Sunday, 28 April 2024

 

25 years ago – Andrew Beattie

I lost my very good friend Andrew Beattie in April 1999. It’s hard to believe it’s 25 years ago as I think of him often. Andrew had some very significant influences on my life and it’s probably because of him that I’m an atheist, a Liberal and have a love of soul music.

Andrew (on the right) in Port Grimaud France July 1979*


We met at Ormonde High School (now Maghull High) in 1969 and quickly became firm friends for the 30 years, up until his untimely and rather sudden death.

Andrew academically was, like me, a middling achiever at school yet he was incredibly well read and it was no surprise when he went straight from school to work in Parrys’ University bookshop in Liverpool. 

Keith Page with Andrew - Lake District 1981
 

Of course, working with books all day encouraged him to read even more and he became quite the expert on broadcasting and the BBC, on politics and art too. He got into the painting of Edward Hopper and that led to his friends buying and dedicating a reprint of Hopper’s ‘Night Hawks’ for display in Maghull Town Hall, where I think it still adorns the wall.

We discussed many things as teenagers but mostly music and politics. Our music became very much Motown, Isaac Hayes and the then emerging Smooth Jazz. Our politics developed towards Liberalism after we decided to read the 1979 manifestos of the 3 main political parties. Both music and politics then dominated our lives from the ages of 21 to when we lost Andrew.

He got himself elected to Maghull Town Council (where he spent a year as Town Mayor) as a SDP/Liberal Alliance councillor and then on to win in Sefton Council’s Sudell Ward. He was a serving Lib Dem councillor on both councils when he passed away.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Andrew was a major influence on the life I chose to lead and I can’t imagine where I would be now without that influence. I still miss him very much and often say to myself ‘what would Andrew think’ particularly with regard to political and musical developments.

I keep in touch with his Mum Audrey (also a former Lib Dem councillor) and sister Alison and once a year or so we meet up to talk about old times.

* Sadly, Tad Jarrett, who was at school with us and who is pictured above with Andrew also passed away in 1990.

Sunday, 14 April 2024

 

Why has Labour become ‘successful’ as it tracks center-right?

OK, I’ve never been a fan of Labour because I consider myself to be of the left. I decided at an early political age that Labour was not for me particularly because of its controlling, authoritarian tendencies. Also, I gained the impression that Labour really does not like free-thinking members, rather members who go along with the ruling sect of the time no matter what that sect may be promoting.

Well having read so far you’ll probably be saying to yourself ’this chap’s a damn Liberal’ and you’d be right, although I consider myself to be a Social Liberal of the left, often well to the left of many Labour Party members and supporters.

My final reason for being unwilling to embrace the politics of Labour is that I’ve found so many of their supporters to be quite right wing in outlook, in reality Conservatives yet tribally Labour. This was clearly demonstrated by huge numbers of Labour members and supporters backing Brexit and then delivering Johnson as PM! That loss of Labour’s voters is, of course, the obvious reason why Starmer’s Labour Party, looks/sounds and is, in my view, right-of-centre. How else is he to return the lost souls to the Labour tent other than by telling them Labour’s now one of their own?

Labour is no longer a party of the centre-left and whilst it has never really been a truly socialist party, there’s always been many socialists within it. Even under Corbyn the leading characters whilst clearly socialists delivered manifestos which weren’t overtly socialist to my mind. There can’t be many socialists left in Starmer’s Labour Party as they’re clearly unwelcome; some have been invited to leave, others have walked away.

But such is the Labour Party, they’ve always swung from one left-of-centre sect to another kicking lumps out of themselves in the process. However, we are in unique times now because of the almost complete collapse of the Conservative Party. It’s this collapse which I feel has driven Labour to all but become a new ‘one nation’ alternative right-of-centre party. Indeed, our unique political circumstances have, I would suggest, given an opportunity to those who want to change Labour fundamentally.

This is no longer the party of John Smith or Harold Wilson, more the party of David Owen being about as far right as a social democrat party can be and probably Christian Democrat in European terms. If some Labour members and supporters thought the Blair years were too centrist and even of the right (and they did) what on earth are they thinking about the further nudge towards right-of-centre politics?

But Labour’s saving grace, at is core, is that many of its tribal members and supporters will back it pretty much no matter what it stands for and in early 2024 what does Labour actually stand for? Its ‘popularity’ is because the Tories are so unpopular, not because Starmer is inspiring or that it is putting forward a popular set of policies.

