Cabinet of all the talents

If you are a football fan, you would have indulged in the traditional activity of picking your best “England” team (or Welsh team or World XI, or so on).  You would then present this team to your  mates and a vigorous debate would ensue about the merits of the players chosen.

Of course, if you are bit of a political anorak, the possibility of Bristol having a directly elected mayor offers a similar opportunity.  It appears the successful candidate could select a cabinet from the full council (although there could be an option to select  cabinet members from outside the council).

So here is my “cabinet of all the talents” – the “team” I would select. I decided to set myself three ground rules before I started:

• Rule One – if Bristol chooses to vote yes to an elected mayor, there will be a need for strong leadership of those councillors remaining in the full council to provide a high level of scrutiny of the executive.  Therefore I have decided that the party leaders (Cllrs Janke, Hammond, Abraham and Green) should be ruled out of consideration for my cabinet;
• Rule Two – the cabinet should include members from all four political parties with no party having a majority of councillors.  The somewhat gerrymandered division of cabinet positions as a result is 3 Lib Dems, 2 Labour, 2 Conservatives, and 1 Green;
• Rule Three is that the portfolios for each cabinet member should be clear, reflecting areas of responsibility that members of the public can readily understand; Education, Health and Social Care, Transport, Business, Housing, Energy and Climate Change, Communities and Local Governance, and Finance.

With those three rules in mind, here is my cabinet.

Transport: Mark Bradshaw (Labour)

Whilst the Liberal Democrats have regularly changed the executive member for transport, Labour have allowed Mark to remain focused on the transport problems facing the city.  As a result he has established a detailed understanding of what is needed in Bristol’s efforts to create a modern transport infrastructure. Coupled with a willingness to recognise the altered political and economic environment Bristol now finds itself in, this is why he would be my choice for transport.

Education: Geoff Gollop (Conservative)

Cllr Gollop is a proud Bristolian and a decent individual, and having spent a year as Lord Mayor in which he has visited schools across Bristol, I suspect that Cllr Gollop is even more conscious than ever before of the terrible waste of Bristolian talent when children are denied the best possible assistance in developing their knowledge and skills.  A poorly educated child is less able to make a positive contribution to society in their later years, and I am sure Geoff would work hard to ensure that ALL Bristol schools are able to bring out the best in the children of this city.

Energy and Climate Change:  Neil Harrison (Liberal Democrat)

Outside of the Green Party, I know of no other political individual who recognises the threats, and understands the complexities, of this portfolio as well as Cllr Harrison.  Whilst others do the talk,   Neil is already doing the walk and it would be a foolish individual who failed to allow him the opportunity to continue what he has already started.

Health and Social Care:  Helen Holland (Labour)

Health and social care is the poison chalice in Bristol’s political environment.  It is one in which there is massive disagreement about how to proceed, and there is considerable concern that what we are seeing is the breakup and privatisation of a system which currently delivers a high level of quality care that is free at the point of use.  It needs somebody in Bristol to defend it, not to acquiesce in its dismemberment and I would task Cllr Holland with that role.

Communities and Local Governance: Gus Hoyt (Green)

As powers are devolved from central government to local government, there is an opportunity to also devolve powers from city-wide level down to neighbourhood partnerships.  Cllr Hoyt has demonstrated that he is willing to challenge the status quo and I would give him two main tasks;  firstly to look at how to make neighbourhood partnerships as representative as possible of their communities without discouraging those individuals and groups who are already donating their time and energy,  secondly to look at every possible opportunity to pass decision making down to the lowest possible level capable of making the decision.

Business: Mark Weston (Conservative)

Cllr Weston is a powerful speaker with strong persuasive skills – talents needed to encourage the business community to invest in Bristol in economically straitened times.  In his role as the executive member with responsibility for business I would ask him to reprise the traditional role of the Conservative Party as the party of enterprise and small business.  98% of private sector businesses in Bristol are small and medium enterprises, and they are considerably more effective at creating employment than their larger brethren in relation to their turnover. They also tend to have a disproportionate economic impact on the local economy as their supply chains are usually more localised, with a greater proportion of expenditure recycled within the local economy.  Cllr Weston’s role would be to focus on these vitally important small businesses.

Housing: Mark Wright (Liberal Democrat)

As somebody brought up in a tower block in Hartcliffe, and now representing a ward that has seen more than its fair share of residential development but often of a type that only addresses a particular segment of the housing market,  Mark will be able to bring a different perspective to Bristol’s chronic housing problems.  His greatest challenge will be how to house Bristol’s expanding population whilst minimising the destruction of green spaces and providing homes that the average Bristolian can afford to live in.

Finance and Deputy Mayor: Gary Hopkins (Liberal Democrat)

Gary has the capability to take hold of a portfolio and develop a deep understanding of it in a very short time.  His role will be to monitor the other portfolios and ensure that they spend public money efficiently and effectively.  This will not be a case of implementing cuts based on simplistic accounting, but will involve Gary in encouraging investment that makes the best use of public money for the well-being of the city.  The money the cabinet spends is not ours, it is that of the residents of Bristol and needs to be treated accordingly.

This would be my team, if the people of Bristol were ever daft enough to hand me the reins of power.  If nothing else, it would ensure that cabinet meetings would be more interesting than the rather placid “show trials” they currently are.

