Can creative economics save us?

The Executive needs a plan to pull us out of the economic crisis. Could Northern Ireland becoming a creative economy be part of the solution?

My boss and Weber Shandwick CEO in the UK and Ireland, Colin Byrne, referred to a great book by John Howkins in a recent blog on Byrne Baby Byrne.  Howkins considers the contribution ‘creative industries’ make to the economy. He defines a creative industry as one which make money from ideas. Other economists are also writing on this subject, most notably Richard Florida whose books include the Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class.

The interesting thing about these thinkers’ approach to creativity is that they define a creative economy is a much broader sense then you would think. Its not just writers, actors and artists. It also includes lawyers, scientists and dare I say it PR consultants. Anyone who (should) thinks for a living. Magnets for ’talented’ people from all over the world, they are places people will move to for work.  The Republic of Ireland has become according to a number of matrix one of the most creative economies on the globe. For centuries a place of artistic creativity it is now also a a major IT and scientific research centre, something that will grow its wealth as well as culture.

Florida identifies three common characteristics of creative economies:

1. Talent – they attract the smartest and most gifted to move their to work;
2. Technology – they have the infrastructure to allow people to work, and;
3. Tolerance – they must be able to accommodate many different types from the IT wizard, the research scientist and the radical artist and make them fell equally at home.

The south has come a long way in the past decade to meet the three T test and its first responce to the current crisis was to invest even more in them. The North has the talent and the technology. But will it transform itself into a tolerant place?

I’ll return to this minor obsession of mine later. In the meantime if anyone knows Nora Jones tell her we could set up studio for her here in Belfast!

Off to watch Dublin v Tyrone with Oisin in the national league opener later.

Fireworks guaranteed!

Leadership?

The Minister for Education has now lost the confidence of the entire catholic grammar sector. She lost political unionism and the non-maintained grammar sector quite a while ago,

Now she tells us it is time for real leadership. That the time for talking has ended and the time for action has come.

The majority of MLAs in the Assembly clearly do not support her approach. The people of Northern Ireland do not support her approach.

The question on O’Conall Street this morning is when are they going do something about it?

Our news – their news

We are a place apart.

On the cusp of history with one foot in the past and another in an uncomfortably new future.

Today’s Northern Ireland headlines capture the difficult relationship between a thirty year war and a decade of great political progress. The images of Michelle Williamson whose parents were killed in the Shankhill bomb and Daniel Bradley the brother of an IRA volunteer shot by the British Army capture the moment of confrontation. What they do not show was the brief conciliation that followed before each took their seats at the launch of the Eames Bradley Report.

Meanwhile in the rest of the world a dark cloud of depression is now looming on the global economic horizon. The warning from the World Economic Forum in Davos could not be more stark; the UK will be hit harder then any other advanced nation in the worst recession since the Second World War.  

There has never been a greater need for strong and shared political leadershiphere. The type that is capable of building a bridge between our two traditions and making it a strong one.

Too much to be done and not a lot of time to do it.

Calls for new law on lobbying

Several members of parliament have tabled a motion calling for statutory regulation of lobbyists in the UK. This is a move O’Conall Street would welcome and which should apply to Northern Ireland as well as Great Britain.

As things stand some public affairs consultancies support a voluntary code of practice and disclose their public affairs clients in order to ensure full transparency around their activities. Weber Shandwick is a leading member of the APPC (Association of Professional Political Consultants) as are some of the major players in the UK. Interestingly here in Northern Ireland only Stratagem, Chambre Public Affairs, Cherton Enterprises and ourselves at WS are members of the APPC and so bound by ther code of conduct and disclosure obligations. 

South of the border the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII) has been involved in the debate around the need for greater regulation of this growing industry and has developed its own Code of Practice,  although it is unclear whether it will push for a statutory code like the one MPs are demanding in the UK. The Irish Government also published a report on this matter recently.

The Early Day Motion in the House of Commons has been tabled by a cross party group and reads as follows:

That this House notes with approval the recent Report of the Public Administration Select Committee on lobbying which calls for a mandatory register of lobbying activity provided for in statute, independently managed and enforced, and which would include information provided by both lobbyists and those being lobbied; and calls on the Government to bring forward the necessary legislation as a matter of urgency.

Interestingly and in light of the allegations at the weekend that some Peers may have been willing to accept money to influence legislation, SDLP MP, Mark Durkan and Welsh MP Dai Davie have tabled the following Early day Motion:

That this House believes that no member of either House of Parliament should be permitted to act as a paid consultant or adviser or receive payment or benefits in kind from private companies for any activity related to their parliamentary work.

