I’ve managed to find a copy of the document comparing this year’s revenue support grant award to last year’s - click here to read it.
Salford’s RSG has increased by 3.6%, which is lower than all the other Greater Manchester Councils with the exception of Bury, Trafford and Stockport, which (and I’m sure this is a complete coincidence) happen to be the three Greater Manchester local authorities that are not run by the Labour Party.
BBC News North-West has just run a report on the Labour Party selection for the Bolton South East constituency, which is a stone’s throw up the road from here.
Apparently three local Labour Party branches have called for an investigation into the selection process, which concluded last August with the appointment of London-based barrister Yasmin Qureshi. Kevin Meagher, runner-up last year and (then) constituency Chairman, was filmed calling for the ballot to be re-run.
This is not the first time that a local Labour Party has run into selection ballot problems - Barbara Keeley’s victory over Ian Stewart for the nomination for the Worsley & Eccles South constituency was subject to a probe after complaints, and as a result Labour have still not chosen between Stewart and Hazel Blears for the new Salford & Eccles seat.
Ask Developments are a well-known Manchester-based property developer. In 2004 they made a sizeable donation to the Manchester Central Constituency Labour Party.
Today I popped into the Town Hall, and waiting in my pigeonhole was - amongst other things - a glossy colour photocopy of an article entitled “the true cost of congestion”. I assume it was left there by GMPTA Chairman Cllr Roger Jones, but I am happy to stand corrected if it was someone else.
The article is a standard puff-piece for congestion charging, and reads like it could quite easily have come from the pen of Sir Richard Leese. However, it wasn’t written by a politician - at least not a professional one. The author of the piece is one Ken Knott, Chief Executive of… Ask Developments.
Now, I assume that the reason articles like the one I refer to are merrily bandied around by the Labour Party is because it looks like independent and well-respected local businesses are in favour of the congestion charge. That is not the case here. Ken Knott is a Labour supporter and the company he leads has funnelled a substantial sum of money into the local Labour Party.
Don’t get me wrong, Mr Knott has every right to donate to the Labour Party, and he has every right to state his opinion. However, he is no more of a neutral commentator than any Councillor or MP, and local residents across Manchester should take his words with a sizeable sprinkling of salt.
I passed briefly through Manchester city centre yesterday evening, and caught my first glimpse of the new Town Hall Santa. To be honest, it’s a bit disappointing.
It’s not the new design or the lights. The whole “wow-factor” of the Town Hall Santa was that he was climbing on the town hall roof. The new Santa is sat on a silly plinth. He could be anywhere - St Peter’s Square, Bury Market, Piccadilly Gardens, the centre circle at Old Trafford.
I think that rather defeats the object.
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.
Continue reading ‘A Positive Future For Manchester’
There’s a big advert for Oyster cards in today’s Manchester Evening News. I’m sure the MEN advertising department will be delighted, but I’m not sure that the good taxpayers of London would share their delight if they knew how Mayor Ken was spending his marketing budget.
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 
1978 was a long time ago
One of my pet hates from my University days was the small number of senior politics “academics” who were seemingly only interested in using their position as a platform for their own (usually warped) views. While I was a student at York, Alex Callinicos was the worst offender, although there were others. He no longer works at York, and I must say I am considerably more likely to donate to the alumni fund now that they aren’t wasting money on his wages.
A second problem that lurks within politics academia has risen above ground again - that of political guesswork masquarading as “research”. Professor Tony Travers, an “urban politics expert”, has just released a new “study”, and unfortunately the Manchester Evening News seems to have swallowed it. Let’s have a detailed look:
Continue reading ‘1978 was a long time ago’