red boxes, based on Giles Gilbert Scott's iconic 1924 design, and are viewed as an important part of our country's heritage; further notes that English Heritage has received over 200 listing applications for such boxes since the consultation began; welcomes, therefore, BT's commitment to review separately the removal of any boxes to which local councils object; urges local parishes and councils to participate fully in the consultation process; and hopes that talks between BT, English Heritage, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, VisitBritain and other interested bodies will provide a solution for the physical retention, at least, of classic red telephone boxes, where this is desired by local communities as part of the country's heritage.

Stoke Central's Mark Fisher and Congleton's Ann Winterton are two of the 26 who have signed to date. Please urge your MP to add their support to the EDM. Also encourage them to write to BT's Chair, Sir Michael Rake, to get a commitment from him to meet national heritage groups and national associations of local councils to produce a positive solution so that the red K6 kiosks remain in place.

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Musing on Roman numerals...

My mind wandered in a recent meeting and wondered what year was produced by arranging each Roman numeral in descending order...MDCLXVI...and that immediately reminded me of when we lived in London how I often took our two older sons up the Monument and in fact three times in 1966. 

Crowning glory: More than 200 feet above the City of London, two painters try not to spill a drop of the gold leaf being used to restore The Monument to the Great Fire of 1666. The orb - revamped only once every 100 years - will be regilded as part of a £4.5 million restoration. It will reopen early next year. PICTURE: JEFF MOORE published in today's London Evening Standard.

I must make time to revisit the top again once it has re-opened.

Stoke-on-Trent's Remembrance of the Slave Trade & Its Abolition

Stoke-on-Trent based charity, Midlands Jamaica Aid, organised the one-day conference on Saturday at the City campus of Staffordshire University. On the cover of the programme was the question: Why Stoke-on-Trent? "Stoke born famous potter and local hero, Josiah Wedgwood expressed ardent concern over the social welfare of individuals from different backgrounds in the 1700-1800. Josiah became involved in the Save Trade Act when in collaboraton with Clarkson and others, they formed the Lunar Society to highlight and eradicate this heinous crime against black human beings. This campaign was brought to the notice of Wilberforce the then member of Parliament from Liverpool. After long and arduous sittings, and with Josiah's designed broach-medallion with inscriptions of a male kneeling in chains with the motto AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER? and on the reverse side of the token, clasped hands are shown with inscriptions MAY SLAVERY AND OPPRESSION CEASE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD under pressure, the Act was passed on the 25th March 1807."

Although delayed from last autumn, as the High Commissioner for Jamaica, His Excellency, the Honorable Burchell Whiteman said, the conference was a welcome reminder that although a significant issue can be an all-consuming focus for the media during a particular celebratory year, such as last year's bicentenary of the passing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, the issue itself is of continuing importance.

Mike Dockery, founder of Midlands Jamaica Aid and his wife Sharon, chair of the chairty, deserve whole-hearted congratulations for the enormous amount of thought and work they put into making Saturday's conference such a great success. They clearly inspired many people to be involved in organising different aspects of the day to making presentations.

I gained some useful insights from the various contributions, not least from the Youth Presentation which I thought was very good. Martin Glenn and Chrissy Meleady raised a great many interesting and thought-provoking perceptions in their analyses; criminologist Martin through his intensive work with young Black men and Chrissy through her work with early years children. 

A fantastically vibrant entertainment was provided by Andrea Green on her guitar through song, some of it in a language beyond my recognition! Her exuberant personality filled the lecture theatre and enveloped us from the moment she began - what a talent for connecting with people! A splendid 20-minute breather from all the talking! And Lord Mayor, Cllr Derek Capey, demonstrated his patois, at the beginning of his speech with a little Potteries' dialect from the town Arnold Bennett neglected, Fenton.

Amidst such a range of talent, I was humbled to be asked to make a presentation about Fairtrade in relation to past and present day forms of slavery. I was told the wonderful news today that two people returned to London having been encouraged by my talk to become Fairtrade supporters!

