A Scary NHS Story for Halloween

It would appear that this week ‘His Lordship’ will be mainly having an editorial role as the good people of Wirral continue to flood us with leaks and newsworthy articles. As we usually like to do something appropriate for Halloween – read our past stories here – we’ve saved this one for today as it’s one of the scariest stories we’ve ever read…

Amongst other denials from the soon to disappear Council leader was that he had ever welcomed US health corporations into Wirral.

“I don’t accept that Wirral has done what you claim [granted enhanced entry to our local health services to major US and/or US-owned corporations] and you do not produce any evidence to support your assertion.” (Cllr Phil Davies)

He did.

In April 2015.

He denied it in January 2018.

This is what the papers reported three years ago.

And this is the outfit which has been providing guidance ever since . ‘Faith-based’…

Advocate Health

There is a direct line from April 2015 to the closure of walk-in services. All part of the US and McKinsey/PWC/Tory drive to undermine our unique health service and send people into the arms of insurance companies.

There is more, much more, to follow. Our plodding amateur research is unearthing all sorts of horrors.  Not just Davies but he has certainly contributed to what we will publish soon – the story of how Wirral’s health services are effectively run from the USA…

 

Green Belt – Keep calm and listen to ‘The Prof’

‘The Great Wirral Green Belt Debacle’ shows no sign of abating with Wirral Council and central government playing pass the parcel (of land) and continuing to dispute statistical information which is being used to influence Wirral’s future housing needs . Read more  here

It all gives the impression that politicians and public officials don’t know what they’re doing or that the continuing threat to Wirral’s Green Belt is borne of  ignorance of the facts or from questionable political/financial motives.

Thankfully we have ‘The Prof’ on hand to waft the smoke away from the mirrors . Here’s his take on the latest developments and a copy of a letter he’s written to James Brokenshire ,the  Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

This council never seems to learn. Having cried wolf on the green belt issue before it now does it again, helped along by our crazy central government. Let’s look at the facts, one more time, and leave out the Mickey Mouse stuff. The council says it has identified 91 sites which could host 2,400 houses. Peel Holdings have confirmed to the council that they CAN deliver a minimum of 2,900 houses in the local plan period and up to 6,450 houses subject to assistance with infrastructure costs. At the current rate of recovery (by the council themselves) 3,570 empty houses could be brought back into use over the plan period. This gives us 8,870 to 12,420 houses available on brown field sites. But the 803 houses per annum 2017 government target requires a total of 12,045 houses. So at best WE STILL need NO green belt land. At worst we need GB land for 3,175 houses. But the council plan aims to release 4,900 acres : sufficient at normal densities for 71,000 houses. So AT WORST we would need just 4.5% of the green belt the council wants to release for housing development to their speculator friends.That is 220 acres, NOT 4,900 acres. Yet again Wirral residents are being treated with contempt by this council. If the council decide to release the 50 sites in their green belt plan do not be fooled into thinking it has anything to do with central government. It is to do with council politics and greed. How much longer will Wirral voters put up  with this perfidious mob?

Dear Minister

I am a retired professor of mathematical modelling who has been looking

closely at the old and new housing needs methodology. The new methodology has the merit of simplicity and consistency which I understood was your aim.

I can though, understand your frustration that it gives far lower UK housing needs numbers than you hoped for, for policy reasons. However despite the lobbying you have no doubt received from disappointed developers and house builders the basic methodology may not be at fault. I trust the formal statistical review now underway will look closely at the ONS population projections used.

As you are aware something went badly awry between the 2001 and 2011 censuses resulting in large apparent population discontinuities in many locations.

The ‘corrections’ then made, left ‘fingerprints’ on the historical data later used to make the population projections for the standard method. In my own area of Merseyside this has caused havoc! The forecasts have been very unstable as we moved forward from 2012 to 2014 to 2016.

More importantly, to take my own Wirral LA as an example, the projected net migration into Wirral is at least 3X greater than actually experienced in the recent decade, based on several other ONS data sources and independent local time series such as voter registrations.

Since the Wirral internal, natural population is falling this ‘mythical’ migration greatly inflates the ONS population projections and consequently housing needs. Instead of 800 houses per annum (on the old methodology) and perhaps 440 (on the new) , a more likely number is in the range zero to 200 if we also consider your official, ONS low migration scenarios.

This excludes the need to replace local demolitions and the effects of changing housing mix needs. Now I am sure that in many other local authorities  across the country the census problem has worked in the opposite direction, underestimating actual population growth and transfers between authorities. In conclusion, the UK population projections are suspect and ideally should be checked, local authority by local authority, tedious though this is. We shall be doing this in detail for Wirral to provide statistical evidence for any future investigations by your housing inspectors into local planning intentions. I hope this note is of help.

