It was due to the old FutureSonic festival’s expansion beyond just music and into various arts and multimedia that the all-inclusive alias of FutureEverything was adopted, but some of the main attractions are still those with a musical theme. That said, it is the crossovers into other art forms which provide this year’s more eye-catching shows, with audio visual (AV) experiences noticeably prevalent.

Browsing down the list of names, it becomes difficult to leave any out, but Death Grips is an easy show to avoid given the cancellation of the band’s tour last week, which unfortunately includes their FutureEverything closing party gig on 20 May. But before that there were many affiliated events beginning on Wednesday 16 May, including free entry workshops and performances as well as the ticketed gigs.

Alt-J at Quay House in Spinningfields

Amongst the AV gigs is the standout name of Amon Tobin, who will perform the highly tipped ISAM live AV set at Manchester Academy on Saturday 19 May. That will be followed by an after-party in the main Student Union building featuring a selection of artists from Marcel Dettmann to Falty DL, playing techno, house and other nuances of electronic music.

Of the showcase events an improvised AV show at St Philip’s Church in Salford, with former Cluster musician Dieter Moebius scoring Metropolis 1927, seems hard to miss on 17 May, while Tim Hecker and Shabazz Palaces vie for attention at separate venues on 16 May. Local promoter Now Wave provides a Manchester angle for their line-up at a disused office block in Spinningfields on 18 May, for which new Manchester bands with effects-heavy compositions such as Money, Great Waves, No Ceremony and Pins, will warm up the audience ahead of Alt-J. Otherwise, Matthew Herbert’s rendition of his One Pig concept album at the Royal Northern College of Music is a worthy alternative held at the same time on that day.

Mind On Fire Records

Mind On Fire Records have catered for late-nights events, having scheduled live performances by Deadbeat and Andy Stott as well as a Szare DJ set for the FutureEverything opening party on 16 May in addition to another AV show on 18 May, this time with Bristolian DJ Cheeba headlining and supported by Hot Vimto, Jonny Dub and Omas.

Ian Pennington

Further information on listings for FutureEverything gigs can be found on their website.

Throughout the year a workshop is held each month focusing on a particular aspect of the craft. March saw eager knitters from all over Manchester congregate at Platt Fields’ Gallery of Costume to learn the finer points of cable knitting – a traditional technique of the kind you may see on fishermen’s sweaters – but the subsequent Art of Knitting event on 28 April at the Whitworth Art Gallery was a little different. The day provided people with a quick insight into yarn bombing, a practice that really has taken the knitting world by storm.

Also known as guerrilla knitting, the idea of yarn bombing is to rid the craft of its ‘grannies-only’ image and encourage people to look at it as a form of protest, a way to beautify the world, a legitimate art form or a means of taking ownership of public spaces. This was part of a discussion instigated by artist Lucy Burscough at the start of the session, who took attendees on a whistle-stop yarn-bombing tour. Burscough introduced them to the likes of Magda Sayeg – widely acknowledged as being the godmother of guerrilla knitting, whose works include the knitted bus in Mexico and some knitted stairs in Sydney – and Theresa Honeywell, who knits to challenge gender stereotypes.

With the slideshow done the workshop moved on to give people a chance to test out their own skills, encouraging them to look at famous works of art to see how these can inspire knitting. Eight pieces had been selected by the gallery – including Francis Bacon’s portrait of Lucian Freud and a seascape by Turner – to engender a bit of creativity. As Ed Watts, adult programme coordinator with the Whitworth Art Gallery, suggested, the Turner painting could well benefit from the addition of a little woolly boat, while Lucian Freud might look a little more dapper with a knitted moustache.

Photograph by Sarah Adie

Knitting patterns were provided to cater for all abilities. Of the 90 or so people in attendance, many were beginner knitters, so there was no need to panic if ‘stranding’ and ‘colour-work’ were new concepts, particularly since novices were sat next to those with a bit more experience who could be turned to in case of purling emergency.

This, Mr Watts explained, is one of the key aims of the project, saying, “We get a good mix of levels, so we tried to flag up people with more experience and buddy them up with beginners. The feedback after the event was really positive and it was our biggest workshop so far, with the most attendants.”

If The Art of Knitting’s intention was to revolutionise people’s perceptions of this traditional pastime it was a resounding success. As the one man who came along to try his hand at knitting observed, he had “no idea knitting was so cool”.

Sarah Adie

To get involved and pick up a few new skills, head to the Gallery of Costume on 26 May where you can learn all there is to know about one of the most popular techniques for knitting intricate and colourful patterns– Fair Isle.

