If you support Labour and live in Marple, then vote Labour

There's a huge cynical lie at the centre of a lot of electioneering. Vote for me, or you'll get the other guy. I fell for it in the Euro elections last year - I voted Green - and yet the awful BNP still got in. I think the Greens are barmy, yet they took comfort from their share of the vote, one of which was cast for entirely negative reasons. Urging a tactical vote is unpleasant. Yet here in Marple the Liberal Democrats are basing their local strategy on it.

The leaflet (above left) includes a hideous chart claiming to show a share of the vote in some unsourced, spurious election. In it, there are just three parties - two of which have a share of vote that looks roughly like 45 per cent and 42 per cent. The third, Labour, is portrayed as having what looks like 12.5 per cent. I've had my ruler out, trust me.

What was the election result in this ward last time? 42, 32, 16, with a 4th party, UKIP trailing on 8 per cent. Even if you are generous and claim the graph is attempting to measure the distance between the parties and starts at 8 per cent and upwards, then it is way off. It exaggerates the Conservative support and diminishes Labour. It is based on nothing except appealing to a negative.

There's a blog here by the great Norman Geras relating to a different election altogether. He says this: "in free elections involving more than two candidates there are a number of options other than voting for one of the front-runners. One can abstain; one can spoil one's ballot; why, one can even vote for a third candidate. These are all perfectly well-known and legitimate electoral practices."

So, there are a myriad of reasons why you should vote for any candidate. Supporting the character of that person, their capacity to serve, an endorsement of the programme of that party.

So, my message to any Labour supporters in Marple is this: if you want to support your party then do so. Don't fall for dismal Liberal Democrat desperation.

In elections you should vote for what you believe in. Here's the thing with the Liberal Democrats round here, especially this candidate - I don't think they believe in anything.

For the love of a good book

I still haven't embraced the Kindle and reading books on electronic pads yet. I borrowed an Android tablet for a couple of weeks and downloaded a few things on to the Kindle App, but just didn't take to it. I'm rather attached to my iPhone though and read all kinds of things on its tiny screen, I like the tactile interface - you can see where this is going, right? Yes, I think I'll get an iPad soon.

But ... I still love a book - and more than that I love hunting around in bookshops. I popped into Blackwells on Oxford Road yesterday. Maybe they just present academic books and the kinds of fiction and general books that academics like in a slightly different way - but it was very absorbing. I found a load of books I would buy, but rather fear they would just join a pile I struggle to get through (see above).

But this is all heading one way, I fear. I could only find a couple of bookshops in downtown San Francisco when I was there last month. All the biggies like Barnes & Noble and Borders? Gone. They have them in malls, but you can see why it's happened. The two books by American authors I had my eye on - I ended up buying them at Heathrow Airport!

But there's this piece in the Atlantic which suggests people are reading more - just not buying books in stores. It would be a crying shame and we must do all we can to use bookshops - I think though they need a new and different purpose - meeting spaces that emphasise the social side of learning and discovery. I notice Waterstones in Manchester have some excellent events coming soon - and Blackwells had one tonight. They won't replace book sales, but they might stimulate more interest in the product and provide a means to acquire more knowledge.

The Catholic Church and Gay marriage - my problem with it all

When I joined the Catholic Church in 2007 it wasn't for an easy life. The moral and ethical stimulus challenges and enriches me in equal measure. I haven't tended to talk about it on this blog too much, and don't feel sufficiently comfortable with the scripture or the doctrine to pour forth. It's also a fact that most people I come across who on hearing I'm Catholic think it's akin to being in a right-wing political party. In so many ways it is so far from that.

To me it veers from being beautifully simple to achingly hard. Yet proper Christian love remains at the centre of it all. Christ's love and the simple message we used to hear at the end of every Mass - "go in peace to love, and serve the Lord". The comma is important.

Here's what the Pope had to say at Easter: "[Jesus Christ] is present as a force of hope through his Church, which is close to all human situations of suffering and injustice."

But here's a thing. At the celebration of Easter our priest's homily took a diversion from a message about Natural Law to one of the core issues of the day - gay marriage.

This is what priests should do - poke at your faith and remind us that it's not just the easy stuff about forgiveness and doing good, but the hard bits too. It was uncomfortable, as it should be. It causes you to reflect and sometimes recoil, as he should do. I make no bones about that, but what follows is where I am at the moment. Homosexuality has always caused a problem for the church, in fact for all faiths for all time, it has been one of the lines in the sand.

Evoking Natural Law brings the issue to the heart of faith, God's gifts and human existence. My difficulty is that I don't see homosexuality as a sin or against that natural law. I see it as a part of some people's human make up - their capacity to love and to share, but with someone of the same sex.

I tend to the view of controversial gay priest Father Bernard Lynch, who said this weekend: "I do feel there is need to witness to the fact that gay is good and gay belongs to God. There are millions of lesbian and gay Catholics who need a witness to the fact that their love is not evil."

So, while it's possible to take all of that on board and still say - "hang on" over accepting marriage between same sex couples in a union blessed by the Church, I find the logic here is towards taking the argument two steps backwards behind that line in the sand on homosexuality itself.  

This isn't my doctrine, this isn't even me saying I have all the answers, as you can see I haven't really said anything, but it's where I am with this issue at the moment. Any guidance gratefully received.

Make Shan History

It was mentioned here that the LibDems in Marple would stoop low to get their candidate Shan Alexander re-elected. This leaflet, pictured, is breathtaking in its cynicism.

Fact: Shan Alexander was a governor of Cheadle & Marple Sixth Form College when the issue of a supermarket was discussed. She never opposed it and she never made public to the voters that gave her the right to be a governor that it was possible.

Fact: The campaign against the sale of the land to a supermarket was led by local people, not councillors. She was taken by surprise by the ferocity of the campaign and has asked local activists to tone down the campaign. She has cynically jumped on the bandwagon. She is pictured, below, right, in the dark top and white trousers facing an angry crowd of local people who started this campaign while the councillors had done nothing but hide behind the usual "leave it to us" and "trust us, we're working behind the scenes" nonsense. This eruption of the "Marple Spring" last year shocked them. Had it not happened and been restricted to a few people I have no doubt they would have ushered Asda through the planning application and heralded their support of Marple as a success for "inward investment" and "job creation". Maybe that's too cynical, but it is the view I hear most frequently.

To call it "Shan's campaign" is a disgrace. It is an insult to all the people in Marple who have given up their time to organise and get 1000 people marching in the streets, putting up posters, filling a rally at Memorial Park and collecting signatures on petitions.

The Liberal Democrats in Marple are well organised and resourceful. I don't doubt they will work hard for their candidate, but claims like this - and there are more - have no place in this election campaign. I would be equally as disgusted if any candidate claimed the "NO to a supermarket on Hibbert Lane" campaign as their own, but I would be surprised. Not so with this candidate or her campaign team.

