Armed Forces Day and Alrewas

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In the past week I have had the privilege of taking part in a number of events connected with Armed Forces Day and visiting the Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas which is devoted to the concept of remembrance.

We attended a moving ceremony and the memorial itself creates a great impact on you both emotionally and visually.
At the service in St Martin’s Church the day before I’d given this contribution:
Last Monday I raised the Armed Forces flag in Birmingham outside the Council House in Victoria Square as part of a nation-wide event and as a herald of Armed Forces Day itself which is an excellent opportunity for the whole nation to show its appreciation for those who defend our liberties.
We gather together today to express the gratitude of the City of Birmingham, the wider region and the people of the Midlands towards those men and women who serve in the forces, those who have served and those who seek to serve their country in this honourable, professional and courageous way.
In the inaugural year of this day of celebrations there are displays, activities and exhibits in Centenary Square. And in this and through this service in St Martin’s, we salute all those who are here present and those whom they represent.
Birmingham was proud in 2007 to host the national event for National Veterans Day, which was the forerunner to Armed Forces Day and to which there was a tremendous public response.
National Veterans Day had as its focus our veterans and the truly outstanding contributions that they have made to the protection and well being of this country over very many years.
This year that splendid occasion has been expanded into Armed Forces Day itself, a name that has been chosen to embrace the wider Armed Forces, including serving personnel, both regular and reserve, as well as the Veterans themselves and also of course the Cadet Forces.
And I know that the core values of the armed forces bring out the very best in our young people.
This all serves further to raise the public consciousness of the vital role that is played by our Armed Forces both in ensuring the security and well-being of this country and in defending the fundamental freedoms of others that we can all too easily take for granted.
So today is a day for thankfulness and also for celebration, because pride, as a positive virtue, has both serious and joyful dimensions.
We are immensely proud of our Armed Forces and their achievements in service and I have recently had the privilege, accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, of presenting medals to returning soldiers at bases both here in Birmingham and also in Germany.
The medals of course recognise service in theatres of danger but what also struck me on those occasions was the sheer positive vitality of our service men and women who were not just willing but thoroughly enthusiastic about undertaking further tours of duty to carry out the tasks for which they have been trained - and indeed fulfilling the ideals of service that prompted them to join the forces in the first place.
This is a spirited sentiment in which we can share and which will suffuse today’s celebrations. This exuberance is reflected in the stirring music that we have already been hearing and the further selection that we shall hear later on.
The music includes ‘The Dam Busters March’, ‘A Life on the Ocean Wave’ ‘Colonel Bogey’ and a rendition of one of my favourite pieces from childhood - and which I readily own is still so today - The Teddy Bears’ Picnic! Hopefully the bears will not need to dash for shelter in Centenary Square!
I know that there is an immense depth of public support for the British Armed Forces - that fact should never be doubted for a single moment. There is respect for the individual courage and commitment and for the collective teamwork and professionalism both in active service and in support.
All of the service that is given represents the extraordinary efforts made, as the services themselves so modestly put it, by ‘ordinary people’ - in other words people just like ourselves.
And as they perform this outstanding work we also stand out squarely in support of them, a support that is freely given and which I am sure will be evident in abundance on this the inaugural Armed Forces Day.

Townswomen's Guild

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Last week I had the pleasure of addressing the national AGM of the Townswomen’s Guild. There were about 2,000 delegates in the splendid surroundings of Birmingham’s ICC. This is what I said.
It gives me very great pleasure to welcome all members of the Townswomen’s Guild to Birmingham for your Annual General Meeting today. Thank you for inviting us to share part of this with you. We have an attractive and friendly city and I hope that you will get a chance to see a little of it and come back soon and see more.
It was good to see the National and Federation banners and their historic and significant colours just a few minutes ago. These are important reminders of heritage, purpose and unity.
And you have important purposes today and much business to transact. But equally important are the inspirational speakers and also the inspiration that comes from talking to fellow members and the opportunity to make new friends.
Your guest speaker today, especially in his former manifestation as the anchor on John Craven’s Newsround, has been a familiar figure in our household for many years since the programme was also very much enjoyed by our children. Thank you John for that excellent family viewing!
This was a few years ago now of course and it is a few more years ago than that since I first addressed a local meeting of The Townswomen’s Guild way back when in my own ward of Hall Green. It was a talk on mistakes made by the press, and I think several volumes more could have been written about the ‘fourth estate’ since then – not to mention a few minor and of course entirely innocent financial mistakes and oversights in the second and third estates!
I read with great interest of the origins of the Townswomen’s Guild arising from the sustained endeavours of the suffragists, and I have always shared the view of how much can be achieved through working within the law to secure important social objectives such as real equality of citizenship.
And I know that there is much work still to be done today – so it is as well that you are here. This ranges from the isolation and lack of empowerment of women in some parts of some communities to the still pervasive, if unstated and subtle – and sometimes not so subtle – easing aside of women when it comes to important roles and occasions.
And I’ve also learnt of the guild’s environmental work that is so important with today’s challenges and your work on a broad range of issues further afield as well as your contribution to literacy projects and issues involving women at home and abroad. It is not just women’s lives that are affected, important though that is, society as a whole is diminished if all women do not have a chance to play a full part.
This is one reason why one of the Lord Mayor’s charities for 2009/10 is WAITS - Women Acting In Today’s Society. I believe that this is particularly important charity in a diverse city such as Birmingham and both the Lady Mayoress and I are working to raise as much money as we can.
WAITS is doing outstanding work enabling women to address issues and overcome barriers, combating isolation and providing help to increase the involvement of women in the public life and business of communities throughout the city - from which the whole of society will benefit.
We know that there is a continuing need for the extensive range of activities carried out by WAITS, and that there are many women who are yet to benefit, and that there’s a great deal more work still to be done and in which so many of us can play a role.
President John F Kennedy once said that every individual can make a difference and should try. At a recent conference in Birmingham Dr Jane Goodall said that every individual can make a difference every day by recognising personal responsibility and the ability to affect beneficial change through our conduct as consumers, through lifestyle change, through being active and engaged.
And, I think that the Guild would add, through the extension of friendship. And it doesn’t matter if that difference seems to be just a drop in an ocean of need - remember, no drops no ocean!
This is all very serious business but it is all the better done in an energising environment of mutual support, idea-sharing and of course stimulating friendship. All of which is why the Townswomen’s Guild succeeds so very well in making a critical difference and in being tomorrow’s women today.
I hope that you have a successful and productive AGM and once again, welcome to Birmingham!

Rotary International Convention

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This week the City has hosted the Rotary International Convention. There are about 20,000 delegates and Birmingham is privileged to be the only City outside of the United States to have hosted the International Convention twice. This was my speech at the welcome breakfast.
"Lady Mayoress, Mr President, Directors, Trustees, Rotarians All, Distinguished Visitors. It is a great privilege that you have chosen Birmingham to host the prestigious Rotary International Convention. And we are equally delighted that this is your 100th International Convention - held here in the heart of England and, I cannot resist adding, that since Birmingham was the home of J.R.R. Tolkien in his formative years, right here in Middle-earth!
Your 100th convention in an unbroken sequence with delegates from 154 countries in attendance is a major milestone that you are clearly marking with what promises to be a terrific conference - the second that you have held in Birmingham and the fourth in this country - which makes us doubly proud.
I’ve read your programme book and I’m staggered at the scope and reach of the good works - great humanitarian endeavours in fact - that Rotary undertakes world-wide as well as the wide range of Fellowship activities. The value of volunteering and lasting friendship and its fruitfulness should never be underestimated.
From the longstanding drive to eliminate Polio in which Rotary plays such a prominent role, to the search for a more peaceful world; from the battle against HIV/AIDS and other dread diseases to active and imaginative engagement, including the Shelterbox initiative, in over 80 disasters worldwide and from blindness prevention to the improvement of literacy, truly, Rotary represents the people of the ‘Nations United’ in the best possible way.
And seldom have our societies had a greater need to re-establish and embed the Rotary ideal of service before self, which, standing alongside the very high ethical standards that you enshrine, is at the heart of what you are about and one of the core messages that you convey.
Furthermore, the idea that what is done should be useful (and I would add in some contexts even just understood) is essential in certain sectors of our economies.
The advancement of understanding between ethnic groups, the goal of cross-cultural projects and your encouragement of diversity of membership are other noble objectives - vitally important in today’s societies. And there are few better places giving evidence of progress than Birmingham - one of the truly cosmopolitan cities of the world.
Our city has grown over the centuries from its origins as the ‘home of the people of Beorma’, which is what the name ‘Birmingham’ means, welcoming and incorporating people from the four corners of the world, making this their home too, building their lives, contributing through work and culture and achieving their full potential.
To speak of home is to speak of family and friendship, and the family centred aspects of your programme are vitally important in societies today. I know that Rotary has impressive youth and educational exchange programmes. And training and mentoring young people is a very important part of what you do.
Birmingham has changed since the Industrial Revolution and the times of Boulton and Watt, when we were rightly known as the Workshop of the World, to the International City that we are today, proud of our industry and commerce, our role in the Arts - some of which you will be enjoying - and in education with three Universities attracting students internationally to world class courses and the cutting edge research they undertake.
And just as Rotary is a can-do organisation so Birmingham is a ‘can-do’ city where the sun is always shining - although we may sometimes have to rely on metaphor!
Indeed, I know that Rotary has done great work in the fields of health and medicine including the fights against Polio, tuberculosis and cancer amongst many other important areas, and I am old enough to remember when both polio and tuberculosis afflicted the community where I once lived and the suffering that both diseases bring.
Close to my own heart is an aim to combat Pancreatic Cancer, because while there’s been progress with many cancers, for cancer of the pancreas the five-year survival rate following diagnosis forty years ago stood at 3%.Today that rate is - well, just 3%.
Yet the disease is treatable if it can be detected early enough, and I aim, through the Lord Mayor’s Charity, to support research, conducted at our outstanding School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Birmingham, into improved diagnostic methods.
While I’m not yet a member of Rotary I am looking forward to being inducted into membership very soon, and I can however already claim a sort of tenuous geographical connection.
This is on the grounds that I lived for a year in Evanston Illinois, which of course is the home of Rotary International World Headquarters. Admittedly though, this was quite some time ago now - in fact it was when JFK was president!
And President Kennedy once said that ‘individuals can make a difference and should try’ and Jane Goodall who is addressing the convention has said that every individual can make a difference every day by recognising personal responsibility and the ability to affect beneficial change through our conduct as consumers, through lifestyle change, through being active and engaged. And to that I’m sure that we would add, through the extension of friendship.
Rotary, it is abundantly clear, in readily taking up those responsibilities, and through actively applying your energies both individually and collectively, brings massive beneficial changes right across the globe making, so to say, ‘a world of difference’. And small things count too - remember the saying - no drops, no ocean.
Which is why we welcome you so very warmly on behalf of the City of Birmingham - and our good neighbours in Solihull and Warwickshire - and we wish you every success both in your International Convention here, and in all the years to come."

