Into the Void

The contest to be the next Labour Group leader on Wirral Council and fill the blank void of nothingness soon to be left by current Wirral Council ‘leader’  Cllr Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies is proving to be such a fast moving story that our tip off that Cllr Paul Stuart was in line for the top job has already passed its sell by date. Sources tell us :

Don’t know where you got the Cllr Stuart for Leader story but that’s already old news.  Cllr Stuart does not want the post, so has withdrawn.

The new name in the frame to “help the Party heal”, and “lay out Labours vision for Wirral” ( or put another way the person willing to take £50k + in return for allowing the sorry collection currently running things to keep their allowances) is dog shit supremo Cllr Anita Leech.  Despite only having been in cabinet for five minutes Leech is the best that the current cabal can come up with. On the bright side there are still two weeks to go before the meeting to decide the next leader, so who knows maybe by then they might even select Tony ( pick me) Norbury, now that would be a sign of complete desperation!!!

And not to be left out (geddit) the “left” have decide to rally round Cllr Pat ( why talk for five minutes when you drone on for an hour) Hackett as their chosen “seat warmer” as interim Leader , in anticipation of the return of Yvonne ( voice of the people) Nolan.   They need somebody malleable, controllable and compliant until their contingent has the necessary numbers, after another round of deselections into the 2020 elections, to inflict their particular brand of middle class ‘socialism’ ( sorry I mean create the workers paradise that Wirral residents have been dreaming of) on our borough.  Pat is totally in the thrall of Paul Davies, and his muse Kathy Miller, who run, I mean organise for the benefit of the huddled masses, New Brighton Labour Party and was so grateful to escape the blood letting that saw 3 Labour Cllrs deselected that he has proven he has what it takes to be the the puppet they need…

As ever we’ll be reporting on developments as they happen and the way things are going almost anything will and can happen!…

The Genuine Article 2 : Where ‘Tory Cuts’ is not a typo…

For political balance we had to comment on last week’s Wirral Globe wraparound following our The Genuine Article : Can you spot the difference between news headlines and political adverts?  post where we questioned the ethics of paying for ‘Advertisement Features’ that look like news stories.

This time it’s the local Labour Party that are at it (for circa £5K a pop). And needless to say what a pisspoor job they make of it. In the absence of any radical political ideas of their own they just resort to the mantra ‘ Tory Cuts’ (not a typo) which seems to be the order of the day. The front page contains 5 variations on this theme  (count ’em). Valid maybe, but bloody repetitive and lazy at the same time…

Talking of right wing the big news on the Labour front is that right out of left field (or should that be right field?) we hear that Cllr Paul Stuart is currently being promoted as the future Labour Group leader of choice of those who get a bit upset when it comes to the words ‘socialist’, ‘democracy’ and ‘Corbyn’.

We’re not complaining . With Cllr Stuart as ‘Leader’ of anything whatsoever it will be like shooting fish in a barrel when it comes to political satire…

Pip’s Cabinet Kerfuffle

Following the local election comes the the arrival of the new civic year with the Mayor-making ceremony held earlier this week at Wallasey Town Hall which witnessed  Tory Cllr Geoffrey Watt installed as this year’s incumbent. Watt’s yawn-inducing acceptance speech gave Wirral Council CEO Eric ‘Feeble’ Robinson the opportunity to do what he does best – multitasking. By which we mean blinking and looking utterly vacant .

Council ‘leader’ Cllr Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies then did what he does best  by rewarding failure – in this case we mean nominating former Cabinet member responsible for Children’s Services , Cllr Tony Smith to be Deputy Mayor (and therefore next year’s Mayor). This follows the inglorious record of failed and disgraced councillors who have been Labour’s nomination to be Wirral’s first citizen following on from the likes of Cllr Moira McLaughlin and Cllr Steve Foulkes.

Pip later moved on make the announcement of a Cabinet shake-up which involved the creation of new portfolios and the dropping of Cllr Christine Spriggs from Leisure and Recreation in favour of Cllr Philip ‘Brightboy’ Brightmore . We can only wonder what prompted Pip to oust Spriggs – but we have a fairly good idea.  The other change of note is Cllr Paul Stuart heading up ‘Law and Order’ (no laughing at the back). Might we suggest that Stuart’s first test will be the argy-bargy brewing with Wirral Council staff who are part of the much heralded ‘Safer Wirral Hub’ at Solar Campus (more on that developing story later.)

Meanwhile here’s a Labour sources interesting observations on the recent election campaign , The Contact Company and the current Labour cabinet

Dear Wirral Leaks,

During the campaign in Birkenhead & Tranmere, it was widely known throughout the Labour camp that they were keeping record of Labour members within the ward who were planning on voting Green. It was claimed by Sheila Murphy, a delegate to Wirral Labour’s LCF, and Paul Jobson the Labour candidate that members who say on the doorstep they will vote Green can be removed from the party.

