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Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Merseyside & Cheshire Make Votes Count
Invites you to our forum
‘Make Local Votes Count’
On Thursday 16th February 7-00pm to 9-00pm. At The Alexandra Room, Liverpool Parish Church, The Old Church Yard, Off Chapel Street, opposite The Thistle Hotel, By The Pierhead Liverpool L2 HTZ
Facilitated by : - David Bird - Retired Regional Officer of Amicus trade union.
Peter Facey - Director of New Politics Network, Co-director
Charter 88, & former candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the
London Assembly & European Parliament elections.
Frank Kennedy –
North West
Regional Campaigns Coordinator for Friends of the Earth.
Councillor Steve Radford –
Liverpool
City Council- President of The Liberal Party
Mary Southcott – Parliamentary Political Officer of The Labour Campaign for
Electoral Reform.
Make Votes Count nationally has presented a motion to the Government which said:
“We believe that the current voting system acts as a barrier to participation in local democracy.
Unjustified outcomes, such as:
§ Entrenched one-party dominance.
§ Greatly exaggerated majorities.
§ 'Losers' winning over-all control,
feed the belief that voting doesn't make a difference.
In contrast, more representative councils would be more involving of and more accountable to local communities.
We note the Scottish Executive's proposal to introduce voting reform for local government and the Assembly's consideration of similar reforms in .
We therefore call on the government to take steps to introduce a more representative voting system for local government in .”
Since then, the Scottish Executive has agreed that the 2007 local elections system in will be the Single Transferable Vote (STV). has had the STV system for a number of years, of course.
Should the local elections system in be proportional and if so How?
Please come along and join in the discussion.
Admission free or by a donation towards the cost of the forum.
For more information please contact:
David Bird
9,
Osmaston Road
,
Birkenhead
CH42 8PY
Telephone 0151-608-2698
The Liberal Party is supporting this event but has reservations about Make Votes Count lack of a policy when it comes to the merits of STV over Party Lists but please come along and support this debate
author: Steve | 01/31/06 21:36
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Friday, January 27, 2006
Liberals Oppose ID cards latest press release:
Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party
David Maher
Liberal Party NEC
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG
0151 259 5935
Mobile Steve Radford 07920090322 / David Maher 07879663140
Dear Editor
The House of Lords is to debate the issue of ID cards, we hope they will force this evasive government to reveal the true projected cost of the proposed scheme
Whilst the Home Office has acknowledged that the running costs would be in the order of £584million per year, they have so far obstructed revealing the true picture of the capital investment needed to start up the scheme and the software costs of ensuring that other departments of government can share information with the new national data base
The London School of Economics has suggested the final bill to the hard pressed taxpayers of the United Kingdom could be in the order of £19 billion
Even worse can anyone have any confidence in the privacy of personal information held when it will be open to over 1/4 million civil servants to view ?
Can anyone recall any single major IT contract with government where the system does not regularly collapse or be compromised ?
Lets hope the House of Lords forces the full facts into the open in a way the House of Commons has failed to do so
Yours
Cllr Steve Radford
President of The LIberal Party
David Maher
Liberal Party National Executive
author: Steve | 01/27/06 14:55
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Prostitution : Case for Regulated Brothels by Cllr Steve Radford:
Liverpool city council has been exploring ideas of a managed tolerance zone for Prostitution, however the initial debate came from the opposition Liberal Party Group's call for the legalization of Prostitution and calling for regulated brothels . Cllr Steve Radford represents the Tuebrook Ward which includes Newsham Park where prostition has become a major concern and has put the follwoing case in the Daily Post Debate Page
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Almost everyone is agreed that the status quo is not working. When the police carried out crackdowns on prostitution in Toxteth, the outcome was prostitutes then moved onto areas such as Kensington, Newsham Park and Anfield
We would suggest that the current government calls for a crackdown are merely window dressing for public consumption, a real police crackdown would only spread the problem.
Even worse a police heavy approach would cause prostitutes to disperse over a wider area, it would inhibit the delivery of condoms and health education.
We should recognise that prostitutes are not aliens but real people with real problems, criminalising them will not encourage them to find better employment or progress from the situation that led them into prostitution
There is far less street prostitution on the continent where most countries have licensed brothels where health checks are carried out and an essentially a safer environment is provided.
No civilised society should have prostitutes frequently murdered and their bodies found in local parks, as we have seen so tragically in Liverpool. Sex workers on the street are vulnerable to all sorts of violence and abuse
We do not ask people approve of prostitution but merely the law takes a reality check of the fact prostitution is common in almost every town and city. We need to stop the situation whereby householders are confronted with prostitutes working residential streets of our city and even by local schools during day light hours
Local councils should be able to regulate brothels away from residential and shopping areas to minimise offense to the public. At present we have illegal brothels operating and massage parlours acting as disguised brothels. This shadowy existence encourages crime.
