Author: Mike Cordingley

I’ve lived near Trafford General Hospital all my life. The hospital was opened as Park
Hospital by Labour’s Aneurin Bevan on July 5 1948 and we can all feel proud of what was set in motion that day – a National Health Service, the first in the world promising universal ‘cradle to grave’ healthcare.

Now, more than 60 years on that is looking more and more like an empty promise. There’s talk of ftunding shortfalls and the possibility of Trafford Health care Trust having to link up with other hospital trusts to make economies. There’s talk of the ‘temporary closure’ of the extremely popular and successful walk-in centre at Trafford General, too. And there’s a very clear threat to other hospital and
general health services.

Living close to TrafTord General, I’ve always felt safe in the knowledge that if
a member of my family fell ill or had an accident there was a hospital on the doorstep where we would receive treatment. It’s a secure feeling, one which I am sure has been shared by many local people. But today I feel that little bit more apprehensive- and I don’t like it.

Nye Bevan described the start of the NHS as giving this country "the moral
leadershlp of the world" and he was right. We judge a society by how we look
after one another and how we care for the sick and vulnerable. We all know about the need for cutbacks in public services but in my view the cuts being made to our NHS go far too far – and may cause severe injury not only to individuals but to society as a whole.

The NHS is being made to manage within an overall budget which falls well below inflation, one which will not reflect the increased demand made on hospital services as people, hopefully, live longer.

Our predecessors 60 and more years ago had to fight for a free health service. That right was largely won, but we should never take it for granted. We should never forget the dedication of people – nurses, doctors, police, firefighters and many more – who work unsociable hours to help keep us safe and well. We owe them all a big thank you.

I would also like to wish everyone all the very best for the new year.

I’ve a guilty admission. I do have a lot of time for Liberal Democrats and the old Liberal Party. Apart from my shared support for the Alternative Vote, I would cite:

• Charles Kennedy calling it right on the Iraq War,
• David Steel’s private members bill to give rights to abortion was a huge step forward for women.

Then we have such notables as John Maynard Keynes and William Beveridge who made a huge contribution to shaping post war Britain as a mixed economy and the Welfare State.

Whilst I disagree with the VAT rise because of its effect on the poorest, I can understand that as minor partners in the Coalition they do have to make compromises. And whilst I view the coalition’s broader approach to the economy and public services as reckless, I do not judge it to be a betrayal of the Liberal heritage.

Whilst it could be considered that worries over the Liberal heritage are none of my business, I’m astounded that the Liberal Democrats are swallowing Andrew Lansley’s reforms of the NHS.

Forcing the new GP Commissioning Consortiums (Replacements for the PCTs) to tender for services is so serious that I consider it to be the most serious threat to the NHS since its inception. As Lib Dem supporting Polly Toynbee in her Guardian article describes;

“For the first time the entire NHS has been put under competition law. The financial and clinical safety of NHS foundation trusts used to be the responsibility of the regulator, Monitor. Now its website proclaims: “The first of Monitor’s three core functions is to promote competition.” That means “enforcing competition law” and “removing anti-competitive behaviour”. Few yet understand the nuclear nature of this. It compels every NHS activity to be privately tendered. If the NHS is the preferred provider, that can be challenged in the courts or referred to the Competition Commission.”

It doesn’t need Polly Toynbee to warn us that global healthcare companies will happily run loss-leader services forcing the closure of NHS services giving themselves a clear field to raise prices when the NHS is gone. This is a recipe for destroying the NHS and it goes against everything that Liberals and Labour have stood for over the last 60 years. I could never imagine that Liberal Democrats would allow this through on their watch. It’s nothing to do with defecit reduction. It’s an idealogical driven assault on the NHS and the Liberals are allowing it to take place in silence.

How are Lib Dems allowing this to happen? I genuinely don’t believe this is something Lib Dems can support. It goes against everything I’ve understood them to stand for over the years. I’d welcome Lib Democrats to explain their position. I’d welcome more their expressions of opposition to this. I am sure that had this been a majority Conservative Government, they’d have been marching with us against these reforms.

How can Lib Dems keep quiet?

