birkdale focus

Clegg's employee ownership initiative gets a boost

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:46:02 PST

I missed this article earlier in the week reviewing Clegg's speech on employee ownership. David Erdal who wrote it is author of Beyond The Corporation and has practical experience in the workings of successful enterprises that have been turned over to employee ownership:

A way of driving growth that avoids the corporate excesses of the past and addresses disparities in wealth and reward that are simply unfair - that is the holy grail of British politics today. The search appears under many rubrics: curbing crony capitalism, boosting boardroom responsibility, securing a fair deal for the squeezed middle.

In the last 10 days all three leaders of the main political parties have staked their claim to pushing a new, more responsible kind of capitalism. Yesterday Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg made the most substantive contribution to this debate so far.

Calling for a renewed focus on employee ownership in the UK economy, Mr Clegg pledged to identify a number of measures over the coming months to help ordinary employees hold a real stake in the companies for which they work.

In so doing he articulated a realistic path to giving more people a direct stake in the country's economic recovery - boosting growth whilst at the same time doing something about that intractable fairness issue. He should be applauded. For employee-owned businesses, which come in many different forms, are models of responsible capitalism - not just superficially, but in depth.

read the whole article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/david-erdal/nick-clegg-john-lewis_b_1208929.html

Southport's 'new cultural centre', update..

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:47:02 PST

Today I visited the building site on Lord Street where work on the former Arts Centre is well under way. The new building is certainly going to have a 'wow factor'. The new design has brought masses of natural daylight into what was a dark building. By opening up archways and long blocked up windows there are some striking long sight lines right across the building pretty well from the Cambridge Arcade to Eastbank St.

We began our tour at 1a Eastbank Street (which regular readers will recall was the address of FJ Hooper the Town Hall keeper who was part of Scott's last Antarctic expedition) It is called Eastbank Street-so I'm told-because the original building was a Bank and the architecture reflects that. We have some magnificent old bank buildings in Southport and this looks to have been as grand as many of them. The first picture shows the restored ceiling in what became the Atkinson Library

We had an enthusiastic host to show us around who explained in detail the work that has been undertaken. The old studio theatre has been transformed and I guess will become a very popular venue. It was not part of the original building but was added in the 1980's to the old Cambridge Halls.
Although it was full of scaffolding you really got a feel of what the old dance hall was like. Today it a theatre but with all the windows on the Lord Street side opened up it was transformed.
I guess the biggest impact will come from the light that will stream in from the glass roof above the central stairwell into the hallways.

During the renovation the builders have uncovered some forgotten mosaic floors. It is not clear if it will be able to include any of these into the final scheme. I think the team hope that one from the old banking hall (now the library) may be preserved.

I was struck by the electric blue tiles in the photo taken in the corridor outside the main theatre. Apparently the blue dye came from arsenic and there are very few examples surviving-which is not surprising as it must have had a very bad effect on the health of the workers. Thank goodness for modern Health and Safety. Talking of which there has not been any notifiable accidents at all during the building work. Up to 100 hundred employees have been on site from 15 different contractors.

When we got up to the roof you got to see some of the detailed restoration work close up that is normally hidden. Some of the sandstone carvings were impressive. I was good to learn that the specialist builders who was involved in this work had taken on a local unemployed lad who proved to have a real talent for this work. Some of the replacement stone work developed from moulds of the original was pointed out to us and it was pleasing to hear they were the work of the new recruit who has now been taken into permanent staff.

I had not realised that along the front of Cambridge Halls there are four figures all very well preserved. No one appeared very sure if they were Shakespearean characters, the season or the various ages of men.

The view from the roof-the picture was taken between the icy hail showers-gave some views of Lord Street

Southport Fernery in top ten

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:14:13 PST

I am not a regular reader of The Telegraph but my attention has been drawn to the papers gardening column which lists the Top Ten Ferneries in Britain and the one in Southport's Botanic Garden is listed at No2 and is described thus:

A splendid example of one of the many public ferneries constructed in the nineteenth century. Opened in 1876 and recently restored, the walls are covered in tufa, steps lead up to viewing platforms above grottoes at each end, and mirrors reflect endless ferny vistas

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningpicturegalleries/9026148/Top-10-ferneries-from-around-Britain.html?image=1

My thanks to David Cobham for drawing my attention to this item.

