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January–February 2011 | Issue Nº3 | £2.95 www.norwichmagazine.co.uk
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contents Issue Nº03 January–February 2011
gazette Editor’s Letter 5 From digital people to angry students to departing arts supremos wendy roby 6 New Common Sense: why the web’s a great leveller interview 9 Illustrator Gemma Correll on her virtual shop window news 10 Protests, prison stories, off-the-pitch in the press 11 Raising tabloid hackles, and the key to happiness crossgrove 13 A curmudgeon on social media, and Eric Pickles’ parallel universe politics 14 Morphew, Smith, Ramsay and Wright: local democracy in action first person 16 Green councillor Adrian Ramsay argues against public service cuts
Photos: Jon Tonks (jonathan holloway), Jason Bye (Tuition fees)
Happenings 18 Art, literature, dialogue and zip wire know-how
enterprise the twitter effect 38 How to have a two-way conversation with customers insider 42 Simon Middleton expands his global reach
Home page 44 Buying and selling your home, the digital way
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entrepreneurs 45 The Pixiwoo sisters, YouTube phenomenon
culture restaurant review 48 103 Unthank Road: a culinary United Nations reviews 50 Early music, colonial drama, photography, religious art previews 52 Singer-songwriters, man vs nature, basketry, dragons, superheros listings 54 Great stuff to see and do in January and February puzzler 58 Win a magnum of champagne with our prize crossword With love 60 The King of Hearts’ founder Aude Gotto spleen 62 Who needs Facebook? asks Laura Potts Norwich Magazine Wine Club 46 Introducing our new wine club, in association with William Mason Fine Wines
features Education, education, education 20
With student anger rising, Belona Greenwood explores the potential impact of tuition fee rises and spending cuts on higher education in Norwich
Exit, stage left 26
Jonathan Holloway, Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s artistic director and chief executive since 2004, talks to Norwich Magazine before leaving for his new role in Perth, Western Australia
Facing up to the digital challenge 32
Is Norwich ready for the digital revolution? Charlie Watson investigates the technology businesses, media agencies and education leaders who are helping to grow the sector in the city
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Reader offers 47 Exclusive discounts at WaitroseDeliver, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Aurum and GO Outdoors!
Pay with your phone, sir? 43 Forget cash or cards, contactless is the way to go Front cover: Life in a digital world. Illustration by Richard Horne norwichmagazine January–February 2011 3
Propeller’s Richard III in rehearsal Tues 14 Dec - Sun 16 Jan JACK & THE BEANSTALK East Anglia's biggest and best traditional family pantomime £5 - £19 Tues 18 - Sat 22 January ST PETERSBURG BALLET THEATRE Lavish classical ballet - Swan lake and The Sleeping Beauty £6.50 - £32.50 Mon 24 - Sat 29 January FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Norfolk & Norwich Operatic Society with rousing musical £5.50 - £17.50 Tues 1 - Sat 12 February HAIRSPRAY Michael Starke and Micky Dolenz in feelgood musical £6 - £42.50 Sun 13 February BRITTEN SINFONIA English songs with tenor Mark Padmore £6 - £25 Tues 15 - Sat 19 February PROPELLER Award-winning, all male Shakespeare company with The Comedy of Errors and Richard III £5.50 - £22 Mon 21 - Thur 24 February SHAUN'S BIG SHOW Shaun the Sheep and friends in a music and dance extravaganza £5.50 - £14.50 Sat 26 February KINGS OF SWING Celebrating the great sounds of swing £5.50 - £18.50
BOX OFFICE: (01603) 63 00 00 BOOK ONLINE: www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk THEATRE STREET, NORWICH NR2 1RL
page five Editor’s letter
Digital city
Photo: Andi sapey
«Aude Gotto has some interesting things to say about arts funding and the people who make the decisions»
pWrite to letters@ norwichmagazine. co.uk or by post to: Letters Page, Norwich Magazine, 9 Rigby’s Court, Norwich NR2 1NT
T
