Liverpool Malayalee Community Association (LIMCA)– festival of Onam, Broadgreen International School

A festival related to the rice harvest, celebrated in Kerala, the most southern state in India. Luciana Berger, MP for Liverpool Wavertree, Councillor Claire Wilner, Assistant Cabinet Member for Culture and Tourism, and I were delighted to attend the celebrations for the festival of Onam last weekend.

The event began with Onasadya, a vegetarian meal, not eaten from a plate, but off a large banana leaf, rice and various curried vegetables, sweet dried banana chips and banana and rice pudding. Very yummy! Then we joined the parade as it crossed the school yard, everyone was beautifully dressed in traditional costume with face make-up and a smear of sandalwood on their foreheads.

We went into the gymnasium to see the Pookalam display – intricate flower carpets laid on the floor. There was then a formal event in the assembly hall, with speeches, singing and dancing. Luciana helped light the lamp in a special ceremony that was not unlike the lighting of the advent candle. Claire gave awards for the Pookalam competition and I gave awards for the tug of war competition. There was also a special set of awards for the many Kerala women who are nurses in Liverpool and who had recently been on a training course organised by LIMCA.

It was a delight and a pleasure to have been invited and I hope our links will strengthen in coming years.

Saul and Leanne’s wedding

And talking of Deane Road Cemetery – members of the committee were delighted to attend the wedding of our project manager, and senior warden at Princes Road Synagogue, Saul Marks to Leanne Matalon. The service was very interesting and exciting as I had not been to a Jewish wedding before and Saul had thoughtfully provided a brochure which explained what was being said and what each part of the service meant.

It was very different to a Christian service, it took place under a canopy in the centre of the synagogue, at one point Leanne had to walk round Saul 7 times. Saul was also asked, as part of the formalities, to go into the Bride’s Room in the Synagogue to establish that the bride that was being presented to him, was in fact the woman he wanted to marry - this in remembrance of Jacob who was tricked in marrying Leah by her father Laban when really he wanted to marry her sister Rachel. All Jewish men now check that they are marrying the right woman, before putting her veil down for her. Later in the ceremony Saul stamped on a glass and broke it, to symbolise that though this was a lovely, special day, all was not well with the world and we should remember trials and tribulations elsewhere.

The wedding reception was in the Racquet club and it was fabulous, wonderful staff, wonderful service and wonderful food, catered by a Kosher firm. Maria, Cath, Muriel, Arnold, his wife and I all had a wonderful time.

Update on Deane Road Cemetery and our HLF bid

The HLF NW Regional Committee (sic) met yesterday and have agreed to welcome a second round bid from us for the funds we need to restore the cemetery.

Last week, on one of the hottest days of the year, Saul and I showed a couple of their office management team around while we explained how and why the bid had increased nearly twofold between rounds 1 and 2. This conversation was vitally important as we needed them to maintain their faith in our project and our beloved cemetery in the face of this increase. We heard today that they were still positive about the programme so we have today submitted our round two bid. Now please keep everything crossed for us! It will go to the December committee for a decision.

Road closure in Fairfield

Letter I have sent to local residents in south Fairfield this week - for information

In April 2007, before the new houses in your area were built, local people learnt that Lomond Road would be closed from the Edge Lane end, and partly built upon, and they were worried about how those living in Cheviot, Middleton and Lindale Road would be able to access their own estate.

In particular they were concerned that traffic would be using the Grampian/Cheviot route which you may know is quite a tight turn, particularly for larger vehicles.

So, in response to concerns, I called a public meeting, on the street, with Bellway and with the council, which many local people attended and we agreed between us that the road between Grampian and Cheviot would eventually be closed, and a turning circle created. Traffic would instead be encouraged to access Cheviot, Middleton and Lindale via either West Bank Road/Birchfield Road/Lomond Road or by Grampian Road/Birchfield Road/Lomond Road.

This road closure has yet to take place and so I have contacted Bellway on your behalf.

This is the response I have now received from them.

“There is an area of footpath at the new site access and along Grampian Road that requires to be finally surfaced once BT have removed a redundant telegraph pole that is within the footpath.

It is our intention to have the bollards installed across the top of Grampian Road at the same time as the ground worker is on site finishing off the footpath area.

I have asked the former site manager to check if BT have removed the telegraph pole and if so I will arrange for the bollards to be installed as soon as possible.”

I trust this information is helpful to you but if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Poverty and Housing Crisis

Conservative and LibDem coalition Government plans for the revision of Housing Benefit will leave many people in dire financial straits and will inevitably lead to an increase in homelessness.

Shelter tell us that 54,000 children will be in households left with less than £100 a week after housing costs to cover all other expenses including utility bills, transport, food and clothing. Shockingly, a further 33,000 children will be in families forced to survive on less than £50 a week.

Crisis figures show that 12620 households in Liverpool alone will be adversely affected by the first lot of changes planned, which hit pre 2013.

What changes are planned?

1. Housing benefit in the private rented sector (local housing allowance) is currently calculated at the mid-point of the local market. The Government has proposed that it will now be calculated on the bottom 30th percentile of rents in a given area.

In Kensington, Liverpool where there is a paucity of social housing and many people are forced to live in poor quality but expensive private accomodation at the mercy of landlords, will their rent be in the bottom 30th percentile? I wouldn't be surprised if it was not.

2. The maximum possible rate of LHA will be capped. In reality this change will only affect London.

3. Currently those whose rent is lower than the total possible LHA rate have been able to keep up to £15 of the difference to encourage them to shop around. The Government is carrying forward plans to scrap this policy. This will obviously encourage landlords to increase rents if there is no incentive for tenants to bargain them down.

4. Restriction of the bedroom entitlement to the four bedroom rate - this will adversely affect larger families and families living together as extended families (with three generations perhaps) and it is my guess that this will be particularly damaging to BME families.

These cuts will then be exacerbated by further plans to reduce Housing Benefit by 10%for those in who have been in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance for a year.

There are many people in Liverpool who have already been on JSA for more than a year, and those numbers will only increase as job cuts increase with Government cuts. Liverpool has an unusual dependency on public sector jobs, which are likely to be lost to the tune of 25% - 40% as part of the ConDem coalition planned cuts.

I wonder where all these jobs are, that the Government feels that JSA applicants are somehow failing to take-up, I am not aware of them, are you?

So, we cut the rate of housing benefit to people, they then cannot meet their rent obligations in full and begin to rack up debts with their landlords. Eventually they are made homeless. But we know that places in homeless hostels are limited - particularly for larger families, and so we shall be obliged to house people in B&Bs and hotels, one assumes - we cannot throw children on the streets, there is a statutory responsible to house them somewhere, and so the cost of this will outweigh any savings in Housing Benefit.

I am forced to wonder whether the only answer shall be the building of large public instutitions where people who are no longer able to claim benefits and have fallen on hard times, with nowhere to live, can be found a bed and board. Or perhaps we could convert large empty buildings like the former orphanage on Orphanage Drive, Newsham Park, and put them all in there? And we might want to put the women in one part of the building and the men in another, perhaps dormitories might be the answer?
And we could give them a name that would symbolise the route we wish them to take, to lift themselves out of poverty - something that perhaps relates to our desire that they should get a job! I wonder, perhaps could they be called Workhouses? How does that sound? Just a thought!

