I am delighted that Mersey Bowmen Tennis Club in Sefton Park has been successful in securing a Places People Play Olympic legacy award from Sport England that will see nearly £50,000 invested into resurfacing its courts.
I met with the club to present to them their cheque this afternoon.
This affirms the positive commitment from Sport England to nurture future talent at grassroots level and promote healthy lifestyles for all.
Today, I visited Lab in a Lorry at Shorefields Technology College in Dingle Vale.
The mobile physics lab for young people, run by the Institute of Physics (IOP), is designed to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, offering 11-14 year olds the opportunity to explore science through specially created interactive experiments.
The lorry is embarking on a tour of the North West which aims to reach 6,000 students from across the region, all of whom will be introduced to key concepts in physics.
The experiments on board the lorry involve using the properties of light to diagnose sick patients, using sound waves to smash wine glasses, and scattering light to understand why the sky is blue and help identify the real colour of the Sun. The key concepts behind the experiments will be illustrated with examples from everyday life and cutting-edge research.
This is an innovative idea and one which I hope will inspire future scientists! More information can be found at www.labinalorry.org.uk
15 year old Kevin Williams was one of the 96 Liverpool fans who tragically died as a result of the Hillsborough Stadium disaster in 1989. The original inquest into the disaster returned a verdict of accidental death and ruled that all the victims were dead by 3.15 that afternoon. However there is much evidence to challenge this assertion; as numerous witnesses including a policeman and a member of St John Ambulance saw Kevin Williams alive well after 3.15.
Kevin’s mother Anne has long campaigned for a new inquest into his death to take place and a recent e-petition on this subject received over 118,000 signatures.
At a debate in Parliament yesterday I called for Anne Williams to finally be able to find out the truth about what happened to her son on that fateful day.
Speaking in front of the Attorney-General I said:
The deaths and the tragedy may have happened some years ago, but many people have said to me that it is as if it had happened today: the grief and anger are still there, and the determination to get to the truth of what happened remains. [...]
I hope that today the Attorney-General will be able to give us information that will take us nearer to establishing that long-sought-after truth.
Despite opposition from the majority of the public and health professionals the Government is still pushing ahead with its proposed changes to the NHS.
It is widely acknowledged that these changes pose a great risk to the NHS and the Department of Health has even created a ‘risk register’ which documents these dangers.
The Information Commissioner has ruled that the Department for Health should release the register but the Government has so far refused to publish it.
Yesterday, Labour put forward a motion urging the Government to release the register, which I supported. Unfortunately the motion was defeated by 53 votes with Tory and Lib Dem MPs voting against the proposals.
The register must be released in order to inform public understanding and to enable full scrutiny of the changes.
This Government cannot be trusted on the NHS and I will continue to fight their plans which threaten the future of our health service.
Yesterday, along with other MPs, I met with representatives of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service in Parliament to discuss the challenges currently facing the authority.
Over recent years the Fire and Rescue Service has been successful in reducing the number of fires, fire deaths and injuries in Merseyside. These achievements have attracted the interest of fire prevention authorities across the world, who have approached the Merseyside service for advice and information.
However, like many local services across the city, they are currently facing severe financial constraints. Following the spending review they had to make cuts of £9.2 million from a £70 million annual budget.
This 13% grant cut is among the highest of any fire authority in the country. Other authorities have had to face smaller cuts, while areas such as Dorset, Essex and Hampshire have actually seen modest increases to their grants.
Most of Merseyside’s savings have so far come through voluntary redundancy, fire-fighter retirements and a three year pay freeze.
I am very concerned that further cuts planned by the Government will threaten frontline fire services. The Government must think again.
The Labour Party is calling on the government to drop the Health and Social Care Bill.
The NHS faces the biggest financial challenge in its history at the same time as the government has launched the biggest top-down reorganisation since 1948. The NHS must make £20bn of cuts by 2015 and the changes are set to cost the health service £3.4bn.
The planned changes to the NHS risk privatisation in the future. Under the Government’s plans, NHS hospitals will be allowed to use almost half their hospital beds and theatre time for private patients. Foundation hospitals will also be able to raise 49% of their funds through non-NHS work.
This Bill threatens the future of our NHS. Organisations representing over 1.2 million local NHS doctors, nurses, midwives and other health care providers have shown their opposition to the plans.
Liverpool has already seen an 87% increase in the number of patients waiting longer than 18 weeks for treatment since the government came into office. The costs of reorganisation are hitting the NHS hard, with £38,867,033 set aside for reorganisation in Liverpool Primary Care Trust. The number of nurses in the North West has been cut by 1,298 since the general election.
We have just three months to fight these plans which risk the breakup of the NHS.
You can show your support for the Bill to be dropped by signing the e-petition following the link: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670
The petition has received over 120,000 signatures and is rising.
Further information can be found on the drop the bill website: http://www.dropthebill.com/
This afternoon, I took part in a discussion held at the University of Liverpool to discuss Social Democracy. The Panel (pictured left) consisted of myself with (Lord) Roy Hattersley, former Deputy Labour Party Leader, Stephen Twigg MP (West Derby) and Peter Kilfoyle, former MP for Walton.
The debate was excellent and many good contributions were made from the audience made up of students, activists and members of the public.
The basis of the debate was a paper written by Roy Hattersley and University of Liverpool Lecturer Kevin Hickson (above, right). The article In Praise of Social Democracy is currently freely available at: www.politicalquarterly.org
