The Duty of Youth

‘No More Heroes’ D Face

The truth of all stories is that there is never just one beginning. Rather, there are many beginnings. The creation of PeaceMaker and the story of a small group of childhood friends emerging from racially divided ghettos to bring hope to a nation is one such beginning.

On 31st January 2017, the Manchester Evening News published this story. The targeting by the journalist Jennifer Williams and her politician friends on my legacy at PeaceMaker was more than symbolic or accidental. It was an attempt to re-write the truths of the past.

Before I explain why it is important for the privileged, fake liberal, New Labour elite to attack this legacy, it is important to understand why PeaceMaker came about and what it actually did.

Oldham is of course a very poor town. No matter how much government money has been invested over countless generations, it has remained entrenched in poverty. Those that somehow make it out, through education, entrepreneurship or just by running away, rarely return.

Oldham is also a very racially divided town. The Race Riots of 2001, just months before the 9/11 Twin Tower attack, have massively shaped UK domestic policy and the manner in which our government interacts with communities. To this day, regardless of scheme after scheme, Oldham remains a racially divided town, simmering with tension.

Politicians and those that run our town halls have repeatedly been caught out by events such as the Race Riots, the growth of Islamist extremism, the re-emergence of the Far-Right in parallel with the increased alienation of the White Working Class and the increasing pressures placed on the poorest communities as a consequence of EU migration. All of these are events they had neither anticipated nor able to effectively respond to.

This was particularly true for the leaders of Oldham Council. Whilst their town was on fire around them, and their citizens mopped up blood from the cobbled streets in which they lived (the same red, irrespective of if it belonged to someone White or Asian), these leaders of ours appeared in interviews, scratching their heads, they did not just fail to understand what had taken place, they actually had the audacity to deny the reasons why these events had taken place.

From this chaos emerged the organisation, PeaceMaker. For nearly a decade earlier, those of us involved in shaping this entity, had already been tirelessly working in shaping interventions responding to the challenges that the politicians and policy makers in the town refused to acknowledge existed. It is the legacy of this organisation that the Manchester Evening News’ journalist Jennifer Williams, first attacked. Her purpose, the need to destroy this legacy if her subsequent smear campaign was to gain any traction.

PeaceMaker was created in response to the rage experienced from the actions of corrupt politicians, inept policy makers and the failures of government policy. It was created because of the failures of the privileged, fake liberal, New Labour elite. These failures included:

• Local government policy was further segregating society. Decisions made resulted in more division, be it in housing, in schools, even in accessing community facilities. This situation was to be later described, by Professor Ted Cantle, as Parallel Lives.
• National government policy, through their competitive regeneration schemes, was putting communities in conflict with each other. A race to the bottom had been created, where the winners were those who could prove they were the poorest, the most disadvantaged, the most deprived.
• The increasing demonisation of the White Working Class. Legitimate grievance manipulated to appear as Far-Right sympathy, particularly from the privileged, fake liberal, New Labour elite that came in to oversee their ‘projects’ from their Chorlton homes (other South Manchester areas also apply). I’ve never met Ms Williams, but I’ve spent a career in profiling people, I’d bet my football season ticket that she lives in Chorlton.
• Services in South Asian (later to be described as Muslim) communities outsourced by the Council to third party agencies. These agencies were too often run by gatekeepers that were aligned with the local Labour Party. Other times, more worryingly, they were aligned to groups that sought to construct a dominant Muslim identity in these communities. Whether they did what they were paid to do or where they spent the money was immaterial. These payments were at best rewards and at worst they were more than just bribes, they used these government grants to gain legitimacy, recruit members and grow their organisations.

As a consequence of these failures, a vacuum developed within these communities. Within this vacuum, what we would today consider as Islamist and Far Right agencies started to operate and their narratives began to take hold. PeaceMaker was created to fight this. Ten years before race riots, fifteen years before the 7/7 bombings, I and a group of friends that were a product of these spaces saw what was coming and what needed to be done. All of us were young. We did what young people do best, we rolled up our sleeves and recruited other young people. Through nothing other than grit, stubbornness and a refusal to accept what was so so clearly wrong (some may call these typical working class traits), we set about changing not just our town, but also our nation. How hard could it have been?

