Bristol NUJ meeting earlier this week

That wacky bunch of no-hoper Stalinists, conspiracy nuts and embittered ex-Northcliffe hacks who make up the membership of the local branch of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) have come up with a recruitment plan.

“BRISTOL NUJ can be at the forefront of the union’s drive to recruit the thousands of creative workers in the new media industry who have so far gone unrepresented,” drivels the NUJ’s former local Northcliffe poster boy Paul Breedan.

“Those present broadly agreed that anyone producing creative content online who isn’t merely a blogger should be able to join the NUJ,” he writes on his, er … Blog!

Top plan that is Paul. Suck up to a load of people producing mindless corporate PR guff devoid of any journalistic value whatsoever while slagging off one of the few groups in this city – bloggers – who regularly produce original investigative reporting for the public and who have an increasingly large reach and influence.

It also makes you wonder what understanding of marketing and PR the Bristol NUJ and this clown Breedan have to offer any new media workers. To openly disparage an important local new media constituency to a PR savvy audience may not be the wisest recruitment move.

Always nice to know who your friends and supporters are though innit?

It’s getting just like the old days. Who can forget that fine June of 2005 when our city’s esteemed wig-wearer -in-Chief, Stephen McNamara decided to take action after the Campaign to Save Daycare in Bristol paraded 10ft-high placards through the city naming seven council officers under the banner: “Bristol social services’ list of uncaring professionals”?

“The council will not tolerate its employees being harassed in this way,” thundered the council’s all-powerful lawyer from the pages of the Evening Cancer on June 7. “If necessary, the council will take legal action through the courts to prevent any such activity.”

Good. Came the reply from campaigner Steve Norman who immediately supplied McNamara with an address for the service of court papers and come June 11 what did we read in the Cancer?

Protesters campaigning against cuts to Bristol’s day care services defied a threat of legal action to drive round the city centre in a truck bearing placards naming seven council employees.

At which point McNamara performed a extraordinarily quiet exit with wig firmly between his lycra-clad legs – never to be heard from again – without a court action in sight.

Roll-on four years. And what do we find?

Only another exercise in futility from Mr McNamara with yet more of his grandiose legal threats aimed at Steve Norman and his family. This time around he wants them to settle their bill with the council’s controversial private nursing care provider Mimosa Healthcare who are currently mired in all kinds of scandal following abuse allegations from their own employees.

And Steve’s response received by the city council this morning?

Due to the lack of care received by my father and late mother and the subsequent revelations regarding this provider and the fact that there is currently an inquest pending in to the death and treatment of a former resident, we as a family are not prepared to condone or support the lack of care and abuse that Mimosa Healthcare provides to the elderly citizens of Bristol placed in their care.

…

Obviously you are fully aware of the signed statements I obtained from former employees at Kingsmead Lodge detailing what they had witnessed during the course of their employment with Mimosa Healthcare and I feel a public court room and a Judge would be the ideal place for a legal ruling in respect of this outstanding matter.

[We] look forward to receiving your court papers in the very near future and I look forward to defending [this] case for not paying you any fees in relation to this provider or for the safe haven placement we had to find for our parents.

What a great idea! Why hide behind all this secrecy, censorship and bureaucracy and string everything out with interminable never-ending investigations when you can just pop down a court room and get it all out in the open for the public to hear?

Hang on … Is that a lycra-clad lawyer clutching an old wig I see disappearing over the horizon?

That Steve Norman letter in full:

The bewigged anti-human fool that passes for a legal expert down at the Counts Louse, Stephen McNamara, excels himself again.

Now the man that took council behaviour to a new low in 2005 when he personally patrolled the entrance to the Counts Louse to prevent learning disabled protestors from using the council’s toilet facilities when they campaigned outside over the loss of their daycare services has dreamed up a new wheeze.

Because he’s only gone and started legal proceedings against families who made allegations that their elderly relatives were being abused in Mimosa’s Kingsmead Lodge care home!

Apparently the brilliant lawyer has decided, in all his wisdom, that these relatives – who had to pull their elderly parents out of Mimosa’s ‘home of horrors’ – should pay up for the dubious ‘care’ their relatives received at the hands of the council’s controversial private elderly care providers who are still under serious investigation over their conduct.

The Blogger’s assured that McNamara will be receiving a suitably robust response to his latest idea in the next few days.

Looks like the Mimosa soap opera is back then.

How cities bidding to host the 2018 World Cup have used the local democratic process:

Newcastle
Report to Cabinet on 15 July along with publication of 139-page Outline Bid SubmissionUpdate Report to Cabinet on 11 November
Final Decision to be made at Cabinet on 25 November

Sunderland
Motion at Full Council on 24 June to support England World Cup Bid and promote Sunderland as a venue.
Report to Cabinet on 4 November.

