Black Patch Park

We had a good meeting - we reckoned who were there - about the Black Patch; with Nick at Sandwell Council.

Winding up the meeting: Friends of Black Patch Park at Sandwell Council house

"It's very chicken and egg. All about momentum!" said Nick twice, as we wound up a meeting that lasted a good hour. We'd explored and aired the continuing problems of lack of public money, the marginal location of the Black Patch on the Birmingham-Smethwick boundary; that there's not a single resident who opens a window on to the park. Nearly everyone who lives beside the place has been 'decanted' elsewhere. Black Patch has no obvious local constituency of users, but it is the focus of  significant communities of interest - rather than of place; urban explorers, industrial historians, Travellers, footballers. It has four schools nearby, connects to the Midland canal network and the SUSTRANS network; a wildlife haven amid industrial dereliction. It's haunted by Queen Henty...

A conversation with Bridget and Michelle on the Black Patch - June 2011

Nick, himself enthused by our separate presentations, will seek to widen interest in the Council. In the current situation we can hope for nothing better than that we, and all involved, should via a mix of luck and endeavour, arrive at a critical mass, a tipping point that brings serious attention to the meaning and significance of this neglected place.

Outside the Council House: "Are we agreed?" asks our Chairman Ron "It was a good meeting"

My message this morning to committee members of the Friends of Black Patch Park

Dear All 

BLACK PATCH PARK LINKS

Can we get these links to Nick ASAP - with brief explanations. 

- Draft history tour of the Black Patch mentioning it as the birthplace of Charlie Chaplin and the links to the Soho Foundry - key place-marker in the birth of the Industrial Revolution 

- The Wikipedia article on Black Patch Park 

- Song on YouTube by Bryn Phillips about Queen Henty's curse 

Best, Simon

Soho Foundry today

Going home from the Council House in Oldbury Phil gave me directions for getting home off the roads, so I cycled past Sandwell and Dudley Rail station - where I'd arrived after a 20 minute journey from a morning appointment in New Street - and came to a sloping alleyway that led me to the Birmingham Mainline canal, whose narrow towpath widened after Galton Bridge, a greenway into the centre of Birmingham on which I saw a heron, dodging me by yards, unfrightened; also geese, duck, seagulls, coots and moorhen and a few walkers and one other cyclist and greenery galore.

Under and over on the Birmingham Mainline. Those are pillars for the M5 motorway

From the mainline I turned off at the Soho Loop to cycle home past Winson Green Prison, via New Handsworth Road, the Soho Road, Ivy, Lansdowne and Broughton Roads, dropping in on the Victoria Jubilee on the way. I am enjoying just seeing my allotment and in a while will set to scything my neighbours overgrown plot...

Dear Jeevan/Gill. Can I get my scythe to to the seeding weeds all over my neighbours' plots? Plot 13 and 15. Best wishes, Simon 

Hi Simon, Plot 13 can be trimmed as it is now empty but plot 15 has a new tenant, his name is Rxxx so please don't cut this one. all the best, Gill

*** ***
The walk we planned in  Handsworth Park started late. Amy and Liz arrived with their children. Oliver had turned poorly with a temperature, clingy and weepy. We headed for Summerfield drop-in centre - a projected two hour wait.

Liz, Sophia, Oliver and our pregnant Amy 

I bought some Kalpol so Amy could dose my slightly reluctant grandson. She used a squirter to get two teaspoons into his mouth. Fifty minutes waiting with me doing some babysitting for Sophia and Amy's name comes up on the clinic TV screen.
It was all simple.
"He's probably fine. Keep an eye"
So now we headed for Handsworth Park, Linda joining us along with Oscar. So now we have hardly three weeks before the entry into the world of a grand-daughter.

Handsworth Park

Our picnic at last. Lin made the sandwiches

*** ***
As a result of a two day course I helped lead the other day I've been sled to do a morning for officers in a northern council:

MANAGING WITH POLITICAL AWARENESS 

Training for officers in xxx Council  (date to be agreed)

A morning seminar focusing on skills and values for working in a politically led organisation. It will:

• assist you to read and maintain your knowledge of the political scene,
• explore the skills and values basic to political-management working,
• develop and fine-tune your feel for the boundaries between political, managerial and professional work,
• add to your vocabulary of political concepts, offering models of competence and integrity in politically sensitive situations.

PROGRAMME

Brief introduction - overview of the morning

Reading the Council’s political environment: facilitated exercise

Defining political awareness: skills and values; talk and discussion

Work on ‘critical incidents’: facilitated exercise

Summary and feedback: Q & A

Tutor: Simon Baddeley’s expertise lies in the study of working relations between politicians and managers in local government. As well as in the UK, he’s taught and researched in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Japan, and Canada. During the morning Simon will stimulate interest in the skills and craft involved in managing with political awareness, as well as facilitating discussion among participants of the local political environment and its implications for officers.

