Following huge demand – well one request – above is my speech to the Bristol Labour Party on the case for an elected mayor for the city.
Gotta Serve Somebody
October 18, 2011 by Paul Smith
October 18, 2011 by Paul Smith
Following huge demand – well one request – above is my speech to the Bristol Labour Party on the case for an elected mayor for the city.
I was hoping you’d put something up on your keynote.
It’s interesting looking at the weight you place on “better”, and the size of the zones on Bristol, government, and democracy. Labour looks like a shrivelled afterthought. Is this a fair assessment, or am I reading too much into your mindmap?
The overall priorities sound very good. How do feel a mayor should approach a city plan, relationships with all political parties, and the issue of value to the people of Bristol?
Some of the writing is very difficult to read. Have you tried the mindmapping software? There’s commercial tools and a free one called Freemind.
I like pen and paper sometimes more flexible than computers, has the added value of reducing ability of others to read it 🙂
The size of the sections is a reflection of my chaotic mind
On your other points a City Mayor should seek to harness as much of the talent of the city of possible. Much of this will not be found through the party systems.
In terms of value there should be much more of a dialogue with citizens about what they want from their city and the value is best determined by them.
“seek to harness as much of the talent of the city of possible. Much of this will not be found through the party systems”
That’s got to be one of the understatements of the year, Paul. Does this connect to your interesting “managed retreat” node?
Is this going to develop into a whole new cryptic manifesto style?
Cryptic is good – instead of hope you can believe in it’s promises you can’t understand 🙂
Paul did sound like he was trying hard to say what people wanted to hear didn’t he?
What people there are only three of us here
I don’t work in a political world most of my colleagues have no interest in politics. I judge people on what they contribute not how they vote
You have a nasty habit of sounding like you’re hedging and hiding things. It’s not what you’re saying it’s the way you’re saying it and what you’re leaving out.
I am usually told that I should say less – my mouth is always getting me into trouble
That makes two of us! (Or is that three?)
Is there any reason for that? Quantity? Verbosity? Letting too much out? How much is you and how much is it some unstated issue they have?
Boys can be real jerks and that’s where most of the criticism I’ve experienced comes from. Girls can shut down or shut you out. You can see that in politics with how Nadine Dorries was treated and calls for a women’s group in Labour. How much is that my transgender brain getting screwed around and how much is the culture?
“I am usually told that I should say less – my mouth is always getting me into trouble”
Best give up the politics and the er, blogging, then.
You are probably right, and maybe I will
Oh Paul, are you going to make us beg you not to?
And Twittering?
That’s gotta be the worst if you’ve got mouth trouble, hasn’t it?
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Your comments can be read as going a large part of the way to addressing some of the key issues with this city.
I know what I want and as usual have too much to say. Uh, someone just needs to call me “frustrated” and that’s my Nadine Dorries impression for the week done.
Which one of us is waiting for the biggest miracle?
A strong mayor would be able to drive a city plan that addresses many key issues of failure and provide a platform for growth that delivers real value to business and people. An example that came up via Darren Lewis Twitter feed is the Fenzel’s Reach development.
Bristol’s politicians don’t seem to get business, and city planning or zoning at any level (and Stephen Williams latest blog just confirms again he doesn’t know anything about business or retail) so what is it with them and the £255m Finzels Reach development? Just because the government has relaxed goals and the “financial landscape has changed” doesn’t alter anything.
It’s obvious that property is currently valued too highly and must deflate in relation to earnings. Another mistake was pricing the mobile phone broadcast spectrum too high which caused industry stagnation but it’s beginning to recover. I would use this model as a bargaining chip to face down the developers who merely want to pass the cost of their failure on.
The nuclear option I’d quietly put on the desk of these developers (some would call opportunists) would be that if they wanted to have a future seat at the table they would have to find a way to make it work or, quite simply, get the hell out of my town. That doesn’t just put all their future profits on the line but their very existence. It would sharpen minds wouldn’t it?
Besides the Liberals kowtowing to developers at the expense of people another curiosity I haven’t forgotten is how the Liberal’s whitewashed criminal housing association abuse and gave them sweetheart property deals. Their naivety of and cosiness with power is worrying and destroying hundreds of millions of pounds worth of city value.
One of my favourite marketing gurus commented straight after and got straight to the follow on point:
Companies fear failure and legislate to avoid it. Cities may prohibit some activities but permit failure.
Ecosystems outlast organisms.
The Independent comments on party funding and the fight between the established political parties. This is an important issue for any city wishing to elect an executive mayor. Who says we have to wait on London?
