Early Council Housing in Nottingham

I've been doing some research into Council Housing in Nottingham and have written this guest blog for the excellent Municipal Dreams site. Enjoy.

Nottingham's Early Council Housing

Order Ref: FPS/Q3060/7/1

An obscure title I know but all will become clear.  But be prepared, this is a geeky post of maps, rights-of-way and legal processes!

I'm a little late to this but hoping that this will bring the story to a wider group of people.  

What is a Right of Way anyway?

You've probably saw them on an Ordnance Survey map if you went for a walk over Christmas or the New Year break.  Little green line, sometimes dashed, sometimes dotted.  But what actually is a Right of Way?  Courtesy of Gov.uk: "Public rights of way are open to everyone. They can be roads, paths or tracks, and can run through towns, countryside or private property."  Uh-huh.  "You have the right to walk along them. Some rights of way are also open to horse riders, cyclists or motorists".  Ok, I can live with that.  What are the different sorts?

• footpaths - let you go by foot only
• bridleways - let you go by foot, horse or bike
• restricted byways - let you travel by any form of transport that doesn’t have a motor
• byways open to all traffic - let you travel by any form of transport, including cars (though they’re mainly used by walkers and horse riders)"

The point is that no-one can close or divert (with a few specific instances around the ploughing of land) a Right of Way without going through the proper legal process and satisfying some pretty stringent tests.  

Why does that matter? 

It's one of the things that makes me proud to be British - a legal defined right to use paths, criss-crossing our country: no tickets, permissions, opening hours, nothing - just free access to the countryside (and quite a lot of urban areas too) that no-one can take away.  George Orwell summed this up brilliantly in his essay, 'Thoughts on the Common Toad';

"How many a time have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thought of all the important persons who would stop me enjoying this if they could. But luckily they can’t. So long as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, Spring is still Spring. The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it."

The right to access land and enjoy it peacefully is a hugely political issue of course - the best example of this is the Mass Tresspass of Kinder Scout in the Peak District.  

Kinder Scout (image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:North_Flank_Kinder_Scout.JPG)

Cool. I like a walk. Sorted.

Almost.  Some people don't like the fact that other people can access land that they own.  Every scrap of the United Kingdom is owned by someone and plenty of those people don't want anyone else to enjoy it.  In a recent Tory proposal lapped up by the Telegraph and other media outlets, it looks like this basic right could be under threat.  

Oh. But all the ones currently used are ok aren't they? 

Maybe.  

(This is where it gets really geeky - stay with me).  

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 made it (among other things) a legal duty for Surveying Authorities (usually your local Council) to keep a map (the "Definitive Map") of all Rights of Way in their local area.  This means that everyone can see where the Rights of Way (RoW) are and there's no debate about them.  

One of the brilliant pieces of legislation from the 1997 Labour Government was the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.  Commonly known as the "Right to Roam" Act but actually much more than that, this Act "provides for public access on foot to certain types of land, amends the law relating to public rights of way, increases measures for the management and protection for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and strengthens wildlife enforcement legislation, and provides for better management of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The Act is compliant with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, requiring consultation where the rights of the individual may be affected by these measures".  

Phew.  

In practical terms for a casual walker, it has two effects: (1) a right to access Mountain (land over 600 metres), Moorland, Heath, Downland alongside Registered common land.  (My sister was involved in the official mapping process following the passing of the Act and still has a set of 'Mountain', 'Moor', 'Heath' and 'Down' mugs from the office where she was working at the time).  And (2) puts in a place a deadline that if a RoW isn't on the Definitive Map by the year 2026 then it's gone forever.  

Ah, that'll shake things up a bit

You'd have thought so, but in reality progress against that 2026 has been horrendously slow and I imagine it'll be pushed further into the future as we get closer to that time.  

But it has meant that where paths were sort in dispute but everyone had been muddling along things were put into focus a bit more.  

And this is where it gets distinctly Nottingham-relevant.  

The City Council has an excellent (if small) Rights of Way team and the contents of the Definitive Map are integrated into 'Nottingham Insight Mapping' - click through the Layers section to 'Transport and Streets' and then scroll down to 'Public Rights of Way'.  

As a small-ish urban authority there aren't that many official RoWs and the number of applications to 'Modify' the Definitive Maps as recorded here has only ever been a dozen or so.  
But there's one controversial one isn't there?

Yup.  

To understand this bit, you need to know about the Park Estate in Nottingham.  It's a pretty special place in many ways - probably the best history I've found is here but the summary is that it's a private estate with some amazing architecture (including quite a few Watson Fothergill specials) and a fab location just a mile or so from the city centre.  Oh, and owls.  Lots of owls that you can hear hooting at night.  

