REGIONAL Secretary Alan Manning today demanded that the Government turn away from its austerity programme and invest in policies for growth and jobs.

Mr Manning, leader of the North West TUC which represents one million working people in the region,  was reacting to today’s 0.2 per cent growth figures for the UK – worse than had been feared.

He said:  “We are now on the edge of a double dip recession, with the economy flatlining, public services being dismantled and unemployment increasing. The message for Chancellor George Osborne is clear: ‘It’s hurting, but it’s not working.’

“We are now staring over a cliff into recession – the Government needs to pull back immediately. Our economy is deep in the doldrums and we desperately need policies for growth and jobs to get people back to work, paying taxes and spending money.

“These official figures are in stark contrast to the forecasts made by the Government 18 months ago when they set out on this disastrous road to recession with their austerity programme.

“At the time of the spending review, they said the economy would grow by 3.6 per cent – the reality is that the economy has been worsening ever since. In the last three months, there has also been a 0.9 per cent fall in manufacturing, with industrial production down by 1.2 per cent.

“With the budget due in March, we are now at real risk of a double dip recession – something the TUC has warned about for the last 18 months.

“It is time for the Government to turn away from austerity and take positive steps to stimulate our economy – with policies for jobs and growth, a tax on bankers’ bonuses and a Robin Hood tax so that working people do not pay the prices for a bankers’ recession.”

FOUR thousand jobs are being axed from the NHS on Merseyside, according to the Liverpool Post.

Amongst the people whose jobs will be going are nurses, midwives and health visitors.

850 jobs are set to go at Fazakerley Hospital by 2014, with Alder Hey losing 350.

The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen hospitals will also lose almost 450 jobs.

At least 236 nurses, midwives and health visitors working at hospitals and mental health trusts on Merseyside lost their jobs in the first six months of last year – but that number is now set to soar.

Srtaff are already complaining of shortages, which is affecting the care of patients.

Paul Summers, regional  organiser for Unison, told the Post: “These losses will have a really detrimental effect on the services for the public and the staff left behind.

“They will have to do more with less resources. People are really fearful for their jobs, morale has reached rock bottom.

“Whether its nurses, doctors, medical secretaries, we are losing a range of skills.”

Compulsory redundancies have not been ruled out as trusts bid to make  £20 billion cuts in the NHS.

On top of the Merseywide figures, North West jobs are also being cut, some of which will be in the Liverpool region.

Read More: Merseyside NHS staff cuts to see 4,001 jobs go by 2014

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MORE than 80,000 jobs will be axed from public services in the North West over the next five years.

That’s the shock finding of a TUC analysis of official figures produced by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) following the Autumn statement in November by Chancellor George Osborne, Conservative MP for Knutsford.

The massive job losses in our region come on top of the 30,000 jobs which have already been lost from public services here since the Coalition came to power in May 2010, according to surveys by the North West TUC and the general workers union, the GMB.

The latest analysis is based on official OBR figures, which have forecast that 710,000 jobs will be axed in public services across the country up to 2017, as a result of the Chancellor’s policies.

The TUC is providing a regional breakdown of that total for the first time, which shows that of the 710,000 jobs lost nationally, exactly 81,075 jobs will go from the North West – the worst hit region in Britain outside of London.

Greater Manchester will be worst hit, losing 30,000 jobs from public services. Merseyside will lose just over 20,000 jobs, Lancashire almost 20,000 jobs and Cheshire will lose almost 10,000 jobs from the public sector.

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CHILDREN in Liverpool are paying the price for the Coalition’s cuts in public services.

Twenty-four thousand children will be hit by the council’s plans to scrap school uniform grants  (£20 for primary and £40 for secondary children) to cut £738,000 from its spending.

Funding for the the city’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) will be slashed by £200,000, while the teenage pregnancy service will lose almost half its funding, with its £176,000 budget slashed to £76,000.

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A DEMONSTRATION is being held outside the Liverpool Royal on January 27th, against Andrew Lansley’s Health Bill.

Organisers say the Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, will have major effects on the future of healthcare in Liverpool.

An amendment, pushed through just before Christmas, will enable NHS Trusts to allocate up to 49% of bed space and theatre time, to private patients.

