Mayor, for now

A simple tweet lead to an interesting revelation on the future (or not) of the next Mayor of Liverpool.

My tweet suggested that I was struggling to give my vote to either Joe Anderson, who wants to be Mayor of Liverpool City Region, or to Richard Kemp, who doesn’t like the Mayoral model of governance and wants the council to revert to the Leader model. i.e. neither of the two main candidates actually want the job.

Richard, to give him his due, replied and informed me that all parties on the Council are planning to vote in February 2017 to abolish the post of Mayor of Liverpool and revert to Leader, this to tie in with the election of a Mayor of Liverpool City Region. 

This makes sense as one of the benefits of a Mayor is having a figurehead recognisable to investors and the business community, and having a Mayor of Liverpool, a Mayor of Liverpool City Region, not to the mention the (ceremonial) Lord Mayor of Liverpool was just going to confuse everyone.

So let’s do some maths:
Liverpool City Council has 90 members, currently made up of 81 Labour, 4 Green, 2 Lib Dem, 2 Liberal and 1 Independent.

32 of those seats are up for election this year, currently held by Labour (29) with Green, Lib Dem, Liberal and Independent having one a piece.

So, even in the unlikely scenario of Labour losing every seat they contest, they would still be the largest group, and majority, on the council with 52 seats, with 38 councillors in opposition

We will also elect a Mayor.  However as mentioned, according to Richard Kemp, and nobody has denied this to be the case, the council is set to vote to abolish the post in February 2017, in which case the reintroduced role of Leader of the Council would go to… who? 

Not Richard Kemp, even if his Lib Dems win all 32 seats, this would only give him a total of 33 seats.

Not Joe Anderson, as if his role of Mayor is abolished he isn’t a councillor.

Not any other Mayoral candidate as the maths for the Lib Dems would apply to their parties’ too even if they win all contested seats.

The Leader of the Council would be whoever is the then leader of the Labour Group as they will remain the majority.

So in answer to my original tweet of struggling to know who to vote for, the answer is whoever you vote for, and whoever is elected, will only be Mayor for one year.

All the candidates need to give clarity around this.  And the Liverpool Echo who appear to have missed this scenario altogether, need to sit up and take notice of what’s happening at the Town Hall.

Yes? No?

With just 10 days before the independence referendum in Scotland, the polling figures are making interesting reading.

I’ve found myself sitting on the fence on the subject really.  I was born, raised and live in Liverpool,  a city once described as “In England but not of it”, of mixed Irish, Scottish and English blood. Within 15 miles of Liverpool city centre I can be faced with road signs in a “foreign language” as I cross into Wales. I spend most of my holiday time almost equidistant from all of the aforementioned countries in the middle of the Irish Sea on the Isle of Man, which just to confuse the issue isn’t part of the “Union” at all (be that Kingdom or European).

I would consider myself to be Liverpudlian first and foremost.  Stereotypical English traits are somewhat alien to me, I feel more at home with the Celtic traditions of Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man than I do with warm beer and maidens playing cricket on the village green or whatever the term used by John Major was.

My initial instinct was to support Scottish independence, but then it dawned on me that it was like watching your parents agree to divorce but realising that you’d be left living with the one that you didn’t actually get along with that much.  So I became more attracted to the idea of devolution, where the parents would have separate bedrooms, but at least mealtimes would continue to be bearable.

There has been a lot of nonsense spouted about what might or might not happen with independence.  What would happen to the currency, to border crossings, to the army, even the Elgin Marbles.  Acres of newsprint has been wasted trying to answer these and other questions with supposition  and speculation, completing ignoring the fact that the United Kingdom has been here before when Ireland left.  We don’t need to speculate about what might happen, when we can just look at what did happen.

I can still walk, drive or take the train between the UK (Northern Ireland part thereof) and Ireland without having to produce a passport; for many of the years since independence I could still pay for a pint in the bars of republican County Louth with a note adorned with a picture of the Queen. The Union broke apart then and the world kept on spinning.  The same would happen again.

Wherever you live in the United Kingdom, be it the nations of Scotland or Wales; be it the historic lands of Cornwall or Northumberland; be it the great cities of Liverpool or Newcastle;  there is a problem, and that problem is Westminster.   Westminster has become an ivory tower inhabited by men, and it is mostly men, who have spent their entire careers in what I call the “SW1 bubble”, within a stone’s throw of the Houses of Parliament, who surround themselves with likeminded colleagues and researchers.  They think they know best, their friends nod their heads in agreement, and before you can say “localism” Her Majesty’s Secretary of State is dictating when your rubbish bin should be emptied.

