Kent: The County that said No to Tesco

Saxmundham is a small market town in Suffolk. Its main name to fame is the town that said no to Tesco. The local council consulted with local people and said no to Tesco, enabling the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, to thrive.

Contrast with the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor (as it is known locally), where half of Farnborough town centre was destroyed for an unwanted Sainsbury’s superstore and in neighbouring Aldershot, the edge-of-town centre Westgate (or Wastegate as local retailers call it) is laying waste to Aldershot town centre.

• Aldershot town centre retailers meeting

Kent appears to be acquiring a reputation as the County that says No to Tesco.

• Tesco expansion plans halted across Kent

At long last, local councils are listening to what local people are saying, that they do not want Clone Towns, do not wish to see their town centres full of identikit shops, boarded-up shops, betting shops, same old corporate chain coffee shops serving rubbish coffee and factory cakes, nor do they want to see their pubs destroyed for Tesco supermarkets or turned into a tacky McDonald’s.

Guildford has said no to an Aldi superstore (though Aldi has threatened to appeal).

• Aldi to appeal over Burpham supermarket refusal

Totnes said no to Costa, the local council said yes, but local people had the last laugh and have driven Costa out of town with their corporate tail between their legs.

• Costa pulls out of Totnes

Even the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor is starting to heed local people and has put in measures to stop the derelict Tumbledown Dick being turned into a Drive-Thru McDonald’s.

RBS: Stop defrauding us, manipulating us, lying to us and trashing our climate

Oily bankers RBS AGM 2011

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) reported a £5.2 billion loss as it announced its annual results today The bank’s boss Stephen Hester is four years into his original five-year plan to bring RBS back on track – yet things don’t seem to be getting much better for the publicly owned bank. RBS blames a year of heavy fines. But let’s just remind ourselves of what these fines were:

• PPI: The bank knowingly mis-sold its customers insurance which they neither needed nor could use, over a period of years. Fine: £2.2 billion
• Libor: The bank illegally manipulated a crucial interest rate to benefit itself whilst negatively affecting mortgage payers in the UK (and elsewhere). Fine: £391 million

Bankers this year have been rewarded for doing a ‘good job’. Bonus pot: £600,000 million.

Some pretty significant figures that the bank should never have been in a position to pay.

If the RBS was really making headway to being sustainable and acting in the interest of us and its shareholders, we would surely expect a much stronger annual report, and a move towards investments only in sustainable projects.

Hester is quoted on the BBC website this morning as saying “…my job is [to] deliver an RBS that other investors want to own shares in…” This is true, but he must also remember that RBS is still owned by UK taxpayers and it is also his job to ensure that the bank is cleaned up and takes good care of our investment. Stopping defrauding us, manipulating us, lying to us and trashing our climate and environment would certainly be a good place to start. Hester has a lot of ground to cover in the final year of his plan.

– Paul Daly

Originally published by WDM.

Market Rasen

En route to Portas Pilot Market Rasen in Lincs which has reduced empty shops by 60 per cent and created new foody hub. Who says the high street’s dead. — Mary Portas

Market Rasen, a small Lincolnshire market town, has turned around its fortunes, from a failing town, to reducing shop vacancy rate by 60%, by focussing on what matters, small retailers, community and a sustainable local economy. Such as been the success, that folk now want to come into Market Rasen.

Market Rasen now has a thriving market, an art festival.

• Award for Market Rasen traders as monthly events prove a success

Market Rasen has achieved this success and turnaround within just a few months.

Today Mary Portas visited Market Rasen and she was very impressed by what had been achieved in only a few months.

• Mary Portas in Market Rasen
• “Queen of Shops” praises town’s revival
• Retail queen Mary Portas visiting Market Rasen today

Contrast with Aldershot and Farnborough, where the policy is destroy small businesses, drain money out of the local economy. Town centres destroyed by greed and planners in the pocket of developers.

• Farnborough Road

The current plans for Farnborough are more of the same failed policy. Hand the town to developers to trash. A c 1720s coaching inn, The Tumbledown Dick, that existed long before the town, is earmarked for demolition for a Drive-Thru McDonald’s.

In Aldershot, a Victorian Arcade was demolished and replaced by a plastic replica, it in turn to be trashed, destroying small shops to make way for an unwanted Wetherspoons and Poundland. Outside The Arcade, small shops are threatened with demolition. Westgate, an ugly development of a large supermarket and tacky chain fast food outlets, is laying waste to what little is left of the local economy.

