"The emmet's inch and eagle's mile"

Jack in a rare polemic against the enveloping blight of feckless modernity - twenty six seconds just found on the web posted three years ago by Russell Davies who's no Luddite, indeed seems as fascinated as Jack always was with inventiveness and gadgetry. I asked members of the illustrious JH Committee, by email,  if they recognised the clip. Ian Wegg came back to me almost at once:

Hi Simon. That is from the video release of Out of Town - the 'Appleby Fair' edition (which is episode 1 of the DVDs*). The hook is used by gypsies to hang a cooking pot or kettle over a fire, which leads him into the Appleby Fair film. He is unusually animated isn't he! Regards, Ian.

That yard of curly iron bar is the symbol of a dying culture. One of the rich small cultures which are giving ... all the way from the Amazonian Indians to the Eskimos which are giving way before a tide of denim and plastic and microchips and sparking plugs and frozen snacks. I'm reminded over and over of the inaccuracy of the distinction made between people who welcome change and those who resist it. Far from being in either category Jack detested the lazy disposition that propagates such polarisations, vexed by the mind-set which, amid buzzing blooming confusion, sees only black and white, confuses that with 'plain speaking'; claims it as 'common-sense'. Such thinking - horridly prevalent, amplified by torrents of printed and spoken comment, examines a grain of sand and sees - what? A grain of sand; looks at a wild flower and sees what? A wild flower. Pretty. Looks at the palm of their hand and sees? "My hand. So?"  Watching a clock, notes an hour's passed. I saw a quote by Corfucius - a Corfu blogger - sharing the confidence of a mentor who said to him, while a youth, "anyone who isn't thoroughly confused is simply very badly informed." William Blake hit the mark on plastic thinking - A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent. How my stepfather would have enjoyed conversations with Socrates who, in a few minutes of question and answer, could hook a plastic thought, play it for a few minutes and drop it with vexing ease into his keep-net of clichés. For dispensing bewilderment he was tried for corrupting youth! He and Jack would have shared jokes and anecdotes and laughed a lot.

* These are the commercially available VHS tapes, and now DVDs, that Jack made with Steve Wade. These episodes, included OB film from earlier broadcasts but none went out live - my stepfather's great preference. I continue to search out recordings of his original broadcasts.

Wandering along a downland slope twenty years ago Jack shows a close cropped hillside full of cowslips - product of regular sheep grazing and rabbits feeding, then an example of more recent ley grass monoculture - cocksfoot, ryegrass, white clover, and then an enclosed meadow. once commons, full of flowers and insects that live on them, now rare in the British countryside. Thirty and more varieties of herbage he knows best by their traditional country names; for instance, ox-eye, marguerite or dog daisy. 'Many of my relatives must have been conceived among the dog daisies."

...among the dog daisies

*****
Anyway I'm off to London after a meet this morning with Edmund Branch, following a meet yesterday with Cllr.Mahmood Hussain and Yvonne Wager to help agree ways of ensuring the future of Central Handsworth Practical Care Project, Qatib Ali having circulated notice of his resignation from the project 'I have taken over'.

It's going to have to be managed participatively and constructively by a like minded committe of trusted volunteers who get on with each other and can be audited for their stewardship of public money.

Hi Simon. The organisation that I thought may be able to offer some advice assistance to the Practical Care Project is: Community Network 4 Birmingham Best regards Yvonne, Birchfield Neighbourhood Manager

Tonight I'm doing a seminar with councillors at Lambeth on questioning skills for scrutiny Tomorrow I'm up to Darlington to meet Mark Taylor and borrow his old VHS video of live Old Country broadcasts which I'll pass on to the expertise of Tony Herbert for digitising. Meantime I've been sent this sweet little clip of an Italian bloke weaving through the streets of Genoa on his green folding bicycle - just as I do - including buses, trams and trains in his journey. His accompanying letter:

