Stroud, Gloucestershire
The beauty of Stroud strikes like a magnificent, resounding bell. Alighting from the train, I am welcomed to this market town by the Hill Paul building, a former Victorian clothing factory with its seven towering red brick floors and five sets of double windows. With all the characteristics of the time, each window wears a sandstone cap matching sandstone lines running horizontally and at intervals, a formidable Roman numeric clock reminds anyone in the vicinity the value of keeping time.
Not long ago, the people of Stroud saved this historic building from demolition, just one in a great line of victories that include a house dating back to the Middle Ages, Stroud Maternity Hospital, a mature hornbeam tree, and the local branch of the Post Office. Activism in Stroud is nothing new. The Stroudwater Riots of 1825 saw mill workers join the Weavers Union in protest at low pay and unacceptable conditions. Strikes turned violent after the army was called in and after reading the Riot Act, soldiers were pelted with stones while looms were burned and strike breakers doused in the local fish pond.
I am spending the evening with Natasha Josette, a local activist and single Mum who has been working hard to get young people registered to vote. Tonight there are two competing events in Stroud town centre. One is a collaboration of ‘Register to Vote Stroud’ with ‘Stroud Against The Cuts’. The other has been organised by ‘Global Beats’. At Stroud Valley Artspace I catch up with Natasha’s co-organiser, James Beecher. Surrounded by a galaxy of leaflets, public announcement posters, newsletters and pamphlets, James sets out the aims for the evening, ‘We’re trying to increase youth engagement in politics now and beyond the election… to see what young people think about politics, why they might not be engaged and what might help them to get more engaged’.
Interviewing three young people who have registered to vote, two have already decided which political party they’ll be voting for. One considered young man wants to do more research first. The subject of learning about politics comes up a lot. Young people in Stroud want to take informed decisions. Three young men, not yet old enough to register, were quite clear that their level of maturity meant they should be granted a vote at sixteen and are frustrated that they have to wait. Going against the grain, one confesses he doesn’t agree with much of what the Labour Party stands for, but would vote for them because the Conservatives are trying to regulate the internet. Political information is gathered online and through friends ‘If one friend gets into politics’ explains another ‘they can spread the good word’.
Natasha moved to Stroud a few years back after deciding London was not the place to bring up two kids. As we talk, the conversation moves onto Stroud’s community, a subject about which Natasha is effervescent, ‘We have a very strong sense of community here! Strong community groups and single issue campaigns getting together in solidarity. And I would love to do a shout out to the rest of the country to say, if you have something as great as here come and tell me about it because I haven’t seen it before – but if it exists, tell me!’
Walking through the streets of Stroud, not a corporate chain or American brand is in sight. Instead green flags of ‘The Republic of Stroud’ flutter from the lamp posts. Stroud is a key marginal. Labour’s current candidate, David Drew, won the seat in 1997, 2001 and again in 2005, losing to Conservative, Neil Carmichael, in 2010 and 2015. There are only a few thousand votes between the winning and the losing side, so new voters could tip the balance. David Drew is a Corbyn man, making Stroud an interesting marker. If the vote goes Labour, it could be judged as an endorsement of Corbyn’s new direction. If Conservatives hold the seat, seens as a rejection of Labour’s recent swing to Socialism.
Preparing to leave the event that night, I notice James deep in conversation with two teenage boys. As we say our goodbyes, I ask how he thinks it’s gone, ‘Most people are registered now’ he confides ‘ but I was struck tonight by how interested young people are in discussing issues and debating them, and how much they already knew’. I had seen this myself and, on departing the following morning, was filled with a profound sense of confidence in the future. Stroud may go Left, and it may go Right but whatever the result, the community will be driving its direction and Stroud’s young people will be taken with it.
Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire
Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire is getting pretty political. Situated just outside Nottingham City and a Labour seat for many years, it was won by Anna Soubry for the Conservatives in 2010 and again in 2015. Broxtowe Labour Party has avowed this will not happen again. Local councillor, party fundraiser and events organiser Teresa Cullen, explains why she is so confident about winning this election, despite Broxtowe dropping off the list of marginals and into the category of unwinnable seats.
‘When we were a key marginal we had a lot of help from the Labour Party but now that we are no longer – even though there is only a few thousand votes in it – we’re actually doing the campaign ourselves and having much more fun… We’ve bought a loud hailer to put on top of one of our cars, we’ve bought a loud speaker so we can stand on soap boxes and shout around on the streets, I’m busily organising events so we can be everywhere and be seen by everyone, and win this election in the way that we actually did until only two elections ago’.
Broxtowe party membership has almost trebled in the last two years and Teresa sees more excitement around politics now than she’s ever known. Whereas before the local Labour Party might get two or three people canvassing in a day, now at least 16 and sometimes 20 people are out on the streets three times a day. People are talking about politics in a way they never did before. Rather than accosting people during street stalls, members of the public are approaching them. What do you put it down to? I ask Teresa.