**** ****

Dear G. Can I get my scythe to to the seeding weeds all over my neighbours' plots - Plots 13 and 15?  Best wishes 

Hi Simon, Plot 13 can be trimmed as it is now empty but plot 15 has a new tenant, his name is xx so please don't cut this one. all the best, G 

Understood. But xx's grasses are growing as high as 13’s. Any chance you could get him to get in touch with you re the impact of his ‘weeds’ on me and everyone else. S

Hi Simon I sympathise as I have the same problem but xx has only just taken on the plot so perhaps we need to give him a bit of time. He has been down so he is keen but I will talk to his plot rep and ask them to keep an eye on things. All the best. G

I've started scything Plot 13

A strimmer or, even better, a power scythe would do this job faster, so why rely on a traditional  scythe? I enjoy the process; the judgement involved in selecting the right blade, setting its angle in two dimensions, and positioning the handles of the snath, tailored to my height and the length of my arms; the physical skill of getting and keeping up a scything rhythm; knowing how to sharpen the blade, keeping it razor sharp with a whetstone every few minutes of work; the pleasure of hearing the slice of the blade as it fells the grass, its fallen smell and the quietness of the work. The ability to deal with chips and dents as a result of striking stones in the undergrowth. That's the process of peening with hammer and jig, which also ensures a sharp edge as a blade gets older; the sheer pleasure of owning, looking at, and holding, so simple and so ancient a tool.
A friend told me of an old groundsman in Birmingham who could shave down to bowling green standard with a scythe. I tried it on our front lawn last year and realised how it could be done - a blend of blade set, sharpening and rhythm.

• Margaret Prothero War and peace springs to mind.......... the only real satisfaction in life.(?)

  21 hours ago · Unlike · 1
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  Margaret Prothero satisfaction the wrong word. Peace (?)

  21 hours ago · Unlike · 1
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  Simon Baddeley Ah! Kalinov meadow! Margaret thanks so much for reminding me of perhaps the most important thing - the effect on the spirit of using a scythe - and your reference to War and Peace... Part 3:4 of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina when Levin to settle his temper takes up a well sharpened well-set scythe and mows http://ypmuseum.ru/en/2011-04-13-17-27-29/87.html
  

  
  

  Kalinov Meadow

  ypmuseum.ru
  

  Kalinov Meadow is the largest and the best meadow for mowing at Yasnaya Polyana....See More

THE PERSONAL matter that absorbed Levin during his conversation with his brother was this. Once in a previous year he had gone to look at the mowing, and being made very angry by the bailiff he had recourse to his favourite means for regaining his temper,—he took a scythe from a peasant and began mowing.
  He liked the work so much that he had several times tried his hand at mowing since. He had cut the whole of the meadow in front of his house, and this year ever since the early spring he had cherished a plan for mowing for whole days together with the peasants. Ever since his brother’s arrival, he had been in doubt whether to mow or not. He was loth to leave his brother alone all day along, and he was afraid his brother would laugh at him about it. But as he drove into the meadow, and recalled the sensations of mowing, he came near deciding that he would go mowing. After the irritating discussion with his brother, he pondered over this intention again.
  ‘I must have physical exercise, or my temper’ll certainly be ruined,’ he thought, and he determined he would go mowing, however awkward he might feel about it with his brother or the peasants.
  Towards evening Konstantin Levin went to his counting house, gave directions as to the work to be done, and sent about the village to summon the mowers for the morrow, to cut the hay in Kalinov meadow, the largest and best of his grass lands. (Anna Karenina 3:4)

Days out and about

“You’re not getting up are you?” whispers Lin “What time is it?”
“Six-thirty. I want to see the sunrise”
Amy has told me a theory. ‘It’s proved’ the more intelligent stay up late and sleep late. I being the converse, as she says, “Draw your conclusions, dad”
“But I’m not especially unintelligent am I? I’m not like your mum with money and technical things but…”
“You’re more educated, not more intelligent”
“Ah I see. My long words and circuitous writing”
I go to bed these last few nights later than my grandson but I leave Amy, Guy and Lin around the supper table, first reading then falling asleep to the mumble of their conversation over cards. We’re still lighting the stove at night as the sunny days with the north wind grow cool by sunset.
Before the sun rises I stand on the balcony gazing toward the outline of Greek and Albanian mountains and the sliver of metal sea between them and the dark of the island, listening to the muted discordance of cockerels. barking dogs and occasional scooters, small objects dashing back and forth - insects, swallows and floaters inside my eyes. I slip quietly through the French windows down the side balcony stairs through the veranda door to the kitchen from where I can come and go by the porch door not to wake the sleeping house. I shave and make a cup of tea to take upstairs where the new sun is making long shadows. Yesterday I persuaded Amy to try cutting my hair.

“I’m tired of this mane. Can you trim it away?”
It’s a weight off my head, for all her raggedy effect.
We had lunch on the balcony, a cold box to keep our ice for water and wine and pop, and an umbrella for shade – fresh bread, cheeses, salami and a feta salad with onions, olives, cucumber and tomato and separate lettuce.

Later the big blue bowl we use for carrying the washing served as a pool for the baby.

