Nothing About us with us! by Andrew Wastling

Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957) A magnificent classic of world cinema .The most visceral religious response to the plague we see is through the flagellants, who are so fearful of death and the plague that they turn to self-inflicted violence as a form of public penance. Death is constantly on their minds. When they arrive in the nearby town, the leader of the flagellants accosts the townspeople by reminding them that death could come for them at any time. The flagellants represent a religious extreme – piety turned fanaticism. The musical cues underscoring their arrival and the frantic camerawork make them appear horrific, almost zombie-like. Bergman aimed to bring about revulsion for this extreme response to the plague, and thus implicitly condemned religious fanaticism as a whole.

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UNISON Regional Organiser Paddy Cleary has recently stated that: “Alternative Futures Group's treatment of its care workers is nothing short of shameful. It is clear that “A Chance for Change” is nothing more than a chance to cut costs- with the burden being felt by front-line workers.

“All contractual terms are set to be reviewed, leaving open the prospect of AFG cutting their occupational sick pay scheme during a pandemic. This would pose a public health risk- putting both care workers and service users at increased risk, as care workers are forced to choose between health and hardship.”/i> (1)

At the same time Alternative Futures Group CEO, Ian Pritchard, was hit with a scathing open letter signed by 21 MPs and 63 councillors, condemning the proposals.

The letter from the MPs and councillors also criticised AFG for setting an "ambition" to pay all its staff the living wage, rather than making a binding pledge. (2)

The letter from MP’s points out that: ”It says 84 percent of commissioned providers in Rochdale accepted the increase in funds to pay the living wage.” This begs the question: why is the Local Authority still commissioning services from the 16% of providers (including Alternative Futures Group) who didn’t?

Incidentally proving the maxim that 'all publicity is good publicity' one only needs to spend a few minutes online to see the number of current adverts for new recruits to Alternative Futures Group who despite everything are obviously acquiring new residents to support across the Northwest who need new staff to support them. It’s self-evident that people with personal Budgets are being treated as ‘cash-cows’ by a diaspora of private health care providers who in some cases employ staff based on being able to use a mobile phone & drive a car regardless of any experience at all in the sector. When advertisers state (as they often do) : ‘No experience necessary‘ for Social Care jobs yet mandate a range of necessary skills & experience for shelf stacking jobs ( no that there is anything less worthy in the dignity of labour of a shelf stacker comrades ) it begs the question what value do we as a nation place on the safeguarding & care of our most vulnerable community members ?

It's highly disappointing (although not entirely surprising!) that only TWO Rochdale Councillors signed the letter from councillors given the importance of social care provision to so many of their vulnerable constituents across the Township. Particularly noticeable by its absence was Rochdale Councils Portfolio holder for Social Care, Iftikhar Ahmed, who by all accounts is a splendid chap but so obviously floundering out of his depth amid a Social Care crisis (3). Perhaps the absence of an impending election explains their reticence & lack of enthusiasm to speak out?

Urgent questions also need to be asked (but no doubt won’t be!) of Westminster decisions to cut back on Public Health as new research from the Local Government Association points out: “Public health funding has been frozen or cut for 100 councils. Those hit by public health cuts for the 2021/22 financial year include Doncaster, Rochdale and Wakefield, which have all seen above-average levels of COVID-19 cases.” (4).

The perceived wisdom of cutting funding to Public Health during a global health pandemic which places Rochdale 33 highest out of 315 locations nationally for Covid transmission also needs serious scrutiny. Clearly the pandemic is not yet over. Simply reducing the number of 'pings' from the Covid Smart phone app is the twenty-first century equivalent of removing the clappers from the handbells carried by medieval lepers so as not to alarm the local peasantry of the disease’s proximity!

Incidentally the reported news that local Tory Leader Ashley Dearnley ( and Covid-Idiot ! ) claimed making people wearing a mask was akin to adopting Socialism at a recent Full Council Meeting shows us the superstitious DNA of our forebears still courses through the veins of some less well evolved Englishmen. As we know in medieval times a cult of fanatics called Flagellants travelled from village to town beating themselves with whips & sticks to act as penitents for perceived sins

Working themselves into mad fits of hysteria terrified of the Black Death they spread the Plague around Europe! Dearnley and our local twenty-first century tory Flagellants have got it half right – only this time the pain they inflict is on the rest of us rather than themselves & instead of whips & sticks they use more subtle implements of torture in the form of austerity cuts to the poor, the sick, the old & the vulnerable.

Expectations that The North will continue indefinitely to wear a Tory cilice whilst the likes of Boris Johnson & Carrie Johnson ( previously only famous for being sacked for fiddling her expenses ! ) squander £850 on a single roll of wallpaper are doomed to failure whilst Johnson buggering off to Chequers like some latter day Henry VIII whilst the plague ripped through the slums of Tudor London show like nothing else that the ruling class are totally bereft of new ideas & offer no solutions for the long suffering working -class – whoever or whatever they might actually be in post Brexit Britain ?

You’d have thought funding cuts to Public Health locally would be a major local news story, wouldn’t you? Especially when we learn from

insider sources that Rochdale’s Director of Public Health Andrea Fallon believes it was a mistake to unlock at Christmas and as a result lives have been lost as a direct consequence.

The shocking breakdown of deaths in Britain’s Care Homes makes grim reading. The Care Quality Commission released details of Covid deaths in Care homes across the UK listing them on a town by town & home by home basis (5).

Hancock was obviously otherwise engaged in other affairs when he failed to throw a circle of steel around Britain’s Care homes!

Nothing illustrates the powerlessness of Britain’s vulnerable when their wellbeing is handed lock stock and barrel to a faceless & unaccountable State more starkly!

Riding roughshod over the views & feelings of vulnerable clients with varying degrees of brain damage, their families & their support staff should act as an alarm bell for those who believe in the oft cited mantra: “Nothing about us without us“

Our local Social Care Dystopia, it is clear, has twisted this wonderful aspiration into: “Nothing about us with us!”

It’s almost as if someone somewhere would much rather, we weren’t told what was going on?

