Louise Baldock

Sea Odyssey - Save the Date!

2012-01-23T23:00:00.000Z

Visitors wishing to stay with me need to let me know very soon for this exciting event, I expect beds to be booked up very early.

A real and tangible North/South divide in terms of Local Government spending

2012-01-23T22:57:00.001Z

This graphic illustrates the Government's own figures showing how it has attempted to rebalance the spending on Local Government since coming to power. The pink and red areas show those councils where cuts have been implemented and the green ones are where more money has been put into Town Halls.

Town Halls fund adult social care (care for older people and disabled people), children and family services, particularly children in care, transport, highways, waste disposal, regeneration projects, business and economic development and support, planning, sport, culture, leisure, libraries, street cleansing, gritting, lamp-posts, pot holes, licensing of pubs and taxis, and loads more besides.... so it is stuff that really matters to local people.

It doesn't take a geographical genius to work out that the poorer areas in the industrial North and Midlands have suffered at the hands of the richer home counties and Tory shires.

We keep saying it but is anyone really listening?

The Tories look after their own and penalise Labour areas which they don't care about - and the LibDems are propping them up in this despicable behaviour.

This is exactly what Labour supporters expected and feared would happen and is mainly why they went out to vote in larger than usual numbers in those areas in the General Election in 2010.

2012 - blog spring-cleaning and redecorating

2012-01-22T11:31:00.000Z

After nearly 6 years, 1500 posts and 150,000 visitors, I thought it was time for a refresh. I have not changed the display layout hugely, I want it to feel broadly familiar, but a new colour scheme was definitely called for. I did start to look at "redecorating" 12 months ago but the template design interface defeated me, I think I have mastered it this time though.

So this is not like the big changes at the Liverpool Daily Post where they are going from daily to weekly and launched their first edition on Friday (good luck to them). Rather, it is more like a new masthead and a different font perhaps. I hope you still enjoy your visits but am sure you will let me know if you don't.

Passing on the baton

2012-01-22T11:20:00.000Z

When I was elected as Chair of Labour North West two years ago I said I would serve only for a couple of years. The two previous chairs had clocked up 25 years between them and I took the view that we need regular change and new focus if we are to be an effective region.

So yesterday at the AGM I told members that I was retiring from the post and that I hoped they would choose someone new to continue to develop the role and the work programme. They voted for Manchester's Sue Pugh as Chair. I am particularly pleased that the Board chose another woman for the role, and I wish her all the best during her term in office.

Theresa Griffin was re-elected to support Sue as Vice Chair. Sue represents the Greater Manchester CLPs on the Board and with Theresa being from Liverpool that gives us arguably a better geographical spread.

Theresa holds a particularly special place within the Labour North West region as she is the first reserve on the European MEP list, such that should Arlene or Brian not serve out their full term, she would step in, until the next election. Her role as Vice Chair gives her the opportunity to create and develop European Policy Forums, chair the European session at Regional Conference and take a role in the EPLP report back to the board.

I have really enjoyed my period in office, although it has been hard work at times. We have had a number of successes, notably back to back national annual conferences in the region - with the new leader being announced in Manchester in 2010. We have had two great regional conferences, particularly this year in Blackpool which was addressed by the leader of the party and several shadow cabinet members, as well as the new General Secretary (chief of staff). 400 delegates and 100 young members engaged in a whole weekend of debate, policy consultation and training.

We had a tremendous success in Oldham East and Saddleworth 12 months ago, despite extremely inauspicious circumstances, and our regional staff were magnificent, enthusing over 500 members to campaign in the depths of a snowy winter.

The local elections in both 2010 and 2011 saw many councils come back to Labour, including of course Liverpool, and I am very satisfied that both of our major cities remain Tory free. We had a pretty good General election too, returning increased majorities in many Labour seats as the voters demonstrated their determination not to see a Tory government, sadly our victories were not repeated throughout the country, and the results are plain for all to see. Alison McGovern's Wirral South victory was the result of the night for the region and I know she will become a real star in the PLP over the coming years.

As chair, I have been involved in training members in campaigning skills, all over the region, whether that was the Young Labour members in the Wirral or Lancashire local election candidates, many of whom are now really embracing Labour doorstep activities. We have improved our financial position over the last year, having been somewhat depleted as a result of the byelection, and we have maintained a good Organiser base to ensure that we are focussed on our target councils for 2012. We also played a full and active part in the consultations with the Boundary Commission about new Parliamentary Constituencies across the North West, but I wont be holding my breath to see whether our sensible voices were actually heard.

I will continue to carry out investigations, hear appeals and perform other constitutional work as a Board member and intend to play a full part in the new Working Parties we have established to concentrate on membership, fundraising, campaignign and training.

This year the Regional Chair will need to get to grips with referendums and possible elections for City Mayors as well as the elections for Police Commissioners - neither of which are things I am greatly in favour of to be honest - although I will of course get behind Labour candidates if and when such elections take place. They are tasks I wont regret not having to help sort out administratively....although that has only just occurred to me, and was not part of my thinking about why it is good to limit the term of office of the Chair, in case you were wondering!

I have enjoyed the role very much and I know that Board meetings in particular have been more friendly and good humoured in recent years, we have had a real sense of unity and have achieved some fantastic results, electorally and in policy campaign terms, holding our leaders to account. I would like to thank all board members, past and present for their support and commitment to the Labour cause. Perhaps I will organise a small party at the next Regional Conference, the location of which will be another task for the new Chair to oversee!

A special meeting of Finance and Resources Scrutiny Committee

2012-01-17T21:40:00.000Z

This blog entry is not going to be very well read, I realise that, the technicalities of scrutiny will leave most people cold, and even the most enthusiastic of scrutineers will find Finance not really to their taste, but that was the subject under discussion this evening. However, for the tiny few anoraks in the blogosphere who might be interested, I thought I would say a few things about tonight's committee meeting.

We held another special meeting of the Finance and Resources Scrutiny Committee on Liverpool City Council, which I chair.

Its purpose was to look at the next round of proposed budget cuts in some detail. This municipal year for the first time in my memory, although surely not for the first time in history, budget decisions have been scrutinised and brought to council in a staged way, rather than all at once at the end of the year in March. This means that we have been agreeing the cuts we need to make as a council in stages, easiest first, in order to balance the books, and to work out how the dramatically decreasing cake can be most fairly shared out. This will give council officers (the staff) the opportunity to start to plan cuts (I refuse to call them "savings") as soon as possible, so helping our partners and ourselves to be as prepared as possible.

Tonight was our second special meeting, we held one on December 5th too. It was agreed after discussion with my committee clerks and with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, Councillor Paul Brant who it is our role to scrutinise that we hold this meeting in the Town Hall to facilitate the maximum possible attendance. It is a much bigger venue than the committee rooms we usually use in Millenium House on Victoria Street.

Unusually, we invited all 90 councillors in case they wanted to get into detail ahead of the Full council tomorrow, and we anticipated some keen members of the public and those in campaign groupings to perhaps also come to hear more of what they could expect tomorrow. But really I suspected that most people would prefer to turn up tomorrow night to a much more charged atmosphere where decisions would be made rather than picked through, and in the end that was pretty much the case. We could have managed in our usual room, but at least we facilitated their opportunity, should they have wanted to take it up.

For those of you who operate outside of the minutae of Local Government, a scrutiny committee meeting is designed to be an opportunity for councillors and members of the public to pick over the options and suggest alternatives, to ask questions and to draw the maximum understanding of the detail before we go into the council meeting.

The difference between the two meetings is that tonight gave councillors the chance to ask simple questions and engage in a one-to-one with the Cabinet Member for Finance, the Leader and the Finance team, where in the Full Council meetings, only a limited number of people can speak because of sheer numbers and they tend to make political speeches rather than ask about line three of the table at paragraph 2.4 etc.

Generally speaking a Scrutiny Committee meeting should be apolitical, or at least polite, and there should be no grandstanding, it is an opportunity to probe and question and challenge the detail rather than to point fingers. But it is inevitable that on such a huge issue as massive cuts to public services, passions will be raised and some of the contributors do blur those boundaries. Obviously above all things, councillors are politicians and this is a very political subject, deciding what needs to be cut and what might be cut instead, so tempers do sometimes flare, but attendees do try to keep it measured and so it was tonight by and large.

What was interesting for me was that because the meeting was held in the Town Hall, rather than the usual committee rooms, we were very tempted on several occasions to fall into Town Hall mode. So there were a few moments when I had to remind members and myself that we were not in a council meeting, despite the Leader of the Council accidentally calling me "Lord Mayor" at one point. The Lord Mayor - who chairs all meetings of the full council, was present in the chamber at that point and we exchanged grins.

So there was a bit of a muddle about whether we were taking amendments and counter amendments and addendums, but then attendees (and I) were able to grasp that we were not debating, we were discussing and we managed to stay broadly on track. Thank heavens for being sandwiched between my Deputy, Councillor Pam Thomas and Dave Jones, the Committee Clerk, so that we could keep whispering to each other about the right way to progress...

I do find chairing these meetings a bit of a challenge sometimes. Not by any means because of the subject matter, passions can and should rise at the Full Council meetings, and believe me they do beat strongly within me on those occasions, but because councillors need to be facilitated and supported into feeling that scrutiny is a real opportunity to delve, and to feel the confidence to do that. And that is not always easy. Sometimes it becomes a little heated and I feel my chin dropping towards my chest.

The ordinary business of the committee is very easy to deal with, it is the novel and the new that can be more tricky. I could understand in my own mind how it was sensible to invite the councillors of the opposition parties to talk about the budget amendments that they planned to introduce at the Full Council tomorrow and to use those alternatives as an opportunity to engage in the discussion about the options on the table. But I found it hard to articulate that in a way that everyone would understand and buy into so there was a bit of confusion in places.

As a new Chair I clearly need more lessons and I am actively seeking that out.

Anyway the good news is that nobody died and we all came out of the meeting hopefully feeling that we had ample chance to ask whatever we needed to ask, or to delve into those areas that merited it.

I still wish I was the Chair of my lovely City and North Liverpool Neighbourhood Committee instead, but I am siezing the thorny, prickly holly bush of scrutiny all the same.

Decorating solutions needed

2012-01-17T19:52:00.000Z

I am looking for some help with a decorating quandry, I know you will help, if not here then on FB or Twitter where I will send this blog in due course.

My kitchen is decorated with a vinyl wallpaper - not by me - it was already there. It is not to my taste and I would like to redecorate. However, I don't know how to deal with the existing paper. The last decorator I asked to call said he thought it might be laid onto polystyrene, and that stripping it would be difficult and would result possibly in an uneven surface as the underlying layer would be damaged by the removal process. He also said stripping it might reveal things I wouldn't want to have to deal with. I don't think he meant bodies in alcoves, more that it may have been put up to hide some defects.

He said it would be hard to paint over as the paint would not want to stick and anyway because the pattern is dark in places - like the piece shown above, as well as being embossed or in relief, you would still be able to see the pattern showing through. He didn't seem keen on the idea of papering over the top either - even with lining paper - as he said it might not stick very well.

As a matter of fact he didn't want to touch the job, if I am quite honest, it was definitely one of those "rubbing the chin, sucking teeth and head-shaking" affairs.

It seems vinyl wallpaper is not just for Christmas, it is for life!

But I really don't like it and I want a change. What do you suggest?

My Style Guru

2012-01-13T20:20:00.000Z

Yes, it is time to admit it. I take my style tips from an early 1970s boy popstar. Donny loved to wear velvet and cord caps, in purples, reds and browns. In fact purple was his most favourite colour. This information I absorbed at the age of 8 and it would seem it has never left me.

So now you know why there was something vaguely familiar about me the first time we met! I am now the proud owner of 7 lovely caps. I had an 8th but I left it in the Sir Thomas Hotel after our works Christmas lunch last month.

This particularly splendid hat, with purple flower over my right ear, is in fact the one that has been lost. Maybe a lucky seeker still might find it in the bar if they cared to go and look for it. The brim is a bit less firm now than it was a few years ago (pictured) when the lovely Claire Wilner and I went doorknocking on Beech Street. Rain and snow whilst out campaigning in the ensuing years made the cardboard lining a bit soggy and it started to break up.

Luckily other friends have stepped into the breach to help out. Elaine gave me a very similar but sparklier hat for Christmas (pictured centre) which is my new favourite and a female Labour councillor who shall remain nameless at her own request, gave me the black one and the grey one because she doesn't wear hats and they were unwanted gifts. I bought three in charity shops and the fourth on a market in Berlin, sadly that one is a bit too big and it may have to be given away.

I do love my caps! Surely Donny would be so proud to know his influence has stretched so far through the decades?

Dale Street Blues blog - homophobic comments

2012-01-13T15:51:00.000Z

I am very cross at the homophobic comments that have been published on this story http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2012/01/liverpools-prince-of-spin-retu.html

I trust that the powers that be at the Liverpool Daily Post - and David Bartlett in particular will remove the comments, and report the people who left them to the police.

This would be the correct course of action.

I look forward to hearing how they have tackled this in due course.

We are fighting a badge of racism in the city at the moment with our footballers and their fans, we don't need to add homophobia to the list.

A look back on 2011

2012-01-10T00:49:00.000Z

It's time once again for my annual reflection on the year that has passed.

On the whole a happy year, politically things have developed well for me personally and also for the Labour Party in Liverpool, we have made some great strides with key priorities in Kensington and Fairfield, the North West Region of the Labour Party goes from strength to strength, my marketing business is really beginning to reap results and some difficult private and family issues have been largely resolved (I am not going to tell you anything about the latter though, as I am sure you will understand). But it has not all been a bed of Labour roses, there have been challenges too, so here is a look at the highlights and lowlights of 2011.

Here is a look at some of my best bits

One of the very best things to happen for me in 2011 was my work for the Local Government Association, the initially named IDEA, which morphed into the LGD and is now the LGID (I think), it was certainly a busy year for their marketing people, wouldn't you say? As a Labour peer, I have been visiting councils and housing associations across the country to assess their work in various key areas (principally but not exclusively Equality and Diversity). I have also recently taken on a facilitation role for the Leadership Academy, helping leaders of local authorities across the country, from different political parties, to get the most out of their LGA training. It is an excellent opportunity not just to help those authorities and individuals to be the best they can within local government, but also to bring back some good practice to my work here in Liverpool whether as a councillor or a member of a Housing Association board. I have simply loved every minute of it. It has also given me an opportunity to meet relatives I have not seen in years, because of regular trips to Coventry - so yet another benefit there!

Then there was the Oldham East and Saddleworth byelection, brought about through a little used piece of legislation, where the LibDems had the election called again because they were not happy with a leaflet put out by the Labour MP (and my friend) Phil Woolas. Despite sub zero temperatures and a short campaign including the dead time over Christmas, Labour NW staff worked incredibly hard, led by Noel Hutchinson. A record 500 volunteers turned up in the week before polling day alone -including members from all over the country, I will forever cherish the photo I have of the "signing-in wall" with all their signatures, and we returned an old colleague, Debbie Abrahams (former Labour candidate for the neighbouring Colne Valley) as the new Member of Parliament for the constituency. Chris Davies, LibDem MEP and former MP for the area put it well when he explained on his blog that "The mere fact that we were in coalition with the Conservatives was repellent to some, the impression of broken trust over tuition fees saw off the rest. Each time I would return to the campaign HQ feeling that a few more grains of sand had slipped through our fingers." It's a bugger isn't it Chris, losing, but you will need to get used to it as the rest of the year showed....

Liverpool Remembers was the swan song for the local initiative originally supported by Martin Pinder of Kensington Regeneration, now sadly moved on, to commemorate the Holocaust and other atrocities. With the help of Tracy Ramsey, Nathalie Nicholas, AimeClaude Ndongozi, Lisa and Gareth and the staff of St Francis of Assisi Academy, the SIGMA police team, a Klezmer duo from Manchester, Rev Stanley Cohen, Alun Parry, and many more, we held a wonderful afternoon of commemoration and reflection, thinking about the Shoah but also about more current forms of Hate Crime and genocide. Sadly funding pots are no longer available for such important work so I am concentrating in 2012 on the civic event at the Town Hall and ensuring that some of the same topics are covered to a wider than usual audience. If you want a ticket please let me know and I will ensure the Lord Mayor's office sends one, but you will need to say very soon as it will be on January 26th.

Like Wat Tyler, whose birthday it was last week, I did quite a lot of marching and revolting in 2011. There was the Liverpool Against the Cuts march in February lead by the wonderful Lord Mayor for 2010/2011 Councillor Hazel Williams, and the March in London on March 26th where I gate crashed a UNISON bus at the last minute when other plans for getting down there fell through, great marching with Babs and co! And of course there was the huge public rally and march on November 30th where I walked round the route with Councillor Tim Beaumont, Assistant Cabinet Member for the Environment and members of our excellent Environmental Enforcement team. It's only a shame that this *%^£"! coaltion Government continues to press on regardless with its public sector cuts and takes absolutely no notice of its workers or their grievances.

We had a very well attended Youth Hate Crime Conference early in the year on the upper floors of the Maritime Museum, allowing the very many young people who gave up a Saturday to learn more about the many ways in which people abuse each other because of perceived difference to take the opportunity to look into the Slavery museum too. Thanks to everyone at LCC Community Safety, Youth Service, Homotopia, Daisy UK, Anthony Walker Foundation and others for all their hard work in pulling off this sensitive but important event.

In a similar vein, I spoke once again at the annual UAF (United Against Facism) conference, this year held at UNITEs newly refurbished offices at the top of Walker Square, and named after Jack Jones, one of Liverpool's most determined campaigners. I only wish more comrades would engage. If you leave a vaccuum of this nature, then the SWP will inevitably fill it.

In Kensington, it has been the most exciting year for Deane Road Jewish Cemetery. We have employed two members of staff to manage our restoration project, I line manage both of them, and they are doing great work in ensuring that the construction and building work progresses while we grow our group of enthusiastic volunteers, thanks to Annette Birch and Carol Ramsay for all their work on our behalf. We handed the cemetery over to the builders on Halloween (which I thought most apt) and have already made huge progress. We also had a fabulous art exhibition hosted by our new friends at Kensington Methodist Church showing some of the great works created by artist visitors. But most poignant of all was the stone setting ceremony attended by upwards of 50 people, to honour a man who died 160 years ago, paid for by his descendants.

2011 was also the year I was retired from my post as Chair of the wonderful City and North Neighbourhood boooooh!) but installed as the new Chair of Finance and Resources Scrutiny Committee (a muted hurrah, it is not the easiest of roles in the current climate). We have been involved in some of the most detailed and intensive scrutinies I have ever taken part in, particularly that relating to the Government's proposed changes in the way it will collect and redistribute business rates (a huge booooh to those plans from everyone in Liverpool, business and residential alike). I am trying really hard to bring a degree of transparency and openness and readiness to be challenged to the scrutiny of the portfolio, if you care enough to ask then we should care enough to answer.

In a business capacity, I have loved being part of the new, emerging and growing East Liverpool Business Forum whose members come from many different local businesses and meet fortnightly in Wavertree to work together and support each other, helping to find new leads and make sure we are all successful in our endeavours. We have had some great speakers this year too, including two cabinet members talking about Regeneration, Business and Enterprise Skills, as well as the head of Liverpool Vision and a representative from the planning group behind the Global Entrepreneurs Congress heading to the city in 2012, to name but a few. I am meant to be giving a presentation at 7am in the morning on the services my business offers, so I hope this blog doesn't take much longer to write, otherwise I will be nodding off into my bacon sandwich at the crucial moment!

It would be remiss of me not to mention the April defection to Labour from the Liberal Democrats of a key member of their outgoing cabinet, Gary Millar, councillor for Old Swan who is playing a full part as the Leader's unpaid Assistant Cabinet Member, a welcome addition to our group. Along with Lynnie Williams who should never have stood for the LibDems in the first place, I think we have taken the best of the opposition now. Richard Kemp need not apply!

And of course the Local election results in May were outstanding for Liverpool Labour, were they not? We took seats that we only had on our radar late in the campaign, and our group of 63 now has an amazing mix of young and old, gay and straight, sadly not so many black, but two more than we had before, disabled, young parents (Louise and Abdul welcoming babies during this year) and grandparents, and the marvellous singing talents of Bill Jones, this year's winner of Councillor Pop Idol at the Labour Party Christmas Party at the Eldonians. When I think that I was the 27th Labour Councillor in 2006 and we now have 63, against a pitiful (and falling) LibDem group of 20, I have to shake my head in disbelief and delight.

I have particularly enjoyed being part of the KVFM reading room - an online reading group who read and debate a different book each month. I am currently reading Annabel by Kathleen Winter in readiness for February's programme. Do tune in! We have a great time meeting readers from other book groups at events to celebrate the Orange Prize or the Man Booker prize too. This year I was honoured to take part in the latter by reading from one of the shortlisted novels, Jamrach's Menagerie at the event in Garston Library. I didn't like it much and was glad when Julian Barnes won with his Sense of an Ending.