It is my understanding speaking to North West branch that this is false. Members may vote for whoever they choose as it is a secret ballot, provided they do not campaign for another party. It is my belief this was an intimidation tactic used by the Labour campaign to force members to vote Green.

However, if such a list exists separately from the data political parties may keep when knocking on the doorstep, then there would possibly be a legal infringement.

You may have also picked up a leaflet printed about Pat Cleary during the campaign, much of which was a personal attack up Pat rather than over policies. It should be noted that on Twitter many Labour members made their feelings clear over personal attacks against candidates rather than those on policies.

However, it is not only members who were being forced to get behind the campaign.

Wirral Council’s cabinet were also whipped to attend campaign days in Birkenhead & Tranmere on “action saturdays”, and it was only until this issue was raised by Labour’s LCF that other target seats were included too. Again, this was well known throughout the Labour campaign.

The pouring of resources into Birkenhead & Tranmere it is well known is less to do with a fear of Pat Cleary, and more due to the fact that there is a fear Phil Davies will lose his seat next year and throwing everything into the ward this year was meant to stem the Green tide. However, it may have come at the cost of Pensby, and the possibility of winning other seats.

One final note, an investigative piece into workers rights in The Contact Company, and Phil Davies and Liverpool City Region’s links to the company and its owner Asif may be well worth a look in to. Agency workers  on minimum wage, 13 week, zero hours contracts working over 40 hours a week, many getting sacked for spurious reasons linked to a LABOUR council leader…. you get the idea.

Please respect my anonymity, but understand I am only trying to uncover what is going on behind the scenes because the majority of Wirral Labour Party want this current cabinet out, and are in fact good people.

  Yours Faithfully,

  A Labour Source.

We managed to track down copies of the offending leaflets referred to above on Twitter courtesy of  @LuciBella_

Apologies and Apologists

There was a very sorry display (or should that be ‘not sorry’ display?) at this week’s Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee where much of the meeting was spent discussing ” How do we solve a problem like Louise Reecejones (LRJ) ?” .

Apparently at the time of Monday’s meeting LRJ has yet to issue an acceptable apology to the whistleblowers who had made valid complaints about her but were then subject to personal attacks on social media and had to counter allegations intended to damage their careers. Furthermore doubts were raised during this week’s  meeting as to whether LRJ will comply with the requirement  to offer a  grovelling apology for her conduct to all Wirral councillors at full council meeting to be held on December 11 and whether she will actually turn up – something we had already raised as a possibility as you can read here : Standards and Measures

Having said all that it was particularly dispiriting to witness Wirral councillors flailing about and not knowing what to do if LRJ’s BSL signer is required to stick two fingers up to the sanctions imposed on her by the council’s Standards Panel . A rather excitable interim Monitoring Officer Philip McCourt seemed to get a vicarious thrill from reciting instances of appalling conduct of councillors from other areas as if to say ” and you thought you were bad!……”  

At which point Cllr Ron Abbey gormlessly  commented :   ” Just goes to show what’s going on out there . We live in a sheltered world . We’re all too good for our own  good“ 

Really???

Meanwhile his comedy sidekick Cllr Paul Stuart seems tickled pink by his hilariously insightful comments . They’re the Chuckle Brothers without the chuckles. All of this can be witnessed at between 18- 22 minutes of the John Brace video posted below.

We’d like to ask McCourt where he thinks councillors using racial slurs to describe his predecessor , attempting smear campaigns and trying to use public money to buy the silence of complainants would rank in the scheme of councillor misconduct?  #Wirralgate ……or whether this just confirms his prissy assertion that councillors can currently be ” naughty to a fairly large degree” without it impacting on them being fine upstanding public representatives and pillars of the community.

As far as we’re concerned it’s BY FAR the very worst behaviour ever committed by Wirral councillors . However sadly the days when  councillors could be surcharged for their  misdeeds (Tesco heiress Dame Shirley Porter’s gerrymandering  in Westminster being the most prominent example ) or even referred to inept independent body Standards for England are long gone . Would you believe that despite ex-councillor Jim Crabtree’s conviction earlier this year for his repulsive behaviour (ironically) towards LRJ  that he would still be eligible to stand again as a councillor as he did not receive a custodial sentence of more than 3 months!

It would appear the bar for decent conduct for public servants has now been set so low that is it any wonder that we have the appalling shower of public representatives that we have at Wirral Council?  What’s more when you consider that councillors have been apologists for the most appalling conduct of both favoured senior officers and fellow councillors over recent  years that they now lack any MORAL AUTHORITY when it comes to trying to censure the conduct of  others.