APPENDIX:

(1).https://www.unisonnw.org/care_provider_afg_slammed_by_mps_and_councillors_for_callous_cuts_to_carers_working_conditions

(2). https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/care-firm-refuses-pay-living-21204816

(3). Please see email Attachment

(4). https://www.localgov.co.uk/Public-health-funding-frozen-or-cut-for-100-councils/52137

(5). https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/141963/people-with-acquired-brain-injuries-left-feeling-%E2%80%98worthless%E2%80%99-by-a-council-consultation-that-led-to-closure-of-lifeline-care-service

(6).https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiOGE1YTZlODItYzA2Ni00MmUxLTkyZjQtYjk3OTg0ZmYwMTIyIiwidCI6ImE1NWRjYWI4LWNlNjYtNDVlYS1hYjNmLTY1YmMyYjA3YjVkMyJ9

For Whom the Algorithm Tolls by Andrew Wastling

Algorithm:

/ˈalɡərɪð(ə)m/ noun plural noun: algorithms

a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer. 'a basic algorithm for division'

The American Civil Liberties Union has expressed repeated and numerous concerns that : Artificial intelligence is playing a growing role in our lives, in private and public spheres, in ways large and small. Machine learning tools help determine the ads you see on Facebook and routes you take to get to work. They might also be making decisions about your health care and immigration status.

Government agencies at the local and federal level are exploring, and in many cases already using, automated tools to allocate resources and monitor people. This raises significant civil rights and civil liberties concerns. (1).

Recent scandals from Cambridge Analytica to the role of Facebook in inciting real-world violence in Myanmar, many experts see the internet as a civic space that requires better public hygiene. Chinese CCP state sanctioned plans to create their own Civic Space in the form of its own clearly delineated and state sanitised internet mean that the next Tiananmen Square Massacre will result not in a continuous debate of the number actually killed but no debate at all since nobody ( outside of the People's Republic of China ) will know it has even happened . The eternal philosophical question over the sound of one hand clapping or if a tree falls in a forest unobserved or witnessed whether it actually falls at all if there is no one present to hear it will reach a whole new dizzying existential and intellectual level

.

The undoubted ability of the internet to assist in the organisation of opposition or act as a conduit for populare dissent will not have been missed by the authorities. Equally the targeting and brutalisation of citizens journalists by riot police at the recent Bristol disorders shows how paranoid our elites actually are about losing control of their stage managed mainstream media coverage of events being challenged by an alternative counter narrative from the perspective of the largely peaceful protestors

If the action of out of control police officers is captured on film ( or in actuality on mobile smart phones ) too often the illusion of policing by consent might be irrevocably shattered resulting in popular and irresistibles calls from terrified citizens to have them returned to barracks and re-trained ? It is no accident after all that after the huge number of injuries, blindings and eye loss , generated by tear-gas canisters fired at the massed ranks of 'Gilets jaunes' protesters by gendarmes were captured on hand held filming devices that the Macron regime sought to make the filming of his trigger-and -truncheon happy riot cops illegal by citizens of the riot ravaged Republic.

Insidious & sinister rise of Digital Surveillance

The recent Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights into the digital welfare state succinctly summarises the serious concerns that algorithmic decision making raises. These include:

difficulties in digital access for vulnerable persons most affected by these regimes, both in terms of access to the necessary technology and digital literacy;

the secrecy often surrounding how decisions are reached;

the tendency of risk-scoring and other algorithmic systems to exacerbate existing inequalities and discrimination;

the inflexible robotic application of rules which preclude consideration of relevant extenuating circumstances and removes human interaction and compassion from the picture.

Closer to home Big Brother Watch have just launched a new investigation called Welfare Data Watch into the one in three councils who use algorithms to make welfare decisions . A process which they claim will impact on : 'anyone who's life is touched by the welfare state , whether that is in social care , benefits or housing, may now be impacted by secretive data profiling , predictive analytics , and algorithm decisions. Algorithms , Artificial intelligence , and vast stores of data are being used to profile and monitor vast swathes of the population, A number that has only increased during the pandemic'.

The key areas Big Brother Watch will be investigating are:

(1). Risk scoring ( known as Rick Based Verification ) of Housing Benefit , Council Tax Support and Universal Credit

(2). Predictive analytics in children's care, adult vulnerability and homelessness

(3). Data analysis in social housing , including tools that claim to predict who will fall short on their rent

(4). Surveillance in adult social care , from fridge door sensors to fridge doors replacing in person care

More information about the new campaign and a link to a template letter for councils can be found at https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaigns/welfare-data-watch/

Whilst the text to the campaign letter to submit a Subject Access Request to councils can be read below:

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to submit a Subject Access Request for information held on me by the council.

I am solely requesting data related to my benefit or welfare payments by the council.

Please furnish me with:

- The data, and sources for this, used in assessing my claim for housing benefit and council tax support.

- Details on how this data was processed, including details of any automated or algorithmic process used to aid in decision making.

- The data used in risk assessing my claim [risk based verification], details of how it was processed and any data created in the process

- this should include any data not about me as an individual but still used in the system, such as OAC classifications, postcode level data and similar

- The risk score and category, including any descriptors, assigned to me by any computer system.

Please also explain any other profiling, algorithm or automated aid to decision making applied to me or my data.

Best Wishes

APPENDIX:

(1). WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MAKE US LESS FREE? Experts consider how the growing use of AI will impact civil liberties : American Civil Liberties Union

https://www.aclu.org/issues/privacy-technology/will-artificial-intelligence-make-us-less-free

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Let a Great Assembly Be . . . ! | by Andy Wastling

Verse : 65 :

`Let a great Assembly be Of the fearless and the free On some spot of English ground Where the plains stretch wide around.'

The Masque of Anarchy

Percy Bysshe Shelley ( 1819 ) following the Peterloo Massacre of that year.

In his call for freedom, it is perhaps the first modern statement of the principle of nonviolent resistance.

Let a Great Assembly Be . . . ! | by Andrew Wastling

It's entirely understandable that a widespread national campaign is rapidly developing amongst campaign organisations , activists , academics and individuals. Patel might have inadvertently created a united front against this rogue government as an entirely unintended consequence.

It's heartening to read in yesterday's Independent that : More than 700 of the UK’s leading legal academics have signed a stinging open letter urging Boris Johnson to ditch draconian restrictions on the freedom to demonstrate, in one of the largest protests of its kind in decades. ( https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/police-bill-academics-letter-priti-patel-b1818695.html)

The attack on traditional Gypsy and Romany Travellers is straight out of the Tory Attack Handbook on New Age Travellers in the Public Order Bill of the 1980's which also generated a huge popular backlash. Some of us will also remember attending the huge and lively demonstration against the Criminal Justice Bill in the 1990's . The government is clearly expecting widespread expressions of popular discontent post Covid and are accordingly rigging the courts and legislature well in advance .

Murdoch of course has never forgiven Extinction Rebellion from preventing his newspapers being delivered and will no doubt have demanded an appropriate government response to ensure it won't happen again. Patel will as they say : Just be following ( Murdochs ) orders !