RBS boss Stephen Hester gave back his bonus

There was a seminal quote everyone in business should have on their desk from Morgan Stanley boss James Gorman last week at the height of ‘bonus-gate’.  He said anyone who did not understand falling pay needed a reality check.

Outlining his simple ‘Three point plan’ he said:  ”No 1 You are naïve, read the newspaper;  No 2  If you put your compensation in a one year context to define your overall level of happiness, you have a problem which is much bigger than the job; and No 3, if you’re really unhappy, just leave.  I mean, life’s too short.”

The problem with the banking industry is that it is operating in a world that is alien to most people struggling through the recession, trying to keep a job or keep their business going.  They can’t comprehend someone being handed just short of a million pounds of shares as a bonus when they already earn £1.2m a year, enough to pay the salaries of about 70 nurses.

It’s just got so far out of line there has to be some correction.  Sir Philip Hampton, RBS chairman, has himself admitted that too much money is not going to the right place and the shareholder rewards have not been sufficient

A bonus has to be for doing a job way over and above what’s expected – super performing.    In business, we’ve have seen a complacency creep in, encouraged by high earners who flaunt big handouts.  I expect there was stunned surprise when many companies declared this year that there would be no profit related bonuses because targets hadn’t been met in an environment where margins are being squeezed.   And when times are good, performance related bonuses had come to be expected just for fulfilling your job description.

But bonus hounding in the media is not the basis for good business policy.  There are more profound flaws in the system and hopefully this is the time when Government, politicians and bankers take this opportunity to get the ground rules straight.

We would all do well to heed James Gorman’s advice: money isn’t everything, and if it is, you have a problem in a changing business landscape where values, integrity and accountability are becoming the new currency.

Karen White is Vice Chair of the Bristol Institute of Directors and Director JBP PR and Parliamentary Affairs 

Since spending a year in Toulouse 20 years ago, where I shared a house with a keen fan of ‘bandes-dessinées’ (comic strips), I have been a closet fan of what might be called ‘graphic novels’. Of course there is no need for shame nowadays, with highbrow works such as Marjane Satrapi’s ‘Persepolis’, Joe Sacco’s ‘Palestine’ and now Craig Thompson’s ‘Habibi’ breaking into the UK market.

Back in the early 90s though, I would sneak into Forbidden Planet to buy Neil Gaiman’s Sandman books and feel very out of place among the teenage boys flicking through 2000AD.

In France, however, comics and graphic novels form a respectable chunk of publishing income (varying from €300 to €390 million in recent years). Astérix and Tintin are national heroes (the eagle-eyed reader will point out that Hergé, Tintin’s creator, was actually Belgian, but the books are written in French and incredibly popular in France). Tintin and others opened the door to the development of a rich French tradition of cartoon strips and later, graphic novels, collectively known as ‘le neuvième art’ (the 9th art).

So imagine my delight on hearing that I could indulge my dormant love for a finely crafted comic at Europe’s biggest festival of ‘bandes-dessinées’ in Angoulême, just half an hour’s drive from The Barn. You might wonder why Angoulême is the host for such a prestigious event. Was there, perhaps, a burgeoning comics scene, to mirror Bristol’s graffiti scene? It seems not and that this was a council-led move to reinvigorate a declining industrial city way back in the late 70s, which was hugely successful in bringing the city hundreds of jobs and visitors in their hundreds of thousands.

So off we went last Sunday, armed with a flask of tea and a programme. On arrival, and due to it being a freezing cold day, we were lured straight into the commercial hub of the festival – a huge (and warm) marquee. Here we found the big publishers such as Casterman and Dargaud, who list the high selling action comics as well as more ‘arty’ titles like Thompson’s ‘Habibi’ and Joann Sfar’s ‘Le Chat du Rabbin’ (the Rabbi’s cat). After parting with over 50 euros in half an hour, it was time to make a quick exit.

First we visited ‘Tebeos’, an exhibition of contemporary Spanish creators (‘tebeos’ being Spanish for comics), who seem to have a fascination with the ‘noir’ genre. We then wolfed down a quick lunch in the funky ‘Galerie XXIV’ café’. As its name suggests, it doubles as a gallery and it was clearly one of the places to be for any artists in town.

It reminded us of the Arts House café in Montpelier, so it was no surprise to learn that the owner Dawn hails from Bristol too. But with no time to share Bristol tales, we dashed off to catch the amazing ‘Concerts des Dessins’. A team of artists drew a comic strip, projected onto a giant screen, to live music. It was enchanting and the hour-long performance whizzed by.

One of the high points of the festival was a retrospective of the work of this year’s president of the jury, Art Speigelmann, at the ‘Cité de la Bande Dessinée’. Including hand-drawn sketches for works such as ‘Maus’, his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel on the Holocaust, this was a treat for any devotee of the ninth art.

Angoulême sits on a very steep hill so to get back up to the old city we hopped onto a festival shuttle which dropped us off outside the ‘Nouveau Monde’ (‘New World’) marquee. This revealed itself as a mecca for alternative comics fans, where the independent publishers rub shoulders companionably.

