Sunday 10 June 2007

North Yorks MPs Stage Anti-Unitary Protest

Last week, North Yorkshire MPs, including our own Robert Goodwill staged a protest outside the Houses of Parliament to show their opposition to a North Yorkshire Unitary Council. In an interview on Yorkshire Coast Radio, Mr Goodwill said that under a unitary council the Yorkshire Coast would not be classed a priority for tourism, and that as a result jobs would be lost. How he arrived at that conclusion is a mystery to me, and is simply scare-mongering. He simply does not want to upset his councillors down in Scarborough, the majority of whom want to keep Scarborough Borough Council as the status quo. He also said that having fewer councillors would mean a less democratic structure and accountability - which is nonsense. Currently, each county division in Whitby has a single county councillor, so people should get to know them quite easily and who is accountable. Under a unitary council these would increase to two councillors for each division, with an average electorate of around 4,000 - how can this be less democratic? Robert Goodwill represents our constituency of over 100,000 people; would he be prepared to share it with another MP to make it more democratic for us? I do not think so. As for Jim Dillon, chief executive of SBC, all he's bothered about is his own job and nobody else's. People whose jobs are to clean our streets and collect our rubbish are not at risk - but senior officers are, and that is why they are against a unitary council.

Losing Your Liberty?

TAKING LIBERTIES - at a cinema near YOU
On June 8th, a new film charting the erosion of basic rights and freedoms since 1997 will hit cinemas across the country. NO2ID were involved in this thought-provoking feature-length examination of this government's attack on civil liberties from early in its production, and our briefings on the ID scheme have been used as the basis for some stunning animation sequences and a hard-hitting section on ID cards*. Viewers are encouraged to join the NO2ID campaign at the end of the film.At present, 'Taking Liberties' has only limited distribution - details at http://www.noliberties.com/cinema.htm. We encourage you to see the film and take friends along too, and if it isn't showing in a cinema near you to write to the manager and ask him/her to screen it. We've lobbied MPs and peers, but in this case every successful letter will help bring this powerful and timely message to a wider audience. The 'Taking Liberties' production team tell us that at least two cinemas have agreed to screen the film in the last week or so, purely as a result of being written to. You *can* make a difference.