Torchure

On the journey of the Olympic torch I'm in firm agreement with Post commenter LeighWoods1 who said 'One thing, closing one of the main arteries to the city [Bristol] for what is essentially the procession of a large zippo lighter is a huge waste of resources and I would like someone to assess the impact upon our economy of this silly and pointless exercise.' (more here)

And as for the massive news coverage of this torch - we have weeks and weeks more of it to go yet and its already very tiresome and wasteful. Its torchure.

@ raverbaby1 - "finding all the negative comments a bit shocking really - can i assume you all feel we should have disregarded history and tradition..."

No, just wanting a decent sense of proportion, perspective, good sense and a proper sense of priorities. Many people have gone far over the top with claims about what staging the Olympics can do for our country - its something that is easily said but very hard to demonstrate historically and with hard facts, especially economic ones

@ Bristoldjsuk - “I am excited for the olympics and the sports etc, however the torch spectacle is a bit odd. The corporate band wagon and advertising is becoming increasingly tedious and I feel it's detracting from the actual point of the olympics, the sports. It's still months away, yet we are being hyped into a frenzy as if it's tomorrow..."

Yes, absolutely. I'm dead keen on the Olympics but purely as a sporting event. It shows us the excellence that can be achieved by human efforts - if we have the motivation and discipline we can all harness our talents, sometimes with support, sometimes because we are not supported. We may gain as people from the example and experience of this. What I dont buy and am opposed to is the weeks and months of hype, the waste of resources, the possibility of overall economic gain due to staging the event, the sponsorhip and corporatism - and the misplaced nationalism.

Climate: no change

Climate change is rated as a very serious problem. So why has action not been correspondingly urgent? Here's a screencast I've made exploring this question in terms of: visibility; historical precedent; immediacy; complexity; blame; personal impacts.

M Shed price tag rises yet again

M Shed - m for more Money, more Madness, more Mismanagement, more Muck up...feel free to suggest more M words fitting this situation....my partner has just suggested Mishandled, Mayem, Moronic,
Mis-spent and Massive-cuts-elsewhere...

The price tag for Bristol City Council's flagship museum M Shed has gone up again – to £27 million.
"Unforeseen construction costs" have added a further £570,000 to the cost of the much delayed project, in the latest in a series of overspends.
It now means the museum will cost 42 per cent more than it was going to four years ago.
The council hopes to fund the extra cost with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, but if that isn't successful council tax payers may have to foot the bill...

Bristol City Council's flagship museum M Shed up to £27 million

Abandoning the mainstream parties? Vote for the positive, ethical Greens not the hateful BNP.

I’m urging people who intend to abandon the mainstream parties in June’s local and euro elections, and there are understandably many of them, to choose the positive, ethical alternative the Greens offer, not to avoid voting and not to vote for the BNP. I agree strongly with letter writer Liban Obsiye that we need better politicians, but not the BNP.

Plenty of talk about the BNP at the moment. They are getting a lot of frequent, fairly casual mentions in the media as an alternative to the mainstream parties. Their campaign launch received a lot of coverage time on the telly. I’ve seen their party broadcast and on Tues I received their euro election leaflet through my door despite the fact that some Bristol posties have refused to deliver them (and according to reports have forced a change in the attitude of their managers, who have now agreed to allow them to refuse!).

The BNP leaflet got an instant and angry response from my daughter, who has just finished studying IGCSE History including the rise of Fascism and Nazism in the 1920s/30s and the Second World War, who wrote about her feelings here. She is right that the BNP references to images of the Second World War on their leaflet are very odd indeed given that we fought that war to stop the Nazis and Fascists – a description that fits the BNP very well, see here. (Interestingly UKIP also link to the Second World War in their leaflet, using a large picture of Winston Churchill). She is right to draw parallels between BNP tactics and Hitler’s use of scapegoats, economic hard times and failures in the political system to appeal for voter support. Hitler combined violence and bullying with the appearance of moderation as and when it suited him.