Unsurprisingly there are a large number of public petitions circulating on this huge attempt to marginalize and reduce the right to protest as follows:

House of Commons : Do Not Restrict our Rights to Peaceful Protest

https://petition.parliament.uk/signatures/108799139/signed

Friends , Families & Travellers : Stand Against Harsh New Laws for Roadside Camps

https://action.gypsy-traveller.org/page/78097/donate/1?locale=en-GB&en_chan=tw&ea.tracking.id=Twitter_crim_tres&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=Email%20To%20Target%20_%20Crim%20Trespass&en_ref=207204871

Netpol : Netpol's Charter For Freedom of Assembly Rights

https://netpol.org/charter/

38 Degrees : Protect the Freedom to protest

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/protect-the-freedom-to-protest

Liberty : Stop The Policing Bill

https://action.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/page/78339/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=twitter

Protect Everyone Bill : ( email your MP )

https://action.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/page/77270/action/1?ea.tracking.id=twitter

Global Justice Now : Defend the right to Protest

Defend the right to protest | Global Justice Now

Friends of the Earth : Defend Your Right to Protest

Add your name to defend the right to protest | Friends of the Earth

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Andy Wastling's Response to Chris Draper's Post

Response to Chris Drapers recent and extremely timely article on Northern Voices , Guess Who Is Reading Your Census ? by Andrew Wastling

IN response to Chris Drapers recent and extremely timely article on Northern Voices 'Guess Who Is Reading Your Census?'

:

Readers might also like to have a read of 'Demilitarise the 2021 census' in Peace News: Demilitarise the 2021 census Peace News

There is also an extremely helpful template PRESS RELEASE for campaigners to send to their local media to explain why they are taking such action - though as we know unfortunately the likelihood of such a letter being published locally is indeed slim!

Milan Rai, editor of Peace News, which is circulating a guide to creative resistance to the census, commented: ‘Lots of British people are likely to feel uncomfortable adding to the profits of a giant US arms company developing weapons of death and providing IT services to those who’ve been waging war in Afghanistan and around the world for decades.’

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Reflections on Chomsky & the Responsibility of Intellectuals in public spaces by Brian Bamford

ON Saturday, 13 March 2021 Andy Wastling wrote in a post entitled 'We ain't got no swing; Except for the ring of the truncheon thing':

'Local Public Space in Rochdale & the homeless: At the local level readers might want to ask their prospective ward councillors standing for public office in May what their personal views are on the anti-democratic measures lurking in the small print of Rochdale Councils Public Space Protection Order? ...' and he concluded 'It would be interesting to see how many councillors have actually even read the locally drafted legislation they voted for which can also be readily deployed against union members on a legitimate picket line or require campaigners to ask permission before handing out leaflets on a street stall or holding a demonstration in the town centre?'

This post allows us to recall what Neil Smith and Amahl Smith observed intheir easay entitled 'Reflections on Chomsky's "The Responsibility of Intellectuals".': 'In "The Responsibility of Intellectuals" Chomsky focused on the responsibility of individual intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies. But if they they are to be able to do that in a way that has impact, there are perhaps prior responsibilities that need exploring.' In particular they refer to ' "CIVIL SPACE" and the infringement of liberties".' and they point out that 'Above we touched on changes to the academic environment that may discourage at least one set of intellectuals from speaking out', but they conclude that '"Civic space" is the set of conditions that enable citizens to organise, participate and communicate without hinderance' and that 'Civic space is only secure when a state protects its citizens and "respects and facilitates their fundemental rights to associate, assemble peacefully and freely express views and opitions".'

At the time of publication of the essay in 2019 by University College London the authors remind us: 'As the organisation Civicus demonstrates, there is ample evidence that civic space is under attack around the world, and that vulnerable groups are discouraged from speaking out, often under the pretect that this is a necessary part of the counter-terrorism agenda.'

'To take a simple example' the authors say: 'as part of its attempt to stop "radicalisation", the UK government instituted the "Prevebt" strategy. Among provision requires that social services, faith leaders, teachers, doctors and others refer those at risk of radicalisation to a local Prevent body, which then decides what to do.. Among the signs that someone may warrant referral is "having a sense of grievance that is triggered by personal experience or discrimination or aspects of government policy".'

To conclude the authors write: 'The changes in the powers of the UK government [already] touched on above reflect ideologically motivated infringement of liberties more generally. This can be illustrated with a motion brought at the 2017 annual general meeting of the civil liberties and human rights charity Liberty, attcking aspects of the UK government's regressive legislation.'

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Deja Vu? by Andrew Wastling

HOMES are as we all know far more than concrete and brickwork. Our decision makers need to get things right. Some readers may recall that for all of its issues Ashfield Valley did at least provide easy access accommodation for a generation of Rochdale's youth. Ashfield Valley it's often airbrushed out of local social housing history and despite winning a housing award in the 1967 'Summer of Love', it quickly declined and by the 1980s was a double edged sword which on one hand was a notorious haven for drug users, glue sniffers whilst on the other a vibrant safe haven for a small army of squatters , artists and writers as well as being home to a large number of families, OAP's and single people'. 'Ashy Valley' comprised just over 1,000 flats and it's eventual demolition it can be argued artificially increased rents in the private sector locally by reducing housing unit supply , along with Margaret Thatcher's who passed two pieces of major housing legislation in 1980 & 1989.

The 1980 Housing Act extended the right to buy to tenants with generous discounts following decades more than a million council homes were sold at an estimated cost in today's money of more than £60bn. The majority of sold-off homes were not replaced, leaving social housing as a residual tenure. Since 1990, a further 500,000 Council Houses have been sold off. The 2021 local housing crisis has been manufactured by generations of town planners and politicians from all political parties not arrived at by sheer chance.

Writing in the guardian in 2017, Faiza Shaheen, (Director of CLASS Centre for Labour and Social Studies) argued convincingly that thirty years of bad policy have encouraged house hoarding, avarice and the massive accumulation of wealth – to the detriment of the rest of society , pointing out that:

'The richest 1% of adults, some 488,000 people, own 14% of the nation's assets ,– worth about £11tn. At the other end of the financial scale, 15% (7.3 million people) either own no assets at all, or are in debt. And things are potentially about to get a lot worse – house prices are forecast to rise by 50% over the next eight years, according to the National Association of Estate Agents and the Association of Residential Letting Agents.'

Locally we are in danger of repeating the exact same failed solutions to the same problems on local social housing only on a much larger scale.

