After watching this you’d have to be certified. Although this Channel 4 interview with Jim Devine, Labour MP for Livingston is a little over 10 minutes – it’s well worth it.

The car-wreck begins almost immediately and I don’t think Krish could quite believe some of the answers he was hearing…

During March and April, the Seedley and Langworthy Trust in partnership with Take Part Salford are hosting four ‘Salford Question Time’ events featuring the key political leaders in local politics. The Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives have all agreed to sit on the panel, alongside others with specialist knowledge.

Elected members will be addressing potential voters and confronting Salford issues in public. The format will be very similar to the BBC’s own Question Time TV programme and the events will also provide a training experience for members of Salford Community Media Partnership who would be involved in set design; sound; film and lighting.

Tickets are free, but there is limited availability – so book early.

The themes and dates are as follows:
* Housing & the Environment – Thurs 4th March, 7–8.30pm
* Economy & Employment – Thurs 11th March, 7–8.30pm
* Education, Children & Young People – Thurs 18th March, 7–8.30pm
* National Issues (MPs) – Thurs 8th April, 7–8.30pm

To apply for tickets and submit questions for the event, please telephone Seedley and Langworthy Trust on 0161 737 9918 or email: admin@sali.org.uk

No, it’s not Iain Lindley the Tory candidate over in Worsley & Eccles South – but our own Ian Lindley, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for North Durham.

Cut ‘n’ pasted from libdems.org.uk…

PPC for North Durham
Liberal Democrat candidate for North Durham

Contact Me

Email: Iplindley@googlemail.com
Website: www.ianlindley.co.uk

Over the weekend Salford Labour Councillor Derek Antrobus fell and broke his ankle. I understand he has had an operation, but should be home by now.

I and my fellow Lib Dems wish Councillor Antrobus a speedy recovery. We may be political opposites, but those of us involved in local (or national) politics are all doing it for the right reason – to help our communities and to make things better for the people who live here.

Get well soon, Councillor Antrobus.

I’m astounded by David Cameron’s pitiful attempts to “woo Liberal Democrats” to the Tory cause.  Clearly worried that a hung parliament is on the cards at next year’s general election, he’s stated “…between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats there is a lot less disagreement than there used to be.”

Cameron couldn’t be more wrong. Unlike the Lib Dems, he and his Tory party have no concept of what a fair Britain should look like. The Conservatives seem content to cut taxes for millionaires, while the Lib Dems would remove income tax for the lowest earners in the country (saving all those who earn less than £10,000 a year from paying a penny in tax).

Lib Dem voters (and indeed the wider electorate) will not be fooled by this wolf in sheep’s clothing who on one hand claims he wants “a fair fight” at the next election then with the other tries to cynically deceive the electorate by claiming that there is not much difference between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.

Don’t be fooled by Cameron and his upper crust Tory cronies, they are playing clever games. Cameron claims he wants a fair Britain, but there’s a world apart between Tory “fair” and our fair.

I’m flabbergasted at what Cameron tried to do: make the public believe that there aren’t many differences between the Lib Dems and the Tories and scaremongering our supporters into voting for them under the pretence that a hung parliament would be “bad for Britain”.

While I agree that a hung parliament is not ideal, a Tory or Labour government would definitely be “bad for Britain”. Our country needs Nick Clegg and Vince Cable involved in the next government, if it takes a hung parliament for that to happen – I’m happy.

In anticipation of today’s full council session, I recently wrote to Salford City Council to ask permission to make an audio recording of the day’s events. The city’s solicitor replied and answered that, no, audio recordings were not allowed – citing various reasons, including the possibility that the audio recordings could be “maliciously” edited.

Other councils such as Gloucestershire County Council, Haringey Council and Canterbury City Council have their own in-house audio recording systems (connected to the chamber’s already existing microphone loop) and provide downloadable audio recordings (in MP3 format) on their council’s own websites.

Why can’t Salford do the same? The apparent answer is cost. I was amazed to get an answer so quickly – apparently the city solicitor was aware of the high cost when he replied “operation of recording comes at a not inconsiderable cost both in terms of capital to buy and install the equipment and income with the cost of an operator and the cost of publishing the results to fund.There has been no provision in the budget for such expenditure.”

OK – if that is the case, then why not move the council meetings from the ridiculous start time of 9.30am to a more family friendly 7pm? The latter timeslot is currently when Bury Council holds their own council meetings.

Salford’s Labour leadership have consistently resisted the sensible alternative (to move council meetings to a more convenient time for those of us that have jobs) – which is why I suggest the release of audio recordings of full council (and perhaps other meetings too).

Salford Council do employ officers to take written minutes, but these are often laden with errors and omissions – as was proven today when virtually the first order of business was to make a correction and add in answers that were omitted from the written record of previous council. The minutes cannot be relied upon as a true record of events at council meetings, which is why audio recordings should either be allowable or even better, the council should make it’s own recordings and grant free access to them by whoever wishes to listen. Either that or change the start times of the session to a more agreeable slot.

Today I am launching my own campaign for Greater Access to Salford Council meetings. You can sign my petition here.

Join me in asking Salford City Council to be more open and honest about the democratic workings of our city – I believe we should be proud to do so.

It’s a little tongue in cheek, but there’s some good messages in this short video from Chris Davies MEP. Quite rightly, he asks, why should Blair be a shoe-in for the EU presidency? With the countless millions that live in Europe, surely the shortlist could be opened up a bit more (diversity anyone?)

