Defections

So a Lib Dem Councillor has defected to Labour today.

I am not one of those who thinks all defections are bad. In some cases people genuinely wrestle with their concience and it is a slow and painful process. These people on the whole defect quietly.

What sticks in my craw is when someone callously plans an event, deceiving a lot of innocent bystanders on the way.

Today Beatrice Frankel tells us that she decided to defect in January. Its obvious to me that she waited till today to create a media stunt. But in between January and today she has e mailed committed party members claiming to want to carry on being involved, come to meetings etc. What on earth are they to think now? I have just had to spend some time with one elderly gentleman who is deeply upset that not only was he lied to, she could not even be bothered to contact him personally to explain what she was doing. I suppose talking to the "little people" is a bit much when you have a date with the Liverpool Echo!

Now I have no problem with Beatrice joining the Labour party. I have known for some years that she was moving that way. What I have a problem with is the way she has disregarded people's feelings (not mine I am pretty shockproof these days) in order to advance herself.

Interestingly she told the Roger Phillips programme that she will be a Labour candidate in May. Not in Cressington, she says, as there is already a candidate.

I wonder where then as I would imagine most wards have a Labour candidate already, and those that don't would involve the sort of work that would not appeal. So if you are a Labour candidate I recommend you speak to your leader today to make sure it is not you who is in the firing line.

Still on call in Garston!

I was stopped, very early this morning on the way to the bus stop, by a neighbour wanting to raise a problem. He knew I wasn't his councillor any more but had pretty much given up hope of the existing ones replying to him. I said I'd be more than happy to help. Had quite a chat about things. He's the second one this week - earlier I took a phone call from someone in a similar situation. Well not being elected didn't stop me wanting to help. But you do wonder what those who were elected actually do with their time.

Child Poverty figures

The government it seems is not even close to meeting its pledge to halve child poverty by 2010.

The pledge was made back in 1999 and according to a study by MPs its likely to be missed by close to one million. Mind you if the figures included housing costs when looking at family incomes the miss would be greater - around 1.6 million (and surely when we are talking about poverty, housing costs are significant).

The MPs report is published by the Work and Pensions Select Committee.

When I worked at Save the Children and NCH I was very involved in issues around child poverty. I did a lot of interviewing of parents and children and helped with PR work to highlight the issues. I never failed to go away deeply upset at how the families were struggling to cope, and angry that the system seemed to have them trapped. In many cases a relatively small amount of material help would have made a huge difference.

But alongside that material poverty there was often another sort which to my mind is just as bad because of the way it limits people. That's poverty of ambition or aspiration. And you'd often find it ran through "leadership" figures in communities like teachers, doctors, ministers. I think one of the cruellest things you can do to a child is to tell it - whether directly or indirectly - that people from their area don't go on and succeed, that people from their area should restrict their ambitions to certain sorts of jobs. It's a self fulfilling prophesy.

We need to tackle the material poverty. But equally we need to tackle the poverty of ambition too. I suspect dealing with the second problem is harder.. but will pay more dividends in the end

Youth Live issue three.......

is out later this week. Hooray. The young people, and some of the slightly older ones, are having a bit of a celebration on Thursday.

Mind you work is already underway on articles etc for issue 4.

We are always looking for young people interested in getting involved. If you are, or you know someone who is, do get in touch info@youthlive.co.uk.

We are looking to cover Merseyside in general - not just Liverpool.

The website is at www.youthlive.co.uk

Hang my head in shame!

This month's Lib Dem conference will see the first Gender Balance award for female bloggers.

But did I make the cut? Did I heck!

Mind you I suspect mindlessly losing a whole year's posts in an attempt at clever editing didn't help.

I have voted for Linda Jack who is outspoken and clear - although quite frankly all the shortlisted women have great blogs.

Memo to self - must do better!

Too young for shakespeare?

This morning's Today Programme carried a report on how the RSC wants to encourage more primary schools to do Shakespeare.

I certainly didn't come across any Shakespeare until secondary school, and then it was Midsummer Nights Dream - which seems to be the one most commonly used with children.

But I am sure I could have understood some of it at a younger age.

Last year I went along to Banks Road School in Garston for their annual Shakespeare performance.

This is a primary school. But every year they do something from the bard and on that occasion they were doing Hamlet.

I have to say that on the way there I had worried whether Hamlet would be too difficult. But with a few cuts (and I mean a few) they did it brilliantly.

So let's hope the RSC will be able to persuade more primaries to follow Banks Road's lead.

Delivering in Kensington

Off to Kensington this morning to deliver leaflets with a team plus Lib Dem Councillor Frank Doran. Got lots done. Frank is very recognisable and was stopped for chats by quite a few people. He had to shoot off to do his councillors surgery - but we went for what must be one of the best value cafe breakfasts in Liverpool. Hope I get given that area again