It seems that voters are saying they’re going to vote Labour because it’s not the Conservative Party. They can’t be hoping for a better tomorrow, because Labour is hardly offering one, more that they hope things will be less bad! Little if any hope is promised by Labour spokespersons just that Labour will pretty much continue similar economic policies to the Conservatives but that those policies will be more competently delivered. That’s quite a political offer, NOT, but it seems for many voters this far from golden future may be the only alternative to further decline?

Any left of centre political hope or indeed leadership has to come from the Lib Dems, Greens and in Scotland the SNP. This could be the most depressing general election in many generations because the two main political parties aren’t going to be offering hope at all. The Tory offer will be goodness knows what. They don’t seem at all keen to deliver on their manifesto pledges as they flop around from one right wing divisive policy to the next as though blown by the cold wind of the far right. Labour, well they’ll just be a bit better at it, a bit kinder but following a very similar economic plan.

Forgive me if I don’t find this appallingly dreadful political prospect appealing…

Friday, 5 April 2024

 

Sefton Borough at 50, a former Council Leader has his say

I was a member of Sefton Council from 1999 to 2015 and Council Leader 2004 to 2011. During this time and indeed for a number of years prior Sefton had been balanced with no one party in overall control. After much party political pushing and shoving a tripartite political management structure evolved with the then 10 person Cabinet being made up of councillors from each of the three major parties represented on the Council, the Leader coming from the largest party. This somewhat odd (for UK politics) arrangement, in my view, actually worked remarkably well as it took two parties to make something happen.

Sefton was the creation of the Boundary Commission, during the huge upheaval of local government reorganisation which came into effect in 1974 and it was pretty much an unwanted child across the board. At best it was an unholy compromise with much political and indeed community opposition, but the die was cast.

Now, 50 years on, we can look back with hopefully nowhere near as much anger as was generated at Sefton’s birth. Yes, Sefton is still the weird geographical creation that it was on day one, resembling a forefinger and thumb in shape. Bootle is cut off from Liverpool in an arbitrary way, Southport’s hinterland is all within West Lancs Borough and Lydiate is the thumb sticking out surrounded on 3 sides by West Lancs. Is there a stranger local government arrangement in England?

So geographically Sefton is most odd but it’s lasted for 50 years and there’s no sign of it changing as far as I can see.

Hailing from what became known as the East Parishes part of the Borough (Maghull, Lydiate, Aintree Village, Melling and Sefton & Lunt Villages) I was elected to a council which had always been dominated by Bootle and Southport. Indeed, there’d never been a political leader from outside of these two political powerhouses. Then in 2004 I was elected Leader breaking that mould. Having said that, after I stood down as Leader in May 2011, things reverted to ‘as you were’ and have stayed that way ever since.

When once asked by a journalist what it was like leading a Cabinet and Council with three political parties in the mix I responded by saying it sometimes felt like I was the political equivalent of a circus ringmaster. This was not meant in a derogatory way, it was just political reality. Oddly, you may think, I actually enjoyed my time as Council Leader making friends across the political spectrum and this bearing in mind that I’m a Social Liberal of the left and probably the most left of centre Leader the Council has had.

UK politics, egged on by the media, is pretty much always seen as far too partisan and frankly, at times, childlike. However, my experience as Council Leader made me realise that below the over the top political mud-slinging significant agreement about local matters was indeed possible, if you worked at it.

I suppose the really big difference now is that there aren’t any newspapers in the Borough to hold politicians to account and report, for good or ill, on their activities. So, by implication, the Council must be becoming more remote other than for obviously biased party political leaflets/propaganda.

Sefton at 50 is still diverse, as it was on day one. A seaside town, a post-industrial urban town with a lot of smaller communities in between which are sometimes unkindly referred to as ‘bed and breakfast land’ and more politely as commuter-belt for Liverpool.

So, do I wish Sefton a Happy 50th Birthday? Well yes, not least because it has survived when back in 1974 no one gave it more than 10 years, at best. I also like its diversity. Where else will you find some of the highest grades of agricultural land in the UK, a successful modern port, a seaside resort, a run of top links golf courses and the maddest road junction in England – Switch Island?

I wish Sefton well, although, in my view its bizarre geography should have been tackled years ago. Personally, I agreed with John Prescott’s plan to move a significant piece of West Lancs into the Borough. It was right then and still is now, but I guess that’s a controversial view which won’t necessarily be widely shared. Happy Birthday Sefton.

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