And another thing, I really dislike the "Labour can't win here" complacency in the leaflets. It bears all the arrogance of a lazy incumbent - it may have a ring of truth to it - but this piece here shows just how the house of cards in Lib Dem Stockport is crumbling.

Make sure you vote in these elections. It's time for change in Marple and Shan Alexander must go.

Rovers relegation run in

Blackburn Rovers have that capacity to surprise me this season. They lose games they ought to win, and have won one game they never expected to - Man United away. I've done the headscratching over the run-in, just as the Daily Mail has here and come to a slightly different conclusion. I think Rovers will end up on 36 points, just as the Mail says, but from different games. By my maths I expect us to finish fourth from bottom with Wigan, QPR and Wolves going down. In my heart, however, I feel doomed.

Quality politicians need real power and influence

Arlene Foster opens the Titanic Belfast, saying "we did it"

Who would be a local councillor? It's a serious question. I've mulled over the central matter in hand on many occasions. I was talking it over with two good friends recently, one is a Labour councillor who has come to it in her forties and is doing very well - partly because she has been experienced in education and local issues in Manchester. The other is a former councillor who doesn't see the point these days and has access to power through a very successful lobbying organisation he leads.

We have a situation in Marple South where a dismal councillor of retirement age is seeking re-election, candidates are here. For many reasons she should call it a day - but she's hanging on. Maybe it's because she's retired that she can supplement her other income with the £25,000 or so she picks up in expenses and allowances. Her opponents include a young man from the Conservative Party- who is at the start of a journey where he hopes to make a difference and represent the people through public service. The incumbent has already dismissed him as "faceless" which is a disgraceful piece of dog dirt Lib Dem politics. Personally, I hope he does well, and uses the energy of his youth and his freedom from wider family responsibilities to get stuck in. Who else would have a go? Professionals in their 30s and 40s with families can't afford to - I'm sure many who have genuinely weighed it up and just don't see elected public service as an option.

This isn't to argue for larger salaries - but it does pose a problem. Maybe there are too many councillors? Maybe there is too much local government? And what structure would work that would aid the one cause I have consistently banged on about all my life - devolution, power and autonomy for the North.

Taking this a step further, I was considering this as I watched the minister for enterprise and tourism in Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, speaking at a conference I ran recently. She presides over her portfolios with great skill and I was impressed that she is a politician of some stature. Without even getting into the traditions and wings of Ulster Unionism that she comes from, you have to bear in mind that as a qualified lawyer she has other opportunities in her life. I'd estimate that if she were to have moved to England, could well be a Cameroonian Conservative and would easily be ministerial material.

Now, her electorate is only 1.5 million, yet her impact and capacity to improve and enhance the lives of people in Northern Ireland is immense, she makes that point here. Contrast that with the most powerful political jobs in the North of England. Liverpool city council were blessed to have Mike Storey as a capable leader. Beyond that? History suggests it was thin fare. Beyond Sir Richard Leese in Manchester? There is a massive quality gap. There are, I am led to believe, a number of emerging councillors, of which my friend is one, but it all requires a disproportionate investment of time and brainpower to make sure the bins are collected and the schools don't employ psychopaths. I kind of sympathise with the Nicholas Ridley view of local government, to be honest. If you know what it is, fine, if you don't, that's fine too, but you should read your political history more.

Which brings me to the issue of city and borough Mayors. Who would get the job if Manchester has an elected mayor? Probably someone from the local Labour machine, like current leader Sir Richard Leese, just as Joe Anderson is a shoe in for Liverpool mayor. It's a joke and a waste of time. But a city region Mayor, covering the 10 boroughs, with accounatbility to the people, power over the executive that is running skills, education, inward investment, health policy, transport and an airport - that's a job worth having. Just as London's Mayoral contest has attracted two heavyweights like Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone, so too could a city region with a large budget, genuine autonomy over key issues and, nakedly, proper influence.

There might be a Mancunian Arlene Foster out there, we can but hope - but we can also create the structures to attract such talent to public life. Otherwise we just get lumbered with yet more like Shan Alexander.

Marple's Mary Portas Bid

Marple has applied for funding in the government's Portas Pilot scheme. This has to be worth the effort. With a nudge in the right direction and a few more things going on, the centre could start to thrive again. As Di Jackson says in the video, Marple is on a knife edge at the moment.

The bid is modest and realistic, some mentoring and promotional help for existing businesses and two more of the successful street markets. 

There's some coverage of the bid - and Stockport's - here.

Belfast's Titanic Year

The latest trip to Belfast saw the city in a sunny splendour. I do hope the sun shines on the city for the opening of the new Titanic Belfast. We were lucky enough to get a tour around the new shiny visitor attraction and see the ballroom, the splendid entrance as well as the view from the very top. It's a very well appointed facility and has already sold thousands of tickets.

The timing for the opening is perfect, but what happens when the hype dies down, by it's very definition the centenary of the launch of the ship from Harland & Wolff is a singularly significant time and place. Once the hype for the ship dies down, in a year or so, I reckon, the centre will need a new focus, more varied arts and culture, but for now, Belfast is positively basking.

Mayor for Manchester - the wrong question

There are whispers in the shadows that if Manchester doesn't vote to have a Mayor then the city may miss out on things - link here to a weak unsourced BBC story.

An unamed source claims the city would be at a competitive disadvantage.

Pull the other one! When has that ever happened? Surely this City of Manchester Mayor idea is dead in the water? No-one is actively campaigning for it, are they? It is an ill-thought through and wholly unecessary piece of political showboating as far as I can see. Liverpool opted to embrace a city Mayor and got a City Deal out of it. Manchester got a deal on being able to raise finance and have some control over skills development. To threaten the public with weasly scare stories doesn't become a government that seems to genuinely embrace localism.

I mentioned here that I think the TEN boroughs of Greater Manchester ought to have a centrally elected Mayor. The unique governance arrangements where the boroughs have sensibly co-ordinated a strategy led by Association of Greater Manchester Authorities is the City Deal - it is genuinely a breakthrough moment in how the resources in the city region are distributed.

As Sir Richard Leese, leader of the city council said on his blog: "The deal greatly enhances our ability to support the Manchester economy, consists entirely of proposals generated in Manchester, but is only possible because of the willingness of the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester to work together in a way that you will not see anywhere else in the UK."

I signed this letter that appeared in the Manchester Evening News, even though I won't be voting on the issue as I live in the Borough of Stockport. But even the story that covered it managed to peddle the myth that the mayor of Manchester would be "like Boris Johnson in London". No it won't. If it was, then that would be a different argument and one that would definitely be worth supporting.

Marple Conservatives swing into action

I noticed that the Marple Conservatives have named a candidate in the forthcoming election - let me introduce Carl Rydings, who will be standing in Marple South, our ward.

Here is his website. He's also on Twitter @carlryds.

He's put a leaflet out, which has slightly different versions for Strines and High Lane. He's concerned about road surfaces, Lib Dem dominance and high council taxes.