Despite some of the swearing mandatory viewing of the Tony Wilson narrated documentary Hard-core Valley - Ashfield Valley Flats' (1) might be advisable for those RBH / RMBC making the decisions on College Bank & Lower Falinge. Not least for the nostalgia trip some of us might have seen familiar faces admiring the spiked hair , the dreadlocks ,& colourful punk fashions & music of the time. Readers of Northern Voices will be aware that Cult 1975 novel Rule of the Night, by Rochdale author Trevor Hoyle, is largely based on the estate. (please see Greater Manchester's forgotten Punk Estate : Greater Manchester's forgotten punk estate - Manchester Evening News).

Tragically one of the well known punk squatters , Jon Rimmer, who was a familiar sight once a fortnight carrying a huge bag of spuds over his shoulder bought with his Giro from Ron Chalker 'The Potatoe Mans' warehouse on Mellor Street, walking through town barefoot accompanied by his placid natured alsatian Rebel, was his was murdered in 2019 (Rochdale News | News Headlines | Funeral fundraiser launched for Jon Rimmer - Rochdale Online) whilst the various disparate tribes making up the valley were dispersed locally to Sheffield, Hebden Bridge, Totnes and Brighton and some as far afield as to the anarchist squat in Christiania in the heart of Copenhagen. It was the end of an era for many. The start of a long journey of self-discovery for others.

In Wilson's documentary there is an unfortunate incident of camera photobombing by an unwelcome local politician ( Cyril Smith ) who was renowned for avoiding the estate & its residents like the pneumonic plague when cameras were not present and it came to doing his job as town MP. The documentary is a snap-shot in time from Rochdale's housing archive. To see this vile politician brazenly stand beside the flats and shamelessly say he's been an MP for eighteen years tells it's own story when we are mindful that his brother Norman held a Rochdale Council housing portfolio at the time.

As does some rudimentary investigation of which local establishment politicians who oversaw this social housing scandal who are still unbelievably active in local council politics well past their sell by date?

As with Ashfield Valley asbestos is reportedly present in College Bank. Lower Falinge has taken over the unenviable & undeserved mantle of a 'failed estate' from Ashy Valley - despite having wonderful community initiatives and brilliant residents who struggle to maintain a vibrant community despite being consistently failed by Rochdale Borough Housing and local politicians of all parties over the decades.

Our mainstream media frequently uses social stereotyping images of Lower Falinge when they wish to indulge their penchant for poverty safaris to illustrate numerous & serial articles on 'welfare dependency' & 'broken Britain'. Ashfield Valley was a planning & delivery disaster that could & should have been averted. It was an abject failure & scandal, a 'masterclass' in how not to run social housing. The demolition of Great Howarth by Rochdale Borough Housing and the current state of and proposals for College Bank and Lower Falinge - as well as other Rochdale Borough Housing managed properties - shows that absolutely nothing has been learned by our decision makers who seem intent on making the exact same mistakes, using failed 'solutions' to mediate what appear to be institutionally engrained repeated failures with getting to grips with social housing in Rochdale over half a century.

Proving there's nothing really new under the sun .We can see that Rochdale already has considerable form when it comes to home regeneration, redevelopment, failure & eventual demolition due to years of mismanagement of housing stock by criminal & inept local politicians.

Am I alone in getting a sickening sense of Déjà vu about RBH kamikaze plans to demolish College Bank flats?

What's the betting Rochdale's local propertied class once again trouser private rents hand over fist in the aftermath of this exercise in turbo drived gentrification?

Historical Archive:

Tony Wilson's 1990's documentary : Harcore Valley from Granada and Simon Armitages ' Xanadu from 1992 both give powerful insights into a community about to be demolished and can be seen on YouTube.

In Hardcore Valley : Tony Wilson focuses on the marginalsied voices from the Estate both old and new in Granada TV documentary made during the demolition of the infamous Ashfield Valley estate, Rochdale. early 1990s The piece now stands as a fascinating piece of social history into an era in the history of Social Housing which has been airbrushed almost completely from history by local Town Planners intent on seeing history repeats itself

In Xanadu : Simon Armitage focuses on housing problems on the notorious Ashfield Valley Estate in Rochdale, Lancashire. To the background sound of the estate being demolished, Armitage discovers that life is continuing there in gentle and surprising ways. The only remaining caretaker is a survivor of the 1956 uprising in Budapest, while a neighbour rescues local stranded cats. One couple are not looking forward to moving from their immaculate flat, and another resident is cultivating a forest in his home.

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MODERN TIMES & Homelesness by A. Wastling

MODERN TIMES ( Charlie Chaplin ) 1936 : The Tramp struggles to exist and retain his individuality with the aid of a homeless woman The Gamin who is fleeing the police after stealing a loaf of bread.A damning indictment on the desperate employment and financial conditions many people faced during the Great Depression . When millions were thrown on the scrapheap of mass unemployment after the Capitalist financial crash . The System attempts to crush The Tramp to the level of an anonymous and alienated cog in the production line factory system.Quite innocently The Tramp picks up a flag fallen off the back of a lorry and waves it aloft in an attempt to attract the attention of the driver only to find himself by chance at the front of a workers march and thrown in jail as a Communist agitator after a riot ensues after the cops attack the peaceful though noisy workers march. A masterpiece of silent cinema which also incorporates the Marxist Theory of alienation and imagery particularly when The Tramp becomes locked into the very heart of the machine he is tasked with operating as well as having an episode of mental breakdown due to the drudgery and repetitive nature of work on the ceaseless conveyor belt of the then novel factory Assembly lines. Some of Chaplin's earliest California friends were socialists and members of the radical International Workers of the World, the so-called Wobblies, all dedicated foes of capitalism. In some of Chaplin's earlier films the initials IWW can still be clearly seen chalked on the backs of doors on set

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*

Covid 19 How can you stay at home - when you have no home? - by Andrew Wastling

“There is only one way to solve this issue…crack down. Fine aggressive beggars and arrest them.”

Councillor John Blundell 2017

“Blundell’s comments are dehumanising, divisive and frankly just ignorant, only exposing his lack of knowledge and experience on the issue.

“The solution to begging, rough sleeping and homelessness isn’t fines, intimidation and social cleansing – the typical Labour way. It is fixing our broken housing system once and for all, ending luxury developments, guaranteeing genuinely affordable housing, getting people off the streets and preventing the initial causes.

“I will never understand why the Labour party seems to have such a problem with rough sleepers and homelessness – it’s just baffling.”

Former Manchester MP John Leech 2017

A 2017 Freedom of Information Request to Rochdale Council recorded 945 homelessness presentations, 205 homelessness advice presentations from people aged 16-25yrs for the same period with 65 homelessness presentations from people aged 16-25yrs recorded in the last quarter of that year. We also know also that the number of people waiting on the current waiting list for Social Housing in 2017 was 6,374 households.