The sick joke is that Rushmoor (local council for Aldershot and Farnborough) applied for Portas Pilot status. It would have been a complete waste of money. You do not need Portas Pilot money, you simply listen to local communities, not get into bed with developers and big business.

When you look at what other councils are doing, including working with local communities not against, you realise just how Neanderthal and backwards the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor.

Cambridge has built into its planning policies a sustainable local economy. Islington has built into its planning policies protection of local shops, recognises the need to stop the spread of junk food outlets due to the obesity epidemic.

• Cambridge: Protection of Public Houses
• Islington: Development Management Policies
• Finsbury Local Plan: Topic Paper: Retail and service uses

Brighton has North Laines. A very popular area.

• Why visit Brighton?

Lincoln has Sincil Street. The Strait, Steep Hill and Bailgate. And yet the City Council is determined to lay waste to Sincil Street.

There is a myth, peddled by Big Business, developers and councils in their pockets, that people prefer High Street clone shops, every town Clone Town, all looking the same. They do not.

• Why mourn failing High Street retailers?

Farnborough Road

Farnborough is an urban wasteland. Laid waste by decades of bad planning decisions, a planning department in the pocket of developers.

Folk avoid Farnborough, even folk who live there avoid Farnborough.

Pass down the Farnborough Road and you would not even notice Farnborough exists. You pass straight through.

About the only thing Farnborough can claim in its favour is that it is not as bad as Aldershot. Though a moot point, Aldershot a once proud Victorian town destroyed by decades of bad planning. The same planners, the same council, that has destroyed Farnborough.

Farnborough had Victorian origins, the same Victorian origins as Aldershot, the British Army. Until it was decided to relocate Farnborough and create an artificial town centre. A street of 1960s era ugly buildings, not dissimilar to a parade of shops on an inner city slum estate. To which was then added two of the ugliest shopping centres in the country.

In the late 1990s, St Modwen front-company Kuwaiti-financed KPI, bought a large chunk lock, stock and barrel. Half of the town centre demolished for a large supermarket in an area saturated with large supermarkets, a small estate of social housing demolished to make way for a car park, many small retailers destroyed. Erected buildings even uglier than the 1960s buildings demolished.

Pass down the Farnborough Road and you will see a boarded-up pub, The Tumbledown Dick, a c 1720s coaching inn. A coaching inn that used to stand on a desolate heath by a track that passed over the heath.

Boarded-up and left to rot, The Tumbledown Dick is earmarked for demolition for an unwanted Drive-Thru McDonald’s.

The Tumbledown Dick should be on a local list of buildings of local historical buildings, it meets the criteria for inclusion, and yet it is missing. The suspicion is that deliberate exclusion is to facilitate demolition. If suspicions prove to be well founded, then misconduct in public office, if not corruption. Both being serious criminal offences that attract a prison sentence.

The local council is required by national planning policy to have a pub protection policy. It lacks one.

A sustainable local economy should be part of local planning policy. It is not. It is part of the local planning policy in Cambridge.

Local planning policy should protect local small retailers. There is no provision.

National planning policy requires protection of small retailers, they are seen, as in Islington, the base line. The planning department lies and says protection of small retailers not a planning matter.

The council views the retention of small and independent shops as a baseline and places great weight on the need to retain any shops which currently or potentially could be utilised by small and independent retailers.

National heath policy requires the local planning authority to regulate fast food outlets. There has been a total failure to do so, leaving the locality performing badly on health indices.

Islington recognises the need to address obesity and it is written into their planning policies.

The Government White Paper Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our strategy for public health in England (2010) identifies that more than 1 in 5 children in England are overweight or obese by age 3, with higher rates among some Black and Minority Ethnic communities and in more deprived areas. The paper highlights the role of councils in taking action to improve public health, including regulating the development of new fast food restaurants in their role as local planning authority.

The Farnborough Society claims to speak on behalf of the local community. They do not. They claim to be custodians of the local heritage. They are not. They have a cosy, if not incestuous relationship with the local council. They have regular monthly meetings with senior planning officials to discuss planning applications, that borders on pre-determination. According to the Farnborough Society, The Tumbledown Dick can be demolished, a sign stuck up with the name, and local heritage has been safeguarded.

