HOW would it be if all religions were banned from taking any part in public life – if religion was limited to something done in private between consenting adults?
Don’t get me wrong; I would not want to tell people what to believe or not to believe. Whether you want to put your faith in crystals or Christ, Mohammed or the moon goddess, Wicca or Wesley, Moses or the Moonies, should always be a matter between you and your particular level of gullibility.
What faith should never be able to do is influence public policy, because as soon as that happens decisions cease to be taken that deal with the proven needs of real people and they are, instead, based on the beliefs of those in power.
At its most frightening this is seen in America where a President can say that God told him to invade another country and not only does he escape being certified, he is allowed to remain in power, despite 650,000 civilian casualties in Iraq
Other religious fanatics were equally sure that God told them to fly aircraft into the Twin Towers and those caught up in that particular set of superstitions felt it acceptable to kill more innocents on London and Madrid’s public transport systems.
And all based on nothing more than belief, faith without fact, the breeding ground of the bigot and the bully.
Belief without any proof - other than a wide range of ‘holy’ books and scriptures that also lack any scientific credibility – is what has given us the Christian support of slavery, the Muslim jihads and the Inquisition.
Today we can list other crimes; the Vatican assisting the spread of AIDs in Africa and elsewhere by insisting that condoms did not act to prevent transmission of the disease and the persecution of Muslims in Palestine by a religious government in Israel.
Yet we still allow religion to play a part in public life. Does anyone doubt that even the modest reform of insisting that new faith schools should take a quarter of their intake from no faith members was abandoned because of the private religious beliefs of Tony Blair and his cabinet ministers like the arch Catholic Opus Dei member Ruth Kelly?
Blair puts his faith in faith schools when all the evidence is that they perpetuate division and lack of understanding – and that applies to the all-white rural Church of England primary and the Muslim ghetto secondary.
Why does he do it? Because he is a man with the ability to have faith and apparently keeps a bible by his bed. That is another way of saying he can believe in things that are not proven or provable by science – ranging from Christianity to weapons of mass destruction, apparently.
What would we lose if religion and superstition were banned from public bodies? No faith schools would mean the taxpayer forking out bit more, but the end of religious assemblies and religious education would give more time for real subjects.
It would mean dumping all that ‘defender of the faith(s)’ stuff from the titles of monarchy and probably the loss of Songs of Praise.
There would be no need for blasphemy laws, we would all be able to be as rude about each other’s religions as we liked, and our lawmakers and judges would be able to make and enforce laws without the intrusion of religious belief.
Of course, we might have to get the politicians, teachers and judges to swear an oath that they would not allow their personal belief system to affect their work – and the efficacy of that oath would depend on their level of personal belief and honesty.
On the plus side every cleric or believer who complained about insults to their faith, be it Jerry Springer The Opera, a play set in a mosque, the wearing of religious symbols or clothes or the lack of broadcast time for witches, could all be told the same thing – none of our business.
Squabbles between believers and non-believers should be relegated to those arenas attended by those interested in such superstitions, not given the gravitas of public policies.
In this country the superstitious have even gained a foothold in the science of medicine, where so-called alternative therapies are getting credence in the NHS without the same strict testing that proper medical procedures and drugs have to undergo.
Why? I suspect it is because the politicians are afraid of alienating the crystal gazers and acupuncturists just as they are of upsetting believers in other spheres.
The sad fact for such people is that believing in something doesn’t make it so. In our public life we ought to have a simple motto to deal with such beliefs – Prove it or we will ignore it.
Wednesday, 25 April 2007
Canal threat to regeneration
REGENERATION schemes across Greater Manchester worth hundreds of millions of pounds could be damaged - thanks to what one Labour ex-minister describes as ‘an almighty cock up’ and ‘criminal irresponsibility’ by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs over the handling of subsidies to farmers.
The link between a rural scandal and a threat to the rebuilding of depressed city areas comes because Defra has decided to raid the grants it makes to its client organisations.
One of those is British Waterways which faces seeing £70m ripped from its budget to help make up for Defra’s £200m shortfall - caused by what Labour MP Michael Meacher says is ‘criminal irresponsibility’ over the handling of £1.5bn of European farm subsidies.
