Tim Garratt's Blog

I normally have a lot to shout about Robin Hood. But my evangelism is to promote Nottingham with the City’s best loved (?) son.

Yesterday our local MP Graham Allen tabled a motion in the Houses of Parliament promoting a new Robin Hood tax, I quote in part:

As someone born and bred in Nottingham and one of the City’s Parliamentary representatives it gives me a special pleasure to introduce this short debate on the idea of a “Robin Hood” tax . Remarkably the proposal to debate this issue is so convincing that it has the active support of the current Sheriff of Nottingham.

The social contract between banks and society needs to be re-written, so that banks give something back to the societies they serve and ensure we can live up to our commitments to tackle poverty and climate change, at home and abroad.

A Robin Hood Tax is a timely solution that can tackle, head-on, the major financing challenges we face while renewing the social contract between banks and society. Continuing public anger at the institutions that caused the crisis makes the introduction of the tax not just possible but popular. Reputationally helpful for bankers and politicians

It would be quick to implement and would raise significant funds. The UK could unilaterally introduce a levy on wholesale trades of sterling, no matter where in the world they take place, with the proceeds being captured automatically at the point of settlement. This would raise at least £3 billion a year and would not adversely affect UK trade, as a 0.005% FTT would be comfortably absorbed in the current margins.

So Robin is now being turned into a tax man – something he must surely would have him turning in his grave.

It all sounds very compelling – a tiny tax. With no impact on consumers. £3bn a year for doing nothing. Reputationally helpful for Bankers and Politicians. It also seems to have widespread support judging by the website set up.

On the face of it, it’s probably a good idea. But, we are a nation obsessed with taxation. I do have a concern about this; top rates of income tax for the highest earners are now 50%. National Insurance creeps ever higher – and is nothing short of a stealth tax. VAT has slipped back up to 17.5%. We are told it’s not going to get better. Of course some people just avoid the UK tax system!

I wouldn’t mind all of this if I thought the Government were any good at spending the money they collect. In reality, and in my opinion, they’re not… You don’t have to look far for examples.

As I continue to write my presentation for MIPIM I decided to spend an hour at Nottingham Castle yesterday morning.

I needed some stock shots – and with the bright blue sky, this was an ideal day! My son, Jak came with me.

Although I am convinced that Nottingham should capitalise on Robin Hood by building a new visitor attraction, there have been doubters. They come from all walks of life. Some write to the Evening Post and bemoan any sort of ambition the City has. Some work for the Council and think that the current Castle is just fine as it is (an Art Gallery). Some people tell me they have heard it all before and nothing will ever happen (the defeatists!). Some believe that only the private sector can get the thing to fly.

My personal view is that Nottingham needs to think big. We do ‘own’ Robin Hood – he doesn’t belong at the side of a runway in Doncaster.

And yesterday, in the sunshine I watched a coach load of tourists arrive. I think they were German! There were Japanese tourists too – trying to get their picture by the statute of Robin Hood. All were talking excitedly in their own mother tongue.

I couldn’t help but wonder though whether they would leave Nottingham feeling ever so slightly let down? The Castle isn’t a real Castle – it’s a Ducal Palace. There’s no real story of Robin Hood being told. There was no Robin Hood and his band of merry men wandering around. This is where we are missing a trick – people want to come and be part of the story.

My son said afterwards that there was ‘nothing there’. Perhaps that’s a bit harsh – but I know what he means. The offer is limited!

With the film coming out in just over two months time – the visitors will not lessen! Now’s the time for the City to get Robin back and make something of him – the benefits for the whole City could be enormous!

In amongst the chaos of last week I did some “Sheriff’s Commission” work.

I have been asked to do a small talk at MIPIM 2010 – explaining the work of the commission. So the pressure is on to get a presentation together. Some of the work I have done before about the lessons we learned from the USA trip is really helpful.

There is also some ‘new’ news to share – Nottingham is to get an exclusive exhibition of the props and artefacts from the new Robin Hood film. The exhibition is being designed by the set designer of the film.

But Nottingham is also having a Robin Hood month during May 2010 – to coincide with the release of the film. There are lots of events planned.

Castle Brewery are making a special Robin Hood brew. And a cheese is apparently fermenting as I blog!

We are also hoping to have the trailer for the film at MIPIM. Rumours that Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott will visit Nottingham are unconfirmed – but this will be a great boost for us.

At last Nottingham is starting to capitalise on the world brand that is Robin Hood. There are lots of ideas emerging – and some big ones for a major attraction. We have a long way to go. MIPIM is an excellent platform on which we can evangelise about the story.

The only thing that I won’t surprise anyone with is that, despite rumours to the contrary – I will not be wearing green tights!

Nor, apparently, is Cate Blanchett making a guest apperance in my talk…I have asked!

UPDATE 5.3.10

See here for the latest edition of Notice Nottingham all about MIPIM, also here specifically about the Sheriffs Commission and my talk!

UPDATE 9.3.10

See the story in tonights Nottingham Evening Post (online here) about the Broadway Cinema – which will be showing films during Robin Hood month.

With just over three weeks to go before the Le Marche International des Professionnels de l’ Immobilier (MIPIM) final preparations are underway. Investor numbers are reported to be up.

Nottingham City Council will be at the show – promoting the City on the world stage. In fact the leader of the Councillor is going very green this year – he’s cycling there! You can sponsor him and Nigel Turpin here. It’s for a great cause – he is raising money for Maggie’s locally.

It looks like there will also be some publicity around Robin Hood – both in terms of the film (due for release on May 14th in the UK) but also some information about the work of the Sheriff’s Commission. I have been on the advsory board of the Commission for the last seven months or so. Some of the key timefames and ideas can be found here. There are some great further Ideas emerging – which I might be presenting in Cannes. I will share them on the blog.

I saw the Sheriff in the week – it is clear that he remains really enthusiastic about how Nottingham capitalise on the Robin Hood brand. We still have some way to go in bringing about a world class attraction to the City – but I remain convinced that it can be done. The World Cup in 2018 might be a driver – it’s not actually that far away when you consider what we need to do. In a nutshell we need an Investor. Public Finances in the next few years are going to be restricted.

One of the things that will happen is Robin Hood month in May (to coincide with the film). Armour making, Jousting and Archery are planned for the Castle. But we are fortunate in that Universal Studios have been kind enough to loan us props from the film – it is hoped that these will be on show! The Broadway Cinema is having a season of films around Robin Hood. Then there is the excellent Castle Rock brewery which is brewing a special Robin Hood Ale…

At last, Nottingham is beginning to realise the value of Robin Hood as a brand for the city. For too many years we have been reticent about his importance.

I am really enthusiastic about what we can do with Robin Hood. He doesn’t run an airport near Doncaster – he belongs to Nottingham. Or as John Paul Davis said “Robin Hood and Nottingham go together like peaches and cream”. I rest my case.

I woke up yesterday to the dulcet tones of the Today Programme on Radio 4 – to hear all about Nottingham Contemporary. It seems that the second exhibition – which opens today has attracted national coverage!

I might still have my doubts about the architecture as I have blogged about before. But I cannot deny that if the budget figures of 5,000 visitors for the opening exhibition are a genuine test of success then that is what it was. A huge success – with 18,000 people going to see the Hockney exhibition.

But the next exhibition might be more of a challenge. For the next twelve weeks we have ‘Star City‘. Which is a retrospective about the space race with emphasis on the communist approach n the early 1960’s. Evidently we have some soviet propaganda posters of Yuri Gagarin – who sounded such a hero when I was a kid. (This is despite the fact he made his historic mission the year before I was born!)

Both Graham Chapman, Deputy leader of the Council and Alex Farquharson, Director at the Gallery were interviewed and asked whether Nottingham Contemporary had contributed to the regeneration of the City. The consensus was ‘yes’. Arguing that people were being drawn to this part of the city again and that those visitors included young folks were two reasons that this was a success. That there has been a buzz was quoted too.

The city has much to be proud of and this facility adds to a really good offer.

We next need to work on the Robin Hood story – which can fit nicely with art. To that end I am seeing the Sheriff of Nottingham again next week to see what progress we can make – principally to capitalise on the new film…

Watch this space!! And go and see the Contemporary – if you do let me know what you think! The food is great….