Save Southport Tourism Campaign video

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:03:06 PST

Meadocroft in call for conventional weapons to be updated

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:28:01 PST

Competition. Prize a pint of beer at the next Birkdale Beer and Bangers Evening

Ok this is 1961, but the recent death of Eric Howard former Chair of Southport YL's has brought into the hands of our resident historian a mass of press cuttings.

Eric was not only Chair of the YL's he was a wizard agent masterminding the Party's electoral success in Craven Ward. But more of that in a future posting. In the meantime can anyone identify anyone in the photo. I think most Southport Liberal should be able to identify at least a couple and there is one which Liberals from further a field should get

Percy the Town Hall keeper was a genuine hero!

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:47:33 PST

I scraped the ice off my window screen this morning wrapped up in a warm overcoat and a heavy tweed suit I still felt I was ill prepared for the weather.

At lunch time I entered the Mayor's Parlour to attend the unveiling of a Blue Plaque (possibly the only one in Southport) to commemorate F J Hooper -Percy to his friends. Percy was the Town Hall Keeper from 1922-1955 only breaking his service to serve in the armed forces.

He joined Scott's expedition to the South Pole (as the youngest member) as a steward but soon became part of the Shore Party. Scott reached the Pole on 17 January and so today was an appropriate day for the ceremony. Hooper was one of the team that found Scott's body. On show in the Town Hall were items that belonged to Hooper from the expedition. Apparently these turned up in the Botanic Museum and included a cotton shock-it certainly would not have kept him warm-the lowest recorded tempreture on the expedition was -39 F. He tracked miles across the Antarctic landscape pulling eye watering weights of supplies. He was awarded the Polar Medal from the King.

He gave his address at The Mayor's Parlour, Lord St. although he actually lived in a flat above the Atkinson Library at 1a Eastbank Street. He was not Southport's only link with Scott's ill fated exhibition. The photographer Pontin signed on the Terra Nova giving his address as Argyle Rd Southport.

This picture is believed to have been taken after he found Scott's body

The second picture shows Sefton's Mayor with Hooper's biographer Joan Smith who has led the campaign to have the Blue Plaque erected on the Town Hall outside the Mayor's Parlour where Hooper worked. Joan Smith has her own connection with the town her father and grandfather were managers of Boots the Chemist in Lord St.

We should add that Hooper was a great supporter of Southport FC

Hooper was also a character in the famous Ealing Film for which Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote the music

Jan Pallach

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:37:03 PST

Jan Palach was a Czech student who on 16/01/69 committed suicide in protest against the USSR occupation of his country. This happened on my birthday and as a teenager made a great impact on me. Since the Velvet Revolution he has been honoured in his home country.

The Sun and Oakeshott on equality

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:56:57 PST

Nice to see the Sun give such prominence to Lord Oakeshott's attach on Board Room inequality. But check out the comments from readers.

NEARLY 90 per cent of Britain's biggest firms have no female bosses, damning figures show.

There is no woman executive director at 310 of the top 350 companies.

And only 43 ladies are in the most senior roles — one fewer than in 2008.

The figures will put pressure on David Cameron to tackle the divide.

Last week it emerged the number of women in British boardrooms was at its highest level ever.

But Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott said this masked the low number who call the shots.

Unlike other board members, executive directors have full-time jobs running the company.

Ex-Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott uncovered the Government figures in a parliamentary written answer. He said: "Britain's big businesses are an old boys' club."

Cleggs: 'Industrial Democracy lite' a step in the right direction more still needed

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:05:23 PST

It has taken too long for Clegg to identify himself with long Liberal Party tradition of employee ownership and Industrial Democracy. It would be wrong not to acknowledge that this represents some welcome movement but it fall a long way short of the proposals endorsed by the Liberal party as I will discuss later on.