Has the Minister asked children what they think about Education?

My post this morning got a bit of a debate going on Facebook.

Then I received a message from The Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, reminding me that the office had asked that the views of children be sought on this issue.

What a good idea I thought.

Wonder if the Minister followed up on that one?

In June this year Patricia Lewsley said:

“In 2006 my office told the department our opposition to selection at 11 and urged the department to involve children in the decision making process. I have no evidence that they have done this.

“At the same time I have parents complaining about the agony of waiting for appeals to get into chosen schools, leaving their children anxious over the summer, and making those children feel that they have somehow failed.

“Proposals for a new test or an interim test will not overcome these feelings, will not reduce appeals and will put yet more pressure on parents to enter their child for tests.”

Bottom, line is that in all the years this has been discussed no-one has asked children and young people directly. They are the ones who have the most recent experience of the transfer procedure. They are the ones who any new procedure will directly affect.

As someone who knows about these things put it to me today, “While each side trots out ‘experts’ perhaps it is worth considering the expert view of those affected.”

This evening the Minister is reported to be bringing forward proposals on what will replace the 11plus to the Executive on Thursday. From the sounds of this evenings BBC radio debate it all might turn out to be much ado about nothing.

Bishop’s wrath for Education Minister

The Minister for Education has been criticised again by a senior Catholic Bishop for creating a climateof uncertainty around the future of selection.

The Irish Times reports today that Donal McKeown has accused the Minister of causing great uncertainty for all.

Meanwhile the Irish News reports that there are now 38 grammar schools and two bilateral colleges committing to continue with selection in the absensce of leadership on the issue.

According to the Irish Times the auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor told a conference in Belfast last night; “It is vital that schools do not allow the understandable anxiety to be exploited so that schools might appear to act only in their own interest or merely in the interest of certain already strong schools.”

He went on to point out that is not part of the Catholic or Christian vision that the weakest should suffer excessively and feel that their needs are being overlooked.

“Our schools are very generous when it comes to helping the less fortunate in developing countries. It would be a travesty of our vision if that level of compassion and solidarity were not to be evident as regards the other school round the corner.”

In what could be seen a criticism of the Minister’s failure to elevate this issue out of the sectarian politics of Northern Ireland, Dr McKeown referred to the need for reconciliation between communities in Northern Ireland:

“There are huge gaps in our society, across the perceived denominational divides, across cultural differences and across the widening social divides.

“Reconciliation means crossing all of those barriers, not just some of them. Thus Catholic schools are very keen to be involved in all sorts of partnerships. We are working closely with the other Christian churches to safeguard the future of faith-based education in this society.”

Because of “our shared vision”, all parties in Catholic education – along with many other partners – were in agreement that the old 11-plus system had to go, Bishop McKeown said.

“We cannot justify dividing young people at 11 into separate and impervious silos, those that call themselves academic and those that are classified as vocational.

“There are more than two groups of young people in the world, the intellectuals and the artisans,” Bishop McKeown said.

“Thus we are all working to move beyond the current system of rigid selection at 11 in the interests of all young people.”

This intervention follows strong criticism of the Minister at the SDLP conference over the weekend and calls for her to row in behind the church leaders initiative to break the deadlock on this issue.

Why does Sammy say these things?

Northern Ireland’s Environment Minister, Sammy Wilson, has landed himself in the headlines again, this time for suggesting that locals should get preference over foreigners when jobs appointments are being made in Northern Ireland.

O’Conall St has been wondering why Mr Wilson seems so wedded to controversy. As a Minister he has already taken the headline grabbing route on the key issue of climate change and now on immigration.

His appears to be a no holes barred right wing reactionary agenda.

But does Mr Wilson believe man has no role to play in climate change and is he really anti foreigner? Only he can answer those questions.

That said. He never takes a contrversial position on something he has ultimate responsibility for. Take climate change for example. He has been quoted as saying that it does not really matter what he thinks because he has no power over it. Even if he succeeded in getting the Northern Ireland Assembly to vote to discriminate against people who are not from here Mr Wilson knows only too well that this would be a pyrrhic victory as UK and EU laws make it impossible to discriminate against someone on grounds of nationality.

A senior UUP figure commented to me this morning that this is a Minister more interested in grabbing a headline then being in government and more interested in controversy then in people.  

I’ll let you be the judge of that.

SDLP seeks creation of a New Ireland Coalition

The SDLP is to enter talks with Fianna Fail, Irish Labour and Fine Gael about the establishment of a New Ireland Coalition following the party’s Annual Conference decided today.