Three years before the Covid pandemic began I calculated that if all of the people currently on Rochdale Councils waiting lists stood one person per step on St.Chads 122 stone steps they would have gone up and down our towns historic landmark almost 54 times with one family standing on each medieval stone step!

Moving forward to the pandemic outbreak , in 2020 B&B accommodation has been used locally for 384 clients, this includes 272 singles and 90 families.

Additionally the number of households open to homelessness fleeing domestic abuse throughout the pandemic was 159.

That there is a local housing and homelessness and domestic violence crisis there is no absolutely doubt whatsoever!

At the same time we know that Empty Homes Week (23rd September 2019 - 29th September 2019 ) reported over 216,000 homes in England have been empty for over six months. In all, over 600,000 homes are currently vacant. The latest statistics for Rochdale show that there were in 858 long term empty properties in 2017.

Rochdale Borough Housing proposals for massive urban vandalism with the potential demolition of 4 blocks at College Bank and 11 blocks at Lower Falinge, which include 395 currently occupied RBH social rented flats will only serve to remove further essential units from the Social Housing stock - or Council Houses as they were once rather quaintly referred to in certain circles!

Campaigners have long been concerned that attempts to exclude homeless people through draconian and overzealous use of Public Space Protection Orders will simply serve to criminalise and further marginalised already socially excluded individuals.The vast majority of whom should be in a place of safety receiving care for complex mental health , trauma or addiction issues rather than a magistrate courts prison cell.

Locally we know that 49 Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued since the introduction of the Rochdale Town Centre Public Space Protection Order. Consisting of Street Drinking – 7 Soliciting for money – 3 Anti-social parking – 7 Begging 32 . This was as of December 2020 as the second wave of Covid-19 began . It's also illuminating to note that nobody from the Council staff issuing these fines has bothered to record the number of people offered legal aid . Despite the fact Rochdale Council is at pains to point out that : vulnerable people will be offered support not just punishment.

Likewise although Rochdale Councils states nobody was issued notices or imprisoned under the decrepit and discredited 1824 Vagrancy Act it is not too difficult to find local homeless people who will tell you that they have spent a night in the cells under Vagrancy Act legislation just prior to Christmas. A public and significant corporate endorsement of the Christiam message at the heart season of peace & goodwill to all which even Scrooge would retch at?

With many people in the hostel environment having low or no immune systems requests from campaigners to prioritise the Townships homeless rough sleepers or sofa surfers for Covid-19 vaccinations have hitherto fallen on entirely deaf ears.

A recent written request to NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group to lobby local NHS Service Providers & GP Practices to prioritise the position of local homeless population on the grounds that:

Currently the homeless lie sixth in line for inoculation behind care home residents, health workers and older folks. They would likely be classed as, “vulnerable adults under 65” by medics, as their average life expectancy is just 45 years-of-age '. The only response to this so far has been that:

Details of the vaccine programme locally can be found on RBC Public Health site at http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/covidvaccine

In addition in response to further public questions , namely:

How many homeless people, rough sleepers, hostel residents have tested positive for Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic?

and,

Have there been any fatalities of homeless people attributed to Covid-19 in the homeless / hostel environment or on the street itself in Rochdale since the pandemic began?

There is now the familiar response that: 'The CCG does not have access to this data'.

Campaigners have also pointed out to Rochdale Council that FEANTSA the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless / Fédération Européenne d'Associations Nationales Travaillant avec les Sans-Abri has issued an international statement pointing out that:

'Homeless people are disproportionately affected by poor health with mortality rates 3–6 times greater than those of the general population. They are often at a higher risk of contracting infectious diseases and are especially vulnerable to respiratory problems due to compromised immune systems, poor nutrition and hygiene, and frequent overcrowding at shelters. Research has found that when homeless people are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, they often have problems typically associated with much older people. Homeless people are at high risk of premature frailty and geriatric conditions. There is also a high prevalence of multimorbidity in this group.Research calls for a needs-based rather than an age-based approach for homeless health and it makes the case for homeless people to be included in the priority group for vaccines based on their specific health needs rather than their age. Although they are clinically vulnerable and have complex underlying health conditions, people experiencing homelessness often face barriers in accessing health care and consequently, their medical conditions are often underdiagnosed and their health needs, while multiple, left unmet. This makes them a high-risk group for COVID-19.'

Incidentally any Northern Voices reader who'd like to send a copy to their ward councillor to urge them to get a hurry on with the priority vaccination homeless people and other disadvantaged socio-economic groups can find the full FEANTSA statement at : Vaccine_Statement_Feb_21.pdf (feantsa.org)

Though don't expect a reply or even an acknowledgement anytime from them anytime soon!

In short a forty year old hostel dweller with a history of sleeping in the damp conditions of squats of skips with a bronchial infection, a drug user with a history of intravenous drug use with an impared immune system through HIV or AIDS, or a someone in their forties with the lungs of an eighty year old due to the reduced lung capacity of COPD or low or no immune system due to years of drug alcohol or substance misuse is not best placed to avoid the transmission of Covid 19 in the comunal conditions of a hostel, bed and breakfast, hotel or squat with shared showers, toilets and baths and cramped living conditions with limited opportunities to self isolation or quarantine.Homeless people have also experienced problems in accessing NHS GP services. As FEANTSA state:

'They are often at a higher risk of contracting infectious diseases and are especially vulnerable to respiratory problems due to compromised immune systems, poor nutrition and hygiene, and frequent overcrowding at shelters.'

It is self evident also that there will be no records locally of the number of transient or itinerant individuals not registered since they are by their very nature hard to reach and mobile.What is certain however is that they will not be getting an email, text, or a telephone call asking them to come in for a Covid vaccination - since officially they do not exist. No GP registration then no vaccine unless you are fortunate to be homeless in a progressive council such as Oldham or Liverpool that is.

But it is not the homeless alone who appear to be languishing forgotten and marginalised at the back of the vaccination queue People with learning disabilities were found to be up to six times more likely to die from Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, analysis shows. A report from Public Health England (PHE) found the death rate for those with a learning disability was 30 times higher in the 18-34 age group. Learning disabilities charity Mencap have said that the government had "failed to protect" a group already experiencing health inequalities.'

'The report highlighted that certain kinds of learning disabilities, such as Down's Syndrome can make people more vulnerable to respiratory infections. Adults with the condition have recently been added to the government's "clinically extremely vulnerable" list. Almost half of those with Down Syndrome who died from Covid-19 were living in a care home. The Down's Syndrome Association said priority must be given "to measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in these settings, including regular testing of care staff".

When asked if our local HMR CCG agreed with the findings of the Public Health England Report their response was:

The CCG is unable to provide opinion-based responses

Our HMR CCG it would seem are short on answers and long on the time taken in responding to them.

