Posts Tagged ‘Wirral Conservatives’

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?

26.11.2009 

Are we witnessing a deepening Wirral east/west ‘Blues-news’ tiff?

The Council’s attendance at Expo 2010 in Shanghai seems to be causing differences between the different ‘Tory Tendencies’ on Wirral.  It has the ‘broad’ support of Wirral Blue leader Jeff Green, according to this week’s Wirral News, but he doesn’t seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet as Wallasey’s Top-Tory, Cllr Blakeley. For more information about their differences log onto  Wirral News website. 

Cllr Blakeley argues that the cost of sending the Council’s officers to bring in overseas investment should fall to a private construction/investment company; but his ‘all Wirral’ Tory Group Leader Cllr Jeff Green is reported to be broadly in support of the Borough acting directly to drum up the much needed investment; investment that could transform the area, bringing in thousands of jobs.  

Whoever leads the Wirral Tory Group next year let’s hope it’s somebody who can manage a smile, but they seem a bit short in supply just now. If they can’t manage a smile, could they manage a municipal administration?

Crude Tory Party plans to politicise the British police seem to be moving a step closer – or would be in the disastrous event that they should ever again form a government.  This latest Tory shift ever further to the right wing of politics is a dramatic departure from the long established British consensus that our Police Forces should not be tainted by Party-political direction.   The links below illustrate just what many of the UK’s most senior police chiefs think of it.   

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8369536.stm 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/12/police-chiefs-row-with-tories