We soon found a treasure trove at the Cambourakis stand, which a fellow punter had recommended. Here we met Lola Lorente, the Spanish creator of delicately drawn tales of a decidedly ‘arty’ genre. Her first graphic novel has just been published in French as ‘Chair de ma Chair’ (‘Flesh of my Flesh’).

Lola takes her inspiration from old black and white films, which you can see in the play of light and dark in her beautiful artwork. She wrote the book, a sensitive tale of children’s fragile worlds, in Angoulême after winning an artist’s residency two years ago. Temptation got the better of me and I parted with yet more euros, then enjoyed watching Lola draw a personalised ‘dédicace’ (inscription).

With my love of ‘bandes dessinées’ reignited and a haul of delectable titles to devour, we made our way back to the old Barn at La Rambaudie. Our tiny hamlet sat silent, a trail of wood smoke the only sign of life, in a different world to Angoulême and its fleeting international community.

Flamenco Thief - aka Craig Sutton

His real name is Craig Sutton but, to his rapidly expanding circle of admirers, he’s The Flamenco Thief. He is also, and it’s not a word I bandy about loosely, unique.

He plays his own brand of music: influenced by traditional Flamenco but a version of the art that would no doubt make traditionalists’ hair stand on end. He also puts in a lot of percussive stuff, drumming on his guitar and, crucially, uses a loop pedal to record himself and then layer more and more tracks on top – all done live.

Now 30, he was born in Bath, grew up in Warminster, Wiltshire, moved back to Bath about three years ago but plays most of his gigs in Bristol. In fact the last time I saw him play he was supporting another Wiltshire lad, Gaz Brookfield, at The Fleece.

Like a lot of people he first got into electric guitars before switching to an acoustic, although in his case it was a classical Spanish guitar. Then he heard Flamenco music and was hooked.

But he tells the story better in his own words…

“There was no one in the family who played, really. I think my mum said my granddad used to play a bit of piano years ago when she was a kid, but there’s no one else at all. I didn’t start playing guitar till I was 16, which is quite late really. Some people are brought up in an environment where there are always instruments around and start much earlier.

“Basically my older brother got a guitar, got one of those start-up kits, and tried to learn but he didn’t really follow it up. Even then I didn’t pick up his guitar straightaway, I was discovering music I liked – the early stuff I’d listen to was stuff my brother had – so it wasn’t until I was 16 that I decided to learn the guitar and fell more and more in love with it. And that was it… that was an electric guitar.”

What sort of bands was he listening to back then?

“Rage Against The Machine was always the one. When I was younger I was absolutely blown away by Tom Morello. I’d never heard anything like it. They were rap mixed with rock, but the other early stuff I listened to was all heavy music, rock stuff. And a few punk bands like The Offspring as well. That was the first music I made a conscious choice to listen to.”

So did he copy someone else’s style when he was learning how to play?

“Not really. I’ve always been… I kind of like to do my own thing. I got loads of music books and tried to learn bits and bobs because you can’t just pluck it out of nowhere. Everything has a basis and you have to start somewhere. But I was never into the covers band sort of thing. I just enjoyed writing stuff for myself but it’s like a language, you have to learn the basics first. You need to learn about music before you can work on your own stuff.

“The first band I was in was like a ska band, kind of ska punk. Less of the reggae side of original ska, more punk but still with the off-beat chords. But I like all styles of music; it’s great to incorporate stuff from everywhere.”

We arrive at the Flamenco moment…

“I heard Rodrigo and Gabriela first. I had no idea about Flamenco really, I’d heard of it but that was it. The thing is, Rodrigo and Gabriela aren’t actually Flamenco themselves, they get called Flamenco, but they always say they’re not. But like everyone else I assumed they were and thought, ‘this is amazing’. They do all the percussive stuff, which I really love – the way you can make an acoustic guitar sound like a drum is really great. Then I found out they weren’t actually proper Flamenco and listened to some of that and thought, ‘my god, this is even more insane’. It was a different level up.

“Once I’d heard traditional Flameco… you can’t believe that one person could be playing a guitar and all of that could be done at the same time. So fell I in love with that and, with the two, Rodrigo and Gabriela as well, just wanted to learn how to do it.”

Was it self taught?

“Not really, you can’t just blag Flamenco. I had some lessons from a guy in Salisbury called Tim Rushworth, I had about five lessons. He’s an ex-policeman actually, a really nice guy. He showed me the basic techniques. I also bought the Juan Martin ‘bible’ of Flamenco, but it’s very hard to translate it from a book into reality. You just have to practice a lot, it’s all muscle memory. I worked at it for hours and hours a day with a metronone especially for the rhythm stuff [he raps the table with the four fingers of his right hand, producing a staccato 'drum roll']. I’d be sitting there for like 10 hours.”

Obvious question – does it hurt?

“At the start yes, it’s toughened up now but at the start… Till the day I die there’s a lot more to be done, but I’m still on the basics… some of them are getting there but there’s still so much more.

“I’ve been working on it really hard, trying to merge the elements of what Rodrigo and Gabriela do, the percussive side, with Flamenco – that’s something Flamenco players don’t do that much of. They do more fingerpicking, which Rodrigo and Gabriela don’t do. And then adding in all the things I grew up with, that’s where the breakbeat, hip-hop, ska… everything else comes in.”

