Anders Hanson

If you aren’t convinced about Nick Clegg’s argument for a referendum on our membership of the European Union as a whole then you should read his article in today’s Guardian.

Although I back the idea of a referendum on the EU as a whole, I have been less convinced by the Lib Dem stance on opposing a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. However, I do have to admit that this article by Nick is a very convincing argument as to why a referendum on the treaty is wrong.

As Nick points out. Voting against the Lisbon Treaty would simply be voting for the status quo. The huge majority in the country who want to the see the EU working better, whether as a europhile or a eurosceptic, would be better off adopting the Lisbon Treaty and then having a referendum on whether we want to remain a member of the EU at all based on the improvements that we would see. It’s a fairly simple argument, but it is a relief that Nick is putting it out there in such a clear way at last.

Now all we need to do is get it out to all those people who don’t read the Guardian.

This photo is of a group of buildings that every Sheffielder will know, but may not recognise from this viewpoint.

I happened to notice this collection of interesting chimneys, turrets and roofs on my way up Vicar Lane past the end of St. James’s Street. At the back is the top of Kemsley House (the distinctive building that houses Bradford & Bingley on High Street) and then in front is the top of the building on the corner of East Parade that houses a branch of Lloyds TSB, the offices of Natural England and a few other organisations.

I had to take this photo several times as I had to zoom in so far to get in all of the features that I wanted the camera shake was terrible. Fortunately I managed to get one good shot, but unfortunately this was the one photo that didn’t include the edge of Sheffield Cathedral that should be on the left of the photo.

In the last week I’ve been to quite a few different exhibitions as a part of the Art Sheffield 08 event. Since I’ve lived in the city centre my knowledge and appreciation of different forms of art has grown massively, and it’s all down to the great advantage that most art galleries in the city are within a 5 minute walk of my front door. Instead of having to decide whether to both travelling to see an exhibition that I am unsure whether I will appreciate, I can instead just give it a go.

Art Sheffield 08 is an exhibition held at various venues around the city and includes a lot of art by Sheffield based artists, as well as those based elsewhere. This week I have visited the exhibits at the Millennium Galleries, Winter Garden, Site Gallery, End Gallery, Sylvester Space and Bloc - three of which are places I have never been to before.

The general idea underpinning the different exhibits seems to be that modern work is not just about doing particular tasks but it is also about performing, and so many of the exhibits take ordinary life and show them as performance or they ask what would happen if we refused to perform as we should. I confess to not being sufficiently cultured to fully appreciate the overarching theme of the exhibition and how everything links in. But at the risk of sounding pretentious, I have as a result of visiting a lot more exhibitions over the last few years, moved from seeing art purely on the basis of whether I think a painting is beautiful or not, to enjoying more different forms of art and appreciate them much more on an emotional level. I often find that I enjoy something simply because it is strangely compelling even if I cannot explain why. That is the case with much of the Art Sheffield exhibition. The give away is when I find some of the exhibition has got inside me so much that I find I have to keep going back to see it again and again. That has also happened with some of this exhibition.

For me the exhibits that you have to see are: George Henry Longly’s ‘tertiary matter‘ at Bloc, Katy Woods’ ‘Sailing Dinghy Hawk 20…‘ at Sylvester Space, Ines Schaber’s ‘Picture Mining‘ at End Gallery, Katie Davies’ ‘38th Parallel‘, Sean Snyder’s ‘Analepsis‘, Phil Collins’ ‘they shoot horses‘ and the wonderful ‘Insults & Praises’ and ‘Promises and Threats’ by Tim Etchells and Vlatka Horvat, all at the Millennium Galleries, and the sadly only week-long ‘Failed Fall‘ by Roman Ondak at the Winter Garden. But I would advise anyone to go and see as much of it as you can before it ends on the 30th of March. It is also free to get in.

Going to these exhibitions has certainly helped rekindle my own interest in photography, as many of the exhibits I have enjoyed have either been photographic or film. But I am also finding myself get quite a lot of pleasure from installation art as well. I think the exhibition helps me look at things differently and can be pretty inspiring and a break from normal life.

Art Sheffield

Photo credit: Tim Etchells and Vlatka Horvat, Insults and Praises (2003) Image courtesy of the artist.

It’s been ages since I posted on what music I’m listening to, and as I discovered an excellent song in the last week it seems a good time to post again.

