Valerie Mainstone: a campaigner who remains a true colossus

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 1st May 2024)

It takes some courage, in one’s mid-40s, to go to university. It takes some attitude to then get involved in student politics. And it takes someone of extraordinary ability and personality to become the oldest person to be elected as President of the Students’ Union. But then Valerie Mainstone was, and still is, a one-off.

Valerie Mainstone (front) at the unveiling of a blue plaque in Montpelier Crescent for Elizabeth Robins and Octavia Wilberforce

Forty years later, Valerie continues to make her mark and be noticed. In our society, women, especially those who are retired, can become invisible. But not Valerie. At just under five feet tall, she stands out from the crowd, including at women’s events and public occasions such as the recent unveiling of the plaque in St Michael’s Place, Brighton, to commemorate the life of Mary Hare (the pioneering teacher of deaf children and campaigner for women’s right to vote). Valerie, as is her custom on such occasions, wore a suffragette outfit. 

Now in her mid-80s, she does not stop, campaigning for the NHS, in the peace movement through the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and as a founder member of the Brighton Women’s History Group. So who is this remarkable woman?

Born in Edinburgh in 1941, she and her family moved to Southwick when her father was posted overseas during the war. An early memory was of standing on the one part of the beach at Southwick that hadn’t been closed and fortified to hinder a German invasion. Looking out across the Channel, she said to herself that one day she would go to France.  The war itself was to have a lasting impact on her. Even today she can’t stand the sound of police or ambulance sirens. “It chills me to the bone”, she told me. 

Valerie, her youngest sister and her Mainstone cousins have inherited a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, a condition which affects more women than men in her family. The BRCA1 gene protects one from getting certain cancers, but some mutations prevents them from working properly. If you inherit one of these mutations, you are more likely to get breast, ovarian, and other cancers. She speaks of her huge relief that she did not pass on the mutations to her son and daughter, and so her four granddaughters and two great-grandsons are free from this particular risk.

Valerie did well at school but had her mind set on getting married, which she did at 19 much to her mother’s disgust. She worked as a shorthand typist for the Federation of British Industries where her fluency in French and German saw her working with the Oversees Director of the Federation. It was at the Federation that she met people who had been members of the French Resistance during the war, thus deepening her Francophile tendencies that started on that beach in Southwick.

She worked at a local dairy where, she says, sexual harassment was endemic. It reenforced her belief in union membership.  A Workers’ Education Association course was the start of her academic aspirations. 

When she divorced her husband in the early 1980s, she enrolled as a mature student at the University of Sussex studying European History with French. Her year abroad was in Marseilles where she researched and wrote her dissertation ‘Professional Equality of Women in the Sugar Refinery In Marseilles’ for which she won the prestigious Peggotty Freeman Memorial Prize for the Best Year Abroad Dissertation. And it was at Sussex University that she was elected as President of the Students’ Union which is where I first met her, even though I was not a student.

After graduation she worked for Women Against Sexual Harassment where she continued her advocacy work and gave talks at schools, universities and workplaces. She spoke at a conference in Paris on the fight against sexual harassment, surprising the organisers by delivering her speech in fluent French.

Today she remains as active as ever. Her diary is much busier than mine, as I discovered when we tried to find time to meet. After our meeting, she had to dash off to a demonstration outside Hove Town Hall. In the previous fortnight I had seen her at an event where she was dressed as a suffragette, and at the International Women’s Day event at the Corn Exchange where she spent time staffing three stalls, for Sussex Save the NHS, the Brighton Women’s History Group, and the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal.

Many people do their bit to make this world a better place. By comparison, Valerie’s activism is that of a colossus.  

Corrupting our language, where care and concern for children is called ‘hate’, and mutilating and poisoning them is ‘love’

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 17th December 2024)

It was George Bernard Shaw who said: “The British and the Americans are two great peoples divided by a common tongue.” That might not be quite true, but we have had different dialects, but these, too, are merging with the Americanisation of the English language. This is nothing new. Speaking on the wireless in 1935, Alistair Cooke declared that “Every Englishman (sic) listening to me now unconsciously uses 30 or 40 Americanisms a day”.

Dr Hilary Cass with her report on NHS services for children and young people who are questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender dysphoria

When I first came to the U.K., even though I was a first generation South African from an English-speaking family, I used words and phrases that were not understood in Brighton. ‘Red robots’ and ‘circles’ in the road meant nothing to Brightonians who said ‘traffic lights’ and ‘roundabouts’. Before then, my father and his brother who were born and brought up in Stoke-on-Trent, could communicate with each other in the North Staffs dialect that the rest of us struggled to comprehend. A more famous saying, now available as an inscription on mugs, asks: “Cost tha kick a bo agen a wo an yed it til thee bost eet?” It means: “Can you kick a ball against a wall and head it until it bursts?” My aunt Dorothy, who lived in the Potteries, would call me “duck” – a common term of affection towards both men and women as in “Tow rate owd duck?” meaning “Are you all right dear?”

