- Nick Carter (Chair, Leicester Multicultural Advisory Group; Chair, Prospect LeicesterShire)
- Dilwar Hussain (Head of the Policy Research Centre, based at the Islamic Foundation)
- Jasbir Mann (Head of Service, Learning Transformation and Development, Leicester City Council)
- Riaz Ravat (Training Development Manager, St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society)
- Resham Singh Sandhu (Chair, Sikh Cultural and Welfare Society)
As we settle down to our business, I spy one of the Barry Naylors through a glass door, being greeted by someone in the next room. We exchange a wave. Our attention is drawn to a document in which Leicester City Council has outlined five outcomes it has set itself for the period 2010-11. Rather than set about reinventing the wheel, we consider how these outcomes fit with our project. They are laid out in the document as follows:
- Different communities get on well together.
- New communities bond together.
- Everyone in Leicester feels they belong.
- Young people understand and respect different communities, and adults and young people get on well together.
- There is freedom from tension.
These are not a million miles away from the old National Indicators (indeed, they'd have been set when they were still live). City Council is likely to have an abundance of information that we can draw on in relation mapping these themes, from the Total Place Survey and other such sources. of course, mapping gives us a picture of what's been going on up till now - but we can't rely on those models to carry us into the future.
With withdrawal of funding for our role as Host Organisation from 31 March, this is one of the activities we may not be able to continue after that date. Without presuming to speak on behalf of the other VCS bodies in the city who have functioned up till now as Host Organisations, I don't know what sort of support this project will get from any of them after 31 March - even in terms of doing the mapping exercise. I think I've made that loud and clear.
I have a brief chat with Resham about his appearance on The Big Questions which was broadcast live from Leicester recently. The producer had contacted the Council of Faiths and asked us to put forward someone who could contribute to the discussion on Islam as being a guide for daily living. This was Resham, but he wasn't called on to speak on the show itself. He tells me that he introduced himself to the production team on the day and said that he wasn't prepared to take issue or disagree with the Muslim women who would be speaking, just for the same of making "good television". So they didn't ask him.
More general chat around the table follows about this topic. We all seem in agreement: no one here likes The Big Questions or anything like it. We discuss other recent instances of Leicester having been covered in the media (such as Hardeep Singh Kohli's Radio 2 documentary series, "The Great British Faith"). We're of one accord in saying that often we don't recognise Leicester as it's presented in these settings and are often baffled by the people who end up interviewed or speaking on them. Riaz mentions having been approached by someone in the media to provide a soundbite response to the comments by former Justice Secretary Jack Straw about Asian gangs grooming white girls. When he refused to say something inflammatory, he was dropped instantly. Nick is making a presentation to the Interfaith Forum for Leicestershire on Monday about faith and the media (jointly with John Florance and myself). What he says today is that the threshold is set too high in the media for stories about religion or belief. They're unwilling to publish anything about the everyday life of faith communities because it's deemed to be unnewsworthy, so for anything to get coverage it has to be something extraordinary - and that often means something negative.
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