NHS Salford, the centre’s Primary Care Trust (PCT), plan to close the centre due to the “excessive cost per patient”, despite a report from the refugee specialist network South East Migrant Health describing the city as an “under doctored area”. The practice is no longer taking on new patients, and if the cuts go through the centre is set to close in June this year.

Open since April 2004, the specialist GP surgery aims to reduce the health inequalities faced by asylum seekers and provides specialist care for issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder and child and adolescent mental health, as well as assistance for patients in accessing mainstream care and services.

In their review of the practice South East Migrant Health praised the centre, noting the provision of “high standard service” and delivery of “equitable, culturally competent, safe and effective Primary Care in a sensitive and holistic manner.”

However, an NHS Salford report written by their Acting Locality Managing Director Alan Campbell reveals how managers at the PCT began a bidding process early last year to tender out the service to another provider. The move came after the PCT’s commissioning and finance departments objected to patient costs as high as £500 per head, not counting translators, compared to much lower costs for “mainstream” patients.

But with the failure of the prospective bidders to satisfy the cost and quality requirements of the PCT the Horizon Centre was put under an emergency “caretaking management arrangement”, and staff were formally told their jobs were “at risk”. Now, with NHS reforms set in motion in March this year that scrap PCTs, this “caretaker” arrangement can no longer continue, leaving the centre under threat of closure as a “longer term more economical solution is sought” to replace the service.

Economical solutions

In place of the centre, the report notes that a steering group set up to consider replacement options for the practice decided that a “locally enhanced service” offered through a “limited number” of mainstream GPs should be established as a baseline to meet the additional needs of asylum seekers. The service would be available to patients for the first twelve months they are in the country, and NHS Salford have stated they anticipate the Horizon Centre to close once it becomes available in summer 2012.

The steering group also recommended that providers negotiate the establishment of a specialist “Tier 2″ service delivered by “a smaller number of existing experienced Horizon staff” and specialist local organisations. Based at a different location to the original centre, this service would provide support through some Salford GPs in dealing with the “most intensive and risk based” elements of care such as outreach work, practices for unaccompanied asylum seeking children and care for post-traumatic stress disorder.

NHS Salford failed to respond to requests for comment, but in a statement obtained through freedom of information legislation a spokesperson said, “The new service provides a broader networking capability, opportunity for shared learning and support, contingency and shared risk management arrangements, patient choice and preference.” The PCT also said it would allow “access to more practice resources in peak demands and effective control of costs which allows reinvestment and further development of the health services in Salford.”

If the recommended Tier 2 package is put in place then NHS Salford will hope to save £300,000 per year by cutting costs from £500,000 to £200,000. Before any benefit from these savings can be seen however, £200,000 must be paid out first in redundancies and pension payouts for the staff at the centre.

If negotiations fall through and the Tier 2 service cannot be met, then NHS Salford’s fall back option of the “locally enhanced support” offered through a limited number of mainstream GPs would then go ahead. Leaving GPs to take on what the March NHS report called “the complex areas of the asylum patient care”, at a cost of just £20,000 less than the recommended option, the review admits this would see the service “lose the current expertise and preferred risk management” provided by the Horizon Centre.

Vulnerable

Others have voiced fears that the specialist work of the centre would be both missed and hard to replace if plans to close the practice go ahead. While acknowledging that cash is in short supply, one ex-medical student of the Horizon Centre highlighted the need to think about alternatives to closing the centre, pointing out how closure would cause the loss of a bank of specific knowledge and expertise on asylum seeker health.

Mule understands that some medical professionals familiar with the service have concerns that closing the centre will be a huge loss to the asylum seeker community, the working of the centre being at its most effective when it incorporates expert knowledge and experience in one place, rather than being split up and redistributed around various other GP surgeries.

There are also doubts as to whether mainstream GP surgeries would be capable of replicating the Horizon Centre’s work, as the closure may increase pressure on other services. Among the highlighted risks of scrapping the service altogether were increasing admissions to hospitals and Accident and Emergency, and encouraging these patients to remain silent about their mental and physical health issues.

Refugee organisations have pointed to the role the centre plays in building the trust of often traumatised patients in an unfamiliar country, providing a wide range of access to social care and support.

Jude Boyles, The North West Centre Manager of the medical organisation Freedom from Torture, raised deep worries about the closure: “We fear that some highly vulnerable individuals will slip through services and their physical and mental health will deteriorate.

“Many of our most traumatised clients have attended the practice and have received excellent care by the GP team, nurse practitioners, interpreting team and outreach worker. The team offer longer appointments and have built up substantial expertise in torture and its impact.”

Boyles also pointed out that the Horizon Centre is the only specialist GP Practice in Salford for asylum seekers. In consequence, it is also the only provider that currently cares for a high number of “profoundly traumatised torture survivors”, many of whom are destitute.