The Employee Ownership Association founded by Jo Grimond (Chair) and Liberal candidate Robert Oakeshott (Chief Exec) has today published a report on the wider case for Employee Ownership http://www.employeeownership.co.uk/news/news-about-eo/new-report-examing-the-case-for-expanding-the-eo-business-sector/

Clegg's proposals are in tune with new Labour's view about more active shareholder. The Liberal Party tradition whilst arguing for employee share ownership also argued that employees-where they owned shares or not -should have rights equal to shareholders. Here is the old policy:

'Liberal industrial policy has three objectives. Firstly, employees must become members of their companies just as shareholders are, with the same clearly defined rights. Secondly, it must be accepted that directors in public companies are equally responsible to shareholders and employees. Employees should be entitled to share in the election of the directors on equal terms with shareholders, and Works Councils representing all employees must be set up at plant level with wide powers to negotiate pay and conditions of work. Thirdly, employees should share in the profits of the company and the growth of its assets.'

This policy sets Industrial policy in a wider context-namely the desire to spread power and wealth. Influence is not dependent on share ownership but rather employees have rights because of the contribution they make to an enterprises success. It is a sign of the level of besottedness with capitalism that in Clegg's model share ownership is only factor. Finally the Liberal party policy was not a voluntary one. The Party wanted to:

The Companies Act must be amended to give all established employees in public limited companies a status comparable to shareholders. Employees must be given a share in the decisions and profits of the companies in which they work. Employees should be represented on the board of directors, or on a joint supervisory council.

So when Liberals talked of employee rights they did not have in mind just ''flexible working or parental leave' they wanted employees to have a share in decisions and not leave that just to the owners of capital.

Now none of this is to oppose full Employee Ownership. It is very much in the Liberal tradition. Interesting the EOA defines employee ownership as: “businesses in which the majority of the shares are owned directly by employees, or owned on behalf of all employees in some sort of special purpose legal entitity, such as an Employee Benefit Trust (EBT)”

Clegg quotes Mill and so shall I from Political Economy

It would have been more interesting if he had quoted from the Keynes inspired 1928 Yellow Book which devotes a whole chapter to Co-ownership but I fancy Centre Forum may not have been a congenial place for such thought. never the less the speech is strong on taking on vested interests. Let us hope that extends to the powerful vested interests of capital. We need to be careful who funds us!

Of course the model that has interested many of us is from Mondragon in Spain. It was after a visit to that region that Grimond and Oakeshott set up the Job Ownership Ltd-later EOA. In this model the employees own the company and have to buy shares to join. So there is no way that the interest of capital-which is often short term-can trump the workers. For me to make the proposal convincing we need to amend Company Law so that the requirement is statutory-although I can think of a few vested interests who would not be comfortable with that!

BBC radio 4 finally catch up with Grimond business/econ-still waiting for Clegg

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:13:54 PST

Radio 4 In Business is doing a programme focusing on the worker owned businesses of Mondragon in the Basque Region of Spain. Jo Grimond and Robert Oakeshott visited these successful enterprises. Today over 100,000 people work in these worker owned businesses. The mutual bank they set up has been described as the most successful entrepreneurial support system ever.

Grimond and Oakeshott returned and together set up a group to promote employee owned businesses. For generations this has been central to Liberal Party thinking . The model of shareowner capitalism under which Britain suffers need radical reform and employee ownership should once again become a core part of the Liberal platform. Such a system redistributes wealth, tackles mega pay, improves productivity, ensures business look to the long term as opposed to the short term interests of building shareholder value and can be begun now.

Many of us will have been frustrated by Milliband's tokenist response to high pay suggesting an employee should be put on the committee looking at board room pay. For Liberal who have argued that as a minimum their should be parity between shareholder and employees- and not just in relation to decisions on pay- that is not good enough. Shareholders, as they are at present constituted, are not the answer they are part of the problem not the solution.

Radio 4 website says:
In these tough times, are there better ways of doing business: worker cooperatives, for example?
In crisis-battered Spain, Peter Day visits the world's biggest worker coop in Mondragon, to find out what makes it different. And, in the UK where the cooperative movement began, will 2012, designated the year of the cooperative see the rise of the mutual business model?

The programme can be heard on BBC iplayer here

Lib Group named after Birkdale schoolboy launched-again

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:46:57 PST

Beveridge went to school in Birkdale. In the 1945 election he wrote supporting our candidate :

'I am more than sorry not to able to visit Southport during the Election because I will miss re-visiting one of the scenes of my childhood. With my sister I was left for three years in a small school in Southport from an age of 4 to 7 whilst my parents were in India. If, as many psychologists say, these are the most critical formative years of life, then Southport is largely responsible for everything I had done, including the Beveridge Report!

