Today council labour leader Joe Anderson walked out on the capitol of culture board .surely Joe has made the wrong decision if he thinks the powers that be are cocking it up surely he can represent the people of Liverpool by staying and reporting from the inside the sham that's going on as someone who has openly said i haven't voted labour for a number of years i thought with Joe Anderson at the helm he was pulling the party back up. and also dealing with Mr Anderson over fighting to keep our local school open(anfield community comprehensive)i found him to be an honest sincere straight talker who gave helpful advice.ithink hes made a mistake what do you think?

I think that he made a mistake for the reasons I set out on the Capital of Culture thread.

However, if Joe now gets his head down, works closely with local communities to support them in their determination to make their presence felt during 2008, and doesn't just focus on making political capital by attacking the local LibDems and mouthing platitudes then I would be happy to change my mind.

I think he's right. As a member of the board he's been bound by collective responsibility, going along with the collective decision.

With wearying predictability that decision has been to kick important, widely asked, questions into the long grass. Someone has to break that pattern and it seems to be Joe.

I hope that the Culture Company can clean up its act and we can all have a great year.

‘Culture mess will oust the Lib-Dems’

Labour leader Joe Anderson tells City Editor Larry Neild why he quit the Capital of Culture board here (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_headline=%2D%2D8216%2Dculture-mess-will-oust-the-lib%2Ddems%2D%2D8217%2D%26method=full%26objectid=1 9287032%26siteid=50061-name_page.html).

Just read it. Sadly my worst fears are confirmed - he is playing to the gallery. He is not interested in ensuring that Liverpool delivers a world class peformance. He doesn't appear to have anything to say about how we might turn things around and address the concerns that he has rightly raised. Just a list of how the LibDems have done everything wrong and how Labour will make them pay next year.

He could have resigned before the last elections though if it was party political. He said he had tried to fight it from within but was ignored and this is his way of bringing it to light.

I caught a glimpse of the invoices he's been discreetly handed on the news last night with Gordon Burns and thousands of pounds for chauffeur driven cars around town and lavish meals in top hotels when small projects are being turned away isn't what it's all suppossed to be about though is it.

I wonder why this lavishness has only come to light now though, unless it's only happened this financial year as they have to have accounts in order.

I think he did the right thing and now Lee Ford the head of the cultural events unit, at the Culture Company, has resigned. Joe Anderson has high-lighted what most people have suspected all along. That being that the Capital of Culture celebrations are a celebration of Liverpool's "middle class" culture and has very little to do with the majority culture of Liverpudlians. mega pounds are spent on receptions for politicos, senior bureaucrats and other camp followers and local neighbourhood groups go begging and have to make do with the crumbs falling from the table. I have been told that Simon Rattle is being paid more for his one visit than the total amount of grants to all inner city groups. I am aware that Simon Rattle is probably the worlds best at his craft and I am a big fan but, I bet only about 10% of Scousers know who he is and even less would wish to see him perform. I also wager that at least the first ten rows at the Phil for his perfomance will be occupied by Liverpool's political elite.

PS: Simon Rattles guest conducting of the RLPO was a suggestion made by me to Mike Storey who later promoted it as his own idea and that wasn't the first or last of my ideas that he plagerised. Storey is the man who deserves the mantle of Liverpool's political opportunist none pariel. I have dated correspondence to/from Storey and, then city chief executive officer, David Henshaw, which substantiate my accusations.

Firstly, there's no need for a CoC membership of 100 and secondly, there's no need for their annual wage bill combined to near half a million pounds.

Firstly, there's no need for a CoC membership of 100 and secondly, there's no need for their annual wage bill combined to near half a million pounds. And the CoC Company should have been completely independant of City Council and it's petty political rivalries and corrupt mini empire builders. The CoC Company has been, from it's very inception, a political football.

And the CoC Company should have been completely independant of City Council and it's petty political rivalries and corrupt mini empire builders. The CoC Company has been, from it's very inception, a political football.

