All very exciting stuff with the national papers producing colour pullouts of our prospective champions, including the Leicester Mercury.

But did you know that Monday marked four years to the opening ceremony of Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games 2014?

Two major sporting events on our tiny island in the space of two years. Perhaps I should look at making this my next goal and extending the blog for an additional 104 weeks!

http://www.soarmagazine.co.uk/2010/07/29/john-coster-blog-to-the-olympics-and-beyond/

I’LL NEVER forget the day, earlier this year, that I first met Citizens’ Eye Editor, John Coster.

I came into Leicester, a little nervous (as I think you almost always are when you meet someone new for the first time) but was instantly put at my ease by his laid-back and ultra enthusiastic bearing. About half a year earlier I’d been made redundant from a job I loved-as a Broadcast Journalist with a group of radio stations in the West Midlands. After a (thankfully) short time of feeling sorry for myself and after getting myself a part time job which (just about) pays the bills I decided that I needed to do something to make sure the journalistic skills I’d gained didn’t go to waste.

So, I got in touch with John and, as previously mentioned, we agreed to meet up to discuss how I might be of use to Citizens’ Eye. To say that I’ve never met anyone quite as enthusiastic as John Coster would be very much an understatement.

He has a great ability to make you enthusiastic about what he’s doing and, in turn, excited about the role you can play in that. So I started to come along to the Community Media Hub at the Leicester Mercury’s offices on a Wednesday afternoon and, after one or two sessions, we came up with the idea of recording a weekly local news bulletin-featuring stories from across Hinckley and Bosworth.

Up to the time of writing this article there has been seven editions of ‘Le10 News,’ as we decided to call it-they are normally around three or four minutes in length and are either filmed in the Mercury’s offices or out on location in and around Leicester and Leicestershire. At first they were being put up only on YouTube and Citizen’s Eye but now, as well as those, the videos get featured on ‘Hinckley Times Online,’ ‘Hinckley Info’ and ‘Best of Hinckley,’ as well as being linked to via Twitter and Facebook. I’m really excited about the future of Community Media in and around the Hinckley area; we already have Castle Mead Radio (Hinckley’s hospital radio station), Hilltop Radio (the borough’s local community internet radio station) and Vine FM (a Christian radio station which broadcasts on FM each Easter and will soon be on the internet throughout the rest of the year.)

Another exciting development is that myself and John are hoping to hold media training sessions in the area, all being well at Barwell’s new wonderful £2million George Ward Centre (I must declare an interest at this point, as I am the elected Chairman of the George Ward Community Project.) And, starting very soon, and thanks to a grant from Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, I’m going to be running a course for young people at Hilltop Radio on how to conduct good radio interviews, with an aim of helping to make them better broadcasters.

All in all it is an exceptionally exciting moment for community media in Hinckley and Bosworth and throughout Leicestershire. Let’s make the most of it!

Latest Le10 News Bulletin

It’s very simple and deliberately so. I will sit with a laptop and iphone at a table in the Phoenix while utilising their free wifi. Then, invite people to join in and see what happens. The Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre has been built and cost a great deal of money. It’s there to be used so why not develop a project that allows the building to showcase all its cutting edge services and act as a platform for local people to capture their personal experiences around the games?

Read more – http://www.soarmagazine.co.uk/2010/07/22/john-coster-blog-be-a-part-of-the-big-society/

Well i been out again on a look around my area. I live in Thurncourt.

Moggymobile

Last Friday 16th I went out with with estate warden Darren and local conservative candidate for next years council elections Simon Welland .

We found problems with roads in need of urgent repairs and access to a local park had a old kerb that its making life hard for mums and pushchairs and wheelchairs. We logged down information and took photos to be passed to council.

We chatted to a few folks on the park to tell them who we all are  and how we can help the are.

Moggy & Simon

Simon seems keen to help my community i think that’s good .

Now on Thursday i will be taking #moggymobile down to the 02 arena in London checking access there will tell you all about it on my return.

Moggy

This years British Open, to be held at St Andrews, will be one of the most open for years. Will a loss of Tiger Wood’s form result in an English or European victory?