Delegates voted unanimously for the Balmoral Branch motion to establish a coalition with the following basic aims:

To promote debate across the island of Ireland about the economic, social and political issues common to the people of Ireland, North and South, to;

Politically support and campaign for the SDLP in Northern Ireland as the voice of the New Ireland, and;

To engage in conversations on social and economic issues with the churches, the trade union movement, business organisations, the unionist community and civic society, North and South, with a view to strengthening confidence, cooperation and trust between the people on this island.

The move follows a year long debate within the SDLP about how to progress all island politics without loosing the party’s identity and history.

Many within the SDLP believe this new coalition will provide an all island dimension to its politics as well as a common platform FF, FG, Labour and the SDLP on the big issues facing this island.

The New Ireland Coalition could provide a vehicle through which to fight the second Lisbon referendum as well as supporting Alban McGuinness as the only significant pro-Europe candidate in the upcoming European elections in the North.

It is not clear how the southern parties will react to this proposal. There is however a long tradition of close cooperation between them all and the SDLP on major issues which stretches back to the mid seventies.

At a time when the Republic is staring over the precipice many may welcome the opportunity to create a formal association which is capable of creating a national consensus on key issues without prejudicing each party’s individual identity.

As one delegate put it to me.

“This is a trade union for the New Ireland. We all may work for different companies and even compete from time to time but we are all committed to the basic values of a modern progressive Ireland; commited to a future in Europe, interested in leading as a global innovator in science, part of the green collar jobs revolution and committed to breaking down the barriers between the people of this island.”

At a time when the UUP are seeking a single party expression of their role within the politics of the United Kingdom it is interesting that the SDLP is adopting a more ‘Obamaesque’ approach, building a coalition which it clearly hopes will be bigger than the sum of its parts.

SDLP turns the corner

It would be impossible to be negative about the SDLP Conference which is taking place in Armagh this weekend. Today was probably the best day for the SDLP in a decade as the party began to properly rally in advance of this June’s European Election. Alban Maginness gave the best speech I have ever seen him deliver before Mark Durkan took centre stage today. His was also straight out of the top drawer. Heavy on the issues in a speech threaded with a constant reminder of what he believes to be the DUP and Sinn Fein’s failure in government.

There was also a lot happening on the margins too. At lunch Alex Attwood chaired a fringe meeting which provided a platform to some of the North’s best known victims of miscarriages of justice. Raymond McCourt was there as was Paddy Hill and Gerry Conlon. The Ballymurphy Massacre was also brought home through powerful testimony. South Armagh’s latest IRA victim, Paul Quinn, was remembered through his mother in a moving and truly heartbreaking witness to the savagery of his death and the wall of silence which has been erected by Sinn Fein and the Republican Movement. Cllr Tim Attwood and Margaret Walsh from West Belfast organised the meeting. Party members and observers alike have described it as one of the most moving encounters of their lives.

 Even hardened hacks were taken aback. On the way in a well know BBC journalist collared me and asked if I could make myself available to her to after to talk about energising the party. A topic I spoke at a later fringe about. Sure thing I said. As I sat through the stories of torture, collusion, IRA murder and human loss I began to regret my willingness to facilitate the press. My mind was not on the ins and outs of campaigning. At the end I strolled over to the journalist. ‘Still need me?’ I asked. ‘No’ she said as she made a dash for Mrs Quinn. These stories need aired and these issues need addressed.

With the Eames – Bradley report out next week I think it is fair to say that the SDLP is turning a corner and setting it sights on a more central role in the politics of this island.

Tomorrow conference debates the establishment of a New Ireland coalition. Interesting times.

What is it with Sinn Fein and accountability?

Yesterday’s news that a cross community group of Antrim grammar schools are to create a common entrance exam is yet another indictment of Caitriona Ruane’s performance as Minister for Education. 
It also raises an important issue about government accountability in Northern Ireland.

We have a system which makes it practically impossible for Minister to be removed from office, no matter how poor their performance. If Barack Obama were looking in, he would likely ask whether this minister is working for the people or simply upholding the vested interests of a few ideologues.

Which brings me to a further point about accountability.

Today’s Irish News has a piece about MLA’s attendance at committee meetings where they are meant to be scrutinising the work of the Executive. Full marks to the DUP. They are the top attendees with nine out of the top ten from that party. Sinn Fein gets a fail. Seven out of the ten worst attendees at statutory committee meetings are SF MLAs.

It would make you wonder whether for all the rhetoric, Sinn Fein public representatives are actually committed to doing the job they were elected to do – representing the people of Northern Ireland and scrutinising the world of the Executive.

This is the sort of thing that gives politicians a bad name.