Leeds
Report to cabinet on 13 May including copy of slide from FA showing key issues for consideration.
Report to cabinet on 17 June
Report to cabinet on 22 July with links to Elland Road Masterplan for stadium area
Report to cabinet for final approval to be made on 24 November

Sheffield
Scrutiny Committee on 11 November prior to Cabinet meeting
Report to Cabinet on 11 November including locally produced impact study.

Liverpool
Report to Cabinet on 6 November including Host City Bid Summary, 42-page Applicant Host City Engagement Process, and letter regarding Government Guarantees from Department for Culture, Media & Sport

Manchester
Report to Cabinet on 10 September

Hull
Report to Cabinet on 17 November

Nottingham
Report to Cabinet on 28 July
Report to Cabinet by Rushcliffe Borough on 17 July (Nottingham is pursuing its bid in partnership with its neigbouring borough and the county council)

Derby
Report and decision to submit bid approved at Full Council on 4 November
Updated report to Full Council on 18 November

Leicester
Report to Scrutiny 24 September
Report to Cabinet 5 October
Report to Cabinet for 23 November
Report to go to Full Council on 25 November

Milton Keynes
Discussed at Full Council 9 June
Report to Cabinet 27 October

Birmingham
Brief discussion at scrutiny meetings in September and in October.

Portsmouth
Report to cabinet scheduled for 24 November
Motion to full council for 24 November accompanied by 126-page report.

Plymouth
Motion to submit World Cup Bid to be considered at Full Council on 23 November. Report published to guide decision.

and finally,

Bristol
Scrutiny on 20 November with 66-page report published on 17 November.
Cabinet Meeting on 24 November with call-in suspended.

From the Fifa.com website earlier this week:

“Fifa President Joseph S. Blatter is using the FIFA World Cup™ qualifying matches to urge footballers around the world to show ‘More fair play, please!’ Blatter said: ‘Fair play should come before anything else … These qualifying matches must epitomise fair play. They should encapsulate the sporting, moral and ethical principles for which Fifa has always stood. And they must leave a lasting impression!”

Ho, ho, ho …

Hat tip: Said & Done, The Observer

COMING SOON: Sieg Heil! FIFA on ‘the Jewish referee problem’.

Some heavyweight anti-authoritarian politics comes to Bristol and the south west as a trade union dedicated to the overthrow and destruction of the boss class opens up shop.

The Bristol and South west branch of the Wobblies – or the International Workers of the World to the uninitiated – is now up and running and looking for new recruits.

Already drawing lots of experienced unionists, militant workers, anarchos, artists, intellectuals, journos and a few people who seem to have just walked in off the street, you’re no customer in this union and won’t find marketing men selling you your brighter day along with cheap car insurance and 2-4-1 package holiday deals. You have to participate instead.

If you’re already in a mainstream union and think it’s bollocks or you’re an unaligned activist seeking like-minded people then this might be the place to start. Also if you’re in work and don’t want a mainstream union or a mainstream union don’t seem to want you then give the Wobblies a shout. The unemployed, the unwaged and the unruly are welcome too.

http://iww.org.uk/bristol

While our poor little diddums council officer-wofficers struggly-wuggly to get their worksy-woo done in good time to allow proper democratic oversight of their work, there’s no such problems in Derby.

Their gormless councillors agreed on Wednesday night to try and become a World Cup host city without a suspension of normal democratic procedures in sight.

But more to the point, not only are their officers faster and more efficient than our lot, they also provided vastly superior information, including a simple to understand handout (Appendix 2) on just how dodgy their city’s ‘Host City Agreement‘ with FIFA was going to be.

Here it is. It’s eye-watering in parts:

SUMMARY OF MAIN UNFAVOURABLE TERMS IN THE HOST CITY AGREEMENT

Development of Host City Obligations

1. FIFA reserves the right to unilaterally change the terms of the agreement

2. The Host Authority must comply with and bear the cost of implementing any guidelines/directions/instructions issued by FIFA at a later stage.

Absence of Compensation/Liability

3. FIFA and the LOC have the right to terminate the Host Agreement without compensation if the Stadium Agreement or Host Agreement is terminated for whatever reason.

4. In the event of a match or several matches being cancelled FIFA or the LOC will be under no obligation to compensate the Host City in any manner.

5. FIFA nor the LOC will be liable for any loss caused to the Host City even if it has been caused by the formers negligence.

Protection of Commercial Rights

6. The Host City must enact by-laws and regulations to prevent unauthorised third parties undertaking “Ambush Marketing”.

