Why trams won’t be appearing in Liverpool

No, don’t worry, this is not another rehearsal of why ‘Merseytram’ failed back in the early 2000’s. That one has done the rounds probably too many times!

 

Back when the Tories were in power (pre June 2024) they allocated money to Liverpool City Region for transport infrastructure improvements and Labour has, in effect, confirmed that chunk of money. As any Merseysider will know the money is in significant part to pay for buses dressed up as trams and they’ll be running, we’re told, to Liverpool (John Lennon) Airport. Readers with longer memories will recall the first ‘Merseytram’ line was NOT going to go to Liverpool Airport and that caused quite a stink back then. So the City Region leaders knew what would happen if they talked about any new transport infrastructure without making an airport link, from the city centre, a priority.

Bendy-Buses!

Why not resurrect the tram scheme and build the first line to……. well you know where? Well, what they actually came up with were ‘Bendy-Buses/Boris-type Buses/Gliders’ (there may well be more names for them but I’ll omit the rude ones), in effect buses dressed up as trams and it seems our Labour gov’ confirmed the money could be spent on them. So, I guess, we’ll be getting them at some point.

Tram Raid

But why no trams? I’d always thought that the Tory and now Labour governments would be reluctant to fund trams in Liverpool/Merseyside due to cost and maybe the political hang-over from the ‘Merseytram’ demise. I had no evidence of this but felt that was the situation. Then Private Eye No.1672 (3^rd to 16^th April) dropped through my letter box and bingo on page 17 under its ‘Signal Failures’ column my thoughts were effectively confirmed under the heading ‘Tram Raid’.

West Yorks shunted back into sidings

Yes, that article is actually all about the farce over in West Yorkshire where their long promised tram/light rail system has been given more green then red lights than you could shake a stick at. And yes, of course, it’s been kicked back into the long political grass once again. But it’s the reason why it’s been kicked into the long grass that links to Liverpool City Region not proposing a tram system. You see it’s the words ‘might not be trams after all’ and ‘check whether [wait for it] buses would be more viable’ in that Private Eye article that made the penny drop for me. In essence Liverpool City Region was almost certainly told, by the last Tory government, don’t ask for a tram system as we won’t fund it and despite Labour coming to power in June 2024 the ‘advice’ has still been the same.

No Merseytram II

So now I think we know why Liverpool City Region leaders put in a transport bid for bendy-buses when, like West Yorks, local folk were fully expecting Merseytram II to be proposed by our local leaders. They didn’t bid for what they knew we all wanted/needed on Merseyside because they’d been told not to bother and they didn’t want to end up in the eternal shall we/shan’t we position that poor old West Yorks is in! Pragmatic, you could say, but my feeling is that settling for 3^rd best in a contest where trams were both number 1 and 2 could well come back to haunt Liverpool/Merseyside Labour leaders.

                                             What Liverpool won't be getting - 

A Geater Manchester Metro tram in Rochdale

 

 

Why are Lycra* wearing cyclists so upsetting?

Being a lefty Liberal, an atheist, a cyclist and a railway enthusiast means I understand what it’s like to be in a minority. I’ve never wanted to follow any crowd (Andy Burnham’s a crowd follower to me), to fit in, to keep up with the Jones’s etc. etc.

 

 

So what’s this odd rant all about then? Well, whilst I’m pretty much opposed to banning many things (because we Liberal’s don’t really do that sort of thing) I’m starting to worry about those who seem to get quite upset over cyclists wearing Lycra. When throwing insults at cyclists, usually on Facebook, keyboard warriors feel the need to do so by referencing what some in the cycling fraternity wear i.e. Lycra-type clothes.

Whilst not being a Lycra wearer when cycling I do see other cyclists with such get-ups on and yes older men, with a beer belly, can look, how should I say, interesting! But why does this bother many non-cycling people to the point where they feel the need to say ‘Lycra wearing cyclists’ as though what others wear is anything they need to be concerned about? Would it maybe help those who find cyclists wearing this type of garment upsetting if they averted their gaze?