It was great to spend more time with Alun Parry this year, helping him to develop his own business and his political folk singing work (and I have his encouragement to say so!). I hope we can do more together in 2012. His songs about today's struggles including Oh Mr Cameron and Greedy Fingers have provided the much loved soundtrack to this year's protests and marches.

I was incredibly proud to pilot Liverpool City Council's new Equality and Diversity Policy through the many hurdles and processes it needed to pass through this year, as chair of the Equality and Diversity Scrutiny Panel, and this year we will do the same with the Single Equality Scheme. By the time the legal deadline arrives in April I believe we will have one of the best policies and action plans of any authority anywhere in the country. So many thanks are owed to the councillors and council officers who have supported me every step of the way in that long overdue journey - and owed not just by me, but by all the disenfrachised citizens of our wonderful city whose lives will be benefitted immeasurably by our work.

I have been to some wonderful events on Liverpool's waterfront this year, thanks in no small part to the work of my joined-at-the-hip, Co-councillor Wendy Simon, like the jaw-dropping light show to celebrate the 100th birthday of our wonderful Liver Building and Beverley Knight performing free to a crowd of thousands at a free stage at the Pier Head. And while I am thanking and praising Wendy, I should also mention my other great co-councillor Liam Robinson who has done brilliant things with the Number 10 bus route to help our constituents - and both of them have done much else besides of course.

Another fabulous event that culminated at the water front was this year's Liverpool Pride which drew thousands of LGBT people with their friends and family in August. Liverpool Labour was out in force and pretty much the whole of the group joined me and other LGBT Labour Councillors to show support for the wider community. The two football teams that Labour put together to play LGBT local teams were awesome in terms of their enthusiasm, if not hugely effective, despite ringers, in their actual playing efforts. You were all great, thanks so much for joining in. I am not going to let a few disgruntled members of other parties who were vocally cross at our sizeable Labour turnout distract from what was a very fab event and so well supported by everyone.

I was particularly delighted this year when Dolly Parton agreed to play the Arena in honour of my birthday. She was bloody brilliant too, and every penny of the £75 my mates and I paid for our tickets was well spent. What wonderful news that her reading project will be developed in Everton this year too, we love you Dolly!

Another highlight for me was hosting the Alastair Campbell dinner for Labour North West in Crewe, we will draw a veil over the result of the ensuing football match between Burnley and the Boro, the fact that I persuaded him into an impromptu bagpipe performance will go down in history in Labour Party circles. It was a terrific night.

And also terrific was the national Labour Party conference in Liverpool and the regional Labour Party conference in Blackpool. I have said so much about both of these before, that I don't want to rave about them all over again, but they were two of the political highlights of the year, without a doubt!

I really enjoyed setting the annual Wilson Henry treasure hunt in 2011, it is always a challenge but this year I was encouraged to take competitors into our two magnificent cathedrals (yes we have one to spare) and I know all the participants had a great time. I do love showing off all the best bits of our city, I am only sorry that on the day the Hardman National Trust house closed before some of my colleagues got there - best laid plans of mice and men, and all that...

Councillor Gerard Woodhouse's Pride of County awards which I also covered at the time, were awesome. The residents of this often neglected part of the city clearly felt a huge warm glow as they celebrated their achievements in the Isla Gladstone Conservatory in Stanley Park. If you look back through this blog you will find a long article giving all the results of the award with some photographs.

Another great thing about 2011 was the long awaited opening of the new museum of Liverpool. I really loved the old museum, sited next to the new one, on the dock side and wondered how a new one could ever be as good, but it surpassed even my wildest dreams, a wonderful museum, open in stages and each one adding an exciting new dimension to the whole. I have been so many times already, and each time I see something different. I loved the small exhibition about newcomers to Liverpool which I quietly stood in front of and discovered that both Cllr Jane Corbett and Pam Thomas had contributed to. Now if that is not proper Liverpool life, I don't know what is!

And finally, I could not let a list of the joys of 2011 conclude without mention of The Middle Bedroom (note the capital letters!) It was the depository of all sorts of unknown and unknowable detritus, slowly building up into a huge pile of menacing and near to toppling blue plastic storage boxes. It had got so bad that just opening the door in the wistful hope that I might be able to access my passport had become a holiday adventure in itself. But it is no more! With the help and dedication of various roped-in friends, and with the beckoning of a Labour Party jumble sale, I finally got on top of it. Now I am the proud owner of a wonderful room with neat and tidy filing cabinets, everything exactly where it should be, lots of floor space and an all-round feel-good factor. You really have to live through the menace of a job not done to know the glory of a task accomplished. Wonderful!

So, on to my Worst bits

Liverpool City Council has seen the departure of some wonderful officers this year, far too many to mention, the list would go on and on, but I do feel the need to mention a few in particular who I have worked so closely with and who have given so much, quietly and without praise, to the good people of our city. Fred Pye who has supported all of my work around raising awareness of the dangers of Carbon Monoxide; Paul Scragg, who was a fantastically dedicated and committed Head of our Park service, without whom much of the work at Newsham Park would never have been achieved (I am keeping my powder dry on the detail of that); Lesley Thompson whose terrific work supporting our neighbourhoods has reaped tremendous rewards for the inner suburbs in particular and of course I do have to mention the lovely Peter Wallace from the Library Service who brought the joy of reading to so many book groups across the city. And to all the other unnamed officers, I salute you for your unstinting efforts. It is a travesty that this Tory LibDem Government's cuts has, in one form or another, seen your departure. I wish for all of you, a long and happy future.

Yes, the cuts in local government spending. There is so much I could say about that, so many millions of pounds of reasons why our city has been badly served and is struggling to maintain a service for its residents; £90million last year, £50million this year and probably another £50million for the subsequent two years. This is surely the worst part of the story of 2011. The only tiny ray of sunshine is that it is a Labour council's priorities that determine what must be protected at all costs, rather than a discredited and out of touch LibDem one. I am regularly brought low, as are we all, by the decisions we have had to make to eke out the much reduced funding that we now receive, to try to do the greatest good with what is left to spend. Local LibDems can only whine through self interest about services in the last few wards they represent, as though they alone should be entirely protected from the cuts which, ironically, have been made necessary only by the actions of their own party propping up a vindictive Tory Government. Once again they have refused to take part in any discussions about how exactly we are to make these swingeing cuts, saying they need to be the voice of opposition. It would make a stone statue weep, to see such opportunism. Liverpool is the city in the country with the most need, that is a fact. And under the Labour Government Liverpool received the most extra funding to support that. The Tory LibDem coalition has given Liverpool the biggest cuts and taken all that special and much needed money away, I will leave you to your own conclusions on why that might be.

The Parliamentary Constituency Boundary Review was another terrible axe to fall this year. Like it or not (and we don't!), one of the 5 Members of Parliament for Liverpool will go at the next General Election. And it is not a question of saving Luciana, Louise, Maria, Steve or Stephen, although I cannot deny that is an issue for the Labour Party internally, but for the residents it is about how we can guarantee a quality service for the people MPs serve with a 20% cut in representation. The queues for help and support grow bigger day by day, but the people available to help you, to speak up on your behalf, will be fewer and you will share your MP with many more people than you have before. And this in a city which is experiencing massive cuts in Government money. Revenge? You decide.

Another low for the year, and probably connected to the cuts in public money, is the growing number of street drinkers on the streets of Kensington and Fairfield and particularly Prescot Road. There has been a real upsurge in the growth of people with drink problems who sit off in bus shelters and on low walls in the area, drinking alcohol from early in the morning until late at night when they go back to their private flats and bedsits. We are currently working with the police, local landlords, wardens, council staff, the Whitechapel Centre and the Basement Project to help take them off the streets - and ideally into some kind of help and support. Local people are intimidated by their presence and sometimes agressive behaviour, and this coupled with the life threatening consequences of this way of life, makes it one of our main priorities in the area.

A review of the miseries of the year would not be complete without mention of the ongoing costs of running my car. The MOT was about £500 and the wishbone went - don't ask - in glorious scary fashion on the Phythian estate earlier in the year. I am getting close to the need to perform the equation to discover whether it would be cheaper to buy a replacement than it is to keep this one on the road, but whisper it carefully, I don't want the car to hear, it might get much worse, on purpose, to punish me!

And finally, I could not let a review of the year go by without mentioning something really rubbish.
Imagine my amazement when I spotted an exhibition in the new Museum of Liverpool of our colourful wheely bins for all of our visitors to see.

Happy New Year!

1500th blog post!

2011-12-19T21:56:00.000Z

The blog post that proceeds this one, about the carol services I have been to this year turned out to be the 1500th entry on the blog.

This fits handily with the 154,041 page loads since I put statcounter on to the blog about a year in, enabling me to monitor who visits the blog, what they searched for, what they read, how long they visited, whether they came back, how often, which were the most popular entries etc. A few years later I also had the benefit of Google Analytics which does pretty much the same thing.

25,000 unique visitors on average visit each year, last year it was 26,000 and a staggering 7000 people are regular visitors each year.

In the last month, the main referrals - where someone linked to me from - are the Daily Post, Dale Street Blues presumably, Facebook, Blogger itself - I must have featured as a sample blog at some point this month, Twitter and cemeteryscribes.

Most traffic though comes through Google, which is not surprising given that Blogger is a Google platform and they always promote their own sites above those of say wordpress in their search results - or I am assuming that is the case. 934 people in the last month came to me via a Google search for key words which they found on my page.

Depending on the day and the time of day when you search, and how recently I made a new entry, if you search for simply "Louise" or "Baldock" I am often on the first page of Google UK. Now you tell me whether that is exciting!

I began writing the blog in April 2006, 5 years and 8 months ago.

In that time I have won national awards from Total Politics, four times. In 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011, this year making it into the top 75 left wing blogs. You can link to the results for each award by clicking on the logo to the left of the blog, this will show who else was awarded and where we all appear on the list.

But it hasn't been plaudits all the way. Readers will know that the injudicious use of the "b" word concerning political opponents, written on the blog in 2007 in a story about candidate fixing, was consequently reported to the Standards Board by one of them in 2009 (obviously a slow reader), and this resulted in my being forced to resign from the shadow cabinet following all the fuss. (The standards board chose not to investigate or take the case forward, but the local newspaper did a hatchet job after being sent a leaked letter and the damage was done).

I was determined not to let that stop me blogging though and have gone to write long articles about infertility, the monarchy, the AV debate, written a short story for Autumn, publicised community events as an online notice board for organisations in the ward I represent, commented on art, literature, culture, gardens, plants, parks, holidays, cars, weddings, funerals and citizenship ceremonies, LGBT events, particularly Pride, days out and days in, and generally had plenty to say about all sorts of eclectic things.

The most popular articles remain the two about fake golden virginia and dodgy cigarettes being produced and sold in Kensington, 20 people a month read those, every month, for several years now. I hope I am helping some people to stay away from counterfeit tobacco products as a result.

The many entries about our beloved Deane Road Jewish Cemetery and the funding we have received from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support its restoration get lots of visits from people keen to set up their own projects and looking for inspiration and advice.

Interest never declines either in stories about cash machines and having to pay to draw out your own funds in poorer areas.

I get asked to undertake a tremendous amount of interviews with media students at Liverpool John Moores University (and I always say yes) as part of their studies, enabling them to practice their questioning skills and their film techniques. I do smile to myself thinking about the poor tutors on the course thinking "Here's that Louise Baldock again!" as they mark their students work. These requests often come because a student has chosen to write about a subject that I have written about and they have found me through a search engine - inner city regeneration is a very popular one.

I have seen many other people start blogs and then falter over those years (and amen to that in some quarters!), they often don't realise how much commitment and perseverance you need to keep on writing stuff, how you have to keep a little corner of your mind alert to things that people will find interesting and want to read.

You really do have to put the work in and in some years I have written much more than others. In 2008 I wrote by far the most number of entries, an amazing 393, that is more than one a day, it doesn't surprise me though to see it was that year, given my passion for culture, it was Liverpool's year as European City of Culture and I was making the most of it by going to so many fabulous events.

This year I have written only half that amount, although have written some much longer articles as opposed to streams of shorter ones. Of course with my interest in all social media, including Facebook and Twitter and my professional website at www.localmarketingliverpool.co.uk I guess I don't have the same time to give to the blog either, without short-changing other forms of social media.

I am occasionally asked to give presentations at conferences about the use of social media and how you can use it to promote yourself, ideas, political campaigns, community issues and so on. While I describe the many different ways in which one can engage with the wider public through social media, through blogs, websites, facebook, twitter etc, I do tell my audience that I am not an expert by any means. Rather I see myself as a "jobbing" social media proponent who uses all of those means but is not ever going to be called into Newsnight for my views (just as well really, to be honest).

Because my blogging is eclectic and I concentrate mainly on Liverpool rather than the national picture, I certainly don't get the same following as the national political sites for instance. But that was never my aim. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people out there who want to write about national politics and about who said what to whom during a debate in Parliament. That has never been a market I felt I could or would want to break into. I prefer to keep it local and relevant to a particular readership. And I try to pitch my contributions to people who I probably know and who can feel a connection with me when they read what I write. And I never wanted to write a blog that was just about politics, I like to talk about a much wider range of subjects, as my readers are very well aware.

The people I write about - often with praise - like our local community police team, or the staff in the Registrar office for instance, are all regular visitors and will often talk to me about things they have read here.

The only thing that disappoints me, and I have never quite known how to surmount it, is the small number of people who actually comment on the articles they read. I get stopped in the street (no really, I honestly do) and in the workplace, by council officials or people from the many organisations I am part of. I get emails and texts about things I have written, I see them shared on FB and Twitter, but the place where a comment would be logical, right here, is rarely the place where it actually happens.

I wonder why that is? Do readers find it difficult to master Blogger's comment system? Or do they think I wont publish them if they write them? Years ago when the blog was under permanent attack from a certain political party, I often deleted comments, but these days I publish 99% of them. Do people fear having their identity known? I only wish I knew what holds people up from writing here where we can all share. What are your thoughts on this? I know I wont get them here, but you can stop me in the street and tell me if you like!!!

Anyway, if you are still with me, thanks for making it all possible, worthwhile, rewarding and exciting. I look forward to sharing the next 500 posts with you.

The voice of Christmas

2011-12-16T01:46:00.000Z

We all have our favourite thing about Christmas. For some it is the face of their children on Christmas morning, for others it is a restful holiday from work, for the extroverts it is the festive parties, for me it is always the Carol Service.

And I have enjoyed three this year (and it is only the 15th, albeit late at night) so I might get a few more in yet, and will definitely be in Wesley's favourite octagonal chapel on Christmas Day morning.

This week I have enjoyed a lovely service at the RC Cathedral (Saturday 10th December), St Hilda's CE School Christmas Carol Service (where I am a Governor) at the Anglican Cathedral (Tuesday 13th December) and tonight I enjoyed the Liverpool Welsh Choral Christmas Programme at the Philharmonic Hall.

All wonderful and all featuring exciting versions of this year's seemingly new favourite carol, In the Bleak Midwinter (frosty wind made moan).

I am feeling thoroughly Christmassy now, thanks to all the great choirs, speakers, conductors and musicians.

May I echo that vital lyric as I wish you all the best for the Christmas season "We all want some figgy pudding so bring some out here!"

Tory PM David Cameron's £448m Troubleshooting scheme for "problem families"

2011-12-16T01:32:00.000Z

I am just throwing these thoughts out there in the hope that someone will engage with them. I will make this as easy and simple as I possibly can in the hope that someone will poke a hole in my argument if I have it all completely wrong (but I don't think I do).

In Liverpool we have had something we call Family Intervention Projects for several years now, actually we call them FIPs because in Local Government acronyms are King, but I digress.

We have been working with the NSPCC and with Domestic Violence Forums to support individual families who need extra help in order to grow and develop on a level and lawful path (that's my description not theirs).

These schemes, which have tremendous success rates were funded by the Labour Government directly to local councils, through something called the Area Based Grant, ABG, amongst other funding streams.

The Tory/LibDem coalition was quick to pull the ABG as one of its first acts and our FIPs are funded to a lesser degree now than they were.

I have been driving up and down the M6 for several hours today listening to the Radio and listening in particular to interviews with PM David Cameron and Louise Casey who is apparently to head this up for the Government (she of the Inclusion and ASB programmes for the Labour Government). And this is my question and my concern.

How does any part of what is being suggested differ in any way from what was already being done and if the Tory/LibDem Government thinks this is the way to go, then why did they already pull the funding that paid for FIPs (and put less back in than they took out, by the way)

Or am I missing something obvious?

No really, I mean it!! Please advise!!

North Liverpool pensioners enjoy a Queenie Christmas

2011-12-16T00:59:00.000Z

Herbert Howe, of Herbert of Liverpool hair sylist fame, his sister and her husband stepped into the breach this year to support the Pensioners' Christmas Party held annually by the police of Tuebrook Police Station.

In recent years local councillors have used part of their devolved budgets to fund the festive lunch enjoyed by hundreds of pensioners in the north of Liverpool, however council belts have been considerably tightened this year. Anxious that they should not be scrooges this year, the Police, lead by the wonderful Sergeant Simon Joyce, his supportive Inspector Paul Harrison and their hard working team, approached Herbert to ask whether his family's Trust in the name of their beloved mum Queenie, could help.

The Queenie fund said a big yes and Herbert, his sister and her husband were at the Devonshire House Hotel on Tuesday (and Wednesday) joining hundreds of pensioners in a fabulous festive knees up. I popped in during my lunch hour on Tuesday and was thrilled to be in time to hear the lovely school children from St Michael's RC Primary on Boaler/Guion Street sing to the happy diners. Afterwards they joined the adults, rocking round the Christmas Tree.

Another wonderful event, with the community police and local partners and agencies, including our much loved Cathy Patterson waiting on the guests.

Well done everyone! And a happy Christmas to all!

Unofficial NW Regional Labour Party Christmas Quiz

2011-12-14T14:50:00.000Z

I found the original of this photograph in LP Regional Office last week. I would say it shows the 1992 Labour Party General Election candidates for the NW of England (with the manifesto), although I am not quite sure why Harriet Harman is in the photo in that case.

How many candidates can you name? and which constituency did they stand for? You will have to say where they appear in the photo, otherwise you might just have googled them!

Good luck!

Christmas Carol Festival at RC Cathedral, Liverpool

2011-12-11T01:11:00.001Z

Lisa and I had a wonderful day today. We began with a viewing of Alice in Wonderland at the Tate on the Albert Dock then moved through the city, having something to eat at Sahara, a lovely Lebanese restaurant behind the Everyman and then a fabulous carol service in the RC cathedral. As an officanado of the same I can tell you that this was a beautifully sung and delivered programme. I feel really christmassy now!

You just can't beat a bit of Cliff

2011-12-11T00:58:00.001Z

While I was away in Coventry last week with the good people from the Local Government Association, one leader told me that she had stood next to Cliff in a motorway service station on the M6 the week before. Apparently she was behind him in the coffee queue with some of her colleagues, and she nudged them and indicated Cliff to them as they waited in line, but not everybody recognised him. I wish I had been there! I could have told him how much I love this particular song. Do please enjoy and draw from it everything you can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOnRAB6oy8o

RJ Swift Consultants Ltd : A warning

2011-12-09T13:02:00.000Z

On 24th October 2011 I agreed a deal with RJ Swift Consultants Ltd
Registration Number: 7618470
http://www.rjswiftconsultants.co.uk/index.html

I would pay £500 for 53,000 email contacts of NW businesses, and to help me to verify the data, Jeanette Mccambridge their enthusiastic saleswoman said “we will run and manage 3 x email campaigns to the NW data (approx 17,000 per send) and after you have done all 3 campaigns we will give you the full file of 53,000 contacts to keep. We will create the HTML free of charge per campaign and send you full reports from our analytical software.”

It sounded like a great deal.

I paid £500 that evening by internet banking.

A week or so later when there had been no progress, I contacted and spoke to John Murphy at the firm who told me that they had had to sack the young man they were hoping would develop the campaigns for me, as he had been caught selling data to competitors. John assured me that he would be hiring someone else as a matter of urgency. Mark then contacted me in early November saying he was the new starter, and we began to work together on a campaign which was to promote some marketing training I was delivering in Liverpool.

On 8th November however, when work seemed to have stopped again, I wrote to him (at his private email address) and he replied saying “I have left this company now as I was not completely happy with their business practices.”

At this point, on the grounds that they no longer had my confidence, I wrote to the company asking for a refund. I directed my correspondence to Jeanette the saleswoman and copied in John Murphy the manager, neither responded. I wrote several times more to no avail.

I then wrote to Rebecca Jane Clark, the director, at the email address rebecca@rjswiftconsultants.co.uk which is advertised on the firm’s website, telling her that I was contacting the people who featured in the testimonials in the marketing materials that Jeanette had initially sent me about their offer. I said I was going to talk to them about the level of service they received from the firm and the level of service I was receiving.

That unsurprisingly triggered a phone call from Jeanette saying that a cheque would be put in the post forthwith. She also asked me about the conversations I was having with "their customers". A second phone call a week later apologised for the lack of cheque but promised it was still in hand. It is today 9th December 2011 and having still received no refund, I have submitted a claim online in the Small Claims Court.
The invoice/order form for the firm shows that they are registered at 31a Station Road, Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear NE26 2QZ They also advertise themselves at operating at 4 Boyd Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, NE2 1AP (in Jeanette’s email footer) and on the website for RJ Swift Consultants Ltd.