Sadly, although Mike Dockery was too unwell in hospital to be physically present, nevertheless, his presence permeated the whole event, and because of his inspiration and ceaseless work in founding and developing Midlands Jamaica Aid, the Saturday conference was but one of the many worthwhile fruits of his labours.

Critical debate fails to rise to the occasion

It was a decidedly lack-lustre debate at Full Council this afternoon on the Governance Commission's 14 recommendations which Council was being asked to approve. Even the three Coalition leaders, Labour, Tory and Lib Dem, felt the need to temper their support through purportedly heartfelt reservations about some of the recommendations. The BNP and the City Independents were openly critical of a number of the recommendations. Single member wards, all-out four-yearly elections and fewer councillors are three decidedly disliked recommendations. In contrast, those were three key suggestions included in my submisison to the Commission earlier this year. The present three-members per ward with annual elections by thirds not only confuses a great many residents the results produce little or no change, whatever the feeling expressed via the ballot box.  

I have argued strongly that if we are to tackle the widespread disengagement from the local political process of the vast majority of the City's electorate it is imperative that we create a system which is clear and direct.

The disengagement is increasingly changing into disenchantment with the system. Neither are signs of a healthy democratic process. The calibre of debate did little to reassure onlookers that the Council is fit to meet the enormous challenges faced by the City. I have received some very critical, negative feedback from people in the public gallery. If we really mean business we must start demonstrating that we can indeed deliver. 

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Full Council postponed during UNISON strike

The scheduled 6-weekly meeting of the Full Council this afternoon was postponed until tomorow morning at 11am. Hundreds of Unison members were on strike yesterday and today as part of the national action against the below inflation pay offer by the government. The Lord Mayor, elected mayor, chief executive and a number of councillors will eed to be out of the Chamber before 1.30pm so that they reach the new Tunstall Northern By-Pass ready for the ceremonial opening proceedings due to start at 2pm. That pressure will undoubtedly affect the manner of debate on such weighty agenda items as the Governance Commission report, the Independent Remuneration Panel's report on Members' pay and allowances and the Youth Justice Programme. In the meantime, let me congratulate the Chell Heath Residents' Association for inspiring so many people to get actively involved in a splendidly revived Chell Heath Carnival which has not been seen around for many a decade. Fortunately, the weather last Saturday was kind and managed to brighten up as the day developed. The community spirit was really good and lots of people said how pleased they were with the event.

Stoke leaders meet the Minister in London

This morning, ahead of Friday's Full Council debate on the government-appointed Stoke-on-Trent Governance Commission's report, I spent 45 minutes with local government minister, John Healey, MP, along with other group leaders, the elected mayor and the Council Manager. Commission chair, Professor Michael Clarke made it abundantly clear at the public launch of his Commission's report in May that the 14 recommendations were not presented for a pick and mix response; cherry picking was clearly ruled out. Unsurprisingly, the minister emphasised that view. He expressed the clear hope that Council would accept the recommendations following Friday's debate. By the following Friday, he will be ready to receive suggested names for the Transition Board (14th recommendation) to be established "to monitor progress on the implementation of our recommendations and help hold the Council to account."

This is why I headed my 28th May entry Stoke-on-Trent City Council on probation. The recommendations have not been welcomed by all Members, particularly the first three: i) move to all-out elections  ii) single member wards  iii) a smaller Council. In addition to Friday's Full Council debate, the recommendations and the merits of an elected mayor and cabinet system versus an elected leader by councillors and cabinet system will be debated on air next Tuesday, 22nd July, 6pm-7pm on Radio Stoke and repeated a number of times the following day.