*** ***
We went, on Tuesday, to Kanoni, walking down steps to the café beside the sea with few customers to disturb us and just one plane taking off, sheltered from the fresh breeze that ruffled the water between us and Pontikonisi. Lin who studies the prices on menus assiduously indulged me for once when I said “Eat and drink what you like, money’s no object”.
We shared a Greek salad, Lin doing the dressing with salt and pepper and more oil than vinegar while I stab the squares of feta with a fork to spread its taste; a beefburger with bacon and cheese for Lin, souvlaki for Guy, calamari for Amy and I, and several plates of chips, plus coke for Guy who’s driving and for Lin and for me, a large dark Corfu beer in a fluted glass and Amstel for Amy; water and a cheese toastie for Oliver. The food was kindly and efficiently served. As our eating slowed the large agreeable Labrador bitch Lola joined us, optimistic for scraps.
"Here comes Hoover" said Guy
We’d planned to go on to Mon Repos but our meal went on too long. Also, I was tartly reminded, in the morning I’d cycled down to Ipsos – to do email and sit in Summer Song's cockpit and admire Dave's work on her - such a pleasure freewheeling through the olive groves – and coming back later than I’d said on the note I’d left on a table in the sleeping house. The long ascent to Ag Markos was no problem; my chest is clear, the antibiotics (and contentment) having cleared my bronchitis.

By the sea near Vlacherna Monastery below Kanoni

*** ***
A letter from Jan:

9/4/13 Simon. Read your description of your experience with the Greek health service with great interest. Interesting to see how European countries apply charges. On localism…re-assuring to see that others share our general wish to see much stronger localism (as long as this is based on stronger local democracy. The two are not identical).These are some of the ‘vehicles’ I have referred to previously to drive this agenda forward. I think it is important that Local Authorities (LAs) engage with these as long as they have a clear agenda of their own and a ‘narrative’ of their own commanding strong local support…However, there are some important omissions in all these articles.
Firstly, there  are no analyses or comments on the link or otherwise between localism and democracy and how this will work in practise and to the benefit of the locality. This is important, otherwise it may be perceived as merely one bunch of seedy and discredited politicians trying to grab power for themselves from another bunch of seedy and discredited politicians. You can well imagine how sections of the press and TV would portray this, aided and abetted by those opposed to it, hence why I carp on about a ‘narrative’ all the time, especially a ‘bottom-up’ one.
Secondly, there is no attempt to bring into the debate the civic pride and public service dimensions we've talked about. These are crucial elements in any narrative as they are linked to culture and behaviour i.e. the how (being ethical, incorruptible, objective, transparent, open, accessible, selfless, etc). It’s in this context that your suggestion about bringing in an ethical dimension to the reading and carrying model is so crucial. I'm still thinking about what that would look like both conceptually and practically, but agree with you that ‘critical incidents’ form an important part of it in terms of bringing together both skills and behaviours (these are of course overlapping). This is why governance is so important.
Thirdly, there's no mention of how LAs can develop a much stronger independent tax base, without which local democracy cannot flourish. It is noticeable that this topic is avoided – a lot of moaning but no serious attempt to offer an alternative to the present distorted system. Given that there are so many models on the continent which could be tailored to our circumstances this is a grave omission. Is this the Stockholm syndrome again, or are we incapable of rising above the parent-child model of licenced localism?
Fourthly, there is no attempt to offer a view on who localism applies to and who the ‘drivers’ will be (LAs?). The new feudal elite does not belong, nor is it attached to any locality, flitting between the financial capitals of the world…yet the decisions made amid this elite can have huge impacts on communities (e.g. closing or opening factories) Where do we place these people on the localism-democracy map? At the other end of the social scale there is a class now being referred as the ‘precariat’ (in older days we referred to the lumpen proletariat) whose connectivity with their localities is slim. In most case non-existent. What role, if any, do these people have in localism? Passive recipients? This latter class is growing and is likely to do so in the future.
I am trying to absorb the impact of all the benefits changes coming in this April (e.g. Housing Benefits, Council Tax Rebate, Social Fund). Fiendishly complicated, but people in the know seem to agree that the further down the economic food chain you are the worse off you will be. It will place LAs directly in the firing line, paradoxically through being given more devolved responsibilities. Is this localism or an imposition or even an abandonment - devolved functions for implementing national policy deemed difficult, controversial, unpopular, can hardly be seen as devolved democracy, especially as there appears to be strong political motives to ‘dump’ toxic issues on LAs. All governments have indulged in this. This is no more than local administration of central policy, making LAs the agents of central government, drawing them closer into a centralised system and, in the process, becoming more dependent on central government and less autonomous (there are a few LAs who are resolutely fighting this, e.g. Leeds City Council and the implementation of the new Housing Benefit). Others seem to relish being the local agent of government.
Despite endless grumbles, there has been very little serious debate among LAs about the above issues, let alone achieving a common ground or a common ‘manifesto’ for how to move forward in re-calibrating the relationship with central government. I accept this is very difficult given the numbers involved, the big differences between LAs and the ineffectiveness of the LGA. The debate seem to centre on narrow issues of functions and where they should be located within the overall central/local spectrum. In recalibrating this relationship we also need to recalibrate local relationships. LAs will need to become very different to just being local councils which, at the moment, are desperately trying to find a new role and purpose for themselves in the new political climate. They are (as I did ) seeing this from ‘inside the box’. I think we need to take a step back and look at concepts like local democracy, representative democracy, democratic accountability, participatory democracy, to identify building blocks for future direction and build up an evidence base for these, but, most importantly, identify the political vehicle for driving the necessary changes through. The obstacles are enormous but worthwhile conquering.
I fear many LAs are actually in denial about the big picture; certainly in public where they adopt a (commendable) ‘we can do it’ attitude (with grumbles) without really tackling head-on the fact that the tectonic plates of LAs are being rolled back, and at best a minimalist or residual role (the new poor laws or local agent for government?) is being prepared, based on ideology not evidence.
No amount of being able to prove yourself will change this significantly. Yes, there are new powers and responsibilities but this feels a bit like handing over the responsibility for the restaurant menu and orchestra play-list to the passengers of the Titanic after it’s hit the iceberg, when new skills and strategies are required to reach port or at least survive to fight another day. How would you incorporate this into the three dimensional model of carrying-reading-ethical, and how would this ‘play’ in the managerial-political relationships? Fascinating.
I have droned on too long. Hope you are enjoying Corfu. I am now reading  the second volume (out of 3) of Professor Evans’ History of the Third Reich; strongly recommended, especially seeing how politicians-managers-professionals interacted and related to each other during the Wiemar Period and subsequently during the Third Reich, and the role the two latter groups played in ‘delivering’ the worst crimes in history (often willingly and enthusiastically or through cynical self-interest or indifference; coercion playing a surprisingly small role for most, other than as a powerful backdrop) - a salutary lesson which should be compulsory in all management and professional training, and one that proves how important the ethical dimension really is and how easily it can evaporate. On that cheerful thought I‘ll finish. Best, Jan