I assume they are closely related to the company Swift Mailing 7227070 who claim to be located at 1 Boyd Street, Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE2 1AP http://www.swiftmailing.co.uk/contact.html

They are both registered at the same address in Station Road, Whitley Bay. The director for Swift Mailing is Thomas Brian Murphy. I don’t know whether he is related to John Murphy whose email address appears on this website and who I have spoken to on matters relating to RJ Swift Consultants.

Movement for a Republic, Liverpool meeting

2011-12-07T21:19:00.000Z

If like me you are a Republican - you believe that Great Britain should be a republic, rather than have a heriditary monarch - you might be interested in tipping up for this meeting.

Republic in the North West meeting: Liverpool, December 10th
The newly formed Republic in the North West will be holding its second meeting this weekend. Items on the agenda will include jubilee plans and how best to campaign across the region.

The meeting is 1-5pm: Quaker Meeting House, 22 School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BT

All Republicans are welcome!

Carol singing at the Newsham Park bandstand on Saturday

2011-12-07T20:06:00.000Z

CAROL SINGING

BANDSTAND

NEWSHAM PARK

SATURDAY

10^th December

4.00 – 5.00pm

Followed by Refreshments

Victorian Christmas at Edge Hill

2011-12-07T20:00:00.000Z

Victorian Christmas

At Edge Hill Station

Tunnel Road, Liverpool L7

Saturday 10^th December 2011

12pm – 4pm

With Brass Band, Carols, art and craft stalls, festive food and drink, theatre and also Father Christmas with a toy for every child.

Victorian Costumes

Everyone Welcome

RIP Wally Edwards, Labour and Co-operative Party stalwart 1923 - 2011

2011-12-07T19:59:00.001Z

Yesterday was Wally Edwards' funeral at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Norris Green.

It was very well attended by hundreds of Labour Party and Co-operative Party members along with Wally's family.

The eulogy concerning Wally's political life was given by Councillor Martin Cummins and was very well written and delivered. So much so that I have asked him to send it to me so that I could put it here and leave it as a permanent memorial to our dear friend.

Peter Dowling commented to me as we were leaving the funeral that Wally "always played with a straight bat". Who could ask for a better epitaph?

This is what Martin had to say

Brother Wally Edwards – A Eulogy

Sisters, Brothers how will I find the words to express the depth of gratitude that we owe to our wonderful Brother Wally Edwards for a life time of service to his beloved Labour Party, the ideals of Co-operation and to us his brothers and sisters gathered here today to celebrate his life.

I was 22 years old when I found out that I had a brother. It was Wally himself that told me. The first words he said as he shook me by the hand when I joined were: ‘Welcome to the Labour Party, Brother’

When Wally called you Brother, or Sister, he did not mean these words in a ceremonial sense or indeed figuratively. He believed, with all of his soul, that when we join the Labour party we become part of a family whose rich, majestic ancestry binds us together in a lifelong struggle for social justice and which compels us to unconditionally strive to achieve : ‘From each according to their ability, To each according to their need’

People have asked me how long our Brother Wally was in the Party. I tell them he was in our family long before I was born, others will tell you that he was there before their parents, or even their grandparents were born. It is said that on Mount Sinai when the Good Lord was handing the commandments to Moses he ran out of stone tablets. Turning around he saw Wally there and he wrote the 11th Commandment on Wally’s heart. Looking down Wally read the words emblazoned on his heart. They read:

‘Thou shall be socialist ’

And our Heavenly Father placed his hand on Wally’s broad shoulders and said:

‘Whatever they do to these, the least of my brethren ... they do unto me.’

When I was told that Wally had completed his work on this Earth I felt the same acute sense of loss I experienced when I was told of John Smith's passing. It was as if something fundamental, something irreplaceable had been lost.

What I find profoundly sad is that I will probably never be able to reach for a book about the life and times of Wally Edwards, Man of Labour, the international best seller and required reading for all Party members.

And so it rests with us, his family to pass on his legacy by word of mouth. What, brothers and sisters, will we tell future generations?:

I will tell them, in the words of another, that our Brother Wally was a natural, a born counterpuncher with a whip quick mind and a fine musician’s instinct for stringing words together.

Our brothers Jimmy Woods, Phil Rowe and Liam Moore will tell them that as a young man Wally’s mettle was forged at a time which saw the nationalisation of the Bank of England, of civil aviation, of the railways, of telecommunications. That he saw the creation of the National Coal Board which supplied 90% of the nation’s energy needs. That he bore witness to the establishment of the National Health Service, the nationalisation of canals, road haulage and electricity and of the iron, steel and gas industries for the common good.

Our Brother Nick Croft will tell of the fact that Wally served under 5 Labour Prime Ministers and that at annual conference in 2008 he received the prestigious merit award and he will speak of the tears we all shed when he was honoured with the award of Honorary Presidency of West Derby Constituency Labour Party.

Our sister, Sheila Murphy and colleagues at Region will tell them that Wally was a legend, a man of great integrity and unquestionable loyalty who always listened to other people’s point of view and who never judged those who had different opinions to his own.

Our Brother John Mooney will tell them about the day in 1997 when Everton were playing their last game of the season against Wimbledon, a match they had to win to avoid relegation. When John got to the ground the cash gates were closed. Forlorn and ticketless he made his miserable way home only to bump into Wally who insisted that John take his ticket for the game. Gratefully declining John wished this true socialist farewell and went on his way a much happier man particularly when he found out that his brother had watched Everton sensationally avoid relegation.

Our brother , Dave Hanratty will tell them of his skill in the boxing ring and that his twinkle toes and dulcet tones were enjoyed by thousands who saw him sing and dance with the Pirrie Players in order that in his words ‘the old folk could keep their feet tapping’. (The Pirrie Players – 25 women, Wally and Alex, I wonder what the attraction was!) and of how he and his right hand man Alex, both well into their 80’s at this time, were fondly known as the Over the Hill mob as they topped the bill singing Match stick men and match stick cats and dogs at Karaokes nationwide.

Our sister Pam Thomas and our brother Courtney Owen will tell them of his encyclopaedic knowledge of Labour Party rules and the humility and compassion with which he would offer advice and guidance to calm stormy waters at passionate disputes during meetings which would surely have disintegrated into chaos were it not for his benign intervention.

Our brother, Pete Mitchell will tell them about last year when Wally, aged 87, was campaigning in the local Government elections. Pete received a call to tell us that Wally was going to be arrested for breaching electoral policy. We rushed to the polling station to find a bunch of Lib Dems shouting about the fact that Wally was unduly influencing voters with what he was wearing. We turned around to see Wally’s cheeky grin peeking out from behind a Labour party rosette the size of Big Ben. He then spent the rest of the day rallying our flagging teenagers with the words: Come on sisters, brothers only another six hours to go.

His brothers Tony Jennings and Phil Knibb will tell of the Friday afternoons they spent with him over a beer shortly before he passed on when they spoke of politics and the old days and of how much Wally said it meant to him to be in the company of old Comrades. And of how he would then break the reverent silence with a chuckle saying: ‘Pity I wont remember any of you tomorrow’

Our brothers Jimmy Woods and John Volleamere will tell them that the very ink that wrote these words flowed through his veins:

‘To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.’

Brothers, sisters this is a sad day but it is also a day filled with hope and pride. A flame never goes out if you use it to kindle another. Looking around this Church I can see so many flames kindled by Wally Edwards. To those who say we will never see his like again I urge you to re consider. Because we are Wally’s family we will see Wally all around us. We will see him in our Brother Joe Anderson as he lies awake deep into the night worrying about how he can protect the vulnerable from savage Coalition cuts and in the 20 hour working days he puts in with our brother Paul Brant and cabinet colleagues to protect their beloved Liverpool from the Camerons and Osbornes and Pickles of this world. We will see it every time our sister Roz Gladden visits a nursing home or a care home or a day centre as she valiantly seeks to defend the elderly and the sick from the ravages of Government policy which targets the infirm and the impoverished whilst the rich languish in yet more bonuses.

We will see him every time our brothers Steve Rotheram, and Stephen Twigg, and our sisters, Louise , Maria and Luciana stand up for us in the Commons to do battle against the want, squalor disease, ignorance and idleness hurled with callous indifference against our people by the Coalition benches.

And brothers, sisters Wally will be there every time we pick up the phone or knock on a door canvassing for our party, shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters who represent us in the Council chamber on the path, God willing, to a new Labour Government which will see compassion replace contempt, justice replace inequity and humanity replace a number on a Capitalist spreadsheet.

To Wally’s immediate family I offer on behalf of the Labour Party, our sincerest gratitude for your grandfather, your uncle, your brother, your dad.

To our Wally I say God Bless you Brother …. May you rest in Peace Comrade.

LGA Leadership Academy

2011-12-02T22:39:00.000Z

I have been away in Coventry a lot this week, planning and then co-ordinating a programme for Local Government leaders (that is Councils to you and me), helping them to develop their leadership skills. Warwick University Business School is a fantastic venue, wonderful staff, great rooms, fab food, and thankfully the participants from different major political parties were all great people. We learnt a lot together and I hope they go away energised and ready to work on their personal leadership challenges. I look forward to January and February for our next two modules about political leadership and community leadership. They know who they are and I expect they will be dropping in to this blog via Google any day now. I am waving an enthusiastic hello! You have my details and if you need to contact me, you know I am keen to support you and make this experience really useful.

And to the participant who said I should have a pay rise, a big smoochy kiss!

Sri Lankan shop assistant murdered in Huyton

2011-12-02T22:12:00.001Z

I have been working away for a few days and have come back to catch up on the Liverpool Echo editions piled up behind the front door.

I was horrified to read about the murder of a Sri Lankan shop assistant in a corner shop in Huyton on Tuesday night.

Police are waiting for their investigations to progress a little before they decide whether this was racially motivated hate crime or a robbery gone horribly wrong but early indications in Thursday's paper suggested nothing may have been stolen from the shop.

The Echo naturally drew parallels with the murder of Anthony Walker but we should not jump to conclusions.

Whatever the facts turn out to be, please rest assured that I will be following developments very closely indeed.

Liverpool Public Sector Workers Strike November 30th 2011

2011-12-02T21:28:00.000Z

I was proud to march with 12000 people angry and concerned about unfair changes to their pensions. I am in a private stake holder pension these days - and my bosses don't contribute towards it, but I still have sympathy with the public sector. I have been in 8 pension schemes since I started work, a balance between company schemes, personal schemes and public schemes, and 4 stakeholder schemes (3 where the employer did contribute). Many of them will not deliver what I was promised when I took them up.

I was told I would retire at 60, now it is 67. How old will I be before I actually do retire, will the goal posts be moved again? Will I even be alive to receive a pension by the time they let me go?

They do say that we are all living longer, but you tell that to the people of Everton who die at 68 years old on average, and Kensington isn't much better.

My residents may as well forget the very idea of a pension! Worked into the grave thanks to an uncaring Government.

And there is the young woman aged 25 I heard on the radio, a teacher, still living at home with Mum and Dad told to pay an extra £100 per month into her pension - and retire later - just to stand still with where she would have been a few years back - and that is from a frozen salary with a miserly 1% increase in future years. She said she wont be able to move out for ages now that her income is so reduced.

A picture tells a thousand words - and here are mine.

PS Councillor Richard Kemp, LibDem Deputy Leader in Liverpool tweeted on Wednesday ‘Lots of Liverpool Council staff working today. Well done all’. And later, that the shops were full of shoppers as a result of the strike, and that ‘Every cloud has a silver lining.’ So we know where he stands!

Liverpool Apprenticeships

2011-11-21T17:15:00.000Z

I wanted to share this update with you about the creation of apprenticeships by Liverpool City Council's Labour Administration. It is simply wonderful news!

What follows is information from Councillor Nick Small, Cabinet member for Employment, Enterprise and Skills and was a response to a question asked by a LibDem councillor who was querying the Labour council's record.

I wanted to clarify the number of apprentices Liverpool's Labour administration has helped create since taking control of the City Council in May 2010.

Before detailing the numbers, I want to explain where we are coming from on this. We want to focus on high quality Level 2 and Level 3 apprenticeships, aimed especially at 16-19 year olds and in sectors that do not have a high take up rate of apprenticeships and are priority areas in the city - especially the low carbon economy, visitor economy and creative industries. At a time when the government is encouraging cities like Liverpool to rebalance its economy in favour of the private sector, it's important that we don't limit our efforts just to the City Council and the public sector, as opportunities here will be limited because of spending cuts. Having said that, we have - as an employer - led by example and created 80 apprenticeships starts at the City Council and encouraged our joint venture partners to do the same.

It's also worth clarifying what the government's role has been on this. Government funding only covers the training element of an apprenticeship - it doesn't cover the wage costs, which has to be met in full by the employer. In cities like Liverpool there's significant market failure, which the government hasn't addressed, so we've had to, by funding incentive payments to employers, publishing apprenticeships to young people (a recent survey by the Association of Colleges found that only 7% of 14 year olds knew what an apprenticeship was) and making it easy for SMEs to recruit employers through the Liverpool Apprenticeship CIC.

I believe there was a real lack of political will to make a difference on apprenticeships under the previous Lib Dem administration.

When we took control of the City Council in May 2010, the LibDem administration had created only 7 apprenticeship opportunities. We pledged that we'd create 100 apprenticeships in our first year, but we've managed to beat that. Since May 2010, through a range of initiatives, we've already directly helped create 635 apprenticeship starts. These would simply have not have happened if it wasn't for this administration. Here's a full breakdown. I've met many of these apprentices and have seen first hand what a fantastic job they are doing.

250 - in the hotel sector through the De Vere Academy (funded through a set up grant by Liverpool City Council)

133 - in a range of private sector companies through a business grant scheme (funded by Liverpool City Council)

100 - young apprentices through the Merseyside Apprenticeship Programme (funded by Liverpool City Council through the European Social Fund)

80 - at Liverpool City Council

28 - at Liverpool Mutual Homes

24 - at Enterprise, the council's highways, street scene and refuse partner

20 - at Glendale, the council's parks maintenance partner

A few weeks ago we announced the start of the Liverpool Apprentice CIC. This is a £1.2m project, again mainly funded by the City Council, which will see the creation of 1,300 new apprenticeships across the city over the next 3 years. This is a joint venture with Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, which represents 1,700 businesses in the city, Liverpool Community College and the Eldonian Group.

During the course of the apprenticeship, all apprentices will be paid the full national minimum wage rate and not the £95/week apprenticeship wage.

Once the CIC is up and running, we'll have created a total of nearly 2,000 apprenticeships in our first 4 years of running the City Council.

KVfm Online Writing Competition

2011-11-10T16:22:00.000Z

Writing Competitions

KVfm Online Liverpool's Premier Community Radio Station is offering you the chance of getting your short radio play produced and broadcast on KVfm Online in 2012 in our search for New Local Writing Talent

We want you to write a short Radio Play but there are certain rules:

- Your play should last no longer than ten minutes
- Have no more than 3 characters
- And have a maximum of 3 locations

We will be judging all the entries and the best 3 (in our judges opinion) will be produced and broadcast on KVfm Online in 2012, with the overall winner receiving a prize of £100
Closing Date 2nd December 2011

In conjunction with our Short Radio Play Competition The Reading Room is running a Short Story Competition.

Entrants are invited to submit a short story complying with the following rules;

- The title or theme is to be ‘The Meeting’
- Must be no more than 1,500 words
- Must be submitted as a word document by e-mail

Our panel of judges will select the best 3 (in their opinion) and these 3 lucky entrants will receive a recorded reading by a professional voice artiste of their short story, with the overall winner receiving a prize of £100

Closing date is 16th December 2011

So Get Writing!

For more details contact KVfm Online on
0151 345 1290
or email
wendy@kvfm.co.uk or steve@kvfm.co.uk

Go tell it to the birds

2011-11-08T20:15:00.000Z

This a rather strange story that I am hoping an ornothologist might help me with....

It is perfectly true and it happened over the weekend while I was staying in Blackpool for NW Regional Labour Party conference (which was great, but more of that later perhaps)

I arrived on the Friday tea-time and checked into my hotel. My room was on the fourth floor on the side of the hotel, this is the top floor and I guess you could say the room was in the eaves. The en-suite bathroom, like the bedroom, had a sash-window, and it was open about 6". I pulled the blind down to cover the gap.

In the morning, after selecting my clothes for the day, I laid my suitcase on a dressing table in the bedroom, closed the cover, pulled the blind up in the bathroom and went for breakfast.

When I returned to the room at tea-time, there was bird droppings on the lid of the suitcase but the rest of the room was unmarked, as was the bathroom - and there was no bird present, I checked!

I was most puzzled and went downstairs to tell the staff on reception. Clearly a bird had got in to the bathroom, flown across it, into the bedroom and over to the dressing table at the far side of the room. There was nothing to perch on but I figured that perhaps it had been chased, maybe by the chambermaid, and had messed before being either captured or encouraged to fly away. The reception desk knew nothing about it though. There had been no reports of any birds in the room.

I went back to the room and sat on the bed, catching up on a bit of TV, when a bird came and tapped on the bedroom window. It was not a very big bird and I may have caught a hint of gold or green about its chest.

It flew away when it could not get in but came back again about 20 minutes later and repeated the exercise. I should say that it was not the bathroom window it was trying to access, but the bedroom one, although I guess it may already have tried and failed at the former which I think I must have closed in the meantime.

On Sunday morning I took my suitcase down to the car, went for breakfast and then went back up to the room, just to check I had not left anything behind, before going to settle the bill. Imagine my surprise to see fresh bird mess in exactly the same place on the dressing table as before - only of course my suitcase was not there any more - and nor were any birds.

So, it would appear that a bird was in the habit (or developing a habit, given that the hotel appeared to know nothing about it) of flying into the bathroom, across the bedroom, depositing its mess in a precise place and then flying back out again.

Has anyone heard of anything like this happening before?

There were nets above the third floor windows, across the space between my building and the next building, but they did not extend as far as my floor, so clearly there had been problems with birds historically.

I don't really know what to make of it. Thoughts?

Berneslai Homes - are they up to the mark in terms of Equality and Diversity?

2011-11-04T00:29:00.001Z

Well I spent a week with them in October 2011 so if anyone knows, it is me.

And the short answer is yes, they are not only up to the mark, but actually Excellent.

I really enjoyed learning about some of their best practice, and was particularly interested in their Rainbow Tick scheme, promoting LGBT friendly businesses and their "If something doesn't right" policy for vulnerable residents. I am now hoping that Diane Weston, the lead officer, will come over to Liverpool, and to Venture Housing in particular to share her good work with us all.

Talking to a colleague about the visit later, he referred to equality strands and I told him that they are now to be known as Protected Characteristics - and thought you might be interested in learning what they are here.
For information:

What is a protected characteristic?

Age
Where this is referred to, it refers to a person belonging to a particular age (e.g. 32 year olds) or range of ages (e.g. 18 - 30 year olds). For further information on age please follow the link to the UK Legislation website.

Disability

A person has a disability if s/he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on that person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. For further information on please see disability on the UK Legislation website.

Gender reassignments

The process of transitioning from one gender to another. For further information please see gender reassignment on the UK Legislation website.

Marriage and civil partnership

Marriage is defined as a 'union between a man and a woman'. Same-sex couples can have their relationships legally recognised as 'civil partnerships'. Civil partners must be treated the same as married couples on a wide range of legal matters. For further information please see marriage and civil on the UK Legislation website.

Pregnancy and maternity

Pregnancy is the condition of being pregnant or expecting a baby. Maternity refers to the period after the birth, and is linked to maternity leave in the employment context. In the non-work context, protection against maternity discrimination is for 26 weeks after giving birth, and this includes treating a woman unfavourably because she is breastfeeding. For further information please see pregnancy and maternity on the UK Legislation website.

Race

Refers to the protected characteristic of Race. It refers to a group of people defined by their race, colour, and nationality (including citizenship) ethnic or national origins. For further information please see race on the UK Legislation website.

Religion and belief

Religion has the meaning usually given to it but belief includes religious and philosophical beliefs including lack of belief (e.g. Atheism). Generally, a belief should affect your life choices or the way you live for it to be included in the definition. For further information please see religion and belief on the UK Legislation website.

Sex

A man or a woman. For further information please see sex on the UK Legislation website.

Sexual orientation

Whether a person's sexual attraction is towards their own sex, the opposite sex or to both sexes. For further information please see sexual orientation on the UK Legislation website.

You are also protected if you are discriminated against because you are perceived to have, or are associated with someone who has, a protected characteristic, For example protecting carers from discrimination. The Equality Act will protect people who are, for example, caring for a disabled child or relative. They will be protected by virtue of their association to that person.

Liverpool Wavertree local government council candidate selections

2011-11-04T00:22:00.001Z

9th October 2011 saw the selection of Labour candidates for the 2012 local government elections for Liverpool City Council within the Liverpool Wavertree constituency.