UPDATE 14 FEBRUARY

We did visit the Gallery today to see the exhibition. It is certainly interesting – I particularly enjoyed some of the films.

If I am honest I didn’t enjoy it as much as Hockney – some of the art is more challenging! In the same way that I struggle with some of Tracey Emin’s work – there was some stuff here that had the same questionable art credibility (the blank sheet of white paper?). It was interesting to see the Russian posters form the 1960’s – they do have a certain ’style’. It was a time when the USSR was painting a very positive picture of the space race – which they effectively won with the launch of Sputnik. The full scale model is fascinating – it is tiny! Some of the propaganda films are interesting too – ’spin’ in the 1960’s.

We did manage lunch in the Cafe – great food at a reasonable price. I love my chips in a bean can!

There was some great coverage yesterday of the Walk of Fame in Tinseltown – centred around the fact that it celebrates its 50th year and Ringo Starr was about to become the 2,401st celebrity to be immortalised in a paving slab.

It turns out that the first was Stanley Kramer back in 1960. Since then the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce have ‘managed’ the whole process and now charge $25,000 for each little square of marble with brass inlay. The whole walk now stretches over 3.5 miles!

I actually visited the walk of Fame when I was in the USA with the Sheriff of Nottingham last September. You might have seen previous blogs about the trip. The summary is here.

One of the ideas we had was to have a Walk of Fame in Nottingham – accepting that this would be on a smaller scale…

But we have some great people who were either born or spent their working lives here – they each tell part of the Nottingham story.

Some candidates:

Sir Paul Smith – fashionista
Jessee Boot – pharmacy
Robin Hood – good bloke
Lord Byron – poet
D H Lawrence – author
Su Pollard – actress
Richard Beckinsale – actor
Leslie Crowther – TV personality
Jane Torvill & Christopher Dean (one each I think!) – skaters
Stella Rimington – MI5

There are lots of others – but wouldn’t it be fun and entertaining to get this started?

And as Paul McCartney doesn’t have his star in Hollywood I am sure we could let him have one here – just so long as he doesn’t mention football?

Readers of my blog will (hopefully) realise that I am passionate about my home City of Nottingham. I really do want the best for the City. Much of my work is based here so it matters about how the City looks in physical and social terms.

We haven’t always had a good press – especially on the crime front, but the figures show a reduction in the figures. There is still much room for improvement – but we are going in the right direction.

I was watching the brilliant TED last night and came across a talk by Kiran Bir Sethi which is really inspirational. If you have 10 minutes to spare – watch it here.

What is fascinating about the talk is the simplicity of the approach – engaging kids at an early stage.

Kiran talks about the kids going on a journey, which has three key components:

Aware – see the change
Enable – be changed
Empower – lead the change

The children were immersed in some real life experiments – which they then formed their own clear opinions on. They had such conviction about what they had learned that they went out onto the streets to ‘change the world’.

The lessons in the talk are just brilliant – and something we should think about!

I am involved in the early stages of a project with Outerarc where we hope to introduce a competition in schools with the Sheriff of Nottingham and Lord Mayor of Nottingham to reduce energy use in schools (not the PE sort of energy!). After our initial meeting we were thinking that the collaboration we will encourage for the project can be easily extended into other areas.

If we can get the kids engaged in the aspects of what makes a city great we might have a chance of making it an even better place. But then you come across the thorny issue of what makes a City great. Some ideas:

The Physical environment – great buildings and places.
People – in all their guises
Day and Night activities – including great food!
A Centre – the Market Square
Diversity – in everything
Art – including the Contemporary
Education – our celebrated Universities and Colleges

There’s then my mini-campaign to tell everyone that Nottingham is (probably) the friendliest place in the world.

We should have some new advocates – the children of Nottingham!

Just a reminder blog about Nottingham going forward into 2010. There are lots of reasons to be proud of the City and in 2010 we want to make it even better.

Have a look at the Invest in Nottingham website for lots of positive news.

