Getting Julie elected?

Its been some time since I last blogged.  A combination of being very busy in my role as Deputy Leader at Allerdale and simple inertia.


A few months ago I organised a hustings event within the local party for our wannabe Euro Candidates.  I was both excited and pleased when eight candidates indicated they would turn up on the day and I guess members of the Constituency Party were surprised as well because we had a good turn out on the night.  There was a slight hitch at the beginning of the event when I had a phone call from Julie Ward to say she was lost somewhere in the town and could not find the venue and she had another candidate with her.  Thankfully one of our helpful members went to find her and we had a great hustings event.   Julie was referred to a few times after the hustings as "that la'al hippy body". This was more to do with her own description of herself as "working in the arts" and also not looking remotely like a 'career' politician.  In fact this was her very attempt at getting elected for anything.


The hustings were important because there came a day last summer when Labour members in the North West voted for their preferences and Julie surprised a few people(including herself)  by being placed fourth on the list out of eight candidates.  I met her again a few weeks later when she arrived in the town to take part in a bedroom tax protest sleep out.  I remember casually saying to her that she would become an MEP.


If you are a political election geek like me you will know that getting four of your candidates elected out of a eight member seat is quite a tall order and privately many in the party were simply hoping to build on the two elected member position by gaining another seat. However I have never lacked ambition and I always think in elections you should go flat out to win as much as possible.


Months go by and then Arlene McCarthy our existing MEP and number one on the list makes the shock announcement that she will retire at the election. Suddenly Julie is number three on the list and it then becomes very real that she WILL be an MEP.


Since that day lots of things have happened.  I have offered to manage the EU campaign for the area and have become the sub agent.  Julie moved into my house this week so that she can concentrate on election campaigning in Cumbria and to cut down on her need to travel back and forwards to Wearside where she lives.  My house has become the hub of the election campaign for the North West in Cumbria.  We also have Jon Luke staying here - he is unemployed and doing work experience and tomorrow he is going with Julie to the North West Labour Party EU media launch in Manchester.  Caroline Flint is attending.  I have told him to take a 'selfie' with Caroline and post it on the blog that he has begun.


Is Julie going to be elected? Absolutely yes!  Are we going to get our forth member elected? We will try our very best. 

The Mass Sleep Out and and re-connecting with Labour roots

I have come to the conclusion that sleeping rough on the streets is a good way of reconnecting with the realities of life.  Now this I know sounds a bit extreme but it is what I experienced recently during The Mass Sleep Out which took place in major cities and towns across the UK.

I have believed for a long time that it is women who endure poverty the most mainly because it is them who try to keep it together for their families.  This does not mean that men don’t do the same, but is my own personal experience growing up and since I became elected, that I have observed how women worry and fret and find ways to stretch meagre budgets as they make sure they can feed and clothe their families and keep a roof over their heads.  I have done it myself.

Until I was 9 my Mother was left to bring up me and my brother alone. I never knew my father who had abandoned us all when I was a baby.  She really struggled to ensure that we were fed, had clothes to wear and a roof over our heads. When she re-married our circumstances did not initially change much for the better and as I grew up I became painfully aware of the choices she made every week with the family budget.  She wrote all the finances down in a big book. This book was where her decisions were made about what we were going to eat that week or who got a pair of shoes.  I know how much she worried about how we were making ends meet and her stress and her sleepless nights. When my new Father was on strike from the steelworks the stress and worry was even worse.She nevertheless managed it although I know there was probably a great deal of personal sacrifice along the way. In modern times and as a local councillor I have recognised the same degree of worry and stress from mothers bringing up their kids or carers helping to support close relatives

I have taken part in demonstrations / protests and the like for years but I have until now not taken that commitment onto the pavements of my home town and slept rough in order to highlight concerns over the cruelty and unfairness of the Coalition Governments so called ‘Bedroom Tax’.  It has re - taught me a few things about people and how they are dealing with austerity in modern Britain following the outrageous behaviour of  Bankers and the sub prime markets.

