Thanks to everyone who came to help with the litter pick in Thingwall – some of the team are pictured below. In the space of a hour we managed to fill 5 full backs with broken glass, crisp and sweet wrappers, cans and cigarette buts.

Ah yes Esther with the Marigold gloves! Pictured alongside the gloves; Adam Sykes, Colette and Geoff Gubb.

Next month we’ll be doing a litter pick & tidyup in another area, if you’d like to nominate an area, or come and help out then call the office on 0151 632 1052From Thingwall it was straight to Dawpool (hands washed and clothes changed along the way!) for the primary school’s summer fair with live band ‘Hazar and Hollow’, line dancing ,’The Claire Knight Dancers ‘ and Judo demonstrations. There was also lots of hair dye present and children walking round with multi coloured hair - all part of the fun -  when the rain came I wondered what happened to that hair dye ?  I remember when I was 14 and put bright red on my hair and the heavens opened and  it all streamed down my face – I looked like I’d walked off a horror movie  set – wasn’t quite the look I was going for!

Crowds packed out Dawpool Primary School Summer Fair

Last night I was the guest speaker at Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. I’d been asked to give a speech on ‘Creative Industries and Associated Businesses in a Recession’. My talk was to cover my career from law into media and then into business , detailing the journey and how it had unfolded in the last recession. David Parish author of ‘T-shirts and Suits – A guide to the Business of Creativity’ was the other guest speaker.

The audience were all budding entrepreneurs from the world of art and culture, media and music, concerned about what the future held for them.

In our very different ways, reflecting our different experiences we revealed what we considered to be our key survival traits & knowledge on  how to survive in this highly competitive arena.

Last night I jumped a cab and as always struck up a conversation with the driver. He’d heard all about the families from FFFJ going to London and meeting with members of parliament, he’d been listening to the coverage on radio and said – ”This group sentence is exactly what we need. We need to send a clear message to criminals and take them off the street’ .I went to get out of the cab and pay the bill when the cabbie asked – how does the group raise money? I said coffee mornings, fundraising nights, donations, that sort of thing and he leant across and said ‘take this, put it in the donation box’ and pressed a note in my hand. June Hopley is the treasurer and I gave her the donation straight away. You can not but help be moved by the kindness and the goodwill of the majority of people you meet. I know FFFJ will have success, there are too many people willing them on and in accord with their stance.

Just a little addition to the above – after getting out the cab I bumped into a friend, Mike McArdle, who has a group and had just got back from doing a Rat Pack Event in London, I told him the tale – straight away he offered to put on a gig here in Liverpool to help raise money -  If you’d like to know more please go to www.familiesfightingforjustice.com

There are good people around – lets not allow the miscreant few over rule the majority of good, hard working, kind human beings. Let’s send out a clear message that we as a society will not tolerate such actions and that there will be strict penalties for those that break the rules.

Some of the families from the 'Families Fighting for Justice' group outside Parliament

Jean Taylor, Paddy & Joan Levell, Sue Dugdale, June Hopley, Christine & Andrew Jones and myself met with 40 members of parliament, Law Lords, judges, QC’s, a cross party think tank and shadow cabinet ministers yesterday to lobby for tougher sentencing as well as to discuss the introduction of a ‘Gang Law’ sentence and ‘group sentencing’.

After working with ‘Families Fighting for Justice’ for 18 months, meeting with the families and talking about what they would like see changed, I arranged for this pivotal meeting  to take place with the group, many of whom have never received any justice for their child’s murder and all of whom don’t want other families to have to go through the ordeal they have suffered.

Jean Taylor, from Greasby, who set up the group has been alarmed at the number of gangs committing murders, many of whom have walked free as no one particular person could be identified as the murderer. She said ‘many kids hid behind a wall of silence so frustrated the law and the justice system. These kids know how to play the system and it’s making a mockery of the justice system.’ It is for that reason ’Families Fighting for Justice’ would like to see substantial and significant updates of the law and the sentencing procedure.

Lord Hunt of Wirral with members of the press

Lord Hunt assited with co-ordinating the meeting – here he is with members of the press.

At the end of 2008 planners received an application to use land on the corner of Wood Lane and Greasby Road as premises for car sales.  Local people were very concerned because this is already a very busy junction. Wendy Clements our council candidate for Greasby acted quickly in response to these concerns and raised a petition opposing the application. After the Planning Committee refused permission at the end of January, local people were surprised and angry to see that cars are being “stored” on the site. Wendy made further representations to the Planning Enforcement Team, and they have been looking into the situation. Wendy will be keeping a keen eye on this matter and will keep local residents updated and informed.

