Sitting in the shadow of Liverpool – here’s Wirral Council’s chief this week in Cannes.That’s him – the one in the blue shirt on the bottom right. Surely you didn’t think we meant that useless sack of potatoes top left?
It’s been the week of the Wirral hard sell.
The figure £1 billion has been bandied about about how much investment is heading to Wirral (or rather ,Birkenhead ,which is being branded ‘the capital of Wirral’) with slavish Liverpool Echo screaming headlines ‘£1 BILLION VISION FOR WIRRAL’
Wirral’s ‘leaders’ touting their tawdry wares in the South of France and Downing Street and according to the newly launched ‘Wirral. Well made.’ ( who thought that branding was a good idea?) aspiring that Wirral become the ‘Brooklyn of the North West’ – is that to Liverpool’s Manhattan?- with the dullest promotional launch ever. This would appear to be the brainchild of Sally Shah who apparently is ‘Lead Commissioner: Place and Investment’ – so yes, yet another highly paid public asset stripper on the Wirral Council payroll.
And then we have the Peel Holdings (up) gegging in with its ‘university of the sea’ plans for Wirral Waters with hundreds of jobs and sunshine,lollipops and rainbows for everyone!- again accompanied with the obligatory artist’s impression and yet more Echo headlines
And it doesn’t end there here comes the ‘asset transformation strategy’ and the formation of the Wirral Growth Company.
The hard sell meets the big sell off.
Wirralleaks 
I have to hold my hand up and say that one of the 13 views the slick video on the wirralwellmade.com website was mine, so don’t get too excited WBC. I think most of your views are from Wirralleaks patrons, not investors! Its also a shame that the website isn’t well made.
Regarding the ‘Description’ bit of this Wirral Growth Company, I can’t understand a word of it. It’s to complicated for me to grasp and understand. It’s far to difficult for the human brain, which is what I’m equipped with, to process and comprehend.
What is ‘soft market testing’? There must be a good reason in incorporating the word soft. It’s gotta have some particular purpose to its inclusion. They could have left the soft bit out. They could have used the words exact opposite meaning and written ‘hard’ but they didn’t. Instead they’ve gone for soft. God only knows what this means.
And property vehicle! Someone says ‘vehicle’ to me and I think, ‘mechanically propelled conveyance’. A carriage to convey me, you, us and if it’s possible, our properties that they wish to dispose of and transport the load from one place to another. I can’t understand it!
Happily, I do understand the word transformation, that, in the context of public service language generally means, the taking away of something of value, passing it over and to a place beyond public control, thus transforming it from something good and of value into something not so good and rendered worthless to the people. That I understand!
Bi-lingual Bobby – speaks English, understands public service language.
And they all, every single miserable one of them are adorned with their special, sets them apart, ‘we are very different to you’, for we are the elite who rule over you and guide your daily lives, wear with great pride and sickening glory their bloody Lanyards!
How I’d like to take both ends of those brightly covered pieces of ribbon, pull each end tighter than ’twas safe to do so and throttle their last gasps of air from their lungs, drag their lifeless bodies outside, call the Constable and say, ‘I fucking did it’.
It’s pretentious business jargon used to mask the real meaning. I thought it went out in the 80s. “Soft” market testing… they are going to procrastinate about it, pay someone huge amounts to have a think about it, ask a few people “if we did X, would you buy it?” but no sales will be generated. That would be “hard”. It is right up their street. Deliver nothing but a load of hot air.
The “We Make History” video on the http://www.wirralwellmade.com website is also up on Youtube, where interested parties are free to place their comments, which I just did.
I’ve gone for the option of warning potential investors that they need to think before acting / spending, because I’m the sort of person who likes to help others, and doesn’t like to see foreseeable and avoidable suffering, especially when the “hub of deceit” it is not half a mile from where I’m sitting typing this.
And that means even if the potential losses are occasioned to those with a LOT more money than sense. This is because generally, I want to make the world a better place to live in and don’t like to see injustice carried out that ends up with even greater torrents of cash flowing towards overpaid shysters on six figure salaries, who may benefit still further via deceptive, glossy and elaborate displays of dishonesty. Speaking of which…
And I’m not ‘talking Wirral down’, just certain officials, often occupants of other boroughs, who merely work here, and visit only to hack at the body, pick at the carcass then fly off home to reside in a distant position of comfort and safety, digesting their sustenance, away from the rest of us.
Forgot to say, Worcestershire County Council use all these terms on their website (for example http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/site/scripts/google_results.php?q=%22soft+market+testing%22 and http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/site/scripts/google_results.php?q=property+vehicle). Just saying…
Sally Shah! Now there’s a blast from the past! She’s been involved in the Council for 15 years or so. She is a bit of a social butterfly. Popping up all over the Council. Usually with some obscure management title. She has been in Regeneration, Corporate Services and Social Services and is seen by senior management as a “safe pair of hands”. This is Council speak for “on side”! Personally, after seeing her close up, I wouldn’t trust her one jot!