Justin Rose, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Alvaro Quiros have all won tournaments recently and Graeme McDowell obviously won the US Open (albeit suprisingly.)

Add to this the Molinari brothers-Eduardo’s recent triumph in the Scottish Open was his first on the European tour and Francesco Molinari has been there or thereabouts in several tournaments this season. How straight and consistent off  the tee is he? He barely misses a fairway.

Ross Fisher too looks to be back in good tidy form again and Alvaro Quiros is very long off the tee. Throw into the mix Tom Watson, John Daly and Colin Montgomerie. Old stagers who could still spring a suprise. Montgomerie knows the course like the back of his hand.

Add to this the American usual suspects of Woods, Mickelson, Furyk, Stricker plus Ernie Els who is still seeking his first Major win and you are in for a fascinating contest.

I live in that area so i am in contact with the folks who live there . I’m starting weekly walks around the area with the Estate Warden; he is on foot and me on motability scooter. It’s called the MoggyMobile as Moggy is my nick name. Last friday we did the first walk to point out things that are a danger to the motability scooter user e.g. potholes and over hanging trees etc.

We took photos and made a report to send to the city council. This will help them and me and others. On our way around the walk we met up with the local beat bobbie a lady PC. We chatted about things that were very helpful indeed.

Andy Morris on his MoggyMobile and Estate Warden

On Saturday 10th July we attended the community day event on the park. It was just awesome. There were stalls, car boot sales, food music – a really good show.

I am trying out an online TV show – this will help the local area and the world understand disability more. I started testing Sunday night so will keep you all up to date on it.

So watch out there’s a moggy about!! If you see me please flag me down for a chat.

Andy Morris  aka moggy

You can follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/M_O_GGY

As with all government maxims the latest political watchword ‘New Politics’ has been treated with a typically ample dose of British cynicism. But perhaps on this occasion our native scepticism may be misplaced. The Liberal-Conservative coalition marks an historic departure from our oldest political tradition when The Whigs and Tories sat doggedly opposed at either side of The Commons. Perhaps a change is in the air, perhaps there’s a new way of thinking, talking and even reporting on politics.

This change will not be seen in Parliament however. Anyone who remembers David Cameron’s cry for an end to ‘Punch and Judy politics’ will undoubtedly also remember him back to bashing-crocodiles the following week, apparently Gordon had stolen his sausages or something. If you expect The Commons to become a place of civilised, constructive debate under our all grown-up ‘New Politics’ I suspect you’ll be disappointed. More likely it shall ever remain as a churlish rabble of overgrown children guffawing at a carnival sideshow. The real change of ‘New Politics’ will be with the voters.

The last election saw televised debates, high turnouts and a surge in the number of younger people registering to vote and ended with an unprecedented coalition government. The country engaged and the ultimate result for many was somewhat disconcerting and unfamiliar.

Cries from The Right, cries from The Left and a Liberal grizzle that they ‘didn’t vote Lib-Dem to prop-up Cameron!’ but none of it really resonates. The reason, like it or no, is that politics has changed and so is the way we are viewing it. Mainstream politics is not as polarised as many people would like us to believe. ‘Left Wing’ and ‘Right Wing’ have become simply a matter of detail as politics has gradually gravitated toward the centre ground: a reality affirmed in the latest coalition.

‘New Politics’ heralds an end to blind partisan loyalties. It exposes the superficiality of old party prejudice and tired stereotypes. It liberates voters from the shackles of mudslinging preconceptions and inherited voting habits. Too often we hear such senseless dogma as ‘I vote Labour because I’m working class and my family have always voted Labour’ or, ‘I vote Tory because I’m a county boy and we could never vote Liberal’  or even some farcical ‘wing-orientated’ spectrum where somehow the Tories and Labour are two steps removed from fascists and communists! It’s absurd, it’s outmoded and it’s utterly irrelevant. It’s time to stop thinking in terms of wings and party allegiances when it comes to mainstream politics. That is old politics. It’s time to engage with the policy rather than party image.

