Frank’s Blog

THE Lib Dems have got a cheek. They are a key player in the national coalition yet locally they’re not prepared to stand by decisions their government makes. The key part of the coalition government’s programme is to bring the budget deficit down. All parties are agreed to this objective. There was a difference over the timing and whether these cuts are fair. This brings us directly to the cuts the Government is making to the taxpayer grant it gives to local authorities. Wirral…

THE coalition government has treated Wirral council tax payers appallingly. In leafy Tory areas, as in Dorset, cutting the government grant has been minimal. Not so in the Wirral. To an original £100m cut, the coalition has now added further cuts of £21m. The results of these coalition-imposed cuts are and will be felt severely in Birkenhead. To meet the government-imposed target, our council is now being forced to make new cuts. All services are up for review, including our…

The names of Derek Worlock and David Sheppard still conjure up a sense of excitement and gratitude. They were outstanding leaders for Merseyside. At the weekend, a conference on the common good was held at Liverpool Hope University. The conference was the brainchild of Jennie, the daughter of Grace and David Sheppard.  I was one of the contributors. Here we were, around 200 of us, linked together by an idea of the common good. Did we really agree on what was meant by the idea of the…