Whilst our Council is keener on sweeping the homeless issues out of sight and out of mind rather than dealing with the root causes. When considering the issues of local homelssness, rough sleeping, begging and the thousands of local families waiting without any realistic hope of rehousing please remember three things. Whilst this crisis is deepening local Housing provider Rochdale Borough Housing are in the process of moving ( in many instances frail & vulnerable residents ) out of their homes in three of the Seven Sister flats , Underwood, Holland Rise, and Mardyke , stating that:

'Over the past few months, we have been carrying out technical surveys, including the recent fire risk assessments, and although we still do not have the full detail of what refurbishment and modernisation work could involve, we do now know for certain that it would be extensive enough that residents would not be able to continue to live in their homes while the work is carried out.'

One can only marvel at the total lack of awareness & timing of this during a global health pandemic requiring social distancing and unnecessary travel; particularly of the elderly with possible underlying health conditions!

Secondly we should remember that just THREE people were recorded sleeping rough in Rochdale in November 2018 - a truly astounding 40% reduction from figures taken eight years earlier!

And, thirdly , we need to be mindful of the unavoidable fact that there are elements within Rochdale Council who would clearly spitefully and totally unecessarily rather scapegoat , dicriminate against , prosecute and criminalize the poor , mentally ill an marginalised than give them fully funded and functioning support services with which to treat them with basic human dignity to help them rise up out of their destitution and misery. As the great Angela Davis once said :

'Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages.' ______________________________

Unpublished letter to Rochdale Observer & Manchester Evening News 14/01/2021

Dear Editor Rochdale Observer / MEN ,

Local Homeless People & Covid 19 Vaccine roll out

On 13 January Oldham Council teamed up with local GPs in a bid to ensure that rough sleepers and those without homes are inoculated against Covid 19. They are the first in the country to roll-out a programme specifically designed to vaccinate homeless people (1).

This progressive and humane initiative received favourable national publicity in the print media, online , on radio & television, (2), (3).

Could I please ask Rochdale Council through your Letters Page what plans there are, if any, for the scheme to vaccinate homeless people to be extended to cover homeless, rough sleepers & hostel & bed & breakfast dwellers in the Heywood, Middleton & Rochdale area?

As we know homeless people are at risk of Covid due to low or no immune systems & also at risk of transmitting it through the wider community through no fault of their own.

I am aware of one homeless person still sleeping on the streets of Rochdale & sofa surfing who should be screening because he has no Spleen and is on the NHS list for those at high risk of Covid 19. Is he a lone example or more typical of the local response to meet the needs of those without homes during the pandemic?

Founder of Homeless Friendly Dr Chauhan has pointed out that: 'As a health carer who has worked on the Corona virus front-line at care homes, I can absolutely see why older people and health workers need to be prioritised. But so too do the homeless. Each winter they face problems such as hypothermia, pneumonia and even frostbite. Does death from COVID-19 also now be added to that list of shame?'

Thank you

Faithfully,

Andrew Wastling

Park Court, Drake Street, ROCHDALE

m | 07786251801

APPENDIX:

(1).

'Homeless man gets Covid-19 jab in city council's rough sleepers vaccine drive', Daily Mirror( 13/01/2021)

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/homeless-man-gets-covid-jab-23311099?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

(2).

'Oldham launches one of the first homeless COVID-19 vaccine schemes', Planet Radio, (13/01/2020)

https://planetradio.co.uk/hits-radio/manchester/news/oldham-launches-one-of-the-first-homeless-covid-19-vaccine-schemes/

(3).

https://www.bigissue.com/latest/homeless-couple-given-covid-19-vaccine-in-oldham-world-first/

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Further to those Mark Birkett and Les May articles by Andrew Wastling

'TWO-JOBS RUMBELOW' - A GIANT AMONG PYGMIES

or is he MILKING the MASSES in the Land of Gracie Fields?

SOMETIME in the future, the city of Metropolis is home to a Utopian society where its wealthy residents live a care free life. One of those is Freder Fredersen. One day, he spots a beautiful woman with a group of children, she and the children quickly disappear. Trying to follow her, he is horrified to find an underground world of workers who apparently run the machinery that keeps the Utopian world above ground functioning. In Metropolis the citizens are sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

In one of the film's most memorable scenes ( one of many ) Freder Fredersen sees an exhausted worker in overalls desperately struggling with the mechanical hands of the clock measuring the passage of long and arduous shifts. In a scene redolent of recurring memes in literature such as , The Prince & The Pauper, or A Tale Of Two Cities, when Sydney Carton’s sacrifice of his own life on behalf of his friends Charles Darnay on the guillotine of Revolutionary France, Fredersen asks to swap places with the worker to give him some respite from his torturous labours and the brutalisation of long repetitive shifts seemingly without end.

Freder arduously working a ten-hour shift on the clock machine. Freder is like a Christ figure, crucified on the clock. From Fritz Lang's sci-fi silent classic.Metropolis (1927).

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Free the Riverside One!' Further to Mark Birkett & Les Mays articles by Andrew Wastling

LIKE all readers of Northern Voices I have also been following the issue of Steve 'Two-Jobs' Rumbelow with growing disbelief and anger. Some might argue that in a town where a councillor is allowed two votes it was surely only a matter of time before a subtly illogical extension of this Orwellian Double-Think culture would eventually mean we were always destined to arrive at a situation where the Councils Chief Executive Officer would have two full-time jobs, draw two full-time salaries and presumably have twice the number of holidays of your typical worker whilst achieving only half the expected outcomes.

Steve 'Two-Jobs' Rumbelow can sometimes be seen in the background of our local NHS CCG Zoom meetings resplendent in his natural habitat of silent participant in yet another interminable online meeting where anything of value is not discussed until the cameras and microphones are switched off and the Public Excluded from what very little remains of the democratic process. The online meeting remains nonetheless by far the best environment in which to see him exhibiting the superhuman powers which enable Steve to hold down two full time jobs at one and the same time . His masterful grasp of both of his employment remits and Zoom meeting technology can be clearly observed to maximum effect each time he remembers to unmute his laptop to share his valuable pearls of wisdom with the assembled participants. You only have to observe him in action to see that he is worth so clearly worth every penny of both his salaries.

I pride myself as something of an advanced multi-tasker myself I can generally deal with obstructive Council sycophants via email , make a mental note of the kick-off times of the away day match, remember to test the fire alarms, keep all my case notes in (more or less) order all whilst mopping the office floor and singing a happy song as I go along but even I'm forced to admit defeat and acknowledge that Steve's innate prowess leaves me merley lumbering along on the hard shoulder of life. In fact we are all left running on the spot in the starting blocks as Steve effortly transcends life's many insurmountable hurdles.

