Wythenshawe and Sale East Liberal Democrats

A fair, free and open society

2010-05-23T00:11:00.002+01:00

Just thought I'd share the opening words to the Lib-Dem's preamble to the federal constitution:

"The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society"

Mary Di Mauro wins by 25 votes!!!

2010-05-08T09:21:00.002+01:00

After a two year campaign of working hard for Northenden, Northern Moor and Benchill, Mary Di Mauro wins the Northenden Ward election of 2010.

CONGRATUALTIONS MARY!!

Final scores:

BNP: 233 (booo!)

UKIP: 166

Lab: 2478

Lib-Dem: 2503

Con: 546

Lib-Dem flash mob

2010-05-05T01:00:00.001+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDnNMnNrEPA

Upside down

2010-05-03T21:07:00.000+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaruPtx-eFM

Well worth watching.

MEN poll says LDs overtaken Lab in Manchester

2010-05-03T10:45:00.004+01:00

MEN on-line poll shows 41% of Lab support has switched to the Lib-Dems.

With 3 days of campaigning to go, it looks like we should make some considerable gains here in Greater Manchester!

Guardian defects to Lib-Dems

2010-04-30T19:41:00.002+01:00

Surge in Mcr voter registration

2010-04-26T16:22:00.001+01:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/england/8643934.stm

Almost 7000 registered in the last month - according to Sir Howard this is "unprecedented".

If evenly spread across all 32 wards, this would mean an extra 213 voters in each.

Some are speculating that the surge is a result of the debates, and many people are registering to vote for the Lib-Dems.

The British Electoral System

2010-04-26T16:08:00.002+01:00

COMRES polling data analysis

2010-04-25T00:50:00.004+01:00

COMRES polling data analysis

April 14th (before 1st debate) --> April 24th (post 2nd debate)

I've compiled and analysed the data tables of ComRes' latest poll, and compared them with 10 days ago, before the 1st debate.

The movements are both stark and encouraging for the Lib-Dem.

Age groups

The biggest surge has been in the under 45s, where we are now well ahead of Labour, and ahead of the Conservatives amongst the under 35s. All other age groups have seen significant rises also.

Interestingly we are now ahead of Labour in the pensioner age group, whereas we were almost 1:2 behind before the 1st debate:

Regional voting intention

The best news for us in Manchester is how we're doing in the North compared to 10 days ago.

We've almost trebled our support in our region, surpassing both parties.

Crucially we're ahead of the Tories in the South West were we are defending a great number of our seats:

Regional Leads

Just to really ram how much support we now have in the North - here's our regional leads:

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO FOR NORTHERN LIB-DEMS!

Latest COMRES shows LDs ahead of Lab in North, under 45s, and AB&C1s

2010-04-24T22:10:00.004+01:00

Have the Lib-Dems replaced Labour as the natural party of power in Manchester?

2010-04-22T23:58:00.005+01:00

In Manchester the Tories are nowhere - they haven't won a Council election in 18 years, so I've ignored their polling results over the last 10 days and I've just looked at Labour vs Lib-Dems.

What would these polls mean for Manchester if they were replicated on the final poll on 6th May?

....Lev

Government response to Aviation Growth petition

2010-02-20T11:51:00.003Z

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page22515

"The UK committed to binding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets under the Climate Change Act 2008. Under the Act, GHGs must be 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. We are the first country in the world to have such a framework and under the Act the Government sets binding five year budgets. In 2009, we set out the carbon budgets for the first three five year periods from 2008-22.

Domestic aviation emissions are included in budgets. International aviation emissions are outside of the UK’s carbon budgeting framework under the Climate Change Act. This is mainly due to the global nature of the sector, which makes it difficult to allocate emissions on a national basis.

Government must either include international aviation and shipping emissions in UK carbon budgets by the end of 2012, or report to Parliament on why they are being kept outside. However, we believe that a global, sectoral approach is more appropriate for aviation. This would, in effect, make aircraft operators responsible for their emissions, rather than countries.