Not that we’re apologists for LRJ but if she’s struggling to cobble together a convincing and sincere apology here’s our humble suggestion :

As a once proud upstanding member of this council I am today detumescent before you. Before I prostrate myself  in abject shame and beg your forgiveness I offer these wholly inadequate yet heartfelt words. I realise I could never hope to meet the high standards set by former Labour councillors such as Harry Smith , with his tact, diplomacy and his use of the English language ,and especially his command of Anglo-Saxon . Nor could I ever hope to attain the high office of  Jim Crabtree .  I realise that his telephone manner left a lot to be desired but in every other respect his behaviour was exemplary – at least by Bidston & St James ward standards anyway.  

As for current Labour councillors there is our supreme leader Phil aka Power Boy Pip who has been a particular inspiration to me when it comes to delegating his powers as I have long admired how he gets other people to do his dirty work. As for his deputies what can I say ? There’s big hitter Bernie and casual racist George. And as for Foulkesy? What can I say other than I am simply unworthy to keep their company.  All that is left for me to say is that I apologise for all the wrongs that the Labour group have inflicted upon Wirral and I accept my role as a scapegoat on their behalf.  

 

 

Songs of The Labour Movement : Two Tribes

 

Our interest in the rising tide of Corbynism is, of course, how it impacts on local politics.  And you can say what you like about Jezzamania but it has at least shaken up (or a least slightly stirred) the moribund and complacent cabal at the heart of Birkenhead Constituency Labour Party (CLP).  Frank Field, having decried the Labour leader at every opportunity prior to this year’s general election, has been awfully quiet on the Corbyn front lately hasn’t he?

However where the impact has been most felt has been in the Wallasey CLP.  Ever since Wallasey MP Angela Eagle’s doomed Labour leadership challenge there have been deep divisions within the local CLP…..and it would seem from a leaked email from Cllr Adrian Jones sent to ‘Momentum Comrades’ – which somehow made its way to us – there clearly still are!

We’ll spare you the full text of the email as it’s more Citizen Smith than Councillor Jones. Suffice to say it’s as long-winded and self righteous as his council speeches and sets out his long-standing Corbyn – supporting credentials.

The genesis of all this rift was a bitter CLP meeting on 24^th June 2016, when Cllr Bernie Mooney (now Joint Deputy Leader of Wirral Council Labour Group ) was voted out of her position as secretary of Wallasey CLP and replaced by lefty Kathy Miller.  Paul Davies was voted in as co-vice Chair ( Cllr Paul Stuart was the other co-Vice Chair.)

The CLP voted to back Corbyn in his leadership bid.  Eagle got wind of this and was presumably an ‘Angry Bird’!  She hadn’t yet said she was going to run for leader… and didn’t until early July.

Meanwhile the CLP was suspended by the Labour NEC at their London HQ and remains suspended to this day.  Indeed the CLP only realised they’d been suspended when they read it in the Liverpool Echo!

This suspension was done on the ‘strength’ of bogus allegations that were lodged with the press (not the police, where they should have gone – but that presumably would have risked counter charges of wasting police time) saying that some members at the above meeting had engaged in bullying of others, intimidation and ‘homophobic acts’ against Eagle, who was not even present.

Reputedly, it was Cllr Stuart who was the ringleader of 17 people alleging bullying, intimidation and homophobia.  Angela Eagle christened them “whistleblowers”, sullying the name of genuine, good faith whistleblowers everywhere, and whatdyaknow?  the likes of the Liverpool Echo and The Guardian were there, ever eager to fuel the fire.

Throughout all this nothing was heard from Cllr Adrian Jones, the huge “Corbyn fan”, as his hero was pilloried in order to push Eagle’s leadership chances.  And whaddyaknow?  Both Jones’s Mr and Mrs and Cllr Stuart can be seen in the photos attached to this tweet, supporting Eagle.  This was in the run-up to the 2017 election, 9 months after the CLP suspension and #Brickgate.

Ultimately the allegations went nowhere, but the damage inflicted by the media coverage had been done. We understand one CLP member still has a charge hanging over them, whilst those making bogus allegations have been strangely passed over for any disciplinary action.  Is it any wonder the rifts persist and that there are plenty of angry left wingers in Wallasey CLP who feel betrayed?  After being expected to tramp the streets in support of Angela Eagle during the general election campaign , some are suspecting that deals will now be done behind their backs rather than the embedded enemy within faced head on and challenged.