When work ethics and motivation was being handed out to the rest of us humble members of the British proletariat Steve was clearly out there at the front of the queue - a pole position he has endeavoured with very fibre & sinew to maintain ever since. He is after all clearly an elite member of Britain's famed meritocracy. Whilst many local workers struggle to meet ends meet and are forced onto the charity of foodbanks & mutual aid food networks despite juggling several part time or zero-contract jobs Steve's Patrician countenance it seems bareley needs to break into a sweat.

Like so many of us, I naturally assumed at first the whole thing was a scam reflecting the very worst elements of the local nepotism & cronyism we have all come to expect. How wrong I was!

I have been informed on good authority that Mr.Rumbelow has been gifted the necessary personal qualities and transferable professional skills which us lesser mortals can only dream of. He is one of the select few. Why else would he be in Rochdale after all?

His inscrutable Zen -like online demeanor was simply Steve approaching the nirvana of Bureaucratic Enlightenment as he silently mentally calculates his rate of pay per hour whilst doing two appointed tasks simultaneously whilst deducting precisely any personal expenses which might impact on his personal yearly tax rate minus anything he can possibly avoid under Gift Aid legislation - that or he'd fallen asleep through sheer exhaustion!

One can only marvel at the mathematical genius needed to calculate the mileage allowance whilst performing two different job descriptions for two seperate job roles whilst driving to two different meeting destinations in the same car . . . or is it two-cars?

The man is nothing short of inspirational! He presumably prepares for two Monthly Target Reviews with his employer(s) and completes two sets of yearly Continuing Professional Development training courses and contends with double the hangover from two Office Christmas parties. One wonders how he finds any time left to run the Council?

That is the spanner in the works for poor old Rumbelow.

I have only recently been reliably informed of the Gulag conditions Steve endures whilst incarcerated in No1 Riverside, his tortuous hours ,the selfless separation he is forced to endure from his family and loved ones whilst he slogs through his brutal work life balance in his ascetic near monastic isolation. One can only marvel at his strength of character, his enduring stamina and dedicated selfless commitment to Public Service he exhibits in his daily working regime?

I can only suggest Steve joins a union as a matter of urgency to avoid the need to work such excessive hours to feed and clothe his family and we as socially concerned citizens and trade unionists launch a 'Free the Riverside One!' campaign to see this cruel exploitation of a fellow worker is not allowed to continue an hour longer than absolutely necessary.

After all comrades we would all I'm sure do the same for any other victim of indentured or sweatshop labour brutalized into slaving away for eighty plus hours a week anywhere else on the planet? Quite how Steve will be able to join us on two separate picket lines at the same time should he go on strike and withdraw his labour simultaneously from two separate employees to improve his working conditions in two seperate locations remains anybody's guess?

Workers of the world Unite !

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A Northern Spin Town!

by  Andrew Wastling

THIS year's Empty Homes Week (23rd September 2019 - 29th September 2019) has raised national awareness of the latest Government data showing that over 216,000 homes in England have been empty for over six months. In all, over 600,000 homes are currently vacant. We of course all know that we live in the midst of a local and national affordable housing and homelessness crisis. The report ‘Empty Homes in England’ the 2019 edition was published on Monday September 23rd without a solitary mention in our local media outlets.   That in itself tells it's own story of the Mainstream Medias reluctance to speak truth to power or even to maintain the pretence of investigative journalism free of editorial compromise or content filtering at the behest of their advertisers corporate sponsors & invested vested interests.   I could go on but am sure I don't need to especially to readers of Northern Voices.

For those who might have missed it in the local Press the  latest public statistics for Rochdale showing  that there were in 2017 858 long term empty properties.

In 2018 there were 854 long term empty properties , a reduction of just six in twelve months out of a total of available 93,986 properties .

I would just like to ask Rochdale Council how long these properties are likely to remain empty before they are brought back into use to meet the chronic housing need for local families waiting to be re-housed but feel almost certain a reply will not be sent anytime soon. In fact in Rochdale there is not even a mandatory time period for local councillors to reply to a question from their constituents. This tells you all that is needed about local democratic accountability  - There isn't any!

The local housing crisis has got steadily worse and yet those councillors tasked with standing up for their constituents have never been held to account for their serial failures to address the chronic housing shortage . This despite , most reasonable people would think have thought, having a roof over ones head, being a basic expectation from the voters of their council representatives ?

Currently if all of the people currently on Rochdale Councils waiting lists stood one person per step on St.Chads 122 stone steps they would now go up and down our towns historic landmark almost 54 times! That's a total failure of housing policy in my book.

Where precisely are Rochdale Councils priorities in spending over £250 million on town centre regeneration which is supposed to produce a 'magic trickle' down effect to our local citizens many of whom are reliant on food banks to simply ward of malnutrition or becoming increasingly dependent on GP prescribed opiates disparagingly referred to in some quarters as ' hillbilly heroin to numb the pain and blur them into a sense of false well-being?

We are seeing all around us the collapsing failed experiment of Neo Liberalism begun in the 1980's under Thatcher & Regan & transformed under Cameron, May , & Johnson into the kind insane Kamikaze turbo charged disaster capitalism of the present.

Proof, if proof be needed that this spectacularly and repeatedly spun fake regeneration is little more than insidious creeping regeneration is found in the latest publication this week of the indices of deprivation which placed Rochdale as the twentieth in the UK for poverty. It is no accident surely that a staggering 19 out of 20 of local authorities with the highest proportion of neighbourhoods among the most deprived in England are based in the north of the country. Little was made in out local media of the fact that despite millions spent on Rochdale by succeeding councils that The English Indices of Deprivation report, compiled by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, assessed the level to which local authorities lack income, employment, education, and adequate housing, as well as the level of crime and services in across the UK and found Rochdale sadly languishing behind once again.

Were Rochdale a state and not a town it would be difficult not to describe it as a 'Failed State' using Chomsky's definition: they suffer from a serious 'democratic deficit' that deprives their formal democratic institutions of real substance. One of the hardest tasks that anyone can undertake, and among the most important, is to look honestly in the mirror.  If we allow ourselves to do so, we should have little difficulty in finding the characteristics of 'failed states' right at home.'

Sound familiar? It does to me. This is a town where many things  people and institutions are quite simply broken.