* Why are political parties scared of admitting their best candidate may be rubbish and don’t endorse another (maybe independent) candidate?
* Why aren’t the political parties looking at funding from the point of view of giving all candidates including independent candidates a level playing field?
* Why do the established parties destroy value by using union and corporate backing, and taxpayer funded spending to crush the competition?
Isn’t it true to say that competition has failed and that corporatism has taken over in both business and politics? What’s the difference between Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda and the Tories, Labour, and Liberals?
Sounds like you want parties to copy the Ratner crap comment, it just won’t happen
That wasn’t the question I was asking.
“What’s the difference between Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda and the Tories, Labour, and Liberals?”
Well one difference is that supermarkets provide people with what people want to buy, at a price that (appears) transparent, and hell, some even give you, the ordinary consumer, double your money back if they make a fup. Can you imagine politicians doing that?
In politics you can have a disloyalty card
That is so true!
A disloyalty card, what is that, where you get negative marks evry time you fail to toe the ideological line, or step off into who-defines-it wingnut territory?
Will the points be tallied up “come the revolution” … for expedient despatch to the famous wall … Life and Faith anyone?
So how are me and 2spirits’ cards doing so far?
Must be pretty bad by now.
The Church of England holds £6 million worth of News International shares and says: “There needs to be decisive action in terms of holding people to account”. Meanwhile, according to the Bristol Evening Post the The Dean of Bristol Cathedral says “he is concerned about the building itself and his staff, since the Occupy Bristol group moved into the area last weekend”.
The Bristol Evening Post headlined with “Concerns have been raised about risks to public health, insanitary behaviour, damage to green space and local businesses” because of a protest camp at College Green”. But let’s not forget big retailers like John Lewis betraying Bristol and the council tax subsidising charities aggressively competing with retail business.
How would a strong mayor approach this situation? How would they use it to define Bristol? How would they use it to change things? How would they use it to rehabilitate business and win back the people’s trust? How would they use it to build a legacy for future generations? Are any of the current “names” hedging their bets on the sidelines up to it?
Gus Hoyt reports the BBC’s flawed coverage of the Occupy London protest. How does this and the BBC’s failure to run BBC 3 properly fit with them occupying prestige offices in Whiteladies Road and Bristol’s neglected creative community?
Weak politicians in Bristol fiddled as the interactive entertainment industry was destroyed in Bristol and weak politicians are now trying to own the independent software business in Bristol by creating a city council forum instead of encourage them to build their own identity.
Wouldn’t a strong mayor read them the riot act and make more of the industrial and creative potential in Bristol? Wouldn’t they help give a sense of direction and join the dots? Wouldn’t they become a voice for positive business change and welfare reform, and demand the film and TV studio space the local economy needs?
If I remember correctly there was a law that protected the rights of people gaining entrance to a church “who wished to know God”. There was some talk of abolishing this law. Does it still exist, or was it removed?
There’s also the tricky issue of the legal definition of “church”. Is this just the building or does it include the land as well?
How does this square with Saint Paul’s charging £14.50 for visitors and throwing protesters off the land outside? How liable is the Church of England for a charge of fraud?
The church is just one of many corporate interests who dodge the law and turn on their customers when it harms their quarterly balance sheet. How would a Bristol mayor hold them to account, and is the silence of Mayor Johnson in London a poor model to follow?
Gus Hoyt raises another property development issue. Why does the business and lives of real people have to be held in hock to speculators? Wouldn’t it be better to get ahead of the recovery?
Raising the stakes: why doesn’t the council issue a compulsory purchase order (paying the value of the land at *current* prices) and raise the money to pay for the development with a bond issue?
Wouldn’t this send a signal to other cities and property speculators that the game has changed? Wouldn’t they collectively shit themselves? Wouldn’t we see less worrying and more doing?
*pops bubblegum*
Moi town, moi rulez, bustah!
Apologies for the Brooklyn hooker routine but when are these flash suits and old ladies going to pay up and get some action going? My skinny ass is freezing itself so hard it feels like it’s going to fall off.
What kind of person would we want a mayor to be?
My favourite PR guru blogs on getting things done and value: “Managers want authority. Leaders take responsibility.” By way of a follow-on here’s two of the top Twitters from each side of the Occupy protest for comparison:
Paul Smith Twitters: “Infiltration by the old bill does explain the incoherence of a lot of the anti-everything protests”
Sophia Twitters: “If we had one coherent aim and manifesto already, it would mean we weren’t listening or open to change.”
