MULTI-FAITH PEACE VIGIL IN LEICESTER CATHEDRAL THIS EVENING

There’s a multi-faith peace vigil in Leicester Cathedral this evening, starting at 1800. This morning, Barry Naylor spoke (by telephone) on BBC Radio Leicester shortly after 0800 this morning, telling Ben Jackson about this event. I transcribed the following short chunk of Ben’s programme from the BBC Radio Player:

Ben Jackson: “Tonight a vigil is being held at Leicester Cathedral, to bring peace and well-being to the city ahead of the marches. Now, earlier on this morning I heard from Barry Naylor (he’s the Urban Canon of the Diocese of Leicester) who told me that the vigil at the Cathedral last time the EDL and UAF were here, was such a success, they decided to do it again."

Barry Naylor: “We were really quite amazed at the Cathedral, we thought about 50 or 60 people might turn up, and the Cathedral was full. I think it was something that, on that occasion, people very much appreciated and valued and so we felt that it was appropriate and right to do the same thing this time as a statement that the people of faith in Leicester and other citizens of good will, of no particular faith, stand together and we value living in this city, we respect each other and that’s really what we’re trying to say this evening that that’s the way forward.”

Read my blog post about Leicester Cathedral's multi-faith vigil in October 2010, the evening before the first demo in Leicester city centre by the English Defence League.

POLICING IN 2012 AND BEYOND

To Leicester Town Hall early this evening for a public meeting with the Chair of Leicestershire Police Authority (Barrie Roper) and the Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police (Simon Cole). This is the first meeting in a series of four being held in different parts of the force area this month. The remaining meetings (all starting 1800) are:

• Wednesday 25 January, Harborough District Council, Market Harborough
• Monday 30 January, Rutland County Council, Oakham
• Tuesday 31 January, Police HQ, St Johns, Enderby

More than 50 people are gathered in the Council Chamber for the meeting, which is facilitated by Ben Jackson from BBC Radio Leicester.

In general terms, these meetings are being held so that Leicesterhire Police can listen to the public's concerns about the service they provide in these challenging times and so that they can clarify priorities, limitations and pressures and communicate information about new arrangements for policing and governance. Specifically, the meeting addresses two main topics:

• The budget for 2012-13, which will be set next month
• The new post of elected Police and Crime Commissioner

Election of a Police and Crime Commissioner for each police force area in England and Wales outside London will be the most radical change to governance of police in living memory. All the necessary information about this (including qualifications and qualities required of those who are considering standing for election to this post) is available on the Home Office website. The key dates for this process are:

• 15 November: election covering whole force area takes place
• 22 November: newly elected Commissioner assumes duties. Leicestershire Police Authority legally abolished on this date

Leicestershire Police Authority is responsible for managing the transition. Members of the public shouldn't notice the handover.

There are three members of Leicester Council of Faiths present this evening: our Chair, Cllr Manjula Sood; Director Gursharan Kaur Thandi; and Cllr Rashmikan Joshi. All three ask questions from the floor, on topics as diverse as how the ongoing cuts are affecting the daily life of officers on the beat, how the police are addressing religiously motivated hate crime and use of Asian language media outlets to attract wider support for meetings like this. A member of Leicester's Pagan community also spoke about the vulnerability of smaller groups which may be more likely to feel isolated and vulnerable, contrasting the local scene (mostly positive) with the national scene (not so), referring to a number of horse mutilations that have taken place in Cornwall and Wales and have been blamed on "witches".

Chief Constable Simon Cole takes a moment to focus on Hate Crime, with special reference to Leicestershire Police's Stamp It Out! campaign. He tells us that there were 510 recorded Hate Crimes in the force area in 2010, a number which fell closer to 400 in 2011. He reassures us that, "If you commit a Hate Crime in Leicester, Leicestershire or Rutland, we will catch you."

I've been impressed by how Leicestershire Police use social media in their workaday operations. They host frequent webchats, have a well-received and regularly updated Facebook page with over 14,000 likes and a constant flow of interesting and helpful information via several Twitterfeeds. It's a lazy cliche, usually put about by people who don't use social media and don't understand it (and perhaps, are scared by it) that it's a means for spreading misinformation, rumour and panic. In my experience, Leicestershire Police use it to quell those very things and do the opposite: they use social media to keep the public informed and involved. This was particularly the case during the visit of the English Defence League to Leicester in October 2010 and during the one evening when Leicester was brushed by the wave of social disturbances that swept much of England last summer, It's fascinating to see how social media is used at this meeting this evening. Chief Constable Simon Cole presents Leicestershire Police's review of 2011 in a video posted on their YouTube channel. Support staff are tweeting live the headlines from the presentations, then the gist of the Q&A session. As well as disseminating information about what's going on in the meeting, this allows interested parties not present in the room to participate through following the content, tweeting their own comments and questions and retweeting to their own followers. The hashtag for tweets sent from and about this meeting is #chiefandchair. Tweets from this evening's meeting are readable via that hashtag and it will be good for the remaining three meetings too.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2011, DAY 2: THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

For the second day in a row, I'm in the studio of BBC Radio Leicester early in the morning - even earlier today, as I'm doing Thought for the Day on Ben Jackson's Breakfast Show. I've barely slept, having lain awake until 0100, with this morning's task rattling round my head, then wide awake with a bang again at 0315. Thought for the Day is, at most, 90 seconds long. I've written 90-minute talks in less time and with less anxiety than it's taken to prepare this. John Florance sent me guidelines for TFTD and I've done my best to follow them. Ben's producer, Giles, gives my piece the once-over, okays it, then ushers me into the studio with Ben. After he's gone through today's papers' coverage of Russell and Flavia's exit from Strictly this weekend, Ben introduces me and I have the mic. In the same seat yesterday morning, speaking live with John Florance, I didn't feel nervous in the slightest - but this time, sticking to my own script, reading off the printed page, I do! Subjectively, my mouth feels dry, my voice sounds tremulous to me - though at the end, Ben congratulates me on content and delivery and says he looks forward to me coming back and doing another one. Very kind of him - but as I rise from the desk, I make the comment that the station's newsreader's jobs are safe.

Thought for the Day is repeated an hour later. Makes me wonder why I need to come in and do the first one live then! Anyway, here's my 90-seconds' worth, faithful reader:

Good morning

Ask someone to think of something good to say about Leicester, and more often than not they’ll describe a place where people of different beliefs, cultures, practices and traditions live and work side by side. We’ve developed a reputation for rubbing along happily enough, without ever really rubbing each other up the wrong way.

That’s the widely accepted image of Leicester today. But we shouldn’t take it for granted. Leicester got to be like this largely because a great many of its citizens have worked hard for decades now to overcome bigotry, intolerance and prejudice. It takes constant effort and vigilance today to keep it this way.  A lot of that hard work has concentrated on building trust, understanding and cooperation between the city’s diverse faith and cultural communities. That sums up the mission of Leicester Council of Faiths, which is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary.

This is the start of Inter Faith Week across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This national occasion offers us a chance to recognise and value what we do well locally. But it also helps us see how much work still has to be done. Inter Faith Week is a time for people of various religions or beliefs to come together to work for the common good. It gives us the chance to recognise and celebrate what Leicester does well – but it also reminds us that the work of building a united community never really ends and that we can all find our own part to play in this important collective effort of building a safer and happier future.