We held another Super Sunday today and 25 community minded people gave up just an hour of their time  to come out and help.

If you’d like to help out in your local area, or ask for help for your local area, then call the office on 0151 632 1052 as we’re out every month and go to different areas. Next Saturday 4th July 10.30am we will be in Thingwall doing ’A Thingwall Tidy Up’ – cleaning up the area around Cestrian Drive and Seven Acres Lane. 

So for more information please call 0151 632 1052

Wendy Clements, our candidate for Greasby, with me outside the new dental practice

Nearly eighteen months ago Mr Morgan closed his dental practice in Greasby. Local residents, furious at the loss of another local service and the treatment of Mr Morgan demanded that Wirral PCT ensure a new practice was available for local residents. I am pleased that after nearly two years of waiting and after a lot of work by the local residents, Wendy and myself, Greasby residents will soon have a new dentist. Local residents were loud in their call for this basic service and their call has been answered.

Yesterday Gordon Brown was caught red-handed!

Last week, he said that his government would be “increasing capital expenditure up to the Olympics” – that means spending on things like building more schools and hospitals.

But – as this video shows – these claims are not just controversial, they just aren’t true. His own figures show that he plans to cut capital investment not just from now to the Olympics in 2012, but every single year up to 2014.

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday,  David Cameron repeatedly gave the Prime Minister the opportunity to correct this false claim – but as usual he just couldn’t give a straight answer to a straight question.

He also repeatedly claims that “in every year in the future public spending will continue to rise”. But again, the government’s own figures show that once you account for the increased cost of unemployment and the rising interest charges we will have to pay on national debt, total spending will be cut.

This means that Labour’s current plans involve significant cuts on the budgets of government departments, and spending on public services.

The Prime Minister may say he wants to restore trust in politics. But by trying to take the British people for fools in this way, his actions are speaking louder than his words.

The division in British politics is not – “cuts versus investment” – as Gordon Brown says, but between a Conservative Party telling the truth about the state of the public finances, and Labour who are failing to be straight with people.

Yes I went to the Take That concert last night. One of the very many who had a fab time. And what an eclectic audience, 2 generations of fans bopping together, mum and daughter groups, dad and son teams. First and second time round fans!

Most bizarre, at least so I thought, is what happened at the end of the night…… The concert had fallen on John’s birthday so en masse we decided to book and go the concert. We could think of no better way to celebrate his 37th! John and friends set of from home some time in the afternoon and I set off from work some time later. Approx 70,000 people were making their way to the concert, all looking for places to park; close by roads, car parks, park and rides. Being late I decided to try and park as close as possible to the venue and luckily I found one single car parking space right next to the venue. Parking was easy, finding my friends was less so. Eventually we met up inside the packed cricket ground, ably assisted by mobile phones!

At the end of the night I was asked where I’d parked, joking a replied in an aptly named street, Barlow Road, to which John replied ‘Get away, we’re parked there too’ so we can walk back together. Did you see a blue Mercedes he asked, (this was John’s new car which I’d never seen). Can’t say I was checking out every car in the street, I replied. Well blow me as we walked back to the cars and as I was taking a picture of the street name, John nearly had a coronary, not because his car had been towed away, but because tucked up right next to his, bumper to bumper was my car! Classic case of coincidental parking!

Conservative front runner John Bercow MP has become the new Speaker, dragged to the chair as is tradition. He won on a ticket of reform and that will have to be his key mission. The dragging to the chair might be more than symbolic as he drags Parliament into a new era of transparency and greater accountability.

Much has been made in the press of him being a divisive figure perhaps this is his chance to become a uniting figure not only in the House but in the country and with the public at large. He has a big task a head of him and I hope he rises to the challenge to build and restore faith and respect in the political system.

No decision yet and it might go to several more votes.

I’ve just put the phone down from a conservative MP who felt the vote was in the air and all of those up for position of Speaker gave very forceful speeches as to why they should be selected.

Speaking with friends, many like the idea of Ann Widdecombe as an interim Speaker, assisting with the clean up of Parliament and then for a further Speaker to be selected after the General Election when Ann retires.