Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lobbying
Ellman urged constituents to lobby their politicians about the impact of the cuts on their loved ones and encouraged voluntary groups to work together and to look for alternative money through trust funds and grants. And she praised Liverpool City Council leader Joe Anderson frontrunner to be the citys mayor for lobbying the government for extra funds for the city. He is trying to secure money to rebuild some schools and to develop a cruise liner terminal on the docks. We need to encourage more economic activity in the city, she said. It feels like we have been here before, perhaps in the 1980s, although this might be worse. We have to keep going though, keep on opposing this and trying to make those in the coalition see sense.
Unsettled
Gelder acknowledged government efforts to tackle street homelessness through its No Second Night Out campaign and the creation of personalised budgets for entrenched rough sleepers, but said the removal of ring-fenced funding had enabled hard-pressed councils to divert money from homeless services. She said: What we are seeing is really a dereliction of the welfare state. Once the welfare reforms kick in we will see some families choosing between rent and food. Some will have to move into overcrowded places, and well see the kind of
Destructive
Since January, the maximum housing benefit available to those who are under 35 and renting from a private landlord is the cost of a single room in a shared house. She said: A lot of the people I know who are affected by this are men estranged from their children. They are having to move from a self-contained
Inequality
Cooper called on faith and voluntary groups to campaign against inequality, which is greater now than at any point in the past 60 years. He said: The government doesnt want to talk about inequality they want to talk about austerity. In the coalition agreement they promised that the poorest would be protected from the worst of the cuts but that has not happened. Sadly the government has huge public support for its welfare reforms not in Liverpool and probably not in other northern cities. But in the south they do, even among people who are not doing that well themselves. There is a perception that people who are on benefits are getting it easy, but we know this is not the case. Overcoming this idea is going to be a real uphill battle.
CIARA LEEMING
Hugh Keane from Didsbury, Manchester, with sculptures of hands, his favourite exhibit at the citys Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI). Keane is one of the men with learning disabilities who have created a film and exhibition at MOSI after attending therapeutic sessions at the museum. The exhibition, Manpowered: A Mens Group Challenging Disability, is the first in MOSIs new community exhibition gallery. Photo: Chris Foster/MOSI
4 THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH 13-19 FEBRUARY 2012