I'll keep up to date as best I can, but as I mentioned in the previous postings, the chances of an independent candidate standing have passed. I would love to step up to the plate and represent this community, but I just can't spare the time, I'm planning a new business, which is going to be an enormous undertaking, and I have a large family. On top of all that, I am juggling all my domestic responsibilities with being a school governor, football club committee member and wishing to do all I can to stop Asda.

I've made my feelings clear on Shan Alexander, she must go. So I await a strong showing from Carl Rydings, the candidate best placed to beat her.

Meeting the Queen

I was delighted to be asked to attend an indoor Mancunian garden party to mark the Queen's visit to Manchester on Friday. There was a fair amount of waiting around, but luckily I ran into Scott Fletcher, (below) who is always good company. We managed to position our selves in a decent spot close to where we reckoned she'd be walking past on her way out. 

It must have been a great day for the kids performing dances and martial arts displays. It was a big deal for the city and for Salford to get a visit from the head of state in her Diamond Jubilee year. I have to say that both the Queen and Prince Phillip looked well - they also managed to look like they really enjoyed themselves on such an exhausting schedule. I know we enjoyed the occasion and the Taekwondo was particularly impressive. 

Anyway, we sidled up to the red rope as she was due to pass and lined up dutiful subjects should. Sir Richard Leese was doing the duties and had in his hand the details of all the people he wanted to introduce the Queen to, including all the people who'd worked so hard on putting the show on. We certainly weren't on his list, though he nodded at us both with a knowing smile. We took that as a cue to back off a touch and just said hello and smiled at Her Majesty even as she passed right by us. It was a big moment for the team who put the event together and we would have been wrong to muscle in.

But we can say we sort of met the Queen, we said hello at close quarters and she smiled back. And let's face it, I've met Prince Charles, spoken to him, shaken his hand had a conversation about windmills and he'd have as much memory of that as his Mother did of two nodding chancers at Manchester Central. 

The North West Economy Debate on BBC1

I was chuffed to bits to be invited to a debate on the state of the North West economy which will be broadcast on BBC1 tomorrow night. Ranvir Singh hosted it, there were two MPs there - Hazel Blears for Labour and David Rutley, the Tory member for Macclesfield - and a mixture of business people from a chip shop owner from Woodley to a manufacturer of aircraft  bits. There were unions, the unemployed, an academic and a few good eggs like Max Steinberg and Andy Leach. It was a real whirlwind of a debate, much punchier than the usual polite business events I'm involved in. It was also quite broad. See for yourself tomorrow night at 11. And let me know what you thought. I know which bits I enjoyed the most.

Learning Journey at Bridge Bank

There are a few videos from the places we visited in Silicon Valley. This is one I did at Bridge Bank in Palo Alto. You can view the others if you click through to my video page.

Contextual intelligence - how it works in Silicon Valley

So, there we were on the 25^th floor of a corporate law firm's offices on Market Street in the heart of San Francisco's Financial District, listening and taking notes in a meeting with Judith Iglehart from the Keiretsu Forum when the door flung open and in burst Randy Williams, the founder and CEO of the angel investing network.

He'd just dropped in to see us after taking a quick break from a screening committee on the floor above, where he'd been chairing a group of 12 heavy hitters and investors from some of Silicon Valley's brightest and best known businesses. He invited us into the room to watch him work. We lined the wall and stood transfixed as they first passed verdict on an entrepreneurial business that had just been in to present a pitch for funding – not clear, said one. Poor presentation said another. They all scribbled down their points on a slip, which would have decided whether the guy had a chance to come back and present.

Next up was a very confident and polished business owner punting his pitch for a modest amount of funding to get his business to the next level. To cut to the chase he had a slick and fast paced presentation but he rambled. He ran way over his time and you could sense the frustration around the table. He performed even worse in the Q&A, he couldn't explain what he needed the money for, or what his exit strategy was, nor could he articulate the differentiating factor in his business.

The discussion, after the pitchee left the room, reflected the obvious frustration they all felt. There was a business idea there, they agreed, but the presentation and failure to answer questions concerned them all. Get him back for some advice – sharpen the idea, said one of the investors. And here's the thing, Randy Williams reckons they'll get the funding from somewhere else. No idea is perfect, no pitch a sure fire winner – do you stick, or twist? That's the risk, this is what angels have to do.

And so this is how business angel financing in the Valley works. This is quickfire, brutal and unforgiving - you can't waste time. You get to the point, you get it across. And if you can't do that in front of a panel of people who want to give you money, what chance would you have with customers. But it's not the structured reality of Dragon's Den, there was a theatricality about it, an energy, a sense of urgency. Another incredible insight.

The last visit of the trip was to Plantronic, a 50 year old company that started making the telephonist head sets the receptionists may wear in Mad Men. What was fascinating about this tour de force was the thought that has gone into how voice technology will change – and how work patterns have changed too. The chief executive Ken Kannappan described it as contextual intelligence – understanding the waves of innovation and social change and being there.

It's been amazing how many themes keeping cropping up again and again with these successful companies – creating an emotional connection between product and consumer, often through design.  

What's the story? Silicon Valley glory

It's difficult to know where to start with summing up our visit to Google's funky downtown San Francisco offices – so I'll follow the money. The business makes 95 per cent of its profits and revenues from advertising. They also give a large number of their 25,000 global workforce tough and aggressive targets – they hire the best people with a gruelling interview process. That's a hard and commercial facet of this powerful expanding business that is disrupting and dismantling the traditional media channels and processes. And they measure absolutely everything, most notably their people through Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).

I bet you weren't expecting to hear that. Certainly the Google presentation and discussion was mainly about the development of their fun creative culture and the strategy in all of their markets ranging from YouTube to Gmail and back through to Adwords and Adsense. Yes, the company give everyone 20 per cent time to work on their own projects. In reality that though is 120 per cent time. Yes, they innovate through accessibility. And yes, genuinely Google stays true to its mantra of making the world's information accessible and organised for everyone. They are tactics that ultimately serve the strategy – all the time, relentlessly. They provide relevance, they innovate to take advertisers ever closer to real opportunities. None of it is an accident.

It is an awesome organisation.

So Jerry Engel starts telling us all a story about the conversation at his book club the night before. There were a few VCs, some entrepreneurs, and him of course a guru of innovation and entrepreneurship and an adjunct Professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. You know, he says, your typical crew. Wow.

This man is a powerhouse of ideas, a real thinker. He pushed and prodded us all, tied his thoughts into what he knows about Manchester and the potential to create a Graphene Valley in our home city region.

Innovation happens he says when it collides with waves of change – what waves of change are you part of, he asked? Position yourself at the crossroads of innovation and exploration. He went a long way again, to describing how Silicon Valley works.

From the hallowed halls of Berkeley it was then a drive to the Valley past the prime premises of Facebook and Google and into the home of LinkedIn to meet one of the founder Allen Blue.

