Posts Tagged ‘Leah Fraser’

Jan 8 2010 – re an article by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

Fire engine at Liscard Hall after the arson attack

Today’s Liverpool Daily Post runs an article about the decision to grass over the site formerly occupied by Liscard Hall, in Seacombe’s Central Park, following an insurance payment of £117,810 after its demolition.   This magnificent building was torched by arsonists who were able to get in because the security measures in place failed to keep them out.

Readers will recall how local Liscard Tory Councillor Leah Fraser rushed to her pen, scratching off a litany of questions for the Liberal Cabinet Member, Cllr Simon  Holbrook.  She demanded to know what measures he had taken to ensure the Hall’s safety from fire, from vandals, etc etc.   It looked really bad that this seemed not to have been done - but that turned to acute embarrasment when Labour reminded Cllr Fraser that she personally chaired the very Council committee with responsibility for Council owned buildings.  

We asked her whether she had initiated any of those safety precautions she rattled off at Cllr Holbrook.  The Hall was, after all, lost on her watch.  Surprise, surprise, she has never given an explanation of why she did none of the things she demanded of somebody else.  Had she just forgotten that she had that responsibility?  We would love an answer.

Readers will recall that when the Hall first became available her priority seemed to be to gift it to a private school on a peppercorn rent of £1 a year.  That caused a storm of local protest from the people who actually use the Park and wanted it for community use.

Meanwhile it seems like characteristic Tory spin when she is quoted in the ‘Post’ as saying:

“What a shame that it took the destruction of the building to make the council sit up and take notice.”

Seems puzzled about something here.

Err …  Has she forgotten that she is a Member of that Council, which she condemns as though it is something she has nothing to do with?

Err … Has she forgotten that she led the very committee of that Council with responsibility for Council owned buildings?  (Before she chaired it she was the Tory Party Spokesperson.)

Err … What was she doing all that time?

Revised 14th December 2009

Sure Start was introduced by our Labour Government.  

The Children's Centre where Sure Start is based. A great Seacombe asset under a Labour Government.

Brought in to ameliorate and remedy more than a decade of under 5s neglect, following the dark years of the Thatcher/Major Conservative governments, Sure Start has been of immense benefit to children and young families all over the country; nowhere more than in Seacombe.

The Tory attitude to children’s welfare was demonstrated by Mrs Thatcher when as Education Minister she notoriously ended the daily milk allowance given to all children under a previous  Labour Government.  Older readers will recall the widespread children’s slogan at the time: ‘Tory Thatcher, milk snatcher.’

Should David Cameron ever lead a government in this country then measures already revealed as Tory policy in their publication ‘Helping new families’ would demonstrate their cynicism. They intend to cut £200 million a year from Children’s Centres to spend elsewhere.    This they describe as ‘helping’ families as though by attaching the positive term ‘helping’ to a savage cut they will in some way win over the public mind.   

Their planned funding reduction would cause many Sure Start centres to close at a time when their leader has declared that they will give enormous tax cuts to the millionaires such as the bankers and financiers who led the world to economic collapse.  There are 14 millionaires in Cameron’s shadow cabinet.

As many as four of Labour’s Sure Start Centres could be lost on Wirral. 

But why should the truth get in the way of Tory propaganda?  A Wallasey Tory Councillor (who should know better)  has raised a motion to Council fancifully alleging that the Council intends to introduce huge cuts to Sure Start. It’s not true and she knows it’s not true.

 Here is the truth:

• No Sure Start Centre has had any funding reduced – and the Tory lady knows that very well.
• No future Sure Start plans are threatened in any way -  and the Tory lady knows that very well.
• The Labour Government provided full year funding for the second phase of Sure Start – and the Tory lady knows that very well.
• Funding left over from the previous year has not been taken away but has been used precisely to fund activites for under 5s – and the Tory lady knows that very well.
• These additional activities for under 5s will also attract Sure Start funding – and the Tory lady knows that very well.
• Savings have occured because the Council was able to use outstanding Sure Start grant for activities that would have otherwise had to be funded by taking resources from other areas – and the Tory lady knows that very well.

Labour created it. Labour will protect it. Would you ever trust the Tories with it?

Can it be that what the Tory lady has grasped best of all is that smoke screens are needed by her Party because the reality is so utterly different? 

According to this absurd Tory logic their way of  ‘helping’  families is to support them in the way a rope supports a hanging man.