Top 100 Labour Blog

And the good news goes on! I am number 33 in the top 100 Labour Blogs in this year's Total Politics Awards.

Thanks again to everyone who voted for me!

And it is good to see so many of the people that I voted for myself doing well.

Top 30 Councillor Blogs in Total Politics Poll

A bit of good news today as I have made the top 30 Councillor blogs this year, coming in at number 15!

Will stick the logo up later, thanks to everyone for voting for me!

Louise Baldock is on holiday

...but normal service will resume very soon.

I am loving the Liverpool sunshine, two days straight now of fantastic weather, a great time to have a birthday.

However, I have got a packed diary to tell you all about, not least of which are an Audit Commission inspection at Venture Housing and a decision from the HLF about whether they wish to encourage us to place our round two bid for the Deane Road Jewish Cemetery. And lots of holiday pics and stories and tales to share too.

Watch this space, I shall return!

In the dog house?

So, I finally have it confirmed by one who knows, the true identity of the poisonous little canine. I knew it was you all the time, Dude, and you know I knew, despite your many denials. Yes you clearly had a couple of helpers (and I know who they are too but I have already made my peace with them). But there were too many stories where there was only us there - like the time I set the shower off and some poor woman got wet. And then there was the title of the photo of the dog that graces the front page of your blog, you've obviously spotted your mistake at some point and changed it, but not before I clocked it using "view source". You just weren't clever enough. You built your "fortress" on shifting sands, but the game is now up. I shall say no more on this subject, since you appear to have reformed somewhat of late and I suspect you are hurting - and I don't relish pain in others. But I will say this, don't get too cocky again, little dog. As the man at the back of the shops where I hung out as a kid, used to say, as he shook his fist at us for being naughty "I know your name and I know where you live".

Liberal Democrat Councillor defects to Labour in Liverpool

Councillor Ian Jobling, who I have always had a lot of time for, since his days as the Chair of the Local Area Committee for Everton, Picton and Kensington and Fairfield, has today officially defected to Labour in Liverpool.

Ian, who represents the Picton ward, joined the Labour Party this week and cut up his Liberal Democrat membership card, because he is desperately unhappy with the programme of spending cuts imposed by the Conservative/LibDem Coalition Government. Ian has until today sat on Merseyside Police Authority and was particularly unhappy with proposed cuts to Police spending, given, he said, the commitments made by the LibDems in their pre-election manifesto.

The news has been picked up across the media. The BBC have it here and the Liverpool Echo here

Ian has always enjoyed a good relationship with all of the councillors in Liverpool and I hope and trust that this move will not generate the bitterness that defections usually engender. I know that he had already announced his intention not to seek re-election as a LibDem councillor a few weeks before he took the decision to join the Labour Party, and that he has not been promised anything as a result of this defection. That is not to say that he may or may not wish to throw his hat in the ring to become a Labour candidate in future local government elections, taking his chances with all of our other many candidates (we have about 60 who have been authorised to compete for the chance to stand in 30 seats in the city).

I also know that Ian stands to lose money as a result of making this move now and not just sitting out the rest of his term on the LibDem back benches as he has been obliged to come off the Police Authority, his place having been a LibDem appointment which he will not now be entitled to. This is as clear a case of principled action as we are likely to see.

I know from talking to him that having been a member of the Liberal Party and then the LibDems since he was a teenager, this will not have been a decision taken lightly or with ease. Ian clearly feels unable to stay in and support a Party that is acting so far away from its mandate or the wishes of its members as expressed at so many conferences etc in the past.

I wish him all the best in his new Party, there have been a lot of murmurings of approval and support from the Labour Party, both within the Labour Group and within the wider Party as the news has come out and I am sure he will receive a warm welcome from us all.

Are you interested in theatre, music, dance, art, design, film or puppetry?

From an email - of interest to local people on Liverpool.

The Suitcase Ensemble is a Liverpool-based theatre collective who create original and imaginative artistic experiences.

In September 2010, we are starting a weekly drama group for adults living in Picton, Kensington and Fairfield, Central, Princes Park, Greenbank and Wavertree wards.

Free to take part. No Experience necessary.

Just a willingness to get involved and a birth date before Sept 1992 (aged 18 and over).

‘Sound Tracks’ will initially run for 12 weeks on Monday evenings from September – November at Metal’s newly refurbished space for art at Edge Hill Station. All we ask is that you can commit to every session over the 12 weeks.

To register your interest in taking part:
email tessa@suitcase-ensemble.com or call 07916 920415 with your name, phone number and address.
You will receive an invitation to the first session.

For further information
call 0151 7072277
or 07916 920415
email tessa@suitcase-ensemble.com
or visit www.suitcase-ensemble.com

Winter Fuel Payments - are they still "safe"?

Readers will recall that I wrote back in January that Winter Fuel Payments were under threat if the Tories got into power. I cannot take you to the original entry because I was asked to edit it by a Tory Councillor on the Wirral who took issue with me This is the revised version. But from memory I said the Tories would scrap the allowance which had been worth £2500 to date to pensioner recipients.

Other bloggers were encouraged to join in the debate, David Bartlett and Tom Morrison focussing not on whether the fuel allowance was under threat but on the fact that I had edited my entry after the challenge.

At the time, Cllr Ian Lewis said on his blog*

Utter rubbish and the last, desperate attempts to cling on by scaring some of the most vulnerable people into voting for you.

Let’s be clear: the Conservatives will not scrap the Winter Fuel Payment. Full stop.

Obviously Ian's comments were heartfelt and he really meant what he said. Sadly however it would seem that he, like us, may have been mislead. All the news outlets today are talking about Iain Duncan Smith wanting to get tough with universal benefits, maybe tapering them, changing the age at which they become applicable etc. And Nick Clegg seems to be somewhat supportive of this move, if his reported comments today are anything to go by.

So it seems the "Full Stop" may have been more of a "comma" - to be followed by the words "or at least not until the October spending review and after that it is anyone's guess".

I hope reports are overly pessimistic today and that the allowance is still safe.

*It is interesting to see that Ian's blog has been depoliticised. It had been quite firmly associated with the Conservative Party, bearing the Tory logo etc but these have been removed. The only reference now is at the foot of the page and a statement reads "This is the website of Steve Smith and Councillor Ian Lewis. We are working on many of the issues in Moreton and Leasowe, putting our community first and Party politics second." I wonder how many other Tories and LibDems in the North of England have begun to move away from their Party colours in this way?

Pakistan Flood Appeal

Have you made a contribution yet to Pakistan, via the DEC? Come on guys, dig deep. 20 million homeless, that is the same as the population of Austrialia, more or less. 4 times the population of Scotland or 7 times the number of people living in Wales. Try to get your head round that. They need money, lots of it, lets show that we Brits are generous and we do have compassion. I worry that Pakistan is not a popular cause within our country and I urge you to prove me wrong!

Talk and Ride

This is an interesting little exercise being carried out today in North Liverpool.

As advised to me by email by the award-winning Sergeant Simon Joyce himself!

Following on from the success of Talk and Ride event which took place in June 2010, I am pleased to announce that "Talk and Ride 2" has been organised to take place on Monday 17 August 2010.

The event will be of a similar format to the last event where Detectives from the Liverpool North Burglary Team will travel on public transport along the main arterial routes in Liverpool North spending a few minutes talking to elderly members of the community and providing them with home security advice particularly in relation to distraction burglaries.

