Talk about change (From Stroud News and Journal)

Talk about change

BIG Issue founder John Bird MBE will be giving a talk in Amberley next week on taking back responsibility for our communities from the politicians.

"It's really about community revival and rethinking political and social involvement," he said.

"My message is simple: we've given too much power to the politicians and ought to be taking more responsibility for our communities."

Mr Bird has been taking his message everywhere from prisons to vaunted Oxbridge lecture theatres and in these disenchanted days it has been well-received wherever he goes.

"If there's going to be a great revival it's not going to come from one of the major political parties, it's going to come from us," he said.

If people wanted change, he said, they needed to overcome their apathy and get stuck in to their own big issues.

"Going to make a cross on a piece of paper once every four years is just not enough," he said.

People needed to rethink their way of getting things done, he said, giving the example of the wave of protest against the Iraq war - which achieved nothing.

"If one thousand people had joined the Labour Party rather than three million marching in London that would have driven a coach and horses through Mr Blair's plans," he said.

"Politics today is like a broken sewer and you can't ignore a broken sewer. "You've got to wade in there and clean in it up.

"It's like the choice between homebaked bread and what you can buy in the supermarket. "Off-the-shelf politics will never compare to what we create ourselves."

Mr Bird is currently in the process of launching a new magazine, ITTIA (I Think Therefore I Act) which he hopes will offer the building blocks for community action, looking at best practice and solutions to overcome some of the hurdles faced by community activists.

The Amberley talk will help fund community action in its own right as the proceeds will go towards the appeal to raise funds for a new oak floor for the village's parish room.

Tickets are priced at £6, which includes a glass of wine, and are available from Sara Mason on 01453 872412 or from Amberley Post Office.