Our language and local dialects are being lost thanks to our arrogant cousins from across the Atlantic. We no longer have tomato sauce but ketchup. Chips are now fries (though not in South Africa where crisps are called chips). Mac and cheese, keeping you across all the news, and cookies are just a few other examples. Why can’t we say macaroni cheese, keeping you up-to-date, and biscuits? Computers have given new meanings to common words like apple, windows, mouse and cookies.

‘Sussex as she wus spoke’ is a delightful guide to the Sussex dialect by Tony Wales. I learned some gems from this book: ‘all mops and brooms’ (to be in a muddle), a ‘bum-freezer’ (short coat), and ‘so drunk he couldn’t see through a ladder’ (very drunk). Many of the words and sayings are, to me, ‘wimwams for goose’s bridles’ (something not understood). This column gets its shares of ‘balsam’ (uncomplimentary remarks) but I hope I will be spared on this occasion.

In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, ‘Newspeak’ limited a person’s ability to articulate and communicate abstract concepts, such as personal identity, self-expression, and free will, which were described as ‘thoughtcrimes’, acts of personal independence that contradicted the ideological orthodoxy.  Orwell explained that Newspeak is a language characterised by a continually diminishing vocabulary where complete thoughts are reduced to simple terms such as Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), and Miniplenty (Ministry of Plenty). 

Political discourse today has adopted a similar approach. The most obvious recent example has been the ability to close down debate on women’s sex-based rights by accusing someone of being a TERF (a trans-exclusionary radical feminist) or being ‘transphobic’ when questioning the ideological orthodoxy of trans-rights. 

After the publication last week of the thoughtful and authoritative Cass Report on NHS services for children and young people who are questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender dysphoria, it has been interesting to see which politicians have backtracked on their previously-held views. These same people never lifted a finger to defend the likes of Professor Kathleen Stock (hounded out of Sussex University for her gender critical views) or the Labour MP Rosie Duffield (ostracised and abandoned by her party’s leadership). These latter-day converts are yet to apologise to Kathleen or Rosie, or the countless other women and some men (like Father Ted creator, Graham Linehan) who have spoken out so bravely. Yet some of those who said nothing are now calling for a ‘kinder’ dialogue when through their previous silence they were complicit in a hateful ideology.

This ideology has, for almost a decade, captured politics and, most alarmingly, the NHS. Children have been put on toxic medication that can lead to an increase in cancers and infertility, and young people have been mutilated by the removal of perfectly healthy organs.  And here again language has been corrupted. As my friend, Helen Saxby, explained, “it’s urging caution and research in the treatment of children that has been smeared as ‘hate’, and playing fast and loose with children’s health that has been rebranded as ‘love’.” It is people like Helen who will be judged as being on the right side of history, and that history has begun to be written through the Cass Report.

What music does it for you: grime, acid and garage, or Olivia Newton-John and Showaddywaddy?

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 17th January 2024)

When I first arrived in England I was overwhelmed by the music scene in the U.K. I had been brought up in 1970s South Africa where the edgiest music to be heard on the apartheid-controlled Springbok Radio included the Bee Gees and Olivia Newton-John. On the pirate LM Radio, broadcast on the crackling shortwave band from neighbouring Mozambique, we could listen to The Beatles who were banned from South African airwaves after John had said that The Beatles were more popular that Jesus and that the Christian faith was declining to the extent that it might be outlasted by rock music. This led to the ban.

There were some bootleg albums that did the rounds including the music of Rodriguez, an American of Mexican origins who was, at the time, big amongst young, liberal white South Africans but virtually unknown elsewhere, not least in the USA. A story of his life, ‘Searching for Sugarman’, won an Oscar and a BAFTA. Rodriguez sadly died last August.

Meat Loaf and Debbie Harry from Blondie

A few days after I arrived in the U.K., I saw Top of the Pops for the first time. It was eye-opening and jaw-dropping for this music innocent, featuring that week Elvis Costello and The Attractions (Oliver’s Army), Blondie (Heart of Glass) and Meat Loaf (Bat Out of Hell). New Wave music had yet to reach South Africa and I was blown away by what I saw and heard. Two Tone, reggae and Ska appealed to me. This was the music of the anti-racist and anti-fascist movements, of the Anti-Nazi League. My first political activity after arriving in the UK was to go on a counter demonstration outside Fairlight School off Lewes Road against the neo-nazi National Front which was trying to hold an election rally in the run up to the 1979 General Election.

