The BrandSpankin' Blog

I did an interview for BBC Radio 4 on Saturday that goes out on the 15th September. Ostensibly the interview was about the opening of the new ACE Centre (Arts, Culture and Enterprise) in Nelson. The venue houses a recording studio, dance and drama studio, creative arts room, gallery space, meeting rooms and function rooms.

The thrust of the Radio 4 piece is about community relations and I made the point that Pendle (& Burnley) issues really relate to economic matters - so the ACE centre is an excellent addition to local amenities (especially as the arts can be a springboard for regeneration).

The towns of East Lancashire lost their reason 'to be' after the decline of textiles and mining and we're now looking to find a new way forward. That being the case, many of us in the area share a frustration that national media often depict us in negative terms, despite the fact that many of us are actively engaged in constructive initiatives that are inclusive and should have a positive outcome.

BrandSpankin' (www.brandspankin.co.uk) for example, is engaged with local enterprise trusts, I'm also on the community enterprise board and in September we're going to mentor Business Studies students from Marsden Heights Community College. We're not just blowing our own trumpet here - we're aware of dozens of individuals and businesses who are similarly engaged in a constructive fashion.

So, those in the national media should take note - we're not all racists and most of us loathe everything the BNP stand for. And those who make excuses for the disenfranchised and alienated (who vote for the far-right) - should bear in mind that such people are generally thick and ignorant...and there's no excuse for that. There's no excuse for having a knee-jerk simplistic answer to a set of problems that are in fact very complex. And, given the fact that the area needs to see an injection of inward investment, there can also be no excuse for voting in such a way that is sure to drive it away. It's a definite case of turkeys voting for Christmas...