From the beginning our enemies mobilised against us. Corrupt or inept politicians and their policy makers who did not care what happened in these communities as long as they remained in control, ridiculed us. The Chorlton dwelling, privileged, fake liberal elite, who from their ivory towers and well paid jobs, quick to judge poor white working class communities, tried to bamboozle us with bureaucracy. Neither politician or policy maker, once stopped to consider, from their position of privilege, why we were doing what we did or how they would feel and behave if they were placed in such challenging circumstances.

Some of our greatest enemies were from within our own community. Asian gatekeepers who held positions of status as Councillors or custodians of the keys to the community centres that only they or their family members could access. Delivering the block vote required to their Labour Party paymasters in exchange for control of grants that they in turn distributed as bribes. Women today, that are fighting for equality, will in particular recognise this, where other women are mobilised by those in power to protect the patriarchy.

During the first decade of this century, the thinking that shaped PeaceMaker, the interventions we designed and piloted, the lessons that we learned and shared, all of these things went on to shape government policy. The young people that came through our projects helped transform the national landscape. Where there was racial division, where there was community tension, where Islamist or Far Right extremists sought to exploit the vulnerable, in these places were also our practitioners. Advising, encouraging, inspiring, working on the front lines, a beacon of hope. Recruited and trained from Northern towns and cities, all of our ambassadors were young people. All had stepped forward to be the change they wanted to see in the world.

During this entire period, where our work included advising the Prime Minister, multiple Secretaries of State and the most senior Civil Servants, we were shunned by Oldham Council and their Labour politicians. Those that know Oldham well will confirm that to this day, Oldham Council operates in an almost identical way as it did over 20 years ago. The gatekeepers remain the gatekeepers, the poor remain poor, and politicians like Jim McMahon MP operate in exactly the same colonial way as their predecessors.

What was achieved through PeaceMaker proved to be a thorn in the side of the Council. Bypassing power, we mobilised young people directly. Working in spaces they feared to visit after dark, we ignored the Council and their cronies. We neither needed their permission nor their support. We accessed our resources from national and international partners. We operated in the places where the privileged, fake liberal, New Labour elite had not just failed, but the areas they had exploited. The places they abandoned once they had milked the last of the regeneration money.

We succeeded. For two decades, we succeeded. Individual by individual, family by family, community by community, we helped transform lives.

During this period, the alternatives I was offered were numerous. They were of no value. I did not want a job at the Council. I did not want keys to a community centre and just because I was Asian and involved in communities, I cared nothing for wanting to pursue a career as a politician. Where I advised, and supported central government, I would catch the first train to London and be back in time to deliver our evening activities alongside the young people I valued. The very same young people (now every one a succesful professional adult, many with children of their own) that contacted me distraught at Jennifer Williams article. After all, these young people knew the truth. They knew the sacrifices we had all made. Sacrifices very different to clicking a ‘like’ button on social media whilst drinking a glass of red wine.

After I read her article, my immediate reflections specific to the claim made by Ms Williams that PeaceMaker had closed with ‘debts of at least £200,000’ was ‘so what?’

PeaceMaker had a good run, making a real difference to the lives of young people in the town as well as transforming the national policy landscape. But on closer examination of her story, the closure of PeaceMaker and the debt was not really her focus. The inference was that something financially underhand had taken place here and I was involved, and that this financial underhandedness had continued into the schools. I challenge anyone to read this article and come to a different conclusion. In the first of my reflections, I committed to deconstructing line by line what I considered to be Jennifer William’s lies. Here I begin.

• Whilst PeaceMaker may have closed down after nearly 20 years of supporting young people, I had left 2 years prior to this. At the time of leaving, the organisation had a £1,000,000 portfolio of work. One of my final acts was to secure a National Lottery grant for several hundred thousand pounds.

‘…an outcome he said was due to funding cuts by the coalition government’

• This a quote attributed to me from Ms Williams’ article as to why I believed the organisation had closed. This quote is 100% fabricated. When I left, I left quietly. After I left, I considered it no longer my place to comment on the operational activities of the organisation. I would still meet the young people, volunteers and staff on occasion, but never would I enquire or comment on the running of the organisation. Ms Williams fabricating quotes and attributing them to me is not something new. Even the sham press complaints body, IPSO, forced her newspaper to write a correction regarding a different article she published where she once again attributed a false quote towards myself.

