"Shocked" Labour's Liz opens national conference with powerful speech attacking effects of austerity in Southport and UK.

Labour's Southport candidate Liz Savage has given the opening address to the national Labour Party Conference, a move that came as a surprise even to herself.

Expressing how she was "proud, honoured and delighted" but also a little shocked to be asked to open the event, she then went on to deliver a hard-hitting attack on austerity and its effects in the town and communities across the UK.

Referring to a report that had attributed 120,000 additional deaths to austerity, the former teacher told the packed hall:

"Figures such as these are always difficult to be exact but we don’t need an exact figure – one death is too many. We all recognise the scale of the attack on our communities; we have all met people suffering as a result."

"People across the country are suffering due to brutal cuts brought in by the Tories and supported by the Lib Dems. When homelessness rockets; something has gone drastically wrong. When the UN criticises the UK because of its attacks on the disabled, something has gone drastically wrong."

"When our local authorities are on the verge of collapse; wages are still lower than a decade ago; and when our NHS is being eroded by underfunding, undermined by privatisation and the very land it stands on is being sold from underneath it… something has gone drastically wrong."

"Our towns, villages and cities are suffering; they are suffering because the Tories put profits before people. They put cuts before communities; their ideology before the circumstances of individuals."

Southport's Labour candidate went on to attack the roll-out of Universal Credit locally and the constituency's Tory MP for supporting it:

"In Southport, we have seen the local Conservative MP warmly welcome Universal Credit to the town, despite all the warnings about that failed Tory system, leaving local residents to suffer the consequences. A system whose implementation is a universal discredit to our country and also a universal truth about Tory heartlessness."

Describing the town as Sefton's "jewel in the crown" and inviting all those attending to visit, she told them that its future fortunes would be better served by Labour:

"Southport’s Lord Street is reputed to be the inspiration for Napoleon’s tree-lined boulevards of Paris. It’s a beautiful place that sadly like many others, is now suffering from eight years of Tory misrule. Let’s end that and ensure the investment that only Labour will bring to restore, revive and reinvigorate our towns, cities and communities."

https://www.facebook.com/southportla...64040637032974

Her speech sounds like a great work of fiction. She should try harder, though, in getting a little anti-Semitism or anti-Catholicism in if she wishes to be truly valued in Labourland.

I thought Southport's "future fortunes" were already being "better served by Labour" from Bootle Town Hall.
If Southport in its current state really is "Sefton's 'jewel in the crown'", then it doesn't say much for Bootle which has been run by them since Noah was a child.

'Her' town is Skelmersdale, where she is a Councillor. Southport is not her town and not Labour's town. Labour are responsible for taking the Council Tax paid by Southport residents and spending it elsewhere in the borough. They are responsible for the decline of Southport. Claiming the Tories are to blame is at best disingenuous and at worst and out and out lie.

Originally Posted by Darkside

'Her' town is Skelmersdale, where she is a Councillor. Southport is not her town and not Labour's town. Labour are responsible for taking the Council Tax paid by Southport residents and spending it elsewhere in the borough. They are responsible for the decline of Southport. Claiming the Tories are to blame is at best disingenuous and at worst and out and out lie.

I've met some of the idiotic Southport Labour "activists" and am hardly surprised they have to import candidates from elsewhere.

Originally Posted by MargeSimpson

I thought Southport's "future fortunes" were already being "better served by Labour" from Bootle Town Hall.
If Southport in its current state really is "Sefton's 'jewel in the crown'", then it doesn't say much for Bootle which has been run by them since Noah was a child.

You seem to be conveniently forgetting, or perhaps are just unaware, that Labour has only had control of Sefton since 2012... during which time it's had to deal with the devastating cuts, nearly a quarter of a billion pounds worth by 2020, that the Tories and Lib Dems inflicted on the borough... so pretty hard to do much except "firefight" in those circumstances... and when it has tried to do something to help Bootle, i.e. via the Strand purchase... all some folks have done (hmm, wonder who that is?) is stamp their feet moaning about it.

Originally Posted by Darkside

'Her' town is Skelmersdale, where she is a Councillor. Southport is not her town and not Labour's town. Labour are responsible for taking the Council Tax paid by Southport residents and spending it elsewhere in the borough. They are responsible for the decline of Southport. Claiming the Tories are to blame is at best disingenuous and at worst and out and out lie.

You don't seem to understand how council tax works... it's collected across the borough and spent across the borough. Also, council tax is just one part of the revenue stream.
As to Labour being responsible for the decline of Southport and not the Tories... the town has been badly hit since austerity was brought in, as has much of the country. Was it Labour that cut nearly £1/4 billion from the local authority so badly damaging local services etc? Was it Labour that cut 44k police officers and staff leading to a crime rise? That is underfunding our local hospital and NHS trust? That has kept wage growth so appallingly low that it's still not reached the levels of a decade ago? No, the Tories and Lib Dems did all that. Who sets the high business rates causing local firms such problems? Central (Tory) govt does... etc etc etc... the only one being "at best disingenuous" is yourself.

Sounded more like pure fantasy fiction ,,The party of racist bigots thugs and commies,,The country is united in laughter at the senile 70 years out of date loony left insanity coming out of soon to be suspended and removed from parliament Jizzer and co.

Originally Posted by Gwhizz

You seem to be conveniently forgetting, or perhaps are just unaware, that Labour has only had control of Sefton since 2012... during which time it's had to deal with the devastating cuts, nearly a quarter of a billion pounds worth by 2020, that the Tories and Lib Dems inflicted on the borough... so pretty hard to do much except "firefight" in those circumstances... and when it has tried to do something to help Bootle, i.e. via the Strand purchase... all some folks have done (hmm, wonder who that is?) is stamp their feet moaning about it.

If Sefton Labour is genuinely concerned about the cuts, then they must cut the number of councillors and reduce their allowances. When every other department has been forced to reduce their expenditure to try and rescue this country from the abominable mess inherited from Labour in 2010, it is blatantly hypocritical of Labour to fail to do this.
Otherwise it is simply "JOBS FOR THE BOYS"!!!
What I do know is how the General Rates in Southport (Tory controlled) increased tremendously after the 1974 reorganisation when we were blindly joined with other LA's to the south dominated by Labour and our services undisputedly went down the drain permanently.

Originally Posted by MargeSimpson

If Sefton Labour is genuinely concerned about the cuts, then they must cut the number of councillors and reduce their allowances. When every other department has been forced to reduce their expenditure to try and rescue this country from the abominable mess inherited from Labour in 2010, it is blatantly hypocritical of Labour to fail to do this.
Otherwise it is simply "JOBS FOR THE BOYS"!!!
What I do know is how the General Rates in Southport (Tory controlled) increased tremendously after the 1974 reorganisation when we were blindly joined with other LA's to the south dominated by Labour and our services undisputedly went down the drain permanently.

So you are suggesting we should have less councillors in Southport then? So less representation for the town? The problem isn't the number of councillors, their allowances are a drop in the ocean compared to the near quarter of a billion pounds in cuts.

Also, please stop trying to perpetuate the lie that Labour caused the "mess" as you put it, it was a worldwide recession triggered by a crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage market... even George Osbourne admitted this after leaving office and also that the Tories wouldn't have been able to deal with it much differently at all t the time.

Also, your claim that the cuts were to "rescue" the country is just fanciful... the cuts were to pay for the reduction in corporaton tax and the tax breaks given to the wealthy. That's where most of the money has gone... certainly not in paying off the national debt, which has risen. The country has not been rescued... it's been reduced... our communities, services, wages and circumstances have been reduced... and Southport is suffering because of it.