Yes before I go on it is necessary to remind ourselves and others that there is a root cause of the austerity and unfairness and that we now have a Government that instead of addressing the economic crisis has decided instead to force the cost of banking failures globally onto the shoulders of all of us with the result that the poorest now shoulder the biggest share of the burden. It was interesting that people on the street protesting talked about the Mansion Tax and Bankers.

Labour needs to find its voice and I agree with Andy Burnham that it does need to shout louder and it needs to keep it up. The reason I say this is that it is far too easy to believe that the majority of the public will turn out in sufficient numbers to ensure a Labour victory.  The reality may be that many people will not vote at all because many people are simply turned off by the mainstream parties.

This is what I learned during the night of the 24^th of August and into the dawn of the next day as I and hundreds of other people took part in The Mass Sleep Out against the ‘Bedroom Tax’..  The banter and chatter on the streets during that  long cold night confirmed to me what I sometimes hear on the doorstep. Except that in the circumstances we were in, and with the comraderie which brought a diverse group of people together in common cause I learned that to be truly in it together we have to listen more carefully and we need to be honest about our own failings as a party and we have to offer some solutions.

There were a group of young men with us.  They ought to be in the Labour Party.  Instead they have joined Anonymous and blame the Labour Party for the mess we are in as well as the current Govt.  Other people on the protest are labour voters who have felt let down and either failed to vote or cast a protest vote. One person told everyone that he had voted Liberal Democrat and had felt even more let down.  One person is a former Labour Party member who left over Iraq and joined the Green Party. One woman protester told us of her struggle to keep going and how last winter she could not pay for fuel bills so went without heating. People stopping by on the streets who are Labour voters, or were, felt that Labour had got us into the mess or were not shouting up for them. There were continual references to some of our policies they were not happy with and that included Labours  ‘tax’ on people living in private accommodation which they feel gave the Tories the idea in the first place. The myths continue and we need to redress that. There was of course support and respect for those of us who were taking part in the protest regardless of who we were. We need to make sure as a party that people really feel we understand what they are going through and we need to tell them.

As we sat out in public view there were dozens and dozens of people passing by enjoying a Bank Holiday night out in the town.  There was hardly anyone who did not stop and speak to us and asked us what we were doing.  They all agreed with the protest.  I think in the entire night only one person said he believed that the bedroom tax and cuts to welfare was the right thing to do. . However the story that long night for me belonged to the women.  I was struck by the number of young women who told us that they held more than one job in order to make ends meet. The grandmothers who talked about the troubles their grand daughters were having finding somewhere to live or in paying larger rents They were the most vocal and willingly shared their stories.  The most heart-breaking was from a young woman with four young children who is near to eviction because she cannot pay her rent and who cannot find another place to live.  

The protestors became an instant street surgery offering advice and I made sure we took names and addresses so that I could get local councillors to follow issues up.  I became painfully aware that many of these people would not go and vote for Labour because they do not think we are going to do enough for them.  We need to take the campaign for a Labour majority down to the streets.  We need to engage once again and more sincerely with the people who once saw us as their champions.  They need their voices to be heard long and hard and strong in the corridors of power, in the Palace of Westminster, in Brussels,  in the Town Halls, in the workplace and in our CLP’s. We must once more become the voice of the people and be their automatic choice at election time. 

I know that there are many Labour activists out there who campaign tirelessly however we are increasingly targeting the people who bother to vote rather than giving people who do not vote a reason to do so.  We must go back to the streets and the doorsteps and workplace and listen to what people are saying and then take their message  out to the nation and shout harder and longer for them. For me this also means engaging with women and listening to their voices and experiences. Regaining trust is a hard and long road but it is a journey that is worth taking and we must surely make it.

The people who do not vote are the ones who most need us.

The Labour Party must show some leadership and give people a reason to vote for them not once but enduringly.  Let our policies reflect what they the people believe to be right and fair. We are the Peoples champions after all.

