I was pleased to discover today that Sir Menzies Campbell has pledged to continue opposing tuition fees, even though it may mean voting against Coalition proposals for University funding etc when they come before Parliament.

Personally I am not enamoured by the whip system and would prefer to see all MP’s voting according to their own beliefs and conscience.But that is sort of another issue really. 

But I am particularly keen that the Lib Dems should not abandon their commmittment to scrapping tuition fees and I don’t see why a coalition agreement should stop us doing so.

All parties, and the Lib Dems are no exception, must be free to campaign and for that matter develop policy. Those freedoms must be protected within the framework of the Coalition otherwise the party will cease to “think”. That would be stifling and only serve in itself to undermine the longevity of this Coalition.

So Ming the Merciless to lead the first rebellion against the Coalition – who’d have thought it!  Well done Ming.

30 MAY BANDS IN THE PARK 14.00 – 16.00
St Mary’s Flower Park
Tottington brass band. Free entrance.
Phone: 0161 253 7983

31 MAY PROCESSION OF HORSES 11.00 start Simister
Simister and Prestwich Bridleways Association procession of Horses will leave the Same Yet Pub, Simister at 11:00am, processing down Simister Lane to Heywood Road, along Polefield Road and onto St. Margaret’s Road, back onto Heywood Road and onto Simister lane back into Simister.
Contact: Margaret on stewardson1@sky.com

1 JUNE PRESTWICH CONCERT SERIES 2010 MARTIN SNELL (BASS) SONG RECITAL 19.30
St. Mary’s Church, Church Lane, Prestwich
Hailing from New Zealand, Martin Snell has sung opera from Wellington and Taiwan to Basle and the illustrious Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany. This evening,
accompanied at the piano by Philip White (chorus master at the Royal Opera, Copenhagen) presents a recital of Duparc, Wolf and Finzi. Entry £5 (under 18s free)
0798 009 2311 0161 773 6320 white548@btinternet.com or www.stmarysprestwich.zoomshare.com

2 JUNE SAPHIRE BLUE LIGHT JAZZ BAND 20.00
Church Inn, Church Lane
For more information Phone: 0161 798 6727.

3 JUNE A MaD EVENING in association with FC United of Manchester 19.30 start
The Longfield Suite
Moston Active Drama present films from ‘Angels with Manky Faces’, followed by a preview of their forthcoming play, ‘Thai Brides and Teacakes’. Plus author Andrew Davies, discusses his best-selling book, ‘The Gangs of Manchester’.
Entry £2. Phone: 0161 253 7227 for information.

5 JUNE PRESTWICH CRICKET TENNIS AND BOWLING CLUB OPEN DAY 12.00 – 18.00
Prestwich Cricket Club
Local Derby day when the Cricket First X1 play rival neighbours Cheetham Hill. New club facilities include a re-modelled clubhouse, new changing rooms and 3 new floodlit tennis courts. Free entrance, inc. BBQ and a chance to try out the Bowling Green and Tennis Courts. Children particularly welcome.
find us at www.pctbc.com

5 JUNE FAMILY FUN-PACKED EXTRAVAGANZA 12 noon – 17.00
Creative Living Centre (Behind TGI Friday’s), Bury New Road
Come and enjoy our fund-raising extravaganza, with plenty of fun for all the family – face painting, pampering treatments, tombola, children’s art competition, Beat the Goalie, Roll a Penny, Name the Teddy, refreshments and much more. All money raised goes to the Centre.
Tel: 0161 772 3524 for further details.

5 JUNE COME DANCING WITH GIBBONS DANCE 19.30 – 23.30
The Longfield Suite
Gibbons Dance presents Come Dancing with a demo by the Dance with Passion Latin Formation Team. Plus enjoy a night of Ballroom & Sequence dancing including Charity Raffle. Cost £6.
Phone: 0161 798 9327, 07963 488446 info@gibbonsdance.com or www.gibbonsdance.com

As someone who is generally a news and current affairs junkie, it has become increasingly obvious that the media, or at least TV news, are growing more desperate with every day over the Coalition Government.

It’s not that they are not getting any news or announcements to report, it’s because it’s not the news they are looking for.

With every passing day the reporters question whether this issue is/will be causing a split within the Coalition, whether the back benchers will cause a fuss, how will the wider party memberships react? Will there be an almighty row between Government ministers from each party.