Would you like to live in a house with a turret?
(image Copyright David Lally and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)

There's a footpath that runs along the Southern part of the Estate, as shown on this map that has been used for many years to cut through from Lenton to the City;

Click for link to Google Maps

Except that the Nottingham Park Estate Limited who run the services of the Estate and maintain the communal facilities like the green spaces and the (amazing) gas lamp system decided that it wasn't a Right of Way and that they would put a gate in (this happened in 2003) and then start regularly locking this gate in 2009 - essentially denying access to local residents over a Right of Way that has existed for nearly 1000 years.  

Nottingham City Council decided this wasn't right and so added the route to the Definitive Map (see, there was a point to all of the above background!) to make its status clear and ensure that the gate was removed or left open.  This was challenged by the Estate and there was an official enquiry and everything, eventually culminating in an official Decision by the Planning Inspector which can be found here.  

Bearing in mind the initial status of the Estate as the deer park for the Castle, the route from the West of the City including Lenton (originally an agricultural village separate from the City itself) makes perfect sense, especially with the Castle at the end of it.  I'm pleased as that all of this is clearly laid out in the Decision, complete with lots of geeky detail and references to some excellent maps too.  

To me it's important to stand up for what might seem like little things - once they're gone it's these kind of rights that we'd miss.  

Okay, thanks for that, good to know

You're welcome.  

(more here, here, here and here if you're interested).  

More On That Secret Nuclear Bunker

Further to this post, I realised the other day that I'd missed out a critical part of the story that first got me interested in this sort of Cold War history.  

As you can see from this brief story, a local historian has managed to get hold of a set of maps put together by the Russians during the cold war, showing an extraordinary level of detail of the country and Nottingham in particular.  

The exhibition mentioned in the article was excellent, albeit criminally under-publicised and there was a little card suggesting that the maps could be bought from Mr Grimes along with his email address.  Being a nerd and a maps nerd at that, I of course sent of a criminally small amount of money and get back a CD of the maps in return.  

There is a reference to a couple of articles by John Davies called, "Uncle Joe Knew Where You Lived" and Part II here which give a wealth of fascinating detail of how the maps were compiled.  

The four Nottingham maps on the CD are at 1:10,000 resolution - ie incredibly detailed: the usual map that you might use for a walk in the countryside is 1:25,000.  The bits that I found most strange when browsing through the maps is the phonetic rendering of English places names into their Cyrillic equivalents.  

I'm hoping that I'm not in massive breach of the intellectual property that exists in the maps if I post some little extracts.  If I am then please get in touch and I'll take the images down immediately.  

This is The Park Estate and the eastern side of city centre

To bring us back to the original secret nuclear bunker post, this is the Russians' view of our regional command centre;

Note the special pink colour for military installation

A couple of things worth noting - the orange colour of some roads wasn't by chance - this was to designate which roads were wide enough to accommodate the width of the tanks that the Russians were planning to invade the UK with.  Is it just me for whom this creates a terrifying image of military hardware rolling down the ring road?  

Secondly, bearing in mind these maps, according to the "Uncle Joe..." series as linked above, were based on independent research rather than cribbing from existing maps, compare the maps of the Broxtowe and Aspley estates above and on the modern Google Maps.  

If anyone is interested in getting hold of a copy of the maps then please do let me know either through a comment below or via direct message on my twitter and I'll put you in touch with Mr Grimes.  

Secret Nuclear Bunker

Image courtesy of: http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/how-anarchists-exposed-secret-nuclear-bunkers.html

A friend sent me a link to this planning application which is for the Secret Nuclear Bunker in the Chalfont Drive complex off the Ring Road in Nottingham.  Most Nottingham people have driven past the turning for it a hundred times but very few will have been inside.  I certainly haven't but would love to one day!

The bunker is here;


View Larger Map View Larger Map

If you zoom in on that map you start to see the uniform shape of a planned development.  Most people who took their driving test in Nottingham until a few years ago probably started off from this location.  I say until a few years ago because the site is slow being cleared for housing and other use and the various government departments that used to be there are slowly dispersing. The varied and interesting government uses means that there are lots of interesting things to be seen in this area - all of which appeal to my inner geek.  

(One of these things, and not really the focus of this blog is the presence of an Ordnance Survey Trig Point.  The specific point now seems to have been removed but there are some old shots on that second link.)

The main exciting thing at the Chalfont Drive (which is also the home of HMS Sherwood which as the Navy acknowledges, is a bold location for a naval facility...) is the Nuclear Bunker.  The site has received a fair amount of attention over the years and is well documented here.  

