Labour election leaflet in Queens Park calls for ‘virile representation’

Following the resignations of the ‘Leicester Two’ from Brighton and Hove City Council, there are by-elections coming up in the Queens Park and the Kemptown wards.

I was reading a Labour leaflet from Queens Park, most of which I agree with. There was talk of lower rents, improving education, and the lot of people experiencing a cost-of-living crisis (“the lot of the poorer inhabitants” the leaflet said). There was a focus on unemployment, housing schemes, empty homes, and transport.

What struck me most was, according to the leaflet, the need for “representation of a virile type”, not something you read every day in election material.

In case you were wondering, this wasn’t a contemporary election leaflet from Labour’s Camilla Gauge, but one from 1935 when the Labour candidate was Richard Polling. I don’t know whether he was elected on that occasion but he did become a councillor, as did his son-in-law, Stan Fitch, and Stan’s son, the late Brian Fitch. It was Stan who gave me a copy of this leaflet.

Times have changed but the issues raised by Richard Polling – education, housing, rents, nursery education, etc. – remain as relevant today as they were in 1935. But as for ‘virile’ representation and leadership, I doubt it will be a concept that will loom large in Labour’s general election campaign!

“Doing good in Brighton”: honouring the educationalist and suffragette Mary Hare

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 27th March 2024)

When I was a councillor in the 1980s, I used to love door-knocking, both during election campaigns and throughout the year. But there was one exception, a street I never enjoyed visiting: St Michael’s Place in central Brighton. It was inevitably windy and raining. I was back in St Michael’s Place last Saturday. Not only was there a bitterly cold west wind, and not only did it rain, there was a most dramatic hailstorm the likes of which I have seldom experienced in England.

But Saturday was different. It was an uplifting and joyful celebration of the life of Mary Hare, a suffragette, the founder of an independent women’s police force in Brighton and, most importantly, a pioneering teacher of deaf children. The Mayor, Cllr. Jackie O’Quinn was there, the Brighton and Hove Bus that bears the name ‘Mary Hare’ was incongruously parked in this side street, and at least half those present were communicating through sign language. They were all there to witness the unveiling of a blue plaque to commemorate the life and work of Mary Hare.

17 St Michael’s Place was Mary’s home from 1895 to 1901, and was one of the sites of the school she had founded. According to the programme prepared for the unveiling, “Mary was ahead of her time in championing the rights and wellbeing of deaf children and women” and was “a revolutionary campaigner for the inclusion in society and education of deaf children who, at that time, were often abandoned in asylums, or considered by some as unworthy of education.”

Mary was a committed suffragette and a contemporary of Mary Clarke, the sister of Emmeline Pankhurst, Brighton resident and organiser, and the first suffragette to die for women’s right to vote. There is currently a campaign to have a statue of Mary Clarke erected in the gardens of the Royal Pavilion to commemorate her life and work. 

The Brighton Gazette of 1908 reports that Mary Hare chaired a Women’s Social and Political Union meeting on Queen’s Road where she said that suffragettes “were going to rouse Brighton”. In 1913 she became secretary of the Brighton Women’s Freedom League, which was prepared to break the law, but rejected violence.

In 1915 Mary Hare set up a volunteer uniformed women’s police force, much against the wishes of the local constabulary, to assist Brighton and Hove’s women and children. An article in the Brighton, Hove and South Sussex Graphic entitled  ‘Bobby – the Woman Policeman’ records her work and describes Mary as looking “particularly smart in her uniform and bowler hat”. Times have moved on and one of the speakers at the unveiling of the blue plaque in St Michael’s Place was Superintendent Petra Lazar from Sussex Police.

Her true passion, however, was as an educationalist for deaf children. She said that her efforts on behalf of these children “have been my greatest joy in life.” She established, originally in London, the Private Oral School for Deaf Children in 1895, taking mixed pupils of all ages from across the country. In 1916 the school moved to larger premises in Sussex, and then to Berkshire, where the Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf still operates.

A past student of the Mary Hare Grammar School is Brighton-born Margaret Stewart who lives with her husband John in Patcham. Margaret single-handedly set about fundraising for the blue plaque to recognise the pioneering work of the remarkable Mary Hare. ‘Remarkable’ can also be said of the formidable Margaret Stewart who herself should be seen as an inspiration to us all. She might be small in stature but she has displayed a steely determination to honour Mary Hare.