7. The Host City must appoint staff to assist FIFA in the protection and enforcement of commercial rights such as media, marketing and intellectual property rights.

8. Host Cities must warrant not to enter into any agreement that would restrict or prohibit FIFA, LOC or any of their Commercial affiliates, service providers or commercial rights holders from exercising their rights.

Host City Support

9. The Host City must provide support and assistance to FIFA in relation to the hosting and staging of the competition.

Controlled Area

10. Within the “Controlled Area” surrounding the stadium where the matches will be played the Host City must ensure that any advertisements are removed or fully covered, no sale of food, drink or souvenirs, etc is allowed and that existing permits and concessions and licences are suspended.

Host City Dressing

11. The Host City must 2 years prior to the World Cup submit for FIFA and LOC written approval a detailed plan of how it will comply with its “Host City dressing” obligation (ie comply with FIFA official decoration programme) which the Host City must at its cost be responsible for installing, maintaining and dismantling.

Traffic Plan

12. No later that 3 years prior to the World Cup the Host City must provide the LOC with a traffic management plan which it must implement at its own cost and pass all necessary by laws to implement.

I think my favourite one is, “The Host City must appoint staff to assist FIFA in the protection and enforcement of commercial rights.”

This means they’re gonna spend my council tax employing an army of little Hitler’s to march around with clipboards protecting McDonald’s exclusive advertising rights. What a sensible use of tax payers money.

It’s almost enough to make you want them to win the bid isn’t it? A month’s entrenched warfare between the city’s subvertisers and graffiti writers and suited and booted city council/McDonald’s private pseudo-cops would be quite something.

Must remember to invite Banksy along if we get it too ..

Once again – you the public get access to the World Cup documents chief council officers are hiding away from us and our elected representatives.

Tonight it’s a draft of the host city agreement Bristol City Council will sign – on our behalf – in its entirety, with no negotiation allowed whatsoever, with that funny old world football body FIFA.

It’s quite a read – as it seems to have been produced by some weird McDonalds-sponsored international entity that’s got Erich Honecker in charge.

I’ve come across the privatisation of public space before but this is new. The wholesale privatisation of an entire fucking city for a month so that international big business can turn it into a giant cash register for themselves.

In the highly unlikely event this overblown nonsense can generate the £150m of revenue being claimed, most of it won’t be staying in Bristol that’s for sure. Unbelievable.

So wanna run a World Cup event? Here’s their rules:

FIFA exclusively and solely owns and controls on a world-wide basis any and all Media Rights, Marketing Rights, Intellectual Property Rights and all other commercial or other rights and opportunities, including any title and interest in, and in relation to, the Competitions, including any Competition related Events, whether existing or created in the future.

(i) The Host City shall be entitled to organise, host and stage Host City Events, subject to the terms and conditions of this Host City Agreement and the Host City Event Guidelines and, in particular, the following specific requirements:

a) Pursuant to Clause 5 below, the Host Cities may use the following Competition Marks in relation to the Host City Events, subject to the prior written approval by FIFA:

• Host City Composite Logo;
• Host City Designation;
• official Competition design as developed by FIFA;
• Official Slogan; and/or
• official Competition designation.

b) Commercial Affiliates shall, free of charge, be given appropriate recognition in relation to, and at, any Host City Event (e.g. by way of using composite towers or the Commercial Affiliate logo strip as provided by FIFA).

c) The Host City may grant marketing rights in relation to the Host City Events in such manner as to be determined by FIFA. The Host City agrees and acknowledges that entities being competitors of any of the Commercial Affiliates may not be granted any rights or opportunities in relation to any Host City Event.

d) Pursuant to Clause 4.11.2 below, Commercial Affiliates in any food and beverage product category shall have a first right of negotiation and right of last refusal for the right to offer and/or sell their products at any Host City Event, to be implemented in accordance with the procedure set out by FIFA.

e) The sale of official licensed products at any Host City Event shall be exclusively conducted by the entity appointed by FIFA as the official retailer for official licensed products in relation to the Competitions, to which the Host City shall provide space and utilities, on an at cost basis.

f) The location used for any Host City Event must be free and clean of any visible third party advertising, branding and/or other commercial identification.

Or what about Bristol’s World Cup website? That’ll be a great opportunity to promote local business won’t it?

3.5 Host City Website
(i) The Host City shall be entitled to promote and communicate its status as a host city of the Competitions on its Host City website by creating a dedicated section informing on its promotional activities and events as well as its support of the Competitions in such manner to be approved by FIFA in its sole discretion and subject to the Host City Website Guidelines.