Even though international aviation is not included in the Climate Change Act, the UK still has one of the toughest aviation climate change regimes in the world. In 2009 we set a long-term target for UK aviation CO2 emissions that they should be lower in 2050 than in 2005 (equivalent to 37.5 million tonnes of CO2). The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) provided advice to us on this target in December 2009.

The CCC report makes clear that, even in the least optimistic case (the ‘likely’ case), the target can still be achieved while allowing significant growth in air travel (CCC describe this as a 60% growth in passenger numbers or a 54% growth in air traffic movements). The report also states that ‘there are no implications for specific airports e.g. Heathrow’ and advises instead that any future growth should consider the environmental implications, and ensure consistency with climate change goals.

The Government remains committed to its policy framework for aviation set out in the 2003 White Paper, The Future of Air Transport. We have also committed to producing a National Policy Statement on Airports in 2011 which will take account of all relevant developments since 2003, including of course this recently published advice from the CCC."

I've never voted Labour before....

2010-02-20T11:48:00.002Z

Waiting for Gordo...

2010-02-12T18:19:00.002Z

It's been over a week since the petition below reached it's target of 500 signatures, and I'm hoping that the PM's office is about to respond.

I just hope that the answer isn't evasive and lacking in clarity, and solves the contradiction definitively.

Dear Prime Minister...

2010-01-08T16:07:00.005Z

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/aviation-growth/

Nice quote from Nick

2009-09-17T10:18:00.004+01:00

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

2009-08-26T17:25:00.002+01:00

This video made me chuckle.

Excellent interview with Nick Clegg

2009-07-06T08:03:00.004+01:00

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

2009-07-02T10:09:00.000+01:00

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

2009-06-08T19:13:00.013+01:00

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

2009-04-25T11:45:00.000+01:00

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.

Derelict land and properties such as where ‘Car Options’ used to be, the Tatton Arms and the Church Inn lay empty.
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.
The Library is a fantastic public utility, but deserves a bigger and better building.
There aren’t enough facilities for our young people.
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

2009-03-25T18:04:00.000Z

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.

Petition now in

2009-03-24T17:44:00.001Z

Many thanks to all those on the Rose Cottage campaign that came out for the photo call last night. It was for the handing in of the Rose Cottage Petition at the town hall, and we got a fairly good turn out for the time of day (about 20 at 6pm).

I'm in the process of uploading pictures, and a few of them are on-line here.

Here's one of my favourites, its of the tenants who are (from left to right) Peter Johnson, Breeze Hill, Hasty Lane and Oliver, Jamie and Anthony Lowe, Rose Cottage, Hasty Lane.

The petition has over 1020 names now on it and we actually hand it to the planning department tomorrow.

Due to the demonstrated public opposition to these plans we hope the Planning Department will now recommend refusal.

It can easily do so on a number of planning policies, but the clearest one is PPG15, the economic justification for demolishing a listed building.

PPG15 states that the economic argument for demolishing the listed building is of such magnitude, that it substantially outweighs the considerbale heritage protection it currents enjoys.

As air freight has almost halved in recent months, the economic arguments for expanding air freight capacity no longer stack up.

Marie Louise Gardens tragedy - applications approved!

2009-03-13T09:08:00.000Z

Marie Louise Gardens - this lodge will now be extended

and a new development built inside the gardens

I was at the Planning and Highways committee at the town hall yesterday - two main items that interested me most: An application in Northenden to turn an estate agents into a fast food outlet (I was opposing - it got deferred), and the monster application that has been ping-ponging around South Manchester politics for a good couple of years now was the proposed development at Marie Louise Gardens.

To summarise, a Mr Bennett bought the old gardeners lodge (see above) from someone who had bought it off the gardener when he bought it in a right-to-buy effort. The Lodge sits inside the park (that is locked in the evenings), and it's associated grounds to the north.

Marie Louise Gardens was bequeathed to the citizens of Manchester in 1903 by Josephine Silkenstadt, in memory of her daughter, Marie Louise, who died young, with a covenant that the gardens should retain intact and not be developed on. The developer applied to extend the lodge and build a new building inside the gardens.

