What's (Still) Going On ?

The sign of a truly great album is if it stands the test of time and Marvin Gaye’s, "What’s Going On" certainly does that. It’s still as meaningful in 2013 as it was in 1971 it also seems to be even more relevant today.

It’s a truly brilliant album, my problem is, it’s over 40 years old and the same problems the album raises still exist throughout the world today and in most cases, are now even worse.

How It Was

The late '60s and early '70s in America were marked by great unrest: the race riots, the Vietnam War, economic slowdown, social deprivation in the cities: all hitting communities in America hard. Sound familiar ???

Inspired by his brother's return from Vietnam, Gaye ignored the love songs that all the other Motown artists were recording, and wrote about the things in life that he cared about at the time.

From the joyous but hugely political opener, gradually the concept of the album takes shape. What follows is a velvet soul voice in the same league as Sam Cooke and a concept album of songs which don't just hang together they are vice like in their tightness and solidity. The wonders of songs such as ‘Flying High in a Friendly sky’, ‘Mercy Mercy Me’ and ‘Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)’; the street talk and the overt social concerns make this Gaye's immortal testament to the tragedy which ultimately engulfed his own life.

Some have described the album as a 'black American' album. Listen again, you will not hear the word 'black' once! This is not one of the 70's 'Blaxploitation albums like those of Curtis Mayfield. What's Going On speaks to all of humanity, like great art should. The concept is timeless.

Those Tracks

The title track is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. ‘What's Going On’ details the futility of war (especially with the famous line "You see, war is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate"). It is as relevant today as it was when it was written, the difference is Vietnam now equates to Iraq or Afghanistan.

‘Flyin' High’ covers the perils of drug addiction. Even more prevalent today !

‘Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)’ is about the worsening environmental situation back in the Seventies. With the current, continued growing concerns about pollution and global warming, 'Mercy Mercy Me ' could easily have been written today.

The devastatingly poignant 'Save The Children' is deeply profound, reflecting on our rapidly deteriorating climate and desperate, abandoned children in the world.

‘Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)’ could be seen as a low on the album. It deals with the miserable life lead by many within the cities. The subject matter is certainly very bleak, with seemingly little hope of salvation, represented by the howls of genuine anguish within ‘Inner City Blues’. Yet for Gaye, all is not lost: for love offers us some hope for the future in addressing these problems.

That theme is particularly strong in not only the title track, but also in ‘God Is Love’ and ‘Right On’. To quote the latter, "Love can conquer hate every time, give out some love and you'll find peace sublime": a powerful, universal message to societies all over the world, all still facing the same problems, all with a chance of redemption.

Moods 

The album operates on two levels, you can listen to it and it’ll lift you up to a better place, it can also have the opposite effect. The music can be sad and mournful too, the lyrics seemingly looking up into the sky, pleading for some kind of redemption for mankind. And given what happened some 13 years later, it is almost painful to hear him sing lines like “Love your father” and “Father father, we don't need to escalate.”

What's the Relevance Today

The old social problems have not gone away, and are unlikely to; what is more, we now have to deal with Afghanistan, Iraq and maybe Syria, in the same way Gaye's America had to deal with Vietnam. Deep down, we all know that if we could replace hate with love, the world would be a much better place. Therefore, one can consider this album not just as a product of the early seventies, but as a product for all time.

Some of the religious imagery conjured up by songs such as ‘Save The Children’, ‘God Is Love’ and ‘Wholy Holy’ may, of course, appear today as somewhat dated, not to say hopelessly optimistic, particularly in the context of the general direction of today's equivalent urban R&B music, but on the other hand, it could also be argued that their message is now even more relevant (though probably no less unattainable).

Certainly, the radical content of the album's masterpieces, the title song, with its anti-Vietnam and oppression sentiment (“Picket lines and picket signs, don't punish me with brutality”); ‘Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)’, with its self-explanatory view on world pollution and the crime/police vicious circle expounded upon in ‘Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)’ all still resonate with many people today.