According to the City Council's half-page advertisement in today's local daily, The Sentinel, "BBC Radio Stoke has put together an expert panel to give their views and answer your questions... *Mark Fisher MP for Stoke Central  *Peter Kent-Baguley Democracy 4 Stoke Campaign  *Christine King Vice Chancellor Staffordshire University and Member of the Governance Commission  *Mark Meredith Elected Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent  *Mick Temple Professor of Journalism and Politics, Staffordshire University.

The debate will be held and recorded at Stoke Film Theatre. Tickets for the event are available via Radio Stoke 01782 221214. Questions may be emailed to: questions.stoke@bbc.co.uk

Stoke-on-Trent's civic reception for honoured guest Archbishop Desmond Tutu 

Hundreds of invited guests packed Stoke Town Hall on Friday evening for the City's unique event of greeting Desmond Tutu. Although visibly weary from his long haul flight from Hawaii, he over-ran his scheduled press conference and then in the Town Hall before some 600 hundred guests he delivered a 12-minute masterclass on public speaking. Never have I experienced such total hush amidst hundreds of people - one really could have heard a pin drop - for everyone was utterly captivated by his every word. And each word was delivered with an exactitude of deliberate effect, some softly, others more emphatically, but all so well paced, in fact, spaced with such measured gaps of silence very few public speakers would dare attempt. BBC Radio Stoke's Lamont Howie was the evening's compere and for his Sunday morning programme today he had edited out the pauses and thus reduced the 12 minute delivery to a 3 minute speech! Nine minutes of silence within a total of 12 minutes! But to what brilliant effect the Archbishop deployed those 9 minutes of silence. In contrast, the 3 minute version could have been more or less anyone.

In 1992 I was introduced to the Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh's Being Peace (ISBN 0-938077-00-7). A little book, with few more than 100 pages, but with a powerful potential to turn the receptive mind from working towards peace to being peace. Desmond Tutu similarly embodies being peace which is why his message of peace is so powerful. He brought to that hall the living reality of reaching out for reconciliations, bringing together different peoples, as he said, women, men, black, white, gay, lesbian, Stokies even (!) recognising all the differences which bind us and celebrarting the joys and happiness we can all share.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, thank you for coming to Stoke-on-Trent.  

Congratulations to Rafael Nadal after wresting the Wimbledon Men's Singles title from Roger Federer, who of course has held it for the past 5 successive years.

Often almost too tense to watch, with Nadal so close to clinching the title on a couple of occasions, nevertheless this must rate as one of the truly great championships of all time with little to separate the two players.  

638 Squadron again: Anti-Academies Alliance statement on Ed Balls' announcement that 638 schools should 'improve or close.' (issued 1st July 2008)

The announcement by Ed Balls that 638 schools must 'improve or close' with the implication that they are failing has shocked many involved in education. The threat to turn them into Academies or Trust schools rubs salt in the wound.

We believe that it is a dangerous knee-jerk reaction which will further damage education.
We now want to get hundreds of names added to the statement.

We aim to release it to the press before Ed Balls' 50 day deadline is up for Local Authorities to respond to his proposals. That is the 4th August but we want names in by 28th July. Please circulate the letter to every councillor, governor, trade unionist, parent you possibly can, and return it to us.

Why not send it to your local paper with additional local names?

The letter in petition format is at: http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=41&func=fileinfo&id=90

The text of the Anti-Academies Alliance statement:

Ed Balls' announcement that 638 schools, 20% of England's secondary schools, should ‘improve or close' is very damaging. It implies that these schools are failing. Yet Ofsted reports show many of the schools to be improving. Some have been described as outstanding. In most cases GCSE results are improving.

Perhaps most damningly this announcement appears to have no concern for the impact on the pupils, parents, teachers, governors, head teachers and support staff.

We are particularly disturbed at the arbitrary nature of the success criteria. Are schools with 29% A* to C failing more than those with 31%? We are also concerned at the proposed remedies. Closing schools and re-opening them as academies or trust schools is hailed as the solution. Yet 26 academies are included in his list of failing schools. What is he going to do with them?

