According to the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU), Trafford will simply be a Conservative hold and the borough does not make it into the organisation’s top 50 councils to watch. Perhaps Trafford’s results in the past 8 years have been so consistently uneventful that they’ve stopped looking. From…

After last week’s astonishing attacks on PCSOs from the Conservative Councillors of Bowdon and Hale Barns, it was good to see Chief Constable Fahy’s resolute support for PCSOs on this week’s Online Chat. I don’t want to pick on Councillors Hyman and Sharp but their views were striking…

We’re always happy to give the tremendous work of this local (non-political) group circulation through our web pages. Chair’s Report March 2012 The Friends of Lostock Park group has had another successful year. We have continued to develop good relationships with young people around the skate bowl. The…

We saw a nastier, more contemptuous and arrogant side to the Conservative Party at the council meeting on Wednesday. It was emanating from the councillors of the wealthiest wards in Hale and Bowdon.  There was the flippant throwaway line that employers would not want to employ Labour supporters;…

I’m fairly certain that Liam Fox is not a regular reader of this blog but I was struck by the similarity of thinking between last week’s piece on taxes and today’s call for the Chancellor: “Although the coalition agreement may require the chancellor to raise personal tax allowances,…

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Benjamin Franklin 1789 Without tax revenue the state would not be able to provide the services a civilised society needs to function; there’d be no army, no schools, no nhs, no roads, no waste…