`Those big, big wide streets
Those useless MPs
Just savages
Hit the North...'
The Fall Hit The North Part 1
As the Devo Manc agenda gets slated for its "significant lack of public consultation, engagement and communication at all stages of the deal-making process..." (Parliamentary Select Committee see here), the so-called Northern Powerhouse project is even more removed from ordinary people.
Already dubbed the `Northern Poorhouse', elite business people and politicians are to gather at a big conference on 8th July, entitled Finding True North: Realising the Northern Powerhouse, hosted by Respublica and its svengali, Phillip Blond, seen by many as the architect of Greater Manchester devolution.
The conference will, amongst other things, look at "fostering constructive and positive dialogue between newly invigorated and empowered local leaders and those who they are elected to serve" and how the Northern Powerhouse can bring "real change for the people who live there"...
...Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of `people who live there' won't be able to afford to go to hear the `great and the good' waffle on about all this because tickets cost £150 (plus booking fee).
Speaking at the conference are eleven publicly paid politicians ranging from Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, to Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, to Bury MP and GM Mayor contestant Ivan Lewis, to Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson and Manchester MP Lucy Powell. As far as the Salford Star knows, none of these publicly paid politicians have appeared at, or organised, any recent public events on the Northern Powerhouse to which the community can attend.
The conference's agenda talks about "leaders...defining a local region's priorities and needs" yet again the community is left out of the equation, fuelling growing suspicions that the `Northern Poorhouse' and GM Devolution are just another top down project, driven by what the Campaign for Democratic Devolution calls, the "promotion of corporate and private business interests, at the expense of the wider public..."
There are 42 tickets left for the event if anyone wants to stump up £150 (plus £4.74 booking fee) click here.
`Oh yes I love the North especially those arcades
Have you seen them they're brilliant
You put a penny in a slot, pull the handle
You get three lemons, you win a million quid
Hit the North!...'
Frank Sidebotttom Supergroup starring Paul Ryder and David Soul Hit The North
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