Why we still need to fight for equality for women and girls

Thanks to Councillor Mary Rasmussen for sending me the following information which formed part of her speech on International Women's Day

In a world where women do two-thirds of the world’s work, yet receive just 10% of the world’s income; and own 1% of the property. where one in three women have been beaten, coerced into sex or abused and where just 19% of the world’s parliamentary seats are held by women there must be a renewed push for global equality.


Empowering women and girls is one of the most effective ways of accelerating poverty reduction. Yet more than thirty years after the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), discrimination against women and girls remains entrenched and pervasive.

Research shows that women in the UK and worldwide still face high levels of abuse, - and violence and gender inequality continues to permeate all sectors of society.

Gender-based violence causes more deaths and disabilities among women worldwide, aged 15-44, than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war, and three million women across the UK experience rape, domestic violence, trafficking, forced marriage or other violence each year.

Evidence shows that when women earn and manage their own money they are more likely than men to spend it on educating and feeding their children. Yet women currently earn just 10 per cent of the world’s income (even though they work two thirds of the world’s working hours).

Research shows that peace agreements and post-conflict reconstruction do better when women are involved, and that there is less corruption when women are more active in politics. However, just 19.1% of the world’s parliamentary seats are held by women.

Men currently outnumber women in Parliament 4 to 1. At the current rate of progress a girl born today will be drawing her pension before she has an equal voice in the government of her country.

Every year 70 million girls are deprived of a basic education and a shocking 60 million are sexually assaulted on the way to school.

It will take a man 15 years to pay back a student loan it will take a woman 19.5 to pay back the same amount.

30,000 women in the U.K lose their jobs each year because of pregnancy

1 in 7 female students have been the victim of a serious physical or sexual assault whilst at University

The pay gap between men and women is 10.2% for the same job

The rape conviction rate is 6%

There are almost four times as many women in part-time work as men.

Part-time workers are likely to receive lower hourly rates of pay than full-time workers.

Male directors of large companies and organisations are paid over 21% more than women directors

Working Class Life and Music Festival

The Working Class Life & Music Festival has launched a campaign to get at least 1,000 fans on Facebook.


The festival, which starts next month, is the largest celebration of working people on the planet.

It has over 40 events and takes place right across Liverpool from 22nd April to 30th April.

Take 1 second to Facebook 'Like' the Working Class Life & Music Festival and help it reach the 1,000 fans target just by clicking this link and pressing the 'Like' button http://snurl.com/26tztk

Ask your friends to do the same!

Pulling a wishbone

A funny thing happened on the way to my advice surgery tonight.


I drove through Kensington and along Boaler Street, heading towards Central Youth Club on the Phythian estate, at around 5.30pm.

As I slowly and gently rounded the bend at the back of the Olympia there was a loud clunk and the car stopped dead in its tracks, lurching over to the right. The car immediately behind me – and the one behind that, miraculously managed to stop without driving into the back of me. That was my first good fortune. If I had been travelling any faster then the cars behind me would probably have been driving faster too and might not have been able to stop without hitting me.



It was instantly clear that the car was totally immobile so I came out of the driver’s door with some degree of trepidation as to what I might see.

A woman was walking past and called over to me that fluid was pouring out onto the ground under the car and together we walked over to the pavement and gazed over the collapsed car, shaking our heads in dismay.

What could it have been? Had the gear box or the engine fallen onto the road?

After a few moments of anxiety and uncertainty about what to do next, I had the presence of mind to remember my breakdown insurance.

So I called Britannia Rescue and they answered straight away. They took a few details and then told me that they would contact Intercity Recovery Ltd to come and assist as they were the nearest.

That was probably about 5.40pm.

The car was on a bend so I stood in the road behind the car in case further traffic came, so that I could direct them away from its hidden rear end. It is a very quiet street as a rule and probably fewer than a dozen cars came as I stood there – including an ice cream van, which was astonishing given how cold it was on the street! 80% of them pulled up and wound down their windows to ask what had happened and whether they could help in any way.

While I was on the phone to the Breakdown service, one lady passed going one way, asked if she could help, whether she might phone anyone for me, and if there was more she could do, but as I was on the phone I could not properly respond. She came back in the other direction about ten minutes later and said I should come by to her house if I needed a cup of tea, a warm or a comfort break while I was waiting for the tow truck. She turned out to be the sister of Councillor James Noakes. He contacted me to say his sister had seen someone in the street she thought was me and that she wanted to reassure me that I was welcome to call in there if I needed to, lovely woman!

At 5.46pm I phoned Wendy and Liam in the advice surgery to warn them I would not be coming along, that something dramatic had happened with the car and to update them on a few cases that they might expect to visit surgery for news.

One man on foot came over to have a look and I told him what I had now noticed, that the driver’s side front wheel appeared to have broken away from the axle and the car had collapsed, down onto this wheel so that the arch (and by extension the whole car) was resting fully on the tyre. You could see inside the arch and he bent down for a quick look.

He said that the wishbone had broken away between the chassis and the wheel and that had pushed the wheel out. He then said it was a cheap and easy repair, perhaps it might cost me £30, and that he could have sorted it but he was due to go out with his partner and she would not want him getting dirty! This really made me smile and I was so relieved.

Two people stopped to ask me if I wanted a push (it was not possible to move the car which was totally immobilised) so fair play to them but there was nothing they could do.

As early as 5.55pm I saw the tow truck from my vantage point in the middle of the road but alas it turned the wrong way down Boaler Street and was heading East instead of West. But it was probably only another 5 minutes before it turned round and came back and found me.

The driver was extremely helpful and pointed out the futility of towing the car back to my house because I would be in exactly the same difficult position in the morning, with still no way of moving it. So he made a call to Britannia and to Intercity Recovery and got permission to take the car back to their compound, I am to call them in the morning when they will take it to the garage of my choice.

He didn’t want me to hang around while he jacked the car up in order to remove it onto the tow truck so I walked round to the youth club and found Wendy and Liam at the surgery which I reached by 6.20pm Imagine, all that drama and I was only 50 minutes late!

After surgery, Liam drove me home (en route telling me a fascinating little tale about him and Jack Straw’s hat, which I shall tell you about in the next day or so, something for you to look forward to…) and I was left to reflect upon my incredible fortune.

The fact that the broken piece was called a wishbone is not lost on me.

A pile-up at the moment of breakdown was miraculously avoided. Britannia Rescue were fast acting and Intercity Recovery set off immediately to rescue me. The wonderful people of the Phythian Estate were there to support me while I waited. The driver of the tow truck was great. Then there is the lucky fact that the breakdown happened only 200 yards from my destination so I could walk round there in moments once the tow truck man had finished with me, surgery had not even finished, so swiftly did all this happen, and Liam was able to bring me home easily.

Oh and while I stood in the road, freezing, directing the mercifully few cars that came along the road, so that they would not run into the back of my car, I remembered I had a warm coat in the boot that I could put on. How lucky was that?

A breakdown is never a good thing, but if it has to happen to you, I hope your ending is as happy as mine!

Traffic Calming in Kensington, L6

2020 Liverpool, on behalf of Liverpool City Council, are in the process of consulting the local community in order to obtain their thoughts on the traffic calming measures introduced, and whether or not they have been successful in reducing general vehicle speeds in the area. The results will be analysed and used as a basis for all future traffic calming schemes.


As part of this process, traffic surveys were carried out on a number of roads in the area, one of which was Boaler Street. The combined 7 day average speed was found to be 22.2 mph. The survey results did however suggest that of 2738 vehicles monitored, 4% were recorded travelling at speeds between 30 and 40 mph, and 0.3% at speeds between 40 and 50 mph. Often it is the latter minority of speeding vehicles that create a perception, amongst residents, that there is still a speeding problem in the area. It is worth noting that throughout the survey period; the average speed of vehicles always remained below 23.3 mph. It is also worth noting that the average speed displayed during the school pick up and drop off periods was 21.65 mph.

