1 THE DERBY GUARDIAN An independent community paper, by email, for the people of Derby Volume 1 No. 12 January 22, 2004 News of entertainments and the arts in the city includes an anniversary to be observed worldwide. Holocaust Memorial Day is on Tuesday, January 27, and among the events during the week in Derby will be the Metro Cinema screening on Monday evening of All Quiet on the Western Front, the classic anti-war film. The film was based on the book by Eric Maria Remarque, a native of Osnabruck – now Derby’s twin city in Germany. At the Assembly Rooms on Wednesday, February 4, the famous former steeplejack and now travelling raconteur, Fred Dibnah, is expected to attract a full house. Box office D.255800. Our entertainments lists appear in the Derby Flyer each week. And see below: An honorary degree from Derby University is to be presented to the family of Terry Lloyd, the Derby-born journalist who was killed during the war in Iraq. The father of the city council, former Mayor Ray Baxter, is in the DRI after a collision with a car while walking with his wife, Jose, near their home in Mackworth. © Brennan Publications weekly on subscription [email protected] ________________________________________________________________________ Budding film-makers can challenge the world Metro raises profile of local talent A creative teacher in a certain college in the region has started a series of freewheeling but challenging course discussions with the title Creative Connections (writes our film editor). As a simple introduction he asked them to make connections between the ideas and the processes which led many years ago to the production in Derby of the world- renowned Rolls-Royce cars, and a small local company now, which has secured an American contract for a new software programme. Most of the students made that connection, and have now been asked to suggest other fields in which ingenuity and drive could bring success, and also raise the profile of our city. They are eager to take the discussion forward. One has pointed to film-making, and has introduced fellow students (and the tutor) to the competition for film-makers launched by Derby’s Metro Cinema. 2 Metro marked its 20th birthday in 2001 by making Alan Bates its first patron, and early in its 2004 programme is showing one of his early films, The Caretaker. This will be screened on Sunday, February 29, with profits going to charity. The film-making competition could turn out to be one of Metro’s most significant ventures. It is open countywide, and even to anyone who may not now be a resident but has had a Derbyshire post code. Spokeswoman Jane Travis says the deadline to receive entries is February 28, and adds: “They can be sent in on VHS or DVD. Whether your budget was £10 or £10,000 does not matter. We want to show what Derbyshire’s film-makers have to offer.” The entries will be judged by a panel from Q Arts, EM-Media, Metro and audience members. A screening of the finalists will be arranged. Of special interest in the Metro programme next Monday evening is a film to mark Holocaust Memorial Day - All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the anti-war novel by Eric Maria Remarque, a native of Osnabruck, Derby’s twin city in Germany. Details tel. D.347765. The popular introductions to landmark films at the Metro are continuing with Carole Mallai, history tutor at Nottingham University, speaking before the screening of Girl With A Pearl Ear-ring, on Tuesday, February 10, at 6.15pm. Study Days are also continuing, with Jo Butler, lecturer in media studies, exploring the appeal of film noir, followed by Charles Vidor’s classic, Gilda, on Friday, February 27, 12.30-3.30pm (Suitable for GCSE and A-level media students) ________________________________________________________________________ Former Mayor injured in collision City Councillor Ray Baxter was taken to the Infirmary on Wednesday after a collision with a car when walking in Brackensdale Avenue, Mackworth, with his wife, Josephine. He suffered injuries to his face and back. Mrs Baxter suffered bruises when she was thrown to the ground. Mr Baxter, now 76, is the father of the council, having been first elected 27 years ago. He was Mayor in 1989-90, with his wife, Josephine, as Mayoress, and they enjoyed a busy year. They live in Hanwell Way, where I first interviewed him some years ago (writes Jim Brennan). He is a stickler for protocol, and helps keep the Labour group on its toes during the often heated debates with the ruling LibDem Tory alliance. He was succeeded as Mayor in 1990 by a Tory member, Barry Chadwick. Two-pronged attack on local government Blair and Howard marginalize councils Behind the welter of change in the regulation of local government there is now emerging a curious and seemingly anti-democratic