EXCLUSIVE: Phil Redmond writes a weekly column for Liverpool subculture very similar to the boring ones he has already written for the Daily Post...

DEMOCRACY. There’s been a lot talked about it since my last column for the Post.

The ups and downs. The ins and out. Not forgetting the down and outs.
As a lifelong red, its something that I hold dear to my true Scouse heart.
That’s why I was happy to stand alongside Bryan Gray, (pictured below) Chairman of the North West Development Agency this week and unveil our ambitious and creatively cultural plans for Liverpool, post 2008.

Even though we don’t live here in Liverpool and don't pay council tax here, we are offering this great city of ours a new dispensation.
Representation without taxation! Clever eh?

A shift in emphasis for the cultural partners.
A new paradigm for a new decade.
A cultural community which develops in synergy my Open Culture and Cultural Clearing ideas which are aimed at, basically, providing short cuts for like-minded people.
Like some of my mates.
Scousers all.

Of course, the cynics say this is yet more ‘jobs for the boys’.
They wonder who elected me and quietly spoken Bryan?
And who are we accountable to?
They ask who gave us permission to spend their money?
Maybe they have a point.
Maybe not.

But we all know it’s easy for people to criticise, rather than rolling up their sleeves and having a go at making their own park benches.
Or even singing a song for Liverpool that all our ‘media partners’ will publicise.

It’s a bit like a typical Scouse funeral.
We’ve all been to them.
Someone dies.
We are all very sad.
Errr, that’s it.

We all know anyone can stand on the sidelines and do nothing – after all, me and extremely quietly spoken Bryan spent two years doing exactly that while on the Culture Company Board.
Shakespeare wrote plays about it.
Power mad egomaniacs who thought they were Gods gift and saw their chance.

It’s neither here nor there if people call me Our Lord and genuflect in the street as I slouch by.
It’s beside the point that Bryan has his quietly spoken hands on what’s left of all the mazoola.
Any successful film or TV company, such as the ones that I have made a decent living from, which have produced really top quality cultural offerings, in my opinion, would do exactly the same.

Next week: Phil Redmond on ‘Accountability? – lets not stand in the way of progress.’