The local council has commissioned a shoddy report on The Tumbledown Dick, that surprise, surprise, says The Tumbledown Dick has no historical value. It reads as a report written for McDonald’s to facilitate demolition. The consultancy boasts of delivering planning solutions for industry, welcomes the relaxation of planning controls, sees heritage as an obstacle to development.

The local council has sought legal advice on pushing through the application on behalf of McDonald’s. As it has been given by the Borough Solicitor, it is probably worthless.

Local people have decided they have had enough. They have had enough of seeing their town trashed, a local council in the pocket of developers, They have produced a detailed, well researched report on The Tumbledown Dick. They have filed Freedom of Information requests. They have made it very clear, The Tumbledown Dick is not going to be destroyed. As a first step, The Tumbledown Dick has been registered as an Asset of Community Value.

In Islington, a strong local campaign to save a pub will be noted and be taken into account when determining a planning application.

Down the road, Aldershot, a once proud Victorian town, has been all but destroyed by decades of bad planning decisions. Plans are afoot to trash The Arcade, destroying many small businesses that have already been kicked out of The Arcade. Shops in Wellington Street are thereatened with demolition, more small businesses destroyed. The ugly Westgate development, (large superstore, tacky fast food chains) on the edge of the town centre designed to deliver the final death blow to the town.

Islington has a planning policy that sees small retailers as the baseline.

Aldershot and Farnborough would form excellent case studies for any planning schools of bad planning, how not to destroy town centres.

Totnes seen as a model community

Totnes got national if not international recognition as the town that said no to Costa.

Not the local planning authority, they stuck two fingers up to the people and local businesses of Totnes. It was the people of Totnes, the local businesses, the town council, the mayor, the local member of Parliament who said no to Costa. The local district council, they didn’t give a toss for the people of Totnes.

Heritage is important. It gives character, sense of well being, quality of life, civic pride to a locality.

Heritage houses local businesses, it gives them somewhere to operate out of. They in turn give an area its character, its idiosyncrasies.

We see this in Totnes, we see it in North Laine in Brighton, we see it in Steep Hill in Lincoln.

People do not visit these places to drink coffee in Costa. It was a sick joke when Costa tried to claim they would enhance the vitality and vibrancy of the town, that they would attract tourists into the town. People visit to drink coffee in indie coffee shops.

You do not go to Protaras in Cyprus to eat at McDonald’s or drink coffee in Costa, you go to Nicolas Tavern for kleftiko a traditional Greek-Cypriot meal cooked slowly, slowly in a wood fire clay oven or sip freddo cappuccino sat outside patisserie amelie.

Independent record shops do still exist. It is not Amazon that treats music as a commodity, it is a platform that sells stuff and dodges tax, it is the major record labels that treats music as a commodity.

Ben’s Records in Tunsgate in Guildford, not only has a passion for music, but knows what the regulars like. It will be playing no sooner have you walked in the door.

Resident in North Laine in Brighton, has an amazing diversity of music.

Independent record shops and a thriving music scene seem to go hand in hand.

If you wish to use the net, there is bandcamp, which offers a far better deal to both artist and music lovers than Amazon, iTunes or Spotify.

The shop earmarked for Costa was a wholefood shop. It stood empty, it was claimed there was no interest, Costa were doing everyone a favour, occupying an empty shop. That lie has been exposed, no soonest has Costa pulled out, than it has found a use as an art collective and exhibition space and a leather workshop.

Independent businesses trade with each other, support each other, they recycle money within the local economy, they pay their taxes. Totnes even has its own local currency.

If Totnes is one end of the spectrum, then Aldershot is the other, a Victorian town raped by greed and planners in the pocket of developers and big business. If Totnes serves as a model for others to follow, then Aldershot serves as a model of what not to do.

Aldershot is a Victorian town, or was. It is unusual in that it sprang up almost overnight from an isolated village in the midst of heathland. Over a period of ten years when the Army arrived it became a Wild West boom town, brothels, pubs, victuallers, whatever was needed to service the needs of soldiers away from home.

Most towns would be proud of this heritage, not Aldershot. Systematically it has been destroyed. Many of the fine Victorian buildings were destroyed, or defaced by inappropriate developments, the heart of the town was gutted for a ghastly shopping centre, which houses the same clone shops as found in every other Clone Town.

