Train ticket for Eric Pickles, from Joe Anderson
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson has sent Communities Secretary Eric Pickles a train ticket so he can come to the city and see the impact of Government cuts.
The council has arranged for transport authority Merseytravel to issue a rail warrant for Mr Pickles to travel on any train from Liverpool to London.
The Mayor said he would pick up the cost of the two standard class tickets himself, so there no cost to the tax payer or other rail users.
He said this would have allowed Mr Pickes to see: "the facts that you and your officials dispute either through ignorance or in a deliberate attempt to smear and to undermine the truth about the impact of the cuts I am highlighting.
"I am therefore once again publicly inviting you to Liverpool to see for yourself and to bring any officials from DCLG or Treasury to scrutinise my claims."
Step in Liverpool Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Richard Kemp...
He's responded as follows: "This is a childish gesture. I am always glad if ministers, or anyone else for that matter, wants to come and see our city.
"But trying to do it in a confrontational way that Joe is doing is counter productive.
"The Communities Secretary is someone whose opinions are unchangeable, therefore we need to find ministers at all levels who are more sympathetic to Liverpool's case."
2 Comments
Dale Street Associates
David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
Read My Posts »
For once, Richard Kemp is right. Joe's antics are becoming increasingly embarrassing and does Liverpool's image no good at all. I'm beginning to despair. Dale Street Associates is getting more like an off-shoot of Labour HQ's spin machine as time goes on. Want to see anything critical of Joe by Waddington/Bartlett? You'll be waiting a long time, if ever.
That's quite a damning statement by Cllr Kemp regarding the views of Eric Pickles.
At least it shows that even Cllr Kemp recognises that Eric Pickles, the Conservatives and his own Lib Dem party in the coalition keeping them in power are waging an ideological attack against the poorest and that no logical argument or appeal to compassion for the damage they are doing will succede.
Therefore it seems confronting and standing up to these callous bullies is all that is left. So what are Cllr Kemp's proposals on how to oppose their attack on the city? Seeing as it's his party that is allowing them the freedom to do this.