Truly a Landmark Album

What’s Going On is a landmark album not only of its generation but one of current and future generations. It’s up there with the best of all time. It should be mentioned in the same breath as Pet Sounds, Innervisions, London Calling, Revolver, Dark Side of the Moon etc. as a landmark production.

The feel of the album is mind-blowing, the first time I listened to the album on my own I was transported to another place. From the first note to the last I was gripped, its beauty is undeniable; it’s more than an album, it’s a feeling. It should be preached to the masses as a tool to prevent war and hatred, No one after listening to this could harm another human being.

Simply, this isn't just music and it's certainly no ordinary album. It's a template for how we should all live our lives and no music collection whatever your tastes, should be without it!

So Prophetic

Don’t forget what a scarily prophetic album What's Going On really is. It just get better and more relevant with age, the youth of today should listen to it, learn from it, violence and hate is not the answer.

To think that it is over 40 years old, to me it sounds fresher and more vital than most of the bland R&B that is being offered up today, it's overtly political messages still blow me away.

What’s really sad about What’s Going On though is the fact that it IS so relevant today, yes technology has advanced and created a new world since 1971, but the fundamental wrongs in this world are all, sadly still there.

Stagecoach in Warrington? Hopefully !

Locally in Warrington we have, what is now a rarity, something most town's had but now very few still do. Our local buses are still publicly owned and run by the local council. Over the years the network has had it's ups and downs, including the 'Bus Wars' of the 90's. however lately it appears to have had far more downs than ups.

Bail-Out

Last month it became clear that Network Warrington (by which name the bus company goes) was being bailed out by us, the council tax payers to a substantial six figure tune. It was published in the local press that the Councillors discussed the move behind closed doors in the Town Hall and the actual sum of the loan has been kept secret. 

!!! How very undemocratic of our elected representatives !!!

The council say the matter included commercially sensitive material which could not be discussed in public. This is political speak for "if the public found out the true details, there would be a public outcry and we'd be voted out next election". So much for transparent local government. It's good of the councillors to consider the electorate, after all we wouldn't want to be worried about how our council taxes are spent, would we?

One local councillor came out with the line "Most bus companies are seeing passenger numbers dropping off a cliff and are going through difficult times. We value a municipal service and we are helping them out". So what they're saying is that in order to keep it 'municipal' our council tax money will be thrown off the proverbial cliff with the passenger numbers.

This secret, internal 'deal' that's been done is in addition to the Council already having taken over the deficit of Network Warrington's pension scheme a few years ago.

How did it end up this way ?

Yes, the current economic climate is difficult to operate in with rising fuel costs and the reduction in recompense for concessionary bus pass holders. But these aren't the only reasons.

In recent years, there have been a number of senior management changes within Network Warrington. Unfortunately, these changes seem to have been for the worse and it is now reflecting in the business itself.  I believe the current management have overstretched themselves over the past few years by spending excessive amounts of money where it wasn't necessary and by restructuring the management in a way that wasn't beneficial to the business. 

Warrington Council hasn't particularly helped Network Warrington. The Council manages the bus station where screens are often wrong and there are three different times displayed depending which clock you look at, misleading at best. The Council can't even put bus stops on both sides of the road in some areas simply putting a sticker on the opposite one saying both sides, or not bothering at all leaving people to guess where is safe and proper to wait. The Council hasn't made it easy by letting tenders for school contracts to other companies. On top of all this, buses are often dirty; Sunday evening services were recently withdrawn; need I go on ?

So Keep or Sell ?

Bearing in mind, Warrington Council recently agreed it's own budget for 2013 which included cuts of £15 Million can we really maintain the folly of owning our own bus company just to keep it 'municipal' and in the hope it might be profitable again one day ?

My answer is a firm 'NO'. The £15 Million cut in Council spending must be negated by selling off Network Warrington to the private sector as almost every other local authority has already done.

Why should the people of Warrington continue to pour money down the drain carrying the burden and all the associated risks of running a bus company. Now is the time to cut our losses, we should sell Network Warrington off to the highest bidder. Monies received should then be re-invested in the very real and necessary front-line services that are now being cut to pay for the buses.