In Brighton there were any number of ‘alternative’ bands. They rehearsed in the vaults of the old Resource Centre at the top of North Road and performed at The Richmond Hotel, The Marlborough, Alhambra, Sussex University and Brighton Polytechnic. Even today I can recall names like Birds with Ears, The Piranhas, Dick Damage and the Dilemma, Nicky and The Dots, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, and Pookiesnackenburger. There was even a Christian punk group, Rev Counter and the Speedometers, led by an ordained minister (Rev Counter – get it?) but I don’t think they ever graced The Richmond or the Basement at the Poly.

The Piranhas were probably the best-known group with their version of Tom Hark which is still played regularly at sporting events here in England. Meanwhile, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas from Pookiesnackenburger went on to set up STOMP which has performed to worldwide audiences including at the Oscars. On a more parochial front, there was once some graffiti that read: “Dick Damage reads The Argus”. What a sellout!

But of all these bands, my favourite was a lesbian punk rock group, the Devil’s Dykes that morphed into the Bright Girls and later Siren. As far as I am aware, Siren is the only group from that era that still performs. Its members are a little bit older and perhaps a tad greyer, but they are probably now better musicians. Their politics is still as radical, focusing on women’s rights, lesbianism, peace and, most recently, the climate crisis. It may seem strange that I frequented their gigs, me being a straight man, but I am biased towards Siren because my sister and her partner are still members of the band. Last year they released their latest album, Under the Bridge, and a documentary was made, ‘Bending the Note – the Story of Siren’ as pioneering women, musicians and lesbians, which can be seen on Latest TV.

I imagine that many people look back with fondness at the cultural experiences of their youth, be it rock and roll, the Mods and Rockers, punk, New Wave, reggae or Ska. Even disco from the seventies, my era, brings back happy memories of evenings spent at the Shalom Centre in Cape Town, even if the fashion of the day left something to be desired. Sadly something was lost, in my opinion, with the advent of acid house, garage, hip hop and grime. I know that I have an eclectic, more conservative taste in music, but I doubt that there will be much of a revival of some of that music which, even in its heyday, was nothing to write home about.

So I will be off now to spin Showaddywaddy’s Greatest Hits L.P. on the gramophone. 

What we are doing for Generation Rent: Clarence Mitchell, Conservative, Brighton Pavilion

I recently wrote to the representatives of the main political parties in Brighton and Hove regarding Generation Rent, asking what they and their political parties would be offering renters after 2015 on issues including high rents, insecure tenancies, and poor practice by some landlords and, in particular, letting agencies. I am posting all responses received, in the order I have received them. Today, the response from Clarence Mitchell, Conservative candidate, Brighton Pavilion

Given Brighton’s above average number of renters, we are only too well aware of the problems that people can face, not least high rents, insecure tenancies and those rogue landlords and agents who can make a tenant’s life a misery.

That is why the Conservatives are acting to rectify the central cause of high rents – the lack of supply of new housing – by supporting the long-term building of thousands of affordable homes for hard-working people to rent and, in the shorter term, through the introduction of a much clearer definition of tenants’ rights and their options for redress and compensation if, unfortunately, things do go wrong.

Our political opponents claim the re-introduction of a limited form of rent control would solve the problems. We believe it wouldn’t. Rent controls have failed in the past by actually reducing the UK’s private rented housing stock and they would again. Such controls, in fact, resulted in the private rented sector shrinking from 55% of households in 1939 to just 8% in the late 1980s. Rent controls also meant that many landlords couldn’t afford to improve or maintain their homes.

So we are not only opposed to such State intervention in the market in principle but also in practice because we believe it would lead to the opposite effect with landlords simply walking away and choosing not to rent their properties, leading to fewer rental homes on the market, only the poorest quality accommodation being left available and ultimately higher rents then being imposed – hurting those renters who most need help.

To address the lack of supply, nationally, we are now building more homes to rent, so that people can find an affordable home in which to live. We are delivering up to 10,000 new affordable homes to rent through the £1 billion Build to Rent fund and are also offering up to £10 billion in debt guarantees to kick-start developments of rented housing. As a result of the Government’s housing policies, housing supply is now at its highest level since 2008 with some 420,000 new homes being built over the last three years alone.

Locally, too, we are also concerned about the potential “bombshell” that rising student numbers will have on Brighton’s rental market in the future. Sussex University, for example, will be expanding by some 5,000 students over the next 4-5 years and we are concerned that not enough purpose built-student accommodation is going to be constructed to house them – only around 2,000 on-campus units are planned and, in any case, most students only live on campus in their first year.

This increase in student numbers is likely to put incredible pressure on the city’s private rented sector and will, no doubt, push rents up higher still. Brighton & Hove City Council should, arguably, be putting much more pressure on the city’s Universities to do something about it now. A Conservative-controlled Council from next year would work closely with the Universities to find early solutions to this looming problem.

