‘Down and Out in Paris ..,and Rochdale!'

by Andrew Wastling

'The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.' 
Henry David Thoreau , On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, 1849  

_____________________________

INSTEAD of being a progressive driver of positive social change Rochdale council still seems intent on moving our civil liberties back almost four hundred years to the time when beggars or those without visible means were forcibly taken to the Parish boundary and unceremoniously thrown over it onto the mercy of the neighbouring Parish for poor relief giving to the rise to the expression ‘From Hell, Hull and Halifax, may the Good Lord deliver us!'
These words form part of the infamous Thieves’ Litany, uttered in Mediaeval Yorkshire as a leave-taking ‘prayer’ between two thieves as they parted. Hell was to be feared, of course, as was Hull Gaol with its evil reputation. Halifax was one of those towns granted the right to a ‘gibbet’, (still visible at the end of Gibbet Street , in Halifax to this day ), a particular savage form of early guillotine, which  was notorious for its quick use against suspected villains. In the seventh century paupers were sometimes branded on the forehead with a letter 'V' for vagrant. 
Whilst in  the 1930's, local Socialist writer Jack Hilton was truncheoned into near temporary paralysis at the Town Hall Poor Relief Assizes simply for speaking out in support of the poor & needy of Rochdale in the Great Depression. In the preceding eighty odd years we have thankfully made considerable progress.  Or at least some of us have.

Hilton knew he was a link in a long chain going back to the Middle Ages and beyond of those who'd chronicled the lived experience of the poor and marginalised in this country when he described the treatment of vagrants in the late 1500's in Caliban Shrieks ,written 1935 ,he vividly described the medieval lived experience the poor:

'Vagabonds were sentenced to be branded, five to be hanged , and eight set to service .  Service was unvarnished slavery .And it was from the stress of such times that humanity set up it's workhouses. We still have them with us.'

We also have first hand descriptive evidence by Jack Hilton of the scene in the Rochdale  Means tests for Public Assistance  in the middle 1930's when he noted brutality to the poor remained , just in a different form:

'What sort of civilised action in such callousness. When you take away the last straw off the poor blighter, it's a punishment that eats into his bone ? '

What sort of 'civilised actions' indeed comrade?

Proving that history does indeed have an uncanny knack of repeating itself we read that in the twenty first century Rochdale Council seems to be again intent on a course of action that insure that far from being feared that they are widely ridiculed & locally despised.
Human rights are human rights.  We can not decide that some human rights are more important than others or cherry pick those we wish to preserve & those we wish to ignore. For that way lies Animal Farms proclamation by the pigs and the rank hypocrisy of governments that proclaim the absolute equality of their citizens but give power and privileges to a small elite : ' All animals are equal but some are more equal than others,' is the well known political phrase.
Or perhaps in Rochdale Councils  case : 'some human rights abuses less important than other human rights abuses' ?
Maybe our council could take us further backwards  still and bring back the use of St. Chads stocks , reintroduce the 'rack', public floggings with the birch ,put the building of a shiny new privately run Rochdale Workhouse up for tender to the highest bidder and while they are at it have the poor of our Borough sew a letter 'P' for Pauper on their clothing so they can be easily identified for ridicule by their fellow citizens & aid their imminent arrest by the Goon Squads of the State apparatus ?
As to imposing one thousand pound fines for begging just refer R v Ealing Justices ex p Cloves (CO/16/10/89) where the Court said:
'If the defendant cannot pay the fine within a reasonable time, it is an indication that the fine is too high.'
Owing money is of itself not a criminal act.'
Amongst the widely ridiculed ' swearing ban' we also have the deeply undemocratic : 'Unauthorised distribution of printed material/leaflets' - having to get each and every leaflet authorised before it's handed out smacks of the Stasi, the Police State & Orwell's Thought Police. 
Who exactly decides what is to  be authorised and approved and what passes or fails to pass the official State sanctioned Censor I wonder ?
In the Manifesto Clubs booklet, 'Leafleting: A Liberty Lost?',  it is argued that:  '27% of councils now restrict public leafleting.'
Prompting their call for 'a review of local authorities’ no-tolerance policies, and for a more liberal regime that recognises leafleting as part of a free and vibrant civic life.'