Today’s “Split opportunity” would appear to be whether Capital Gains Tax reform (a Lib Dem pledge) will upset hoardes of Tories.

And, as recently as this morning Vince Cable was on BBC Radio 5 Live and was questioned as to why he had resigned as Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems. The suggestion being that it was somehow related to unannounced dissatisfaction with the coalition arrangements.

You could almost feel the dissapointment in the questioner when Vince Cable insisted that the reason was that he could concentrate on being Business Secretary in the new Government.

Of course what’s completely daft about this growing media obsession with splits, possible splits and cracks etc, is that even in past Governments formed from one party there have been splits and division and sometimes virtually open rebellion. 

Undoubtedly there will be divisions and disputes – it’s human nature – but for the sake of the national interest, lets hope the Coalition can continue strong at least until we are out of recession and have at addressed the budget deficit.

That probably won’t satisfy the media hounds desperate for 24 hour news coverage, but I believe it is what is needed – stable government may be boring but its really helpful at times like these.

In this brave new world of Coalition Government we could be forgiven for finding ourselves staring into the glare of this new era like political rabbits caught in the  headlights of radical change. Indeed I have already noticed some Government backbenchers have started wearing sunglasses to avoid the glare!

But, as in all situations, good, bad or indifferent, radical change such as is being promised by the coalition does present an opportunity that should be grasp by others in the wake of the Governments reforms.

And, in my view the best place to start would be with our own Town Halls, our local councils. Partly because some promised reforms will affect Councils in any case and irrespective of the affect of those reforms, the £1.16 billion of announced cuts to local authority grants should prove a spur to reform if ever one was needed.

Much of the way our local councils work hasn’t changed in decades, there has been change, but all too often since the dark days of Thatcher, it has been change forced through in response to annual budget cuts.

It’s about time we had a root and branch examination of what council services we provide and how we provide them. It’s time for a local council re-think, to re-think not just service provision but how we work with local people to provide the services they want.

If we grasp the nettle of reform that the Coalition is sending us then we can harness that reform to enable us to renew local democracy and local government and provide a truly radicall and dare I say revolutionary approach to the way we serve local people.

There has never been a better time like the present.

Listening to Labour’s response to the announcement of Coalition proposals for public sector cuts yesterday you would have thought that they had nothing to do with the previous Government and certainly no responsibility for any of the budget deficit.

Now we can all argue about a) how much Labour are responsible and b) When the cuts should take place, but there is no getting away from the fact, as all parties agree, that we need massive cuts to public services in order to reduce the budget deficit.

Key point No.1 has to be that we don’t overdo the cuts and £6bn, whilst sounding a lot (and is), is only a fraction of the Governments overall budget, and it has been done with the approval of the Governor of the Bank of England and following consultation with leading economists. In addition cuts have to be sensitive to the delicate slight recovery that would seem to be underway, so as not to jeapardise our climb out of recession.

Key point No.2 is that key frontline public services for the old, frail, young and infirm have to be protected. Even if”back-office” functions are cut, we must protect the vulnerable in society.

Key point No.3 is to ensure that we are as even handed as possible – there is no use devastating certain areas of public services if such devastation leads to further catastrophic problems as a result.

Overall, from what I’ve seen, I feel the cuts announced yesterday do meet these three key points and so, while I am not exactly happy the cuts have been made, as a believer in strong public services who can, I feel they are being approached in a proper, considered, manner by the new Government.

Ultimately the fortunes of the Coalition partners may well succeed or flounder on how the cuts and progress out of recession are handled, but its certainly to early to judge, and I for one won’t take any lessons from Labour on how the public finances should be managed.

This weekend Prestwich was heaving, and I wondered what a stranger to the area would have made of it all.

First up was the car boot sale in St.Mary’s park, about the same time as that kicked off the Farmers market on the precinct was getting going. Then at 2pm in st.Mary’s Flower Park Besses o’ the Band got going with a two hour concert.

The incredible summer weather brought the perfect setting and brought out the crowds also. The innovation was the brass band concert, and if there was any anxiety amongst organisers about how popular this event was then the fears were quickly dispelled with well over 200 in attendance.

The highlight of the concert for me was the performance of “Summertime” by Gershwin, from “Porgy and Bess”. Beautifully performed and capturing the moment/day perfectly.