While Margaret was the driving force behind securing the blue plaque for Mary Hare, others have supported her including the influential Brighton Women’s History Group. Present, too, at the unveiling was the current Head of the Mary Hare School for the Deaf in Berkshire, Robin Askew, and the force of nature that is Victoria Garcia from Brighton and Hove Buses who does so much to ensure that the names of more of the daughters of the city are celebrated on our buses. 

About the independent police force, Mary Hare said that “we are out to do good work in Brighton, and we have had unsolicited testimonials to the effect that we have done good.” This could be said about all of her life’s work. It can also be said of Margaret Stewart, and those words should be a challenge to the rest of us “to do good in Brighton.”

Could a vote for ‘Rosie Duffield’ gain a head of steam in Brighton Pavilion?

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 20th March 2024)

Some people in Brighton Pavilion are considering voting for a surprise, unofficial, candidate. She will not be on the ballot paper, but people have told me that they might write her name at the bottom of the ballot. She is not seeking nomination here and almost certainly will not endorse this move. She might even publicly denounce it. What is more, she will be standing for the Labour Party in the Kent constituency she already represents.

So why are people in Brighton Pavilion considering voting for Rosie Duffield? She won’t be elected here, and any vote for her will be counted as a spoiled ballot and won’t count. ‘Vote Duffield’ was my wife’s proposal. Rosie Duffield is the Labour MP for Canterbury but she was vilified on social media and shunned by Labour’s leadership because of her gender-critical views. She, like many of us, does not believe that anyone can change their sex regardless of how they might choose to live their lives.  

Tom Gray and Siân Berry

I don’t know how many will vote for ‘Rosie Duffield’. It might be just a small handful or it could yet gain a head of steam. Much depends on what the official Labour candidate, Tom Gray, says on the protection of single-sex spaces for those born female, spaces such as hospital wards, changing rooms, toilets, refuges and rape crisis services.

Siân Berry has had a consistent take on this issue. Her view is that transgender women (those born male) should be allowed to use women-only spaces even if they have all their male bits intact (my words, not hers). The Greens have lost support amongst many women and men because they relentlessly prioritise trans rights over women’s sex-based rights, their failure to investigate a Green Party member, the paedophile David Challenor, and their unlawful discrimination against their former deputy leader, Shahrar Ali, who holds gender-critical views. 

Siân has said she will never compromise on trans rights. Tom Gray, on the other hand, seems very reluctant to say what he believes or if he believes anything at all!  He has been challenged on social media to say where he stands, and some constituents have written to him on the issue. I have been told that he has not replied. 

In my first column this year, I wrote about the potential for this to be an election issue in Brighton Pavilion: “Tom will need to say where he stands. The trans rights lobby, including those in his own party, is very vociferous, especially on social media, but they are not significant electorally.” I pointed out that Labour has shifted from its previous support for self-identification which would have allowed people to legally change gender without a medical diagnosis and has, instead, recommitted itself to ensuring that some single-sex services and places should be accessed by biological women only. 

I have written to Tom asking for his views on this matter but was referred to the regional press office. I wrote to the named press officer, several times over a few weeks, but have had no response. Are they still captured by the trans-rights activists? Why are they unwilling to repeat the party’s new policy? So I wrote again to Tom, as have others who have contacted me. Tom has not replied to them either. If I was still a Labour member in Brighton Pavilion (I resigned my party membership back in 1994) I would be thoroughly disappointed and disillusioned by Tom’s non-campaign.

Why can’t Tom say that he supports the policy of his Party (even if his leader, Sir Keir Starmer can’t quite bring himself to say “sex-based rights”, preferring to refer to “safe spaces”)? Perhaps he feels that he cannot go against those vociferous activists who hold a different view to the party’s policy, as does the MP for Brighton Kemptown, Lloyd Russell-Moyle. If Tom is running scared of his own Party members, what will he be like when faced with more formidable opponents and vested interests when he is an MP?

A recent opinion poll put Siân Berry at almost 50% with Tom Gray at 37%. He needs something to ignite his rather odd and lacklustre campaign. If he could harness the ‘gender critical’ vote, then the result could be closer than it is currently likely to be. But for now, imagine the scene at the election count as Siân narrowly wins the seat, aided by outraged ‘Duffield’ votes that could otherwise have gone to Labour. It would be too late for regrets.

