Patrick Hurley MP for Southport signed the Holocaust Educational Trust's Book of Commitment

80 years since Auschwitz was liberated, the world remember the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Also, on the:- 27 January 2025, the world remembered 

The day before, on:- 26 January 2025, the Labour MP for Southport, Patrick Hurley, signed the Holocaust Educational Trust's Book of Commitment ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, which marks the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and all victims of the Nazis. The world also remembered the victims of genocide in:- Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

Patrick said:- "I have signed the Holocaust Educational Trust's Book of Commitment, and attended the Sefton Holocaust Memorial Day service at Christ Church, in Southport. The Church held a simple event to reflect on the atrocities of the Holocaust, remember the victims and survivors, and reaffirm our commitment to combating hatred and prejudice in all its forms."

Lib Dems back plan for a Liverpool Arts Curriculum

LIVERPOOL'S Liberal have supported a motion calling for:- 'a culturally-rich Liverpool Curriculum' calling it:- 'vital for social mobility' and:- 'giving some of the poorest children in Liverpool opportunities they'd otherwise lost out on.' But they've also hit out on the Government's plans to pull certain subjects from the curriculum.

Deputy Lib Dem Leader and teacher, Cllr Liz Makinson said:- "I love seeing children and experiencing the arts and culture Liverpool has on offer; it's amazing. We also need to make sure that our kids have a full choice of options on offer and scrapping them mid year isn't fair on them at all."

What are your thoughts on this? Please do let us know.... Email our Newsroom at:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com or send us a message on:- Mastodon, Facebook, or Twitter.

LGA response to Public Accounts Committee report on Tackling Homelessness

RESPONDING to the Public Accounts Committee report on Tackling Homelessness, Cllr Adam Hug, Housing spokesperson for the LGA said:- "Homelessness is 1 of the biggest and most urgent pressures facing local Government. As this report highlights, as more and more people turn to their Council for support and Councils have little choice but to resort to costly temporary accommodation, local authorities are spending less on funding homelessness prevention. The temporary accommodation subsidy, currently stuck at 2011 levels, needs to be urgently addressed in the Spending Review as this is driving ever higher spend on temporary accommodation and limiting the resources available for homelessness prevention. Continuing to up-rate Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of local rents beyond 2025/26, will also help to ensure there is a sufficient supply of affordable properties available to those entitled to full support with their housing costs;- this is crucial to helping households to find and sustain tenancies in the private rented sector and prevent homelessness. There also needs to be a genuine cross-departmental approach to tackling this crisis, as part of a long term Government strategy, with Councils given the powers and resources needed to address the national shortage of affordable housing."

 "Save our Post Offices" say Liverpool Lib Dems

LIVERPOOL Lib Dems have backed further calls to protect Breck Road and Old Swan Post Offices from closure. They called it a vital community asset that needs protecting from a sudden closure.

They launched their petition to the Post Office Ltd days after the initial announcement months back. Their petition called on the Government to provide proper funding for Post Offices, and Post Office Ltd to find an alternative location for the Post Office before the current Post Office closes.

Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet member for Business, Cllr Rob McAllister-Bell, called for the Government to engage with the Post Office and intervene to keep the Crown Post Offices open. He said:- "These Post Offices are in some of our City's poorest communities. Lot of elderly people rely on the Post Office to pay their bills, do banking and fill out forms that they'd otherwise have to do online. Closing these branches would shut these people off. We can't have that happen, the Government needs to stop that from happening."

Everton Community Campaigner, Kevin Robinson-Hale said:- "It's great to see the Lib Dems coming out and supporting the campaign to keep Old Swan and Breck Road Post Offices open. They were out getting signatures outside the Post Offices the day after the announcement. It's nice to see the Labour Party catch with opposition and be on the right side of the argument for once, though if it was the Council that ran them, Labour would have it down overnight and not bother to tell the staff."