Backing Hilary Myers as next MP for Calder Valley
Today’s Guardian features an article entitled “Calder Valley: a must-win seat where textiles and green industry are the fabric of the community”. It gives a good overview of the Calder Valley seat, including touching on some of the controversies surrounding the Labour and Conservative candidates.
Liberal Democrat Hilary Myers was interviewed for the article, and talks about Vince Cable’s plans for the economy, as well as Lib Dem commitments on education and the environment.
Lib Dem parliamentary spokesperson for Calder Valley, Hilary Myers, was interviewed for an article in The Big Issue, which has now been published.
In the article, Hilary talks about her background and political beliefs. The article also includes interesting information background information about the other candidates.
Letter from Hilary Myers to Rev Dr Ian Coverdale, Chair of Churches Together in Brighouse & Rastrick, 27 March 2010:
Dear Ian,
Thank you for your letter explaining the insurmountable difficulties you had trying to arrange a pre-election Question Time Panel of the parliamentary candidates in Brighouse.
I have to say I am very disappointed.
As you know I was always prepared to be flexible with regard to the make up of the panel and felt it was up to Churches Together, as the organisers and hosts of the event, to have the final say.
I am concerned that the Labour and Conservative candidates, who took opposing positions on who they would or would not appear with, have effectively sabotaged the whole event.
As a result, the electorate has been denied a chance to quiz the people who are seeking their votes, in person, during the General Election Campaign itself.
This is not a victory for democracy or for common sense. It is just another nail in the coffin of our outdated political system. No wonder people are so fed up with the two old parties. They think it’s just about the two of them having an argument about whose turn it is next. They make so much noise that none of the smaller parties who want to see real change, not just phony change, ever get much of a look in. It’s a stitch up!
Can I thank you again Ian, for trying to arrange this event. I hope this disappointing outcome will not deter Churches Together from trying again at future elections. Please pass on my best wishes and thanks to all your members.
I am copying this letter to Michael Peel at the Halifax Courier and to Stephen Firth at the Brighouse Echo for their information should they wish to represent my views to their readers.
Yours sincerely,
Hilary Myers
On 11 March 2010, Hilary Myers took place in an education debate at Todmorden High School, organised by the NUT. The panel featured Steph Booth (Labour), Hilary Myers (Lib Dem), Craig Whittaker (Conservative) as well as Christine Blower (NUT General Secretary) and Rebecca Senior (Head Girl of Tod High).
Hilary spoke about Lib Dem plans to invest an extra £2.5bn in schools, and highlighted the shortcomings of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future policy whereby it has penalised schools like Todmorden High which have improved their results, meaning they are less likely to get new buildings. She also pointed out that the Tories would cut money allocated to rebuild schools, and divert it into building new academies, which would be of no use to pupils in the Calder Valley.
After each question, a group of around a dozen sixth formers/first time voters were asked to vote electronically, and anonymously, on who had answered the question best. Hilary got the highest score of the politicians on every single question.
At the end of the event, this group were asked to vote on the question “who would get your vote now?”. Hilary topped the poll with an overwhelming 61.5% of the vote, proving that not only are Liberal Democrat education policies head and shoulders above the other parties, but that Hilary Myers is the only candidate for Calder Valley trusted to deliver on education.
The final votes, as shown in the picture above, were as follows:
Letter from Hilary Myers to the Halifax Courier, 11 March 2010:
I note that Craig Whittaker, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Calder Valley, is now advertising himself on local buses. I wonder how he can afford such costly promotions?
The cynical attempt of Lord Ashcroft, a non-dom, to fund the campaigns of would-be Tory MPs in marginal seats such as ours and to use his money to support potential lawmakers who would help set the taxes for everyone else while his mega-rich Lordship makes his own arrangements, has been exposed as an outrageous affront to democracy.
In the new spirit of transparency and financial openness to be expected following the MPs’ expenses scandal, I think local voters should be told exactly how much ‘Ashcroft Money’ has been channelled into Craig’s campaign, both in the last few years and in support of this latest expensive initiative.
My questions for Craig are:
I challenge him to come clean now about his expenses and how he is funding his campaign. If he is not prepared to be open about this there is little reason to trust him to do so should he be elected to represent the people of Calder Valley in the next Parliament.