The Labour Party should apologise for the unnecessary cost of by-elections in Brighton and Hove within a year of the local elections

Two by-elections are to be held in Brighton on 2nd May, the same day as the election for the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner. The by-elections in Queen’s Park ward and Kemptown ward come following the resignations of Chandni Mistry and Bharti Gajjar, the so-called Leicester Two who were thrown out of the Labour Party following allegations that they don’t actually live in Brighton. A referral alleging electoral fraud was made to Sussex Police who have recently said no action will be taken over the claims.

Labour’s candidate in the Queen’s Park by-election, Camilla Gauge, with ward councillor Tristram Burden (Photo credit: Tristram Burden X / Twitter)

Council leader, Labour’s Bella Sankey, told the Argus that she was “overjoyed” by the decision of the two councillors to “do the right thing and step down” and said they should “never have been selected as candidates”.  She said: “The people of Queen’s Park and Kemp Town can now elect new councillors that will listen to their needs and serve them properly.”

I’m not sure if “overjoyed” is the right word for it. This whole mess is the making of the Labour Party who really should be offering an apology for the unnecessary cost of two by-elections. A by-election, depending on the size of the ward, costs between £12,000 and £15,000. These by-elections, together with the one held in December in South Portslade, will bring the total to three by-elections caused by Labour since last May’s local elections, at a cost of between £36,000 and £45,000. What a waste of public money at a time when cuts are being made to essential service.

The apology should come from the national or regional Labour Party who took over the selection of candidates in Brighton and Hove. Perhaps the Labour Party should be offering both an apology and an offer to reimburse Brighton and Hove City Council for this unnecessary cost.

One person who should not apologise is Bella Sankey who was not the Leader of the Labour Group at the time of the selections and the election. She must be so frustrated by this and other decisions made by the regional Labour Party, such as not enabling someone with her qualities to be the Party’s candidate in Brighton Pavilion. 

As for the by-elections themselves, Labour should hold on comfortably to both seats. In Camilla Gauge, who is standing in Queen’s Park ward, Labour has chosen an exceptional candidate who will bring experience and great ability to the Council, not least her expertise in tackling violence against women and girls. As far as I am aware, the Party is yet to select its candidate in Kemptown ward.

The Greens have traditionally had some success in Queen’s Park. How close they come to challenging Labour will provide an indication as to the mountain the party has yet to climb in recovering from its worst election defeat in 20 years in Brighton and Hove.

As for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, they have about as much chance of winning as a lame and blind donkey would have had winning the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival this last week.

Update: 4.45pm 16/03/2024 Theresa Mackey has been selected as Labour’s candidate for the Kemptown by-election.

Who from Brighton’s past should we be remembering? The film ‘Vindication Swim’ recalls the achievements of the amazing Mercedes Gleitze 

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 13th March 2024)

Brighton has a poor record of preserving the memory of those who have gone before. How many Brightonians, not least those who are recent arrivals, know who Herbert Carden, Dorothy Stringer or Lewis Cohen were? And why should they? The City Council does little to commemorate these and other individuals who helped make the city what it is. The Argus remembers them, and Brighton and Hove Buses names significant people from Brighton’s past on its buses and on a special website. It should be commended for this.

From time to time I write about people I have known who have died, people like Selma Montford, Dennis Hobden, Ruth Larkin, Bernie Jordan and Bob Cristofili. Mary Clarke is the ‘forgotten suffragette’ in spite of being Emmeline Pankhurst’s sister. Mary ran the Brighton office of the Women’s Social and Political Union. She died on Christmas Day 1910 from a brain haemorrhage probably caused by rough treatment at the hands of the police and prison authorities immediately before her passing. There is no memorial for Mary other than her name appearing on the front of a Brighton bus. There is now a campaign to have a statue of Mary Clarke erected in the gardens of the Royal Pavilion estate. 

Another long-forgotten Brightonian is Mercedes Gleitze. She was born in Brighton who, in 1927, became the first British woman to swim the English Channel. Her swimming achievements were not ‘limited’ to that. She is believed to be the first person to swim the Straights of Gibraltar and was the first person to swim to Robben Island and back to Cape Town, a sea I know well as I was brought up there and can testify to the currents and coldness of those waters.