Correctly a 'Regional Seat of Government' this is one of a chain of facilities that existed throughout the country up until the early 1990s to be used in event of a nuclear war.  The planning application is pretty prosaic, changing the external doors to make sure that they are still secure, but the main interesting thing is the Heritage Statement.  This is required because the building is Listed - as you can see here.  The Listing statement is excellent, some choice extracts;

In the late 1950s, with the greater threat posed by the Soviet H-bomb, the earlier system of emergency central government was restructured. In place of the smaller War Rooms, the Commissioners in each Region (London was now deleted) were supplied with a Regional Seat of Government for around 200 staff. Their larger size is significant as it was envisaged that the regions would need to remain autonomous for a longer period due to the far greater devastation posed by the H-bomb.  

and

The Cambridge and Nottingham RSGs comprise the only purpose-built examples and, moreover, the most impressive examples of Cold War 'architecture' (by which we mean monumental structures which have applied and conscious external treatment) in England, augmented by the example at Kirknewton in Scotland which is essentially identical to the Cambridge bunker. These features borrow from contemporary Brutalist architecture in order to clearly exhibit their grim function through their architectural treatment.

and

It is probable, indeed, that such buildings needed to be visually impressive and forbidding - which they undoubtedly were - as much to impress visiting government ministers or local leaders and dignitaries, as for truly functional reasons. As the Cold War was essentially an era of bluff and counter-bluff, the illusion of being well prepared for nuclear strike might have been considered as important as the actual preparations themselves. The same could be said for impressing our allies and the local population, fulfilling a need to show that there were preparations in hand should the unthinkable happen

The Heritage Statement as linked above also has some great details including the final photograph of the steel door - imagine if this was your final view before entering into the bunker for an indeterminate time as the nuclear winter raged away above you.  

Nottingham City Boundaries

I was fascinated by this new article yesterday.  Apart from the total astonishment that Nottingham Tories have actually managed to up with a policy proposal, I was even more impressed that it's one that I can broadly support.

I think there are some tweaks to be done to the actual map proposed but anything that sorts out the frankly mad political boundaries of the city and conurbation has to be a good thing.  I droned on at length about this here so won't rehash it all but suffice to say, sign me up to the campaign!

Book Review: The Ice Age

The Ice Age by Margaret Drabble

I read this whilst on holiday the other month and despite it having been written in the (late) 70s a more relevant novel for today I couldn't think of.  

There's a real fin-de-siecle feel to the novel - naturally enough given that is was written in the run-up to the Winter of Discontent and all of the soul-searching over what role Britain should be playing in the world at that time.  I make no apologies for the fact that a lot of this 'review' is simply a quoting from the text - the plot (see below) isn't the real point of the novel - it's much more about the capturing of the essence of the thoughts and feelings of the time that I loved about it.  

The plot, such as it is, centres around Anthony Keating and his personal diaspora: (ex) business partners, ex-wife, mistress, children, lost-acquaintances - I love this kind of common starting point for a story and seeing how it all spins out - my (very embryonic) idea for a novel centres around one person and a sprawling set of linked other characters through the years.  

I like the fact that a lot of the discussion is around property and development - unsurprisingly given how much of my WorkTwo¹ is focused on building houses at the moment.  In fact, a lot of the issues and ideas tackled very much remind me of the play 'Benefactors' by Michael Frayn which I have been in a production of with my amateur dramatics group.  It's a seriously good play - I recommend it.  

Ok, on with the passages that I really liked;

"Their supper that night had been tinned soup, hamburger, mash and swede, and rhubarb and custard.  The thin green-pink strands of rhubarb had floated like weed, like scum, acidic, sinister in the watery juice, nudging uneasily, like a jelly fish against a rock, against the great solid dob of custard.  Custard, the poor man's cream".   

I love the over-written style of that, particularly coming as it does after a paragraph describing the best meals that the character has ever eaten - he is now in prison so a big step down in the down, both in culinary and other terms.  

"But there was a page and a half on Britain's economic decline, and the sinking pound, and the dismal state of British industry, and the failure of British firms to deliver goods, ad the folly of trying to support workers' co-operatives with state money, and the inevitability of cut back in public spending, particularly in the Health Service.  Reading, Alison felt the usual surge of British patriotism; things were not as bad as that, surely? [...] She wondered what she thought about the British National Health Service.  Did she think it rotted the spirit of enterprise and self-help, that it demoralised doctors and patients alike? [...] She was no socialist [...] but she felt very strongly indeed about the Health Service [...]"

