Green Fayre

Concerned about the environment and the future of our planet or just want to enjoy a fun day out ?

Hesketh Park is tomorrow holding a Green Fayre. Alternative energy, eco and Fairtrade information and goods, free municipal compost, bee-keeping display [my favourite-Ed.], DJ, street dance, free massages, health and well-being marquee, and other attractions.

This free event (11am-4pm) is organised by Southport's branch of the national Transition Town environmental movement, which works towards creating a responsible, sustainable future for our area.

It's time to be Greener and Cleaner.

Campaign for Real Ale

*Strictly for over 18's*

For 3 nights only, the 11th Sandgrounder Beer Festival is in action at the Scarisbrick Hotel.

Southport and District CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) have organised this wonderful event which includes over 50 different beers, fruit wines and ciders, and at only £3 entrance (or free for CAMRA members) it's an event not to be missed.

CAMRA campaigns for real ale, real pubs and consumer rights. Their overall aims include protecting and improving consumer rights, seeking improvements in all licensed premises and promoting quality, choice and value for money.

This great event is open noon-11pm Friday and Saturday, and my best advice is go along, support local and independent breweries and most of all, have fun!

For a list of the available beers please see here.

A Potential Year Ahead

Southport Liberal Youth is venturing into exciting waters... Let me explain why.


Next year’s local elections are currently still undergoing their final candidate selection process. However, it is now looking very likely that we will see four Liberal Youth members running for Council on May 5th 2011. Cambridge Ward in Southport, Blundellsands and Manor Wards in Crosby and Litherland Ward will all be represented by ‘youthful’ members.

This, I feel, is an opportunity to direct our action and campaign in the coming months. This is made more poignant when considering that 2 out of those 4 Wards are not classed as ‘target’ Wards by the local Party, although I appreciate that this point is perhaps a little self serving (as the candidate for Blundellsands). However, additionally to this there is the scope to expand any campaign to host the inclusion of forwarding the voice for AV reform.

It is therefore imperative that we perhaps begin to start thinking how, as a branch, we can structure forthcoming campaigns, raise funds for unsupported Wards, increase our man power in terms of membership, get out the AV message and other such ideas.

It would be great to have all input – especially for those who may have stumbled upon this accidently and not necessarily from the Southport area – because this forthcoming year certainly has potential.



James Ludley

Liberal Democrat candidate for Blundellsands Ward, 2011.

http://www.blundellsandsfocus.blogspot.com/
 
 
 

An award is for the past; here's to the future.

Eagle eyed readers may have noticed the shiny new button on the left of your screen.

Unbeknownst to us here in Southport Lib Dem towers several Southport Lib Dem blogs had been nominated in the Total Politics poll of Lib Dem blogs and a grand total of 4 made it into the top 75!!!

Southport Liberal Youth made it to 60^th in the poll!

The Meols Ward Councillors came 63^rd and our Kew ward activists a very respectable 40^th.

A special mention must be given to the truly excellent Birkdale Focus Blog, written primarily by Birkdale Ward Councillor Iain Brodie Browne who climbed from a fantastic 39^th in 2009 to an incredible 23^rd!!

Other noticeable results were Liberal Youth Scotland who came 54th in Lib Dem blogs and 34th in Scottish blogs! And Liberal Youth executive members Matt Smith (Welsh convenor and Liberal Youth Wales Chair) who came 37th in the Lib Dem blog poll, the highest placed young blogger and Vice-Chair Communication Charlotte Henry whose Virtually Naked blog came 46^th.

Congratulations to everyone!

This post was edited at 22:10 9/9/10 to correct a spelling mistake.

The door is open

Liberal Youth Scotland today launched their campaigns for 2010/2011 focusing on, among other things overturning the blood ban for men who have had sex with men, voting YES in May’s AV referendum and equality in all walks of life.

Soon, Fresher’s Fayres will be in full swing, canvassing and campaigning will begin again and conference season will be upon us. An action-packed autumn of Lib Dem-ness.

If you live in the Sefton, West Lancashire or South Ribble areas please get in touch with Southport Liberal Youth, and if you live elsewhere they’ll be a local branch you can join.

Liberal Youth can give you a lot of great opportunities- campaigning for fairer votes, an end to asylum seekers being left destitute and some great friends along the way.

Southport Liberal Youth, and Liberal Youth are here for you.

Get in touch, we’d love to meet you!

Speak out. Speak loud.

In doesn't matter who you are or where you're from or what you believe in or what you do. Freedom of speech is a civil liberty.

Liberal Youth are standing up for our civil liberties.

Opinion: Getting rid of ContactPoint – a great day for liberalism

I would imagine Liberals throughout the country breathed a collective sigh of relief this past week when they opened their newspapers or turned on their computers to find the intrusive ContactPoint database was to be switched off at noon on 6th August.

28th February 2010 was the beginning of the end for ContactPoint.

On this day, an emergency motion submitted to Liberal Youth Spring Conference found its way through the ballot and ended up for debate on the final day of our conference. During the debate, we acknowledged the good points of ContactPoint and, whilst we understood its flaws and noted that the intention had been honourable, the fate of ContactPoint – at least in the eyes of Liberal Youth – was clear. We wanted it gone, and we wanted it gone now.

We could not believe that the system had been approved in the first place, that the safeguards put in place were not nearly strong enough for a databank designed to house the details of 11 million children and those responsible for them, and that 330,000 unchecked people would have access. It wasn’t reasonable, it wasn’t an answer to the Victoria Climbie case, it was simply a Labour overreaction that would further infringe our civil liberties.

At a time when the federal party did not have a policy on this dangerous database, the emergency motion passed through our spring conference almost unanimously. Soon after, it became Liberal Democrat policy and appeared in the party’s General Election manifesto. Then, to our surprise and delight, scrapping it became Government policy. Now, after a long hard fight – from the party, civil liberties campaigners and the public – we have the result we were always after.

It’s time to say goodbye to ContactPoint and give a warm welcome to the return of our civil liberties.

Liberal Youth have been the leading voice against this system. If it hadn’t been switched off, we would have kept fighting, because we recognised just how dangerous this database was to us and to young people across the country.

Liberal Youth have been referred to, both internally and externally, as the ‘conscience of the Liberal Democrats’ and, whether true or false, Liberal Youth will keep fighting for our civil liberties – at conference, during Freshers’ Week, and as we approach the Freedom Bill in autumn. Expect nothing less from Liberal Youth than our full support for the abolition of intrusive databanks – from ONSET to the Common Assessment Framework to the proposed Communications Database. We believe firmly that our data was never meant to be used against us, and intend to speak out and speak loud on the issues that matter to us.

Getting rid of ContactPoint is a great Liberal Democrat success – our children are safer, our data is protected – we have taken a large step in the right direction. But, now we’ve taken one, let’s, as a party, start running. We can fight for Identification, Referral and Tracking (IRT) systems to be abolished, for Control Orders to be terminated, and for steadfast opposition to extradition to countries where a fair trial cannot be guaranteed or that have not abolished Capital Punishment.

Mark it in your diaries: 6th August, 12 noon. A great day for liberalism, and the day we started getting our civil liberties back.

* Sarah Harding is a General Executive Member and Policy Officer for Liberal Youth. She also blogs at www.southportliberalyouth.com