After nearly 100 years during which time she had become largely forgotten, her legacy is now secure through a film that went on general release last Friday, deliberately coinciding with International Women’s Day. The film, Vindication Swim, features the amazing Kirsten Callaghan and the equally impressive John Locke. Remarkably, it was written and directed by a 23-year-old Brightonian, Elliott Hasler. If you warch just one film this year, make sure it’s Vindication Swim.

With Kirsten Callaghan and John Locke (I’m the one who didn’t dress up for the occasion!)

After a special screening of the film on International Women’s Day at Brighton’s Duke of York cinema, a cinema that Mercedes herself had visited, Kirsten Callaghan, John Locke and Elliott Hasler answered questions from the audience. Kirsten described some of the discomforts and challenges faced by Mercedes which she, too, had experienced. For example, she wore a heavy 100-year-old one-piece bathing suit. The leather in the goggles she used bled, resulting in a disgusting taste seeping into her mouth. On one occasion she was in the water for four hours, with the salt affecting her mouth and sense of taste. Elliott, too, spent lengthy periods filming in the water, but he had the protection of a wetsuit! John, on the other hand, stayed in a small support boat as had his character, Harold Best, who had coached Mercedes.

All the scenes in the sea were filmed off the south coast. No use was made of stage tanks nor ‘green screen’ technology where subjects can be superimposed onto virtual backgrounds. 

Back to Mercedes herself. Her first endurance swimming record was for 26 hours. Over several years she extended this record to 45 and, subsequently, 46 hours. She had become a popular and famous personality, and when she undertook these endurance swims in public swimming baths, crowds would attend and encourage her by singing together.

Most of Mercedes epic swims, including her world records for endurance swimming, were sponsored.  She used her sponsorship and winnings to open accommodation for homeless people, particularly homeless women, with the first Mercedes Gleitze Home opening in Leicester in 1933. The charity bearing her name continues to operate providing accommodation for homeless people but, sadly, not in Brighton. She helped unemployed people to move from the north to Leicester where there were jobs. She is also said to have supported the extension of the franchise to women below the age of 30 in 1928.

Towards the end of her life, Mercedes became increasingly reclusive. She denied her past achievements and would not discuss them with her family.  She died in1981 in London aged 80. There is now a blue plaque commemorating this daughter of Brighton at the house in Freshfield Road where she was born in 1900.

I hope that in future more Brighton women, perhaps not as exceptional as Mercedes Gleitze, can be remembered for their own extraordinary achievements.

Labour seems to have given up on winning Brighton Pavilion

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 6th March 2024)

Over the last 45 years I have closely observed and, on occasions, participated in eleven general election campaigns in Brighton Pavilion. Yet never before has there been such an odd campaign as that being run by the Labour Party. The party is giving every impression that it doesn’t want to win!

The constituency had become a safe seat for the Green Party because of the huge personal vote built by Caroline Lucas. But her decision to stand down at the election opens up a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Labour. Not only has the Green Party suffered its worst local election defeat in fifteen years, in Siân Berry it has selected a candidate previously unknown in Brighton. Ms Berry is hedging her bets by standing, once again, for a seat on the Greater London Assembly. 

I had previously forecast a Labour gain in Brighton Pavilion at the general election, but three things have made me rethink this. The first is the energetic and high-profile campaign being run by Siân Berry backed by Caroline Lucas. The second is the inexplicable decision of Labour to delay its selection until mid December, thereby giving Siân a free run for five months. Then thirdly, the launch of the Labour campaign was delayed, for good reasons, until February, thereby extending the Green’s unopposed run for a further two months.

The latest prediction from Electoral Calculus, which analyses recent opinion polls, forecasts a Green win with Siân Berry securing almost 50% of the vote to Tom Gray’s 36%.

There is a further reason why I think Tom Gray will lose. Now that the Labour campaign has been launched, what a strange campaign it is providing to be. There was a well-supported launch event when Labour activists from all over came to support Tom Gray and to knock on doors. At the time of writing, there have been just a few other campaign events, one which Tom apologised for missing as he was at a conference in London, and another the weekend before last. I am assured by Labour Party members that he is out campaigning several times a week. 

