Would-be mayors face a cultural grilling

“given that the tories and lib dems came up with this competition, it would be useful if they could enter some contestants. the longer they leave it, the worse the smell of party politics will become. this is because by not entering it makes them look like self-motivated individuals, rather than people who are brave enough to do a job for the city. you know that if they had a sniff of winning there would be candidates queueing up for the ticket.
if party politics deserves the power it holds then the parties need to enter the difficult elections with as much relish as the shoe-ins.”

“I'm surprised that prospective Mayoral candidate George Ferguson has not mention he is a member of the Society of Merchant Venturers. Doesn't he think that mentioning membership of the 'Bristol establishment' would help him.After all, this is a charity that looks after the young and the old. Come on George, don'tbe shy.”

“@DownByLaw

The totally inept council has had more impact on the BCFC fiasco than one man speaking up against the largest (and completely unnecessary) Sainsburys in the south west at a few meetings.”

“@Mikey_Blake, I'm glad you are not going to influence by directing us to Ferguson's campaign facebook page! Can you tell us whether Mr Ferguson is still standing in the way of the BCFC development which is said will bring much-needed economic benefit to South Bristol?”

“Hospitals could force pay cuts on NHS staff
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Monday, July 16, 2012
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DOCTORS and nurses in Bristol could be sacked unless they agree to drastic changes to their pay and conditions as hospitals tackle a funding crisis, it has been claimed.

A leaked document published in a national newspaper yesterday outlined measures from 19 NHS bosses to maintain patient services in the face of multi-million pound budget cuts.

Among proposals are the termination of all staff contracts and a reissue on different terms that could include pay cuts of up to five per cent for staff earning more than £21,000 per year, an end to overtime for nights, weekends and bank holidays, reduced holiday leave, cuts in sick pay rates and longer shifts.

The 19 NHS hospital trusts, including North Bristol, United hospitals Bristol and Weston General, have formed a group called the South West NHS Pay Consortium to make cuts outside of national negotiations currently under way.

Unions say the organisation is a cartel designed to force down staff pay and conditions and will also harm patient care.”

“I'm not going to try to influence anyone either way, but if you are a supporter of George Ferguson, please CLICK ON - https://http://tinyurl.com/d5rn59c”

“It's organised by arts & culture group to talk about arts & culture policy, why would they talk about anything else? Surely it should be a business group that organise something similar to talk about economic policies.”

“Seems a nice guy.

Perhaps his day will come.

Just a bit inexperienced right now and surely Jon Rogers, Simon Cook and George Ferguson are more heavy weight contenders.

Pity Gary Hopkins is not standing.

In the absence of a Conservative candidate and a rookie Labour contender, it is surely in the interest of the City to vote for on of the above,”

“Lightweight puppet”

“Barbara Janke would have been good too, and maybe Gary Hopkins.

Two big hitters.”