We signed non-disclosure agreements and so can't say too much about what we talked about. Suffice to say just this – what you see in LinkedIn now is just the beginning and there is so much more to come.

Allen told us the story and we debated the various ways we use the current LinkedIn, there were reasons for why it looks how it does – and if we had anything to say, then here was the guy who was ultimately responsible – so we were saying it to his face! Incredible – just another day on the Learning Journey.

The last stop of the day was at the post-industrial creative factory of ideas that is Obscura Digital, officially the coolest office in the world. where the strikingly handsome Shawn Biega, their VP of sales treated us to a demonstration of innovation and technology in action – how these awesome interactive video wall installation transform a retail experience, but also how they work in hotels, businesses and even as projected light shows on buildings. Yes, these guys have lit up the Coca Cola HQ in Atlanta, a mosque in the United Arab Emirates.

Their mission statement is 'If you can imagine it, we can create it.' They've even lit up the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas with an interactive display of music artefacts, we particularly liked playing with the Beatles and Oasis pieces.

Yes we know the way to San Jose

The team answered in the affirmative the question posed by Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick as we found our way to San Jose to meet Dan Harden of Whipsaw.

It was a damp and rainy day in the Valley, but our spirits were good and we all enjoyed another amazing day.

Whipsaw is a product design company that though small and perfectly formed – just 35 employees – it works on making a wide range of products that users will find lovableand tactile. “There can be glory in anything you can design,” is Dan's philosophy. It was this passion, his love of design that shone through everything he told the group in an illuminating and inspiringsession, but it was also what led him out of Frog Design in 1999 which had got too big, he felt.

Whipsaw is a funky name, he says that's essential in the Valley – a real dynamic intellectual environment – but it also embodies the team ethic –you need two people to pull a whipsaw from side to side.

He was remarkably candid about some of the ways he's worked with clients – even the ones he's been in dispute with – but he was tight lipped on what he's been doing for Google – that G is shaped like a noose for a reason.

But that Valley commitment to excellence has also driven him to embrace the social craft of what they can bring to a business. The world needs to improve so many everyday experiences – the flights we took to get here, driving, even hospital visits. Whipsaw even admitted an intern into hospital to observe the patient experience.

But the group were mesmerised by his retelling of his four experiences with the late great Steve Jobs. He sparked with energy and passion, it's not a surprise that he remains so hand's on in the business, clients want him involved in their projects.

Next stop for nourishment - both mental and gastronomic - was DPR Construction in Redwood City.

You don't get to the exalted heights of 13^th in the Fortune magazine ranking of the Best Companies to Work For by accident. You have to embed excellence into your organisation and be prepared to fire high performers who are jerks. That's what we learned at DPR Construction, a company that takes seriously the wider message of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Rights and the true value of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is all vital to understand how the company was formed and the ethics of the founders.

We were here to learn about the company from founder Pete Nosler and of this commitment to teamwork and how they are set up, but this is no hippy colony – DPR work on huge schemes for major customers and work with renowned architects.

But the business also operates at the industry profit margin of a wretched 2 per cent. They manage it, but it's through a large volume of work and through being in control of their projects – they don't do competitive tendering, for example.

But integrity lies at the centre of their world – on time, in full, no second chances. It's folksy, but tough, and a shining beacon deserving of all their glory.

Bridge Bank, our next visit was another stimulating charge. A fair few of the group have bad experiences with their banks – some have kinder words to say about theirs. But for better or for worse none of us have encountered a banker quite like Ed Lambert of Bridge Bank, a key figure in the technology sector in Silicon Valley, who we spent sometime with at his office in Palo Alto.

A tactile and warm hearted individual he embodies the values of the Valley and places a high importance on networks, gut feel, helping others and theValley's secret sauce.

I've never met a banker who manages to quote Roger Daltrey, Voltaire and the Chinese philosophy which decrees that a wise man knows almost everything, but a brilliant man knows everyone. He uses his network to understand the business processes and models of the changing world. He understands the challenges to the banking sector and its diversions into private equity and derivative trading by stressing the importance of a bank's true mission – old world banking in a new world order.

And on the subject ofconnectivity and human understanding he got each of us to tell him who they were – the classic Silicon Valley 2 minute pitch. I don't know whether it was better or worse going next to last; it gave me a lot of time to gather my thoughts, but this incredible group of people are a tough act to follow.  

My Learning Journey in San Francisco

I'm in San Francisco on a Learning Journey, an organised tour around businesses and institutions in California with a group of entrepreneurs from around the UK. It is an incredible life changing experience.

We headed south first thing in the morning to Mountain View in Silicon Valley for the first appointment with Symantec with company evangelist Dale Zabriskie. The security software company is best known for consumer security software product Norton Utilities. The presentation was an expansive overview of the threats to data security and the constantly changing nature of those such perils – from hackers, activists, organised crime and even hostile states. They do this specifically through their three Security Operations Centres (SOC) – one is in Reading – which track what the bad guys do. But we learned too about how Symantec has embedded a culture of innovation into the business to make them able to provide the thought leadership that can maintain their business and on top of their sector and even acquire businesses that give them a strategic edge. And to innovate the key is to fail quickly, take heed, move on. This was evident in how business has started analysing the weight of data now being produced – had you ever heard of a Zeddobyte or a Yottabyte? Big numbers with 24 zeroes. We are a generation that is data rich but information poor, so much we have, but so much is also irrelevant, 75 per cent, Dale suggested. What matters is being able to understand which bits of data require a layer of information that make them intelligent and worth backing up and securing.

Then we headed back to the city to meet Salesforce.com.  It takes balls of steel to cull a chunk of your business at a time of maximum growth. Especially so when you grow by 40 per cent a year, every year, for 13 years. That was just one of the hundreds of anecdotes, insights, facts and spellbinding insights from a trio of presentations and discussions we were part of at Salesforce.com the most innovative company in the world. At the centre was the transformation of the business – essentially an internet based sales CRM management system - into a social enterprise – one that embraces and enhances the social networking revolution and places it at the centre of everything the company does. Woodson Martin kicked us off with his analysis of how the explosion in mobile devices is changing everything – his you can even read this here – 50 ways to become a social enterprise. Part of this is embedded in the ways in which Salesforce have implemented Chatter – essentially a bespoke secure internal communications network that edits out the noise we all suffer from with Facebook and Twitter. It's improved productivity, communication and the flow of ideas – indeed CEO Marc Benioff has tagged these the Chatterati – and radically flattened the whole organisation. Innovation is at the heart of Salesforce and Cloud computing and keeping that edge is what gives the business a premium. Clarence So, senior VP of strategy, spoke to us about how the business fought off various challenges over the years with a characteristic cheeky humour and attitude. One way they do this: how tactics dictate strategy that recognises how many of the best laid plans end up going wrong anyway – tactics and what we learn from them inform our strategy.