11/4/13 Dear Jan. I’d like to make up a list of about a dozen (maybe less to start) ‘critical incidents’ that might be drawn from the settings we’re striving to map. 'For instances' help develop narrative and v.v.
You may recall what my critical incidents looked like. We need some from rather different political-managerial-professional settings...I try to get the people who are experiencing these to give me the basic story which I can turn into something that is more general; which poses a dilemma and calls for a judgement - about action or inaction - based on what is read and what is carried.
I would draw some of these from experiences in the Handsworth community. Have you any one sentence settings I could develop and refine? I’d like some that touch on benefits complexity, on the parent-child relationship and the Stockholm syndrome that you suggest characterises central-local relations, also the effect of actions by the new ‘feudal elite’ on a local population; also something that addresses the ‘precariat’ (from inside)…
On a related point, the understandings that can develop inside a working political-management relationship represent one of the most reliable classrooms for politicians and managers working in government. I hear rather little on the process of ’negotiating the overlap’, yet it’s through such negotiation that individuals and organisations develop agency (i.e. capacity to understand and act in the world; take part in governance). Current trends encourage political deskilling. Deep desperation and misery and rage is kept just at bay through compensatory ‘bread and circuses’ and anaesthetising media; drugs (of many kinds), and a high level of intelligence-gathering by the police in which many of us participate as part of our commitment to ’social cohesion’.
Possible criticals: 1. Story of a failure of care for a neighbour in connection with an outlandish building extension into a next door garden, 2. Local volunteer group unable to bid for local work because of the increasing complexity and scale of procurement rules by local social housing agencies, 3. Local volunteer group unable to use power tools (normal domestic DIY tools most individuals use in their homes and gardens like mowers, hedge trimmers, strimmers and hand drills) as a result of stringency of health and safety rules and need for expensive training - a difficulty which local councillors admit themselves unable to ease or even negotiate. Many such local handyperson services now becoming defunct because regulatory framework favours much larger organisations. Why could not LA help form a co-op or syndicate of small volunteer groups? There are also problems created by expense of checking criminal records of anyone employed in local voluntary work as well as complicated sets of rules (all entirely reasonable in view of events) re protection of children and vulnerable people. Schools, nurseries and care homes can no longer use volunteer help with garden clearance, waste removal etc., 4. Local councillors ineffectual at getting information about grant frameworks for localism or clearly favouring issuing of neighbourhood funds to party political patrons. Could be an ethnic dimension to this problem; one of perception, perhaps, rather than reality but damaging to social cohesion, 5. Local council explores setting up fair-loan bank for the poor and other groups that would make good use of low interest loans delivered fairly, but finds the idea impossible because of banking rules. This problem made greater because credit unions are finding it increasingly difficult to survive (many declaring themselves insolvent) under new legislation intended to ensure propriety of such local ‘banks’, 6. Local groups unable to tap into rural parish funds as the process is tightly influenced by a clique of villagers who have known each other for many years, 7. XY council under financial pressure has cancelled free waste disposal permits for volunteer groups so that they can no longer remove waste cheaply after garden clearance, fly tipping clearance and street and park litter picks, 8. (Can you do one on effects of departure of a large local industry to another country?), 9. Local committees are being ill-attended because ’they seem unable to make decisions’; unable to summon senior officers or councillors to explain city wide/county/district wide strategies and budget procedures (e.g. decreasing local transparency spreads despondency as new feudalism takes hold), 10. Local groups frustrated with ‘bureaucracy’ and ‘so-called local democracy’ start to ’take the law into their own hands’. Play on links to ‘intelligent criminals’. Greece’s fascist party - Golden Dawn - now demands proof of licence to trade from ‘foreign’ market stall holders, and issues free food etc. but only to those of their racial preference (i.e. not black)…. how am I doing? Come up with a few more - starting with one liners. I realise the ones I’ve come up with in a few minutes are all pretty negative. We need some hopeful ones don’t we, even though of course there should always be a political-managerial-professional dilemma of some kind? Best S

