Gatecrasher destroyed in fire

Well they do say that living in the city centre is never dull, but I didn’t expect to see Gatecrasher burn down. It’s just a bit further down the street from where I live and I am in the last block of buildings not to be evacuated. It’s all very dramatic and when I left home to go to a pub to use wi-fi it was still being put out.

Although I was never a fan of Gatecrasher, it is sad to see the demise of one of Sheffield’s most famous clubs, which at one time was very much among the top clubs for dance music in the country. It also isn’t often that you witness big fires and there is something very compelling about watching it.

BBC NEWS: Nightclub collapses in city fire

FLIKR: Gatecrasher fire

Currently reading…

I’ve just started reading a book that describes itself as “a journey into the English mind”. The book - “Welcome to Everytown” by Julian Baggini is about six months he spent living in S66 - apparently the most typical postcode in the country statistically. The book starts off by pointing out how most of the media portrays “middle England” as somewhere in the Home Counties, but in reality the real middle England is places like Brampton and Wickersley in Rotherham. It’s that continual difference between median and mean that is great for proving whatever you want.

Although the subject of the book is interesting in itself, the thing that drew me to it in the bookshop is that I know where the area is and to some extent what it looks like. S66 is supposed to be typical in that it has the right proportions of each social group within it. But it is soon made clear that a key point is that despite the great social changes over the last twenty years, most of England is still working class.

The interesting thing with reading the book will be to see how much I feel I can relate to the people he writes about. When you have grown up in Sheffield, you feel you understand what working class areas like this are like, and indeed anyone who doesn’t know the city assumes that the city is purely working class.  But in reality I grew up in Sheffield Hallam - supposedly the most middle-class constituency in the country and with the highest number of millionaires outside the South East. It is probably fair to say that growing up in Sheffield does at least mean that you aren’t completely clueless about “how the other half lives” as you still see a certain amount of it day to day and you work with people from different backgrounds, but it not the same as living in a working class area.

AMAZON UK: Welcome to Everytown by Julian Baggini

JULIAN BAGGINI

TV Licensing “too aggressive”

Tory MP Gary Streeter has put down an Early Day Motion criticising the treatment of those who don’t have a TV set by TV Licensing. The wording of the motion explains it properly:

EDM 1289

TREATMENT BY TV LICENSING OF PEOPLE WHO DO NOT OWN TELEVISION SETS

Streeter, Gary

That this House notes with concern that despite not owning or using a television set over one million people (two per cent. of the population) nonetheless receive letters from TV Licensing demanding information and a response to prove non-use; is concerned that in the absence of any such response such citizens receive further chasing letters intimidating in tone; recognises that there are many constantly reported cases of non-TV owners being distressed by such threatening letters; is further concerned that these letters are sent without any evidence that a TV is owned; notes that Capita plc, the company that operates the collection of the TV licence fee for the BBC, reported a 22 per cent. jump in profits before tax in 2004 to £148 million and a further jump in 2005 by 19 per cent. to £177 million; and calls upon TV Licensing to introduce a new system for collecting licence fees that is more sensitive to those citizens who legitimately choose not to have a television; and further calls upon TV Licensing to be required to use sophisticated non-intrusive detection technology which they presently refuse to use as they consider it more cost effective to harass innocent non-television owning citizens by unsupportable threatening letters.

Having received similar intimidating letters from TV Licensing myself I am fully behind him on this issue. A few years ago I moved in to a new flat and got a TV Licence immediately. However for the next month or two I continued receiving letters saying I didn’t have one. One day I came home from work to find a letter saying that TV Licensing had visited me and if I had been at home I would have “been cautioned and an interview would have taken place”. Every time I rang TV Licensing they confirmed I had a TV Licence and that it was simply because the letters and lists of who to visit were printed in advance. My argument was that if they were sending threatening letters then they should make sure their list was fully up to date.

I made a written complaint, and they did even ring me some weeks later as part of some market research in to how people felt their complaints had been handled, (badly would have been the reply), but instead I was informed that as my occupation was in marketing then I “wouldn’t give answers that were representative of the population” and so they couldn’t continue with their research.

Of course, the real solution would be to scrap the TV Licence all together and either have advertising on the BBC or instead add the cost of running the BBC in to general taxation which would surely cost each person less than the BBC having to pay Capita for providing the bureaucracy that runs TV Licensing.

EDM 1289: Treatment by TV Licensing of people who do not own television sets

All journalists are bastards

“Journalists are bastards … and twats!”

That was pretty much the opening line tonight at a talk I went to organised by Sheffield Technology Parks and held at the Millennium Galleries. The talk called “How to get yourself in the papers” had two speakers - Ciaran Brennan of PR agency Bastion, and Jules Stenson who is Assistant Editor of The News of the World.

It was a very interesting talk with Ciaran Brennan giving an irreverant but fascinating insight in to how people in public relations get stories in to the press, what sorts of things journalists want and how to know that your PR is working. Oh, and how journalists are bastards because there aren’t enough hours in the day for them to be helpful and civil.

Jules Stenson gave what started off like a defence of why The News of the World was a great paper inspite what you liberal intellectual types in the audience might think. But it turned in to a fascinating presentation on why the press print what they do and how to get your story printed it needs to be engaging, be human and stand out from the huge amount of dross that he not only receives but also never reads.

The big lesson seemed to be, the press release is dead, long live personal contact. It seems slightly counter-intuitive in this day of electronic and quick communication that the best way of getting stuff in the press is to spend the time building up a relationship with a journalist and speaking to them directly. But for the very reason that electronic communication is easy, that is why it is so less effective.

A fascinating evening that reaffirmed some of the things I’d been told about how press works, but also an interesting insight in to the mindset of those in PR and journalism.

SHEFFIELD TECHNOLOGY PARKS