“Once the practice is closed we are very concerned that a number of survivors with complex needs will not access any form of medical care or their needs will not be met by mainstream primary care”, she said.

Katy Tolman

The second issue of Kaffeeklatsch opens with musings from one of the editors on the origins of the journal, or as he calls it, “the miserable poverty in which it was conceived”. Perhaps the most striking thing to take away from reading Kaffeeklatsch is that there is absolutely no element of poverty, no lack to it whatsoever. This issue is rich, in words and photographs, in names and ideas. Boasting poets from Vona Groarke to Paul Batchelor and including poetry, reviews, interviews, photographs and illustrations, the journal pops from the page with an abundance of surprising and fertile material. Don’t let the cool and uncluttered layout or the photographs of empty beaches and austere trees fool you, the issue is packed full on every page, and working hard to earn its keep there.

‘Kaffeeklatsch’ means ‘gossip over coffee cups’, thus prioritising words over the act of drinking coffee (a difficult balance for any poet to strike). In fact, this issue prizes words most highly of all; each poem is surprising and innovative and the prose contained in the volume is often funny, always considered and in its own special way, poetic. Maryanne Stahl’s ‘Leap’ looks at the beach to “notice how the waves glint as they curl”, which speaks not only of the way that good poetry works, but of the way that Kaffeeklatsch regards its own poetry; with insight, with intimacy and with just a hint of magic. This journal looks closely at its poetry and asks us to do the same. There is a thickness to the work and an overwhelming feeling of texture which sticks long after closing the pages. The feel of the internal organs of an octopus in ‘Ink’, Waldron’s dry sky, frozen water shining like the Guggenheim; you feel every word.

It is a surprising and varied collection of poetry and prose (from people and their relationships, to our perception of experience and reality) but everything hangs neatly together, punctuated by beautiful photography which enhances the words around it. The smart ordering draws out interesting complements among the unified whole; Batchelor’s ‘Return’ precedes Anastasi’s ‘Playground’ and prepares us to go backwards (his last line lingers on an (in)ability to return a meaningful stare and perhaps more accurately, to return to a raw and painful moment). We turn the page and are landed among children’s screams and face painting, returning to our own childhoods. In turn Anastasi’s last line provides the quotation for the journal’s spine; “the necessary art of suppression” and all of what remains unspoken in Bachelor’s ‘Return’ springs back up with alarming familiarity and potency. We return uncannily again.

It is a clever little journal, ballsy in its subjects (a funny but insightful interview of Mark Waldron, by, erm, Mark Waldron steals the show), but modest too. The editors claim “begging and borrowing” from more established sources makes this small publication what it is, a quiet and sad nod to the financial state of the poetry industry in general. But perhaps more importantly, it speaks to the hard work and dedication at Kaffeeklatsch, something which will hopefully mean that for richer or for poorer, this remarkable journal is here to stay.

Alexa Turnpenny

In a repeat of last year’s dramatic local election results Labour won each contested seat, leaving the party in all but total control of Manchester’s town hall. Coalition politicians suffered dreadful defeats across the whole of Greater Manchester, with Lib Dems and Tories gaining one seat each out of over 200 which were contested.

Voters also rejected the idea of a mayor for Manchester by 47 per cent in favour to 53 per cent against, in a low-key election marked by a pitiful turnout of just 25 per cent. Similar scenes were repeated across the country as several other cities rejected the David Cameron-backed reform.

As Labour counted their gains opponents warned of the dangers of a “one party state” in a city left with little elected opposition. Manchester Lib Dem leader Marc Ramsbottom, who lost his city centre seat, claimed Labour would now have “no accountability, no opposition, no scrutiny of what they’re doing”, labelling the situation “bad for the city, bad for democracy, and everyone should be very worried about that.”

While Ramsbottom acknowledged the result was “disappointing” he said the local party could not have “done anything different locally in terms of the campaign we ran”, and denied local Lib Dems were “embarrassed or ashamed about anything we were putting forward in government”.

Lib Dem Damien O’Connor, who failed to keep hold of his Miles Platting and Newton Heath ward, said there was still a “need to get down the deficit”, but admitted that “with every cut there’s a human being at the end of it.”

Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese said the strong Labour showing demonstrated the party had “listened” to voters in taking the city “through the recessionary period”, claiming as evidence policies such as the council’s creation of 200 apprenticeships.

Other parties of the right and left made little headway, although independent candidate Bob Hill came second in Moston with over one third of the vote on the back of an often fierce controversy over FC United’s plans to build a new stadium. In the traditional Labour stronghold of Cheetham Hill another independent, Shazia Butt, also came in a surprisingly strong second, winning over one quarter of voters.

