Balsall Heath is in The Vanguard

According to The Balsall Heathan the area has been given “Vanguard” status:

“Vanguard” status does not bring a treasure chest of funds with it. It brings something more useful – civil servants from the government who will help to solve the problems of Balsall Heath. For the first time, the residents of a “deprived” area will tell the government what they need and what must be done.

I first heard about the Vanguard programme (why do government programmes have such cringe-inducing names?!) at the evil 2010 Conservative Conference, at a fringe event featuring Greg Clark, Minister for Communities and Local Government.

My brief notes of what he said and my recollection seem to disagree slightly with the quote above. The phrase “civil servants from the government who will help to solve the problems of Balsall Heath” sounds a little passive on the part of the community. The impression I got about the scheme was that active local groups frequently came up against obstructive petty officialdom, usually in the guise of the Local Authority. In many cases the obstructionism was completely unfounded – saying things were against regulations when it simply wasn’t true; dictating all sorts of onerous hoops to jump through that weren’t necessary; and so on. The “Barrier Busting” civil servants were mainly there to make these illusory obstacles disappear, but the motive force for the scheme remained with the local community.

Perhaps I’m getting caught up in non-existent nuances! Still, it is heartening to hear a politician say something and to later discover that it was actually true. The barriers will be busted, the Vanguards will march forth, and all will be well with the Big Society.

Conservative Conference – Sunday

So, I’m attending my first Conservative Party Conference. I was going to blog extensively on proceedings but that won’t be happening now, so instead here are some of my observations in chronological but not logical order; some of which I will expand upon at a later date.

From the talk on global population I learnt that fertility is dropping sharply nearly everywhere except Africa; and that concern around population levels seems to see people as exclusively a burden, and implicitly not a generator of wealth, value and ideas that benefit us all.

I have a crush on Sayeeda Warsi, the party co-chairman; and that whilst she isn’t a great orator as such; she speaks with a wonderful rhythm, almost like a poem – Da-dadada-da, Da-dadada-da. It works.

Francis Maude tells us that data from FoI requests are frequently supplied in a format that (intentionally?) obstructs analysis and that this is going to change.

Eric Pickles is the dude.

Greg Clark talks a lot about Vanguards and Barrier Busters – I’ll explain that one another time.

The (Swedish?) foreign minister, on the panel on a debate about Europe, dissed and dismissed a guy in the front row who thoroughly deserved it after an ill-advised heckle; said minister earned a round of applause.

Euro-zealots find Dan Hannan really annoying, despite the self-evident truth that he is a God that walks among us.

You should find out what a free cocktail is before you drink it.