Equally in Areopagitica, published in 1644, John Milton argued that licensing laws were a dead hand on the search for understanding, with every creation passing under the licenser’s stamp and pen before  it could enter into the world. The criticisms of fellow citizens were a surer test of truth than friars or crown agents, he argued:
‘Truth and understanding are not such wares as to be  monopolised and traded in by tickets and statutes and standards.’
The pressure of liberal opinion won the day, and the licensing of printing was finally ended in 1695, a century or more before many continental states.
'Why are beggars despised?' , asked George Orwell in 'Down and Out in Paris and London' , 1933 .
'A beggar, looked at realistically, is simply a businessman, getting his living, like other businessmen, in the way that comes to hand. He has not, more than most modern people, sold his honour; he has merely made the mistake of choosing a trade at which it is impossible to grow rich.'
In Austerity Britain where the Social Market Foundation (SMF) has just revealed the rich are 64% richer than before the recession, while the poor are 57% poorer .We have witnessed , and sometimes witness daily , since 2010 a year on increase in rough sleepers, a 60% rise in families living in temporary accommodation with 67% of children living in poverty from working families.  It should come as no surprise that at the same time the poor should be more visible on our streets .  Their cardboard pedestals a stark & constant reminder of the abject failure of neo-liberalism for many.  Equally we should not be surprised that those in power wish to demonise & scapegoat these inconvenient reminders that the glitzy consumerist utopia does not work for all.  Or even better sweep them out of sight and out of mind entirely.
Gentrification like urban poverty is nothing new. Just ask the sans-culottes driven out of their Paris quartiers in the 1860's by Barron Haussman in the 1860's , any barrios , favela , or slum dog millionaire dweller from Dickens to Dakar .Or simply ask any of the  29 mothers and expectant mothers from the E15 Campaign who received eviction notices and were told they would have to get out because the council’s funding stream to the mother and baby unit suddenly stopped by Newham Council due to Austerity and are now resisting gentrification across London.
Equally as Mike Davis points out in his excellent 'Planet of the Slums' , the 'brutal tectonics of neoliberal globalisation' have spawned :
'A proletariat without factories, workshops , and work, and without bosses, in the middle of the odd jobs, drowning in survival and leading an existence like a path through embers.'
Simultaneously we stand both despairingly distant from yet tantalisingly close to the post industrialism of Pyotr Kropotkin's 'Fields, Factories and Workshops Tomorrow'.  It does not require much investigation to see that:  
'Everywhere you will find that the wealth of the wealthy springs from the poverty of the poor.'   Especially when we consider that  a massive £250 million pounds regeneration programme for Rochdale Town Centre it is that many of us who comprise the 'precariat' still remain 'drowning in survival' and feel alienated to and disenfranchised from the local democratic decision making process that seeks to map out our sparkling futures in which we are no longer citizens but consumers.  Mere spectators of the Theatre of the Absurd many steps removed from a dysfunctional local 'democratic process' that is neither transparent , inclusive or truly represents or involves the majority of local residents at all.
A neurotic  political climate in which we read dumfounded that a legitimate question about , 'the Labour Group wanting  to adopt a policy promoted by the local Green Party to create an additional 100 allotments in Rochdale.' Was refused on the dubious grounds that the question , 'How many allotments have been created over the 12 months since then?', was deemed too 'politically motivated' by our Big Brother Council ?
Rather than seeing 'reds under the flower beds', conspiracies and shady plots in legitimate questions about innocuous allotments our council should have a thumb through Peter Hall and Colin Ward 'Sociable Cities' since 'the birthplace of cooperation' seems far from sociable at the moment with it's  proposed a Public Space Protection Order.  They should take a lesson from Colin Ward when he pointed out that : 
'The terrifying breakdown of social cohesion in the American city, in spite of intense institutionalized police surveillance equipped with every sophisticated aid to public control, illustrates that social behaviour depends upon mutual responsibility rather than upon the policeman.'

We can not either divorce the issue of urban poverty from the question of private property & public space.  Attempts to marginalise demonise the poor go back to 1824 and further still to medieval times, with attempts to criminalise the urban poor at the height of the industrial revolution.  During this time, land privatisation was being rolled out on a mass scale, and hundreds of thousands of people who lacked the means to purchase property were displaced from their homes and the land some of them had lived on for generations.  The Enclosure Acts equally played their part:

'The law doth punish man or woman
That steals the goose from off the common,
But lets the greater felon loose
That steals the common from the goose.'

Or my preferred version of this 17th century protest rhyme :

'The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back.'

These fundamental issues of land ownership & English liberty that can be traced back to the Putney Debates, & The Levellers when Cromwell's common soldiers took on their generals to argue for greater democracy and provided a platform for 'common people' to make their voices heard. These debates, forced by the Levellers paved the way for many of the civil liberties we rightly cherish and value today.

Fundamental to the birth of English liberty then  was the realisation by Colonel Rainsborough, (the highest ranking officer to support the ordinary solders) that:
“I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he” 

That was in Autumn 1647.  We're of course mindful that in 1649 Cromwell sent his mounted 'iron-sides'  in to brutally supress Winstanley's nascent communistic Digger Community at St. Georges Hill. Reminding us if we need one that where there are the seeds of liberty & dreams of utopia then we will find those willing to scythe such hard won liberty's & trample shared visions of a fairer society and a Better World into the dust simply to impose their own personal dystopia. In the future warns Orwell :   

'There will be no loyalty except loyalty to the Party. But always there will be the intoxication of power.  Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who’s helpless.  If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever.  The moral to be drawn from this dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one: don’t let it happen.  It depends on you.'

