Sunday 30 November 2014

Think before you add to the social media bonfire!

I was saddened by a headline the other day. Saddened because the headline reported the fall from grace of a public figure after doing something rather silly. Of course it was simply a headline and the story lacked insight into the personal landscape that brought the individual to that point. I think that so many headlines report dramatic moments in the lives of many and that is the nature of our world. However what really saddens me is the hurtful rhetoric that too often follows a fall from grace.

How quickly we pick up the sticks and stones and throw them! Of course I don't actually mean sticks and stones but the hurtful negative comments that can be made, often without fully understanding an event. Those spiteful comments usually come from comparative safety behind a little barricade of anonymity or pseudonym. The thing is that despite the person in the headline being a public figure they are still, when all is said and done, a man or woman journeying through life: a man or woman with a family and a circle of friends who will now also take the pain.

I don't usually have a problem with headlines reporting an event but I am deeply troubled by the somewhat vigilante mentality lurking beneath many of the comments that follow. Arthur Miller's play The Crucible and William Goulding's Lord of the Flies provide powerful insights into the darkness of spiteful rhetoric. How quickly dark comments can gain a momentum that can tip a community over the edge turning neighbour against neighbour! It can and does happen in the blink of an eye! I have a friend who a little while ago said how beautiful the Syrian city of Aleppo was. The horrors of the Syrian conflict evidence the catastrophic impact of community collapse.

I say the blink of an eye and today that is very much the case. Modern communication techniques mean that an event can be reported globally in a matter of minutes. Texting, emails, social media platforms, television, radio, mobile phones and almost endless apps mean that story sound bites travel at amazing speed. Sound bites lack substance and can be troublesome.

But what is it about our time that has us wanting to heap humiliation on others? I certainly accept the place of righteous indignation but am troubled by the joy that so many find in ritual humiliation. There is, or so it seems to me, a need in many to validate their own reality by savaging others. This simply adds to the avalanche of negativity that can too often thunder through fragile communities. You will probably be reading this either in a paper copy of the Herald Express or viewing an online version. If you want to evidence some of the throwing of verbal insults then do look at the online comments that pop up after many articles! Of course many comments offer balanced opinion but sadly quite large numbers evidence less wholesome rhetoric.

Thinking about the political landscape for a moment and the way in which words are used I was quite intrigued by the rhetoric leading up to the Rochester and Strood by-election and the period immediately after. Party workers from Torbay joined numerous leading politicians in walking the streets of the constituency campaigning for their hopeful candidates. As you probably know the outcome was a UKIP success for Tory defector Mark Reckless, but what caught my attention was the resignation from Labour's front bench of Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry. Emotions were running high at Rochester and Strood which made it a breeding ground for loose comment. Emily Thornberry sent a Tweet about white vans and Union Flags which caused upset to many and provided fuel for the opposition. My point is that this one brief Tweet caused outrage and had her bumped from political office in record time. The Tweet was divisive and a divided community is a worrying place. That is something we must guard against. Hmm. If the Shadow Attorney General is that loose with words what hope is there for the rest of us?
Emily Thornberry

So, the next time you feel like saying something nasty about someone else why not preface the comment mentally with the words "Would you like a cup of tea?" That peaceful mental picture quite often is enough to stop the hurtful words becoming a reality! At the very least think before you add to the social media bonfire or launch careless words into the public domain.


Keep the smile

(Published in the Herald Express 27th November 2014) 

Saturday 1 November 2014

Political manoeuvres on the English Riviera!

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.