If you missed sundays concert or would like to hear more, Besses will be performing again in this years Festival on thursday May 27th at the Longfield Suite.

For more information on this and other forthcoming festival events visit www.prestwichfestival.net  

This weekend sees the return of the now popular Farmers market on Prestwich precinct, with an amazing selection of locally sourced produce, with entertainment for the children making it an event for all the family. The Farmers market is from 9.30 to 4pm on Sunday.

Besses O’ the Barn Band

Sunday sees a new innovation for Prestwich Festival this year with the first of three Brass band concerts in St.Mary’s flower park.

First up is popular local brass band, Besses O’the Barn, the concert is free and will take place at the site of the former bandstand from 2-4pm.

The forecast is good so why not go to the farmers market and by stuff for a picnic at the concert!

Bury Child Care and Extended Services have organised 2 fun days for the Victoria and Polefield estate areas. 

The multi agency teams involved in this project have organised these fun days as a way of engaging with the communities, children, young people and families.  One aim is to find out what children, young people and families want so that we can try to offer more activities in particular during holiday periods. Of course another aim is just to have a good time !

For more information please open or download the attached flyer: fun-day-flyer.pdf

Yesterday Nick Clegg MP gave his first speech as Deputy Prime Minister – you can read the full speech here on the important subject of political reform.

What Nick has announced is the biggest shake up of British democracy since the Great Reform Act of 1832. It is a fundamental resettlement of the relationship between state and citizen that puts people, not Whitehall, in charge.

Step one – we will repeal all of the intrusive and unnecessary laws that inhibit people’s freedom. This means scrapping ID cards, halting the second generation of biometric passports, radically reforming the DNA database, ending the ContactPoint children’s database and stopping the fingerprinting of children without parent’s permission.

Step two – we will reform our politics so it is open, transparent and decent. We will introduce an elected House of Lords, fixed termed parliaments and strengthening parliament so it can hold the executive to account. Under our plans voters will have the power to recall corrupt MPs, there will be a register of lobbyists and a cap on donations. And most importantly we will give people a chance to vote in a referendum on our outdated and undemocratic electoral system.

Step three – we will radically redistribute power away from the centre, into your communities, your homes and your hands. We will strengthen local democracy and empower local people whilst scrapping layers of unnecessary top-down Whitehall bureaucracy. And we will implement further devolution to the nations of Britain.

Liberal Democrats in government are already delivering our manifesto commitments and opening up our political system and empowering citizens. That is what we have fought for over many years, and that is what we are now able to do.

Yesterday we made a new Mayor, or so it goes, as Bury’s councillors gathered at the Town hall to elect a new Mayor of Bury.

This year after some pre-election shenanigans from the Conservatives we finally got round to electing Cllr John Byrne who represents East Ward for Labour.

It’s a very ceremonial event with much back slapping and kind words gushing forth in support of the new first citizen and indeed the endeavours of the outgoing Mayor – Cllr Sheila Magnall. But it is certainly a respectful and honouring occasion when friends, family and dignitaries are present to share the occasion as the gift, responsibility and honour of being the Mayor of the Town is bestowed by your peers.

Sadly all the ceremony and pleasantries was preceeded by an Annual Council meeting that had to deal with some controversial issues surrounding amendments to the council constitution and “reforms” to the leadership of the Council foisted upon us by the previous Labour Government.

Under Labour’s plans yesterday we had to elect a “strong” leader.  Now anyone with a minimal interest in local affairs will now know that following the local elections the Conservatives no longer have a majority on Bury Council and will have to rely to a certain extent on oppostion party support to get key decisions through.

As a result the election of leader was not a forgone conclusion, but as neither the Lib Dems or Labour could bring themselves to support or oppose the Conservative nomination, Cllr Bibby was duly elected leader of the Council.

This was followed by amendments to the council constitution partially designed to fit with this new leadership model and partially to improve the scrutiny and review of council decisions.

Over the past year the scrutiny process in Bury has been roundly condemned by councillors from all three parties and as such it was no surprise that proposals before us yesterday also drew criticism and concerns. Especially concerns about openness , transparency, the real ability to hold the leadership to account and whether too much power was being vested in one person!

Of course we won’t truly be able to give the response to those concerns until probably well into the municipal year. But I pray the new system is better that what we had because otherwise it will be disastrous for our democracy and ensuring good decisions are made.

Time will tell.