he digital sector in Norwich appears to be in rude health. There’s no shortage, for example, of skilled people doing great work for companies whose clients range from local businesses to international corporations. There’s even a brand new special-interest group, Hot Source, that meets monthly, not for networking but to foster a sense of community and to boost the sector’s profile. What could be better? Dig a little deeper, though, and things aren’t quite so straightforward. Senior people in digital companies in the city bemoan the below-par digital and physical infrastructures in the city and the region, and they feel the digital sector (and thus the wider economy) would benefit from greater vision on the part of local and central government. Continuing this issue’s digital theme, we also take an entertaining turn through the world of social media, especially as used by local businesses. There are many small companies in the city that use Facebook and Twitter, among others, to build profile and win orders, but the enormous potential of social media for business is shown by Dark Bunny Tees, which gets 80 per cent of its business through Twitter, and by Sam and Nicola Chapman, sisters who have used YouTube to turn an interest in makeup artistry into Pixiwoo, a thriving business with online and offline elements. Creating a successful business is some way off for most of the students who have taken to the streets in protest at the proposed rises in university tuition fees and the abolition of the education maintenance allowance (EMA). Belona Greenwood meets some of the protesters and talks to senior staff at UEA, NUCA and City College. She also drops in on three politicians: Charles Clarke, Ian Gibson and Simon Wright. And on page 16, Adrian Ramsay, a city councillor and the Green Party’s national deputy leader, outlines his party’s response to the issue of tuition fees. Finally, Norwich said goodbye at the end of 2010 to two people whose work has transformed the city’s cultural landscape. Aude Gotto, the visionary founder of the King of Hearts, has stepped down after 20 years – but is staying in Norwich – and has some interesting things to say about arts funding and the people who make the decisions. Jonathan Holloway, the artistic director and chief executive of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival from 2004 to 2010, meanwhile, has left for a new job with the Perth International Arts Festival, in Western Australia. In a long interview, he looks back on six very successful years. And returning to the digital world, did I mention the way Laura Potts feels about Facebook? Turn to page 62 to find out. But she is not happy… Charlie Watson, editor
norwichmagazine January–February 2011 5
Higher education Funding, protest and change
£ducation, £ducation, £ducation
20 norwichmagazine January–February 2011
www.norwichmagazine.co.uk
Higher education Funding, protest and change
The proposed rise in tuition fees and cuts in funding for higher education are fanning the flames of a new student protest movement. Belona Greenwood explores the issues behind recent outbreaks of disorder and the potential impact on Norwich Photos: Jason Bye
norwichmagazine January–February 2011 21
Higher education Funding, protest and change
S
The students ome words slip out of the lexicon of everyday use and reappear, infused with new life, years later. Solidarity is a good example. It has been a ghost word, exiled to the political fringes during the 1990s. Now it is back, on the lips of students. The call to action has been the proposed trebling of tuition fees and extreme cuts to university funding in times of great uncertainty. Many students have experienced practical politics through protest and the shock of police tactics in London. Talking to students, it's clear that their concerns for social justice have grown wider and their non-violent opposition has been inspirational, and not just to the traditional left. Before the amnesia of Christmas, during the calendar of student marches and occupations leading up to the tuition fees vote on 9 December, there was a rally in Chapelfield Gardens called by the Norfolk Coalition Against the Cuts. Hundreds marched over packed ice to listen to the speakers. There were politicians and trade unionists, but the real excitement was for the student speakers. The crowd bristled with energy. Suddenly, in Norwich, the quietest and gentlest and (to some) slowest of the loci of protest in the country, there was a sense of common purpose. Both student speakers called for unity between trade unions and student unions, between people of all ages and from all walks of life. If this had been a stage set for Les MisĂŠrables, the crowd would have flocked to the barricades. Liam, from the University of East Anglia (UEA), and Adam, from the
22 norwichmagazine January–February 2011
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Higher education Funding, protest and change
«It's too soon to know how the cuts in funding for HE will affect NUCA, although... we could stand to lose almost all of our government funding»