15/4/13 Simon. I think the critical incidents in your attachment are excellent. They stand on their own merit in terms of being topical and universal and as such they can be applied to a range of contexts. As well as testing reading and carrying (i.e. political nous and skills) there is an underlying theme of morals and ethics which needs to be ‘tested’ strongly. This  can be wrapped up around the notion of governance. In theory many of your critical incidents should be ‘resolvable’ through adopting a governance approach to underpin the reading and carrying aspects. The reality of course is more messy than that, but that's part of the learning.
In many authorities especially in the North, but not exclusively so, I believe there is now a possibility that we are moving away from a ‘managing the overlap" model of political-managerial relationships to a ‘maintaining the bridge’ model. To illustrate: it has been calculated that the new welfare reforms now being introduced will remove £19 billion from the economy. Northern England will be hit the hardest; the worst affected being places like Blackpool, Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Glasgow, whereas Cambridge, Surrey, the Cotswolds, will see the lowest financial impact. The three worst affected regions are the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humberside. A similar pattern exists in respect of the Local Government Grant distribution creating a ‘double whammy’ whereby the combination of welfare cuts and local government cuts impact disproportionally on the most deprived areas and widens the gap between the best and worst local economies (north/south divide).
These are not only economic issues. They are political and ideological in that they are underpinned by the fact that the negative impacts are felt by individuals and communities outside the government's own political heartland; by a policy objective aimed at rolling back the public sector and penalising (almost demonising) the poorest and most vulnerable people as a means (incentive) to force (encourage) them  to come off benefits or obtain as little as possible.
These developments will seep into political-managerial relationships and place them under strains proportionate to the impact of the ‘double whammy’. The gap between political aspirations, which in theory are almost unlimited, and managerial reality and deliverability - rapidly becoming even more constrained - will, unless some fundamentals are attended to, widen more and more as the ‘double whammy’ impacts.
There is a danger that the ‘overlap’ maybe about to be overtaken by an ever growing ‘gap’ which needs to be managed in a different way to the ‘overlap’, hence my phrase ‘maintaining the bridge’. In this context, as political ambitions are floundering and managerial manoeuvrability diminishing, the ethical dimensions may be tested to breaking point and beyond. Governance may no longer be able to patrol the boundaries of what is acceptable or not, or the boundaries themselves may shift either deliberately or imperceptibly.
On a more positive note, would it  be possible to turn all these developments into a ‘Dunkirk spirit’ in political-managerial relationships? (the ‘enemy’ being the government). I have my doubts, for reasons mentioned in my previous e-mails i.e. parent-child relationship, licenced localism, Stockholm syndrome)...It would be good to draw out some of these issues in the application of your critical incidents…It is at this level, in the  granular structure of local communities, that LAs have to deliver if localism is going to have any relevance. You have posed some meaty issues here. I think it may be a good idea to put these in the context of The Localism Act which provides  among other things ‘new rights for communities and individuals’, including: right to challenge, right to bid, right to build. I enclose a report on this (On the Ground: Localism in Practice. Final Report, March 2013. Ed Poulter, Rural Policy Officer, Yorkshire and Humber Rural Network), which you may find interesting. It seems to indicate that co-operation and relationship building are better than competition and confrontation (how quaint and old-fashioned!).
It is at this granular level that the ‘intelligent criminal' and/or extremist organisations (very often the same people) can take hold, as a vacuum is created by the rolling back of the public sector. There is a challenge for LAs here, but more so for local communities and local organisations. Can they fill the vacuum? Do they have the resources (compared to the ‘intelligent criminals’)? As you say ‘how can democracy and transparency survive?’…I wonder whether it would be possible to include some of these dilemmas and challenges in your community based critical incidents. I think LAs have been oblivious to the possibility of vacuums being created and filled by highly ‘undesirable’ elements or pent up local frustrations spilling over and then being manipulated (e.g. Golden Dawn). Given the dramatic increase in food banks in certain localities you can see that vacuums are being filled. Others may be less benevolent. At the other end certain communities are almost immune from any of the current policy developments. In fact given the continuing rise in billionaires some are benefiting.
As you know I am reading Professor Evans’ trilogy on the Third Reich. What is striking and frightening is how quickly and comprehensively the Nazi Party was able to ‘incorporate’ almost  all local organisations, clubs, associations, interest groups of all types. None of these were political in any form and had long histories in their communities, but within a short period they became tools of the government. The role of public servants and local authorities is fascinating…I am not suggesting that we have reached a similar stage here or that this is likely in the foreseeable future but there are lessons to be learned for any serious supporter of localism.
The so called impossible can and does happen. It was impossible for banks to bust but they did. It is impossible for countries to go bankrupt but they do.
I think there are a number of ways the new feudalism can manifest itself in a locality (e.g. no physical presence at all or living separately with likeminded people). In general terms we are dealing with people who determine the following: a) Relocating a company overseas (e.g. Dyson to China), b) Overseas buy- up (e.g. Cadbury's), c) New local development but overseas buying (e.g. IKEA having their goods manufactured in China, Taiwan, Bangladesh, etc.) creates some local employment in local outlets, d) Repatriation of profits and no tax paid in Britain, e.g. Starbucks, Amazon, etc.)
Given the high priority LAs place on economic development it is important to factor these dimensions into political-managerial relationships. As LAs are trying to argue the case that they should be at the forefront of economic development at local level. They need to understand these forces and have strategies for them. The overriding characteristic of the new feudalism is inequality on a scale not previously heard of for a very very long time.
A metaphor for what we are talking about can be found in football, especially in the top division. Originally the teams were factory based (e.g. Arsenal, Man U), then, becoming locality based teams owned by local business people and consisting of mainly local players, so the teams were integrated into their local communities and were part of them. This has turned into multimillion PLCs trading on the stock exchange owned by foreign multi-billionaires from Russia, Thailand, USA, Brunei - some of whom hardly ever come to Britain let alone attend matches, though they appoint chief executives and managers, many of whom are foreign and very few, if any, from the local population. They have huge TV income and sponsorship deals. Sponsored players come from all over the world. They are paid salaries beyond the wildest dreams of most people. They live miles away in gated communities among likeminded people and drive to and from their training grounds and stadiums in cars worth hundreds of thousand. They do bring money into the local economy and many of them will do good deeds in their spare time or as part of their sponsorship agreement.
Put simplistically, something similar has happened to the economy in general. If so, what sort of localism are we talking about - transparency and accountability combined with powers (mainly but not exclusively economic) to improve quality of life, and powers to determine or have a real say in taxation policy at local level? This is a tall order. Since the Poll Tax debacle no political party or politician dares raise the issue of local taxation. It is seen as an out of bounds toxic issue; but without some real economic clout localism is dead in the water - no more than pressure groups chasing government or any other vested interests for a few economic crumbs. I hope this makes sense and that it is of use to you. Enjoy Corfu…See you when you are back. Best Jan