The BBC reports Baroness Morgan says the focus should be on creating jobs not endlessly debating issues like child smacking. Her focus moves on from Labour’s habit of propping up backward paymasters and more towards identifying and nurturing the innovators and best companies.
On the political right Europe has flushed out some testosterone. Macho men who elbow their way to the top and casual nastiness are public concerns now so this might not go the way they anticipate? Wouldn’t a more thoughtful and kind Tory party be a good thing?
Lynne Featherstone has worked hard to recognise transgenders (and Sarah Brown is an openly TG politician) and transgenders are getting more positive mindshare than ever. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Liberals actually did deliver the world class healthcare and acceptance we need?
On the Twitter tax discussion.
* Simplification of tax and welfare is a good thing.
* A wealth tax to correct the wealthy pulling the ladder up is a good thing.
Why do some people believe more complexity and more desire is the solution when we are drowning in an excess of both? Why do some people obsess so much with a single view that they lose their sense of context? What kind of foolishness does it take to sit on top of a mountain of milk and honey and starve to death?
Now the Masters of the Universe are intellectually bankrupt and more women are finding their voice maybe this rebalancing will all turn out to be a good thing for all reasonable people?
I didn’t post anything today because I felt burned out and miserable, and been dwelling on suicidal thoughts again. It’s not very healthy but my life sucks horribly.
How did I miss Paul retweeting Christina Burns? Aunty Sarah! She’s one of my favourite trans bloggers. So *she* is the Liberal councillor?
OMG! Paul! Is there something you’re not telling us?
Hey, Zus, we’d better be xtra nice to Paul or he’ll close us down like the erams in ‘Thigmoo’ … you’l have to get yr own blog then
Better soon.
Maybe a suicidal transgender on a sugar high is a bit much.
I need to get myself some candle things for the bathroom, and some glass bead bangles or something like that. Oh, God. There’s hundreds and I can’t find the ones I want. Does that make me picky?
The new Labour List looks shit. Someone got paid for doing that? LOL. It’s worse than Bristol City Council’s new website.
Shouldn’t a mayor have their eye on the broad brushstrokes and the detail?
Why has Jon Rogers been going on about slavery and the Stephen Lawrence lecture? Isn’t this sort of thing patronising and reinforcing of cliché views that hold people back?
Doreen Lawrence and her family had a terrible loss and the police conduct was whitewashed which isn’t pleasant but I know of black people who got fed up hearing about it and turned the television off.
Wouldn’t it be better if a future mayor moved the city beyond this? Why isn’t the Saint Paul’s carnival more artistically demanding? What about being more educationally demanding and challenging parents indulging of street gangsta attitudes?
Why is Jon Rogers going on and on about transport and parks? What about zoning? Why hide taxpayer largesse on a rich persons park behind their veil of a democratic survey? Why no movement on development and green spaces in Saint Paul’s?
Isn’t there something questionable about the strategy and where the money is spend, and practical and social issues on the ground? What happened to “making Saint Paul’s a place people wanted to live”?
Someone with an involvement in politics just raised a question about political accountability and feather bedding.
How do policy making and lines of communication map out? For all the talk of openness and communities there’s some problems: A.) Bristol City Council web site is obfuscatory and useless shit. B.) The largesse over Saint Andrews park looks suspect.
Can a number be put to the democratic deficit in Bristol? Who is really making the decisions? Behind the stock photo images of happy people who are the people elbowing their way to the front of the queue? How much is the rest of Bristol losing out to this old school corruption?
Doesn’t this sharpen focus? Doesn’t it make it *easy* to put a simple and colourful campaign together?
There’s an interesting discussion on Slashdot about “The Real Job Threat”.
Bristol 24/7 reports:
Labour are demanding property developers uphold their obligations. Good.
Property developers claiming the scheme is no longer viable. Bad.
Someone comments that BBC Bristol reports the council have caved. Bad.
Am I the only person in here who knows what an equity fund is, or what negotiating prices directly with commodity suppliers is? That covers two out of the three factors being squeezed.
Government action on a wealth tax, and property deflation relative to earning would fix the purchase price factor wouldn’t it?
Questions:
Does Labour know less about business, or the property developers? Where is the government on structural reform? Where are the Liberal’s aspirations for Bristol to be an “international city” when Bristol can’t even stand up to tin-pot developers and its own government?
Note: I’m the loony unemployed transgender no-hoper so everything I’ve said is probably wrong. Unless it’s not.
The Lib Dems have no interest in social housing look at the deal for the Gloucester Road, Bristol North Baths deal
Did we discuss that one before? The bad planning and high handed way they treated people in Gloucester Road (Horfield?) was totally wrong. Do you have a link to the deal?
