Council Leader Has Also Lost The Plot

Editors Comment:

I'm sure the leader of Liverpool Council was well meaning in his reply to Mr Montrose's letter published recently in the Liverpool Echo, but Joe, who have you been listening to? Your reply echoes eerily the boiler plate response from Susan Lees received by the many protesters. To make matters worse, Joe scores the same "own goal" Mr Heckle of the festival organisers scored by saying in effect what's your problem? There have been 4 Merseybeat stages in 18 years. Well apart from getting the number wrong (It was five) doesn't that say it all. Worded as The Royal Grant, 4 or 5 in 18 years...its an insult to the musicians who made Liverpool the 3rd largest tourist city in the United Kingdom and the charities they support.

Jumping the gun

THE letter by Mr Montrose (LIVERPOOL ECHO, June 10) regarding the lack of a Merseybeat stage at this year’s Mathew Street Music Festival was slightly off key.

Firstly, the festival programme is set by the directors of Mathew Street Festival, supported by Liverpool council, and they have done this magnificently for the past 18 years.

Secondly, there has only ever been a Merseybeat stage on four occasions – it has never been a permanent fixture.

Thirdly, one of the great developments in recent years has been the introduction of new themes to ensure the festival remains fresh and audiences see and hear new bands.
This year there will be a wide variety of music from Mod to Mobo and the new M62 stage. There’s also a new bands stage showcasing the best emerging Liverpool talent, and the festival fringe will feature more than 100 bands from around the city.

Finally, if Mr Montrose had waited for the official confirmation of this year’s stages, he’d have seen the festival is still paying tribute to the Merseybeat era – not least through two stages dedicated to The Beatles and special guest appearances by Merseybeat icons such as Beryl Marsden and Billy J Kramer.

This year’s Mathew Street Festival will, I’m sure, give music lovers of all ages and tastes something to twist and shout about and I look forward to welcoming them all to our city this August Bank Holiday.

Councillor Joe Anderson, leader of Liverpool City Council

Show Some Charity

A Response From A Merseybeat Supporter

I refer to the letter from R. Montrose 'Don't Stop The Music' (LIVERPOOL ECHO, June 10).
I agree with everything he say’s but would like to add one very important point. During the superb music provided by top class local musicians on the Merseybeat Stage, that wonderful charitable organisation Merseycats make collections among the crowd and all monies donated go directly to local children's organisations such as: Alder Hey hospital, Zoe's Place, Walking With Giants as well as many individual children and their families in need of support.
So, in addition to the council stopping our local musicians from providing top class entertainment, the effect will also be felt by lack of much needed public donations to the Merseycats organisation.
Come on Liverpool council, show a little pride in our musical and charitable traditions and heritage, restore the Merseybeat Stage.
P. Barnes (Mrs), L6

Liverpool Council's New Leader - Joe Anderson.

He was born in 1958, the son of a merchant seaman and an office cleaner, in a city centre tenement called Kent Gardens near the Dingle.

Long since demolished by a previous Labour administration it is a part of the city close to his heart and which he has represented for 12 years.

One of six children he attended St Vincent Primary School.

"Things were really hard but it was a happy childhood and I made good friends that I keep in touch with today," he said.

He has been a governor at his former Catholic primary school for more than a decade.

"One of my best achievements was fighting to keep it open and stopping the Labour party from closing it.

"It had 78 kids on the roll, now it's got 190 and it is a thriving school with an excellent headteacher."

He attended St Martins Secondary School but left at 16 with no qualifications and went to work for office supply company, Withy Grove. But after a year he followed his father into the Merchant Navy.

"I think that was the moment that I became political in the sense that I saw things that were inspirational, I woke up to what was happening."

His job took him to Gydnia on the north Polish coast where there was an uprising. "I saw the oppression there. When you went ashore it was a city that was in real poverty, it was a frightening experience. It opened my eyes to say the least."

Soon he found himself on a ship to South Africa.

"I saw apartheid, the poverty, a system that was just abhorrent. Seeing it and witnessing it was absolutely shocking.

"After those experiences I started to take more of an interest in things because I had not had the best of educations, I had left school with no qualifications.

"I started to read and enlighten myself, and that was motivated by what I had seen."

It was around the same time that he joined the Labour party.

After travelling the world he took a job on the P&O ferries between Liverpool and Belfast, where he would meet his wife Marg, a wages clerk.

They have been married 29 years and have four children Joanne, 28, (who won a council seat last week), Tony, 26, David, 22, and Michael, 17, and a grandson.

It was at P&O where the young Joe Anderson became politically active.

At 20 he was a steward of the National Union of Seamen and became the youngest ever convener.

He led the first ever sit in on a ship – the Ulster Queen – over the threat of redundancies.

"It lasted for about a fortnight, but we managed to retain those jobs."

It was also in his early 20s that he started to read political biographies, and in his own words self-educate himself.

He took a diploma in labour history at Liverpool University.

After 12 years on the ferries as an able seaman he was medically discharged due to eye problems.

He took over the Monroe pub in Duke Street for five years.

He had decided to be a social worker and attended the now defunct Mable Fletcher College to do a pre-qualification.

It led to a course at John Moores University and a job in Sefton Council's education welfare department.

He was soon promoted and given the task of upgrading and modernising the department after a poor Ofsted report.

The head of Chesterfield School in Crosby asked him to lead a social inclusion unit for children with behavioural and emotional problems, a job he has been doing ever since.

"I use myself as an example to how you can turn your life around, you just have to have the desire to do it.”

In 1998 he was elected to the council to represent the Abercromby ward – the area he grew up in.

Five years later he was elected leader of the Labour group on the city council when the party had just 19 seats.

Now Labour has 48 seats and Joe Anderson is about to start his most important job - leader of his home city of Liverpool.