GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

evidence. Taking Susan Hampshire into Moss Side in 1994 where the Sunday

Times likened it to LA and Beirut means you have to remove the perception. I

take Susan Hampshire into Moss Side, politicians come in, businessmen come

in and all of a sudden it is a nice place to be, because we started to broker and

sell the notion of the art of the possible. We cannot talk to those above the

radar, we have got to go to those below the radar, so you have got to

sequentially move up and down that escalator, socially broking, socially

pioneering and enabling. The Youth Charter has always brokered quietly. You

will not know it exists, because that has been my embarrassment and my

frustration. It is not about an industry, it is a movement, like you are, owned by

the movement for the movement. How apt.

Those were graffiti artists at Salford Keys. They marked that territory, now

Media City. Not one, not even Banksy touched it, because we signed a

covenant and what we said we would do, we would do. No gang member has

ever let me down in 26 years of dealing with them. Politicians, that is another

discussion for another time. (Laughter) The Commonwealth Games, the

successful Commonwealth Games. 10 cities, 100 tickets to each community.

We have not got the transport. We got 100 tickets courtesy of the Guardian

Media Group, the late Sir Bob Phyllis, God rest his soul, and they all got

organised and sorted and they came to Manchester. Community

empowerment. It is the only way we are going to achieve this and address this

problem, this challenge, should I say. They all came up and the Stonebridge

Estate squared off against the Manningham Estate, but they all took the special

needs school from Wolverhampton to those games. Guess why. Moi. I told

them what they could not do and I told them what they could do. I was firm, I

was clear, I was objective, I was proportionate, but I did sow a little seed of

fear. A little bit of fear is great for the discipline, great for the focus. But from

those games, Connecting Communities. As we went from 2002 to 2005, we

secured the London 2012 Games and those games pledged to inspire a

generation. I am sure all of you will know where you were in 2012, good, bad

or indifferent, a time when I believe this country found itself and discovered

itself. There were lots of challenges, but at the same time sport and the arts

really became the vaccine and the antidote for society and the rest of the world,

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