Brown full of praise for culture year and soccer celebrities

GORDON BROWN last night addressed a packed meeting of Labour Party activists, business leaders and public sector figures at Liverpool’s Newz Bar.

Among the guests who chatted with the Prime Minister were Everton FC manager David Moyes and Liverpool FC talisman Jamie Carragher.

“I congratulated them both on having great seasons, and the fact that they will play against each other twice in the next few days will be huge sporting entertainment watched right throughout the country,” said Mr Brown.

“Whatever club you support, Jamie Carragher has done a huge amount of great voluntary work.

“And I know David does a huge amount of voluntary and charitable work as well.

“David used to play for a club very near where I lived, Dunfermline. I don’t know why they didn’t ask him to be manager.”

He said he was proud to be the first Prime Minister to bring the British Cabinet to Liverpool, and praised Phil Redmond and the team which had delivered a fantastic Culture Year.

Liverpool had shown the rest of the country how regeneration could be achieved through the private and public sectors working together, he said.

Mr Brown hailed Joe Anderson as “not just the leader of the Labour group in Liverpool, but I believe the next leader of the council”.

To laughs, he also jokingly thanked Newz Bar owner Paul Flanagan, pondering how long he would be allowed to stay in the normally celebrity packed venue.

Finally, he spoke of the motto which American President Harry Truman kept on his desk: “Always do right, it will appeal to your friends and astonish everybody else”.

Mr Brown said his motto was to keep doing right for people and that working together as Liverpool had would help see the nation through the global economic crisis.

Today, Cabinet ministers will fan out across the region on more than 20 official visits.

A public engagement will be held at the Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre followed by a meeting of the cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister.

Chancellor Alistair Darling will meet business leaders in Liverpool, while Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will meet a neighbourhood policing team in the city. Education Secretary Ed Balls will formally open the £24m Christ the King Learning Centre in Huyton, funded by Building Schools for the Future.

Defence Secretary John Hutton will visit Birkenhead’s Cammell Laird Ship yard.

Police said there will be restricted access to the Albert and Kings Docks from 6am today until 7pm. Motorists are urged to avoid the area.

The Echo Arena multi-storey car park will be closed until 7pm. The Arena ticket office, hotels and Albert Dock shops, business and restaurants will remain open.

FOR more gossip from last night’s reception at Newz Bar, visit David Bartlett’s blog at blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/