I was delighted this weekend to have the opportunity to visit the Manchester Pride festival and help out friends and colleagues from LGBTory at their stall in the exhibition area. It was also great to see a good presence from Salford (see picture) - the magenta balloons certainly came in handy!
It’s great to see so many people – gay and straight, male and female – enjoy themselves over the Pride weekend. I’ve never actually visited Pride before and as a straight man I felt completely welcome.
I know that all the main Parties here in Salford agree that we need to make sure that our City is a friendly, open and tolerant place to live where everyone regardless of their background can reach their full potential. I think that we are well on the way to that.
This Saturday, as part of the Salford Garden Party, I will be taking part in the “Big Ask” panel debate. The debate starts at 2.45pm in one of the marquees outside the Civic Centre in Swinton, and the other panellists are Cllr Derek Antrobus (Labour), Cllr Norman Owen (LibDem) and Cllr Martin O’Neill (“Independent”).
I am told that the questions will be a mix of pre-submitted questions and contributions from the floor. You can submit your questions online here - hope to see you there!
I don’t often agree with former Councillor Joe O’Neill, but I do usually at least respect his opinions even if he has had more political parties than hot dinners. However, his current blog post equating the coalition with the policies of the holocaust is sick, wrong and demeans himself. He should be thoroughly ashamed.
Millions of people died or were displaced at the hands of the Nazis and do not deserve to be belittled by petty party politics as expressed by Joe O’Neill. Shame on you Joe, and whoever drew the pathetic cartoon you chose to exhibit.
On Saturday 21st August, along with colleagues from the Labour and Liberal Democrat groups, I’ll be taking part in the “Big Ask” question time event at the Salford Garden Party.
You can now submit questions for the Big Ask online – please do and I look forward to fielding them on the 21st!
I was extremely sad to hear that former Winton Councillor John Pooley passed away over the weekend.
John served on the Council from 2004 until 2007; he was a real gentleman who cared deeply about the community he lived in and he will be very badly missed.
My thoughts are with his family and friends.
A kind resident has handed me a copy of a Labour election leaflet delivered in Irlam and Cadishead. It explains that “many roads and pavements in Irlam & Cadishead are in a shocking state”.
Most local people would agree with this. The Labour Party have run Salford City Council for the last 36 years and have consistently neglected our broken highways. Now even Labour’s own leaflets are damning about their appalling failure to maintain our roads.
Conservative Councillors across the City have consistently argued for more investment in our broken roads and pavements, whilst Labour have let the roads crumble for decades. There’s only one way to improve our highways here in Salford, and that’s to vote for change on May 6 and vote Conservative.
The roads across Irlam and Cadishead are in a shocking state, but I’m particularly concerned about the condition of Station Road which in places appears to be crumbling down the embankment. The contractors building the new school must be held accountable for that damage and should ensure that the road remains fit-for-purpose during construction and returned to tip-top condition afterwards.
I am deeply disturbed to read about the huge forthcoming redundancies at Salford Royal (Hope) Hospital, as part of a £1bn package of cuts ordered by the Labour Government in the NHS across Greater Manchester. This follows on from the disastrous decision made by the Labour Government to close our excellent local maternity and neo-natal units.
Salford Royal Hospital does a fantastic job for the City. A Conservative Government would protect health spending, and under Conservative plans for a “patient premium”, we would see more investment in our local NHS – not the huge cuts taking place under this Labour Government.
Labour already plan to take away our maternity unit. I will not give up the fight to keep it open. The NHS is my number one priority, and our local NHS desperately needs a change of Government to protect local health services from Labour cuts.
Do Come To Salford
The BBC move north to MediaCity:UK has generated an awful lot of comment, not all of it positive and some of it downright vindictive.
Last week, in response to the latest round of nonsense in the London-based press, our excellent local journalists at the Advertiser and the MEN launched a “come to Salford” campaign on Twitter. I’ve tried to do my bit to support the campaign and we can all chip in with positive reasons to relocate to our City and to our region.
I do hope that BBC employees do choose to relocate, because our area is a great place to live, but we must also be careful not to demonise those who don’t. I wouldn’t criticise anyone for staying put for family reasons, and criticising those who choose to stay brings us down to level of debate that we are trying to avoid.