The entire area is supposed to operate as 20mph zone, with signs at all entry and exit points. If you notice that any of these signs have gone missing, then please let us know and we will ensure that the appropriate LCC officers are informed.

World Book Night and Our Read 2011

When I was 11, in my first year in "big school", we were asked to contribute to an article for the School magazine about what made us happy and what we dreaded. I remember writing (and being thrilled later to see it reproduced in print) that I would be horrified by "a world without books".

Books are the most wonderful things ever created. I owe the biggest debt of my life thus far to Johannes Gutenburg, apparently, here's to you sir!

It doesn't matter how bad life gets, or how good, how dull or exciting, how lonely or full, reading a good book can change my mood and outlook, it can divert and transport me to whole new worlds.

I was an early reader, Mum taught me the rudimentaries of reading before I went to school (at age 4) by making lots of cards bearing the words "door" or "window" for instance and pinning them up around the house. Books were always my favourite presents, birthday or Christmas. I recall reading in bed at night, at around the age of 7 or 8, and my parents would come into my bedroom and tell me that I had to put the light out now and go to sleep. But I could never put the book down, so I would curl a corner of the curtain back and let the street light outside shine into the window and across my pillow, allowing me to carry on reading for at least another hour. (Sorry Mum if you are reading this!).

Never merely "reading", I devour books, in huge chunks, wolfed down with enthusiasm. As a girl I would read Enid Blyton - starting with the Magic Faraway Tree fantasies and moving on to the Famous Five and then to the school stories, Malory Towers and St Clare's. I dont think I ever got into the Secret Seven, but otherwise I was a very enthusiastic supporter of hers.

My Mum loves reading as much as I do, and she delighted that I loved it too, so she always made sure that she kept me supplied with the best of literature, books and poetry. I remember reading the C.S. Lewis Narnia chronicles, and everything from Nina Bawden and Noel Streatfield. I loved the Railway Children and Swallows and Amazons, and I adored poetry. I still have the Child's Compendium of Poetry, wonderful.

Some books were bought for me, but many came from the library, Tamworth Library to be specific. By the time I was 10 years old, I had read every book in the junior library (and it is quite a big library, we are not talking about a couple of dusty shelves in a corner) and Mum went in to ask if I could be upgraded to the adult library. I think from memory they said that I would need to be a teenager before I could "upgrade", but she fought my corner and eventually they allowed me to have an adult library card all of my own. It was a wonderful moment, if ever a coming of age should be celebrated, it was that one.

Now I had racks and racks of shelving to peruse, an endless supply of new material to wile away the hours.

I tore through huge sections very fast, falling in love with Agatha Christie and Catherine Cookson and all sorts of variety (interesting that they both begin with a "C", did I start with the A's and work my way through?)

And so the reading went on... through O Levels and A levels and my degree...

When I was 15, by now living somewhere else (farewell Tamworth library, hello to the much smaller Yarm library) I pulled some strings and managed to be appointed as my school's pupil librarian. I still have my enameled badge "Librarian" which I wore with pride on my school jumper. There was not as much fiction as I might have liked but I learnt a lot about buying books, cataloguing, shelving and then sharing them. It was in my school library that I first learnt about the joys of reference books as well as fiction. We had a very old book,  hidden away in storage, a large book at least 24" high, which had wonderful templates of handpainted birds and butterflies. Sometimes I see such books on Antiques Roadshow and marvel at the prices they raise. To all libraries facing funding cuts under our aggressively cutting coalition LibDem/Tory government I would suggest having a good look round to see if you have anything special you can sell!

One of my first jobs upon leaving school was to spend two years working in the library at Teesside Polytechnic, when the world of journals and periodicals, non-fiction and reference, as well as fiction and classic literature really opened up and I started reading things from other countries and other centuries.

Today I am still an active library user - mainly Allerton Library now, the most used library in Liverpool apparently, and I hold a surgery twice a month in Kensington Library where I often take a few minutes to take a book out while I am in there. And between Yarm and Allerton, I have held library cards in Thornaby, Stockton, Norton and Meltham libraries, all of which were marvellous and magnificent resources.

I am also, like so many others, a member of a book group. My book group is "The Reading Room" and our deliberations are published online on KVFM. Last month we read "We need to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver, and this month it is "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, tune in!

Like my mum before me, I want to encourage others to read and have bought books for my nephews, niece and many of my friends' children, reading is the skill that keeps on giving and an ideal way to idle away the hours.

And I could go on, ad naseum about my reading discoveries, wonderful authors, books that mark the milestones in my life and changed the way I see the world, but I won't, because this entry will turn into a book in its own right!

So, onto World Book Day, World Book Night and Our Read 2011.

On Thursday, on World Book Day, the lovely librarian Joan in Kensington library gave me a free copy of "The Unforgotten Coat" by Frank Cottrell Boyce. This book has been written by Frank, for free distribution, as part of Our Read 20ll.  I read it last night, a fascinating read, aimed at teenagers, about two boys from Mongolia escaping to live as Asylum Seekers in Liverpool. Do look out for your copy, it is not just great reading, but also influential and informative and potentially a tool to tackle hate crime. I heartily recommend it and I wont spoil the plot for you by talking about, but it is beautifully written and illustrated.

And tonight, is World Book Night where across the UK, one million books are being given away free, to people all over the country in different venues, in cafes, on railway stations, in pubs and shops, at football matches and in parks, everywhere. There is lots more about it here but essentially these 25 particularly good reads are being given away by an army of volunteers to encourage more people to get into reading and to share books that they like with each other.

Well done to the publishers and the libraries and the book stores and everyone who has made this possible, well done to the volunteers who are giving the books away and the BBC for dedicating a whole evening of BBC2 to this topic tonight. I'm watching and later I shall be going to bed with one of their recommended titles.

So, if someone gives you a free book tonight, quite out of the blue, do take the time to read it, enjoy and then pass it on!

Liverpool City Council Budget Meeting 2011

I wont go into lots of detail about the budget - you can see it all online anyway on the council's website.

And you will have picked up some of what happened from the Liverpool Echo website article today. However, I did notice that the journalists left before the end of the meeting and will not in any case have picked up every nuance of what was said and done, so I thought I would identify a few things that interested me.

First was the realisation that despite having played a full and active part in a ground-breaking joint budget setting process, acclaimed here, the LibDems submitted several amendments to the budget on the very day of the budget meeting, and then most voted against the jointly agreed proposals.

The proposal to work jointly together was agreed in a concordat by all four political parties on the council and one of the provisos was that any press statements would be jointly issued, and another was that problems with any aspects of the budget would  be ironed out together.

So the discovery that the LibDems went to the press on the Tuesday with notice of their proposals to amend rather than support the budget, 24 hours before officially passing their amendments to the council, was a big shock and a bigger disappointment. It also meant that their amendment had barely any time to be properly concerned by the City Treasurer and was in the end, after many challenges in the chamber, declared by the Cheif Executive to be illegal - or not balanced. Why it then went to a vote was beyond me, but it did. And it fell, as the LibDems could not  muster enough votes.

So, you would imagine that the LibDems would then fall in behind the main budget proposals that they had helped create. But they didn't. To his credit Councillor Lord Mike Storey, Baron of Childwall (think I have got that right) did vote for the budget as he was one of their ambassadors to the budget setting meeting, and some abstained, but most voted against it.

Political opportunism? Let the public decide in May.

Councillor Paul Clein moved the amendments saying they were 99.7% in favour of the budget but had some concerns that they wanted the chance to alter. It was surprising and disappointing therefore that he failed to support the main proposals after the amendments were lost.

He also said during the debate that he wondered whether the Liverpool LibDems should cede from the Parliamentary Party, I thought that was very interesting and some of his colleagues were nodding at this point. There is clearly much unhappiness within the Liverpool group and I watch with interest to see where this goes.