I am now in a position to share the videoclip we produced with Monleone Films for the presentation I gave during last Toward Carfree Cities Conference held in York. It shows how it is possible to move effortlessly by bike in a hilly city. No more climbs thanks to elevators, funiculars, buses, nor long rides thanks to metro trains. It provides a snapshot of the experience we gathered since 2004 on this mobility concept. Feel free to contact me for any further information. Cheers, Massimiliano Amirfeiz, Green Mobility, Genova (Italy)

** ** **
The Regional Governor of the Ionian Islands, Spyros Spyrou and the Mayor of Corfu, John Trepeklis, and the Chairman of the Department of the Technical Chamber of Corfu, Nikos Spingos, have co-organized an event to update people on plans for wind farms on Corfu. This will be done by Evangelos Dialynas, a mechanical electrical engineer and Professor from NTUA (National Technical University of Athens). The meeting will be held next Thursday, March 31 at 17.30 in the hall of TEE, 13 Alexandras Avenue - 3rd floor - Corfu.

Ο Περιφερειάρχης Ιονίων Νήσων, Σπύρος Σπύρου, ο Δήμαρχος Κέρκυρας, Γιάννης Τρεπεκλής και ο Πρόεδρος του Τμήματος Κέρκυρας του Τεχνικού Επιμελητηρίου, Νίκος Σπίγγος, πήραν την πρωτοβουλία να συνδιοργανώσουν εκδήλωση με θέμα την ενημέρωση για τα αιολικά πάρκα.  Η ενημέρωση θα γίνει από τον Ευάγγελο Διαλυνά, καθηγητή του Ε.Μ.Π., μηχανολόγο – ηλεκτρολόγο μηχανικό, την προσεχή Πέμπτη 31 Μαρτίου, στις 17.30 στην αίθουσα εκδηλώσεων του Τ.Ε.Ε. (Λ. Αλεξάνδρας 13 – 3ος όροφος – Κέρκυρας).

Phaedo

Windy, snowing, murky and lots of time to stay indoors reading with occasional forays accompanied by dogs. Yesterday we went east to Dulsie Bridge to see an old friend of my mother and stopped on the way home to view the churning waters of the Findhorn as they passed beneath the narrow and graceful bridge that takes the road from Drynachon to the coast at Nairn or towards Inverness. It's a defile of barely 15 metres following a broad shallow stone strewn stretch of rippling water. The river suddenely deepens, backs up and swivels peaty brown but clean through a zigzag of birch strewn granite cliffs. It roars and rumbles, to my delight - the safe spectator - peering into the miniature turbulence, while the terriers dash too and fro hoping for rabbits leaving hardly a yard unsniffed, before we clamber back in the car and head for the warmth of Brin Croft, crumpets, tea and a read of the distant news. * * * My eldest sister phoned my mother from New York and told of crises "It's dreadful here. Two friends have lost everything..." * * * Lin phoned the other evening to tell me of the delightful coincidence of having, as tenants among the several who’ve applied to one of her two flats in Birmingham, two Greeks, one from Corfu and another from Thessaly - the latter bearing the name, would I believe it, after our favourite song in Elytis' Axion Esti - of 'Swallow' -'Ena To Chelidoni' - "...after which I was named" he said. These seem like signs, certainly delightful happenstance. Others would say it was a sign of the times and the closer ties between Britain and Eastern Europe. * * * I have finished Phaedo, in which Plato imparts the story of Socrates’ death via an imagined conversation that occurs in Phlius, inland just west of Corinth in the Peloponnesus (109A-118, references from the 1578 edition of Plato by Henri Estienne) in which Phaedo of Elis, a witness, tells Echecrates, a fellow philosopher, what happened in the prison in Athens. Towards the end of day just before he chooses his time to take the hemlock, as voted by the democratic government of Athens, Socrates, describes the world in language different from the precise arguments of the earlier discussion with his companions in his cell. The spherical earth is in equilibrium in:

