Phil Redmond: Time to get involved

Oct 5 2007 by Phil Redmond, Liverpool Daily Post

ROLES. As you may imagine, I have had quite a few conversations around this particular topic over the last few weeks, but, in the greater scheme of things, who did, or who didn’t do what, when and where is often a waste of energy that would be better focused on moving forward.

On the other hand, allowing people the opportunity to vent their frustrations can often rekindle the original spark of enthusiasm, which has proved to be the case while out and about outlining the recently announced Cultural Clearing. To re-reiterate on that: until the end of October, we are asking anyone who feels they have not had a fair hearing to resubmit their ideas, or offers of help and support, on a single sheet of paper so that we can take another look in November, and hopefully do some matchmaking in December.

With that in mind, we will be shortly announcing dates when we will be encouraging anyone who wants to offer help and support to hear specific details of how Cultural Clearing will work, the web portal that will underpin it, and examples of some of the ideas and offers we have already had.

Among these are suggestions to reintroduce events that once formed parts of the cultural landscape, like the Liverpool Horse Fair and Shanty Music Festival! Any takers?

Elsewhere on the cultural landscape saw the publication of a critical report from Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, about the roles played, or in this case not played, by our broadcasters in the area of children’s television. In short, they said that there is not enough home-produced programming reflecting our own cultural values.

Ironically, Grange Hill was singled out for praise, just as the BBC has, in my opinion, abandoned its public service remit in children’s programming by insisting that next year’s series – its 30th anniversary of life in a secondary school – is aimed at nine-year-olds. There will be more to come on this one.

However, talk about roles must include two other comments.

First, while I know the gossipers will take some time to calm down, calm down, we must all keep focused on what was then, is not now.

We should also keep remembering the sheer scale of the 2008 project and no matter how hard individuals try, sometimes, sheer scale in itself, bringing with it the necessary evil of bureaucracy, defeats their well intentioned endeavours. That has been fixed.

The task now is to concentrate on the future and what we can achieve working together.

Which also means actually getting involved? You only get out what you put in. We will deliver the best we possibly can, the rest is up to you. In 2008, we all need to play our respective roles.