‘We’d got so tired of feeling we were just Tory-lite, and nobody was listening to our policies because they weren’t really anything different to what was being offered by the Conservatives. What’s different now is… we’ve got policies that are actual Labour policies; clear, Socialist policies that are distinctly, distinctly different from the Tories and the Lib Dems, distinctly different from UKIP and of anybody else. We’ve got something to stand and fight for now, and it’s re-energised us in quite an astonishing way.’
The crowd who turned up at the White Lion pub for Stand Up For Labour’s show that night was pretty mixed. Couples of a certain age sitting behind a young woman with a three month-old baby listening intently as the singer-songwriter, Rob Johnson, strummed revolutionary songs about class war that seemed to go down quite well, followed by a comic who made people laugh. Teresa headed up the raffle, ‘Right!’ she announced ‘Now’s the time to win Christmas presents that nobody wanted!’ More laughter filled the room. Broxtowe’s Labour candidate, Greg Marshall, made an impassioned speech as ladies in the audience reached for their mobile phones to film him. Warm applause greeted his critique of fracking and condemnation of the Conservative Party manifesto, which was released that day.
During the show we screen a short film by local filmmaker, Lewis Stainer, about Teaching Assistants in nearby Derby who have gone on strike. The women‘s pay has been cut by 25% with no reduction in hours or conditions. The women have responded by getting political. ‘They’ve got to understand’, says campaigner Helen Mo, ‘that we work with the most vulnerable children and the most challenging children in this city and we get results, and we get results because we dig our heels in and we work hard. And we are doing the same thing with this dispute. We are digging our heels in, and we are working hard to get what is right.’
Broxtowe voted by 55% to leave the EU in last year’s referendum. Like so many leave constituencies across the Midlands and the North, Broxtowe was an industrial heartland. From its factory in Beeston, British L M Ericsson produced telecommunications products from as early as 1903, and in 1910 it made handsets for Scott’s second Antarctic expedition. Early models of telephone were made in Beeston and this high-skilled engineering continued throughout the twentieth century. In 1961 British Ericsson Telephone Company was sold to Plessey who continued running the Beeston site until 1989, when it was bought in a hostile takeover and finally closed in 2008. Now the biggest employer in the area is Royal Mail.
As the show came to a close and the audience moved downstairs into the bar, I looked around and felt a great sense of energy. Hanging on all the walls of the pub were paintings and drawings by local artists, posters for storytelling nights, film nights, dance classes, theatre shows. The gentle rhythm of Brazilian music played in the background, the Portuguese owner, pulling pints with huge biceps and an afro, everybody chatting and buying one another drinks. I left feeling the people of Broxtowe were onto something here. This was the place to be that Thursday night. There was no pessimism about the election result in The White Lion. Instead, it was as if they had found themselves again. And maybe they have.
Jan’s Political Journey
Twickenham, London
As rain lashed mercilessly outside, a crowd of sodden Labour supporters huddled sportingly around the bar of the Turks Head pub in Twickenham. Nestled on the corner of two leafy residential streets, the Turks Head is very much a local pub. A narrow room with its own side entrance rolls out like an old Dutch barn beside it. Inside, VOTE LABOUR signage has been tacked to the walls, one has fallen off and is propped up on the floor. Tension fills the air. Labour is a lost hope in Twickenham and somehow that feeling is reflected in the room. Even the sunshine didn’t come out for Twickenham Labour that night. I speak to local Party Chair, Rhonda Evans-Woolfe, about the campaign so far,
‘Since Corbyn, our membership has soared and we’ve got one thousand, five hundred members… so we’ve got the manpower now to try and seriously stop being a political irrelevance.’
Ten miles south-west of central London, Twickenham boasts many claims to fame. Hosting the world’s largest rugby stadium, it is the unofficial home of Rugby Union. The River Thames runs along the southern border, originally forming part of the Hundred of Hounslow that was mentioned in the Doomsday Book. Eighteenth century poet, Alexander Pope, lived in a villa in Twickenham, and his garden was tendered in his memory until Lady Howe, exasperated by the steady stream of tourists, pulled it down in 1808. In ‘An Essay on Man’, Pope tries to understand the complex condition of the human species. After much criticism of our faults, he decides we are perfect for the fact that we are alive; our perfection deriving from the blessing of our very existence,
Then say not man’s imperfect, Heav’n in fault;
Say rather, man’s as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge measur’d to his state and place,
His time a moment, and a point his space.
If to be perfect in a certain sphere,
What matter, soon or late, or here or there?
The blest today is as completely so,
As who began a thousand years ago.
Rhonda accepts that Twickenham Labour Party has been far from perfect. However, with a raft of new members, they’re now changing tact.
