New Start editorial Jul-Dec06

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New Start editorial December 13 2006 Simple solutions have a tendency to miss the point. So just as I find the actions of West Ham’s board less than reassuring, so I wonder about the Tories’ latest pronouncements about families and poverty.

New Start editorial December 6 2006 My quest for the holy grail of zero-carbon journalism knows no bounds. It even extended to using the services of Northern Rail twice in three days last week.

New Start editorial November 29 2006 Counting sheep, I’ve found, rarely works on those occasions when you lie awake worrying about the state of the world.

New Start editorial November 22 2006 For reasons I find hard to fathom, I found myself meandering through a department store at the weekend, and I was gobsmacked by the way you can hardly sell anything without a celebrity’s recommendation..

New Start editorial November 1 2006 The legacy of mining has frequently been benefit dependency, heroin addiction, and negative equity. It has taken concerted efforts by regeneration agencies to begin to restore hope.

New Start editorial October 25 2006 Three years ago a friend of mine moved from Swansea to Sheffield to work for the Finnish steel company, Outokumpu. Within a few months his main responsibility was to make people redundant.

New Start editorial October 18 2006 Hang around regeneration conferences and you’re bound to hear a bit of refreshing honesty, unguarded remarks that offer insight into what’s really going on.

New Start editorial October 11 2006 David Blunkett’s description of the welfare state as a safety net into which people fall and remain conjures up images of the state as the hand that rocks a hammock for the indolent.

New Start editorial October 4 2006 Working with other people can be frustrating. Just ask David Cameron what he really says about his party colleagues when he’s loading his dishwasher.

New Start editorial September 27 2006 Last week Ruth Kelly gave us devolution to the doorstep. What my doorstep will do with its new powers is a question I’ve yet to get to grips with.

New Start editorial September 13 2006 Another day, another investigation into some aspect of the regeneration game. This time it’s the turn of the Commission for Racial Equality to look at physical regeneration at its best and at its worst.

New Start editorial August 30 2006 It’s the year 2020 and drinkers and smokers are about to be classed as an oppressed minority.

New Start editorial August 16 2006 Last week I spent an enjoyable hour talking about a shopping centre in Wigan. Seriously.

New Start editorial August 2 2006 Devotees of silent comedy will know self-congratulation is a dangerous thing. No sooner do heroes like Fatty Arbuckle or Laurel and Hardy beam with pride at their achievements than they come a cropper, usually with a hefty dollop of personal humiliation.

New Start editorial July 26 2006 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is often diagnosed in young children with behavioural problems. If left untreated, it can cause difficulties in adolescence and into adulthood.

New Start editorial July 19 2006 If you’ve seen the Young Foundation commentary on what’s wrong with the world we’ve created, you’ll know income poverty is just one of our crippling social ills.

New Start editorial July 12 2006 There‘s something rich about the idea of money being long-term unemployed. Made redundant by its owners then sitting, idle, for 15 years or more, an asset only for the financial institutions that hold it.

New Start editorial July 5 2006 One of the lesser-known innovations in government this year has been environment secretary David Miliband’s personal blog, in which he muses on everything from climate change to longhorned cattle.

New Start editorial June 28 2006 Theo Walcott is, without doubt, one of the brightest young talents in English football. His electrifying pace, dazzling skills and, above all, unparalleled potential have set training grounds buzzing.

New Start editorial June 21 2006 The American poet Robert Frost is perhaps best known for The road less traveled, a poem about someone who stands where ‘Two roads diverged in a yellow wood’ and ponders which to take.

New Start editorial June 14 2006 Teenagers have a way of making advice sound moronic. Tell them to remember to take their lunch, bus fare, sick note or whatever to school and they’ll reply, ‘well, durrr’ in that tone of voice reserved for imbeciles, before exiting the house leaving it behind.

New Start editorial June 7 2006 Interculturalism is a word that sounds as if it was dreamt up by a bureaucrat. It¹s ugly and unwieldy. But it tells us something vitally important.

New Start editorial May 31 2006 Poverty proofing. Never mind the aspiration, just look at the words and it’s easy to see why the UK government is keen to import it from Ireland.

New Start editorial May 24 2006 A couple of months ago I sat in on a conversation between a Christian and a Muslim, facilitated by an atheist. The discussion dealt with issues like justice, reconciliation and forgiveness.

New Start editorial May 17 2006 Nearly, as any sports fan will tell you, is never good enough. The fact that West Ham nearly won the FA Cup on Saturday may have led to record tallies of commiserations, but it’s no substitute for winning.

New Start editorial May 10 2006 While the walls of his empire crumble, while scandal sniggers in the tabloids, while unmasked enemies convene in broad daylight, prime minister Tony Blair performs that age-old yet graceless dance known as the cabinet shuffle.

New Start editorial May 3 2006 Ken Livingstone, it was revealed this week, hasn’t flushed his toilet after urinating for the last 15 months.

New Start editorial April 26 2006 Gordon Brown must feel he’s on a hiding to nothing. Not only is the premiership tantalisingly beyond arm’s reach, but his holy grail - the elimination of child poverty - is proving ever more elusive.

New Start editorial April 19 2006 A colleague of mine has taken to describing lavish helpings of chocolate cake as ‘an apple’. Suddenly you can tick all the healthy eating boxes and indulge yourself shamelessly.

New Start editorial April 5 2006 If you’re reading this in London or Edinburgh, congratulations. You are an official member of an ideopolis. If you’re in Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle or Glasgow, don’t despair: you’re well on your way.

New Start editorial March 22 2006 This is Groundhog Day. You may have seen it before. Whichever way you look at it, it looks like yesterday or the day before, or the day, week or year before that.

New Start editorial March 15 2006 This week’s heartwarming story comes from Leeds, where fans of indie band Four Day Hombre have bought shares in a record label to get their first album out on the streets.

New Start editorial March 8 2006 What goes around really does come around. Twenty-five years after Michael Heseltine became minister for Merseyside, he’s back again advising the Tories about inner-city policy. As an admission of a party’s failure, that’s breathtaking.

New Start editorial March 1 2006 So there is to be a cabinet minister for social exclusion. Hang out the bunting. Prepare the street parties. Let the disadvantaged celebrate with a display of choreographed forelock-tugging.

New Start editorial February 22 2006 If ministers are looking for some new ideas to galvanise their urban policies, let’s hope they didn’t pop into Selfridges this week.

New Start editorial February 15 2006 Buildings, both the elegant and inspiring ones and the ugly ones, impose their presence on a community. Line the Thames with discount warehouse sheds and you’ll facilitate a discount warehouse mentality.

New Start editorial February 8 2006 Back in the misty past when she was minister responsible for regeneration, Hilary Armstrong used to have a catchphrase: ‘What matters is what works.’ We haven’t heard it much lately.

New Start editorial January 25 2006 There’s a neat little equation that pundits and politicians are apt to quote.

New Start editorial January 18 2006 When I was young and innocent and in my first job on a local paper, I was sent to a village meeting where residents engaged in intense and passionate debate about the impact of gravel extraction on the local community.

New Start editorial January 11 2006 There are those who believe marketing can change the world. Tony Blair, to judge by the efforts that have gone into selling the ‘respect’ agenda this week, is one of the converts.

New Start editorial January 4 2006 When I was stalled halfway up a hill in deepest Kent and preparing to fail my driving test yet again, my instructor came out with his familiar homily: ‘Give her the power to do the job’.

Previous years

 * New Start editorial Jul-Dec05