Perhaps ex-soapstars would be better left, to come up with the answers?

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/5uknrhe

We have Politicians, 'Top Brass' police officers, and equally highly paid civil servants, whose job it is to come up with the correct answers.

This being the case how is it that it takes former EastEnders actor Brooke Kinsella to draught a report which has kick started the Home Secretary, Theresa May, into coming up with an extra £18m to tackle knife crime?

[jackthehat]

Perhaps the ivory towers and flip-charts have conspired to make the polititians and top-brass too remote from the problems they ought to be addressing...........?

[mccfluff]

her brother dying from a knife attack probabky had a lot to do with it, rather than being in eastenders

[VHG]

As I have got older I have begun to realise that it is often individuals make the most contribution to society - people who invent things, design things, make things, organize things, solve problems.

Goverments and councils and committees just talk and talk to each other and water everything down until there is nothing left and little action comes out of it.

One of my heroes is a man called Alfred Wainwright. During the 1950s and 1960s he walked every hill and valley and path in the lake district, and then wrote a series of guidebooks about it.

Nobody paid him to do it, nobody asked him to do it, he did not check with anyone if he could do it, he just went out and did it. Those guide book are still used today.

If a committee was organized in the 1950s to create these guide books we would still be waiting for them.

http://www.wainwright.org.uk/about_aw.html

Other people who just went out a did things were Sir Nikolaus Pevsner with his guides to English buildings, and John Harrison who spent his life designing clocks to solve the Longitude problem

http://www.pevsner.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison

These people were "doers" and did not need to sit on large committees to get things done.

[anotheoldgit]

mccfluff

/// her brother dying from a knife attack probabky had a lot to do with it, rather than being in eastenders ///

The combination of the two although tragically, obviously made her into some form of a celebrity.

And we all know what clout 'they' carry in this age of 'celebrity status'?

[jackthehat]

I think the issue of Knife-crime must be addressed................if it takes a 'soap-star' to do it, sobeit.
It would be nice to think that our elected talking-heads could make time in their busy busy schedules to address the issue, but if they can't, I'm happy for the likes of Brook Kinsella to straddle the breach....

[jackthehat]

This woman does not benefit from 'celebri'ee'

http://en.wikipedia.o...ove,_Baroness_Newlove

But is still a high-profile and very worthy campaigner...

[anotheoldgit]

VHG

Yes, Alfred Wainwright. and his lake-land walks, I don't know if you saw the TV series, in which Country File's presenter Julia Bradbury walked them?

Most enjoyable, but we are getting a little off track and we all know the ED doesn't like that.

[anotheoldgit]

jackthehat

I know nothing of her, but I am sure since her horrible loss she has done so very much in the fight against crime.

But being made a peer of the land, is in itself most beneficial, and I am sure that it unlocks many doors that would otherwise remain locked to the 'ordinary' person.

[jackthehat]

I think you'll find that, on balance, she'd have preferred to have had her husband rather than the peerage...........

............and it is that which speaks to others.

[anotheoldgit]

jackthehat

/// think you'll find that, on balance, she'd have preferred to have had her husband rather than the peerage........... ///

That is only stating the obvious, of course she would, as would any other right minded person I am sure, and I think at least we can agree on that.

I have not in anyway stated anything that would in anyway make others think otherwise.

/// ...........and it is that which speaks to others. ///

I am sorry but I don't understand that.

[jackthehat]

It is not her title which opens the doors which you mention, it is the fact that she is an ordinary woman who has suffered a particularly devastating loss...

[anotheoldgit]

/// It is not her title which opens the doors which you mention, it is the fact that she is an ordinary woman who has suffered a particularly devastating loss.///

We don't know that for certain do we, just as there may not be any certainty in this statement of mine.

I am sure more people would sit up and take notice if she was introduced as such:

"This is Baroness Newlove who's husband was murdered"

As against:

" This is Helen Newlove, who's husband was murdered".

[jackthehat]

Well, seeing as you are sure, there doesn't seem much point in trying to persuade you otherwise.

[anotheoldgit]

jacktheha

/// Well, seeing as you are sure, there doesn't seem much point in trying to persuade you otherwise.///

There you go again, why must you always get so objectionable, we had a perfectly good argument going from both sides, until you made your wrongful assumption.

If you had cared to have read my post properly, you would have noticed that I purposely entered the words below, so as to cover for any expected eventualities such as yours.

/// just as there may not be any certainty in this statement of mine.///

[sp1814]

AOG

There have been a number of instances where a celebrity or an 'ordinary member of the public' have galvanised public mood on a particular issue where politicians have fumbled the ball. We like that because they appear to be 'one of us'.

Bob Geldof with Live Aid
Dooreen Lawrence with her fight for justice
Rosa Parks and civil rights
Joanna Lumley and the Ghurkas
Jamie Oliver and school meals
Diana Gould and the Thatcher 'Belgrano' question (my personal favourite)