Green Party activist Steve Durrant echoed Ramsbottom in his concerns about the sheer extent of Labour’s victory, saying “wherever it comes from we need some opposition and scrutiny”. Arguing that “we cannot wait with fingers crossed” while “the attack on ordinary people is as vicious as this”, he claimed the need for more anti-austerity activism and said “it is down to us all to understand that politics is about much more than just the ballot box.”

Richard Goulding

Ronald Johnson Playing Fields. Photograph: Matthew Wilkinson

Residents United Residents’ Association (RURA) have issued a warning letter to the council demanding they stop the development on the Ronald Johnson Playing Fields or face legal action. The council have yet to respond.

RURA argue the land cannot be developed because it was donated to the people of Manchester as vital open green space to be held in charitable trust for local residents, protected by covenants to ensure the land is not built on. The council disagrees however, with the city solicitor stating that “none of the land to be disposed of is held under a charitable trust and it may therefore be disposed of by the council as part of its corporate property.”

Sandra Henshaw, of RURA, said the council should have chosen a ‘brownfield’ site of disused industrial or commercial land to build the stadium rather than a residential area. “It’s not just the fact that it is a football stadium, we don’t want anything to be built there. We are losing enough open green spaces as it is,” she explained.

The intended development for FC United, a fan-owned club formed by breakaway Manchester United fans after the Glazer takeover, will contain a 5,000 capacity football stadium, full size artificial turf pitch and two junior pitches. There are also plans for a public space for community events and outdoor celebrations and a club house which FC United general manager Andy Walsh said can be used for schools’ events, older people’s activity sessions, breakfast clubs and youth drop-in facilities.

Controversy

The plans for the 5,000 capacity stadium have seen fierce controversy since initial proposals to build the development at Ten Acres Lane in Newton Heath were quashed in the wake of last year’s spending cuts. Initial approval of the plans back in October saw passionate divisions in local opinion, with people bearing Moston postcodes writing 2,404 letters in support of the plans and 1,369 against.

The controversy has also caused splits within Manchester Labour, with long-standing local councillor Henry Cooper quitting the party in protest after accusing the council of riding roughshod over objections against the stadium. Now, former Labour member and RURA supporter Bob Hill is standing as an independent in tomorrow’s elections, arguing that the size of Labour’s majority in the city is so large they can ignore residents’ views on land they say was left to them as open green space.

“Morally they have not taken into consideration the original reason the fields were left to the people of Manchester,” said Hill.

During consideration of alternative areas after the initial Ten Acres Lane plans were dropped two other possible sites on the council’s short-list, Wythenshawe Park and Broughton Park were ruled out in favour of the Ronald Johnson Playing Fields. Wythenshawe Park was rejected due to restrictive covenants on the land, limited parking and strong objections from residents – all reasons applicable to the Moston site.

The council also disclosed that the Moston development will cost around £4.5 million, whereas Ten Acres Lane was estimated at £3.5 million. Mule asked the council to comment on why they went ahead with a seemingly more expensive project despite having to review their “strategic priorities for investment into football facilities”, but did not receive an answer.

New facilities

Plans for how the new stadium might look

The current holders of the lease for playing fields at the site are Moston Juniors, a 250-strong community football club with members ranging from five year olds to adults. The junior club have had ambitions of expansion if their own for 10 years and were disappointed when their plans to build their own stadium and club house, supported by £750k from the council, collapsed after a valuation of the work completed by the Football Foundation advised the stadium would cost £2m.

Since then the £750k has been transferred over to the development of FC United’s new stadium, and Moston Juniors will also lose one pitch as part of the plans. The Juniors are currently negotiating together with the council to find a new pitch to play on at nearby Boggart Hole Clough and Paul Mitchell, chairman of the junior club, said that before the lease is signed over conditions must be met in order to safeguard Moston Junior’s interests. “We are not the drivers behind the change but we want to achieve the best we can for Moston Juniors and get the most from this location,” he explained to Mule.

As part of this, if the stadium goes through the Juniors are in talks with the club to make use of FC United’s intended new facilities including a 3G astroturf pitch and two grass pitches, changing and function rooms and the use of the stadium’s main pitch for ‘prestige’ events such as cup finals.

One Moston parent who did not wish to be named was enthusiastic about the plans, telling Mule the stadium would enhance the facilities his son uses. “Moston Juniors may start to develop a partnership with FC United which could help the children become better players, who go on to play for FC United,” he explained.

