Nothing stops a bullet faster than a job....

My column this week in the Herald Express 24th November 2011.....

This past week has been Global Entrepreneurship Week when globally folk come together to celebrate enterprise, innovation and that sort of thing. I always found the word entrepreneur somewhat daunting although these days it seems to pop up time and time again. Of course it has been around for many years and indeed try “Googling” (what an amazing computer search facility Google is!) and up pops a huge list. ‘Young Entrepreneurs’, ‘Famous Entrepreneurs’, ‘Entrepreneur Ideas’, ‘Entrepreneur Exchange’; the list goes on and on. Of course it is, as I am sure you know, essentially about business.

During the week events were held across South Devon by the various organisations tasked with encouraging people to be enterprising, to think about business, business start-up schemes business success award ceremonies and so much more. During the week I found myself spending an afternoon as a business mentor with a group of people who will soon graduate from the Devon School of Social Entrepreneurs based at Dartington. This was for me a good thing to be doing because I am fascinated and perhaps even captivated by the concept of social enterprise and, if you like, social entrepreneurship.

For those of you who bravely or foolishly read what I write will know that community action has always been near and dear to me. We live in hugely troubled times and the daily news brings a torrent of worrying detail about economic distress, financial inequality, rising prices, unemployment and perhaps a creeping loss of hope. But there is some good stuff going on, people doing special things, folk working for the good of all and more importantly refusing to be beaten down by the negative.

Of course much of the distress is about the loss of jobs, the worry about losing a job and the fear of running out of money or the reality of having no money. That is where many of the local entrepreneur start up schemes can be so helpful, especially when it comes to building social cohesion. You have only to look at what happened in London and Manchester last summer to see what happens when things tip over the edge.

In California some years ago Jesuit priest Greg Boyle coined the phrase ‘nothing stops a bullet like a job’ and that caught my attention. People, especially the young, need to be valued. Getting and hanging on to a job is being valued. Not getting or losing a job is catastrophic for the individual, for those around him/her and for the community as a whole. Enterprises and especially social enterprise can create jobs within a community and build a sustainable platform. One of the Dartington SSE students was in the process of developing a concept that had the fledgling title of ‘Crime to Career’ and looked at building individual talents into a meaningful career rather than slipping into crime. It is, at the end of the day about captivating a community and building hope.

Now one of the shadows of our time is the rise of unemployment amongst the young. We also live in a time of catching acronyms. One such acronym is NEET. Of course when you hear the word neat then all seems well but sadly NEET isn’t well at all! NEET is the growing band of people who are not in employment, education or training. That is needlessly to say very unhealthy for a society. It is here that the need for enterprise training and building social enterprise is huge. Enterprise is not, in my humble opinion, just about being able to run your own business. It is about collecting life skills that will also be of considerable benefit to breath fresh life into businesses that already exist and indeed to larger public sector organisations.

There are good things happening here on the English Riviera, Torbay, South Devon, Agatha’s Riviera, but they need nourishing. We mustn’t simply roll over and feel that there is nothing to be done because events like Global Entrepreneurship Week and organisations such as The Devon School for Social Entrepreneurs CAN make a huge difference. We simply need to be receptive to the message – said the voice too often ‘crying in the wilderness!’

Parking Meter Highway Robbery!

It’s dark. It’s raining. It’s Wednesday 16th November. It’s just after five in the evening. Paignton is a ghost town. Hyde Road has a handful of cars parked. My wife, who has reached retirement age parks and pops 20p into a parking meter before walking briskly to quickly look in a shop window on the corner of Victoria Street. The expire time on the ticket is 17.12hrs.

Having looked into the window my wife walked briskly back to her car and noticed a civil enforcement standing by her car with ticket machine in hand! The road is deserted, the rain lashing down yet there he is in all his soaking glory! The penalty ticket is timed at 17.16hrs. My wife is 4 minutes late!

At 17.16 the civil enforcement officer has already made out the ticket? So where was he? Hiding in a doorway just waiting for a victim? At least Dick Turpin used to gallop up to those he was about to rob and so everyone knew what was going on!

So here is the irony. I’ve been campaigning against parking meters for a long time especially when they are for revenue collection rather than traffic control. For small towns like Paignton they are catastrophic and do untold damage to the economic viability of the town centre. Certainly my wife is now saying that she has no intention of visiting Paignton town centre again and she was born in Paignton!

If Torbay Council feel that they really really do need parking meters then THE FIRST HOUR MUST BE FREE.

You really couldn't make it up!

Dad's Army at public meeting

My column in the Herald Express Thursday, November 10, 2011

WHEN the coalition galloped madly into Westminster with David Cameron, Nick Clegg and dear old George Osborne at the head of the eclectic horde, I really did worry that we were slipping into some sort of neo-feudalism, as we were scattered in all directions.

Poet David Neita warns us to 'mind the gap' as he observes the widening divide between those who have so much and those who have so little.

As the coalition marches on it seems to me that the gap is indeed getting wider and wider. Part of that widening may well sadly lead to the re-emergence of the feudal class system.

Prime Minister John Major sought a more egalitarian society and part of that thrust was an attempt to make the honours system classless.

Out went the Medal of the Order of the British Empire Medal (BEM) and those deemed worthy were made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). Well, it seems David Cameron wants to re-introduce the BEM because not enough MBE awards were being made for folk who do so much for their communities. Hmm.

Rather than go back to what many described as a 'working class award', I would have thought that simply awarding more MBE gongs to deserving tireless folk who do so much for others would do the trick.

I am sure Mr Cameron is keen to recognise the contribution that all those in his curiously named 'Big Society' should feel we are all in this together, but I worry this may not be the best way.

One thing I do know is that people do indeed quietly beaver away and so often their work is not recognised or acknowledged.

Too often it is not until they stop doing what they do that heads come up like startled meerkats and notice things are not quite as they were!

One such local hero is Bob Brewis, who until last week or so was the chairperson for the Preston Community Partnership.

Bob has been unwell and therefore decided to hand the reigns to others. He has done so much for Preston, for Paignton and indeed for the whole of Torbay.

Gesche Buecker is the new chairman and presented Bob with flowers at the recent public meeting held in the ballroom at Oldway.

Now about that meeting! My reason for being there was to keep the pressure on councillors before too much damage is done by the thoughtless planting of traffic meters.

When the parking meter issue came up you could almost touch the energy in the room.

People were on their feet and forcefully attacking the proposals. Numerous people thought that we should be pushing on with regeneration rather than making Torbay a place that people simply don't want to visit and be penalised by draconian parking charges. Others thought the planting of meters on Preston seafront was yet another tax on local people.

Sadly from where I was sitting the meeting suddenly started to look like a scene from Dad's Army with Cllr Robert Excel suddenly looking like Corporal Jones while Cllr Chris Lewis took on the role of Chief Warden Hodges!

The 'audience' were being told not to panic by Excell/Jones, Lewis/Hodges went for a show of hands and the community voted against parking meters on Preston seafront, leaving Corporal Jones scratching his head!

But all credit to Robert Excell, because he knew the ride would be bumpy but was still brave enough to face the crowd.

But here's the thing. The meeting was both packed and buoyant, demonstrating that a community can gather in a meaningful way.

This was the sort of thing that I did suggest mayor Gordon Oliver might want to think about on a monthly basis.

The thing which caught my attention at the Preston partnership meeting was the energy and constructive comment.

We all need to engage and I truly believe that we ARE all in this together, though perhaps not quite in the way that Mr Cameron keeps bleating on about!