Unbelieveable!

Its seems the Labour Party has written to Wirral to ‘seek’ some form of sponsorship for its 2011 annual conference which this year is being held in Liverpool.   You can read the letter to the Council Leader, Jeff Green by clicking HERE

The Leader of Wirral Council, Jeff Green, received his letter from the General Secretary of the Labour Party, Ray Collins, with an invitation to an ‘open day’ to discuss ‘commercial opportunities’ with ‘independent experts offering advice on making the most out of the event for Exhibitors and Sponsors’.   Cllr. Green said: “Labour’s hypocrisy is breathtaking.     For months, their MPs in Merseyside have been complaining that councils do not have enough money for really important services such as Sure Start, free swimming or libraries.  Yet, their leaders nationally, believe we are so awash with cash that we will hand some of it over to the Labour Party to pay for their conference in Liverpool.   “I do not know about the other councils in Merseyside but Wirral Council will not be using Council Taxpayers money to advertise, sponsor or subsidise the Labour Conference.   Our priority is to provide the services that people in Wirral want while freezing Council Tax and avoiding compulsory redundancies.”

All Our Yesterdays!

At lunch time today, along with my colleague, Cllr Ian Lewis I attended a TUC fringe meeting ‘Transport in The Cities’, at Jury’s Inn Liverpool hosted by PTEG.  (Passenger Transpor Executives).  The speakers included, Jack Dromey Deputy General Secretary Unite (he is perhaps better known for being the hubby of Harriett Harman MP) Mike Jeram, Unison, Stephen Joseph, Campaign for Better Transport, and Neil Scales, Chair of PTEG and also Director General and Chief Executive of Merseytravel.

The speakers, and the subsequent question and answer session was ‘Interesting’ however I felt that the ‘Union’ big wigs were living in yesteryear, and could not or would not recognise current financial conditions.   I was also amazed by the sweeping statement of Jack Dromey, when he said ‘Deregulation’ of bus services was the worst thing that could of ever happened.   If that is the case, why has his beloved Labour Government not reversed the legislation in the last 12 years they have been in power?   Come on guys it’s 2009, time to wake up and smell the coffee, and feel the cuts!

World Firefighters Games

Last night I attended the ‘Next Host Night’ for the World Firefighter Games held at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool.    All this week, Liverpool has been host to the games, however in 2010 Daegu in Korea will be the hosts.  

The evening was extremely well attended by about 1,000 people from all over the world, competitors, guests, visitors all mixing and learning about each others cultures.   The next hosts from Daegu put on traditional Korean entertainment, musical, theatrical and martial arts.   All in all a very enjoyable evening.