Wirral Leaks Weekly Dispatch #18

PARK AND SNIDE

We’ve been sent this picture (or a triptych as one of our clever contributors called it) . It came with a cross -eyed witness report which read :

There is a lot of dancing around a pole at Derby  Pool car park today…people attempting to read this notice. You have to take up 3 different positions to read it….  it’s all a bit Birkenhead lap dancing club….

Surely not legal?

Meanwhile one of many Wirral Leaks readers sent us the Wirral Council weblink to their new car parking charges proposals. One reader wrote :

I’m sure you’ve been inundated with this but if not read the full details.

https://www.wirral.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/parking/proposed-new-parking-charges

One major flaw is they plan to charge £20 after 10pm. How is that going to sit with people out for a drink,at the cinema or at the pavilion.

Regards

Yes I’m sure you’ll agree it’s all very snidey from Wirral Council. No change there then – although unfortunately it’ll be you who not only needs the loose change but a couple of tenners!

THE LOWDOWN ON HIGHBROW 

For those of you who want to catch up on the latest court news and specifically the Nigel Hobro case held this week  in Birkenhead County Court can we direct you to another full eyewitness report here

The interesting aspect for us was the ruling that the case was statute barred meaning that Hobro had run out of time to bring a claim for compensation. That would surely also be the case for the Wirralgate complainants but fortunately for them they’ve got an incriminating recording and bent Birkenhead MP Frank Field in their corner to ‘demand’ a bespoke investigation by good friend Nick Warren.We’ll have to wait and see how that case pans out but we’d love to see how it would stand  up in a court of law. The answer being that of course that it wouldn’t.

THE GREEN TIDE IS RISING

Talking of a desperate and clearly rattled MP witnessing his vice-like grip – and boy do we mean vice – on his God-given constituency begin to loosen . Once again  many readers (and interestingly enough Labourites or should that be Labour-Rights?) have sent us the personal email sent by Frankenfield to the party faithful and his insightful analysis of the recent local elections

Hello Wirral Leaks,

Below is a excerpt from a Frank Field Labour email talking about their local election campaign in Birkenhead. Frank can’t seem to fathom that other parties giving people something to vote for means that Labour can’t take the electorate for granted (something he clearly has done for his whole parliamentary career). As for the phrase ‘Herculean effort’, and looking at the amount of resources Labour poured into it, surely a more apt description of the election in Birkenhead and Tranmere would be David versus Goliath?

Local elections

Frank comments, ‘I was really pleased to campaign with each of Labour’s terrific candidates – Jeff Davies, Sam Frost, Liz Grey, Paul Jobson, Moira McLaughlin, and Gill Wood – in the run-up to the local elections, in which Labour maintained its majority on Wirral Council.

‘The breakdown of the Birkenhead results reveals some notable trends. Since this round of seats was last contested in 2014, UKIP’s share of the vote in Birkenhead has totally collapsed (from 17.5 per cent, to nil). Meanwhile, Labour’s share of the vote has increased by 6.5 percentage points (from 48.2 per cent, 54.7 per cent) and the Greens’ by 6 percentage points (from 13.2 per cent, to 19.2 per cent). This illustrates how heavily the Greens are targeting certain wards in Birkenhead. The Lib Dems’ vote increased by 3.1 percentage points (from 11 per cent, to 14.1 per cent), and the Tories’ by 2.1 percentage points (from 9.2 per cent, to 11.3 per cent).

‘There was a Herculean effort to wrestle back Birkenhead & Tranmere to Labour, and to win in Oxton, but the Green and Lib Dem vote held up in each respective ward.

‘It is worth spending time as a party to understand why we did so well, relatively speaking, in Bidston & St James, Claughton, and Rock Ferry, while results elsewhere have raised real issues for next year. Unless we rethink the strategy in Prenton, for example, this seat could well fall to the Greens within a couple of elections.

‘Across Wirral, UKIP’s share of the vote fell by 16.5 percentage points (from 16.6 per cent, to 0.1 per cent). The Tories’ share of the vote increased by 7.4 percentage points (from 28.9 per cent, to 36.3 per cent), Labour’s by 6.7 percentage points (from 38.1 per cent, to 44.8 per cent), the Lib Dems’ by 1.6 percentage points (from 8.4 per cent, to 10 per cent), and the Greens’ by 0.8 percentage points (from 7.7 per cent, to 8.5 per cent).’

So we say to the good people of Prenton – the old certainties are over , you know what to do come the next local elections – make ’em earn it or even better give Frank and his phonies a well deserved kick up the arse.