To understand the entrepreneurial mindset of Silicon Valley it's important to get your head around the contribution of the universties – in particular Stanford and Berkeley, our next stop off. We were hosted at Stanford by Tom Byers, the head of the technology ventures program. Though the university has a proud legacy of creating businesses in the technology field, the purpose of Tom had worked Symantec beforehand and so had some rubber on the entrepreneurial road. His talk included video presentations from a bunch of his friends – Jack Dorsey, one of the creators of Twitter, venture capital investor Marc Andressen, entrepreneur Steve Blank, evangelist Guy Kawsaki, and Randy Komiser author of Getting to Plan B. He capped it off with a clip of Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO and a hot tip to be the first female President of the United States. The themes included business models and planning, as well as some of the the resources are here.

More tomorrow.

Shining a (City) light on a brave new world

Gareth, Nick, Jamie, Will and Jeff

Travelling around San Francisco and taking in the delights of this energetic diverse city has been a journey of discovery and rediscovery. I first walked the steep streets of San Francisco in 1986. One of the reasons I was drawn here as a 19 year old was the spirit of the Beat Poets like Alan Ginsberg and cult author Jack Kerouac. Both have an important cultural legacy here, held up at City Lights bookstore in North Beach.

I support independent retailers and love the curiosity and magic of a bookstore, but I was a little deflated by this visit to City Lights. Amongst the shelves of Anarchist poetry and rows of Noam Chomsky there was no place for two contempary and important books I would like to buy while I'm here - books by Richard Florida and Michael Lewis, both authors with something relevant to say about the world and modern America.

Anyway, ten minutes of browsing and I was off. Back over the road to have a chat to the rest of my party about other things that fascinate us - the new Raspberry Pi, University spin outs, satellite technology and IBM's re-invention. And City Lights wouldn't have any books that had anything to say about any of that. More's the pity.

The toilet politics of the Marple LibDems

The latest pre-election leaflet from our local Liberal Democrat candidate and sitting Councillor is further evidence of her unfitness to hold public office any longer.

Shan Alexander claims credit for a scheme to save a toilet block in Memorial Park and open up other facilities. I thought it was wind up at first. Is this the best they can claim in after running Stockport Council?

Then there is her woolly stance on the planning application by Asda's agents as if it was anything to do with her. Oh, actually it was. She was a Governor of the college, but never said anything about the plan until it was clear where public opinion stood.

The dismissal of potential opponents as "faceless" is a low blow. She has the benefit of incumbency for her profile. An opponent does not, neither do they have the ability to maintain local visibility and be paid £40,000 into her household as her and her husband do.

And who is to say that opponent hasn't been active in local campaigns?

This is the kind of low politics a good mate of mine, a former Labour Councillor, described as "LibDem Dog Dirt politics."

You know where you are with Labour - looking out for the hard up - and the Tory Party in local politics - small business and small state governance. Lib Dems? What matters is what gets them elected. Well, I hope it backfires this time.

Why Pacer trains break down

There's a piece in Private Eye about how poor old Northern Rail are starved of subsidy and investment and that their vile 1980s Pacer trains are prone to breaking down a lot.

I spoke to a guard recently who explained that they often run out of fuel because the driver can't tell how much gas is in the tank. It's guesswork at the start of a shift and they hope for the best.

What a way to run a railway.

Hang the DJ in Cannes

It's been a long time since I was in a DJ booth, but this was too good a chance to miss. Ear to the Ground are an amazingly creative Manchester-based events business. They do ambient and experiental events for clients like Umbro and Manchester City Football Club, as well as pop festivals – I mean, they’re putting on Elbow and Paul Weller at Jodrell Bank this summer. How cool is that?

At the MIPIM property event in Cannes, the team from Groundbreaking who do events in property spaces and liven up public realms – hosted an end of show party. They invite the guests to choose three tracks and play a DJ set. It’s a great idea, and floats the boat of old rockers and young bucks alike – it makes everyone feel that little bit more involved. This was my 10 minutes of fame. I chose a trio of tunes that would have rocked the joint at 2am when everyone was loaded, but simply got a few approving nods from proper veterans of the golden age of late 80′s house music. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you – Eric B & Rakim’s Paid in Full, Joe Smooth’s Promised Land and the epic It’s Alright by Sterling Void. Plenty of memories rekindled, Limbo on a Saturday night in Perth for one.

If you are going to San Francisco...

My favourite American city is San Francisco. I'm delighted to be heading there next weekend. If there are any tips and hints and places to see then I'd be delighted to hear them as I've not been for ten years. I'll be staying in Union Square in the centre of the city and therefore pretty handy. I've got a tour of Alcatraz booked in, which I'd not done before, and I'm not drinking at the moment. Anything else considered.

When I stayed in 2000 I saw an art deco poster from the 1920s. I have never been able to find it online or in any shop in the USA. I also tracked down the poster from an Oasis concert in 1996 I went to and it was rubbish - quite embarrassingly so - and therefore developed a bit of a mission to find some San Francisco art for our home that reminds me of this wonderful city. The fall back position is this poster, left from designers Anderson Design Group.

The new Michael Taylor Events blog

I've started a new blog that records the events I work on. It's now no longer a secret that I'm leaving Insider this year. The story about that is here. While the name of this new blog is not the identity of my new business or anything, it is intended to record what I've learned from each event, what worked and equally what didn't. If anyone wants to have a look, it's here. If anyone wants to talk to me about making their events better and sharper, email me here.

How to enjoy a diet

On the advice of Steve Hoyles, my personal trainer, I've been on a diet. I'm not fat or anything, but I carry a few lumps in the wrong places. I wanted to shift a few pounds and to reap better rewards from the fitness regime Steve's had me on over the last 18 months.

I'm about to enter a busy time of my life - setting up by own business and being available for my family to be a better husband and father. One of the the first things to go is booze, which is a Lent thing as well.

The diet involves cutting out pasta, rice, potatoes and bread. It was hard going in the first week - especially at lunchtimes where everything revolves round a sandwich. It's not the Atkins, by the way, and Steve outlines it on his own website here. The onus is on me to eat lots of vegetables and fruit and be sensible about the sugars and sauces. And to drink loads of water. Certainly our spice rack has never been better used.

It's working. I don't weigh myself, but my definition has improved and the belly has shrunk in two weeks. I'd say I'm probably down to 13 stone, but I'm not that bothered about the number, the more accurate indicator is that clothes fit me, which had got a bit snug. I also have a lot of energy and am sleeping much better. For what I've got to do in the next month, this is just the job.

Getting beaten at Man City - this is how it feels to be Rovers

Manchester City fielded at least four players against Blackburn Rovers yesterday who cost more than Venky's paid to buy an entire club. With the exception of City keeper Joe Hart - who may as well not have bothered playing - no Rovers player cost more than the next cheapest City player.

There is a gulf in money between the clubs. There was also a gulf in class. I said to my eldest lad yesterday that the point wasn't to hope we'd win - we had no chance - but for him to watch at close quarters a player of sublime skill and ability - David Silva.