How I yearn for the age of the train!

The Thin Red Line_________________________

 

Barbara Cannon       Labour Optimist.          October 2012

 

How I yearn for the age of the train!

A few weeks ago Government announced it was awarding the franchise for the West Coast Mainline to FirstGroup rather than to Virgin Train who have run the rail franchise for 15 years.  There was immediate uproar when Virgin claimed the bid by FirstGroup was flawed and the public responded by signing petitions and generally siding with Virgin who they apparently want to continue providing the service.

The Department for Transport staunchly defended its decision and its junior Minister Justine Greening categorically said they would proceed to award the franchise to FirstGroup despite Virgin mounting a legal challenge. Then we get a re – shuffle and Greening is given another job in Overseas Development.  This week comes the shock announcement that the Government are now admitting that their reasoning in awarding the Franchise was deeply flawed and they are starting again and in order to learn what went wrong they have ordered two enquires.  Three officials are suspended and people will no doubt now suggest that Justine Greening should resign from her new job in the Cabinet for her part in this debacle.  The companies involved in the franchising bid are also expecting to get their costs back – a staggering £40 million from the tax payer.

However I digress because this blog is not about all of that but rather to pose the question about would we be better off re- nationalising our rail services?  The news about the West Coast franchise has re-opened the debate with Bob Crow, General Secretary of RMT, calling for the re-nationalisation of the West Coast Mainline.  Further difficulties are ahead as the process for tendering three other train franchises has now been paused. 

I have in front of me the RMT briefing on the McNulty Report into the Railways.  The McNulty Report was commissioned by the last Government and continued by the Coalition as there seems to be a consensus that we need to improve value for money to passengers and taxpayers.  It may be no surprise that the RMT are not happy with that report especially as they see its recommendations as the “biggest attack on rail workers jobs, pay and conditions since privatisation.” Sometime this autumn the Government will bring forward a rail policy white paper. I have no idea if any of the McNulty Report will be reflected in that white paper but I do know that the debate will be opened on the future direction of our railways.

This brings me to my starting point about nationalisation.  I have a soft spot for British Rail and I did not agree with its privatisation.  For one thing my late grandfather was a railway worker and I recall with great fondness my early journeys by train. The privatisation of the rail network and its infrastructure was intended to bring about competition and investment in the industry.  Whilst we may have got new rolling stock, rail upgrades and electrification we may not have the kind of service we truly appreciate.  We once had a single unified publicly owned service which was broken up into scores of competing private companies. It is estimated (by the RMT) that this has resulted in almost £1 billion a year leaking out of the industry caused by private sector borrowing costs, numerous interfaces and the dividends paid to shareholders. This is to say nothing of the excessive pay given to some of the rail Chief Executives. The former boss of FirstGroup got £643,000 per year for example with some getting just over £1m.  McNulty and the government have ruled out reintegrating the railways under public ownership. The RMT on the other hand have put forward a coherent justification for re-nationalisation and are able to point to how money can be saved by doing so.

I have spent many hundred hours ploughing up and down the West Coast Main Line between London and Carlisle and have endured many late running journeys and cramped carriages which were carrying too many passengers.  To add insult to injury rail ticket prices are getting higher and higher with no discernible improvement in services.  I am no lover of Virgin Train and I do not enjoy seeing the smug face of Richard Branson telling everyone that he hopes Virgin will now get the franchise back.  Perhaps I look at this with rose tinted glasses as I recall the now iconic TV adverts suggesting we “let the train take the strain and “this is the age of the train”.  It looks as if the debate about re-nationalisation is about to start again and whilst I think it is often difficult to turn the clock back there is part of me hopes that we can once again take rail transport back into public ownership.

