Notes from the Campaign 2

Friday saw the annual Leeds North West Constituency dinner. I don't know how many Liberal Democrat events are held in functioning Masonic Lodges but this one was. I'm not sure who was the less comfortable, us or the Masons, but the Castle Grove "Hotel" provides excellent "Rubber Chicken" style dinning facilities so everyone swallows there principles and and counts the Cash.

Such events have an added glamour since 2005 and we have the MP Greg Mulholland, a former ward colleague of mine. It isn't very often that the Chicken is better than the speeches on these occasions but a couple were quite ropey. That certainly didn't apply to Nick Clegg MP.

I have never quite "got" the buzz around Clegg as a great white hope for the party but I could certainly understand it on the night. Relaxed, Charismatic, Witty, at easy with the Home Affairs brief and a real communicator who was able to persuasively sell our "smart" not "soft" solutions to crime. I'm to much of a misanthrope to do sycophancy to national figures but on this occasion I was really impressed.

I was also delighted to see again local activist Aquila Choudary who I'm pleased to report has been selected as PPC for Leeds North East. Just occasionally you see someone in the party who has real potential. By and large this potential is ignored and they are given 10000 leaflets to deliver and told to shut up. I'm pleased things look a little different for Aquila.

As ever such occasions provoke a little introspection. Its ten years since I walked into the old Leeds North West HQ as a new volunteer. The party has moved on enormously in those years but many of the faces are very similar. One other glimmer of hope though was a couple of constituents had turned up that I wasn't expecting. It seems they have joined the party because they are impressed by local councillors!

Foolishly as it turned out a few of us agreed to go out after the dinner into the City Centre ( Including my erstwhile ward Colleague James Monaghan) We paid a visit to the Leeds branch of FAB cafe. Usually I would have enjoyed the life size Dalek and Sci Fi Memorabilia which given the place its character. However it also turned out to be Rocky Horror Night. So an evening that started with the Masons ended with the Time Warp and us being the very well dressed exceptions in a bar full of Frankenfurters.

Well after all it is the liberal party.

Leeds Amnesty International Group Meeting

Continuing my "spend more time on politics and less on being a Councillor" thread I tried to rediscover my roots on Thursday evening. I have been an Amnesty Member for 16 years and was very active when at University. As a College Rep in a (pretend) collegiate University I had a crucial role in Campaigns and learned a lot about organising things. Since then thought I have been a passive member, I write a few letters about cases in the magazine that comes every few months and pay my membership Fee, that's about it.

The Leeds group meets monthly in the Civic Hall and I turned up unannounced. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder there was much to think about by the end.

The first thing that struck me was that I was instantly picked up as new and made to feel welcome. The second was that I was always called by the Chair to speak on varying issues when I indicated and listened to with respect. How many party gatherings could learn from these?

What really did take me though was the quality and brevity of policy making. The meetings main task was to try and get a steer on how the Leeds Groups votes would cast at the Amnesty AGM in a few weeks. While not every body's cup of tea we got through the most amazing amount of business, had genuine debate and respectful informed discussion of competing ideas in about 1 hr 50 Mins. In the context of most party meetings I ever attend I nearly fell off my Chair in amazement at the working culture.

The people seemed very committed and more diverse as well. I did spot the odd "Angry Socialist" but in a solution Focused rather than "onwards the Revolution" kind of way.

Admittedly the campaigning stuff was shoe horned into 15 mins at the end but they are clearly operating a sophisticated and highly devolved structure which is achieving lots of outputs.

I didn't go for a drink afterwards, I regret that now, and scuttled back to the Group office in the Civic Hall. I doubt that any Politician doesn't ask themselves now and again whether there time would be better spent working for a NGO somewhere. I certainly did on Thursday night.

Putting M & S to the Test

Is "Ethical Consumerism" really a way forward on our environmental challenges or merely "Green Wash" allowing us to pretend we can continue to consume without consequence?

