Month: March 2007

22nd March 2007

"It takes courage to change…" Social Cohesion in Dudley and Youtube

What does is take to build and nourish social cohesion? I’ve often thought the term itself has been twisted over the past year, from an expression of a neighbourhood at ease with itself to a poor short hand for tackling extremism, including home grown terror of a variety of political, religious and philosophical hues.

Tomorrow four Whitehall advisers will be in Dudley to get a better picture of how the community tackles extremism in the borough. One thing they will see is this short video we’ve produced to try and capture some of the essence of the Dudley approach.

18th March 2007

Link Love

Thank you Mark.

16th March 2007

The power inquiry uses Youtube

Pam Giddy at the power inquiry has been in touch to tell us about a handful of films made to challeneg the process of reforming the Lords. You can find them through these links to www.makeitanissue.org.uk.

– Alex Hardy and Phil Hall’s ‘The Road to House of Lords Reform’
– Mark Wrainwright’s ‘The Trouble with Lords’
– Duncan Tilly’s ‘House of Lords Fudge’.

Pam also sets out arguments for the adoption o fhte hayden review on party finances:

Party funding, as it exists today, gives parties less incentive to cultivate membership because they can rely on large donations, lends itself to the perception that party members have less influence than super rich donors and focuses spending at the national, rather than the local, level…..If the main parties continue to reject caps on individual donations and total spending at elections, they will knowingly allow some of the most damaging sources of disengagement to continue unchecked.