Dozens of people from across the community and of various political persuasions descended on a Blackburn sports centre car park at the weekend to pick up batches of Hope Not Hate material to distribute in their neighbourhoods. The newspaper-style publication aims to get out the anti-BNP vote and was produced in conjunction with the Daily Mirror.

Here is an excerpt from Nick Lowles' blog on the Hope Not Hate website:

The HOPE not hate campaign really kicked into gear this weekend with over 150,000 leaflets and newspapers being distributed around the country. Setting the pace was Blackburn with Darwen, where over 80 people distributed 20,000 newspapers, with a lot more being taken away to deliver over the next week.

Some of our Labour activists were out delivering in, among other locales, Beardwood yesterday (pictured). Unfortunately, Conservative peer Norman Tebbit was spending the day confounding our efforts to prevent Nick Griffin becoming an MEP representing the North West in Europe:

The Noble Lord suggested that voters should punish the big parties by voting for one of the smaller ones. When pressed by Nick Robinson as to whether he meant UKIP, Tebbit responded:

They can vote for one of the other parties or they can sit on their hands ... They might vote for the Christian Alliance, they might vote Green and if they're our of their minds they might vote socialist and go for the BNP.

Needling the left with horseshoe theory aside, his qualification that voters would need to be "out of their minds" to vote BNP rings hollow. Tebbit knows full well that his outbursts may be used by some people to rationalise support for the BNP in June.

How can a leader tolerate prominent party figures suggesting that people should support their opposition in the full knowledge that this might take the form of a vote for neo-fascists?

What will it take for Cameron to take on lunatic right-wingers like Tebbit?

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Is it just me or have the coalition of Tories, Liberals and Misfits really lost it this time?

As we face a recession here in Blackburn and Darwen that is definitely not of our making it doesn't need a rocket scientist to know what the Council should be doing to protect local people and the local economy.

Preserving jobs and services means just that, so it comes as a surprise when we learn that the Coalition can't even do that. Recent reports show they have taken incompetence to another level by have overseeing a major under-spend of the Council's budgets over the last year totalling nearly £20 million.- this, at a time when the towns and local businesses need these resources bad over the last yearly.

But surprise, surprise the incompetence and stupidity doesn't end there.

All around the two towns there are communities where pre 1919 houses need to be upgraded and modernising. The Government through the Elevate programme has provided millions of pounds in East Lancashire to enable local Councils like BWD to do this and the last Labour administration moved ahead with schemes around the towns.

As the Housing Market is in crisis and new properties lie vacant the last thing we need at present are new buildings. Incredibly, the Coalition has authorised a seven figure sum to be diverted from the Elevate programme to buy up land for new houses that definitely are not needed at the moment. This will tie up these valuable resources for years to come.

But as they say, "that's not all, folks"! In order to keep senior officers on board and dancing to their tune the Coalition has just spent thousands of pounds building a modern fitted kitchen and bathroom at the Town Hall for the exclusive use of the Chief Executive and corporate Directors.

Wonder if I'll get a cup of tea next time I'm in for a meeting?

Watch this space!

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Remember the good old times? It wasn't so very long ago!

A line of a famous song, though I can't remember which - but do you remember when thousands of people from across Blackburn and Darwen used to meet in the park during the summer, listened to music, enjoyed the atmosphere and had a really good time?

Families came together, the old and the young celebrated. Friends met up, sometimes the first time in years with picnics, blankets for the ground and waited for the grand finale, a top band, the classical concert and the fireworks.

I sat watching my mother in a wheelchair with a huge smile on her face, my daughters laughing, my 11 month old granddaughter getting really excited waving her flag, my partner singing way too loud and off key, and thousands of people really enjoying themselves. These events put Blackburn on the map, people travelled for miles to have a wonderful concert in a wonderful park and remarkably it was all free.

Along with many others I have very happy memories of those times, everyone you talk to has a story to tell of their favourite event, who was their favourite act and who they met up with. The story always finishes with "do you remember when" Rolf Harris, The Lightning Seeds, The Proclaimers, or Liberty X sang, the list goes on, but everyone has happy memories.

Those memories are fast becoming faint as time passes. When the Coalition stopped the very successful Arts in the Parks and the Mela, Labour quite rightly pointed out it was a budget cutting exercise and a kill joy move by politicians who were out of touch with what the majority of people in the two towns enjoyed. Tory Michael Law Riding who made the decision to cut the events (and who is standing to be Blackburn's MP) claimed that new events held in the Town Centre would get bigger and better and gave a commitment not to cut the budget.

The events became the non events very quickly and were poorly attended. And surprise surprise the budget was nearly slashed in half from £ 250k. By way of comparison, have a look at these photos or this video to see how busy and vibrant Arts in the Park was.

More recently at a Council Meeting, the same Michael Law-Riding announced further cuts of 30% in the events budget. He said "false promises made in an election year are one thing but down right hypocrisy is another and hopefully will be fully rewarded when eventually the ballot box has to be faced". That's one promise not even the Tories and their coalition henchmen can avoid.

Photo credit: The Tim

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From today's article in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph it appears that the local Liberal Democrats are concerned that any future national Conservative Government would slash public funding. This is typical Lib Dems: saying one thing one week and something totally different the next.

Last week deputy council leader David Foster and his Liberal colleagues voted with their Tory coalition friends to support £7 million of cuts in Blackburn with Darwen. This includes cuts to childrens services, highways, leisure centres and front line staff.

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