 

Further information

www.rmt.org.uk/mcnulty Which includes interview with Bob Crow on the McNulty Report, RMT submission to McNulty, RMT Press Releases and Parliamentary debates and motions on rail industry

The McNulty Report – realising the Potential of GB Rail http://www.dft.gov.uk/publications/realising-the-potential-of-gb-rail/

 

 

 

Hands off our National Forests

The Government is planning a massive sell off of our National Forests.  If the Government gets its way today, and it looks as if it will, we will see our national forests auctioned and fenced off, run down, logged or turned into golf courses and holiday villages.  National forests like the Forest of Dean, Sherwood Forest, and the New Forest could be sold off. It could also mean sales of local Forests like Mirehouse, Whinlatter and Grisedale to name but a few. 

There is a major outcry about this and most MPs have been inundated with complaints from people about this latest attempt by the Coalition to reduce the deficit.  Clearly people are concerned and consider this to be a move too far.  It is clear that people value our forests and woodland.

Our own MP has now got an extensive mailbag on this issue and has been kept busy writing to people.  Hopefully he will get the chance to speak on this in the House of Commons and will vote against it.  The majority of people do not want to lose these national forests because of the loss of recreational opportunity it will cause.  For many others it is the desire to protect our trees for the conservation of our wildlife and the enjoyment of the public.  People generally are concerned at the threat selling off poses to the felling of some of our great trees.  There is evidence even locally that the sale of woodland and forest can end with the owners fencing the land off so people can no longer enjoy the beauty of a walk in such a natural environment.

There are other issues that maybe will be closer to our hearts in Cumbria in terms of damage the  wholesale felling can do to the environment.  We have all seen the terrible damage flooding can cause and it is no secret that trees on fellsides are able to slow down the run off during periods of prolonged and heavy rain. 

However the greatest question to be answered is why sell them of in the first place?

Public discontent and protest

I return after a short absence whilst I got over illness, bad weather and Christmas.  I was prompted to write again by a reader of the Times and Star who reads my online column and who enjoys a bit of controversy and political knockabout so here I go again. First of all can I wish you all a rather belated Happy New Year.  Local Government is set to face the onslaught of the cuts imposed upon it from the Coalition Government.  The work to make those cuts in Cumbria County Council is now well in hand.  Potential cuts to services have been identified and councillors and officers behind the scenes have been assessing what they need to do for this year and in future years.

This is a difficult time for every one and the grief over what stays and what goes is shared from Local Authority to the NHS to the Police and other public services.  Extensive lobbying is the norm at budget time from organisations and from individuals who are concerned about the impact some cuts will have on them.  It is a tense time for everyone and more so than for the hundreds of thousands of individuals who are under threat of redundancy or who are set to lose a service that they rely on.  The impact of these cuts will be felt by everybody.

So far Cumbria is not contemplating the closure of any of its extensive rural Library network but it is under review and I think we may see some major change there in the future.   Cumbria will also need to modernise its Care Services in order to cope with the rising demographic of older people.  It will have to do that despite the considerable burden imposed by reductions in grant from government.

One of the services valued by the public is that of Concessionary Fares.  Until the end of March these services are run by the District Councils but from April the 1^st it will become the responsibility of the County Council.  Well you may think that will help reduce costs as there will be one administrative centre rather than six.  However each District not only ran its own scheme they also added to the statutory provision.  Some have funded vital rural buses by as much as 100% for example.  For the County Council to do that it would have to find the extra resources but is first of all asking the District Councils if they wish to contribute.  However to add to this complication Government has actually cut the Concessionary Fares budget by a whopping 18% which is a double whammy.    We will need to wait a while to see how the circle is squared or not and to understand what impact these cuts will have on the use of public transport across the County. 