We can moan about humiliation and tactics as much as we like, but that's the truth. And whoever else buys the club, there isn't a thing we can do about it. The Man United score looks more and more like a fluke.

Best hope for Blackburn Rovers - a mutual future

The building blocks are being slotted into the place for a supporter owned future for Blackburn Rovers. The website, here, has all the details so far of the newly formed Supporters Investment Trust. This plan has my full support. There may be some short term blips and the present owners may play hard to get, but this is the only game in town.

Inside Out - BBC North West programme on Peel

I was delighted to be asked to contribute a few comments to the BBC North West Inside Out programme on Peel Holdings this week. In a nutshell I said the North West is very lucky to have a business like Peel, led by a driven and determined character like John Whittaker, but that their success comes with a ruthless streak. They tend not to lose. I also mentioned he is a devout practising Catholic. Maybe I sound a little like the Indian mother on Goodness Gracious Me, always spotting her own.

My one and only on the record encounter with John Whittaker is recorded for all time here in the May 2010 edition of North West Business Insider. I rather regret not making more of this encounter and putting it up on the web. The theatre of the clash between JW and Sir Howard Bernstein seemed exciting at the time, and we milked it as a news story and demonstrated how we accessed such big hitters. I wish in a way I'd delved into the great man a little more while I had the chance and splashed it some more. Hats off then to Property Week editor Giles Barrie for doing just that with his opportunity here, but I notice that he too has chosen to hide it behind a paywall. Sometimes it's better to save these things for the printed product, I certainly thought so at the time.

I also have to commend David Quinn and Arif Ansari for an excellent short film. It was fair, balanced and gave a number of valuable insights into the business. The only shame for them, like me, like Giles Barrie, is with Peel you just don't know what to leave out - but part of our challenge is always what you omit as much as what you include and how the story is then told.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

There is something frustrating, irritating and slightly unctuous about the modern literary elite - Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes. There shouldn't be, we should actually be proud of what they have produced and be prepared to absorb ourselves in their prestigious output. Barnes won the 2011 Booker Prize for this slim novella - and though I haven't actually read any of the others he beat to the title, it seems at least worthy of the honour. It's an uncomfortable read at times, dealing with the recollections of Tony Webster, a middle aged man dealing with a life of regret and questionable recollection. It is beautifully written with a straightforward story and cast of characters. His tone of voice, so eloquent and observant, and yet so unable to read people properly as time passes and to display such lack of awareness takes real skill. Building a story around an unsympathetic character is often hailed as a worthy trick to pull off, Amis and McEwan all revel in it. This is slightly different, as you never particularly root for Webster, but recoil in mild disgust. It's also an antidote to boastful Great American Novel writers who demand so much of you with their 150,000 word epic. None of that should put you off, it is a short, accessible and thoroughly engaging little gem of a book.

Charity shop classics - from Marple

James Graham, a journalist of this wider parish of Manchester, presents a delightful show on community radio station ALL FM based in Levenshulme. It's called Charity Shop Classics and features music purchased in the ever growing number of charity shops. The idea of the show is to show how much great, eclectic stuff you can find. There are a few Charity Shops in Marple as we know and programme number 10 sourced some of its music from the Cancer Research shop on Derby Way.


James says: "I was delighted to find that this was just two songs: Graham Parker and the Rumour – I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down, and Kris Kristofferson – Help Me Make it Through the Night from the albums Stick to Me, and Me and Bobby McGee respectively.

 "I remember thinking the general calibre of albums was pretty high, not too much battered stuff, or crooners like Doonican and Jim Reeves, or dreadful Scottish marching music." Here's a thing. They were both £1.99 which James thought was a premium price - the ideal rate being 50p or £1. "Sadly there's terrible price inflation in charity shops, fuelled by some stores who realised they were under-selling a lot of stuff." I thought maybe it's a Cheshire thing, but apparently not.

The show is on every Sunday morning 11-12 (apart from the first of the month) on allfm 96.9 which can be picked up across Greater Manchester.

Marple democracy in action

My fascination with the workings of local government and politics took me to the Area Committee meeting at Marple Library tonight. Usually such meetings are small and sleepy affairs. Some have no members of public present at all. Marple's is usually quite well attended - about 40 people were at this one. There were a couple of presentations - one on woodland and the other on the long term Vision for Marple by Gillian from Marple Civic Society.

The most controversial aspect of the meeting was a presentation by one of the officials on the use of A Frames outside shops. There is a proposal that these be registered and licensed at a cost of £70 each. The reason? the council are concerned that they may be liable if there is no scheme in place when some tricky lawyer comes knocking with a stack of personal injury cases.

Understandably the businesses present were appalled at another burden when they least need it. But the councillors seemed sympathetic enough. One of them however proceeded to lecture local businesses on the best ways they could advertise cost effectively on the internet and in local papers - instead of using these advertising boards.

It seems a mundane and trivial issue, but the promise to look again seemed genuine as did a call for a formal response from Marple Business Forum to introduce a voluntary code.

Did it make me any more convinced about the need for non-partisan representation at a time of critical community need? No, not really, but it did reinforce the view that while they may be hugely committed to their local community needs, councillors have to play a daily game of cat and mouse with professional bureaucrats who have a need to meddle. Some cope with that better than others, and the closer they are to the party machine, the harder it is to do that.

No news on the supermarket developments - Asda have yet to submit a plan. The deadline for expressions of interest on the Chadwick Street site is this Friday.

Local politics - too important to be left to politicians

The local council elections this May have thrown up a few intriguing issues. Marple's two wards have both been relatively safe Liberal Democrat seats, but these are far from normal times. If the national picture is to be translated locally then the LibDem vote is in meltdown and they will probably lose control of Stockport Council, which they currently run with the tacit support of a group of independent councillors from Heald Green.

Last time round, the Conservatives trailed the LibDems by 8 per cent in Marple South and 10 per cent in Marple North. A softening of the core vote could easily swing it. Link to the results is here.

Locally in Marple there are only really two well organised political bodies. The Liberal Democrat party and Marple in Action. That is not to say that Marple in Action is a political party, far from it. Indeed, there are many crossovers in membership and over the single issue of the supermarket the LibDems have come out as against it.

Yet I get no impression that the Conservatives have a sufficient organisation in Marple. The Conservative Club is a social base, not a political one. They have fielded "paper" candidates in the past, young activists with a willingness to put their names out, but with no hope of winning. Now that they have the opportunity, do they have the means?

A cynic could say the local councillors and candidates have played to the prevailing wind. Had there been no outrage at the proposals, I dare say the councillors who have sat as college governors would herald the inward investment success of attracting interest from Asda. As it is, they've latterly come to the table and been rather shocked by the weight of public opinion (see the picture above at the Area Committee in Memorial Park which rather shook them up).

I think all of this has made Marple quite volatile politically. There is also, to my mind, the continued question as to whether Shan Alexander should continue a career in public life following her conviction in 2009 of a driving offence which resulted in the death of a passenger in her car. I certainly don't think she should, as I said here. I don't know whether this is a big issue locally, but it should be.