So this is where the Flamenco Thief name comes from? [I'm quick like that]

“Basically, yes. Names are very difficult. I was going by my own name and no one was remembering it. I was ‘Chris’ Sutton, ‘Greg’ Sutton… People remembered what I did, but not my name. I think Flamenco Thief works because people know I play a version of it without claiming to be an actual Flamenco player. I could never be that, I mean I’m not from Spain, right?”

Has he ever been to Spain?

“That’s my plan one day, but no – not yet. I’ve played a lot of gigs where there have been Spanish people in the audience and generally the reaction has been really good because it’s got enough of the stuff they understand, yet it takes off into a different way. Their reaction has been really great. I played a gig down The Bell [in Walcot Street, Bath] and there were a couple of Spanish couples there who stayed around for drinks afterwards and offered me a place to stay in Madrid. They said, ‘Come on over, you’ll go down an absolute storm’. So I haven’t been yet, but I will definitely go.”

I have to ask. Can he sing?

“No, not really. But with my stuff the lead work takes over the vocal anyway so there’s no need for it. There’s a limit to how much drumming and playing you can do at the same time on your own, but with a loop pedal you can do it all, build up these big tracks.

“I started doing open mics just over a year ago – Ziggy [rapper, Ziggy Ross] was ill when we had to do a gig and I had to do it on my own and I’d never been up on stage by myself and I was scared shitless, so I thought, ‘right, I’m going to have to practice at some open mics’. That was at the end of 2010.

“This last year has been about performing in public on my own, something I’d never done before. It’s so different from playing at home – you have to learn it all first. Performing solo is a completely different thing.

“This year has been a big change. Things have picked up more and shown me… I think I can do it as my job. The more I meet people, the feedback they give me, they say, ‘you can do this’. It’s so nice when people are like that.

“The first few songs I was writing were very technical, I was trying to cram in all the techniques, but now I’ve learnt it’s more about a groove. People have a few drinks and they want to tap their feet and get in the groove. As long as it sounds good and as long as it feels good… that’s kind of the end goal, you know. What’s the point of playing really technical stuff when maybe two people might understand what you’re doing, and everyone else has gone into the other bar?

There is mention on his site about an EP launch?

“It’s ready to go as soon as the sleeve is ready. The hold up is the artwork. My friend Sara-Jane Swettenham is doing it, she’s a really talented artist and it’s going to be a charcoal portrait. But I don’t want to rush it, I want her to be happy with it because she is phenomenal. Maybe the end of February. When she gives me a date I can go with it – it’s a great excuse for a party. Please mention the EP was recorded by Dave Carlyon, who’s worked with Dub Mafia, and plays in Bohemian Embassy.”

Any other plans?

“It’s not set in stone yet but one day I’d like to work with a string quartet. This is the next level I’m going to be aiming at. Jade, the violinist, studies at Bath Spa and she has a lot of friends there and there’s a few other people who have been recommended. I’ll have to have someone else to score the music, but that’s where I’m heading. The dream would be to be able to score string quartets and pieces for orchestras, that would be great  – just to be able to have a go at it would be amazing. But that’s a long way away.”

Best gig?

“There’s been a lot of really good ones this year but… The Big Chill Bar, in Bristol, on a night when a guy who was teaching English to foreign students brought them along for an end-of-term party. There were people from all over Europe, including some Spanish students, and they went nuts. It was so easy for me, I was just keeping the groove going. The guy who brought them found out when I’d be playing in that bar again, so last time I played there he brought his new class along and, as soon as I started hitting that guitar and start doing some beats, they were straight up and dancing again. That’s the best gig.”

People to look out for?

“Well not acoustic maybe, but Bohemian Embassy, Bite The Buffalo, The Daturas – folky, psychedelic stuff – from Bradford on Avon. From Bristol? Gaz Brookfield, I know everyone says that but, he really is that good, his songwriting is great and really genuine. Sam Easton, vocally amazing. Rae, a jazzy Bristol band, an amazing album. Leonie Evans is the singer, she’s got a great voice – I think she does acoustic gigs by herself as well. I think she’s got a solo album coming out this year. And can I plug Largo Embargo – they are a great ska band from Bath but they do loads of gigs in Bristol.”

Where is he playing?

See his site, below, for updates but, in February, he’s at Underbelly, in London, on Tuesday 7; The Prom Bristol, Thursday 9; St James Wine Vaults, Bath, Saturday 11; The Louisiana (cellar bar), Bristol, Friday 17;  The Seven Stars, Bristol, Sunday 19; and The Canteen, Bristol, Tuesday 21.

Contact: http://theflamencothief.com

Bristol billboard ad

On my walk into work this morning I started imagining what the city would look like if adverts weren’t permitted in public spaces.

Battery-farmed chickens didn’t yell at me from phone boxes, billboards forgot to tell me not to miss the latest CGI ‘blockbuster’ and phone companies neglected to tell me they liked sport. Buses and taxis passed, informing me about local public transport options instead of what perfume to buy… It was a world I’d like to live in.

Advertising has become such a part of everyday life that often we don’t consciously notice it. We are constantly being told what to buy, how to look and how incomplete as humans we currently are. I gave up TV years ago to avoid this relentless harassment but I cannot give up the physical realm – and advertising companies have stolen this from us. Is it finally time to take it back?