Is It Worth £15 Million and will it sell ?

Probably. Earlier in the year, Stagecoach purchased First Buses Wigan operation for £12 Million. This included staff, a depot, bus station and 120 Buses. Network Warrington is slightly larger than this and has a much more modern fleet of vehicles than First had at Wigan. Network Warrington also has a far larger network allowing any operator that takes it over to grow into other parts of Cheshire. So 'YES' £15 Million should be easily achievable. 

Will it sell? Well going off the amount of buying and selling deals being done amongst bus companies in the last six months, I'd say 'yes' it would sell quite easily. My preference would be to a business like Stagecoach who appear to continually invest heavily in new vehicles and have high standards of customer service.  

Selling benefits all Warrington people

Take a look at a bus going past and count the passengers, usually you won't need more than two hands and there we have the very reason as to why our Council Tax shouldn't be used to bail out a failed business. 

Let the private sector take on the financial risk and let us spend the money we make on things that'll benefit ALL Warrington people not just the 10 people (or less) on the bus that just went past.

Marketing Terrorism for Terrorists

We’ve all recently witnessed the shocking, savage murder on the streets of Woolwich of our brave soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby. With technology as it is these days, it was inevitable that the images and words spoken would be broadcast across social media channels. To anyone who’s fully aware of social media and what happens there, this was no shock. What was a shock was the sheer enthusiasm and glee with which both the publish and broadcast media went about telling us.

First thing to bear in mind is that they were perfectly happy to show, what was then an un-identified body lying in the street following the attack. How this ultimately made the victim’s family feel, as they will inevitably have seen these images we may never know. Should the likes of the BBC have shown this footage whilst Lee remained unidentified? Personally, if that was my son, I’d have to say NO.

Then we have, for me, the most shocking action of the media, the broadcasting of the murderer covered in blood with a knife in his hand explaining to us all why he did it. He said he carried out the attack because British soldiers killed Muslims every day. He then came out with "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you." and “We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." All this is doing is giving terrorists the publicity they crave. Interestingly, if he’d said the word “fucking” in the middle of his rant the BBC would have bleeped that out in case it offended us !! And thats what wrong with us today !

The BBC then excelled themselves by allowing the radical Islamist preacher Mr Choudary to appear on Newsnight on Thursday.  Mr Choudary said Mr Adebolajo had made comments that "I think not many Muslims can disagree with", he was asked on several occasions by presenter Kirsty Wark whether he "abhorred" what had happened in Woolwich but instead he said he was "shocked" by what had happened. He also said: "One man killed in the street does not equate to the hundreds and thousands and millions, in fact, who've been slaughtered by the British and American foreign policy."

Yes we have free speech in the UK but that tends to be one way. You can say what you want providing you don't offend anyone, well Mr Choudary and the murderers both offend me and (I suspect) the British population in general considerably.

All of this 'free speech'  continues to give more and more free publicity to the radicalist cause.

Why Should We Allow It ?

Remember Margaret Thatcher's desire to starve terrorists of the "oxygen of publicity"?

Our former PM's remark was a precursor to the Tories' broadcasting ban in the late 1980s that prevented supporters of the Provisional IRA in Sinn Féin – or indeed loyalists – from talking freely on the UK's airwaves. The thinking behind this prohibition was that terrorist groups were exploiting the broadcasters, that the enemies of democracy were subverting the system by harnessing a key tenet of democracy – a free, open media.

Maybe we should be looking at imposing this again !!!

#HS2 : A Conflict Of Interest ?

I've found myself in a strange position over the HS2 issue. I think its a great opportunity for my industry (the much beleaguered construction industry), however, putting my taxpayers head on, I feel its a complete waste of money with no proven business case to back it up. So do I get behind it and give it my whole support or do I oppose it. 

There are pro's and con's with each argument but they're not necessarily balanced.

And It's Good Because ?

From my point of view if it were to be built it would create many, many jobs in the civil engineering and construction industries. It will make very successful careers for consultants, designers, architects, and other engineers.

