BBC File on Four documentary on Liverpool council tonight, Radio 4 at 8pm.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/file_on_4/7419993.stm
"Allan Urry reports from Liverpool. The city is celebrating its status as European Capital of Culture and its regeneration programme is one of Europe's biggest.
The area should be booming, yet Liverpool City Council is mired with mounting debts and rated by government auditors as the worst in the country.
Critics say the city's resources are so stretched it is close to becoming a basket case."
Thanks to Susan Watson and Jonathan Brown for pointing this radio programme out to me. I shall be tuned in and we can exchance some comments afterwards perhaps?
Podcast here
13 comments:
Massive plaudits for Jane Kennedy, Joe Anderson, Paul Brandt, the District Auditor, the carers of the service users of the care centres for the elderly, the Culture specialists, Lee Forde, the Poverty specialists and the interviewers and creators of the programme
Brickbats for Cllr Bradley.
This programme should be required listening for all Liverpool residents, especially those daft enough to keep on voting LibDem.
Very powerful and extremely accurate programme that really told it how it is.
For a change
Perhaps, tonight, this really is my BBC?
Yeah Louise!
And what do you stand for ?
10p tax fiasco hitting the poorest.
Monitoring every telephone call and e-mail anyone sends.
£200 road tax hike for those who drive older cars.....ie the people who can't afford to change their cars every year like the 'rich friends of New Labour' can.
You don't seem to realise that you're IN the Nasty Party!
:O(
Oooh a bitter LibDem
How delicious
This programme was all about Capital of Culture, I see you dont bother to make any reference to the subject matter, but try to push the attention elsewhere.
It wont work though. Just watch and see. All those things were issues on May 1st, and the people voted predominantly Labour, how annoying must THAT be for you?
OK Louise. Let's stick to some of the facts of the one-sided Manchester-based programme.
1. Liverpool Council paid a substantial amount of Capital of Culture from its own resources with other contributions from DCMS, Objective 1 and Arts Council.
The Govt. should be paid much more upfront, but didn't.
2. The Gov. were very generous to the Manchester Commonwealth Games and, now, are able to find £9 billion for the London Olympics.
3. The Gov. should have allowed the Council to use capitalisation as a funding stream. They didn't.
4. The Capital of Culture Programme is proving to be hugely popular, despite the constant moaning. Streets Ahead over the Bank Holiday w/end was fantastic.
5. Costs had to be found to pay for the Birthday Celebrations 2007 last year. No mention of that tonight.
6. Strange that they didn't interveiw Andy Burnham who thinks Liverpool's actually doing a great job.
7. Jane Kennedy is going to be toast at the next General Election and everyone knows it. The 10p tax fiasco will see to that. To call the Lib Dem administration a basket case was, plainly, clutching at straws.
8. The interview with Mary Robison about Leighton Deane must have had Labour planning. Likewise Joyce Provost.
9. Wouldn't surprise me at all if Allan Urry was asked to do a hatchet job in advance of Liverpool's CoC highlight week of 2008. It very much came out like that to me.
"Culture's Great in 2008" Warren Bradley.
At least it rhymes, that makes ke feel much much better.
The whole radio programme just highlights faults we've all been spotting and talking about. £160 million and counting.
Oh I wondered how long it would take for Manchester to come up!
Its a national radio station, the file on four people are based in Manchester only. Thats a pretty huge chip on your shoulder.
Why don't you just accept the fact that the Lib Dems in Liverpool are running the city into the ground.
If it wasn't for £millons of investment from Europe and the Labour Government I dread to think what state the city would be in.
a friend worked on file on four. While it is not a tabloid programme it also is rather like the old Weekend World TV programme in that it starts with a hypthosis and then collects material to illustrate that hypothesis. It likes to knock institutions or events and often starts with that in mind. There is nothing wrong per se in that, but you need to bear in mind that the interviewees are chosen to illustrate already decided on arguments. Mind you Radio 4 is minority listening and evenings on Radio 4 is tiny minority listening!
By the way.. what on earth is a "poverty specialist"?
Suzanne, the issue about the funding for Liverpool's ECOC has been Central Gov. lack of support. Yes, they were happy that we were chosen as the UK representative [Andy Burnham included, I believe], but Liverpool ended up having to fund over 60% of the year-long programme of events from its own resources. Compare this to all the other cities and you'll find that we are pretty much unique. Thessalonika City Council in 2000 is the nearest comparison but the Greek Gov had poured so much money into staging the Athens Olymics at the time.
Now, the Labour Gov. are using the same argument to pay for the London Olympics and all the arts bodies in the UK are having to make cuts, inc. the Arts Council and DCMS. Don't forget - that is £9 billion [!]to pay for a two-week event AND help fund regen-eration of East London. Is that fair?
This is a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity for Liverpool to really put itself on the inter-national stage and ECOC will help to achieve this. It was, and in many ways still is, the year to celebrate everything good about this great city and the people who live here.
How ridiculous can the Lib Dems get coming on here to try and get their sorry view across.
1. The Government paid, up front, as much as was requested from them.
2. Money was not miraculously found for the Commonwealth Games - it had to prove its worth and look at Manchester now - boy have their investments paid off. They built a new stadium and a world class velodrome to name just two things. What did we get - err, the Cloud?
3. The Government never received a bid for capitalisation. They asked for it, the Lib Dems ran a mile because they knew their financial jiggery-pokery would be exposed harshly instead of just sorrily like it has.
4. The Capital of culture programme is popular - no one ever said it wouldn't be. It is also not reaching anyone in major parts of Liverpool. And many people see it as quite literally taking vital services from them for the sake of a desperate Lib Dems swansong.
5. Do you really think this programme was going to say well done for finding money for more parties when the end result is £62million of debt? Idiot.
6. Was it not Andy Burnham who you all wanted sacking because he said what all Labour supporters think - a Labour Government working with a Labour Council would have been infinitely better for the city? you like this idiot tag don't you?
7. Jane Kennedy will not be toast. Lurch has been shafted by the current administration and there are no signs in Wavertree that he is making any headway. Now you are a desperate idiot.
8. How paranoid are you to think that? Why wouldn't a journalist, present at a demonstration and able to witness Mary's speech to council want to interview her? Now you are a paranoid, desperate idiot.
9. There goes that paranoia again. Some Lib Dems are beginning to sound like Michael Murray from GBH these days (though at leat he was infiltrated!). I have my suspicions who Eileen Critchley is too!
Legacy, Cllr Bradley, what legacy?
What legacy have you provided for the service users of leighton dene?
Or is Liverpools life expectancy of three years below the average your solution to that problem?
How many more user groups and services will soon become victims or your "internal efficiencies?"
Wouldnt it be fantastic if the libdemms who idle away the hours (as I do) reading this blog, leave long convoluted comments and dont even have the bollocks (I'm presuming that they are all blokes) to leave theur names, welll here's a suggestion why dont they write their own blogs?
Well for a start of imagine it
Monday "woke up today thinking, hmmm Warren Bradley is doing so so well"
Tuesday "Lost £62 Million somewhere, haad a look down the settee but it wasnt there"
Wednesday "Must tell Mike Storey to lay off the sunbed"
Thursday "woke up today thinking, hmmm Warren Bradley is doing so so well"
ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Come on lads tell us who you are and stop hiding your light under bushell-get your bollocks out for the world to see
This council have squandered the regeneration millions on land grabs that have left thousands of homes across inner-city Liverpool derelict.
The city and social landlords own over £400m of empty property which should be housing people - this is the real scandal of the last ten years.
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