Tag: Liverpool

COUNCIL OF THE NORTH TO COPE WITH SCOTS’ POWER

 

 

 

 

It’s 2018, The United Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland is out of the European Union with an independent Scotland to its north. The BBC is trying to report all this despite being impoverished by the new subscription system.

 

I’ve feared this nightmare scenario for about two years and recent events confirm my fears. If you think I am scaremongering, don’t underestimate the political and commercial enemies of the BBC. Don’t underestimate UKIP’s Nigel Farage or the Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond. Despite all the threats about the currency, major companies threatening to leave Scotland and the President of the European Commission saying it would be extremely difficult for an independent Scotland top join the EU, the polls are tightening north of the border and the “No” campaign is under heavy attack for its negativity.

 

So where is the debate in Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool? It’s about time business people in the north started to think about the employment and tax implications of an independent Scotland or even a Scotland with “devolution plus” powers.

 

In search of answers I went almost as far north as one can go in England to listen to a discussion organised by the Institute For Public Policy Research (North) on how we should respond to events beyond Hadrian’s Wall. In Newcastle at least the Geordies are giving it some attention.

 

There is a view that Alex Salmond didn’t want a vote on independence. It’s only happening because of the introduction of a system of electing a Scottish government by PR to ensure power sharing failed when the SNP got a majority in 2011. And why would Alex Salmond want independence when the other political parties are falling over themselves to appease the Scots’ thirst for power and money? Since 1999 the Scottish Parliament has exercised considerable power,and soon Scotland will set a Scottish rate of income tax and control Stamp Duty and the landfill levy. More is promised if the Scots vote no. The lesson is that the more noise you make, the more you get heard. But by contrast the North of England is bought off by City Deals, Combined Authorities, Elected Mayors, Local Enterprise Partnerships and Regional Growth Funds.

 

The Chief Executive of Newcastle City Council said these were the instruments she would be relying on as Scots’ power grows. She was challenged on the need for a powerful strategic Council of the North to bring everyone together from Carlisle and Newcastle to Hull and Liverpool.

 

Professor David Bell, an economics professor at the University of Stirling,said independence or even the extra powers I’ve listed above would leave an imbalance with the North of England that will be unsustainable.

 

Let’s remember that this demand for Scottish independence has been driven since the 1970s by economic grievances, largely centred on North Sea oil. In that it differs from independence movements in Quebec and Catalonia where political and cultural factors are more to the fore.

 

Then there is the dramatic effect independence would have on British politics. 59 Scottish Labour MPs would be out of Westminster. The party that relies on London, the north and Scotland to form a government would be very lucky ever to see power at Westminster again. The Tories, with their strength in southern England, would be bound to reflect those interests at the expense of the North.

 

We need to hope for a no vote, but prepare to welcome the headquarters of Scottish based multi nationals relocating in the North after independence rather than London and demand a Council of the North to give northern business and people real strategic and economic power here

 

 

 

ARE LEEDS AND LIVERPOOL AIRPORTS GROUNDED?

 

 

Is it healthy for the northern economy for Manchester Airport to be so far ahead of the others?

 

In Leeds there are fundamental questions over whether the airport is in the right place whilst Liverpool John Lennon is still reeling from the double whammy of losing KLM and some of its low cost business to Manchester.

 

Plans for HS2 have reignited the debate over the location of Leeds-Bradford airport. Leeds Council leader Keith Wakefield has launched a major debate on the future of the city region’s transport system. Nothing is ruled out apparently including a new airport in a more convenient location. A cheaper solution would be a rail link from the airport to the centre of the city. Not surprisingly that’s the solution suggested by Tony Hallwood, marketing director at Leeds-Bradford airport. However he wants support from the city region and wider to build the rail and road connections fit for the 21st century.

 

On Merseyside John Lennon Airport(JLA) has suffered a series of blows. Plans for a tram link into the city began to disintegrate exactly ten years ago. KLM pulled out severing the airports connection to the global hub of Amsterdam. Most serious of all Manchester has been poaching some of the budget airline business that used to give JLA its unique selling point.

