| Cameron: Child benefit cuts fair David Cameron defends the decision to axe higher rate taxpayers' child benefit, as Labour says government plans are "unravelling". bbc.co.uk |
7/7 inquest: emergency phone calls reveal 7/7 tube chaos Dramatic phone calls revealed how the emergency services struggled to cope with the chaos sparked by the July 7 suicide bomb attacks. telegraph.co.uk |
A life lesson from the late, great Jimi Heselden | Martin Wainwright The Segway boss's funeral showed how genuinely loved and admired he was by his staff. Business students should take noteJimi Heselden's funeral last week, following his death while using one of his company's Segway scooters, was a thought-provoking occasion. The film of it made by his family and work colleagues might provoke useful thoughts more widely. Say, in business management schools or trade union colleges.It was very sentimental: 2,000 of us listened to pop songs rather than singing hymns, and the gadgetry that Heselden loved was used to project his chunky face in silvery light on the factory wall of his company, Hesco Bastion. But the affection and admiration for the 62-year-old, and especially for his business achievements, was real and impressive, and came most strongly from his staff.Listening to them, and watching them line the approach to the temporary chapel in Hesco Bastion's site on Cross Green industrial estate in Leeds, brought back similar scenes from the 19th century, when entrepreneur philanthropists such as Titus Salt or the Crossley family of Halifax went to their graves. It is routine now to look back sceptically to those days: to check admiration with doubts about paternalism, and suggest that workers who doffed caps and gave pennies to memorial funds were not as sincere as contemporary reports said.Will our descendents in a century's time do the same with the farewell to Heselden? If so, they will be wrong. Talking to those who worked for him leaves no doubt whatever that he really was admired, respected and greatly liked. He got good things for himself and his family, but they were the things most people would wish to have, and were not begrudged. They were also, obviously, not his main driving force.That was shown much more spectacularly in the relish he took from inventing and making things – such as the defensive gabion "blast walls" used by armies and in flood management – and the power which selling them gave him to leave the world a better place. He did this not just through the relatively simple method of lavish donations – his £23m to Leeds Community Foundation is a record for such individual gifts to CFs in the UK – but in the way he sought employees.He was particularly keen to take on young people from his part of Leeds who had missed out on qualifications, or older ones who had lost jobs at an age when it is hard to find a second chance. He paid generous wages to encourage self-worth. He could appear paternalistic – offering £1,000 to employees to give up smoking, or unexpectedly having a new car with a cherished numberplate ready for a high-performing colleague when they arrived at work. But it was done in the manner of a mate, not a dad.He was a mate. Managers or shop stewards learning from his life will see that straight away. A boss from a council estate who left school at 15, went down the pit and struck in 1984-5 is bound to have a head start on a public schoolboy or novice with an MBA degree. Students may also caution that Hesco has yet to face hard times: wars and floods have ensured demand for its moneymaker, the gabion that Heselden invented with his British Coal redundancy.The golden age won't last for ever. Rivals will no doubt emerge and Heselden's absence may see less nimble management and slow the constant updating of the gabions which were his speciality, along with an eye for new, clever gizmos such as he saw in the Segway vehicle.But the torch can be carried on. The late Jonathan Silver, and now his widow, brother and daughters, revived Titus Salt's spirit at Saltaire, the factory village built on the proceeds of learning to spin alpaca which other textile specialists believed impossible. Give them all their due, and we may encourage more.When you read that the 19th-century matriarch of the Mackintosh toffee-making family told her sons: "If ye become wealthy, be ye sure that the poor shall know of it," don't sneer. She meant it, just as Heselden did.PhilanthropyMartin Wainwrightguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Charities chief warns over cuts The government's spending cuts could cost voluntary organisations billions of pounds, the charities' regulator in England and Wales warns. bbc.co.uk |
Brixton: regeneration or gentrification? | Philip Dayle It's ironic: Brixton, like Harlem in New York, is feted as a cultural hub just as its identity as a black neighbourhood dissolvesI have always felt that Brixton, London is the centre of the world for people of colour. Now that London's Heritage Lottery Fund and Lord Mayor have unveiled a plan to build the UK's black cultural archives there at a cost of £5m, I have even more reason to think so.A collage of ethnicities form on Brixton's high street in the middle of any given day. As a newly-minted immigrant from Jamaica, it was here that I first saw a woman in a hijab driving a doubledecker bus. This is the site of Amy Winehouse's tryst in her song "Me and Mr Jones". Brixton: a veritable metropolis for south London's outer boroughs and neighbouring inner cities. Brixton bears the weight of a chequered history – notoriously, for race-related riots in the 1980s. The names of streets – Coldharbour Lane, Electric Avenue, Acre Lane, to name a few – carry an edginess that captures the stories of generations of Brixtonians. The themes have remained consistent through the years: from Coldharbour Lane describing basic accommodation offered to rough travellers in the 1800s; to Electric Avenue conveying the excitement of being the first street to be lit by electricity in London. This is an area that is defined by progressive change alongside material deprivation.If that vibe is endemic, it is perhaps not surprising that Brixton became a popular home for the first set of African and Caribbean immigrants who sailed to the UK on the Empire Windrush in 1940s, as well as for succeeding generations. Over the years, it has borne all the contradictions of immigrant communities – unemployment and high levels of crime, with wells of creative brilliance. For many outside looking in, Brixton seems like the unpredictable distant cousin. The BBC reported this summer that Prince Charles and Camilla visited Brixton market – recently named a listed building of historical interest. The royal couple would have missed a face of the neighbourhood that would not be evident in a midday visit during the business day. They wouldn't have seen the clumps of suited City types who barrel into the subway in the morning, to return at night; and the spattering of early evening joggers darting pass couples walking ornamental dogs on their way to Brockwell park. Predominantly white and middle-class, the newest residents are the face of a resurgent Brixton, who are mostly taking advantage of the area's proximity to the city. As property prices soared in London's last boom, many homeowners in the area sold and moved further south into the suburbs. The pattern of homeownership has changed dramatically – in favour of the more affluent. Comparisons with New York City's Harlem are, therefore, appropriate. Both Harlem and Brixton are alike for their large black populations and historical significance. They both have seen periods as a sought-after cultural centre, as well as decades of social and economic decline. The decision by President Clinton to make Harlem the home for his post-presidency office and foundation, and the attendant rise in property values in the area – pricing out many of the neighbourhood's longstanding African American residents – has become emblematic of the gentrification debate.Does it matter when increased commercial activity leads to radical changes in the ethnic and cultural makeup of communities? I moved out of Brixton last week, further south into a neighbouring suburb. The recession, and redundancy, made it prudent for me to find a flat elsewhere. One morning about a month ago, as I raced toward the underground – the smell of incense wafting in the air and a street preacher blaring the news of the next coming of Jesus Christ – I looked up to see a fully operational Starbucks coffee shop. It had sprung up so quickly: people were milling around inside as if it had always been there. If there was ever any doubt that Brixton's gentrification is well-advanced, the argument had just closed. I smiled wistfully and descended into the subway. It would be ironic if Brixton's recognition as an iconic black space in Britain comes just at the point when there is a mass exodus of its black residents.LondonRace issuesNew YorkPropertyUnited StatesImmigration and asylumPhilip Dayleguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |