HANDS up – the past fortnight has not been the most timely for Between the Lines to go into recess. Political developments locally and nationally have been legion as election fever mounts.
This week’s Visiter gives each party a black-ink soapbox to address Southport voters ahead of May 1.
The Liberal Democrats’ statement by Cllr Sue McGuire – the local party chair who is tipped by insiders for higher office – plays big on the calls for localism that Nick Clegg set out at his party’s spring conference. Opposition to the ‘quangos’ – aka trusts – which govern our local NHS and are reportedly at loggerheads over funding to S&O Hospitals, is key here. More exclusive to Sefton is opposition to the £236k pay-out to Graham Haywood, which Cllr McGuire told me was playing well on the doorsteps as voters feel an increasing pinch in their wallets in today’s unsteady financial climate. The Liverpool Daily Post – whose ‘meta-coverage’ of Sefton is here – informs us that the inclusion of this in Lib Dem leaflets attracted Labour and Tory ire at Sefton’s last cabinet. And interestingly, for all the allegations of profligacy that Cllr Robertson and co have mounted against their political opponents over the past 12 months, it has been the Labour and Tory leaders who have expressed disquiet over the terms of the sales of the former council industrial estates – the value of which have shot up by c.£4million since they left Sefton’s hands.
And the Conservatives? Phil King makes much of the name recognition of the Tory slate. This is logical in the rather unusual circumstances of a contest where all 7 resort councillors are standing again – and when sitting Lib Dems Cllrs Dodd, Lord Fearn, Fearn and Hands are veritable old-hands who topped their party peers in the 2004 election blow-out (as did sitting Tories Cllrs Porter, Glover and Pearson). Interestingly, there is no mention of the new AWC bins system in Mr King’s mini-manifesto. It was of course the Conservatives’ call for a review of the move to fortnightly collections of general waste – issued right before the polls – which was one of the most dramatic developments of 2007’s elections in Sefton. Twelve months on, and a statement harping heavily on AWC would have smacked of political monomania. But Mr King tells me that the issue is “still there” with voters and aspects of the service – including collection frequency – needs “reviewing and clarifying”. [An aside, BBC NW Politics informed we last week that a Tory-Lib Dem coalition that took over from Labour last May in Blackburn-with-Darwen enacted a manoeuvre back from fortnightly collections). But if the national media painted last year’s locals as a referendum on the bins, 2008’s contest is in their eyes all about the Brown Government.
Samuel Johnson said: "When you're tired of London, you're tired of life". And when you’re tired of elections, you’re tired of politics (unless your name is Robert Mugabe). As they say in America: ‘Bring it on’.
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