Aldershot used to have a Victorian Arcade. It was levelled to the ground, to be replaced by a plastic replica. Last year it was acquired by a developer for redevelopment, the first act was to kick out all the small retailers who were in the way. The head of planning fell over backwards to try and push it through, blatantly lied to committee saying it was putting to good use empty shops (no mention why they were empty). For once councillors said no, and refused planning consent. It now goes to appeal.

Opposite The Arcade is a small row of shops. Possibly what is left of a much larger row of shops, another small row further down the street. These shops are 250 years old, pre-dating Victorian Aldershot by a century. The greedy developer who owns the ghastly shopping centre wants them demolished.

It could not be stronger, the contrast in this tale of two towns. Totnes is thriving, a strong sense of community, Aldershot is a centre of deprivation in an otherwise affluent southeast, a strong sense of alienation.

What Is a Gift?

As the holiday season fast approaches, it has come to our attention that some of our city officials need some help understanding the concept of “gift.”

On Monday, NYCHA chairman John Rhea visited a public housing complex that had been without power, water, or heat since Hurricane Sandy. He told the residents they would be required to pay full rent despite having no services, but that they’d get a rent credit in January, calling it “a nice little Christmas present.”

It seems that Rhea needs a lesson in what constitutes a present and what doesn’t.

First, what a gift isn’t.

If you give someone something you stole from them, it’s not a gift. If you give someone money you owe them, it’s not a gift. If you wrongfully collect rent, knowing your tenants can legally refuse to pay because you’re not providing basic services, and then you give part of that rent back two months later — that’s certainly not a gift.

Got it? Good. Now, what a gift actually is.

If a city’s administration launches a coordinated attack on your movement, and then you come back to help save that city’s ass when its underfunded agencies find themselves helpless in the face of disaster — that’s a gift. If a city’s police force pepper-spray you, hit you with batons, and arrest you en masse for protesting Wall Street, and then, while that city (physically) bails out Wall Street, you pass out blankets to folks with no heat, develop a network of emergency shelters, and carry water up sixteen flights of stairs to public housing residents — that’s a gift. If a city violently evicts you from a park at which you provide free housing and medical care, and then you help provide it all over again when a storm renders thousands of new folks homeless — that’s a gift. A really, really nice one.

Last fall, the New York City mayor’s office and police department tried to shut down the Occupy Wall Street movement by every means at their disposal. This fall — working alongside many other grassroots groups, churches, and individuals to distribute donations and share resources with communities hit by the storm — Occupy has ended up doing the city’s job for them. While the city devoted huge efforts to making sure Wall Street could get back to work as quickly as possible, folks like these — who have never been given “presents” from the city — have stepped in to fill the void for everyone else.

For these people, such work is not a matter of gift-giving, but an act of common decency. They understand — unlike John Rhea — that food, medical attention, and livable housing are never “presents,” but basic human rights.

Visit interoccupy.net/occupysandy/ to help New York residents still struggling after Hurricane Sandy. The Yes Men’s new movie and platform explore how to take our democracy back.

Published in the Huffington Post.

Mitt Romney saw it as a photo opportunity. Occupy New York, rolled up their sleeves, got their hands dirty, were out on the street helping victims of Hurricane Sandy.

We are seeing a cultural shift taking place. From one direction Occupy, from the other those without work.

• Occupy Sandy: A Movement Moves to Relief
• Will You See This Movie? ‘The Yes Men are Revolting’…and Are Starting Up an Activist Network

Revisiting Westgate

Westgate

Westgate is indeed a comprehensive scheme that will be a fantastic asset for Aldershot and its residents. … all round it is great news and I’m delighted to see it opening. — Peter Moyle, council leader Rotten Borough of Rushmoor

It’s just a fantastic addition to the town and will be a huge boost to residents. … Westgate will serve as an excellent conduit to the town centre itself. — Andrew Lloyd, chief executive Rotten Borough of Rushmoor

Westgate, an ugly unwanted development on the edge of Aldershot town centre, parts of which opened last week, is entered up a flight of steps and into a windy plaza, the fast food outlets lining the plaza on both sides have yet to open.

In the windy plaza the paving slabs are already being dug up and relaid.

The drain running through the middle does not appear to be working as already being cleaned out.

There are some strange structures, a little over a foot high, difficult to know whether these are works of art or seats. Located in the middle of the thoroughfare, ideal trip hazards.

Either they have appeared since last week, or I failed to notice, wooden park bench seats. But why a strip of metal bent around the front of the seat? Ideal to rip trousers or skirt on.

