Beanz Meanz Wigan

News reaches us from Wigan, where council bosses have asked food manufacturer Heinz to print “Made in Wigan, England” on its cans of baked beans in a bid to gain global recognition for the town.

Heinz has been making beans at Wigan’s Kitt Green factory for 50 years. But the manufacturer’s cans of beans currently say “Made in Hayes, England”. Councillor David Molyneux, Wigan council’s deputy leader, says that this “doesn’t go down well, we have also got a major production site”.

Wigan’s request has been met with a favourable reaction from Heinz. A spokesman said: "We are considering the move - we know Wigan is the baked bean capital of the world."

But I’m not entirely convinced that different small print on a can of beans will really make a great difference to Wigan’s fortunes. Does it really want to be known as the “baked bean capital of the world”?

The infamous Sue Nelson Affair five years ago suggests not. Nelson, from environmental lobby group Encams, sparked a ridiculous media circus when she told a London conference in 2004 that Wigan was the “arse end of the world”.

But, judging by Wigan’s latest campaign, some of the other comments Nelson made at the 2004 conference would now be welcomed. She described Wigan as the “pie capital” of Britain and added: “The two hubs of employment in Wigan are JJB Sports and the Heinz Alphabetti factory."

Let's stop this reactionary rhetoric on housing

Research published this week by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission indicates that – contrary to the perception of many – only a small minority of council housing is allocated to immigrants. The vast majority of residents living in social housing, nine out of ten, are born and raised in the UK.

Good news for those in the sector who have long known that the myth of queue jumpers is founded on misinformation and ignorance. But it’s unlikely the report’s findings will make a difference to those whose minds are already made up about who gets to live in Britain’s state-funded housing. Already the figures have been branded a whitewash by Sir Andrew Green, head of Migrationwatch UK and beloved spokesperson of the tabloids.

Unfortunately it is to Green and his ilk the Government appears to take heed. Last week new housing minister John Healey announced that councils will soon be able to prioritise local people in an overhaul of allocations policies. On the Today programme he may have defended the policy as one aiming to give local authorities more flexibility rather than being designed to appease Daily Mail readers but it’s hard to wholly believe his sincerity.

The authors of the EHRC report are sensible enough to highlight what they see as the reasons behind the public’s perceptions about council housing allocations and to emphasise that, however misguided these perceptions are, they need to be addressed by policymakers. It acknowledges that myth-busting exercises about social housing allocation carried out by councils are of limited use particularly in face of the onslaught from many of the tabloid papers whose anti-migration messages can only fuel discontent.

That doesn’t mean that local authorities should sit back and do nothing – public concerns do need to be addressed at a local level - but the lead on this issue must come from central Government. Resentment will always fester over a scarce resource so increasing the number of new homes is the most sensible way forward. Tinkering with the allocations policy is, as John Healey admitted, no substitute for building more houses. At least, on this front, the Government is, at least, looking in the right direction.

Posted by Samantha Thorp

The Welsh Government's bodyline Ashes delivery

The fact that this summer's Ashes series begins at Cardiff's Sophia Gardens is testament to how the intervention of economic development agencies can bring major sporting events to their areas. It was of course the Welsh Assembly Government that paid the England & Wales Cricket Board handsomely to persuade the body to stage an England 'home' Test outside England for the first time in cricket history. 

The £1.2 million investment by the Wag has not gone down too well with cricket fans – particularly those in the North West and East Midlands who have described the Wag move as a bribe that deprived Manchester's Old Trafford and Nottingham's Trent Bridge of a Test Match. It doesn't help much that England have a decent record against the Aussies at both those old grounds.

For its part, Sophia Gardens has a reputation, deserved or not, asa rain-soaked Welsh pretender. Its official name is the Swalec Stadium, an ugly corporate moniker more typical of the New Football than the romantic world of Test cricket.

But could some good come out of the move? Perhaps. The decision to deprive the slightly dog-eared Old Trafford of a Test was the trigger for the North West Development Agency's decision to plunge £2.65 million into redeveloping the Manchester facility to ensure it has a future as a Test ground, for the Ashes and other home series. 

As for Sophia Gardens, well it's worth noting that the sun is shining in south Wales this morning. Had the First Test been at Lord's in London, as the traditionalists would have it, the players may not have emerged at 11am because of persistent showers in the capital. And the Cardiff wicket is said to take "excessive" turn – that's got to be good news for England who in Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar have more recognised spinners than the Aussies. 

Perhaps if England's spinners flourish in Wales, the intervention by the Wag will be seen in a better light by followers of the summer game. 

Good luck England. Good luck Wales. 

In memorium

Four years ago today I was on a bus heading past Kings Cross. Glancing up from my paper I saw that something was not right. People in their dozens were pouring out of the entrance to the tube. It was, however, not the first time that I'd witnessed an evacuation of the station and I assumed that it was yet another false alarm. I continued on my journey to my office in Bloomsbury, turned on the kettle and computer and sat down at my desk. Then the sound waves from the No. 30 bus exploding in Tavistock Square shook the windows. Suicide bombing and the bloody misery that accompanies the phenomenon had arrived on our shores.

The terrorist attacks in London on the 7th July 2005 sent shock-waves through British society. Speeches were made, questions were asked. And for all those working in public policy, community cohesion was thrown to the top of the list of priorities. After all, the bombers were home grown; the products of our society; Leeds born and bred. That they would set off one morning to murder their fellow citizens required answers. 

Four years on and the community cohesion agenda has slipped off the radar. In the face of a brutal recession the issue seems less urgent. Seemingly, there is always something more important for our leaders to be doing. But cohesion - or the lack of it - is a live issue. The British National Party's substantial gains in England's local and European elections cannot simply be explained by the unpopularity of the Labour government, the public's anger over MPs' expenses or the recession. Those people who voted for the BNP could have voted for other fringe parties; instead they chose to support a brutish organisation which, for all its protestations, remains a divisive, polarising excuse for a political party. That is an issue that we must confront.

The 7/7 bombings were a tragic wake-up call, violently exposing the cracks in society. The BNP's recent success is another. Those working to build bridges between the UK's diverse communities need our support today, just as they did the panicked weeks that followed 7th July 2005. The families attending the unveiling of the memorial to the 7/7 victims deserve no less.