Belfast Salon

Alastair Donald will be introducing the Future of Community at the Belfast Salon, tomorrow, 25th November. So if you're in Belfast, you're welcome to come along.

http://www.belfastsalon.org/

Scaremongering about scaremongering?

Stuart Waiton, a contributer to the Future of Community, here takes Barnardos to task for its latest campaign against the demonisation of children.
http://www.generationyouthissues.org.uk/Press%20Release/Barnardos.htm

He argues that although there is a measure of fear and distrust of young people among adults, the advertising campaign (in particular a video which shows a group of grown men refering to teenagers as 'animals' and 'feral' before deciding to 'shoot a few' - literally) grossly exaggerates the prevalence of anti-youth sentiment among the adult population, even if they are taken from the online message boards of newspapers, well known sounding boards for over the top rants.

The belief that these views are widespread is largely based on a Barnardos survey which is debunked here
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5950

The video itself can be seen here http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4a6EbfgzQfc and here http://www.barnardos.org.uk/

To be fair to Barnardo's, they're following the lead of the 'feral kids' discussion that was kicked off by the media some time ago. However, they are rather dubiously assuming that the majority of people have swallowed this line whole. Indeed one of the striking features of the ad is how 'feral' the men themselves seem. The substitution of the fictional savage teenager for the semi-beastial tabloid reader of the liberal imagination is no way to advance the debate.

Officialdom cannot hammer straight the crooked timber of mankind

Excellent article in todays Guardian by Simon Jenkins on the Baby P case. He argues that it is the excess of guidelines, rather than the failure to adhere to them, that leads to the failure to take the necessary action in these cases. A useful contribution to understanding the apparent contradiction whereby social services are encouraged to interfere in families more but miss what is under their noses.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/14/baby-p-haringey-laming-report

Council homes for life 'to be scrapped'

Magaret Becket, the new Housing Minister, is considering proposals to remove subsidised tenancy for life for current residents in order to ease housing shortage.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5120047.ece

While housing charities have criticised this proposal for it's timing, given the resession, it is worth noting that this represents a redefinition of the relationship between the needy and the state. Young and Wilmott in their seminal Family and Kinship in East London criticised the post-war slum clearances for breaking up communities. They were only partially right. The clearances did break-up communities, there was an element of social engineering, but the aim was to improve lives.

Housing policy today contains the same tensions. Under the new proposals, tennants will discouraged (through higher rents) from staying in the same house for too long (which has led some to say that it will break-up communities if long term residents are forced to leave), but, like the post-war working class, many might get better houses. The post-war planners, however, never intruded into the private lives of the East Londoners. The proposal to review the personal means of residents after a few years as well as tying housing to the requirement to have or be looking for work is another example of the belief that the recipients of state aid should give up their right to privacy even after help is given.