Waxing Lyrical
by Dean Orgill, April 17th, 2012
Well, maybe not “waxing” as such, as even I do not go back as far as wax cylinders (though the era of vinyl I admit to), but some musings on specialist record shops – prompted by the forthcoming Record Store Day on 21st April (see www.recordstoreday.co.uk).
Putting aside a quibble as to what happened to record “shops” rather than “stores”) I would like to praise the independent specialist shop, and urge everyone to support them.
Whilst the population numbers of these particular beasts have no doubt declined from their hey-day they are still there, and providing a great service for the music fan.
This is no Luddite argument. I will happily download music from a certain web-based fruity vendor, and/or scour Amazon and the like for long-deleted CDs that even the specialist shops can longer provide. But neither of these can replace the record shop (or store).
For me they do not provide the experiences of going into a specialist retailer, physically touching the “product” and enjoying the experience of shopping for music, of finding that hidden gem, or of listening to the album that the person in the shop was playing to amuse themselves and finding that you liked it (a frisson made even better if you could then play it to your friends who would also find it brilliant and were so impressed that you had “discovered” this band that none of them had ever heard of before).
As well as the above you were able to appreciate the art-work that went with the album. Even if you hated them there were some groups with a reputation for either awesome or witty album covers that you could still enjoy, even if there was no chance of you buying the album.
Impressively there are still quite a few of these specialists around. Many still display boards telling you when new releases are due out. You may even be able to pick up the expired promotional material for a charitable donation too. Gigs from local bands (or even “guitarist wanted” ads) are still there.
Then, of course, there is the experienced owner/assistant. Almost by definition (if not genetics) a music fan, they are well practised in being able to identify what you are looking for, even from your most tuneless mumblings and barely-remembered lyrics of something you half-heard on the radio or at a party over the week-end.
These are the specialist shops our High Streets still need. These are hubs of common interest that on-line purchasing of music just does not provide. Many of us of a certain vintage want to think that they will always be there. If we don’t support them they won’t be.
So why not support you local specialist outlet. Put a visit to one on your list for this week-end. Hopefully you will appreciate it and they will make you want to go back (that bit is up to them). You may find some great new music, or connect with a long-forgotten part of your music collection – and that can’t be bad.
By Dean Orgill
Where does the High Street go next ? The Portas Review
by Dean Orgill, January 20th, 2012
There are those who I have encountered at various business functions (or indeed any other opportunity) over the recent past who will have been on the receiving end of my increasingly passionate diatribe about what is going to happen to our High Streets and town centres in the majority of the towns around the country.
So with an almost unique sense of anticipation I awaited the publication of the Portas report, which with impeccable retail timing, came out in December.
Government reviews rarely excite anticipation beyond the particular groups who have vested interests in the outcome. It may even be said that this is the case here too, but in this case the interest group is actually all of us, whether we have realised it or not.
The steady emptying of our urban centres of their shops and businesses has an impact on us all. In many cases this process has been well-disguised with artistic murals, or short-term lettings, but it is nevertheless occurring and needs to be addressed.
We all understand that we are living in austere as well as interesting times. But in my view even when the economy does pick up the town centres will not revert back to how they were twenty years ago, and I would not argue for a moment that the clock should be turned back in any event. Change will always happen, but we do need to make a conscious effort to make sure that it occurs in a positive and managed way rather than occurring by default and neglect.
Portas refer to “social as well as economic capital” being lost. As the High Street moves on, or rather online, the communal and social elements that they bring to us as a society risk being lost unless we plan with imagination and creativity how to deal with the loss of the town centres as a focal point for commerce on a personal scale.
Shopping that has moved online, or out of town, is unlikely to return to the centre of towns. Many office-based businesses now look either to cheaper, more remote sites or increasingly to smaller bases with much more flexibility aided by the never-ending technological advances. So what is left?
Judging by the proliferation of coffee shops the need to retain a social focus in our lives remains as strong as ever.
Happily Portas cites a number of imaginative and proactive towns where schemes such as advancement of farmer’s market concepts and outlets for smaller businesses are bucking the trend.
Around the county there are various good examples of where markets have sprung up, and expanded rapidly in town centres as people look to more locally sourced products, and small businesses look to deal directly with their customers.
Generally those markets are not daily events however and, encouraging as they are, they can only be the start of the response.
In the report there is a quote from the response to the consultation from the Local Government Association which states :
“The most vibrant town centres offer a wide range of locally responsive services that create a comprehensive retail, cultural and community hub. This is crucial for the future of the High Street as it is an offer that its competitors struggle to match. Future Government policy must acknowledge this, not treating retail in isolation, but empowering councils to integrate the shopping offer effectively alongside other cultural and community services.”
Wouldn’t we all like our local High Street to meet that aspiration?
Then we need to push and support our local councils (and central government) to achieve this.
There are some good proposals in Portas. You may not agree with me as to which ones they are, that is fine. But we must have the debate, and then move on to ensure there is action.
Let’s not leave it too late.
By Dean Orgill
An honour, a responsibility and a challenge
by Dean Orgill, July 21st, 2011
This month I have had the honour of becoming the President of Sussex Law Society.
Being asked to take over this role in a Society with a history stretching back more than 150 years is an honour not to be taken lightly. Looking at the roll call of my predecessors the phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants” came to mind.