But as I've said before, here for example, there is a vital need for an open and public debate about where this community is heading. Marple in Action has done a great job raising this long term thought to the fore. But will the councillors? In a council chamber, with party loyalties pulling elected members in one direction and another, I fear the main priority of this community and it's fragile business base could be overlooked.

I don't think the short term objectives of Marple in Action are under any immediate threat from the issues of this election - it is important too that the organisation remains focused on this huge single issue. But beyond that I have an uneasy feeling that the longer the Marple Area plan is thrown into the hands of council committees and dense reports, the more obscure it appears to ordinary people. 

My view, which I have come to recently, is that this election is time for an independent slate to come forward and stand up for the community. And put Marple first.

Thirty One - a very worthwhile project

Some of Manchester's finest musical talents have contributed to a fantastic project called Thirty One. The launch is at Band on the Wall tomorrow and I'm gutted I can't go.

It's all in aid of the CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) charity. Suicide is the biggest killer of young men in the UK and the proceeds of the album will be going towards helping CALM set up a 24/7 round-the-clock helpline.

 Thirty One is a collection of tracks from Manchester UK, featuring rare and exclusive songs from both established and emerging acts. The album has been curated and compiled by DJ/Writer Dave Haslam for The Factory Foundation. Thirty One also features art direction from Peter Saville (in collaboration with LOVE Creative) and photography from Thomas Cockram. All profits from the release will go to CALM a registered charity with its roots in Manchester.

The ambition of Thirty One is to raise sufficient funds to enable CALM to run their national freephone helpline service: 0800 58 58 58 every night of the week, every day of the year. The helpline is currently open from 5pm-midnight on Saturday, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. Thirty One is an amazing snapshot capturing the undeniable quality of the Manchester music scene. It features brand new material by artists with careers stretching back to the post-punk era.

TRACKS INCLUDE: -ELBOW Lippy Kids (Live from Pinkpop- an exclusive UK release) -NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS Let The Lord Shine A Light On Me (from the band’s second single) -I AM KLOOT Bigger Wheels (reworked exclusively for Thirty One) -EVERYTHING EVERYTHING Carry Me Home (Gloworm Cover) -DURUTTI COLUMN Requiem Away (re-mastered from FAC244) -JEZ KER Reason I Feel Like An Alien (a stripped back version of the track from A Certain Ratio’s bassist/vocalist).

Other tracks come from established acts such as Delphic and Mr Scruff, the inimitable psychedelic songwriter Jim Noir and bright new hopes Airship. Thirty One also features BBC 6 Music favorites Plank! and a remix of Manchester stalwarts The Whip’s “Secret Weapon”. It is an album much like the city from which it originates: rich in musical variety. It ranges from the bass heavy sounds of Murkage, to the delicate stylings of Sara Lowes and the stunning, original new talent of Ruby Ann Patterson. All of the songs have been donated by the artists for Thirty One, which is not just a compilation reflecting successful music-making in the city, but presents one of the highest quality charity albums of recent years.

Have you ever met a soft Salfordian?

I enjoyed a trip to Salford's new community stadium to watch Salford City Reds play their first game against Castleford hast weekend. The positives first: the facilities are very good, the food was excellent. I enjoyed the company of my good pal Chris Bird, Jonathan Wall from BBC Radio 5 Live, Mike Fahey and the Salford legend Mike Sweeney. Salford scored first, which was exciting. But it was absolutely freezing. That obviously hit the attendance, which was a little disappointing. The stadium is a decent facility, as it's new the fans are getting used to it - but it's a good main stand with a long and plush function room and the view of the action is first rate. It was a pain to get out of after the match - they need to sort out the access roads.

One other thing. What do you do if you come from Salford and are soft? I mean, everyone looks really hard. Men, women, kids, business people, politicians, sports players. I don't mean they look rough and I'm not being snobbish, but seriously have you ever met a soft Salfordian?

Norbert Smith - one of the greats - a Cricklewood legend too?

I'm looking forward to seeing Peter Capaldi in a new documentary about Cricklewood Studios - on Sunday. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14310252 - if it's half as good as the above tribute to British film making excellence we will be in for a treat.

A Week In December by Sebastian Faulks

While learned critics were reaching for the "Dickensian" epithet, I recalled The Wire, which had multiple story lines, interweaving characters and each said something funny, pointed and wise about the times we are living in. The word then and now is "sprawling" both of the clever interlocking themes and the wide ranging cast - some you believe more than others - John Veals the hedge fund scumbag most of all. Mixed in with all of that is a smattering of sexual tension and human tragedy. What is particularly impressive is that those issues pan mental illness, football, immigration, hedge funds, the book world, the law, morality in the media, Islam, ambition, failure, voices in the head and a few more layers of London. There have already been a number of books dealing with the elements of the financial crisis of 2008, but in the hands of Sebastian Faulks, a really accomplished literary writer, this one will stand out. There is an element of him showing off, using contemporary themes he backs them all up with flawless research and detail. It makes for a dizzying read - but one that is hard to dip in and out of.

Blackburn Rovers fans - listen to this

We recorded a podcast last night with Daniel Grabko the author of the draft plan for a mutualisation of Blackburn Rovers. The link is here. Everything about Daniel's plan is open, honest and optimistic. He wants input and feedback - let me know what you think.

The Rocky Place

Did you have a special place you visited as a kid? We did. In fact, we had a few. My parents were no fools; not for us were the arcades of Blackpool or Morecambe, and their temptations to take your money for slots that were stacked against you and piles of ice cream, no way. We would spend Sundays at local beauty spots in the "area of outstanding natural beauty" beyond Quernmore and towards the wilder moors.
For my Dad's birthday weekend we took a stroll down Nostalgia Way with a clamber up this outcrop on Littledale Road between the Scout camp and Quernmore. The view and the light were magnificent on Sunday, something magical and special, it rekindled memories of childhood and adventure and quite how loved we were as kids. I still can't find a name for it though, so we still just call it The Rocky Place.

Marple shops in 2012

There is very little to disagree with in the major findings of the Mary Portas review of High Streets. And the points in her recommendations about public consultation and compulsory purchase powers over empty shops are of particular interest. Much of the underlying problems, however, are caused not by estates management, but an economic imbalance between the numbers of retail units and the amount of money in the economy that people want to spend in shops.

My eldest son and I had a lovely coffee and teacake in Portobello recently, the newish cafe on Market Street. I admire the courage of the owners, especially with plenty of local competition - particularly with Costa opening on Stockport Road.

Thoughts quickly turned to how the ideas Mary Portas has expressed may play out in our community, in particular in Marple centre. On one hand there are empty shops and new businesses trying to make a go of it with wafer thin margins. On the other hand there are ever more plans to bring in new supermarkets to increase the space to shop in and a proliferation of national brands.

