New Integrity

Sharing responsibility for Rochdale

New Integrity is quoted in The Guardian today, responding to a BBC documentary about the satanic abuse case in Rochdale in the 1990s, in which several children were wrongly taken from their families.
We said: "There were at least four contributing factors to the Rochdale [case]: (1) the capacity and willingness of the social workers to discern reality; (2) the framework of social work practice, which suggested specific actions; (3) the broader culture within which these actions can be credible and supported by others, particularly the media; and (4) the legal system and structures which can uphold the actions of the social worker, in the face of absence of evidence and the families' persistent claims of innocence. Ever more thorough checking and conferring among social workers is constantly being legislated for, and accepted as an obligation, within the profession. However, stigmatising social work must be avoided. Distrust from the public and the media is a hugely inhibiting factor in a social workers' ability to care properly. The deaths from abuse of Victoria Climbié and other children were partly due to decisions not to interfere in clearly dysfunctional families. This points to the need to free social workers from huge caseloads and unreasonable pressures".

The full text of the quote  can be found here:

Use your imagination

Indra Adnan, New Integrity

Appreciated Alessandro Buonfino and Geoff Mulgan’s piece on Britain’s ‘quiet crisis of unhappiness’ in the Guardian today.Although it was relentlessly miserable, attributing loneliness, the prevalence of anger and distrust to the weakening of social bonds within families and local communities, it did suggest there were courses of action the government and other institutional powers could take to ameliorate the situation – from improved design to promoting new relationships between services. Missing from this article is a sense of positive development – any suggestion that our society may be evolving rather than just changing.

Two clichés need to be addressed here: one, an image we hold on to of the camaraderie of the past which leads us to yearn for a ‘return to’ something that we lost. Two, an indiscriminate rejection of individualism, causing us to confuse any efforts people make on their own behalf with selfishness. These two add up to a sort of impotence. On the first, we will never re-capture the post-war mutuality. It arose directly from shared crisis and collective re-building, a willingness to put difference aside at a time of continuing grief and a future we all had to pull our weight in. We don’t have those circumstances now. (Or do we? See James Lovelock’s description of the need to pull together now in the face of a vengeful Gaia).

On the second, throughout the period of decline that the Young’sters write about, there has been a steady rise of interest in self-help practices, evidenced by the huge growth in the market for books that help us to understand and motivate ourselves better. This development has been almost universally derided by the media, caricatured in TV shows like Absolutely Fabulous or just routinely dismissed by ‘serious’ professionals who challenge their scientific foundations. Yet, these books have helped to bring about a new psychological, emotional and spiritual awareness amongst ordinary people that can only be useful when tackling the very complex problems of our current social malaise. At the same time, we have developed tools of connectivity and agency (that we have ‘selfishly’ bought and skilled ourselves up in) that have allowed us to tear down barriers of involvement across the globe. What will arise from this generation of people who are currently living lives that contradict and frustrate their heightened sensibilities – limit their creativity, sap their energy, deprive them of their families?

Buonfino and Mulgan talk about ‘putting (it) right’ as if we already know what it is that we are aiming to create in our 21C society. Maybe there is no fully working model of society that we can aspire to: maybe the changes that need to occur now are beyond our ability to imagine – but that doesn’t mean we should hold back. Let’s not invest endlessly in new ways to preserve the status quo – let’s change the rhetoric to a common search for a new way of life that delivers more of our needs.

Respect (just a little bit...)

Hip hoppers murmur ‘Respect’ as they extend their knuckles towards each other in a gesture of solidarity – but laugh at most spectres of authority. George Galloway names his anti-war party Respect but is never consulted on the national respect agenda. Caught cavorting like a pussy-cat on Big Brother he becomes the very symbol of the lack of self-respect endemic in our society. What is respect? What is its value in our society? How can it be engendered, particularly amongst the young?

The grounds of friendliness

Pat Kane, New Integrity

I hadn’t watched Celebrity Big Brother as religiously as others, but I couldn’t help being completely struck by George Galloway’s final orations in the house. There he stood, in his “UK” overalls, delivering a jeremiad against the imperialist horror of the United States, while the massed ranks of his celebrity housemates looked on with a symphony of indifference and annoyance.

What was so tragic for me, as George prefaced his tub-thumping (most of which I politically agree with, it has to be said) with ‘brothers, sisters, comrades’, was the sense of the end of a certain brand of political rhetoric. His exaggeratedly precise language (“down the with be-heh-moth!”), his booming, arm-chopping delivery, was perfectly tailored for the striking crowd outside the factory games – a strong working-class voice to restore strength to the fragile and beleaguered. (I've witnessed him doing this on many political campaigns in Scotland, and others like him - Jim Sillars of the SNP was another classic exponent).

But for the watching, post-class millions, and certainly for the botoxed, hair-extended and deeply therapised celebritariat directly in front of him, this must have seemed like some cabaret act – perhaps one of Micheal Barrymore’s cheesier Saturday night routines.