Last week Morrisons was very busy, especially Monday when it opened. Today almost empty, people rattling around link peas in a pod, barely more than half the cash tills open. Begs the question what happens to the staff who were on the tills, are they sent home with no pay? Zero hours contracts? By the closed tills, a metal barrier at knee height, an ideal trip hazard.

Breakfast from the cafe very poor, marginally better than would get in centre of Aldershot, which is not saying a lot.

Walking down into the town centre from Upper union Street, into Union Street, and looking down into the town, the town empty, the street all but deserted.

There are still no street signs directing people from Westgate into the town. Deliberate?

I looked in the YMCA shop and was told the town centre was now dead, Westgate having killed the town. Looking out from the shop, the street deserted, as though in a ghost town.

For some shops, less than 10% loss of trade will be sufficient to put them out of businesses. Each time a shop closes, less reason to venture into Aldershot. At a tipping point, once one or two shops go, rapid domino collapse.

The only busy day is market day which pulls people into Aldershot. Last week the market was dead. The fruit and vegetable stall usually very popular was empty. It will only take a few weeks like this for the fruit and vegetable stall to pull out. If the fruit and vegetable stall pulls out, the market will collapse as the other stalls are selling tat.

Without exception, the local council is blamed for destroying the town.

Once again it raises big question the mentality of the leader of the council and chief executive to destroy their own town centre.

Barclays speculate on food

In a world in which many people go to bed hungry at night it is an absolute disgrace that Barclays make millions out of food speculation and force up the price of food.

It is yet another reason why the banks must be broken up and tighter regulation brought in.

This brilliant video by WDM, has been listed by Radio Times as one of the Top Five viral videos of the week.

It is time to stop greedy bankers like Barclays betting on hunger, gambling with people’s lives.

Please sign the WDM food speculation petition.

Please pass to all your friends and colleagues.

Westgate

Westgate ugly eyesore on edge of Victorian town centre

Westgate is indeed a comprehensive scheme that will be a fantastic asset for Aldershot and its residents. … all round it is great news and I’m delighted to see it opening. — Peter Moyle, council leader Rotten Borough of Rushmoor

It’s just a fantastic addition to the town and will be a huge boost to residents. … Westgate will serve as an excellent conduit to the town centre itself. — Andrew Lloyd, chief executive Rotten Borough of Rushmoor

Westgate is an appalling eyesore of a development literally on the edge of Aldershot town centre, totally out of character with a Victorian town.

At least that is how it looks from the outside, looking from the town centre. Within not a lot better.

Outside two blocks of stone causing an obstruction. Edge on, barely visibly, the stone similar colour and blending in with the paving stones. A hazard for anyone with poor eyesight.

Entry to Westgate is up a flight of steps (there is also a slope for wheelchairs and cyclists). This leads into a stark, windswept plaza. Freezing cold in the winter, very hot in the summer. The design is very reminiscent of old Soviet Bloc architecture.

Lampposts have at their base a raised block about a brick in height. An ideal trip hazard for anyone not looking where they are going or of poor eyesight.

None are yet open, when complete, the plaza will be lined either side with tacky fast food chain restaurants.

Through the plaza, to the left a broad flight of steps leading down into the plaza and a travelator that leads down to an underground car park.

The car park is free, time limited to three hours. If only three hours in Aldershot, then the place to park to avoid expensive car parks.

Wandering around the plaza, more people than would see in the centre of Aldershot.

Then Morrisons.

I am no great fan of Morrisons, I would usually place near the bottom with Asda and Tesco.

Walking in, I was struck by the size, the sheer number of people, and that it was open and airy.

There was more people in Morrisons than you would see in Aldershot town centre in a month, maybe in a year.

Wandering around I was struck that this was not a typical Morrisons. It seemed to be aimed to compete with Waitrose, but with Tesco or Asda prices. Lots of fresh produce, fruit and vegetables, fresh fish, raw meat, cooked meat, a bakery. The meat section was making sausages on the premises, the bakery preparing tarts using fresh fruits. Though on closer inspection the cheeses were not of the quality of Waitrose and you do not slice cooked meats then leave to dry out.

Morrisons has its only little café. A dumb system, queue at one till to order, then queue at another till to pay. This is the norm for Morrisons. Cakes are on open display for everyone to cough and sneeze over. Scampi, peas and chips, not very good, but then on the other hand par for the course for Aldershot where nowhere decent to eat.