To Simon Castle, Trafford’s Chief Planning Officer

Dear Simon

With the exception of the Labour Planning Committee Members who are not allowed to pre – judge planning applications, I wish to object on behalf of the Labour Group to the above planning application for the following reasons :-

• The biomass renewable energy plant process is a relative new process and there are real fears amongst the local community and the wider public concerning the health risks of such a plant being proposed on the doorstep of a highly populated area. The toxic emissions from the plant has the potential to damage peoples health, particularly the young, elderly and those that suffer with existing health problems. This type of renewable plant is controversial, and there appears to be  considerable evidence from scientists and experts who warn against the health impact and dangers of such plants.
• The continuous daily heavy lorry journeys to and from the plant will create considerable extra traffic congestion in an area which already suffers severe congestion. This extra traffic will further add to the significant air pollution which already exists in the locality, and will create further disruption, noise and inconvenience to people living close to the plant.

• I understand there are other Energy Plants in Trafford  which have recently been given planning permission. We therefore believe Trafford has enough power plants with permission to develop, and one more will result in adding to the adverse environment affect of power stations in the Trafford area.

• We also consider that this area suffers already with significant environmental problems which exist by the fact situated nearby is Trafford Park Industrial Estate, the Trafford Centre, Davyhulme Sewage Works, Trafford Retail Park and Chemical Manufacturers on the doorstep. It is our view that this is one development to much for the area.

Dave Acton

General Election

In line with expectations we didn’t win a fourth term in Government, but then neither did the Conservatives. In consequence we learned an awful truth about coalition Government. This is not about triangulating a set of policies at the point of alignment on the political spectrum between the two coalition partners. This isn’t a Government that’s a little bit Conservative and a little bit Liberal, far from it. The presence of the Lib Dems in Government has emboldened the Tories to proceed with haste down a full blooded right wing agenda. It’s put the NHS under threat, and it’s putting a stop to all those initiatives Labour had introduced to improve life chances.  Had the Tories won outright, it’s unlikely they’d have proceeded with such haste and contempt for the most vulnerable.

Most predictable consequence of Conservative Govt.

The number of patients waiting more than 18wks for treatment in the NHS shoots up as soon as targets scrapped – Link to Daily Telegraph Article

General Election in Stretford and Urmston

It’s only a touch over 12 months since Kate Green was selected as Labour’s candidate for that election. It didn’t take voters long to realise that we’d got a candidate of real quality and the increase in the size of the Labour majority is testament to her. She’s making a genuine contribution to parliament and the constituency. It was a real privilege to have been her agent in the election.

It was a good campaign and all the candidates played their part in ensuring it was a civil contest about real issues.

Local Elections

At the same time as winning the parliamentary seat we made gains in the council elections in Urmston with Kevin Procter and Sale Moor with the return of Philip Gratrix. We will be seeking to build on these successes when the local elections come round on May 5th 2011. I’m delighted to have chosen to be the candidate when the locals come round in Gorse Hill.

Leadership Election

I don’t regret putting Diane Abbott and Ed Balls as my first two preferences in the leadership election as I feel they enhanced the contest. The final outcome was always going to be between Ed Miliband and his brother David and I’m delighted that Ed emerged the winner in a very close contest. Ed is developing into a very measured and engaging leader and has every chance of taking the party forward and back into power at the first opportunity. It’s clear he has learned the mistakes of the past and he’s not getting diverted from the core truth, that the Conservatives are taking unnecessary risks with the economy and pursuing their own agenda of reduced public services.

Trafford – A year of Calamity

It’s been a year of fiascos for the Conservatives on Trafford Council.

Their attempts to close down two well regarded High Schools (Lostock and Stretford High) were thwarted at the final hurdle by the Schools Adjudicator’s accurate assertion that it was all about pursuit of money rather than educational matters.

The Lancashire Cricket Club / Tescos project has turned into a complete shambles and is now subject to an application for a judicial review into the planning permission for the cricket ground and Tescos and the refusal of a Supermarket at White City on the same night. Nobody who witnessed the planning committee of that night will be surprised at this outcome but the consequences have put at risk much needed investment from the regional development agency.

We’re seeing the butchery of library openings whilst at the same time witnessing the commissioning of glossy council propaganda that would in itself pay for an expansion of library provision when it is most needed.

Our Town Centres have taken further hits during the year, although Labour pressure has at least got us the return of free parking at the Newton St car park. Indeed a feature of the year has been Labour campaigning forcing concessions or actions out of the Tories. We’ve reduced the impact on our parks from that the Tories originally planned but there’s still threats we face, not least to Gorse Hill Park’s football pitches.

