After having written my first blog, introducing myself to the blogosphere and the good citizens of Hulme, I invited a close friend to have a read of it to give me feedback. This was someone whose opinions I value and who cares about me. Firstly, she asked me if I'd consulted anyone else before writing it? "Er, no..." Had I shown it to anyone else first? "Not really," I said. "Why?" Did anyone else read it? "Yes, some people had read it and said they liked it," I said. Oh that's all right then, she said.
I knew she had spotted something she didn't like, but it was like pulling teeth to get her to say what it was. Eventually, she came out with it... "That bit where you joke about being a councillor - £18,000 for a part-time job - I don't think it's something you should joke about..."
"But that wasn't a joke!" I said. "That's what you get paid for being a councillor. And yes, it's a part-time job. I was being entirely factual..."
It got me thinking that maybe other people might think I was joking. But no, this is the truth. The wage is £18,000 for the lowest rung of the elected Council hierarchy. Ah, but now I've tried to find the source of this information and failed, and it seems I got it wrong. If you look here:
http://snipurl.com/rfy3g then we can actually see that the basic wage appears to be £15,618.71 (although for some reason Emily Lomax appears to have received only £14,398.71 in 2008-09).
And as for the "part-time" bit - this is also the truth: if councillors don't have one of the higher positions ("additional responsibilities"), the post is considered part time and they are expected to work for a living in the outside world. For instance, if I and when I am elected a councillor then I shall continue to work as a lecturer at the Manchester College, which has a duty by law to allow me to reduce my hours in order to take up the elected position.
This begs the question - is being a councillor really a "part-time" job? As my close friend pointed out, it's the sort of job that would be never-ending, so long as you take it seriously and do it properly, of course (unlike two out of the three representatives that we have in Hulme). There must be a million and one things that one could be chasing up every minute of the day - housing problems, Council incompetence, residents' grievances, etc. etc.
Whoever decides to stand for Council needs to be aware that
a) the wage is not great, but at the same time for a part-time job it is actually more than what a lot of people have to live on (I have spent many years struggling on 12k or less);
b) the actual job is very demanding IF YOU DO IT PROPERLY and can easily eat up your entire life.
I say all this to make it clear that councillors are probably not in it for the money, although many of them are careerists who hope that it will be but a stepping-stone to bigger and better things (I'm sure that most MPs, for instance, have made their way up via their local councils).
I am also aware that being in a tiny minority (e.g., one in 96, if one happens to be the only Green councillor) makes the job even more difficult and demanding. Here is an excellent article by Vanessa Hall about her experience as the lone Green from 2003-08: From the Inside (in the excellent Mule).
Neither myself nor Steve Durrant are under any illusions about the difficult task ahead...
Thursday 27 August 2009
Wednesday 19 August 2009
Who the hell is Nigel Woodcock?
Well, I've lived in and around Hulme for more than 25 years now, having moved here from the South of England in the early 1980s when I came to study humanities & social science at MMU (or Manchester Polytechnic as it was known then). I obtained my BA (Hons) degree in 1986 and then in the late 1990s I studied for a PhD in American politics & sociology, which I finally obtained in 2003 after a long slog.
I've lived in Hornchurch Court since1992 and I've been the Secretary of our residents' association since it first started up more than five years ago. Many people locally know me as someone who is always quick with a joke but who takes politics and life seriously. I am lucky in having a job that I love, which is teaching Politics and Sociology A-levels at the Shena Simon campus in the city centre.
I share with many others a great dismay at the abandonment of principles by New Labour, having canvassed for the Labour Party back in the 1980s - when it was still a socialist party! It is regrettable that Labour has been hijacked by neoliberals and I can't work out why ANYONE would still want to vote for them. Except of course for three dreadful words: "The Tory Party". This lot will make new Labour look like... well, OLD LABOUR, I guess, given their total lack of principles. They will say anything, promise nothing and deliver even less. Under our lousy electoral system (first-past-the-post, or FPTP) every election is a two-horse race between the Big Two - so in this respect I can understand why people vote Labour out of sheer desperation.
So reforming the electoral system is a key issue - we need to ditch FPTP ASAP which is why I'm backing calls for a referendum on introducing some form of PR - see http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/ and sign up for free. I've just joined this week.
In the recent past I've been involved in the Save Birley Fields campaign, which is now entering its final phase, so it seems. I also attend the Leaseholders' Panel which liaises with City South Manchester or leaseholders' issues. I bought my flat in Hornchurch Court several years ago once it was evident that the whole block was about to be privatised. This has since taken place - a classic bit of neoliberalism as the whole of Hulme's council housing stock was handed over to a corporate entity at a bargain basement price in order to hide public debt from the public accounts. This was a shameful episode which should have been fought against by Labour not carried out by them!
I am a busy, hard-working lecturer and it would be a big change for me to become a local councillor (a "part-time" post that pays £18,000 per annum), but I'd like to think that I'd do a bloody good job. Certainly, I'd do a better job than the Labour party wannabes that we have currently representing us. Although I regard Mary Murphy as a cut above the other two, they generally have zero prospect of influencing the "Labour machine" which runs Manchester like a fiefdom.
I am the Environment Rep for the UCU lecturers' union at Manchester College. Sadly one of the first things I will be doing this year will be to go on strike as we are trying to save the union from being crushed by a particularly ruthless management. I take no pleasure from conflicts such as this, but at the same time I am willing to stand up to bullies and what I like to call "F-GAS" (the Forces of Greed and Selfishness).