Concerns

Some residents remain unconvinced however. Resident Ann Hunaina has concerns over increased traffic, the exclusion of locals from the “beautiful open space” provided by the fields and the quality of the investigation into the site’s suitability, which she feels the council are “skimming over”.

“I think someone in the council, very high up, wants this to go ahead,” said Hunaina.

Mule asked Walsh of FC United how the club felt about the level of opposition from nearby residents.

“We believe in time that many of those who oppose the scheme now, will come to recognise that on balance the development will be of benefit,” he said, and was keen to point they are “respectful of the rights of local residents to air their concerns” and intend to keep communication channels open after the stadium is completed by setting up forums and a hotline.

An official start date for work has yet to be issued but indications are that FC United intend to start work on the site in the spring if a final £500,000 shortfall can be found. The club will also need to meet obligations covering some of the costs and conditions of travel to the site, car parking and community use.

Regardless of any community deal being struck, Bob Hill insists only real winners are FC United. As well as the club receiving the £750k originally earmarked for Moston Juniors, he argues they have gained 12.5 acres of land for a nominal £1 rent for 125 years while the people of Moston would be left to put up with “all the trouble a football crowd bring.”

“In view of the money ploughed into this scheme, the name of the scheme should be Manchester City Council United FC,” said Hill.

Sandra Henshaw, also of RURA, said the council’s claim that more local residents support rather than oppose the decision was “simply not true”. She added, “We have been knocking on doors and people are telling us they don’t want this and are willing to put their hand in their pocket to donate their own money to help fight this decision.”

Sam Cordon

Design by David Bailey & Lucy Jones

Those who spent last year’s May Bank Holiday Sunday treading the pavements of Salford’s Chapel Street witnessed the development of a recent theme in music making. For it was a Sound From The Other City (SFTOC) event focused on modern production methods and gadget-laden live performances more than ever before.

That’s not to say everything scheduled for this year’s festival will include a mass of flickering LEDs lying before laptop musicians – far from it. There are, as ever, a plentiful array of musicians both familiar and less so. But of that mix, it is inevitable that more and more artists will be embracing the trend towards synthetic solo symphonies.

Drum pads, samplers and looping pedals are ever more commonplace onstage, given the ease of accessibility, increased cheapness and the lessened necessity for bandmates to be transported, organised and disputed with. Put simply, you don’t need a full orchestra to create a room-filling sound, although a downsized orchestra need not be totally bereft of traditional instruments. Indeed, those who combine old with new are becoming the most eye-catching.

An excellent case in point is Michigan’s Zach Saginaw, who performs as a solo musician under the Shigeto alias having previously drummed with bands in the USA. He returns to the festival after a gig at Islington Mill in December, at which his live show melded the electronic with the analogue, placing equal emphasis on the two. To begin with, Shigeto programmes complex musical algorithms into his selection of sonic gadgets and then mans his drum kit to unleash a mesmerising display of jazzy dexterity, with samples continuing to repeat all the while. Despite all the synthetic trickery, it was the sheer energy, spectacle and expertise of the drumming that caught the audience’s attention and drew them in closer.

Shigeto at Islington Mill, December 2011; photo by Nathan Gibson

Half-Manchester act Walls and highly tipped G R E A T W A V E S are others who match organic with digital, filtering live guitar into button-pressing sound manipulation, but as duos rather than solo artists, while Borland also layer waves of electronically produced noises, aided by MIDI keyboards.

Closer to the other end of the technological spectrum is Laura J Martin, who offers the clean tones of her flute, mandolin and xylophone but, again, remains a solo performer thanks to use of a looping pedal, which records and repeats sections of her performance at her control.

It is the presence of a live instrument that can add so much to a show otherwise concentrated on electronics, as previous SFTOC festivals have proven. Vieka (drums), Denis Jones (acoustic guitar), Capac (guitar) and Magic Arm (acoustic guitar) have all exemplified this in recent years.

But electronic music’s machinery can be classed as instruments in their own right. Indeed, pioneers such as FC Judd, Daphne Oram, Simeon Coxe and Delia Derbyshire would attest to that as they all used electronic equipment as a tool for making music. So the key is to enjoy music in its many forms; a mentality at the heart of Sounds From The Other City.

Ian Pennington

Sounds From The Other City takes place at various venues along Chapel Street in Salford on Sunday 6^th May.

Shigeto is due to perform at around 11pm in the Old Pint Pot venue curated by Mind On Fire and This City Is Ours, while Laura J Martin will perform at roughly 7.30pm in St Philip’s Church curated by Hey! Manchester.

Walls are scheduled for around 11pm on the Grey Lantern and Drowned In Sound stage at The Black Lion pub, Great Waves have been booked by Underachievers Please Try Harder to start soon after doors open at around 3pm in The Salford Arms and Borland will also perform at the Old Pint Pot with a mid-afternoon stage time.