Feels pretty relevant for today's political discourse... 

Two thoughts - it made me look up the source for the line about the NHS being the closest thing to a national religion in the UK - it's from Nigel Lawson's memoirs and I don't think that the the full quotation is quite as favourable in its intent as its adherents might want it to be: "he National Health Service is the closest thing the English have to a religion, with those who practice in it regarding themselves as a priesthood" (italics mine).  I do however, like the fact that when surveyed about the NHS in abstract people think it's a disaster and needs radical reform but when asked about their own personal experience the feedback is significantly more positive...

(Typing out all of that passage from the novel, I noted how many commas there were - it's a piece of punctuation I over-use, glad I'm not the only one!)

Two more passages with no additional comments;

"Christmas of that year was much the same as usual.  Economically, the country was declared to be in acute decline, and yet, of course, record spending went on, accompanied by record moaning"

"[...] he saw, as he sat there, some apparition, of this great and powerful nation, a country lying there surrounded by the grey seas, the land green and grey, well worn, long inhabited, not in chains, not in thrall, but a land passing through some strange metamorphosis, through the intensive creative lethargy of profound self-contemplation, not idle, not defeated, but waiting still, assembling defences against the noxious oily tides of fatigue and contempt that washed insistently against her shores"

My final section is probably my favourite - I particularly enjoyed the rhythmic cadences of the writing and the poignant end.  

"Others enjoyed the crisis for more indirect reasons.  Odd new groups of the far left hoped that each rise in the bank rate and each strike in a car factory heralded the final collapse of capitalism.  Sociologists expressed approval of the rate of social change, the radicalising influence of increasing confrontations of worker and managements.  Out of this, some sincerely believed, would rise a new order, of selfless, social, greedless beings.  [...] There were also the real poor: the old, the unemployed, the undesirable immigrants.  They were better off than they would have been in the thirties, for Britain is, after all, welfare state, and not many slip through its net.  Let us not think of them.  Their rewards will be in heaven.  [...] Finally, there was a small communion of saints, who truly hoped that from this crisis would come a better sharing among the nations of the earth: who truly in their hearts applauded the rise in price of raw materials from the poorer countries of the earth [...] [A] bishop [...] in fear of his own too great charisma, and who prayed nightly for the country of his birth  [...].  Pity the bishop, on his knees on the cold linoleum.  His love is strained, dilute, insufficient.  Could even God's love suffice this multitude?  It must be said that even the bishop cannot find it in his heart to regret that Britain has struck oil.  This is the state of the nation".  

Seriously - buy it, read it, give it away to someone else, you won't regret it.  

^{1. See here for an explanation of WorkOne and WorkTwo ↩}

Reply to Mike Smithson on PoliticalBetting.com

People who know me know that two of my great passions are gambling (mainly horses) and politics so I'm naturally an avid reader of PoliticalBetting.com.  Despite being a LibDem the author and proprietor Mike Smithson is generally pretty astute and a smart reader of the political winds.  I'm also proud that be briefly helped support my alma mater, The University of York in its fundraising efforts.  

However, it has to be said in a post today Mike has called things totally wrong in his suggestion that paid-for political advertising should be introduced to the UK.  

Mike advances a number of arguments in favour of his basic position;

1) Engagement: "Surely if we want to encourage more people to be interested in the political process then the full range of communication tools should be available to those who are seeking our votes?"

2) Young Voters: "If there’s an issue, as there is, about involving the younger generations in the political process then the parties should be able to reach them by being able to advertise on the TV channels that they watch. It would make for very different General Election campaigns"

3) Distortion: "It completely distorts election campaigning leading to the theatricals of poster unveilings in order to create something visual for the TV bulletins"

He then lobs in a final throwaway line about the impact of money, "At the same time we need tougher political funding rules."

I'm going to look at each of these in turn - using the experience I had in America in the run up to the November elections to explain why I think Mike is totally and utterly misguided.  

I'll take 1 and 2 together.  Simple facts: we are watching less TV and young people are reducing their viewing by more than the total population.  Using the total viewing summary data from BARB and using the most recent data and the the earliest data available (2009 and 1992 respectively) for the last complete week in April (the week we're in at the moment) you can see that in w/e 26th April 1992 average daily reach (ie, how many people watched TV) was 81.8.  By w/e April 25th 2009, the average daily reach was 76.7%.  This is decline is likely to have accelerated even further since then with increasing broadband penetration.  Young people are watching even less TV: 'Younger People Are Watching Less TV'.  TV advertising is increasingly irrelevant as companies switch their spend to digital or experiential marketing.  I do this for a living so I know.  