 

The other thing about JLA is that the customer experience isn’t always great. I recently hosted Downtown’s programme on City Talk and asked my guests about the decline of JLA. One referred to having to stand in the rain waiting for connections, another said she lived and shopped in Liverpool but the one thing she looked to Manchester for was its airport. She put this down to the danger of the downward spiral of expectation. With services being cut there was an assumption that Manchester would have the destinations so JLA lost out even if in fact the flights were still there.

 

On the same programme Cllr Nick Small called on the airport to go for more full service operators particularly to the Middle East and Turkey and to reduce its dependency on the low cost airlines.

 

Ryanair expected 200,000 new passengers for Liverpool last year but only got half that. Civil Aviation Authority figures shows that JLA was one of only two major UK airports to lose passengers last year.

 

And yet 90% of people living on Merseyside say they would rather fly from Liverpool so it needs to get its act together. The goodwill is there. Talks are ongoing with Lufthansa to introduce services to German cities. Let’s hope they have a positive outcome.

 

THKLSSWCA !

 

No this is not the name of a Polish striker but the initials of The Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens,Sefton and Wirral Combined Authority. That’s the proposed name for the new organisation that’s set to help with skills, transport and economic matters across the City Region from April.

 

The tortuous name is the result of sensitivity by some districts to the name Liverpool.

 

I can’t match Frank McKenna’s magnificent tirade on this subject in his special blog this week.

 

Dare I suggest Greater Liverpool Combined Authority? Leeds seems to have settled for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

 

What is more worrying is Frank’s information that there are questions over whether Joe Anderson should lead the new body. That’s silly but I hope he doesn’t follow Frank’s advice and walk away. “Merseyside” has suffered too long from these sort of quarrels that are largely absent in Manchester. We need common sense not walk outs.

 

 

 

 

REGIONS MAKING A COMEBACK?

 

 

Can we hope that business people and politicians are once again thinking about regions like Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West? The Shadow Chief Secretary and Leeds MP Rachel Reeves told a Downtown event in the city a year or so ago that Labour would work with the Local Enterprise Partnership structure. But according to Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, his colleague Lord Adonis is devising an Infrastructure Commission that will devolve power to regions as well as cities.

 

It is high time the prevailing doctrine that cities are the only drivers of the northern economy was challenged. Without a strong regional policy, towns around our big cities are going to suffer. Leading academics of my acquaintance, who support the cities agenda, openly say that people in places like Burnley are going to have to travel to Manchester to get a job in the future.

 

 

 

It was so refreshing to attend a North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT) event where we had a chance to survey our excellence in science from Cumbria to Crewe. Present was the Director of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills North West. It is the only regionally based government body to avoid the insane culling of everything else regional by the Coalition when they came to office.

 

The NWBLT report won’t be launched until the end of next month. It is in draft form and further views are welcome, but the title will be “Exploiting the Excellence” England’s North West: Where World Class Science underpins wealth creating innovation. So you get the drift. It emphasises throughout, not only our heritage of scientific invention, but the large range of science based businesses that can take us forward with the proper support.

 

The region’s assets include advanced materials and cancer research in Manchester and Liverpool, cutting edge nuclear research in Cumbria, oil and gas research in Lancaster and world class astronomy at Jodrell Bank.

 

NWBLT Chairman Juergen Maier of Siemens called on government to make it easier for SMEs to access government funds. He added that leadership would be needed as market forces alone would not bring the region’s economy back to health.

 

Andrew Miller, the Ellesmere Port MP, who has done so much to promote science, spoke of the need for eco systems and catapults! The former refers to the need for businesses to cluster together and feed off each other’s expertise. The latter relates to innovation centres which can help get embryonic science companies off to a flying start.