Yesterday John Pugh , Southport's MP,issued a press release re-launching the Beveridge group. You can read the response of party members response here

With an eye to the new parliamentary year and forthcoming legislation, the Beveridge Group has reformed and a new updated website is already up and running. The initiative follows widespread concern inside and outside parliament as to where Coalition policy on public services may be going.

We want to prompt a proper debate as to where the Liberal Democrats stand and importantly what we will stand for as well as engage those many members and supporters active in improving our public services and perhaps a little flummoxed by some of the initiatives coming out of government – particularly from the Tory ministers with a clear ideological axe to grind. The response from parliamentary colleagues has been very positive but the idea is to reach out beyond parliament and to those working in the public services whom the coalition may unintentionally have alienated. The message is ‘pitch in’.

The group was originally set up by John Barrett, Paul Holmes, Alistair Carmichael and John Pugh was set up at the time of the Huhne Commission and the party’s last review of its policy and exists according to Alistair, “to promote debate on the subject of public service provision within the Liberal Democrats. The Group seeks to advance thinking which will better define the public service ethos and its place in party policy. It seeks to re-establish the standing of people working in public services and to promote recognition of the contribution which they make to the wider community.

The Group approaches public service provision from the basic premise that public services must be accountable and responsive to community needs and wishes. They are therefore best provided by democratically elected bodies and as a consequence of that are most likely to be paid for out of general taxation which should wherever possible be progressive and transparent.”

Opinion: is the infant class size limit of thirty too inflexible?

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:34:04 PST

This is a cross posting from my colleague Simon Shaw with Lib Dem Voice. It has certain sparked a lively exchange.

The Chief Executive of the Lib Dem-controlled London Borough of Sutton, Mr Niall Bolger, has been in the news recently, flying a kite on the possible relaxation in the current statutory limit of 30 on class size for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, i.e. Key Stage 1 within primary schools.

Mr Bolger has subsequently clarified the situation by saying: “Increasing class sizes is not a Sutton Council policy or something that has been discussed at a political level.”. However, this recent report has reinforced my own personal doubts about the unintended consequences of the limit of thirty in infant classes.

I have been a primary school governor for over twenty-five years, and, in principle, the thirty class size limit is an excellent thing. However, I cannot help feeling that some limited flexibility might be helpful.

I want to highlight one of the little-known consequences of the class size limit. The specifics I describe relate to my own authority, Sefton MBC, but will apply to a greater or lesser extent in many parts of the country.

In the 2010/11 academic year Sefton Council had to allocate £156,000 to employ an extra teacher in each of four primary schools. The reason was that there were a total of just five children spread across those four schools which took a Key Stage 1 class over the national limit of 30 children per infant class teacher.

In the current academic year, 2011/12, the Council is allocating £118,000 to employ an extra teacher in each of three primary schools, each with just one pupil more than the thirty class size limit.

Accordingly, over two years, a staggering £274,000 has had to be found to employ seven teachers for twelve months so that just 8 infant pupils can be taught “legally”. But that money hasn’t come from the Council, or from the Government, it has come from reducing the funding to every other primary school pupil in Sefton.

So what is the solution I would like to see? The slight relaxation I suggest would be achieved by taking account of the use of teaching assistants. It seems to me to be bizarre that, while it is perfectly legal to have an infant class of thirty with one teacher who has little or no teaching assistant support, to have thirty-one or thirty-two pupils in a class is illegal no matter how much extra teaching assistant support there is.

Surely a common-sense solution is to change the law so that schools have the flexibility to go up to thirty-two children in an infant class, if they wish, but only so long as they have a qualified, full-time teaching assistant as well as a teacher.

Pressure on Reception class places (already strong in many parts of the country) is expected to increase further in the next few years. Without measures such as I suggest we are increasingly likely to see three problems:

• More parents failing to get their first preference of school.
• Councils and central government having to find significant sums of money to build extra classrooms – apparently Sutton Council has needed to spend £7 million in one year.
• Money being taken away from other primary school children (£274,000 over two years in Sefton Council) to enable what are often literally a handful of infant children to be taught legally.

Could a little common sense prevail?