My own view is the question isn't quite that stark but I have been thinking over the last 48 hours as M and S has rolled our a publicity Campaign in store around its "Plan A" initiative.

www.marksandspencer.com/planA I doubt whether Greenpeace and Jonathan Porritt lend there names to something lightly and wading through some of the detail when its was launched nationally a few months ago it seems impressive. But then I suspect I'm the sort of customer that they are trying to impress.

So as I set off today for my "24 hour" shift at work I decided to do a little test. I had in my head a clear shopping list for a whole days worth of Food and lets see how sustainable some of the purchases could be? Things didn't start well with the fruit. Every available piece was covered in plastic and after quite a search I found some English apples with everything else having being Air Freighted. The plastic wrapping had no recycling information and the tray was labelled "6" so not compatible with most green bins. The named supplier and county on the package made me feel warm and fuzzy but ultimately tell me nothing. The guy might merely own a Agribusiness for all I know.

The Houmous was a bit better with an Organic option at no extra cost but with no Country of Origin who knows how many Air Miles? The packaging didn't have an recycling Info on it although the Cardboard sash was a lot smaller than you get on a lot of Houmous. The pitta bread had a Cardboard and then a separate plastic wrapper with only a "Made in the UK" sign.

The Fruit Juice had a clearly labelled bottle being made with PEP (1) and encouragingly was 30% recycled plastic with a "Closing the Loop symbol. Although "made in the UK" doesn't really help with fruit juice as it night simply mean squeezed here.

Finally a Microwave ready meal had very detailed nutritional information emphasising its low fat / Free Range eggs credentials . Its plastic tray was clearly labelled as PET (1) but also had a completely unnecessary outer cardboard tray as well.

To add insult to injury I got the usual "Weirdo" look at the checkout when I declined a carrier bag and produced my "Bag for Life".

Before I harangue M and S ( and where are the other supermarkets "Plan A's"? ) its me that should plead guilty as charged. Even presented with 24 hours with just a Microwave and a Kettle I could easily have prepared some packed lunches. Supermarkets for all there evils are merely reflections of there customers wishes. If I demand Cash Rich/Time Poor shopping can I really criticise the shop if the products come in a Cash Rich/Time Poor wrapping?

While I can aspire myself to greater sustainability Supermarkets aren't going anywhere. While we have them I think we should be grateful for ones like M and S that are at least trying and realise they have a long way to go. However we should never forget that if we all took our Green Pounds elsewhere then Supermarkets would very quickly either shape up or ship out.

Smile for the Camera

I have spent the afternoon in fairly horrific Media Training at the Civic Hall. I say horrific in like all truthful exercises it was quite painful. However the event by Maypole Media ( maypolemedia@aol.com) was excellent. I also got to meet the delightful Cllr Vonnie Morgan ( Lab, Killingbeck and Seacroft) . Only two of us turned up for the afternoon session and it could have been quite awkward with us being in exercises together. I hadn't met her before and shes a warm genuine person who was a delight to work with.

I have done lots of radio training in the past but seeing your self on Camera all afternoon can be brutal. I know have a memorial DVD of my shinny forehead and receding hair line. Its amazing the mannerisms that I didn't realise that I had.

As a back bench Councillor I'm unlikely to ever make Newsnight but as with all training the transferable skills are key. The sad truth is that so much of communication is none verbal and yet we spend so much time arguing about the words.

Notes from the Campaign

I have blogged before about my view that membership of a political party is a bit like a love affair. Yesterday's Launch event of the Burmantofts and Richmondhill Ward Campaign for May reminded me about what I first fell in love with about the Liberal Party.

When you use the phrase "Campaign Launch" you probably think of a Candidate addressing a crowded venue with at the very least some balloons and a tele prompter. Of course Local Government is more prosaic and we made do with a dingy Church Hall and some very good home made scones. " stuffing envelopes" is such a common euphemism these days for political activity that its rather twee to actually sit and do it. Burmantofts and Richmond Hill has three Lib Dem Councillors first elected in a gain from Labour in 2004. It was held in 2006 with a majority of 11% so technically its not a target seat. However with a 20% vote for the BNP and with us "controlling" the Council I doubt anywhere is really safe and a full campaign is being fought.