“a uniform medium … vast in size. We who dwell between the river Phasis (which flows from the eastern shore of the Black Sea near Poti where I’ve not been, though I’ve seen the Bosporus) and the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar through which I’ve often passed – though only once in my own boat in 1965) inhabit only a minute portion of it…like ants or frogs round a pond; and there are many other peoples inhabiting similar regions… the real earth is…variegated and marked out in different colours, of which the colours we know are only limited samples, like the paints artists use; but there the whole earth is made up of such colours, and others far brighter and purer still. One section is a marvellously beautiful purple. Another is golden. All that is white of it is whiter than chalk or snow and the rest is similarly made up of the other colours, still more and lovelier than those which we have seen. Even these very hollows in the earth, full of water and air, assume a kind of colour as they gleam amid the different hues around them, so that that there appears to be one continuous surface of varied colours.” ’

Socrates’ description goes on for minutes, describing the mingling diversity of this cosmos, its mighty flows of redemptive and retributive rivers, the multiplicity of its inhabitants in many stages of life, with the limited view of us ants and frogs in a prison cell – and Socrates doesn’t mean the cell they are all in at the time. Then he says it’s about time to have a bath to save the women ‘“the trouble of washing me when I am dead”’. He goes out and, Plato - avoiding the scene - writes of Socrates seeing his children – ‘two little sons and one big boy’ - and the women of his household, then returning to his friends.

The warder arrives:“I’m sure you’re not angry with me" he says, "but with them, because you know who are responsible. So now, goodbye, and try to bear what must be as easily as you can.’ As he spoke he burst into tears, and turning round, went away. “Goodbye to you too” said Socrates “What a charming person! All the time I’ve been here he’s visited me, and sometimes had discussions with me, and shown me the greatest kindness” Then Socrates has Crito send for the man with the poison, who comes in to his cell. He asks him what he should do. “Just drink it and then walk about until you feel a weight in your legs, and then lie down. Then it will act of its own accord.” Socrates takes the cup ‘without a tremor’ and says “I pray the gods that my removal from this world to the other may be prosperous.” With these words, quite calmly and with no sign of distaste, he drained the cup in one breath. Up till this time most of us had been fairly successful in keeping back our tears, but when we saw that he was drinking, that he had actually drunk it, we could do so no longer. In spite of myself the tears came pouring out, so that I covered my face and wept broken-heartedly – not for him, but for my own calamity in losing such a friend. Crito had given up before me, and had gone out when he could not restrain his tears. But Apollodorus, who had never stopped crying even before, now broke out into such a storm of passionate weeping that he made everyone in the room break down, except Socrates himself, who said “Really, my friends, what a way to behave! Why that was my main reason for sending away the women, to prevent this sort of disturbance; because I am told that one should make one’s end in a tranquil frame of mind. Calm yourselves and try to be brave.” This made us feel ashamed and we controlled our tears…the man who had administered the poison felt Socrates legs and pinched them and asked if he could feel. Socrates said “No”. He felt him again and said that when the numbness reached his heart Socrates would be gone. The coldness was spreading about his waist when Socrates uncovered his face – for he had covered it up – and said “Crito, we ought to offer a cock to Asclepius (the god of healing). See to it and don’t forget.” “No it shall be done. Are you sure there’s nothing else?” Socrates made no reply, but after a little while he stirred and when the man uncovered him, his eyes were fixed. When Crito saw this he closed his mouth and eyes. Such was the end of our comrade, who was we may fairly say, of all those whom we knew in our time, the bravest, and also the wisest and most upright man.

There are many thoughts I have. I hear rumours of Socrates' volatile relationship with his wife, Xanthippe, about whom he has nothing but good words, but who has since been slandered. I wonder at the joyful certainty with which this man, about to die and devoted to acknowledging his own perplexity, describes the unseen cosmos to his friends. Surely this was a consolatory paean for them. How far has Plato, as would any historian, altered his ageless account of the end of his mentor? What can I make of the traditional view that Socrates and even more Plato were anti-democratic? I do, influenced by Maine, accept that democracy, in its many forms, is 'only a system of government' and depends as much as monarchy on the integrity of those it empowers, and the ingenuity of those who have designed and and maintained the checks and balances that best resist the corrupting effects of power - whether of the monarch or the people. * * * One of my Japanese students, Eriko Inagaki came up by train from Glasgow and stayed with us from noon to 5.00pm. After lunch we took her to Dores to gaze on Loch Ness. She e-mailed me later:

