Politics

  • PI4J launches manifesto at election time

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    PI4J logoProfessional Interpreters for Justice (PI4J) is an umbrella group an umbrella group representing over 2,000 interpreters on the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI) and 300 British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters.

    It has been campaigning since the Ministry of Justice signed an agreement with ALS (later Capita Translation & Interpreting) for the provision of interpreting services for courts and tribunals on the basis that reliable communication provided by qualified professional interpreters and translators is an essential resource which ensures that justice and human rights are upheld for non-English speakers and deaf people. This is put at risk if standards are dropped and quality is sacrificed for profit.

    To highlight the threats to justice and human rights by cost-cutting on the provision of interpreters in the justice system and against the background of the forthcoming general election, PI4J has published a 7 point manifesto (PDF), as follows:

    • The use of qualified interpreters: Only qualified and experienced Public Service Interpreters to be
      used within the current MoJ Languages Services Framework Agreement and in any future arrangements.
    • Full consultation with the interpreting profession: Future arrangements cannot succeed without the
      support of professional interpreters.
    • Sustainable terms and conditions to be offered to interpreters: to ensure the success of any future
      arrangements and quality of service.
    • Independent auditing of quality and performance: Credible scrutiny of contract management and
      adherence to its provisions is essential, and should be part of the role of an independent Quality
      Assurance and Quality Management body.
    • Independent regulators: Regulation and the maintenance of registers should not be in the hands of
      private providers. In line with government guidance, since 1 April 2011 the NRPSI has been a fully
      independent regulator of the profession, paid for by the interpreters and run solely in the public
      interest. PI4J is of the view that the National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deaf Blind People (NRCPD) should also be independent.
    • Minimum levels of interpreter qualification: Interpreter training as well as language fluency with a minimum level of entry-level qualification must be required with skills maintained and developed
      through a programme of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Provision should be put in place to encourage the supply of Rare Language interpreters.
    • Statutory protection of title: A working group must be set up to examine the feasibility of the
      introduction of statutory protection for the title of Public Service Interpreter.

  • Big turnout for the Big Clean

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Politics

    Saturday 28th March dawned grey and drizzly for the TidyBS5 Big Clean organised by Up Our Street and local residents.

    For your correspondent it dawned even earlier; the alarm clock was set for 6.00 a.m. to ensure he was sufficiently awake to be interviewed down the line about TidyBS5 and the event on BBC Radio Bristol by their Saturday breakfast show presenter Ali Vowles.

    However, the rain did not put off an amazing 33 people – including one PCSO from Trinity Road Police Station – turning up at Lawrence Hill roundabout at 11.00 a.m. to help remove litter from the area for a couple of hours. Indeed, such a number of participants was so unprecedented that more litter pick equipment had to be ferried down from the Up Our Street Office.

    Big Clean group photo
    Photo courtesy of Lorena Alvarez

    Also amongst the hardy souls who turned up was a contingent from the Good Gym, which takes exercise out of the gym. Members runs to a venue, help a local community project and then run back. Your ‘umble scribe is very pleased we attracted their support.

    Good Gym leaping about after collecting rubbish
    Photo courtesy of Lorena Alvarez

    Local councillor Marg Hickman also attended to show her support. Wouldn’t it be good if we could get Bristol Mayor George Ferguson to turn out for the next one and put some physical effort into Bristol’s year as European Green Capital? 😉

    After receiving safety instructions (avoid picking up broken glass, no needles, etc. Ed.) we then scattered to various sites around the area to get work.

    litter pickers between Big Russell and Lidl
    Photo courtesy of Anthea Sweeney

    Areas cleaned included:

    • The grassed island in then centre of Lawrence Hill roundabout;
    • The grassed area fronting Lawrence Hill at the end of Payne Drive;
    • Public open space along Croydon Street;
    • The old course of the River Frome beneath the railway adjacent to the Coach House off Stapleton Road; and
    • The area of grass and shrubbery alongside the former Earl Russell pub (the ‘Big Russell’. Ed.) and Lidl on Lawrence Hill.