Ithink that just about sums it up we all agree with the concept CoC its just that the powers that be couldn't organize a piss up at a Kirby wedding let alone CoC 08(apologies to all Kirby weddings but they are easy to organize)

How typical of the Labour party in Liverpool to present the city in a light reminiscent of the bad old days when everything they did was spoiled by a row. Joe's childish activity has given the impression that Liverpool is as bad as when his party ran the city.

Labour in Liverpool are no longer militant but some of them don't deserve to run this city as they are incompetent.

Vote Labour in Liverpool for MASSIVE council tax increases, damage to regeneration and businesses.

Can we put the party politics to bed please? ALL politicians are liars no matter which political stripe, whether extreme right or left they are all working in the best interest of themselves. It is my opinion that the only honest man ever to enter parliament was Guy Fawkes. A pox on all their houses, sez I.

just read all the comments re COCand feel the need to add my own experiences
I visited their offices in Millenium House to request flags for Liverpool's 800 birthday. I was informed that they were all gone and furthermore that they were only given out to a business. I let the lady who gave me this news know that I was in the business of promoting my city of Liverpool each and every day. However flags were needed to fly over a marquee where a party was being held to celebrate Liverpool's 800 birthday, which was also raising money for our merseyside hospices.This fell on stoney ground also. i was none too impressed that the COC had a clock in their reception area which indicated a countdown of days to i asked what was the countdown referring to................ i was sharply informed it was to 2008. I felt duty bound to remind this lady our 800 birthday was an event which should be given just as much prominence as COC.
On August 28th we celebrate our birthday, regeneration of our city is alive and well. Not wishing to down play it but COC is like a moveable feast, each year a different city. Let the Culture Co., not forget, without Liverpool itself there would be nothing to celebrate. Let these two events be symbiotic.
Community groups, individuals, we should all be made to feel as if our contribtions are welcome. that was certainly not the case for me.
So i have mixed feelings about Joe Anderson's resignation but I can agree that it is one heck of a gravy train!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some interesting points made above.

I agree that the Storey - Henshaw *****fight was a major distraction but unfortunately par for the course in a city where the local politicians prefer to fight each other rather than work together for the greater good of the city. In this context it's good to see Bradley and Anderson working together to ask the chancellor for a short-term loan.

I agree that it would have been preferable to have an independent body to run '2008' but I'm not aware that any other city of culture has done this. Probably because it's a lot harder to manage the logistics involved in mounting a year long festival than it might first seem.

I agree that if people have been spending money wrecklessly or self indulgently then they should be brought to account. I don't have a problem with people taking clients out for lunch or drinking bottled water rather than tap. That's how business is done these days.

At one level I agree that it seems like a good idea to involve the people mentioned above, on another level I recognise that just because someone is good at writing, singing, acting - whatever, it doesn't mean that they have the talents to work as part of a group to pull together a diverse cultural package.

I'm not sure what people when they mean when they say culture is 'elitist' or too middle class. How is it these things? IMO culture is universal. It transcends class.

I have heard a lot about community groups being left out. What is it that they want to do that they are being prevented from doing?

Bill Drummond recently challenged us in our year of culture to do something only we could do. Maybe all those people who feel they have been left out can get together and do it for themselves? Perhaps they can put on a display of talent that will outshine the official programme?

Now that would be seen as unexpected.

What's really vexing about this situation is the time and goodwill that's been wasted before arriving back in the same place. Here from March 26th:

ANGRY Liverpool MPs today claimed they were being left in the dark over an alleged £22m Capital of Culture shortfall.

They accused council leader Warren Bradley of being “unreasonable” by failing to tell them how the funding gap would be sorted out.

They said they would find it hard to push Liverpool’s case in Parliament if denied a proper briefing from director of finance Phil Halsall.

But Cllr Bradley said they were “playing politics” with Capital of Culture and that it would soon become clear how almost £22m towards 2008 celebrations would be found.

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/capitalofculture/news/tm_method=full%26objectid=18810515%26siteid=50061-name_page.html