Best wishes,

Professor D P Gregg (retired)

Wirral Council Have Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two…

We are always willing to provide a platform to those people who bring us new insights and a different perspective on matters we think are important for the people of Wirral to know about . In that respect Wirral Leaks is everything that Wirral View isn’t . Our latest contributor – ‘Jiminy Cricket’ is from the business community and just before we hand over to him we just thought we’d advise that the letter from Wirral Council’s ‘Lead Commissioner -Environment’ is signed by Mike Cockburn and alas, not as it appears to be, Cockbum – which would have been a gift.

Date:    29/10/2018

Another nail in the coffin for Wirral Business Owners.

In another desperate attempt to pick the pockets of local business owners, Fagin, the Chief Pickpocket has identified a new wheeze which will punish business owners and fill the coffers of the Treasury.

Business across Wirral will see a letter from Wirral Council drop onto their doormat over the coming weeks. Some have already received them. The letter looks like a piece of junk mail with a leaflet attached to it but it carries an ominous warning about non-compliance which could result in a £300 Fixed Penalty Notice.

The letter in question tells business owners about their obligations regarding disposal of business waste. It warns them they need to keep written information relating to all business waste for a period of two years and must make these documents available for inspection by autorised officers of the council or the Environment Agency when required to do so. Failure to produce the written information when asked will result in a Fixed Penalty Notice.

This unassuming letter should strike fear into the heart of every business owner in Wirral. Clearly it is the first salvo in an orchestrated attack to hit as many businesses as possible with the Fixed Penalty Notice mentioned in the letter. They are an easy target too because even a person working from home can be affected. Anything can be classed as business waste which means any business owner can be targeted and hit with a £300 Fixed penalty Notice.

WikiPedia has this to say on the subject of Fixed Penalty Notices:
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_penalty_notice

“Fixed penalty notices (FPNs) were introduced in Britain in the 1950s to deal with minor parking offences. Originally used by police and traffic wardens, their use has extended to other public officials and authorities, as has the range of offences for which they can be used.

In recent years, this has taken the form of using them to give police and public authorities in England, Scotland and Wales a realistic weapon against anti-
social behaviour. They are designed to reduce paperwork on police and council officers by allowing low-level anti-social behaviour to be dealt with on the
spot. Newer types of notice exist for disorder, environmental crime, truancy and noise. A fixed penalty notice is not a fine[1] or criminal conviction and
the recipient can opt for the matter to be dealt with in court instead of paying. However, if the recipient neither pays the penalty nor opts for a court
hearing in the time specified, the penalty may be increased by 50% and registered against the recipient as a fine.[2] It may then be enforced by the normal
methods used to enforce unpaid fines, including imprisonment in some circumstances.”

It seems questionable how a local authority which already charges for Business Rates and high parking, not to mention the dubious BID Levy (in some areas),
is gearing up to issue Fixed Penalty Notices on already hard pressed business owners. It is clear a lot of small firms are already struggling and may not be
able to afford the £300 Fixed Penalty Notice. It could be the proverbial straw which breaks the camels back and could result in businesses closing down or at
the very least being hauled into court and criminalised for not paying the Fixed Penalty Notice.Clearly Fagin, the chief pickpocket at Wirral Council and his (or her) team of crooked acolytes are not only intent of grasping hold of the hard earned cash of business owners in Wirral, they are too dim to realise it will drive away small business innovation and investment in Wirral. Or they simply just do not care because most of them are highly paid and do not live in Wirral anyway.

You heard it here first everyone. Since it is Halloween this month – Be afraid, Be very afraid.

Jiminy Cricket

Foulkesy – Faking it ’til he makes it…

Never mind Elaine having to put up with you for weeks whilst you ingratiate yourself with party members – we’ve had to put up with you for years!

The latest news to arrive from the rounds of Constituency Labour Party (CLP) meetings is bad news for those who expressed the view – more in hope than expectation –  that Cllr Steve ‘Foulkesy’ Foulkes was next for the Labour CLP selection guillotine.

Alas, it was not to be, as in an astonishing lack of judgement we discover that Claughton and Noctorum CLP thought Foulkesy should be their representative at the local elections in May 2019.

However it must be said that Foulkesy is showing the way to go if you currently want to remain a Labour councillor – you must pledge your allegiance to Jeremy Corbyn, even if you have to fake it and it is a slap in the face of your long time political benefactor Frank Field,who has helped get Foulkesy out of many a political scrape and helped (with others) to cover up a multitude of  misdemeanours on his behalf.