His justification (and the planning department who supported his application), is that the lodge and the associated land (which he owns) is not really part of the gardens - that it was designated as a dwelling, and so was the associated land to the north that was used as a depot.

Mr Bennett originally put in an application to extend the lodge and build a new property partly on land owned by the park, back in December 2006. Labour used their majority to pass this application, but it was held up until December 2007 because a strong local campaign was mounted to prevent the sale of the park land. Over 6000 people signed the petition, which drew universal support from the surrounding area, including Northenden.

Eventually the exec member of Parks, my predecessor Mike Kane, turned down the sale of the land, and the application couldn't go ahead. New plans were therefore drawn up that didn't include the purchase of land, and these plans were being discussed yesterday.

The application was heard. Those objecting who spoke were:

Jinny Shaw - who represented Didsbury and Northenden Civic Society, West Didsbury residents Association and Friends of Marie Louise Gardens.

John Leech MP - MP covering Didsbury West

Cllr Lianne Williams - Didsbury West, where MLG were

Myself - MLG is just outside my ward and many residents use it

Jinny was excellent, and powerfully put the case against. John and Lianne were also excellent, pin pointing the areas of planning protocol that weren't addressed. I represented the views of Northenden residents.

Bennett had his solicitor speak on his behalf.

The committee then discussed the matter. It came to light that the Highways department had only just received a late report that day, and hadn't even had a chance to read it. Nevertheless the planning department was still recommending approval.

Cllr Sandiford (Lib-Dem) highlighted this and moved that the application is deferred so that Highways can comment on this report - he was outnumbered by Labour members who voted in favour of an immediate straight yes or no vote on the application.

Cllr Sandiford then delivered a masterful case against the development. Cllr Lyons (Labour) said simply he was in favour of this and moved to approve. A vote was taken and 5 Labour Councillors voted for approval, 1 abstained, all 3 Lib-Dem councillors and 1 Labour councillor voted against approval. The application was therefore approved.

Those who voted for approval were (all Labour):

Cllr Lyons (Higher Blackley)

Cllr Fender (Old Moat)

Cllr Morrison (Fallowfield)

Cllr Ali (Moss Side)

Cllr Chohan (Longsight)

Those against (3 Lib Dem, 1 Labour):

Cllr Sandiford (Didsbury East)

Cllr Grant (Whalley Range)

Cllr Ramsbottom (City Centre)

Cllr Watson (Labour - Whalley Range)

Abstained

Cllr Keller (Sharston)

What made this vote especially galling is that during the Didsbury West bye-election, Labour leaflets were full of assertions that Labour was fully in favour of retaining the gardens, and against any future developments. Indeed ex-Cllr Mike Kane once addressed the Friends of MLG AGM stating how the Council is committed to preserving the gardens.

Local residents feel massively betrayed.

Rose Cottage Update

2009-03-10T13:48:00.000Z

1000 people have now signed the petition!!

Joy of joys!

Finally, the Rose Cottage petition has just reached it's target of 1000 signatures.
We are now ready to submit the petition to the Airport and, if need be, the Council.

May I thank everyone who has signed, and asked others to sign. Special thanks to those who collected using the paper version, and sent these in.

Leader of Green Party lends us her support

More great news is that Dr Caroline Lucas MEP, leader of the Green Party has also given us her support. In a press release she is quoted as saying:

"Rose Cottage is an important piece of local heritage, but this is definitely not just a local issue. If Manchester airport increases its air freight capacity, Rose Cottage won't be the only casualty. There will be bad consequences in terms of climate change, as well local traffic generation, local air and noise pollution and resulting ill-health effects.

The airport will talk about jobs, but the truth is that we can create huge numbers of jobs by greening the economy. Manchester and North West England could become major centres, and even leaders, of the green industrial revolution that Britain urgently needs.