Councillor Paula Keaveney surprised me by saying that she started questioning the value of the City Magazine the day after the LibDems lost power. I think I am right in saying that she was responsible for its publication hitherto, so this rather puzzled me, to  be honest.

It was a long and difficult meeting, running for nearly 6 hours, with a lot of passionate contributions from community groups and organisations, trade unions and the chamber of the commerce at the outset. There was evidently some trouble outside the Town Hall and the staff were left badly shaken after protestors attempted to storm the building after learning the public galleries were all full. Evidently panes of glass were broken in the door after someone hit them with a placard. I cannot but help be suspicious that these particular protestors were more likely to be from far-left parties unrepresented in Liverpool rather than the good people of the various nurseries and child care centres outside but no doubt that will all become clear in time. A lot of us took time to thank the staff who behaved so well in very difficult circumstances. The meeting itself was not interrupted and everyone in the public gallery behaved impeccably.

It was not a good night to be a Councillor, none of us came into politics to impose huge cuts on public services, and I am afraid it is only going to get worse as the reality dawns. One contribution, I think from Alan Lewis at LCVS was particularly thought provoking when he said that after the dust had settled on the cuts we would realise, as a city, just what we had lost and we  might find that some services had gone, or clusters of services, particularly in the voluntary sector, that we can ill afford to lose. I do hope that affected groups take the opportunity to claim on the £1million hardship fund set up to try to  mitigate some of that.

I saw councillors in tears last night, along with their constituents, it was a shameful indictment on the Conservative/LibDem Government. I understand that the councils in which Government cabinet members have their constituencies were considerably better served by the local government settlement, why does that not surpise me?

As many contributors said last night, the really hard work starts now, trying to work out how to implement the cuts agreed. More sleepness nights for our local cabinet members and officers and our constituents...

Is it just a puncture, or have the Wheels come right off for Sheila?

I feel the urge to say something about the ruling of the European Court of Justice to end the ability of Insurance Companies to differentiate between  men and women when setting car insurance premiums.

I am very surprised to hear that it has been ruled unlawful to distinguish between the genders in the matter of car insurance.

There is a real science to the work of an actuarial, there are professional examinations indeed because this is a complicated business.

Insurance companies have share holders and members who pay into a nice big pot and that pot then pays out when it has to, when there is an accident, and it hopes to make a profit for said share holders and to enable it to remain competitive and not have to put its premiums up so much that nobody will pay the rates. And to ensure that the risk is properly assessed for each policy, it has to work out the likelihood of an accident, theft, fire etc for each person. It does this using actuarial tables. (You can skip over all over of this if you already know it).

And the statistics show that young, new drivers are more likely to have accidents than older, more experienced ones. They show that men are more likely to have accidents than women, and younger men are more likely to have accidents than not (I think that is more or less right, I may have exaggerated and the tipping point may not be 50%).

I am also unable to check, without a subscription, whether the OED officially defines the term "boy racer" but I would very much expect that it does. The actuarial tables also show the differences between urban and rural dwellers, city and town dwellers and which cities are more likely to make claims than others.

All of this we have previously held as self evident. It is why when I moved from a village in the Pennines to Liverpool Wavertree, my car insurers refused to let me take my policy with me and I had to find a new supplier.

Women have benefitted from lower premiums not because they are women per se, but because the statistics over the last umpteen years have shown that women claim less, that women need to call upon their insurance policies less, that the risk of insuring a women to drive is less than that of insuring a man.

To insist on parity for the sexes is to ignore this difference in risk. This is quite simply ridiculous. It puts our insurance companies in an invidious position, how are they to manage their actuarial business in future if they cannot draw upon the characteristics that determine that risk?

And, as with the title of the blog, I do worry about the future of firms like Sheila's Wheels who have set out their stall based on their ability to insure women drivers, rather than men, and offer a risk based lowering of premium.

I would be staggered if insurance companies took this decision lying down and did not appeal it. I see a very strong appeal coming to the European Court which will be illustrated by screeds of actuarial tables and statistics and which will demonstrate that if the concept of insurance is to hold any meaning or continue to be the manner in which we all individually protect ourselves from risk, then it has to be allowed to indicate which groups or characteristics are more or less likely to incur a claim.

Insurance will (as with pensions which I am given to understand will be next under the microscope) only work if the financial institutions which gamble on the ability of our driving, or the length of our lives, can be allowed to establish the size of the risk to their enterprise.

I am certain an appeal will be granted and that ultimately it will be successful, but if it is not, then we can all expect to find it considerably more difficult to find anyone to insure us for any risk at all in future.

And it will be at that point that the European Court of Justice will realise their terrible mistake.

Dear Tax Payer...

There are those who would have us believe that what follows is a genuine letter. However, having worked for HMRC, I can say pretty much without equivocation, that nobody there would have the time, the inclination, or imagination or indeed the beautiful turn of prhase to ever have constructed this. It has clearly been put together by a truly creative fiction writer.

For all that though, it still does not fail to delight!


"Dear Mr Addison,


I am writing to you to express our thanks for your more than prompt reply to our latest communication, and also to answer some of the points you raise.. I will address them, as ever, in order.

Firstly, I must take issue with your description of our last as a "begging letter". It might perhaps more properly be referred to as a "tax demand". This is how we at the Inland Revenue have always, for reasons of accuracy, traditionally referred to such documents.

Secondly, your frustration at our adding to the "endless stream of crapulent whining and panhandling vomited daily through the letterbox on to the doormat" has been noted. However, whilst I have naturally not seen the other letters to which you refer I would cautiously suggest that their being from "pauper councils, Lombardy pirate banking houses and pissant gas-mongerers" might indicate that your decision to "file them next to the toilet in case of emergencies" is at best a little ill-advised. In common with my own organisation, it is unlikely that the senders of these letters do see you as a "lackwit bumpkin" or, come to that, a "sodding charity". More likely they see you as a citizen of Great Britain, with a responsibility to contribute to the upkeep of the nation as a whole.

Which brings me to my next point. Whilst there may be some spirit of truth in your assertion that the taxes you pay "go to shore up the canker-blighted, toppling folly that is the Public Services", a moment's rudimentary calculation ought to disabuse you of the notion that the government in any way expects you to "stump up for the whole damned party" yourself. The estimates you provide for the Chancellor's disbursement of the funds levied by taxation, whilst colourful, are, in fairness, a little off the mark. Less than you seem to imagine is spent on "junkets for Bunterish lickspittles" and "dancing whores" whilst far more than you have accounted for is allocated to, for example, "that box-ticking facade of a university system."

A couple of technical points arising from direct queries:

1. The reason we don't simply write "Muggins" on the envelope has to do with the vagaries of the postal system;

2. You can rest assured that "sucking the very marrow of those with nothing else to give" has never been considered as a practice because even if the Personal Allowance didn't render it irrelevant, the sheer medical logistics involved would make it financially unviable.

I trust this has helped. In the meantime, whilst I would not in any way wish to influence your decision one way or the other, I ought to point out that even if you did choose to "give the whole foul jamboree up and go and live in India" you would still owe us the money.

Please send it to us by Friday..

Yours sincerely,

H J Lee

Customer Relations

Inland Revenue

New marketing website launched

If you are interested in Marketing then you might be interested in Local Marketing Liverpool
I thought it was about time I set up a professional site to support the freelance work I am doing.
I would be interested in your comments

Canvassing in Ireland - the voters fight back!

There are many funny stories told by canvassers, about the different people who come to the door, the things they say and do, the laughter back at the campaign centre when the stories are told. In Ireland it seems the voters are getting in there first. It will be them  laughing and gleefully telling the tale in the pub later.

 

 

I think this one below is my favourite...

 

Great news for Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister of UK

The wait is over, panic no more...

