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News Report Page 1 of 43
Publication Date:-
2019-12-08
News reports located on this page = 2.

Southport is a key Election Battleground

WITH 75 Parliamentary seats in the North West of England, with Liverpool and Manchester have for decades been Labour strongholds, it is the marginals that will be key to what happens in this years Elections. On Merseyside, the electoral battleground sees both Southport and Birkenhead being the most interesting fights. That is due to Southport, a traditionally LibDem area, but recently Conservative only having 3 parties standing and in Birkenhead, where Frank Field is standing after his dramatic leaving from Labour, back in August 2018, over the parties:- "culture of intolerance, nastiness and intimidation."

The Southport constituency, is the most interesting of these constituencies, due to the 3 way fight. Southport has never had a Labour MP in its 134 year history, but Labour is making huge headway according to recent surveys in the area. This headway has also been supported via our own, less scientific surveys. But as Southport had a 46.29% Leave vote and an increasingly older population, as people from London and the South, move up to retire, the area has seen it swing to Conservative after 3 decades as a safe LibDem seat. this resulted in Brexit backing Damien Moore winning it for the Conservatives, in 2015 and increased his majority to nearly 3,000 in 2017.

On the street in Southport we found many young voters where more for Lib Dem then Labour, but Older voters tended to be for Conservative, or would not say. The middle age groups tended to say Labour, with the odd exception.

Our street survey of 111 people was a very interesting result. When asked if local and voting in the elections, 28 said they are not voting at all, 23 said Labour, 22 undecided, 15 said Conservative, 13 not saying but are voting, 4 split between Lib Dem and Labour and 1 who said:- "Brexit Party if not, I'm not voting!"

Surprisingly, we found in Southport, many people who said Labour want to Remain, with some saying they can't see LibDem getting in, but don't Trust Labour, but as they want to Remain, Labour is a tactical vote.

Even on our Twitter survey, Labour looks ahead when voting in Southport, with just 30 votes cast, Labour took 67% with Conservatives hitting 23% and LibDems getting just 10%.

How we all vote in the next election will be key to the next 5 years and with so many issues at stake, from:- education to health care, Police and welfare, employment and Brexit, can we really afford not to vote? But as many of the 28 how said they are not voting:- "how can we trust any party?"  We need a Government who can re-unite the nation and also fix our international reputation, or we  will find the UK blowing in the wind and torn apart.

Lots of people have also commented that they do not know about the other parties views, other than on Brexit, as National Media has been fixated over both Labour and Conservatives, yet overlooking the likes of the Green Party and LibDems. This has also led to questions about American interference and why we have not heard the findings about Russian interference within the last elections and the Referendum.

So who will be finding Santa's Stocking under the Number 10 Christmas Tree, this year, is going to be anyone's guess in what is probably the most significant General election in years.

Also, did you know? All General Election traditionally take place in April, May or June, with the last winter polling day having taken place on 28 February 1974. In fact the last UK Election to be held in the moth of December was back in 1923, and with icy temperatures predicted for next week's polling day are a good reason why its unusual. Yet, many say that the weather doesn't play a part in the vote.

Please do email us your thoughts on this? Will it be a Red, Yellow or Blue Christmas in Southport? Email:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com and let us know!


Campaign to "de-normalise" smoking in the home

MERSEYSIDE Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS) is hoping to increase the number of smoke free homes across Merseyside and "de-normalise" smoking at home as part of a new campaign being piloted across Speke and Garston. MFRS attend around 100 accidental house fires each year caused by smoking materials. This includes carelessly discarded cigarettes and smoking materials. In 2018/19, MFRS attended 95 such incidents, with 1 of them sadly resulting in the death of 1 person. The 'Smoke Free Homes' project hopes to combat this and ultimately change people's behaviours and attitudes to smoking at home.  Created in partnership with South Liverpool Homes, SmokeFree Liverpool and Liverpool City Council, the project is initially being piloted in Speke and Garston; the ward with the highest prevalence of smokers (26.5%), but will hopefully be rolled out across the whole of Merseyside in the future. Mark Thomas, Group Manager for Prevention at MFRS, said:- "Smoking remains Merseyside's biggest killer and the single biggest cause of preventable illness, with 900 people dying in Liverpool each year from smoking related illnesses. Smoking related illnesses cause a massive burden on the NHS, social care and other services. Our firefighters attend around 100 accidental house fires each year that are caused by smoking materials. Each of these fires is preventable and the work of the Smoke Free Homes project has a vital part to play in this."

The project also aims to raise awareness the dangers of 2nd hand smoke in the home and the impact this can have on not just their own health, but on their children's health too, with children more susceptible to the health impacts of 2nd hand smoke. Smoke Free Homes was officially launched on Tuesday, at Speke and Garston Community Fire Station, along with the unveiling of the project's logo; designed by Local School Pupil Nadia Bielecka; proudly displayed on the side of a fire engine. Nadia, who was a formerly a pupil at St Christopher's and now Bellerive FCJ Catholic College; was guest of honour at the unveiling, with her design chosen following a competition between 4 Local Primary Schools.

GM Thomas added:- "It's fantastic to see Nadia's design printed on the side of our fire engine; she should be extremely proud of herself. Her design will be seen by hundreds of people as the fire engine transports our crews across the area each day when they attend fires, road traffic collisions and other incidents. We want to raise awareness of the impact that smoking in the home has upon children's health and ultimately de-normalise smoking in the home environment. This will help us to reduce the risk of domestic fires caused by smoking materials and of course encourage more people to stop smoking. Nadia's design of 'children copy what they see' will prompt conversations between children and their parents and grandparents, who may themselves smoke, and hopefully will lead to an increase in the number of smoke free homes across Merseyside."

Claire Ryan, Director of Investment and Assurance, at South Liverpool Homes, said:- "We know that smoking is more common among people living in social housing than anywhere else, so we have a very important role to play in supporting our tenants to help them quit smoking and live a healthier lifestyle. Speke and Garston have a higher concentration of smokers compared to the rest of the City so by working with our partners Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Liverpool City Council, Smokefree Liverpool and Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group, we can focus on addressing this issue which will help deliver tangible benefits to our community. The campaign is about awareness and supporting people to have the information and services available to help them quit smoking, reduce the effects of 2nd hand smoke to family members as well as minimising the risk of fires in their homes. We are delighted to see Nadia's design on the fire engine which will be highly visible in the South Liverpool community, and we're looking forward to seeing this logo in tenants' windows when we produce stickers in the new year for those who wish sign up to the campaign."

 
      
 
   
 
 
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