Beyond the Blue Bird (see below)

I am considering re-starting my blog posts. Why? I suppose it is a desire to be known. Not known as being identifiable by a large number of people, but for those small number who do know me, or read this, better known. What I think. How I feel about things.

 

That is bizarre when you think about it. Where does this instinct come from? What I feel and think is of little interest to others. They are more interested in what they feel and think. And I do not suffer the delusion that what I feel and think matters in some wider way. What people think seldom matters. What they do about it does. But you don’t do things through a blog post. 

 

And it is not an instinct all share. One person very close to me likes not to be known. For him, he feels it gives others power over him to know him and about him. A bit like letting other people know your hand in poker. Another friend too said something subtly different, but along a similar line: that having secrets made him feel empowered. 

 

I am the opposite. I feel I have power when there is nothing left for people to find out. No one has anything over me. Whatever anyone levels at me I can say, yes. Here it is. Next? I don’t feel like my life is analogous to a game of poker. Whatever I have to win or lose is not something that other people can give or take away. It is in my gift alone. 

 

Maybe that instinct to be known led me into politics in the first place. I would have said that it was a desire to change things for the better. But there are many ways to do that without asking 80,000 people ‘do you love me?’ every five years. There is something in me, and in all politicians, that makes us seek an audience – to what we do, and who we are.

 

(It is a form of vanity. Not bad in itself – that attribute, like all attributes - can be used for either good or bad. The important thing is self-awareness of what your attributes are. This makes it more likely you will be able to direct them to what you think you want to become. Self-awareness of course, is an attribute in itself… and, like humility, if one is sufficiently lacking in it, one can think oneself very rich in it…) 

 

When I was a politician, I felt that if people were going to vote for me, they deserved to know as much about me, what I thought – and more crucially, how I thought, as possible. But politics was frustrating because its nature prevented openness. Saying honestly what you thought and who you are usually resulted in such distortions that at the end of it all, a more dishonest picture of ‘you’ was portrayed than if you just kept silent. 

I admit it. Freedom did feel good... 

But I am not a politician any more. On that day when I was to finally go to bed with either victory or liberty, I remember realising that the prospect of liberty made my heart beat faster and made me feel more alive than the prospect of victory. Which was a good thing, because that is what I got. After my liberation from service was announced, I was asked by the local BBC political correspondent what I thought about ‘everything’. I recall the delicious surge of joy when I realised that what I said didn’t really matter anymore. And as I remember, I said as much. 

 

But as I started to etch out my new life, I began to realise that liberty is not just constrained by a job. Loyalties, consequences, perceptions, all of these curtail saying what you really think; doing what, in absence of consequences, you’d really like to do. And of course, when I thought 

about it, they do on a daily basis. I cannot in practice tell my meeting acquaintance that the thing they are telling me about is of no interest to me whatsoever, if I want to maintain work and friendships. We are always constrained in acting by the consequences of our actions. It is a word much bandied-about, but it is hard to imagine what real liberty looks like.

 

But that is probably a blog for another time. 

Twitter ate my blog!

Am I the only one who has found that the rise and rise of twitter (and to an extent) facebook has eaten their blog? Despite the best of my intentions, I have ended up posting minute by minute stuff on Facebook and Twitter. Does this say something about our ever diminishing attention-spans as a society? Or just about me not being very good at managing the blogger app on my iphone...?   Who knows.  But be warned - this blog may not be updated as much as it should be. A big blue bird came and ate it up.

Lamplighters progress!

In politics you get very used to promises and pledges; there's always a lot of talk and if something goes wrong, the emergency response is often to have yet another meeting or 'write a report '. It always reminds me of a certain scene in The Life of Brian ( fans will know which one I mean). Recently the national papers exposed not just my thighs in a picture of me in my old work outfit of a red swimming cozzy, but the fact I used to work on Cornish beaches as a surf life guard. In that line of work, talk cannot replace Action. So it is especially good to see actual physical action happening in re-opening the Lamplighters Pub. In a welcome break from paperwork, Cllr Wayne Harvey and I rolled up our sleeves and got busy in renovating the pub. Still a long way to go, but great to see Kathie and Dominic Gundry-White actually getting something done and bringing our pub back to life! 

Goodnight Irene! Stadium Victory!

Celebration - but we couldn't be sure for another 13 days...

After a hearty celebration two weeks ago, when it was announced that the Judicial Review brought by TrasHorfield had been dismissed, we found it wasn't the end of the story.

Our petition, www.bristolsnottrash.bristolpetitions.com attracted over 13,000 signatures of support for the Memorial Ground being sold for a Sainsburys, housing, community facility, parking and memorial park, in order to enable to building of a new Stadium for Rovers in South Gloucestershire.

The reasons why the petition was so popular were clear: This was not just about Bristol Rovers fans, in fact, I received some very kind words and support from arch-rivals, Bristol City - they know what it's like to have a major and exciting infrastructure project that will benefit the whole city stopped by a minority group, skating on the edge of legislation to impose their view.

It was also supported by people who wanted to see Bristol give out a loud signal that this is a city open for business, a place worth investing in, and not a backward backwater where any good and exciting idea or investment is met with a muttered 'not in our backyard'.

It was supported by people who want to see major music acts come to our city, who want to see major sporting events - like our own Lee Haskins defend his title to a huge home crowd...

...and it was supported by many who want a transport revolution in our gridlocked city of fumes, knowing that the Rovers Stadium would play a huge part in boosting the business case we need to win, to get a full Henbury Loop Line. 

Contrary to what you might think, many traders on Gloucester Road also supported it - they are not competitors of a supermarket, and the extra footfall and parking space was something they saw as a positive.

After the decision was announced, Trash then appealed, the appeal was dismissed by the judge, and thankfully, Trash did not take this decision further to the High Court. That is a relief. To do so would have been painful and very costly for all involved - and those who are always winners in these situations, and who tend to defend and like judicial reviews - the lawyers - would have been the only ones certain to gain.

No, we had already spent enough public money on this, and so it was with joy and relief that decency and common sense - having been approved by the democratic planning process, then by the judicial process, finally prevailed.

It's impossible to name everyone who was so brilliant in getting Rovers the home they have wanted for over 30 years - but David Thomas is a hero, Angela Betts, Nigel Currie, our Councillor Claire Hiscott, George Maggs, Nick Higgs who was superb and unwavering,  the 13,000 who supported our petition... 

And personally, a very warm thank you to all those who posted such lovely, and supportive messages for the campaign, both on the Rovers fan-page and on twitter. It really made the world of difference and really helped keep morale up. Thank you.

So, A huge thank you and well done to all those who campaigned so hard, and to those thousands who signed the petition. This is your victory  #UTG 

 

Badock's Woods pupils fight back against vandalism

Pupils of Badocks Wood School reclaiming their play area from vandalism - with some great art-work

It is a tragedy for everyone who has worked so hard to get superb new play equipment ( I confess, I still get a bit excited about a really good children's playground) to see it vandalised and burned down, as the local community and councillors in Southmead saw in Doncaster Road Park.

They playground had been beautifully designed, alongside the children, to provide facilities that could even tempt an MP to give them ago. So it was with anger and sorrow that the community found it burned and vandalised.

But Southmead is not a community to be defeated! Together, Councillors, community workers and Badock's Wood School have rallied round to send out a message that the community, the normally silent majority do have a voice, and are energetically encouraging people to be proud of where we live, and to reclaim our community for the majority.

There was some fine art-work from the children, and a lot of anger and sorrow that had been turned into a positive force for change, and for good. Well done everyone , and thank you on behalf of all of us for your efforts. That's how change happens!