But where is the momentum for his campaign? Siân Berry is forever appearing on social media, at events, and in The Argus. We have received several leaflets and reports from her, and she is popping up all over the place. I’ve bumped into her in the street, at a vigil, on the bus, and in a local cafe. By contrast, we have received just one leaflet from Tom Gray saying he was sorry to have missed us when he called (although it wasn’t he who did call).

Unlike Siân, Tom’s supporters say he is not a professional politician and that he works full time running a national organisation. I had hoped to meet with Tom, as I have with Siân and other parliamentary candidates but, in spite of several requests, his diary hasn’t permitted it. I had hoped to get a better understanding of Tom himself, how his campaign is going, and his views on some key issues. In the absence of a meeting, I sent him some questions about policy and his campaign. The reply from ‘Team Tom’ did not answer any of my questions but hoped that “you and he can find time for a chat soon”. 

Tom Gray (right) with Cllr David McGregor and Lloyd Russell-Moyle at the British Kebab Awards (photo: David McGregor / X formerly Twitter)

I was told that he is spending his evenings and weekends canvassing constituents. However, he had time to attend the British Kebab Awards in London. Meanwhile there are complaints from constituents who have not had responses from Tom, such as Siân Rees who said on Twitter that Tom should “answer queries from his future constituents … Still trying, 30+ messages in, no luck so far.” So it’s not just me!

I tried getting a response from the regional Labour Party to one of my questions. In spite of a chaser email, I heard nothing other than an acknowledgement that my email had been received.

One has to ask, therefore, whether Labour, and Tom for that matter, are really committed to running a winning campaign in Brighton Pavilion. From my experience of elections, Labour looks perilously close to having given up on their best chance of winning the seat in over a decade.  The only explanation for the poor campaign is that Tom Gray and his backers believe that while flying under the radar that they will be swept to victory in a Labour landslide. If that is their strategy, they will be handing the seat to Siân Berry and the Greens for the next fifteen years.  Tom Gray and the constituency Labour Party must really up their game.

Was Sir Keir Starmer being honest about Labour dealing with homelessness and rough sleeping in Brighton and Hove?

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 28th February 2024)

Tent outside Brighton Station (photo credit: The Argus)

Last week The Argus reported that a large four-person tent had been put up outside Brighton Station. The homelessness campaigner, Daniel Harris, was quoted as saying that the council cannot promote Brighton as a business and investment hub “while the first thing people see when they get here is a tent.”  He correctly points to the daily safety risks facing homeless people especially those in tents. As someone who has worked in homelessness services for over thirty years, I was also quoted in the article as saying: “(Tents) are not safe for people living in them or those working to help them. If someone has an emergency inside a tent, it can’t be seen.”

The answer, of course, is the provision of housing with the right support. But as Daniel points out, “limited housing options” in Brighton means it is difficult for people to escape rough sleeping. He says that what is needed is a strategic approach which “involves building more council homes, council-owned emergency accommodation to modern standards ensuring safety, and relocating those without genuine local ties where feasible and safe to so.”

The City Council was alerted to the presence of the tent on Monday of last week and it was gone by the weekend. The Chair of the council’s housing committee, Councillor Gill Williams, said: “Our street homeless outreach service always works with tent dwellers to help them find accommodation. Our primary concern is … the welfare of people living in them. We have a welfare first approach and offer help if those in tents are homeless, and always take action to remove encampments as soon as these circumstances and due legal process allow.”

When the leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, on a visit to Sussex last week, was asked by The Argus what a Labour government would do to tackle the homelessness crisis in Brighton, he said that given Labour has formed the administration locally, it was now in a position to help people get off the streets. He said: “I do think in Brighton, in particular, before we took over the council they didn’t put the support in place to deal with this. Luckily, we are now in a position to now turn this around. And that means providing not just a roof but also the support that people need.”

I was shocked by this disingenuous and misleading statement from the Labour leader. Under the previous Green administration, the one area where there was excellent collaboration and joint-working between the Greens and Labour, was on housing, homelessness and rough sleeping. Credit for this should go to the former Green councillors David Gibson and Siriol Hugh-Jones, and their Labour opposite number, Gill Williams. This joint approach often enjoyed all-party support including from the Conservative Mary Mears. But the council’s efforts were frustrated by the government’s squeeze on local government finances. Nevertheless, under successive Conservative, Labour and Green administrations, the council has continued to fund accommodation for over 700 people who have been, or might otherwise be, sleeping rough. In its budget agreed last week, the Labour administration is not investing anything extra into homelessness prevention. In fact, funding to help people move away from Brighton is under threat. 