    A fantastic amount of rubbish was removed and collected later in the weekend by Bristol City Council.

    collected rubbish awaiting removal by Bristol City Council
    Photo courtesy of Lorena Alvarez

    Well done and many thanks to all who took part.

  • Godwin 0, Vandals 1

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Early this morning the demolition crews finally starting their assault on the 1860s school in Marybush Lane, Bristol (posts passim).

    Within a couple of hours the demolition contractors had all but flattened the Pennant sandstone and Bath stone structure built by eminent Victorian architect and Aesthetic Movement member, E.W. Godwin, as shown in the photos below.

    views of the demolition of Marybush Lane school from two angles
    More of East Bristol’s heritage turned to dust

    One less of Godwin’s works now survives for people to appreciate. In Bristol his only remaining works are – to the best of my knowledge – the grade II*-listed Carriageworks on Stokes Croft dating from 1862 and his refurbishment of St. Philip & St. Jacob Church, which lies just across Tower Hill from Marybush Lane and was contemporaneous with the building of the school.

    The efforts of The Victorian Society and local campaigners to save the school from demolition by the vandals from the site’s owners, the Homes & Communities Agency, have therefore been in vain. When objections were first raised to its demolition, the HCA displayed both ignorance and arrogance. Firstly, it denied that the school had been designed by Godwin. When presented with incontrovertible evidence by opponents, it then had the arrogance to deny its initial ignorance.

    I shall shed a tear into my beer tonight for this loss of yet another part of East Bristol’s history and heritage. The east side of Bristol, traditionally its poorer side, has long been treated with contempt and disregarded by both the city’s great and good and outsiders; and this latest vandalism just confirms that.

    During the 1930s the city’s unemployed, in the form of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement (NUWM) used to hold their meetings at the school.

    If a future walk by Bristol Radical History Group is ever done on the unemployed, a halt in Marybush Lane – no doubt in front of some cheap and nasty residential development, will be prefaced by the words, “On this site used to stand…”, a growing phenomenon in a city where only the heritage of the great and good seems to be valued.

    So in conclusion well done Mayor George Ferguson and Bristol City Council for failing to lift a finger to save Godwin’s school and well done HCA for an act of heritage vandalism committed without compunction.

  • Trade insults BS5

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Bristol City Council’s streetscene enforcement officers (the local authority’s litter and fly-tipping police. Ed.) are currently active in the Stapleton Road area of Bristol 5.

    One of the major problems with which they’ve been getting to grips is that of traders fly-tipping in the streets and dumping their waste in the communal bins intended for household waste only.

    image of trade waste - in this case lots of flattened cardboard packaging - fly-tipped by communal bin in Pennywell Road, Easton
    Trade waste – in this case lots of flattened cardboard packaging – fly-tipped by a communal bin in Pennywell Road, Easton

    Tidy BS5 campaigners are actively assisting the enforcement officers in the efforts by identifying suspected offenders and directing officers to regular sites for the fly-tipping of trade waste.

    Traders are supposed to pay for their own waste disposal. By abusing the facilities provided for residents, they may be saving themselves money on their waste contracts, but are also insulting the community whose members constitute their customers; and that has to stop.

    So far, the council has handed out 5 fixed penalty notices of £300 each to local traders for waste matters and more are clearly needed before their work is done, if it ever will be.

    In the meantime, if you’ve got time free on Saturday, don’t forget to turn out for the Tidy BS5 Big Clean community litter pick, meeting at 11 a.m. at Lawrence Hill roundabout. Yours truly will be rising slightly earlier as BBC Radio Bristol wishes to interview me on its breakfast show.

    Big Clean publicity poster

    Last but not least, yet another reminder about signing the TidyBS5 e-petition!

  • Getting wrecked – the story of East Bristol’s heritage

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Bristol has a long and proud history stretching back beyond Saxon times.

    However, it also has a slightly shorter and not so proud history of allowing important heritage and buildings of historical interest to disappear under the demolition contractor’s wrecking ball, particularly in East Bristol, long treated with contempt by the city fathers.

    This contempt for the heritage of East Bristol has been eloquently illustrated in recent times.