******

Guilty by Association!

by John Wilkins

ON reading Andrew Wastling's character assassination of Rochdale Councillors in Northern Voices, I was inclined to make a plea of mitigating circumstances for a tiny minority of them. However I, like several thousand residents, have already told the Council Leader in a petition and many in letters, how concerned we were to hear they (the councillors) had agreed to accept pay rises between 34 & 51%.  Basic Maths (without the need for a calculator) shows that equates to a rise of 4.25% pa. rise over the eight years when there has been minimal change in allowances. Surely a compromise of 8% now and implementing the full rise in allowances when the number of councillors is reduced from 60 to 40 might have been acceptable to residents.

Sorry I used a 'C' word there, compromise, which along with other 'C' words consultation, co-operation and compassion appear missing from the vocabulary of many councillors.  The 'd' word, democracy, is also missing from the Council Leader's vocabulary.  Why else would he stifle his Labour colleagues opinion on the issue by imposing a whip to make them vote for the rises without even the option of abstaining?  Andrew's description was more colourful “bullying air of entitlement & arrogant self justification.”   The word arrogant is an appellation is one which does fit some, but not all councillors, perhaps spineless at worst or lacking an independent mind fits a few others though.

I will make a case for the defence of some councillors because it is oh so easy for us to criticise people in public office when, as with myself, they have not tried to get elected.  Two Liberal Councillors voted against the rises. I understand four Labour councillors were 'indisposed' and one, there may be more, councillor has told me he voted on party lines but has informed the leader he would not be taking the increase personally.

Ability to listen to residents and even seek out their views should be a requirement for all politicians.  When have canvassed in the past for would - be councillors, the candidate and myself always sought out resident's views and used questionnaires as a tool to find out their concerns. In nearly 10 years residing in Middleton South Ward I think I might have seen just one leaflet asking for my views. This has not stopped me asking THEM questions and inviting them to meetings on important issues such as TTIP and Inequality. Possibly too complicated for them to have an opinion! One of my councillors has never replied to 6/7 letters I have sent, another responded once after I visited his constituent's surgery. The third, bless him naively being new, replied to me when asked if if the immense cost of developing Rochdale Town Centre was warranted and if so would Middleton, Heywood and other satellite towns have similar funding for projects. He also quickly responded to a more mundane request for leaves to be cleared in a stretch of pavement used by the elderly.

A Community hub in Middleton Town Centre called the Lighthouse Project had to re-locate twice in 12 months firstly from the Warwick Mill and then from the Cromer Mill in North Middleton. The Lighthouse offers activities for a variety of people from elderly, single dads through to unemployed. The latter have benefited hugely from the free use of computers to do their job searches, getting a warm welcome (including a cuppa!) and advice. The Lighthouse along with other community centres in the town means there has been less strain on social services and fewer 'I Daniel Blakes'.  Why is this relevant you ask. Well its original location was in my ward and none of the councillors I mentioned have been of any real help to the enterprise and surprise, surprise, none of them replied to my letters of concern nor to other Middleton residents I know. Common courtesy would say these councillors should at least acknowledge receipt of correspondence, even if they feel unable to help or disagree with comments. There I go again I used a 'C' word Courtesy.

Fast forward to the recent Open Day to show the facilities in the Lighthouse plus the Foodbank and a wheelchair hire facility which share their premises.  The only councillors I saw there during the 4 hours I was there were two of the councillors I previously said were indisposed for the vote on allowances.  One of these showed his vocabulary had the 'c' word compassion, spending time advising a woman who had been made homeless.  The other renewed his commitment to raise money for the venture.  The Monday afterwards this councillor attended an open meeting on Mental Health organised by our non politically aligned campaign group.  The councillor who said he would not take up his increased allowance also fulfilled a promise to attend. For Andrew's benefit all three of these councillors also work full time so they are not 'de-skilled' as he puts it.

Andrew said:  'Many (Councillors) appear to  have little or no respect for anyone but themselves and their evident contempt for the voters will without a doubt cost many of them their seats to independents in the next local elections'.

Sorry Andrew, Richard Farnell does not agree with you, as he thinks the electorate have short memories and will have forgotten about the issue by next May's elections.

Andrew you and I and other like minded residents need to find suitable candidates whether independents, or from parties other than the current ruling elite.  They need to be supported then to rid the Council of some of the 'dead wood' there at the moment.  I hope we can find candidates who can LISTEN and can claim to have most of the c' s: compassion, ability to co-operate, a belief in consultation, blessed with courtesy and the ability to compromise.

Rochdale Councillor's Dependency Culture?

El  Gordo  Creosote

by ANDREW WASTLING
What is being a Street Beggar compared to standing for Town Council?