More stick than carrot in environmental crackdown in Kensington and Fairfield

Please see this interesting report from one of our Liverpool City Council environment team that I have just received and thought I would share with you.

Last week a team of uniformed and plain clothes Environmental Enforcement officers carried out an operation in the ward to target dog fouling.


The results of the operation are below and all are expected to be issued Fixed Penalty Notices. FPN’s are £50 for dog fouling, £75 for litter

11x Dog fouling (red on the map)
2x litter dog fouling related (ie.They picked up then threw the bags away)
16x litter (blue on the map)

Also

9 ASB issues dealt with
3 x cautions for litter (aged under16)
2x truancy check
1x police log in relation to a suspicious vehicle.

It was also quite surprising the number of young children out walking dogs unaccompanied, most of the dogs were of “strong breeds” also. One child was only 7 and he had a Staffordshire bull terrier type of dog.
We can’t issue fixed penalties to those under 16 so will need to work with the Riverside Community Wardens and other partners, to look at further education programmes in schools in the area.

These results do not mean the job is done by any stretch of the imagination but we will be better informed for our next operation and it is work in progress. Hopefully if word starts to get around about people getting fined, the increase of perception in getting caught will also have a knock on effect.

Charity and Voluntary Services Community Forums

Charity and Voluntary Services Community Forums – March 2011
LCVS is arranging a Community Forum in your area. The Forum is an opportunity for you to meet other community groups in your area, celebrate the work of Liverpool Community Network and hear about the future of LCVS and LCN.

The Forum is also an opportunity for you to feed in to a developing strategy for the third sector in Liverpool. We are also looking at needs with in the community to be able to direct limited resources to where they are most needed.

Please see below for dates and times of your local Forum and book with Steve Cox at LCVS by telephone on 0151 227 5177 or email steven.cox@lcvs.org.uk.


Alt Valley
Thursday 10 March
Ellergreen Community Centre, Ellergreen Road, Liverpool L11 2RY
2pm-4pm

Liverpool East
Monday 14 March
Newsham Adult Learning Centre, Newsham Drive, Liverpool L6 7UH
2pm-4pm

City & North
Tuesday 15 March
Marybone Community Centre, Fontenoy Street, Liverpool L3 2AP
2pm-4pm

Liverpool South
Thursday 17 March
Bridge Chapel Centre, Heath Road, Liverpool L19 4XR
2pm-4pm

South Central
Wednesday 23 March
John Archer Hall, Old School Building, 68 Upper Hill Street, Liverpool L8 1YR
10am-12noon

Email address for David Cameron

Does anyone have a working email address for David Cameron? One of my constituents wants to email him and the drop down facility on the Number 10 website restricts the characters allowable in the body of the email, and my constituent does not wish to shorten her correspondence. The camerond @ parly address now bounces back.

Thanks

Winter Survival Roadshow

Winter Survival Roadshow

Picton Health & Neighbourhood Centre, 137 Earle Road, Liverpool, L7 6HD
Tuesday 22nd February 2011
10.00am - 2.00pm
Information event for the community organised by Liverpool City Council

Please tell a friend and call in for advice and information from a range of organisations including:-
Liverpool City Council:Liverpool PCT:Age Concern:Citysafe:Merseytravel:Mersey Fire & Rescue Service and more.

Experts able to offer advice on subjects including:-
Fuel Debt, Energy Efficiency, Benefits Advice, Healthy Living, Fire Safety and more

FREE PRIZE DRAW

Sponsored by British Gas
Supported by Liverpool NHS Primary Care Trust

Gate post at Newsham Park, Prescot Drive finally repaired

I have been banging on about this gate post for ages but finally it has been repaired. It stood in the garden of the last house on Prescot Road, at the junction with Prescot Drive in a hedge, and when the demolition took place and the hedge was removed, there was a big gap where a lot of bricks were missing, around the base. I was worried that it was going to fall over and urged action. A handful of the proper bricks were identified and the post has now been repaired. This is a conservation area (not that there is much left to conserve now) so it is important that we don't let the little things slip.

Thanks to Tom Duckworth in the Parks department at LCC for keeping the pressure up until the work was completed to his satisfaction.

One city, one voice - Rally against the Government cuts

Rally to bring together people from across Liverpool to speak as one city, with one voice, against the Government’s cuts, on Sunday 20 February.

Please join us on this rally.

We will gather at the Anglican Cathedral at 1pm. From there, we will march to St George’s Plateau, where we will hear a number of speeches.

This is not a party political rally – the Lord Mayor and the leaders of all four parties on the council have agreed to take part, and we are inviting residents from all communities and faiths to come together, as well as representatives from the charity and voluntary sectors, council staff, and any service users who will be particularly affected.
 
Join the March on 20th February


LIVERPOOL Liverpool has been hit harder than any other city in the country by government cuts. The council is being forced to cut its services by almost a quarter – by a massive £141 million –over the next two years.

But we’re not asking for special favours. We’re only asking for fairness.

We are calling on the Government to reduce Liverpool’s cuts to the average, not the highest. And to return the £millions needed to fund essential services for our children, the elderly and the vulnerable.

Sign our online petition here http://www.afairdealforliverpool.com/ We wiill deliver your message to the Government, and call on them to come back with A Fair Deal for Liverpool.

One City. One Voice. Let’s make them listen.

Liverpool Labour Party "No to coalition cuts"

I missed the photo as I was at the pink and black triangle wreath laying at St John's Gardens, but what a great photograph and what a great banner! And I really enjoyed the march and the speeches at this Joint TUC rally last month.

Action on drugs in Kensington and Fairfield

The following information comes in an email from our local Police Inspector, Paul Harrison.

"One Wednesday morning, 16th February we carried out a drugs search warrant at an address in Halsbury Road. A 40 year old man from the area was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Drug with Intent to Supply after being found in possession of what we believe is heroin. (He also told me that it was hidden in a special place about the man's person, if you know what I mean).


A dog was found in the house, which was seized as it is a pit bull type.

The owner (a second man) will be prosecuted. We will act on any information passed to us and if you could stress to our residents that we need them to give us any snippets".

This is the second raid on the property in a couple of weeks.  During the course of the first raid, Sergeant Devaney told councillors that "a small amount of cannabis resin/bush was found. There were four adult male in the premises, two of these males were arrested for Possession of a Controlled Drug / No Bail Warrant and abstractaction of electricity (no meter in the house, but lights on). A third male was given a street caution for Possession of a Controlled Drug (Cannabis)"

During the raid another male turned up at the property who had been identified on a raid in nearby Mansell Road a month earlier, so clearly he had moved his business from the one street to the other. This persistent work on behalf of the police, relying very heavily on the information shared with councillors by local residents, will make the message clear to the dealers that there is no future in dealing in Kensington or Fairfield.


Sergeant Ian Devaney, now an Inspector (they all get promoted from our ward, we are a great springboard for ambitious crime fighters) has also told me about them successfully finding and closing down a cannabis factory on Gresham Street, Fairfield in the last week.

Please keep coming forward with your information, it is making a real difference in our ability to clean up the local area of dealing and to reduce the number of addicts hanging around waiting for their next fix to be delivered. Working together we are making a real difference.

Burglaries in Kensington and Fairfield

We have seen an increase in the number of House Burglaries since the start of this year, there were 6 burglaries in Lister Road, Edge Lane, Laburnum Rd, West Bank Road, Anglezark Rd and Fell Street. The majority have been via the rear of the premises, particularly from the rear alleyway, and small items such as cash, cameras, Laptops and jewellery are being stolen.

There have also been incidents in Hampstead Road,
Fairfield Crescent, Newsham Drive and Radstock Road.



Sergeant Simon Joyce has sent the councillors a copy of a letter sent to residents in the immediate area by the police, and he has encouraged us to share this information with the wider community.

Most domestic burglaries are committed by opportunist thieves, who pick a house that looks unoccupied, has little or no obvious security, and where they think they will not be seen.