This announcement was not based on careful consideration of the evidence of what works. Had it been, Ed Balls would have seen that other school improvement programmes - such as Excellence in Cities- have already proved to be successful. Naming and shaming schools does not improve them.

Regrettably, this ‘National Challenge' policy seems to be more to do with knee-jerk political calculations. We, therefore, call on the government to withdraw the description of the 638 schools as failing, and to remove the threat to close or convert them into academies or trusts.

Initial Signatories

Ken Purchase MP, Alasdair Smith, National Secretary Anti Academies Alliance, Fiona Millar Education Journalist, Francis Beckett Education Journalist, Melian Mansfield, chair Campaign for State Education (CASE), Martin Dore, General Secretary Socialist Education Association (SEA), Christine Blower NUT General Secretary, Sally Hunt UCU General Secretary

latest signatories

David Taylor MP, Lynne Jones MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Ian Gibson MP, Meg Maguire MP

Professor Ken Jones, University of Keele; Matt Wrack FBU General Secretary;  
Councillors: Ben Duncan, Brighton & Hove City Council; Romayne Phoenix, Lewisham Council; Michael Lavalette, Preston City Council; Ray Holmes, Bolsover District Council; Peter Kent-Baguley, Stoke-on-Trent City Council; Phillip Solloway, Barrow Borough Council; Dominic McCavish, Barrow Borough Council;
add your name:
Name .........................................................

Organisation .........................................................

Position ..........................................................

Email ..........................................................

Send to: office@antiacademies.org.uk

Commission & Co-ordinate

The Blairite central command and control dream of stripping local councils of their assets and services is set to drive a coach and horses through local democracy in Stoke-on-Trent. Already, of course, Children and Young People's Services are in the hands of the private profit-making company, SERCO. The government finds it congenial to deal directly with the directors of a private company who will do what is required of them; that is so much less bother than having to deal with elected councillors who just might have a contrary view about what's best for their local area. All this despite the government spin on devolution and sometimes, double devolution! And then we witness the occasional Westminister charade of ministerial hand-wringing over the ever decreasing turnouts at election times.

Our Elected Mayor has been a star government pupil and learned his anti-democratic credentials with distinction. Why bother to take a major proposal such as out-sourcing the Council's services, which covers at least two major departments, to the General Purposes Committee and thereafter to Full Council, as the Constitution would suggest.

Far better to short circuit the time-consuming and argumentative democratic process and refer the report to the Executive and Members' Board (ie the Council Manager's grace and favour set-up for the Elected Mayor and his oversized Cabinet of 10 portfolio holders). So, the meeting of the Board yesterday evening approved the Report and the only democratic input from Councillors will be via Call-In of that decision and the debate at the meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee to which the Call-In will be referred. The cobbled coalition of Labour, Tory and Lib Dems ensures a majority at the so-called Scrutiny Committee to reject any amendments. Even if through absence the coalition majority fails, the contrary decision/s sent back to the Exectuive will be simply rejected. Full stop on democracy.

 Swan Square, Burslem, the heart of the "Mother Town of the Potteries" is currently undergoing a £250,000 make-over. Gone are the underground lavatories surrounded by chunky iron railings seen in the picture to the left (looking north) with the Swan pub in the left background. To the right, background are two of BT's steel and glass telephone boxes with flat roofs, adding nothing of worth to the square and in fact looking like part of the clutter. The picture below, taken in the early stages of the start of the surface works, shows the Swan now boarded-up awaiting a new tenant.

But, mysteriously, and wonderfully, the picture shows the hideous designless BT 'phone boxes, replaced by a pair of iconic Jubilee K6 kiosks.

The transformation is thanks to Hugh Urwin of Live & Learn Land, Hamil Road, Burslem, who has a passion for Burslem and for its community involvement in its post-pottery manufacturing heyday rejuvenation. Let's hope BT sees the value of the re-introduction of a pair of K6s to Swan Square.