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Good Stuff: BBC Manchester Move "Definitely On"
HERE and from the horses mouth with inevitable BBC hand wringing HERE.
As Cllr Iain Lindley has started behaving like a troll, with rather silly carping in the comments area and on his own sour blog, I will add that this is a great achievement for Salford Labour and Manchester Labour who have been cooperating for our cities benefit at an unprecedented level.
Well done to to MPs like Tony Lloyd and Hazel Blears who have maintained the united line that whether it was Salford or Manchester this move was of great importance to the regional centre. Tories and Lib Dems meanwhile should be ashamed of the negative line taken by their talking heads in Westminster. They should take a leaf out of Labour's book and stop talking their cities down.
Tomorrow's meeting of the Chapel Street Partnership Board of which I am a member on behalf of this lot and helping to do this with Media City leading light Felicity Goodey (no relation to Jade and pictured here with Council Leader John Merry) and other movers and shakers ought to be a very joyful one.
Media City will be at Manchester Docks, by the Manchester Ship Canal, close by Manchester United! (In Salford, Salford/Trafford and Trafford respectively). As I have disclosed above I am very much involved in regeneration in Salford. As well as being involved in Chapel Street; I am CEO of IDEA which will be animating parts of Trinity Cross; and a Trustee/Director of Walk the Plank; and a member of the steering group for Emmaus in Salford; and a member of Salford Harriers; and even part of the Salford quiz squad which recently took Manchester Blackley's Quiz Championship for the second year on the trot.
So please please please Cllr Lindley don't start lecturing me or trying to put a wedge between Manchester and Salford. We reds unite across the Irwell and we won't wash typical Tory negativity trying to keep us apart!
8 comments:
It is indeed terrific news - and no thanks whatsoever to your Manchester Labour colleagues who have tried to throw every spanner in the works, even since the decision was made that Salford was the preferred bidder. Shame on you.
Iain, what are you on about? As you well know Mr John Merry and Sir Richard Leese OBE have a fine and comradely relationship and Sir Howard and Ginger Spice are simply doing their jobs which sometimes involves a bit of huffing and puffing.
My attention was grabbed by the fact that both Tories and Lib Dems in Westminster were briefing shamelessly against the move throughout. I would not be lobbing stones if I lived in that particular glass house my friend.
But good to see you here once more! All welcome.
Chris, as you know very well, Bernstein and Leese made every effort to destabilise the entire move after Salford had been awarded preferred bidder status.
2 + 2 does not equal 5. The link you provide shows nothing of the "destabilise the entire move" sort. Rubbish! Richard Leese spoke to the Manchester Labour Party one day before the announcement. He will have known for a couple of weeks before then the way the BBC decision had gone - subject to some technicalities. What he said was that it was vital that the city region secure the BBC move whether it was Manchester or Salford. John Merry had been saying much the same thing - at least until the insiders got the news that is. Manchester's MPs were saying exactly the same throughout. Manchester or Salford. Good for the City region / regional centre either way. A positive reading of the MEN link provided is that this was part of making it happen. Making it a non-negotiable thing. Tony Lloyd made some good statements on all this. But as I said before the Tories and Libs in Westminster were dead against and there is certainly no great kudos for local Tories in all this. Your voters will have been impressed by John Merry, Felicity Goodey and the team doing the business for Salford while other parties talk both Manchester and Salford down.
As well as Tony thanks to Gerald Kaufman for all the good work he did in trying to bring the bbc to Manchester.
Also well done to Salford council as a whole and John Merry. You've done a sterling job and I look forward to seeing the results.
Before you call me sour, perhaps you ought to have a look at the negativity eminating from your own blog first!
Ah Iain, but you have to credit that is mostly being sour about the lemons in the Lib Dems who are constantly sour about everything. It is certainly not being sour about Salford Labour's achievements. Or Manchester Labour's. Or the combined might of both. On the excellent Irwell Waterfront bid to the Lottery we are even co-operating with Tory Trafford. You should give John Merry more credit. Acknowledge that the sibling rivalry that Merry and Leese (and indeed Bernstein and Bernstein) have stoked up in a very comradely way is GOOD FOR SALFORD. And not try to pass off my personal jottings on Manchester and the world as an official Manchester Labour position. They're not. Cheers.
Chris for a tory Iain is nice. Don't b nasty to him. Good opposition is healthy. Keeps us on our toes.
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