Strange that the West Country is simultaneously hosting the Anne Frank exhibition in Bristol Cathedral whilst also giving a platform for the nazi BNP at the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution in Queen Square this Friday (jointly organised by the BRLSI and, rather ironically given the BNP’s nature, pressure group Unlock Democracy). The Anne Frank exhibition wants to 'help us deal with intolerance and discrimination' – the BNP, a party full of hate, has a constitution that wont even allow black or Asian people to join them! The South West Greens lead Euro election candidate Cllr Ricky Knight has refused to share a platform with the BNP at the Bath meeting. He will be present outside the venue giving out leaflets explaining his Green position and answering any questions in an impromptu ‘people’s hustings’. He has written the following about the meeting:

Unlock Democracy, Bath, criticises the Greens, Labour and Lib-Dems for refusing to debate with the British National Party. On this occasion, it is the Greens and the other parties who should be doing the criticising.

The BNP continue to use tactics and espouse ideas that cannot be construed as being "democratic". A simple example is their use of leaflets identifying a trade unionist, printing his address, phone number and distributing leaflets designed to arouse hostility towards him.

In addition, the BNP constitutionally will not permit Black or Asian British people to become members. They even refuse to accept the fact that they are British.

I am sure that if the BNP membership exclusion extended to Jewish members, homosexuals and people with disabilities, it might become more obvious why the Greens have adopted, in informal agreement with regional Labour and Lib-Dem lead candidates, a policy not to share a platform with a political party whose views on many serious issues we find abhorrent, unethical and indefensible.

We can see from history how a ‘democratic’ party, once elected, was able to perpetrate the Holocaust. I am particularly disappointed that a respected organisation as Unlock Democracy, Bath, with such an honourable record of promoting the reform of our own electoral system, should then choose to ignore these warning signs and attempt to give the oxygen of publicity to a group whose cornerstone policies are the antithesis of the democratic process.

Pete Postlethwaite in 'The Age of Stupid'

According to Green Home (the very recently developed '...hub for Green Party bloggers, promoting the idea of a green blogosphere or community...') the film 'The Age of Stupid' was shown at the Green Party conference (on Saturday I think). It sounds great and I do like the work of Pete Postlethwaite who stars in it. I look forward to seeing it shown in Bristol (it will be released here early next year I'm told).



More news/bckground on this here.

We need 'wartime spirit' to fight climate change and build a greener society

Interesting to see that Prince Charles has likened the fight against climate change to fighting a war, and not for the first time (see here and here). All the way back in 1989 I made a very similar point in a chapter of the book 'Something About Bristol' (Redcliffe Press), after taking part in a Bristol Evening Post writing competition to mark the publication locally of the fiftieth book about Bristol. I've copied my chapter 'Wartime Spirit, without war' below. I could write something very similar today. Problems of: rapid and inappropriate development; how to deal with history; apathy, cynicism and materialism; division and inequality; local community breakdown and lack of self-determination; industries shutting down and using people; poverty; housing everyone; pollution and traffic congestion; happiness and the quality of life, are still very much with us about 20 yrs on. And I'm still here arguing for reconciliation: between society and economy and our environment; between people within and across communities here and around the world. I'm sure you will spot the references to a few things that certainly have changed though...


Wartime spirit, without war (from 'Something About Bristol', 1989)

Bristol is a city steeped in history. There are many developments which are rapidly changing its face, like its fast growing influence as a financial centre, that also bring frustratingly difficult problems. So while historic achievements, people and events should not be dismissed, history should not bind us. To adapt to accelerating change we should all look forward, but learn from the past.

During wartime and deprivation great comradeship existed. Now apathy, cynicism and materialism are surely destroying more than all the bombs that have fallen on Bristol. Indeed we may be bound by history. Divisions between black and white, rich and poor, are evident. People are physically separated by a road system which ignores community life.

The community spirit and friendliness found in the St Philips Marsh area up to its break-up in the late 1950s gives us much to emulate. The closeness is needed, without the poverty, clannish suspicion of outsiders and the sexism of the times. Perhaps we need wartime spirit without war.

