Written by Nicky Getgood on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 ( 4 responses )
Tags: 500 words, election, Email Your Parliamentary Candidates, pitsnpots, Stef Lewandowski, stokeontrent, they work for you, tony walley
General Election fever is hitting the nation and I don’t know about you, but I’m already musing over who I should vote for. To find out who is standing as a parliamentary candidate where I live and work, I used Stef Lewandowski’s creation to Email Your Parliamentary Candidates. Upon tapping in the postcode, I found out the following have announced they are standing in the Ladywood, Birmingham constituency, which They Work For You tells me Digbeth falls within:
- Ayoub Khan (Liberal Democrats)
- Lynette Nazemi-Afshar (UK Independence Party)
- Nusrat Ghani (Conservative Party)
- Peter Beck (Green Party)
- Shabana Mahmood (Labour Party)
I’ve followed the lead of what Pits n Pots in Stoke-on-Trent have done with their local election and used Email Your Parliamentary Candidates to ask them if they’d like to write 500 words to be published on this website.
Tony Walley, founder of Pits n Pots said, ‘we are contacting as many candidates standing in the local election as we can and asking them to write 500 words about their campaign, their values and what they are standing for. We are then going to publish all the submissions we receive without any editing so the electorate can read the information exactly as it was written by the candidate.
I’ve emailed all the candidates directly apart from Lynette Nazemi-Afshar (UK Independence Party), who I’ve written to via the Head Office email address as an individual one is not available. So there we have it, hopefully they will reply with their 500 words, which will be published without editing on here. I will double check on 20th April (when nominations close) for people who’ve announced they will be standing between now and then and contact them also.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 ( One response )
Tags: big city plan, digbeth cold storage, philip singleton, Stef Lewandowski
Thanks to Stef Lewandowski, for passing onto me an announcement by Philip Singleton, Project Manager of the Big City Plan. £8 million has been dedicated to the 7 ‘top priority projects’, one of which is to transform Digbeth High Street into a pedestrian-friendly, clutter-free walkway that will ease the journey from the centre to Digbeth. Thank GOD, here’s hoping for no more ‘no-man’s land’ that cuts us off, but a seamless walk without the rugby scrum of bus queues outside Digbeth Cold Storage.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: Birmingham Ramblers' Association, bvsc, fix my street, john mostyn, jon bounds, mysociety, nick booth, Paradise Circus, podnosh, social media surgery, Stef Lewandowski
The Social Media Surgery for Birmingham’s voluntary organisations happened on Wednesday at the BVSC on Digbeth High Street, and again the turn-out was fantastic. In the Birmingham Bloggers Group’s reflections I was listed as a helper but thanks to my crappy laptop being unable to hook up to the wireless, I suspect I’d have been more help giving John Mostyn a hand with the tea. It will be great to see the blogs that are born from it, I’m especially interested in the Birmingham Ramblers’ Association Get Walking Keep Walking project, which is planning urban tours of the city.
I really do think I learnt more than taught at the event. Jon Bounds took me through mysociety and its various projects, my favorite being Fix My Street, where you can report, view or discuss local problems. And I got some gems from wisdom from Stef Lewandowski in a spick and span Hennessey’s pub afterwards, who had some great ideas for Digbeth is Good – watch this space!
I’m hoping these surgeries become a regular fixture, as much for my benefit as for the voluntary organisations!
Written by Nicky Getgood on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: 5alist, 7 Inch Cinema, Acrassicauda, Andrew Dubber, Brian Duffy, Capsule, Custard Factory, DJ Scotch Egg, Efterklang, Fuck Buttons, Gameboy, Geek Pride, Heavy Metal in Baghdad, Marousa, Minke in Mono, Modified Toy Orchestra, Nosferatu, Pete Ashton, Stef Lewandowski, Supersonic, ZX Spectrum Orchestra
Andrew Dubber and Stef Lewandowski’s latest site 5alist motivated me to ‘make a 5′ of my favourite bits from Capsule’s Supersonic festival in The Custard Factory over the weekend, which I’ve only just about recovered from. Here we are:
1. Brian Duffy – a brilliant talk from a truly astounding intellect, which made Pete create Brian Duffy Has A Big Brain. We also got a sneak preview of Modified Toy Orchestra’s latest pop video starring Hula Barbie. Brian and Mike in Mono’s ZX Spectrum Orchestra later that day was very impressive, if only to learn the prison-stretch lengths of time these guys spend programming to produce the simplest sounds. Geek Pride!
2. Heavy Metal in Baghdad – a heartbreaking film as much about the Iraqi’s impossible living situation as it is about metal band Acrassicauda.
3. Nintendo Gameboy – instrument of choice for DJ Scotch Egg, Marousa (think Animal playing a mac) and the fantastic Fuck Buttons.
4. Efterklang – a lovely, lifting 10-piece group.
5. 7 Inch Cinema’s screening of Nosferatu with a live soundtrack. Scary stuff.