Banning all public space advertising would raise the usual arguments – it would lead to a fall in the economy and would put people out of work. Would it though? This really got me thinking. Surely banning advertising – a luxury of the large multinationals for the most part – would bolster the local economy and lead to greater employment; how so?

As ‘word of mouth’ superseded billboards and posters, quality of product and customer service would be prioritised when deciding where to shop and eat. As smaller shops and restaurants gained more of the market share, employment would rise; as smaller businesses generally employ more people per pound spent than corporations do. The money we spent would remain in our communities and lead to a natural regeneration of our neighbourhoods.

Far from a utopian dream, this world is easily achievable. San Paulo has been ad-free for five years now. Mayor Gilberto Kassab (a pro-business conservative) passed a “Clean City Law” in 2006 that clamped down on advertising – or ‘visual pollution’ as he rightly calls it. Amid fears of loss of revenue ($133m) and jobs (20,000) they tore down more than 15,000 billboards and revealed the beautiful city beneath. Now, five years on, more then 70% of the cities 11million-strong population rate the move “beneficial” and the city still remains mostly ad-free.

In the US, four of the most beautiful states are un-surprisingly billboard-free. Hawaii made the decision as early as 1927; Alaska,Vermont andMaine have since followed suit.

There are many groups in the city that want billboards to be removed from Bristol. Groups in St Werburghs, Easton and Stokes Croft in particular want these blights removed and have made some headway already.

Next time you walk through Bristol, play a little game. Count how many adverts you see – not shop signs or A-frames – but ads on buses, taxis, phone-boxes, buildings, bus-shelters and stand alone billboards. Imagine how much prettier the city would be without them. Imagine how much calmer you would feel and picture the thriving local economy.

With a choice between this and the small amount of lost revenue, I know which city I’d like to live in.

Gus Hoyt is Green Party councillor for Ashley ward

Stephen Williams MP joins campaigners at the launch of Living Heart for Bristol

British people have a reputation for always talking about the weather. However, here in Bristol, a more likely subject for discussion is likely to be the state of our transport infrastructure.

Bristol is a great city but much of the centre is dominated by the overwhelming numbers of motor vehicles. It is this over-reliance on the car that constitutes a major part of the reason why I became a member of Living Streets which campaigns on behalf of pedestrians and to improve the liveability of our streets.

According to the 2001 census, the working population of Cabot and Lawrence Hill wards (the two wards that cover the city centre) was less than 8,500 with some 3,000 using cars to drive to work. But during the daytime this population swells to more than 90,000 as workers commute into the city centre with more than 40,000 cars flooding into the centre itself.

However even this last figure is put into perspective when you realise that somewhere in the region of 250,000 motor vehicles entered the city centre area each day in 2001. It is clear that many of those 250,000 vehicles were simply passing through the city centre on their way to somewhere else.

The effect on the city centre is devastating. The living, beating heart of Bristol, the traditional core of the city where residents, workers and visitors alike should be able to enjoy the historic heritage and general ambience of one of Europe’s most famous cities, is instead a race track where pedestrians find themselves dodging fast moving traffic and inhaling polluted air equivalent to smoking a packet of cigarettes a day.

Cyclists too find the roads dangerous and increasingly are forced to abandon the roads to motor vehicles, and find sanctuary on the pavements – which in turn inevitably brings them into conflict with pedestrians.

It is blatantly obvious that this situation cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely, and that some tough but necessary decisions need to be made if Bristol’s centre is once again to become the liveable heart of the city designed to benefit the workers, businesses, residents and visitors that use its wider amenities, not just those who use its roads to drive through it.

Last Friday, with the support of the local MP, eight separate groups (Bristol Cycling Campaign, Bristol Friends of the Earth, Bristol Green Capital, Bristol Living Streets, Bristol Ramblers Group, Carfree Bristol, Playing Out, and Streets Alive) combined to launch a campaign to create a more attractive city centre area – a Living Heart for Bristol.

The campaign aims to provide more public space and improve conditions for walking, cycling, and enjoying the centre by diverting through traffic away from central Bristol.

Later this month, Bristol City Council will be launching its City Centre Area Action Plan and its Public Realm and Movement Framework. These strategies will propose changes to road layouts in central Bristol, partly to facilitate the new Bus Rapid Transit networks.

The Living Heart coalition will be urging supporters to press the Council for changes to improve central Bristol during this consultation.

Other cities have taken the brave steps needed to rebalance their transport system away from one that is over-reliant on the private car, and have reaped the economic benefits. Freiburg in Germany is seen as a particularly good example of a city that has managed to combine a thriving economy with the benefits of a more balanced transport strategy. A 2004 audit of Freiburg shows that 24% of commuters travelled to work on foot, 28% by bike, 18% by public transport and just 29% by car.

More revealing is a comparison of the transport mode shares in 2001 between Freiburg and Bristol. At that time, the census shows that 64% of Travel to Work journeys in Bristol were by car, however according to the EU’s Urban Audit figures for 2001 the corresponding figure for Freiburg was 60% not massively lower.

In fact, in 2001 Bristol outperformed Freiburg for number of work journeys by foot (13% vs 11%) and by public transport (15% vs 13%). It was only in cycling that Bristol lagged significantly behind (5% vs 14%).