  

HS2 is about capacity as much as about speed. In theory if we can reduce internal flights and replace them with faster, higher capacity rail, routes while also providing more capacity on local & commuter rail routes then this would be a win/win for UK transport. Though this would only be really successful if the rail fares were also reduced. Despite the complaints people have about the current network, in general, more and more people are using it every year. Combined with a growing population, sooner or later the current routes will need a step increase in capacity, can this not be done by upgrading what we already have though ? Probably !

The construction industry is constantly being forced to innovate and do things quicker. So if we were to build HS2, why does it have to take so long. There's too much faffing about in this country with new construction schemes, hurry up and build them, if we didn't consult for 20 years on them, we could have made the money spent on them back by now. China or Japan would build HS2 in 2 years. If we're doing it just get on with it or we will lose out to other nations who do get on with things.

I reserve judgement on the scale of economic development being trumpeted by supporters as nobody can be certain about this. Overall though HS2 will deliver a fast, very efficient service to the public bringing improvements to current journey times.

But The Downside Is ...

The economic argument cannot be proven, the recent National Audit Office report amply demonstrated this. There is no business case for HS2.

This proposal will obviously not help the long term UK economy, especially the North. There is an argument that it will bring prosperity to the North, however all you have to look at is the high speed link built recently in Spain to Madrid. Did it benefit their north? No, all it did was bring commuters into Madrid. The same thing will happen here, it won't regenerate the North, it will merely continue sucking talent to London.

In an age when travel for business isn't as necessary, why is HS2 being heavily aimed at the business community? Businesses are now investing in video and telephone conferencing technology to ensure their staff don't spend hours sat, unproductively on trains. The firm I work for have done just that and we now have a mandate not to travel, we now even need director approval to spend money on travelling. Three years ago this wasn't the case, I attended meetings in London on a weekly basis, all that's now been banned as technology has taken over.

HS2 is paid for by public money, where is this coming from as last time I looked, we were broke? If HS2 has such a compelling business case, why aren't the private sector queuing up to build it and take the risk? If we have £40bn+ of public money to spare shouldn't we use it to reduce the national debt? The M6 Toll Road reduces travelling time however the operator has never made a profit because not enough are using it, only a few want to pay an inflated price for such a small journey. HS2 is going to be the same failure but on a larger scale and with public money.

Don't forget either that we privatised our railways twenty years ago. Why therefore, should the taxpayer pay for railways to be built so that private companies can run them at a profit? I thought capitalism was about private investors taking a risk with their money in the hope of making a profit. With railways it seems they take no risk and have guaranteed profits.

Finally there is the disruption HS2 will cause to tens of thousands of lives both during its construction and afterwards. People who will gain no benefits whatsoever from HS2 will be forced out of their homes and made to live somewhere else. The first bout of compensation claims are already proving problematic to the government as they're not offering reasonable rates to move. There's a bigger local picture however, its not about money, its about destroying communities, its about dividing villages, its about peoples livelihoods being decimated as the line drives through businesses built up over many years. Supporters of HS2 continually call those who adopt this local opposition as NIMBY in much the same way as New Labour used to refer to anyone who questioned their immigration policy as RACIST. These supporters are also the ones who aren't having a railway line driven through their kitchen.

So Where Do I Stand ?

Personally, I think HS2 is a waste of money, a fabulous showpiece yes, a brilliant project for engineers yes, but ultimately the tax payer will lose out, local communities and businesses on the route will lose out, few will benefit.

The majority of public opinion seems to be weighed towards upgrading existing infrastructure and seeing existing ticket prices reduced. Supporters and the Government are trying to hypnotize the public with the empty promise of faster trains and shorter times etc. However the traveling public don't want mega speeds - they want a train to turn up when planned, provide them with a seat and then get them to their destination on time.

HS2 is clearly a vanity project of the politicians, providing billions to their developer mates. For the National Audit Office to see no benefit is damming, there should be huge overwhelming benefit. Rail needs huge price reductions not greater speed. Capacity may be an issue I accept, however that should be addressed in far simpler wider spread means.

