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December 2007 Archives

Merseyside's cash injections - Europe cuts the dose

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 30, 2007 10:17 PM

Merseyside’s next chunk of cash from the European Union has been announced – and as expected it is far less than the funds channeled to the region over the last 13 years.
With the EU’s limited regional development pot now being concentrated on the relatively poorer new member states in the centre, east and south of the continent, Brussels allocated the last of its Objective One money to Sefton and co. back in September.




Benazir Bhutto and the quest for democracy in Pakistan

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 30, 2007 10:02 PM

I have no intention of holding forth on Pakistani politics – my scant knowledge of its affairs is gleaned purely from some of the more striking pieces in our press over the last few years.
Now the horrific assassination of Benazir Bhutto (and numerous of her followers) last week has crystallised world media attention on the knife-edge politics of what is one of only eight nuclear-armed nations, plus a major hub of the Muslim world.


The late James Beecroft and old-school political journalism

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 28, 2007 9:17 AM

I felt genuinely quite honoured to write an obituary piece for today’s edition of the Visiter on the life of Ainsdale journalist James (Jim) Beecroft MBE, who has died aged 95.
 James was North West industrial and political correspondent on the Daily Mirror from 1956-75.

The politics of rubbish

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 23, 2007 10:24 PM

With the end of the year looming, it seems appropriate to both look back and consider the latest on two issues that proved most politically divisive (and therefore interesting) on Sefton Council in 2007.
First, let’s take the great bin collections bust-up, which came to the fore over the summer.

Meet the new boss - same as the old boss?

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 18, 2007 10:42 PM

Listening to Radio 4’s The World Tonight, and the two top stories are both internal party election results.

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Fighting his way to the top of the ANC - Jacob Zuma

Ain't no cure for the budget-time blues

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 10, 2007 12:00 PM

Sefton’s wedge of government grant funding to local authorities has now been confirmed, namely a 3.6 percent rise for next year.
 That’s slightly below the overall 4 percent for England announced by John Healey, the local government minister.
 

Standards Board probe for Cllr Debi Jones

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 8, 2007 10:57 PM

Confirmation that Cllr Debi Jones is to be investigated by the Standards Board of England, plus details about the nature of the allegations against her, has now been received.
It goes without saying that the proper process should be allowed to take its course.

Who’s Got the Power?

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 8, 2007 5:20 PM

A "tightly-knit group of politically motivated men" was how Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson lashed out at the leaders of the 1966 seamen’s strike.
Thirty-four years later, Labour Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott – in 1966 one of the leaders of the National Union of Seamen – shepherded onto the statute book legislation that was to lead to similar accusations of a shady stitch-up.
It was the 2000 Local Government Act which brought the cabinet system into local authorities – loathed by some as elevating a small coterie of no-doubt politically-motivated men and women to the status of super-councillors.
Yet a new report by the Department for Communities and Local Government has given the ‘executive arrangements’ put in place by the 2000 Local Government Act a big thumbs up.

David Pearson - My part in his downfall*

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 6, 2007 6:42 PM

* Apologies to Spike Milligan (and David Pearson)

Tomorrow evening sees Dukes ward councillor David Pearson try to overturn his suspension from Sefton's Conservative group, making his case at an appeal hearing before regional party bosses.
My colleague John Siddle has been assiduously following this story, which came as a genuine shock when it broke last month (as opposed to things you can see coming a mile off, which all hacks are guilty of calling shocks from time to time).
John's soundings are that the appeal could go Cllr Pearson's way - which would certainly be an awkward prospect for Tory group leader, Cllr Paula Parry.

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An accident waiting to happen - in more ways than one

Mersey municipal antics - Part two

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 2, 2007 10:22 PM

LOOK south from Sefton and what do you see – more high-level local authority feuding grabbing the headlines, this time on Liverpool City Council.

Mersey municipal antics - Part one

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 2, 2007 10:13 PM

SIDESTEPPING detailed issues about secret QCs’ reports, alleged feuding between senior officers and just what size payoff its chief exec was in line for, it’s worth considering just how bad things on Sefton Council really are. To be fair, that question is precisely what hacks, councillors and concerned bystanders have been asking themselves and each other since the whole tumult kicked off at a full council meeting in late October.

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Between the Lines in the December 2007. They are listed from oldest to newest.

November 2007 is the previous archive.January 2008 is the next archive.

Many more can be found on the home page or by looking through the archives.