The Liverpool North Burglary Team provide Crime Prevention advice as part of our core business and this event is another strand of distributing key messages to vulnerable groups.

The local Neighbourhood Police Teams also provide advice, re-assurance and some target hardening good to victims and any other resident in their area

A Real Man

This made me giggle...

A real man is a woman's best friend.
He will never stand her up and never let her down.
He will reassure her when she feels insecure and comfort her after a bad day.

He will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do; to live without fear and forget regret.
He will enable her to express her deepest emotions and give in to her most intimate desires.
He will make sure she always feels as though she's the most beautiful woman in the room and will enable her to be the most confident, sexy, seductive, and invincible.

No wait... sorry...

I'm thinking of wine.
It’s wine that does all that.......
sorry
Never mind.

Message from Harriet Harman, Acting Leader of the Labour Party

I have just had this message from Harriet, I thought I would share it with you. She has some very interesting things to say!

Dear Louise

Around the country Labour has been getting great results in council by-elections. The results in votes cast in all the council by-elections in July and in the first weeks of August show us neck and neck with the Tories on 34%. The Lib Dems were on 24%.

Our catch-up with the Tories is remarkable in view of the fact that only 14 weeks ago in the General Election we were 8% behind the Tories. This shows that the party is determined to fight back. I strongly believe that support for the Government will ebb away even further as people see the risks that the Government is taking with the economy, when they feel the impact of the unfair VAT increase and the public service cuts.

There is encouraging news of more new members continuing to join the Labour Party. Across the country, the Party has gained 27,894 new members since May 6th. A third of these new members are people who have formerly supported the Lib Dems. Half are Labour voters who now believe that they must join the Labour Party to fight the Government and 10% have joined to take part in our leadership election.

Our conference in Manchester will see us take another important step forward when we unveil our new leader.

Best wishes,

Harriet Harman

Creative thinking required to get through funding crisis

For the last ten years or so there has been a real culture of reliance on grants to fund community based organisations.

When I was a kid we had collection boxes that we rattled on the street, envelopes to push through doors, sponsored discos, cake sales, summer fetes, tombolas, bob-a- job, jumble sales, charity shops... If you needed money for a leaking roof or a new football kit or to hire a minibus, then you set to and raised the money.

Our Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool was built by public subscription, a few pence each week from the congregation - I am not suggesting that they were the glory days, by the way, I know that put some families into difficult financial circumstances, but that is how it always was in the past.

Unfortunately people have become totally dependent upon filling in an application form and waiting for a big cheque to arrive. In fact in Kensington and Fairfield, most groups that have been formed in the last ten years are not aware that there is any other way to raise money. When you sit round a table and say “We need to raise £3000 for new gym equipment for the youth club” or “We need £10k for a welfare benefits advisor”, the first question anyone asks is about any grants we might apply for. Any financial advisor worth their salt will know that you should not put all your eggs in one basket but that is exactly what has been going on.

The New Deal did not help in this regard; it had huge sums of money that it dispensed on a grants basis, so that although groups were well supported at the time, they have no experience of raising any money themselves and no concept of where to start. And with the New Deal gone, so has their source of income. There were lots of promises of exit strategies for community organisations by KNDC, that they would offer help to groups to become sustainable so they could carry on effectively, but I don’t see the evidence that it happened.

It should be obvious to everyone that grants are pretty much finished now. They have paid out their last penny in many cases.

The NWDA (Regional Development Agency) have had their funding slashed, so they won’t be able to support so much, including Liverpool Vision who in turn will have less cash to dispense. Housing Associations are tightening their belts as HMRI funding is slashed and VAT due to rise. Local Government is expecting to make cuts of between 25% and 40% much of which is bound to come from the Area Based Grant, the Working Neighbourhood Fund, etc. So there will be less money for the voluntary sector all round. Local Councillors in Liverpool have already taken a cut in their devolved budgets. We will be lucky to have anything like the same level of funding in future – and in our deprived ward alone we have been paying out about £100k per year to local projects who provide the kind of services we want to see.

Every funding opportunity that still remains – banks giving away community chests for instance, or B&Q giving away free equipment will all be heavily oversubscribed.

We need a radical rethink about fundraising for our local organisations. That’s the fatal flaw in Cameron’s Big Society incidentally – the concept that the voluntary sector will take up all the slack if he slashes public spending. Where will the voluntary sector get the money from to keep going when they have always been given it by the public sector!?

I don’t look forward to the day when we have to hold cake sales to raise money to pay for a Domestic Violence Advisor, but I can see it coming unless we start some creative thinking at a local level very soon.

I believe it is imperative that we provide some in depth and thoughtful training for our local groups about how best to fundraise in difficult times and I am going to talk to my co-councillors about us supporting that. We really need to be on the ball about this and move quickly, the early bird catches the worm, as they say, and when it comes to fundraising that is most definitely true. I don’t know how we are going to pay for the training though, does anyone know if there is any grant funding available?!

Why Theresa May is wrong about ASBOs

It is natural for a Socialist to be against ASBOs, instinctively all punitive measures smack of big brother and a failure to recognise the causes of crime.

We all want to be thoughtful and sensitive about the sh*t lives that criminals have lead that have brought them into a court. And so we are, by and large. Most criminal and anti-social behaviour is driven by poverty, drugs and alcohol, not by a satanic outlook, they don't desire to be bad.

And you don't want to start me off talking about some of the appalling ways that prisoners in our British prisons are treated, most of you would probably be glad and I would be as popular as midges on a summer holiday in Scotland if I stood up for them. So I shant go there tonight.

But I do want to talk about ASBO's and why they really do matter.

I think it was Hazel Blears who introduced the idea of ASBOs, she is not a popular politician any more but I think she got it spot on when she said that it was our people, Labour people, living in Labour communities that were suffering from the effects of anti-social behaviour. That it was time that Labour stood up for its own and took steps to stop this.

So what is anti-social behaviour? I think by definition it is behaviour that is not criminal, that is the first thing. It is not about drug dealing or burglary or GBH for instance. It is behaviour that blights lives but is not obviously dealt with by the criminal law system. So what might it involve? Very often involving neighbours (did anyone ever make that clear before I wonder?) it is about loud music, noise, shouting, excessive drinking, intimidation, swearing, urinating, bullying, throwing things, spitting, hurting animals, setting small fires, sitting on the step through the night with the ghetto blaster blaring, hurling abuse, threatening to hurt someone... and so it goes on.

An ASBO is not granted for a first offence of this type, or a second, or a third, or even a twentieth sometimes. It can be months and years of such abusive and difficult behaviour before someone is given an ASBO. Months and years of community members compiling detailed diaries and sharing them with the police or the local housing association. Months and years of numerous phone calls to the police, of disruption and upset with local people unable to sleep calmly in their own beds.

ASBOs are granted to all sorts of people, not just youngsters, although it is popular to think it is only young people that are so charged. Many adults are responsible, including pensioners.

And when the ASBO comes into place it forbids that person from going to certain places, from gathering in groups with others if that has been part of the behaviour, from intimidating their neighbours.

And our experience in Kensington has tended to show that where an ASBO has been granted, which limits the behaviour of an individual and expects only neighbourly activity from them, it does work. Streets calm down instantly. Sometimes, if the holder of an ASBO lives in social housing, they lose their home and are forced to live somewhere else, another reason why an ASBO can be a boon to a community.