However, since then, cities like Freiburg have grasped the nettle, and addressed the challenge of rebalancing the traffic in their cities. Other Northern European cities like Copenhagen (where less than a third of commuters travel by car), Odense (34% travel by bike), Malmo (increased pedestrian journeys from 6% to 20% within 4 years) and Groningen (a business enhancing pedestrianisation of the city centre) have similarly reduced their dependence upon the car whilst Bristol, like almost every other British city, continues to be a slave to it.

What Bristolians need to make clear over the next few months is whether they wish their city, and especially their city centre, to continue to be dominated by the car, or do they want their city to pursue a more balanced transport strategy that will, in the end, offer greater benefits to the city and its citizens?

To find out more about the Living Heart campaign, the positive evidence from other cities, and how to support the campaign visit the website at www.livingheart.org.uk

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

The words former US President, Dwight D Eisenhower, in a speech on April 16, 1953. In an average year, small arms kill around a third of a million men, women and children – and leave hundreds of thousands more injured, disabled, traumatized and grieving.

About 2,000 people die each day from armed violence, and hundreds of thousands more are displaced, maimed or loose their livelihood.  Conflict costs African countries $18bn every year.

This video Bang For Your Buck  filmed in Burundi, graphically illustrates the crisis. We have recently heard a lot about financial regulation but there are currently no legally binding, international rules regulating the even more deadly arms trade. This year there is a real opportunity to change this and stem the suffering as nations finally gather to agree a global arms trade treaty.

World military expenditure is estimated to have been $1,630billion in 2010, an increase of 1.3% in real terms.  The value of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations in 2010 was over $30.7 billion. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council  (US, Russia, France, United Kingdom and China), together with Germany and Italy account for about 85% of the arms sold between 2002 and 2009.

In 2009, the United States ranked first in the value of arms deliveries to developing nations at $7.4 billion, or 43.6% of all such deliveries. Russia ranked second in these deliveries at $3.5. billion or 20.6%. Some of the arms sold go to regimes where human rights violations will occur. Money is diverted from saving lives, health and education, encouraging corruption which often accompanies arms sales due to the large sums of money involved.

Oxfam has long been campaigning on conflict and arms issues including its membership of the Control Arms campaign, in coalition with Amnesty International and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). to control the arms trade.

Oxfam was a major actor in the campaign to persuade European Union member states to agree, at a 1998 EU meeting  in Cardiff,  to an arms sales “Code of Conduct” that, among other obligations, asks member states to provide data for a joint EU annual report on arms transfers and licenses.

Campaigning on landmines via the so-called Ottawa process led to the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997.  Most recently in May 2008 in Dublin, 107 countries negotiated and adopted a treaty that bans cluster bombs and provides assistance to affected communities.

The Control Arms campaign itself was launched in 2003 calling for a global treaty that is an international, legally-binding agreement that will stop transfers of arms and ammunitions that fuel conflict, poverty and serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The campaign has been hugely successful, with over a million people worldwide joining the call for an ATT and the then UK Government playing a leading role in championing the treaty.

The UK Government along with six other countries, Australia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Finland, Kenya and Japan introduced the initial Resolution to the UN in December 2006 which kick-started the global campaign.

In October 2009, the UN voted in favour of forming an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a legally binding agreement between with the support of 158 countries, including the United States, on using high standards in assessing whether to export conventional arms.

The first principle of an ATT is the need to prevent legal transfers of arms to state end-users which should not be receiving arms from responsible exporting states.  The second one is that it can help address the illicit smuggling of arms on the black and grey global markets.

Most states agree that all of the weapons covered by the categories used in the UN Register of Conventional Arms should fall under the scope of the treaty. These include tanks, armoured combat vehicles, artillery, combat aircraft and helicopters, warships, and missile systems. Most states, including the United States, are also in agreement that small arms and light weapons should be included in the treaty.

There are a number of organisations campaigning on the arms trade in general both in Europe and in the UK. The Control Arms campaign now has a time for action and change with the opportunity to influence crucial events.  We need to express our concerns to governments starting  with an important preparatory UN meeting (Prepcom)  on February 13 and keep up the pressure right through until we achieve a multilateral agreement  at the United Nations  treaty conference scheduled for July 2012.

This has been an incredible campaign, backed by millions around the world. If you want to know who has agreed to what – you can check here. The treaty would then have to be incorporated into the national law and regulations of every ratifying nation, and reinforced through rules such as regular public reporting.

Lives are at stake, the landmine treaty has reduced casualties from landmines by more than two thirds  and reduced the trade in landmines to almost zero, despite the fact that the US, China, India and Russia haven’t signed it. Despite this success, some governments want to weaken this treaty as several tried to do with the cluster munitions agreement until hundreds of thousands of people backed a campaign by Avaaz stopped them.

Successive UK Governments have backed this process and it is vital that the current UK Government  continues to ensure that securing a robust ATT remains a very high priority and that they maintain a strong public and negotiating position at the UN PrepCom right through until final agreement in July. This would be a historic achievement.