 

Meanwhile, Cllr Paul Stuart who’d nailed his colours to the Eagle mast has,  since Corbyn’s unexpectedly strong performance in the general election,  had a bit of a rethink and now wants the world to know, via the leaked Jones email , that he is supporting Jezza. But the idea that Cllr Stuart would now also be backing Corbyn is outrageous when you can find him on the internet posing for photos outside the smashed window of #Brickgate.  Along with Cllr Stuart , Eagle diehards Cllr Mooney, and Merseyside Police & Crime Commissioner Jane Kennedy were immediately on hand to be interviewed on TV and press suggesting that Corbyn supporters were behind the brick through the shared stairwell window ….which apparently wasn’t Eagle’s constituency office window anyway! You can get a flavour of the furore here 

Moreover, Merseyside plod calmly intoned six months later that the constituency office window was never reported to them as being damaged !  But you wouldn’t know this if you picked up any national or local newspaper because they wouldn’t touch it !  And by that time, the whole sorry circus of MSM dissemblers had left Eagle’s “busy summer of lies” unretracted, and moved onto the next emerging #FakeNews bombshell needing their undivided attention….

https://wirralinittogether.blog/2016/08/05/angela-eagle-supporters-have-been-discovered-telling-lies-about-wallasey-clp-vice-chair-paul-davies/

Meanwhile only time will tell whether Cllr Stuart proves to be as an effective shape-shifting politico as Cllr Jones,

 

To quote from the latter’s email…

Comrades, “Now is the time” to stop acting like a “Party within a party” – and even like a “Momentum within Momentum”.

It is time to grasp that the mainstream (often called the “Left”) has won back the heart and soul of the Labour Party.  I do not know of a single member of the Seacombe Branch who has not fully supported my own declarations for Corbyn on the two websites or who does not support him now.  So why introduce friction where there need be none? Let’s try now to be a single Labour Party in Seacombe Ward.

Some comrades will remember that we also, for a while, held “Songs of the Labour Movement” musical evenings in the Park View Social Club – an opportunity for comrades to perform – or just listen and rub shoulders informally.  But, since then, we have had the difficulty of the Party being suspended so long that many of us don’t even know each other.

Under the circumstances can we suggest that any future CLP sing-a-long  starts off with a rousing rendition of  “Two Tribes” ?

 

 

Send In The Clowns

So much money, so much time , so much energy  defending this clown. Can somebody please explain?

Ladies and gentleman we present you with the Wirral Council Circus. Witness amazing feats of escapology performed before your very eyes!.

Recorded for posterity by the indomitable John Brace – who seems to have recovered from being barred from last week’s Standards Panel meeting to bring us the thrills and spills from this week’s Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee.

 

Watch  as chief town hall juggler  Surjit  Tour squirms as he walks the tightrope of truth and demonstrates a complete inability to give a straight answer by using the word ‘rationale’ as many times as he can as though he’s being sponsored for Comic Relief!

Watch Cllr Matron McLaughlin  change the subject  when awkward questions are being asked about the conduct of councillors by using the magic words  “Working Party”. We’d like to ask an awkward question using the word “Anna” and whether a declaration of interest should have been required at the Standards Panel.

Watch ineffectual and callow opposition councillors  (minus one honourable exception) “play nice”

Watch human potato Cllr Paul Stuart make the unfortunate mistake of asking about “recording devices” ( the new councillor obviously didn’t get the memo from Labour HQ!)

Watch as Surjit puts his head down to conceal his wry smirk as Cllr Stuart  mentions “recording devices” – for as we know no one as benefited as much from this technological device than he has!. The Complainants must be so proud!- their pursuit of  £48,000 each has gifted Tour a job for life ( Frank Field’s words)

Watch as an old dog learns new tricks – kudos to Cllr Gerry Ellis as he asks the obvious questions about what’s the point of protocols,policies and procedures if nobody on the Committee is allowed to know what complaints about councillors are about and what the outcome of the complaint is?. There is no point Gerry , none at all. Accept that councillors are beyond accountability and move on.

Watch as words like “due process” and concerns about length of time it takes to deal with complaints are raised and laugh out loud that those assembled can somehow manage keep a straight face whilst asking the question

Watch as Councillor Denise Roberts drags a quickfire meeting out as long as she can despite the fact that Committee members can’t seem to wait to get the hell out of there. As Her Ladyship  cried : “Somebody pass the cattle prod”

Watch as  it is revealed that the people you voted for have relinquished their responsibility for making decisions about Code of Conduct complaints to Tour and an “independent person”. This might explain why Joe Blott and his posse whisked so called “independent person” Brian Cummings off after last week’s Standards Panel to tell him what  decision he should make. It doesn’t explain why Tour deftly tries to pretend that the Committee are the ones making decisions – as once again the ringmaster has the whip hand and helps facilitate the placement of political and personal interests above the public interest! .