Best Council Speech of the Year: Councillor Tom Ross (Stretford) on the in-year cuts and how the Conservative Government was repeating the errors of the past.

I found this the most inspiring speech of the year. Tom used his economic expertise of the 1920s in illustrating the effect of the Geddes Axe on taking us into the Great Depression and how the Conservative Government was repeating those errors. I’m not really capturing the power of the speech which was coherent and pointed and won praise from all sides of the chamber.

Worst Interjection of the Year: Councillor Viv Ward (Flixton) in arguing as chair of planning that since Old Trafford Football Stadium had been built over 100 years ago, Rock concerts should be permitted to be held there;

“People know what they are moving to in Old Trafford. Just show me someone who lived here before the club came to the area nearly 100 years ago.”

Gorse Hill

Clearly the biggest win of the year was the campaign to save Stretford High School and Lostock College. It was a campaign that not only achieved its ultimate objective but brought about a renewed sense of collective pride in these institutions and gave chance of a new beginning particularly for Lostock. That school is so well placed to benefit from Media City including the  new Coronation Street set that it really does seem to have a bright future with its specialism in the performing arts.

We seem also to have repulsed the threat from the Stadium Point all-nighter venue. This was the wrong place on Trafford Quay for such a massive development that would have brought misery to the Quays. It’s beginning to look as though the plans have been abandoned although you can never be sure. We’ll certainly be ready if it re-emerges.

Lostock Health Centre is nearing completion which will mean the return of much needed health provision to the neighbourhood.

Lostock Skate-park is going from strength to strength and we’ve seen the award of further grant towards providing the equivalent of nursery slopes for the skate-boarders so it can be of value to even more young people.

We’re still making progress with the control of drinking in the street ahead of matches at Old Trafford.

I pay tribute to the police for achieving an exceptional performance in this patch. Their performance is amazing:

Burglary Down -21.7%
Vehicle Crime Down -51.0%
Personal Robbery Down -23.7%
Serious Violent Crime Down -50.0%
Anti Social Behaviour Down -27.3%
Criminal Damage Down -28.2%

Best Overall Performance

Inspector Sutcliffe and the Stretford Neighbourhood Police Team

It really is appreciated. The reduction in crime hasn’t come about by accident and it’s a tribute to the dedication and professionalism of all involved.

And very close Runners up – Equal

Trafford’s Extreme Weather Team – Gritters and snow clearance

Trafford’s Bin Collection Service – for the service they’ve provided over the Christmas Period and during Extreme Weather

Mike Cordingley – A personal view

In 2011, thousands of our bravest men and women will continue to serve far from home in Afghanistan with the highest commitment and dedication. My thoughts are with them and their families at this New Year.

Here at home, 2011 will be a year of consequences for Britain. Consequences that will be felt by hardworking families across the country. Consequences of the decision taken to reduce the deficit at what I believe to be an irresponsible pace and scale.

Many people feel powerless in the face of these decisions that will affect their lives, families and communities. The political forces in Whitehall which have made these choices appear forbidding and unheeding.
It is the message I get talking to young people about the loss of their educational maintenance allowances and trebling of tuition fees, people in different areas worried about their services and those wondering where the new jobs to replace those lost are going to come from.

In 2011, many people will wonder what they can do. Some will ask whether there really is an alternative to this scale of cuts. Still more will shrug their shoulders at casually broken promises and conclude politicians are indeed all the same.

Labour’s challenge and duty in 2011 is to be people’s voice in tough times and show that these are changes born of political choice by those in power not necessity.

And we will take the next steps on the journey to win people’s trust that we offer a better, more optimistic future for Britain.

To do that will require learning from what we did right and wrong in government, strong opposition where it is required and laying the foundations for an alternative path for Britain.

I began my leadership by admitting that in government, we had lost touch and lost trust and that we needed to change to be the party that Britain needs. I saw it on the doorstep at the 2010 General Election and I know it can’t be put right automatically.

It is why our journey to construct a better future for Britain must start from people’s lives and their hopes and dreams. And we must change our party so that it becomes a genuine community force in every part of the country.

People also need our voice now.