(In a letter in the Rochdale Observer yesterday, Richard Farnell the Leader of Rochdale Council, wrote complaining about the goal of the human rights charity Liberty for challenging his council for, as he puts it:  'clamping down on swearing and other anti-social behaviour in Rochdale town centre'.  Councillor Farnell forcefully pleads his case:  

'We are tackling a small minority of ne'er do wells who drunkenly shout and swear and harangue shoppers in our town centre.  I make no apologies for trying to make Rochdale a more welcoming place for people to enjoy... because it's difficult enough to make a living nowadays without a few yobs turning shopper away.'

 Below Andrew Wastling asks whether a little 'propaganda by example' might be in order from Richrd Farnell and his colleagues:  as Bertolt Friedrich Brecht once said 'What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank?' Editor)

UNDERSTANDABLY, 'aggressive begging' has been in the local news lately.  It appears to be a growing problem in Rochdale.  Especially many of us have noticed in & around the locality of Rochdale Town Hall, which appears to have become a magnet for the worst type of anti-social behaviour.  This is particularly prevalent between the hours of 6PM & 9.30PM or whenever an expenses cheque form is proffered or a single tuna mayonnaise sandwich sliced. Something must be done to clampdown.
The worst case of aggressive begging I have personally witnessed recently was inside Rochdale Town Hall where an loud & intimidating group (possibly drug & alcohol fuelled), accompanied by a bullying air of entitlement & arrogant self justification that was tangible, beneath the wiff of expensive cologne & Eau de Toilette awarded themselves unprecedented 34% to 51 % pay rise.

So just who exactly are these rare & elusive individuals who's sense of self entitlement is such that they think that they are divinely deserving of a 34% pay rise whilst those less deserving public sector workers such as mere nurses, fire men, ambulance drivers and the like are restricted to a miserly 1% pay freeze because their work is of far less importance to Society?

After all must all be truly blessed to have such a superb cohort of councillors in our midst representing us.  At a whopping 34%/51% pay rise must be worth every penny piece they have awarded themselves & our local government be a centre of excellence for efficiency & local democratic accountability!

Its not often these highly paid 'alpha- councillors' are sighted in the heart of the local metropolis , one might think they are scared of being recognised by the occasional educated prole ,even rarer for them acknowledge the existence of, let alone to speak to us epsilon minors  of the  lumpen proletariat, yet they can, bless them , be spotted in diverse graceful abundance, far from their local watering holes , in their natural habitat the Town Hall Buffet Room or even more rarely glumly plodding the streets whenever the Ballot Box looms every few years and they need to remind their constituents that they actually exist ?

One ' alpha-councillor' would have us believe on the council's Twitter feed 

(@RochdaleCouncil) that she: 'works 30-40 hours per week, is on 19 committees and receives the equivalent of no more than £4/hour'! 

Appalling is it not, that such self sacrifice should go entirely unrewarded.  A scandal such as this should , one would have thought,  have been brought to the attention of the local media for discussion long before the Budget Setting Meeting nights  meeting to 'rubber stamp' councillors expense  - we can only assume they were simply far too busy attending meetings & reluctantly claiming the expenses from these 19 committees to raise it previously & not simply trying to elicit sympathy when their avarice was held under the magnifying glass?

Such selfless dedication to the voting masses is highly commendable.  How many other councillors share this councillors evident zeal and attend nineteen committees, I wonder?

Nineteen whole committees councillor!  Really, where are your comrades in the struggle; they must be queuing up to sit on a Committee instead of you to relieve you of the cross you carry with such evident style ?

What does this say about the total inability of other councillors to share this massively unfair workload of one of their over worked colleagues ?

Or what does it say about the quality or the governance of councillors who would surely be in breach of the Working Time Directive were they gainfully 'employed' elsewhere? 

About 'work life balance' or about the possible unwieldy Expenses cheques courtesy of the local tax payer for such a large number of committee attendances?

The sack cloth and ashes was evident in abundance.  Barley warming our councillors from the evening chill outside the Town Hall as they scuttled in, some via the back door again, to rubber stamp their own pay rise last night,  'under duress' because , so we are told, they collectively lacked the mental capacity to make a choice one way or the other of their own volition?

Whilst another, in the role of Judas Iscariot  , washed their  hands of fellow public service workers  facing a 1 % pay freeze saying :  'Is that my fault?' as they rushed inside to avail themselves of the £9.95 per councillor tax payer subsidised free nosh up on the rates.

It was an unedifying and shoddy spectacle of our local political elite, the intellectual glitterati & those who have risen from obscurity to non-entity without so much a single scribble to mark their presence  on the official record of Town Hall proceedings throughout their dedicated  public role as councillor. Some of them are so keen to hide their good works & so modest of accepting praise that it is indeed difficult to find a single recorded example of them having actually done anything at all whilst a councillor - but we the voters are not that stupid, we know in order to merit a 34%/51% pay rise or councillors must keep their noses to the grind stone 24/7, but that they are simply particularly adept at hiding their light under a bushel.  Some indeed are so personally dedicated to their roles of helping their constituents that they hardly escape from the grind of their weekly Council Ward Surgeries, so much so it's doubtful they'd  be recognised in public on the streets & avenues they represent without a preliminary pre-election street leafleting were they ever to visit from their actual homes at the other side of the Borough to meet some real people for a change. 