We could fund much of Britain's economic recovery if we stopped giving aviation its billions of pounds of tax breaks every year, and if we made airports and airlines pay the full costs of their pollution. And Manchester airport could start by developing a proper sustainable development strategy. That would mean scrapping plans for new air freight facilities - and Rose Cottage would be saved."

10th consequtive slump in Air Freight at airport - 90 job cuts announced

February figures released last week show a continued decline in Air Freight at Manchester Airport:

These figures were released on the same week that the Airport sadly announced they were cutting 90 jobs.

Our thoughts are with those whose jobs are threatened.

Rose Cottage - what's at stake

2009-02-19T16:11:00.000Z

Rose Cottage

400 years old

grade II listed

This is Hasty Lane - where Rose Cottage is (click to enlarge):
This is what it would look like if the Airport got it's way:
And this is the proof we don't need to expand air freight:
If you want to help Save Rose Cottage, please sign our online petition:

http://ourcampaign.org.uk/RoseCottage

Could this man bring down Gordon Brown?

2009-02-15T15:28:00.001Z

Paul Moore - former Head of Risk at HBOS turned whistleblower

In today's IoS Paul Moore is quoted as saying:

"Brown presided over a policy based on excessive consumer spending based on excessive consumer credit based on massively increasing property prices, which were caused by excessively easy credit which could only ultimately lead to disaster. But no, in Gordon's mind it was all caused by global events beyond his and anyone else's control."

Which is the best summation of the current crisis I've heard recently. The fundementals are hardly new, however, as seen here in by our Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable in 2003:

"As the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meets, almost certainly to raise interest rates, there is growing alarm in government about an impending crash in house prices. Higher interest rates and falling house prices could trigger a bloody end to economic growth driven largely by unsustainable consumer debt tenuously secured against nothing more substantial than asset inflation."

Which doesn't trip off the tounge nearly as well, but when unpacked says much the same as Moore's analysis just over 5 years later.

Anyhow, enough Vince worship - Moore says he has 30 documents that could end Brown. Looks like this could be an exciting week ahead! This feels like it could turn into a mega big story.

3rd Poll Surge in a row.

2009-02-15T09:22:00.000Z

source: politicalbetting.com

Last week I reported a poll surge taking us to 22%. I added the usual cautious notes, however, as one poll on it's own isn't a reliable indicator.

Then a second poll came out with another, albeit more modest, surge taking us to 18%.

Well today I can report the latest COMRES poll has taken us to 22%, and this time only 3% behind Labour who have dropped to 25%.

There is, however, one slight cavaet. A poll released later last night from YOUGOV, puts us DOWN to 14% and Labour unchanged on 32%. This is slightly odd as Labour are in the 20's for all other three polls, and this is the only poll where our support is sinking rather than rising.

This might be explained by the near universal cry from all quarters that YOUGOV's internet (rather than phone) methodology is flawed, and is very unreliable.

For once, it seems the bad news is the abnormality, rather than the other-way round.

Canada vs Britian - who is best placed to weather the economic crisis?

2009-02-14T20:54:00.000Z

Brown has often said that Britain is best placed to weather the global economic crisis.

Here's what the Canadian Finance minister said recently:

Flaherty told CTV that Canada's banking system was stable and that the country had been helped by a decade of running budget surpluses.

"We have lots of room to maneuver at a time of crisis ... so we don't have to create permanent deficits," he said.

"The Americans, the British have a lot of trouble because they've been running deficits and when you hit rough waters like this and you start really spending a lot of money it's going to be hard for them to come out of it," he said.

According the World Economic Forum, Canada has the soundest banking system, whilst the UK is ranked 44th.

Second poll surge for Lib-Dems

2009-02-11T18:25:00.001Z

The second poll surge for the Lib-Dems at the expense of the two other parties is covered in Political Betting

Poll surge for Lib-Dems in latest ICM poll

2009-02-08T19:01:00.000Z

Political betting: http://politicalbetting.com/

Observer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/08/bankers-pay-darling

Sunday Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/4548307/Labours-support-falls-to-lowest-level-since-bail-out.html

A caution over the figures by UK Polling Report: http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/1873

Could this be the long awaited "Vince Cable" effect? Has the Million Door Challenge been met? Has news of Lianne Williams sensational by-election victory swept the nation?