Of course everything hasn’t been rosy on the North West science front. The decision to locate the 3rd Generation Light Source at Harwell and AstraZeneca’s relocation of its research facility from Alderley Park to Cambridge have been big blows.

 

Chris Doherty is responsible for the sale and redevelopment of the AstraZeneca site and had some interesting things to say about the company’s relocation decision. Apparently the reasons were far more social than economic. The new AstraZeneca CEO was from California and felt Alderley Park was an isolated place compared to the dynamic environment of Cambridge. Doherty said the site had become isolated from Manchester.

 

That’s the danger of the City Region policy as opposed to a wider strategy taking care to be aware of Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire’s needs as well as Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester.

 

 

 

 

 

 

HUNTING RENNARD THE FOX

 

HUNTING RENNARD THE FOX.

 

Reynard The Fox was a mythical character in medieval Europe, always able to talk his way out of trouble. Whether Lib Dem peer Chris Rennard can do the same seems doubtful. The Master of Hounds, Nick Clegg, has set the dogs on him.

 

The reasons why the this sexual harassment controversy has reached such intensity aren’t hard to find. Rennard has been an active member of the Liberal/Liberal Democrat party since the age of 12 when he was at the Liverpool Blue Coat School.

 

Most Lib Dem MPs owe their seats to his campaigning genius learnt from Trevor Jones on Liverpool Council in the 1970s. The first was David Alton in Liverpool Edge Hill in 1979, he carried on by winning Tory strongholds like Christchurch in 1993 and doubled the number of Lib Dem MPs in 1997.

 

Many of those MPs now sit in the Lords and are determined to stick by their man. Nick Clegg seems equally determined to force Rennard out. Clegg has little time for historic figures in the party who remember the days when Liberal MPs could all get into one taxi. Clegg wants his party to be the permanent power brokers in endless coalitions. For that to happen he needs the party to be free of its image of being unfriendly to women. That impression is caused by the dearth of female Lib Dem MPs and the party’s unwillingness to embrace all women short lists to rectify this.

 

Prominent North West figures have waded into the argument with various degrees of success. Chris Davies, the region’s Lib Dem MEP, rapidly withdrew remarks seeking to minimise what Lord Rennard had done. On the other hand Lord Tony Greaves from Lancashire called for a reconciliation procedure rather than the Clegg inspired disciplinary committee which is bound to find that Rennard brought the party into disrepute for not apologising for something he claims he didn’t do. A recipe for endless court action.

 

Many have mocked the rules of the Lib Dems which have made it difficult for Clegg to act. But I think their democratic structure is to their credit.

 

The Tory and Labour parties have no such safeguards. Remember how the trap door opened for Peter Mandelson and even more outrageously for Peter Cruddas, the Treasurer of the Tory Party, who was forced to resign on charges that soon proved to be spurious.

 

MPs ON THE MOVE.

 

As the General Election comes into view we need to keep our eye on our northern MPs, particularly the older ones, as they decide whether they are going to retire.

 

The excellent Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston Andrew Miller has decided to quit. That will be a loss to the business community as he takes a strong interest in promoting jobs particularly in the high end scientific area. He promoted a major event on that subject in the Commons this week that I will be reporting on in a future blog.

 

Whether the Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans will contest the next election depends on the outcome of the court case he faces, but he continues with his duties, attending the event for North West business that I referred to above. He currently sits as an Independent MP but he tells me the Tories have not moved to choose a new candidate. That leaves open the possibility of his return to the fold for next year.

 

In the neighbouring constituency of Blackburn there is to be an all woman shortlist to choose Jack Straw’s successor as Labour candidate. This is good news for Kate Hollern, the leader of the council who wants to be only the third MP to represent the seat since 1945.

 

Finally Labour are moving quickly to fill the vacancy in Wythenshawe and Sale East created by the death of Paul Goggins. Polling will be on Feb 13th with UKIP hoping to challenge for second place behind Labour. Mike Kane, former advisor to Cabinet Minister James Purnell is mentioned as a possible standard bearer for Labour.