The control arms campaign is determined to achieve a “bullet-proof” Arms Trade Treaty. It is vital that we make politicians realise our concern and know that we are watching them. You can speak out and sign a petition right now. To support the campaign, visit Control Arms Campaign Facebook page. Visit Oxfam  who will be taking action alongside Amnesty as part of the Control Arms Campaign. Action this year can save a third of a million lives every year.

Roger James is a campaigner for Oxfam South West in Bristol

Eight Bristol child protection social workers agreed to be filmed last year for a BBC documentary, Protecting Our Children.  The first episode was broadcast last night and will continue over the next three weeks.  Senior social worker Ben Crang was filmed removing a 14-month-old baby in an emergency with the police.  Here he explains why he agreed to take part and how he hopes it will influence how his profession is regarded.

“I work with a large area team of duty social workers handling incoming case work covering a large part of South Bristol.  Back in 2009 we were asked if we would object to being filmed for a documentary trying to take a behind-the-scenes look at our work.

“I agreed and didn’t think much of it until I found that they were interested in one of the cases that had come in – a health visitor referred her concerns about a mother and baby living with a convicted child sex offender.

“Mum had been advised of his background and it was my job to visit and explain that the situation could not continue.  We had further concerns as he appeared to be manipulating mum by buying her alcohol and had taken charge of the baby’s nappy changes.

“Mine is one of the most unusual cases to be showed in the series as I’m seen removing the baby from the scene and returning to the office with him.  The surprise from my colleagues and manager is obvious and the programme does give us a chance to explain that this rarely happens.

“However, it does illustrate how in social work you can never be sure about what is going to happen each day, how decisions are never made without other agencies involved and how we consider the needs of the child before everything else.  This is the end of my involvement on camera and you see the child assessed by medical experts and thriving with his foster family.

“My work with families in Bristol is usually very private, often drawn out over many months or even years and always rewarding.  I think most viewers will have their ideas about the work we do from the high-profile cases where things have gone wrong and inquiries are demanded.  We deal with a lot of issues in the city that are hidden from public view - sexual abuse, violence and neglect.  I hope that these programmes will help show the processes behind the decision-making and that we are the professionals who bring everyone together to keep children safe.”

Leaders of all types of organisations are feeling the pressure right now, be it pressure to generate additional revenues, maintain margins, boost morale or increase efficiency.  How has the inevitable focus on the economics of an organisation changed the leaderships’ view towards the sustainable credentials and actions of the organisation?

Before Christmas, the South West IoD surveyed its 2,700 members in the South West to find out their views on sustainability.  Having signed up to the West of England Carbon Challenge the South West IoD wanted to understand what our members are doing to operate more sustainably and how we might act as a hub to connect those who want to change the way they run their organisation with those that can help them to operate more sustainably.

The respondents mainly came from SMEs with 84% running businesses employing less than 50 people.   The majority (71%) have a formal environmental policy and 67% support green travel schemes for their staff ranging from encouraging public transport and Skype use through to a bike pool for the business.  Every one recycled paper, 91% recycle cardboard and 75% recycle plastic.

So, some encouraging signs but the majority (72%) felt they could be doing more.  In a time when 41% of respondents state that some of their customers ask about their green credentials, and 17% state that all of their customers ask about their green credentials, perhaps the reasons for wanting to do more are not simply down to ethics.

The biggest reason for not doing so was lack of time.  Hardly surprising for entrepreneurs and small business owners operating in today’s tricky climate.  The other key reasons were not knowing who to ask in order to gain expert advice, lack of finance, and one climate change sceptic who felt the whole thing was irrelevant.

For those that do want to change, visit the WECC website above or contact me tom.mccarthy@avondale.co.uk to receive the South West IoD’s Sustainable Directory to find out who can help you make some changes for the better.  You might also take a couple of ideas from the article below which highlights how owners from SMEs can make the change by implementing small steps:

Start at home

Before a business can begin to clean up its act it needs to undertake some sort of assessment on how it currently stands from an environmental point of view. This can be a tough process and involves a lot of legwork, but it is ultimately rewarding.

Stephen Bentley, chief executive officer of the £5 million turnover business Granby Marketing, undertook the tough challenge of implementing the environmental management standard ISO 14001. He began as a sceptic but soon found it to be a very smart move.

“With hindsight, it’s obvious that having tighter monitoring for energy and utilities will save you money on your energy bills, but I was staggered to see how much money we were wasting,” he says.

“So, from initially starting with the suspicion that it was going to be a costly exercise, it became quickly apparent that it would end up saving us money.”

Granby Marketing conducted an audit of its energy use and quickly found it could save money through simple measures. Heating usage was a key area for the business and by making simple adjustments, such as altering timings to their boiler system, it was able to save money.

“We have saved about 15% on enegy bills during the course of year one, and we are continuing to make savings of 6% to 7% per year thereafter – this is obviously in the face of rising fuel costs,” he added.

For businesses to “green” their supply chain effectively the work begins at home. Business leaders need to develop a green ethos that permeates through their whole operation.

Paul Lindley is the founder of baby-food business Ella’s Kitchen, which has a turnover of £30 million. While the sourcing of his products is paramount, it is also crucial that staff “green up” when they are working in the office.

“We have established a team of ‘green buddies’ from each department, who meet regularly to discuss how we can make ourselves even more environmentally friendly. They set challenges such as producing the least amount of printing each quarter or cycling the most to work,” he said.