In Hulme and elsewhere we desperately need Green Party representatives who can really advance a Green agenda where it counts - in council chambers, in Parliament, within local groups and public forums. Hulme is the only place in Manchester which has previously elected a Green candidate to office, and last year we were just 50 votes short after Labour really pulled out the stops and maximised their postal votes. We only need 25 of these voters to switch to us and we can overturn this result in 2010. Electing a Green again in Hulme will send out a clear message to the major parties that we demand a new approach to politics, before it's too late for us all.
If I am not going to be that candidate then I'll be delighted to throw my full energy behind Steve Durrant's campaign, as I have done in the past.
Many people will know me from the Hulme Residents Online Group (HROG), where I'm a frequent contributor (if you've not already joined then please do so). Through this forum, for instance, some Hulme residents are attempting to coordinate opposition to MMU's plans to destroy the last vestiges of open green space that helps to keep us sane. I am convinced that the primary motivation behind these plans is greed. The uni will be vacating some marvellous listed buildings in Didsbury when they move to the Birley Fields campus, and these buildings will be sold to developers to be converted into private accommodation and fat, juicy profits. Just as we have recently seen in Blackpool with a Tory Council, here in Manchester we have an entrenched Labour hierarchy that has developed cosy relations with developers. The result is the same - the steady erosion of green space. The residents lose out every time.
Please attend the Hulme Alliance meeting on Monday 7th September at the Claremont Centre, which I'll also be attending. We need to get this ball rolling...
thanks for reading. Regards and best wishes, Nigel.
I've lived in Hornchurch Court since1992 and I've been the Secretary of our residents' association since it first started up more than five years ago. Many people locally know me as someone who is always quick with a joke but who takes politics and life seriously. I am lucky in having a job that I love, which is teaching Politics and Sociology A-levels at the Shena Simon campus in the city centre.
I share with many others a great dismay at the abandonment of principles by New Labour, having canvassed for the Labour Party back in the 1980s - when it was still a socialist party! It is regrettable that Labour has been hijacked by neoliberals and I can't work out why ANYONE would still want to vote for them. Except of course for three dreadful words: "The Tory Party". This lot will make new Labour look like... well, OLD LABOUR, I guess, given their total lack of principles. They will say anything, promise nothing and deliver even less. Under our lousy electoral system (first-past-the-post, or FPTP) every election is a two-horse race between the Big Two - so in this respect I can understand why people vote Labour out of sheer desperation.
So reforming the electoral system is a key issue - we need to ditch FPTP ASAP which is why I'm backing calls for a referendum on introducing some form of PR - see http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/ and sign up for free. I've just joined this week.
In the recent past I've been involved in the Save Birley Fields campaign, which is now entering its final phase, so it seems. I also attend the Leaseholders' Panel which liaises with City South Manchester or leaseholders' issues. I bought my flat in Hornchurch Court several years ago once it was evident that the whole block was about to be privatised. This has since taken place - a classic bit of neoliberalism as the whole of Hulme's council housing stock was handed over to a corporate entity at a bargain basement price in order to hide public debt from the public accounts. This was a shameful episode which should have been fought against by Labour not carried out by them!
I am a busy, hard-working lecturer and it would be a big change for me to become a local councillor (a "part-time" post that pays £18,000 per annum), but I'd like to think that I'd do a bloody good job. Certainly, I'd do a better job than the Labour party wannabes that we have currently representing us. Although I regard Mary Murphy as a cut above the other two, they generally have zero prospect of influencing the "Labour machine" which runs Manchester like a fiefdom.
I am the Environment Rep for the UCU lecturers' union at Manchester College. Sadly one of the first things I will be doing this year will be to go on strike as we are trying to save the union from being crushed by a particularly ruthless management. I take no pleasure from conflicts such as this, but at the same time I am willing to stand up to bullies and what I like to call "F-GAS" (the Forces of Greed and Selfishness).
In Hulme and elsewhere we desperately need Green Party representatives who can really advance a Green agenda where it counts - in council chambers, in Parliament, within local groups and public forums. Hulme is the only place in Manchester which has previously elected a Green candidate to office, and last year we were just 50 votes short after Labour really pulled out the stops and maximised their postal votes. We only need 25 of these voters to switch to us and we can overturn this result in 2010. Electing a Green again in Hulme will send out a clear message to the major parties that we demand a new approach to politics, before it's too late for us all.
If I am not going to be that candidate then I'll be delighted to throw my full energy behind Steve Durrant's campaign, as I have done in the past.
Many people will know me from the Hulme Residents Online Group (HROG), where I'm a frequent contributor (if you've not already joined then please do so). Through this forum, for instance, some Hulme residents are attempting to coordinate opposition to MMU's plans to destroy the last vestiges of open green space that helps to keep us sane. I am convinced that the primary motivation behind these plans is greed. The uni will be vacating some marvellous listed buildings in Didsbury when they move to the Birley Fields campus, and these buildings will be sold to developers to be converted into private accommodation and fat, juicy profits. Just as we have recently seen in Blackpool with a Tory Council, here in Manchester we have an entrenched Labour hierarchy that has developed cosy relations with developers. The result is the same - the steady erosion of green space. The residents lose out every time.
Please attend the Hulme Alliance meeting on Monday 7th September at the Claremont Centre, which I'll also be attending. We need to get this ball rolling...
thanks for reading. Regards and best wishes, Nigel.
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