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August 2009
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It’s political correctness gone mad, I tell you
While engaged in detailed and very serious research for the previous post, I came upon the wikipedia entry for Jeremy Hunt MP (Con). The entry states that Jeremy comes from an ‘economically priveleged family’.
Surely they mean ‘very, very rich’.
It’s political correctness gone mad, I tell you.
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Uncategorized
In praise of Conservative blogs
Here at the Bickerstaffe Record we take the Total Politics blog competition, in which we were voted second best councillor blog in the UK (wer’e not sure we’ve mentioned that) very seriously indeed.
We wait on the Mr Dale’s drip feed of top 10, and top 30 and top 50s and top 100s with baited breath.
It was then with [...] -
Being Labour, Cotterill on the Council, Leisure and culture
The Council and its shareholders
For West Lancashire Conservatives supposedly in charge of West Lancashire Borough Council, shareholder interests come before those of its citizens.
In July, a massive package of cuts was announced, with 57 jobs losses. In the run up to that decision, I asked senior officers whether Serco Leisure Operating Ltd, which has a £1million per year subsidy from the [...] -
Being Labour, Cotterill on the Council
The Audit Commission v West Lancs Borough Council
From a new Audit Commission report ‘When it comes to the crunch: how councils are responding to the recession’:
‘Demand has increased for housing benfrfit, and for debt and wlfare advice and business support in almost all councils. This is to be expecte in way 1………….Most councils expect further demand in these areas as wave 2 [...] -
Being Labour, Cotterill on the Council, Leisure and culture
Why are we waiting?
Mmm, I’m still waiting for the West Lancashire swimming usage figures we asked for. I’m after the figures April-June ‘09 period, the quarter following the introduction of free swimming for under 16s in most areas, but not Conservative-controlled West Lancashire.
As it happens, I took my kids swimming in Kirkby (in Knowsley borough) a couple of weeks ago. It was free for them. [...] -
Breaking News, The world beyond West Lancashire
Low speed thoughts on high speed rail
I thought I should put virtual pen to virtual paper about the report published on 26 August on the possibility for a high speed rail link between London and Glasgow,with spurs to Manchester and Liverpool. I have been asked for a local journo for some comment ad it would be easy enough to reel off the [...]
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Being Labour, Leisure and culture
A selective reading
The Chief Executive of West Lancashire Borough Coucil seems keen to maximise his column inches in Municipal Journal, the ‘industry paper’. Here he is on 06 August, sounding really rather proud of the council’s decision to slash services:
Michael Burton’s excellent recent editorial on the issue of the need for sharp cuts in public spending summed up well [...] -
Being Labour, Cotterill on the Council, Leisure and culture, Uncategorized
One Tory press statement, 5 paragraphs, 7 falsehoods
Our MP Rosie is keeping up the pressure on the West Lancashire Conserative Administration of Incompetence and Right Wing Dogma At the Expense of People’s Lives, or WLCAOCARWDATEOPL in its more common acronymic form.
You can see her call here, and her focus quite rightly is on standing up for the poorer families and young people [...] -
Uncategorized
Attacking the well-known
I’ve got two new posts up at my new alternative bloghome, in which I launch vicious scathing attacks on well-known people. Bet they’re scared:
Niall Ferguson as ‘poseur’: the case for the prosecution
Polly Toynbee and the Missing Mega-earning Myth -
Bickerstaffe Thoughts, Leisure and culture, Planning applications, The world beyond West Lancashire
The politics of tarmac
As part of the relocalisation strategy now being vigorously implemented at the Bickerstaffe Record, here’s coverage of a small piece of proposed tarmac at the Parish field.
I recently battered together the ‘greenbelt special circumsntances case’ for the Parish Council’s application to extend the car park slightly in view of the increased demand for space over recent years.
While the [...]
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