occupation at Cambridge University, were passionate orators. Their concerns were not just for the narrowing of education, but for job losses and cuts to public services, and both were clear that this was a fight that was not going to end with December’s tuition fee vote. The shout was out for a general strike. ‘General strike’: two more words from the lexicon of disuse that shows just how far in a short time we have come in response to a searing timetable of privatisation and change. It indicates that 2011 – ironically, the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, symbol of peace and diplomacy, whose motto is ‘I retreat’ – will be an interesting if uncertain and turbulent 12 months. The last thing on Liam’s mind is giving in. A student of philosophy and politics, he sees a constant tension between people’s anger and their anxiety. “People’s level of confidence has been so low for so many years,” he says. “That’s why it’s our job to raise confidence.” He believes that the university cuts mean society as a whole will be worse off and for graduates there is little opportunity for jobs. “If we lose this one, I can’t think beyond it, because it’s such a barbaric thing. I come from a mining village where the pits closed – you could say I was a product of the miner’s strike, and afterwards there was nothing and the drugs moved in. It was horrible. How could life there get worse for people in those communities? Those are people heavily dependent on the public sector. I find it hard to see how it could get better on a personal level.” No one had ever talked about a student movement in Tasha’s lifetime. Now Tasha, a politics student at UEA, is passionate about working in politics when the protests are
over. She graduates in July, but doesn’t expect to find a job or climb on to the property market ladder, commonplace ambitions for past graduates: “I don't expect to be owning my own house, I think that’s quite strong. I expect to be renting for the rest of my life.”
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The institutions
Previous pages: Norwich students joined protestors from the around the country in London Opposite: City College students on the march Above right: Polly Wilson, president of NUCA’s student union
t is shocking to imagine Norwich without its culturally rich and exciting school of the arts, but last year the College and University Union warned that the survival of Norwich University College of the Arts (NUCA), 90 per cent of whose students are from state school backgrounds, could be under threat. There will be no state funding for arts and humanities, and those courses will only survive if students buy into them. Polly Wilson, president of NUCA’s student union, thinks the fees will put many off. “Debt still has stigma,” she says. Sarah Hamilton, speaking for NUCA, says the future is unclear. “It's too soon to know how the cuts in funding for HE will affect Norwich University College of the Arts, although if, as is widely anticipated, funding for the arts and humanities is substantially cut, we could stand to lose almost all of our government funding. This is notwith standing the significant economic and social contribution of the creative industries within the UK and our mission to be a centre of excellence for creativity and enterprise, fostering new talent for the creative industries and contributing to economic and social development.” Tom Ward, pro vice chancellor at UEA, is sympathetic to the students. He thinks the speed of the changes is disturbing. “There's a feeling that we’re making some norwichmagazine January–February 2011 23
Higher education Funding, protest and change
«Normal economies spend 1 per cent of their GDP on higher education. We spend 0.7 per cent. We’re conducting a gigantic experiment»
quick changes which will be permanent,” he explains. “We may end up with a university sector that’s not the shape we want. We should be shaping the university sector in the national interest for the long term.” UEA will take a huge cut and there is no income to make up for it in the short term, but Ward doesn’t believe the university will be derailed: “This university has been very prudently managed for many years and has planned for these difficulties for a long time.” The university aims to ensure that there will be no repercussions on the student experience. “Long term, it all depends on there being a sensible plan to fund higher education. The big picture is that normal economies spend 1 per cent of their GDP on higher education. We spend 0.7 per cent. We're conducting a gigantic experiment with this.” Dick Palmer, principal of City College, has been lobbying the government to rethink its abolition of the educ ation maintenance allowance (EMA) and the £3.5 million cut to the teaching grant for HE institutions, and he doesn’t look as though he is about to surrender. City College also faces the impact of Norfolk County Council’s withdrawal of the public transport subsidy for 16–19 year olds. About 2,500 get EMA payments, and 1,000 City College students receive transport subsidies. Palmer worries about the haste of changes. The EMA goes this month and to ask people in a “low-skilled, low-paid economy” like Norfolk’s to cover