My Charities for the Year

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Birmingham has a very wide range of charities with a large number of volunteers doing outstanding work. Each year, the Lord Mayor can identify for charitable causes for particular support. These are the ones that I have chosen. You can find out more and make a donation or suggest a fundraising event through the Lord Mayor’s Parlour on 0121-303-2040 email: lordmayor@birmingham.gov.uk
The Birmingham Fund for Pancreatic Cancer Research. My objective is to establish a new registered charity that outlasts the current Mayoralty - and indeed runs until that dread affliction is mastered. While there’s been steady progress with several forms of cancer, for pancreatic cancer the five-year survival rate following diagnosis forty years ago stood at just 3%. Today that rate is - well, just 3%. Yet the disease is treatable on those occasions where the cancer is detected early enough, and the primary focus of the fund will be on research, conducted in Birmingham, into improved diagnostic methods.
St. Basil’s. The inestimable work of this charity with young people providing them with support services, advice, mediation and guidance and tackling and preventing homelessness and its consequences has helped to transform very many young lives here in Birmingham. However, in today’s society there is no let-up in the need for the very wide range of services so ably provided by St. Basil’s, and we will be making a big effort during the year to support this most worthy cause.
WAITS. Women Acting In Today’s Society - is a very important charity in a diverse city such as Birmingham, and WAITS is doing outstanding work enabling women to address issues and overcome barriers, combating isolation and providing help to increase the involvement of women in the public life and business of communities throughout the city - from which all of us will benefit. Here again, we know that there is a continuing need for the extensive range of activities carried out by WAITS, and that there are many who are yet to benefit, and a great deal more work still to be done.
Lord Mayor’s Engineering Scholarships. A fund to support the study and practice of Engineering in Birmingham - at various levels and in a range of forms. As a Council we recognise the unmatched contribution that engineering has made to the City, and I am sure we would all agree that it is vital that Birmingham remains prominent in this important field in the future. So, alongside other initiatives, we will encourage and enable young people from Birmingham to take up engineering both as a course of study and as a fulfilling future career. Encouragement will also be offered to progress developments in vital newer areas such as Clinical Engineering.

Matthew Boulton Exhibition

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Whatever else you do, do pay a visit to the Matthew Boulton bicentenary exhibition in Birmingham Museum’s Water Hall. It is absolutely magnificent, with paintings, coins, clocks, commemorative medals, ormolu ware, jewellery, swords and much more.
The exhibits are superbly displayed and the greatest credit is due to the museum staff and the experts and volunteers who planned and delivered the exhibition. There is a superb catalogue and guides giving background to the exhibits.
If you’re lucky you will see people in period costume to explain things to you. Boulton was the foremost manufacturer and entrepreneur who laid the foundations of the City’s industrial greatness.

