| "Harman's face was thunder. Boris was as agile as a cat. Pure box office but after four nit-picking hours, had a single mind been changed?" The Daily Mail's front page headline today, teeing up its columnist Sarah Vine, was a bit on the long side. And while Boris Johnson's supporters insist he emerged unscathed from his grilling by MPs like Harriet Harman over whether he lied to the Commons over Partygate, the consensus among commentators was that the former Prime Minister's hopes of a political comeback were damaged. The Liverpool Echo's Political Editor Liam Thorp wrote: "The committee session continued for several hours and the increasingly tetchy Mr Johnson kept claiming that the sky in fact was not blue, but we all know the truth. The sky is blue and this man is finished - and not before time." Thousands of people sent in their thoughts on the privileges committee hearing to campaign group 38 Degrees, including Carol Westall from Hexham in Northumberland who lost her brother to Covid aged 67. She said: "He died in a care home with progressive secondary MS. I lived four hours away by train. "Do you know what it was like for me, who ended up being the sole serving member of our families unit, being able to visit so infrequently, then at a safe distance? You were partying, I was grieving." John Hutchinson, from Newcastle, said: "Unless you consider us all fools how do you expect any of us to ever trust you ever again? You insulted the very people you were elected to protect. Please do the only honourable option available at this stage and withdraw from all future political activity." 
'Don't be a tosser' signs are demeaning, says councillor 
Since 2019, signs urging motorists "Don't be a tosser" have been placed in eye-catching positions around the country as part of a crackdown on people who throw litter from cars. But the slightly cheeky approach - developed by councils in partnership with the organisation Keep Britain Tidy - isn't to everyone's liking, as Local Democracy Reporter Chris Young writes. At a meeting of Bradford Council's Regeneration and Environment Committee, during an item on fly tipping in the district, independent councillor Noor Elahi told the meeting he was not a fan of the confrontational nature of the signs. He said: "I have a serious issue with some signs. There are ones that say 'Don't be a Tosser.' I find that a bit demeaning. Could you not look at this? When I was younger we had better signs that said things like 'Keep Britain Tidy." Stuart Russo, Senior Technical Officer, defended the approach and said litter louts would not likely pay any attention to "nice" signs, he argued. He added: "It is like we've seen with public health campaigns where you have quite graphic images around car crashes or people disfigured by accidents. It gets people's attention. "A nice poster saying 'please don't drop litter' is only going to appeal to people who are not the problem – it is not catching the attention of the people who are the problem. There was a lot of research prior to that campaign."
 A staged fly-tip at Poet's Park in Bootle
On Merseyside, a pile of rubbish was dumped in a park in Sefton yesterday to highlight the scourge of fly tipping in the borough. Piles of rubbish bags, bed frames, a washing machine and an old pram were among the items "dumped" at Poets Park in Bootle, surrounded by tape stating it was an "environmental crime scene." The "staged fly-tip" was a Sefton Council campaign in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy aimed at spreading the message about the consequences of people dumping waste in their community, including when this is done via a third party people have given their waste to.
Harrogate Tory takes aim at 'Gary Linekers of the world'  Gary Lineker arrives at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester for presenting duties last week
The Gary Lineker/asylum seekers row seems to have blown over for now but in Harrogate, the borough council's deputy leader Graham Swift still had a bee in his bonnet about it as the authority's Tory-run Cabinet accepted a £2m government grant to house Ukranian and Afghan refugees. In the North Yorkshire borough, the share of a wider £500m fund will go towards buying 19 homes for Ukrainians and just under £500,000 will help buy two larger four-bedroom homes for Afghan families currently in temporary accommodation. In Preston, £655,000 has been allocated for eight homes. As Harrogate Borough Council's Cabinet met for the final time before the authority is abolished and replaced next week, Cllr Swift said "amazingly good things" done by the government, such as the housing fund, are ignored by the media, writes Local Democracy Reporter Thomas Barrett. He said: "One of the frustrating things about being a councillor in Harrogate is the amazing good things that are done by the Conservative government. This is another example. Yet it's ignored by the Gary Linekers of the world, the BBCs of the world and media organisations in Harrogate who aspire to operate under the same principles as the BBC." This month Match of the Day host Lineker criticised the Government over its small boats policy and compared the language it has used to what was said during Nazi Germany in the 1930s. A major storm followed that saw the former England striker removed then reinstated as host.
School call out MP over false academy claim in flyer  Leigh MP James Grundy
It seems like an innocuous enough line in a Conservative Party flyer posted out through letterboxes in the Greater Manchester town of Leigh on behalf of local MP James Grundy. "With significant extra housing being built in our towns, it is great to be supporting the much needed expansion of Golborne High School to accommodate the increased intake numbers and their securing of Academy status alongside Winstanley College." But as it turns out, the local school isn't becoming an academy after all, after announcing plans to develop the idea last January before deciding not to proceed. And now a war of words has broken over who's to blame for the misleading flyer, as Paul Britton reports for the Manchester Evening News. The school issued a statement on its social media channels saying: "This is categorically untrue. James Grundy has not been in communication with this school in the last 12 months. Please ignore this factually incorrect information." Head Alison Gormally said later: "Unfortunately Mr Grundy's publication has caused confusion in the local community and the school had to take action immediately to ensure that parents and children felt confident in the information that we have provided." But the MP hit back, saying: "At no time did the school contact me to inform me that their plans had changed to not include academy status. I was also disappointed that the school took to social media to put out a post that implied my earlier statements were somehow fabricated."