A breach of an ASBO might be an isolated incidence of shouting or swearing, or throwing a stone. It might come months after a period of calm. Many holders of ASBOs are forgiven several incidents of lapsed behaviour before they are brought back to court for serious sanctions, but in the meantime the community has respite. Everything goes quiet.

To suggest that one lapse of behaviour, one breach of an ASBO after potentially hundreds of incidents of bad behaviour followed by a period of calm, is somehow a failure of the system, as Theresa May does, is to miss the obvious.

If you have committed 300 incidents of ASB and then get an ASBO and then you broadly behave yourself, and give respite to your neighbour, then you commit say half a dozen more over a few months before your breached ASBO is brought into a court, it is still a vast improvement on the previous months of hourly, daily mayhem.

Theresa May, I assume, lives in a nice quiet leafly cul-de-sac where no-one has a clue about ASB, she wont realise the wonderful period of calm that can follow the imposition of an ASBO or how small the relapse can be, compared to the earlier unchallenged behaviour, that leads the establishment to deem a breach.

Once a community has stood together to create an ASBO it is much stronger and ready to create reports demonstrating a breach. Even if half of ASBOs are breached, for a period of time each and every one in my experience has brought respite and breaches are jumped upon much harder by a strengthened and revitalised community than the initial behaviour ever was.

I am still waiting to hear what might happen to ASBOs that are still live should such things be scrapped. It is not a great thought!

Scrapping ASBOs is short sighted and I hope the ConDem Home Secretary will change her mind.

Liverpool's first "official" Pride, August 7th 2010

Wow!

"Liverpool Pride" indeed and so much to be proud of!

In January 2009 I was at a meeting of Liverpool City Council when we voted for a proposal to have a Pride festival in Liverpool (well most of us did anyway!). It felt good, we left the meeting on a high.

In May 2009 I was at the IDAHO event in Liverpool Town Hall where the LCVS LGBT Network was consulting about a possible Pride event in Liverpool. I remember giving my response on tape, talking about how it should be inclusive, something for everyone, calm and reflective as well as great fun and very colourful. The organisers encapsulated all of that.

On Friday we had a multi-faith Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) religious service.

On Saturday we had a march, a parade without floats or motorised vehicles, full of public servants, the police, fire service, youth services, LGBT groups, political parties, health workers... many of them LGBT themselves but some there to show support for others. And of course there were thousands of enthusiastic people of all ages marching in joy, marching in solidarity. Some marching "out and proud", flamboyant in their costumes, some marching quietly and dressed to conform, but with deep personal satisfaction that their time too had come.

This was no hole and corner march either, it was lead by Liverpool's first citizen, The Lord Mayor, Councillor Hazel Williams with her little grandchild, accompanied by the Town Crier, both of them in all their regalia. Hazel incidentally was marvellous, full of joie de vivre, she danced with drag queens and twirled with the Town Crier to the delight of the crowds. We all owe her huge thanks for her support and for holding a civic reception in the Town Hall and for flying the rainbow flag above.

After the march we enjoyed countless performers, singers, dancers and artists on three stages across the gay quarter in town. 6 hours of live music and performance enjoyed by gay and straight alike, grannies and grandchildren, mums and dads, wives and wives, husbands and husbands, boys, girls and lovers, and all their friends.

Then, Chill Out Sunday, the museums and art galleries of the city threw open their doors with a bevy of LGBT offerings - films, tours and exhibitions (Hockney at the Walker to name but one), while at Wavertree Sports Centre, LGBT teams competed in football tournaments, rounders, water polo and tug-of-war.

The whole weekend passed off beautifully, incident free. There were those who came into Liverpool full of confidence, passion, excitement and enthusiasm, ready to celebrate their sexuality and have a really great time, and there were those for whom this was the first time they tiptoed out of the closet, blinking into the daylight. Some of the older people who have hidden themselves for decades, who lived through times when to be gay was to be prosecuted and persecuted and subjected to hideous electric tortures, bashed and bullied, forbidden to marry or have children, came to finally feel valued. Others slipped into the march behind appropriate banners and walked round in open-mouthed amazement as the ordinary folk of Liverpool lined the streets to clap and nod and smile and be overheard saying to each other "It is all about being fair, it is important, it is right".

The Labour Party did us proud. There must have been 40 people at least who marched behind our LGBT Labour banner, 80% of the City Council Cabinet were there, a good half of the Labour Group of Councillors, supportive straight members joining in solidarity with LGBT members. We had gay members from across the NW and a few from further afield - Birmingham and London for instance.

I did have a few tears in my eyes, particularly as I saw the people lining the streets in support, ordinary people doing their shopping, tourists, families, stopping to clap and cheer. And the greatest supporters in the crowd were white haired pensioner women. They cheered and waved and were all encouraging smiles as we marched past. They really lifted my heart.

Liverpool has not always had a good reputation for being open to diversity, but in 2010 the city rose to the challenge.

I am proud of the city, its people, the Labour Party, my LGBT friends, the council, the public services and I cannot wait to do it all again next year! Bring it on!

Photo: Courtesy of Liverpool Pride. The sea of red you can see are the Labour LGBT group in their "35 years of equality" t-shirts. There were as many marching in civvies as there were in red t-shirts, so you can see how huge our group was! I was thrilled to be marching directly behind Mike and Marrie and Debbie Causer who I am now pleased to be friends with, who keep their gay son and brother's candle burning through the Michael Causer Foundation, in a dedicated campaign to bring meaning to his brutal murder.

A few highlights

I have been too busy to blog, of late, sorry to everyone who has come looking for news and found the cupboard bare.

Here are a few highlights of the last couple of weeks

I have been to Manchester to meet the Heritage Lottery Fund people to explain why the costs for the cemetery restoration have gone up so much since our original estimate. One of the regional team is coming for a look round in early September before their next committee, just to make sure that they are still satisfied we are on track. I am so nervous about it all, but am sure that when she sees the cemetery for herself, she will fall in love with it too.

We had a great night out at Jimmy's Grill on Prescot Road in Fairfield to celebrate the ongoing successes of KVFM and the online project, we took the whole place over, if you have not been, I can recommend it, great Indian food.

I delivered some regional Labour Party training at the Devonshire House Hotel on behalf of Progress, for would-be local government candidates from across the region. Had some good feedback last week and learnt that one of the women I trained has already been selected for a seat in West Lancs.

We had a good respect week in Kensington and Fairfield. Torrential rain did not stop our successful community BBQ on the Monday lunchtime, with fun and games and lots of stalls, all under cover at St Francis of Assisi Academy. There were lots of good events throughout the week, including jobs cafe, business events, neighbourhood watch set-ups. We had traffic wardens patrolling our hotspots and dog wardens patrolling our dirt spots. The police did loads of work and cleared up lots of outstanding warrants. We are going to have a think about making some changes for next year so that it stays fresh and exciting and we still need to do a lot more work on publiciting and marketing of events.

On that note I am working up a proposal to be funded via our devolved budget, for a marketing events training session during October half term at the Academy. I will be sending out invites shortly for everyone in our ward who organises events so that we can all learn how to ensure we get the best possible turnouts and audiences.