As a result, hundreds of miles of canals are now facing neglect and possible closure – especially the recently re-opened Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow canals as well as the Ashton and Peak Forest canals.
In Manchester those canals are key to major regeneration schemes including hundreds of millions being spent in East Manchester where canals are so important they have even built the first new one for 250 years – a short stretch linking the Rochdale and the Ashton canals.
Despite intense pressure for silent compliance from Defra, British Waterways will unattributably brief anyone who will listen that the budget cuts will leave them unable to keep canals maintained and a catastrophic incident could soon close vulnerable canals completely, as they would no longer have the money for repairs.
The Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow canals are particularly susceptible as they were reopened on a shoestring and are in a fragile state. The Rochdale has only recently reopened for a second time after a £2m, 18-month long, repair - just the sort of problem that could close it completely in the future.
Defra’s decision has left many of the region’s MPs fuming and Michael Meacher, who has the Rochdale Canal passing through his Oldham constituency is organising a deputation of regional MPs to Barry Gardiner the junior minister who has responsibility for waterways at Defra.
Tony Lloyd, the Labour MP whose central Manchester constituency includes the massive East Manchester regeneration area describes the canals as the ‘blue lung’ of the city.
“If this goes ahead we are likely to see the canals become inadequately maintained then restricted or closed. That is just not a direction we ought to be going in.”
He believes such a development would ‘tarnish the regeneration effort’ making it less than it could be.
“It is not just New Islington that needs the canals, it is the council estates further out. I don’t want to go back to the days when people were afraid to walk along the canal bank.
“The Manchester canals are some of the jewels in Defra’s crown and it doesn’t cost much to keep it polished.”
Tameside Labour MP, David Heyes said: “I have four canals in my constituency. It really makes no sense to have invested so heavily in refurbishing all these canals in recent years and for that investment to be - potentially - at risk.
“Many of the economic development aims for the constituency are being promoted and marketed around the attractions of their waterside locations. This is certainly true in Failsworth, Hollinwood, Droylsden and town centre Ashton.
“To lose those benefits in some of our least prosperous urban locations would be a real irony if it is to compensate for a cock-up in paying farm subsidies to what are often the most prosperous rural areas.”
There is cross-party support and Rochdale’s Liberal MP Paul Rowen is demanding a meeting with Defra Secretary of State David Milliband, “to discuss exactly why British Waterways have had their grant cut and I want a firm assurance that Rochdale Canal will not be under threat.
“It is not acceptable that one of the jewels in Rochdale’s crown is threatened in this way.”
Michael Meacher wants to know why the Defra has not sacked the civil servants responsible for the “almighty cock-up” over subsidy payments.
He said: “It is not acceptable there should be any cuts in British Waterways budget. It is completely indefensible and inequitable that our flagship policy of urban regeneration around canals should be affected.
“This is vandalism and I will be asking Barry Gardiner to accept a delegation of MPs from the areas affected and asking him to explain himself.”
In Tameside, Labour councillor Kieran Quinn, who has responsibility for regeneration, said: “Stalybridge has been transformed from a sleepy town to an exciting commercial centre by regeneration around the canal and we know that a living canal brings social regeneration as well.
“We also see the same thing happening at Droylsden where a whole redevelopment is to happen around the canal. If we don’t have a open and useable canal people will look at the whole scheme differently.
“We support British Waterways to retain their grant in full and we will be lobbying Defra and the Treasury.”
Leader of Oldham Council, Councillor David Jones said: “We see the Rochdale Canal as central to the continued redevelopment of Chadderton and Failsworth centres. We will be seeking an urgent meeting with British Waterways to discuss the current situation and to try to resolve theses issues.“
It is ironic that just a few weeks earlier John Prescott’s farewell speech in the Labour conference in Manchester hailed the fact that the canals in the city has ‘become major engines of urban regeneration’ as one of the successes of his reign at the top of Defra.
Now Defra is hacking £9m from the already allocated British Waterways budget for this year and telling Chief Executive Robin Evans that he has to budget for cuts of £12m a year for the next five years under the Comprehensive Spending Review being considered by Cabinet in the coming months.