A dawn raid in our own ward found illegal immigrants being worked as prostitutes in a perfectly respectable neighbourhood. The status quo lends itself to the worst sort of criminal exploitation
Throughout the world prostitutes have been a gateway group for the spread of sexual diseases and more recently HIV. It is not a case of morality but practical protection of public health that we must encourage protected sex amoungst prostitutes. The issue is to important and too urgent for fudge and delay
We regert that the governments current proposals to allow a brothel of three workers does not provide for health checks, does not regulate where these mini-brothels will be located. It is the worst sort of muddled thinking
Similarly we do not feel the Lib Dem councils support of a managed tolerance zone provides the way forward, it would merely be an open air sex car park which would attract voyeurs . It would be hard in any city to identify a location which would not cause offense to members of the public
We in the Liberal Party Group on Liverpool Council believe that the majority of the public recognise the need for reform, a recent MORI poll for the Sunday Observer suggests public support for legalisation of prostitution has risen from 61% in 2002 to 65% as of today. It is the worst of british humbug and hypocrisy which stands in the way of protecting public health and making the lives of prostitutes safer and most importantly taking prostitution off the streets and behind closed doors where it belongs
author: Steve | 01/27/06 14:52
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Liberals thank Daily Telegraph for exposing demolitions in Liverpool
Cllrs Steve Radford, Hazel Williams and Chris Lenton
Liberal Party Councillors
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG
0151 259 5935
Mobile 07920090322
Dear Editor
Letter for Publication
May we express our thanks to the Daily Telegraph for exposing the clear waste of public funds by the government Pathfinder project here in Liverpool (Thursday 26th Jan lead article by Charles Clover).
At no time has the council explored ways to use the same level of government funds to renovate the older terraced streets of the city. Even worse for every two homes demolished only one is to be replaced at a later date
Already this is causing depopulation in parts of the city, such as Anfield, causing the council to then close local schools . The impact on local shops and small businesses is also disastrous as their customers are moved out
Even before the selected areas are subject to a compulsory purchase order, the city council hand in glove with housing associations are deliberately running down the agreed areas and emptying them of tenants, creating the very market decline they claim to be tackling.
The CPO is them used to force out of their homes the last remaining owner occupiers
When we in the real Liberal Party ask for alternatives use of funds to renovate these terraced working class communities we are told the council can't force owner occupiers to do up their homes ,so the council needs to force them out of their homes which are dismissed as obsolete.
This is offensive to those of us who believe in that every citizen shall posses Liberty, Property and security. It is also an obscene waste of public funds
Thank you to Charles Clover nd the Daily Telegraph exposing this waste. we believe that out taxes should be directed towards renovating homes not demolishing communities
Cllrs Steve Radford, Hazel Williams and Chris Lenton
Liberal Party Councillors - Liverpool
author: Steve | 01/27/06 14:43
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Legalise and License Brothels say Liberal Councillors
In the Debate Page of the Daily Post ,Tuesday 24th Jan , Cllr Steve Radford has written a feature putting the case for licensed brothels as a way to promote public health and the safety of prostitutes and get prostitution off the streets, opposing him is a leading Lib Democrat Cllr
Strangely enough it is the Lib Demoicrats who most actively are opposing their own national parties policy. How many Lib Democrat Parties are there ?
author: Steve | 01/27/06 00:49
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" Storey should not take an Executive role"
At the city council debate on Wednesday 25th Jan both Cllr Steve Radford and Cllr Hazel Williams argued that having resigned only weeks previously for acting improperly then it was bad for the city that he be immediately reappointed to the Exec Board. Cllr Hazel Williams hit out that it was a job creation "for the boys", Cllr Steve Radford said it showed the lack of consistency and lack of ethics of the Standards Board who carried out an effective cover up and declined to publish the full facts of the case nor act against Cllr Storey in a way they have treated other Councillors, Clearly the Standrads Board have double standards for ordinary councillors and Leaders of politically in favour groups
author: Steve | 01/27/06 00:44
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The next Police Community Forum for West Derby, Yew Tree and Knotty Ash residents is on Tuesday 28th Feb at 7.30 in the Knotty Ash Community Centre, East Prescot Road
author: Steve | 01/27/06 00:37
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The next Police Community Forum for Old Swan, Stoneycroft, Tuebrook and Larkhill is at St Andrews Church, Adhead Road, off Queens Drive on Tuesday 7th Feb starting at 7.30 please feel welcome to attend
author: Steve | 01/27/06 00:35
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Sunday, January 22, 2006
Waste Land at Tynwald Hill, Stoneycroft has finally been sold to Beech homes for the development of a private terraced housing following a sustained campaign by Liberal Party Coucillors. The site has also been cleared of debris and dumped refuse, it has been an eyesore for decades and the new plan should improve community safety ofr residents in Tynwald Hill, Woburn Hill and Bowley Road.
If you have waste land near you and want your Liberal Party Councillors to pursue a solution e mail us at northwestliberalparty@hotmail .com
author: Steve | 01/22/06 20:59
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Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Tuebrook, Anfield and Old Swan Area Committee Meets on Thursday 12th Jan at 6.30 at All Saints School, Townsend Lane, Anfield
In response to protests from the Liberal Party group there is a special session on derelict land and vacant housing. The meeting is open to the public.
author: Steve | 01/11/06 21:26
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