I have had a good meeting with the LCC officers organising the housing needs survey to ensure that they are interviewing a representative number of BME and disabled people who have particular housing needs, so that we capture those.

I went to Burton Manor on the Wirral to an AGM, as a new governor. A very interesting place, an adult residential college which seems rather underutilised to me, I have asked about their marketing strategy, we shall learn more at the next meeting.

I went to the Labour Party leadership hustings in Manchester to listen to and learn more about the five candidates for the post - Ed and David Miliband, Ed Balls, Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham. I still dont know who to vote for though, they all had strong points but none of them really quite did it for me. I have never voted for the winner in any leadership campaign though, so I dont suppose this vote will matter to the result either!

I spoke at the vigil to mark the second anniversary of the murder of Michael Causer. You can see the film here, thanks to Tim Brunsden for putting it together. Or try looking on the Homotopia TV website and clicking on the Michael Causer link on the right.

We had a meeting to discuss further proposals for a new Edge Hill Youth Club, we have to make sure the club can afford to pay the extra funds required for enhancements upon what they already have in their current facility - we hope to have some clarity on that next week.

I have been to three select committees, two as Assistant Cabinet Member and one as a committee member in my own right, I am enjoying them after not being on any last year.

I did a citizenship ceremony with Roger Phillips yesterday, he was telling me that he had a trapped nerve and had been off sick for a couple of days, the first time in over 30 years of working for BBC Radio Merseyside, what a good clean sheet!

We had our Hate Crime Reduction Forum away day last week, and have some really great stuff to go on the action plan, what a shame we will have to progress without Phil Garrigan who has been a fantastic secondee from the Fire Service, and is going back there on promotion.

And of course there was Pride.......but that deserves an entry all of its own!

Football Fantasies played out in Kensington!

Press release from the lovely people at Kensington Community Learning Centre on Kensington, Liverpool L6

Fancy your chances of proving your ability as a football manager? Remember the outcry on the first day of last season when David Moyes’ boys were thumped 1-6 at home to Arsenal? Or the growing frustration with Rafa Benitez’s negative tactics after going so close the season before?

We’ve all had opinions on who the managers should be signing, what formations should be used, squad rotation and the effective use of substitutions. Well here’s your chance!!

Kensington Community Learning Centre is offering the opportunity to compete in the world’s largest online Fantasy Premier League competition – and it’s absolutely FREE!!

In addition to pitting your wits against worldwide competition (over 2.2 million football fans took part last season), we will also be creating our own KCLC mini league with prizes for the overall winner and manager of the month awards.
So if you want to be crowned KCLC’s manager of the year and can handle managing a £100m budget – get down to Kensington Community Learning Centre on Thursday 5th August at 1pm to register.

Don’t worry if you’ve no previous experience – full training will be given and a workshop will be held each week to review how the season is progressing. Players will also be able to drop into the centre anytime between 9am to 4pm Monday-Friday each week to log in and make transfers and team selection changes (you will also be able to log in anytime from any internet connected computer).

Kensington Community Learning Centre
291-299 Kensington (opposite McDonalds)
Liverpool L7 2RG
Tel: 0151 260 1006
Email: info@kclc.co.uk

Dog days of summer?

I just received this advance publicity notice from Councillor Tim Beaumont who is taking responsibility for dog related issues in Liverpool (a beautiful and delicious irony on several fronts for those of you in the know). These roadshows look really good and are a poke in the eye for the ConDems who have scrapped Labour's national plans around dog ownership management.

LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL DOG WELFARE ROADSHOWS 2010

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 the year 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 many of the events, offering free health checks for dogs, which will cover general fitness as well as key concerns such as obesity and dental disease.

When and Where?
On Saturday 7th August the road show will be in Wavertree Park.
On Sunday 8th August it will be in Stanley Park, and it will be in Croxteth Park on Thursday 12 August.

The road show will remain in the Merseyside region at various locations up until Sunday 22 August 2010.

Events will also be held in Liverpool on Saturday 14 August at Calderstones Park and on Sunday 15 August at Clubmoor Community Centre in Townsend Lane

Micro chipping, health checks, advice on neutering and responsible dog ownership will be available each day between 10.00am and 4.30pm.

The City Council is committed to promoting “Responsible Dog Ownership” and further events are planned for later in the year.
The following is a provisional list of dates and venue’s:-

Saturday 4 September (Sefton Park).
Sunday 5 September (Tesco Car Park, Old Swan)
Monday 6 September (Ellergreen Sports Centre, Norris Green)
Monday 20 September (FED Building in Formosa Drive)
Sunday 3 October ( Conleach Road Car Park in Speke)
Monday 1 November (Walton Road area)


What is Micro Chipping?
The chip is about the size of a grain of rice. It is quickly implanted and carried 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”.


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).

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.

Good news on crime

The Home Office’s latest British Crime Survey has found that the number of crimes committed in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1981. In 2009-10, crimes committed fell to 9.6 million – 9 per cent below the previous year, indicating that the recession has not caused an increase in offences.

Kensington and Fairfield Respect Week begins today

Get down to the Summer BBQ and fun in the sun (??!!) event at St Francis of Assisi today, noon until 3pm, at the launch of K&F Respect Week.

We will be advertising there all the other events taking place this week.

There is a good programme here and I will blog about some of the things we are doing later.

Liverpool City Council - full council meeting July 2010

A very difficult meeting

It began with a tribute to Councillor Rose Bailey who died suddenly and unexpectedly, as she began her period as Deputy Lord Mayor, while she was looking forward to being the LM in 12 months time. All Labour Councillors wore a red rose, as did the Lord Mayor and a further rose was pinned to Rose's seat on the Labour benches and another laid in her vacant DLM seat. There were tears for such a strong, feisty, hard-working dedicated councillor who gave everything to her city and her ward. The Lord Mayor, Councillor Hazel Williams (Liberal Party) read out a poem she had written.

Then we got on to the politics. The splits are already visible on the LibDem benches as the majority of the opposition voted to fight BSF cuts (and all praise to them) while two Councillors - the Deputy Leader of the LibDems, Cllr Flo Clucas, and the Leader of the LibDems in Local Government, Cllr Richard Kemp absented themselves to drink tea in the tea room. We had some very good contributions from pupils from various city schools who now sit on the schools parliament, explaining why the BSF programme to the education of our children now and in the future.

And many members were mute in horror at the size and scale, and more importantly the nature of the cuts facing the council this year - targetting funds set aside through the ABG - area based grant - ring-fenced money found by the Labour Government to support various vulnerable groups but now to be slashed by the new Tory LibDem Government.

We had debates around the cuts, particularly around the free swimming for children, young people and pensioners. It was good news to hear that my colleague Wendy Simon has been able to find the money to keep the swimming going for an extra month to ensure that kids can swim for free in the summer holidays. But what a hammer blow that this vital programme has been scrapped by the Tories and LibDems in coalition.

There was the inevitable row about the new Leader of the council increasing his allowance so that he could become a full-time leader and give up his social work post - although even with this increase he will still be £19k out of pocket I understand. The old leader claimed he managed to be a full time leader and a fire fighter simultaneously and that it was not necessary for Joe to make this move. I think he thought (Warren) that this was somehow a slight on him and the way he managed his time as a leader, but Joe Anderson made it clear that this was not the case. This was not about how hard Warren had worked - and he said he thought Warren had worked hard - but that it was a recognition that the job of leading a core city needs someone available all the time. You can see some of the politics of envy coming to the fore in comments on this blog by David Bartlett.

