Cllr. Cooke's Blog.

Not so long ago, the imminent arrival of our latest family member prompted me to buy a bigger car (my little Yaris suddenly had one too few seats). Not being terribly happy about purchasing a great big 7-seater car I looked at ways of minimising its environmental impact and made sure to buy a diesel vehicle so that I could run it on biodiesel. I checked for suppliers and was pleased to see that biodiesel could be purchased easily across the country in a 30% B30 mix at Morrison’s supermarket. This week I went to fill up only to find the pump out of operation for the fourth day running. Staff informed me that Morrison’s had decided to stop selling it. I was pretty unhappy about this, so I wrote to Morrison’s to confirm the situation and get an explanation.Yesterday a press clipping from the Times arrived in my inbox via their press office

Here’s the story online:

‘Flexi-fuel drivers left high and dry after Government subsidy U-turn

Drivers who took the Government’s advice and chose a low-emission car could be left with a white elephant after a U-turn by ministers.

Britain’s biggest supplier of biofuels will announce today that it is closing its pumps because the Government is ending financial support from April.

It is the second time in five years that the Government has changed its mind and cancelled subsidies after encouraging motorists to invest in a particular type of green car.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7021180.ece

Anyone else pig sick of this government waving its environmental credentials around and hoping that nobody will notice that they bought them from an online fake diploma mill?

Salford council has enthusiastically embraced the Government’s Academy schools programme, which sees private groups running schools in return for ‘sponsorship’ which pays for a small part of the building of the school. And, as I mentioned a couple of posts ago,  rich religious men involved in the running of these academies have been busy donating tons of cash to the local Labour MP, Hazel Blears.

I’m sure I’m not the only person concerned about these academies – and not least because they don’t seem to be fulfilling the government promise of dramatically improving results (http://www.salfordadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/1189880_citys_alevels_among_worst_region).

But what also really concerns me is the way the council has replaced state schools with religious academies and consequently excluded non-religious teachers from jobs. Salford has the Oasis Academy on the Quays, which replaced Hope High in Claremont ward, and Salford City Academy, which was formally Canon Williamson High School. Canon Williamson was a CofE school, so it already placed restrictions of its employment practices by faith – so no change with the arrival of the Salford City Academy. Hope on the other hand was a standard comprehensive, whereas the Oasis Academy discriminates on grounds of faith in its employment practices:

“There will be a clear expectation that the person appointed as Principal of an Oasis Academy will be able to demonstrate their commitment to the Oasis values and behaviours which are the outworking of the Christian Ethos which underpins the wider work of Oasis and which is set out in the Education Charter (enclosed)”

(from the job spec letter, Jan 2010, to prospective candidates for the post of Principle starting Sept. 2010).

Now I have no issues with people holding a faith, but I am extremely concerned that tax-payers’ money is being spent on replacing a school which made ability to teach the sole criteria for holding a teaching post, with one that can employ, promote, or dismiss a teacher on grounds of adherence to their particular flavour of Christianity. Should a state school really be able to fire their maths teacher because she gets divorced, or converts from Protestantism to Catholicism? Should a council make people redundant by closing the school they worked in and then pay for a new school for which they are barred from working because they are not Christian?

I for one think this is an extremely worrying state of affairs.

Salford Council have given a loan of £350,000 to Salford City Reds to pay for the day-to-day running of the club (see: here). The council are also borrowing £20m to pay for a stadium for the Reds. Cllr. John Merry, Labour leader of Salford Council said: “The club puts a lot back into our communities and works tirelessly with young people and schools and we will support it like any other organisation that benefits the city in such a way” (from Crains).

It’s true, the club does put a lot back into local communities: it’s also run by its chair John Wilkinson who has been a prominent donor to, and supporter of, the Labour Party in the city. Wilkinson is also involved in property development across Salford. Remembering this fact prompted me to look at the business interests of some of our local MP Hazel Blears’s other donors.

They are:

• Isalamic multimillionaire Mahmoud Khayami, who is a major donor to the United Learning Trust (ULT), which just happens to run Salford City Academy.
• Jim Ramsbottom, millionaire Salford bookmaker and Manchester property developer.
• Anthony Bailey, A PR guru with connections to Saudi Royalty, Syria, and the Vatican. Bailey also happens to be a governor on the United Learning Trust mentioned above.
• Peninsula Business Services, which is jointly owned by Peter Done and his brother Fred – the founder and chairman of betting shops chain Betfred.
• Wilkinson Star, owned by Salford property developer and chair of Salford City Reds John Wilkinson.
• Lorian Properties Ltd, a company owned by North West property developer Brian Scowcroft
• B M Creative Management Ltd, owned by multi-millionaire media mogul and Labour peer Lord Waheed Alli

So, Hazel’s campaigns are funded by gambling, property development, and media interests, plus those involved in the City Academies project in Salford.