This dear reader is the ugly mask slipping of our self proclaimed political  'elite'  when under pressure & challenged to justify the indefensible.  Many appear to  have little or no respect for anyone but themselves and their evident contempt for the voters will without a doubt cost many of them their seats to independents in the next local elections.  They are aware that its possible twenty councillors will be axed and that also many of them are waiting to stand down and retire in any case.  For many drinking in the last chance salon this vote was the last chance to quaff down all they can even if it nearly chokes them in the process.

This shocking incident of gross self interest & greed from a 'mindless minority' was also witnessed by a number of decent law abiding citizens accompanied by their children causing great public distress & alarm for those going about their lawful activity in the town centre.In fact it was tantamount to daylight robbery.  Such 'loutish behaviour' is in danger of breeding a local dependency culture where handout dependent councillors are being forced by extreme poverty & circumstances beyond their control into 'soliciting for money in the street' for their daily living expenses. This local hardship is a  distressing sight to witness.  Some of them appear totally unable to feed themselves without regular tax payer funded food parcels at the end of each town hall gathering.
This preferential 'food queue jumping' by some councillors  breeds considerable ill will & festering resentment amongst the majority of the tax paying public who have themselves to resort to the mercy of the local food banks or Church run soup kitchens when they are similarly destitute - councillors don't even require a voucher like the majority of us.
I have reported this shocking incident to the relevant  authorities in the hope this unacceptable 'anti-social behaviour' will  be investigated?
I am hoping the town centre wrecking spree these councillors' seem intent on wreaking on local public services can be averted by them being subjected to a collective ASBO or a 'blanket-ban or curfew' preventing all councillors entering the Rochdale Metropolitan Borough area on a 24/7, such a Dispersal Order should be utilised against the majority of councillors three hundred & sixty five days a year to prevent further damage to our community.
Could we perhaps get the worst of this anti-social element electronically tagged - or at least rehabilitated back into respectable society in some well run, humane, local institution were their evident special needs could be catered for?
It's about time the anti social behaviour of this  bunch of 'ne’er do well' under achievers was clamped down on for the public good.  Since the delinquent behaviour of a selfish element is damming  the minority of  decent, hard working, dedicated councillors by public association.
I just wonder when we can all expect mass arrests and fines to be made with respect to our councillors since gangs of them have been spotted 'loitering around the public purse', with their 'socially destructive' conduct breaching socially acceptable norms of behaviour in the town centre for a number of years now and appear unable to curtail their behaviour without interventions being made to moderate these embedded selfish behavioural traits?
We need to be cruel to be kind to our struggling councillors & act with some urgency lest we get second, or third generation councillor dependency culture developing. We are already seeing repeat patterns of inter-generational dependency developing amongst spouses and families.  With anecdotal evidence amongst locals that some particularly dependent councillors are totally deskilled and entirely unable to independently support themselves at all in the real world.
Could we not for their own health & well being simply ban them from the Town Hall & No.1 Riverside in perpetuity with judicious use of a Public Space Protection Orders to prevent them causing more misery to themselves or our town any more damage?

Answer to Councillor Cecile Biant in Fly-Tip Row

from Mick Coats:

JUST a few thoughts on Cllr Biants email to you:
First and foremost, the reply to my request for information has not been properly answered.
My original email was sent at the beginning of February, seven weeks ago.  That's a long holiday.
I never said, sorry 'proclaimed' that I was an expert. What I said was that Save Spodden Valley (SSV) have access to international experts.
Incidentally, untill my recent retirement I was a Chartered Member of the Institute of Safety and Health (CMIOSH) with my own health and safety company. You say that you are
'Familiar with (my) employment over many years' - what does that mean?
The piles of rubbish have littered the site for over 6 months and it is not possible to ascertain whether they are a threat to public health without due examination. What does 'mainly inert' mean in this context? 'Mainly' is not reassuring!
I am surprised at your description of councillors - Cllr Farnell, Cllr Brett, 'positive, knowledgeable, friendly, relaxed, and diligent.' Really?
Which (and who's) emails are 'hell-bent on nastiness or self indulgence'?  Examples please.  With regard to councillors, you say -
'Most (not all, name the ones who haven't) of us have a great deal of common sense, wisdom and experience'.
So why do you want to see 250 houses built on a highly contaminated site?
More substance, openness and cooperation would benefit resolution of the problems of this highly contaminated site which has been responsible for blighting, and ending, the lives of so many residents of Rochdale.