Will be interesting to see next months poll, and other polls taken this month - will they also confirm a strong showing for us at the other two parties expense?

Save Rose Cottage Update

2009-02-08T08:34:00.000Z

This is a copy of an email I sent out yesterday, updating people over the SRC campaign.

Save Rose Cottage

Rose Cottage, situated on the historic "Hasty Lane" on the edge of Manchester Airport, is a stunning grade II listed 17th Century dwelling, beautifully maintained by the current tenants, a family of three.

The Airport plans to demolish Rose Cottage and three other tenanted properties, so that they can double air frieght capacity by building two giant air freight cargo sheds.

English Heritage, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit, the Council for British Archaeology all oppose the plans.

The Liberal Democrats, the Green party and Friends of the Earth have joined forces with local residents who are campaigning to Save Rose Cottage.

Dear friends,

I was in meetings for most of yesterday, so didn't have time to send this over, but I've got an important update for the Rose Cottage Campaign.

English Heritage Response

English Heritage (EH) have finally received the report from Manchester Airport's agent, White Young Green (WYG), stating that they will not re-draw the plans to incorporate the cottage into the development.

In turn, EH have written a letter to Manchester Planning Department outlining their advice, which I attach to this email. Here's an extract (emphasis mine):

The supplementary statement explains in considerable detail why the applicant believes that the operational requirements of the new development would make the retention of Rose Cottage in situ impractical. It will be important that the City Council satisfies itself on the validity of the arguments set out in the supplementary statement. If the City Council is convinced that these arguments are indeed valid, then it will need to consider whether the new development brings "substantial benefits for the community", which are sufficient to outweigh the loss of a nationally important historic building.

The application should be determined on the basis of a careful consideration of the extent to which any community benefits arising from the development proposals can be proven to be sufficiently substantial to outweigh the loss of a nationally important Grade II historic building.

Reading between the lines, EH seem to be suggesting WYG's arguments are both invalid and insufficient As an alternative plan incorporating the Cottage into the development is not forthcoming, then EH now remain in their holding position which is to "strongly recommend refusal". This is pretty strong stuff from EH, which is highly regarded by Manchester City Council.

So what does this mean? If WYG came up with a new plan, incorporating the Cottage in the design, then it may have been easier for the Planning committee to accept the application. This wouldn't be desirable from our point of view as four families would still be made homeless, and the Airport would still grow at an unsustainable rate. I believe it will now be more difficult for the planning committee to accept the application for demolition, on the grounds that EH now "strongly recommend refusal", and it will be difficult to prove that the benefits of demolition will "sufficiently ... outweigh the loss of a nationally important grade II listed building", especially when we're in a recession / depression. Air freight is rapidly receding (see next), not expanding. There are better things to spend £20m on!

Manchester air freight down by 42%

Manchester Airport air freight is in steep decline

Geoff Muirhead CBE was interviewed by BBC economics editor Evan Davis on 'Bottom line', a Radio4 show. Here is what was said:

Geoff Muirhead: If you were to look at air freight and 60% by value of goods that this country imports and exports comes in air freight, air freight's off by 30%. [pause] And I mean that's a reflection of what's happening in the world at large...

Evan Davis: That is a HUGE....

Geoff Muirhead: ...it is, the issue isn't whether we can cope with change, the issue is the pace of change at the moment is unmanageable - and that's what we need to get under control.

The whole argument behind the Rose Cottage demolition is that air freight capacity needs to increase at such a rapid level that we should double it within the next year or so to cope. As is seen in this interview, air freight is actually decreasing, rather than increasing, so the economic argument doesn't stack up.

Manchester freight stats are available on-line: http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/manweb.nsf/Content/TrafficStatisticsArchive

As you can see, Jan figures show a whopping 42% reduction, compared to the same month last year. Hardly a sustainable argument for doubling air freight capacity. (Thanks to Vanessa Hall from Manchester Greens for pointing me in the right direction)

Now what?