We began at around 1pm, with local members voting for their own local candidates, in six separate meetings. There was an enormous amount of competition, with Childwall alone attracting 7 possible candidates. After several great selection conferences, speeches and presentations, all of which I chaired, I can confirm that the Labour candidates for 2012 for the local elections are as follows

Childwall - Ruth Hirschfield, local ward captain who spearheaded Jeremy Wolfson's campaign in 2011.
Church - Dr Richard Wenstone, Royal University Liverpool Hospital professional
Kensington and Fairfield - Councillor Liam Robinson - popular local councillor seeking re-election
Old Swan - Councillor Gary Millar - seeking his first election as a Labour councillor after defecting from the Liberal Democrats last year.
Picton - Nathalie Nicholas - Operation Black Vote graduate 2009, mentored by Cllr Steve Radford and latterly with me, Nurse and Liverpool Wavertree CLP Women's Officer.
Wavertree - Helen Casstles, Public Health professional

It is easy to say that I am impressed and humbled by the calibre of our candidates, but that does not make it any less true!

I am looking forward to campaigning across the constitutency and across the city to support them

Kensington and Fairfield Landlords Forum

2011-11-04T00:00:00.000Z

Just a quick blog to let you know that we have now held our second meeting of the Kensington and Fairfield Landlords Forum, designed to improve communication between private landlords and elected representatives and council staff in the immediate area.

You may not know but our ward has many more private landlord properties than is the norm in the city and we are very keen to improve our relationships with them. It is only going to be by working with private landlords that we can develop and maintain a situation where only good quality tenants are accepted to live here in Kensington and Fairfield. At the last meeting 7 landlords were engaged, including one with upwards of 1000 properties, albeit not in all our area.

We also had a further meeting, this week, at Tuebrook Police Station with resident home owners in Halsbury Road and a private landlord in their street over problematic tenants. We made huge progress and I feel quite positive about the future in that particular case. No more Soft Cell Sex Dwarves in our street, thank you!

BNP conference in Wavertree

2011-11-03T23:25:00.000Z

On balance I think it was a positive thing that I was not around at the weekend when the BNP came to Liverpool, to my own area in fact, barely half a mile away.

Had I been at home and available to protest against their conference, I would have been there. And irrespective of how vocal our leader of the council, Labour's Joe Anderson was, I would have been yet louder and more strident.

That people with such abhorrent views should have been spending the weekend on my very doorstep fills me with shame and despair.

I don't know how many British Citizenship Ceremonies I have now attended and spoken at, it must be in excess of three dozen by now. But I do know that I take painstaking care each time to tell our new Citizens how much we value the input from every new person who comes to live in our country. As Paul Amman reminded us last year on International Migrants Day, December 2010, some of the people who built this beloved city came from overseas.

A German migrant, Carl Bernard Bartels created the most iconic representation of the symbol of the city the Royal Liver Building Birds

Scandinavian migrants brought the city its dish, Lobscouse

Malian Djimi Traore, Scot Kenny Daglish, Jamaican John Barnes, Welsh Craig Bellamy, Brazilian Fabio Aurelio, Dutch Ryan Babel, Czech Vladimir Smicer, Israeli Yossi Benayoun, Irish Steve Staunton, Dane Jan Molby, Welsh Ian Rush and Pole Jerzy Dudek are just a sample of the many migrants who have contributed to the success of Liverpool FC

Irish migrant Edward Chambre Hardman whose legacy for photography is still preserved at his studio 59 Rodney Street which is now owned by the national Trust

Swiss migrant Carl Jung's Liverpool Dream

John, Paul and George were descendants of Irish migrants

Russian migrant Vasily Petrenko is principal conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Nigerian Victor Anichebe, Australian Tim Cahil, Polish descended Phil Jagielka, Russian Andrei Kanchelskis, Welsh Gary Speed, Scot Gary Naysmith, Canadian Tomasz Radzinski, Spanish Mikel Arteta and American Tim Howard are some of the many migrants who have contributed to Everton FC's successes

Yemeni migrant, Tahir Qassim MBE is one of the founders and chairperson of the Liverpool Arabic Centre. He is also Chair of the Liverpool Black and other Racial Minorities (BRM) Network, Liverpool BRM Education sub-group, Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival (LAAF) and a Board member of the Bluecoat Arts Centre.

Descendents of Jewish migrants from Europe: Samuel, Yates, Montagu, Mozley and Joseph participated in the administration of Liverpool, helping in 1798 to found Liverpool's leading cultural organisation, the Athenaeum

In 1863 Charles Mozley, then president of the Hebrew Educational Institution, became Liverpool's first Jewish Mayor (buried in Deane Road Cemetery)

Jewish migrant descended David Lewis, founded the iconic Liverpool store (also buried in Deane Road cemetery)

John Archer was one of Britain's first black mayors (Battersea) born in Liverpool, John's father, was a Barbadian ship's steward whilst his mother, Mary Theresa Burns, was Irish born

Chinese migrant Mr K H Li, founder of the Chinese Youth Orchestra and contributor to the soundtrack of the Last Emperor

Singaporean born Michael Chew Koon Chan, Lord Chan of Oxton was House of Lord's only peer of Chinese origin and a consultant and lecturer at Liverpool's School of Tropical Medicine

Chinese descended Liverpool born Hong Y "Frank" Soo was the first non-white man to play football for England

Craig Charles, Cathy Tyson, Paul Barber are all renowned Liverpool born actors of African-Caribbean descent

Liverpool born, African descended, Walter "Wally" Brown CBE was principal of Liverpool Community College

And many, many more have clearly contributed!

There is NO ROOM in Liverpool for the BNP. Above all the areas in the NW who voted Nick Griffin into the European Parliament with a derisory 6% of the vote, using a system which I believe is broken, Liverpool had the smallest support for his wicked ways.

Election results in Liverpool are clear, and remain clear. We don't want your sort here, we don't support you, we don't welcome and we want you to take your tainted custom elsewhere.

Significant Update on Deane Road Jewish Cemetery

2011-11-03T23:08:00.000Z

Another exciting couple of weeks for our Deane Road Jewish Cemetery Restoration Project.

On Sunday 23rd October we celebrated the first service to be held in the cemetery in well over 80 years.

It was a tombstone consecration honouring Lyon Samson, a Dutch immigrant optician who died in poverty in 1843 when no-one could afford a stone for him, but now his descendants have come together many years later to pay for one. They found each other through an interest in family history when they separately made contact with Saul Marks, our project chairman who is a Jewish genealogist.

I should point out that the grave stone setting or consecration is a very significant event in Jewish tradition. I imagine this is because the funeral should take place extremely quickly after death and so it gives an opportunity for the bereaved to honour the deceased where they could not make it to the funeral. Usually they occur on the first anniversary of the death, but in this case it was somewhat later than that...

We asked Michael Sprince to create a short film for us that would reflect this unique and special occasion.

I would personally like to thank everyone who came to support the family of Lyon Samson. Members of the cemetery committee who turned out in force, members of the local Jewish community, particularly those from the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, Reverend Stanley Cohen, and the patrons, particularly Luciana Berger MP, fellow councillors, Pam Thomas (who was very helpful in providing assistance about future wheel-chair users to the cemetery) and Jeremy Wolfson, as well as the local police (who engaged one little boy beautifully), community members and interested passers-by. About 50 people were there to pay their respects to a man who died 168 years ago. Honour thy father and mother. It was very moving, you can take my word for that.

And on Monday 31st October, an exquisite date all things considered, the committee and the congregation handed over the responsibility of the cemetery to our builders and contractors. The scaffolding has gone up on the glorious listed facade this week and we look forward to the fruits of their work. We hope to take a restored cemetery back into our hands next Spring.

I recall many meetings in 2006 and 2007 in the Job Bank, as the committee sat and debated our options, when our chairman Saul Marks, plaintively and regularly asked "Do you think any of this will really happen?". Saul, it is time to believe.

And we have also discovered a most wonderful blog about our Heritage Open Day, courtesy of TheLiverpolitan. If the author wishes to make himself known to us, we would be delighted to keep him updated about our restoration project progress.

African Scams sink lower than amoebas on fleas on rats

2011-11-03T21:54:00.000Z

I may have stolen a line from Frenchy in Grease there, but the sentiments are spot on.

I got this APPALLING piece of spam mail today, I am nearly speechless with horror.

Here it is, from tundeowolabi01@gmail.com

Hello,

My name is Mrs Yetunde Owolabi from Repulic of Benin, I gave birth to three plates, 3 children at a time after the death my husband on 18th of June 2011 by auto car accident. Already we have received 5 children from God, right now I can’t take care of them so I have decided to give them out for adoption, if you are interested let me know, I am not selling them but you will only pay for adoption fees to the ministry in concern and the Lawyer will legalized all the relevant documents and the baby will become legally yours.

Thanks,

Mrs. Yetunde Owolabi

That there are such disgusting people in the world who would pray upon infertile couples on one hand and lascivious perverts on the other hand, frankly disgusts and horrifies me. If any reader knows where I can report this email, in the hope that the international internet police will investigate, please let me know as soon as possible.

Enjoying a British Citizenship Ceremony as a guest

2011-11-03T20:45:00.001Z

Last month I was delighted when one of my constituents, Sergey, invited me to attend his British Citizenship Ceremony, as his guest.

It was most interesting to see the ceremony from the other side. I did attend one about four years ago when I was first exploring the possibility of officiating at one, but since then have only attended as the official representative.

It was Cllr Paula Keaveney's turn to welcome the new citizens and present them with their certificates. We had a funny moment in the anteroom when we met upon my arrival and I promised her I had not come to check up on her performance. The staff all had a double-take too, thinking I had come a week early or that they had booked two speakers.

Paula's contribution was fascinating, because she was able to explain that she was the Leader of the Opposition in Liverpool, and that in Britain, perhaps differently to people's home countries, this was not the source of violence or oppression. She used her position to emphasise the nature of Britain's democratic values, I thought it was a very thoughtful and clever line to take.

Sergey, originally Russian, was thrilled to become British. Two others nurses who work with him at Alder Hey were also guests and we were all proud to be there to witness this special moment.

It's time for a real referendum on Europe (but not at the moment obviously...)

2011-11-03T19:56:00.000Z

Now there's a thing. First we had the personally signed pledge on Tuition Fees in opposition (remember that?) which was abandoned in office as part of the grubby coalition.

And now we have the "It's time for a real referendum on Europe" u-turn.

This one is compounded by the fact that the Libdems actually collected a petition from people who, like them, demanded a referendum.

"We the undersigned believe the Government should give the British people a real choice on Europe by holding a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union"

Wouldn't it be interesting if 100,000 had sent the little slip back to Cowley Street? What if it was the same 100,000 who allegedly signed the online petition which resulted in the debate in the House of Commons about whether we should have a referendum on Europe now and which in a complete volte face, the LibDems voted against last month?

So the LibDem campaign mantra now runs something like this....

What do we want? A referendum on Europe!
When do we want it? Now! It is time! Oh, hang on, how about at a later date, to be confirmed? You see when we said "It is time" what we really meant was "Let's see if we can get some Tory and UKIP supporters to come over to us, because they will vote for any party who gives them a referendum on Europe. It doesnt matter if they would vote in a different way to us, they just want a referendum and we can say we will give them one. Frankly we will say pretty much anything to anyone if it gets us more votes."

This is what Nick Clegg said over last month's debate.

"I have always advocated a vote on Europe if there is a proposal on the table to transfer significant chunks of sovereignty and policy from our country to Brussels – but it's not on the table. We should stop tilting at windmills about threats and challenges which simply aren't there right now."

Does sound the same to you as the statement on the petition above? No, not to me either. No wonder politicians have a bad reputation with voters.

(I dont think we should have had a referendum either, in case you were wondering)

Young people's Art display on Botanic Road / Wavertree Road junction

2011-10-23T17:37:00.000Z

I confess I don't really know the full story behind this wonderful art exhibition, but what I can tell you is this:

It was supported by Riverside Housing Association and My Place

It was created by young people from various local youth clubs and schools, very creatively assisted by professional artists. I think I am right in saying that it was also helped along the way, possibly financially through our devolved budget, by the Picton ward councillors.

It was unveiled on September 16th 2011 at 1pm, but I didnt get there until 1.15pm so I missed all the speeches that would have told me more....

I am hoping that Councillor Tim Beaumont or RHA staff will come and comment on the entry so that they can give you more of the facts. I would like to be able to name check the artists and the young people.

The artwork shown here is a series of large framed pieces, attached to the hordings around a cleared site where a pub used to stand, on the corner of Botanic Road and Wavertree Road, more or less opposite Matalan.

I will start with a photo I have taken from Google Street View, showing what the site looked like a year or so ago.

The site is now completely fenced in and these wonderful pictures are displayed right around the fence.

Each painting or picture, all of which have a 3D aspect, depicts local history, geography and culture which I will endeavour to describe for each image. They dont photograph well as they are behind perspex which reflects poorly for the camera, I do hope that you will go and have a look at them for yourself so that you can truly appreciate them.

The art work was unveiled about six weeks ago and driving by every day, I have yet to see any graffiti or damage, which shows how much the local community value it.

I tried to photo the paintings and images obliquely to minimise the reflection, but you can still the trees that were behind me, in Botanic Park, in each image. The actual images do not have the trees within them... You can click on any image to see a much bigger version (this applies for every photo on my blog by the way)

This painting shows The Beatles, the Superlambanana, Kensington Picture Drome (now Wetherspoons) and displays the words "Edge Hill Youth Club", our first clue as to possible artists.

This image shows the Anglican Cathedral, the Aviary from Botanic Park, now long gone (or is it the aviary from Sheil Park, also long gone?), the Everton FC banner and a Tag Art image, which may be our second clue about the artists.

I took this photograph to show where the art is displayed, to give you an idea of the location and the scale.

This image shows Joseph Williamson, an early 19th century retired tobacco merchant, sitting in the entrance of a tunnel. These tunnels lie underground in the immediate vicinity and go nowhere, They are a great feat of engineering and yet serve no obvious purpose. Many have speculated as to the reason for their construction and philanthropy is often cited - that Mr Williamson paid men who were otherwise out of work to construct these tunnels, so that he could keep them in gainful employment when times were hard. This truly remarkable story and more can be found at the Friends of Williamson Tunnels website. The image also shows the street sign advertising Edge Hill district, Smithdown Primary School shield (more clues) and a glass conservatory which I am guessing once housed the city's Botanic collection in Botanic Park - is it all coming together for you now?

I love this one. Ice skaters at Kensington Silver Blades, the Littlewood's Building - the home of the nation's wistful dreams for over 50 years, St John's Radio Tower and the emblem of Liverpool City Council. The hands of the clock on Littlewoods are in 3D relief.

This image shows the Wavertree district sign, along with a Riverside HA emblem, the shield of Liverpool FC and the wonderful Kensington Library.

Now I am challenged by this picture. Not being a native of Liverpool, or even a native of Edge Hill, Kensington, Fairfield or Wavertree, I am not familiar with these images. We have a priest, but is he is a local priest from St Anne's perhaps, or Sacred Heart, or St Sebastians, or is he an ArchBishop or Bishop? We have the Liver Building, 100 years old this year, happy birthday old lady! We have a Your Place emblem - who are part of Riverside Housing Association and you may know them better as the Clean Team and we have a statue of a woman and child that I think sits outside of Liverpool's Women Hospital.

Now I am back on familiar ground. This piece shows the bandstand from Newsham Park (well I hope it does, I guess there may have been a bandstand in Botanic Park, but I keep my fingers crossed), the RC Cathedral, an image of the Kensington district street sign and the emblem of St Anne's RC Primary School.

And we come to our final image. George Stephenson's Rocket - he had his engineering works at Edge Hill - the oldest passenger station in the WORLD! The Boating Lake in Newsham Park, and trains going in through the tunnels at Edge Hill Station that take them on to Liverpool Lime Street . (The history of the Railways owes a lot to Edge Hill and Liverpool and George Stephenson - although as a former Teessider I will still have to give a plug to the Stockton and Darlington Railway which was the world's first publicly subscribed railway)

Liverpool's Man Booker Prize Event at Garston Library

2011-10-19T21:21:00.000Z

A great night last night, beautifully organised by Peter Wallace, the Reader Development Officer from Liverpool City Council. Sadly his last as he is taking early retirement at the end of the month. He has been brilliant in his role and I know we will all miss him dearly.

Six people read extracts from the shortlisted books and talked about their perceptions and then we voted on which book we thought would win. We were right! Julian Barnes with The Sense of an Ending won in the country as well as in the stunning Garston library.

I read from Carol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie, which I didn't enjoy at all, unfortunately, if you want my notes, just send me an email and I will post them over to you.

But I loved hearing about the other books, talking to readers from book groups across the city about what they liked, and swapping tips about good reads. We also found out about a new set of books, republished to celebrate 21 years of Vintage, the covers are beautiful and I look forward to seeing a few of them on the shelves in Kenny library.

You will be able to hear audio footage of the evening on the next edition of the Reading Room on KVFM online.

A story for Autumn

2011-10-18T23:18:00.000Z

It was a September evening in 2002. A Sunday night. I had watched some TV showing the hundreds of thousands of people taking part in the Countryside Alliance March in London that day, defending fox hunting – despising them for their blood lust. And then, tired, I had taken my book to bed. I read a chapter but I could feel my eyes drooping and I wasn’t concentrating properly, so I put the book down on the floor, reached over to the bed side light and switched it off. I turned over in the dark, toward the curtained window and cuddled into the quilt, my head resting on a large pile of pillows.

And I fell asleep.

Asleep, alone, in a quiet old Yorkshire stone terraced cottage on the edge of Saddleworth Moor, just yards from the stone wheel which marked the boundary of the Peak District National Park. One of the last houses at the outskirts of this Holme Valley village.

Quietly sleeping, dreamless, resting and still, warm and snug, comfortable and calm, drifting across the dark hours on a soft cloud.

When suddenly I was violently and shockingly awake. Someone had taken the headboard of the bed and shaken it. Shaken it so hard that I was snapped instantly alert. A shot of adrenalin charged through me and my heart was pounding fit to burst. I lay paralysed, in the pitch dark, absolutely petrified. Petrified indeed like a stone, rigid and not breathing. My eyes forced wide open, seeing nothing .

Someone had shaken the bed and woken me up. Someone was there, there in the room, someone I couldn’t see in the dark, and I was sore afraid.

I lay completely immobile, save for my crashing, pulsing, thundering heart, beating fiercely inside my my chest. My synapses fired, my brain sparked, frantically searching for an explanation, an understanding.

My eyes were desperately flickering across the dark trying to see, trying to identify the nature of the threat.

I lay as still and as quiet as I could, no screams, no whimpers, ears straining to pick up a sound, desperate for a clue about the nature of the intruder. Frightened into muteness.

A short agonising time passed, through which I heard nothing. And I saw nothing, but I knew I had not imagined it, I knew the bed had been shaken and I was full of dread.

Slowly my eyes became accustomed to the dark and I began to see that there was nobody standing in the shadows, that I could determine, there was nothing obvious to be seen. I turned my head just a little, frightened of any attention my movement would draw, and I looked, inchingly, tentatively, across my shoulder to the other side of the room.

The door into the room was ajar, perhaps 6 inches from the frame, and behind the space lay only the darkness of the landing. There hadn’t been time for anyone to leave the room and pull the door to, even assuming they could have done it quietly, because I had woken instantly as the bed had been shaken.

So it seemed to me at first that the intruder must be lying down, below the level of the mattress. Lying as quietly on the floor as I was laying in the bed.

I continued to lie motionless while my mind raced through many different scenarios, but somehow I couldn’t see the sense of it, I couldn’t picture someone creeping into my room, pulling the door almost closed behind them, lying hard against the carpet and then reaching up to shake the bed. Doing this and then lying still and quiet while I was panicked into wakefulness. Listening to my sleeping breathing stop, and my going silent as I awoke and recognised their presence. It just didn’t feel right. I couldn’t square it logically.

So it came to me finally, that it must in fact be an animal, rather than a human, who was sharing this room with me. A large animal though, to have the power to shake the bed. An animal large enough to make the necessary movement but not so big that it stood as tall as my bed. In my befuddled and frightened waking state that was the best explanation I could conjure up.

After lying still and scared from awaking for perhaps 3 or 4 minutes in total silence, I felt I needed to do something. I couldn’t just lie there indefinitely, frightened and vulnerable and waiting for the next move of the threatener. I thought then that I should try to be brave and turn the light on, take a tiny bit of ownership. Not the bed side light, that would involve reaching across the dark divide and fumbling for the cable and the on/off switch, leaving my hand and my arm vulnerable to attack. I would reach up above my head to where a long cord hung down from a ceiling rose.

Of course it was not an energy saving light-bulb, it was a regular 60 watt bulb. So when I finally plucked up the courage to move, to unravel my limbs, all curled up in a sleeping position, to reach one shaking naked arm up above my head into the dark and waft around until I found the dangling small white plastic cone and pull, the “big” light snapped on with full and instant brightness.