In particular I am aware that one of my former partners, John Hooper, held the position several years ago. Coincidentally I was first approached about the possibility of taking on the presidency around the time of John passing away. The respect which I, and so many others, held for John provided one of the deciding factors for me in taking on the role. I knew John viewed the Society as vital for the local profession, and was particularly enthusiastic about its role in legal training and education – a strength which it retains to this day. The opportunity to follow on some of this work, coming at the time that it did, seemed like one of those quirks of fate that ought to be followed through.
The responsibility to ensure that the Society maintains its good work and its relevance to the profession, and the community that it serves, is one that I will have to the forefront of my mind, and will endeavour to live up to.
The Society itself also has its own responsibility, that is to look to ensure that its members remain relevant to the community – to society (Big or otherwise) as a whole. By campaigning on such issues as maintaining access to justice, and by continuing to represent individuals, businesses, groups or interests across the county the Society’s members provide a vital function within our communities.
The challenge for us all as lawyers is to continue to maintain the best qualities of our professionalism whilst also taking on board the lessons that can be learned from those business interests that will shortly be allowed to provide legal services but which come to this market from a more traditionally commercial background. The Legal Services Act will allow Alternative Business Structures to provide legal services from 6th October of this year, and has the potential to provide the biggest “shake-up” for law firms that the profession has ever seen.
There is much that we can learn from the anticipated newcomers, but equally it is important that we maintain the standards, ethics and values that have served our clients so well for so long.
My challenges will be to play my small part in encouraging the profession to maintain this balance, whilst also promoting the intrinsic value that the profession brings to the wider communities in which the Society serves.
Somehow I don’t think it is going to be a dull year.
Social Media – Making the Law Irrelevant?
by Dean Orgill, May 25th, 2011
There cannot be many occasions in this Country when football has been linked, even indirectly, with fundamental issues of human rights and the relevance of law in society.
Whilst motor sport has recently had its own indirect connection to the development of privacy law; football, or rather the (alleged) activities of footballers, has now become a premier league player in the fixtures between the privacy laws and the freedom of social media.
Should people be able to prevent the publication of unfounded allegations against them? Put like that I suspect most people would say yes.
Should the press be able to bring public figures to account for their misdeeds, especially if their public persona is based on a strong positive personal image? Again I suspect that most people would say yes.
The more difficult area is where the allegations are not proven. Here, in the context of news print and publication the law can provide a remedy by way of a temporary injunction which can often be obtained in a matter of a few hours.
But even at its speediest the law apparently cannot keep pace with the digital media age.
Whilst the principles of injunctive rights clearly still apply to digital media. In a situation where there is mass disobedience, especially if that disobedience has the capacity to remain anonymous, how can the law actually be applied in practice?
The question was asked whether all 75,000 people who recently posted a name on Twitter would be pursued and such action must be viewed as being unlikely to say the least.
In this situation is the law credible in any way, is it in disrepute or is it just simply irrelevant ?
If these questions can be asked with any seriousness then clearly there are issues to be resolved.
Any system of law will reflect the society in which it develops. But as it reflects it lags behind the developments of that society. The law will indeed change to follow the changes in society. This has always been the case and always will be.
However, digital media poses new challenges, not least in respect of the pace at which it continues to develop.
So the second question is, can the law develop at the necessary speed in order to remain relevant ?
It is an intriguing question.
It will be an interesting campaign to watch, and indeed “Fergie-time” may be required to allow the law to equalise.
Localism, Coming to a TV Screen Near You?
by Dean Orgill, January 28th, 2011
Yes, and soon if Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s vision materialises.
Mr Hunt’s department has set out its wishes in the Local Media Action Plan.
The Big Society on TV would see more local, as opposed to regional, programming.
But how will that aim, generally accepted by the media industry as a laudable one, be achieved and by whom?
The proposal, in broad outline, is for a further digital channel to act as a national “spine” of programming with local partners opting in and out to the extent that they feel is appropriate and/or viable.
This has been criticised as a “top down” policy, rather than being a “bottom up” grass roots policy which community groups see as being essential to reflect truly local needs and issues.
Unless that approach is adopted, they argue, there can be no television equivalent of the local press or local radio, which all parties in the debate appear to agree, currently performs a vital role in reflecting local issues and (crucially) scrutinising local democratic government.
Unless it can perform those functions local TV will struggle to justify its existence.
The present proposal however also seems to have practical issues as well as philosophical ones to address.
The balancing of the required funding needs of the central spine and those of the local channels is an extremely difficult conundrum, and not one which appears to be solved in the current proposals.
The local advertising spend and media investment are already allocated to existing radio and print media. The total pot of business spend is very unlikely to increase in the foreseeable future.
Also, the spine channel will be competing in a national arena which is already seeing a significant battle for advertising revenue between the existing players. Again it is unlikely that this pot will increase in the short to medium term – if at all.
Ultimately, as with so much of life, the future is likely to be internet based. IPTV is deemed to be some years off, yet surely some form of convergence with existing media outlets and delivery over the Internet is far more likely to deliver the truly local TV desired.
The current proposal may therefore be viewed by many as an interim one and as such will that be attractive to capital investment?
If not, and the plans go ahead, it seems public subsidy may be required. This will eat up funds better allocated elsewhere whilst in the meantime entrepreneurs and innovators could develop and evolve IPTV of some sort. This is likely to have a greater long term stability and so provide sustainable localism from grass roots upwards.