However the beauty of the event was the sense of history. The old Burmantofts ward was central to the old liberal revival in the late 70's and early 80's. We had the pleasure of a visit from Cllr Maggie Clay, Deputy Leader now of Stockport Council and former Councillor for the old Burmantofts ward. She had wise words to impart about how the grass roots of the party are built and it was a pleasure to look through some 30 year old Focus Leaflets. Alderman Stephen Sadler was there as well as a Champagne Cork from the original 1970's break through election.

I imagine finding 30 year old Focus Leaflets a pleasure is a minority pass time. What I really mean is that some principles are eternal. Liberty will always need defending, power will always need checking, communities will always need representing and Councils will always need some one to prod them with a big stick to get neighbourhoods taken seriously.

Its very easy in a business where large Ego's are common to forget that many, many people over the years fanned and nurtured the gutter liberal flame in the post war years and today's relative success didn't come cheaply.

Election campaigns always cause rows and bruise ego's. As this one begins its worth remembering that in 30 years time no one will remember them so much as the record, good or bad, that we achieve with the power we hold today.

Interview Technique

One other highlights of the week was going to Trinity and All saints College in Leeds to help out with a Broadcast Journalism Course. I'm fairly certain they would have preferred real MP's but they have to make do with willing City Councillors very year. 4 of us volunteered to be put through our paces by a panel of 25 young trainee journalists. It was very much a two way exercise and I benefited enormously from recording 7 recorded radio interview style encounters. I nearly always speak to quickly and go on two long but I have got a bit better.

The panel session afterwards on the role of Journalists and Politicians Was fascinating. I felt very old faced with a hoard of slightly cynical twenty somethings. It was really positive though as I think they were all surprised at how human we were. It was also good to see journalists before the system knocks all of the humanity out of them.

The other star of the day was the Trinity and All Saints Campus. A few months ago there was a lot of publicity about it seeking University Status. This would be the City's third. Having been a few times in the last few weeks I can see the attraction. I'm sure I'd rather study in the leafy suburb of Horsforth with all that green space than perhaps grungy Leeds 6.

The whole exercise made me more determined than ever to do proper media training. However much some encourages politicians to sound manufactured it really does help as much with confidence as anything else.

Leeds Girls High School Public Meeting

The hardest part of this week was organising and chairing a big public meeting on the future of the LGHS site. We had over 130 people over the two hours. I though it was reasonably good tempered and we made quite a bit of progress. However the sense of unease amongst some members of the public I though justified my decision to call it.

Having the meeting in the first place was not universally popular with some colleagues. The truth is simple. NO decisions have been taken about this site. The School hasn't already sold it. No planning applications have been made let alone approved and the Council is not engaged in a sinister plot to shaft South Headingley with a High Density redevelopment.

I know this, Colleagues Know this and some Community Activists know this because they have been involved in the negotiations to date. However there is no reason why the General Public should know this. We can very easily retreat into a Bunker as political class and assume that because a handful of key "opinion formers" are on board that everyone else shouldn't worry and just trust us.

In my experience life isn't like that. LGHS is a very large site with a cluster of Grade 2 listed buildings, excellent tree cover, significant open green space and a gym and swimming pool. Its impending sale is the biggest opportunity and threat the area has faced for years. I still believe that we might be able to get a good deal for the area or at least prevent a free market disaster as has happened with other big land sales.

Whats been gratifying from the really positive feedback from residents about Monday is this. People can cope with uncomfortable truths as long as you are honest with them. People know this site is private property and is going to go to a residential development. Its not being brave enough to say this publicly that frightens people. Its not saying anything at all.

Finally I was pleased that the excellent Leeds Girls Action Group which has formed received a public mandate to continue on Monday. Someone needed to step into the breach and a vote by a meeting of 100 plus residents now gives that a certain Democratic legitimacy. The Headingley Ward Councillors will be working to try and get some limited council funding to meet there admin costs. Meanwhile we will also be organising regular public meeting and mailings on this issue.