Tickets are available from links on the official website or in person from selected outlets.

Cushion bar in Altrincham is a relatively up-market establishment, with lots of plush, comfortable sofas, soft lighting and expensive whiskeys behind the bar – certainly not the kind of place you’d really expect to be putting on a gig of epic punk proportions. On Friday, however, that’s exactly what happened, with Ukepunk & The Forty Thieves skanking their merry hearts out to an hour and a half’s worth of 70s punk covers.

So what’s so special about Ukepunk? The band’s only been playing together for 18 months but they’ve definitely cornered a niche in the musical market. After all, you really wouldn’t think that hearing The Ramones’ ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’ played with gusto on a ukulele of all instruments would work, but it certainly does and the crowd – although somewhat limited in size – couldn’t get enough of it.

With its pared-down instrumentation, raw sound and fast-and-hard edge, this gig was a mightily refreshing change from the auto-tuned world of music today. Ukulele player Paul Davies’ smoky vocals and great banter with the audience kept everyone more than tuned into the inventive proceedings, which also included a couple of original Ukepunk songs peppered among the more familiar strains of The Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, Violent Femmes, Iggy Pop and The Specials. He was backed up by a bassist – on a very minimalist double bass (no bout to speak of, just a fingerboard and a couple of strings) – and a percussionist, who left the traditional drum kit behind in favour of what looked like a speaker but was in fact a cajón (pronounced ‘ca-hon’; a box with some snare and guitar strings in it – basically the lazy man’s drums).

Ukepunk performing live

If you’re looking for a gig with a difference, then Ukepunk ticks all the boxes. People’s initial reaction to the concept of The Clash on a ukulele is generally ‘what the @!>%?’ but if punk is all about pushing boundaries and eschewing mainstream music, then this band has it all. George Formby this ain’t.

Sarah Adie

Next gig: The Flying Shuttle, Bury, 21 June.

Manchester Town Hall, seat of the council. Copywright: Ed O'Keefe

This isn’t the first time Mancunians have been consulted on whether or not to have an elected mayor, in 2009 two thirds of the households that responded rejected the proposal and opted to stay with the current council model.

Despite the gravity of the potential change there is an information drought surrounding the referenda nationally. And it’s not just facts and figures that are missing from the debate, but the lack of any debate at all. A lack of information usually leads to a lack of interest, as demonstrated by the turnout in the Salford mayoral referendum in January, where just 18.1 per cent of the 171,000 electorate voted.

Powers

So, what will a directly elected mayor mean for Manchester? Or, perhaps more importantly, what will it mean not to have one?

To begin with, what powers will a mayor have if a yes vote is passed on Thursday? Don’t be surprised if you don’t know the answer, as the mayors’ actual powers are, in fact, yet to be conclusively decided.

Should new mayors be elected however, they will have a significant role personally in deciding their own powers. According to a government consultation published in November 2011:

“We do not presume to know what is best for each of the cities in terms of the specific powers that should be exercised by individual city mayors. We are thus proposing to look to the cities themselves to come forward with their own proposals. Where a mayor is elected […] we expect that mayor to put to us any proposals he or she has for decentralising services and powers to that city mayor.”

Personality

Pat McDonagh, Branch Secretary of UNISON’s Manchester Local Government branch, warned switching to a directly elected mayor may lead to local politics becoming dominated by personality instead of “substance or the real issues”. He went on to say, “What we’ve got now isn’t perfect, no political arrangements are. But an elected mayor is even worse.”

It is reasonable to expect that new mayors would be likely elected based on personality rather than policy, since based on the information above, they won’t know what powers, and therefore policies, they’re allowed to have.

Add to this increased accountability to the people (i.e. increased public visibility of your decision making) and you’re bound to have personality coming into play. This could turn out to be a positive in cities where you have a cooperative mayor who is willing to work with others to make decisions and truly listen to their electorate. On the other hand, if a power hungry or selectively-deaf individual rises to power their personality could end up legislatively grid-locking the city council with constant proposal rejections and political blocking.

It’s also interesting to note that, so far, ‘personality’ politics has generated an almost exclusively white, male, middle aged and middle class set of new mayors. Of the fourteen existing directly-elected mayors, only two are women and just one, Lutfar Rahman, mayor of Tower Hamlets, London, is not white.

Democratic deficit?

Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council.

Another key argument for a no vote in the referendum, echoed by UNISON, is that a sizeable chunk of power and decision making will be placed in the hands of one individual. Currently, the full council is theoretically responsible for all decisions it makes, although in practice most of the power is delegated to smaller groups of councillors with overall decisions being made by senior councillors and Sir Richard Leese, the current Council Leader.