I spoke with Planning again, and enquired about the impact of the EH letter. They told me that they have gone back to the Airport, asking them to come up with an economic justification for the expansion. They said that since EH's advice is to prove that this will bring substantial benefits for the community, they will be asking the Airport to do just that.

Then the planning officer dropped a bombshell - he told me that should the airport not be able to prove this, then he doesn't think the application will go to the committee at all!!

My heart kind of skipped a beat, so I jumped at the chance to really hammer the message home - "I do wonder if the Airport will be able to do this, because speaking frankly, if we are in a recession, or even now a depression, how much Air Freight capacity will we need over the next few years?" and "Do we really want to spend £20m on a white elephant?". The planning officer was unaware it was going to cost £20m, and seemed anxious to agree we "mustn't get this wrong!"

We will now have to wait to see how the Airport responds, and then see how the planning department responds to that response. It seems to me that the application hasn't changed, but the world around it has, as the worsening economic situation lends less credibility to the plan as every day passes.

I think we will have a window of opportunity to hand in a printed version of the petition to MCC between the Airport response and MCC's response - that way we might be able to influence what the planning department recommends. This segways me nicely to....

Petition and Facebook update

Since my last update, we have grown in the following ways:

Petition website

http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/RoseCottage

15th January: 547 Petition signatures

6th February: 559 Petition signatures

Please sign if you haven't - please forward if you have.

Facebook group

http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29124958897

15th January: 525 Facebook members

6th February: 528 Facebook members

Please join if you haven't - please forward if you have.

As you can see, we've hardly grown in the last 3 weeks. We must, must spread the word further and faster. Please, please, please, forward this email onto your friends and ask them to send it on also. We need to raise awareness further. We've had fairly good media coverage, but we're still under 600 signatures. We're really aiming for 1000, and we need to step up a gear to get that 1000 before the Airport respond to MCC. I will probably send out another email in the next week or two asking for more distribution.

If you've been collecting signatures using the hard copy version of the petition - thank you very much - hugely appreciated. Please make sure these are either sent back to me in the next week or so, or input on-line, as I may need to suddenly submit a paper version of the petition in the afore-mentioned window of opportunity.

The following organisations are leading this campaign:

Contact: Cllr Martin Eakins, Parliamentary Spokesperson for WSE, 07507 8547101, 0161 2152930 cllr.m.eakins@manchester.gov.uk

Contact: Lance Crookes, Northenden Green Campaigner, 07951508630, catslab@tiscali.co.uk

Contact: Ali Abbas, Manchester Friends of the Earth, ali@manchesterfoe.org.uk

Bye bye Lucy Powell - hello Cllr Lianne Williams!

2009-01-30T21:39:00.000Z

Cllr Lianne Williams

Manchester Labour, and especially Labour PPC Lucy Powell, were dealt a crushing blow at the polls last night as the good people of Didsbury West elected Lib-Dem Lianne Williams in the Didsbury West by-election.

The vacancy came about after the sad death of friend and colleague Cllr Neil Trafford (33), who tragically died in a car accident on the M6 late last year.

Cllr Williams saw off a strong campaign from both Labour and the Tories to increase the majority we had last may.

Lib-Dem 08: 1283
Lib-Dem 09: 1439 (+8.4%)

Labour 08: 620
Labour 09: 638 (+1.9%)

Conservative 08: 451
Conservative 09: 337 (-3.6%)

Green 08: 281
Green 09: 173 (-3.6%)

Turnout 08: 27.6%
Turnout 09: 26.1% (-1.7%)

Lianne will make an excellent Councillor, and will no doubt ensure both John Leech MP remains in post, and help us take control of Manchester City Council.

Labour block restrictions on Combat Knife sales

2009-01-30T21:22:00.000Z

Here was the speech I delivered on Wednesday:

Lord Mayor, fellow councillors, good morning.

