The problem with a concentration of thousands of students is vacation time. For several months a year they disappear creating ‘ghost areas’ devoid of people. A few years ago, the forward-thinking Vice Chancellor of Liverpool JMU, Professor Peter Toyne, came up with a solution to the problem of ghettoising the city centre. Scrap the long summer vacations, introduce longer study days and concertina degree courses into just two years. It would also save students a packet in tuition and living fees. Maybe the students were as opposed to the concept as the staff. After all, long breaks and an easy lifestyle are seen as p0art of the learning experience these days.
ONE reason rookie Councillor Jake Morrison fell out with Luciana Berger MP and other prominent local Labour figures was supposedly his unwillingness to parrot the prescribed party ‘script’ and his unacceptable attempts to retain a mind of his own. What are we now told following Diane Abbott’s Shadow Cabinet by work experience Leader, Ed Miliband? She says she was sacked because “I think he has been convinced that what you need in the run-up to the General Election are people who literally read from the script”. Like young Jake, it would seem she was unwilling to do so. I think the last thing Britain needs is politicians who are uniformly afraid of opening their mouths in case they deviate from ‘the script’. They are there to represent the interests of the people first and foremost, not their party. It’s a pity rather more of our tribunes of the people aren’t a little more like Jake and Diane instead of consistently behaving like party political robots. Or should we just assume in future that every Labour politician is reading from ‘the script’ every time they say anything in public?
I WAS intrigued to see that a recent report for the Town and Country Planning Association on the regeneration situation in Anfield, which was authorised by former Liverpool planning officer, Nigel Lee, suggesting (apparently with strong evidence) that planning could play a much more positive role by fully integrating areas such as regeneration and health. Well I never! I can recall hearing complaints for many years from city councillors of all parties that just about every time they raised health issues in relation to planning matters, those concerns were usually pooh-poohed or barely acknowledged by Liverpool planning officers. Perhaps things are about to change in Anfield if not the rest of the city.
Most people will agree that we almost luckily escaped from the tornados and other bad weather at the beginning of the week. It followed on the heels of the jettisoning of the bus lanes which excited national publicity, certainly not to our advantage and to the general condemnation.