Simon Shaw is a Liberal Democrat councillor for Birkdale Ward, Southport. He is Cabinet Member Environmental on Sefton MBC

The Liberal answer to mega pay

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:34:40 PST

Clegg failed to impress this morning on the Today programme over controlling top pay.I regret that asking shareholders to be more active is simply not the answer. Shareholders want the maximum return on their investment. they are here today and gone tomorrow-and in the new electronic age sometimes they only stay a nano second.

If we are to control top pay then we have to revert to the Liberal Party policy of giving employees at least the same rights as share holders. Personally I'd prefer our template to be closer to the Mondragon model which so impressed Jo Grimond,. So lets start proposing that as a minimum employees should have a share in the ownership and profits of all enterprises above a certain limit and rights to be on the board determining strategy and pay.

If you look at the Employee Ownership sector of the economy -including financial Mutuals - they have achieved a better control of executive pay as well as the other benefits of spreading asset ownership, better productivity, longterm decision making, happy workforces etc

FINAL PUSH TO HELP SAVE SOUTHPORT TOURISM

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:01:55 PST

Liberal Democrats in Southport are calling for local residents to help save the resort’s tourism industry.

As part of the drive to save £20 million next year, Sefton Council is looking at all its services to see if savings can be made. One proposal is to review the Council’s Tourism function with the “possible outcome of ceasing to provide a Tourism service”. The consultation process is shortly coming to an end.

Councillor Lord Ronnie Fearn was Southport’s MP for 9 years, during which time he was the Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman on Tourism. He said:

“Tourism is vital to jobs and to the economy generally in Southport. That’s why the idea of scrapping all Council activity in the tourism field fills me with horror.”

“Research shows that tourism is worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year to the local economy, and supports 5000 jobs. The Council plays a key role in supporting this key industry by promoting events, attracting conferences, which are vital to hotels and other businesses, and by operating the Tourist Information Centre, among many other things.”

Birkdale Lib Dem councillor Richard Hands, Chair of the Southport Area Committee, (pictured 2nd left) is also backing the campaign. He added:

“I appreciate that many residents and those involved in the sector have already responded to the consultation. But I am asking others, as one of their New Year’s Resolutions, to find 10 minutes this week to go on-line and express their views about this service which is so essential to the well-being of our town.”

Anyone wishing to respond to the Sefton Council Consultation on the proposal to cease the Tourism Service will find it at: http://bit.ly/tex6L7 . Alternatively a search for ‘Tourism Sefton E6.7a’ will also find the correct website.

Tories think about Council Tax rise

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:58:53 PST

I learn that Cumbria Tories and thinking about turning down Pickles grant and going for a rate rise.

Cumbria Council, a joint Conservative/Labour administration is proposing to increase the Council Tax by 2.5%.

Cllr Eddie Martin, the Council's Conservative leader said he “was inclined to go with the 2.5% increase next year” but had not yet got the agreement of his group.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2011/12/cumbria-considers-council-tax-rise.html

A better economic model-the missing Liberal ingredient

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:34:49 PST

Is there a chance that out of all the economic chaos a Liberal opportunity might arise. There is little appetite for bureaucratic socialism and the failure of neo con market solutions that led to our present mess has meant folk are looking around for a different model.

Thanks to all the people who sent me a link to this 'think piece' in the New York Times:

Worker-Owners of America, Unite! - NYTimes.com:

THE Occupy Wall Street protests have come and mostly gone, and whether they continue to have an impact or not, they have brought an astounding fact to the public’s attention: a mere 1 percent of Americans own just under half of the country’s financial assets and other investments. America, it would seem, is less equitable than ever, thanks to our no-holds-barred capitalist system.
But at another level, something different has been quietly brewing in recent decades: more and more Americans are involved in co-ops, worker-owned companies and other alternatives to the traditional capitalist model. We may, in fact, be moving toward a hybrid system, something different from both traditional capitalism and socialism, without anyone even noticing.
Moreover, this year some 14 states began to consider legislation to create public banks similar to the longstanding Bank of North Dakota; 15 more began to consider some form of single-payer or public-option health care plan............................................

Some of these developments, like rural co-ops and credit unions, have their origins in the New Deal era; some go back even further, to the Grange movement of the 1880s. The most widespread form of worker ownership stems from 1970s legislation that provided tax benefits to owners of small businesses who sold to their employees when they retired. Reagan-era domestic-spending cuts spurred nonprofits to form social enterprises that used profits to help finance their missions.

