The Citizens Eye community news agency model is now attracting a great deal of national interest after the Media Trust visit. The use of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as the catalyst to recruit 2,012 Community Reporters will become the focus of an international conference I’m planning in June 2011 to enable others to discover the innovative approach.

We have many international contacts that use the Citizens Eye website information to help with their work and it could well take an interesting twist in 2011.

The British Army recently came to Leicester and told its corporate story to a willing and largely supportive audience.

True, there were a few questions about the political justification for Afghanistan and depleted uranium shells by a CND die-hard but nothing that troubled the Colonel. I think his coolness was that of a man, who had not only seen active duty in far flung fields but had done an even harder job – winning the hearts and minds of people living in areas under constant threat, who must be even more suspicious of his motives than our CND stalwart.

The Colonel reminded us the army is a tool of the government, no matter what party or manufactured grouping that maybe. I’m sure many in the audience were impressed with the job our soldiers do and also the depth of feeling they have about being seen to be professional.

I want to focus on a different area with this piece. The Brigadier introduced the evening and probably surprised a few people in the audience with his honesty.

“Thanks for coming and showing your support,” was his opening comment. He then proceeded to explain that he would really like to see an audience made up of people who were less supportive and perhaps even opposed to our army, in order for his presentation team to try and convince them of the value, to this country, of our armed forces.

Now let’s imagine the Brigadier got his wish and the fantastic auditorium of the Athena conference centre was filled with 200 members of the public who were not on many organisations’ usual guest list.

The presentation team is clearly professional and their personal backgrounds and service was a real record of achievement. The slide presentation I feel was professional but also their downfall. Not because it didn’t do a good job. It was perfect for showing to the audience that night. It just needs to make the one slide about ‘hearts and minds’ work and the economic development work done around building schools and hospitals, the main focus of its story.

Imagine someone who disagrees with our presence in Afghanistan being confronted with that kind of detail. Not images of our war fighting capabilities but our humanitarian work. When local elections take place, the mainstream media focus on the fact only 100 people out of 1,000 inhabitants voted. Surely the focus should be that 100 people felt safe enough to even contemplate sticking their head out the door due to the hard work of international forces around making the place free of violence.

We view our role there in bringing democracy as if it will be just like our own. Of course it’s not and it never will be. Our version of democracy has been hard won and fought by people like my two grandfathers who I never knew due to being killed in the service of this country fighting similar people to the those seeking to destroy our communities on the recent EDL demonstration.

It would be a great exercise in community cohesion if we were able to invite the Brigadier and his team to return with that kind of presentation to a room full of people from our celebrated diverse communities.

I spent five years in the Territorial Army from 1985 to 1990 when the world was a very different place. I’ve even met a guy from Russia and on investigation we had a drink celebrating the fact that we were about two miles apart at one point in 1988 waiting for the other to invade!

I value the work of the armed services and make a special point of marking Remembrance Day. We did this last year in the Central Lending Library with two minutes silence followed by a range of talks and presentations and I was proud to mark Armistice Day again last Thursday.

Perhaps the MOD could launch a campaign featuring posters posing questions to the public about things we take for granted. The chance to vote without fear of interference and no one disappears in the middle of the night never to be seen again. We have drinking water and medicine when we are sick. Our girls can go to school without fear of abuse or abduction.

I asked the Brigadier about young people and how media images of the returning dead from our overseas commitment have affected recruitment. He stated that recruitment levels were high but this was more the fact that in times of economic hardship the army is a good employer. It provides training, accommodation and a career. Also for some of the young people it’s the first time they have ever had a purpose.

He praised the cadet force in our region that is viewed nationally as one of the best. It provides young people with a discipline and opportunities that seem to be lacking in our communities today.

We discussed the opportunity of being able to visit Afghanistan and report on these types of development projects that are really the bread and butter of Citizens Eye. The use of Flipcams, photography and Ipadio audio capture to highlight the development work done away from the mainstream media.

“Now that is an interesting idea,” said the Brigadier.

The opportunity to go to Afghanistan would be rather surreal but an interesting experience on the road to London 2012.

Days to go:

Olympics – 602 days to go

Paralympics – 635 days to go