The draconian cuts this year have already meant vital maintenance work for this winter has been cancelled on British Waterways’ 2,200 miles of navigable canals and rivers. Eugene Baston, of British Waterways, said: " If we can't maintain the waterways, we can't keep them open.”
Bolton based John Fletcher is National Chairman of The Inland Waterways Association and heads up the efforts to reopen the disused Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal – planned to be a vital catalyst in the regeneration of much of Salford.
He said: “The next few years could reverse all the progress of the last ten years and the Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow canals are especially vulnerable because they are fragile and there will be no funds to repair and re-open them if something expensive goes wrong – and that could happen tomorrow.
“British Waterways and the other partners could even be compelled to repay the lottery grants if the canals are not kept open and that could bankrupt the whole organisation.
“It is ridiculous that this should be put at risk because Defra cannot pay farmers on time. It seems that they are less fit for purpose than the Home Office.”
Restored canals are now seen as the engine of regeneration. Much of the redevelopment of inner city East Manchester is built around the canal system, with Urban Splash’s remarkable new CHIPS building to be constructed along side a new canal, linking the Ashton with the Rochdale soon after they split, rising out of the city centre.
The reopening of the Huddersfield Narrow and Rochdale canals has already brought new development in places like Stalybridge, Failsworth and Mossley, with more to come.
There seems no limit to the investment that working canals can attract.
Work has started to build a new £25m canal-side marina in Greenfield, in Oldham featuring luxury homes, offices, shops, restaurants and bars.
It is in East Manchester that Urban Splash is a key player in the New Islington development and Nick Johnson, Deputy Chief Executive, said: “I don’t think it will affect the decision to go ahead with the East Manchester regeneration, but I am disappointed.
“It is very frustrating if the effect is to close parts of the waterways down. Fully 85 per cent of our developments are next to water because we believe that brings something quite special.
“The whole concept of New Islington has been built around creating a community that includes people living on and working from boats.
“If the canals are closed we lose one of the dimensions of the development at New Islington which is important to the whole regeneration.
“It is rooted in tradition and the canals are part of rebuilding a sustainable community.
“Government sometimes don’t understand what makes a regeneration sustainable and living, moving canals are part of the whole picture.”
Tom Russell, who heads up the New East Manchester Urban Regeneration Company, is reluctant to discuss what he believes to be ‘speculation’ about possible canal closures. Of course, he also looks to the Treasury for some of his funding.
British Waterways initial response to Defra’s demand for £60m more in budget cuts has been to come up with a package offering cuts of £5m a year rather than Defra’s £12m – but even that it means losing 180 jobs by April as well as cuts in essential canal maintenance.
The additional £7m a year being demanded by Defra would certainly impact on vulnerable canals according to the experts inside and outside the organisation.
So far the junior minister responsible for waterways, Barry Gardiner, has refused to address the potential problems faced by those trying to regenerate inner city areas using the canals.
His spokesman would only offer a bland general statement issued to all journalists, which praises the past successes of British Waterways and goes on to say: “… whilst Defra wishes to do everything it can to support the vision of British Waterways' board, they are aware that Defra is now operating within a very tight fiscal regime.
"We are grateful for the constructive way British Waterways has engaged with the department to identify efficiency savings and remain confident that British Waterways will continue to deliver real public benefit and regeneration in the future."
Within the region the only MP willing to stand up for Defra’s attempts to cut the waterways budget is another government minister, Phil Woolas, also representing Oldham, who has responsibility for local government and community cohesion – including neighbourhood renewal.
He said: “I am not convinced of British Waterway's case. I do not have the information yet but I am wary of such press reports, particularly when they play politics in the CSR period. To say that the waterways are being cut because of a ‘Defra cock up’ is presumptuous. The future financial allocations are not yet known and it is out of order for British Waterways to lobby in this way.” He failed to answer follow-up questions about his curious stance.
The link between a rural scandal and a threat to the rebuilding of depressed city areas comes because Defra has decided to raid the grants it makes to its client organisations.