At the last election the Conservatives produced a poster “Are you thinking what we’re thinking”, when the question should have been asked the other way around.   The politicians should be thinking what WE are thinking.  But they are not and the latest poll from Scotland, shows they are not, hence the current panic from Better Together as it has suddenly dawned on them that the people want something different.

You can see why our former colonies around the world looked at London, thousands of miles away and thought “those people have no idea who we are or who we want to be; we can do better ourselves”.  The distances might be shorter but people around the United Kingdom look at London with the same thoughts now.

Westminster needs to let go, let the people in our nations, regions and cities make their own decisions, some of them may be bad decisions, but they’ll be theirs.

Whichever way the people of Scotland vote next week, it will be their decision, and therefore it will be the right decision.

Welcome to Liverpool

My first weekend volunteering for City Stars, the volunteer ambassador programme working alongside the International Festival for Business which is running throughout June and July across the Liverpool City Region.

Naturally most of the business events are running during the working week, so weekends is mostly focused on the cultural programme and aimed not just at visiting business leaders, but also our thriving tourism sector.

The idea is to generally be out and about, making sure that visitors to the city have the information and directions to make the most out of their stay, and of course tell their friends back home how wonderful Liverpool is.  The scheme is obviously paying dividends, for instance cruise passengers especially rate Liverpool as one of the top European ports of call and their feedback has encouraged the cruise companies to bring more ships to the Mersey.  Ship calls have increased from 28 last year to 52 this, with even more ships booked in for 2015, including maiden calls by Princess's Royal Princess and P&O's Britannia.

 

So back to this weekend, the focus for the volunteers was to be around the Waterfront, Albert Dock and Liverpool One areas.  Albert Dock is the dropping off point for the many coach day trips, and the time between 10am and 11am especially saw dozens of coaches arriving.  And with most visitors only having a few hours here, its important to ask them what their interests are and make up a quick itinerary for them.  For instance I spoke to a woman at lunch time who was interested in Georgian and Church architecture and was catching a 5pm train back to London, so we worked out a route so she could see the Bluecoat, and the Lower Duke Street World Heritage area, before heading for Evensong at the Cathedral.

I met some wonderful visitors over the weekend from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, the USA, Poland, South Africa, Ghana and Israel amongst others and of course from all corners of the UK.  The weather was also being well behaved so suncream and sunglasses were called for, although I find it best to take glasses off when you're speaking to our guests as eye contact is so important.

 

I also took the time to do some exploring myself, and visited the Carpathia Bar, situated on the top floor of the former White Star Line head office at 30 James Street.  What a superb venue, really friendly staff, and a fantastic view across to the IFB Hub building and Canning Dock beyond. 

Back to work tomorrow, and then on Thursday, it's all systems go as thousands of athletes descend on the city for the World Corporate Games.  I can't wait!

Young Musicians at the Brink - June 2014

I'd been doing ambassadorial things in the morning for IFB and CityStars so a quick change of clothes out of "wheelie bin purple" (although I've just noticed I'm in Liverpool Pride purple instead) and down to the Brink for this month's Young Musicians Showcase.

To kick things off this afternoon we had Joe Abraham with some of his own compositions. A talented young lad, I couldn't tie down his style, the first which came to mind briefly was Noel Gallagher, but Joe has really got his own style, with a clear singing voice - yes I could hear the words, and that's a good thing when a story is being told. One to look out for as he gets more gigs.

Next up, a duo, Jess and Shannele, with some class cover tracks, leading off with Cher's "Believe". The girls have strong, clear and distinct voices, and great harmonisation.

They continued their set with "Don't You Worry Child" then "We're In Heaven". Three well chosen tracks which showed off their vocal talents well. You can check the latter two tracks out here on their Soundcloud page.

 


Back to our "Solo Male" category - actually we don't have categories, I just made that up.Sam Caldwell who is a 16 year old singer/songwriter.

Sam's first song, they were all his own material, was about growing up - didn't we all want to be a pirate when we were 8, (well actually I wanted to work on the Dublin ferry - I knew my sailing limitations). His lyrics have good stories and contain a fair bit of humour too - I loved it!

Next was, as Sam put it, a cheesey love song piss take; again a really good song which doesn't take itself too seriously, its a style that suits Sam well, he then finished with the song which got him a gig at the O2 arena in London last year "Myself". Check out his Facebook page and download the Myself EP.