But a reminder of the headlines:

Nottingham is one of eight ‘Core Cities‘
Nottingham has two world class Universities, Nottingham Trent University & The University of Nottingham
Nottingham attracts 34 million visitors each year and for 2010 it is a top three tourist destination in the World
Nottingham is a top twenty city for A level results
Nottinghams economy is worth £12.1billion
Nottingham is one of the UK’s six Science Cities
Nottingham is ranked 7th in the top ten UK Shopping destinations

And that’s before we start with Robin Hood. All eyes will be on us in May as the new Ridley Scott Robin Hood movie hits the silver screen. Nottingham will start to see some of the ideas of the Sheriffs Commission start to come forward.

We have a lot to look forward to in 2010. I will be at MIPIM in March as part of the team promoting investment in the City; a job that is not difficult!

This is a great city in which to work and play. We need to remind everyone – and my campaign starts proper:

Nottingham – the friendliest city in the world. Probably.

UPDATE 12th January 2010

There’s a really good article in the Times Online about Nottingham and reasons to visit – read it here. The Times can’t be wrong!

“I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty and tired whereas the pig likes it“. The quote has been attributed to many people – George Bernard Shaw, Cyrus Ching and Creighton Abrams.

I had forgotten it until a few days ago – when I got into a ‘discussion’ with an anonymous ‘reader’ of the Nottingham Evening Post – on-line version. You can read the exchange here. It was about the story I blogged about a few days ago – an opportunity to work in Minsk.

I was slightly disappointed that readers could be so negative and prejudiced about a potentially positive story for Nottingham. Their ‘beef’ was that this was a ‘jolly’ or that there was some ‘communist connection’. I had tried to point out some facts – but quickly realised that their views were pretty much ingrained and unlikely to alter. That some of the comments are wildly inaccurate is just frustrating – trying to explain is really a waste of time.

I think the idea of social media is really exciting (hence my blog, twitter etc.) – and it is great that we can get a story validated / commented upon in real time. But the art is sifting the drivel and prejudice from the fact or interesting viewpoint.

Most of the argument was with B J Mann who starts most of his comments with “Errrrrrrrrrmmmmmmm”! He wants to see me in Court as I have something to hide about how my trip will be funded. For some reason he thinks he is paying for me. As I act for some public sector organisations he pays….That’s a bit like me asking the Police not to stop me for speeding as I pay their wages. His arguments ran out when he finished his rant explaining that he licked cows bottoms – the comment has since been moderated (i.e. removed).

Someone called ‘M’ in Gedling said – “i wonder which council freeloaders will be going on this jolly ? i bet the mayor will , and he will probably come back and ask the EP readers for advice just like the usa jaunt“. As far as I can see there are no Councillors going on the trip to Minsk. It was the Sheriff who went to the USA – not the Mayor. Asking for ideas on our return was to include as many ideas as possible – damned if you do and damned if you don’t?

If you get into a discussion – as I did – there is a point that you need to realise that you are fighting a pig (metaphorically speaking) – and gently retire to a safe distance! Preferably before you get tired and dirty…

Note to self – don’t waste you time in future!

I blogged before about the findings of our trip to the USA when I attempted to distill what made a world class attraction into 17 words. I chose the theme on the back of a Daniel Libeskind talk. This was always going to be a challenge – and my colleague Nick Hammond has been speaking to many of the stakeholders on the Sheriff’s Commission.

I was delighted last week when he told me we had some more words to add to the list! And these are:

Memorable
Engaging
Friendly
Theatrical
Stimulating

I agree with the inclusion of all of these words – they should help inform the Commission and the shape of a new attraction. We are trying to keep the message simple for the specification of the new attraction – whatever it might be!

With the news last week that Nottingham had won the right to hold some of the qualifying matches for the World Cup 2018 (assuming England win their bid!) this gives us some real focus. It was always assumed that the attraction would take a number of years – but 2018 is within sight and is probably realistic.

In the meantime though, there are some things we would like to try and achieve – these might include a Medieval Market, a Mayflower project, A Robin Hood Trail (we are aware that one already exists) and possibly a Volunteer bureau. We also need to capitalise on the new Ridley Scott directed Robin Hood film – due for a release in May 2010. This will certainly reinvigorate the story of Robin Hood…

I look forward to the Commission Advisory Panel meetings in 2010!