    First there was the loss some 10 months ago of the fine Victorian school in Avonvale Road (posts passim). With the connivance of Bristol City Council, this was sacrificed on the altar of bland modern architecture sponsored by the academy schools programme.

    The loss of Avonvale Road school was followed just one month later by the demolition of Ebenezer Chapel in Midland Road, the last non-conformist chapel in that part of the city and a rare example of a Romanesque style chapel (posts passim) in contrast to the more usual Gothic style. The site of the Ebenezer Chapel is now occupied by a bland, modern block of flats.

    A third important building in East Bristol is now under threat of demolition by its owners, the Homes & Communities Agency, who in my opinion don’t know what a treasure they’ve got in their property portfolio. It’s on the left in the photo below.

    photo of Marybush Lane School. Unlike Bristol24/7 I at least asked the permission of the photographer to use it and credited it accordingly
    The old ambulance station site in Tower Hill. Photo used by kind permission of Chris Brown

    What the picture shows is the site of Bristol’s old ambulance station in Tower Hill. The tracked vehicle on the right is sitting atop the remains of the uninspiring 1960s building forming part of the station complex. The most interesting part of the site is the stone building on the left.

    That building dates from circa 1860 and was originally the parish school in Marybush Lane built for St. Philip and St. Jacob Church. It was designed by eminent Victorian architect and designer E.W. Godwin, a local boy whose best-known building is Northampton’s Guildhall. Godwin was born Old Market Street in 1833 and is believed to have attended St. Philip and St. Jacob as a worshipper. Locally Godwin also designed the grade II*-listed Carriageworks building on Stokes Croft, an early example of the Bristol Byzantine style.

    The Victorian Society is calling on the Mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson, to step in to save the former school, which has been refused spot listing, despite its local historical importance. The Victorian Society’s Conservation Adviser, Sarah Caradec, said: “Bristol should take this last minute opportunity to save this early example of Godwin’s work in the area he was born and brought up in. Far too many examples of Godwin’s work have already been lost. Although English Heritage rejected an application to spot list the building, it recognised its strong local interest as an early Godwin building, as well as its group value with the associated Grade II*-listed Church of St Philip and St Jacob, which were restored by Godwin in the 1860s. We urge the Mayor of Bristol to recognise the building’s value and act now to ensure that the HCA build around it.”

    It’s not just the connection with Godwin that makes the old school valuable. If it disappears beneath the wrecking ball, an important part of Bristol’s working class history will also be lost.

    During the harsh economic times of the 1930s when millions were out of work, the Bristol branch of the National Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM) held its meetings at the school. Bristol Radical History Group has material related to the activities of NUWM in Bristol, whilst the excellent BRH publication Bread or Batons?, written by Dave Backwith and Roger Ball, can be purchased from Hydra Books in Old Market Street.

    Will the HCA see sense?

    Will George Ferguson intervene?

    Only the next couple of weeks will tell.

  • The return of the spiv

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Politics

    Grant ShappsOne consequence of the current media focus (which continues today, with the Mirror describing his tactics as “sleazy”. Ed.) on the business activities of Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps (right) has been a linguistic one.

    Many people have rediscovered a word which came to prominence during World War 2 – spiv.

    This word has often been used by those commenting on online articles on Shapps’ dubious business activities to describe the man himself.

    Oxford Dictionaries defines a spiv as:

    A man, typically a flashy dresser, who makes a living by disreputable dealings.

    During World War 2 those disreputable dealings usually meant that spivs circumvented the strict rationing regulations and/or could procure commodities or items that were hard to get.

    image of James Beck playing Pte Joe WalkerThe spiv was personified during my younger years by Private Joe Walker (left) in the TV comedy Dad’s Army. Walker was played by actor James Beck, who died suddenly at the age of 44 during production of the programme’s sixth series in 1973. In the series, Walker is a valuable asset to the platoon, due to his many “business” connections and his uncanny ability to conjure up almost anything that is rationed or no longer in the shops due to the war – and he will also have it in vast supply (for a price).

