Dr. Campbells Dead: Infrastructure breakdown, not financial neglect!

Dr. Derrick Campbell has taken a real slating in the press this week. The holder of a Phd in Theology and ordained minister suggested that the young black men of London are "being left to die" as a result of neglect on behalf of the government, namely through a lack of funding. Many have been quick to criticise government advisor Campbell, citing a cultural trend as opposed to a financial black hole as the main reason for the huge increase in knife and gun crime in our capital.

Dr. Campbells comment, arguably sensationalised and appropriately angled specifically to grab the attention of the right people, might just have gone a bit awry. Many have accused Cambell of reverse racism, arguing that their white middle class daughter who attends non government funded cross stitching classes chooses not to go out and stab her peers to death. Others have said that as a career academic, Campbell has only his knowledge of ancient theology to label himself an expert, and ancient theology has nothing to do with knife crime and turf wars. Having worked both in an academic environment as an educator, and as a youth worker in a social enterprise, I can readily see how Campbells claims can be disjointed with reality. However, I am willing to place some faith in what Campbell has to say.

The critics are right when they say that the issue of knife and gun crime in London is a social problem. However, without the right kind of financial investment and infrastructure to support it nothing is going to change. A problem exists, it needs to be solved. That is what Dr. Campbell was trying to say, and we cannot deny that it is the young black men of London who are dying in gang related turf wars in London.

The outcry that Dr. Campbell has instigated originates in the collective opinion of our society that everyone should have access to a good level of provision for their young people, not just the trouble makers in London.

Within the last ten years the rural county of Cumbria has seen over 90% of its government funded non-formal education budget dissappear. Only a very small number of struggling, independently funded projects exist, and they are not enough to cater for the needs of that community. As a result of this, the majority of young people strive to leave the county for employment and education when they turn sixteen. This in turn affects the productivity and success of local business. Cumbria was the first county in the UK to go into economic recession this century.

The kind of funding that is required to tackle the social problems that exist in London, Cumbria and in all of our towns and cities is increasingly hard to come by. Winning grant or bursary approved money either from the government or other public funds often requires the commerical approach that a company would take to win a new business contract. You have to compete. This means that the large charities and NGO's are utilising money that the smaller and highly valuable projects do not have the professional ability to compete for. Instead, they rely on freelance, profit making fundraising professionals who will often take up to 30% of the money they bring in, which for a local group in need of £10,000 for a summer recreation project is a hugely substantial amount. There is a similar issue with private sector investors who offer support to the third sector as part of their corporate responsibility initiatives. Very often they will only support highly recognised, highly exposed charities, again leaving the smaller organisations making their applications in vein. Some of our own research last year showed us that up to 80% of the finance that goes through a large charity is spent on administration and human resources, meaning that the cold hard cash the community based initiatives see is actually just a fraction of the beneficiary charity's turnover. There are new formats of NGO that can kerb this trend, the arrival of social enterprises and Community Interest Companies for example. However, the use of these business formats is not yet rife enough to make any real sociological difference.

Dr. Campbell has a point, the black men of London are being left to die. However, so are countless NGO's, and third sector projects around the UK. There is a vast amount of money available to these causes, yet we have still to find a way to administer that money in a fashion which is sustainable and progressive.

More Wiff Waff from the Flimsy Flop

Wiff Waff is coming home as Boris Johnson so gracefully puts it. Isn't it fantastic that he mocks the Olympic sport of Table Tennis with such haste. Hoorah for Boris, he's made a funny again. We have come to expect this ridiculousness from the wiffle haired flimsy flop. Yet what was more dissapointing to see at the Olympic handover press conference on Monday was our stern faced Prime Minister and Sebastien Coe standing by his side while they scoffed and laughed uncontrollably at every one of his ignoramus remarks.

Seriously, after all the work Seb Coe has put into bringing the Olympics to London in 2012, you would think he would expect a bit more seriousness from the newly elected Mayor of London. I don't consider myself to be a drama queen or an antagonist, but surely I cannot be the only one who was dissapointed and embarrassed to be represented by Boris Johnson when he walked out in front of a global audience at the Birds Nest in Beijing for the closing ceremony on Sunday looking as if he had just been in a bout with one of the Khazak wrestling team. He was slumped, his jacket was open, his suit hung like a tent, he walked with a dithering and hesitant gait that screamed "Nincompoop" to the world. Frankly, stood next to his fellow respresentatives from the IOC and China he looked pretty darned unfortunate.

We all like to laugh at Boris Johnson and his canny approach to politics, because we expect it from him and we can try to understand it. The rest of the world however must have raised a very big eyebrow when it encountered him this weekend, much to our detriment. Gordon Brown should have been the man to wave that flag in the Birds Nest, at least we could have trusted him to look smart.