First in our newly formed "solo female" category (this category thing isn't working is it..) Zoe West with her slightly out of tune guitar (her words not mine) whether it was just the heat this afternoon, but I was getting great Glastonbury vibes from Zoe. Good selection of 3 very different songs of her own today. Check her out online, she is well worth a listen

Time for a new category, although I don't whether to make this "group" or "male trio"... I might just stop this category nonsense cos I'm confusing myself, besides "band" is better. Anyway enough of me waffling on.Intoxicated are an electro/acoustic band consisting of John Roberts on Vocals/Rhythm Guitar; Kieran McTigue Lead Guitar and Sam Burke Bass Guitar.

The boys including in their set John's own songs "Time Will Tell" and "Day Off", which was written on a day off, hence the name. If those of us a bit older had written it it would have had the far less catchier title "working from home"

Back to the solo artists with Dan Astles (check him out on Facebook or Twitter. This was Dan's first gig in Liverpool, having travelled in from the wilds of Southport (a seaside resort where legend has it the tide once came in as far as the pier..)

Dan,who I think is only 15, has a very distinctive style, which I liked but wasn't expecting at first. Here's a clip from his YouTube channel - have a listen for yourself

 

 

Dan sang a couple of his own songs, then a slowed down version of Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" before continuing with a couple more of his own compositions, leaving the audience perfectly chilled out, just right for a summer's evening


Last up for the Showcase for this month was John Riley - a rapper with a guitar - that's like actual multi-tasking. John gave us a mix of covers and original material. A pretty cool guy and I liked his rapping. If you look back over the last few blogs, you'll see my steady conversion into the world of rap and grime. Amongst his set this evening was "Run Away" a new song and this was only its second performance. He gave a boss version of Oasis's "Maybe" before rounding the show off with his own rap track "Forever Begins"

Another superb selection of new and emerging artists that we are fortunate to have in and around the city, brought together by Dominic Dunn. Pictured back stage (well in front of it actually) with Sam Caldwell (he hates me putting up sneaky pics but it was either this or the one of him demolishing a dirty big burger)

Thanks to the Brink as usual for hosting and James for doing the techy stuff on the mixing desk. Follow Dominic or Brink and look out for details of the next Showcase.

Alien

House on Bold Street was the venue for Saturday's Alien EP launch with ROSH and guests.

Rosh has impressed me massively over the last year since I first saw his video for Cemetery Wealth:

 

 

I'd heard Alien back in November at the Brink so I couldn't miss the EP launch.

The night was lead off by Locco Artist who was joined on stage by Josh Robinson and D-Boii

Royzy was next up and smashed his set, including some real lyrics from the heart about being torn away from his kid.  This sums up what I'm now appreciating about this style of music, its a story, and you have to listen.

 

His version of Adele's "Save me" is boss:

 

Next up it all went international :-) with a Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Liverpool  stage with Tommy Oliver and his guests including No Ego.

I've been waiting to see Kerr in the flesh for ages, and he didn't disappoint. The boy has immense stage power to take his audience up a level.  The reaction from everyone around me was simply "WOW!"

Yet more of this city's amazing talent took to the stage including HollaMan; F.M.K. and on his stage debut (not that you'd know it) Acko - who had the audience bouncing before Jamie Broad rounded off the support acts in style.

Also need to mention D.j. Twokind who did the business throughout the night on the decks.

So, time for the main man.  Rosh opening his set with his autobiographical Enter The Dragon Pt.II, the was joined by Dominic Dunn and Kerr for their colloboration from earlier this year Keep Me Down

 

 

After playing another smash with Shana Tova, Rosh rounded off a BOSS night at House with the headlining Alien (download via the link).

A brilliant night with amazing talent.  You've heard me go on before about the crap that TV pushes out. If you want to hear real music, from the street, check out the guys above.

I'll sign off with some sound advice from HollaMan (Chris Holland)
You don't have to explain yourself to anyone, you walk in your own shoes. nobody gets to see what you see but you, so forget these people who hate on others to cover up their own depression and get on with what you're doing.

 

A zest for life, and a reminder of how short life can be

Early summer arrives so its time to make like a tangerine and head for the racetrack.  Last Saturday was the first of the Aintree Circuit Motorcycle Races for this year, so with the sun cracking the flags it was off to the former Grand Prix circuit - yes Aintree hosted the F1 Grand Prix in the 50s and 60s (remember that it sometime comes up in quizzes) - complete with a bottle of Factor 30.

I signed on at 8am, so had half an hour or so to wander around the paddock and take some photos - theres a collection on my Flickr account HERE

This is my favourite photo of the morning, the rider pushing his bike, another having his bacon roll and the general milling about in the background sums up that time of day at the circuit.