Councillor Cecile Biant on Fly-Tipping

Rochdale Councillor Biant representing Spotland & Falign Ward!
FOLLOWING the report in Northern Voices on the Rochdale Township Committeee Meeting at the Riverside building in Rochdale town centre, one of the Labour councillors for Spotland & Falinge ward, Cecile Biante, sent the response below.  Spotand & Falinge ward is where Spodden Valey is situated. (Editor)

Hello Brian,

What a lot of nonsense! We already had a paper in front of us with the answers to the questions which the officer read out, and the ward councillors knew anyway. The Head of Public Protection had been on leave for 2 weeks, that is why Mick Coates did not get a specific response from Wendy Cocks, a fellow Councillor, as she wanted to check for any updates beforehand. We discuss TBA frequently informally.

Mick proclaimed that he is an expert, and I am familiar with his employment over many years, but he apparently failed to notice that the illegal tipping was mainly inert material which did not pose an immediate health risk. The Environment Agency are dealing with this, not the Council. Mick Coates has been sent the answers to his questions  which I would have thought he would have shared with you by now.

The Councillors are all positive, friendly, knowledgeable, relaxed and diligent. We always try to respond to emails which are brief, civil, genuine requests, but not to those who are hell bent on nastiness or self-indulgence. Life is too short for that.

Most of us have a great deal of common sense, wisdom and experience. We are neither sullen nor were we sitting stiffly.

Please send me a photograph of how you sit, as I am curious to know how it compares with the Councillors present last night.

With best wishes,

Cecile Biant

Rochdale Fly-tipping Evokes Nothing Much!

MICK Coats' question about illegal fly-tipping on Spodden Valley off Rooley Moor Road, did not evoke much response from the assembled councillors on the Labour dominated Rochdale Township Committee meeting tonight.   Sullen councillors sat stiffly as Mr Coats asked what the owners of the controversial site invested with asbestos intend to do to stop or resolve the problem of the fly-tipping.
Ten days ago the Mail on Sunday journalists Ross Slater and Sanchez Manning warned of how an idyllic country estate endured the 'shocking toll of fly-tipping gangs who despoil Britain'.
The Mail story rells of how  'Balaclava-clad intruders used bolt-cutters to break into (an) estate (in rural Shropshire) .... and dump up to 200 tons of rubbish in woodland'. 
As a consequence the Mail on Sunday reports that the Staffordshire Police are appealing for information.
The Mail journalists comment on the situation regardin waste disposal across the country that we in Rochdale are all familiar with:
'Local authority waste collection services are being cut, leading to criminals offering to dispose of waste at knockdown prices.  They then dump it illegally.'
As the Mail on Sunday rages about the crisis of illegal dumping, Mr. Coats appealed the Rochdale councillors tonight for some kind of response but amid the concern about the state of debis being deposited on the slopes of Spodden Valley, from the assembled councillors reply came there none!
The best Mick Coats can hope for is that a written reply will be forthcoming shortly.

Dorothy abandons ship and joins a sinking ship!

Dorothy Cartwright - Would-be Tameside Hospital Governor

Dorothy Cartwright, has come a long way politically. The former Tameside conservative councillor for Stalybridge and Dukinfield, defected to Labour in December 2010. At the time, she said: "Back-biting" within the group, had driven her to change parties after "a lot of soul searching."

Councillor John Bell, Conservative Leader, said: "She was due to face the group on a disciplinary matter. Quite frankly, the Labour Party is welcome to her. I believe she jumped before she was pushed. It's nothing to do with the coalition government - it's personal between the group and her." Councillor Cartwright denied knowledge of any disciplinary action.

We understand that Cartwright had a rather unhappy time as a member of  Tameside's incestuous labour family, where almost one-third of the council is comprised of married couples, couples, or people related to one another. Affectionately known by some of her Labour colleagues, as "that Tory bitch",  Cartwright was effectively pushed aside to make way, for spunky lass, Claire Reynolds, wife of  Jonny Reynolds, the Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde. Thereafter, she was regularly selected by Labour to fight for Stalybridge South Ward, a Tory stronghold of many years standing and an unwinnable seat.

Having once jumped ship, Cartwright has now deserted Labour to join the sinking ship known as UKIP, a Thatcherite, right-wing, bigoted,  nationalist party, that many are leaving because it is seen as past its sell-by date and is currently engaged in a civil war.  Last November, Cartwright was seen to lay a UKIP wreath on Remembrance Day, at the cenotaph in Stalybridge. An abject political failure, Cartwright, has now turned her attention to becoming a Governor of Tameside Hospital. It seems that nobody has told Dorothy, a relatively new 'kipper', that UKIP are actually in favour of privatising the NHS. Nor does the party think much of political correctness, equality or diversity.