Fot the official recorded the top twenty areas with the most deprived neighbourhoods in England are:

1. Middlesbrough 2. Liverpool 3. Knowsley 4. Kingston upon Hull 5. Manchester 6. Blackpool 7. Birmingham 8. Burnley 9. Blackburn with Darwen 10. Hartlepool 11. Bradford 12. Stoke-on-Trent 13. Halton 14. Pendle 15. Nottingham 16. Oldham 17. North East Lincolnshire 18. Hastings 19. Salford

20. Rochdale.

These are deeply inconvenient facts for our councillors who would much rather they were discreetly wept under the carpet along with the beggars on our streets who are a glaring testimony to their abject failure as policy makers in our town each and every time one of them engages in conversation with a local voter or shopper.  They all of course as do we all have background stories.  Stories which when you trouble to listen do not paint our council who implemented Tory Austerity though the back door of our Town Hall without even token resistance or our councillors who capitulated without dissent, then voted through cuts to essential front line services  without any real understanding of how those closed local services would eventually impact on community cohesion.  They after all would in most cases not be personally dependent on such public services, be on the receiving end of such hatchet jobs to the social infrastructure and were in any case financially cushioned from penury by over the odds publicly subsidised councillor expenses.  Indeed whilst voting in harsh cuts for the rest of us one  of their first steps to protect themselves in the hard times they knew were coming was to feather their own nests and vote in an inflation busting pay rise in their councillor expenses for themselves. Nice work if you can get it comrades !

Many of our street beggars however were on  the receiving end of over a decade of tory austerity.  Its no surprise they are there on our pavements to anyone who has been follow political and economic events since the corporate elites crashed the economy and then paid off their cocaine bills and balanced their accounts on the backs of the poor .

Whilst  vital Public Services being butchered we simultaneously witness  expensively financed utopian shopping units intrude into the Rochdale skyline ad nauseum across the town centre  clearly someone has found a magic Money tree?  We also see  or more accurately those who bother to look can see  , dystopian near Victorian poverty & homelessness levels increase locally and people in despair frozen like zombies on the new psychoactive substances  (or 'Spice' ) hidden away in the  ginnels alleyways and shadows where the Council spin merchants never go or more to the point don't even know exist . 

A  Freedom of Information Request showed that in 2017 know Rochdale Council recorded 945 homelessness presentations ,205 homelessness advice presentations from people age 16-25yrs for the same period. Whilst in the last quarter the Council recorded 65 homelessness presentations from people aged 16-25yrs. 

We also know that the number of people waiting on the current waiting list for Social Housing is in 2017 now 6,374 households  - this is a crisis that is getting steadily worse , not better. It can not be logical , morally justifiable , or economically viable to have so many properties remain unused for so long,  or to have highly controversial proposals to demolish at least four of the College Bank Tower Blocks whilst we still have so many local families waiting to be housed languishing on waiting list for years.   This simply does not make any kind of sense.

It does however make economic  and environmental sense to bring empty properties into public use since creating homes from empty properties saves substantial amounts of material compared to building new homes, minimises the amount of land used for development and avoids wasting embedded carbon; helping to combat climate change and providing a proactive step our council can take immediately to give some credibility to their recent declaration of a Climate Emergency at the Town Hall. 

Another immediate proactive step our Council could take could take would be  to restore the Council Environmental Sustainability Team they axed due to Austerity measures , retain some of the largest solar panels in the North of England currently on top of the Seven Sisters instead of demolition them and finally recognise and admit publicly that one of the worlds largest & most toxic asbestos dumps in the world on our doorstep should  have alone merited the calling of an environmental emergency in Rochdale several decades ago.

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Who should be charged over Grenfell?

by Andrew Wastling .

ARTICLE [Public Order & Bad Taste]  raises valid points about freedom of the individual.  The burning of any effigy of another human being could be considered incitement to hate - or alternatively as a collective way of channel anger into a less destructive avenue than real violence.  I have no qualms whatsoever ,for instance , when people in mining communities burnt the effigy of Margaret Thatcher on celebratory bonfires when she died and sang ' ding dong the witches dead' in a perfectly understandable communal response to the damage Her government dealt out to the mining communities.

On the other hand I'd be much more concerned by people burning books on bonfires, conjuring up as the image does obvious Nazi imagery and symbolism.

The swiftness of the State in this incident surely exposes the sheer hypocrisy & double standards of the authorities in choosing when and when not to act as suits their own agenda when we compare the relative speed in which the lowlifes who burnt an effigy of Grenfell were arrested, when compared to the rather posher lowlifes who burnt the real Grenfell.

When will they be arrested on charges of possible corporate manslaughter I wonder?

I know which many people will regard as the greater 'hate crime'; towards people, and which is the more deserving of police action and prosecution for criminality.

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'Affordable Homes' in Rochdale & Beyond?

6,374 - 33 = 6,341

by Andrew Wastling  

______________________________________________________

TODAY's report from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Joint Greater Manchester Combined Authority & AGMA Executive Board Scrutiny Pool , Social Housing , (Councillor Richard Farnell, Portfolio Lead, Planning & Housing & Eamonn Boylan, Portfolio Lead Chief Executive for Planning & Housing, 7 April 2017), reveals that  just  164 so-called 'affordable homes' were secured through Section 106 agreements with developers.  Only 20% of these, or in actual numbers , 33 homes were for so called 'affordable rent' - itself more expensive than 'social rent'.

This same report (1). adds that:

'By contrast, there remain low levels of new affordable homes being delivered through the planning system via s.106 agreements, where the challenge of scheme viability makes it difficult for authorities to secure affordable homes in a G[reater] M[anchester] market context.  The latest figures from CLG show just 164 affordable homes secured in 2015/16, 80% of which are for affordable home ownership or shared ownership. That total is a significant increase on previous years, so it may be that this is the start of an upward trend, though it is too early to be confident.'

Readers can draw their own conclusions on claims that these figures represent  'a significant increase on previous years', I am sure!

The report goes on to confirm that  Rochdale has  a total of 6,374 households on the housing waiting list.  Additionally of Rochdale's dwelling stock in 2015 only 21,370 was non Private Sector whilst we had over three times , or 70,070 , dwellings in the Private Sector -  numbers which tell their own story simply by themselves.

file:///C:/Users/awast/Downloads/08_Scrutiny_social_housing_April_2017.pdf

Isn't building homes for those in desperate housing need a much more constructive solution to Britain's severe housing crisis than criminalising and fining the homeless as Rochdale Council seem intent on doing with their draconian PSPO - Public Space Protection Order ?

These figures also beg the obvious question of is it really wise to consider  'some options of demolition'  of College Bank flats, when we clearly already have such considerable unmet housing need already in our town ?

Finally I'm just wondering how many, if any at all, of these 33 'affordable homes' were actually built here in Rochdale to meet our growing local housing need or to house the 6,374 households on our waiting lists?