What a disaster the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester turned out to be for the “government-in-waiting”.

Prior to David Cameron’s yawn-fest speech, where he told the country nothing new and mentioned in passing a few half-baked ideas, that Vince Cable dubbed “Lib Dem lite” – I came across this gem of a video on the BBC News website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8294010.stm

It’s definitely worth the two and a half minutes. Laugh along as various party conference visitors attempt to answer the question “What are David Cameron’s top 5 priorities?” – the question assumes he will become the country’s next prime minister of course.

Clearly, The Conservatives have no clue what they want or more importantly, what is best for this country. If they cannot agree on what the 5 most important priorities are for the next government – why should we, as voters, let them fumble their way around while they try and fix their “Broken Britain”.

Enjoy!

During today’s fantastic win for Unsworth U14B Juniors at home to Whitworth in the NBJFL Main Cup; I was shocked to see a bill that had recently arrived from Bury Council to the tune of nearly £600.

From 2008 it became a legal requirement for regular water safety checks to be carried out, to check for fatal conditions such as legionnaire’s disease. Bury Council previously carried out these water safety checks free of charge, but have now introduced an annual charge of £585.52

As a club, we have been told that if we do not pay it within 21 days, legal action will be taken to recover the cost and the club will be shut down. Further, the letter accompanying the “invoice” threatens our chairman with a CCJ if the bill remains unpaid.

Tory-controlled Bury Council’s callous attitude is revealed in this week’s Prestwich & Whitefield Guide, where Tory council leader Councillor Bob Bibby said “These self-managed centres cannot have everything their own way. If they want to self-manage their affairs, that includes taking on board financial commitments. It is up to them to put money aside for things like this, even if the notice period is short.”

Just like businesses and other organisations that have ongoing costs, our Unsworth Junior Football Club has a committee which meets monthly and one of our tasks is to budget for the year ahead. We take into account all costs (such as rates, utility bills, equipment, security, league fees and winter training costs to name but a few) when we set our player subscription costs.

Separate from our day-to-day running costs, we also have a development fund (ring-fenced from our main running costs) which is earmarked to refurbish our dilapidated clubhouse. For the last year, Unsworth Junior Football Club has been on a fundraising drive, led by my sister, Denise Middleton. It now seems that Bury Council expect us to spend our development cost on this on-the-spot water tax.

What should we say to all those children that gave up their Sunday afternoon last month and raised nearly £900 from a Sainsbury’s bag packing day? Sorry chaps, you worked so hard to raise money for a new roof for your clubhouse, but now Bury Council wants to steal most of it back.

No other Council in the Greater Manchester area charges for these essential water safety checks (which cannot be done by anyone other than the council) – this includes Salford Council, who I am regularly critical of.

It may be a co-incidence, but this decision by Bury Council to charge Unsworth Junior Football Club and nearly 30 other volunteer-run sites across the borough for water safety checks that were previously free, follows hot on the heels of a landmark employment case which Bury Council lost in August. Bury Council lost over £600,000 after losing an equal pay ruling which proved that women workers were paid less than their male counterparts. Cynically, it seems the Tory-controlled Council intends to recoup the money from volunteer organisations such as Unsworth Junior Football Club

I’ll be calling on Cllr Bob Bibby to reverse this decision at Bury’s full Council session at the end of this month, as I will be able to attend. Unlike Salford Council’s session, Bury’s is held at a family-friendly time of 7pm.

As a side-note, Bury Council’s further destruction of their local community continues with the news that they are about to agree to submitted ‘development’ plans that will see Prestwich & Radcliffe community venues such as The Longfield Suite and Radcliffe Civic Centre demolished.

It is times like these I am glad I live In Salford. We have learned to value our community and see the benefit community involvement gives back to our society as a whole. Perhaps, for once, Bury could look across the border towards Salford as a great example of how community facilities such as civic centres and sports facilities genuinely improves the lives of it’s citizens.

So after 12 years of Labour support, that cornerstone of tabloid journalism The Sun newspaper has determined that Gordon Brown’s Labour has failed Britain. What took them so long? While they may have decided that as a paper they will no longer endorse Labour, their story is hardly resounding support for a Tory government either.

After a complete list of Labour failings, the front page piece states “We hope, and pray, that the next Government will have the guts and the determination to do these things. And we believe David Cameron should lead it. Between now and the election Cameron’s Conservatives must earn voters’ trust by setting out their promising policies in detail.”

So what is The Sun saying to it’s readers? It seems the answer is: Labour have failed you, so we won’t support them – but we’re not convinced the Tories have the guts to provide Britain with the strong leadership it needs (or if they promise things, we don’t entirely trust them to deliver).

Inside The Sun asks the question “Who will you vote for?”

My answer is: I will vote for a solid, backable future for Great Britain. Neither Gordon Brown nor David Cameron can be trusted to take this country forward, but Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats have the intelligence of Vince Cable to ensure the stability of Britain and make it Great Britain again.

SIDE NOTE: Interestingly, Gordon Brown (in his keynote speech yesterday at the Labour party conference) pledged to hold a referendum on electoral reform should he win the next general election. The Liberal Democrats have been pushing for a referendum for years, but now perhaps Mr Brown has been convinced it is the right thing to do. It is.

Therefore, can we expect a similar referendum promise from The Conservatives?