Then there are the concerns about cuts to Children’s Services.  Of the 600 plus jobs that the County Council will have to shed a staggering 50% of them are now anticipated in Children’s Services.   So much for protecting children from the brunt of these cuts!  I have recently sat on an urgent task and finish review of to examine proposals that will cut the £10 million Supporting People grant t by 30%.  This grant is used across Cumbria to help support vulnerable adults with their housing needs.  Protecting our most vulnerable people is of paramount concern but being able to implement costs of such a magnitude requires considerable negotiation and planning.  This cut comes on the back of an in year cut to budget which stripped out the administration costs which were consequently absorbed by departmental budgets.  It is depressing stuff and whilst it is possible to tweak around the edges it is clear that cuts year on year like this will impact on the front line.  The burden will be shunted down the line to the organisations that provide the services so badly needed including the voluntary sector.  There is no wonder therefore that right across this country demonstrations are taking place to protest about the cuts to our public services, to the loss of jobs, to the attack on the NHS, to the reduction in police numbers, to the loss of libraries, to the impact being felt by carers.  The issue here is the feeling that these cuts are too far and too fast.  There has surely got to be another way?  The increase in VAT is already hurting and we have all seen the rise in costs at the supermarket and the petrol pump.  The increase in taxation will add to the burden now being felt by many families.

The Trade Union movement is organising a massive rally on the 26^th March in London and people will be attending from all over the UK.  We could end up seeing the biggest demonstration seen in the capital for decades.  I intend to be there and I know many thousands will march with me.  It may not stop what is being done but it will send a signal to the Coalition that the people do not like what is being done in their name.  It will show the strength of feeling that is burgeoning up as people start to understand what is going to happen. 

This week YouGov Poll showed approval rating for the Coalition at -23% and Labour in the lead by double digits once more.  This comes hot on the heels of learning that there had been no growth in the economy and with concerns that the UK is slipping into recession again.  Which makes me wonder if the Coalition will hold its nerve and continue with its planned cuts or will we see a uturn?  Tens of thousands of people feel that the planned cuts are too far, too fast and unfair on too many.  Many would rather see the Banks pay up more to pay for their mistakes and others feel that the cuts should be spread over a longer time frame. 

The public consultation on the County Council budget has come to an end and all councillors and the public will now wait and see the outcome and what the Cabinet will propose to Council.  What I do know is that there will be more disappointment and protest than usual.

In Praise of Students and the Suffragettes

                                          In praise of Students

The engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton may have taken the spotlight of the demonstration of students in London but I think the issue of how to fund undergraduate education has not gone away.  There is considerable anxiety around how the students of the future will be able to afford their Higher Education and no doubt many will be put off going University.  Those that do will face the burden of starting their working life with a financial millstone round their neck and of course as they get older will also add that other significant millstone of life in as they acquire mortgages.  

It is not therefore a surprise that we have seen the first of the demonstrations against these proposals and I am sure more protest will follow across the Country.  The news that Cleggy and co were planning a U turn on their position even as they were signing all those pledges has added to the anger.  During the course of this week the media focus on the demonstration has focussed on the violence that erupted and the graphic demolition job on the windows in Conservative Party HQ was beamed into every sitting room.  I am sure that most readers will like me have deplored the violence and the damage to property and I hope that organisers of future demonstrations will take steps to ensure their participants understand the need to peaceful protest.

Having said that I have heard many people talk about how they are so far the only citizens who have seriously taken to the streets to protest at the savage cutbacks that are descending on us.  Some of my acquaintances have said that the wish the British were more like the French or even the Greeks.  What does it take to fire up enough passion to truly get us all going?  I can still remember with clarity the demonstrations against the Vietnam War.  I can recall the Poll Tax demonstrations and in recent years the thousands who turned out to protest when the Labour Government introduced the Hunting Act (Ban).  So far however the response to the financial tsunami which will decimate our public services and put at least a million people on the dole has met with a rather muted response from swathes of the British public.  Even the TUC is holding back its day of action until March.

A friend of mine has reminded me of a couple of things Emmeline Pankhurst had to say about protest over a hundred years ago.  Had she been around today she may well have helped smash those windows.  After all she did say, “The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics. There is something that Governments care for far more than human life, and that is the security of property, and so it is through property that we shall strike the enemy. Be militant each in your own way. I incite this meeting to rebellion.”

