Also published in the Herald Express 30th October 2014. For
many years I've been up before the dawn walking my dog and thinking. It's a
good thing to do because very little moves and at this time of year the
darkness provides a feeling of isolation that is curiously comfortable. I think
that it is possible to taste the new day and if my walk takes me near the beach
the first shards of light add to the delicious tingle of being alive! My dog,
Marley, has the advantage of a 'doggy' sense of smell and therefore sniffs the
retreating nocturnal wildlife before other hounds pollute the landscape.
Nick Bye and Gordon Oliver a little while ago! Both looking much younger!!
Yesterday
morning I was out and about in Paignton shortly after 5.30 and the first thing
that struck me was the almost absolute darkness. As I turned into Barcombe Lane
it felt as though I was about to disappear down a rabbit hole. The streetlights
were off and the darkness was almost a little sinister. In these dark hours I do
wear a high resolution vest in the hope of avoiding destruction at the hands of
a sleepy motorist staring myopically through a misty windscreen at the road
ahead. To date that has been a successful strategy!
The
absence of street light is of course a consequence of a local council
attempting, perhaps hopelessly, to save money is these hard economic times. As
I walked in the darkness that morning two things came to mind. The first was
recalling the Spanish Roman Catholic mystic John of the Cross who battled with
personal demons so long ago in the dark hours. He spoke of the 'dark night of
the soul' and I am certain that many of us may, whilst not being mystical, have
tasted the curious loneliness of being awake long before the dawn. I've been
messing around with a theory about that time of night that I add to a model
which for the moment I simply call a fear index.
The
second thing that caught my early morning mercurial mind was a recent event at
Preston Conservative Club that was more a 'night of long knives' rather than a
'dark night of the soul'. Our mayor, who also happened to be the leader of the
local Conservative Party, faced a challenge to his leadership that night. The
consequence, as I am sure that you know, was his loss of the leadership. He
remains, at the time of writing, the mayor. I gather that he thought he would
weather the storm that night and expected support from members but that turned
out not to be the case. Of course describing it as a night of the long knives
is perhaps over egging it but Gordon Oliver did seem a little shaken by the
outcome.
My
dark 'streetlightless' walk that morning brought home to me the challenges of
political leadership these days. Of course our mayor does have enormous power
but it should be remembered that he also has a small army of highly paid local
government officers offering strategic advice. Whether he always takes that
advice is another matter but nonetheless it is something to keep in mind. We
seem stuck with the mayoral system for at least another five years after the
2015 elections and the question that we must ask is what is that going to look
like? You may remember Nick Bye not getting the support of his backers five
years ago and it looks as though Gordon Oliver may be facing the same landscape! Oddly enough Nick Bye's name has popped up
again as a potential candidate. As they say "Watch this space!"
Oddly
enough I almost bumped into our mayor at the annual MTI (manufacturing,
technology and innovation) Exhibition at the Riviera International Conference
Centre in Torquay and he seemed to be a somewhat lonely figure. Perhaps he was
still pondering the fallout from the unpleasant meeting that bumped him from
the local Conservative Party leadership. I don’t know and didn’t get a chance
to ask because other demands got in the way.
What was my reason for being at MTI 2014? I wanted to spend a little
time amongst some really positive people. It’s all too easy these days to sit
back and criticise. Too often that criticism is simply a pop at easy targets.
If we allow that to be the way in which we approach our community then the
outcome is likely to be miserable. Martin Foulger chairs the Torbay Hi-tech
Forum and is also a divisional director with Spirent Communications. He says
“Torbay is home to a successful sector of national and international hi-tech
companies and today due to its location and availability of skills, is
attracting more such businesses, developing Torbay into a thriving centre of
excellence for the hi-tech market.” Now that has to be something to celebrate!
Keep
the smile.
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