I had a chat with a lady who was there as an advisor to Morrisons. She said, yes, this was a different Morrisons, they had opened a couple like it in Scotland. She called it a Store of the Future.

Leaving Morrisons, I wandered into the town. No signposts pointing into the town centre, only a few pendants flapping in the wind on lampposts.

Upper Union Street leads into Union Street. The pavement flows across the road. I realised I was walking into the road. Very dangerous.

The Morrisons is going to kill the centre of Aldershot dead. It is probably going to have a big impact on local supermarkets too, as far better. It will also impact on the fruit and vegetable stalls on the Thursday market, one of the few reasons to visit Aldershot. The fishmonger on the market is unlikely to survive.

Maybe there will be some trickle down into the town, though I saw no evidence of this. What was the centre of town now becomes the bottom end of town. Maybe the top end of Union Street, which is usually dead, will see a few more people.

I passed a Nepalese café with a girl outside handing out leaflets. I cannot see anyone going in it. It looked dirty, the door was wide open, meaning it would have been freezing cold inside.

For anyone coming in on the No 1 bus from Camberley, Frimley or Farnborough, access is easy. Get off at Princess Hall and walk up the steps. It needs a bus stop outside Princess Hall for the return journey.

A couple alighted off the bus with me, and asked where to go. I showed them. They also asked where was the town centre.

From Westgate it is not obvious where the town centre is.

It is unbelievable the local council has not erected signposts directing people from Westgate into the town centre. How many months have they had?

From Upper Union Street crossing the road into Union Street, there needs to be a pedestrian crossing, a zebra crossing, not so much to help people across the road (though that is always useful), but to actually alert people that they are crossing the road.

The fast food chains when they open will drain money out of the local economy. Morrisons may bring people in from further afield. There may be some trickle down of people from the development into the town centre but so far the local council has done nothing to encourage this. The only money flowing into the local economy will be from the minimum wage staff, and unless they were previously unemployed, will only have relocated from other jobs. A supermarket of this size destroys a thousand jobs in the local economy.

Aldershot is a deprived area, the town centre a slum of fast food restaurants, gambling joints, charity shops and large bars. A place most people avoid. The last thing it needs is yet more money drained out of the local economy.

The impression given is that the local council, the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor as it is known locally, is deliberately trying to destroy Aldershot. Somewhat perversely they are promoting this developmental on the front page of their website. Even more perverse that they were co-promoters of the development.

What local council wishes to destroy its own town centre?

Other actions indicate a desire to destroy Aldershot

The Arcade, what was the centre, but must now be seen as the bottom end of the town centre, is a plastic replica of a Victorian arcade that once stood on the same site. All the small retailers kicked out to make way for a large bar (Wetherspoon) and a large retail store (Poundland). An unwanted redevelopment that was not good for the town, and yet the planners fell over backwards to push it through on behalf of the developers. For once the councillors on the planning committee showed a bit of backbone and threw the application out.

• Redevelopment of The Arcade REJECTED
• Developer shocked by refusal to allow them to trash The Arcade

If the tacky fast food chains kill off KFC and McDonald’s, then some good has come of Westgate.

What though of Aldershot?

The only way the town centre will survive is with specialist shops, something to bring people into the town, and yet these are the very businesses the local council has for years been doing its best to kill off.

The couple I walked though the plaza with, I asked them would they come from Camberley to any of the fast food chains. They said no, why would they come from Camberley for something that was in Camberley. They added all towns looked the same, with the same shops.

Aldershot has a town centre manager. But that is a non-job.

A town survives because of its hard working small retailers.

Aldershot needs a Master Plan, people with vision to draw it up, but that will not come from the council as they are without vision.

Aldershot bid for Mary Portas cash. They failed. But it would only have been frittered away. And the money available was less than a major retail chain would spend on a store refit.

Westgate also has a Travelodge and a Cinema. Begs the question why would anyone wish to stay in Aldershot. The cinema opened last week, just in time for the release of the new James Bond film Skyfall.

All Westgate does is relocate the centre of retail gravity away from the town centre and towards Westgate, whilst at the same time draining money out of the local economy.

Westgate is the local council delivering the final death blow to Aldershot as a viable town centre.