Galloway's sojourn into reality tv has to be one of the greatest media miscalculations that any modern politician has ever made – precisely for the way that it unravels an older form of political “integrity”, in the face of the “new” integrity demanded by our omniscient media spectacles.

How it could have been even GR8R

It’s a morass of competing feelings. In one corner we have the billion partying people, feeling good this morning that they have acted on the global stage, having asked for something that they only dimly knew they wanted until Bob Geldof made it clear for them. Make Poverty History – "amazing, brilliant, historic" (or was that Robbie Williams’s comeback).

In the other corner, we have rather less but better-informed people, outraged at the terms and conditions being laid on the vulnerable Africans, betrayed by post-Iraq politicians buying their way back into the public hearts with false sacrifices.

And a few of us, hovering like a referee, pondering, queasy. Unwilling to diss the willing consumers of a good new idea on our left. Yet, somehow not ready to award any prizes either. Unable to ignore the fantastic opportunity lost. Here is what we saw:

• Millions of people coming together across the globe, in the name of Make Poverty History, to see some great music. Some with tickets to see a remarkable stage show, others at home, captive in front of the TV. A moment of possibly unprecedented globality – not to witness some great horror, but to participate in some great hope, a great global wish.
• Great musicians performing their greatest hits with superb discipline, some of whom expressed their feelings about the cause. As Madonna said, Music makes the bourgeoisie be a rebel, yeah.
• Some of the Live Aid films about poverty in Africa, first shown 20 years ago, reminding us how it all started. One very memorable example of the proof of Live Aid – a young girl, helped by funds raised, to get an education and develop a dignified life.
• A lot of joy: the feel good factor gets a Gr8 outing.
• Robbie Williams in his first concert in 2 years, getting the biggest ovation of the night, despite using his moment to speak to the global audience to invite the presenter on a date.

Here is what we didn’t see:

• Africans. All the beautiful, funky, vibrant African musicians available to play at this great music event, were not invited. Instead they were given a small stage to perform in the Eden Project in Devon. The cameras only visited once, when Dido (who is not African) sang a duet with Youssou N’Dour. Try not to imagine the music industry in Africa, miraculously boosted by the exposure of these lesser known artists: it ‘s not about to happen.
• Consciousness being raised. Unlike the smaller MPH march in Edinburgh, there was hardly a banner to be seen at Hyde Park. Woeful coverage from the BBC – Jonathan Ross, covering his cynicism with vacuous celebrity watching. The young DJs, unable to take us any further than “amazing and brilliant”. In 8 hours of possible connecting the issues with the spectacle, the best we got was 5 minutes of an off-duty Andrew Marr and a patiently constructive George Alaghiah.
• An easily digestible presentation of the proposals and the facts. How can poverty be made history? What is the deal here, what might go right and what might go wrong?
• Any next steps for the captive audience. Surely it’s not all down to these 8 people alone. I have worn the wrist band to death: isn’t there something that I, as a relatively wealthy, fun loving citizen of the world can do next?

Millions of people, ready and willing to listen but only music on offer. It may not be too late. If the queasy and the angry could suspend their disbelief long enough to engage with the happy and deluded, we could still, in 20 years time be looking back at an historic moment. Here are a few suggestions:

• Social entrepreneurs unite. UnLtd, Rowntree, Nesta – all the funding bodies actively engaged in funding new ideas to make the world a better place – put some money into a substantial Post8 network. Bob and Bono need some help here. The best minds and energies need to be where the audiences are, helping to create maximum value out of this upsurge of popular feeling.
• Add women at the top. We know that men like to play, we know that men get things done, but if more women had been involved at the core of this…. who knows what lasting, caring networks might have been generated? Of course it’s just a co-incidence that the three female icons who took the stage, took Africans on the stage with them, forging the connections, modelling the relationships of mutual respect. More of those co-incidences please.
• Education get in there. Instead of PHSE lessons on how to cross a road safely, let’s get modules on how to be a global citizen. The kids want to know – they are up for it.
• Get personal. Recognise that the “well being” agenda, beloved by Blair et al is well served by the “feel good” factor. People like to do good for others, especially if they get energised in the process. Charity is tired. Engagement, activity, achievement is enlarging… Every kidult on a machine is a global playa, let’s develop some tools for making a difference. The Guardian persuaded 3,000 people to write to undecided American voters. Why not pair up potential peers in email relationships across the world?
• Remember reciprocity. If we are going to create a global network, we should look forward to receiving as much from Africa as we are offering. Africa’s story is already unique – the journey from apartheid, the struggle through illness and poverty, the triumph of its arts, the meaning of Mandela. How can we be sure to hear the story, learn from their humanity?

If Live8 is to have a lasting effect, to be the birth of a new era instead of a flash in the pan, ideas need to flow thick and fast. The comments page below is always open...