So in 2011, we will be arguing for a proper economic strategy rather than an economic policy reduced only to deficit reduction. We would have made cuts but the scale, pace and targeting of these changes is not just wrong, it holds us back from answering the bigger economic challenges we face: about where the jobs of the future are going to come from and how can we create an economy which works for all.

We will stand up for young people because the promise of progress should be that the next generation does better than the last. That is not what young people feel is being delivered when they face the burden of tens of thousands of pounds of student debt, or are told there will be no more help to stay on at school or college or to find a job.

And we will expose the promise of new politics when it is simply about the breaking of promises in 2011 that were made in 2010.

And as we begin a New Year, I call on all people of other parties and none who share our values and worry about the direction of the country under this government to work with us.

I said in my Labour Party Conference speech that I have never believed that all wisdom resides in one political party. That is why I want to reach out to all other forces of progress in Britain.

To those who feel that politics as it is being practised is high-handed, remote and arbitrary, I also urge them to campaign and work with us. Decisions over school sport and in recent days, bookstart, were reversed because of the power of people arguing and winning their case.

It shows that political change comes because people make it happen.

2011 will be a year where we work to change Labour and seek to rebuild trust in us and in politics as a force for good.

Even in these tough times, we must keep the flame of optimism burning.

I sincerely believe that we can build a better future for Britain. That means closing the gap between people’s aspirations and their chances of fulfilling them, being a society where we look after each other and meeting the promise that the next generation does better than the last.

That is our mission as a party which we will pursue next year and in the years ahead.

Ed Milliband

Shouldering the load

I was encouraged by the warning in The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Christmas message. Dr Williams cautioned of:

” the lasting sense that the most prosperous have yet to shoulder their load”

The alarm bells should be ringing across the political spectrum because Dr Williams is right. The Tories historically seen as the party of the rich should find as the sense of injustice grows, that support ebbs away from those squeezed between the loss of services and increased cost of living. The Lib Democrats look washed out and finished. Labour as the party of working people should be in a good position to benefit from the disaffection but needs to show courage and clarity of purpose.

Tony Blair was besotted with the super-rich and Gordon Brown’s actions suggest he at best shared Peter Mandelson’s relaxed approach. How Blair and Brown ever allowed these billionaires their obscene cushioning against taxation and responsibilities to continue under New Labour remains a running sore. But Labour needs to take heed of Dr Williams’s call for the burden to be shared if it’s to begin the journey back to Government.

Both Blair and Brown were enamoured with the United States where there’s a tradition of the wealthiest contributing voluntarily to the arts and foundations; Bill Gates has given away over £38bn. We simply haven’t seen anything like the scale of this philanthropy in the UK for years and we should not expect to. Britain is a country where inherited wealth is considered top of the heap, and the one thing these families have learnt is not to give it away; or pay their taxes.

If the prosperous are to shoulder their load, we are going to have to go after them. The tax loopholes have to be tightened and Labour needs to regain a steely determination to do so. I sincerely hope that Ed Milliband can rediscover the bravery that enabled him to throw his hat into the leadership ring in the first place.

The prize for boldness is huge. As Professor Philo in his Guardian article points out;

The total personal wealth in the UK is £9,000bn, a sum that dwarfs the national debt. It is mostly concentrated at the top, so the richest 10% own £4,000bn, with an average per household of £4m. The bottom half of our society own just 9%. The wealthiest hold the bulk of their money in property or pensions, and some in financial assets and objects such antiques and paintings.

A one-off tax of just 20% on the wealth of this group would pay the national debt and dramatically reduce the deficit, since interest payments on the debt are a large part of government spending. So that is what should be done. This tax of 20%, graduated so the very richest paid the most, would raise £800bn.

It shouldn’t surprise us that Britain’s wealthiest actually got richer during the global crash. Essentially if the bank lends to people without means of repayment to buy at inflated prices, the money doesn’t just disappear, the seller of the inflated leasehold still received the inflated payment. The banks didn’t lose as they were baled out by us. They were baled out by ordinary folk who pay taxes. And we know that the wealthy don’t pay taxes, but do benefit from bale outs.

I’m old fashioned. And yes I’m encouraged that the Archbishop of Canterbury is recognising the lasting sense that the most prosperous have yet to shoulder their load. But we need to get angry.

Mike Cordingley