I’m going to vote for George Ferguson.

I didn’t want an elected mayor. I voted ‘No!’. It was Cameron’s idea, it costs money which no-one can afford, and you might get some tosser doing it like in London. But Bristol has spoken! Not loudly it’s true – no, Bristol has whispered! By a slight margin, Bristol wants an elected mayor. Willy nilly, we’re having one now, so we’d better get someone good.

I’ve lived in Bristol for over twenty years and my son is Bristolian. I accept the lamentable fact, however, that I am not Bristolian, even so. You aren’t allowed to be Bristolian unless a) you were born in Bristol, b) you designed a suspension bridge, or c) you wear the wrong trousers. George Ferguson has only been here for a paltry 47 years, and the fact that his children are Bristolian counts for nothing, but surely he’s won an honorary Bristolianship on the third count. Also he saved the cranes. What more do you want? The council wanted to pull them down! And that’s just one example.

Anyway, I’ve put myself on the proverbial line and I’ve written a campaign song for him so I’ve got to vote for him now. I tried to put it into two verses and three bridges – and of course I hope it helps, but there wasn’t quite enough space to say…

that although I have an almost genetic distrust of architects… and I can’t find out who’s responsible for making some sections of our magnificent floating harbourside look like urban Siberia and just have to assume it wasn’t him because he has better taste…

He’s basically a decent bloke – call me naive, but I think he’s in the race because he genuinely cares about the place and the people – a devotion he’s demonstrated very clearly by pledging to take the mayoral income in Bristol pounds if he gets the job; his seven point plan shows a pretty good grasp of what people want and need here; he has the air of a mayor (should have put that in the song) – a certain recognisability and presence and an easiness in his dealings with the press and the public; he’s independent, so he’s not going to be hamstrung by party interests and can represent all of Bristol’s people not just one party or class or section or whatever you want to call it; he’s green – he cares about sustainability – which must be the most important issue of all – there won’t be a Bristol if there isn’t a planet! (for example, he was one of the originators of Sustrans when it was Cyclebag, he masterminded the Brunel mile); he inspires and motivates people; he’s done loads of good things for Bristol though he didn’t have to (eg The Tobacco Factory which kickstarted a regeneration of Bedminster); he supports creativity, talent and imagination; he gets things done; he’s interested in using resources that exist – for example by putting established buildings to interesting new uses rather than demolishing them and building whatever makes a profit; his feeling about urban space has to do with the people that use and see and live with it; he wants to put Bristol first in the sense of making it a priority in any mayoral decisions – and to put Bristol first in the sense of Bristol becoming a pioneer and example to other cities.

We might have some catching up to do…

Newcastle has been Forum for the future’s greenest city for two years running and with the establishment in 2010 of the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability continues to demonstrate its will towards a greener future and intelligence on how to achieve it. Bristol’s high position on the league was largely due to its high ranking in quality of life – green spaces, health, employment (really?) and education (I wonder which schools they included to score that?) and transport. We may have improved our air quality somewhat in the last four years, but it’s certainly not through any joined up thinking about Transport. We desperately need a more sustainable more integrated and cheaper public transport system, as well as better provision for cyclists and pedestrians and more affordable car sharing schemes – to take pressure off roads and make social and business life possible without car ownership.

There’s also a clear need for the support and promotion of small scale local business and local and urban agriculture, which as well as being more sustainable than big business could provide more interesting employment opportunities. I cannot understand why we’re content to rely so heavily on imports for the most basic of necessities – food – when we could grow almost everything ourselves. (Potatoes from Israel?!! It’s totally senseless.)

‘In the light of climate change and resource depletion, it may be that the role of local food is no longer an optional extra, but a key necessity in a resource-constrained future. In the wider context of economic localisation, economist David Fleming writes, “…localisation stands, at best, at the limits of practical possibility, but it has the decisive argument in its favour that there will be no alternative” (Fleming 2006).’ (‘Can Totnes Feed Itself’; Rob Hopkins, Mark Thurstain-Goodwin and Simon Fairlie, 2009)

It’s been estimated that 84% of Bristol’s groceries are supplied by only five companies – you can guess them; many parts of Bristol have no access to independent food retailers and little access to fresh food; and Bristol has significantly more Tesco stores per head than other similar sized cities (from Who Feeds Bristol? (March 2011) Big business is bad for people – global big business relies on oil and on an easily exploitable low wage workforce. I don’t trust any of the Tory local enterprise initiatives – which I guess are about enabling big money makers to get around planning restrictions and do more of the damaging things they already do. More important is to remove restrictive red tape from small businesses that can’t so easily afford to follow it or employ someone to work out how to get round it, businesses who actually pay taxes. Encouraging the local economy might be quite simple – preferential rates could be given to those shops which sold a certain percentage of locally produced merchandise. That might make them competitive with highly advertised high branded high financed high tax avoidant shops. That’s just an example – where there’s a will there are many ways. As things stand – well why did the council insist on allowing Tesco to build a new supermarket in an area which so clearly didn’t want it? How’s that for a response to a local community? I hope the people of Stokes Croft do organise a community owned supermarket. Initiatives like that could benefit from a sympathetic mayor. Anyway here’s what’s happening in Hackney for some inspiration (not that they get any help from Boris – they don’t).

Birmingham has two great internationally renowned concert halls; Bristol is, according to the Performing Rights Society, Britain’s most musical city, yet our concert hall has one of the worst acoustics of any in the country. Instead of putting twenty million pounds into improving the musical facility, the powers that be decided to provide it with a wonderful copper coated staircase, in which a lucky few local bands can be ignored by a chattering audience for a few quid. Oh yes, there are also plenty of opportunities to play for free, and plenty of those opportunities will give you rubbish sound as part of the bargain.

The above sketches out my own foremost feelings and concerns; there are limits to what could be achieved in a four year term and George Ferguson might have different priorities. But I feel that he is the one most likely to be sympathetic to those causes; and where he is sympathetic, to have some muscle in achieving real change.

We are the only city that went for an elected mayor. It’s probable that many of the yesses had George Ferguson in mind (though the actual yes campaigners claim to be non-partisan and have now set up, with others, the Bristol Manifesto where you can lodge your own opinions). I feel the faintest touch of hope and excitement at the possibility that he will win, but whatever Bristol decides, there needs to be a big turnout – so whoever gets the job has strong support from everyone here, not just the few already engaged and already powerful, as usually happens.

The vote is on Thursday, 15th November 2012. Think of the Peterloo massacre! Think of the suffragettes! Don’t just let George do it – let George do it!!