But is it actually the type of material used to make cycling garments that those opposed to it are really upset about? Could it be that, in reality, they just dislike cyclists wearing bright colours? I wear bright colours when cycling so that I’m more easily seen by vehicle drivers; so it’s a safety thing to me. However, I once had a conversation with someone who disliked cycling who told me that cyclists wearing ordinary clothes are OK, or words to that effect. This may, in a non-scientific way, back up my mad theory that it’s the bright colours not the Lycra which some non-cyclists find upsetting.

 

Taking this theme a bit further, my observations tell me that cyclists not wearing bright clothing (usually black/dark clothes) are more likely to cycle on pavements. Now, don’t get me started about cycling on pavements! I view it as I do parking vehicles on pavements i.e. it gets me as irrational as folks who’re upset over ‘Lycra wearing cyclists’.

So why this rant now? Well, across the country councils are installing many new cycling paths and there’s nothing which seems to annoy folks more than improved cycling facilities on our highways. ‘Waste of money’, ‘no one will use them’, ‘use the money to fix pot-holes instead’, ‘I’ve only ever seen one cyclist using that new cycle path’ etc. etc. Oh, and yes, the anti-cycling rants often reference ‘Lycra wearing cyclists, or in the case of new cycling infrastructure the perceived lack of them.

Now, of course, all the money being spent (it’s actually not much in the great scheme of things) is an investment in the future. Many people who don’t cycle would do if they felt safer, so build safer cycling facilities on our highways and the theory is that the trend will turn from from petrol-heading to cycling, at least for shorter journeys. There’s not going to be a massive rush to get a pushbike, for every few hundred yards of new cycle path constructed. That won’t happen until we achieve a significantly improved safer cycling network across the country.

 

 

And yes, of course, some folks will always oppose cycling possibly on the basis that they don’t/won’t do it and for the life of them can’t see why anyone else could or would. Oh, and one final thing – as I often say, bad drivers make bad cyclists and bad cyclists make……… you get my drift I’m sure.

All driving age cyclists I know carry insurance and they’re also vehicle drivers, in case you may be wondering

*Lycra is a premier brand of spandex or elastane fiber known for exceptional stretch, recovery, and durability. As a synthetic polyether-polyurea copolymer, it is used extensively in activewear, swimwear, dancewear, and compression garments to provide a close fit, comfort, and freedom of movement. 

 

Carney seems to be everything Starmer is not

When you watch and listen to Canadian Prime Minister, now effectively leader of the West, Mark Carney you can’t but think that this guy knows what he’s doing, why he’s doing it and that he explains things well.

Carney comes across as confident and that he’s someone you can trust to get difficult jobs done. Let’s face it Canada is suffering the effects of Trumpism like no other country*, but instead of allowing themselves to be bullied Canadians, led by Carney, are digging in and fighting Trump every inch of the way, so it seems.

The UK meanwhile suffers from a significant lack of confidence in the government of Kier Starmer. Elected in June 2024, it seems to sway from one crisis to another, with U-turns in policy becoming commonplace. Attempts to creep around Trump have been excruciating at best and Brits really don’t know what Starmer’s plan is, because he’s never outlined one and may not even have one.

Carney and Starmer are chalk and cheese politically, despite both of them probably being decent human beings trying to do extremely difficult jobs.

So why are the two of them viewed so very differently? Carney, whilst being an economist running the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, has clearly got how politics works, probably because he’d done business with so many leading politicians in his previous life. Starmer, on the other hand, was effectively plucked from his legal background, without those promoting him, seemingly realising that he was significantly lacking in political acumen and goodness has that been exposed. Starmer has had to learn on the job how to be a PM and a party political leader and unsurprisingly he’s made many a misstep along the way. Canadian voters respect and trust Carney, UK voters are despairing about Starmer’s faltering leadership.

Will Canadian voters turn against Carney at some point? Probably they will, but at least he hit the ground running in a clear direction and has been able to take Canadians along with him. Starmer on the other hand looks to be lost and unable to take his own party along him, let alone UK voters.

