Post Festival Ramblings

Corsham Festival 2010 came to an end two weeks ago, and that has given me the opportunity to reflect on this extraordinary annual event, the eleventh since Ian Martin and myself took over the festival and gave it the essential character it has today: 8 days of live performance, participatory events and visual arts with a strong contemporary focus over eight days at the end of June.

What we always aimed to do was bring something unique to Corsham which would not normally happen in a small town like this; to help put Corsham firmly on the cultural map and inspire people with something fantastic and amazing. At the same time the festival must also be Corsham’s Festival and have real relevance to the town, its history and identity.

So I think this year’s festival in particular was stronger with ever on so many levels. To give a few examples:

• Top quality international work including Flamenco Jazz from Spain, world cinema with Seraphine and Departures, Japanese puppetry form A Thousand Cranes, The exotic sounds of the middle East from Daphna & The Voyagers and Mamoru Iriguchi’s bizarre Pregnant

• Incredible fusions between different cultures and artforms such as one when digital filmmaking meets Ancient traditions from West Africa in Ancient Futures or when the specially commissioned score brings together musicians from India and the west in Shiraz

• Offering artists the opportunity to present new work for the first time whether it is the world premiere of a new string quartet as we had wit the ‘Hillman Quartet’ or some of the latest fascinating creations from our artist in residence, ceramicist Claire Baker with a Bit on the Side…

• Involving the wider community through our second Corsham Fringe Festival which was bigger, better, wider and involves more and more local groups, individuals, businesses – even the MoD in the High Street and in venues across the town. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for the future development of the Fringe.

All this happened simply because an amazing mix of people came together to make it ‘work’: staff from The Pound Arts Trust, technicians, volunteers, funders, press, artists and audiences, whose collective enthusiasm bring everything together to enable those extraordinary shared cultural experiences which make us human and our lives worthwhile. That to me is what a festival is all about and what takes it beyond the level of simple ‘entertainment’ and to a higher plane of inspiration and vision.

Double Standards

Many people have been following my ‘Double Standards’ theme on Twitter which has highlighted some great examples of how a certain political party seems to be speaking with a forked tongue (see the lower right hand column on this page)

The latest one is related to Corsham’s Hustings event we organised last week through the Community Partnership CCAN. As I have mentioned in my previous blogs a joint statement issued by the Tory and Labour party made it clear that neither of them were prepared to appear on the same platform as the BNP candidate. Lib Dem, Green and UKIP were prepared to debate with any legal candidate but we were nevertheless forced to come up with a compromise which split the event into two halves to appease these demands made by two of the major parties. In the event it all went fairly smoothly but it did give the BNP another opportunity to gain yet more unnecessary publicity.

So how is it that at yesterdays Independent newspaper public debate at the Morley and Outwood seat in West Yorkshire (Ed Ball’s seat) we see a line up consisting of UKIP, Lib Dem, Labour, Conservative and BNP all debating together?

At the Corsham Hustings our conservative candidate Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones said that he refused to share the platform with the BNP because it would ‘legitimise’ their views. The Labour party candidate, Greg Lovell for Labour said he was showing solidarity with Wilfred’s views. So what is going on in Morley and Outwood?

I firmly believe that the best way to expose crackpot political views such as those of the BNPs is simply to debate with them in public - it really doesn’t take much to show them up for what they are as their flimsy arguments, despite what they say, are clearly based on racial and social inequality.

A Challenging Democracy!

Thank goodness that’s all over! You have to be a bit mad to try and arrange a hustings event – particularly when you have to deal with various shapes and sizes of political egos bouncing around and making various demands on the order, content, arrangements and structure of the evening.

As it happens it went fairly well with Allan Bosley doing a valiant job in chairing the evening. Not everyone in the packed community centre was entirely happy - but many were very impressed by the way CCAN had attempted to create an event which enabled all six of the candidates present to answer questions from the platform for at least part of the evening.

The BNP candidate did play ball in the end which was a positive for all of us and earned him a place on the platform in the second half alongside the Green, UKIP and Liberal Democrat candidate.

Splitting the evening into two halves with all candidates who wished to be on the platform except the BNP in the first half and having previously submitted questions helped dilute the potential for the BNP issue to dominate. However, as soon as a question was posed which asked why the Tory and Labour candidates had refused to share the stage with the BNP candidate it was clear how much unease there was beneath the surface.