Meanwhile those close to the action are expressing shock horror to us that even after our Sorrento Shame:Holidaymakers claim they faced ‘racist abuse’ from ex- Wirral Mayoress  story that Foulkesy is still considered to be a fit and proper person to represent the ward.

To which we can only reply – Oh do give over you’ve also got Cllr George Davies as a ward councillor . So obviously you don’t have a problem with alleged racism (or dishonesty).

What’s more we don’t think that being associated with allegations of racism, being utterly repellent whether it takes place at home or abroad, is  the main reasons why Foulkesy needs to f-f-f-f…fade away.

For all the amnesiacs out there (and particularly in Claughton and Noctorum CLP) let us remind you of Foulkesy’s official rap sheet ( an unofficial rap sheet would probably bow our collective minds ).

Let’s remember – this was the man who was ousted in a vote of no confidence in 2012 after it discovered that the Council he was the leader of – and by the way how did that happen? – was a basket case overrun by bullying , dishonesty and incompetence.

Unbelievably ,even after all the ‘lessons have been learned’ PR BS , worse was to follow as we reported in our WIRRALGATE! – Foulkesy the Fibber  story where it was subsequently proven that Foulkesy was a smear campaign organiser and a serial liar – as we said at the time :

Is it only us at Leaky Towers who find the  term ‘economical with the truth’ much more offensive than ‘liar’. What should we do call Foulkesy a ‘fibber’ ? – sorry we’re in no mood for polite and dare we say evasive euphemisms –  Foulkesy is a LIAR – and a well practised if not very accomplished one at that . Even when confronted with incontrovertible evidence he persists with the lies…

But then we have reason to believe that Foulkesy has a long and inglorious history of being dishonest. Could this be the same man who prior to being a councillor was caught fare dodging on Merseyrail and yet is now one of Wirral Council’s (well remunerated) representatives at Merseytravel meetings ?

Ultimately , why should we care ? Mainly because we do – but we also concede that we get the politicians we deserve or at least what Claughton and Noctorum deserve.  However we still believe that the rest of Wirral deserve so much better…

For Foulkesy waiting for the CLP nomination results must’ve been like waiting for a ticket collector on Merseyrail…

 

Fieldwatch 3: ‘Everyone has their price…’

We are really,really sorry we started this ‘Fieldwatch’ mullarkey .We promised we’d keep you posted on the media appearances of the political anomaly that is Frank Field. He’s the MP for Birkenhead but he’s not a Labour MP and not an independent MP either. What exactly is he? – all a bit unsatisfactory but as far as we’re concerned Frankenfield has been more than unsatisfactory for many a year.

However the alerts we get at Leaky Towers about Field are absolutely,bloody relentless . Media whore doesn’t come close to describing the media coverage this man craves from predictably, Wirral Globe and Liverpool Echo , inevitably The S*n, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph , The Guardian and surprisingly to Horticulture Week (!) to The Sydney Morning Herald… on and on and on it goes.

We’ll just concentrate on a couple of stories and taking a leaf out of Field’s playbook we admit that we’ve chosen them for our own purposes. If you want further details you’ll have to take us on trust and Google the stories yourself.

First – let us consider Frank and prostitution. He’s certainly got his money worth out of this particular ‘story’. There have been a number of press stories where he claims that women have been forced into walking the mean streets of Birkenhead directly because of the implementation of Universal Credit. It may be false,it may be true but nothing stops a Fieldian anecdote from becoming a press-worthy fact . What’s more surely he’s been well acquainted for a long time with people at Wirral Council getting big money for screwing over the people of Wirral (and sometimes each other)?

Second – and again inevitably – Field gegs in on the ‘Sir’ Philip Green being identified being ‘not a very nice person’ by Lord Hain using – some might say abusing – parliamentary privilege in the House of Lords . Who knew Green could be such a serious baddun’ ? We all bloody did!

Field’s press comments haven’t deviated from his own belief that Green is a baddun’ but skirts around the more problematic areas of NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements) where money is exchanged in return for silence, or bullying or allegations of racism. Might we suggest this could have something to do with such matters being a bit too close to home when it comes to his local political allies…

 

The ‘Casualisation’ of Cammell Laird

SPOILER ALERT for those attending tonight’s Wirral South Constituency Labour Party (CLP)  meeting

We have received a copy of an Emergency Motion about Cammell Laird shipyard which we fully endorse and would like to share especially as we are currently joining the dots on a current investigation involving the shipyard.