To tackle that small minority of rogue landlords who blatantly exploit tenants and the rental sector, we fully support enforcing the laws that already exist to stamp out poor practice, through the prosecution of such landlords, through a much more proactive property inspection regime to ensure the quality of accommodation is appropriate and acceptable and through sending clear messages to other landlords that such abuses of tenants will not be tolerated.

To assist tenants to gain further security over their tenancies, the Government is also now helping those renters who want a longer tenancy to agree one with their landlord. Landlords can already, in fact, agree such tenancies now, but many tenants like the flexibility that the private sector provides and we don’t want to see this undermined either.

In terms of helping renters resolve problems if things do go wrong, from this year the Government is ensuring that all letting agents and property management companies will be required to join an approved, compulsory redress scheme which will make sure that tenants have proper access to redress for their complaints, such as any lack of transparency around the fees and charges they face.

Finally, the Government is also introducing the Tenants’ Charter, setting out the rights that tenants have and the ways they can take action if problems do arise. A new code of practice for the management of private rental sector property will also help tenants feel more confident that the Conservatives are firmly on their side in standing up to – and overcoming – the bad behaviour of that small minority of rogue landlords and agents.

Ultimately, however, the only way to raise hardworking people’s living standards overall is to continue to grow the economy, cut taxes, create jobs and build more housing for both rent and ownership. The Conservatives have a long-term economic plan that is already delivering these tangible results, but there is a lot more still to do.

Can Brighton accommodate another 5,000 students without building on the Downs?

The University of Sussex has announced a £500 million development plan which will see the number of students increase from 13,000 to 18,000. Together with Brighton University, the number of students in Brighton and Hove has increased from 26,000 in 1996 to 34,000 today and up to 40,000 by 2018. (Brighton and Hove News has a brief summary of the plan).

Sussex University alone makes an estimated £400 million contribution to the economy of Brighton and Hove, and its students add much to the vibrancy of the city.

My concern about the university’s ‘Making the Future’ plan (which is designed to keep it in the top 2% of universities in the world) is the impact on housing.

The existing pressure on housing supply has exacerbated affordability concerns. While the university plans a further 1,400 units of accommodation on campus, I wonder where the other 3,600 students will be accommodated.

Many parts of Brighton and Hove are increasingly blighted by studentification, and families and older people are increasingly being pushed out of the town centre and out of the city as a whole. There are areas which could be in danger of becoming student ghettos similar to, for example, the Hyde Park and Woodhouse areas of Leeds.

If we are to accommodate a further 5,000 students (and if we are to address the pressure on housing caused by those already here), the city will have to compromise. There are few options but building tall buildings is one, compromising on space standards is another. A radical solution would be to expand the city onto the Downs and into the National Park.

I can already sense the horror that any one of these three options will provoke, but I have to ask, what are the alternatives?

The Southern Co-operative takes seriously its responsibility regarding the sale of alcohol

Over the weekend I blogged and tweeted about an application by the Co-op to sell alcohol from 6am and called for greater responsibility of supermarkets when it comes to the sale of alcohol.  I have since realised that I have done the Southern Co-operative a disservice.  It currently runs two stores in the Brighton area, one is on Western Road and the other is on the Sussex University campus.  However both trade under the national brand. The Southern Co-operative has a policy of not retailing alcohol before 8.00am and I have been assured by them that they are not reviewing this policy.

The other Co-operative stores in Brighton and Hove are owned and run by the Co-operative Group based in Manchester, and it is this Group that has made the application for 6am licences.

As an independent co-operative trading in the south of England, the Southern Co-operative is very much aware of the issues regarding alcohol and has worked very closely with local councillor Ollie Sykes and the residents near the store to ensure that they were aware of their position with regard to selling alcohol.

The Southern Co-operative has a zero tolerance to abuse. They do not put posters advertising alcohol in the window and at the residents’ requests removed one of the window designs that showed a glass of wine being poured. Residents were asked what they would like to see and after consultation, a local competition was held that resulted in a local artist’s design appearing in the store window that depicts the Brunswick area.

Local managers work with local groups and the manager in the Western Road store is in contact with the Brighton and Hove Crime Reduction Partnership and regularly attends local meetings.  It is also working with the Hanover Centre on their energy saving project at the community centre and with the Brighton Peace and Energy Centre on carbon footprint surveys and special energy saving courses.

So my apologies for not differentiating between the two Co-ops locally.  I have learned something.  I hope in the near future to be able to write a further post welcoming a decision by the Co-operative Group not to proceed with its applications, and to highlight a new responsible approach to the marketing and sale of alcohol from them!