Elements found in the old St Philips Marsh – the shops in every street, local small businesses and self-employed chimney sweeps, blacksmiths, wet fish sellers – should be recreated. The principle of self-contained, but not isolated communities, with local people providing themselves with goods and services, is good.

Working and living environments have changed. We now have fairly clean, though not perfect, drinking water whereas in the 12th century when Bristol was a major wine port the poor quality of the water was cited as a reason for drinking wine! In St Philips developing industry brought jobs, housing and so people. Industry also brought its foul smells, river pollution and noise. Indeed, eventually the people were squeezed out, used then disposed, by growing industry.

The community there was crushed. Future Bristol must have industry to meet people’s needs not people that service industry, only to be moved ‘out of town’.

Housing in Bristol has moved from the contrast of huge, plush Victorian places with small, cramped and basic utility housing, to council estates and flats sadly lacking in open space. The plush housing is still there, the housing problems are different, if not worse, people now at the mercy of ‘mysterious’ market forces. Lack of self determination in local areas, or even lack of any say at all, needs putting right. This would avoid the breakdown of communities and shed light on the needs and problems of areas, like housing and open space needs.

To this day Bristol’s notorious but profitable role in the slave trade (white slavery since the time of the Norman conquest, then later black slavery up to the 1800s) influences the view many have of the present, even the future. People said that slavery was intimately entwined with the economy of Bristol. Indeed, much money was involved but slavery was abolished. Bristol’s present South African trade links via the port are profitable too. Will this last as slavery did?

Bristol’s economy has been served by people. Sherry, tobacco and chocolate firms run by God-fearing families employed thousands and still do. The wealth divisions evident from history still exist today. Compare house prices North and South of the river. Wealthy merchants had the legal advice and protection of Latchams, Montague and Niblett, Britain’s longest surviving law firm. They bought jewels from Bristol Bridge and sent for fresh meat from Temple Gate. Brooks dyed ostrich feathers for Bristol ladies. Exploitation today has some historic roots, even if different situations are involved.

Bristol’s future economy should be built on the theme of reconciliation. Small firms, with work self-contained and flexible, would reconcile material needs with creative needs if local people produced for their own needs. A strong element of worker and community control with local reinvestment and recirculation of resources is the more just and equal Bristol I want. Elements of this future can be found in the past but never all the required features.

Reconciliation of the need for economic activity and a clean and pleasant environment to live in is a must. Pollution from industry in St Philips Marsh in the past and at Avonmouth today shows that ecological concerns have still to be considered of primary importance.

Cars in today’s Bristol bring pollution, stress and disfigurement to historic buildings like St Mary Redcliffe Church. Who today wants this magnificent building encircled by crowded, hostile roads? Do we want to go on hearing of ‘lots of traffic chaos due to temporary lights at Whitchurch Lane. Wells Road and Bath Road very busy and flowing slowly’ on local radio every day.

Its not for reasons of nostalgia that I like the idea of trams, or something like them, returning to Bristol. The Metro idea is a good one. If properly planned with local people it will provide a great service. It should be integrated with a bus and rail system. Park-and-ride schemes, more cycle-ways and more pedestrian-only should prosper too. The car rules many lives, when we should rule the car.

Future Bristol will I hope reconcile people with each other and their surroundings. Its people will be aware of Bristol as a whole from within their own diverse self-reliant communities. Bristol’s interdependence within Britain and the World should be recognised. People will, I hope, be happier and use leisure wisely. Others, too, will enjoy the quality of Bristol, historic city.

History homework help: lessons to learn from Native American experiences...

Yesterday I was looking over what my daughter had been set for History GCSE homework. She has just started the American West and had homework on Native Americans (or call them American Indians, Indians, Amerindians, Amerinds, or Indigenous, Aboriginal or Original Americans if you wish, since there is quite a debate on the name to use). Very interesting stuff. It reminded me of what I'd read in Clive Ponting's excellent book A Green History of the World on this topic eg how in 1500 an indigenous population of around a million, with widely varied cultures and ways of life had been virtually wiped out within four hundred years, including many forced removals costing thousands of lives (see Trail of Tears for instance). It also brought to mind the words, reputedly of Chief Seathl, that have long been an inspiration to me (great words, whether actually Chief Seathl's or not, that say a lot about Native American beliefs and attitudes). We'd today call such forced displacement 'ethnic cleansing' or genocide. Some would of course argue that the US Govt isn't that much better today.