It is often a 'spur of the moment' decision, made when an easy target presents itself, such as an open door or window, or valuables being left on display. If you take the time to assess the security of your home, follow the advice provided and take positive action, you will greatly reduce the risk of becoming a victim.

Protect your Property - Record Serial Numbers and mark with a UV Pen.

Most electrical items have a serial number, this is very important to the police when examining any suspect items. Take the time to record the details on paper and keep it safe. Mobile phones have their own unique serial number known as an IMEI number. This can be located by entering the following code on your keypad *#06# this will automatically display number which you can provide to the police and your phone provider.

On request the police can provide you FREE of charge with a UV pen to mark all of your valuables with your postcode, this will help us to locate the address from where property may have been stolen. If you want one, please let me know and I will arrange it with the police for you.

Please use the link below to create and register a free portfolio of your personal property

www.immobilise.com

Please be reassured that your Neighbourhood Policing Team is doing everything possible to reduce crime further. By looking after your property and keeping an eye out on your street you can help us bring it down too.

We councillors have in the past funded Selecta DNA and Smartwater packs - ways of marking your property individually, ensuring that it will come back to you if it is recovered following a burglary - in Sheil Park, Fairfield Crescent, Prospect Vale, Cheviot, Middleton and Lindale Roads. A few months ago we paid for extensive burglary protection kit in Ellens Close and Low Wood Street - spikes for fences, PIR lights, alarms for doors and windows and timer switches for lights. We are also supporting the As One Community Safety Task Group in the purchase of £1500 worth of "target hardening" security kit to help make houses more safe. If you live in Kensington and Fairfield and would like more information about we can help you to protect your property, please get in touch.

If you have any information about people involved in crime then phone Crimestoppers free of charge on 0800 555 111 or call me, Liam or Wendy. You dont have to give your name.

Plans passed unanimously for "Kensington" market site

Liam and I have just come out of the Planning Committee where outlying permission for a supermarket and housing on the "Kensington" market and Shaws Bakery site has been passed unanimously.

The site owner will now be able to market the site to interested retailers and to interested house builders and finally the Fairfield area will be rid of two horrible eyesores that have provided nothing for local people for years.

The development of this site with new facilities and new family homes will be a really vital addition, bringing hundreds of jobs to the area, both in retail and in construction. It will also see very positive benefits for the residential area around the beautiful Holly Road, where the new homes will considerably improve on the scruffy mess of piles of broken taxis and falling down buildings as well as providing a much needed decent sized supermarket to complement the smaller shops currently opening in the new neighbourhood centre.

I did tell the planning committee that this site, known traditionally as Kensington market is in fact in Fairfield, as I know that one of my constituent likes to make this point regularly.

It is a great day for our ongoing plans to put Kensington and Fairfield back on the map for all the right reasons.

LibDems attack Eric Pickles and the coalition

Are the wheels coming off the coalition?


This letter was published in the Times today, with the full list of signatories only published on the Times website, not in the paper...

Local authority cuts


In contrast to central government’s runaway spending, local governments have been making savings for years

Sir, Local government is playing its part in tackling the country’s deficit and advancing the Coalition’s aims of localism and the Big Society. But local, and central, government are being let down by the Communities and Local Government Secretary who appears unwilling to lead the change that’s so desperately needed. Local government has made efficiency savings of 3 per cent in each of the past eight years — in stark contrast to the runaway spending of central government under the previous administration. We’ve also been planning for further saving since the true state of the economy became apparent six months ago.

What has been delivered is a difficult cuts package across all government departments but clearly the most severe is to local government. These cuts will have an undoubted impact on all frontline council services, including care services to the vulnerable.

Rather than assist the country’s recovery by making public-sector savings in a way that can protect local economies and the frontline, the cuts are so structured that they will do the opposite. The local government settlement will take a major hit in this coming financial year and further, smaller, cuts in subsequent years. This front-loading means councils do not have the lead-in time necessary to re-engineer services on a lower-cost base and ease staff cuts without forced, expensive redundancies. Inexplicably, local government is also being denied the opportunity to spread the cost of reorganisation and downsizing over several years — at no cost to central government — which just makes even bigger in-year cuts inevitable The Secretary of State’s role should be to facilitate necessary savings while promoting the advance of localism and the Big Society. Unfortunately, Eric Pickles has felt it better to shake a stick at councillors than work with us.

Local and central government should be united in a shared purpose. Instead of chastising and denigrating local authorities through the media, the Government should deploy all its efforts to help councils minimise the impact on vulnerable communities and frontline services.

We would be delighted to discuss with the Secretary of State how we could take on the difficult challenges shared by all levels of government and would prefer to do this than continue with the gunboat diplomacy which is the current order of the day.

Cllr Richard Kemp
Leader, Liberal Democrat Group, Local Government Association
Cllr Carl Minns
Lib Dem Leader Hull City Council
Cllr Cec Tallack
Lib Dem Leader Milton Keynes
Cllr Paul Tilsley
Lib Dem, Deputy Leader, Birmingham City Council
Cllr David Faulkner
Lib Dem Leader, Newcastle City Council
Cllr Ian Marks
Lib Dem Leader, Warrington Borough Council

Leaders
Cllr Virginia Gay, North Norfolk; Cllr Andrew De Freitas, North East Lincolnshire Council; Cllr Tim Carroll, South Somerset; Cllr Stuart Langhorn, Lancaster City Council; Cllr David Watts, Broxtowe BC; Cllr Tony de Vere, Vale of White Horse; Cllr Keith House, Eastleigh BC; Cllr Anne Turrell, Colchester (NOC); Cllr Sian Reid, Cambridge City; Cllr Alan Connett, Teignbridge DC; Cllr David Budd, Purbeck DC; Cllr Ann De Vecchi, Lewes DC; Cllr Dorothy Thornhill, Watford Mayor; Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Leader, Portsmouth City Council

Group Leaders
Cllr Alan Boad, Warwick DC; Cllr Gavin James, Basingstoke & Deane BC; Cllr Tom Smith-Hughes, Essex CC; Cllr Joe Abbott, South Tyneside; Cllr Roger Hayes, Bolton MBC; Cllr Peter Wilcock, Uttlesford BC; Cllr Simon McDougall, Arun DC; Cllr Brendan Haigh, Newark & Sherwood DC; Cllr Nigel Martin, Durham; Cllr Hilary Jones, Derby City Council; Cllr Linda Redhead, Halton; Cllr Sue Carpendale, Babergh DC; Cllr Iain Sharpe, Watford BC; Cllr Kathy Pollard, Suffolk CC; Cllr Maureen Rigg, Stockton; Cllr John Boyce, Oadby & Wigston BC; Cllr Andrew Smith, Chicester DC; Cllr Phil Taylor, Tewkesbury BC; Cllr Len Gates, Test Valley BC; Cllr Ruth Davis, South Gloucestershire; Cllr Tony Gillam, Gedling BC; Cllr Chris Maines, Lewisham BC; Cllr David Milsted, North Dorset DC; Cllr Roger Price, Fareham BC; Cllr Brian Greenslade, Devon CC; Cllr Ian Stewart, Cumbria CC; Cllr Richard Andrews, West Oxfordshire DC; Cllr Margaret Rowley, Wychavon DC; Cllr Ann Buckley, Havant BC; Cllr Jane Parlour, Richmondshire DC; Cllr Alan Sherwell, Aylesbury Vale DC; Cllr Graham Longley, Southend BC; Cllr Zoe Patrick, Oxfordshire CC; Cllr Brian Jeffries, East Riding of Yorkshire; Cllr Bob Sullivan, Waltham Forest BC; Cllr David Lomax, High Peak BC; Cllr Paul Coddington, Doncaster MBC; Cllr Liz Tucker, Worcestershire CC; Cllr Simon Ashley, Manchester City Council; Cllr Roger Walshe, Sevenoaks DC; Cllr John Fisher, Staffs Moorlands; Cllr Paul Morse, Norfolk CC; Cllr Jane Clark, Wealden DC; Cllr Christina Jebb, Staffordshire CC; Cllr David Walker, Charnwood BC; Cllr Noel Rippeth, Gateshead; Cllr Penny Otton, Mid Suffolk DC; Cllr Nan Farmer, Carlisle; Cllr David Foster, Blackburn with Darwen; Cllr Dr Robin Studd, Newcastle under Lyme; Cllr Peter Chegwyn, Gosport BC; Cllr Richard Sharp, Woking BC; Cllr Mary Baldwin, Bucks CC; Cllr Jerry Roodhouse, Warwickshire CC; Cllr David Neighbour, Hart DC; Cllr Arthur Preece, Hartlepool BC; Cllr Nigel Hartin, Shropshire CC; Cllr David Neve, Tunbridge Wells BC; Cllr Geoff Welsh, Blaby DC; Cllr Roger Kutchinsky, Hertsmere BC; Cllr Ross Henley, Taunton Deane BC; Cllr Jack Cohen, Barnet BC; Cllr Julie Morris, Epsom & Ewell; Cllr Terry Stacy, Islington BC; Cllr Alex Perkins, Canterbury City; Cllr Geoff Chamberlain, East Devon DC; Cllr David Fearn, Derbyshire Dales DC; Cllr Helen Dyke, Wyre Forest DC; Cllr Paul English, Craven DC; Cllr Paul Elgood, Brighton & Hove; Cllr Paul Hodgkinson, Cotswold DC