Quiz Night

The Social highlight of the week, god how sad, was the Burmantofts and Richmond Hill Quiz night. Of course I was on the winning team and travelled home with a Bottle of ASDA sparkling perry and half a box of cadbury's chocolates for my efforts. Despite enjoying the evening enormously I couldn't help but draw one serious point from it all.

State funding of political parties is fundamentally wrong. Parties that can't attract members and donations deserve to die.

This is a simplistic view I admit but the quiz night represents something fundamental about politics in Britain which i think is worth defending. From the people who cooked the meal, sold the tickets, sold the organic ale and Cider or donated the prizes they all had to be motivated and believe something to do so. I understand the argument that for about £2 per head per year we could clean up politics in Britain and end some of the corruption that is doubtless going on. But its not a price worth paying if as a result parties become clients of the state and can afford to ignore the people who organise quiz nights.

Would are Civic Discourse be any better in Britain if party members hadn't enjoyed them selves last Friday? Had the chance to discuss Leeds Casino plans? Or councillors like me be reminded that most party members are appalled at the idea? Or ask what was going on with Incineration? or the road bumps at the end of there street for that matter. Is it a price worth paying so parties don't have to be open enough to get none members to buy a ticket? To see what its all about?

With 25 City Councillors and 1 MP the Lib Dems in Leeds get plenty of state funding to run our offices, promote our selves and serve our constituents. If we do it well then they are more likely to vote for us again. State funding to allow us to do our jobs is one thing. For the state to pay us to persuade others of our beliefs is another. Mass membership locally rooted and focus parties are the only way to tackle Political malaise in Britain. And no party will ever do that if the Government is retaining them.

This is a proposal that should be stopped. Even If I have to drink ASDA sparkling perry to do it.

Do we really need an Incinerator ?

The political highlight of the week for me was Wednesday's Friends of the Earth sponsored Business presentation on alternatives to Incineration. The Liberal Democrat led Council has set a firm direction of travel towards a waste strategy which will be built upon a single Incinerator for the City to deal with the 60% of waste we aren't planning to recycle by 2020. The main motivation is avoiding crippling LATS fines and the projection about doing nothing certainly focus the mind.

The Labour Group was briefed in the morning with the Joint Administration parties and Independents having a separate presentation in the afternoon. We had an excellent turnout and I think in the end we got really useful information about proposed alternatives. Some of the Speakers could have done with a sprinkling of charisma and some voice projection training but there you go.

The issue is going to be a fascinating one for political anoraks. The opposition Labour and BNP groups have come out very strongly against and are putting the issue very strongly in their Election literature. The Green Party in Leeds has also shuffled off the fence and come out against despite being Administration and Cabinet Members.

Wednesday's presentation showed where the central battle lines over this issue will be.

1. Is there a viable alternative to Incineration? Obviously these people were business men trying to sell us a product but they seem convinced there is? can this be worked up quickly into an alternative strategy and tested?

2. Given that an Incinerator can't be built that quickly how do we avoid the LATS fines that are due to start kicking in in 2009 onwards?

I warmly welcome the administrations decision to set up a Leaders Group to explore all available alternatives and new technology on a cross party basis. Any Leeds resident interested in the debate can check out www.noleedsincinerator.org and can look at some of the businesses that presented to Council members at www.ectgroup.co.uk www.resourcefutures.co.uk and www.newearthsolutions.co.uk

In praise of .... Dame Anita Roddick

Radio has been buzzing with an ad campaign on Hepatitis C awareness. Check out details at www.hepc.nhs.uk What makes the illness really awful is that you can all to frequently not know its there and so not be treated. As an aside, when I working in a drug clinic last year, we were doing a lot of work trying to get I/V drug users to take tests as so few people think hepatitis goes past B.