convergence by the two main 3 parties in a broadly-based campaign against elected councils (writes our local government editor). Derby is no exception, though the city council’s controlling alliance comprises a strong Liberal Democrat group in partnership with the Tories. The Tory’s national leader, Michael Howard, indicates a softer, voter-friendly stance to come in his party’s manifesto, but some of his senior spokespeople make it clear that the old cut-and-slash attitude to council expenditure remains on file. The Labour leader, Tony Blair, insists that local councils and councillors are the backbone of our democratic system, yet presides over proposals to increase the so- called partnerships, and to encourage a new non-council regime, “new localism”, by which groups of unelected activists will take over some council functions. Giving the local community more power (beyond the ballot box) over the management of public services may sound fine, at first hearing. It is not difficult to imagine the likely chaos when, for example, a group protesting against a new traffic system, put into place by the elected council and legally watertight, refuses to accept it, and urges other Derbeians to ignore it. There is also a possibility that the Labour group could encourage anything which upsets the fragile alliance, thus unwittingly helping New Labour to undermine the dmocratic process. Still the largest party, with 25 seats on the 51-member council, Labour’s tactics under the aggressive group leader, Chris Williamson, seem to be aimed at precisely that result. The professionals in local government, as well as councillors, are now questioning this “new localism,” and Sir Jeremy Beecham, Labour chairman of the Local Government Association, is expected to tackle it in a lecture next week. Standing by the brothers and sisters Scare headlines are already forecasting doom and gloom over the vote of civil servants in the Public and Commercial Services Union to stop work for two days next week, but a senior civil servant in Derby says they have a justified grievance. City Councillor Philip Hickson, Tory group leader and deputy leader of the council, has spent most of his career as a civil servant, and is a member of the Institute of Professional Management Specialists. He told Derby Guardian: “They have a justified grievance over pay, and the decision to take action was based on five separate postal ballots.” While he deplored any disruption of services to the public, he understood the PCSU members’ frustration over a long period of negotiation. Terry Lloyd honoured by university Among the honorary degrees to be awarded by Derby University this week is one to be presented posthumously to the family of Terry Lloyd, the Derby-born journalist who was killed in Iraq. 4 An internationally-renowned reporter, he was shot dead on March 22, believed to be by “friendly fire.” The award is for professional practice and services to journalism, and it is to be accepted tomorrow by his daughter, Chelsey. Degrees were to be presented to more than 2,000 students in ceremonies at the Assembly Rooms on Friday and Saturday. Derbeians’ eyes on Presidential race Democrats in Derby, Vermont, were disappointed that Howard Dean, their former Governor and now favoured candidate to oppose George Bush in the November elections, was reduced to third place in the first primary, in Iowa on Monday. As one of the nine contenders for the Democrat nomination, he had been top of the national polls. He had raised more money than the other candidates put together, and had a record number of hits on his web site, www.deanforamerica.com In Derby, Connecticut, supporters of Senator Joe Lieberman were taking stock, after the post-Iowa poll showed him remaining at only six per cent, against the leader, John Kerry, at 30 per cent. The next primary, in New Hampshire on Tuesday, is regarded as the most significant contest of all. The pundits say that anyone seeking to become President of the United States must win the support of the voters in the tiny New England state. For all Democrat candidates, see www.democraticwhip.house.gov Free morning paper for Derby An East Midlands edition of the free morning paper, Metro, which is already published in London and other cities, is to be launched to cover Derby, Leicester and Nottingham in May (writes our media correspondent). As with the established editions, it will carry mainly national news, from the owners of the Metro chain, Associated Newspapers (the Mail group), through its subsidiary, Northcliffe Newspapers. It will be given away on buses and trains, between 6am and 9am. The cost is covered by advertisements. Its national distribution is 890,000, and the East Midlands edition is expected to add another 60,000, according to the trade paper, Press Gazette.