There was some petty squabbles about stuff that went on 30 odd years ago, as there always is, but you could see the shock and upset and discomfort on so many LibDem faces. I think Warren Bradley is right, the LibDems in areas like Liverpool are really going to struggle to win any support from voters with their leaders propping up this terrible Government.

The meeting went on for 5 or 6 hours and was at times very fraught, well done to those members of the public who sat it out until the bitter end.

Are the wheels coming off the coalition band-wagon?

It hasn't taken very long, not even 3 months in and the coalition is starting to fall apart.

We have embarassing videos appearing to show George Osborne making fun of Nick Clegg having to front tough decisions in the House of Commons. We have the LibDems in Barnsley distributing a leaflet to voters saying they are sorry about the coalition and its policies and asking voters whether they should go independent or join Labour. We have the LibDem Deputy Leader contender, Tim Farron MP expressing his doubts about the coalition and calling the Tories "toxic". We have the Liverpool LibDem Leader saying the party would be wiped out in 5 years. We have David Davis and his Brokeback Mountain jibe.
We also have a poll today showing that 40% of LibDem voters would not have done so, had they realised the LibDems would go into a coalition with the Tories.

I wonder what odds Ladbrokes are giving for the coaition to go the full term?

Vote Baldock, vote often....

(With thanks and a hat-tip to David Bartlett who I am plagiarising below)

Total Politics is putting together its annual blog poll.

Last year thanks to you, my readers I was listed in the Total Politics top 100 Labour blogs (by the skin of my teeth), top 300 political blogs and top 100 left of centre blogs.

If you'd like to vote for me (I'd be dead chuffed) (Or David, nice bloke as a rule) click on the button for instructions.

Here are the rules from Total Politics:

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).


2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.


3. You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote will not count.


4. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com


5. Only vote once.


6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents or based on UK politics are eligible. No blog will be excluded from voting.


7. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name


8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2010. Any votes received after that date will not count.


Oh - and tell your mates!

City Safe - Hate Crime Forum

What is a hate crime? Wikipedia says Hate crimes (also known as bias-motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity. It is often committed by strangers in the street.

As part of my new role as ACM (Assistant Cabinet Member) for Community Safety, I have agreed to take day to day political management of the Hate Crime Policy and with it the partnership work essential to the Hate Crime Forum. I attended my first forum meeting last week which was fascinating, seeing how all the links are made between the police, victim support, housing associations, fire service etc when a hate crime is committed.

Councillor Pam Thomas gave a really fascinating and extremely disturbing presentation about hate crime targeted at people with disability and in particular focussed on hate crime targeting people who are particularly vulnerable or who have learning disabilities. I am reminded of David Gard of Jubilee Drive, Kensington Fields murdered at home, and a man sleeping in a park in Kirkdale, set on fire by a group of youths. Other notable cases of vulnerable people who have been victim of hate crimes would include Brent Martin, Steven Hoskin and Fiona Pilkington. There are many more and Pam talked about some of them to us. She also made the point that unlike most other hate crimes, those targeted at the disabled are more likely to be committed in their own homes by befrienders than by strangers. She reminded us that Hitler began his systematic genocide with the murder of “the unfit”, at least 60,000 children and adults killed by Carbon Monoxide because they had mental or physical disability. The presentation was met with a stunned silence as we reflected on the levels of cruelty and hate that still occur and which go unrecorded so often.

We talked about how we could do more about hate crime against people with disabilities and we will be discussing it at the policy away day next month.

Next we had an interesting debate about how we could make more use of third party reporting. Sometimes a victim of a hate crime does not wish the crime to be investigated, perhaps they are scared, sometimes they don’t want to tell someone in officialdom, but they might be prepared to tell others who could report it on their behalf. Sometimes, particularly where hate crime is committed against people who have come from other countries, they may not want to talk to the police because where they come from the police are aggressors. We are going to investigate setting up a pilot project with local churches in the Kensington area to see whether pastors, vicars and priests might be in encouraged to act as third party reporting centres, they are very much more likely to hear about hate crime being committed.

What is really important is that we capture the detail of a hate crime so that we can assess where there are patterns and then work out how we can begin to alleviate some of that.

So if there is a pattern of women in Muslim dress being attacked in a certain area, or people with learning disabilities in another, we can be alert to that and start to address it. What we do know is that hate crime goes unreported much of the time so we need to work on methods to capture it more fully.

It is an extremely serious area and I am anxious to play my part in helping to address it.

Kensington Community Learning Centre celebrations

Wendy, Liam, Luciana and I joined local people, businesses and supportive organisations at a celebration of a Big Lottery Fund grant being awarded to the Kensington Community Learning Centre

The grant which has saved the centre from closure, it having previously been subsidised in part by Kensington Regeneration, will enable the centre to continue to provide training, in particular with IT skills, new skills like community use of Ebay, developing volunteering and community radio training – and other stuff I have forgotten but which Alan Tapp will undoubtedly advise us of when he sees that I am struggling a bit.

This valuable resource, which houses also the best UKonline centre in the country, is very important to Kensington and we are delighted with the good news.

It was particularly touching to hear one adult learner ask for quiet so that he could thank the staff at the centre for changing the lives of people like him.

Well done to everyone and well done to the Big Lottery Fund for their vision!

Cambridge pics

BNP members in support of Raoul Moat

I have just been alerted to this story by a concerned friend who would like to see it get wider publicity.

BNP members and supporters were issuing a rallying cry for support for Raoul Moat on a specialist website of theirs during last week's man hunt.

You can see it here.

So much for the respectability of the BNP!

Robert Baldock BA MSci (Hons.) Cantab

If you know me well then you will agree that I am gregarious and extrovert, I love people and gathering them up around me. And through my teenage years I keenly felt the lack of a brother. In fact Lisa reminded me once that when I first met her, aged 12, I pretended I had a brother, a bit older than me, nothing special, just a regular boy, named Paul. He was a figment of my imagination sadly and for years Maxine and I were the extent of the next generation. However it all changed one year, when we successfully acquired both a brother and a second little sister, Alex, we will let the details of the hows and whys stand, unaddressed. Suffice it to say that I was delighted on both accounts.

When Robert was born I was absolutely thrilled, I am privileged to be not only his big sister but also his Godmother, my cup, as it were, ran over.

So that has set the scene, Robert's big day.

Last week I was in Cambridge, with Maxine and Dad and Robin to celebrate Robert's graduation as BA MSci (Hons.) Cantab. I was the proudest big sister and Godmother in the whole world as I sat right at the front in the Senate House and watched him bestowed with his awards in front of his peers.

We had a fab weekend, as a family, enjoying his celebrations and anticipating whether he would be successful in his application to study a PhD at the same University - and I can tell you now that he has been.

Robert Baldock, the boy done good, love you!

Fairtrade in Malawi

We had a fabulous Co-operative Party AGM last month in the Liverpool branch - and that is not a phrase that readily trips from my lips, I can assure you.

Bill Whittaker our Regional Secretary (that is not quite the right description of his voluntary role but hey shoot me, he is fab) had been on a long visit to Malawi in Africa to learn more about how Fairtrade actually works for the growers. As I am passionate about Fairtrade and have family friends who are Malawians I was a dead cert to be there.

