We are grateful once again to our well informed and politically engaged readers who have sent us a couple of interesting press cuttings.
The first is from Private Eye and it is a timely reminder of far eastern follies as council leader Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies heroically jets off to China in the face of threats of government intervention if Wirral Council can’t get their act together and address the single most important area they are responsible for – the safeguarding of vulnerable children. Forget empty threats from spineless Whitehall mandarins , here is a heartfelt message from Wirral Leaks to all Wirral councillors and officers : If you can’t get this right you really need to get out of the game. Now!.
The article in Private Eye is inevitably in the Rotten Boroughs section and although the story concerns Allerdale Borough Council , the infamous Stella Shiu Wirral Waters debacle is cited as a salutary lesson to all councils not to be taken in by dodgy developers promising you an International Trade Centre and delivering prize marrows.
Just a word of advice to Power Boy Pip on diplomacy – perhaps it would be wise not to take one of your deputies to China . From what we’ve heard he doesn’t seem too keen on our oriental friends.
The second cutting is from the publication that can be seen littering local public transport up and down the country – the barely literate Metro.
Our cheesed-off commuter cheekily asks whether Wirral Council will be splashing out £149.99 on top of Martin Liptrot’s £45K salary for this handy device aptly called ‘Echo’ (you really couldn’t make this up). Oh how Liptrotsky would not only love to control what stories about Wirral Council go in the Liverpool Echo but all local news outlets everywhere , be they non-compliant mainstream media or those pesky local blogs over which he no control whatsoever. Oh how he’d love to wipe Wirral Globe off the face of the earth and pull the plug on Wirral Leaks. In your dreams, Marty!.
With the news that Wirral Council will now be holding a meeting in respect of the recently published and deeply shaming Ofsted report at which the public miraculously will be allowed to attend , can we look forward to the first edition of Liptrotsky’s baby – Wirral Today – featuring a front page exclusive with the headline : “OUR SHAME” ?.
A leaked Wirral Council email which is a masterclass in bureaucratic gobbledygook reads :
Please note that the Mayor has called an extraordinary meeting of the Council to be held on Monday, 17 October, 2016, at 4.00pm. This extraordinary meeting has been called at the request of Labour and Conservative Members, in accordance with Standing Order 1(4), to consider Notices of Motion in respect of the recently published Ofsted report (two requisitions attached).The other Extraordinary meeting scheduled for 5.15pm will take place at 5.15pm, or on the rising of the 4.00pm meeting, whichever is the later, to be followed by the Ordinary Council meeting at 6.00pm, or on the rising of the 5.15pm meeting, whichever is the later. Summonses for all three meetings will be published later next week.
Whilst the timing of the meeting is prohibitory for most of the public might we suggest that what is even more off-putting is that we guarantee this meeting will take political point scoring and platitudinous grandstanding to stratospherically sickening heights.
However we understand that as an incentive for the public to attend there will be a special edition of Extraordinary Meeting bullshit bingo with the winner being the person who ticks all the following boxes (and the losers being everyone else on Wirral who is ruled by this mob!) :
Going forward/ moving forward (aka ‘The McLachlan’ )
Lessons have been learned
Action plan
Improvement
Wirral Plan
Pledges
20/20 vision
Now is not the time for blame/naming names/scapegoating
Work together
Accountability
Scrutiny
Why are we so crap?