..Again thank you so much for your kindness. I am always impressed with British people's good taste. And that, in most cases there is one extra room for visitors. We do not have such custom but I want to take in your welcoming attitude for guests and especially foreigners. I was also moved to see Margie's impartial treat for me despite the fact that she is a carer for Barbara. Barbara astonished me by her beauty and dignity! I want to get older like she does. Your childhood was extremely charming. I will tell about it to C*** since we are planning to meet soon, after I go back. Your talk about British climate (not severe to put people in danger) reminded me of the Japanese essayist 'Tetsuro Watsuji'. He wrote an essay on climate from three perspectives - meadow (Western Europe), desert (Arab) and monsoon(Asia). Concerning meadow, he says by and large the climate in Western Europe is temperate and rational, which is evident if you look at trees having their regular shape, not disturbed. It is free from humid and killingly hot weather, and that, even in winter the temperature does not change through the course of the day so people are not affected by big change within a day. He concludes by saying that it is relatively easier to control nature in Western Europe. When I read this essay, i thought he had generalised too much and there must be exceptions. Especially due to climate change, there will be some cases where his categorisation do not apply to. What do you think of his viewpoints? 

Dear Eriko. I was delighted by your sweet words, as was Margi and my mum. We were all delighted you came but how I wish we could have shown you more of the Highlands. Charles II (who was in exile in France during our Commonwealth after the execution of his father, Charles I), said that he missed the English climate "for a gentleman may go out of doors at any time of the year in ordinary clothes and not suffer discomfort." It may be an exaggeration but I think it's substantially true - a product of our Gulf Stream climate, which doesn't benefit France. We are maritime like Japan, but we do not get regular typhoons or hurricanes and tsunamis happen only every 50 years or more when a coincidence of very high tides and winds blowing in the same direction builds up the height of the sea. The last time such a thing happened in my lifetime was 1953 in East Anglia. I think Watsuji is pretty accurate - though I'm not sure people would call our weather 'rational'. It's apparent unpredictability is why the British are so often talking about the weather. It may not kill or injure you, but it can be the reason why you have a good or a bad wedding, parade, cricket match, horse race or village fête! We have all these cards celebrating a 'white Christmas' but I never knew such a Christmas until I went to the USA. One thing the English weather does very well is a wet grey breezy chilly day that makes everything slightly damp - and this works best in the long streets of old industrial towns where the buildings and the people are something like the weather. The other side of that is fresh spring day, when it is nearly summer, in early May when there is a clear sky and a fresh dew on the ground and on the new flowers and blossom, and the birds are singing so that it seems like the first day of the beginning of the world. T.S.Eliot famously wrote that 'April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land...'. This is because April can seem, for several days, like May and the coming summer, and then you get a sudden frost that can kill many budding flowers. It's not rational! With climate change (whether long term or cyclic) many of the traditional signs, never entirely predictable, are less and less reliable. We are mowing grass in November. There are flowers budding in the winter and birds and insects tied to particular months appear nearly all year. Whether we will suffer more extreme conditions as a result of climate change is yet to be seen. The area where you visited when you came to Inverness was once covered by ice 12 miles deep. That was over 10,000 years ago. The results of that glaciation can be noted on the ground in Strath Nairn and other Scottish valleys. I had a friend, now dead, called James Gindin who, among other books, wrote one called The English Climate, at the same time as he was writing the biography of one of our very English novelists, John Galsworthy. I hope you get to visit Scotland again and I hope we may meet in Tokyo in June and that you will continue sending e-mails. I send my best wishes to C***. Thanks so much for the book on local government in Japan. I am reading it very carefully. Do you need it back? Bon voyage and kindest regards. Simon

Out of corruption comes integrity

“Socrates: ... Do you intend then to avoid well-governed states and the higher forms of civilised society? And if you do will life be worth living?...” Crito 51D-52E