So we should keep our Victorian railways for another 100 years should we? That's effectively what HS2 supporters are saying. Yes, our current railways are aging and overcrowded, we do need to update and upgrade. But HS2 is not the way to do it. Projects like the Manchester Hub are the way forward to increase capacity. We should look at providing new or alternative routes by examining those closed by Dr Beeching in the sixties, re-opening these will be far cheaper than the £40billion (and growing) that HS2 will cost. Alternatively, re-open these routes for freight traffic and get them off the main lines. Going down this route will open the railways up to far more communities and benefit far far more people than a very expensive HS2 ever will.

HS2 is in danger of being the UK's Concorde for the 21st Century. A world leading, high tech,  but very expensive product that only the elite will ever be able to afford to use.

Never Believe Labour And The Do-Gooders

Manchester City Council have recently announced a £54m plan to improve bus and cycle links across the city. Now whether in a boom or a recession, £54 million is a lot of money for some bus and cycle lanes. However in the last couple of years we’ve also seen massive investment in Manchester’s general transport infrastructure with more to come. This investment (all from the public coffers) now includes :

• £1.5bn of Metrolink extensions to Oldham, Rochdale, East Didsbury, Manchester Airport and Ashton-under-Lyne
• The Manchester Hub and Ordsall Chord  c£620million
• A major rail electrification programme in the region £197million
• Electrification of the Trans-Pennine rail route £272 million
• The Leigh to Manchester busway. £76 million
• New transport interchanges at Rochdale, Wythenshawe and Bolton £100 million
• HS2 extension to Manchester £5.4 billion (just the Manchester bit)

 This is only the major capital investments and doesn’t include the £300m subsidies Transport For Greater Manchester receives for a multitude of things.

The whole lot comes to more than a whopping £8 Billion of investment in Manchester’s transport infrastructure by the Coalition Government. Fabulous ! About time we got some serious investment in the region.

If Labour had had their way we’d have had none of it

In 2008 The Labour Government gave the green light to Greater Manchester's £3bn plan to revolutionise public transport, but only if a controversial congestion charge scheme was introduced.

Consultation was carried out, maps produced showing the zones where you’d have to pay, major scare-mongery started about Manchester dying as a city if the investment didn’t happen. A poll in June 2008 indicated the majority of people were (surprise surprise) against a congestion charge. So a referendum of the Greater Manchester people was announced that would be held in December 2008.   

The C-Charge campaign kicked off in September. This was when the do-gooders, the greens and the left seriously mobilised. Dirty tricks campaigns abounded. Claims were made that the ‘Yes’ campaigners were misleading people. Big business mobilized against it, including Kellogs who were accused of encouraging their employees to 'cut and paste' reasons to object to the controversial scheme from a anti-charge campaign website and send them in to object.

Further controversy involved the revelation that on top of the cost of all the consultants paid to mastermind the scheme, the man in charge of the referendum was being paid up to £600 a day. Sir Neil McIntosh, who eventually over saw the count and came up with the referendum wording, would also get a flat fee of £10,000 after the votes were counted on December 12.

The up-shot of it all was the people spoke with a resounding ‘NO’, Turnout figures were 53.2% with 78.8% saying no. Local Labour politicians slammed the result.  

Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council said: "This was the ONLY opportunity to get £3billion of investment in public transport over the next five years and 10,000 jobs to go with it. So far nobody has been able to put forward a credible alternative to get those levels of investment.”

Labour’s, Lord Peter Smith, (chairman of Association of Greater Manchester Authorities) said the results were “very clear”. He added: “This is not just a vote no for congestion charging, it’s a vote no to improvements on the trams railways and buses and there will now be no improvements."

But That Wasn’t The End Of It !!!

Within 18 months Gordon Brown and his bullying Labour Government was out of office, low and behold all the investment they denied us was addressed and more beside. As we can see by the schemes above, it’s all happening now.

The up-shot is, can anyone really trust a political party that spent a fortune promising THEIR voters, in THEIR heartland that they’d only invest in THEIR region if the voters themselves stumped up THEIR cash. And if they didn’t they’d get nothing. History says otherwise.