I was blinded, wanting to screw my eyes up against the searing light but frightened to miss the action the intruder would take against my challenge.

Nothing happened.

No movement in the room.

As I lay in the now lit room, I looked with fast flickering eyes as far as I could into those parts of the room I could see, and there was nothing. A quick glance at the radio alarm clock showed it was around 1am. I couldn’t have been asleep for more than an hour.

A good few moments more passed, my heart was starting to slow down, my ears which had been full of the sound of the rush of pounding blood, began slowly to hear normally again and there was still nothing to hear, nothing to be aware of.

I reached inside myself again for resolve, and decided I needed to pull myself up into a sitting position, dead centre in the bed, as far away from either side as I could manage, clutching the quilt against my naked chest, hugging the covers to me.

It is lovely to sleep naked, your body heat works directly with the quilt to warm you and you don’t get tangled up in the trailing length of a night dress as you toss and turn, but that night I felt only the vulnerability of being undressed in a room with an intruder.

And still there was nothing to see and nothing to hear as I sat up with the headboard pressing uncomfortably into my back. I took a deep breath, finally, having failed to take in barely any oxygen, through the shallowest of breaths for several very long minutes. And then I bent over slowly onto my right side to peer over the edge of the bed and along the floor. Nothing but the carpet and my library book, spine cracked, lying at the foot of the bed side table. And so I shifted across the bed, and leaning, looked over the other side. And still there was nothing.

Darting back to the centre of the bed, and my position of safety, it seemed that it must be the case that the intruder, the thing that had shaken my bed, was lying directly underneath me, under the wooden slats that the mattress rested upon.

Who, any of us, wants to confront the creature under the bed? Here there be dragons!

But you know, when you live by yourself, and there is no-one else to rely upon and you have not yet understood the importance of having a regular phone, or a mobile by your bed, you do in the end have to do those things that leave you rigid with fear, or else go simply mad.

So eventually in the quiet, still bedroom, I did find the strength to lean over once again, only further this time and look, with rapid searching eyes underneath the bed, and then more slowly, gazing, to realise and understand that there was nothing to see in the dark dusty shadows.

It was a total mystery to me. Something had definitely shaken the bed, shaken it so violently that I had come awake, snapping to hysterical attention. But of that presence there was simply no evidence. The room was bare of alien presence.

I did eventually find the strength to get out of bed, to put my dressing gown on and to move, room by empty room, anxiously turning on lights with nervous little darts of the wrist, but it became increasingly obvious there was nothing to see, nothing to be found, nothing to discover. The house was exactly as I had left it at bed time, there were no broken windows, no unlocked doors, no fallen furniture, even the cellar damp and cold and slightly mouldy, was just as always.

There was nothing left for me to do in the end, but to go back to bed, read a little more of my book in an effort to divert my mind from its perilous thoughts and bring it some calm, before, with a timid show of spirit, turn off the light, settle back down into the pillows and try my best to fall back into sleep.

The following day I learned of the power of the Dudley earthquake, registering 5.0 on the Richter scale. Its affects were felt for miles around, all the way to North Yorkshire. Some people, like me, had been shaken awake by its power. Mum told me, much later, when I told her the story of my 30 minutes of cold deep fear, that if I had moved over to the window and thrown the curtains apart, I would have seen lights snapping on in bedrooms across the foot hills below me as others registered the same occurrence and I would have realised that this was a local phenomenon and not a private one.

Mums are very wise, we should pay them close attention, so next time, if I am unfortunate to go through such an event again, I shall think “earthquake” before I think “imposter”, plus I never go to bed without my mobile phone these days. And so there has been progress, of a sort. But if you want to know about the most scary moment of my life, you have it, right there. Don’t have nightmares, do sleep well.

Warning: Kensington and Fairfield fire fighters jacket lost

2011-10-17T21:35:00.000Z

Email from our neighbourhood police.

Can you please pass on information to everyone to be aware of anyone calling around the Kensington or Fairfield Area stating to be from Merseyside Fire Service. This is due to a Firefighter from the Kensington Fire Station losing or having his jacket stolen recently.

All staff from the fire service will carry identification, so please ask for ID if suspicious. If you are aware of anybody acting suspiciously in the area, please contact Merseyside Police on 0151 709 6010.

The jacket is described as a Blue Fleece Type with Merseyside Fire Service emblazed on the front left hand side.

To date, I am unaware of suspicious incidents.

Regards

PCSTO Robert Moore 0304
Kensington Police Community Support Officer Merseyside Police

Youth Unemployment in Kensington and Fairfield hits new highs

2011-10-15T19:53:00.000Z

It's back to the bad old days I am afraid.

In 2010 10.9% of our young people in Kensington and Fairfield were unemployed, that was bad. But in 2011 it has risen by a third to 13.6% (that is Job Seekers Allowance Claimants in the age range 18-24). And it is 20% in Everton.

And the situation around the whole country is dire, not just here, if you don't believe me, read that Labour loving, Liverpool supporting newspaper the Sun, who surely can be relied upon to provide figures in our favour. Irony alert. Okay, what I really mean is this, if even the Sun is worried then surely the country really is going to hell in a hand cart. This is what they said (if you don't want to click on the link)

"It is the worst total since 1994, when Sir John Major was PM. Of particular concern is youth unemployment, which reached a record high of 991,000, up a staggering 74,000. It takes unemployment among the young to 21.3 per cent, the highest since comparable records began in 1992. The number of unemployed 16 to 17-year-olds rose 3,000 to 205,000. "

I remember in 1997 that the Labour Party made 5 pledges to the country. One of those was to rescue unemployed young people from the scrap heap.

We said

We will get 250,000 under-25 years-olds off benefit and into work by using money from a windfall levy on the privatised utilities
In 2007, ten years on, Channel4 reported that more than 250,000 young people passed through the New Deal, and subsequently found jobs. Although it did point out that in a growing economy with low unemployment, many would have found work anyway. They went on to say that Professor John Van Reenen had estimated that the 'value added' by the New Deal programme amounted to around 17,000 extra young people in work per year - a success, at reasonable cost, but perhaps falling slightly below the levels promised by the pledge. Channel4 gave it a 4 out of 5 score in terms of a pledge met.

Gordon Brown gave a personal and heart felt commitment to reducing youth unemployment as Labour took office in 1997 and he was broadly successful.

Sadly, in 2011 the progress he made has faltered and reversed.

By my reckoning, and you can work it out for yourselves if you care to, Yosser Hughes' three children would be pushing 40 by now. They will have been in work and doing okay, by and large, until lately, but their children - and Yosser's grandchildren - will likely now be those young people on the new Tory scrap heap. Was anything more depressing than that realisation?

It is hurting and it aint working and we sure as hell are not all in this together Mr Cameron!

Photo: Courtesy of the British Film Institute

Local community heroes honoured at first ever Pride of County ward Awards

2011-10-14T23:04:00.000Z

I had a wonderful time at the Isla Gladstone, sharing the celebrations for the good people of County ward and their many achievements. The official detail follows, but what it doesn't say is that Cllr Gerard Woodhouse was himself recognised and appreciated, as so many residents came up on to the stage to praise him. I have copied a few photos to give you a flavour of the evening.

Photo: Gerard receives a trophy from Cllr Ann O'Byrne, Steve Rotheram MP and Maria Eagle MP

Young people, carers, volunteers and small businesses in County that have gone above and beyond to make a difference in the local community have had their achievements recognised at the first ever Proud of County Awards.

The awards, which were presented at a celebratory event at the Isla Gladstone in Stanley Park on Friday 7^th October, were developed and led by Councillor Gerard Woodhouse, with support from Beautiful North partners including Liverpool Housing Trust and Plus Dane Group.

They aimed to reward the achievements, dedication and commitment of many members of the local community that work tirelessly to help make County a better place and build community spirit.

Councillor Gerard Woodhouse, said:

“The Proud of County Awards are a valuable opportunity for us to recognise the people in our community that work hard and give us hours and hours of their own time to help others and deliver improvements in our area.

“We have an outstanding community spirit in County and so much to be proud of, and this event was a great way to showcase the achievements of just some of the hard working individuals and businesses that make our local community what it is. I would like to thank all those that provided their support to make the event such a success.”

The Proud of County Awards winners are:

Heart of Gold Award – Lorna Haynes from St Lukes Court, which was awarded in recognition of the time and commitment she has dedicated to supporting residents and going beyond the call of duty.

Effective Partnership Working Award – The Walton Youth project’s DARE steering group – a group of 14-19 year olds that have pent the last 18 months developing their skills and giving up their free time to help shape the services available to young people in the area.

Outstanding Community Spirit – Jackie Cadden, a local resident who has been involved in community life for many decades. The award recognised her tireless achievements including setting up and delivering an intergenerational soup club, running the local Sunday school in Walton for 25 years, her active involvement in many forums including the women’s forum at Merseytravel, a trustee of two charities and her role as Chair of a local osteoporosis support group.

Young Volunteer of the Year – Colin Wilson, for commitment to helping run the local youth group and helping and supporting local organisations when running fun days and summer holiday programmes.

Volunteer of the Year – Dee Preston, for her time dedicated to the local resident association and her active role in improving the environment in County, who was nominated for always putting the needs of others before her own.

Small Local Business of the YearRyan Manville – Sports Alive. Ryan worked as a volunteer and sports coach for young people before setting up his own community enterprise which works to help fellow youth workers and young people develop their range of skills and activities.

Outstanding Community Involvement – Barbara English, who has dedicated 30 years to volunteering ranging from delivering large scale dancing events to spending hours putting together costumes for shows, taking children in County to competitions and putting on fundays.

Carer of the Year – Tony Flynn, who has overcome difficult and trying times whilst continuing to care for his family and look after his two young boys.

Young Citizen of the Year – Stephen Taylor, who was recognised as being an ambassador for young people who volunteer, committing himself 100% to his project and community. Stephen plays a key role in delivering junior youth nights, dance groups and dads and lads groups for Walton Youth Project.

Councillors Special Award – Eileen Alldritt, who has worked at Florence Court for 25 years and retires next year, for her work in helping everyone in the local community and not just those in sheltered accommodation.

Young Carer of the Year – This award was given to a young person who has taken on a role within her family as a support to her younger siblings due to her mother’s health conditions. Not only does she take on her family role but she even fits in time to help others, volunteering at her local youth project an giving her own time to help run and deliver summer programmes for local children.

Black History Month celebrations in Knotty Ash Youth Centre

2011-10-13T19:42:00.000Z

I hope some of you can make this excellent event promoting some wonderful Indian culture

Toxteth Sports Centre Farewell Party

2011-10-13T18:49:00.000Z

Email received from Donna, please see below

Most of you may know, that Toxteth Sports Centre has now closed and is due to be demolished shortly to make way for a new facility. Toxteth Sports Centre was not the best facility. However, it did produce some of the finest athletes this City has ever seen. Too many to Mention. It was also a fantastic community drop in where many a fruitfull debate had taken place and were many of our youth have been mentored. They say it takes a Village, Toxteth was that village.

It's brilliant that the community will be getting a new facility next year, which will also be a community fire station as well as a state of the art sports facility. The sad thing is that most of the staff who worked there for the past 20 years have either been dispersed to other centres, or took early retirement.With this in mind, the staff and management of toxteth Sports Centre would like to say good bye in style by throwing you it's former staff and customers, a farewell party. We thought it would be a good way to thank each and every one of you for being part of the Tocky Experience.

I would be really gratefull if you could forward this poster to any one you know on your mailing lists, who at some time in their life attended Tocky Sports Centre. put it on face book, twitter and please spread the word. Lets go out with a bang. The event will be held at Our lady Mount carmel social club. High Park Street Liverpool 8. Sunday 23rd october from 7pm til 1pm. Free, Disco Buffet amd musical entertainment. Unfortunately bar will not be free. So spread the word and get yourselves down there.

Opening night success at Deane Road Cemetery Art and Photography Exhibition

2011-10-10T10:40:00.000Z

Thursday 6th October saw the opening night of the Deane Road Jewish Cemetery Art and Photography Exhibition.

55 people came along to enjoy a wonderful evening and enjoy and appreciate the art on show.

Photo: Councillor Louise Baldock with Jewish Councillor, Jeremy Wolfson and Iftikhar, local Kensington resident and Amhadiyya Muslim, in Kensington Methodist Church - our project attracts multi-cultural, muli-faith support.

Photo: Fiona Filby has created the most exquisite photo images entitled "All things grow with time except grief". I shall be buying myself a set at only £70 for all 8, to hang on my sitting room wall so that I will always remember this wonderful cemetery, long after the restoration project is complete.

Photo: This shows a wonderful

painting by Paul Gatenby, one of a pair

which attracted much interest on opening night.

Photo: These four stunning drawings, executed with a biro were created by Jane Hughes and show images of the cemetery interspersed with prose, suggested to the artist as she sat sketching during open days.

Photo: This shows artist Xia Lu with her own art, created using Chinese Ink on Rice Paper.

Photo: Carol Ramsay, Activity Plan Manager and Volunteer

Manager for Deane Road Cemetery Committee,

showing her own artwork. This image has been used

to illustrate the publicity material for the event.

I have bought a copy of this stunning piece.

Photo: Ray Condell, popular local Community Your Place warden displaying his exciting photographs featuring unexpected angles and depictions of the cemetery set within a community context

The highlight of the evening was a one night only viewing of a light installation, created by Robyn Woolston inside the cemetery grounds. Entitled "Shadow/Light", it involved the siting of 100 white lights across and around the cemetery at strategic places, giving height and depth to the space and showing it in a whole new way.

Guests enjoyed coffee and cake whilst perusing the art and photography, displayed in Kensington Methodist Church on Kensington, before moving to the cemetery at about 8pm once it was sufficiently dark enough to appreciate Robyn's work.

The exhibition will run until October 23rd and will be open in the church on Thursdays and Fridays (11am-4pm) and Sundays (1pm-4pm).

There is also a chance to see our 15 minute film about the restoration project, and to find out more about our work.

Do please call in, I shall be there on the 20th to welcome anyone who would like to talk about any aspect of the cemetery restoration project.

Many thanks to Lisa Shearwood-Vingoe and all at Riverside Housing for their support for the exhibition - and for the photographs!

And a huge thank you to everyone on the committee and to our two members of staff for all their hard work in bringing this art and heritage event to Kensington.

Pride in County Ward awards - Liverpool

2011-10-08T14:16:00.002Z

I am looking forward to telling you all about the fabulous Pride in County Ward awards night I went to last night. But I am waiting for photos from the much acclaimed Cllr Gerard Woodhouse and from the lovely Vicky, before I do so, this is a reminder to you both to send them over to me!

Theresa May accused of lifting cat anecdote from Ukip leader

2011-10-08T13:22:00.000Z

This article from the Guardian is well worth a read - written by Patrick Wintour, political editor

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/07/theresa-may-cat-ukip-leader?CMP=twt_iph
Reproduced below

Theresa May accused of lifting cat anecdote from UKIP leader

Nigel Farage recounted deportation tale, almost word for word, to rail enthusiasts back in July, recording suggests

Nigel Farage says: 'I have become increasingly used to the Tory party mimicking [Ukip] policies and phrases.' Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

The home secretary Theresa May's claim that a Bolivian student was saved from deportation by the existence of a pet cat appears to have been lifted almost word for word from the leader of the UK Independence party.

In her speech to the Tory conference May said the courts, citing the Human Rights Act, had declared the man should not be deported because he would be separated from his cat.

Her remarks led to a spat with the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, who accused her of giving a "laughable, childlike" example to criticise the act. Behind the row is a deeper political dispute over whether Britain should ditch the act.

In July, Ukip's leader, Nigel Farage, told a 200-strong audience at the Eastleigh Railway Institute in Hampshire how a court had decided that the man "should not be deported because – and I really am not making this up – he had a pet cat". A tape recording of his remarks is on the website of the Eastleigh News.

In Manchester this week May matched Farage not just in her phrasing but in her timing when talking about the same immigrant, who she said "cannot be deported because – and I am not making this up – he had a pet cat".

Farage told the Guardian: "I have become increasingly used to the Tory party mimicking our policies and phrases in a desperate effort to pretend to their members they are still Eurosceptic. They don't mean it. We are one of those parties that still believe in holding public meetings, and asking questions from the public. The SWP [Socialist Workers party] turn up, so obviously does Theresa May's speech writers.

"Maybe this will be the beginning of a trend? Flat taxes, cutting foreign aid, a referendum on Europe, grammar schools. Who knows?"

One government member said: "Not only has Ms May been caught out making up stories about the Human Rights Act for cheap laughs, she has been plagiarising her clap lines from the UK Independence party."

The immigrant had avoided deportation after it was ruled that it would breach his right to a family life. In Eastleigh, Farage claimed the incident had occurred a few weeks ago and that the man in question was Peruvian – when he was in fact Bolivian. He also claimed inaccurately that the man had a conviction for manslaughter. Apart from overstaying his visa, he was a law-abiding citizen.
Both politicians inaccurately claimed the man had been granted leave to stay under the Human Rights Act when it was because the tribunal had previously failed to treat his partner as a spouse, which would accord a right of residence.

David Cameron in 2006 earned the ire of Ukip by describing them as "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists, mostly".

Farage may not have spotted his role as May's speech writer since he has been obsessing about the state of the euro, and the way in which George Osborne, the "British chancellor is telling the rest of Europe it must abandon democracy. It's appalling."

Everyone needs a Lucy Smith

2011-10-08T12:26:00.000Z

A message from Julie

My name is Julie Hilling and I was elected as MP for Bolton West at the last General Election.

To be honest, when I was selected as the candidate I was told by almost everybody that I was on to a hiding to nothing, they reckoned that the seat was so marginal that Labour would not be able to hold it, that there weren’t enough members to do the work, that there wasn’t enough money to pay for all the leaflets……

And at the time, given what they knew, they were probably right………but they hadn’t reckoned on Lucy Smith!

Lucy Smith is a member of Labour Party staff, her title is "Regional Organiser" but in Bolton West we call her "The One Woman Election Campaign"!

Can you donate just £2 to help us fund a Lucy Smith for every marginal seat

Lucy was sent to us by Regional Office to help us fight the election. She introduced us to fantastic new techniques in how to get our message across to as many people as possible, to raise money for the leaflets, to get more and more people involved in the campaign and to do this she worked more hours than I thought it was possible to do in a week!
On election night we were all devastated when the count finished and the result was that we had lost the seat by just over 100 votes…...
But not our One Woman Election Campaign!
Lucy insisted that we didn’t give up, that it was so close we should push through a recount. Eventually we got one. And that was when it was discovered that we had actually got 92 votes more than the opposition.
Without doubt I would say that without Lucy Smith, Bolton West would be a Tory seat now. So I write to you to thank you for your membership of the party which helps to pay for Lucy and others like her.
To win the next General Election we need to win back our marginal seats in the North West - and to do that we need a Lucy Smith in every marginal seat. And we need them now.

Please click here to donate just £2 to help us fund a Lucy Smith in every marginal seat
And once again, thank you for Lucy Smith!
Julie Hilling MP for Bolton West

Deane Road Cemetery Art Exhibition

2011-10-03T15:17:00.000Z

Music at Newsham Park Band Stand

2011-09-18T15:24:00.000Z

Newsham Park will be alive with the sound of music on Sunday 25th September as local band 'Futurejack' take part in a Bandstand Marathon as part of the Cultural Olympiad, which is designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspire creativity across all forms of culture.

Bandstand Marathon is organised by Somerset based not-for-profit music development agency Superact and the event will use not only bandstands but public spaces simultaneously across the UK for enthusiastic performances of many types of different music.

Ali Smith, Superact Director explains 'The Bandstand Marathon started life in 2008 with the aim of enlivening public spaces and celebrating the nations much loved bandstands. Over the past 3 years we have seen audience numbers grow throughout the UK and we expect this year to be bigger than ever!' .... ' with an estimated 150 venues taking part this year we are hoping to provide performance opportunities for over 3,000 musicians across the UK. This is Superact's largest UK project and we are very proud to be providing one of the most widespread UK Cultural Olympiad events'.

The project was recently granted the Inspire Mark, for the fourth year running, by the London 2012 Inspire Programme which recognises innovative and exceptional projects that are directly inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Seb Coe, Chaire of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games said: 'Bandstand Marathon is encouraging local music groups to fulfil their potential. I am proud that with the help of partners such as Superact we are delivering our vision to use the power of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to boost participation in creating a cultural legacy post-London 2012.'

A Top Left Wing Blogger, Total Politics Blogs Awards 2011

2011-09-15T12:39:00.000Z

Once again I am delighted to thank readers for their support at the Total Politics Blog Awards.

I have won an award as one of the Top 75 Left Wing Bloggers, last year awards were given to the Top 100.

In 2009 I was 100th out of 100, last year I was 81st out of 100 and this year I have moved up to 74th, thankfully just scraping in. I am one below Billy Bragg, what great company to find myself in!

The awards have not yet all been announced so I shall watch with interest to see the other categories.

Thanks everyone who voted for me - I hadn't noticed the voting had opened so forgot to ask for support, so it is all the more pleasing. Blogging is no fun without readers, you make it all worthwhile.