I reason I raise the issue is this. Would the government really have done this quickly arranged campaign if it wasn't for Anita Roddick's brave decision to use her own infection and fame to promote the issue a few weeks ago? The Body Shop founder went public about her infection via blood transfusion in the early 1980's. Before somebody tells that she sold out to L'oreal or that she flirted with New Labour in the late 1990's I know and I don't care.

She has spent an activist's life showing that market forces can change attitudes. The Body Shop may not be what it was but its still a pleasure to have a high street store with a slightly broader definition of physical beauty than the mass media. She's spent 30 years pioneering a form of Social Responsibility that now all retailers feel they at least have to pay lip service to and has promised to give her large fortune away before she dies. Such Philanthropy may be more common across the Atlantic but with the richest 10% in Britain giving proportionately the lowest amount of there income to charity Its a welcome piece of leadership by example.

While always an admirer, helping break down stigma's about Hep C by going public seems typical of the Lady.

Anita, you have a certain kind of Class. Readers take a few minutes to check out the website.

The Right to Rent

Whatever else you think about Socialists they do know how to organise a good public meeting. Last week I went to the launch of "Right to Rent" a Campaign to build more socially owned homes for rent in Leeds . Check out the campaign at www.leedstenants.org.uk

In my experience there are two sorts of public meetings the " Entertainment/Catharsis " model where people who all agree with each other turn up and get stuff off their chests. The second is the "Discursive" model where by facts are presented and you try to grapple with what to do about them. Despite a half hearted attempt to be the later this was definitely the former. That's not a criticism as such merely that occasionally the anger and fiery rhetoric can come across as exclusive.

The varying presentations were damning. Paul Brook, the City's Chief Housing Officer gave a tour de force on the scale of the Problem but noticeably very little detail on what the Council was going to do. Only 4 of the 103 post codes in Leeds have average prices that are "affordable" to average wages. Not surprisingly the Highest prices were in the leafy suburbs in the north of the City but the colour map showed how to an extent that cliche had spread to other pockets round the city. Our Own Leeds 6 postcode was a hot spot in the inner urban core due to student demand. The figure of over 30000 people on the Leeds waiting list needs to be treated with a bit of caution as the list is never "cleaned" and many of those people are already in Council accommodation seeking a transfer. Nevertheless anyone who has ever done a surgery knows how desperate so many people are for bigger better accommodation.

I hate to say it but the best contribution was by UNISON's John McDermott. He pointed out that you could have decent housing without Personal Good health, Education or Employment but you can't hold down Employment, Good health or get an Education if you are adequately housed. It is the silver bullet.

I'm several light years away from being a command and control socialist but if the Tooth Fairy appeared today and gave me just one wish to improve the City of Leeds then I would ask for this.

Let Leeds City Council have the power and the money to build more council homes.

No one else and definitely not the private sector is going to build low cost homes for rent in anything close to the numbers we need. As a liberal I'm suspicious of State monopoly but if ever there was a case for state intervention into the free market then its this. We have got our selves into a situation where we have the highest personal debt in Europe secured at best against massively inflated housing wealth. Everyone assumes that at some point the bubble will burst which will be painful enough for many. But suppose it doesn't? What if the economic fundamentals have really shifted the shift from prices being broadly 3.5 times earnings to 5 times earnings is permanent?

I'm not keen on a new generation of serfs giving Britain a new class of people with no assets. By all means introduce "Right to Buy" for new council stock a few years after we build it. But build some we must.

The most depressing thing about the meeting though was the lack of heavy weight political attendance. Cllr Richard Lewis ( Lab, Pudsey) was there, a few Labour council candidates and me. I suspect, not unreasonably, that if anyone important at a political level had turned up then they would have spent all night being harangued by Anti PFI campaigners. Never the less the issue won't and shouldn't go away.

The reason I went was New years resolution based on Tony Benn's retirement gag. He left Parliament to spend more time on politics. I sort of know what he means. As a ward member you can get so tied up with the day to day administration you forget about ideas. I didn't go to the pub with everyone after the meeting. As a Liberal I'm fairly certain I'd have been hanged as a Capitalist lap dog. However my final though as I walked home was this.