There's a fleeting picture of momentary headlines, seen in a bookshop in Inverness, while above is a snippet of timeless conversation, transcribed and to some extent imagined later by Plato, between Socrates and his friend Crito, as the latter tries to persuade him - for his children’s and his friends’ sake - to get out of Athens and escape the death penalty imposed on him by the democratic government of Athens. All this hardly 2500 years ago. I’m reminded of the biblical riddle in Judges “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”. Wild bees had made a hive inside the carcass of a lion killed by Samson (as a child I used to see the image on Tate & Lyle treacle tins at home). It is customary to criticise Socrates, and especially Plato, for anti-democratic values, as opposed to impulses, but it seems to me, as I study ‘The Last Days of Socrates’, having re-read the Meno, that Socrates died for an ideal of democracy as do most of those who fight for it, respecting the debated and questionable decision – 221 for acquittal and 280 against – to condemn him for heresy and corrupting the minds of the young. It is this paradox - that this form of government, which killed Socrates because he obeyed its decision, is more or less the same troublesome thing we allow to rule us now – messy, volatile, inconsistent and cruel, and occasionally sublime through the words and actions of exceptional people and events. Out of corruption, integrity? * * * A good letter from a Greek academic friend about my search on behalf of Thannassis and Kostas from somewhere in Europe arrived this morning:

Hello my friend! The truth is that my previous laptop got damaged and I lost all contacts (and the laptop). I am really glad that you e-mailed me. As a matter of fact, I will be off school this Thursday and I will be going to Greece on Friday, the same old way via Venice. I will stay in Corfu for two weeks, so we will be able to meet there. I have a two-day interview in xxx for a post in the xxx in Athens, but I will be there. I will have to come back to work in xxx on April 5th, but then I will take 4 days Easter (Greek) break and I will fly to Corfu. As far as the document goes, you know that perhaps some local(s) might have it stored somewhere without even knowing what it is all about. We can talk to some of them if you wish. Panagiotis Metallinos must be the tavern (XRYSOMALLIS) owner's grandfather. I have heard that as well about Corfiots wanting British influence on the island for many different reasons, security, ease in transport as British subjects and more. My uncle xxx xxxx (a great lawyer) told me the story. I also have a cousin who is a history expert that we could talk to him. Looking forward to our meeting, All the best! A

My delighted reply to A - a philosopher by the way:

Dear A. Your reply is an example of that makes historical research - or indeed any research - so exciting and pleasurable. Apart from that it's good to hear from you and I'm glad we are on line again. I will make a special note of your addresses. By the way I'm reading 'The Last Days of Socrates' again. Now I'm 66 it makes so much more sense than when it was required reading at school. What an irritating old man he must have been and how people - some people (including me I hope) - would have loved his company, and - I regret to say - got sadistic pleasure at watching Socrates running argumentative circles around over-opiniated and unperplexed people. I look forward to meeting in Corfu. Xerete, Simon

* * * Meanwhile back to the problem of the Victoria Jubilee Allotments and the prolonged delay in implementing the planning gain agreement with Birmingham City Council on the site.