 Of course history teaches us that the militants within the Suffrage movement did not win the vote for women although it certainly helped in raising the temperature and uniting working class women behind the cause.  So to our students I say thank you for reminding us that sometimes we have to get out of our armchairs and let our government know how we feel about what they are intending to do to us in our name.  The next time you demonstrate make it peaceful and hopefully others will join you in your legitimate right to protest.

I have penned this blog to coincide with the 100th anniversary of an event known as Black Friday when the Suffragettes demonstrating against Parliament were subjected to six hours of police brutality and which led to the Suffragettes becoming militant.

I attach a link describing Black Friday.  http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/features/75-our-history/7697-the-suffragettes-black-friday-and-the-two-types-of-window-smashing

In Praise of Students published in The Times and Star under the banner of The Thin Red Line  18/11/10

Building Bridges – a year on

Building Bridges – a year on

How this year has flown by! It is hard to credit that a year has gone by since the downpour that caused such a catastrophe here in Allerdale.  Those two days when the rain came down and flood water rose to unprecedented levels.  When people stoically faced the horror of water invading their homes and businesses and for whom today those events remain a frightening memory.  There were many people traumatised and are afraid still as the risk of further flooding has not yet gone away.

That was the night of a thousand acts of bravery and kindness.  When neighbour helped neighbour and communities came together to do what they could to help.  It was the night that defined us as a community and showed the world that we West Cumbrians faced with adversity collectively rise to its challenge.

Much has been written then and since about the response of the Emergency Services in that first couple of days. The met office warning of severe rainfall and flooding was sufficient to place the county on high alert and even before we saw any flooding emergency plans were being implemented.  There came a point on the 19^th when it became clear that the County was going to require a large scale emergency response and Gold Command under the leadership of the Chief Constable was created.  All the public services play a role in such an emergency.  There are very well written procedures in place which are tried and tested and practised as well.  By the afternoon before that flood key personnel from across the public services were assembling into Team Cumbria.

At the time that Gold Command was being created and meeting in Penrith other teams were meeting to plan for the recovery.  So it was that as the rains came down and the flooding began we had an emergency response team there with their primary task of preserving life and property and another team working out how to rebuild our communities afterwards. How well they served us that day and how much we owe them.

No one could ever have anticipated the consequences of such a unique rainfall nor the impacts of so much water pouring into the rivers and water courses.  No emergency plans had ever predicted the wide scale flooding that did occur and I know that the emergency plan never reckoned with the wholesale collapse or severe damage to our road and bridge structures.  Had it not been for the heroic actions of the Police and members of the public there could have been far greater numbers killed.  The death of PC Barker defines the entire event and he will always be remembered in Workington and Cumbria for his bravery on Northside Bridge.

What is remarkable is how much has been achieved in the last 12 months.  The recovery of the area has been a headache.  At first it seemed interminably slow.  Thousands of us on either side of the river and with only a few road bridge crossings left we were faced with the misery of travel in slow convoys of traffic before we could get to work or to our homes.  Doing some everyday things like going to school or to shop or to the Doctors became a major headache.  On top of the flooding we also endured one of the coldest of winters.  To add to the misery came difficulties in gritting roads and pavements.  In the cold dark days that followed many people facing such difficulties to their daily lives eventually became frustrated and angry at what appeared to be a slow response from the public authorities to the recovery. 

I did say that even as the emergency evacuations were taking place there were countless public servants around the County planning ahead to help with the recovery.  The fact that a year later we do have many so many people back in their own homes and businesses and a great deal of the infrastructure repaired or nearing repair is a testament to their work. For example as it became clear that we had lost bridges in Workington we had staff out there surveying the river bank in Workington trying to establish the location where we could build a footbridge.  The building of Barker Crossing by the Army in ten days was a remarkable achievement but it could not have been done without the help of council workers who had done the groundwork.  The building of the temporary railways station near Dunmail was also built in unprecedented time but required considerable planning and partnership working to get the job done with such speed.

