In my former workplace, the Labour Party, Jewish members like me were 40 times more likely than other members to be targeted for disciplinary action. I’m one of many Jewish people expelled retrospectively by Starmer’s Labour Party.

I joined the Green Party. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Let’s hear it for the organisers of today’s protest - Liverpool Friends of Palestine!

Today we are cross-community. Today we are all faiths and none. Today we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel and in Palestine.

Our compassion is not selective. Our first thoughts are with the innocent victims. Young people taken too soon, like Abdel Rahman and Yousef Abumousa, 7 and 5 years old, killed yesterday. Arbel Siman Tov and Yiftach Kutz, 6 and 14, killed two weeks ago.

Our first thoughts are with the hundreds of innocent victims of the violence in Israel and in Gaza.

People like Rasmi al-Sawarka, 45, Mariam al-Sawarka, 45, Mohammad, Muaz and Waseem who were 12, 7 and 13 and also of the al-Sawarka family. And Shani Louk, 23 and Nathanial Young, 20.

The Greens call for an immediate ceasefire, to end the violence in Israel and Palestine - and the political settlement that must begin with an end to illegal occupation. Israel claims to be a Jewish state. As a Jewish person, I say No. Not in my name does apartheid Israel kill innocent civilians, nor put its own citizens in danger.

We are here today to support the Clinical Support workers at Arrowe Park hospital. They provide vital services. They are defending our NHS. They’re just asking for fair pay, backdated to when it should be.

The Green Party support a fully funded, publicly provided NHS - providing health services from cradle to the grave.

Birkenhead has many of the same issues to other towns, cities and rural places across the country: Labour Party neglect; the Tories are completely discredited - and the Greens are the only credible, viable alternative.

We are promoting decent policies that address the climate breakdown that we are in. The planet is burning and we have to take urgent action on this.

We’re again calling on IpsoNews (Independent Press Standards Organisation) to investigate standards at the JewishChron (JC). The publication continues to publish inaccuracies and breach the Editors Code.

Cllr Jo Bird said, “Cleaners and kitchen staff in our schools are valuable parts of every school community. Their children also depend on the wages brought in by their parents who are working.

In the cost of living crisis, one of the really basic things we can do with Council owned companies, is to make sure that all workers are paid at least the real Living Wage. Uplifting to £10.90 per hour would be an increase of 50p per hour compared to job vacancies advertised by Edsential. I estimate this would cost the Council owned company £300,000 a year. The company’s accounts shows turnover of £18 million.

Our much loved Bromborough civic centre is being sold by Labour and Conservatives. Green councillors voted for community asset transfer.

We can count the value of property in pounds. But how do you count a young person learning to read, a family receiving food they need, and a warm hub for an elderly and lonely person? These things are very difficult to count. But they are part of what Councillors are elected to do.

This amendment is about democracy, fairness, power and honesty.

Over 80,000 people who live in Wirral voted for 66 local councillors in democratic elections just two weeks ago.

41% voted Labour – electing 30 councillors25% voted Conservative – electing 17 councillors22% voted Green – electing 13 councillors11% voted LibDem – electing 6 councillors here

We’re the newly elected Green councillors for Bromborough, Port Sunlight and New Ferry.

It’s an absolute honour and very humbling to be elected by our communities.

Thank you

Wirral Councillors Ruth Molyneux, Jo Bird and Kieran Murphy

Six years ago, the huge gas explosion was devastating for New Ferry and Port Sunlight.

78 people were made homeless and 81 people had injuries. Really luckily, nobody died.

28 businesses were forced to close and 7 closed permanently.

There’s been no compensation from the government.

As well as Pascal Blasio being found guilty, the gas company that supplied gas to the premises also pleaded guilty in court.

There has been hardship payments from Wirral Council to people who are directly affected. So there's been some justice for New Ferry.

As a Green councillor I work on a wide range of issues from fairer, greener solutions to the cost of living crises to health & safety on the streets. You can read all about it in Green View newsletters regularly delivered to all 7,200 households across Bromborough, Port Sunlight and New Ferry.

It’s a privilege to be one of 66 Councillors elected on the Wirral.

Democracy is a precious, fragile, freedom that undocumented refugees are dying for lack of. From Ukrainian people fleeing Putin’s army, to Palestinians enduring Israeli apartheid and Afghan people fleeing NATO bombs. Just like my Jewish great grandparents - they too seek safe, legal routes to sanctuary in this country.  

The headline for this year’s budget is that overall Council income gone up by £36m. An increase of 11% from last year’s [to £366.5m].

Both Adults Social Care and Policy & Resources have a net increase of £16m each, Children’s Services £5m, while the budget for Leisure, Environment and Regeneration, there is almost no change.

Total funding for Wirral Council has gone up from £330.6 million last year to £363.2 million for next financial year - an increase of £32.6 million.

So that’s a 10% increase to the Council’s funding in one year, which is about the rate of inflation. And yet we seem to be faced with these financial challenges.

It was quite a journey from Labour to Green. We all went mass trespassing over those years. We went up to the mountain top, and we saw that ‘Another World Is Possible’. No-one can take that away from us. But we were also devastated by the General Election defeat of 2019. We were betrayed by the Tories within the Labour Party. The Forde report and Al Jazeera’s Labour Files broadcast the evidence of that betrayal. They show what we on the left know to be true from our own experience.

During those years, in May 2021, I was re-elected with 61% of the vote as a local councillor. I was like “Oh sugar! What have I got myself into? What the heck am I going to do now?”. Because the Labour Party has turned into crap, particularly under Sir Keir Starmer.