He talked extensively about the small co-operatives that each Fairtrade committee in each area sets up, how they agree how they will spend their income to the benefit of their communities and displayed photographs of groups of growers showing off their new facilities. Mainly sugar cane growers, they have used the money to build homes with concrete floors instead of dirt so that they can keep produce for longer, health clinics, wells, electric supplies... It was the most fascinating talk I have heard in years and I hope that other Co-op Party branches will ask Bill to tell them of his experiences. I was delighted to hear that Co-op stores for instance now buy all their sugar from this source.

You can read more about the vital impact of Fairtrade here.

How much??

I put my beloved OBBy through an MOT and service last week. £550 it cost me. That pretty much puts paid to a summer holiday this year. Several friends recommended that I scrap the car, but I paid it off nearly 4 years ago, and I cannot afford to buy a new one. Where would I get a few thousand pounds from? Is £550 too much to pay to keep the car on the road for another year? I thought not, but it really did sting!

The garage, Nationwide Autocentre on Smithdown Road, explained that having passed the 70,000 mileage stage, certain things need replacing, indeed some needed replacing 20,000 miles ago so I guess in some ways I have had it easy.

Anyway, more on OBBy later, I had a very scary moment that I need to tell you about.

Picasso at the Tate

I really loved the Picasso "Peace and Freedom" exhibition at Liverpool Tate on Albert Dock.

Many people have said many things already, the exhibition has been critiqued by art lovers across the country. I don't propose to add to any of that, because there is no value in just repeating similar comments.




So I want to take a different approach. I was struck by the simplicity of the many drawings of doves, symbolising peace, that populate the exhibition. I cannot draw, I have poor hand/eye co-ordination (and of course that is deeply disappointing to someone who loves art so much). However, I thought it would be interesting to see whether I could recreate the drawings, so I took out my biro and my casework notebook and had a stab at it.

To be brutally honest, they are poor, but I enjoyed it, and it showed me, if I needed to be reminded, that even a very simple sketch, that looks easy, requires enormous skill. Picasso is a true master.

There are some very disturbing images towards the end of the exhibition, feminists tread with care, otherwise, I would recommend that you visit, it is on until August 30th.

Deane Road Jewish Cemetery update

Just a brief update for those of you who like me, love our historic Jewish Cemetery in Deane Road, Kensington, Liverpool

I have been working hard with the consultants to produce our action plan and activity sheets, a major part of the work we will be submitting for our Heritage Lottery Fund bid. It runs to many pages and we have been writing and editing and re-editing for months. The management and maintenance plan has also been signed off, as have the architects plans, surveys, lots of consultation (but there is always room for more so if you want to comment on the plans, please contact me). We have identified the need for some staff to support the project while refurbishment goes ahead and immediately after the re-opening of the cemetery and we have agreed job descriptions and a timetable for that. We have costed everything out and it is going to be more than we had first thought, primarily because the cost of building materials have increased, we want a decent building to host a toilet, a small exhibition space, the staff, and school materials. So we are going to have to face an extra meeting of the HLF to persuade them to agree to pay more than we had first thought.

It is a tense time, years of work will stand and fall over the next few months. We hope to get the completed application before the December committee of the HLF.

It's taking up a huge amount of my voluntary time at the moment but it will be worth it if we are successful and we can open up the cemetery to much larger numbers of people.

Luciana Berger, our new MP in Liverpool Wavertree and herself Jewish has agreed to join our list of prestigious patrons.

And volunteer professionals have been doing some great work cleaning up some of our more iconic graves.

Watch this space!


Photo: Before photo of the Miriam De Menasce monument, wait until you see the finished stone!

Luciana's first speech in Westminster Hall tackles the issue of working carers

I have Google Alert set up so that I get an email whenever key words or phrases are published out there on the internet, it is kind of like Big Brother really. I have set it up to send me an email whenever our new MP, Luciana Berger is mentioned, so I have been notified today of a speech recorded in Hansard, the record of every word spoken in the Houses of Parliament. She made her first speech in Westminster Hall on July 1st talking about working carers and the USDAW campaign. You can read it here

It's good to read that she is busy carrying out important research and making visits around the constituency and then sharing her thoughts in important debates back in Westminster.

Go Luciana!

Well done LGoS!

Liverpool Guild of Students has this week won the award of Accountable Organisation of the Year 2010 from the Centre for Public Scrutiny. This award recognises the work of the scrutiny panels which they have held covering the topics of Communication, Lobbying and Social Enterprise.

I sat on the Communication Scrutiny Panel at their invitation, and really enjoyed it, blogging about it here and here

and there are more articles here and here

I am so thrilled that this innovative process has been recognised, thanks to all the people at the Guild for their hard work and excellent contributions.

Till the Rivers All Run Dry!

Here's a blast from the past - Pete Townshend singing one of my most favourite love songs of all time. I first listened to this in 1980, on the Rough Mix album (I was terribly young of course)

And I can say for sure, irrespective of the hose pipe ban kicking into being on Merseyside, that the Mersey wont ever run dry and neither will my love, you know who you are!

Another extraordinarily candid interview with Warren Bradley

Say what you like about the man, Councillor Warren Bradley can be jawdroppingly candid, open and frank at times.

You may remember that following the June 2009 European Election, Warren told us that many of his LibDem colleagues were complacent and took the electorate for granted.

Then in the run up to the General Election he told us how the LibDems had ripped out the heart of our communities with the Council's HMRI programme.

Today I read in the Daily Post that he has said the LibDems face wipeout in the North of England "We’re in a weak coalition, that will deliver nothing to the Lib-Dems except total electoral decimation." I think he is probably right.

I asked in an earlier entry this week what he would be thinking as BSF is scrapped in Liverpool, and this is what he told the paper, “It’s ridiculous, the plans for BSF were so far advanced and it’s unforgivable that other funding options are not in place. I honestly felt physically sick.”

I think that was a very brave thing to say, well done Warren, sometimes you simply cannot defend the indefensible. Good on you.

Interestingly he also says that some of his colleagues on the LibDem benches are considering their positions, I wonder if that will mean defections to Steve Radford's Party, or to the Greens, or whether we would welcome any of the more sensible members ourselves, or could we see a slew of Independents?

Fascinating times...

More BSF errors - ConDems "could do better"

Yet more errors have been discovered on the list of BSF projects and their destinies.

The revised list, showing errors is here.

Ed Balls had his staff go through it with a fine tooth comb and they found some further mistakes.

Apparently one of the schools listed as being stopped, had in fact already been completed and opened and David Cameron visited it last year - Monkseaton School on North Tyneside

You just could not make this stuff up, the ConDems are a disgrace!

Full list of BSF school programmes

This is a list of all the schools in the country in the BSF programme, showing which are stopped, which are unaffected and which are still up for discussion. (Item 2 on the menu you are taken to). It has been corrected as Gove gave incorrect information yesterday and was forced back into the House today to apologise. Some schools who thought they were safe have now been devastated to learn that they too are to be left in substandard accomodation.

(Sheffield is still safe though, phew, thank heavens for that)

I see my old school is stopped, also the controversial scheme in Egglescliffe that some say cost the Labour MP her seat.