Some of the work has gone on behind the scenes unseen.  We all got frustrated at the apparent lack of progress at getting bridges repaired and opened.  Of course they had to be inspected first and that could only be done when it was safe to do so as we had to put staff into the water to inspect bridge foundations below the water line.  That was extremely dangerous and painstakingly slow work.  However it was done and it was also heroic and we owe those bridges being repaired and opened in the shortest possible timescale to the teams of engineers who made it possible.

The opening of Barker Crossing and the creation of the new railway station and associated measures and even the opening of a temporary Tesco store were milestones along the way to bringing some sort of normality.  However the one enduring issue for many was the lack of a road bridge across the Derwent in Workington. The daily traffic jam on both sides of the river was taking its toll on people and sapping morale.  It was hampering recovery.  Local people became convinced that the County Council / Government were not doing enough to get a bridge built.  Frustration and anger and resentment began to build.

There came a time when the focus of attention did begin to switch from Government and what it could and should do to help us to the inevitable demand to know what the local authorities were doing.  Local Councillors started to feel the heat.  Now it is an interesting thing this because at the end of the day local councillors were enduring the self-same difficulties of daily life just as much as the rest of the population.  However your Councillor is supposed to be the champion of their local communities.  They are expected to get stuck in and ask the hard questions, get answers and more importantly get some action.  It is of course easier said than done.

In my view the measure of a local councillor is those who are prepared to step up to the plate when there are difficulties and who are not just prepared to sit in Council briefings and talk but who are prepared to be the advocate of their community.   They should be prepared to stick their neck out a bit and not just present the face of the Council.  We really do need more of the awkward squad around at such times.  We do of course need them to act reasonably and with some intelligence.

At one point I guess I qualified for the awkward squad brigade.  It happened that John Bailey from Derwent Bookshop spearheaded a petition asking the Government and the Council built a road bridge sooner rather than later.  He was supported by the Times and Star and the Rotary and I agreed to help along with some of my fellow Councillors.  The Facebook page he created had hundreds of supporters.  I do not think was not an unreasonable demand although I know that some of my colleagues working within the County Council and Allerdale probably thought I should have portrayed their efforts better.   I know that everybody was working feverishly behind the scenes to find a way to deliver that bridge. However I agreed to help John and others and found myself distributing copies of a petition and standing in Workington Town Centre on the busiest day of the year getting people to sign the petition. It was not difficult because people were walking up to us in droves, even queuing up to sign it. I am sure I was viewed as a bit of a traitor by colleagues who were doing their hardest to deliver a temporary bridge for Workington.  However many of those people did not live in West Cumbria and did not endure what we did every day or listen to the quite upsetting stories of people who were really suffering. The morale of local people was very low at that point and they needed something to focus on.  For some the simple act of signing a petition made them feel they were doing something to help make something happen.  I am glad I helped and I still feel it was the right thing to do.

Since then the temporary road bridge has been opened and work has been underway for several weeks to repair Workington Bridge.  The County Council has consulted on plans to build a replacement for Northside Bridge and also for Navvies Bridge.  Many of the bridges that were damaged have been repaired and traffic is flowing more or less normally again.  In the intervening months we have had the tragic loss of life when the school bus from Keswick crashed and then the indiscriminate shootings of Derrick Bird.  Despite everything that has been thrown at us our typical West Cumbrian resilience has come to the fore and helped us to cope and adjust. 

As I am writing this news has been coming in of the floods in Cornwall and

 I am sure local people will have those caught up in it in their thoughts.  I know that many local people have become fearful with the recent heavy rain and it is inevitable that further flooding may occur.  There is very cold comfort in the intention of the Government to cut the flooding budget and also cut the budget that DEFRA has available.  Our own experience here tells us that spending money on proper flood defences can actually save the exchequer money.  One can only hope that Cumbria is given all the resources needed to ensure what happened last year does not happen again.

First published in the Times and Star under The Thin Red Line 18th November 2010 to commemorate the first anniversary of the flooding of Cumbria