Photograph appeal: Deane Road Cemetery, Kensington, Liverpool

2011-09-15T12:21:00.000Z

As the plans progress for the restoration of the wonderful Jewish Cemetery on Deane Road, Kensington, we are making an appeal to the public for their help. Do you have any old photographs of the cemetery?

Because the cemetery was opened in 1837 and closed in 1905, it was not really a time for photography and we have very few. We have nothing to show us what the caretaker's cottage or prayer hall inside the walls looked like for instance.

We would be delighted if anyone who has any photos or etchings in their possession of any aspect of the cemetery, before or after it closed, showing any aspect; gravestones, a funeral, the buildings, the beautiful listed screen wall at the front of the cemetery. Pictures will help us to understand how the cemetery has looked through its history.

If you can help, please email info@deaneroadcemetery.com or write to me or Saul Marks at the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation at Princes Road Synagogue, Liverpool L8

What are these pieces of masonry?

2011-09-15T11:57:00.000Z

These three pieces of masonry have been discovered at Deane Road Jewish Cemetery. We are unsure what they are. They are quite big pieces, at least a foot long, the middle one has mortar down one side, suggesting it was fixed in place. The third one has mortar underneath. They look like some kind of key stones, but were they part of a wall or a floor? The cemetery once had two buildings, a caretakers house and a prayer hall. We presume they were made of brick but there are no photographs of them or drawings and no-one in living memory has ever seen them. Do you know what these masonry pieces would have been used for?

The bottom one bears the inscription Chantrell Patentee Liverpool

Our archivist has done some research into Chantrell and discovered the following information

1. George Frederik Chantrell, 1873, 6 Hatton Garden Liverpool. Patent for new and improved filtering and deodorising medium.

2. 1864 London Gazette notice re. partnership dealing with marble, cement tiles, chimney pieces, terra cotta ware, plaster, lime, grates.

3. 1876 London Gazette noted as Sanitary Engineers.

4. 1884 London Gazette noted as debtor and Building Material Merchants.

The cemetery was built in 1837, some years before these dates, we are not sure whether this indicates that these pieces came from a later build of some sort. Or are they part of a drainage system of some sort, introduced into the cemetery later - given the mention of sanitary engineering above.

Can you help solve this interesting mystery?

Polish spirituals at Liverpool Philharmonic

2011-09-14T00:16:00.000Z

Dear Friends,

I would be very grateful if you could share this information with relevant networks.

8 Listopada 2011

Chór Polskiego Radia pod dyrygenturą Artura Sedzielarza, zaprezentuje koncert

Górecki: Polish Spirituals

W programie znajda się utwory: Totus Tuus / Three Lullabies / Broad Waters / Song of the Katyn Families / Come Holy Spirit / Amen

Jest to przełomowy występ Chóru Polskiego Radia, jednego z wiodących chórów Polski, z którym Henryk Mikołaj Górecki współpracował przez wiele lat.

Górecki zyskał międzynarodowy rozgłos z jego Symfonią nr 3 (Symfonia pieśni żałosnych). Nagranie Elektra-Nonesuch z 1992 roku sprzedało się w liczbie ponad miliona egzemplarzy i utrzymywało się na szczycie amerykańskiej listy Classical Charts przez 38 tygodni.

Jego muzyka chóralna wyraźnie wypełniona tym samym duchowym liryzmem oraz spontanicznym ciepłem ludzkim celebruje jego polskie korzenie oraz wiarę katolicką. Ten koncert to hołd dla Góreckiego, jednego z wielkich kompozytorów końca XX wieku, w rok po jego śmierci w listopadzie 2010 roku.

Sala Koncertowa St George Hall

Bogactwo tego klejnotu neoklasycznego regularnie przyjmowało Charlsa Dickensa, który odbywał w tym miejscu wiele swoich odczytów. Sala posiadająca 480 miejsc siedzących została elegancko urządzona w kolorze białym, miodowym oraz kremowym i zawiera żeliwny balkon podtrzymywany przez rzeźby kobiecych postaci znanych jako kariatydy. Wspaniały kryształowy żyrandol wisi pośrodku, podczas gdy lustro Ravenhead, znajdujące się z tyłu sceny, tworzy zaskakujące odbicia.

http://www.liverpoolphil.com/6850/events-classical-music/grecki-polish-spirituals.html

Polish Radio Choir
Artur Sedzielarz conductor

Górecki: Polish Spirituals

Tuesday 8 November 2011 7:30 pm
St George's Hall Concert Room

Programme includes: Totus Tuus / Three Lullabies / Broad Waters / Song of the Katyn Families / Come Holy Spirit / Amen

Tickets £20 http://www.liverpoolphil.com/6850/events-classical-music/grecki-polish-spirituals.html

This is a landmark performance by the Polish Radio Choir, one of Poland’s leading choirs, with whom Henryk Mikolaj Górecki worked closely over many years.

Górecki gained international acclaim with his haunting Symphony No.3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs). The 1992 Elektra-Nonesuch recording sold more than a million copies and stayed at the top of the US Classical Charts for 38 weeks.

His choral music is filled with the same distinctively spiritual lyricism and spontaneous human warmth, celebrating his Polish roots and Catholic faith. This concert is a fitting tribute to Górecki, one of the late twentieth century’s great composers, a year after his death in November 2010.

St George’s Hall Concert Room

The opulence of this neo-classical jewel would regularly host Charles Dickens who held many of his readings here. The 480 seat venue features elegant decoration in white, honey, and cream and a cast iron ‘wickerwork’ balcony supported by female figures known as caryatids. A superb crystal chandelier hangs in the middle of the room while Ravenhead glass mirrors situated at the back of the stage create stunning reflections.

With thanks and very best regards,

Simon Glinn

Executive Director – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and Events

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

Hope Street

Liverpool

L1 9BP

www.liverpoolphil.com

Direct +44 (0) 151 210 1945

Mobile +44 (0) 7952 412 709

General +44 (0) 151 210 2895

Box Office +44 (0) 151 709 3789

Fax +44 (0) 151 210 2902

And finally in other news....

2011-09-12T00:06:00.000Z

Given the late hour, and my need to be at JLA to pick up a friend at the crack of dawn, I am allowing myself fifteen minutes to write about all the other things I wanted to tell you about, in one glorious splurge. Here goes...

Following the OTT article in the Jewish Telegraph recently describing me as an angel, I was invited to address the Merseyside Representative Jewish Council earlier in the week about our plans for Deane Road Jewish Cemetery and Liverpool Remembers. That was a real honour and it was lovely to be able to drum up some more support for the cemetery in particular.

We had our open day today, for National Heritage Open Day and 169 people made their way through the doors. Saul did three tours and was shattered at the end but everyone went away really happy and we gathered some new stories for our archive about people's recollection of the cemetery and some of the lives of those buried there.

The Reading Room on KVFM this month talked about The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. What a wonderful book, I absolutely loved it. Best book I have read in ages, I can definitely recommend it. Next month we will be reading Bad Blood by Lorna Sage. Set in post-war North Wales, it reflects on the dysfunctional generations of a family its problems, and their effect on Sage. It won the 2001 Whitbread Book Biography of the Year seven days before Sage died of emphysema.

Last night I enjoyed yet another great free concert from Liverpool City Council, sponsored by Smooth FM on the waterfront - at the pier head. Beverly Knight and Roachford singing wonderful soul music. There was a large crowd some of whom came over to Wendy Simon afterwards to thank her for a lovely evening. If you have not been getting down to the Waterfront this summer for all the freebies, you don't know what you have missed! We had a coke and some nibbles on a tall ship, the Phoenix before we went over to the concert, which was a delight in itself. #ItsLiverpool #I'mLiverpool

I enjoyed the Manchester Premier of Jan's Coming Out a few weeks ago, having missed the Liverpool one in order to attend the Michael Causer Vigil, she is now in Florida premiering at Key West. Lucky lady, I was very happy to entertain for her lunch with other friends on my birthday. Do go to see it if you get the chance, I am hoping it might come back to Liverpool during Homotopia.

And another British Citizenship Ceremony today with coincidentally three different families from Kensington and Fairfield. They were all beautifully dressed and looking forward to celebrating their new nationalities this afternoon at various parties and family gatherings - I suggested tea and cucumber sandwiches might be the order of the day.

I have set up a Parking Task Group in the ward to tackle all sorts of parking issues, and a group to look at the rising problem with Street Drinking, I will hopefully be putting more detail in the next newsletter.

That shall have to suffice for now, goodnight everyone, do sleep well.

Labour North West Fundraising Dinner in Crewe with Alastair Campbell

2011-09-11T23:43:00.000Z

I was delighted to host the Labour NW dinner on Friday night with Alastair Campbell as our after-dinner speaker. We had a great night, raised loads of money for the party and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I wont say too much about it, as it is getting late and I have to be up early in the morning, but there are a few items worthy of mention. First of all I would say that Alastair is great value as an after dinner speaker and if you can book him, I can heartily recommend him. I have been to several dinners over the years where he has spoken, in Liverpool, Southport and Manchester for instance. But in Crewe he really surpassed himself.

I was delighted to introduce him as I have always been a big fan. He spoke well and was very engaging and then took questions from the floor on a variety of political and personal topics. I then persuaded him to play the bagpipes for us - I bet we are the first LP ever to have seen this! We bought some of his books from the wholesalers which he signed for anyone who wanted to buy one, which was a great fundraiser and one member, who is a professional photographer, took photos of him with guests which were then printed out and framed, and Al signed them, all to the benefit of party funds. It is hard to think how he could have done more to make the evening special for everyone whilst helping to grow our coffers.

Alison McGovern and Ivan Lewis both sat on our table, along with Steve Carter, one of our Euro candidates in the last election, some Burnley FC supporters and a young man from Rochdale who had come on his own and was thrilled to be sitting across from Alastair and being able to chat about what had drawn him to politics.

I managed to avoid mention of the Burnley v Boro match the following day, just as well really as we beat them 2-0 away from home, so hopefully he will still be talking to me today.

You can follow Al on twitter on @campbellclaret

ConDem plans to reward the South East and the City at the cost of the North

2011-09-11T23:28:00.000Z

Local Government Finance Review Scrutiny Panel

I can see your eyes glazing over, just reading that, doesn't it sound terribly dreary and irrelevant?

But you know, this is probably the most significant change that will hit Local Government - and readers in Liverpool - in the next 20 years, and particularly northern cities like Liverpool.

As chair of the Finance and Resources Select Committee in Liverpool, I have constituted a scrutiny panel (a small group of councillors who examine an issue in fine detail over a series of meetings) to look at the Government's consultation about changes in the way that business rates are shared out amongst the country.

I shall try to explain this in the most easy to understand language that I can manage. Currently business rates are set nationally and collected locally, with the council acting almost as an agent on behalf of the Government. The money then being sent from the council to the government who put it all together in one big pot. They then redistribute funds from this pot around the country to those most in need of funds.

It's that good old Socialist principle "from each according to their means to each according to their needs".

So at the moment, of all councils, the City of Westminster collects the most revenue from its businesses as it has a lot of them in its patch, particularly financial institutions in highly expensive "city" property with high rateable values. Other councils with fewer businesses, retail, factories, hotels, banks and insurance companies etc, collect much less.

This money, together with any other grants that the Government pays to Councils, is redistributed according to a formula which considers population and need, each year, and it makes up the lion's share of the council's income, dwarfing anything collected from domestic rate payers.

The ConDems wish to change the way the money is distributed in future, introducing an "incentivising" element where a council is expected to increase the business rates it collects by encouraging more businesses to set up in its area and pay rates. And an assumption will be made by the Government under their plans, that this increase has been achieved. The funds that come will depend on that.

The Government asserts in its consultation paper that the proposed changes have been designed to encourage and incentivise councils to grow their economy, to encourage more businesses and that they will be rewarded if they do and penalised if they dont. That is their stated aim for this change, to make us all more business friendly and receptive.

They are proposing that if the council increases its business rate take by a target percentage, it will find its funding for the following year will stay the same. If it increases by more than that amount it will receive extra but if it fails to make that increase then the funding it receives will be net of that increase. So a council which collects more business rates from more businesses or businesses in more expensive premises will do best from this new deal. A council that fails to collect more rates will be penalised accordingly.

The detail is not yet clear, but it would be reasonable to suggest that we are expected to increase the amount of rates we collect by several percentage points each year.

Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision and the Chamber of Commerce, to name but three, are all committed to growing the economy in the city and to encouraging new businesses to set up here. We have gone so far as to estimate that we ought to be able to create 50,000 new jobs in the next ten years. So that ought not to be a problem, right? We ought to be able to grow our business rates by a few percent each year, right?

Wrong!

Business rates are still payable on empty premises.

That is the kicker in the Government's plans.

So if we have empty shops on Prescot Road in Fairfield for instance, or on London Road - or the empty Rapid shops on Renshaw Street, empty factories on industrial estates, empty pubs etc, the business rates still need to be paid, to the same sum.

We estimate that we currently a massive 1.7million square feet of empty business premises in the city.

So if new businesses set up in those spaces, filling every single square foot with a successful new business creating new jobs and bringing life back to our city, (which would be great news for our unemployed workforce of course and would put more money into more tills etc) they would not be paying any more rates than they do now and our share of the national pot would reduce every year by at least a few percent even despite this.

The only way Liverpool could increase its business rate income would be to build brand new premises. And where would they go? We are bound by the river, we have other council areas right up to our boundaries. We dont have lots of green space to build new premises on. We are doomed to failure on this model, it can only result in a decreasing income from the Government as our share of the national pot goes down and down through no fault of our own.

The idea that this scheme will encourage councils to become more business friendly is a joke. It will most benefit rural areas who are prepared to build retail parks and factories on their green spaces. And of course the City of Westminster with its continual growth in the financial industry in particular - in ever taller buildings.

Incidentally, some businesses pay more than others, it is not only dependent on the size of the premises they occupy, it also depends on the type of business they are. Supermarkets pay the most rates, at £190 per square metre, while at the other end of the scale, small factories and pubs pay £75 per square metre. Banks and Building Societies pay £180 (hello City of Westminster), and larger retailers £175.

Just for interest you might be like to know that John Lewis pay the most business rates in the city, over a million pounds a year for their store in Liverpool One. Whilst Sayers on Dale Street pay a bit less than five thousand for instance for their small shop at a less fashionable address.

So if we were to set out on a policy of maximising our income from business rates we would need to encourage lots of supermarkets to set up, another new Tesco superstore anyone? We could put it on Calderstones Park perhaps? And encourage the building of another Liverpool One somewhere. A floating stage on the Mersey? You can see the problem.

There are additional complications in that many of the new businesses that are already successfully setting in Liverpool are run from home. I would estimate that a third of the businesses in the East Liverpool Business Forum for instance, of which I am a member, are home-run. We are helping to grow the economy in the city and making a small contribution to employment levels, but we don't pay business rates of course. So the success of home run businesses will not help the city's financial position one iota in terms of this funding.

The knowledge economy, based on the development of online services for instance, web designers and online businesses more generally are vital to the city and will help to grow our reputation as a forward thinking place, but wont contribute to business rates.

So you can see that we wont be in a position to grow our business rate take, despite a clear intention to grow the economy and encourage businesses to set up in our city.

And this will penalise the city, in an ever increasing way, year upon year, irrespecitve of our best efforts.

And you are probably still wondering why this should bother you?

Because it is the money we get from the Government, in redistributed business rates that pays for so many of the services you receive from the council. These are not services related to businesses, they are general services for everyone in Liverpool. Business rates are not spent on businesses when they come back to the city, they are spent on everything we do, across the board. These funds will fall by millions and millions each year and which will result in cuts over and above the ones you have already been told to expect.

Our Scrutiny Panel, which I am chairing, has been taking evidence from experts and preparing our response to the Government's consultation on these proposed changes. We have heard from the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Improvement District, Liverpool Vision, several experts from the Council's finance team, SIGOMA who represent councils outside of London, and we even invited the Government, in the shape of civil servants from the DCLG whose plans they are - but we are finding it difficult to agree dates with them, I cannot think why!

We will be formulating a response that will hopefully find accord with everyone in the city who represents interests in seeing our city grow, along with other councils in Merseyside and across the country in similar circumstances. I will put some links up to our final report, but interim minutes are all available here.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-09-11T22:01:00.000Z

I had a fab birthday this year. After a quick visit to Kensington Fire Station to sort out some noise nuisance issues, the rest of the day was my own. I had lunch with some top friends at my favourite restaurant, Bistro Jacques on Hardman Street - three courses for £8.95, I had potato bravas, chicken in cherry sauce and creme brulee. Lovely! I can definitely recommend it. Follow them on Twitter @bistrojacques for all the special offers.

I spent the afternoon at home with friends - including Stan who mended my outside tap so that I can once again water the bistro yard!

But the real highlight was the evening. Dolly Parton at the Liverpool Arena. Imagine that, she came to play for my birthday!

Stephen, Nick, Kath and I had a quick drink at Circo on the Dock before going over to the show. We had great seats in the block in front of the stage - mind you, they did cost us £75 each with the booking fee, so we deserved to sit so close to the stage!

Just as the show was starting and the lights went down Nick and I spotted the Lord Mayor in his chains making his way to front row seats. I whispered that if I had known Dolly was coming and this would be the prize, I would have put my own name forward for the Mayoralty this year. Nick's response was to suggest that if I ever get to be the Lord Mayor it would be my luck that the big act that year would be Dexy's Midnight Runners. We were still giggling when the show began.

She was absolutely wonderful. She played two sets, the first one for about an hour and a half, then after a 20 minute break, she played for about a further 45 minutes. I did a bit of research and discovered she was 65 in January, but I can tell you that she has an incredible amount of energy and still looks terrific for all that. She sang a lot of old favourites interspersed with material from her new album, Better Days, that the tour is designed to promote.

Dolly played so many instruments during the show, she has an amazing talent; there was the guitar of course, and a steel guitar too, a piano shimmering with rhinestones, a pipe, a banjo, the harmonica and I feel sure I have missed some.

One particular song was a very interesting addition to the set. I managed to record a tiny piece of it on my phone - both the sound and vision is very poor but you will be able to tell what it is. Click on it, just to feel your eyebrows rise right up in astonishment! I wont spoil the surprise by telling you here what it was.

She sang Jolene, Islands in the Stream, 9-5 and Coat of Many Colours to great applause. I was very taken with Little Sparrow which brought tears to my eyes. And the mighty anthem I Will Always Love You was her encore. Dolly, we will always love you too!

Thanks to everyone for all the cards, presents and flowers. I particularly asked family for cash to help to affray the cost of my Labour Party visitors pass for this year's annual conference in Liverpool - I am so looking forward to it. But I also had some great books and CDs (two Doris Day which I am really enjoying) and some sparkly cava. And another great card from the fab Councillor for County (rather than the County Councillor which I started to write), Gerard Woodhouse to add to my collection.

You all made me feel very special, for thinking of me and for spending time with me, it was a great day despite my advancing years. Thanks!

Mathew Street Festival

2011-09-11T21:14:00.000Z

Colin and Mike and I enjoyed a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Mathew Street Festival. We stayed mainly at the Williamson Square stage which was hosting local acts - the "Made in Liverpool" stage.

We enjoyed Amsterdam and our favourite China Crisis that you may recall I met outside the Richmond one night. At that time I was not really familiar with them, but have now seen them twice - on the same stage - and really enjoy them. You wont be looking to me for a music review and anyway there must be lots more out there on the net for you to read, but I will say that both acts were great. I do really enjoy watching Liverpool's own musicians on this special celebration weekend.

I am not sure this chap was all that impressed though, he spent the China Crisis set reading his paper and eating his sarnies.

From there we walked down to the Albert Dock to see who was playing on the floating stage. I had read about it in the paper but there was little publicity, if any, on the day, so it was a shame to see so few people watching the Mersey Cats. If you like to watch your music in lots of space and in a family-friendly atmosphere I can recommend this one for next year.

We walked from there past the Derby Square stage and popped into the Town Hall for a quick coke, taking the opportunity to stand on the balcony, where the Beatles once stood, and look out over the crowds. We also each bought a £3 wrist band to help fund the event.

From there we went back to the stage at Williamson Square for some more home grown music.

It was disappointing to read during the following week, complaints about yobbish behaviour by youths throwing bottles and causing trouble at the stage by the Mersey Tunnel entrance. All I can say is that at the stages that I visited and spent time at, there was no trouble at all. Everyone was very well behaved and pensioners bopped and sang happily next to parents with small children. It may be that the sheer size and scale of that particular stage and its setting makes it more difficult to control and manage, something for organisers to think about for next year.

We certainly had a marvellous time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Another great event from Liverpool City Council and its partners.

Liverpool and Manchester Pride

2011-09-11T20:34:00.000Z

Two great Prides in the North West this year, Liverpool and Manchester. And two great turnouts by the Labour Party.