This will leave NHS patients waiting longer for a bed, or for surgery, while more private patients than ever before will be able to jump the queue.

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The city council has been forced to cancel the annual event – which drew tens of thousands of New Year revellers to Spinningfields – because they could not find a corporate sponsor to stump up the cash.

The firework display, which cost up to £20,000 to stage, is the latest victim of the Coalition’s public spending cuts.

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ALMOST 200,000 people in the North West will be spending Christmas on the dole this year.

And for more than 33,000 individuals and their families in our region it will be a second Christmas without work,  as cuts in public services add to the festive misery.

The number of long-term dole claimants over the Christmas period in the region has increased by 5,500 from 28,000 in 2010 to 33,645 in the last year – a 20 per cent increase, according to a new NW TUC analysis of official statistics published today (Wednesday).

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Blackburn’s strike witnessed the complete closure of leisure centres, the central library, Blackburn College and several other key local workplaces.

CWU members working for Capita at the Darwen TV licensing centre also joined the day of strike action.

The strike was a resounding success and the Trades Union Council co-ordinated march witnessed more than 2,000 trade unionists marching through the centre of Blackburn before an hour-long rally.

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TODAY’S strike by 300,000 public service workers in the North West was a resounding success according to TUC chiefs.

 Highlights included the 30,000 people who marched through the centre of Manchester and the 12,000 who marched through Liverpool.

 There were unprecedented scenes in both cities – and at other places in the North West – when shoppers stood three and four deep along parts of the routes and applauded the marchers.

 North West TUC Regional Secretary Alan Manning said: “It was heart warming to see the public show their strong support for pensions justice in the two big cities of the North West.

 “But we are also getting reports of the same response from the public at the other marches and demonstrations in our region. Motorists have been honking their car horns and many of the public were offering hot drinks to early morning pickets.

“It really encouraged many union members who were taking industrial action for the first time in their working lives.

 “The atmosphere at all 14 of the demonstrations in our region was extremely orderly, peaceful, enthusiastic – but very noisy.

 “People made their views known in no uncertain terms.

 “The strike has been a resounding success today, with solid support all over the North West and many of our unions reporting big increases in membership applications.

 “The government must now listen to the very real anger that public service workers feel about being picked on for cuts and pension increases.”

 Through the efforts of the 18 North West TUC-affiliated trade unions taking strike action in the North West, lunchtime demonstrations and rallies took place in Bury; Bolton; Blackburn; Blackpool; Chester; Crewe; Lancaster; Liverpool; Manchester; Oldham; Preston; Warrington; Wigan and Wirral.

 TUC chiefs estimated that 120,000 public service workers had joined the strike in Greater Manchester alone.

 Across the North West there were hundreds of early morning picket lines outside council offices and Town Halls, hospitals and major health centres, courts and job centres, tax and passport offices, schools and colleges.

 More than 90 per cent of the region’s schools were also closed, along with the Mersey tunnels. Emergency cover was maintained at every hospital in the North West.

 Mr Manning added: “Support for the strike understandably strengthened yesterday when George Osborne announced a measly 1 per cent pay increase for public sector workers over the next two years, on top of their existing two-year pay freeze. That came after he also announced the destruction of three quarter of a million jobs in public services.

 “Public service workers believe they are the victims of an ideologically-based attack, and that they are being singled out to pay the price for a recession which was caused by the bankers. On the evidence of today, the public agree.

 “The strike shows the real anger of public servants who are being told by the Government that their pensions must be cut and they must work longer and pay more for less.”

 In the North West, the strike culminated in “One Noise at One” when protesters made as much noise as possible at precisely 1pm, to draw attention to the Government’s unfair pension changes.

 The protests involve a wide range of public service workers, including council workers, teachers and lecturers, health workers, police and fire staff, school dinner ladies, social workers, driving test examiners, passport office staff, court staff and other civil servants.

 Unions involved in the North West include:  AEP; Aspect; ATL; CSP; FDA; GMB; Prospect; Napo; NUT; NASUWT; PCS; POA; SCP; SoR; UCATT; UCU; UNISON and Unite.