One of those is British Waterways which faces seeing £70m ripped from its budget to help make up for Defra’s £200m shortfall - caused by what Labour MP Michael Meacher says is ‘criminal irresponsibility’ over the handling of £1.5bn of European farm subsidies.
As a result, hundreds of miles of canals are now facing neglect and possible closure – especially the recently re-opened Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow canals as well as the Ashton and Peak Forest canals.
In Manchester those canals are key to major regeneration schemes including hundreds of millions being spent in East Manchester where canals are so important they have even built the first new one for 250 years – a short stretch linking the Rochdale and the Ashton canals.
Despite intense pressure for silent compliance from Defra, British Waterways will unattributably brief anyone who will listen that the budget cuts will leave them unable to keep canals maintained and a catastrophic incident could soon close vulnerable canals completely, as they would no longer have the money for repairs.
The Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow canals are particularly susceptible as they were reopened on a shoestring and are in a fragile state. The Rochdale has only recently reopened for a second time after a £2m, 18-month long, repair - just the sort of problem that could close it completely in the future.
Defra’s decision has left many of the region’s MPs fuming and Michael Meacher, who has the Rochdale Canal passing through his Oldham constituency is organising a deputation of regional MPs to Barry Gardiner the junior minister who has responsibility for waterways at Defra.
Tony Lloyd, the Labour MP whose central Manchester constituency includes the massive East Manchester regeneration area describes the canals as the ‘blue lung’ of the city.
“If this goes ahead we are likely to see the canals become inadequately maintained then restricted or closed. That is just not a direction we ought to be going in.”
He believes such a development would ‘tarnish the regeneration effort’ making it less than it could be.
“It is not just New Islington that needs the canals, it is the council estates further out. I don’t want to go back to the days when people were afraid to walk along the canal bank.
“The Manchester canals are some of the jewels in Defra’s crown and it doesn’t cost much to keep it polished.”
Tameside Labour MP, David Heyes said: “I have four canals in my constituency. It really makes no sense to have invested so heavily in refurbishing all these canals in recent years and for that investment to be - potentially - at risk.
“Many of the economic development aims for the constituency are being promoted and marketed around the attractions of their waterside locations. This is certainly true in Failsworth, Hollinwood, Droylsden and town centre Ashton.
“To lose those benefits in some of our least prosperous urban locations would be a real irony if it is to compensate for a cock-up in paying farm subsidies to what are often the most prosperous rural areas.”
There is cross-party support and Rochdale’s Liberal MP Paul Rowen is demanding a meeting with Defra Secretary of State David Milliband, “to discuss exactly why British Waterways have had their grant cut and I want a firm assurance that Rochdale Canal will not be under threat.
“It is not acceptable that one of the jewels in Rochdale’s crown is threatened in this way.”
Michael Meacher wants to know why the Defra has not sacked the civil servants responsible for the “almighty cock-up” over subsidy payments.
He said: “It is not acceptable there should be any cuts in British Waterways budget. It is completely indefensible and inequitable that our flagship policy of urban regeneration around canals should be affected.
“This is vandalism and I will be asking Barry Gardiner to accept a delegation of MPs from the areas affected and asking him to explain himself.”
In Tameside, Labour councillor Kieran Quinn, who has responsibility for regeneration, said: “Stalybridge has been transformed from a sleepy town to an exciting commercial centre by regeneration around the canal and we know that a living canal brings social regeneration as well.
“We also see the same thing happening at Droylsden where a whole redevelopment is to happen around the canal. If we don’t have a open and useable canal people will look at the whole scheme differently.
“We support British Waterways to retain their grant in full and we will be lobbying Defra and the Treasury.”
Leader of Oldham Council, Councillor David Jones said: “We see the Rochdale Canal as central to the continued redevelopment of Chadderton and Failsworth centres. We will be seeking an urgent meeting with British Waterways to discuss the current situation and to try to resolve theses issues.“
It is ironic that just a few weeks earlier John Prescott’s farewell speech in the Labour conference in Manchester hailed the fact that the canals in the city has ‘become major engines of urban regeneration’ as one of the successes of his reign at the top of Defra.
