Esther McVey

Over 100 people came out to help over the weekend. Helping work with community groups, residents, doing litter picks and leafletting. Above Cllr John Hale and Eddie Boult - meeting with library users Sat morning outside Hoylake library.

This morning Cllrs Gerry Ellis,  John Hale, Jeff Green, David Elderton, Geoffrey Watt and prospective councillor for Hoylake Eddie Boult and I were out meeting with local residents. It was an early start especially for David Elderton, who got to West Kirby train station a good 20 mins before the rest of us, but we caught him finishing off a full English breakfast and mug of tea!

We’ll be back in West Kirby on Banks Road, Hoylake outside the library and Meols by the station tomorrow morning from 10.30 if anyone would like to come and meet us.

David Cameron with all 4 Parliamentary candidates for Wirral: Andrew Gilbert, Jeff Clarke, me and Leah Fraser

David Cameron visited Wirral for a meeting with Port Operators held at Birkenhead Docks.

David Cameron, announced that he is backing the campaign to address the financial crisis at UK Ports, which was caused by the failures in the Government’s Valuation Office Agency and which has left hundreds of businesses at the UK’s 55 statutory ports facing insolvency.

It is important to see David Cameron in Wirral listening to the concerns of the Port Operators of Merseyside. 6,000 people in Merseyside rely on the shipping industry for employment and David’s campaign for a fair deal for the industry can only help strengthen these jobs.

A proposal to develop missing child alert mechanisms across Europe, sponsored by Conservative Vice-President of the European Parliament Edward-McMillan-Scott and supported by Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of Madeleine, missing since May 3 2007, has received a million Euros (GBP 900,000) of funding from the European Commission.

McMillan-Scott launched a cross-party sponsored Written Declaration at a press conference with the McCanns in Brussels last April. It called on the EU to improve cooperation on missing children, particularly by setting up a missing child alert system which would immediately forward relevant details such as a photo to all news media, border authorities and law enforcement agencies. The child alert would be modeled on the ‘Amber Alert’ system in the USA which has caused over 400 children to be recovered.

The Written Declaration received 413 MEP signatures by September 2008. As over half the MEPs signed, the declaration therefore became a formal resolution of the whole parliament.

The Commission has put a pilot project out to tender. It is seeking proposals for child alert mechanisms and to improve cooperation between EU member states. Although the total budget is €1 million, it will be used for between four and ten projects aimed at improving child abduction procedures.

Mr McMillan-Scott said:

“When a child goes missing, the first 72 hours are crucial. Currently European countries fail to cooperate effectively when recovering missing children.

“We need a system in place that will transmit the picture and details of an abducted child into every conceivable place. Experience of those countries that have alert systems in place, such as the USA, is extremely positive. 

“The response from MEPs to our Written Declaration was phenomenal. We sent a strong signal to the European Commission that we need action and to their credit the Commission has responded.

“We need some technical solutions to this tragic problem. Kate and Gerry McCann have been fantastic in supporting this initiative which will hopefully stop other parents from going through their heart-breaking ordeal.”

David Cameron wrote:

Last Wednesday was Budget Day. The borrowing figures got the headlines – and rightly so. We’re in a new age of austerity yet this Government is trapped in the old age of irresponsibility. Sitting there in the House of Commons listening to the Chancellor tell us he was planning to borrow more in the next two years than all previous governments combined left me open-mouthed. I used to say this Government seems intent on saddling future generations with debt. I was wrong. After this week, they’re going to crush them.

But, as ever, the real story of Labour’s Budgets comes after the Chancellor sits down and you get to unpack truth from fiction. And this year, there was more fiction than normal. Within an hour the IMF had rubbished his growth forecasts, suggesting Labour’s Debt Crisis will be even worse. Then their claim that only the rich would carry the burden of their mistakes was dismissed – their tax rises will hit the many, not the few, with everyone earning over £20,000 worse off. And by Thursday it became clear that there’s an even bigger black hole in their figures – which will be plugged by guess who? Yes, all of us – in even higher taxes. This Budget can be summed up in one word: dishonest.