George Galloway's Bid in Gorton Election

GEORGE Galloway is set to stand in the Manchester Gorton by-election, it has now been announced.  Writing on Aron Banks' new Westminster website Mr. Galloway says: 
'I have decided to enter the race to succeed my friend for thirty years, Sir Gerald Kaufman, as MP for Manchester Gorton.
'The “All-Asian short-list” hand-picked by Keith Vaz is just not good enough for the people of Gorton one of the most deprived constituencies in Britain. The short-listing, which excluded many better candidates, is the latest in a long line of insults delivered by mainstream parties to local communities. I will run as an Independent candidate and will write a regular by-election diary for Westmonster. This is my initial election statement.
'I have a long connection with the Manchester area – two of my children live here – and with the Gorton constituency in particular. The late Sir Gerald Kaufman was a friend of mine for over 30 years. Our friendship began before I was an MP, continued throughout my near 30 years with him in Parliament and afterwards. His appearance on my television show was his last big interview and will stand the test of time.
'Sir Gerald was a big figure in the House of Commons and was known far beyond it from Hollywood to Palestine and Kashmir. When he spoke people listened.
'I have decided to seek election for Manchester Gorton in the forthcoming by-election precisely because of my admiration for its late MP and I hope to persuade voters of every background that I am the best person to try to fill his shoes.
'I want to continue his work on international issues – which are particularly important in Gorton- especially the issues of Palestine and Kashmir but also the broader questions, the dangerous confrontation between the west and the Muslim world which threatens all of us.
'I would like to be the big voice for Manchester Gorton it still needs. Manchester is great, world class. But Gorton can’t be left behind. Whether it’s jobs -proper jobs – wages public services the NHS and schools. The struggle for students has always been a parliamentary preoccupation of mine.'

For more go to:
 George Galloway enters “Mother of All By-Elections” in Manchester ...
www.westmonster.com/george-galloway-enters-mother-of-all-by-elections-in-manchester    

Rochdale MBC & threat to 'Criminalise Poverty'

'LIBERTY' (the Civil Rights group) has written to Rochdale Borough Council urging it to abandon proposals that could criminalise the town’s most vulnerable people and curb residents’ civil liberties – with no public consultation.
The council is considering using a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) to introduce 10 separate criminal offences. PSPOs are disturbingly broad powers that let local authorities ban a huge range of activities.
The authority has proposed a ban on people “placing themselves in a position to beg or solicit money” at any time – effectively criminalising poverty when homelessness in England is increasing at an alarming rate.
The council also hopes to place a curfew on under-18s between 11pm and 6am – a measure usually reserved for a national emergency – and criminalise the unauthorised distribution of printed materials, which could violate residents’ freedom of expression and cause significant harm to local businesses.
A further ban on “foul and abusive language” has already been recorded widely in the press – and ridiculed across the globe.
If introduced, the PSPO would give police and council officers the power to issue on-the-spot penalties of up to £100. If unable to pay, those in breach could face prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000.
Liberty believes several of Rochdale’s proposed bans, if implemented, risk breaching residents’ fundamental rights, protected by the Human Rights Act. The Act requires the council not to behave in a way which would disproportionately affect  residents’ rights.
The council does not intend to consult the public on the plans.

Discriminatory and unworkable

In today’s letter, Liberty’s Legal Officer Lara ten Caten advises Cllr Mark Widdup that:

• The proposed ban on begging will punish vulnerable members of society by imposing financial penalties they cannot afford – cruelly forcing them to pay a fine using what little money they might have saved from the charity of others.
• PSPOs are extremely blunt instruments incapable of addressing complex social problems or sensitively dealing with targeted groups. PSPOs can only lead to fines, and are therefore likely to draw vulnerable people into both the criminal justice system and a cycle of debt.
• The proposed curfew on under-18s is disproportionate, discriminates against young people and is practically unworkable.
• A ban on the unauthorised distribution of leaflets would constitute an unjustified interference with the right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to impart and receive information. Such a ban would curtail the rights of citizens to campaign on political or social issues, and could also harm local businesses which rely on leaflets for promotional purposes.
• The proposed swearing ban is unworkable and represents a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression.  

Lara ten Caten, Legal Officer for Liberty, said: “These proposals are a staggering misuse of power. The council is seeking to limit the rights and freedoms of Rochdale residents without providing any evidence of a need to do so – or even bothering to consult them in the first place.
“This PSPO would make criminals of the homeless and vulnerable, the young, the politically-engaged and businessmen and women alike.
“Criminalising those most in need is no answer to rising homelessness, while the swearing ban is so vague no one could possibly know whether they risk breaking the law or not.
“Rochdale deserves better. For the good of its residents, the council must abandon these plans now.”