Simon Wright Late November and confused tourists wander down a Whitehall that's empty of traffic and squared off by police in a grid around Westminster. Police dogs bark out of sight, police horseboxes are parked up behind a squad of vans. Simon Wright’s office in Portcullis House is yards from all the action, but it could be a building in another country. Wright, the Liberal Democrat MP for Norwich South, does not come across as a natural rebel, but after long consideration and on the morning of a debate with Dr Ian Gibson and Aaron Porter, National Union of Students president at UEA, he announced his decision to vote against the government on tuition fees. He could do little else as a good constituency MP representing the views of his constituents. For Simon Wright is passionate about the more intimate, day-to-day work of being a parliamentarian – it is the part of the job that brings him most personal reward. He is the first to say he has been on a steep learning curve working out the ways of the house, and what it means to be part of a coalition. The issue of tuition fees was personally very difficult. There was much that he saw that was positive in the government package: the changes for part-time students, for example, and the increase in graduate earnings to £21,000 before repayments begin. In a wider sense, he explained, coalition government means compromise, and despite his vote the strength of commitment to the coalition is still there, because he sees the role of the Lib Dems as that of an intervention 24 norwichmagazine January–February 2011
force. “What I say is that the Lib Dems have a sense of social justice and protecting the most vulnerable, and we can deliver on all sorts of principles that wouldn’t have been in place if we’d stepped back and been an oppositional party. “I think that we all recognise that we’ve got an enormous challenge, particularly to public services – without just hacking away and cutting away at budgets so that you can actually reshape them and still deliver a policy and service that you do want at a time when finances are so tight. But I do think we’re absolutely ready to confront that and see this coalition through to the next four and a half years, because, ultimately, as Lib Dems we can get things done.”
Above left: police lines at London demo Opposite (top): UEA students make a statement Right (above): Dick Palmer, principal of City College Right (below): Tom Ward, pro vice chancellor of UEA www.norwichmagazine.co.uk
Higher education Funding, protest and change
«Heads will roll over this. There will be by-elections»
the lost revenue is a “very big ask.” The changes affect students who wouldn’t study anywhere else. “Cutting the teaching grant and abolishing EMA and axing Aim Higher [an organisation to promote and support young people into university education] is a massive disincentive,” Palmer says.
I
The politicians t was Labour’s Peter Mandelson who took our universities out of Education and placed them under the awning of Business, Skills and Industry, thus signalling a change in the purpose, management and future of universities. Charles Clarke, then the education secretary and Labour MP for Norwich South, first introduced top-up fees in 2004; he overcame Dr Ian Gibson’s vigorous backbench rebellion by just five votes. Clarke doesn’t regret the introduction of tuition fees, but points out that in his time the teaching grant wasn’t also being cut. The coalition government, he says, sees higher education much more as an adornment for the well-off. “I do not object, as some people do, to a contribution,” he explains, “but these programmes like Aim Higher, if you cut them, it will stop people from disadvantaged backgrounds accessing university.” Dr Ian Gibson, former Labour MP for Norwich North, is firmly behind the students and defends the idea of higher education as a social benefit that should be free. He agrees with the students that the fees protest is just the beginning. “The battle is going to go on for a year or so. Heads will roll over this. There will be by-elections. The students are up in arms, bless them,” he says. “Bless them.” norwichmagazine January–February 2011 25
laura potts Spleen
The forces of digital darkness Facebook, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways... Illustration: Fay Elizabeth Heffer
