Archive for February, 2008
posted by Cptn
Hokus pokus it’s Mama Tokus. Tonight at the B-Bar, the Barbican Theatre, Plymouth, watch the first steps of a star as they emerge from their chrysalis.
Mama Tokus, the even more glamorous incarnation of the already glamorous firmament that is Katie Thompson, will be getting her soul/jazz set straight at the cool theatre bar on the Plymouth sea front. She’ll be accompanied by Paul Harris on the ‘ivories’.
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February 8th, 2008
posted by Cptn
Exeter should beware its desire to be a unitary authority (yesterday Hazel Blears sent the council’s request to go it alone, along with her reservations about said plan, to the Boundary Commission – we can expect an answer, along with any subsequent gerrymandering in December). Both Torbay and Plymouth have tumbled into the country’s 15 worst performing councils, according to the league tables produced by the Audit Commission. Pah, who believes such tosh. We want measureable results and comparisions about how good these councils are – not, err, ‘league tables’. But you’ll be happy to hear the two two-star councils are improving well.
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February 7th, 2008
posted by Cptn
Are you fascinated by Dragons’ Den et al, but think there’s more to life than just making shed loads of money and lording it over people?
Heck, take the moral high-ground and do something groundbreaking too. Social enterprise people Co-active are organising a Moving from Grants to Trade event. It’s for those who have an idea for a business that could benefit the community but don’t know where to start and those in a project with funding coming to an end.
The free half-day workshop and one-to-one surgeries will take place in the PRSD on Thursday March 13. For more details get in touch with Co-active.
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February 6th, 2008
posted by Cptn
 "Cool, by Anne Radu")
We are great fans of the funky funster artist from Torquay (and citizen of the world) Anne Radu, and we’re not alone. It appears the Tory art magnate Charles Saatchi is also a fan. The Saatchi gallery is running an artistic ’showdown’. Go and have a vote.
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February 5th, 2008
posted by Cptn
The push is on for the country’s first Climate Change Solutions Centre to be situated right here in the PRSD.
There’s growing support of the Climate Change Solutions Centre to be established at Seale-Hayne, the former agricultural college just outside Newton Abbot.
Of course, we’re behind it, and if you’re up for it, go over to the site and sign the petition.
But these people aren’t content on sitting back and waiting for you come to them, they are holding a Make It Happen event, to err, make it happen. Karen Ederhardt-Shelton will read for her book A Women’s Guide to Saving the World, and there’s music, speakers and the odd poet (at the risk of being tautological).
It all takes place at Ashburton Town Hall. Doors open at 8pm, it costs £7 if you’re on a low income and £9 if you’re not (children get in free). There are even buses back to Totnes (£5), but don’t worry, from there you can probably catch a train.
All the proceeds from the event go to support the bid.
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February 5th, 2008
Get healthy, get out and get to know your country – the Devon Countryside Access Forum is after new members.
You could be one of the 15 volunteer members of this statutory body which meets four or five times a year to make the countryside accessible for all. During the past year the forum has advise on provision for those with disability and heard from speakers, such as Adrian Roper, from Sustrans and Simon Jenkinson from the kennel club.
Tim Felton, vice chair of the Devon Countryside Access Forum, told the PRSD: “For anyone interested in influencing the development of access to the countryside and coast in Devon, membership of the Devon Countryside Access Forum (DCAF) takes you to the heart of the debate and helps to influence local government and organisations responsible for the delivery of this vital public amenity. Since its inception in 2002 the DCAF has striven to deliver measurable progress rather than just act as a talking shop. My experience is that we have gone a long way to achieving that aim.â€
Interested? Then you can contact the secretary on 01837 810921, e-mail devoncaf@devon.gov.uk and application forms can be found on the access bit of the county council site.
The next public meeting is on Monday February 11 at 10am at County Hall, and will include a presentation by one of the public rights of way wardens.
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February 4th, 2008
posted by Cptn
We’ve been keeping an eye on Beachcomber’s photographic challenge. This is the latest installment from St Bartholomew’s Cemetery, Exeter.
This gravestone marks the resting place of former builder in the city, who was laid to rest in 1840, and subsequent family members. Read the inscription on Beachcomber’s site.
We’re always on the lookout for citizen’s creative and artistic achievements, including photographs, pictures, music, bands and all the rest. Just get in touch with info@peoplesrepublicofsouthdevon.co.uk with all your details.
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February 3rd, 2008
posted by Jess Sains
The University of Exeter this week published a study that suggested that homelessness needed to be dealt with more promptly. This, the study suggested, would help stop individuals from falling rapidly down the spiral of homelessness.
This week, also, another study on homelessness pointed to the extent that it is an issue in North Devon’s largest town, Barnstaple. Last year an official government appraisal of the homeless in Barnstaple suggested that there were only five people of no fixed abode in the town (this census, I understand was taken by counting how many people were asleep in shop doorways on one given night). However, the North Devon Journal this week reports the figure is more like 35. For those who had worked in drop-ins or been to the “soup kitchen†provided by the Barnstaple Poverty Action Group (BPAG) this was no surprise, it even sounds a little bit low.
Of course, there are a number of fine organisations working against the tide (in North Devon this week some £300,000 in funding was removed from those working with people with drug and alcohol issues – which although it is not necessarily tied in to homelessness is often linked). In Exeter there is St Petrock’s, which works with homeless persons to widen their skill base and build their independence. There is also EHAG, the Exeter Homeless Action Group and in North Devon there are the PAGs (poverty action groups) of Barnstaple, Torridge (based in Bideford) and Ilfracombe. Such organisations of course throw up questions about whether they merely help the middle-classes feel better about themselves because the can buy a couple of tins of Buy One and Get One Free tinned peaches and assuage their guilt about the situation capitalism leaves those with less luck or money in. Even if we feel this as a symptom of such groups, they still help a large number of people who cannot afford to put food on the table that night or just need someone to chat to.
But how do we ‘nip homelessness in the bud’? How does one stop someone having their relationship break down and lose their home? How does one stop addiction? How does one stop debt, poverty, loss, depression? Well, as a nicely placed Lefty I think I could tell you how to stop a lot of this stuff, but then I work in social care at the same time – am I capitalism’s apologist? Yes, I have a home, money, a job, a car and I am only addicted to eating too much but I can help empower you!!! What a scary thought; time to look away from the mirror.
One thing we must remember, however, while we fork out charity is that some people do choose to be homeless. While the conventional fear may be to be without our houses (our little piece of glorious England…), our families, our cars or without the countless other consumer trappings other individuals may fear just as much the idea of being trapped by those trappings. So, they make the ultimate escape from society, by living their lives their own way.
Poverty, and homelessness, it seems are a symptom of capitalisms hierarchy but then again, so many of the homeless people I know are the most empowered in their life choices, as well…
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February 2nd, 2008
The cold wind’s blowing, the ice is growing, so why not weather the storm with the toppest of coolest tunes from the rapscallions that are Birds, Orphans and Fools, David and Tom, and their wonderful collection of Barbaric Classical Songs.
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Birds, Orphans and Fools and the PRSD [63:49m]:
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February 1st, 2008
posted by Cptn
The Northcott theatre has been saved! Immense support and people power forced the Arts Council to back down from its plan to stop funding the new, improved performance hot-spot.
Of course, the Arts Council will monitor the theatre’s organisation and performance, and has welcomed ‘the debate about theatre and the arts’, which is its way of trying to side-step its atrocious ability to manage from up there in the cloisters of its ivory tower.
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February 1st, 2008
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