Despite being at the preview evening, I could not resist a second visit the following day and I was lucky enough to get a close ip view of a superb steam traction engine outside the museum.
At the preview evening, in a stunning revelation, Professor Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England who opened the exhibition, on the preview evening revealed that the new £50 note (which is due out late next year) will feature Matthew Boulton and James Watt and Birmingham’s Soho House where Matthew Boulton lived.
This will be a great tribute to Birmingham, and the City is most appreciative of the Governor’s magnificent gesture which gave rise to a roar of appreciation amongst the 300 people who were at the preview. Thank you Prof King - and do come back to Birmingham soon!

Parlours and Robes

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In the first Lord Mayor’s blog posting I mentioned possible ‘weighty matters’. I had in mind not important issues for the city that weigh on the mind, but the weight of the mayoral regalia on the shoulders! Most of the time the Lord Mayor wears pinstripes, black jacket, waistcoat, white shirt, black shoes, a subdued tie and of course the chain of office.
For wear around the Lord Mayor’s Parlour a ‘day badge’ pendant can be worn instead and the full chain. This last can be a blessing for an hour or so as the solid gold chain is very heavy (Imagine a large bag of sugar on each shoulder). For full ceremonial occasions the Lord Mayor is fully robed. In addition to the chain of office, the robes include a good deal of metal (gold) and are also pretty heavy. Moreover they are most efficient at keeping in the heat! This is fine in winter, but if you catch a glimpse of me sneaking a drink of water on my walkabouts you’ll know why!
There are two sets of robes to accommodate the varying heights of Lord Mayors. There is also the distinctive three cornered (tricorn) hat. There are three sizes. I just about manage with the largest one - even with my new, much shorter hairstyle (Press please note!)
I mentioned the Lord Mayor’s ‘parlour’. This has a nice old-fashioned ring to it. It is a suite of offices including the Lord Mayor’s room and a room shared by the Deputy Lord Mayor (the previous year’s Lord Mayor) and the lady Mayoress. There is also a ‘retiring room’ which includes a shower (remember the heat of the robes). The Lord Mayor’s room itself is steeped in history and the desk at which I work comes down to us from Neville Chamberlain.
But what makes things really special is the staff of the parlour. Eight really dedicated, professional and hard working people who ensure things work smoothly and that the Civic dimension of the City’s work is outstanding. And on major occasions the full time staff are joined by volunteers who give, largely unsung, unstintingly of their time and to whom I am already immensely grateful. You can find out more about the Lord Mayor’s Parlour and what we do by visiting the Lord Mayor's Parlour pages on the Council’s website.
In my next posting I’ll say a bit more about the interesting and varied events of the first week or two of my year.

My Acceptance Speech

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A number of people have asked what I said in my acceptance speech. While it’s rather wordy for a normal blog item, for my second entry here is the substantive part of the speech (with preamble, personal thanks, asides etc. omitted).