(ii) The Host City shall ensure that no third party advertising or branding, or any other commercial content or identification of any commercial entity, appears within the Competition-related section of the Host City website.

Ok, maybe do some World Cup flyers supporting local business then?

(ii) The Host City agrees and acknowledges that the publications produced by, or on behalf of, the Host City shall a) be free of any advertising and promotional or other commercial content of any entity which is considered by FIFA a competitor of a Commercial Affiliate; and
b) bear recognition of the Commercial Affiliates in such manner as determined by FIFA (for instance, by way of using the Commercial Affiliate logo strip as provided by FIFA).

They’ll also be taking over our publicly-owned road system when they feel like it too:

(i) The Host City shall, upon FIFA and/or the LOC’s reasonable request, at any time during the Competition Periods, temporarily
a) restrict public access, or close public access completely, to any roads within the Host City; and
b) provide special traffic access lanes as well as police escorts for the participating Teams, key representatives of FIFA and the LOC, VIP guests and further Competition officials;

And who pays for the pleasure of turning our city into a giant McDonald’s advertising platform? We do!

8.1 Costs
Unless otherwise explicitly stated in this Host City Agreement, the Host City shall be responsible to bear all costs for the fulfilment of its obligations, and the exercise of the rights granted to the Host City, as set out in this Host City Agreement.

And we’ll pay their tax too:

8.2 Municipal Taxes
(i) The Host City agrees and acknowledges that all taxes, duties and levies which are imposed directly or indirectly by statute, directives or in any other binding legal form on FIFA and/or FIFA’s subsidiaries and/or the LOC as a direct or indirect consequence of the Competitions and/or the entering and/or implementation and/or cancellation of this Host City Agreement under municipal laws and regulations in the Host City shall be borne by the Host City. To the extent that FIFA and/or FIFA’s subsidiaries and/or the LOC incurs any costs for taxes imposed under municipal laws and regulations in the Host City, the Host City shall indemnify and hold free and harmless FIFA and/or FIFA’s subsidiaries and/or the LOC from and against any such tax payment.

Deal of a lifetime eh?

Number 2 in a series in which the Bristol Blogger publishes information regarding the city’s World Cup bid for the Bristolian public at large that is vastly superior and far more accurate than the information highly paid ‘expert’ Bristol City Council officers are prepared to supply to our elected councillors …

The document above titled ‘2018 World Cup Guarantees’ and dated 23 October 2009 sets out central government commitments to host city applicants – including Bristol – for the 2018 World Cup.

What’s interesting about this letter is that it undermines claims emanating from both senior officers at the Council House and from Lib Dem cabinet members that they were forced to delay their decision about hosting the World Cup until the last minute because they were waiting for government guarantees.

This delay, until the very last minute, has created considerable controversy because the cabinet (possibly believing and acting on advice from officers) – in league with the Chief Exec and the Head of Legal Services – are claiming they have had to suspend part of the council’s constitution, relating to the call-in process, because the decision is now ‘urgent’ and there’s simply not time to hold the decision up any longer without losing the opportunity to bid.

The document proves that Bristol City Council could have taken the bid to cabinet for approval any time after 23 October as both Sheffield and Liverpool have done. Instead Bristol’s bid has been delayed a full month to 24 November leading to this alleged need to suspend the constitution.

Leaving the bid this late also means that the paperwork (running to 66 pages) finally published yesterday is unlikely to be as well scrutinised as a decision with such a huge financial impact should.

The crucial part of the letter, in terms of potential financial impact to the city is this:

At the meeting, the issue of costs was raised. I would like to reiterate that the cost to central government of government guarantees will be considerable. The Treasury have made clear that the costs of the tournament will lie where they fall and we will not be in a position to provide funding to any of the cities in the event of a successful bid. We will, as discussed, look at the potential for lottery funding or supplementary local business rates, as well as exploring other options. However, at this early stage, we are unable to give any commitments of additional funding.

Serial money wasting buffoon, Stephen Wray, the unemployable idiot the Lib Dems put in charge of our World Cup bid can’t add up.

His bizarre press release sent out at the dead of night on Friday clearly says:

Costs to the city of approximately £17 million include an estimated £8 million to pay for temporary additional stadium seating (to increase seating up to 40,000 for World Cup matches), £2 million for transport costs, £2 million for marketing, and £2 million project management, including legal and financial advice in the lead up to the competition.

But this is wrong. According to the World Cup 2018 UK bid overview document for host cities published by the FA, the basic cost to a host city is around £15m (see for yourself it’s on page 30 above).

So if we’re also forking out an extra £8m for seating, not included in the FA’s figures, that makes a total of £23m!

Doh!