The discussion on the Marple website about the recent opening of Costa and the plans for Chadwick Street, as well as Hibbert Lane, have been categorised by rumour and bickering - just as it does in cafe's homes and pubs, I expect - but the misinformation is damaging and counter productive.

So, good luck to Portobello, good luck too to everyone prepared to give it a go. It is for their sake that we must continue to oppose Asda, but we also have to be grown up enough to ask - what else would work around here? What are we lacking? This is a truly important time, we must not waste it.

David Miliband makes the case for Mayors

pic courtesy of Coral Grainger + instagram

David Miliband was in Manchester last night for a Labour Party event where he was interviewed by DJ and writer Dave Haslam and I actually really enjoyed it.

There's a decent review here on Manchester Confidential, so I won't attempt to repeat that. But a few additional thoughts occurred. The first is over the issue of public engagement in politics and the second is linked to that - the issue of city Mayors.

What I like about David Miliband the thinker, the backbench MP and the activist, is he has a very analytical view of the way the world is changing. The reason I joined another 150 people on a wet Wednesday night at the Mechanics Institute was because I was very impressed with his contribution to a debate on the world a decade after 9/11 I heard in London last year - there's a link to a bit of it here and I have been particularly impressed with some of his non-partisan thinking on issues like youth unemployment.

Also, to be fair, his Movement for Change sounds very grand - get community groups who are involved in political (with a small p) campaigns and issues and work alongside them. By engaging with them the Labour Party can renew itself by listening as well as learning. At least I think that's how he defined it.

I liked his analysis of politics and how to find political solutions in stages -"empathy, analysis, vision, policy and implementation." To illustrate by example he cited the problem of youth employment, and was both logical and creative.

In answer to a question on Mayors for Britain's cities he held his hands up in deference to Manchester Labour people and said he was in favour. The political establishment in Manchester is opposed. At an event I chaired last week Sir Richard Leese mapped out his reasons for opposing - Manchester has evolved a political structure where the 10 local authorities have combined some key functions. They come under the control not of Manchester City Council, but the Combined Authority, made up of all of the boroughs. That is led by the elected leaders and organisations to administer these joint functions. Manchester is not being offered the opportunity to elect a Boris or a Ken.

Yet I've heard David Cameron make the same case for a Mayor being the accountable and elected office that you can knock on the door of. Great cities need one. The difficuty about what is on offer so far is way removed from that. Salford is voting on the issue today - I'm hearing a turnout of less than 15 per cent will reject the idea - but this is no way to deal with the issue. The cities of Manchester and Salford, let alone the towns of Stockport, Bolton, Wigan, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury aren't big and powerful enough to require a big and powerful charismatic leader - let alone made-up entities like Tameside and Trafford. I actually like the idea of the elected Mayor at the head of Greater Manchester, driving policy and having some vision to deliver it. The city region has been blessed by the stable double act of Sir Richard Leese and his chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein, but you cannot enshrine in the constitution of a city region for "remarkable civic leader who gets things done by hook or by crook". I don't look forward to the day when these very able men choose to do something else in their advancing years. They are virtually irreplaceable. But it is their success that has made the Mayoral issue a non-starter.

But who outside of Greater Manchester and outside of policy making knows of these two? When was Richard on Question Time last? When was he on Newsnight? If he had the office of Mayor for a city region of 2.5 million people he'd have power and clout to be on all the time. He has the right to be as high profile as the tedious Alex Salmond. And the point David Miliband was making was that these examples of good practice in the cities have the potential to reshape the narrative of national politics.

POSTSCRIPT - there was a low turnout in the Salford referendum, but there was also a yes vote. Seems like the politically active voted for another body that has no popular enthusiasm.

Make Venky's History

The Venky's have been a blight on Blackburn Rovers. Their ownership has been disastrous. There are good people working against all the odds to prevent a total meltdown, some of them as employees of the club, most of them as supporters trying to broker a solution.

When you analyse why they bought a Premier League football club - you have to deduce it was for the promotional possibilities. That seems to have amounted to getting the players to take part in a humiliating chicken commercial, promotional trips to India (where the club captain came over all Iraqi Minister of Information) and a few hoardings around Ewood Park. Even they have failed.

All the protests against Steve Kean have achieved have been to get the football establishment rallying round him and our fans portrayed as oafs. The element of the protests against Venky's have either been ignored, dismissed as ungrateful or just plain racist. So far.

The thing with people who crave good PR is that they can't deal with bad PR. A few corporate fans at Wigan told Venkatesh and Balaji the facts of life and that was the last we saw of his pony tail and bling.

Jerome Anderson is distancing himself from them. They have no allies in England at all. And now their business judgement is being questioned in their home country by this terrific summary of their comedy ownership in the Economic Times of India.

Slowly the message is starting to get through.

Momentum is slowly building too for Rovers fans here to grasp the nettle and see them off. Of course, they have to want to sell, but the first thing is making them not want to own any longer.

Beyond that the options are emerging. Wayne Wild, a forthright and willing businessman and sponsor of the Darwen End, has articulated his view, here. Ian Battersby has spoken to the Independent, here, about what the Venky's need to do as a matter of some urgency. And then there's a detailed business plan here, prepared by a Swedish based Rovers fan to establish a mutual trust. All of them amount to the same thing I've been saying here for a while - leave this club. Give it back. Go away. You have wasted money, don't waste any more.

These are all positive steps forward to ridding our football clubs of these owners. Make Venky's history.

What are the chances?

The strangest things happened last week. 

Firstly, on Friday, on the Marple flyer, I squeezed into my seat and popped open my latest book - A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks, a book published in 2010. The guy across from me was not only reading the same book, but the same edition and was only marginally further into the 392 pages than me. "What are the chances of that?" I asked him, holding the book up. He was about my age and was dressed in a similar way too.

Logic, rather than magic, deduced that the chances of two similar men reading a Faulks book are still longish, but not impossible. Novels can take time to catch on. Faulks is everywhere at the moment, with the TV adaptation of Birdsong appearing on Sunday night. My book was passed on by a mate at work, he thought I'd really like it, and I do. Maybe the other bloke had the same encouragement, its themes are current and modern. It's not quite like the One Day phenomena, where word-of-mouth saw interest explode, but it's not a surprise.

Secondly, the CD I have on in the car at the moment is This is the Life by Amy MacDonald. Again, it's an older product - 2007 - and has been a success for a while. My artistic son's art teacher Sean Wood had the same CD on in his studio on Saturday. Again, what are the chances? Again, it's not a surprise. He is a man of good folky musical heritage. I like that kind of music and have been dabbling of late. Sean would tend to play music that the kids would like to draw to, but that he likes too, but would be the easier end of that spectrum. She is therefore ideal. Subconsciously too, I suspect I was subliminally drawn to her music when scanning Sean's collection.

I am occasionally inspired and awestruck by serendipitous moments, but these weren't them. Just a load of middle class white people all liking the same kind of stuff.