First of all, Vivienne and I would like to thank the Council for the very great honour that you’ve bestowed upon us in making us the First Citizens of the City of Birmingham. We both now fully understand the meaning of the word: ‘honoured’.
The Lady Mayoress and I have common interests in the history and heritage of our great city - right back to the time of Beorma as, I imagine, do most of us in this chamber. And we also have active interests in the local heritage and works of world-renowned author and long-time Birmingham resident J.R.R. Tolkien. In this connection, the Lady Mayoress has played a pivotal role in organising Birmingham’s annual Middle-earth Weekend centred on Sarehole Mill - a visit to which we hope will still be on the Mayoral agenda for next year. Despite the weather, this unique, volunteer-led event just a couple of days ago attracted thousands more visitors from near and far, all enjoying themselves in an old-fashioned atmosphere and finding out more about Middle-earth in Birmingham. And we are both looking forward to finding out a great deal more about the complex, inspiring and intriguing City of Birmingham as the year progresses.
Speaking of history, as you may now know, the Lady Mayoress’ family has lived in Birmingham for centuries. For myself, although I’ve lived in Birmingham for over forty years and indeed went to school and university and was married here, my origins are in the Black Country. So I was very pleased to note that in 1877 the City Council made clear that it knows, and I quote: "No distinction between her citizens by birth or adoption" which is still a very valuable message for today. With hand on heart I can honestly say that I’ve always believed that Black Country people and Brummies should enjoy reciprocal citizenship!
To follow in the footsteps of previous Mayors and Lord Mayors of our energetic, innovative and diverse City is a huge responsibility, not lightly undertaken. Inspired by this tradition,I will do all in my power to work for and promote Birmingham, its industry, history and culture - and its narratives. For Birmingham has many big stories, from being at the heart of the industrial revolution right through to the International City of today, the regeneration of which is due, in no small part, to the work of this Council in which a wide range of members have played a role. But in my view, the biggest story of all is the total of a million smaller stories - the stories of the individual people of Birmingham whom we all seek to serve.
In our activities as Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, we will be greatly assisted by the dedicated staff of the Lord Mayor’s Parlour. We could not come near to doing the job without them, and I’d like to pay advance tribute to their commitment, and efficiency - and their thrift - right at the outset. As to business, following on from my predecessors, I will endeavour to assist the Council in ensuring the efficient and democratic conduct of our meetings, continuing further to promote mutual regard and good order.
During the year, I will do all that I can to enhance the recognition of Birmingham as an outstanding place in which to live, work and invest, and I will give visible support to all of our manufacturing industries -- those which are new, those which are green and those which have withstood the test of time and the slings and arrows of outrageous finance. I for one believe that a thriving manufacturing sector is vital to our sustained prosperity, and in my view there is no such thing as a post-industrial economy.
My service on the Council’s Trusts and Charities Sub-Committee has given me some insight into the very wide range of charitable and voluntary operations that our citizens undertake right across Birmingham, and I look forward to offering Mayoral support to as many as I can, whenever I can. There’s so much good work being done and so many deserving causes - some formal, some informal, some established, some yet to be - that identifying just a few of them for special attention is an agonising process - as all former Lord Mayors already understand. For the Lord Mayor’s Charity Appeal for the coming year, I have identified four elements.
Firstly, St. Basil’s - the inestimable work of this charity with young people providing them with support services, advice, mediation and guidance and tackling and preventing homelessness and its consequences has helped to transform very many young lives here in Birmingham. However, in today’s society there is no let-up in the need for the very wide range of services so ably provided by St. Basil’s, and we will be making a big effort during the year to support this most worthy cause.
For my second charity I nominate WAITS - Women Acting In Today’s Society. This is a very important charity in a diverse city such as Birmingham, and WAITS is doing outstanding work enabling women to address issues and overcome barriers, combating isolation and providing help to increase the involvement of women in the public life and business of communities throughout the city - from which all of us will benefit. Here again, we know that there is a continuing need for the extensive range of activities carried out by WAITS, and that there are many who are yet to benefit, and a great deal more work still to be done.
Thirdly, I propose to establish a fund to support the study and practice of Engineering in Birmingham - at various levels and in a range of forms - but I do mean the kind of Engineering that makes things! As a Council we all recognise the unmatched contribution that engineering has made to the City, and I am sure we would all agree that it is vital that Birmingham remains prominent in this important field in the future. So, alongside other initiatives, I will play my part in encouraging and enabling young people from Birmingham to take up Engineering both as a course of study and as a fulfilling future career. And encouragement will also be offered to progress developments in vital newer areas such as Clinical Engineering.
Finally, I intend to establish a new charity to be called: The Birmingham Fund for Pancreatic Cancer Research, which I will do all in my power to ensure outlasts my Mayoralty - and indeed runs until that dread affliction is mastered. While there’s been steady progress with several forms of cancer, for pancreatic cancer the five-year survival rate following diagnosis forty years ago stood at just 3%. Today that rate is - well, just 3%. Yet the disease is treatable on those occasions where the cancer is detected early enough, and the primary focus of the fund will be on research, conducted in Birmingham, into improved diagnostic methods.
The position of Lord Mayor of Birmingham is an office with a most auspicious tradition and a demanding tempo. Within an extensive programme of visits already in the diary - and to which we look forward immensely - I also intend to get out to see more of our manufacturing firms old and new - and also the commemorations of "what was lost". Along with the higher level duties of the Lord Mayoralty, we intend to see as much as possible of the lives and activities of the citizens of Birmingham in all our communities and in all walks of life, and to communicate with people using both traditional and modern methods.
This great City is much more than the sum of its present parts. For we are like a broad oak, the roots of which reach deep into our historical origins, and the branches of which spread widely across our many cultures. For we are many people - yet one City; many cultures - yet one City; many trades (yes, still so) - one City; many persuasions (be they religious or political) - one City. In other words, to adapt a motto used on a Great Seal elsewhere: "out of many, one" - ‘E Pluribus Birmingham’ as it were - and so, as one city, Forward!
Both Vivienne and I look forward with the keenest anticipation to our year as Birmingham’s Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress. I thank colleagues throughout this wonderful and historic Council for your support and encouragement - and for your patience! We look forward to serving the City of Birmingham and its Council with our full commitment and to the very best of our abilities.