I’m sure that these facts are unconnected with Salford Labour council’s backing for big development projects such as the Worsley Race Course; their bid for a super casino and new stadium; and their enthusiastic backing of city academies.

Isn’t it time we cleaned up politics and political parties stepped away from vested interests? Do you trust Salford’s Labour cabinet to make huge decisions about developments and education in the city without remembering those who finance their campaigns?

I’d just like to promote a new campaign by Nick Clegg and LGBT Lib Dems calling for Marriage Without Borders – removing the gender restrictions on marriages and civil partnerships, and improving international recognition of same-sex relationships.

Please sign the petition; if you’re on Facebook you can become a fan, but do make sure you sign as well – and then invite your friends to become fans, and share the page on your own profile!

It’s tempting to crow about the disarray in the Labour Party as the latest challenge to Brown’s leadership emerges. However, whilst I think this will damage Labour in the polls, I suspect that Brown will weather this one and it will gently fade away. The truth is that Hewitt and Hoon aren’t big enough hitters, and Brown is supremely pig-headed, arrogant and stubborn: he simply cannot imagine that anyone could do a better job than himself. Mind you – it’s hard to find big hitters on the front benches of the Labour Party these days. Unless we see several cabinet ministers, or Brown’s most likely heir – Alan Johnson – come out in support of a leadership ballot before the end of the day I think Brown will be safe (at least until after he loses the next election).

Still – Labour activists must find this pretty demoralising. Huge division, massive party debts, and their own disgust at the corrupt antics of their expense-account abusing MPs will no doubt mean trudging out to get out the vote will be a task that’s hard to find motivation for.

The cynical bare-faced hypocritical cheek of Blears is both astonishing and legendary. First she backed a government decision to close maternity units across the country, then she came to the protests when our local hospital had its maternity unit closed. Now the local paper has published a story saying she’s fighting for the retention of the maternity services at the same hospital.

http://www.salfordadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/1187224_we_want_our_babies_born_in_salford

I must say – the Advertiser must have a very short memory because they appear to have simply published a Labour press release without pulling her up on her record at all – a real pity because the paper was a huge driving force behind the original protests. Iain Stewart – the Salford MP that has been squeezed out by boundary changes and a lack of support from Labour activists is a man who really did fight the closures – such a shame the supine local Labour party backed a greedy careerist in his stead.

Here are some of the stories from 2006 onward:

“SALFORD MP Hazel Blears has sparked anger and confusion by suggesting she has helped save Hope Hospital’s maternity services”.

http://www.salfordadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/532121_midwives_slam_mps_hospital_claims

“Labour Chairman Hazel Blears was accused of hypocrisy after she joined a demonstration calling for maternity to continue at Hope, despite supporting a national policy of maternity reconfiguration.”

http://www.salfordadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/523313_hope_for_maternity_services

“What’s really made me angry is the way this city came together with a brilliant campaign in the Advertiser and it just fell on deaf ears. John Merry and Hazel Blears should have done a hell of a lot more but really they’ve just been paying lip service to it. It’s a shame that despite all the effort from everybody it’s just been iced over.”

http://www.salfordadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/521195_hope_campaign_united_our_city

“I don’t think that Hazel Blears has a very good record in Salford and I don’t think it is a socialist one. She was in the government when they closed down three of the post offices here and when they were closing down maternity units across the country. She campaigned against the closure at Salford Royal but she was closing them down elsewhere.

http://www.salfordadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/1122567_union_boss_vows_to_fight_next_election

“Hazel Blears, the Labour Party chairwoman, has been accused of hypocrisy after she joined picket lines to protest against a threat to close her local maternity services…critics said she had supported closures elsewhere to end NHS deficits”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blears-accused-of-hypocrisy-after-joining-protest-over-hospital-closure-430092.html

‘Campaign group Health Emergency accused Ms Blears of being hypocritical by opposing local closures while supporting central government policy.

Health Emergency’s head of campaigns, Geoff Martin, said Cabinet ministers were only supporting local protests “in a bid to save their own political skins.”

“There are 29 hospitals up and down the country facing the immediate threat of cuts and closure to key services in 2007.

“Will Hazel Blears be joining demonstrators on the streets in each of those areas or is this just a classic case of ‘not in my back yard’?”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6213445.stm

The voters of Salford are thankfully not as stupid and ignorant as Blears and Labour treat them.