This month marks the first year since my colleague and I were held up in a bar in Northenden at gun and knife point.

As the leader of this council would agree, it is never a pleasant experience to be robbed, and unfortunately weapons are often used to ensure resistance is minimal.

That is why it I pushed so hard to successfully get replica hand guns removed in Northenden, and this is why my colleagues and I are pushing so hard to remove combat knives from display in our city.

Members may be interested to know that less than a mile from this chamber, you could walk past a shop openly displaying combat knives in it's front window.

When I showed Cllr Ramsbottom the shop in question, a couple of young people who were passing stopped to look at these knives also. The age and the interest shown by these youths did not escape our attention.

Nor has the fact that Greater Manchester has the third highest number of knife attacks anywhere in the country.

Only last week an innocent youth was stabbed in the face in Wythenshawe. He was lucky to survive, and thankfully only needed stitches, but others and not so lucky.

It is indeed depressing to read how many, mostly young people are fatally stabbed every year in Manchester.

This is why it was no surprise, when Cllr Ramsbottom and I met with the police, that they offered us their support.

Would such a restriction work in practise though?

Two weeks ago a bill was introduced to Parliament outlining how the Government wants to remove tobacco from open display in all shops and supermarkets.

The Government noticed that when Canada did this, it coincided with a drop in smoking rates for teenagers.

The same principle should apply here. If the government believes that removing a product from display will reduce usage of that product, surely by removing combat knives from display will have the desired effect of reducing knife crime.

Our city expects us, their political representatives to uphold our highest duty – to protect our citizens from harm.

We are responsible for doing all we can to make sure we fulfil this duty. We have an opportunity right here in this chamber, today, now - to do something positive, to fulfil that duty and make that choice. I urge this council to pass this motion unamended.

Labour's response was to move an amendment that deleted our motion entirely and replaced it with one that congratulated themselves on various knife control measures, and stated that they would continue to campaign for a "National Code of Practice to control the sale and display of ... knives".

A Code of Practice would not be enforceable, and would only be taken up by businesses on a voluntary basis. It would also have to be passed in Parliament, beyond Manchester City Council's control.

It is not clear how the Council would persuade the Home Office to put such a bill into the next Queen's speech, but even if it could then such a Code of Practice would be at least 2 years away, and only then as mentioned, taken up voluntarily.

The Lib-Dem motion would have meant a Manchester wide ban on the display of combat knives in months.

The Labour effort meant persuading parliament to introduce a voluntary code of practice which would only come into effect sometime after 2011.

Lots of speeches were exchanged, and as usual Labour got quite bitter and personal, claiming we were soft on crime, that I was running on a "populist" agenda and that we were somehow making Manchester more dangerous. When I get the transcript, I'll post it up here, it should be hilarious!

After all the speeches, Labour used their majority to pass their own amendment.

Attempt to restrict Combat Knife sales

2009-01-26T16:25:00.000Z

I'll be proposing a motion to Full Council on Wednesday calling for the Council to pass a by-law restricting the sale of Combat Knives.

I've been working with my colleague and fellow Parliamentary candidate, Cllr Marc Ramsbottom on this since August last year.

The wording of the motion is as follows:

KNIFE CRIME
This Council notes:
Although it is illegal to carry a knife in a public place the current law does not prevent or restrict the open display of combat knives for sale in shop windows.
This Council believes:
That restricting the sale of combat knives will reduce the levels of knife crime and make Manchester safer.
This Council Instructs:
The City Solicitor to prepare local bye law that prevents the open display of combat knives in shop windows.

Not sure if Labour will support it or not, but it won't pass unless they do as they have the majority on the council. I'll make sure I'll keep you updated on this blog.

Dashing the aspirations of our youth

2009-01-20T20:27:00.000Z

I left a meeting fuming tonight, after hearing a Labour councillor rubbish the aspirations of our youth. The meeting was organised for councillors to hear the views of Wythenshawe Youth, and a selection of our finest told us that they wanted a leisure park built in Wythenshawe.