How Emcor Taking It's Teddy Home Is Linked To UKIP

Having worked in the construction industry for nearly 30 years, it’s been sad to see the rapid decline of its building services sector. Last week brought the news that yet another building services specialist will be no more.

Over the last year or so the North West has seen long established, profitable businesses cease trading such as:

• Farebrother Engineering
• T Jolly Building Services
• Cross Services
• Barratt Electrical
• Airedale
• MJN Colston

Rotary Engineering also saw its profitable parts sold off to Lorne Stewart with the remainder closed down. We have since seen larger multi-million turnover national and international organizations such as Mitie Engineering and now EMCOR throwing in the towel, choosing to withdraw themselves and their employees from the industry.

With the latest news from EMCOR, it is sad to see yet more jobs about to be lost in the UK construction industry, it is part of a bigger picture. This involves our major building services companies devouring, big projects, big money and big profits during the good times. With the economy hitting the wall they either failed to adjust to the new market, going under, or petulantly left the market altogether, taking their teddy home with them.

This mirrors the economy as a whole whereby during the good times, Blair and then Brown’s governments spent money in abundance without putting anything in reserve for a rainy day, remember the note left by the Lord Chancellor ‘Sorry, there’s no money left’. Three years later and the country is now struggling to re-invent itself and create growth by continuing to do what we’ve always done, we think the good times will come back just like they were, trust me, they won’t. Not without a sea change in direction. 

After recession hit, the building services sector’s major clients, the main contractors were busy saving their own necks by reverting to type. During the good times, just as the government wished, they were happy to indulge in collaborative relationships and partnering as the profits came with it. But now, (as with the government), it’s the race to the bottom line, risks being taken on margin and particularly prime cost where they rely on the specialist supply chain and the SME’s they employ. We’re also seeing the ‘Its better in my bank that yours’ attitude returning with payment terms evidenced by the likes of Carillion increasing their payment terms to 120 days (4 months !!) and you have to pay them if you want YOUR money sooner.      

So what does the building services industry need to do to get back on track? Well for a start it has to wake up and lose it’s “we’ve always done it that way” attitude. It needs to diversify; be innovative; and do things differently. It needs to look to new markets and new technologies. Technology is progressing at a rapid rate of knots, embrace it, invest in BIM (it isn’t going away); get into new sectors such as IT, energy and infrastructure. 

Building services contractors need to go out and get their own clients rather than hanging off the tails of the main contractors. On a heavily serviced or infrastructure scheme why can’t the building services contractor be the principal contractor in their own right?

The main contractor market isn’t going to go away, but, however difficult it may seem, the whole supply chain and the SME’s need to collectively resist the poor treatment they receive.  They need to create changes that will benefit the whole industry, not just their own organization. Similarly, the government needs to show its teeth and put its money where its mouth is by insisting 4 month payment terms are not acceptable and legislate accordingly.

And the UK? Well the analogies are similar; we need to be in new markets and new technologies. We need to be going out and getting our own trade throughout the world. We need to resist the poor treatment we receive from our neighbours and show our teeth to greedy self-serving organizations. We need to maintain the service industries that are good for the UK finances whilst going back to what we were, world leaders in – manufacturing. However this can’t be in the old heavy industry where we can’t compete but in new bio-sciences and innovative technologies (such as graphine) where we can still lead the world.

All this can only truly happen with an exit from the EU, an unelected organization that is slowly dictating to us everything we do, yet it costs us millions on a daily basis. Yes, half our exports are currently to EU countries, and if the quality and price is right this won’t stop with our exit. There are many growing markets around the world that we need to be investing in instead of throwing our money away to the EU and getting nothing back. It’s hard to believe that nobody born since 1957 has had a say in whether we are in the EU or not, the over 58s had a referendum but that was for the ‘Common Market’ not the money draining, dictating gravy train we have now.

Both the building services industry and the country need to stop looking back with rose tinted glasses. We both need to wake up and smell the new money that’s out there if we’re prepared to re-invent ourselves and change. For the UK that comes with an in/out EU Referendum now.