The lesson, if there is one, is that yes it is perfectly possible to defeat the BNP arguments if they are presented as part of a fair and open debate - surely the ONLY way forward in an open democracy rather than a blanket refusal to engage at all.

The hustings have undoubtedly helped raise the profile of CCAN in this area and has no doubt gone some way in informing the local electorate of the strengths and weaknesses of their candidates - but I hope we don’t have to do a re-run in the near future!

Chippenham Constituency Candidate Hustings: This Friday - 23 April at 7pm - Corsham Community Centre

This Friday’s Hustings will be the only opportunity for the local electorate to meet and question the candidates from the new Chippenham Constituency.

I didn’t expect being involved in organising the CCAN candidate hustings to be easy but nothing had quite prepared me for the tightrope we have had to negotiate this week to organise this Friday’s event.

Our key aim in the spirit of an open and fair democratic system was to provide a platform to present the candidates for the benefit of the local electorate. We had decided we needed to invite all legitimate candidates to our hustings and give them the opportunity to respond to questions from the audience – some prepared and some spontaneous.

As I know myself from last year’s Unitary Council elections, when you throw yourself into the political arena you expect to have to justify your views and challenge those of others – often in a forum of public debate – and almost inevitably with people who hold the opposite viewpoint.

I believe that in a democracy all candidates must be treated fairly as they are legally equal. In addition, all have a legitimate right for their individual views to be presented – whatever our individual viewpoint. It is for the electorate to decide whose views are most valid – and whose are not.

It has been a real challenge to get agreement from all the candidates to enter into these hustings whilst still holding onto these basic principles. What we have arrived at is something of a compromise which reflects the respective expectations and demands of the individual candidates and it will require a level of give and take from all candidates to ensure the event is of real value to the electorate.

However, I an confident that the evening will enable all candidates to answer questions directly from the audience and be able to debate with each other. Above all I hope the outcome will make it clearer for the electorate to decide who is worth voting for on May 6.

Off the buses!

An article in Corsham People (7 April www.corshampeople.co.uk ) makes a strange assertion that 'better buses would mean more housing'

As a result of the current deregulation of bus services we have a system where virtually anyone can set up a bus service to run wherever or whenever they like. This will clearly be driven by commercial considerations as they would hope to make a profit. Yes this is more difficult in a rural environment compared to a more urban one – although there will be more competition in the urban context.

However the local authority (Wiltshire Council in this case) may chose to provide a subsidised service if there is evidence of demand or hardship – or if there are gaps in a privately run service.

In the Corsham People article Mr Taylor the councillor for Gastard has quite rightly referred to the deplorable No72/73 subsidised service from Corsham to Melksham which goes through Gastard. There are virtually no timetables or bus stops along the entire route, local residents have reported the service to be unreliable and sometimes failing to turn up, and if you go to the traveline website: www.travelinesw.com the service does not even exist! Combine that with a published timetable (if you can find one in Gastard) which offers a very fragmented service. There is little wonder the passenger numbers are low with the perception of a service which is next to useless.

So it is all boils down to priorities and what people feel is most important. As I see it there are several routes we could go down if we genuinely do want a better bus service:

• Getting those who use buses to pay more for it - hardly an incentive to increase bus usage and really hits those less able to pay
• Increase the allocation from local authorities to provide better subsidised services – increasingly difficult in a time we are told there must be greater efficiencies and higher savings.
• A more creative approach to bus provision in rural areas such as the wigglybus service now called Connect2Wiltshire which is essentially a dial-a-ride service - although we do not have one of these in the Corsham Area except to get to the RUH
• Increase the power given to local authorities to allow them to have stricter agreements with bus providers – that would require a considerable change in political will as it would be meddling in a currently ‘free’ market.

Strangely, I bumped into Theresa Villiers, the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in Corsham High Street today and asked her what she would do to change our failing deregulated policy on bus service provision – I reminded her it was a measure brought in by the Tories under Margaret Thatcher. I was told that the Conservatives would support partnerships between local authorities and bus providers so they could talk to each other to solve problems. Rather a simplistic solution methinks!

As for the 'better buses would mean more housing' statement we began with you only have to look at Katherine Park to see that more housing has nothing to do with better buses - there is not a single bus stop in sight!