In Liverpool two teams, men and women, played 5-a-side football against LGBT teams down on the Pier head after the march. The men's team drew with the Mersey Marauders but I suspect they were being kind to us, to be honest. The women were beaten by a team of women who play football regularly, I am afraid I don't know their name, and the Labour ladies were beaten pretty convincingly - but there were some great goals including one from my oppo Wendy Simon. And no, of course I didn't play, I don't really have the feet for football you know! It was a lovely happy day and I ended the evening watching music on the waterfront and then going for a meal with lots of pals on Wood Street. Liverpool Pride is free for everyone, there is no secure area and there was very much a family atmosphere I was particularly delighted to see local (mainly pensioner) residents from Kensington and Fairfield's As One Community Task Group joining in with and supporting kids from the local youth club, carrying their banner along the march. A banner that the group had provided the funds to help make. This is part of our ongoing work in our ward to combat homophobic bullying in schools and on the streets.

In Manchester after a great parade in front of a cheering crowd of thousands, we had a quick drink in a pub, where I had my photo taken with the FA cup - okay it was a replica really but it felt great all the same.

I then went off to meet friends including Jan Walker who stars in "Jan's Coming Out", a documentary film about a woman who came out at 50 years old and went round the world interviewing other lesbians about their experiences of coming out. This time I had to pay to go into a secure area around Canal Street, the Manchester gay quarter. It was a very different kind of event with a lot more drinking in a predominantly adult crowd. It was still good fun though and we sat in Sackville Garden and watched some great singers.

And at both events, as in the past three years and as at every Pride in the country that Labour LGBT attend - Brighton, Leeds, London etc, we wore our Never Kissed a Tory t-shirts and gave out thousands of stickers with the same message on the front.

It was rather depressing to see that a certain other political party tried to make something out of this light hearted fun in Liverpool this year by orchestrating a letter writing campaign to the local newspaper, complaining that we had "politicised" the event. This must be the first Pride in perhaps 40 where this has happened, despite us doing the same thing every time at each event. I guess they were jealous because we had a crowd of perhaps 50 on the march in Liverpool, including 3 MPs and countless councillors and we were cheered all the way round - despite our group being put at the back of the march to counter complaints from a politician from another party last year that we "got in all the official photographs".

Pathetic isn't it! Thankfully none of that stopped us from having a fabulous time and I know that the LGBT community in Liverpool - and in Manchester - are delighted to have the support of the Labour Party on such a special day.

National Heritage Open Day at Deane Road Jewish Cemetery.

2011-09-08T20:53:00.002Z

This historic Liverpool cemetery in Kensington will be open on Sunday 11^th September from 10am - 4pm as part of the national Heritage Open Day programme.

Deane Road Jewish Cemetery is a fascinating final resting place of many of Liverpool's leading entrepreneurs, scientists and artists of the Victorian age.

Supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, plans are being developed to restore the cemetery, creating a visitors centre and formal garden, with improvement works to the Grade II listed entrance and surrounding walls.

There will be a guided tour at 10.30am although visitors may make their own way round at other times during the day. The architect will be available at noon to talk about the plans for the restoration and the gardener will be available all day to talk about the work that she and her volunteers are currently undertaking.

The opening will also allow a further opportunity for those photographers and artists who are currently creating pieces for our future exhibitions to visit and continue with their work.

So much to say, so little time

2011-09-06T22:33:00.000Z

Just a little holding entry to tell you what to expect.

There will be a blog over the weekend about Manchester Pride, Mathew Street festival, my birthday, our Local Government Finance Review Scrutiny Panel, my guest speech at Merseyside Representative Jewish Council, the Reading Room on KVFM, Jan's Coming Out, Dolly Parton, Alistair Campbell in Crewe, Beverley Knight at the Pier Head, the British Citizenship Ceremony and Deane Road Cemetery Heritage Open Day.

Unless of course I am too busy living life to blog about it... always a possibility.

And Mum was looking forward to cheese on toast tonight, hurrah, there is a God!

If you have a particular preference between now and when it comes, let me know what you most want to hear about.

You Will really Never Walk Alone

2011-08-25T22:38:00.000Z

A lovely heart-warming story in tonight's Liverpool Echo that even a hardened Boro fan can appreciate, never mind an Evertonian.

Peter Halligan from the Swan was a keen footballer and supporter of Liverpool FC when, at the age of 19, he was paralysed by a cowardly hit-and-run-driver.

30 years later he remains in a vegative state in Jospice in Thornton.

To celebrate his 50th birthday the hospice, with his extended family, organised a party where "King" Kenny Dalglish was the surprise guest. He turned up with a special Liverpool FC shirt which says "Peter 50" on the back.

Experts believe that although Peter cannot respond to stimuli, he can hear, I do hope so. And I hope he knows how much everyone still loves and cares about him. A wonderful story. Well done Jospice, Halligan family and LFC.

Our Day Out

2011-08-25T22:07:00.000Z

I am holidaying in Liverpool this year (again), and trying to keep a clear diary for as much of the next week as possible.

The sun was cracking the flags at 11am this morning when Colin and I set off on an unplanned, take it as it comes, "our day out". We started with a spot of shopping on Allerton Road. I bought a beautiful red New Guinea Impatiens from Chandlers, just like this one (this is the only photo that is not mine in the following collection), for the Bistro Yard. Some of the plants have looked very sad lately as I failed to water them quite as much as I should after the outside tap broke. So I am now having to buy some late summer plants to fill in some of the spaces.

And we popped into Max Speilmanns and printed four digital photographs, to be shown at the Deane Road Cemetery Art Exhibition which opens on October 6th - a date for your diary.

This is one of the four photos I will be displaying, which all show flora and fauna within the cemetery. This particular one shows Herb Robert and a Buttercup growing by a fallen stone just inside the cemetery wall.

With the clip frames that they will be displayed in, the whole thing only cost £8 which was a bargain. I had no idea that printing digital photos was so cheap and I may get some more done now that I know. The quality was much better than anything I can achieve on my own printer.

It was lunch time and it being such a beautiful sunny day I suggested we might go into town as I was interested to learn more about a restaurant I had spotted on the roof of the Mersey Ferry terminal at the Pierhead which I thought would have fabulous views.

It turned out to be a Pan Asian restaurant called Matou and we quickly found a table outside on the terrace. Unfortunately it was at this time that the sun went behind some dark clouds - which grew more significant as we ate our lunch. (Lovely food by the way but not much good to people on a budget, I would suggest).

It was wonderful to sit in front of the three graces though, definitely somewhere to take any visitors to the city in future.

I rather like this photograph of King Edward VII looking up at us as we were eating our Malaysian Chicken and Lamb Satay. It's not an angle you usually see him from. (You can click on any of these photos and see them in much more detail by the way.)

Over lunch we chatted about the new Museum of Liverpool, my first visit to which I have been saving. I have been looking forward to its opening ever since the old Museum of Liverpool Life closed its doors, leaving me bereft. It was always in my top five of favourite places to visit, particularly with out of town visitors.

Colin said he had been during the first week or so when it was bedlam and he could not get near any exhibits, while the queues were out the door for tickets to the Beatles and Football free film shows. I'd read in the Liverpool Echo that only half of the exhibitions are open so far and much more is due to come in the late autumn. So I had thought of waiting until then so that there was more to see. But then it occurred to us that it might be less busy now that the initial hype was over, and it was a Thursday afternoon, so we decided to give it a go.

Thankfully, although there were plenty of people around, they didn't hinder our enjoyment of the museum and we also got in to see the Beatles film relatively easily (okay but not a patch on anything in the Beatles Museum on the Albert Dock in my view).

I took as many photographs of the stunning views from the museum across the Pierhead, the waterfront and Albert Dock as I did of the exhibits inside.

There was this wonderful view of the Port of Liverpool building with a Yellow Duckmarine passing, which was just begging to be taken for instance.

And then I thought this view of the wonderful Albert Docks and Salthouse Dock with the Wheel of Liverpool rising above, and the roof of the old Museum of Liverpool Life in the foreground was fresh and interesting from this angle. The window was rain stained so the image is not very clear - I don't fancy their window cleaning bills to be honest! But you can still see what a great view it is - and look at those dark clouds building up too!

I am sure you will visit the Museum of Liverpool yourself, if you have not been already, so I don't need to share all my photos of interesting exhibits with you, but I thought these few might be worth reproducing here.

The People's Republic was probably my most favourite of the galleries opened so far. And I particularly enjoyed the Votes for Women display where I was delighted with this footnote.

It tells it how it is, it may not be the early 1900s any more but the sentiment still stands. More women are out of work now - over one million -than have been for 25 years.

Women of Britain, vote against the Liberal (Democrats), if you seek equality!

It was also great to be reunited with the SuperFiveADaylambanana produced by Kenny kids in 2008, which is now grazing permanently (and healthily) in the museum. Interestingly the photo you can see on the left end of the display upon which FiveADay stands shows a Trade Union march lead by Cllr Jack Spriggs, I wad delighted to see him so fittingly featured in the museum, along with John Hamilton. Two lovely blokes who fought so hard all of their lives for local people.

Having left the museum after several very enjoyable hours, we were driving home down Princes Road past the Jewish Synagogue for the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation who own Deane Road Cemetery when I was reminded of an image of a Madryn Street sign I had seen during the Beatles film, In the town where I was born, at the museum.

Although I know the arguments have been raging across the city for all the time I have lived here, about whether the Welsh Streets should be demolished, I had never actually been to look at them for myself. I have driven up and down North Hill Street from time to time when I worked at Queens Dock and sometimes would take that route to Sefton Street for a change, but I had never been across to High Park Street. So, with a quick look at the A-Z Colin and I made a detour to Madryn Street to see for ourselves what it was that people want to preserve.

I have to admit to being surprised by what I saw. Five or so streets of very small terraced houses, with flat frontages: no bay windows for instance, and every house empty. Houses that nobody has wanted to buy in Smithdown or Kensington or Edge Hill for decades, houses that elsewhere have already been demolished. I am all in favour of fighting municipal demolition where it is not appropriate and indeed long-term readers of this blog will know that I submitted an objection to parts of the Edge Lane CPO demolition plans, but with the Welsh streets I could not see what the passionate defenders can presumably see. Richard Starkey lived at 9 Madryn Street until he was 4, I am not sure how many memories he can retain from that period. I also moved at that age and have only fleeting impressions of my first home. I saw nothing that should excite conservationists, given the removal of so many identical houses across the north of England.

I was interested however to see the graffiti on the boards against the window and door of this particular property, much of which was written by visitors from the South Americas, Brazil and Argentina being particularly prominent. It is clear that despite the general hostility and "pissed-off-ness" of Scousers to the continuing reminder of the Beatles who are 50 years in the past now, and where they feel that it is time to move on and celebrate other things, the Beatles clearly do remain a tourist attraction.

Mind you, clearly not everyone is a fan of Ringo, who controversially told Jonathan Ross that he missed nothing about Liverpool on a late night TV show, despite having just tipped up for the opening of the 2008 Capital of Culture where he sang his song "Liverpool I left you but I never left you down"

Visitors won't feel that pain but locals are obviously still smarting.

It was a great day out with much to reflect upon, I can recommend a gentle walk along Allerton Road looking at the shops, some of which are still vital independents. You will enjoy the views from Matou, although you might want to save up before you visit to sample the lovely food, or else not be particularly hungry. You will love the Museum of Liverpool where the city's naked pride is centre stage (I may write about the edgy film on show at the entrance to the People's Republic on another occasion, but let me point that you wouldn't want to watch it if you are a famous yet unpopular Tory loving exiled Scouser). And if you like views of the Pier Head, both the restaurant and the museum have it all. If you have not been to see the Welsh streets then perhaps, like me, it is time that you did, so that you can make up your own mind about what people are so desperate to preserve.

And as the sun sets unseen behind those dark clouds I am left reflecting that nobody needs a RyanAir flight to the Algarve when you can have a day out in the 'Pool. (Unless of course you want a tan!) (One of the contributors to the edgy film I mentioned above talked about a terracotta army of women on Liverpool streets on a Saturday night out, LOL)

Labour opens party conference to the British public

2011-08-22T15:34:00.000Z

LP Press Release

In a groundbreaking new initiative, Labour will be opening its doors at party conference to the Great British public.

Ed Miliband has written to thousands of people across the country to personally invite them to an open day at Labour Party Conference. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet politicians and discuss the issues that matter to Britain, including the British Promise – the promise that each generation will do better than the last.

The open day will include:

· Ed Miliband answers Britain’s questions – Labour Leader Ed Miliband will answer the British public’s big questions in a Q&A with hundreds of people from across the country.

· Labour’s Young British Talent Showcase – an unprecedented event that will see 16-23 year olds compete to showcase their unique talents, ideas and skills. The competition will see young people compete to win a fully funded work experience placement that will allow them to fulfil their dream.

· Policy Workshops – members of the public will have the opportunity to debate policy on areas with members of the shadow cabinet including: the British Promise; the cost of living crisis; getting the economic moving; and building stronger communities.

Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Labour Party, writing to thousands of people inviting them the Labour Party Conference, said:

“Many of the vital services that we all rely on are under threat from the Tory-led Government. Family budgets are being squeezed, young people find themselves with fewer opportunities and the economy continues to stall. We need real solutions to the problems we face, not explanations and excuses.

“This is why the Open Day is so important - it is our opportunity to listen to you and to discuss how we overcome the challenges facing Britain.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said:

“Ed Miliband is opening up Labour Party conference to the British public to ensure that Labour stands for the issues that matter across our country. At a time when the British Promise, the promise at each generation will do better than the one before, is under threat Labour will be the voice for the hardworking majority who are feeling the squeeze.”

For more information go to: http://www.labour.org.uk/showcase

Card making course at Kensington Community Learning Centre

2011-08-20T16:23:00.000Z

Thursday 1.00 – 3.00 p.m. (10 weeks),

Starting 11^th August 2011

Each week we will show you how to create beautiful embellishments, using a range of techniques. These will be used to create lovely cards, but can also be used to decorate calendars, scrapbooks and gift boxes.

The course will show you the following techniques:

Paper Weaving Weaving different colours & textures of paper.	Teabag Folding Folding small pieces of paper to make flowers, snowflakes and other detailed shapes.
Dry Embossing Using a light-box & brass stencils to emboss shapes and edgings.	Decoupage Creating 3D pictures from card templates.
Spirelli Wrapping different coloured yarns around shapes and patterns.	Pop-Up Cards Creating pictures which pop out of your card to make your card more fun and entertaining.
Brads & Eyelets Use metal eyelets and funky brads to add detail and interest.	Masking Creating effective patterns and pictures by masking images, shapes and stamps.
Lace Using techniques of cutting and folding card into a variety of shapes.	Tags / Boxes Creating gift tags and gift boxes.

This fun, creative course is designed for everyone of all ages

- from 16 to 116!

To book your place call

0151 260 1006 or email us at info@kclc.co.uk

The course costs £20.00 for 10 sessions or students can pay £3.00 per session and just attend the sessions that particularly interest them J

Shipperies Pub and Fire Station on Durning Road

2011-08-20T14:09:00.000Z

A project to fire the imagination!

Heritage Works is working with Liverpool City Council to identify potential end uses for the Grade 2 listed former Fire Station and the historically significant Shipperies pub on Durning Road in Edge Hill. As a Building Preservation Trust, Heritage Works operates as a not for profit developer to deliver regeneration projects. We are hoping to find a way to repair and upgrade these buildings and are searching for end users, end uses and potential fundable projects to bring them back to life.

The two historic buildings have been retained because of their local importance, architecturally and socially. Now that new housing is springing up in the area, Liverpool City Council is seeking to find a new use for these buildings so that they can once again play a role in the local community.

The Fire Station was built in 1884 as a Police and Fire Station, with some police officers acting as ‘Fire Bobbies’ as well as being on the beat. The station closed in 1976 and was converted into tyre fitting garage. It has been empty since 2003 and severely fire-damaged. In 2009 the City Council implemented emergency repairs and mothballed the building. The existing building is capable of providing approximately 168m2 (1,800sq ft) of accommodation over two floors. There is potential to add an extension and provide car-parking to the rear.

The Shipperies pub was built to accommodate visitors to the International Exhibition of Navigation, Travelling, Commerce and Manufacture (known as the Shipperies Exhibition) which held in the nearby Exhibition Hall on Edge Lane in 1886. License registers record the names of several early publicans and then in 1903 the owner was recorded as ‘Peter Walker of Warrington and Robert Cain & Sons Ltd’. The Shipperies remained as a Cains pub for many decades but was sold off by the brewery (in the 1980s?) and continued to trade as a freehouse until 2010. It has three interconnected rooms on the ground floor, served by a central bar, and residential accommodation on the two upper floors. In total it contains approximately 530m2 (5,700 sq ft) of accommodation.
Heritage Works is currently undertaking a review of previous studies exploring the costs of repairing these buildings and the potential to find a viable future use. We are keen to hear from organisations that are interested in working in partnership to deliver a fundable project.
Do you have a community project to bring to these buildings?
Is your organisation looking for a new home?
Can you help us identify future occupiers?

Our study deadline is mid September 2011 so please email Heritage Works before 24 August at projects@heritageworks.co.uk with an outline of your project or to discuss potential ideas further so please email Heritage Works before 24 August at projects@heritageworks.co.uk with an outline of your project or to discuss potential ideas further.

Fairfield First!

2011-08-18T15:12:00.000Z

A council officer unfamiliar with our ward, asked me about statistics generated by national software showing that parts of Fairfield are identified as housing the urban comfortably well-off. (It was probably phrased slightly differently but that was the general gist). She wondered whether the data was correct, and if it was, whether I could help shed any light on this interesting phenomenon whereby those parts are next door to areas of high poverty and deprivation.

I took her for a drive around the area, showing her the lovely houses on Prospect Vale, Fairfield Crescent, Elm Vale, Carstairs Road, Newsham Park, Holly Road, Fairfield Street, Deane Road (technically in Kensington but originally in Fairfield) etc... She thought Fairfield was delightful, she was stunned by some of the fabulous properties and declared it an unsung beautiful area that should be given a much wider profile.

I absolutely agree, I am seriously thinking about launching a campaign to promote the area and in particular its Georgian and early Victorian housing, built long before neighbouring Kensington on what were originally fair fields in the countryside outside of the city.

Anyone care to join me?

It's not codswallop, honest!

2011-08-18T15:00:00.000Z

There was an interesting contribution to last week's Environment and Climate Change Select Committee on Liverpool City Council when a question was raised about the sad story of hundreds of fish being found dead in Walton Hall Park Lake.

The Assistant Cabinet Member, Councillor Tim Beaumont explained what had happened to the fish, and how changes in weather conditions had lead to changes in the lake's oxygen supply, and that this coupled with the over-stocking had resulted in the disaster.

We all took his word for it, if anyone should know he should, because he informed us he has a PhD in Stress in Fish. Now that is what I call relevant expertise in the role...

Disorder in Liverpool - more questions than answers

2011-08-17T23:19:00.000Z

The blogosphere and newspapers are full of people making attempts to explain the riots and disorders of last week. I thought I would add a contribution particularly about Liverpool, using the small knowledge I have, both as an eye witness, having read local reports and having followed the work of Merseyside Police on Twitter in particular over the last few weeks @MerseyPolice.

However, I have no answers, only a lot of questions...

As we know, events in Liverpool, thankfully, were on a different scale to those in London where people lost their lives. Although the situation was very scary, particularly for people living and working in the affected areas, we did not see injuries. Damage, though very difficult for those concerned, was broadly directed at property rather than people - although the situation on Myrtle Parade in particular could have resulted in loss of life and it is vital that those responsible for trying to set fires at Tesco, with its flats above, are caught and taken off our streets.

What I have found particularly thought provoking about the disorders (not sure whether I can use the word "riot", there seems to be some suggestion that it is a legal term only applied in certain circumstances, anyone who can explain the various differences are invited to comment below), is the orchestrated nature of the events last week.

Wheely bins, cars and businesses are set on fire, bus shelters are smashed up, shop windows are broken, police are taunted and bricks are thrown at fire engines in Liverpool from time to time, as they are in any city. What made this so shocking and disturbing is that this happened not singly and sporadically, but in an organised way in targetted parts of the city by people who travelled there for the purpose in many cases. It was the sheer scale of numbers of those taking part, and the amount of crime they committed simultaneously in those areas that make this so startling.

A study of the 87 charges so far reported here shows some interesting data (NB the police have said that not all of these charges are directly related to the disorder, some are as a result of their wider proactive police work during this period, but we dont know which, only one was specifically identified thus in the Echo).

Age
Approximately a third of those charged thus far are aged under 18 years (31 in number, ranging from 14 years to 17 years) with a further 56 being adults (aged 18 years - 60 years). Of those 56 adults, 38 are aged between 18 and 30 years while 18 are aged between 30 and 60 years.

Home address
Post codes are given in some cases and not in others, so without a map of the city it is not possible to quickly say where those charged live, but it is clear that they come from right across the city, and not just from the places where the disorder took place. Toxteth, Dingle, Wavertree, Old Swan, Garston, Edge Hill, Anfield, Tuebrook, West Derby, Birkenhead, Bootle, St Helens and some others are mentioned.