Census 2011 - Merseyside Irish & Proud Campaign

CENSUS 2011


Merseyside Irish & Proud Campaign - Invitation to Launch

HOW IRISH ARE YOU? ANY IRISH ROOTS? PROUD TO BE IRISH?

The Irish are the biggest ethnic group on Merseyside

The vibrancy and uniqueness of Merseyside – our accents, our music, our politics, our humour are all rooted in the unique connections that this area has with Ireland

Its time to stand up + celebrate our Irishness.

You can join our Merseyside Irish & Proud Campaign now on Facebook

The National Census in March 2011 is a real opportunity to celebrate + assert your Irishness. The key questions are:

Census Question 15
‘What is your national identity?’ - Write ‘IRISH’ in the section marked ‘Other’

Census Question 16
‘What is your ethnic group?’ - Tick the ‘IRISH’ box

For details of the national census take up campaign see www.howirishareyou.com

What’s it all about?

27th March 2011 is Census Day. Information is collected every 10 years on a standard census form about every man, woman and child in Britain.

Why bother?

Whether you are first, second, third or fourth generation Irish, or beyond, wherever you were born, you have a right to be proud of your heritage + to declare and celebrate it. Here some of the reasons why it is important to maximize the numbers of us declaring our Irish identity on the census –

Pride – We have a right to promote + celebrate our Irish identity and rich cultural heritage

Influence – The more we can get organized + recognized as a community, the more we can influence local + central government

Health – Certain health issues, such as higher risk of liver disease + higher mortality rates, can affect Irish people more than others. We need to register our presence, statistically, for health organizations to focus resources on this.

Merseyside campaign launch
Date: Monday 14th February 2011

1pm – 3.30pm (lunch 1pm – 1.30pm)
Venue: St Michael’s Irish Centre, Boundary Lane
Off West Derby Road L6 5JG

R.S.V.P

jim.moran@iccm.org.uk
maya.stoddart@iccm.org.uk
Irish Community Care Merseyside
0151 237 3987

Love in every language - Valentine event

Merseyside Polonia has the pleasure to invite you for an evening of international love poetry:


Love in Every Language

6.30 pm - 8.30 pm on Friday, 11 February 2011

The Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Kensington, Liverpool, Gardner’s Drive (off Sheil Road by the main gate to Newsham Park), L6 7UR


If you would like to present a famous love poem (or sing a song) from your country please bring the original version with English translation and be there at 6.00 pm.

Entry is free and we hope you’ll enjoy the poetry as well as the drinks and cakes that will make the evening even more sweet.

Please help us promote the event.

For more information:
info@merseysidepolonia.com
http://www.merseysidepolonia.com/

Libdem campaign damned by leading LibDem MEP

A sour LibDem has sent me this email to them from Chris Davies MEP, you may find it interesting, I think it blows huge holes in the LibDem campaign, in their credibility, in their unity and in their ability. I hope this blog will be shared far and wide.

**LIB DEM NOTES FROM BRUSSELS (VIA OLDHAM)**


Most readers of this e-mail will know that I spent a decade and more building up the party in the old Littleborough & Saddleworth seat. I contested it on three occasions, and was elected to Parliament in the 1995 by-election - only to fail to win the new Oldham East & Saddleworth (OE&S) seat two years later.

OE&S has remained one of our top target seats. The vast majority of wards in the constituency continue to be held by Liberal Democrats. On too many occasions, and for a variety of reasons, we have failed to win the parliamentary seat by a whisper.

Then along came the Court's decision against Phil Woolas's despicable leaflets and the calling of a by-election. The Liberal Democrat HQ was just 600 metres from my home in Saddleworth so there was no escape for me - despite it being the coldest few weeks on record.

I believe that readers of this e-mail are part of the Liberal Democrat family, and mostly live the North West of England. I admit to being disappointed that the by-election 'signing-in book' includes more names of Liberal Democrats from London than it does from my own region. I'm really sorry that we in the North West didn't pull together more effectively, despite the efforts of Andrew Stunell, Tim Farron, Gordon Birtwistle, John Leech, John Pugh and Mark Hunter, all of whom put in plenty of appearances and got down to work in the snow and ice.

(Interesting that the NW LibDems are not on-side, is that because they don't like what the Coalition are doing to our communities? I reckon so, what do you think? Ed)
Against the odds we did well. I like to think that we could have done even better. Here are my reflections.

CHRIS DAVIES MEP

**CHRIS DAVIES'S LESSONS FROM THE BY-ELECTION THAT COULD NOT BE WON**

It reveals naivety on my part that it was only after the polls had closed in Oldham East & Saddleworth that I learnt that no opposition party had lost a by-election in a seat it held since 1982, when Labour was beaten by the Conservatives at a time when the latter were riding the crest of the wave after Britain had recaptured the Falkland Isles. Had I known this beforehand I would not have placed a small bet on the Liberal Democrats to win, even with the odds at 10-1 against.

We campaigned to win OE&S. There may have been some in the organising team who realised from the beginning that a respectable second place was the best that could be achieved but if so they did a remarkable job at maintaining morale by keeping such sentiments to themselves. They showed great dedication to the job, leading from the front and working themselves into the ground. For weeks on end they also braved the lowest temperatures that most of us have ever experienced in an election campaign.

(And of course all parties had the same weather, Labour worked through the cold too, and the Party was magnificent in its efforts. Incidentally, to say it was the coldest is to forget Hemsworth which was deep snow almost throughout, I know, I was a sub-agent!)

If the election had taken place in the immediate aftermath of the Court case that saw the MP disbarred then all might have been well. But parliamentary by-elections are not mere local affairs, they command national attention, and it was inevitable that the agenda would move on quickly from Phil Woolas to the record of the Coalition Government.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats were neck and neck last May, separated by just 103 votes. Since then, according to the polls, Labour’s support has risen by 10 points and ours has fallen by at least 13. The tide hasn’t simply turned since May, it has raced out in a torrent. How could we possibly have won such a by-election in these circumstances?

Raced out in a torrent? Really? Yes it would seem so, I have been unable to find any serious LibDem voters who are staying with their party in several weeks of campaigning in Kensington and Fairfield. Is this the end of the LibDems in the NW I wonder?

The challenge was clear enough on the doorstep. During every canvassing session I met a couple of people who had voted Lib Dem in the past but who were not going to do so this time. 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.