Small efforts are useful to set the tone and get everyone thinking in the right direction.

Supplier checks

In order to thoroughly clean up their supply chains, businesses have to go out to suppliers, ask tough questions and get detailed replies. Businesses can work together on these issues and establish new ways forward.

“At Ella’s, we ask all our suppliers to complete a ‘Helping Us Give Stuff Back’ form – our environmental and ethical questionnaire,” Mr Lindley added. “We then work closely with them, setting key performance indicators and establishing action plans to make improvements.”

Similarly, Mr Bentley’s pursuit of the standard meant he had to lay down the law with his suppliers. “Make no mistake, the ISO 14001 is difficult to achieve,” he opines, adding that senior managers needed to be involved and a small team of staff of three spent about 10% of their working week on the task.

“Of the eight-month audit process, the hardest part was vetting all our suppliers and, in some instances, having to part company because they either wouldn’t or couldn’t meet the criteria. We always gave them the opportunity to come on a journey with us. However, you have to accept that not all businesses will share the same priorities when it comes to green issues.”

Although you can do your own checks, there are many different bodies that certify businesses and suppliers, including the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), The Soil Association, Fair Trade and Recycle Now.

Five steps to a greener supply chain

• Communicate in advance – suppliers may need time to adapt so give them the opportunity, but ultimately they cannot halt change;
• Involve your staff – top-down decision-making won’t work; you need to encourage a culture change across all departments;
• Think local – shorter supply chains have advantages, so check out your own region before thinking of China;
• Look for accreditations – there are many governing bodies and marks of approval (ISOs, Fairtrade, etc); get to know the most relevant ones for your business;
• Take small steps – it might seem like a huge task, and it can be, so don’t try to do it all overnight

Tom McCarthy advises on Mergers & Acquisitions for www.avondale.co.uk and is Chairman of the Bristol Institute of Directors

Our spoken French has come along in leaps and bounds since our arrival here late last March. Lou has gone from hardly speaking (although he understood a lot) to being able to hold conversations with ease and going to the ‘scierie’ (sawmill) to order wood without his trusty interpreter in tow. I have dusted off my creaking French degree and am slowly becoming more fluent. My new goal, which is by definition timeless – and probably unattainable – is to be able to speak French like a native.

The language is our key to finding our place in the community and especially to meeting like-minded French friends. We have been to so many events now where we have been the only English people present – from group rambles, to the local ‘repas de commune’ (village meals) to the ‘bal folk’. Of course we will often find someone who speaks English, but they do not always want to speak it and are usually much happier if we speak French. Being English in those kinds of circumstances can even give you a bit of a cachet as you have the glamour, believe it or not, of being a foreigner.

Our neighbour Daniel does like to run rings around us sometimes by speaking extra fast in his Périgourdin accent and spicing up his language with the odd smattering of the regional ‘patois’, known officially as Occitan. So far my Occitan language skills amount to “coma vai quò” (how are you?), so it is impossible to make sense of it but I am determined to learn, just as soon as I can get my French up to scratch. ‘Occitan’ is what gives the region of ‘Languedoc’ its name, meaning the place where people speak the ‘oc’ language.

I have to admit that I am a little bit proud of my French accent. So it is always a source of dismay when someone points out a glaring mistake in my pronunciation. This is particularly true when it is something very simple and I really should know better, such as the other day when I told some friends that I had just made their ‘dessert’ (the sweet stuff) for our meal but pronounced it more like ‘dezer’, which means the big sandy place, not your pudding. Oh dear – back to square one.

Pronunciation mistakes aside, the point is that we can communicate. If you are thinking of moving to France, especially to a rural area like the Périgord Vert, do yourself a big favour and take the time to pick up conversational French beforehand. We meet so many English folk around here who can barely string a sentence together in the local language.

Not only do people miss out on French friends and culture, they are also open to all kinds of skulduggery if they move here without the basics, never mind the nuances, of the language. Not least of those who might prey upon them are some of their own compatriots, seeking to make a few bob out of unsuspecting new arrivals.

Tales circulate about the ‘P&O builders’, who have earned their name because of the common practice of acquiring a totally new profession on the ferry journey over from the UK. I have heard of builders digging up foundations, charging the earth and even forging clients’ signatures. This happens because Brits are uncomfortable dealing with French ‘artisans’, most of whom are skilled and hard working. Of course there are also plenty of British builders who fit that bill too, but my point is that the fact that someone speaks the same language as you is no guarantee they are trustworthy.

A new rank of professionals have also sprung up to meet the needs of non-French speakers: the ‘bilingual advisors’, who will help with translation, bureaucracy and legal issues. Although most are probably worth the money, some clearly overestimate their skills, much like the P&O builders.

A French friend has had to rescue two people recently who both unknowingly set up the wrong kind of business – and received a whopping tax bill – after being advised by the same ‘bilingual business advisor’. Most people starting out will want to register as an ‘auto-entrepreneur’ because they are only taxed on what they earn. For any other business, there is a minimum tax even if they earn nothing at all, which could be a nasty surprise.

To avoid such pitfalls and to make the most of the rich flavour of life in France, my advice to anyone planning the move is to make a huge effort to learn the language before leaving home for good.