You’d think that the “Turning the tide on Casualisation” campaign would be right up neighbouring MP Frank Field’s street wouldn’t you?  And indeed as part of Field’s relentless media presence he has obviously made sure that Cammell Laird gets a mention. A recent press release can be found on his blog here

Birkenhead’s MP Frank Field is battling to safeguard jobs at Cammell Laird by supporting the yard’s bids for two major shipbuilding orders – one from the Ministry of Defence and the other from Merseytravel…

Frank comments: ‘In the shipbuilding industry, the sure-fire way of being able to safeguard jobs is to keep bidding for and winning major orders. Cammell Laird is a world leader in shipbuilding and I am determined to ensure it has a fighting chance of securing these two orders. The yard’s longstanding technical credibility and expertise, as well as its unique capabilities of driving innovation and upskilling the workforce, go hand in hand with its vital role in supporting small and medium sized businesses across our region.’

However whilst securing shipbuilding orders are indeed one way of securing jobs at Cammell Laird you will note that the main thrust of the Unions campaign is the possible use of non-Unionised(?), cheaper labour accessed via an agency thereby undermining local workers rights ,pay and conditions and the potential cause of future redundancies. Once again you would think this would be meat and potatoes for Field. We’d certainly expect him to be raising questions about who’s behind this mysterious agency  – we certainly have and the information we’ve has opened up some interesting lines of enquiry.

Perhaps it could be both impolitic and impolite for Field to mention such matters when Cammell Laird is a major contributor (along with Wirral Council taxpayers) to Frank Field’s pet project ‘Feeding Birkenhead’ ?

Meanwhile we encourage our readers to support this campaign and sign the petition:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-jobs-at-cammell-lairds

 

The Nolan Principles

Posted on the Birkenhead Labour Party  Facebook page is this ‘Press Statement’ from Yvonne Nolan who comes out fighting addressing last night’s Rock Ferry Constituency Labour Party (CLP) selection process , the ousting of Cllr Chris Meaden and the Cllr Moira ‘Matron’ McLaughlin resignation . She also takes on local Conservative group leader Cllr Ian Lewis , who apparently has been pointing out the splits in the local Labour Party ( you don’t say!) and raising Ms Nolan’s historical role in opposing the Poll Tax (remember that?)…

Wirral politics appears to us to be in the midst of the ‘may you live in interesting times’ curse . This is great news for us as we anticipate that the curse is gathering  momentum (no pun intended) and is moving from ‘interesting’ to ‘positively fascinating’ …

YES! ‘Matron’ McLaughlin was the next Labour resignation!

Hit the road Mac – and don’t you come back no more,no more,no more,no more…

As you all know we already knew the answer to the question we posed yesterday  Is ‘Matron’ McLaughlin the next Labour resignation?

And indeed as we revealed it was the ECHO who brought us the news. Although we’re sorry/not sorry we pissed all over ‘Local Democracy Reporter’ Tom Houghton’s carefully planned ‘exclusive’

You get a flavour of what’s to come from the headline “We’re on road to Militant’  as Matron McLaughlin is indulged ad nauseum… if you’ve got the stomach for it you can read the deranged rant here

However here are some observations from Leaky Towers . It seems to us there are very good reasons as to why the local party are getting heartily sick of ‘long-serving’ – or should that be ‘self -serving’? – Labour councillors. Describing their own party members as a ‘hard-left clique of unelected Labour Party officials, driven by their rigid and unrealistic ideology in their distorted version of democracy  – an ideology which is not shared by the communities we are elected to serve’ . Who wrote that for you Matron? – is Martin Liptrot back writing the purple -headed prose? You lot certainly love the word ‘distorted’ don’t you? And as for ‘clique’ – Matron has benefited from being part of Frank Field’s bent cabal for years and seemingly doesn’t like the taste of her own medicine.  Our advice to Matron would be to take two aspirin and tell us  how she feels in the morning.

And of course no press release ,sorry, report would be complete without allegations of ‘bullying’ and ‘intimidation’ . Examples of ‘intimidation’ included a local campaign forum sending “observers” to group meetings and calls for every piece of literature put out to constituents checked”.  Somebody call Amnesty International –  have you ever heard of such heinous violations of human rights?!

And all this feigned victimhood nonsense is coming from someone who oversaw the most appalling  PROVEN bullying and harassment when she was horrifyingly the Wirral Council lead for the notoriously dysfunctional Department of Adult Social Services and who went on to add insult to (personal) injury by publicly declaring her loyalty to those responsible for creating the toxic culture and the toxic debts!

Needless to say Matron goes on to have a moan about ‘targeted abuse’ on social media but wisely doesn’t mention ‘a certain website’ :

I wrote at regional level and sent them the social media posts.