Hilary Myers
In their report of the election debate in Lightcliffe on 2 February 2010, reporters from the Brighouse Echo praised Liberal Democrat candidate Hilary Myers:
Hilary Myers, like all good Lib-Dems, talked sense, came over well and praised the invincible Vince Cable.
When it came to predicting the chances of the various candidates, their verdict was as follows:
Echo ante-post betting looks something like this … 6/4 Whittaker, 7/2 Myers, 4/1 Booth, 12/1 O’Connor and Sweeny, 33/1 Burrows, 66/1 A.N. Other.
These odds put Hilary Myers in second place, above Labour candidate Steph Booth. It is becoming increasingly clear that Labour have blown their chance, and that the Liberal Democrats are now the only real alternative to the Conservatives in Calder Valley.
Letter from Hilary Myers to the Halifax Courier, 8 February 2010:
Having read in detail the external report on “Children’s Social Care at Calderdale Borough Council” (Anger at child-safety failings, Halifax Courier, 2nd Feb) I am writing to express my grave concerns for the vulnerable children of this borough under the current administration.
The report highlights “considerable difficulties” and “significant areas of concern”. The main weaknesses lay in the systems and practice standards of the Initial Response Teams and the Family Support and Child Protection Teams. Operationally, these are the responsibility of management. But the management is accountable to our elected representatives, first and foremost in this case the Portfolio Holders for Children’s Services, Cllr Craig Whittaker, who has held the brief for three years, and his immediate predecessors, all Conservatives. It was their job to ensure that children’s services were competently managed and they are ultimately accountable for the failings.
However, the working of the Council has a form of safety net in the shape of the Scrutiny Panel system. But if you look at their track record on the Scrutiny Panel for Children’s Services, chaired by Labour, issues of Education have dominated the agenda and issues of Care have been sidelined.
Both parties have been in positions of control and between them they have let our children down.
I am confident that the Scrutiny Panel, now under the Chairmanship of Cllr Mrs Olwen Jennings, will not make this mistake again. But as for Cllr Whittaker, who has faced much criticism already for his poor performance on education, and has now been found wanting, in this highly critical report, on the vital issue of children’s care, isn’t it time he resigned his portfolio?
Hilary Myers
Letter from Hilary Myers to the Halifax Courier, 29 November 2009:
When I read the letter from Anne Collins (Secretary, Calderdale District Labour Party) attacking Craig Whittaker (Conservative Cabinet Member with responsibility for Children, Schools and Families) over the schools rebuilding issue (Your Say, 25th Nov), I felt like knocking both their heads together.
It is pathetic to see Labour still blaming the Tories for their record in government when they have had over twelve years to put things right. And depressing to see them trumpeting PFI as a success story when it is clear that, just like the failing banks, this is a chicken that will surely come home to roost. But if, as Anne suggests, we have missed out on Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding because we are not sufficiently disadvantaged in Calderdale, that only goes to show that the Government’s flagship school building programme was not sensibly set up in the first place. Because, as we all know, even the more affluent authorities can contain deprived communities and certain schools in dire need of rebuilding. Todmorden High School is a case in point. It has been at the top of Calderdale’s list for priority re-building for years now. But for your correspondent to suggest that the Council has not put its hand in its pocket is quite wrong. I could point you to a catalogue of serious remedial work, temporary structures and partial rebuilding that has been paid for in recent times. But it is just another case of throwing good taxpayers’ money after bad, as what the school really needs is brand new foundations and buildings fit for purpose in the 21st century – not more papering over the cracks.
So I think Ms. Collins is attacking Mr. Whittaker on the wrong point here. My beef with the Tory administration of which he is a part is that they have singularly failed St. Catherine’s High School, which they took over in 2007 in a bid to improve standards after two inspections sent it into Special Measures. Two and a half years later, the school’s key GCSE exam results have not improved by a single percentage point. Now the same Tory led Council has stepped in to save Park Lane High, Exley, which has similar problems. How are we to have any confidence in an administration that has this year lost a star in its overall rating for Children’s and Young People’s Services? And how are we to have any confidence in Cllr Whittaker in his bid to become Calder Valley’s next MP when his track record in his key area of responsibility in local government is so woeful?
When it comes to Education, Education, Education, both Labour nationally and the Conservatives locally, are letting our children down.