Dear J. I suspect that as April's welfare reforms begin to bite, we will encounter, even more than usual, the ugly habit of demonising the poor - about which I know no better remark than this - from the great American writer, Herman Melville, who spent time on a US warship in the 19th century and encountered the justification of the officer class for flogging the lower deck. Such cruelty was essential given the dangerous and depraved behaviour such punishments were designed to quell.

‘Depravity in the oppressed is no apology for the oppressor; but rather an additional stigma to him, as being in large degree, the effect, and not the cause and justification of oppression’ Chap 14 ‘White Jacket’

18/4/13 Simon. At least there are some authorities who are doing the right thing by their residents and put words into action. this is encouraging for Localism. Some will criticize this as political stunts by mainly Labour authorities and I suspect some legal challenges will follow but at least some are prepared to take independent action and not roll over and have their tummy tickled by central government. This really sums up the current sad state of affairs between central and local government Best Jan

From the Local Government Chronicle 18 April 2013:
Councils are introducing a raft of schemes to protect residents from the threat of eviction resulting from the government’s welfare reforms. Greenwich RBC announced this week that it had given 31 residents council jobs rather than see them fall into arrears because of the £500-a-week benefit cap and the so-called ‘bedroom tax’. The new employees were selected because they were considered to be among the hardest hit by the changes. In total, up to 250 residents could be helped by the scheme, which aims to fill cleaning, bin collecting and town centre management posts. Greenwich leader Chris Roberts (Lab) told LGC the council’s scheme aimed to help residents affected by the benefits cap.
“The starting point is that we want to prevent people from being trampled on by the government’s policy,” he said.
Other initiatives have seen councils reclassifying properties in a bid to help residents avoid the bedroom tax, under which claimants’ housing benefit will be cut if they are deemed to be under-occupying their homes.
In one of the largest reclassifications to date, Nottingham City Council plans to redesignate all of its 1,019 two-bedroom high-rise flats as one-bedroom properties.
This follows Leeds City Council’s proposal to apply a one-bedroom reduction in its redesignation of more than 800 homes. Peter Gruen (Lab), executive board member for neighbourhoods, said the scheme would “mean the households affected [by the removal of the spare room subsidy] will not have to find additional funds”.
Brighton & Hove City Council’s minority Green ruling administration plans to introduce proposals under which no resident would be evicted from their home as a result of rent arrears caused by the bedroom tax. Liz Wakefield (Green), chair of the authority’s housing committee, said tenants would be allowed to remain in their homes if housing officers were satisfied that they were “doing all they reasonably can to pay”.
However, some councils have rejected schemes similar to the one rolled out by Greenwich. Adam Walther, a policy officer at Tower Hamlets LBC, told LGC the council had discussed a scheme “on the same lines” as Greenwich RBC’s plan. However, Mr Walther said it was rejected because it was considered to discriminate against residents who would lose less money or none at all under the reforms. “But it’s good that Greenwich has tried this approach because other councils will be interested to see how it goes,” Mr Walther added.
Amber Christou, head of housing services at Swale DC, said her authority had also discussed creating jobs for residents who would be hardest hit by benefit reforms. “There are some cases where it would be cheaper to employ someone than to deal with the consequences if they didn’t find work and presented themselves as homeless,” she said “I’m not sure whether we’d do it, but it’s an idea we’ve discussed.”

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Lin and I have now taken Oliver on two long walks round the village along quiet roads beyond its houses, past blooming wild flowers, banks of honesty, fresh green verges - already being keenly strimmed by the Demos to avoid future fire risk as summer approaches - and abundant blossoming Judas trees.