The song is Thursday by Asobi Seksu, and was used in the first episode of the new series of Skins.  I’d never seen Skins until last week but as there was nothing else on TV and I’d heard so much about the programme I thought it was time to give it a go.  It wasn’t a bad programme but to me the music was the highlight, and Thursday was the best track on it.  You can see for yourself here:

Apart from this, the songs I can’t stop listening to at the moment are:

Ready for the Floor by Hot Chip
Split Lips by Sons and Daughters
Valerie by Mark Ronson
anything by Sigur Ros
and strangely… Letter from America by The Proclaimers

It’s pretty much a given in the Liberal Democrats that the party doesn’t talk about Europe in its leaflets. It’s with good cause too. Firstly, it isn’t actually one of the top concerns of voters when they are asked in opinion polls what their biggest issues are. Just like electoral reform, it comes well down the list after all the big ones like health, education, crime, transport and so on. But also, there is an understandable reluctance for Lib Dems to talk about an issue on which it is perceived that the party is out of touch with the voters.

The Liberal Democrats are currently under a certain amount of fire for taking the view that there shouldn’t be referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Whilst I understand the logic behind that position and whilst I also accept the clear distinction as to why a referendum was needed on the European Constitution when one isn’t needed on the Lisbon Treaty, it isn’t a view that I hold. Whatever the technical differences, as explained very clearly by James Graham, the public is under the distinct impression that one was guaranteed and we cannot now renege on that.

But despite this criticism, I do believe that the offer of a referendum on the European Union as a whole is a good move. It gives the Liberal Democrats an opportunity to go in to the next European elections with a very clearl offer to the public - if you vote Lib Dem you will get a party that is guaranteeing you a referendum on what the EU has become, not on what you thought it was back in the 1970s. It is something that both pro-Europeans and anti-Europeans can support, and it is something that is clear and unambiguous. It appeals to those who thought that they were duped in the original referendum and it gives those who are younger than that a chance to have their say. But if we are to have something clear like this as a message we have to start promoting it now.

Next year’s European Elections are going to be tough for all parties. The number of UK MEPs goes down again which will hit the Lib Dems, Labour are doing even worse in the opinion polls, UKIP won’t have the ‘glamour’ of Robert Kilroy-Silk to help their campaign, and the Conservatives are split between their pro and anti European MEPs. So if the Liberal Democrats come up with something that sets them apart from the others, it will be a huge boost.

One thing that does set the Lib Dems apart in General and Local Elections is working all year round and telling people what they are doing on their behalf. Some Liberal Democrat MEPs, such as Sharon Bowles, Chris Davies and Fiona Hall, are also good at doing that in their regions. But why is this a minority and why do we not do it more extensively? If we believe in keeping in touch all year round, our MEPs need to make sure that local leaflets regularly contain stories about what their MEPs are doing that benefits them. At the time of the last European Elections I was based in Eastleigh, and every constituency leaflet included articles about work that Chris Huhne was doing as their MEP. The Lib Dem vote at the European Elections rose significantly in Eastleigh as people knew that he was working hard on their behalf. I can’t deny that it helped that he was the PPC as well, but we had similar results in other parts of the South East where his work was also being promoted.

But I do not believe that promoting the work of our MEPS will be enough on its own. We have all too often been characterised as a bunch of eurofanatics that are completely out of touch with reality. If you look at Lib Dem policy on Europe, that is an unfair characterisation. But what we need to counteract it is a really strong message that will say clearly where we do stand. A referendum on the EU as a whole is something that has that clarity. It is only 16 months until the next European Elections, and so if we are to get that message across we need to start selling it to people now.

But there is to me one other very strong reason why we need to be pushing that message, and not least to our own members and supporters. Unless Gordon Brown calls a General Election as well, it is likely that the only elections next year will be European Elections and County Council Elections. Large parts of the population therefore only have the European Elections. How on earth are the Lib Dems going to motivate their members and activists to go out and campaign in the mets and unitaries, unless they feel they have something strong that is worth campaigning for? A good clear campaign message will do that.

Liberal Democrats have shown from where they are fighting the BNP in Yorkshire and the North West, that can they take the fight to the other parties, battle the misinformation and that as a result they can win and win well. Now we need to do the same in the fight on Europe. As an issue, Europe has now grown in prominence, people are less loyal to one party than they were, and so we can’t keep hiding in the shadows hoping the issue will go away. It is now time for us to be clear on what we stand for and then to go out and campaign on it.