Check out Austin, Texas. What do you think about it?
Isn’t Barbara Janke’s letter to Occupy Bristol and Stephen Williams (fast even for him) stabbing Occupy Bristol in the back a bit muddled?
We have a city that can’t manage a development project (unlike anyone else who has a clue in industry) and waffling on about fair trade and peak oil? Vainglorious constituency meetings in the council house while Occupy Bristol have to beg for water and sanitation?
I’m having a really, really hard time understanding how any of this is a display of mayoral calibre leadership. Is it some sort of ironic comedy? Maybe Occupy Bristol is some sort of spontaneous art installation. Should they be entered for the Turner Prize?
Some good news on the Greek debt deal. The financiers ate their loss and the core Greek economy can get moving again. Good for everyone? Bristol can learn from this and set a lead in turning around the property development crisis in the UK but will the council rise to the challenge?
On employment: technically there’s nothing wrong with a “fire at will” policy but… employers need to be faster and less picky with hiring to keep everything balanced. That’s actually the real problem holding the recovery back (which the property development problem shows).
Bristol has been soft on letting ring leaders get away with trouble. (See rogue business, violent crime, neighbours from hell). But the science of Ken Clarke’s two strikes policy is wrong. It should be three strikes.
Does Labour understand these management, social, and finance issues? Will it *engage* or just posture over totemic issues and oppose for the sake of opposing? Will the *culture* of Labour (especially in Bristol) *change* to deliver *value*?
Bristol 24/7 reports Labour are staying neutral on the mayoral referendum. Barbara Janke opposing? That’s not really a surprise if she can’t even handle the job she’s got is it? Business seems to be pretty gung-ho and the Tories are unlikely to oppose a mayor especially as Pickles is amping it up.
Will Paul Smith run, or just flake?
Paul Smith Twittering that he was gallivanting with Gus Hoyt in the pub? The same Paul Smith who intervened to put me off contacting Gus about something that was important to this Ashley Ward constituent?
It’s going to take more than a box of chocolates and some flowers to get over that one.
?
So you don’t remember?
Typical!
Christina Burns Twitters about Clause 10 of the Health bill. This is a difficult topic to shoehorn into the case of why Bristol needs a directly elected executive mayor but it touches on issues of clarity, society, and value.
There’s nothing technically wrong with “as it considers necessary to meet the reasonable requirements” but it is a lawyers meal ticket. How does this square with trying to save money by abolishing legal aid for NHS negligence cases? Doesn’t it also contradict new public policy which directs the NHS to focus on quality?
A big concern of the transgender community is that funding has historically been used by some PCTs to deny transgenders minimal let alone “necessary and reasonable” healthcare. The NHS (and now HMRC) are conspiring to restrict that definition even more to save money and tax more. Doesn’t this run counter to the UN declaration on transgender rights and the Human Rights Act?
The transgender community are aware that Doctor Jon Rogers has stated (in defiance of science) that he doesn’t believe transgenders exist. How does Stephen Williams MP who’s always played the gay card when it suits him defend this?
How is confusing the picture even more going to enhance certainty and direction? How is penny pinching and greed going to develop business and people’s sense of participation? How do the ill informed and narrow interests of some politicians speak for the people? What’s the dollar and cents loss to the economy?
Follow up to the Finzels Reach decision:
There’s nothing in the Evening Post and Bristol 24/7 mostly carries a brief summary of the issue and the property developers view. So far I see no indication that the politicians approached the problem as a business deal. They didn’t use their full powers or abilities to raise finance, or negotiate a better long-term deal for giving up short-term objectives, and there’s no post-mortem.
Congratulations: the City just took another slice out of Bristol’s ass. Bristol’s politicians had long enough to see it coming and prepare. There’s enough brainpower in the city and plenty of incentive to work out how they got rolled over but…? Better luck next time…? And…?
Crest Nicholson hyping their harbourside development in today’s Bristol 24/7 not long after Bristol City Council got rolled over by the Finzels Reach developers.
A few properties left…
Long-term investment…
Resilient rental market…
Ever got the feeling you’ve been had?
Jon Rogers is waffling about the Liberal’s care plan. Given that he doesn’t understand or care about housing association residents, or housing development and green spaces, and the Liberal’s bunga-bunga record *how* can we be assured that this will stack up?
Failed road planning developments. Failed shopping centre developments. Failed urban clutter clearance. Failed public transport schemes. Failed cycle adventure centre.
It’s not looking good is it?