Tigger, Desi, and Guarding the Guards
Head off to collect greyhound 'Tigger' from Farnworth. He is a throughbred racing greyhound of around two years of age. The original owner rejected the whole litter of six at just six months of age and so he was rehomed through Tia Greyhound Rescue which is in West Yorkshire.
My original lurcher Ottey passed through the same way with her mum and most of her 11 siblings. Her brother Hooch was rehomed as a very young dog, too young, and as a 'whippet'. When he had grown to 28" high at the shoulder by age seven months, which is big even for a full grown lurcher, he bounced back for rehoming. And we took him.
Anyway, what has this got to do with the election? Not a lot. But as I introduce Hooch to Tigger and we take these two plus Ottey and Simpson walking I get the chance to talk with Sean about the bar security industry and also Desi Noonan.
All the nightclubs and some of the bars in Manchester have got to have registered doormen. This has been the case for some time under Manchester's Doorsafe programme. Guarding the guards. By Christmas all were also supposed to have 'tickets' proving they have had professional training, passed an assessment and are safe and sound.
There is a massive shortage of properly qualified doormen in the area. Although there have been a number of incidents of huge violence involving bar security people, notably a death in Swinton, which was not unlike the McCartney case in Belfast barring the paramilitary memberships, some of the local politicos are incredibly soft on the problem.
The Residents' Labour Party in the city centre have been insisting since the start of consultation that training is a key issue. And not just bouncers and managers. Also bar staff, pot collectors and basically everyone involved in licensed venues.
We have also called for proper protocols on plastic versus glass receptacles and submitted detailed proposals on all kinds of other areas of bar operation.
Our proposals go under the acronym CALM which is Comprehensive Agreements on Licencing Manchester and got some useful publicity ahead of the 2004 election.
The DCMS has chosen a rather dirigiste approach on Local Authorities and they have to issue exactly the same nationally directed forms, guidance notes on so on. But our CALM protocols will find some use in residents' negotiations with bar operators ahead of applications.
Incidentally last time I heard there have been a total of ZERO applications in Manchester under the new regime. All the opposition and media scaremongering has so far looked very foolish. And I'm pretty confident that the new Act will be a great tool for sensible Council's like Manchester to get things under better control and not a cue for Liberty Hall.
Meanwhile fifteen new Licensing staff were taken on to be trained up before the rush. As there has been no rush as yet they are applying themselves to some of the areas the department deals where there is normally a light touch through lack of time. The word on the taxi ranks is that the devil is making work for idle hands.
The Manchester Evening News have launched various campaigns based on our principles including recently a call for a clampdown on glass. But their coverage of the bouncer shortage has not been too helpful.
In fact one of the most frequent pundits in their pages, Phil from the Pub and Club network who has a double life as a Liberal candidate at local, westminster and euro elections, has gone on record that it's good for doorstaff to have "a little history".
I think that this can go too far. A long way too far. Desi Noonan was a doorman at the Hacienda during the most dangerous and druggy days there, where the club was forced to shut up shop several times, and he had a ticket under the new scheme. He certainly had a little history and appeared to boast of 27 killings in the TV documentary which went out just after his own murder.
So he had "a little history". But although he wasn't using his licence he had not earnt it by doing the training and passing the test. He had got it by a legal challenge under restrictive practices laws.
My Salford Harriers team mate Sean got his ticket the proper way. But he sheds some light on the delays and shortages. The SIA have been fussy about dotting i's and crossing t's. But instead of working through the whole application form spotting issues they will send the form back as soon as they spot one thing. Then when that's sorted they spot a second, and the process continues exhaustively.
Of course Manchester Doormen are very patient people but it's easy to see how this form filling plus pedantry is slowing the flow of accreditations.
Sean says Desi was killed for over-taxing a crack dealer. That his life was chaotic. That he was basically just a drug dealer. "Which is no way to live."
The dogs get along great and Sean hands over a load of paraphenalia. Books, baskets, leads, bowls, blankets and so on.
My original lurcher Ottey passed through the same way with her mum and most of her 11 siblings. Her brother Hooch was rehomed as a very young dog, too young, and as a 'whippet'. When he had grown to 28" high at the shoulder by age seven months, which is big even for a full grown lurcher, he bounced back for rehoming. And we took him.
Anyway, what has this got to do with the election? Not a lot. But as I introduce Hooch to Tigger and we take these two plus Ottey and Simpson walking I get the chance to talk with Sean about the bar security industry and also Desi Noonan.
All the nightclubs and some of the bars in Manchester have got to have registered doormen. This has been the case for some time under Manchester's Doorsafe programme. Guarding the guards. By Christmas all were also supposed to have 'tickets' proving they have had professional training, passed an assessment and are safe and sound.
There is a massive shortage of properly qualified doormen in the area. Although there have been a number of incidents of huge violence involving bar security people, notably a death in Swinton, which was not unlike the McCartney case in Belfast barring the paramilitary memberships, some of the local politicos are incredibly soft on the problem.
The Residents' Labour Party in the city centre have been insisting since the start of consultation that training is a key issue. And not just bouncers and managers. Also bar staff, pot collectors and basically everyone involved in licensed venues.
We have also called for proper protocols on plastic versus glass receptacles and submitted detailed proposals on all kinds of other areas of bar operation.
Our proposals go under the acronym CALM which is Comprehensive Agreements on Licencing Manchester and got some useful publicity ahead of the 2004 election.
The DCMS has chosen a rather dirigiste approach on Local Authorities and they have to issue exactly the same nationally directed forms, guidance notes on so on. But our CALM protocols will find some use in residents' negotiations with bar operators ahead of applications.
Incidentally last time I heard there have been a total of ZERO applications in Manchester under the new regime. All the opposition and media scaremongering has so far looked very foolish. And I'm pretty confident that the new Act will be a great tool for sensible Council's like Manchester to get things under better control and not a cue for Liberty Hall.
Meanwhile fifteen new Licensing staff were taken on to be trained up before the rush. As there has been no rush as yet they are applying themselves to some of the areas the department deals where there is normally a light touch through lack of time. The word on the taxi ranks is that the devil is making work for idle hands.
The Manchester Evening News have launched various campaigns based on our principles including recently a call for a clampdown on glass. But their coverage of the bouncer shortage has not been too helpful.
In fact one of the most frequent pundits in their pages, Phil from the Pub and Club network who has a double life as a Liberal candidate at local, westminster and euro elections, has gone on record that it's good for doorstaff to have "a little history".
I think that this can go too far. A long way too far. Desi Noonan was a doorman at the Hacienda during the most dangerous and druggy days there, where the club was forced to shut up shop several times, and he had a ticket under the new scheme. He certainly had a little history and appeared to boast of 27 killings in the TV documentary which went out just after his own murder.
So he had "a little history". But although he wasn't using his licence he had not earnt it by doing the training and passing the test. He had got it by a legal challenge under restrictive practices laws.
My Salford Harriers team mate Sean got his ticket the proper way. But he sheds some light on the delays and shortages. The SIA have been fussy about dotting i's and crossing t's. But instead of working through the whole application form spotting issues they will send the form back as soon as they spot one thing. Then when that's sorted they spot a second, and the process continues exhaustively.
Of course Manchester Doormen are very patient people but it's easy to see how this form filling plus pedantry is slowing the flow of accreditations.
Sean says Desi was killed for over-taxing a crack dealer. That his life was chaotic. That he was basically just a drug dealer. "Which is no way to live."
The dogs get along great and Sean hands over a load of paraphenalia. Books, baskets, leads, bowls, blankets and so on.
posted by Chris Paul at 9:41 PM
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