Politics is brutal and Starmer is in a terrible bind. He can probably do nothing about his plight and can hope that ‘events dear boy, events’** turn in his favour.

* Mexico may be another

** PM Harold Macmillan supposedly said this and it’s oft quoted, but I understand there’s little to actually pin it down to him in terms of evidence.

 

On the passing of Jesse Jackson

You couldn’t have lived through the 1970’s and 1980’s without hearing of Jesse Jackson, the larger than life civil rights campaigner from the USA.

I have two distinct memories of him. The first being from the excellent Wattstax concert in Los Angeles of 1972 and second of seeing him at Liverpool University’s Mountford Hall in December 2008.

Being an avid Isaac Hayes fan I have a CD of his performance at Wattsax where Jesse Jackson was the MC introducing Hayes and getting the packed crowd at the Los Angeles Coliseum hyped up. The day-long concert featured virtually every artist signed up to Stax, and it was a positive reaction to the civil rights riots of 7 years prior in the Watts community. You could call it a black Woodstock. Of course, Stax also realised it would be a great showcase for those on its books, so good business as well as good social perspective.

Here’s a link to YouTube where Jesse Jackson winds up the crowd and the entrance of Hayes to the Coliseum stage:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiO3Bg2Dw6M&list=RDWiO3Bg2Dw6M&start_radio=1

Many years later, during my time as Leader of Sefton Council, I received an invitation to see Jackson in Liverpool. As it was Capital of Culture year for Liverpool it was probably why he was visiting. I still have my ticket and here it is:-

 

My recollection is that Jackson made a great characteristic speech and it was a privilege to be there listening. What I also recall though was his entourage of quite a number of formidable gentlemen, with whom you would not mess, who were clearly there to keep him safe.

So one of the most prominent civil rights campaigners has passed on and in his case I’m quite sure we’ll never see his like again. RIP Jesse Jackson.

 

Railway Liveries - Some good, some not so

To a rail enthusiast like me this is an important matter, to everyone else maybe not, but here goes anyway.

A Class 777 EMU in Merseyrail livery

 

On balance I don’t like the Merseyrail livery on their new(ish) and sadly rather unreliable Class 777 EMU’s. I feel that an opportunity was lost and at little extra cost batches of these new trains could have been vinyl wrapped in the various previous iterations of former BR and Mersey Railway trains of the now Merseyrail Network. Having them all look the same, well, it’s boring and unimaginative.

The draft GBR livery

 

So, what about the proposed Great British Railways draft livery? Well, it seems to have gone down badly. Yes, it’s striking but is it a good livery? Probably not. It’s clearly based on a stylised Union flag, although whether that’s intended to be a nationalistic nod to the current fashion of roundabout painting is not clear.

Apart from British Airways using a different 1980’s stylised version of the Union flag on their planes, much to the disgust of former PM Thatcher (who famously covered up a BA model plane tail fin with her handkerchief) I’d say that jingoist liveries are actually rather un-British.

If I had to point to a rail liveries I do like then Trans Pennine Express, LNER and ScotRail come to mind:-

Trans Pennine Express at Berwick-on-Tweed

 

ScotRail & LNER together at Edinburgh Waverley

 

As I said at the start of this ramble through modern-day railway liveries this subject may be what amounts to a nerdy matter to many folk who just want our rather unreliable railways to run on time without the oh so expected cancellations. I too want reliable trains but I want them to look well too. 

With regard to Merseyrail there was a clear opportunity to celebrate the railways and their liveries that came before the present Merseyrail Class 777's so, as a heritage inclined person, I really do point to a missed opportunity.

 

Robbie Fenton RIP – A great former local councillor

 

 

My friend Robbie Fenton died last Saturday, she was 84 and had been in poor health for quite a long time. She passed away in Lakeside Care Home in Southport where I visited her in her final weeks. I must say that the care home staff were really great, welcoming and caring during my visits.

