The “Save St George’s High School” Facebook group is growing exponentially. It has only been set up a few days and already has over 100 members, mostly ex-pupils and the local community along with a handful from further afield. Click here to join the group.
Archive for September, 2007
I can only hope that Stagecoach and GMPTE will allow us to do the same thing to a Metrolink tram when Conference comes to Manchester in 2009…
I’ve already covered the absurd reaction of Hazel Blears MP to the ludicrous Labour Government decision to close the essential maternity and neo-natal services at Hope Hospital here in Salford. However, I hadn’t until now stumbled across the in-denial article on her own website. It is entitled “Hope Hospital Retains Maternity Services”. Read it for yourself. What arrogant self-serving tosh.
Digging a little deeper, it seems Hazel has a bit of penchant for posting arrant nonsense on her website. Take the article entitled “Hazel Meets Community Activists In Worsley”. There are two big pictures of Hazel, supposedly with “community activists”. The “community activists” in question are Barbara Keeley MP, Cllr Ann-Marie Humphreys (Labour Councillor for Kersal and a Broughton resident) and Labour Party bigwig Peter Wheeler (who lives in Claremont). In other words, a far cry from what everyone else would consider a community activist to be.
Can you find any better example of arrant tosh on Hazel’s website? Please do post it in the comments…
You are, it seems, now reading the 131st most popular political blog in the country.
Okay, so it’s all a bit of fun, but congratulations to everyone who made the list (especially those in the upper echelons) and many thanks to everyone who was kind enough to include my blog on their lists of Top 20 blogs from which the overall ranking was obtained.
Nevertheless as someone with a natural competitive streak I shall be looking to improve my ranking next year!
Those few local residents who don’t chuck advertising leaflets that come bundled with their copy of the Advertiser straight into the bin recycle bag will notice that alongside the Optical Express sale leaflet is a four-page A3 publication entitled “Barbara Keeley MP News”.
Now, the publication in question is plastered in a nice red colour with yellow trim, it is filled with stories about what the Government is doing, and there’s a big picture of Gordon Brown on page two. You would presume that the production and distribution of this newsletter would be paid for by the Labour Party, right? Wrong.
So who does pay for it? Well, if you look at the tiny writing down the side of the front page, it tells you:
Paid for by the Communications Allowance, House of Commons
Yes, that means you, the hard-working taxpayer, is paying for our local Labour MP’s political propaganda, and I defy anyone to argue that these leaflets are anything but. Not only is Barbara Keeley using taxpayers’ money for her own self-promotion, but I’m sure it’s a complete coincidence that this leaflet has arrived just as Gordon Brown is mulling over a snap election. That said, the newsletter is dated “Summer 2007″ (a bit optimistic) so perhaps she is just a bit disorganised.
Of course, had I left it at that point, someone – probably Chris Paul – would have come along and pointed out that the sitting MPs of all political parties do the same. I’m sure Chris has a few choice words for the equivalent newsletter from Withington Liberal Democrat MP John Leech. That’s absolutely true, but it doesn’t make it right. I hope that a future Conservative Government will abolish these propaganda allowances, rather than significantly increasing it as this Labour Government have done.
On Monday (1st October), the statutory consultation for the closure of St George’s High School starts. The consultation period lasts for two months and closes on 30th November.
Salford’s Labour Council have got this decision badly wrong. The very idea of closing a successful, oversubscribed school is absolutely absurd, and I am still baffled that the proposal to close St George’s made it beyond the drawing board. It is equally depressing that the Government approved the Council’s proposals.
Local residents need to make sure that their voice is heard. We all need to get involved with the consultation process and make sure that the local community is listened to. I will post further details of the consultation process on this website as soon as I get them.
For the many of you who are now on the Facebook bandwagon, there is now a “Save St George’s” Facebook group – click here to join the group.
I am delighted to announce that Nicky Turner has agreed to join the Walkden South Conservative Action Team. Nicky is the third member of our team alongside myself and Nicky’s husband Cllr Les Turner.
I know that Nicky will be an excellent advocate for local residents in Walkden South and that she is looking forward to getting stuck into some of the issues that concern the local community.
I’m about to upgrade to the new version of K2, which is the excellent template this site is built on. My blog software WordPress has also released a brand-new version so I will be installing that over the next day or so as well. Hopefully it will all run smoothly, but there is always the small possibility that I’ll press the wrong button somewhere along the line, so if there are any glitches please let me know!
There shouldn’t be any downtime although the sidebars might get rearranged for a short while.
UPDATE: The sidebars on the new version of K2 seem to be a little bit temperamental, so I’ve reverted back to the old version for the time being. I can change back with one click of the mouse button if needbe.
I have been tagged by David Jones MP to blog about my first political memory. I usually ignore blog memes but I thought this one was a bit more interesting.
I find my first political memory a bit odd. I distinctly remember being in the playground at my old primary school in Scotland, standing under the wall that separated Kirkton Primary from the Scott’s chocolate factory next door - the jam factory was across the road. It was 1990. There was a mention of the Conservative leadership contest. I preferred Heseltine, although I have no idea why. Maybe I thought his hair was silly. I was seven.
The reason I find this odd is that I have absolutely no recollection of Thatcher being deposed, only fleeting memories of the Gulf War and I don’t remember the 1992 election at all. It seems such an strange thing to recall in isolation. I’m not entirely sure why!
I’ll try to keep a political balance to this meme by tagging Chris Paul, David Ottewell and Tim Roll-Pickering.
Taxman Gordon
I’ve just spent an enjoyable few minutes playing Taxman Gordon Pacman. Light relief and a nice bit of nostalgia for children of the eighties!