Last night’s Cabinet meeting had to be moved to the Civic Hall due to the numbers of people attending.  It didn’t start well – microphones didn’t work and, with the exception of Steve Foulkes, the Cabinet didn’t introduce themselves to the audience.  Indeed only three of the 10 members spoke at all.  The rest just sat there and either glowered at the audience or avoided eye contact altogether.

As the Chief Executive spoke about service improvements, better facilities and saving cash you could feel the audience’s reaction.  It didn’t take long for some people to try and make their views known.  In spite of Cllr. Foulkes promising this was the start of consultation, it didn’t, it turned out, mean immediately. 

Nobody was allowed to speak – nobody from the user groups, nobody from Unison and not Cllr. Jeff Green, leader of the Conservative Group, which won the most votes and the most seats in May but was cut out of the Cabinet by the Lib dems propping up Labour, neither of whom has any mandate to govern. 

I spoke at length with many of the people present, and also spoke to Leah Fraser and Jeff Clarke, the prospective MPs for Wallasey and Wirral South.  Nobody, other than the Cabinet seem to want these cuts.