Bill Cawley's blog

There are moments in your life when things happen which cause you to question your opinions and why you believe in the things that you believe in. Such a moment happened yesterday when I was working as a volunteer at a CAB. I do a few hours a week usually on a Wednesday or a Saturday and I usually enjoy the challenge

The Sentinel carried the story that a delegation of officers and councillors will be attending the Cannes MIPIM trade exposition for a third time. In 2008 the elected Mayor Mark Meredith received a great deal of criticism for attending the event and was quoted that the convention provided the opportunity for Stoke and the regeneration agency to show case the opportunities that existed in the area for developers.

I watched an excellent as well as sobering documentary last night on I Player. The documentary, which was originally on BBC2 last weekend, chronicled the decline of a great American city Detroit. Detroit at one point after the Second World War was the 4th largest city in the States. It’s now the 11th although its population continues to fall. For a period of 60 years Detroit reigned supreme as the car making capital of the world a position.

Interesting piece in the Guardian today about the pay of University Vice Chancellors. The highest paid academic’s income has massively increased in the last few years far out stripping the increase in lecturer’s pay.

I ought to explain who Niccolo Machiavelli was. No he is not a footballer or a mobster although his reputation is a dire one and rests on one gift that he gave the man he was serving in Florence Cesare Borgia. Its a small book called the Prince.

There was an interesting article in the Observer yesterday on the north south divide in the economy. In effect the piece by Ruth Sunderland was a damming indictment of the industrial policy of successive governments since Thatcher and the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector.

It’s been a good weekend for Staffordshire in terms of positive media coverage. I had heard some weeks ago that the Guardian were doing a feature on Leek in the section called Lets move to… the journalist who wrote the piece was very much impressed by the town citing the countryside as being great for walking. The strapline for the article was Britains answer to the Alps.

It is coming up to 25 years since the end of the miners strike and there is a special question time event being held at the beginning of next month. I was having a sort out at home and came across a couple of letters I wrote that bought to mind my involvement in the strike at least from the City Council angle and helped to bring to mind a personal memoir of the events of quarter of a century ago.

This is a story of two towns. One I left at the age of 10 and the other that has been my home for the last 16 years. I have a memory of being about 6 and looking across the road at Campbell Pace at thinking how modern and busy Campbell Place in the centre of Stoke seemed to be. I stood at the same spot last Thursday. It was an appalling vista. Woolworth’s was closed, as was Ethel Austin. A shoe shop was empty, as was a Subway sandwich bar.

Its probably not a good idea to write something when you are annoyed; but perhaps there are occasions when you should not allow things to fester and to use the Wildean aphorism that there are times when it is more than a public duty to speak one’s mind- it becomes an absolute pleasure.