Dear Cllr. Brom, VICTORIA JUBILEE ALLOTMENTS: DELAYED 106A IMPLEMENTATION My apologies for not being able to attend the forthcoming Ward Committee. I am visiting my mother in Scotland, and I have asked someone to raise this under matters of urgent local concern on Tuesday evening. The planning application - N/01514/03/FUL - to build on the VJA site with its accompanying Section 106A was determined in early 2004. In the Evening mail of 8 May 2005, Paul Flannery, technical director for Westbury Homes, said: "Westbury is legally obliged to comply with the terms of the 106 planning agreement and as part of this we will be fulfilling our plan to provide the allotments and playing fields as stipulated in this agreement. Existing hedgerows and trees required to be retained will be in accordance with our planning consent." It is now Spring 2008, a new developer has taken over from Westbury, and we see no signs of progress on the planning gain agreement to provide a cricket ground, football fields, changing rooms, allotments and gardeners' storage buildings, laid out and transferred to the city council and integrated into Handsworth Park. We have repeatedly heard that the developer cannot proceed until a given number of homes have been occupied but the local community were never informed of this clause in the consent at the time it was agreed. In the meantime Handsworth is missing needed spaces for leisure and recreation with all that such resources contribute to the area's social resilience. This matter was discussed at the last meeting of the Handsworth Park Association and I was asked by the committee to write to you to ask if you with other Ward Councillors, could arrange, as a matter of urgency, a meeting with representatives of Charles Church, the developer. It was hoped that this meeting could include our Community Planning Officer Alan Orr, the Chair of Handsworth Cricket Club, (Mr Basil Hylton on xxx & xxx), a member or members of the City Council's executive (Cllr Len Gregory? Cllr Ray Hassall?) with allotments and sport in their portfolio, the relevant Scrutiny Chair (Cllr.John Alden?), the Chair of the Handsworth Park Association Graham Winfield, hopefully myself, and Peter Short (and possibly Penny Smith, Asst. Director Leisure & Support Services) for Handsworth Park, and anyone else you judge appropriate. Thanking you as always for your continued concern and support. Yours sincerely Simon Baddeley, Handsworth Allotments Information Group * * * Obama's speech in Philadelphia - 37 minutes.

Searching for the petition from Ano Korakiana

This book- The British and the Hellenes: Struggles for Mastery in the Eastern Mediterranean 1850-1960 by Robert Holland and Diana Markides [see Richard Clogg's review in The TLS 20/6/07]- has taken ages to come, but I'm delighted it's at last arrived, having awaited with the same eagerness as once, as a child, I anticipated the insertion through our letter box in Hampstead, weekly comics inside a roll of newspapers for grown-ups. In those days - the 1950s - I could smell the newspaper and especially the print - some of which came off on my hands. This book from Oxford University Press is well made, so even though the modern paper is outside my olfactory range I get a faint smell of the binding glue, at least that's Lin's diagnosis, after I'd passed the pristine book across the kitchen table for her to sniff. First sentence:

Greece, Lord Palmerston once remarked, was an 'emotional word'.

The chapters that especially interest me are those linked to the cover image of a troop of British soldiers emerging from the Old Fortress of Corfu, a watercolour, circa 1850, by George Savage MD. Between pages 13 and 80 are Chapter 2 - Gladstone and the Greeks: The Extraordinary Mission to the Ionian Islands, 1858-1859, and Chapter 3 - The Abandonment of the Ionian Protectorate, 1849-1864. At last I get to learn that Gladstones' journey from England to Corfu lasted from just over a fortnight from 8-24 November 1858 via Vienna relying on train, and steamer down the Adriatic (pp.22-24) and he left Corfu on 19 February 1859 on HMS Terrible for Trieste having toured the Ionian Islands and had talks in Athens during his twelve week visit to Greece. I like these kind of details because although I do not expect a reference in the book to the actual document I seek for Thanasis and Kostas I feel closer to the level of detail that I will need to dig around among primary sources at the Public Record Office at Kew. I think I can get there on 12 March. I phoned this morning and chatted to a friendly librarian. Adrian, who did some swift searches through Colonial Office Records in the ranges suggested to me by Eleni Calligas in her e-mail of 14 January 08:

I would suggest that the best place to look is the High Commissioner's Correspondence at the Colonial Office archive of the Protection, housed in the Public Record Office, now re-named National Archives but still held at the Kew. I would look at the last couple of years, from 1862 onwards - probably starting from CO136/177 to /184. If such a petition does exist and is signed by inhabitants of the village, it would be interesting to identify the local figure of importance, as the initiative probably emanated from there.

He was finding the same things I'd found. The level was too high and I need papers from villages, as described by Thanasis and Kostas in their letter of 5 December '07.