    Arthur English in character as a spivFor a generation older than mine, the spiv was perhaps characterised by comedians such as Arthur English (right), whose usual persona in the early days of his career was a stereotypical wartime “spiv”. As a consequence of this persona, Arthur English became known as “The Prince of the Wide Boys” (meaning in this context a man who lives by his wits, wheeling and dealing. Ed.). Wide boy is also a term that could possibly be applied to Shapps as an alternative to spiv.

    As regards the origins of spiv, there are several possibilities.

    Oxford dictionaries reckons it originates in the 1930s and is perhaps related to “spiffy“, meaning “smart in appearance”, which dates back to 19th century slang in this context.

    Another possibility is that it’s related to “spiff“, a bonus for salespeople (especially for drapers but later for car salesmen, etc.) for managing to sell excess or out of fashion stock. The seller might offer a discount, by splitting his commission with the customer. A seller of stolen goods could give this explanation for a bargain price.

    Yet another suggested origin is that it comes from the nickname of Henry “Spiv” Bagster, a small-time London crook in the early 1900s who was frequently arrested for illegal street trading and confidence tricks. National newspapers reported his court appearances in 1903-06.

    Furthermore, it has been speculated that it is VIPs backwards. In addition, further speculation has it that the word was also a police acronym for Suspected Persons and Itinerant Vagrants.

    Finally, there are also hints that it could have been borrowed from Romany. In that tongue, spiv is a word for sparrow, implying the person is a petty criminal rather than a serious “villain”.

  • TidyBS5 news

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    A week ago yesterday, there was a meeting of the TidyBS5 task force with council officers and Councillor Marg Hickman at the offices of Up Our Street.

    It was a good opportunity for the officers to update community volunteers on what the council has done, is and will be doing.

    fly-tipping in Jane Street Redfield
    Jane Street in Redfield earlier today

    For Stapleton Road a deep clean is planned for this year; this will mean giving the footways a thoroughly good scrub and removing chewing gum from their surfaces. In addition, hanging baskets will be provided on approx. 30 lamp posts to help make the street a bit more colourful and attractive.

    The city council’s streetscene enforcement team has now moved into the area and has already had some success: 5 traders have been issued with £300 fixed penalty notices for abusing the communal bins intended for household waste only. In addition, some minor offenders have been fined smaller amounts.

    Turning to communal bins, task force members have been invited to assist in devising the communal bins consultation that the council is organising for the Stapleton Road corridor. Two task force members, Hannah and myself, informed officers that we were monitoring clearance times after fly-tipping had been reported. From my own monitoring since then, communal bins seem to be implicated in some 60% of sites notified to the council.

    After the update from the offices, it was pointed out to them that, while all this attention being lavished on the Stapleton Road area was appreciated, it should not detract from equally bad problems along the Lawrence Hill/Church Road corridor, home to the infamous Jane Street (see above).

    During my discussion on social media with BCC’s Chief Enterprise Architect Gavin Beckett about open standards (posts passim), he invited me to submit feedback on using the council website; this will be done from the aspect of reporting street cleaning matters, where the website still has a couple of interesting foibles.

    Up Our Street is organising a community litter pick on Saturday 28th March from 11 am to 1 pm. Volunteers are asked to assemble at Lawrence Hill roundabout (map). For more details, contact Lorena on 0117 954 2835.

    Big Clean publicity poster

    Finally, don’t forget to sign the TidyBS5 e-petition!

  • Highlighting a foul practice

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Dog fouling is one of the banes of modern life; it’s filthy, a health hazard and – as any local councillor will tell you – a permanent source of correspondence for them from the electorate.

    Over in Bedminster someone has been patrolling the streets and highlighting the problem of dog fouling by spraying the canine visiting cards left in public places with yellow paint, as shown in the example below from Stillhouse Lane.

    dog poo sprayed yellow

    Over in BS5, there’s someone else who also goes round the Easton and Redfield areas with a spray can of paint attacking dog faeces, in this case spraying them fluorescent green.

    Bristolians can report dog fouling online to the City Council, who respond quickly to the laziness of dog owners who cannot be bothered to clean up after their pets.

    In closing here’s a final reminder to those who let their dogs foul the streets and don’t clean it up: it’s an offence that could land you with a fine of £80, which might be a little more inconvenient than stooping and scooping. 🙂

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