Nice quote from Nick

Nice quote from my leader, Nick Clegg, in today's Times:

"I believe Liberals deserve to win against Labour now. Because Labour’s basic reflexes — central state activism, hoarding power at the centre, top-down government — are the wrong tools to meet the challenges of the modern world. We live in a society where people are no longer rigidly defined by class or place, no longer trapped by a culture of hierarchy.

Liberalism is the ideology most suited to this age. Only liberalism possesses a clear understanding of how power has flowed up and down from the central state.

Only liberalism marries a passion for devolution in Britain with a commitment to international institutions and the international rule of law. From fairer taxes to protecting civil liberties, from the reform of our clapped-out politics to the break-up of monopolistic banks, from devolved public services to a new concept of green citizenship, from social radicalism in education to a more effective and accountable European Union.

Dispersing power more fairly and holding the powerful to account runs as a thread through all my liberal beliefs."

Climate Camp letter to the Met

This video made me chuckle.

Excellent interview with Nick Clegg

Only just stumbled upon this now, Nick Clegg at his best.

Great moment at 12:00-14:00 minutes in.

Nick really fires up my ideological engines when he speaks so passionately about Liberalism, as he does in this interview. He makes us proud.

Next years budget cuts to central government departments

I've crunched the numbers and extracted the % change in central gov departmental budgets, as sourced from the Treasury (page 83).

So, there will be cuts for 15 of the 25 central government departments next financial year. This represents an average of -5.75% across all departments. Factor in inflation and that figure looks even worse.

Everyone knows that whoever is in government next year will have to make cuts - but Brown insists that under Labour there will be no cuts. The Treasury doesn't agree.

[Hat tip to Guido Fawkes]

A dangerous step into darkness

Depressing news I'm afraid.

The UK had four less MEPs to send to the European Parliament (because other countries had joined the EU and existing member states had to reduce their MEPs), and one of those seats were lost in the North West - as such each party needed even more votes if they were win one of the 8, rather than 9 MEPs available to the North West.



In 2004 Lib-Dems won two seats, this year we won one. Our vote was down 1.6%.

The Conservatives gained 1.5% of the vote share, and retained their three MEPs.

UKIP was up 3.7% and retained their MEP.

Labour vote took a battering, losing 6.9%, and one of their three MEPs as a result.



The most depressing news, which I'm sure you've all heard by now, is that BNP leader, Nick Griffin, took the last spot with a 1.6% increase in their vote.

It was weird - despite there being an awful expectation that the BNP would win a seat in the North West, when it actually came to watching the leader of the British National Party get elected to the European Parliament at about 2am in a packed Manchester town hall room (see below), I couldn't really shake off the feeling that it was a horribly historic moment. I felt disgusted - our region had just elected the leader of the British fascists to the European Parliament.

My maternal grandfather was part of the "2nd wave" of troops to clear through Europe during the final days of World War II. He was part of a unit that was first on the scene that liberated the Belsen concentration camp. He told my mother that most of the SS guards had fled, but a few remained.

He said that they didn't know why they left those guards there, because when they discovered the unimaginable horror inside the British troops simply battered the remaining guards to death with their rifle butts, not to save bullets, but simply as an instinctive reaction to the gut wrenching evil that they encountered. Belsen 1945 - British bulldozer buries bodies in mass grave

A British comedian called Michael Bentine, who served in the second world war, wrote this on his encounter with Belsen:

We were headed for an airstrip outside Celle, a small town, just of Hanover. We had barely cranked to a halt and started to set up the ‘ops’ tent, when the Typhoons thundered into the circuit and broke formation for their approach. As they landed on the hastily repaired strip – a ‘Jock’ [i.e. Scottish] doctor raced up to us in his jeep.

‘Got any medical orderlies?’ he shouted above the roar of the aircraft engines. ‘Any K rations or vitaminised chocolate?’

‘What’s up?’ I asked for I could see his face was grey with shock.

‘Concentration camp up the road,’ he said shakily, lighting a cigarette. ‘It’s dreadful – just dreadful.’ He threw the cigarette away untouched. ‘I’ve never seen anything so awful in my life. You just won’t believe it 'til you see it – for God’s sake come and help them!’

‘What’s it called?’ I asked, reaching for the operations map to mark the concentration camp safely out of the danger area near the bomb line.

‘Belsen,’ he said, simply.

Millions of words have been written about these horror camps, many of them by inmates of those unbelievable places. I’ve tried, without success, to describe it from my own point of view, but the words won’t come. To me Belsen was the ultimate blasphemy.

After VE. Day I flew up to Denmark with Kelly, a West Indian pilot who was a close friend. As we climbed over Belsen, we saw the flame-throwing Bren carriers trundling through the camp – burning it to the ground. Our light Bf 108 rocked in the superheated air, as we sped above the curling smoke, and Kelly had the last words on it.

‘Thank Christ for that,’ he said, fervently.

And his words sounded like a benediction.

Many people aren't interested in politics, indeed most people didn't bother to vote in this set of elections - but as we proved last night, if enough people disengage from mainstream politics we can so easily sleepwalk into political darkness.