Dear Simon, It is said that before the Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece (1864), inhabitants of Ano Korakiana signed a "paper" asking the British Government to keep the islands under Britain...We have been looking for this paper for years at the Greek archives without result. We wonder if you can help us by searching this paper in British archives (Parliament, Colonies archives, Foreign Office etc). We are sure that one of the names that signed the paper is Panos, Panayiotis or Panagiotis Metallinos (Μετταλινος). He was the 'leader'. A similar paper has been signed by inhabitants of Kinopiastes (another village in Corfu) and one village in Zakynthos island... [Note from the Ano Korakiana website: The oldest families still existing in Korakiana are ... Savvanis (since 1473), Vradis, Mandilas, Ionas, Markos, Metallinos, Laskaris, kaloudis, Linosporis, Reggis, Balatsinos, and finally, Kendarchos and Kefallonitis during the first half of the 16th century.]

I need to turn up with ID and proof of residence and then I can do some searching there and even order copies of documents. I'm not sanguine about finding any of these papers at once. They are reported, orally, as having been delivered to Sir Henry Storks, who, as a career administrator, took over from Gladstone's Extraordinary posting to the role of Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, and stayed in that post until the Protectorate ended in 1863. I don't know if the so-called 'papers' or petitions are in English or Greek or both; in print or writing. * * * I've been travelling, as usual, for work - London, Cardiff, Brighton, Stafford, Lowestoft, Norwich in the last few days. A glossy brochure (page 8) for my May workshop in Australia has arrived describing a session at the LGMA national conference at Gold Coast. I'm introducing a workshop called IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO: GETTING THE POLITICAL-MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP ROLES RIGHT:

Executive leadership in local government requires a recognition of the ambiguity, confusion and tension that arises at the overlapping boundaries of political and managerial spheres of action. In this workshop designed for elected officials and senior managers, Simon will show video extracts from a small sample of chief executive and elected member conversations to explain how politicians and managers in the UK jointly create government - a perennial puzzle of increasing consequence for the sector.'

* * * Meantime several local concerns have arisen over Handsworth Park and Black Patch Park, at recent evening meetings of my neighbours. The community centre on the Black Patch has been closed down but ill-secured for over 18 months so that footballers have no changing room and there's no meeting space for local groups to meet. An e-mail from our secretary, Andrew:

Hi Simon. Sue contacted me this morning about the community centre and I've been down myself this afternoon to have a look. Someone has been inside and broken windows from the inside - also Sue reported evidence that someone has tried to set the building on fire. She has been in touch with Sandwell MBC and the Fire Service. I couldn't get in so the doors appear to be secure but entry via the roof might still be possible. Sue is wondering whether we ought to contact the press about this. Sandwell haven't made any attempt to repair the damage to the roof or taken adequate measures to secure the windows and doors. Our fears are that the damage to the building will become beyond repair! Best Wishes Andrew

While I've agreed, at a meeting of the Handsworth Park Association, last night, to try to get a local councillor to arrange a meeting with the developer and other interested parties over the extended delays in laying out seven acres of private green space to pass on to Birmingham City Council. Here's the basis for a draft letter to Cllr. Kim Brom:

