Monthly Archives: September 2008

Edward Timpson MP

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Deborah Dunleavy (PPC Bolton NE) David Nuttall Edward Timpson MP Martin Hardman Jake Berry ( PPC Rossendale and Darwen) Pamela Watkins

Deborah Dunleavy (PPC Bolton NE) David Nuttall Edward Timpson MP Martin Hardman Jake Berry ( PPC Rossendale and Darwen) Pamela Watkins


Last night Sue and I attended a dinner organised by the Bury Industrial Society held at the Last Drop Hotel near Bolton. The guest speaker was Edward Timpson MP the victor of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. The dinner was chaired by Martin Hardman and was organised by the Society’s excellent and efficient Secretary Pamela Watkins.

In addition to myself the dinner was also attended by my fellow Candidates Deborah Dunleavy from Bolton North East and Jake Berry from Rossendale and Darwen

Labour Walk Out

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I witnessed an extraordinary meeting at Bury Council last night. The public gallery was full of Council employees who are losing pay as a result of the job evaluation and regrading exercise that Bury Council, indeed every Council, is having to undertake. After repeated heckling from some in the public gallery the Mayor adjourned the meeting at which point the employees left and so did all the Labour Councillors. When the meeting resumed with only Liberal Democrat and Conservative Councillors present a civilised debate took place on what is an extremely difficult problem for the Council to resolve.

Earlier in the day I had attended a coffee morning organised by the Bury North Ladies Committee and I then attended a meeting of the Bury Rotary Club.

A New Ministry

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On Monday evening I attended the Service of Licensing, Commissioning and Welcome of the the new Team Vicar for The Ramsbottom and Edenfield Ministry held at St. Paul’s Church in Ramsbottom. The new Team Vicar is Reverand Anthony Barnshaw and I was pleased that after the Service I was able to speak to him personally and wish him well as he takes up his new duties. He is clearly very enthusiastic and I am sure he will be a great addition to the Team in Ramsbottom.

Back

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After my holiday in Scarborough I am now back in to the routine. Like everyone who returns to work after a break there always seems a mountain of things to do. Things you left before you went thinking ” that can wait” and which were not urgent then have suddenly become urgent. Then there are a whole load of new tasks that have arrived whilst you are away and all in all you do start to think why did I go away!

For those interested the cricket match between Yorkshire and Somerset petered out into a draw last week as there was no play at all possible on the final two days because of the rain. A very minor inconvenience when compared with the loss of life and property which the rain and floods have caused elsewhere.

Strange Interview

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The domestic political news over the past couple of days has been dominated by the interview the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave to the Guardian newspaper. It is extraordinary on a number of levels. It seems odd that the Chancellor should choose to take a journalist away on holiday with him. It is unusual for such a senior politician to use such colourful language when describing the way the public presently feel. It is not often that a politician makes his feelings about a colleague from his own party so publicly known. All in all a rather strange interview and one I suspect we shall all hear many references to in the coming weeks as the Conference season approaches.

I am really enjoying my cricket holiday. We were very lucky to have four uninterupted days play at Scarborough and an intriguing game as well even though after all it ended with Yorkshire drawing with Kent. On the opposite coast Lancashire had the opposite weather four days completely washed out without a ball being bowled so another, rather different draw!