For Keir Starmer to have made such a misleading assertion suggests that he was either badly informed or being dishonest. Perhaps he should set the record straight and give credit to the Greens where credit is due rather than make this cheap and dishonest bid for votes. 

A question that Sir Keir Starmer must answer is: will a Labour government provide the resources to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping by funding the necessary accommodation and the support homeless people need to get people off the streets, address underlying issues, and to help them into employment?  I fear that with Labour’s self-imposed spending restrictions, tackling rough sleeping and homelessness will not receive the priority it did under the Blair government when the Rough Sleepers Initiative saw a massive fall in the number of people sleeping rough. 

And critically, will Labour invest in the building of council houses, in their hundreds of thousands? Without this, the UK’s housing crisis will only get worse.

Given Sir Keir’s assertion that the Labour administration is now in a position to turn the homelessness problem around, let us hold the City Council to account by seeing whether it is providing enough accommodation for homeless people and also the support they need to move away from homelessness and into employment. Sir Keir says you are in a position to do so. Now let’s see you do it.

Mike Procter: one of the greatest cricketers of all time

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 21st February 2024)

One of the greatest cricketers of all time, the South African Mike Procter, died on Saturday at the age of 77.  He is widely regarded as one of the top all-rounders ever, along with the likes of Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Garry Sobers, and Jacques Kallis. But unlike these greats, many of them his contemporaries, Procter played just seven Test matches, his international career having been cut short by the exclusion of apartheid South Africa from international sport.

All seven of his Tests were played against the mighty Australians.  He took 41 wickets at an average of just 15.02 runs which, for those uneducated in these matters, is a truly phenomenal return. South Africa won six of these Tests.

One of the greatest cricketers of all time (Mike Procter, not me). Photo: Geoffrey Bowden

Denied an international career, Procter carved out a career in English County Cricket where, playing for 14 years for Gloucestershire, he came up against, and vanquished, many of the greatest of his era. Such was his part in the success of Gloucestershire at that time, locals jokingly referred to the Club as ‘Proctershire’. He said that he found that a bit embarrassing: “I never felt as if I was carrying the team, and our victories were always down to more than one individual standing up. My stats and figures sometimes stood out, but I was just happy to be part of a very successful period in its history.”

He scored 21,082 runs in first-class cricket at an average of 36.92, hitting 47 centuries, and took 1,357 wickets at an average of 19.07 runs. He became only the third batsman in the world to score six first-class centuries in six consecutive innings after C. B. Fry and Don Bradman, and he is the only South African to do so.

Perhaps his only failure in the realm of cricket was as a coach. He was the coach when South Africa first played after its sporting isolation came to an end. Like many of the greats, his transition from player to coach was not a huge success, possibly because he couldn’t always empathise with the struggles of lesser mortals who did not share his natural genius as a cricketer.

A lesser person might have become bitter that their international career was frustrated by the sporting boycott. Not Procter. He said: “What is a Test career compared to the suffering of 40 million people? Lots of people lost a great deal more in those years, and if by missing on a Test career we played a part in changing an unjust system, then that is fine by me.”

I once had a very polite argument with the late, great Test Match Special commentator, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, about politics and sport. He said that sport and politics should be kept apart. As a South African who actively opposed to apartheid, I begged to differ. I am sure Mike Procter would have disagreed as well.

After the fall of apartheid in the early 1990s, it was not uncommon to find white people who said that they had always opposed apartheid. This even included prominent members of the apartheid government!  But finding evidence to support their alleged opposition proves somewhat elusive. Mike Procter was not one of these latter-day opponents. In 1971, at the start of the final game of the season, Procter and several other top players including Clive Rice, Vince van der Bijl, brothers Graeme and Peter Pollock, and Denis Lindsay, walked off the field after just one ball had been bowled. It was a protest against the government’s decision not to allow two black players to go on an upcoming tour of Australia. Procter explained that “the point of the exercise was for us as players to be seen – on the only platform we had – to be strongly against racial discrimination. I can’t say how big an impact it made, but I was proud to be associated with a group of players that understood that there were wider implications at play, all around us.”