'... a truly continental economy'

We think we've allowed for the €3.50 for each square metre of the assessed floor space of our home in Democracy Street which we will be required to pay when we get our next electricity bill, but November 9th's Kathimerini reports problems across the country as the new property tax increment appears on this month's round of domestic bills:

Public Power Corporation (ΔΕΗ) on Tuesday announced that it has set up a special hotline to deal with hundreds of complaints from consumers around the country who have received larger-than-expected bills for an emergency property tax levied through their electricity bill. According to the majority of complaints received by PPC representatives across Greece, the square meterage of hundreds of properties -- which is one of the factors in the complex formula used to assess property tax, together with the location and age of the property, and the so-called objective value, a bracket set by the Finance Ministry to control real estate prices -- was inflated. It is the job of each individual municipality to submit to PPC the details of every declared property in its domain, with which it levies the municipal tax that is also charged through PPC bills. A spokesperson for PPC on Tuesday said that the discrepancies in the new emergency property tax are the responsibility of the municipal authorities rather than the electricity provider, though it added that consumers who have any questions regarding the tax they are being asked to pay can call the toll-free hotline on 214.214.1000 for advice. In the case of sensitive social groups, like pensioners and disabled people, the General Secretariat for Information Systems of the Finance Ministry - Γενική Γραμματεία Πληροφοριακών Συστημάτων - has set up an SMS (on tel 54160) and web (http://www.gsis.gr/faq/faq_eta.html) service to deal with claims of over-charging. Other consumers who believe that they are being asked to pay more than their proper dues are required to pay their property tax and PPC in full and to then apply for a refund via their next electricity bill. PPC has been ordered to cut the electricity supply of anyone who refuses to pay the property tax.

[Back to the future - 15 Nov': Kathimerini reports:

It is unlikely that the state coffers will see anywhere near as much money as expected by the George Papandreou government from the Special Property Tax, levied on citizens via electricity bills, as the first signs have been rather disappointing.]

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Channel 4 is showing a programme Go Greek for a Week . In the first episode three British citizens - a bus driver, hair dresser and a doctor, advised by a fake accountant - Mr U.Kostas (ha ha) - learn how much they would get by way of earnings and pensions in Greece, and how much they would need to pay by way of fakelaki - Φακελάκι - for an MOT and a planning application to build on greenbelt land. It's all done archly tongue in cheek. It's also depressing and one-sided implying Greek corruption - undeniable (see 'Tragic Flaw: Graft Feeds Greek Crisis' Wall Street Journal, 10 April 2010) caused the Eurozone crisis, leading to the collapse of capitalism. One responses from Radio Arvyla - Ράδιο Αρβύλα -  is a parody show hosted by ANT1 from Thessaloniki.

"Go Greek for a Week" is sub-Ladybook One analysis of a complex crisis. Yes of course Greece sustains a horrid amount of corruption, but this alone excludes as much learning about causes and solutions to the problem as the medical treatment of an epidemic is helped by looking at someone's life style. It's almost certainly relevant but considered on its own becomes more useful for moralising, stereotyping and caricaturing than finding answers what happened and how we are all - and we are in it together - going to recover from the mess we're in.
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Negotiations continue for the formation of a possible government of unity in the Republic. Tony Scoville e-mailed me this afternoon with an account of his and Helen's tour of Greece, including their stay with us in Ano Korakiana, during October. I shall settle down to read it tomorrow. He ends his letter...

...Poor Greece. In the last three weeks since we left, things seem to have gone from bad to much, much worse. I read a heart-rending article today in the NYT portraying how the entire Greek economy seems to be grinding to halt - literally. Businesses and shops, even in the affluent districts are shuttering because they haven't had a buying customer in weeks and those who do come in are seeking to pawn family valuables rather than buy anything! Deposits are fleeing Greek banks and sent abroad before it loses its value from enforced conversion to a new drachma. Will be interesting to see whether the new coalition government can handle the situation. I have my doubts. All parliamentarians, according to the article, have to be accompanied by armed guards. Do you think the military will try to take over as in the 1970's if the situation becomes chaotic and the government simply cannot enforce the measures it passes? Though no one has mentioned the possibility yet, Greece may be close to this possibility. I have no sense as to how all these turns are affecting the countryside but the paralysis has got to hit the rural areas and smaller cities sooner or later if things continue along their present trajectory. How stupid and, as Paul Krugman points out in the NYT so much unnecessary suffering all because the ECB, France and Germany won't get together to form a truly continental economy with greater not less unity. Hell, we learned that lesson (during America's critical period) in the 1780's under the Articles of Confederation!

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Just another day and a half in my mother's house in the Highlands and then south to Birmingham. I'm ensconced as in a closed order here, warm, secure, remote - yet in touch through phone to laptop, with little need for TV or newspapers...