Argument 3: Even if it wasn't increasingly irrelevant I love the false opposite of suggesting that allowing for TV advertising of political messages would reduce the amount of 'distortion' in politics.  Everyone knows how vicious the political advertising gets in America - I had a small experience  of this when I was driving through California back in October - you can read it here.  

Finally, and for me, the most compelling argument.  No-one, literally no-one (except Smithson), wants political TV advertising in the UK.  Frankly, almost no-one in the US with the exception of TV companies and big lobbyists want it there!  Every time I talked politics with people in the US I explained how the UK doesn't have TV advertising and the universal reaction was, "that would be great".  See here, here and here for some contemporary context.  

The huge spend in American elections is well know but this article really brought home for me: "A total of £31m ($49m) was spent by all parties in the last general election in the UK two years ago - making US spending 120 times as much, and 23 times as much per person".  This means that candidates are in thrall to the big donors and spend more time raising money rather than either governing or listening to their voters.  

The poisonous impact of big-money in US elections is horrific enough but it doesn't even drive up engagement or turnout!  "The average turnout for [UK] general elections between 1918 and 2010 is a respectable 73.3%".  In the US turnout over a similar time period hovers around mid to high fifties.  So a country with spend 23 times higher and with a direct election for a president (rather than kind-of proxy elections for a Prime Minister) is around 15ppt poorer at turning out to the polling station.  

Political TV advertising: irrelevant, unwanted and ineffective.  Just say no.  

DC

I've been in wintry DC (it's bitterly cold with a North Easterly wind off the Chesapeake) for a day and half now and I'm still behaving like a child in Disneyland - there's so much that I want to see and do it's hard to prioritise.  I have however had to dig deep into the depths of my battered and dirty rucsac to find some warm clothes - having been spoiled by t-shirt weather in Houston and Bentonville I suppose I should just see this as a useful acclimatisation process for getting back to Nottingham. 

I'm staying just over the Key Bridge from Georgetown so I've been making the most of the bars, restaurants and shops (some good Christmas gift opportunities) just over the river while spending most of the daytime in downtown DC seeing all the monuments, museums and sights.  I'd like to pretend that this is an extension of my Company Towns research topic (DC being the ultimate company town for government), but in reality it's a totally self-indulgent time for me to wallow in all the political and cultural things going on.  And I'm loving it! 

I started off the day with a Segway Tour of the major sights.  I was a bit sceptical of this - wasn't sure if it would be a bit corny or if I'd injure myself on the machine but I can't recommend it enough - huge fun and a great way to see the city.  We covered about eight miles in around three hours and it was much more fun than walking and enabled you to see more of the city.  It was freezing cold as you whizz along at up to 10mph (don't forget your gloves like I did!) but the sights make up for it.  

Roughly speaking the tour covers: OEOB, The White House, The National Archives, The Naval Memorial, The Capitol, The National Mall and all the museums, The Lincoln, Washington and MLK Jr Memorials, The Vietnam and Korean War Memorial and lots else besides.  Plus you get to do some "off-roading" on the Segway and enjoy some good banter with your fellow tourists.  

The Capitol Building - can't wait for my tour tomorrow

The Washington Monument looms over everything you see in DC

Vietnam War Memorial still incredibly moving even on a repeat visit

After that and a warming lunch I decided to check out the view across the whole city available from the top of the tower of the Old Post Office.  Apparently this building has been sold to Donalt Trump to redevelop as a hotel.  This'll probably be better than its current slightly sad incarnation as sort of shopping centre and dusty tourist attraction but my opinion of the bewigged one has gone down significantly following his unhinged election night outburst on twitter.  

I then went on to the National Archives where you can see the original Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights; along with a huge amount of other stuff.  I loved the exhibition about the Cuban Missile Crisis: it really illuminated something I'd only previously read about in books with contemporary documents, recordings and photographs.  The usual over-abundance of school-children only slightly dampened my enthusiasm for the place with its powerful sense of history.  

Finally (I was dragging my feet like a recalcitrant tweenager at this point) I popped into the Smithsonian Institute Castle to make sure that I'd identified all the places within the huge SI network that I wanted to see.  There's a great ten minute video (only slightly spoilt by being hosted by Ben Stiller) that outlines all the options so I've now got a clear plan for tomorrow.  

Need to get to bed now as I've got an early start for my tour of the Capitol tomorrow - can't wait!

Reflections on Election Day

(Warning, seriously geeky political post below.  Normal service (err, that's more of the same then...) to resume tomorrow).  

