Cllr. Cooke’s Blog.

Gordon Brown lectures us all on the need to stop over consumption before jetting off to the G8 meeting and discussion the hunger, food and poverty crisis rippling across the world. And what does he do at the £285 million event – why join the other world leaders in tucking into the most extravagant meal most of us can imagine: champagne, corn-stuffed with caviar, sea urchin, winter lily bud tart etc. Before tucking in to the eight course meal Brown’s mate George Bush spoke of his wish to see a world free from the tyranny of hunger.

And politicians wonder why everybody hates them and thinks them venal hypocrites.

Well, it’s certainly been a while since I last updated this blog (or even looked at it to be honest), so now I’m getting down to dusting off the cobwebs. The truth is that I’ve been enormously busy and far too stressed to write blog entries or even look at other peoples’ blogs.

I have an ever increasing stack of housing related casework - and with over 16,000 people on Salford’s waiting list for social housing and only a few dozen available homes this is not surprising. I first started highlighting the depths of the housing problem in the city about three years ago. Back then there were somewhere over 12,000 people on the waiting list. The council has set itself a target, which is supposed to be both achievable and stretching, of building 200 affordable homes next year. Social landlords are building only a handful of new homes for rent each year. I can’t see my casework load on this issue getting any lighter in the future. It’s utterly heartbreaking - some of the stories I hear from people who contact me are profoundly depressing.

And today’s election result in the safe Tory seat of Henley got me thinking - if people think that the Tories will be there for the poor then I think they’ll disappointed. For those who’ve not heard, perhaps because the elections in Zimbabwe are taking centre stage in the news, the Conservatives had a slight dent in their majority, we held our own and Labour lost their deposit after being pushed into fifth place by the BNP and Greens. Looks like things are going well for the Conservatives right now, but we seem to be holding steady and Labour are all over the shop.

Anyway - back to the grind; I still have masses of casework (and a Masters Dissertation) to crack on with.

So, governors and parents oppose the council’s plans to merge Swinton High and Moorside High and site them on the playing fields of Moorside Primary School. I have my own concerns about the merger - especially for the residents of my ward who’s homes sit a few feet from what would be the main entrance for the new school and which would see all of the construction traffic. I also have considerable worries that concreting over a large part of the field would cause flooding on the East Lancs and in the playground of the primary school, which has suffered flooding of the playground for many many years already. The playing field is practically a swamp already, cutting it in half would not only be yet another chunk playing field removed to add to the huge list that has disappeared under Labour, but also exacerbate the existing problem.

Notwithstanding my concerns - the council yet again appears to have decided on its course of action ahead of its consultation. On this it has a great deal of prior form.

These quotes from the MEN paint a sorry picture:

“Salford council insisted the merger was `not for negotiation’ but said it would be open to discussion about the location of the new school.”

“When we got to consultation, the governing bodies have said they would like us to have another look at this issue again.

“It is not viable for the schools to continue separately and we are looking at building a school for the whole of Swinton.”

“It is something we have got to press on with.”

“The only site we have got is the Moorside playing fields.”

So; they’ll consult but ignore anyone who doesn’t want the merger and they’re open to discussion on the new location but will only consider Moorside playing fields! You can have any colour you like so long as it’s black.

I wish I were surprised by this attitude but it’s par for the course.

Read more…

I spent most of yesterday down in Crewe helping in the bye-election. On the doorsteps it was a generally friendly affair – I bumped into Conservative activists from around the region and they all seemed to be acting good naturedly, and our activists were visible all over the place. Labour seem to be concentrating entirely on trying to look busy and seem to be doing less leafleting than us or the Tories. I’m pretty certain that all of their efforts are concentrated on trying to drag out their core vote through targeted letters and phone calls – the repeated attacks on the Tory for being a ‘toff’ are a pretty good indication where their strategy lies. I was in quite a few part of the constituency during the day and it was clear that there are some areas of very strong support for the Tory candidate and others where we are clearly in the lead. I saw no signs of a ‘Labour heartland’. Time will of course tell, but I couldn’t avoid coming away with the feeling that Labour have given up on winning and are instead desperately trying to avoid coming third.

While I was at our HQ our party president, Simon Hughes MP approached me to offer his congratulations on our local election result; particularly in Langworthy. He said that he’d written a note to our leader flagging up our success. Nice to know that even way down south they’re thinking of us.

One last frivolous thing - I picked up the latest Labour leaflet whilst in Crewe. Quite bizarrely it smells strongly and distinctively of fish. I wonder if it’s the inks or if it was stored next to a bag of kippers. Labour’s message is in fact a bit fishy - no word of a lie!

In an attempt to pull the fat out of the fire before the polls close in the Crewe and Nantwich bye-election the Chancellor has announced a bodge to offset the damage caused by the abolition of the 10p tax rate.

Two months after the budget (and well after a year that Labour were warned by the Lib Dems of its effects), Alistair Darling has effectively announced a second budget. His plan is to borrow £2.7 billion to offset the losses of the 5.3 million people who lost out earlier this year.

Not only are 1.1 million of the poorest families still loosing out, and notwithstanding that the measure is only temporary, but this money is still having to come from somewhere. Britain has one of the highest levels of budget deficit in the developed world. Darling’s mini-budget will creates an inflationary pressure on the economy when there’s nothing left in the government kitty. It also puts extra costs on businesses which have to re-jig their PAYE codes and tax-systems again. Those least able to cope with rising inflation and increased bureaucracy are the poor and small businesses – so the long term effects of this budget could rebound on the very people it’s being trumpeted as helping.

Labour will no doubt be expecting some other government to pick up the pieces after the next General Election, but right now, with debt and borrowing high and a shortage of cash, they must be praying that no expensive emergencies occur. Looking back over the past six months it’s become apparent that the government has lost its way and is now almost entirely responding to events rather than setting the agenda – a sure fire recipe for failure.

I almost feel sorry for Gordon Brown*, it’s like the whole world has been doing its best to make his life utterly miserable. Just how much more can go wrong for him?

Before we got to the count at the local elections I warned people that any losses faced by Labour would immediately be blamed upon the 10p Tax fiasco, the national position or Gordon Brown. I wasn’t wrong - Labour councillors and activists were falling over themselves to attribute their problems to the failings of the government (that or the evil and wicked Tories/Lib Dems with our terrible lies - I charge I found especially amusing given that Joe and I were accused of causing a crime wave by our Labour opponent). John Merry was immediately in the paper blaming the national position.

Anyone would think from listening to the local Labour party that voters in Salford are utterly content with the way the council’s been run for the last 36 years by Labour and that the government hadn’t put a foot wrong till Brown took over. How terrible for them that despite the fact that everyone in Salford is deliriously happy with Labour at a local level, the overbearing and unpopular government is causing them to lose elections.

Self delusion and a complete lack of self doubt are the hallmarks of a party that loves to claim credit and deny responsibility.

*only almost - his control-freakish authoritarian nature and pathetic attempts to avoid ever coming out out in favour of anything without mitigating it to such a degree as to make it meaningless is enough to kill the germ of sympathy within me - rather, I pity him.