Dear Cllr. Brom. I wonder if you can arrange, as a matter of urgency, a meeting with the developer of the housing on the Victoria Jubilee Allotment, our Community Planning Officer, the Chair of Handsworth Cricket Club, the member of the City's executive who has allotments and sport in their portfolio and the relevant Scrutiny Chair. Graham Winfield, current Chair of the Handsworth Park Association, phoned me in Corfu, saying how concerned he was at the delayed arrival of the very much needed extra sports facilities on the VJA site that were going to be handed over to the city on conclusion of the 106A. As it is a large area of valuable green space - grass seeded with some remaining hedgerows is just sitting there. I was well aware the implementation of the planning gain deal was delayed. The developer was claiming the agreement included a provision to delay laying out the allotments, playing fields and other elements of the agreed plan until they had disposed of 40 units of the 80 houses on the site. By last July they had sold 20 (their figures and these may not be accurate now). This provision was not confirmed by the Planning Department. The matter is complicated by the change of developer (under terms I don't know) from Westbury to Church Homes. I've raised this matter twice at Ward Area sub and other meetings. During 2007 we've had the continuing problem of the 'green pathway' that was agreed as being integral to the original plan but which cannot connect the site to the Park because there's a 'hostage strip' of private land between the fence and the park where that gate should be. It is the garden of one house garden designed in by the developer which effectively means we have a public gate to nowhere and therefore makes the path impossible - so that what we feared and spoke strongly against, is a separation between the Park and the VJA site's recreational resources, and indeed the link between the park and the new housing. I understand the city planning department is, for the moment, not budging on this and even Alan Orr is unhappy about it. What the committee make of it when it is presented to them I don't know and perhaps a 'fudge' has been privately agreed that we don't know about. There's problem brewing here. The worst case involves the developer goes broke or selling to another developer who then lobbies to have more of the site to build cheaper homes so they can make what they view as a workable profit from the site. Meantime the community loses not only the land already built on, but yet more green space, and the planning gain deal is rejigged to provide fewer allotments and sports space and the project to bring new allotments and sports space into the area as part of Handsworth Park, is delayed for years...

* * * Just before I left the house where we'd had our meeting I saw a dark hard-wood bust of an African woman, along with other items that Dlci told me came from an artist friend in Kenya. As I examined the bust, she showed me privately taken colour photographs of people lying dead in their church in pools of dried blood following one of the violent episodes spreading across Kenya. The art is a from a Kenyan friend. The photos were sent by her to raise money and to show what has happened to her neighbours and relatives. I thought, in my safety, of Kevin Andrews' reference to murder driven by :...uncritical, unquestioning adherence to the revolting shame of lesser people’s stupidity, cynicism and cheapness.' (p.185 The Flight of Ikaros) * * * One of my mentor texts came in useful the other day when I was arguing about what could and couldn't be taught about political awareness in government. I said I'd learned from the Meno about problems of teaching things no-one can satisfactorily define. "But" I said "you can demonstrate its existence" "I'll accept that" he said. "Conversation helps" I said "and knowledge". The Meno patently indicates Socrates' courage; the vexation amounting to rage his words induced in some, and the danger he faced for being so persistently awkward. With Meno, the young man in the eponymous dialogue about the impossibility of teaching virtue, is sometimes uncomfortable, but there's respect even amid Meno's bewildered consternation, but, near its conclusion, the Democrat Antyus is drawn into the dialogue. Socrates had been arguing that even Thucydides for all his qualities could not teach his children to be good:

SOCRATES: Now, can there be a doubt that Thucydides, whose children were taught things for which he had to spend money, would have taught them to be good men, which would have cost him nothing, if virtue could have been taught. Will you reply that he was a mean man, and had not many friends among the Athenians and allies? Nay, but he was of a great family, and a man of influence at Athens and in all Hellas, and, if virtue could have been taught, he would have found out some Athenian or foreigner who would have made good men of his sons, if he could not himself spare the time from cares of state. Once more, I suspect, friend Anytus, that virtue is not a thing which can be taught. ANYTUS: Socrates, I think that you are too ready to speak evil of men: and, if you will take my advice, I would recommend you to be careful. Perhaps there is no city in which it is not easier to do men harm than to do them good, and this is certainly the case at Athens, as I believe that you know. SOCRATES: O Meno, think that Anytus is in a rage. And he may well be in a rage, for he thinks, in the first place, that I am defaming these gentlemen; and in the second place, he is of the opinion that he is one of them himself. But some day he will know what is the meaning of defamation, and if he ever does, he will forgive me. Meanwhile I will return to you, Meno..

At no point in this conversation has Socrates spoken evil, though Antyus had already reiterated contempt for Sophists - paid teachers of wisdom. How I loath sentences that include "if you take my advice", let alone the barely veiled threat "I would recommend you to be careful. Perhaps there is no city in which it is not easier to do men harm..."

[The images illustrating 'conversation' and 'knowledge' are from my research on the 'construction of trust' between politicians and administrators in government. They are in the public domain with permission from participants]