This election a new-generation of voters witnessed the first British televised leaders’ debates and for all the patronising talk of us being  ‘brainwashed’ by style rather than content, as though it were impossible that we could listen and think, we heard clear and directly comparable policies. People were engaged to vote free from received ideologies and based on their own personal judgement and now with the new Liberal-Conservative coalition old preconceptions of right and left wing politics are being radically overhauled.

For me the rising ‘New Politics’ is a genuine engagement with the three-party option, an increase in the swing vote, an emphasis on policy and the victory of informed-rational decision making over restrictive party prejudice. As a nation we are increasingly unifying toward common liberal goals, all we have to decide is the best way for us to get there. The centre ground has opened up. Let’s embrace it and leave the childish name-calling to the politicians. Perhaps Democracy will only take flight once the wings fall-off.

E-mail: comedymat@yahoo.co.uk

Title: Barwell’s new community centre prepares for opening

This Saturday, July 3rd, sees the opening of The George Ward Centre, Barwell’s brand new £2million community centre.

I have the privilege of being the Chairman of the George Ward Community Project, which organises fundraising events to hold at the Centre.

The Open Day runs from 10am-4pm, with the official opening at 12.30pm, being conducted by David Parsons, Leader of Leicestershire County Council, and a local school boy who is also called George Ward.

The original George Ward was a Boot and Shoe Trade employer, philanthropist who went on to become the Liberal MP for Bosworth.

I’d like to pay tribute to those people who’ve worked to see this centre become a reality for more than ten years, since the closure of the former Cedars centre in the village.

At the Open Day there will be lots to see and do, including demonstrations of cake decorating and kickboxing.

There’s also musical performances and, of course, a chance to look around the Centre

and finding out more about how you and your group could make use of it.

I hope to see many of you on the day!

E-mail: admin@leicestertalk.net

Title: What is Leicester Talk? A new website on the LE postcode.

** For more information, suggested formatting, and other images.. please see -

http://leicestertalk.net/press-releases/29682-what-leicester-talk.html#post29961 **

** Please link to http://leicestertalk.net, any text within ‘@’ **

@Leicester Talk@ is a new online community for Leicester and Leicestershire.

Launched in January 2010 it already features over 28,000 different topics on

subjects ranging from the Eurokey fire to the best places to visit for new comers to

Leicester. Attracting visitors from all over the globe, they “seek to promote Leicester on a

global scale”. Allowing anyone and everyone to ask a question or discuss something

about Leicester and get genuine responses from genuine people or businesses.

So if it’s John Smith from LE3, Leicester asking for plumber recommendations or

Jane Smith from Sydney, Australia asking about which tourist attractions in

Leicester are worth visiting, Leicester Talk hope that the community will help and

provide some genuine recommendations.

Leicester Talk also provides an area for open debate and discussion, so if you want

to talk about your favorite book or why your computer keeps on crashing, you could

find some useful and interesting insights.

To quote what one member had to say about Leicester Talk

“Just what Leicester and Leicestershire needed, a ‘One stop’ web site that is

informative, independent, friendly and fun with lots of potential to be THE web site

for residents past and present. Potential visitors can also get real honest

information from those that know the good and even better places to see in and

around Leicester”

However what is a community without members? Leicester Talk would like to issue an

invitation for anyone interested in Leicester or Leicestershire to register it’s

free and easy…. Don’t worry they don’t bite (although they may nibble).

Leicester Talk is constantly improving itself with the aim of being a resource for Leicester, its residents, and it’s visitors.

So make sure to check back regularly.

“Vast amounts of media coverage are given over to the need to ‘integrate’ immigrants into the UK and the immigrants are usually blamed when this doesn’t happen properly.

But real integration isn’t to be found on the pages of the Home Office’s Life In the United Kingdom book (which is now required reading for all would-be non-EU immigrants) any more than reading the Highway Code teaches us to actually drive a car.

Talk to anyone who has actually arrived in the UK from another country (whether as on a temporary basis or as a permanent settler) and the story is one of confronting a wall of British reserve and sketchy information. A common result of this is that immigrants collect in cliques of their fellow countrymen, cliques which can often become quite insular and entrenched and which do not help them fit in (let alone improve their English)” ……………… further reading below:

Follow Ben Rav’s ‘Only In Leicester’ Blog