Can anything be more damning than the above few sentences?

Anyone who assumed that Labour supporters might feel betrayed by the actions of Phil Woolas were quickly disabused. However bad the nature of the divisive and racist (“make the white folks angry”) campaign he ran, Woolas’s past supporters didn’t like him having been thrown out by the Courts. That said, I’m still pleased that Elwyn Watkins mounted his legal challenge; his success drew a line that candidates and agents everywhere may be reluctant to cross in future elections.

(LibDem aggressive campaigners in Liverpool please note. I don't live in Woolton, whatever Frank Doran's hand written letter in 2008 might have suggested...)
On the other hand we DID mount one of the most effective third party squeeze effort in the history of parliamentary by-elections. The Tory vote collapsed as their supporters took the tactical decision to back the Liberal Democrats. But we needed to gain two votes from the Tories for every vote we lost to Labour, and that was too tall an order.

Political commentators question whether the Tories pulled their punches and mounted a campaign that was less than wholehearted. It’s true that they didn’t launch an all out assault on their coalition partners but the Tories don’t have a single borough councillor in the constituency and no party organisation worth mentioning. They were always going to come third, and a more vigorous Tory campaign would have had only one consequence – to increase the size of the Labour majority over the Liberal Democrats. How would that benefit the Coalition Government?

**WHAT COULD WE HAVE DONE BETTER?**

We didn’t win, and realistically we couldn’t have won, but Liberal Democrats secured a creditable result in the circumstances. The question that has to be asked now, as it should be after every such event, is what could we have done differently and better? The OE&S campaign left me convinced that we need to review our approach and learn some lessons for the future.

(Does anyone have a copy of the inevitable "two horse race" graph at this point. Mr Davies is saying "realistically we could not have won" but what did their leaflets say?)
I have no complaints about the organisation; administratively it seemed close to flawless. Campaigns Department pulled together a team of dedicated young people, some of whom were not born when I set about the task of turning derelict wards in the constituency into strongholds of local Liberalism. Amongst them was a great esprit de corps, with apparent rivalry to demonstrate who could go without sleep for the longest period and drink the greatest amount of Diet Coke. Their efforts and tactical planning suffered initially from having too little outside support (it was before Christmas and weather conditions across much of Britain were terrible), yet even with the pavements covered in snow a great many leaflets got delivered.

(Oh yes, leaflets, deliver as many as you like Mr Davies, but what people want is engagement, not bits of paper, your party learns this lesson even more slowly than grind the mills)
My concerns are not with the organisation but with the politics, and particularly with the belief that in some quarters seems to have taken on the mantra of religious doctrine that elections are won by pushing out more paper than our opponents, and that sheer hard work will win the day. I do not share this view. Good graphics and technical wizardry (“look, we are so clever that we can produce individual leaflets with the elector’s own name on them”) do not make up for the lack of effective political content.

(At last someone in your party gets this)

Too much of our election literature in OE&S was simply vacuous, and for all that the Tory squeeze was effective there were some examples (‘personal’ letters in particular) whose content made me squirm with embarrassment. On a number of occasions I delivered pieces of literature that I thought would not persuade a single extra person to vote for us, and sometimes I feared that they might do us actual harm. Voters complained that they were assaulted by the sheer number of leaflets, but a criticism of greater concern is that too much of the paper we distributed said nothing worth saying. If electors felt that our approach was condescending they had good reason.

Why do we do this? I learnt many political lessons in Liverpool from Sir Trevor Jones (‘Jones the Vote’), who used to tell me never to underestimate the stupidity of the electorate. By this he meant that we should distil the messages, keep them simple, and repeat them often. But he countered this by telling me that at the same time I should never underestimate the intelligence of the electorate, by which he warned not to patronise the voters and to make sure that I had something worthwhile to offer and that would hold their attention. I’m not convinced that our present strategists have got the balance right.

It might be argued that Labour’s campaign literature in OE&S was wholly negative; they attacked us for broken pledges on tuition fees and imposing excessive cuts. But if the position had been reversed we would have done the same. We didn’t confront criticisms that found a strong resonance amongst the voters. More importantly, we did very little to counter them by promoting the achievements of Liberal Democrats in office. I know the arguments about not allowing opponents to dictate the agenda but if we are not to celebrate the role of the first Liberal Democrat ministers in our lifetimes then what is the point of us fighting elections in the first place? We surely should adjust our mindsets, treat the voters as adults, and be prepared to address serious issues - while doing it in a way that ensures that the appearance of our literature secures sufficient attention to pass the doormat to dustbin test.

**NEW APPROACHES TO EXPLORE**


It’s difficult to write these words without implying criticism of people I like and for whose efforts I have admiration, and I am well aware of the rebuttals that can be made. Whatever flaws I might suggest, surely the fact that we not only held our own against the outgoing tide but made a tiny advance in percentage terms speaks for the success of the strategy? How can I prove that the result would not have been worse had we done differently?


It’s possible that we would have done less well if we had devoted more space in our election literature to putting across the arguments of Liberal Democrats in government. It is indeed a risk, but it’s not a question that can be answered because we have not attempted to convey the achievements of our party in an attractive manner. Now we are in government we must start to do so.

I want Liberal Democrats to do well in elections. I also want us to be proud of ourselves and of the political messages we convey. There are lessons to be learnt from the Oldham East & Saddleworth campaign, and there are new approaches that must be explored.


CHRIS DAVIES MEP
18 January 2011

Could you be a foster carer in Liverpool? No really, I mean it, could you?

Liverpool is crying out for loving homes for children and young people who for whatever reason cannot live at home any more.

We offer a decent allowance so you don't have to fund the cost of care yourself.

It doesn't matter whether you are young and old, gay or straight, black or white, fat or thin, it doesn't matter which football team you support, what matters is that you have a big heart and you want to help a youngster who is having a hard time by bringing them into your home and being there for them.

That is essentially what we need, people to care for our youngsters. It might be for one night, a week, a few months, or a few years or forever. Children and young people have different needs, no two children are the same.

Except that they all want a loving home to call their own.

If you can help, then please have a look here  and here and maybe here

Liverpool children are waiting for your call.

The Alternative Vote Referendum - why I am a No

I wasn't going into enter into the AV fray, but having just read this letter from the Yes campaign to Margaret Becket, I am now firmly resolved to vote against the idea.

I see no value in personalising the campaign by targetting the individuals who desire to keep the First Past The Post system. The letter with its confrontational language and extremely patronising tone has got right up my nose.

Who is this Jonathan Bartley that can speak so disrespectfully to such a senior, distinguished and long-serving politician? Is he this man? Or is that a coincidence, someone with the same name?

He comes over like a bully, challenging a kid to a fight in the school yard. And as someone desperate for time in the limelight, sulking because he has not appeared on TV as often as he would like. Well guess what Mr Bartley, it's not all about you!

It is most distasteful and I wish to completely disassociate myself from his campaign, so I guess it's time to put the argument for the no campaign, which I shall now join.

(My friend James thinks I should make it clear at this point that I was already a probable "no" and that Mr Bartley only firmed up my resolve, his letter was not the deciding factor in itself. I couldn't possibly associate myself with the Yes campaign after reading that, even though I was probably not going to anyway. What he did was push me into open debate. Hope that helps)

When someone votes in an election, they are not voting for which Parliament or Coucncil they wish to see, even if they have a view on this, they are electors only for their division. They are voting for the individual they wish to represent them. That person will probably belong to a political party, although they need not. The successful candidate will represent the whole of the electoral division when they turn up in the chamber, and they will make a choice about which if any party groupings they wish to join in with, in order for a ruling group to be formed. Usually in this country that will be based on party lines, although there are parts of the Highlands of Scotland for instance where most people sit as independents.

Indeed that person can choose to leave that grouping if they wish and join another, but they will still be the elected representative of the division.