Now Defra is hacking £9m from the already allocated British Waterways budget for this year and telling Chief Executive Robin Evans that he has to budget for cuts of £12m a year for the next five years under the Comprehensive Spending Review being considered by Cabinet in the coming months.
The draconian cuts this year have already meant vital maintenance work for this winter has been cancelled on British Waterways’ 2,200 miles of navigable canals and rivers. Eugene Baston, of British Waterways, said: " If we can't maintain the waterways, we can't keep them open.”
Bolton based John Fletcher is National Chairman of The Inland Waterways Association and heads up the efforts to reopen the disused Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal – planned to be a vital catalyst in the regeneration of much of Salford.
He said: “The next few years could reverse all the progress of the last ten years and the Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow canals are especially vulnerable because they are fragile and there will be no funds to repair and re-open them if something expensive goes wrong – and that could happen tomorrow.
“British Waterways and the other partners could even be compelled to repay the lottery grants if the canals are not kept open and that could bankrupt the whole organisation.
“It is ridiculous that this should be put at risk because Defra cannot pay farmers on time. It seems that they are less fit for purpose than the Home Office.”
Restored canals are now seen as the engine of regeneration. Much of the redevelopment of inner city East Manchester is built around the canal system, with Urban Splash’s remarkable new CHIPS building to be constructed along side a new canal, linking the Ashton with the Rochdale soon after they split, rising out of the city centre.
The reopening of the Huddersfield Narrow and Rochdale canals has already brought new development in places like Stalybridge, Failsworth and Mossley, with more to come.
There seems no limit to the investment that working canals can attract.
Work has started to build a new £25m canal-side marina in Greenfield, in Oldham featuring luxury homes, offices, shops, restaurants and bars.
It is in East Manchester that Urban Splash is a key player in the New Islington development and Nick Johnson, Deputy Chief Executive, said: “I don’t think it will affect the decision to go ahead with the East Manchester regeneration, but I am disappointed.
“It is very frustrating if the effect is to close parts of the waterways down. Fully 85 per cent of our developments are next to water because we believe that brings something quite special.
“The whole concept of New Islington has been built around creating a community that includes people living on and working from boats.
“If the canals are closed we lose one of the dimensions of the development at New Islington which is important to the whole regeneration.
“It is rooted in tradition and the canals are part of rebuilding a sustainable community.
“Government sometimes don’t understand what makes a regeneration sustainable and living, moving canals are part of the whole picture.”
Tom Russell, who heads up the New East Manchester Urban Regeneration Company, is reluctant to discuss what he believes to be ‘speculation’ about possible canal closures. Of course, he also looks to the Treasury for some of his funding.
British Waterways initial response to Defra’s demand for £60m more in budget cuts has been to come up with a package offering cuts of £5m a year rather than Defra’s £12m – but even that it means losing 180 jobs by April as well as cuts in essential canal maintenance.
The additional £7m a year being demanded by Defra would certainly impact on vulnerable canals according to the experts inside and outside the organisation.
So far the junior minister responsible for waterways, Barry Gardiner, has refused to address the potential problems faced by those trying to regenerate inner city areas using the canals.
His spokesman would only offer a bland general statement issued to all journalists, which praises the past successes of British Waterways and goes on to say: “… whilst Defra wishes to do everything it can to support the vision of British Waterways' board, they are aware that Defra is now operating within a very tight fiscal regime.
"We are grateful for the constructive way British Waterways has engaged with the department to identify efficiency savings and remain confident that British Waterways will continue to deliver real public benefit and regeneration in the future."
Within the region the only MP willing to stand up for Defra’s attempts to cut the waterways budget is another government minister, Phil Woolas, also representing Oldham, who has responsibility for local government and community cohesion – including neighbourhood renewal.
He said: “I am not convinced of British Waterway's case. I do not have the information yet but I am wary of such press reports, particularly when they play politics in the CSR period. To say that the waterways are being cut because of a ‘Defra cock up’ is presumptuous. The future financial allocations are not yet known and it is out of order for British Waterways to lobby in this way.” He failed to answer follow-up questions about his curious stance.
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