And so we finally reach the grand finale of the Leaky Awards 2017 and taking our cue from the #TimesUp contingent at the Golden Globes we’ll be wearing black. The clock may been ticking down for us but may it also do the same on the abuse of power – wherever it takes place and in whatever form.
However we’ll spare you the dreary , self-righteous speeches – it’s on with the show and our first award of the evening…….
Campaign of the Year
Winner – Defend Our NHS (Wirral)
The local branch of the DONHS have throughout the year provided us with information about future plans for the NHS and particularly about Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP) that should concern us all , especially as Wirral Council are a key strategic player via the Clinical Commissioning Group.
Runner Up – Wirral Needs
If only for the chant ” Labour Council listen to the people”. Our advice to them after 7 years of banging our head against a brick wall is that they won’t so you’ll have to make them ! The only way they will be forced to listen is at your local constituency party meetings and in the run up to the local elections this May. After that it’ll be the same old,same old – personal interest and political ambition taking precedence over the public interest. Don’t say we didn’t tell you!
Campaign Fail of the Year
Winner – Wirral Labour ‘Keep Wirral Green’ campaign
How Wirral Labour reconciled this campaign with proposals and developments for assaults on the Green Belt at Saughall Massie, Hoylake and Thornton Hough etc; we can only hazard a guess but full marks for the sheer PR chutzpah .
Runner up – Frank Field/Wirral Globe nurses car parking charges at Arrowe Park Hospital (aka Wirral University Teaching Hospital – WUTH )
Whilst it was undoubtedly a worthy campaign we noted how WUTH CEO David Allison received the petition from Field, gave some bland assurances and then promptly disappeared in a cloud of controversy.We suspect that any incoming CEO will have their work cut-out just keeping WUTH afloat and car parking charges won’t be a priority . Meanwhile we note that Field is strangely silent about more wide reaching proposals for car parking charges across Wirral that are set to be introduced by Wirral Council. And once again we have to ask is this the only income generation scheme that Wirral Council can come up with and is it even legal?
David Allison : Yeah whatevs Frank I don’t need this right now. But love your tank top .
Comeback of the Year
Winner Esther McVey, MP for Tatton
Back from the dead
The former MP for Wirral West returns to high office as Work and Pensions Secretary in this week’s Cabinet reshuffle . Somehow this cat on a hot tin roof always manages to land on her kitten heels . And for all her talk of female empowerment we think that McVey is the quintessential beneficiary of modern day political nepotism , where ambition exceeds talent . The only contribution of note to the local political scene when she was a Wirral West MP was when she hijacked the Martin Morton whistleblowing case for personal and political advantage at Prime Minister’s Questions (apparently Morton knew nothing about it) . What happened after she raised the issue with David Cameron is a particularly worrying episode but alas we won’t be able to do it justice here. Perhaps one day the full shameful tale will be told.
Runner Up Stewart Halliday – the economic migrant/consultant from York who crossed the Pennines escaping infamy to make his fortune on Wirral with his two consultancy stints earning him circa £200K. So will Wirral Council kindly tell us whether he’s still around and what exactly we got for our money?
This man can do a powerpoint presentation and bullshit at the same time ! Therefore Wirral Council must give him as much money as they can.
Comrades of the Year – Cllr Louise Reecejones (LRJ) and Cllr Steve Foulkes (Foulkesy)
Were LRJ and Foulkesy separated at birth? Whilst they share so many characteristics none of them can be found in the Nolan Principles! See for yourself :
LRJ Standards Panel investigation report : The Panel found the evidence of Cllr Louise Reecejones to be inconsistent,vague and misleading. The Panel did not therefore find Cllr Reecejones to be credible.
Foulkesy Standards Panel investigation report : I found it difficult to get Cllr Foulkes to be precise or detailed . His responses were vague,inclined to be evasive and I found them ‘economical with the truth ‘ and unconvincing.
Yes, just the kind of low lifes we want making decisions about our lives,eh?
Accessories of the Year –
Winner – Paula Basnett ,CEO Wirral Chamber of Commerce for those shoes.
These understated little numbers were considered suitable daywear to shortlist nominees for yet another awards ceremony and did not in anyway reinforce our perception that Ms Basnett and her organisation are all about flash presentation and very little else.
Runner up All Wirral councillors wielding ‘Show Racism the Red Card’placards as a virtue signalling accessory. But especially the local Labour group who tolerate racists in their midst. But can anyone spot Deputy Leader Cllr George Davies in the picture?
Best Picture of Unwanted Copies of Wirral View
Winner
Runner Up
Whilst appropriately enough both pictures position copies of woeful Wirral View next to their final destination – a bin – we’d like to think the winner of this category contributed to the dumping (no pun intended) of the original Liverpool -based distributor of Wirral View. Unfortunately a £750,000 3 year print deal with Trinity Mirror means we’re burdened with this lumbering white elephant for the forseeable future. Compare and contrast with Wirral Leaks which has cost council taxpayers of Wirral £0 and we would argue has been more effective in addressing the ‘information deficit’ of local people, particularly when we’ve been providing information that Wirral Council don’t want you to know about!
Wirral’s annual entry in Rotten Boroughs Awards 2017
Winner Ex- Wirral councillor Jim Crabtree
Included in Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs 2017 ‘Quotes of the Year’ is this fine example of ‘doublespeak’ from former Wirral Councillor Jim ‘Crabby’ Crabtree. It’s a year to the day that Crabtree pleading guilty to offences under the Communications Act 2003 and it’s frightening to think that his well deserved fall from grace might never have happened if his increasingly appalling conduct hadn’t been reported on Wirral Leaks. As a quote from one of our Labour sources testifies when they raised concerns about Crabtree’s fitness to be a councillor – “The comment from George Davies was ‘better the devil you know’ while Frank (Field) thinks he’s the best thing since sliced bread” – the local Labour group were reluctant to rein him in . Furthermore we understand that they failed to address allegations made by a whistleblower about grant monies which Crabtree allegedly should have paid back to Wirral Council.