I'm safely in DC for my final stop before coming home and back to reality.  Despite probably the second worst hangover of the whole trip (see here for the day after the worst) I was incredibly excited to get to the nation's capital especially after such a great result for Obama and the Democrats last night.  

Thought I'd do a post looking at some of the election results that I saw some of in my travels and also look at why the Republicans had such a terrible night.  

I had a slightly odd election night - I spent it in Nashville which was a late addition to my schedule and was at a dinner at The Standard Club.  You can probably guess from the website that there weren't many members of the Revolutionary Communist Party in the house that night and I was the token liberal at the table.  I was meeting with Doug Tatum who is a long standing friend of the Roosevelt Scholarship and having read his book, 'No Man's Land' I was intrigued to be meeting him.  There were a few other people at dinner from a diversity of backgrounds and we had a good discussion about the election and business - but I think I was always on a losing wicket being 4-1 against when we got into the real political stuff.  Think I acquitted myself reasonably well however.  

I then moved on to the Fleet Street Pub.  I usually avoid these kind of 'British bars' like the plague but I'd seen that Drinking Liberally were having their election watching party there so I knew that I'd be among kindred spirits.  Obviously it was a totally phenomenal result - far better than my (amateur) predictions and a great night.  The atmosphere in the pub wasn't as electric as you might expect - there was a kind of resigned relief rather than anything else - people had been reading the polls (see below) and hoping for best and the result was a cathartic relief rather than anything else.  

A few of the races and initiatives I've been following;

- Michigan Collective Bargaining.  This initiative, which failed, would have enshrined in the state constitution the right for trade unions to collectively bargain.  Passing this initiative was a very high priority for the UFCW colleagues that I met in Detroit and I'm gutted for them - I know how hard they were working.  The only positive thing is that the status-quo is kind-of ok - ie unions are able to bargain with employers and no-one is actively threatening to take that away like in Wisconsin so fingers crossed that things muddle along.  

- Washington gay Marriage.  On a more positive note, I'm delighted that this initiative to legalise gay marriage passed in Washington.  From a purely ideological point of view I firmly believe in the right of any couple, whatever their genders, to marry if that's what they want, but one of my Servas hosts in Seattle was a gay couple so here's to Sara and Rebecca - many congratulations on your upcoming nuptials!  

- Minnesota.  Again a great result on initiatives - rejecting restrictions on voter participation and gay marriage.  See some thoughts here on my experience of the election day process - asking for more ID can only harm this.  And a strong return to office for Rep. Keith Ellison who was kind enough to host me for a day in Minneapolis - what a guy!

- Montana Senate.  For some reason I've always been a fan of Senator Jon Tester.  I first came across him in 2006 via Daily Kos and I've always been a fan of his plain-spoken plaid shirted image so I was chuffed to see that he retained his seat.  Having travelled across most of Montana on the train my admiration for his ability to retain what is a very rural seat (great quote here: A profile of Tester after his 2006 election described his as "truly your grandfather's Democrat—a pro-gun, anti-big-business prairie pragmatist whose life is defined by the treeless patch of hard Montana dirt that has been in the family since 1916") for the Democrats and promulgate a broadly progressive agenda has only increased.  

Now as to how Obama won and why so many people thought he wouldn't I've just got a couple of comments.  

1) This isn't new or original, but the strength of Obama for America's GOTV and "ground game" was obviously decisive.  And it looks like a laser-like focus on places like Cuyahoga County in Ohio (basically, Cleveland and its suburbs) paid off in spades.  

2) The revelation for me on election night was the amount of self-delusional thinking around 'skewed polls'.  A quick detour before we get into this.  Many people will recognise the concept of group think and the 'echo chamber' where you end up believing your original opinions even more fervently when you discuss it with people of similar views.  And I'm as guilty of this as anyone - I socialise and work with people of very similar views and so always come up with a start when I meet people who fundamentally disagree with my views and almost forget why I believe what I do.  And so it's perhaps not a surprise that I hadn't come across the idea of Skewed Polling which apparently had been a common discussion point amongst Republicans for the last six or eight weeks.  The basic theory is that the public polls (which had been showing small but significant leads for the President in all the swing states for the last couple of weeks at least) were oversampling Democrats and were based on a 2008 turnout model.  This was all total news to me at dinner on Election night but I was firmly told by the Republicans present that Romney was going to comfortably win and that the polls were all 'skewed' (classic group-think).  This line of thinking generated a whole industry of recalibrating the polls - eg UnSkewed Polls.  (As an aside, it should be noted that the polling companies (like YouGov, MORI etc) many no money (or make a loss) on political polling - they do it to create publicity and as a loss-leader for more lucrative commercial work - so they stake a lot of credibility and future commercial work on getting it right and have little incentive to do anything other than report the truth as they find it).  This belief in Skewed Polls is a great example of group think and somewhat delusional self-belief - great summary from a friend here.  