The question then arises as to why I left an organisation that I created? I refer you back to the reasons why PeaceMaker had been created. Regarding one of our objectives, the battle was won. Terms such as community cohesion, shared values and thematic regeneration(rather than competitive race based government initiatives) are now the norm. Unfortunately, regarding the second battle, the situation was very different.

Terrorism was on the rise. The Islamists were and still are are winning. They had even convinced, the at the time Labour government, that as long as they pursued their aims through non-violent means, then they were not just able to continue to freely operate, they were able to access government funding for their work. I am not joking.

It is into this space I was asked by both central government and also Manchester Council to try and help. To bring my experiences and try and find a way through to help protect and safeguard our people, our nation. Those that I had worked with at PeaceMaker, those brave young people who had both overcome their own prejudices as well as challenging those of their families and communities, they had sacrificed enough. I could not ask them to come on this journey with me. A journey into Jihadi mosques and prison cells holding terrorists. Into confrontations with Islamist groups and attendance at Far Right marches, fighting them to protect and safeguard the most vulnerable from their vile and divisive narratives. This is the reason I left my friends and my family. This is the reason I left Peacemaker. This is the work I left to do.

The work I developed in this world of Prevent and Counter Extremism is still considered to be the most sophisticated of its kind. To this day, it informs the practices of those that still operate in this challenging space. To develop this work, I left an organisation that I invested nearly 15 years of my life into.

Those that actually know me, and worked with me during this time, have an appreciation of what I did. Holding down a full-time job with The Children’s Society, I drew a part time salary or no salary at all, for most of my time whilst at PeaceMaker. This amounted to working 70 hour weeks, spread over 7 days, for well over a decade. Perhaps Ms Williams will share her history of community service, apart from the volunteering she no doubt did to put on her university application form what else has she done?

In addition, I undertook various consultancy work on behalf of PeaceMaker. This brought in to the organisation c£100,000 each year. Some years, there was actually more. This money, all invested to give young people jobs, to provide them with experiences, to support them to be the best they can be. Anyone with experience of running charitable organisations know of the frustrations of funding. PeaceMaker was a success because every year, through my earned consultancy fees, we had tens of thousands of pounds to do the things we knew needed to be done, without being dependent on funders. We found that by working this way, we remained ahead of the curve, and once policy makers and funders identified these challenges, we already had completed successful pilots and had ready designed answers.

It is my belief that Ms Williams knew all of this, and if she didn’t, she should have had the courtesy of being true to her job title and actually ‘investigating’. I may not be like her friend, Andy Burnham, the GM Mayor, who posts a picture on social media every time he makes a donation, nor like her politician friends such as Jim McMahon or Graham Stringer, who turn up to have their photographs taken at events, celebrating successes they have had nothing to do with. BUT, if she had investigated, much of what I share now would have been made clear to her by others. Perhaps I am a product of a different generation, one where you do not brag about what you do for others.

Unfortunately, I do not think Ms Williams was interested at all in writing the truth. I believe the reason that she wrote the story she did, was to discredit me and in doing so she was assisting her politician friends in destabilising the schools. First of all, as I have already shown, she attempted to tell a very narrow version of the truth of PeaceMaker to discredit my past. She then continued this trail to allude to financial impropriety in the running of the schools. Once more, she ignored commonly available facts.

It is true that my organisations processed hundreds of thousands of pounds in delivering services for these schools. All of this was done in the correct way, with the correct declarations. Once again, so eager was Ms Williams in her witch hunt, she failed to share what was common knowledge. And even if she did not know, surely an Orwell Prize nominated investigative journalist should have well, investigated? In the same way as with PeaceMaker, here is some context:

• My company, Social Mavericks, was not struck off for failing to submit accounts. This is another one Ms Williams fabrications published in the Manchester Evening News on 13th February 2017.
• Collective Community Partnerships (CCP) was voluntarily wound down because we had to end our support to our tenants. With Machester Creative Studio failing to open on time, our office became a school. CCP had been a charity and social enterprise incubation hub that helped launch numerous organisations that to this day are making a difference across the country to the lives of working class young people.
• There are two main reason why companies I was involved with managed a portfolio of services. Firstly, the schools failed to secure these services with the funds they had available when they tendered them. Secondly, both schools opened without a building. Manchester Creative Studio operated from my office for its first term. Collective Spirit opened from various venues that I was able to secure. With this uncertainty, it was practically impossible to secure a supply chain. Without a supply chain of services, the schools would not open. We were stuck. We had contacted the Council for help. They had refused. I personally wrote to Jim McMahan, whilst he was leader of Oldham Council, begging him for his help.
• Where service providers were willing to work with us, their services needed to be underwritten in case the schools did not open (Free Schools having their opening delayed by a year was not an unusual occurrence due in the main to delays with the buildings). If the schools did not open, then contracts would still have to be met. A simple example, Collective Spirit provided a minibus service. The minibus drivers are recruited for the academic year. If the work they secure then falls through, they will not be able to secure any new work until the following academic year. This was true of other services including caretaking, cleaning, school dinners etc. Underwriting these services meant that should the schools not open, MY company would honour these payments.

Additionally, following complaints by at the time leader of the Council, Jim McMahon, who had vowed that Collective Spirit ‘would open over his dead body’, the Education Funding Agency (EFA) investigated both school’s finances. Jim McMahon, Jennifer Williams and their politician friends are playing a game here. They have copies of these findings. Unfortunately, these findings do not say what they want, so they claim the government will not release the report. It is because the EFA report says the following,

EFA’s detailed review of relevant trust, third party documentation and interviews with trust staff did not identify any significant issues or breaches of the AFH. Evidence confirmed the trust had followed procedures for tendering in relation to the procurement and appointment of the CCP. Owing to the connected party interest the trust had ensured “at cost” arrangements were in place. The trust also demonstrated compliance with its financial procedures for appointing a staff member, ensuring appropriate checks were undertaken and value for money achieved. No evidence was found to support the allegation regarding conflicts of interest in relation to the trusts building contracts.

Of course, when associated contracts had been delivered this way, safeguards had been put in place to ensure transparency, value for money and accountability. One wonders how Jim McMahon, now MP, would fare under a similar audit in the Parliament Square money pit or Hotel Futures fiasco in Oldham?

Once more, as with PeaceMaker’s closure, now there is fact and context, how does Ms William’s story read? A journalist of her abilities could have obtained all of this information if she had wanted to. Unfortunately, I do not believe that her motives were at all sincere. She cared not at all for the young people that came to these schools any more than the young people that had graduated through Peacemaker’s programmes.

Immediately, post the publication of her story, what I believe to be a co-ordinated campaign begun. This included actions such as

• the home page on school computers changed to her article
• the staff rooms left with copies of her story on display
• Islamist organisations launching a social media campaign
• Community members, many of whom did not send their children to either school, starting WhatsApp groups that involved senior Labour politicians
• Senior Labour politicians, of which one should know better, jumping on a bandwagon to attack schools that they never stepped foot inside. Indeed, Jim McMahan MP, refused to visit Collective Spirit. What had the children done to him? What had the teachers done to him? If he was so genuinely concerned, surely he would want to see for himself what was wrong?

They won. It quickly became impossible for me to operate in either school. But they did not stop there. They were not just after me. They needed the schools to fail. And so, they continued. In future reflections, I will share what was actually taking place in the schools compared to what was being reported. People can judge for themselves, as with this piece, whether the articles written by Jennifer Williams still continue to read the same.

Like the politicians Jennifer Williams is in bed with, the privileged, fake liberal, New Labour, elite fear that working class communities look to themselves to improve their lives and that of the people they care for. When this happens, these politicians and their hangers on lose their power and status and become irrelevant. That is what they really fear. For these privileged professionals, with no life experience of these places, to remain relevant (and why I repeatedly use the term New Labour) the oppressed must remain oppressed. They do not really want to change our lives for the better. I have come to believe that all they want is to leech off the poverty of the working classes (irrespective of race, religion or immigration status), for their own gain.

As reflections go, this is mine. The duty of youth is to more than to just fight corruption. Like the most remarkable young people I had the immense joy of working alongside during my time at PeaceMaker, the duty of youth is to become the change they want to see in the world. Acting with integrity, compassion, humility and a sense of decency towards others, the duty of youth is to inspire us all and become a new generation of heroes that this nation so desperately craves.