People to be consulted on whether they wish to be “Hung, Shot or Guillotined”.

Laughing gas — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:45:53 +0000

Following announcement to the press of a large scale consultation exercise, Leader of the Wirral Labour Group, Cllr Steve Foulkes, said:

“The local Conservative and Liberal Democrat Alliance are asking the people of Wirral in a massive tax payer funded consultation exercise whether they wish to be hung, shot or guillotined.

They say they will be consulting on budgetary priorities, but no amount of consultation is going to alter the fact that the Council’s grant is going to be slashed by a massive thirty to forty percent over the next two to three years with horrendous consequences for Council Services and for the local economy,

The reality is that, until November 25^th, far from holding a meaningful consultation which will actually lead to better services, they will actually be debating in great detail the various ways in which the public can be the agents of their own destruction. They will be consulted in great detail on whether they wish to be hung, shot or guillotined and, when the final method of execution is finally decided on, this administration will defend the inevitable death because it was the public which chose the method of their own destruction.

If they really believed in consultation, why did they choose to consult schools in the school holidays about key changes in the way the Council offered them services?

If they really believed in consultation, why did they fail to consult Wirral’s residents about what was going to happen to their parks and gardens? Or Wirral’s staff who work in the Parks and Gardens about their ideas of what could be done to improve services and save money?

If they really believed in consultation, why didn’t they consult over their decision to slash £1.6 from funds aimed at reducing unemployment and improving job opportunities for all of Wirral’s residents? Or the real consequences of slashing over £1.4m from Schools and Childrens Services?

If they really believed in consultation, why did they bypass all the normal democratic processes and release the timetable for their grant consultation in a press release instead of a report to Cabinet where it could be properly scrutinised?

If this propaganda exercise means that there will be no priorities decided until November 25^th, and those priorities will then have to be translated into budgetary cuts amounting to £24million or more, which then have to be in place by December 31^st to meet statutory redundancy deadlines, then this is a very high risk strategy indeed.

The real consequences of this exercise could actually put hundreds of jobs at risk quite needlessly as deadlines are missed and cuts have to become ever more savage in order to deliver a legal budget on time.

People of Wirral should beware. This may be the exercise that puts the Con into Consultation.”

I Remember

Laughing gas — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:22:31 +0000

We all remember the dark days under Thatcher. In fact, we remember them every day – because years later, so many hard-working British families are still trying to recover from the days of Tory control.
After watching this video, I’m more certain than ever: giving the Conservatives’ control of our government again is not just a risk – it’s a recipe for disaster. We cannot afford to let history repeat itself, and to allow David Cameron to destroy the great progress we’ve made.

Take a couple minutes to watch our video, and remember why we must keep fighting:

More Tory Policy Vapour-Ware

Bidston Blogger — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:17:01 +0000

Came across this post on Birkenhead Tory Andrew Gilberts website

Like most announcements and ‘cast iron guarantees’ from David Cameron, this one must have either turned into vapour or rust

Bidston St James Ward Labour Party

People to be consulted on whether they wish to be “Hung, Shot or Guillotined”.

I Remember

More Tory Policy Vapour-Ware