The rights of girls to an education

UN Messenger of Peace Paulo Coelho with Malala on screen

I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves. – Mary Wollstonecraft

The terrorists showed what frightens them most: a girl with a book. – Ban Ki-moon, UN Secetary General

Feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was a member of a group of radical intellectuals called the English Jacobins. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) argued equal educational opportunities for women.  She was the mother of Mary Shelley.

A tale of two young bloggers, nine-year-old Martha Payne and Fourteen-year-old Malala. One in Scotland, one in Pakistan.

Martha Payne writes a food blog NeverSeconds. Pathetic jobsworth at her local council tried to gag her. She fought back. She raised money for Friends of NeverSeconds a kitchen for school children in Malawi, has been honoured with various awards, has co-written a book due to be published next month.

• Martha, Meals and Malawi
• Martha Payne at Observer Food Monthly Awards 2012

Malawa writes a blog calling for education for girls.

Fourteen-year-old Malala was shot  in the head at point blank range by the Pakistani Taliban for daring to suggest that girls might read, that they should have an education.

The first word of the Koran is read. It does not say only men read, it does not say deny girls an education.

Two years ago saw the start of the Arab Spring in Tunisia. People did not take to the streets to see a takeover by Muslim extremists who are even more oppressive than the dictators who were overthrown.

The Muslim extremists who are trying to hijack the Arab Spring want to see the clock set back to the Middle Ages, they wish to bastardise women, deny them of any rights.

These are some of their demands

• a woman committing adultery 100 lashes if single, stoning to death if married
• girls forced into marriage aged nine-years-old
• denial of education for girls
• women to be covered up from head to toe with only eyes showing
• drinking of alcohol, 60 lashes

Malawa fortunately survived being shot in the head, she is in hospital in Birmingham recovering.

There are many girls like Malawa who do not recover, who we do not hear about.

The Taliban drove up to Malala’s school and shot her in the neck and brain. Despite being hit at close range, this fourteen-year-old champion of girls’ education is surviving.

Many in Pakistan and around the world have now united behind Malala and her cause. This is a tipping point moment and if we act now we can help achieve the very thing she was targeted for: let’s call on the government of Pakistan to fund girls attending school, starting with her province.

This is our chance to turn Malala’s horror into hope. At her very young age she is an example of courage and determination, but now she is fighting to survive, and it’s our turn to help her win her dream. Sign the petition – when 1 million people have signed the UN education envoy, Gordon Brown, will deliver our call in person to the President of Pakistan, and the Pakistani media:

• Malala’s hope

It is now our turn to turn the spotlight on the Taliban and other extremists.

• Malala Yousafzai
• Day of action for Malala and girls’ right to school

Malala drew the world’s attention to the Taliban’s reign of terror in North-West Pakistan by writing a blog for the BBC. Her writing records the devastating consequences of extremism which include the systematic destruction of hundreds of girls’ schools and violent intimidation of thousands of families.

Pakistan’s constitution says girls should be educated alongside boys, but politicians have ignored that for years. Only 29% of girls attend secondary school. Even if only half of them finished, Pakistan could grow 6% faster every year. Study after study has shown the positive impact on personal and national income when girls are educated. Malala has drawn the world’s attention, and her President has spoken out strongly for her cause. So let’s help her persuade the government to roll out a massive girls stipend programme, plus school buildings and teacher training. Money is available, what’s lacking is political will.

Let’s turn this shock at the Taliban’s attack on a young girl into a wave of international pressure that forces Pakistan to address girls’ education. Please follow through the link to a petition, stand with Malala and support a massive girls’ education campaign in Pakistan, backed by resources, security and most importantly the will to fight the extremists who tear down Pakistan:

• Malala’s hope

Let’s come together and stand in solidarity with a brave, young activist, who is showing the world how one little schoolgirl can stand up to armed and dangerous extremists.

Please pass to all your friends and ask then to sign and pass on.

We will only defeat religious extremists when we all stand shoulder-to-shoulder to defeat them.

Religion can be a force for good, but when it goes bad it goes very bad.

• Pakistan girl shot over activism in Swat Valley, claims Taliban
• Malala Yousafzai: Pakistan bullet surgery ‘successful’
• Pakistan: The schoolgirl the Taliban tried to kill
• Pakistan rebuilds its education network after Taliban are driven out of Swat
• Lack of education is adversely affecting girls
• Why Gender Equality in Basic Education in Pakistan?