Robbie was born in Maghull (on Northway, if I recall correctly), went to Ormonde High Secondary Modern School (now Maghull High) from the day it opened (September 1954) and lived for all the years I knew her on Haigh Crescent in neighbouring Lydiate. She participated in the formal opening ceremony of Ormonde High a year later in 1955 and a while back showed me the pamphlet produced about that notable event.

Whilst she was well, helping others was in Robbie’s blood so it’s no surprise that she spent many years on our local councils – Maghull Town Council, Lydiate Parish Council (both with her husband Tony who died a couple of years ago) and Sefton Borough Council – Park Ward (1997 – 2012).

What I noticed most about Robbie in her council days was how she’d be like a terrier trying to resolve problems brought to her attention. She wasn’t one for writing letters or sending emails but wanted to speak to people and council officials directly on the phone. She was persistent too, yet the council officers she pushed along seemed to like her, as did the residents she tried to help.

 

She campaigned for an improved health centre in Maghull; sadly a campaign that is still to be won. She battled to try to stop the closure of Lydiate Ambulance Station and of course she tried to defend the Green Belt around Maghull & Lydiate, but it was the small everyday matters that were Robbie’s bread and butter – pot holes, overgrown trees, uncut grass, litter etc. where her terrier-like approach usually got the job done.

 

I’ll miss my chats with Robbie. In her latter years I would stop and talk to her a couple of times each week whilst on my daily cycle rides. She would always ask after other folk whom we both knew and she clearly worried about those in poor health or difficult circumstances.

 

What if I’d turned out a Reform supporter?!

I was born in a coal mining town in Nottinghamshire which now has a Reform MP. Could I have ended up being of the far right as opposed to being the Social Liberal of the left that I am, if I’d stayed in the town of my birth?

What factors come in to play in shaping our societal/political views? If I’d stayed in Kirkby-In-Ashfield instead of leaving it aged six, due to my Dad’s job, what different influences would I have been exposed to than those I have been on Merseyside, where I’ve lived since the age of 10?

Obviously, family influence will always be a significant factor in political leanings, religious affiliations and sporting club support for many folk of my and indeed previous generations. Having said that, all 3 may well now be becoming a thing of the past for younger generations.

I do very much follow my family’s sporting support being a Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club fanatic, with a football following for Mansfield Town and Nottingham Forest. However, I have rejected my family’s Church of England religion and am an atheist. With regard to politics, my family was a mixture of Conservatives and right-wing working-class Labour supporters whilst, of course, I opted for both trade unionism and Liberalism. The caveat here is that I’m pretty sure my Mum was akin to a Chapel Liberal, although she rarely spoke about politics. My Dad’s parents were solid working-class, council house dwelling, Tories with Grandad being a regular at the local Conservative Club. Grandma was stridently anti-Catholic and antisemitic. Politics on my Mum’s side of the family is something I know nothing of at all.

Away from family our friends can, of course, influence us too. In my case there’s no doubt that my old friend Andrew Beattie, who died in 1999, was a very significant influence on me. Andrew was a free thinker from an early age. I got to know him when we were both 11 and at school together. We discussed music, politics and religion; Andrew had little to no interest in sport. He was from a strongish Labour background and like me a Church of England family affiliation. One of our class friends Russell was a coloured lad and I can’t recall anything being said of a racist nature about him. Andrew rejected religion as a young teenager, whereas I was probably still following it until around 4 years later when I was 17ish. The 1979 General Election and the lead up to it was of great interest to us both and to settle where we stood politically we decided to read the manifestos of the 3 major parties. That led us to conclude that we were actually Liberals and we both joined the old Liberal Party in 1980. So without doubt Andrew was a very significant influence upon me.

Another influence on me was becoming a lifelong trade unionist from 1975. I joined the union on starting work in the civil service, pretty much as all my work colleagues did. There was no closed shop but union membership in Inland Revenue offices across the country back then would be in the high 90%’s everywhere. Not only that senior managers encouraged everyone to join the Inland Revenue Staff Federation (IRSF). I went to union meetings, found them interesting and around the time I decided I was a Liberal I also became active in my union. I was an Office Secretary (shop steward), branch committee member and then spent 22 years as a Branch Secretary, also doing odd bits and bobs for the union at a regional level too. The union itself morphed into PTC and then into PCS as it is today. I learned a lot as a trade union activist, not least how to negotiate, how to respect the views of others and how to keep calm under pressure; skills I found very useful as I climbed the political ladder.