Should House of Lords better represent the North? 
Should the House of Lords be more representative of English regions outside London and the South East? That's the view of Lord Grocott, who says the Home Counties in the South East have more peers than the east Midlands, the West Midlands, Wales, the North West and the North East combined. The Labour peer told Cabinet Office minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe in a Lords debate yesterday: "I would like to see a bit of levelling up. "Does the Minister agree that, at the very least, before any new list of peers is finalised in Downing Street, the House of Lords appointments commission should be consulted on how it will affect the present indefensible regional inequalities?" One suggestion from Tory peer Lord Bellingham was to retain hereditary peers sitting in the Lords because they are drawn from all parts of the UK. He said: "That well-known Lib Dem from the far north of Scotland, through Northern Ireland, Wales, East Anglia and Cornwall. That is surely an argument for why they should be maintained." The claimed regional contribution made by those with inherited titles comes against a backdrop of continuing moves to scrap the by-elections used to fill vacancies caused by the death, resignation or expulsion of hereditary peers, reports Nick Lester of Press Association. Lady Neville-Rolfe told peers that the House of Commons ensured every area was properly represented. She added: "By contrast, the House of Lords does not represent particular territories or constituencies… it draws on an array of expertise and talent right across the board and from many different sectors of society." 
Sign up to The Northern Agenda Has a friend forwarded you this edition of The Northern Agenda? You can sign up to receive the latest email newsletter direct to your inbox every weekday by clicking on this link.
Northern Stories  Sheffield's Covid-19 memorial
- Sheffield Council was today due to unveil the city's Covid-19 memorial sculpture, a permanent tribute to those who lost their lives and those on the frontline during the pandemic. The steel sculpture, based on a willow tree and designed by architect George King, will stand in Balm Green Gardens, near Barker's Pool. Mr King said: "When we thought about Covid and how the pandemic affected so many people, the willow tree idea was powerful to us. A willow has a strong trunk which symbolises how people worked together to create the strength that was needed at such a difficult time."
- Thousands of needy families are to benefit from the donation of 400,000 household essentials through a new Greater Manchester charity initiative supported by Amazon. Former prime minister Gordon Brown and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham helped launch the project, based at charity The Brick in Wigan, which will help 50,000 families. The project will be a community donations hub where Amazon and other companies can donate a range of surplus products through a network of charity groups and care professionals including teachers, midwives and social workers.
- Blackpool Council has been ordered to review its policies after it was found to be over-charging some residents for their care packages. The issue came to light when South Shore resident Mark Standing asked social services why his 93-year-old father was being charged even when carers had been cancelled with more than 24 hours notice. When his requests for a refund were refused, Mr Standing lodged a complaint in April 2022 to the Ombudsman who ruled in his favour.
- A Hull councillor deliberately poured rubble onto the floor during a passionate debate about antisocial behaviour. Orchard Park's Cllr Gary Wareing inspected gas works and claimed Roads Portfolio Holder Cllr Mark Ieronimo was responsible for a trench filled with hundreds of stones in the ward, which he described as an "ammunition bank" for criminals who target buses. Liberal Democrat Council Leader Cllr Mike Ross said "ammunition bank" claims were ridiculous and defended Cllr Ieronimo's right to crack down on antisocial behaviour, including in Orchard Park.
- Leaders in Oldham are to invest £1 million in a new pitch at Boundary Park Stadium that will serve both football and rugby teams and aims to 'level up' local sport. Oldham's cabinet voted in favour of a plan to award a grant towards a new high specification pitch at the stadium, the home of Oldham Athletic Football Club. The troubled football club was purchased last year by local businessman Frank Rothwell. It's now been revealed there is an agreement in principle between Oldham Athletic and Oldham Rugby League Football Club for the rugby league's side first team matches to be played at Boundary Park from the 2024 season onward.
- Liverpool Council is owed more than £7m in rent arrears despite receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds in the last 12 months. New information released ahead of the local authority's strategic development and housing committee has detailed how much the city has failed to recoup from its tenants. A report by Mark Bourgeois, interim strategic director for city development, said the amount owed to Liverpool Council for rent had dropped by £840,000 but the authority's coffers are still short to the tune of £7.1m.
Thank you for reading - If you have been forwarded this email and would like to sign up, you can do that right here. Contact us: You can get in touch via email - rob.parsons@reachplc.com - or via our Twitter page. | 