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hen I was 13, Kevin the Stoner mumbled a request for the next slow song at our first middle school dance. I didn’t want to appear stuck-up, but Kev – the living embodiment of MTV’s Beavis and Butthead – was the last person I wanted to be up close to. The song, ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ was a bitter irony, made worse when midway through its endless eight minutes, KTS asked me to be his girlfriend. My response wasn’t what he’d hoped for. I don’t think he ever spoke to me again. Now, 20 years later, a bigger but no less drug-addled KTS wants to be my friend. On Facebook. His status update that day: “just poped some vicodin and man i’m flyying high!” Again, I decline. In fact, when the Facebook account allegedly belonging to me (more on this later) went live, KTS was the first person to try ‘friending’ me. Never mind that we haven’t spoken in two decades and – unless I move back and need a ready supply of narcotics – are unlikely ever to exchange words or dance moves again. My point being, Kevin the Stoner is the face of Facebook. I’m not suggesting everyone on Facebook is cooking meth in the bathtub in between ‘pokes’. I’m not even saying it doesn’t have some redeeming value. I am saying that Facebook and its ilk are the wretched hellchildren of the technological age. For years, I resisted the badgering of far-flung loved ones who insisted that Facebook was the way to sustain relationships across the miles. I stood firm, vowing never to join. But in the immortal words of Dr Seuss: “I said, and said, and said those words. I said them. But I lied them.” It all began when my husband created an account, as a fund-raising vehicle for a charity cycle ride. Incensed, I called him a traitor, a turncoat, a joiner-of-the-forces-of-darkness. He responded by setting up an account for me. Without my knowledge or consent. Hence my bafflement at KTS’s friending request when I next checked my email. Which brings me to my first point: 1. You’re there whether you know it or not. Even without a devious spouse who gets his kicks plotting against everything you stand for, chances are you still have a presence on Facebook. Ever been in a photo? Ever walked past a family posing by a landmark? You’re probably on someone’s photo gallery. And that’s just weird. Also, it’s... 2. Creepy. I don’t care what flimsy assurances Facebook gives about privacy, isn’t it rather odd how those targeted ads appear? And who intercepted that message posted to your friend? I’ll tell you who: my dad. He has a Facebooker’s two worst characteristics: he’s insatiably nosy and has all the time in the world. Plenty of my real-life friends who, unlike me, lack the spine to refuse his virtual friendship now have their every Facebook move reported to me by my retired father, who can think of few more worthwhile pursuits than perusing unfortunate
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«Facebook and its ilk are the wretched hellchildren of the technological age» photos of our distant past. (A typical conversation starts, “Laura, why were you wearing a Viking helmet with the horns pointed different ways, and who’s that slumped on your shoulder?”) 3. It’s the undead, which means... 4. Every mundane, inappropriate and vacuous status update will remain for evermore. I don’t care that in five minutes your weekend begins, or that you’re doing laundry and can’t identify a stain. Worse, if something truly dreadful happens, is Facebook the best place to announce it? Are we so removed from basic human interaction that we seek consolation from people we wouldn’t bother to ring, much less embrace? And could there be anything lazier or less sincere than online protest pages? Get out there and burn bras! Smash party headquarters! Throw real cream pies at real, live people! 5. Finally: friends. Why are people compelled to ‘friend’ someone they hardly know or vaguely recall from a previous life? For bragging rights? Or because once friend-requested, they (like me) don’t want to be rude? This might be what I resent most. If you want to be my friend on Facebook, you’d better be in my phone or email contacts. The demands of Facebook introduce a level of commitment, stress and guilt I just don’t need. And yet, my profile remains. Because to take it down would risk the ire of people I care about, who genuinely find it a pleasant, convenient way of staying connected, and don’t share my neurotic misgivings about its invasive, all-consuming nature. Plus, I’m a sucker for gossip. You asked for it, Facebook friends: come retirement, I’ll be your worst nosy nightmare. www.norwichmagazine.co.uk
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