Alive

Yesterday's tragic news about Malachi Mitchell-Thomas was gut wrenching, I watched in awe last year as he took the Manx Grand Prix crown. A life so young, so full of promise, was taken in a split second.  Coming so soon after Billy Redmayne lost his life in Scarborough is a devastating blow to everyone in the racing family.
And yes in the immediate moments of hearing the news I had that thought of 'is this too dangerous, was his life taken unnecessarily'. And I understand those outside the sport who hold those views.
But you know, we are humans, and however you believe we came to be, we have senses and those senses need to be stimulated, it's what makes us feel alive, it's what makes us human.
Some feel alive racing a motorbike; some feel alive climbing a mountain, or swimming the sea; some feel alive through music or dance; some feel alive just sitting and seeing a stunning landscape. Some enjoy solitude, and some a boisterous crowd.
Our lives may be short or long, some babies may not live at all, but they are loved as much as a grandma who's seen a century.
So however you feel alive, do it. Enjoy it. Dream about it, and remember it. And when you've gone, those who love you will remember you always, that you were you, and that you were alive.

2016 Elections

The polls open in the morning with 4 votes in the City of Liverpool. Two for Mayor, and one each for local ward councillor and for the Police & Crime Commissioner.

As you may be aware, I was, until last autumn, a Labour party member, I’m no fan of Corbyn or his clique, so Labour's success or otherwise nationally is of little importance to me.  Of course not being a member any more means I no longer feel the need to be tribal about how I vote and I don't intend to be. 

We currently have a Labour Mayor in Joe Anderson and on the whole I think he has done a good job in the role.  He made 5 election promises 4 years ago and has delivered on them all.  As I have said previously I wish he’d be a bit more Mayoral like and drop the playground routine especially when dealing with opposition councillors.  But he has achieved a lot, especially considering the draconian cuts to the city’s grant support from central government.

His manifesto is bold and ambitious, whether it is all achievable only time will tell, and of course the unanswered question remains on what happens next year if, as he has made no secret of wishing, he is selected as the Labour candidate for Liverpool City Region Mayor.

His main rival is the Lib Dem’s Richard Kemp, he is an experienced councillor, but his manifesto lacks ambition, being first of all bogged down in procedure.  He doesn’t like the Mayoral model and seeks to abolish it.  He also wants to hand control of the city’s parks and open spaces to non-elected community groups.  There is nothing in his manifesto to grab my interest and continue the rebirth of Liverpool onto the world stage.  It is a local councillor mandate, when the city needs a leader, not a committee member.

All the other candidates I only know of from their page in the council’s election booklet, none have put any material through my letter box to explain why they want the job, or what they offer Liverpool.  The Independent Alan Hutchinson and Conservative Tony Caldeira make the right noises about being business friendly but don’t put any meat on the bones to say what they would actually do in office to attract businesses here.  The others offer either little (Greens), chaos (TUSC) or bigotry (English Democrats).

So Joe Anderson wins my support.  He has, as I say, an ambitious programme for the next 4 years, I hope if elected he, or whoever takes over from him in 2017, can deliver.  The voting system for Mayor gives two votes, and although I cannot really see anyone else beating Joe Anderson, to knock him out of the top two, I don’t like to waste a vote, so looking at the other candidates, I did lean towards Tony Caldeira, however when I tried to follow his links I found a twitter account which hasn't been used for 4 years and a dead website, hardly inspiring, therefore Alan Hutchinson gets my second vote.

For my local ward, County, I've only had an election address from the Labour Candidate Kay Davies, so she gets my vote by default, if the other candidates can't be bothered seeking my vote, I see no reason to give them it.

For Police and Crime Commissioner, the current Commissioner Jane Kennedy is standing again, and she seems to have done a decent enough job over the last 4 years.  However I'm also interested in what the LibDem candidate Chris Carubia has to say. I've dismissed the other candidates as the Greens seem to only interested in stopping people driving at over 20mph and the Conservative candidate has too much history inside the police force in my opinion to be a truly independent figure. I'd be happy for either Jane or Chris to be Commissioner, so my vote will go to whichever way my heart goes when I'm in the polling booth.

So to summarise, I'll be voting:
Mayor of Liverpool: 1st preference Joe Anderson; 2nd preference Alan Hutchinson.
City Councillor: Kay Davies.
PCC: either Jane Kennedy or Chris Carubia (to be decided).