Leese, who is highly influential across Greater Manchester through his role in the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA), has the most to lose if Manchester decides to vote for an elected mayor. A coalition of the 10 council’s across the county, AGMA’s overall policies are the product of a careful balancing act by the power brokers of the region – an arrangement that could be thrown into disarray by a populist mayor. Not to mention the threat to his personal position if the local Labour party, as happened in Salford to John Merry, booted him out in favour of a new candidate for governing the city.

In a recent Leader’s Blog, Leese commented:

“Democracy needs checks and balances and although the power to scrutinise is important I do think it is insufficient on its own and whatever form of city and Council leadership we have, if a proposal can’t get the support of half the Council then it should fall.”

Leese’s point is supported by a parliamentary note dated April 19 2012, where MPs were informed that “[new] mayors [will] set the budget and formulate significant policy plans but amendment or rejection of the proposals requires a two-thirds majority of the council”.

“Cabinet of Mayors”

In support of the yes campaign, Chorlton Liberal Democrat Councillor Victor Chamberlain has thrown his support behind the proposal for directly-elected mayors, along with the rest of his party:

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Chorlton, Victor Chamberlain, supports a yes vote in the referendum.

“Salford and Liverpool have already backed an elected mayor and next Thursday will go to the polls to elect a new Mayor […] they will have someone championing their cities on a national and international stage. This could seriously erode Manchester’s standing unless we too have someone championing Manchester on the same stages.

“The Prime Minister has said he will create a ‘mayors cabinet’ to bring our cities right to the heart of Government; Manchester cannot afford to be left out in the cold; particularly in the current economic climate.”

This refers to the recent government announcement of a ‘Cabinet of Mayors’, a group made up of newly directly elected mayors from major cities (and actually, Salford won’t be allowed in under the current proposal) that will consult with the Prime Minister at least twice a year.

According to cities minister Greg Clark, the mayoral cabinet is an opportunity to “represent their communities at the heart of government by coming together, sharing innovations and building relationships.” The former leader of Newcastle City Council, Lord Beecham, has called a seat in this new cabinet “a bribe” in favour of a yes vote.

The possibility of Manchester being left out of this Cabinet of Mayors is arguably the key reason Chamberlain and many others support the yes vote.

Political element

There is also the political element of these referenda to consider. Labour has near unbeatable majorities on the councils of eleven of the twelve cities proposed for switching to the directly-elected mayoral system. Not only that, but all bar one – Bristol, which has a Liberal Democrat council – are in the traditional Labour ex-industrial heartland of the Midlands and North of England. Not one city from the South East or any other traditional Conservative stronghold has been selected as a target for radical change of its leadership structure and the reason the Conservatives and Lib Dems support the yes vote for directly-elected mayors may not be unconnected to this fact.

Disillusionment

A final unsettling angle to this referendum is the far-right’s presence. It was the English Democrat Party after all, who number more than a few ex-BNP figureheads in their ranks, who among others played a key role in Salford’s referendum occurring in the first place. Under the Local Government Act 2000, every local authority in the UK is legally obliged to hold a referendum, should 5 per cent of its electorate sign a petition requesting one, which was triggered when the English Democrats supplied 10,500 signatures to the council in July 2011. Both the EDP and the BNP have pledged to stand candidates should a yes vote pass in Manchester.

As always, the far-right parties hope to capitalise on a low turnout and discontent with mainstream political parties to creep into power. What is worrying as disillusionment with local democracy increases is the shrewd use of a local authority petition, a tool that can be used effectively for example by communties challenging cuts to local services, used instead as a tool to manipulate local politics. Regardless of the outcome of the election, unless parties can re-engage with their traditional support, the far-right may still come to threaten their domination of local politics in Manchester.

 Tom Hegarty and Beth Knowles

Photograph: Peter Reed

With turnouts commonly hovering around 30 per cent, nothing shows up the exhaustion of UK democracy quite like local elections. A stunning poll in March this year showed only 15 per cent of people claiming to know the name of their local council leader – only 8 per cent could actually name them. This level of disengagement breeds complacency and unaccountability in local government, and the solution, central government says, is directly elected mayors. Referendums will take place in 10 of England’s cities on Thursday 3 May to see whether voters agree.

David Cameron has said that he wants elected mayors to be as powerful as cabinet ministers, capable of shaking up bureaucratic and unimaginative local authorities and promoting their cities on the international stage. This will not only inspire citizens to take more interest in goings on at town hall, it will also draw in much-needed inward investment. Last week in Bradford Cameron warned prospective voters to “join the race or fall behind”.