I said you have a duty of care to us as individuals. To protect them from the hard-left clique. I asked them ‘would you please fulfil your duty of care to me?Use what information you have to control them – but I didn’t even get a response.

What a telling comment from Matron that is and a typical response from Labour North West. It’s all about me,me ME!!!  Tell us Matron where was the duty of care to protect social care staff from harassment and disabled people from abuse? As we’ve previously reported Labour North West have known about the deep seated problems with the Labour Party on Wirral and have simply ignored the festering pustule that is about to pop! However the killer comment is :

USE WHAT INFORMATION YOU HAVE TO CONTROL THEM   

Now if there is one phrase that sums up everything that is wrong with not only the Labour old guard  but senior public officials on Wirral it is this perfect encapsulation of their mutual modus operandi . They’ve all got something on each other and it’s a means of retaining power and control.  We think this is reason enough to drain the cesspit of Wallasey Town Hall once and for all.

However we couldn’t finish without commenting on this breathtaking hypocrisy from Matron likening the current day to Labour’s Militant period of the 1980s, she said:

The hard-left are working to take control of the council. But it’s so difficult to run the council in current climate with the budget allocation we have got. I don’t know where they are going to nick money from, or how they will implement their policies.

Perhaps they can ‘nick money’ from disabled people, Matron. After all it (almost) worked for Wirral Council and the drugs money launderers who they did business with on your watch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breaking : Rock Ferry CLP meeting – Meaden out, Nolan in…

Cllr Brian Kenny (left) : Hey Chris, looks like Rock Ferry CLP have done to you what I’m doing with this rubbish Cllr Chris Meaden (right) : I don’t know what you’re grinning at Bri, you’ll be next…

A welcome message from a respected source :  

Hi your Lord and Ladyship.

At tonight’s Rock Ferry Constituency Labour Party selection meeting, Yvonne Nolan was chosen as candidate beating Councillor Chris Meaden, former Mayor, who has been councillor for the ward for the last 28 years…The vote for Yvonne was 14 to 11 but there were more than 11 people in the room showing (or pretending) that they were horrified that Chris had been beaten.

Time to pass Her Ladyship her knitting, sit back and and wait for the flouncing out and howls of protest from the Labour old guard and their friends in the local mainstream media…

 

Is ‘Matron’ McLaughlin the next Labour resignation?

Matron and the Curse of the Ugg Boots

A most curious message has arrived at Leaky Towers from someone describing themselves as ‘a veteran Labour member on Wirral’ who tells us :

Cllr Moira McLaughlin will resign the Labour whip tomorrow  morning ,announcing it in the ECHO

Ordinarily we’d be in ecstasies because  a) we’ve long held the view that Matron McLaughlin needed to exit from local politics a long time ago – 2012 to be precise  and b) we take pleasure in scuppering a Liverpool Echo ‘exclusive’  just as we did last week with the Wirral Council ‘leader’ Cllr Phil Davies and his sudden resignation .

Indeed the Echo and Wirral Globe  seem to be taking it in turns to publish ‘exclusives’ about local Labour Party resignations/ hissyfits. ‘Orchestrated’ doesn’t come close to describing what’s going on here – all we need is cannons going off and we’d have the 1812 Overture!

However such is the fetid and febrile political atmosphere circulating around Wirral at the moment we don’t quite know what to make of the news especially as ,even more curiously , our source goes on to describe themselves as an ‘ experienced Labour member’ and provides us with this quote :

Moira’s resignation is further confirmation that hard-left elements have infiltrated the Labour Party, making it their mission to drive out hard-working community champions in a shameful power grab. These recycled Militants want to drag Wirral back to the 80s by installing disgraced former Council leader Yvonne Nolan as a Rock Ferry Candidate tonight. Nolan was hauled out of office over the poll tax debacle and like Derek Hatton shouldn’t be on the cusp of returning to front line politics under the Labour Party banner.

Cllr McLaughlin has served the people of Rock Ferry for over 20 years and has consistently stood up for her residents, helping fight against the worst effects of Tory austerity. It is a sad day for true Labour supporters. She will be sorely missed by the majority of decent Labour councillors and members.

The quote rather suggests to us that its from someone who’s not familiar with our blog , especially when it comes to Matron.  However we’ll be interested to hear of further developments and we’d particularly request a comment from Ms Nolan – who we know is a member of the Labour Party and has previously stood as a Labour councillor.

As we await further news it’s a question of pace your bets now as which Frank Field acolyte jumps before they’re pushed. The smart money is on Frankenfield’s faithful factotum and electoral agent Cllr George Davies…