March 2001 Goodbye to "All TEC and no give" (25 March 2001)
Confusion reigns as countryside shuts down (11 March 2001)
"Anarchist" Club comes of age (1 March 2001)
25 March 2001
![[Unemployed TEC chief David Wilkinson and Mercury House]](byetec.jpg)
Bradford's top publicly funded quango, Bradford TEC, closes for good today. And few tears will be shed.
One of 50 Training & Enterprise Councils set up by the government 10 years ago, Bradford TEC's poor performance has seen it languish at the bottom of the national TEC league tables.
Education minister David Blunkett recently criticised the TEC's, saying:
"The present system is bedevilled by what I describe as a Soviet-style wholesale distribution network where a contracting system results in people taking a cut at every stage before the learner gets the resources."
Gobbling up between £15 to £20 million a year in public funds, there appear few tangible results other than the plush headquarters at Mercury House. This will become home for it's replacement - the West Yorkshire "Learning Skills Council".
The new LSC's will be responsible for all post-16 training., with a budget of £6 billion. The local outfit will be headed by Margaret Coleman and the board includes: Clive Leach CBE (Chair), Mohammed Ali, Paul Goodall, Michael Ziff, Christine Woods, Jeanne Coburn, Pam Lee, Geetha Upadhyaya, Ann Walker, David Isbell, Councillor Brian Walker and Richard Taylor.
Bradford Business Link, another government funded local quango, also disappears. It's role, and that of 4 similar regional organisations, will be taken over by a new West Yorkshire Business Link, which promises to launch it's new website tomorrow! It's local small business services will be handled by Bradford Chamber of Commerce.
See: previous posting:
Bradford TEC axed!11 March 2001
![[Shipley Glen and Baildon Moor are closed]](footandmouth.jpg)
As the Foot and Mouth epidemic continues to spread across the district, despite government reassurances last week that it had "peaked", apparently contradictory measures are being put in place in an attempt to control it.
The confirmation of an outbreak in Queensbury on Wednesday only added to the chaos as a 10 Km "exclusion zone" was imposed, banning the movement of livestock within it.
Golfers at Shipley Golf Club, which lies at the edge of the exclusion zone, consequently got no further than the Club House bar today. Baildon Golf Club, which is outside the zone, was closed for action several days ago. Yet punters need only drive to the nearby Northcliffe Golf Club, which lies well within the zone, where it was business as usual. Sheep graze in adjoining fields.
Meanwhile, most footpaths, including sections of the canal towpath at Bingley, have been sealed off as ramblers are restricted to town centres. The local rural economy, which relies increasingly on tourism, is already suffering badly.
The epidemic has once again highlighted the ultimately destructive nature of industrial farming methods. The Prime Minister has promised a fundamental review after the crisis, yet locally Bradford Council has so far shown little support for the growing "Local Produce Market" movement. Carolyn Lowing, who helps organise the markets told KDIS that their next market in Bingley on March 24th would go ahead without any farm produce:
"Our producers are being badly affected by the cancellation of Farmers' Markets. John Brook had crops going over in his field but daren't get out as he also has animals. The same goes for the other producers - losing money but afraid to lose all by coming and picking up Foot & Mouth.
"In the longer term, this is a real opportunity to promote farmers' markets as a sustainable way forward - no need to transport livestock via auction marts and across country for supermarkets super-abattoirs. Get it directly from local farmers and keep them in business!"
See previous posting on
Local Produce Markets.1 March 2001
Bradford's premier libertarian social centre - the world famous 1 in 12 Club - celebrates 20 years of "self-management, music and mayhem!" this year.
And a range of celebratory events covering May Day are being put together to mark the occasion. They include:
The 1 in 12 Club was originally set up by members of the Claimants Union in 1981. 1 in 12 Club historian Matt Hannam said:
"1981 was a year of massive social upheaval. It was Thatcher's second year in power and it was marked by the return of mass unemployment on a level we hadn't seen since the depression. We saw unemployment in Bradford double, with the young particularly hard hit. Young black and asian school leavers, for instance, faced unemployment levels of 93%".
1981 was the year of the IRA hunger strikes, the Royal Wedding and summer riots across the country. In April the TUC held a national "march against unemployment" through Bradford and the government responded by publishing the "Raynor Report" which claimed "1 in 12 claimants" were "defrauding the state".
On April 29th the Claimants Union organised their first gig under the banner of the "1 in 12 Club" with the slogan:
"10 million claimants can't be wrong. Join the 1 in 12 and be an enemy of the state".
See: the
May Day 2001 anniversary website.Back to Top of Page
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