However, by centralising policy making, undermining the importance of direct public engagement via constituencies, and increasing the importance of personality politics, elected mayors could prove to be a poisoned chalice for local democracy. Following the 2000 Local Government Act there are already 14 dotted around the country. Successive instances of mismanagement mean that 63 per cent of Doncaster residents now want to return to a council cabinet system. London is hailed as a success but while the Boris vs. Ken circus provides plenty of newspaper column fodder, are ordinary Londoners much more empowered?

The least discussed but most revealing aspect of the elected mayor proposals are the claims made about their ability to “rebalance our country” – the Conservatives’ favoured euphemism for undoing the north-south divide. Stating that cities are “in an out-and-out race for jobs, wealth and investment”, Cameron wants mayor’s to join him on his overseas jaunts “pressing their business cards into the hands of those who can bring wealth and work back home”. Why has the north, midlands and west of England been left behind economically? A lack of savvy marketing!

As research by the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change shows, over the past 30 years the UK economy has become less a north-south divide and more a city state centred around the interests of London’s financial district. While the value of London-centric financial services trebled between 1979 and 2011 manufacturing employment – the economic lifeblood of the regions – fell from 6 million to under 2.5 million. All of the UK’s regions have got poorer in relation to London over this period when measured in terms of value-added per head, with northern regions accounting for half the total of London.

The less recognised aspect of Thatcher’s social settlement with the north was that while heavy industry would be largely destroyed, the regions would be kept on life-support through an expansion in state backed employment. Popular mythology condemns New Labour for an explosion of public sector employment, but the amount of public sector jobs created as a proportion of total new employment was almost identical under Thatcher and Blair – 37.2 per cent and 37.7 per cent respectively.

Striking public sector workers on 30 November. Photographer: Richard Searle

Now this social settlement is being scrapped, with huge public sector job losses, and, if the government gets its way, regionally differentiated pay. The private sector has not, as the government originally claimed, risen to fill the gap. In 2011 the UK lost 270,000 public sector jobs, but the private sector created only 226,000. The regional outlook can be far worse: in the North East and West Midlands for example, private sector employment has been falling alongside public sector cuts rather than compensating for them. During 2011 as levels of business distress fell in London they were on the rise across the north. Calculations by the Institute for Public Policy Research North, meanwhile, suggest that while transport infrastructure investment in London and the South East comes to £2,371 per person up to 2015, for the north-east it is £5 per person, for the north west £184 and for Yorkshire and the Humber £220. The risk is of a spiral of decline in the north, west and midlands in the coming years as demand is drained from their economies, what could mayors do to halt this?

The answer to this is shrouded in mystery, because mayor’s powers will be negotiated with central government in the event of a yes vote in a “bespoke” approach. Voters are being asked to vote blind, with the government demonstrating that behind its localism agenda, it remains cautious about relinquishing powers.

Even if mayors’ powers are significant though, localism is not inherently good in and of itself. In this case, it appears that a handful of select urban centres are being primed to act as funnel points for investment, fighting among one another in a zero-sum game. Localism in such circumstances means simply a race to the bottom in offering the most attractive conditions to mobile capital, and the risk is of creating a level of geographical inequality in and around the cities in question which mirrors the situation with London on a national level.

Photograph: R~P~M via flickr.com

This logic is of course also reflected in the Coalition’s major economic policies for the regions. Having taken a kneejerk decision to abolish rather than reform the eight English Regional Development Agencies immediately after entering office, their replacement has been a more complicated and incoherent muddle of Local Enterprise Partnerships, within which there are 22 Local Enterprise Zones – small areas in which businesses are offered incentives like a 100 per cent rate discount and looser planning restrictions. As research by the Work Foundation suggests, at best this provides a short-term boost to growth within a small area. At worst, LEZs are exploited by existing businesses in the region choosing to re-locate, amplifying inequalities and displacing jobs from areas which need them more.

To be equitable, the devolution of economic policy must be regional. A mayor for a city-region might be beneficial in this respect, but the option is not on the table. In the case of Greater Manchester, the prospect of having ten different elected mayors competing amongst one another for the interests of the ten different metropolitan boroughs would be regressive step.

More than this though, the economic problems of the north must be recognised as political problems too, which aren’t amenable simply to technical fixes around the local government structure. The Conservatives remain the party of the South and the City, but similar metropolitan biases span the front benches of all the major parties. The one-size fits all policies produced in London and for (the City of) London have created an entrenched structural inequality, in which the regions are treated as provinces. Rather than a token scattering of figureheads, the North of England needs a more fundamental devolution of powers.

Andrew Bowman

This article was originally published here on openDemocracy.net