"Why is it that Stockport, Didsbury and Altrincham have bowling alleys, cinemas and the like, but Wythenshawe doesn't?" Said one.

"We have to spend our money on bus fares to get to these places. If we had it here, maybe we could attract other people to Wythenshawe and they would realise it wasn't that bad." Said another.

I explained that when I raised this very proposal at the Economy Committee last year, which was looking at Wythenshawe Regeneration, a couple of councillors (Labour - but I didn't mention that) branded the idea as "ridiculous". I asked if the proposal had widespread support and they responded that it did.

What bothered me the most, was when I had a discreet chat with a (Labour) councillor afterwards, suggesting that he passed on the sentiments of these young people to his Labour colleagues on the Economy Committee, he told me that he didn't feel it was a "realistic" idea, that the young people should be aiming at smaller gains.

So it's realistic for Trafford, Stockport and South Manchester to have these leisure parks, but not Wythenshawe? Our young people are too ambitious?

This is the problem with Labour - they think Wythenshawe people should lower our ambitions from the rest of the world, that we should set our sights low and be grateful for what we get.

This is probably why when people come up with positive, constructive ideas, instead of listening, they attack back, and dash the hopes and aspirations of those they serve.

Manchester Airport in Gatwick bid

2009-01-19T15:23:00.000Z

The MEN are reporting that Manchester Airport Group (MAG) have launched their bid to buy Gatwick.

This comes one month after the confidential report, "Manchester Airports Group Corporate Strategy", was presented to December's executive committee, and 5 days after Manchester's "Call to Action" Climate Change plan was presented to the same committee.

Liberal Democrats and Green groups were unimpressed with the exclusion of aviation emmissions from the CO2 reduction targets.

Leader of the Manchester Liberal Democrats, Cllr Ashley said: "No climate change policy worth its salt would let Manchester Airport off the hook. Labour's do-nothing line on the airport reminds me of George Bush's line on Kyoto - that no one had to act until everyone signed up. It's an abdication of leadership."

The next day Heathrow was given the green light to build a sixth terminal and 3rd runway.

Have we reached Peak Oil yet? If so, then aviation would become rapidly more expensive in the next few years meaning demand will inevitably drop. If this is true, then it doesn't make sense to expand airports, as there won't be enough demand for them to fill capacity.

Gaza - who started what. when?

2009-01-17T19:37:00.000Z

I went to a meeting about the Gaza conflict in the city centre today. The discussion was about what we could do to protest about the conflict.

Hind Hassan, a National Union of Students Executive, member told us that the Israelis started it on the 4th November 2008, when they broke the ceasefire and attacked Hamas "when the eyes of the world were on the US election". 6 Palestinians were killed.

Hamas responded by firing 30 rockets into Israel. No one was injured or killed. Then it all went quiet.

Fast-forward to just after Christmas. Hamas offer to extend the ceasefire if Israel ends it's 2 year blockade. Israel refuse. Hamas start firing rockets and all hell breaks loose. Israel are set to announce a "truce" today.

I think it was cruel of the Israelis to blockade Gaza. When we disagreed with the political leadership of Zimbabwe, we sanction the leadership, not the entire country. When Israel disagreed with the election of Hamas, they punished all of Gaza. I think this is a disproportionate response.

When Israel broke the ceasefire on Nov 4th 2008, Hamas fired 30 rockets, then left it at that - so did Israel.

Should Hamas have waited further before resuming hostilities? Israel wouldn't play ball, and they ignore UN resolutions, so would further attempts at talks or peaceful resolutions have helped? It would seem hostilities backfired, so perhaps it would have been the least worse of options.

Then again, Hamas might argue, would you rather die a slow and painful death in the prison of your home, or die quickly fighting against your oppressor? Hamas chose the latter.

It was pointed out that Manchester City Council invests it's pension fund into Israeli firms. People wanted to boycott Israeli goods and lobby the Council to end it's Israeli investments.

UPDATE 22:30: Israel confirms ceasefire.