‘I think for a long time our local Labour Party has been focusing on national politics. But actually its finally dawned on us that in order to become relevant to people’s lives we’ve got to start off with local politics.’ Rhonda’s voices rises with the force of new-found determination, ‘Our aim now is to get Labour Councillors on Richmond Council… We’ve targeted a ward and we’re going to work that ward, and we’re going to get three Councillors elected – hopefully – at next year’s Council elections.’
Back in the Turks Head, the show has started. Comedian, Patrick Monahan, cracks bitter-sweet jokes about the dire housing situation young people face today. Although housing is a national issue, it is also a local concern and one around which Labour Councillors could gather local support especially as Labour’s recent manifesto promises more favourable terms for renters.
Although the show went down well, the energy in the room remained downbeat. But a plan has been hatched and the culture may be changing.
The Journey Begins
Today is the start of the tour and the launch of Brit Rocks! For the next three weeks I’ll be traveling around Britain on a mini bus documenting the grassroots political activity that is sweeping the country. The concept is simple: local filmmakers capture political activity happening in their community. This can be anything from a new initiative to combat loneliness, to an individual’s journey to becoming a Councillor. The number of people who have registered to vote since the election was called now stands at over a million. Almost half of these are under twenty-five. Gone are the days when politics was someone else’s business. Now it’s becoming a lifestyle choice.
Our partner in this venture is Stand Up For Labour, a variety show in the old working class tradition that rallies support for the Labour Party by mixing politics with entertainment. Comics share the bill with bands, poets, political speakers, and now a ten minute video slot screening grassroots films under the banner, Brit Rocks! In each of the places the tour will be landing, a call-out for films will precede it. From Cornwall to Carlisle, local filmmakers will be invited to contribute films for the show. Audience members will be approached as they come in and asked about their political journey. We hope that by the time they leave, many will feel confident to make their own films and share them. Politics is kicking off! And our democratic system is enabling it to happen.
Brit Rocks began in 2014 as a rock concert to persuade the Scots that Britain was worth sticking with. Held on the border, we invited musicians and speakers from both sides to celebrate all that was good about the union. Poets spoke movingly about the link of blood and family that binds the English and the Scots. I feel this very strongly myself coming on my father’s side, from Cumbria. Slicing up the land that binds one country to the other cuts as if inside me. Many suffer from a similar pain as Britain breaks its bonds with Europe. Now is the time for healing. Together we can channel our emotion into action, changing the existing system, reflecting on what works and what doesn’t, and imagining our destiny from here into the future. My political baptism came on the streets of London demonstrating against war and losing. Now finally, we have everything to play for again. In the rules of this game we all have a voice. More people speak up now – some are already being heard. This can unify us like nothing else can. Brit Rocks exists to reflect this.
Tonight is our first show is in Twickenham. Brit Rocks films include a profile of Jan Sweeney, engaged in politics through the Housing Act and because of Jeremy Corbyn. Jan is in her late fifties, born in Acton and was recently made Chair of her local Labour Party. We hear about Jan’s journey and her views. Jason Pritchard has recently been elected Councillor after joining the Labour Party, again because of Corbyn. We follow his new initiative ‘Happy To Chat’, that twins isolated residents from estates in the City Of London with language students keen to practice their English. A young singer-songwriter, Lily Bud, performs her song ‘Not In My Name’ to a floating crowd on a grand piano at King Cross station. Filmed by an activist, this will also form part of Brit Rocks’ ten minute slot.
My next blog will be about this show and include voices from the audience, some background to the constituency, and a sense of the political activity that taking place there now. I am conscious that the majority of people featured in Brit Rocks at this stage will be Labour Party voters, many supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. But Brit Rocks has a life after this election, and I intend to move the spotlight onto political activity of all persuasions as we work to come together and engage with one another as the family that we are.
Jason Pritchard’s Happy To Chat
This initiative by Jason Pritchard, Councillor for Portspoken in the City if London, is part of a new wave of people coming into politics in the past two years. Jason tells us about the initiative and why he got into politics.
From video blog to TV news appearance
After making video clips for a while, Crispin Flintoff got noticed by his friend Asif Hanif and was invited to appear in Channel 44.
He talked about Brentford Library, which will lose funding like so many other libraries across the country under the Tories.
This is what can happen if you get your voice out there. Make a film for Brit Rocks!
Send in political videos from your smart phone!
Brit Rocks has been set up to create a community of video blogs about our new political landscape.
If you have a video to contribute, we will promote it across social media and you could go viral with your message.
We are looking for your views but also films about political activity in your community – you don’t need to be Steven Spielberg, just someone with a point to make!
If you would like to contribute, all you need to do is make your film and send it via Youtube link or wetransfer.com to: [email protected]