Recently, growing economic pain has provided a further catalyst. The Cleveland cooperatives are an answer to urban decay that traditional job training, small-business and other development strategies simply do not touch. They also build on a 30-year history of Ohio employee-ownership experiments traceable to the collapse of the steel industry in the 1970s and ’80s.

Further policy changes are likely. In Indiana, the Republican state treasurer, Richard Mourdock, is using state deposits to lower interest costs to employee-owned companies, a precedent others states could easily follow. Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, is developing legislation to support worker-owned strategies like that of Cleveland in other cities. And several policy analysts have proposed expanding existing government “set aside” procurement programs for small businesses to include co-ops and other democratized enterprises.

If such cooperative efforts continue to increase in number, scale and sophistication, they may suggest the outlines, however tentative, of something very different from both traditional, corporate-dominated capitalism and traditional socialism.

It’s easy to overestimate the possibilities of a new system. These efforts are minor compared with the power of Wall Street banks and the other giants of the American economy. On the other hand, it is precisely these institutions that have created enormous economic problems and fueled public anger.

During the populist and progressive eras, a decades-long buildup of public anger led to major policy shifts, many of which simply took existing ideas from local and state efforts to the national stage. Furthermore, we have already seen how, in moments of crisis, the nationalization of auto giants like General Motors and Chrysler can suddenly become a reality. When the next financial breakdown occurs, huge injections of public money may well lead to de facto takeovers of major banks.

A long era of economic stagnation could well lead to a profound national debate about an America that is dominated neither by giant corporations nor by socialist bureaucrats. It would be a fitting next direction for a troubled nation that has long styled itself as of, by and for the people.

Gar Alperovitz, a professor of political economy

Is a transaction tax unacceptable?

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:55:54 PST

Many Liberals and others on the progressive wing of politics have been interested in a transaction tax for financial services. Earlier this week I posted a link to a third world campaign Stamp Out Poverty advocating the tax and a variation of the proposal has been in the Lib Dem manifesto. Today a letter has appeared in Guardian from the Social Liberal Forum and Compass
.................Everyone who cares about Britain's future at the heart of Europe needs to do two things. First, we must be committed to be part of the European debate, no matter how difficult that currently feels. We have to be part of the process to push for a more social, democratic and interventionist Europe. We cannot opt out of Europe – we are Europe.

Second, while we recognise the important role of the City in the British economy, we must not go on behaving as if the 2008 crash never happened. The City needs to be effectively regulated not just for the rest of the economy and society but to save it from itself. In September, Ed Miliband committed Labour to supporting a financial transaction tax introduced at a European level if there was no global agreement at first – matching the Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment to it. This was the right thing to do economically and politically. Europe must take the lead in ensuring that damaging speculation is curtailed and therefore a better balance struck between the manufacturing sector across Britain and the interests of a few in the City of London.

All who share the vision of a more equal, democratic, dynamic and sustainable Europe should work together to ensure Britain plays its full part with its neighbours in creating that vision and does not retreat to the sceptical margins.

I see that my old politics Professor Stephen Hasler has signed the letter

Neil Scales goes

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:14:46 PST

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/12/14/merseytravel-chief-executive-neil-scales-lands-300-000-a-year-job-in-australia-92534-29949721/

Readers will be interested to learn that the head of Merseytravel is leaving. Sadly he is not taking the Chair of the organisation with him. As the Tory Leader on the authority asked? Why did he start looking for a new job? Was it that a wedge had been driven between him and Cllr Dowd over the issue of vertical intergration? (that is running the rail and the trains. The authority spent mega sums promoting this cause only to perform a handbrake U turn at the last minute without tabling any written advice to members )

Freedom of Information requests will doubtless soon flush out the whole story.......,..and the issues of the personal use of the Authorities credit card by Cllr Dowd

GOOD NEWS OVER MISSED GREEN WHEELIE BIN COLLECTIONS

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 07:51:34 PST

Birkdale's Councillor Simon Shaw, who is Cabinet Member Environmental on Sefton Council, has good news for local residents who missed their green garden waste wheelie bin collection last week. They will now have an additional collection just before Christmas.