If more people vote for candidate A, then candidate A should be elected. It is not right to decide that the rest of the electors who did not vote for candidate A, but cast their votes across a range of alternatives, should get the chance to overrule those who did vote for candidate A. If they had been organised enough to coalesce against candidate B and put up an alternative who could beat them, as happened in Tatton in 1997 then fair enough, but otherwise, if you win,  you win.

Are we to say that we dont like Chelsea winning the 2009/10 season even though they got the most points, because they only won by 1 point and so we should redistribute the points won by Man U and Spurs and Arsenal and thus rank the order differently?

Do we tell Usain Bolt that his gold medal wont stand because his margin of victory over the next fastest runner did not exceed the cumulative time of all the other runners? Or that actually we would have preferred the guy that came 4th to have the medal?

The fact remains that unless something is a two horse race, you cannot win 50% plus 1 of the vote

If you want choice and more candidates/runners and riders, you have to accept that the margin of victory will be considerably less than 50%.

There was a scene in Auf Weidersehen Pet in the first series I think, where the lads were choosing what colour to vote the walls in their hut. Barry persuaded them to try alternative voting, a system used if I recall correctly by the West Bromwich pigeon fanciers club, and they ranged their preferences, from white to blue and yellow and green, and there was uproar when they ended up with a "pink" result, despite nobody having voted for it "first".

This is a big problem, it leaves everyone dissatisfied with the end result, because nobody voted for what they got, or very few did. You could get 25% on the first ballot and then get 100% of the second preferences and take the seat, which would leave a lot of people wondering why they bothered. It would turn an election into a campaign for second preferences instead of first ones. If that's democracy, you can keep it!
Voters choose a representative, the representative, along with other similar representatives, make the next choice, about how to formulate a governing body. The proposed system ignores that, it takes away the right of the voter to choose the person they want, gives more strength to political parties against the non-aligned, gives succour to the less popular who could have been first if they had been sufficiently more attractive

First past the post has served this country perfectly well. We had a Tory Government from 79 - 97, a Labour Government from 97 - 10 and now a Coalition, with the LibDems having the post of Deputy Prime Minister and a number of Secretaries of State. How has FPTP been ineffective in giving people what they want?

The Yes Campaign serves only one purpose, to prop up minor parties. Minor parties who cannot win enough support on their won and so want to steal support from others. The Labour Party was a minor party once but it built up the support it needed over 100 years until it could rule for three terms. If minor parties want to rule, I suggest they work on building up their own support.

If I had to vote in a local election using AV, then I would naturally vote for Labour, followed probably by Green and then maybe some fringe left party, and would vote LibDem last, because that's how I feel about them. (I would not of course vote for the Tories or the BNP even assuming they stood) And a LibDem voter would probably vote in a similar way to me, but in with 1 and 4 reversed. So the beneficaries in that scenario would be the minor Green Party. But would my vote for them be a positive endorsement? No not really, it would be a vote against the LibDems. And that is a ridiculously way to organise representation. That the winner is someone you "least loathe" rather than "most want".

It's winning the arguments we should be aiming for, FPTP makes you work for your votes, and win hearts and minds. Whereas AV is like picking a football team in the school playground, "We'll have Smith and Jones, sir, anyone but Bloggs".

Don't fall for it

Louise Baldock has been a political campaigner for 19 years and an elected representative for over 4 years, under FPTP.

edited as further thoughts struck me

College money to be scrapped

Educational Maintenance Allowance, EMA, so what's that then? There seems to be a fair amount of rumblings over it.

It is a sum of money, introduced by the last Labour government, to help young people afford to go to college who would not otherwise be able to afford it. It is a sum up to £30 per week depending on your family income. And if you are a young person in college, in further education, it pays your bus fairs, for a few books and a sandwich at lunchtime.
7700 young people in Liverpool claim EMA. 6900 claim the full £30.

Tory/LibDem coalition is scrapping the EMA

Goodbye to students, to courses, to success and confidence building.

Goodbye to new talents and new skills

Goodbye enthusiasm

Hello cynicism, anger, disappointment, hurt, betrayal, fear,  and ultimately, for some, hello to the scrap heap

Luciana Berger, MP for Liverpool Wavertree has been up in the House talking about this and urging change and progress for months, good luck to her, she is going to need it with this Government in charge!

Steve Bell comments on the LibDem result in Oldham East and Saddleworth

Funnily enough, it looks a bit like Camborne North, Cornwall CC UA too!


Those mill chimneys could easily be tin mines and wheals.

LibDems definitely not "winning here"



Debbie Abrahams (Labour) 14718

Derek Adams (British National Party) 1560

Kashif Ali (Conservative) 4481

Peter Allen (Green Party) 530

David Bishop (Bus-Pass Elvis Party) 67

The Flying Brick (Monster Raving Loony Party) 145

Loz Kaye (Pirate Party of the United Kingdom) 96

Stephen Morris (English Democrats) 144

Paul Nuttall MEP (UK Independence Party) 2029

Elwyn Watkins (Liberal Democrats) 11160

Alun Parry to appear at Liverpool Remembers 2011

We are delighted to confirm that we have secured Alun Parry for Liverpool Remembers.

As part of the programme, he will be singing songs about racism and homophobia and the importance of unity in the fight against hate crimes.

Alun is Liverpool's leading folk singer, founder of AFC Liverpool and the Working Class Music Festival.

The event will be on January 23rd, from 2pm until about 5.30pm. St Francis of Assisi Academy, Gardners Drive, Fairfield L6 (off Sheil Road).

Liverpool Remembers 2011 - Sunday 23rd January

An afternoon commemorating the Holocaust with contributions from members of the Jewish community. A chance also to reflect upon other human rights tragedies and genocides affecting people across the world with communities now based in Liverpool.
A discussion and presentation about tackling hate crime in 2011.
Workshops for children and young people - families are welcome but some of the material may be difficult so supervised workshops and craft tables will be provided during part of the afternoon.
Hot food and refreshments, vegetarian and Kosher
Klezmer music - and hopefully Alun Parry, if he confirms with me.

St Francis of Assisi Academy, Gardners Drive, Fairfield, L6
2pm - 6pm (probably, rather than 5pm)

Please get in touch if you want to know more details.

Venture Housing Association gains a star

TENANTS GET 'FAIR' SERVICE FROM VENTURE


Tenants get a "fair" service and decent homes from Liverpool-based Venture Housing Association, according to independent inspectors.

The Audit Commission praised Venture's easily accessible services, tenant involvement in service improvements and the condition of its housing stock.

Inspectors from the national watchdog say the association - which manages 1,300 homes in Liverpool and the Wirral - plays a leading role in managing its neighbourhoods and its properties are generally attractive, clean and in safe areas.

Their report highlights the fact that estates are well-maintained, effective partnership working is improving community safety, most homes are maintained to a decent standard, the rest are being improved and properties are re-let quickly.

Other strengths include Venture's effective arrangements to deal with domestic abuse and hate crime and its service to provide aids and adaptations for tenants with extra needs, such as the elderly or those with disabilities.

Inspectors gave Venture an improved rating of one star in recognition of improvements made since the last inspection, saying it provided a "fair" service to tenants.

The Audit Commission made a number of recommendations for further improvements, including working with tenants to enhance service quality and value for money, ensuring services are focused on what customers want and effectively monitoring performance and tenant satisfaction.

The Inspectors stated "Venture has acted positively" in making improvements over the last two years and "is preparing itself well for the future".

John Tolen, Venture's Chief Executive, said: "We welcome this report and are pleased that our hard work and improvements over the last few years have been recognised. Our sole aim is to provide excellent services and value for money to our tenants, and we are committed to placing tenants at the heart of all decision-making.

Many improvement initiatives are already under way and we are certain that, working with our tenants, service delivery and value for money will continue to improve."

http://www.vha.org.uk/
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/