At 8:40 it was time to drive onto the track and let the vRS stretch its legs - although it was a very short stretch as I was marshalling at the first corner "Country", so with my 4 wheels safely protected behind a line of trees, duties were allocated and we were set for the start of racing.  Apart from a short stint of 6 races when I was on flag duty on the Railway Straight, I spent the rest of the day on pick up duty at Country, and a busy day it was too.

Our mad 10 minutes came just before lunch when 3 bikes came off together on the opening lap of Race 7, no sooner had we sorted all that out when another 2 did the same thing.  In all we had 8 bikes and 1 sidecar come to visit us, but fortunately nothing too serious, only dented bikes and wounded pride.

As ever on the weekend before the TT gets underway, we had a few riders who will be making their way to the Isle of Man, including a full Sidecar grid.

A fantastic day of racing, and I look forward to the next meeting on 14th June, when with the system of marshal rotation I will be on Village Corner.

Of course the other meeting on last weekend was the NW200 in Northern Ireland, a place I've never visited, but must do so at some point.  The main news coming from across the Irish Sea was of course the accident, and subsequent death of Simon Andrews.  I've only met Simon once, at last year's TT, and he was really friendly, I've followed him on Twitter for a while and whilst most of his posts seemed to be from a hospital bed, as he was accident prone, they were always full of humour and his zest for life shone through.  A sad way to end the weekend.  RIP Simon.

More awful news was to come from the Isle of Man when I found out that a young lad that my sister is housekeeper for when his dad is away on business was involved in a car crash on Saturday afternoon on the Cronk y Voddy straight.  He was seriously injured and was immediately transferred by Helimed to the Walton Centre in Liverpool, but it seems that his injuries were such that he had no chance of recovery and sadly died on Monday evening.  Dosch MacLeod was just 17 with a promising future in the medical profession ahead of him.  I never met him, but my sister always spoke of him and his brothers in glowing terms.  I know his family and friends must be totally devastated and my heart goes out to them.  RIP Dosch.

So this week started a bit numb and subduded.

Next week I'll be off to the Isle of Man on Thursday and then marshalling at the 27th Milestone for Friday practice and all of race week.  Here's hoping for good weather, safe racing and friendships renewed and made.  Until next time and my TT report, be safe and live life to the full - its the only one you get!

Young Musicians, March 2014

I didn't think much about it when I arrived at The Brink to be told, "sorry cold drinks only as the electricity has gone off".  I ordered my lemon & lime and took my seat at the front near the stage.  It's only then that you realise how reliant we are on electricity, of course I couldn't log my chromebook on as it needs a wi-fi connection (which was off), but I always carry my back up notepad and pen.  And then of course if there's no power, there's no amps, or speakers, or mixing desk...

Luckily the first band on, Gump, had some powerpacks in the car, which they kindly lent for the evening, so we could at least have some music, so it was on with the show.

So, first up was GUMP, a five piece band consisting of Sam Jones (Lead Guitar/Vocals), James Redpath (Keys/Piano), Harry Maitland (Percussion/Drums), Freddie Johnson (Rhythm Guitar) and Ben Truman (Bass/Violin/Mandolin).

The lads played a selection of great instrumentals including Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and Gun N' Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine"  Special mention must go to Ben who combined bass guitar and violin to give the band a unique vibe.


Next was the first a series of rap artists with Raven McGuire, accompanied by her mates Abby and Craig (beatbox).  I didn't get the titles of her tracks but they all had story to tell so look out for her around the city.  
Got to mention Abby though, she's got a really beautiful voice.  If she's not appearing in her own right she should be.

And with that a Scottish Power man with a spanner had done something with the cabling and behold we had mains power!

A newcomer to Young Musicians was on next with LeeTz - again, with really meaningful lyrics, her track "Run Away" was amazing, a powerful story of a young girl who gets pregnant, and instead of getting the help and support she needs, runs away, but of course cannot run from her situation. Great lyrics, and superb delivery.

 

Next on stage was a young guy I've come to admire over the last year.  I'd always dismissed rap and grime but when you listen you realise it's a unique form of music, more storytelling with a backing track really. 

 

Anyway the architect of my musical conversion is Rosh, an amazing talent - albeit with a dodgy taste in football - who played a few of his own tracks including Shana Tova and Alien.  He finished with a new track Keep Me Down, a collaboration with Kerr and Dominic Dunn, unfortunately Kerr couldn't make it down so Rosh and Dom held the fort between them.

 

We had one last artist on stage with a last minute addition of C2, with a couple of good tracks "Roger That" and "0151".  I've got no details for this guy so I'll add a link when I get them

Another great evening at The Brink and as usual a lot of work done by Dom and David to bring it all together and showcase the amazing talent emerging in our city.  Follow Brink on twitter for dates of the next showcase in April.