Following the national strike on Wednesday, November 30, green wheelie bin collections were cancelled on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week. This was done to enable grey bin collections, also missed on November 30, to be made on Thursday and Friday of that week.

Unfortunately this meant that some residents did not have their green bins emptied on their last scheduled collection before Christmas, and would not have them emptied until the green bin service resumes in mid January.

To help manage this, crews will now collect green wheelie bins on Wednesday, December 21, Thursday, December 22 and Friday, December 23, from properties who missed their green bin collection due to the disruption caused by the strike.

This means that only these properties will have both their grey and green wheelie-bins emptied on these particular days, if they place them out for collection.

Cllr Simon Shaw, said: "I am very pleased that it has been possible to arrange a final green wheelie bin collection before Christmas for those households who lost out because of the national strike."

"Crews did a good job in catching up on the grey bin collections in the aftermath of the strike. Unfortunately, this could only be done at the expense of those residents who were due a green collection on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that week."

"I apologise for this inconvenience, and I know that many residents have contacted their councillors or our call centre about this problem. It has been especially awkward as that would have been their last green collection before mid-January."

"One thing I would particularly like to emphasise is that this extra green wheelie bin collection in the last week before Christmas is only for those areas which missed out because of the strike."

Cameron's Delta minus negotiating strategy harms UK

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:41:35 PST

Cameron-having burnt his boats with the mainstream centre right parties in Europe-turned up to the Euro summit with no allies. In order to stop a Tobin/Robin Hood tax ( read the report from Stamp out poverty here)he has damaged Britain's long term interests.*

My Lib Dem MEP has issued the following statement:

David Cameron was this morning accused of relegating Britain to the second division of Europe.

Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies claimed that by wrecking agreement between EU countries in Brussels the Prime Minister had ensured that a two speed Europe would develop.

He said: “Far from keeping Britain strong, Cameron has ensured that we will lose our influence at the top table.

“By seeking to protect bankers from regulation, he has betrayed Britain’s real interests and done nothing in practice to help the City of London.

“The fear now must be that we will increasingly lose the opportunity to affect decisions being taken that are bound to affect us.

“The consequence of the xenophobic attitudes towards our European neighbours that have been allowed to develop has been to leave Britain weak. We have shot ourselves in the foot.”

*Thanks to Lord B for the Tobin link

As an after though. I do wonder whether that most canny of politicians, Alex Salmond may -when the time is right- adopt membership of the high speed Europe as part of his Independence campaign.....

A Christmas stocking filler

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:50:50 PST

Now that the second advent candle has been lit I am prepare to talk about Christmas stocking fillers.

The one book that has caught my eye this year is Beyond the Corporation-Humanity Working by David Erdal

As Amazon reviewers say:

This is by far the best book to explain democratic employee ownership to business people and to the owners of family firms who might be consider a sale to the employees. David Erdal has "walked the walk" by arranging for the successful sale of his large family business to the employees so he speaks with a convincing authority on the matter. He masterfully spells out the arguments on economic, managerial, political, and social psychological grounds for democratic worker ownership. This combination of real world experience and interdisciplinary understanding of the issues makes this the book on democratic employee ownership.
--David Ellerman

or again

'BEYOND THE CORPORATION gives a breathtaking overview of employee ownership over the years and across the continents and provides a passionate argument of the case for employee ownership. It should be compulsory reading, not just for those of us on the inside, but for any student of economics, sociology, business or politics.'
--Carole Leslie, Policy Director, Employee Ownership Association

one we prepared earlier-a Liberal economic idea

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:12:46 PST

Want to spread wealth and power more fairly, tackle the obscenity of mega pay, improve productivity, get business to concentrate on the 'long-term' making it more resilient during a period of retrenchment?

Well the Liberal Party had this quaint idea. They identified the issue of ownership as matter that had to be reformed. Today we would say that the market collapse that led to the banking crisis was in significant part caused by a model of ownership that meant the Directors of a company had one over-riding duty-namely to increase share holder value. This led to some of the short sighted and risky transaction that may have been in the short term interest of the shareholders but were not in the long term interests of the UK economy.