3) The Republican ticket from top to bottom was pretty poor.  Romney was robotic and walked into stupid own-goals over not releasing his tax returns.  But the real issue was the terrible Senate candidates.  Again, a well-worked theme so I'll just link to a couple of articles that summarise it well: Akin and Mourdock on rape and a more general summary

Phew.  Ok, stopping now.  In summary: Obama won because they had a good plan and operation; some good results on gay rights and for unusual Democrats; trust the polling data; Republicans are terrible at selecting candidates. 

Election Day

Pretty clear that you need ID to vote here then!

Finally it's here - polling day.  After months of campaigning, thousands of speeches and untold millions of dollars it's all happening today.  I just got back from the polling station at Pickens County, Georgia where I'm staying.  I was keen to see what the elections process is like here in the US compared with the experience in the UK so I jumped at the chance to accompany my host family to the polling station.  The people I'm staying with were keen to get there as early as possible so I dragged myself out of bed at 6am which is about the earliest I've got up this whole trip - good practice for being back at work I guess!

First thing to note is that as a US voter you don't get a polling card each election like we do in the UK - this explains for me some of the issues with people not knowing if they are registered to vote or not knowing where to got to vote: has spawned a whole set of websites to help people locate their polling station.  As a political activist in the UK you spend a lot of time telling people who've lost their polling card that it doesn't matter and they can still vote without it, but I think I like the security and simplicity of the system we have that means you know you're registered to vote before you make the trip out to the polling station. And although I laugh when I get my card at home which has a detailed map to help me navigate the 400metres to my polling station up at the WinWood Community Centre, it's better to have that than turn up at the wrong place (see below).  

The second thing is that you have to show some form of ID to vote here in Georgia (see main photo).  This is interesting because of the work that Rep. Keith Ellison is doing in Minnesota to prevent just such a thing being required there.  I'm a bit conflicted on this one - I think it's odd that in the UK you can just turn up and say your (or any) name and address and they'll dish out a ballot paper, but I know that any kind of restrictions will fall disproportionately on the most excluded in society already - the poor, the old and minorities.  And based on my experience this morning further restrictions will reduce turnout and suppress participation which has got to be a bad thing.  

(As an aside, I was pleased to notice that one thing was exactly the same as the UK - the somewhat matriarchal poll staff who were very suspicious of my presence and almost asked me to wait outside in the rain). 

All throughout the process there were a lot of queues.  Now I'm British so that means I automatically like queues but this was a bit ridiculous!  You had to queue to get a form to complete certifying that you were a legitimate voter and not disqualified - again this is often seen as a form of voter suppression and it was somewhat fearsome. 

Once you've filled in the form mentioned above you queue up to get your ID checked and be issued with your ballot.  The elections office here have eschewed the tried and tested method of using a piece of paper and a pencil that has worked so well in the UK for many decades and use a complicated system of touch screen computers.  I was therefore able to be very smug when the system crashed and refused to work.  I said (perhaps little too loudly...) to those around me: "a pencil never ran out of power or crashed!".  

The queue to get your ID checked and be issued with a "ballot"

Once the computers were coaxed into life the (by now somewhat testy) queue started moving relatively quickly.  (One guy when I was there had turned up at the wrong polling station - he needed to be in the next county.  He claimed to have voted here in the primaries so wasn't happy but the staff sent him away never-the-less.  I hope he got a chance to vote somewhere!  The staff member actually used the phrase, "the computer says no" - obviously this is a cultural thing as I was the only person to laugh at this point). When you got to the head of the line your ID was scanned (everyone used their driving license - but other forms were acceptable - not sure how they would "scan" them if they didn't have a barcode) and you were given a sort of credit-card with a chip on it that you took over to the main voting action.  

I say you took it over, another poll worker took it from you and escorted you over to the main machines.  This was a bit odd, not sure why this was the case.  I wouldn't want that card (which activated the machines and linked my vote to my ID) out of my sight!  Maybe I'm just paranoid!

You can just see the row of 5 or 6 touchscreen machines - sorry, not very good photo

At this point I obviously stepped away so that I didn't compromise the security of anyone's vote but I imagine that the screens then show you a series of ballot options and you press your choices.  I know that you don't get any kind of confirmation or receipt which is odd as this would be easy enough to produce I'm sure.  

