Lib Dems respond to Centre for Cities study

Centre for Cities: High debt levels in North leave people badly prepared post-Coronavirus
 

THE Liberal Democrats have responded to a Centre for Cities report warning that high debt levels in Northern England and Wales will leave people poorly prepared for the post-coronavirus economic downturn.

Their new research maps debt levels in England and Wales and found that in Northern England and Wales’ cities, people have the highest levels of debt relative to their incomes.

On average, for every £5 people earn in Warrington, Swansea, Sunderland and Wigan, they owe around £1. This compares to Oxford and Cambridge where people owe just 35p for every £5 they earn on average

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for the North John Leech said:

“Report after report and analysis after analysis shows the North hit hardest. From schools to busses, pensions to child poverty, and now debt.

“Let’s be absolutely clear: this is another example of the undeniable and devastating result of decades of overinvestment and relentless focus on London and the South, and it cannot be solved overnight with warm words.

“It’s time to take the North/South divide and its impact on people’s lives seriously.

“Ministers, MPs and councillors must listen and commit to investing in the North, and they must do it with real urgency to guarantee real equality across our region.

“Only the Liberal Democrats are standing up for the North. We will continue fighting to rebalance our regional economies, making sure those in the North are not continuously left worse off and build a brighter future where everyone gets their fair share, no matter where they live.”

ENDS.

ROYAL MAIL: "profits before safety"

ROYAL Mail is putting "profits before safety" say postal workers, who claim the company is failing to protect them from the risk of catching coronavirus.

There is a shortage of gloves, masks and hand sanitiser, employees from across the UK have told the BBC.

They also claim social distancing at work is "almost impossible".

Royal Mail says it has invested £15m in protective equipment and that the health and well-being of staff is their top priority.

Over the last two weeks, staff at eight Royal Mail sites, including three in Scotland, have walked out over safety concerns.  The BBC has seen footage of employees working shoulder-to-shoulder in one sorting office, with limited social distancing measures in place.

A supervisor based in the north of England said:  "It's more than two weeks since the lockdown and we're in a situation where there is still a lack of PPE [personal protective equipment], there's still a lack of sanitisers, there is still a lack of direction."

He said staff feel as though they are "forced to choose between their jobs and their health".

"I'm scared that my job will be in danger if I refuse to do a task because I believe it puts me in an unsafe position," he added.

https://www.bbc.co.uk › news › business-52243179

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LIGHT FALLS at the Manchester Royal Exchange

A Royal Exchange Theatre Production - World Premiere

LIGHT FALLS  

By Simon Stephens
Directed by Sarah Frankcom
With original music by Jarvis Cocker

24 October - 16 November

Royal Exchange Artistic Director Sarah Frankcom and the multi award-winning writer Simon Stephens have taken a journey across the North of England, shaping and developing their latest collaboration, Simon’s newest play LIGHT FALLS. In this extraordinary World Premiere a family is drawn back together following a single, devastating and unpredictable event. An intricate observation of people and places LIGHT FALLS is a powerful allegory to the North. This production features original music by Jarvis Cocker and can been seen in the Theatre from 24 October – 16 November.

A family finds themselves scattered across the north, each one searching for something to hold on to, to root them to a place, tie them to a person. A woman wakes up with a stranger beside her. A student argues with his lover. A single mother fights to feed her baby. A married man flirts with two younger women and one devastating event will change their lives forever.

LIGHT FALLS is performed by an impressive ensemble cast which includes Mercedes Assad, Freddie Gaminara, Carla Henry, Lloyd Hutchinson, Rebecca Manley, David Moorst, Tachia Newall, Jamie Samuel, Katie West and Witney White.

Sarah Frankcom is the Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre and the new Director of LAMDA. Her recent productions include: THE NICO PROJECT ( co-created with Maxine Peake for MIF 2019) WEST SIDE STORY, DEATH OF A SALESMAN, OUR TOWN (winner of Best Director at the UK Theatre Awards); HAPPY DAYS, THE LAST TESTAMENT OF LILLIAN BILOCCA (Hull City of Culture); A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, THE SKRIKER (co-commission with MIF15) and HAMLET (all with Maxine Peake), BLINDSIDED, THAT DAY WE SANG and the Royal Exchange and MIF13 co-production THE MASQUE OF ANARCHY. 

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'Would you like a blow job?'.

