WESTERN MORNING NEWS SATURDAY OCTOBER 21 2017 11WMN-E01-S2devonlive.com

Martin Hesp on Saturday

Just trending is not enough for the Great South West

Read Martin’s column every week in the Western Morning News

Feeling ominous under a glowering red sun

Yesterday, finally, I became abit of a trender.

Being a trender was notnecessarily a good thingwhen I was a youngster. Mybrothers and I reserved thephrase for other blokes whowere snappy dressers, allpointy shoes and blow-driedmullet hair cuts. We used theword in a slightly mockingway, mainly because we wereall so uncool and shy aroundgirls. I can’t speak for mysiblings, but there was alwaysa bit of me who wanted to be atrender. I tried it once and gotmyself a pair of grey pointyshoes. The pair of themmocked me so much I wasquick to return to the easycomfort of heavy metal T-

shirts and country storej e a n s.

Ye s t e rd ay ’s rise up thetrending stakes had nothingto do with my fashion sense –and when I say I wastrending, it would be moreaccurate to say we were.

I was lucky enough to be atSandy Park – home of theExeter Chiefs, and to be partof a gathering of the region’sgreat and the good. This wasthe South West GrowthSummit, the second suchevent sparked originally bythe Western Morning News’sBack The South Westcampaign. The campaign waslaunched after the EUreferendum, and was built ona concern that Brexit should

not drown the region’sambition, and that theGovernment shouldrecognise that the region is aplace really doing thebusiness that deservedsignificant investment in itsailing infrastructure. Thecampaign continues to thisday and has been picked upby several private and publicsector partners who havetaken the momentum to anew level. This has sparkedthe Great South Westinitiative which it is hopedwill make our economic

region as recognisable as TheNorthern Powerhouse andthe Midlands Engine.

Ye s t e rd ay ’s trending was onTwitter. Members of the 320-strong audience, up 120 onlast year, were encouraged totweet about the conferenceand tweet they did.

They tweeted about thevideo message sent bycommunities secretary SajidJavid and the beautifullyphrased keynote speech givenby the CBI’s chief economistRain Newton Smith. Theytweeted about the incredibly

impressive panels of expertsthat discussed the importanceof the environment and aboutleveraging new technology.They tweeted “selfies”pledging to Back The SouthWe s t .

And that’s when we startedtrending. At one point theBack The South Westcampaign was among the topfive trenders in the whole ofthe UK. So what does that

prove? If nothing else itproves that the Great SouthWest initiative hasmomentum. Everyone knowswe have beautiful naturalassets that need to becherished. Everyone agreesthat our infrastructure ispoor – and that we need bettertrains and much betterbroadband connectivity.

The challenge now is forthe South West to come upwith more than justmomentum. The region mustbe clear about what it wantsfrom Government, and onwhat it can deliver byworking in a joined up way.

T here’s no point intrending if you are just goingto be mocked.

BILL MARTIN

They tweeted‘selfies’ pledgingto Back TheSouth West

I blame that ominous red sunat the beginning of the week.Or, at least, I do if I allow myinner primeval man to getthe better of me.

Since I headed towards thatglowering sun throughDevonshire hills illuminatedby a weird orange light onMonday morning, everythingI’ve done – or that hashappened to me – has gonep e a r- s h ap e d .

We all have days, weeks oreven years when nothingseems to go right. A personliving a couple of thousandyears ago would blamestrange natural phenomena –some people today wouldconsult an astrological chart,while others might merelyshrug and decide not tobother with the Lottery thiswe e ke n d .

Whatever you do, or blame,bad stuff does happen and ithas a habit of coming alongin multiples like Londonbu s e s.

Even the Queen managed

to have an annus-horribilis –so it’s official, they do exist.

Some may suggest theentire country is having onenow. There certainly seems tobe a mood of doom and gloomlurking over our nation – andthe gathering black cloudscan seem a lot worse in theeyes of the individual who issuddenly suffering a personalrun of bad luck.

So much so, that it istempting to look back at thegreatest bad luck stories inhistory in a bid to makeyourself feel more cheerful ina “perhaps things aren’t sobad after all” kind of way.

For example, if this is goingto be an annus-horribilis forthe whole of Britain becauseof the harm Brexit might doto our purse strings, it is notgoing to be as bad as 1258which became known as theYear Without Summer.

The skies went a weird redcolour back then, accordingto contemporary reports. Notbecause of a south wind

clock back to before the daysof Robert Peel when it comesto law and order, must wealso revert to an 18th centurystyle provision of healthservices?

Regular readers will knowthat I revere the NHS andpraise it to the hilt at anygiven opportunity. Now,because a couple of thingsthat have happened to methis week, I am on the brinkof writing the most damningopinion piece I have pennedin 43 years of journalism.

And the focus will be onthe failures and ineptitude ofwhat I’ve always regarded asthe greatest organisation onEar th.

Because of something aspecialist told me, I have beenleft more confused and scaredthan I’ve ever been in my 61years – with no apparentability to get the matterclarified any time soon. Butat least I’m not cold. Like the82-year-old I know who thisweek was left sitting naked in

a hospital consulting roomfor 25 minutes while thedoctor went out to dosomething or other halfwaythrough examining her. Shebecame so cold sheeventually had to ask a nurseto fetch her coat.

Her story chilled me. Iremembered the strange redsun, and thought of theLambok volcano, and theominous possibility of a YearWithout Summer.

But why look on thecheerful side? Better by far tocopy that dog of mine who’ssuddenly become stone deaf.In his own inimitable way,wise old Monty is nowimmune to bad news – helives insulated in a state ofperfect contentment, as longas there’s the occasionalscrap of something tasty leftin his bowl.

“Be grateful for smallm e rc i e s. . . ” is what thathound seems to say wheneverthe world threatens to cometo an end.

carrying Saharan sand orPortuguese forest fire smoke– but because a huge volcanolocated on Lombok Island inIndonesia blew its top theyear before.

It was the largest blast theEarth had seen in 7000 yearsand over the next 12 monthsits vast dust cloud cloakedthe planet causing freezing

temperatures, which ruinedcrops and brought terriblefamines to much of Europe.

Not even Theresa May orBoris Johnson could rustleup that kind of annus-horribilis. Could they?

If I had to give just oneexample this week of how Ireckon Britain is going to hellin a handcart, it would be the

news that a police authority(perhaps the first of many) ispreparing to scrap its teamsof community supportofficers. And this wasannounced on the same daythat it was revealed violentcrime in the UK is worsethan ever.

Some years ago in thisnewspaper I wrote an opinioncolumn which bemoaned theforthcoming introduction of anew-fangled civic inventioncalled the communitysupport officer. A great manyreaders agreed with me thatwhat we needed were realpolice officers on the streets,not a bunch of wannabes insilly uniforms.

Now I am planning to writean opinion piece on how wemust retain this valuableservice. Far, far, better tohave the uniformed presenceof the community supportteams, than norepresentatives of the law atall.

But if we’re winding the

Not going to be asbad as 1258 – knownas the Year WithoutSummer