Wirralleaks 
😉
Alleged racist, Frank Field’s agent, deputy council leader and scourge of antisocial people George Davies was sulking further down the stairs My Lord……….
https://twitter.com/Wirral_In_It/status/930197019779567616
How I wish I’d been young enough to be in the same Class as Stuart. I’m not a nasty unpleasant sort likely to beat you senseless with a wooden club for no good reason but I’d have liked to have bullied him as a child.
It’s the face isn’t it! It’s the sort of face you just know would sit at the front of the Class and be constantly sticking his hand up because he and only he knew the answer to the question posed by the History Master who’s intent, other than to teach you critical historical dates and causation factors of global bloody conflict, was to pull your pants down and buggar you during an unfortunately ill timed Milk Break during the Harvest bloody Festival.
The clever arse licking barstard! The sort of pupil who’d fuckng report you straight away to the examination invigilator during a Latin examination claiming, ‘Fortyseven is copying again Sir’. The oily little runt of the litter.!
Oh I don’t like his face! I don’t like it one bit and even though the photographic image does not depict anything beneath the scrawny neck, namely the abdomen, it’s arms and it’s legs, I can honestly say I don’t like those bodily parts either. Even though I haven’t seen these parts of Stuart, and it’s unlikely I ever will unless he tips up here demanding I borrow him a jug of milk, a few cubes of sugar and some hot water to dip his tea bag in, thus giving me an open minded opportunity to carefully look at his wholesome creepingly Huriah Heap body and display a measure of reasonable sane and balanced fairness, I say I don’t like any of him and that’s saying something if anything I ever utter is worth a jot of notice.
Not 40 mins
Three hours
CLEARLY MY PRIOR POST GOT LOST IN ETHER
I had a guest who has worked on contract for WBC for some months.
With out prompting she or he proceeded to tell me how totally messed up the WBC was. Now personal contact sharpens the interest. I confess the Leaks has reported often about the proliferation of highly paid consultants at WBC but I paid little heed. Now to me personally the tale was being told. £100k a year for a job whose upper salary was £46k. Persons above getting £500 per day.
Musical chairs as one temp left for a other to have to be shown the ropes. These temps costing £80 to £150k per year.
The most improved council.. Me arse.
Paid super direc tors to turn it around.. Result chaos.
And the council tax I paid earlier that day would not buy 3 hours of my guests time.
Might as well open all windows at Brighton St and turn the heating on full blast in January
My Lord, in a previous post/comment the Aussie asked should he take Wirral Council to court… for failure to follow it’s own whistleblower guidelines..
If that is an option…. double yes.
In the meantime I hope he continues to spue all over Wallasey Town Hall. (And not to forget his big (Giant) gig in October…
Wirral Council policies and procedures are there to protect Wirral Council.
What James needs to do is :
a) Be politically useful for Frank Field
b) Make a covert recording of a Labour councillor being racist and offering a financial inducement to produce a document which might smear a political opponent (James can write the document himself.)
c) Let all and sundry listen to the recording (and particularly the local press) and use recording as leverage for ‘compo’
d) Get Field to get a mate to write a shoddy report trying to justify ‘compo’
e) er,that’s it.
G’day “Interested” and The Great Leaks
Thanks for your comments.
Ecca
I wanted to report £2,000,000.00 knock off.
Your shower of shit spent about £250,000.00 defending being impotent and let the baddies get away to Portugal.
Should the wirral taxpayer now pay ……what £6-10,000.00 defending themselves in court to achieve absolutely fuck all.
Smell the coffee.
Or are you one of the “its not our money anyway” brigade you Blinking CEO?
Ooroo
James
For clever highly paid people you are completely amoral and fucking stupid.
Or…..are you?
Luv you boys XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
You’re very wrong James. These people you speak of are not clever at all. They are far from being able to claim they are clever. In fact, they are all of under average intelligence who, through dress, presentation and a false inner belief by us the people that they must be clever, all helps to secrete the false myth that they are clever and makes you and others believe that they must be clever people when in fact they are not.
They are not clever my dear good friend. They’re simply a group of dull people who’ve found sanctuary on the public service gravy train.It’s all a matter of social engineering and their ability to present themselves in a particular way. Seat a Razorback Suckling Sow around the table, drape a bloody lanyard round it’s neck and coach it to grunt in an audible way that might sound a little like the word ‘passionate’ and you’d understandably think, ‘clever fucking pig’.
Course, a clever Swine, even one wearing a Lanyard can be slaughtered and eaten, whereas these Swine cannot. Not yet anyway. The sooner the Law changes the better if my view is worth a moments consideration.
Happy New Year lad. Rob.
G’dy My Darling Bobster
I thought I was wrong once but I made a mistake.
Ooroo
James
Luv you and your work Bobbly XXXXXXXXXXXXXXx
Another brilliant piece and some very cogent comments.
Re: Your runner up award to Happy Halliday.
I currently have an F.of I. request in to Wirral Council asking if this York City Council reject, who doubled his income by crossing the Pennines, has yet left the Wirral and what was the total cost of his stay.
They have five more days to respond.
I may get an answer to the first request but the second will undoubtedly be refused on the grounds of “contract confidentiality.”
Yuppie Halliday is still the driving force of the latest changes within the council without his passion; commitment and enthusiasm then Wirral would be still decomposing. Let’s agree that Yuppie Halliday seems to be taking the steps to change Wirral for the better only time will tell.
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