Brin Croft

...organising a lecture on campus on 11 November on 'managing in a political environment', planning an in-house event on performance scrutiny for Dumfries and Galloway later in the month, sending an outline of my interest to the new Director of Inlogov, Catherine Staite, in readiness for a meeting next week about further work:

Dear C...For 30 years or more, while teaching on campus and in-house at InlogovYes Minister crystallised that interest, both because it was so well received, so funny on an unpromising subject - the relationship between a senior administrator and senior politician - and because it was about the minutiae of what went on between two people, with their various foils, but primarily two named human beings - two players. In real life this relationship between a politician and an administrator is not meant to be a friendship, tho' often friendly and usually courteous. It's a public relationship of government - yet at the same time drawing on the energies, feelings, motives and passions of a private relationship. By and large this aspect of leadership in government is left to gossip, reminiscence, fiction and historical biography because methods for exploring personal relations at the core of democracy are so unattainable.
I’ve always had an interest in photography and then television (my step-father was on it and I spent some of my youth in studios as he broadcast). With a mix of help from Chris Game and John Stewart and people at the campus TV studios we started creating short films of political leaders in local government to use on courses - as spice. I became more and more fascinated by the idea of filming the working relationship between a lead manager and a lead politician in making government...there were subtleties here that merited the attention of the video camera, which while not guaranteeing authenticity, could show both verbal and non-verbal exchanges in conversations at a ‘political-management interface’.
I wrote about this in a number of papers that are on my CV - especially my thinking on ‘the construction of trust at the top of local government’ and ‘political-management leadership’. As time went by I detached myself from the increasingly expensive services of campus TV service and acquired my own filming and editing equipment; developing the skills need to use equipment that in time became more and more ‘user-friendly'.
There is a method and a craft to making these films of CEO’s (sometimes Chief Officers) and their significant opposite number in the political sphere. I don't just ask them to talk to me about their working relationship. I have found a way of getting them to have that relationship on camera while I say nothing though of course they know I’m filming.
In 2011 I have an archive comprising many hours of material collected over a lengthy period from which with very clearly agreed permission from participants I've extracted key episodes which I use for graduate teaching, one-off lectures, conference presentations and in-house teaching and consultancy aimed at enhancing the quality of a council's political-management working relationships. An important step forward was having participants trust me sufficiently to permit me to stream extracts of films I’d made of them on the web (clearing this also with campus legal services.).
Although these films are unique - both as a record and as teaching material about leadership in local government - they are by no means the only material I use. There’s the conceptual and cognitive material based on far wider writing on leadership in government and the tension between political, managerial and political processes concentrated at the point where unique figures meet in specific organisations - hence my strong preference for closely prepared in-house work based on local context. I use mini-case studies - critical incidents of which I have 100s on file - told to me, and then rendered anonymous, by the key actors. I use carefully prepared exercises in political mapping to help less experienced officers enhance their skills at ‘reading' a political environment, and similarly I have developed techniques that mirror these ‘reading' exercise to assist members read the bureaucracy they are expected to understand and lead.
With the great diffusion of agencies that has come with localisation such exercises are valued at all levels of local councils, but I continue to hold that the working relationship of a lead manager and politician is key to understanding the wider interaction of politics and management. I believe this entails a process of skilled negotiation. Teaching this subject in Australia with a colleague there we titled our seminars, run jointly across the continent, ‘Negotiating the Overlap’ (the attached programme flier may be of interest). I enjoy working with other trainers, indeed prefer it, whether colleagues from inlogov, other institutions or in-house managers.

With Professor John Martin in Tasmania

When I meet M I hope to win her interest (and the prospect of future work in this area) by running quickly through the contents of a one-day event for a specific local council and the planning that precedes such an event as well as what follows it by way of managerial and organisational development. Every encounter varies since every council’s unique. I’m a tourist in my own land. People speak of cloned town centres. One of the reasons I like walking and cycling is that when I visit a particular council I get to see a few of its byways and highways and of course, if it has one, its railway station. I see its houses, offices, public buildings and green spaces and the drivers of the local economy as I pedal about. As you know I’ve also been involved in community activism in Birmingham and have been able to learn from these experiences without compromising my capacity for an appropriate detachment when it comes to working with local members and officers across the UK....

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Yesterday under a clear sky I cycled first north to Wester Lairgs Farm, just sold to a new owner as yet unknown, then took the broad gravel forestry track that leads along the treeline on the eastern slopes of Strathnairn, turning downhill and back before Farr Loch, where the track ends...

...and joining a narrower one that runs beside the river beside fields and through tall plantations - about five miles, with Scotland to myself, but for the signs of seasonal heather burning and a few cars once I'd joined the road at Farr School half a mile from Inverarnie.
Later I drove with my mum to Tomatin Distillery to smell the oats and see a little of the process of making single malt...

'...curious treasures of their stock-in-trade'

... a small sight of another's craft. We got to see the copper distillation stills, a warehouse full of vaporous oak barrels...

... coopered on site and a sip of 12 year old Tomatin and learning that most Scots distilleries are owned by the Japanese - in this case Takara Shuzo - that the bottling's done far south in Dumbarton, the barrels emptied into a tanker; the oats made into mash-tun elsewhere and brought for distillation to Tomatin. Later I took Mum to the Snow Goose on the edge of town for supper - veg soup, local beer and sausages and mash, though Mum fiddled with an aubergine curry - and a chance to discuss a video we're planning to make tomorrow about memories of Bagnor - though I'm not sure mum has the plot on that wonderful 13 years of my childhood. There's so much happened, with so many separate intertwined strands, that I can't quite imagine how she'll weave a narrative, compared to other memories of her's that we've filmed.

Not out of the woods

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No white smoke yet. A compromise for Hellenic PM emerged today - Phillippos Petsalnikos - but he was blocked by fellow PASOK members, returning Lucas Papademos to preferred candidate, but with what mandate? Αύριο...

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My talented half-bro George Baddeley, Managing Director of Silver Comedy, just sent me a tweet about their recent work...