Charges
Charges are varied; breach of the peace, public nuisance, drunk and disorderly, obstruction, violent disorder, possession of a controlled substance, an offensive weapon, cannabis, explosives, theft, burglary, aggravated vehicle taking, going equipped, racially aggravated public disorder and criminal damage.

Sex/Gender
84 of those charged thus far are male, but only 3 are female (two 15 year old girls charged with aggravated vehicle taking in what looks like the same incident) and one 30 year old woman charged with a breach in her bail conditions.

So the perpetrators have little obviously in common; if their surnames are anything to go by, they come from a variety of different ethnic backgrounds, although mainly British, and certainly no race related cause has been identified. Their ages vary, they don't come from the same parts of the city, they don't all appear to have committed the same kinds of crime. It would seem that some were arsonists, while others concentrated on taunting the police, and perhaps while the disturbances were underway, others took opportunist advantage of the situation to burgle and steal.

The only thing they share, as far as I can see, is that they are almost entirely male, they were intent on trouble and something drew them to the target areas on the nights in question.

Common consent has it that the events were a copycat of the riots in London, that the violence on the first night in Liverpool was a response to a weekend of their news. It is the organisation of that first night that puzzles me so.

I would imagine that the events of the second night were more likely to have involved people who were not on the "grapevine" on the first evening, but having seen the local news, came along in the hope of joining in with any further trouble that might occur - this would not have required any organisation or networking. But clearly the first evening must have.

Much has been made of the use of Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry Messaging to organise and co-ordinate the trouble. I wonder how it is that the offenders were connected to each other in order for the word to go round, not within the local area, but across the city.

I use all sorts of social media, and as a user I know how the systems work, I understand about being friends with people or following them, and I understand how networks develop. I am plugged into various networks, political or social, but they build themselves naturally around memberships of existing organisations. So for example I follow lots of Labour Party members because I know them and we have something in common already before we start to connect on social media.

The idea of a network that exists for potential rioters is frankly almost incredible but that seems to be what is being suggested by the police and has not been denied by anything I have read thus far. I dont understand how these lads, young men and adults would have found each other without being members of a pre-established group. But equally, without some kind of a network, how else can we explain that these reported several hundred people knew to come together, particularly on the first night, in the same part of the city? Some it is reported were first-time offenders, so they were not all obvious members of criminal gangs. Did they have something else in common? Are they all fans of the same kind of music? or sport team? or some other social phenomenon that would have brought them together? Or did a much smaller number organise on that first night and others come out later during the night only after the first reports began to filter through and others latterly joined in? Did the numbers swell significantly as the night wore on? It will be hard to understand these events until we can get to the bottom of any organising that took place.

The other question, that will be taxing sociologists for years to come I am sure, is what it was that motivated them. Some were school-age, some were in work, some were unemployed, some were living with their parents and some were parents themselves... how can we find a common denominator? Some of those arrested admitted to coming along as observors who got a bit carried away, but others came equipped with petrol for instance.

Were they motivated by anger and despair like those involved in troubles across our history? Or were they looking for trouble as a source of entertainment? How relevant is it that it was the school holidays, or that the football season had not quite begun? How much was motivated by the thrill of the chase and achieving notoriety? What does this tell us about male self-esteem and how it might be satisfied within this group?

My final questions are around how we deal with future small-scale, local arson attacks and criminal damage etc, such as I described above, occurring sporadically here and there across the city. Will they be tackled differently from now on, seen as a possible prelude to bigger problems? Will there be more effort to detect and resolve vandalism like smashed windows and bus shelters for instance? Will wheely bin fires and burnt out cars be taken more seriously following last week? Or will they continue to be a regrettable but generally accepted part of the general landscape from time to time as they were before last week? If it is a single car (or Edge Hill Youth Club's minibus) that is burnt out, is that less of a priority than where a number are attacked together? Will we take new steps to protect the fire service from attacks when putting out fires for instance, now that more people are aware of it, now that the concern is more widely felt, or will it go back to being part of their regular experience, unremarked?

I saw a tweet from the police late last week saying the fire service had successfully tackled a wheely bin fire that evening - if they were to keep up this practice they would be tweeting more or less every night, but how long would it be newsworthy? How much of a priority will it be once the dust has settled a little?

These questions all really interest me as a representative for an area where all of these things do happen periodically but on a smaller scale.

Politicians and social commentators have been rushing to contribute their views and explanations for the riots and disorder, pointing at Government cuts, at the absence of discipline in schools, at a hatred of the police, at greed and general criminality, at a broken moral compass, at the youth service, at the dole queues, at parents, teachers, prison regimes, the demise of corporal and capital punishment and national service, and so it goes on. I wont be offering any explanations because quite simply there is so much I dont yet understand about what happened.

But what is absolutely clear is that while several hundred Liverpool/Merseyside males were involved, several hundred thousand more were not. 99% of our residents were quietly going about their business - or tucked up in bed - while these events took place. The impact was great but the numbers were small. We must not run away with the idea that society is broken. Many more people were involved in a massive voluntary clean-up following the disorder than were involved with it - including large numbers of young people. Any legislative changes that are made must be proportionate and thoughtful, knee-jerk responses taken before we understand exactly what happened and why, will only make things worse and contribute to future lawlessness.

Ongoing battle against alcohol licensing in Kensington and Fairfield

2011-07-29T20:53:00.000Z

Liam and I attended the meeting of the Licensing Committee to object to (yet another) alcohol licence in Kensington and Fairfield.

In this particular case it was the new shop on Farnworth Street which we are delighted has taken over the Phythian pub with a much needed local resource.

What local people did not want though, and were fighting hard against, was for this shop to be open until 11pm selling alcohol. It is about three years ago when we last fought on behalf of the people of Farnworth Street, Butler Crescent and Molyneux Road in particular for a proposed shop on this site to be open so late; with the support of the Planning Committee it was agreed that any shop here should close at 8pm.

In particular Molyneux Road is designated as a "gold" hotspot for anti-social behaviour by our local police.

So it was with great disappointment that we all learnt of an application for an alcohol licence that would extend shop opening hours in this way and make the situation even worse.

We both attended the committee and were delighted when the members of licensing agreed with us. The shop and its alcohol licence will finish at 8pm. The new owner seems like a nice bloke that we can do business with and we wish him well, but we are glad that his enterprise will finish at a respectable time.

Result!

30th wedding anniversary of Prince Charles and Lady Di

2011-07-29T20:06:00.000Z

The Liverpool Echo tells us tonight that it will carry a big feature tomorrow remembering the 30th anniversary of the Royal Wedding where Prince Charles married Diana Spencer. (And no doubt they will not be alone in this, we can expect this from lots of newspapers tomorrow I am sure, I am not especially singling them out).

Am I alone in finding this hideously distasteful?

There is so much wrong with this. For one thing the marriage was not a success and ended in divorce, secondly the bride died in difficult circumstances 14 years ago, thirdly the groom has since remarried and fourthly their elder son celebrated his own wedding only a few months ago.

Are we so devoid of news items that an article about how we remember celebrating this event is worthy of coverage?

Consider this, it is 25 years since I was married, the marriage was not a success and ended in divorce, secondly the groom died in difficult circumstances 15 years ago. And although I have not remarried and we did not have any children, I would be simply horrified if any newspaper chose to remind the world of our wedding anniversary and ask how people remembered celebrating it at the time. Of course they wont because we weren't famous and most of the guests will have long forgotten the entire event anyway and nobody would be remotely interested, but that is only because we were neither famous nor royal. But the point still stands, it would be staggeringly inappropriate and I would be very upset.

For what it is worth, as a confirmed Republican even then, I studiously ignored the Royal wedding, despite being an unwitting visitor to London at the time when it was all happening. However, I still have compassion for the Prince of Wales and his sons, second wife and wider family, and I think this is very wrong.

Incidentally the couple were married on 29th July 1981 which is today, not tomorrow so I have to presume that the coverage is timed for tomorrow because, particularly during Parliamentary Recess and outside of the Football season, there is very little else to write about. This does the already damaged image of our fourth estate no favours.

Photo from http://funees.com/funny-creative-divorce-cakes.html

Iraqi Asylum Seeker arrested by police after self harm

2011-07-29T19:22:00.000Z

I have just read a disturbing piece in tonight's Liverpool Echo

It would seem that an Iraqi Asylum Seeker, frustrated and desperate whilst attending the UK Borders Agency in Liverpool began to self-harm with a knife saying he had "had enough".

And how was this terrible state of affairs dealt with by our police force?
They tasered him and then arrested him for possession of an offensive weapon.

I am reminded of another case where someone attempted to set fire to themselves in Louise Elman's office, and would have succeeded had she not grappled with them. And the many cases of people who have sewed their mouth and eyes closed in desperation at being sent back to regimes they feared would kill them.

Is this how a democracy supposedly based upon respect and human dignity responds to a crisis?

They say he became aggressive but ask yourself this, if it was you who was forced to flee for your life wouldn't you become frustrated and desperate and aggressive if you felt you were getting nowhere?

Imagine that a violent civil war broke out in this country between our political parties, between the Government and the Opposition, or between the Protestants and Catholics or between Monarchists and Republicans, or integrationalists and seperatists (Ireland and N Ireland for instance) (all of which have been the case in the last 500 years).

Imagine that as a result of that conflict the army in the pay of the ruling force began to massacre your family and torture you because you found yourself on the wrong side through an accident of birth.

Imagine that you somehow got away and made it over to Berlin or Hong Kong or Brazil... And then when you got there, people accused you of over-exaggerating, that they said that you had the wrong papers, that you didn't make it clear when you got there that you wanted their help (and you couldn't properly speak the language and didn't know the right words to use). And what they really wanted was to send you back to Liverpool where perhaps a gas attack against your fellow residents had killed 50,000 people.

Imagine that you were physically scarred from torture and you were deeply grieving your lost family, with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and terrible nightmares.

And when you cannot get anyone to listen or to give you comfort and succour, in desperation you hurt yourself.

Do you think that being tasered and arrested is the right kind of response? Because I don't. Call me a bleedin' heart liberal if you like, I will happily own the badge, but unless there is very much more to this than meets the eye, this was a sad day for Liverpool.

A few words reflecting upon Kensington, Liverpool and the health of its people

2011-07-11T19:09:00.001Z

Which words, quotes, poetry or lyrics would you want to see illuminated on an exciting new public building on the principle route into our city?

Plans have been published for a new PCT Health Centre to be built on the corner of Holt Road and Edge Lane.

Naturally I am in favour of the plans, local Kensington residents have been receiving care in a temporary site on Jubilee Park, behind Kensington library, for far too long already. The plans and the proposals to actually get on with the building of the new centre have been delayed several times while CPOs needed to be acquired to demolish properties (and I dont want to get into the rights and wrongs of that, my views are well known on the subject). It will provide a huge array of health services and be a huge benefit for the community.

However, there is an element to the plans which I think may attract wider interest and comment for people who travel around the city, other than the people who actually live in Kensington, Fairfield or Edge Hill, and this is what I want to address here.

Liverpool planners and regeneration specialists have urged the PCT to think creatively when designing a building on this site, because it is on a main thoroughfare into the city, at a major junction, and should be as far as possible an interesting if not iconic building to give additional value to the development.

And I believe the PCT have embraced those wishes. Instead of designing something utilitarian and painting it battle-ship grey, they have looked for something much more visual and interesting.

You will have to click on the link to the plans above to see them, as they are PDFs and I dont have the facility to reproduce those on the blog. If I had a JPEG, or if I can get one, I will put it up for you. However, to summarise, the building is two storeys, clad in different colours and shades with different sizes of windows, set in landscaping and sympathetic to local resident neighbours and looks fine and modern. I dont think that will be at issue.

The interesting part (sorry you have had to read so far to get to this part) is the art work that they intend to decorate the building with.

They want to incorpate a metal furled "banner" (I cannot think of a better word just now) which curls around some of the front elevation and which will be seen from Edge Lane, and which will be lit up at night.

The current design proposals include several quotes and lyrics about Liverpool, some of which are in a smaller font and some much bigger.

It goes something like this.

"For this land is a place I LOVE" (lyrics from Ferry Cross the Mersey, obviously) with "LOVE" being in a much bigger font than the proceeding words, then at the end of the artwork it says "Pool of LIFE" (quote from philosopher Carl Jung about Liverpool) where the word "LIFE" is much bigger too. So that the two big words, which will be lit up at night, will be LOVE LIFE, the other words will be visible in the day but less so at night.

And in between in a smaller block, not to be lit up in the dark, but nontheless visible, it says "Here comes the sun and I say it's alright" (which you will recognise as a lyric from a George Harrison song).

So here is my thinking and my concerns... I like LOVE LIFE as a lit piece of art work on a public health building on a main road into our city.

I do like Carl Jung's quote and can see it is appropriate. I am less convinced by the inclusion of a bit of Gerry Marsden although maybe could go for it if I was really leaned on but in general I find the inclusion of Beatles/Harrison lyrics to be lazy and hackneyed (and News International would be bound to seize on it enthusiastically too!).

Surely Liverpool - and Kensington - are worth more than this idle regurgitation? In Kensington in particular we are bored to death by journalists from national newspapers and radio stations wanting to do endless comparisons between Liverpool's Kensington and London's Kensington. Just as we as a city are bored also with the lazy references to football, Aintree and the Beatles. We have so much more to offer than this.

Surely we can think of better quotes?

Or can we?

That is the challenge I am setting you. The PCT won't have commissioned and paid for the metal artwork feature yet, so I reckon that if we can come up with something a bit more imaginative, providing that across the piece it still highlights the words LOVE and LIFE, we could persuade them to think more creatively.

What would you like to see engraved or picked out on the art work on such an important featured building on the road into our city?

I am due to meet the PCT in a few weeks time to talk about the centre, the services that will be offered there, how residents will best access them, the tender process for the pharmacy services, the car parking, being good neighbours, all the things that you would in fact expect. And I want to go to them with a considered view about the art work and how residents in Liverpool would like to be reflected.

Over to you, start commenting!

Community information leads to discovery of cannabis factories in Fairfield

2011-07-04T17:03:00.000Z

Local police have advised me of the following information concerning their activities in Fairfield recently.

We begin with Lorne Street, L7

A member of the community had contacted police saying two men were in the house, harvesting cannabis.
The police arrested them both after they had escaped through a downstairs window. One of them was sprayed with CS while trying to run away.

The men were in the process of removing the equipment from the ground floor flat and after a further look round, police also found a cannabis farm in the cellar. The men had sawn the floorboards and joists and then place the floorboards back. There was a ladder underneath going to the cellar.

Officers also discovered a cannabis farm in a property on Hampstead Road, L6 and investigations are ongoing there.

This weekend a farm has been located at an address in Gresham St, L7 after a resident phoned police about a man acting suspiciously. Police have detained a man having found the house rigged up for the start of a cannabis farm. There were 100 small cannabis plants and 150 more substantial plants.

Sergeant Joyce's message to the public in the area is this

"All arrests and discoveries were as the result of community intelligence. Our thanks to the local community for their continued support and help in identifying offences, offenders and providing us with various types of intelligence. Without their help our job would be more difficult."

Local residents have the opportunity to become part of the 'eyes and ears' of the community by joining others in locally organised Home Watch Schemes, details of which PCSTO Rob Moore at Tuebrook Police Station can provide.

The simple message to criminals in our area is simple - we don't want you here and we wont tolerate you, expect to be noticed and reported - and ultimately arrested and charged!

Dog Welfare Roadshows

2011-07-04T16:40:00.000Z

Liverpool City Council working with the Merseyside Dog Forum, and in partnership with the R.S.P.C.A and the Dogs Trust will be holding a number of events during July to promote responsible dog ownership and provide owners with the opportunity to have their dog micro chipped.

In addition the P.D.S.A, the U.K’s leading veterinary charity will be in attendance at the events, offering free health checks for dogs, which will cover general fitness as well as keys concerns such as obesity and dental disease.

When and Where?

The Following Dates:-
Friday 8th July Newsham Park, L6
Saturday 9th July Wavertree Sports Park, Wellington Road, L15
Sunday 10th July Garston Sports Centre, Long Lane, L19
Monday 11th July Doric Park, Old Swan, L13
Tuesday 12 July Scargreen Park, Shottesbrook Green, L11
Wednesday 13th July Croxteth Park, L12
Saturday 16th July Walton Sports Centre, Walton Hall Avenue, L4
Sunday 17th July Sefton Park, L17
Saturday 23rd July Everton Park Sports Centre, Great Homer Street, L5

Micro chipping, dog health checks and advice on neutering and responsible dog ownership will be available each day between 10.00am and 4.00pm.

What is Micro Chipping?

The chip is about the size of a grain of rice. It is quickly implanted and carries a unique number that is recorded on a National Database.

Please note that a dog must be at least twelve weeks old before it can be “chipped”. And it needs to be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Why bother?

It will help to re unite you with your dog if it manages to get out. Dogs that have been micro chipped and are found to be straying will, on the first occasion, be returned to their owner by the Animal Warden.

In cases where the owner cannot be contacted then the dog will be taken to the R.S.P.C.A kennels in Halewood. In order for the owner to subsequently reclaim the dog, all costs and kennelling fees will need to be paid in full before the dog can be released.

What will it cost?

All dog health checks and micro chipping is free of charge.

However donations will be accepted and shared amongst the animal charities that are involved in the event.

Who is Eligible?

Any dog owner from Liverpool or from any part of Greater Merseyside (Wirral, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, Halton, Warrington and West Lancashire).

What if I’m unable to get my dog to the road show?

Mr Ray Gordon from “Pets to Vets”, who specialises in pet transportation has agreed to transport dogs to and from their home address to the road show, if the owner is housebound or is unable to do so themselves.

Due to limited availability this offer is open to Liverpool residents only and will need to be booked in advance, a small charge will be made to cover the costs of the transportation, further information is available by contacting Ray Gordon, “Pets to Vets” on telephone number 07941259754.

If you have any further enquiries please contact Liverpool Direct, Tel, 233 3001, who will be able to put you in touch with a member of the Animal Warden Team.

Lost your cymbals? Lost your suit? Calling all bandsmen

2011-06-29T22:23:00.001Z

Somewhere out there is a bandsman who has lost his cymbals and his suit in a red bag, in a taxi in Liverpool.

Don't panic! They have been handed in to a police station. They are at Eaton Road Police Station in Liverpool, waiting for you to collect them. There is a piece of paper in the bag with your name on, but no contact details. If you can say what your name is then you can be reunited with your lost items.

I am betting you are from a Pennines Brass Band on a mini tour or festival. Can everyone who reads this please share with your band mates.

(I was on tour with the Critical Incident Team last night but arrived a bit early so took the time to have a chat with the lads on the desk over a cup of coffee while I waited. I picked up this bit of gossip while I sat with them, thought it might be interesting and useful to someone, while we are on the theme of lost property).

Jack the Hat

2011-06-29T22:12:00.000Z

Liam Robinson was at work one day at Lime Street Railway Station in Liverpool where he is a Station Manager. A call came through from Lost Property. They had found an important item left on a train, could he help?

It was a black fedora (hat) and inside the brim was a note which said words to the effect of "This hat belongs to Jack Straw MP, please return it to the House of Commons if you find it".

The staff in the lost property department knew that Liam was a Labour politician, being one of the Labour councillors for Kensington and Fairfield and they also knew that Jack Straw was a Labour MP. They wondered if he could reunite Jack with his hat.

A willing Liam took the hat away and phoned the constituency office. The staff were delighted to hear from him, Jack had been so unhappy to have lost his precious hat which he had worn for such a long time. And next time Liam was on his travels up north, he called into Jack's constituency office in Blackburn and dropped it off with a grateful owner.

All's well that ends well! Hat's the way to do it!

Builder working on the new wall at Wilson Henry

2011-06-26T12:42:00.001Z

I didn't pose this cheeky shot, it was what I saw as I drove into our carpark at work last week and saw the bricklayer framed in this way, so I asked him if I could take a picture. It was a shot begging to be taken.

A trip down memory lane to the sweet shop

2011-06-26T12:38:00.000Z

I saw these jigsaws for sale in Peter Barrett's Garden Centre in Preston on Tees and they made me smile

What do you remember eating?

Bistro Yard 2011 - June sees the flowers start to blossom

2011-06-26T12:34:00.000Z

I went for pinks and reds mainly this year, for a colour theme, and have tried to avoid plants that are attacked by aphids or slugs. So no more petunias and instead busy lizzies, geraniums and fuschia mainly, let me know what you think! I do need to do some weeding, the rear of the yard which is tiled is particular prone to dandelions.

Yarm Methodist Church - Wesley's favourite octagonal chapel

2011-06-26T12:22:00.000Z

Yarm Methodist Church is my home church I guess, although I have not lived there for years. I go when I am visiting family and went with Mum last Sunday. I was delighted to see it had had a lovely paint refresh (from the Community PayBack team I understand, or perhaps the Probation Service), so after the service I took some photos for you to see.

It is known as Wesley's favourite octagonal chapel but I confess I don't know how much competition there is? It is certainly my favourite chapel - anywhere.

We were sitting upstairs on the balcony, so the shots look across to the choir, organ and altar, with one of the beginning of the downstairs congregation area and one across the balcony.