Bob Geldof, Lou Macari and Social Bite show how the Scottish Government could do so much more
The Scottish Government could and should replicate the extraordinary work done on homelessness by Josh Littlejohn’s Social Bite charity and Lou Macari’s foundation in Stoke
It was uplifting to hear some old-time political religion this week. Though unconnected to the Holyrood campaign, it should have been a useful reminder of what is possible through politics.
Sir Bob Geldof was preaching virtue and human empathy in the slightly improbable setting of a black-tie business dinner in Edinburgh. He harked back 21 years to the G8 meeting at Gleneagles which wrote off $40 billion debt owed by 18 of the world’s poorest countries. “They didn’t want to sign it,” he recalled. “Blair made them sign it.”
These eight signatures, said Geldof, saved tens of millions of lives and he cited it as the best example of the power of politics. Less optimistically, he suggested, it may also have marked “the twilight of liberal democracy”. On the international stage, it’s been mostly downhill from there.
Yet, Geldof argued with poetic eloquence, that power to make a difference exists at every level, if the will exists. At this point, one hoped the liberal sprinkling of Holyrood aspirants in the room were listening and weren’t just there to hear George Clooney, who followed.
Rebuilding fragile lives
The event flowed from a union forged last year between a new British Business Awards extravaganza and the charity Social Bite. The world was not short of award ceremonies but Social Bite’s co-founder, Josh Littleton, clearly has a genius for making these connections, then sprinkling the stardust of celebrity in a good cause.
Both Geldof and Clooney are long-established patrons of Social Bite – quite literally, in the actor’s case. His appearance at the original café in Edinburgh 11 years ago caused a sensation and, as Littlejohn confirmed, proved transformational for the charity. The original café concept has since evolved into a sophisticated drive to challenge homelessness throughout the UK. Let me digress.
One means of doing so is to build villages of small units in which homeless people are accommodated and given necessary support in conjunction with other charities. Instead of being on the streets or pushed into hostels, they have the dignity of their own accommodation from which to rebuild fragile lives.
There are three of these at varying stages of development by Social Bite in Dundee, Rutherglen and Edinburgh. This week’s dinner and the money raised from the business audience will go towards expanding a concept capable of being widely replicated.
Lou Macari moved to take action
Indeed, it was difficult to avoid wondering why there is anyone having to live and beg on our streets when such a practical, proven alternative is available? The same thought occurred a few years ago when I read about similar work by the former Celtic and Manchester United footballer, Lou Macari, in his adopted city of Stoke-on-Trent.
In 2016, Macari was so affected by a news bulletin about homelessness in Britain that he went out onto the streets of Stoke-on-Trent to find out more for himself. The outcome was the Macari Foundation which took over a large warehouse and fitted it out with individual pods for homeless people to occupy. The Foundation continues that wonderful work.
A point I remember Macari making was that simply having an address not only enhanced the residents’ self-esteem but also greatly improved their employment prospects. In Stoke-on-Trent, it was an empty warehouse. In the Social Bite concept, it’s brownfield land. Scotland isn’t exactly short of either.
An example to Scotland’s government
So why hasn’t this been more widely implemented, Glasgow being the most conspicuous case in point? Here I’ve quoted two sources of inspiration and practical example – a great Scottish footballer and a brilliant Scottish-rooted charity. So why not the Scottish Government – regardless of who is running it – on a national scale?
Instead of boasting about being “world leading” in things that never happen, here’s a relatively easy hit – a commitment to end rough sleeping within five years and transform thousands of life prospects in the process. That really would be world leading and, on the Geldof principle, fulfil the potential of politics.
So appoint Josh Littleton and Lou Macari as Special Advisers! Give cash-starved councils the modest funding that would allow them to deliver something they could be really proud of, rather than constantly cutting services they struggle to provide. At least one social blight can be overcome.
All of which takes me back to Bob Geldof. Twenty-one years ago, “Make Poverty History” was a global rallying call in a gentler era when such noble outcomes seemed possible. More than 200,000 people took to the streets of Edinburgh to support it – the biggest demonstration in Scottish history, as part of a worldwide movement. The political response was the Gleneagles Agreement.
Trumpian disdain for kindness
In the age of Donald Trump and his acolytes at home and abroad, when the poor are branded “losers” and human kindness mocked as a sign of weakness, such idealistic global objectives seem entirely unattainable. Yet opportunities remain at every other level of politics to put them into practice.
Next week, Scotland will vote on its devolved government for the next five years. The future of the constitution is not on the ballot paper. This is about the exercise of powers immediately within the gift of the Sottish Government which are real, substantial and urgent.
Their practical application and the priorities which drive them will make a difference to many people’s lives, for better or for worse. We can’t vote to write off global debt but we can insist on a better, more progressive Scotland which will only be achieved by pushing the potential of politics to its limits.
We need vision, ideas and the basic competence to deliver them to maximum effect. The comfort zone of gradual decline and always looking for someone else to blame is a hopeless rut in which to be stuck for another five years – far removed from the limits of what is possible.
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