The Liberal Part argued for decades that those who worked in enterprises have AT LEAST as much right as those who contributed the capital. The Liberal policy of co-ownership or out right Employee Ownership was a signature policy and apart from PR one of the few things that the British people knew about the party.Shareholders have shown repeatedly that they are interested only in a fast buck. The electronic dealing in shares have meant they are bought and sold in a twinkling of an eye.It is time to start arguing the Liberal case again.

If employees were properly represented on Boards of Directors you wouldn't need legislation to control top pay. Numerous examples across Europe and North America show that employee ownership effectively deals with this issue. Employee owned firms are not only happier places to work but also more productive.

This policy also gives hope of building a fairer Britain. Firms like John Lewis, Scott Bader and Baxi have all shown that this is a hard headed idea and as talk of class war raises its ugly head once more it is a policy that should become identified with our part

So why the picture of Asquith? Well Clegg must be the first Liberal leader since Squiffy not to make employee ownership a central element in the party's policy

Birkdale bins and the strike

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:50:17 PST

With many wheelie bins in Birkdale due to be collected tomorrow I have received the following press release from the council:

Due to national public sector strike action planned for Wednesday, November 30, 2011, waste collection services across Sefton will be affected.

The weekly green box and food waste recycling collection services will continue to operate in all areas as normal on Wednesday, November 30 and for the rest of the week.

All households that are due to have their grey or green wheelie bin emptied on Wednesday, November 30, will not receive a collection on that day.

Residents scheduled for a grey wheelie bin collection on November 30 are being asked to place their bin out for collection by 6.30am the following day (Thursday, December 1) and leave it out until collected - this maybe on Friday, December 2. These details also apply to residents on the clear refuse sack collection.

For residents who have a grey wheelie bin collection on Thursday and Friday, December 1 and 2, these will operate as normal.

Due to the strike action, no green wheelie bin collections for garden waste will take place between November 30 and December 2. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

The wheelie bin collection service will operate as normal from Tuesday, December 6 onwards, and residents are asked to refer to their collection calendar for details.

For more information about this service and to check the pattern of collections during the Christmas/New Year holiday period please visit www.sefton.gov.uk or call 0845 140 0845.

/Ends

CHRISTMAS DISRUPTION OVER BIRKDALE STATION SUBWAY AND CAR PARK

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:46:01 PST

Birkdale’s Lib Dem councillors have been working hard to try and minimise massive disruption expected in Birkdale Village from next week.

A £1 million scheme to rebuild the pedestrian subway under the railway line at Birkdale Station is due to start on Monday 5^th December – just days before Christmas.

The project will mean that the present Liverpool Road entrance to the 90 space Birkdale station car park will be closed for 2 months to allow a site compound to be located next to the subway.

Birkdale Lib Dem councillor Richard Hands has voiced his concern at the early December start date for the scheme in the heart of Birkdale Village.

“I am appalled that Network Rail have decided to start this project just before Christmas. There was certainly no consultation with local councillors about this. It is going to cause a lot of upset to residents and commuters.”

“What concerns me is that, after the town centre, Birkdale village is one of Southport’s premier shopping locations. In these difficult times, it is vital that organisations like Network Rail don’t cause more disruption than they have to.”

In a letter to residents, Network Rail point out that “the entrance to the station car park will be closed for the duration of the works and access to the station car park will be locally diverted to the South entrance off Welbeck Road.”

Following representations from local residents Councillor Simon Shaw has been active in pressing the Council to introduce temporary double yellow lines in part of Welbeck Road. Residents have been worried that commuters trying to access the temporary entrance to the station car park could cause gridlock.

“Richard and I recognise that residents in the area face a difficult two months or so. That’s why I met with Network Rail and their contractors on site recently to discuss a number of concerns raised by people who live nearby,” said Cllr Shaw.

“I asked the rail authorities whether there was any other option to the temporary closing of the present entrance to the car park. However there really does seem to be no alternative.”

“There were also concerns about the safety of pedestrians using the footpath from Dover Road to the station who will now find cars entering or leaving the car park crossing their path. Network Rail have agreed to erect safety barriers on the footpath.”

Lancs flag

noreply@blogger.com (iain) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:02:43 PST

At the raising of the Lancs flag to celebrate the victory of Lancs County Cricket Club at Southport Town Hall today

The photo shows Warren Hegg Lancs cricketer, The Mayor, IBB, Hadn Preece etc