Over at Manchester Confidential, Jonathan Schofield has penned a piece about the CSJ Breakthrough Manchester report. This has caused the ever-excitable Manchester Labour hack Chris Paul to get, well, even more excited - which is not a surprise, given that Schofield’s piece is complete cobblers.
Archive for November, 2007
It seems that any local Liberal Democrat calls for electoral reform should perhaps start with their own internal ballots. Whoops!
ConservativeHome have launched a new local government section. I think this is an excellent development and I am sure it will prove to be both an interesting read and an informative resource. The list of blogging Conservative Councillors has given me a few new blogs to have a look at as well. Good job Tim and Sam.
At lunchtime I had the pleasure of attending the “Breakthrough Manchester” event hosted by the Centre for Social Justice. The centrepiece of the event was an excellent address by David Cameron on education - and in particular on schools. You can read the full speech here.
Now, whilst Labour bloggers get themselves into a big tiz over the terminology (see LabourHome and Chris Paul amongst others), I prefer to look at the policy meat.
The concept of local communities creating education co-operatives to run schools is both perfectly in line with Conservative principle of devolving power back to professionals and the local community, and a million miles away from the disastrous centralist tendencies that the Labour Party (including the Labour & Co-Op Party members) apply to our education system - both nationally and here in Salford.
One only has to look at the shambolic way in which Salford’s Labour Council has handled the Building Schools for the Future project to see how much better things could be if our education system could be handed back to the communities our schools are supposed to serve.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Barbara Keeley MP’s dubious use of the House of Commons “Communications Allowance” - basically a propaganda fund for (usually Labour) sitting MPs at the considerable expense of the taxpayer.
It seems however that Barbara is bordering on saintly compared with another nearby Labour politician, Transport Secretary and Bolton West MP Ruth Kelly. Unlike Barbara Keeley, whose propaganda was implicit, poor Ruth went the whole hog and had to apologise. She is not the only one.
(ConservativeHome have the graphic of Kelly’s leaflet)
Next Sunday is Remembrance Sunday - this year it actually falls on November 11th. It is warming to see the large numbers of local residents gather to watch the parade and pay their respects at the Cenotaph. Arrangements for this year’s parade are as follows:
Assembly is 9.30am at the Royal British Legion, Wilfred Road, Walkden. Service in St. Paul’s Church, Manchester Road at 10.00 am followed by wreath laying at the Cenotaph in Parr Fold Park at 11.00 am.
Across the borough, there are services in Salford, Swinton, Eccles, Irlam & Cadishead, Little Hulton and Boothstown. For more details, click here.
Many apologies for the lack of blogging over the last few days - along with quite a few others from the Manchester area and beyond, I spent a very enjoyable weekend up in Pendle helping our excellent Prospective MP Andy Stephenson.
Normal service has now been resumed.
Today’s Manchester Evening News has obtained the timetable for the closure of the Greater Manchester maternity units condemned by the Labour Government. Maternity and neo-natal services at Salford Royal Hospital are planned to cease in “late 2010″.
This is still an absolutely hopeless decision which will have a huge effect on the welfare of local residents across the Salford area. Unfortunately our Labour Council seem to have complied with their Government colleagues and given up - here’s what Council Leader John Merry had to say to the MEN:
“I will be looking for assurances the necessary arrangements will be in place before any changes happen”
You tell ‘em, John!
Unlike Salford Labour, Salford Conservatives have made it clear that we have not given up on retaining maternity and neo-natal services at Salford Royal Hospital. There is one final chance for local residents to save these vital services. Before the end of 2010, Gordon Brown will have to call a General Election. At that General Election - most likely to be held in spring 2009 or spring 2010 - local residents will have the opportunity to elect a Conservative Government committed to preserving the district hospitals and maternity units currently on Labour’s death row.
WebCameron in Manchester
Further to my previous post, WebCameron have now uploaded a video diary of David Cameron’s recent visit to Manchester. If you look closely you can spot the back of my head on a couple of occasions…