                                            Rochdale – Vice Capital of the North

by Green Swiper

AFTER finishing my late shift at ten o’clock in the evening, I walked down to Rochdale town centre to catch my bus home.  It was not due for another twenty five minutes, so I decided to get something to eat from one of the nearby takeaways on Drake Street.

While viewing a menu in a shop window, I heard a woman’s voice that seemed to be calling to me.
“Hello!”

I ignored it.

The voice persisted and it grew louder.  “Hello!”  Moments later, she was standing beside me.
I turned to look at her.  She was about thirty years old.  She was wearing an overcoat and a woolly hat.  She asked me to lend her a pound.

I told her to leave me alone and go away.

Then she said: “Would you like a blow-job?”

I said no.

She started to walk away.

I felt strangely guilty and impolite so I called to her.  I said:  “Thanks anyway.  I’m flattered.”She returned and asked me what I meant.

I told her that she was a pretty woman.  I then gave her a lecture on why she ought to take more care and that she ought get a proper job.

She said it wasn’t her job and she walked away.

I went inside the takeaway and I told the shopkeeper about my brief encounter.  He said: “They’re not whores.  They’re drug-addicts.  They’ve been there for years.”

I left the shop with a bag of chips.  I looked around.  The police were nowhere.

Why are the authorities allowing this lewdness to go on?   Can the Town Council do something about it or are they proud of their vice capital of the north?

These women need to be taken off the streets for their own safety.  They need proper help and support to free them from addiction, organized crime and pimpery.

Yes.  It can be done.  They could be rescued and led to normal lives.  Those of you who are reading this and chuckling ought to ponder that those women could be your daughters, your sisters or your mothers.  Maybe, they are!

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Free North Campaign

 NORTHERN REPUBLIC

Bulletin of the Free North Campaign

The Free North Campaign is a socialist, republican campaign group that

calls for ever-greater autonomy and self-government for the North of England. We do not support any single political party but stand in solidarity with progressive independence and regionalist movements around the world. We believe in the radical devolution of political and economic power away from

the London-centric elites to localcommunities and municipalities.

SOLIDARITY WITH CATALONIA!

The Free North Campaign sends its support and solidarity to the people of Catalonia in their historic struggle for freedom and independence from the Spanish state.Irrespective of

whether the October 1st referendum was legal or not (in the eyes of the Spanish government and courts), the violent response of the Madrid government must be condemned as a criminal act

.

The European Union must also be condemned for its predictably inadequate response to the oppressive Francoist tactics of the Rajoy government and the national police force.

The EU has demonstrated that its main concern is protecting the interest of Europe’s ruling elite, rather than defending the citizens of Europe.  During the Scottish referendum,  the British establishment used a combination of fear and insincere sycophancy to encourage Scots to vote No.  In contrast, the Spanish state broke bones, smashed heads open, stole ballot boxes and closed polling stations.  Anyone who was undecided about Catalan independence before the referendum can surely no longer be ambivalent about the issue now.

Catalan Nationalism contains liberal, conservative and left-wing shades of opinion. Our political sympathies naturally lie with those on the left; in the Catalan Parliament this is represented by the Republican Left of Cataloniaand the anti-capitalist Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP).

Fundamentally any region which seeks to separate itself from a repressive and reactionary state deserves the support of progressives. Independence alone will not inevitably lead to social and economic justice, but it can significantly speed up the pace of radical change and deal a decisive blow to the ruling class.

******

The Free North Campaignwelcomes all supporters who broadly

agree with our principles. 

Email us at: freenorth@hotmail.co.uk

and followthe twitter account @Free_North.

For a ‘Council of the North'

Political leaders from Leeds, Merseyside, Manchester Newcastle and West Yorkshire

met recently to discuss forming a body to speak on behalf of Northern interests.

Andy Burnham, the metro mayor of Greater Manchester said:

“If the North is to get the investment it has been promised, and fulfil its vast potential, we must come together, work together, and speak with one voice. “Today’s meeting was an important step

towards achieving that. The North of England is getting organised and can no longer be ignored.”

Steve Rotheram, the metro mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:  

“The UK is simply too London-centric and we need to be inventive and determined if we are goingto off-set its disproportionate influence andshare of national resources.”

Life-spans both North & South

MORE than one million extra people have died 'early' in the North of England than the South in the last 50 years, research shows.
An investigation of death records has revealed that people in the North are 20% more likely to die under the age of 75, with researchers describing their study as a "tale of two Englands".
The study, led by the University of Manchester, found there were 1.2 million more premature deaths in the North from 1965 to 2015 - and 14,333 more in 2015 alone.
Their figures also reveal there were 49% more deaths among 35 to 44-year-olds in the North than the South in 2015, and 29% more among 25 to 34-year-olds.
Lead researcher Professor Iain Buchan said: 'Five decades of death records tell a tale of two Englands, North and South.
'They are divided by resources and life expectancy - a profound inequality resistant to the public health interventions of successive governments.
'A new approach is required, one that must address the economic and social factors that underpin early deaths.'

The researchers defined the North of England as the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands and West Midlands.
Meanwhile, the South comprised the East, South West, London and South East.
The study used data from the Office for National Statistics on the whole English population from 1965 to 2015.
The full results will be published in the BMJ's Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
A Government spokeswoman said: "This Government is committed to creating a society where everybody gets the opportunity to make a success of their hard work - regardless of where they are from."

The Radical North & Melvyn Bragg

TODAY, Melvyn Bragg explores the radical movements that sprang from the North - Chartism, the campaign for women's votes, anti-slavery protests, the birth of the Labour Party.  The programme begins outside Manchester's Midland Hotel where Mr Rolls met Mr Royce.  It's also near the site of the Peterloo Massacre - one of the defining moments in British social history.  People had gathered here in their thousands from the city and surrounding towns and villages - protesting for parliamentary reform. fifteen were slain and hundreds wounded by charging cavalry troops.  Melvyn visits what one contributor Dr Robert Poole describes as Democracy Wall - it runs alongside of the nearby Quaker Meeting House - many people were crushed against it at the time of the Massacre. The wall is the only structure left from the period.  The massacre inspired the poet Shelley to write the Masque of Anarchy, part of which is read for us by the actor Maxine Peake.
Melvyn goes on to describe the rich history of dissent nurtured in the north - the women's suffrage movement, the campaign to abolish slavery, chartism, and the founding of the Independent Labour Party.
Why the north?
Was it Methodism, the size of the population, the isolated landscapes, the topography of the cities or even the weather?

'The Matter of the North'!

MELVYN BRAGG celebrates the history of the North of England in a new Radio 4 show, The Matter of the North:

The ten-part series, began yesterday Monday 29th August, with Bragg delving into stories spanning the end of Roman rule to the present day.

According to Mr. Bragg the North is as much a country as any other geographically defined country.  Melvyn Bragg's program explores the historical, religious & intellectual roots of what became the North of England.

The program begins in the 5^th Century when the Romans built forts in places like Maryport on coast of Cumbria, before the bulk of them began draining away.   

Arguing that the North is as much a country as any other geographically defined country.  Melvyn Bragg's program explores the historical, religious & intellectual roots of what became the North of England.
In the program Mr. Bragg will travel around Northumbria, Cumbria, Yorkshire, Liverpool and Manchester, exploring the pivotal historical moments and cultural contributions from the region, which have helped shape the Britain of today.

The blurb on the BBC website declares:

'This is the story of the North, one that has the history of most countries. The area has twice the economy of Scotland, if it were a country in its own right it would be the eighth biggest economy in Europe, and it’s been the scene of the greatest revolution in the world – the industrial revolution – the retreat of one empire – the Roman military – and the advance of another, the Roman church,'

Mr. Bragg says:    'Invasions from the East by the Vikings, and from the South by their cousins the Normans, the former enriching the English language, the latter marching up from London to destroy much of the North and leaving centuries of bloody rebellion and justified resentment.

'It’s here in the North that the original culture of England was founded after the Romans, the dissent and non-conformism bred great inventions, and that a particular sense of humour was developed... I think it’s a wonderful part of the world and like most people who’ve been born and brought up in the North I feel this is as much a country as any more neatly geographically defined place on the planet... And it’s not a bad time to look at the roots of northernness in this referendum year when there’s been much talk of a North-South divide – there’s no doubt that being northern matters greatly to people in 2016.'

Across the 30-minute episodes, Bragg hears from a cast of northern voices including Dame Judi Dench, David Hockney, Lee Hall, Jimmy McGovern, Ian McMillan, Geoffrey Boycott, Maxine Peake, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Chris Bonnington and Joan Bakewell.

The Matter of the North will broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 9am (Monday-Friday) from Monday 29th August – Friday 9th September

.