Report on Gambia after Presidential Election

THE journalist, and former editor of 'Rochdale's Alternative Paper' (RAP), John Walker, has just returned from a month in the Gambia, and he reports on the very considerable progress at both the schools which his charity supports.  He will post details updating the situation over coming months:  
 The headlines are:

After concerns about the political stability and personal safety in The Gambia following the disputed presidential election results of last December, all is calm in the country, as it looks forward to a new era;

Anti-Jammeh graffiti, widespread  in The Gambia - making local feelings  clear about the former president and tyrant

• As promised in our newsletter of last October, we were able to officially open the new "Simon Danczuk Toilet Block", which gained press coverage in the UK. We will deal, in detail with this in our next newsletter;

• Last year we funded the complete reconstruction of the Lower Basic school's First Aid room.  It now looks spectacular!  We will be posting details of this, and exciting forward plans for it, in a forthcoming newsletter;

Tee-shirt democracy - much in evidence

• It is a similar good news story with the library that we were able to fund the restoration of in the Lower Basic school, again with exciting forward plans. We'll have photos and news of this in a future newsletter;

• Our funded "Additional Classes" scheme in the senior school had a slightly disrupted start, because of the change of head at the school and the political instability in the country from November - February (see below). Those problems now seem to be ironed out and the scheme is back and successfully running on a firmer footing;

• Our funding of equipment in specific curriculum areas in the senior school continues this year.  The school had a couple of spectacular successes over the last year, resulting from our previous equipment interventions - again, we'll provide fuller details in a forthcoming newsletter;

Local feelings made clear

•  
• As a result of our ICT interventions in both schools, and because of better telecoms in the country, we will be sponsoring the installation of Wi-Fi hubs in both schools - so there will be good internet access for the first time. Again, we hope to report on progress, later in the year.
• We are continuing to sponsor a number of students in the village's senior school; some with excellent future prospects.  We are not, however, extending the scheme, as education is now free for all school students in the country.  We will be devoting our activities to whole school subject sponsorship initiatives in future - additional classes in the senior school and a trial homework club in the Lower Basic school. Once more - full details will be given in a later post;
• For the future, we will be looking to restore the boys', girls' and staff toilets in the Lower Basic school.  We will provide details of the need and progress in addressing it, later in the year;

The medium is the message - Gambia style

Political climate and background

So much for the headlines. The more detailed aspect of this newsletter concerns the political climate in the country. Although this is, of course, completely outside of the control of this charity, it impacts directly on all those we hope to assist.

The Gambia is tiny (less than 2 million people) and is rarely news in the rest of West Africa, never mind in the West. What is reported in the UK is often garbled and incomplete, so we will attempt a brief, but fuller picture here.

The President of the Gambia for the last 22 years has been a corrupt, civil rights-abusing, brutal dictator, Yahya Jammeh. He lost the presidential election to an almost (even in The Gambia) unknown, Adama Barrow, in December last year.

Preparing for Barrow's inauguration,  which co-incided with Independence Day

Jammeh refused to accept the result. The surrounding West African states (known as Ecowas) played a key role in "persuading" him to go - including by amassing an armed force to ensure the election result was adhered to.

There was almost 3 months of instability (December - February), during which time Jammeh plundered the state's coffers and negotiated himself an exit (to Equatorial Guinea). He eventually left on 22 February, without a shot being fired in anger.

Hash tags abound - showing  importance of social media in  communications  in the new Gambia

Adama Barrow was inaugurated as the new president on 18 March, amid much jubilation. Barrow is best, if at all, known in the UK as having worked as a security guard for Argos in Islington. Correct - but he was doing so when a student in the UK, as a means of paying his way through college.

He heads a coalition administration, with a very difficult job. The state coffers have been depleted and there are few people in positions of power in civic society, or the military who are not in some way tainted by their association with his predecessor.

Half the country have known nothing  but Jammeh misrule - and  are keen for change

So, the task ahead is a difficult one and it is far too early to indicate whether the new regime will be up for it.  But, the early signs are good.

• The Gambian people are delighted with the change, as a few of these randomly photographed revellers indicate;

• The Ecowas states are providing material assistance in helping the country's reconstruction;

• The Gambia will be rejoining the Commonwealth, three years after Jammeh stormed out - and Boris Johnson flew to the country to discuss the process (see photo of him, at a beach bar we like to frequent);

Boris Johnson with Gambians at  the Calypso Bar, Cape Point, the day  before the presidential inauguration

• The country will be rejoining the International Criminal Court, after Jammeh flounced out, following criticism of his regime;

• The country will drop the words "Islamic Republic" from the country's full name, which Jammeh had inserted as he ingratiated himself with the Saudis;

• There is a fund of international goodwill for the new Gambia; and the EU has offered to restore Grant Aid to the country, for very specific and agreed projects, two years after having stopped aiding the country because of Jammeh's behaviour;

• Barrow has said that he wants The Gambia to become a beacon of human rights in Africa, after the oppression of Jammeh.  Easy words, perhaps, but the gay-friendly article in the newspaper clipping below is a very bold step in that direction in a region of the world usually hostile to gay rights.

Western educated Barrow showing  liberal attitude to gay rights -  uncommon in the region

As we say, these are early days, but we hope they will provide a peaceful and more prosperous political background for the people of the country, and in particular for those in the village of Sohm and their students

John Walker 07954 153 305 Gambia stuff: www.SohmSchoolsSupport.org.uk  @GambiaSchools Forest Gate stuff: www.E7-NowAndThen.org, @E7_NowAndThen 

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