Cant change the past but can help shape the future - stop slavery today !

‘As regards the current debate on apologising for Bristol's role in the slave trade during the 17th and 18th centuries, a recently published book (50 Facts That Should Change The World) stated that there are 27 million slaves in the world today. Perhaps rather than focussing on the past and seeking an apology for it, we should actually learn from that horrendous episode and now focus our attentions on stopping slavery in the modern (enlightened?) age’, said Damian Wardingley from Eastville (‘Learn from the past – help today’s slaves', Bristol Evening Post, Open Lines, 13 Sept 2007).

This is a very good point. We cant change the past but can help shape the future so that there is no more slavery.

Slavers literally own and control people, giving them little or no rights or freedoms, little or no pay for work, and basic subsistence only. The 27 million figure probably means a definition involving these aspects – use only slightly broader thinking and definitions means there are many more.

For more on slavery today.

Mansions: more 19th than 21st century...

Personally I'm never going to be comfortable with Bristol’s Lord Mayors living in a luxurious Mansion. This is supposed to be an age of much greater equality and fairness not the 19th Century. Anyone else feel this way?? An article in today’s Bristol Evening Post relating to this caught my eye…

'David Clarke, the Lord Mayor's secretary and Sword Bearer, gives a brief history about the Mansion House to the guests' (‘Tea time at the Lord Mayor’s show’, Bristol Evening Post, 7 Sept) but does he give the full history and context surrounding the Mansion House or does he start, as the article suggests, in 1874? I may be wrong but I just cant see him outlining the 1831 Bristol Riots!

Just in case he doesn't, the extract below from the Bristol City Council website makes
the picture a bit more complete and if you want more detail see the extract below ** from the Bristol Radical History site (see the very good Guardian article too):

'It is in fact the third Mansion House, the original building in Queen Square was destroyed in the Bristol Riots of 1831. [Note: ‘A popular revolt for the vote which led to the first Reform Act’, The Guardian]. Although replaced by a second house in Great George Street, this was closed in 1835 under the drastic economies forced on the City Council by the Municipal Corporations Act. For many years the Mansion House was not only the home of the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, but also the lodgings of the High Court Judges.'


**1831 was a period of significant unrest in Britain centred in the political arena around issues of parliamentary reform[3] and the abolition of slavery. In France in 1830 suffrage issues had caused a revolution that had brought people to the barricades and forced the King to abdicate. The warning signs were there for the corrupt and tiny minority that controlled political power in Britain. As a pacifying reform, a bill that would extend suffrage to a small section of the middle class was introduced and then defeated in the House of Lords in September of that year. Public anger was widespread, there were riots in the Midlands against anti-Reform aristocrats, the effigies of Bishops who were against reform were burned and there was widespread sabotage in factories and mines.
In Bristol the magistrate, Sir Charles Weatherall, a notorious opponent of reform arrived in the city to open the hated assizes and decided to celebrate the defeat of the reform bill with the Bishop and other notaries. A protest by pro-reformists was joined by an angry mob who then attacked the Mansion house where Weatherall tried to take shelter after his carriage was stoned. After a cavalry charge by the Light Dragoons cleared the crowd from Queen’s Square the wealthy merchants who made up the notoriously corrupt Bristol Corporation must of thought the unrest was over. How wrong they were! The next day the mob returned with greater numbers and with a determination to burn, loot and destroy those institutions that they despised, the prisons, the houses of the rich (Queen’s Square, the Mansion House) and the houses of the corrupt (the Bishop’s Palace, the Cathedral). Some middle class pro-reformists attempted to halt the actions of the crowd by trying to convince them that Weatherall had left the city and in so doing had completely missed the point. This wasn’t about parliamentary reform[4] any more this was an explosion of class anger…(http://www.brh.org.uk/articles/mute.htm)