If the economy recovers, as we expect it will, then I imagine the two BNP MEPs will lose their seats in five years time, but there is no escaping the fact that last night parts of our country elected those who our ancestors laid down their lives to protect us from.

It's sickening.

A Parish Council for Northenden Village

Northenden is being consulted over a proposal to create an urban Parish Council. Here are some more details over how a Parish Council would work, why we believe we need one, and some examples of how it could improve Northenden.

How a Parish Council would work

A Parish Council would consist of elected representatives of all the neighbourhoods of Northenden. If we had 12 councillors spread evenly across the four areas, we would have 3 representatives in each neighbourhood.

Any local resident may stand for election – you don't have to belong to a political party. If the community didn't like what their Parish Councillors were doing, they could vote them off the council, and replace them with others.

These Parish Councillors would only represent a few hundred people – rather than more than over 10,000 represented at a City Council level. They would know many of the residents they represent, and the street by street issues that they face.

Parish Councils set a levy, or precept, to fund overheads such as insurance and a Clerk. However, much of the funding comes through external grants, from organisations such as Sport England, the Lottery, Chairtable Trusts and Government agencies.

The levy is normally very small, and we would not support an initial levy over £1 a month on top of your council tax. This levy provides the launching pad for hundreds of thousands of pounds of inward investment –Northenden needs this investment, now more than ever

Why we believe Northenden needs a Parish Council

For years commentators and Estate Agents have said that Northenden has bags of potential, and is about to take off – but the opposite has happened.

Many residents, especially those who have lived here for over 20 years, have told us Northenden has declined from a busy and bustling community to one which seems deserted and worn out.

1. Derelict land and properties such as where ‘Car Options’ used to be, the Tatton Arms and the Church Inn lay empty.

2. The shops on Palatine Road offer very little variety, and where Northenden used to be a place where people would travel to shop, now it's the other way round.

3. The Library is a fantastic public utility, but deserves a bigger and better building.

4. There aren’t enough facilities for our young people.

5. There is hardly any public parking.

Examples of what a Northenden Parish Council could do

Here are some examples of what a Parish Council could do to improve Northenden.

• Organise an annual Northenden Village Festival.
  

• Invest in our young people by creating youth facilities and events.
  

• Build more car parks in Northenden to attract shoppers from elsewhere.
  

• Replace grass verges that have become disfigured with parking bays or install bollards.
  

• Develop our planted areas, and encourage homes and shops to install hanging baskets.
  

We believe these are some of the solutions a Parish Council could pursue to turn Northenden round and make it great again.

Want to know more? Come to the Public meeting

Northenden Civic Society is hosting a public meeting to hear more about the Parish Council from experts, and give people an opportunity to ask questions and have their say. Please join us at:

7:30pm, Wednesday 6th May

Northenden Methodist Church Hall

Victoria Road

Northenden

Need help filling out the form?

The jargon filled questionnaire can seem confusing, so we have translated the questionnaire for you. If you want a Parish Council in Northenden Village, the questions need to be answered as follows:

Question 1 – If you want a Parish Council answer NO.

Question 2 – If you want a Parish Council answer YES.

Question 3 – If you want a Parish Council for Northenden Village answer YES.

Question 4 – “How many Councillors...” Up to you, but we recommend at least 12, so power doesn't rest in too few hands.

“Parish Council be divided into wards.. ” We recommend YES. This will ensure Parish Councillors are elected for every neighbourhood.

“Boundaries of Parish wards...” We recommend that “the boundaries follow the polling district boundaries as set out in the map

Question 5 – Leave blank.

Question 6 – Asks if further local governance beyond the Parish Council is needed. Up to you, but we think the Parish Council would fulfil the gap in community governance and additional arrangements beyond a Parish Council are unnecessary.

Hope not Hate

Signing the Hope not Hate petition in the Council Chamber today

The Bishop of Manchester spoke at Full Council for the first time in living memory today to boldly warn us of the dangers of the BNP.

It was a stark, clear, bold warning, and a very impressive speech. All three party leaders spoke in favour of a motion about the Manchester 'Hope not Hate' campaign.

I was very proud to be both a Christian and a Manchester City Councillor today. Here's a response I posted on the MEN website when discussing whether it was right for the Bishop to criticise a political party:

As a Christian Manchester City Councillor, today was a very proud day for me. My party, my Council and my Church all had the courage, conviction and boldness to stand up to the homophobic racist fascist thugs who peddle hate, fear and division in our society.

In an open democracy it would be entirely wrong for us to ban extremist parties from standing for election - but equally - it would be entirely wrong to exclude important elements of a free society (such as the Church) from boldly speaking out against such parties.

To exclude any religious or non-religious group from engaging in the political system would be as perverse to our democratic system as banning extremist groups themselves - and this is our mark of tolerance and fair play.

I'm proud that the Britain I live in is so tolerant and even handed, and that we have our ideological battles in an open, largely peaceful democratic system - it demonstrates an agreeable degree of civility.

This would all be put at risk if we open the door to intolerant extremists, and I would strongly urge those tempted to vote for them to look at the whole picture and to listen to both sides of the argument.