Over the years I have read far too many books on cricket, and by too cricketers. Almost all were a disappointment with just a handful being the exception. Procter’s autobiography, ‘Caught in the Middle’ is one of those exceptions.

It is said that you should never meet a childhood hero because they are bound to be a disappointment. In 2017, at Lords Cricket Ground, I did meet Mike Procter and, in spite of it being just a brief encounter, I was not disappointed.  He was warm and engaging. As a cricketer and as a humanitarian, he was an exceptional person and I mourn his passing.

MPs and councillors have lost the plot about their true roles

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 14th February 2024)

When Winston Churchill was the Member of Parliament for Dundee between 1908 and 1922, it is said that he never visited the town. This was not uncommon at that time and many MPs would never visit their constituency between elections. The link with one’s constituency was merely a vehicle of convenience for gaining political office. How different it is today. MPs maintain constituency offices with a number of paid staff. When the House in sitting, the majority of MPs return to their constituencies on a Thursday evening, undertake constituency business on Friday and over the weekend, before returning to Westminster in time for Monday’s sitting.

It wasn’t until 1969 that MPs first received an allowance to employ a solitary secretary, and it wasn’t until the early 1970s that MPs began to make case work a major part of their role. This development was pioneered by Liberal candidates and MPs who set up Liberal Focus Teams. This led to some notable successes in by-elections and was soon replicated by other parties. In Brighton Kemptown, the Conservative Andrew Bowden, who in 1970 won the seat from Labour’s Dennis Hobden, became a very familiar figure around the constituency and made this a safe Conservative seat for the next two decades. 

By contrast, his fellow Conservative in Brighton Pavilion, Julian Amery, was rarely, if ever, seen in Brighton between elections. This prompted a letter to the Evening Argus asking whether Mr Amery was in fact dead since he had not been seen in the constituency since the previous election. Mr Amery responded that he was elected to represent his electorate in parliament, not in Brighton.

Today all MPs aim to be familiar figures in their towns, villages or cities. All advertise regular ‘surgeries’ where they meet with constituents and take up issues on their behalf, including planning matters and neighbour disputes. They will advocate on behalf of their constituents about housing need and disrepair, traffic and parking problems, school admissions and registration with doctor surgeries. In Brighton and Hove potholes, refuse collection and weeds on the pavements have demanded time and attention from MPs who are supported by a team of constituency caseworkers. If the truth be told, it is these staff who do most of the casework on behalf of the MP.

Back in Westminster, the role of MPs is to scrutinise legislation and to hold the government to account but this has been watered down as MPs have increasingly become mere voting fodder for their party leaders. 

This arrangement where MPs have become glorified and well-paid social workers is, of course, a ridiculous nonsense. MPs have no direct authority and little expertise on most casework matters. They have no responsibility for schools, housing, street cleaning, traffic, parking, and planning matters. 

Council leader, Bella Sankey, doing the job of a council worker – this is not what councillors are elected to do (Photo: The Argus)

On the other hand, local councillors are responsible for all these. But local councillors, too, have lost their way. They debate and pass resolutions on national and international matters, none of which is the responsibility of local councils. Meanwhile, they have highly publicised action days where they make a big show on social media of them removing graffiti and cutting back weeds. This is not the role of a local councillor. Councils employ staff to do these tasks, and whenever I see a councillor having one of these action days, especially when they are part of the administration, it is a signal that they as councillors have spectacularly failed in their role and they are trying to look good while merely papering over the cracks of failing services.

The role of councillors should be the setting of strategies, priorities and standards for council officers to implement, and ensuring that these strategies are carried out. In Brighton and Hove we see the complete reversal of roles, where officers take a lead on strategic matters and all-too-often police their councillors’ actions and statements. Whereas councillors should be the representatives of their voters, there is a breed of council staff called ‘community engagement officers’. I have witnessed these officers moderating what a councillor can say at community meetings and councillors deferring to them. 

Brighton and Hove City Council is having to find cuts . I would suggest that councillors get rid of community engagement officers and that they resume that role. While they are about it, they should clear out the overwhelming majority of strategy officers, policy co-ordinators, and community safety, diversity and inclusion officers. They make the council look busy and might make some people with vested interests feel good but they rarely benefit the people of the city.