I managed to grab a sample ballot which I've photographed and put here - main thing to notice is how big it is.  I got a similar document when I was in Detroit which was even longer - no wonder turnout is so low when this is what you get confronted with. I'm not sure that even I could summon the energy to get enthused about choosing which person I wanted to be County Coroner or Limestone Valley Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor (actually, it looks like even the candidates couldn't get enthused as no-one has stood for that position!).
 

Page One of the Ballot

Page Two of the Ballot

An early start but I was very glad to have the chance to experience an authentic polling day operation here in rural Georgia - hope the GOTV is going well for the Obama teams in the key swing states!

Coke

Coke was invented by a pharmacist dontchaknow

Thanks to a contact through work I was able to meet with some colleagues from the Coca-Cola company today.  We met at 'The World of Coca-Cola' which meant that I was able to get into that exhibit for free which was a bonus.  

I met with one of the company historians and also a representative from the CSR team who were able to give me some interesting perspective on the role that Coca-Cola has played in the development of Atlanta.  Some thoughts and perspective from other cities;

- Coke made the funding for 'Pemberton Place' available which is where the 'World' is located alongside the city's aquarium and also the future site of a museum on the history of civil rights.  This was part of a commitment to the downtown area as part of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.  The kind of commitment to the city is similar to that of P&G and Cincinnati. 
- However, Atlanta didn't suffer from race or other riots in the 1970s as many other cities did (again, see Cincinnati and also Detroit) because, "the city was too busy making money to riot" - it's always been a very business focused place that didn't suffer so many of the issues that other places did.  
- The City was apparently one of the first to integrate their businesses, schools and eating establishments - again because there was a good business reason to do so.  
- The company has consistently acted as a "thought leader" and catalyst for philanthropy - not always covering 100% of the cost of projects but providing a kick start for matching fundraising.  (A different model than Alice Walton in Bentonville of course).  
- The company has been involved in the funding or founding of various institutions including Emory University, the Centre for Disease Control and helped saved the baseball team for the city back in the 1930s.  

A useful morning and some confirmation of the sort of themes that I've been seeing in other places.  It's a shame I didn't manage to see some more of downtown Atlanta - it looks like an interesting city.  But I've loved being in the rural part of Georgia.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) is election day and I'm going with my hosts to vote first thing which should be interesting!

The vending machines from around the world were one of my favourite exhibits

Parks and Recreations

(The title is apparently a US TV show about local government which I haven't managed to catch yet but is supposed to be good - and was appropriate enough for my day today). 

(Actually, scratch that, I've just watched an episode on Hulu - it's very good!)

Today I had my final meeting with the team at Bentonville City Council - with the Director of Parks and Recreation (see what I did there?).  An early start but well worth it to see parts of the City I've not seen yet on a combined drive and walk along the network of trails and seeing the city's extensive parks.  The City has had enough foresight to buy up distressed property when it comes on the market to enable it to be converted to park space and there are a range of different uses - including a dedicated dog park for "off leash" dog exercise. 

A couple of shots;

After this interesting start to the day I want to the WalMart museum at the original store - for a relatively small space there was a huge amount of information and history crammed in.  I did feel a little brainwashed at the end of it, but certainly shows a different side to the business and the man who founded it.  And it's very well curated and put together. 

Finally, the day took me to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  For the initiated (like me), this is a world class art museum built by renowned architect Moshe Safdie and funded entirely by Alice Walton, including a $1.4bn (yes, billion) endowment to enable free entry in perpetuity.  It's an extraordinary space built with great sensitivity to its location and a great collection as I hope some of the pictures below show -  a real sign of the commitment that the Walton family show to the locality that they come from and still live in.  

The location of the museum in such a perceived "backwards" place hasn't necessarily gone down well with the art elite on the East and West coast, as seen in this video from the LA Times.  

Kind of reminds me of the controversy in 2005 when the Royal Ascot horseracing meeting moved from their usual location to be at York racecourse for a year whilst its home course in Berkshire was being redeveloped.  This was great for me as it meant that I got to go to a race meet I wouldn't ever usually see but there were all sorts of comments like, "isn't it a long way away".  I distinctly remember John Humphreys on Radio 4 responding in unusually nuanced and subtle way, "well, it's not a long way away if you live in Leeds".  (I realise that that will be totally lost on my American readers - sorry).  Putting this new art gallery in Arkansas doesn't mean that it's "out of the way" if you live in, say, Fayetteville or Memphis or Oklahoma City... 

Anyway, enough provincial chip-on-shoulder ranting, it's been another great day, need to plan tomorrow's fun now!