Being an angry Socialist doesn't mean that you are always wrong. On this issue they are absolutely right.

Headingley Development Trust AGM

When the formation of the Headingley Development Trust was announced ( www.headingleydevelopmenttrust.org.uk ) I must admit to being very sceptical. Over a year in I must now admit to being very wrong.

The collision of mass Landlordism with an educated middle class resident population has spawned a complex ecology of local committees, groups and working parties. I doubt an area of Leeds has had such a detailed, repetitive or academically rigorous assessment of its needs as Headingley. The problem of course is the lack of follow up action certainly from the Council. My concern at the time was that the same over worked community activists who are already over stretched were creating another vehicle for analysis and not action. In fact the trust run on a Cooperative/Industrial and Provident

What made Wednesday nights AGM so inspiring was the level of detail about practical action now being taken. They say you get more right wing as you get older. I'm not sure that's whats happening to me but I'm certainly more strident than ever in my belief in a radical re localisation of the economy. This won't happen by accident and is going to need carrot and stick with some very powerful interests. Its an aside but I would certainly favour a Supermarket Act to impose a statutory code on the industry and set out its relationship with the rest of the high street.

Wednesday saw over 100 people cram into a hall in the School of Dance on Shire Oak Rd. You assume you know a place intimately after 7 years as a Councillor but I realised on the way up I had never been inside the building. A more important first though was the content of the meeting. I'm fairly certain its the first time in 7 years when I attended an entirely positive meeting. No one complained about anything merely brimmed with confidence that things are getting better. I can't help wonder if self perception isn't the first calling point when you are trying to regenerate communities. I have been as bad as anyone but the area has had a self inflicted bad press as groups have tried to get the Council's attention via the local media. Its good that we have all moved on.

In terms of the specifics we heard excellent presentations on the new farmers market ( 2nd Saturday of the Month, 9.30 am to 12.30pm outside the Arc pub in the Rose Garden), a concrete plan to buy out a local small trader who wants to retire, Headingley Homes a partnership with a local estate agent to encourage families to buy in the area, Cafe Scientifique which has brought discussion and debate back into public life and of course the HEART proposal for the old Headingley Primary Building. More of which later in the month.

I had no formal role in the proceedings, Councillors just turn up to these things and if they any good just listen for once. Maybe I'm being seduced by spring but as I saw some daffodils coming up in the St Michael's Church yard on the way home I could help but wonder if the area isn't about to have its own social and economic spring after a long and hard Winter.

The Magic Wishing Tree

I went last night to the reopening of the Burley Lodge Centre. ( Burley Lodge Centre, 42 - 46 Burly Lodge Road, Leeds , LS6 1QF. Tel 0113 2754142 http://www.bureylodge.org.uk )


The area is very lucky is to have such a facility. Perhaps lucky isn't the right word as yesterday demonstrated its all down to the hard work of local people. The event was held over 8 hours and I got there late on as I had been working. Most events like this would have been winding down but a riot of colour and activity hit me as I walked through the door.

In an area dominated by "Buy to Let" properties it was terrific to see the areas future - its children - out in force. The refurbishment hasn't just extended the building to provide a some business units but has given the whole place a lighter airy feel which is very welcome.

One of the reasons that I have always been keen on Burley Lodge is its emphasis on empowerment. This isn't a place where poor people are clients and come and passively receive services. Community empowerment is more talked about than delivered in my experience but it does happen here. I had a wander round the retouched facilities, chatted to some local activists and saw some children's drama.

What had the biggest effect through was the trippy and psychedelic dance area. I spent a while reading the wishes of local people on the " Magic Wishing Tree" that had been set up before writing my own. It reminded me of what I had "promised" on the Tree on World AIDS day which I blogged about at the time.

Burley Lodge is only 90 seconds walk from my house but I paused briefly on Alexandra park on the way back. It looked like a full moon and in the late dusk light people were wandering around mainly walking dogs. How many Council services are delivered within walking distance of the people they serve or are managed and designed by those people? Not enough.