Hazel Blears is one of my least favourite people; she annoys me intensely - she is a bustling busy-body and gets up my nose like no-one else in government... She is also my local MP.
A while ago, however, she said something that, for once, I agreed with. She protested (and I want to say that I am against protesting because all it does it get people's backs up...), let's say instead that she stood up for the maternity unit at Salford Royal hospital which has been closed and tranferred in the interests of centralisation.
Anyone you speak to will tell you that this is a stupid idea because essentially centralising resources means that putting these units in the centres of places - so if I go into labour at 7.50 on a Monday morning, I have to join the locals on the tram as I commute into the centre of town at rush hour - that or get an ambulance to take me, an ambulance which can't be used to treat someone who is really ill.
So that was one thing I agreed with Hazel Blears about. Yesterday there was another thing...
She remarked on the phenomenon of a mere 26 jobs at BBC's MediaCity in Salford going to local people - 26 out of 680. Ouch. The rest of the statistics are even more depressing - 23,000 from Greater Manchester applied for jobs, 246 got positions, and 26 specifically from Salford.
In her little outbust, Ms Blears mentions a local Morrisons store which has taken the majority of its workforce fromt he local area. The BBC has declined to do this. That said there are plenty of schemes for those studying at local institutions. To name but one there are 100 apprentice places being launched for those from the local area. One catch - you have to have few or no qualifications. That's me out. Ok, let's look at another. BBC Writersroom has a Future Talent Award for New Writers. Hooray! That's me! It's for people in the North too! Whoop whoop! Oh no wait, I've just read... you have to have been/be at one of the partner institutions... Loads of universities, some colleges, wait, none of mine are in there.
This is getting ridiculous, I've lived in Manchester for the majority of my life. I've been state educated and I'm one of their success stories, yet I still can't get in at MediaCity. So for the second time in my life, I agree with Hazel Blears, though I don't know whether I'm the kind of person she has in mind when she thinks about getting local people jobs.
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