Sheffield BSF programme "saved"

I learn that Sheffield is to get its new secondary schools under BSF, unlike Liverpool where the programme has been scrapped. Great news for Sheffield's children and young people!

Sheffield though, now that rings a bell, let me think, why would that be?

Oh I remember, Nick Clegg is an MP there, Sheffield Hallam

What a marvellous coincidence. I bet he was really pleased when he read that in his newspaper this morning.

Not Building Schools for the Future

Ed Balls called it a black day for our country's schools and how right he is.






Years of planning, years of dreaming, now gurgling down the drain

This is what we were planning in Liverpool, 24 secondary schools rebuilt or refurbished, to the tune of a third of a billion pounds, a huge investment in our city's children and their education.

And in my area, we were looking forward to bringing two high achieving top quality schools to the Littlewoods site on Edge Lane. As the LCC press release said "It will see the two Church of England schools becoming hi-tech 'science schools', working with more than 40 local businesses and opening up a wealth of vocational opportunities for young people." What a tragic lost opportunity for the schools and also for this iconic building whose facade was to have been preserved as part of the scheme. How will we protect it now?

Teachers, pupils and parents are numb with shock.

In March, just a few short months ago, Cllr Warren Bradley, then LibDem Leader of Liverpool City Councillor said "Building Schools for the Future is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and I'm delighted the (Labour) government has given our plans the go-ahead. It's great news for Liverpool and paves the way for us to transform education at every secondary school in the city.

"Liverpool's future prosperity rests on the shoulders of our young people. It's vital we provide them with first-class, 21st century education facilities, which help them develop as confident, skilled, job-ready individuals."

I wonder what he is saying now that his LibDem party's coalition government has betrayed those young people?

And of course the damage is being done right across the country, including the school in Bolton, which David Cameron visited for an opportunistic photo during the election campaign but who he has now let down. I bet he daren't visit them again for a long while!

Thank God we got so much of the primary school programme in K&F sorted. At least the kids will get some of their education in decent schools.

Edit: Looks like I spoke too soon! Right across the city primary schools were today worrying that this capital scheme might also be in jeopardy.

Breakdown in neighbourly relations

I have several cases open at the moment where relations between next-door neighbours have completely broken down.

Often the problem has begun with a single incident where tempers have flared and this has then developed into a situation where both sides begin to actively focus on the relationship and to bring it under an intense spotlight. They pay attention to each other’s movements and start to talk about this relationship with other neighbours, family and friends.

Initially, they perceive relatively innocent activities on the part of their neighbours as hostile – she is deliberately letting her child’s ball damage my flowers (when that is not the case). However later this does develop into deliberate acts intended to annoy or punish for imagined or real slights (blocking the car on the drive, saying negative things in a loud voice in the garden, encouraging the children to kick the ball against the party wall) etc. And this will develop into altercations in the street, shouting and possibly some physical contact.

Inevitably both sides seek some sort of redress on the grounds that their nerves cannot now stand it, that their lives are a misery and someone has got to do something .

This is usually where a RSL/Housing Association would come into the picture, if either party are tenants. They will offer what support they can to resolve the situation, including mediation but in my experience it is hard to get neighbours to take up this option. And when this fails, this seems to be when I or my colleagues are contacted.

It is hard to know what to do for the best. Where one side is clearly at fault and the other relatively innocent then moves can be made through LASBU (the council’s anti-social behaviour unit) or the RSL where appropriate, but where both sides are clearly equally at fault, where it is six of one and half a dozen of the other, this approach is a waste of a precious resource.

Do we address the elephant in the room and tell the neighbours that both sides are behaving badly and that they need to become responsible and thoughtful and act like adults?

And is that something an elected representative is ever likely to want to say to a constituent?

Do we tell the neighbours that one of them will have to move house, that there is no other answer? Do we offer to facilitate that move? Do we prioritise the need? Where would it come in the order of need?

Do we tell the neighbours that we cannot help them any further and that they are on their own and refuse to take any further calls?

If we wish to take the latter option, should we carry out the appropriate risk assessment to try to ensure that such a withdrawal would not result in a violent and/or criminal act? Presumably we would want to ensure that we could not be found culpable if something very serious occurred after we had effectively washed our hands? But also we would not want to walk away if we could prevent a serious incident.

Who would carry out such a risk assessment and on what basis?

Do we have a responsibility to just keep on trying? And using what other methods?

What does your organisation do? How do you deal with this?

Working with cases like these are taking up hours of our time as councillors, we are not making progress, the situation is not easing, it is intensely frustrating for everyone concerned. However, the calls and the emails continue to come at all hours of the day and night.

I also believe that the financial strains our communities are now facing and which will get very much worse quite soon I suspect, many more cases are likely to fetch up in my mailbox as nerves are taut.

I would really welcome some responses, privately if you prefer, to this discussion item

Thanks

The Coalition's Economic Myth Making

During yesterday’s budget George Osborne continued to peddle the myth that the UK economy is in an extraordinary mess with an extraordinary level of debt.

Today he claimed that “having inherited from Labour the largest budget deficit in Europe bar Ireland, the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has been forced to take drastic action”.

The reality is that as a result of the prudent early decisions of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown we entered the recession with the 2nd lowest level of debt of any of the G7 countries. One of Labour’s key decisions was to use the £20 billion plus windfall from the 3G auction (the mobile phone spectrum) for debt repayments.

The OECD figures for G7 countries for the calendar year 2009 give general government net financial liabilities as a percentage of GDP as:

Japan – 108.3%

Italy – 101.0%

United States – 58.2%

France – 50.6%

Germany – 48.3%

UK – 43.5%

Canada – 28.9%

The OECD figures for 2010 show that the UK’s general government net financial liabilities as a percentage of GDP is 53.5. Lower than the Euro zone average of 59.5.

Other EU countries which have higher levels of debt are:

Italy – 104.1%

Greece – 97.8%

Belgium – 83.3%

Portugal – 64.3%

Hungary – 60.1%

France – 57.2%


Labour put the country on a steady footing to weather the recession. Because of this the budget deficit could have been reduced at a steady pace, without the risk to future growth and without the raid on the most vulnerable in our society. Instead The Coalition has opted to slash public services and hike up taxes in a direct attack on hard working families in this country.

(Credit to Liberal Demolition)

VAT goes up to 20% - with LibDem blessing

Lest we forget!

LibDems campaigned against Tory attacks on Vat a mere six weeks ago. Look at them today during the budget, sitting next to Gideon (known as George) Osborne now, nodding and smiling while VAT rises to 20% with their complicity and support.

The North of England, Scotland, Wales, urban cities, industrialised Britain, the working classes, students, etc will never forgive them for this gross betrayal - very sadly one of many we will expect and experience.

Update on Assistant Cabinet Member position

I have now agreed with Councillor Ann O'Byrne and her lead officers to take on a day to day role with Community Cohesion and Hate Crime too, as well as Equality and Diversity, I will be chairing the city's Hate Crime Forum for instance. We also intend to get a Women's Network up and running within Liverpool.

I had a really productive meeting yesterday too with Councillor Paul Brant's lead officers to talk about the work I would be doing to support him in his portfolio, particularly around the implementation of the single equality scheme and the further development of equality impact assessments, the appointment of E&D champions within the council, mentoring schemes for under-represented groups at senior levels in the workforce, all sorts really. I am looking forward to getting my teeth into it all.