Despite my Grandma’s anti-Catholic/anti-Semitic prejudices (which my Dad held too) religious divides were something I knew little of until I started work in Bootle on Merseyside. Two things happened which are still like memories of yesterday, although both took place in the mid-1970’s. Firstly, next to the building I worked in was an Orange Lodge Hall. It did cheap lunches and was a regular hang out for some of the civil servants I worked with. On being taken there for the first time I saw a dart board with a picture of the then Pope on it and blurted out my surprise only to be told to shut up, with an explanation after we’d left. I was in a place where practising Catholic colleagues did not tread and stupid remarks about the dart board picture weren’t made! The second event was related to the first as one day I turned up for work to be met by a huge number of people lined up in the road playing drums, whistles etc. On walking into work and asking, quite innocently, what was going on outside I was viewed as being most odd because I had no idea. Explanations flowed from my colleagues both from a Catholic and Protestant perspective. I’d seen nothing of Orange Lodges in my years living in Kirkby, Rochdale and Maghull even though Maghull was only half a dozen miles from Bootle. I soon learned about deep religious prejudices, how cross-religious marriages were much disapproved of and how religion divided the City of Liverpool with it’s two major football clubs having their origins in religion too. Quite a learning curve indeed for a late teenager.

The other big influence on me was working, on a part-time basis, with people who had disabilities from my teens into my 30’s. I worked at The Maghull Homes (a transitioning epileptic colony) which is now the Parkhaven Trust. I met many residents who suffered from epilepsy and who often had other disabilities too and many of them became my friends. You can’t be around people with disabilities without it giving you a whole new perspective on life and that experience making you think how lucky you are. It’s an experience all young people would benefit from in my view.

As a political aside I got talking to a chap called Phil, whom Andrew and I went to school with, about a year ago and he told me about a female history teacher at our school who was active in the old Liberal Party and that he’d talked to her quite a bit about politics. I have no recollection of this Liberal inclined teacher but she certainly had an influence on Phil who dabbled in Liberal politics too in the late 1980’s.

So yes, I was subject to influences on Merseyside that I would probably never have encountered back in Kirkby, although goodness knows what influences I missed out on too. My theory is that certainly back in the 1960’s Kirkby was still a pretty insular mining town, as many mining areas were back in the day, whereas Liverpool back then was a seaport with world-wide influences. I moved from insular to world-wide without really noticing it until later I guess.

Obviously, I could still have gravitated to the political left and indeed have become a free thinking Liberal back in Kirkby but my feeling is this would have been more unlikely than likely. But, if Ed Davey could come from a similar East Midlands community just down the road from where I was born then anything is possible I suppose.

To conclude I grew up from the age of 10 rejecting religion, embracing people of colour and those with disabilities and steering very much to the left of politics. Indeed, I feel that whilst it is often said that people get more right wing the older they get, pretty much the opposite has happened to me. My only nod to what may be considered the political right is that I’m big on law and order in our society.

What would be interesting for me would be to sit down with Kirkby-In-Ashfield people born in 1958 to understand the influences they encountered particularly in the areas of religion, racial prejudice and politics.

Oh and yes, I do have a couple of irrational prejudices, a deep dislike of Yorkshire County Cricket Club (I think Geoff Boycott is responsible for that – well he did run out my Notts & England cricketing hero Derek Randall) and I really don’t care for tattoos (no idea where that one came from). And one big regret, whatever happened to all those cooperative shops that were once everywhere in the East Midlands and which were created by the Rochdale Pioneers, a town I lived in for 4 years in the 1960’s? So my positive prejudice is wanting to see a significant rise in cooperative businesses, but maybe that’s just my Liberal prejudice shining through?