Christmas Felicitations From Wirral Leaks : The Ghosts of Christmas Past

To mark our last Christmas broadcast from Leaky Towers we thought we’d bring you a ‘Ghosts of Christmas Past’ special and recall some of our previous festive greetings.  After all isn’t Christmas not only about tradition but about  repeats on the telly and from various body  parts?

First up we bring you this heartwarming pic from 2011 where we see Cllr Steve Foulkes aka Foulkesy doing what he does best – bringing comfort and joy whenever, sorry, wherever he goes. Only he doesn’t go does he? Locally he remains the living proof of the international and national trend that people will put politicians in power even when they’re proven liars…

Talking of liars – he we have Foulkesy’s chum and soon to be Mayor of Wirral Cllr George Davies proving once and for all that old adage that politics is showbiz for ugly people

Of course Davies was once the ultimate Satan’s Little Helper when he was the electoral agent for Frank Field – the former MP for Birkenhead. However much like his mate Foulkesy this wretched elf ditched Frankenfield when they saw that the writing was on the wall for the latter’s political career and they are both now feigning support for all things Corbyn and the union -backed new MP for Birkenhead, Mick Whitley. This means   they can continue to ride on the coat tails of local power and influence much as they have done for decades.

And finally the man himself who for so many years presided over his personal political domain safe in the knowledge that Birkenhead was one of the safest Labour seats in the country , which , of course it remains to be to this day…

Unfortunately for Frankenfield he had to stand as an independent at the recent General Election and the flag of convenience that was the Labour Party was no longer there to maintain him in power.  And let’s face it ,despite the promise of hanging around Birkenhead and doing his bit for ‘charidee’ that’s what it’s always been about for  Frankenfield – the power and the glory .

We can only imagine how Frankenfield must feel this Christmas  having been betrayed and  politically outmanoeuvred by his former acolytes Foulkes and Davies. But then that’s what you get when you have have sat on a throne of lies for four decades…

Meanwhile Merry Christmas to one and all from everyone at Leaky Towers!

It’s a ‘No’ to Norbury

Empty political gestures are no substitute for deeply held beliefs.  

Considering how gleefully the local press reported that the first attempt by the Birkenhead Constituency Labour Party to elect a successor to Frank Field ended in an embarrassing lock out  at Birkenhead Town Hall you’d have thought they’d be happy to report that Mick Whitley eventually got the gig. But no – they’ve got stories to tell about how Frankenfield is saving Birkenhead from the ravages of a corrupt political regime (take your pick as to whether that’s a Labour controlled council or a Tory controlled government). Whilst we’re on the subject of Field’s alleged saving of the increasingly depressing House of Fraser store in Birkenhead can someone explain his preference for Mike Ashley over Sir Philip Green? Answers on a postcard. Mark your entries with the word ‘HYPOCRISY’…

However if you think Whitley has it bad trying to gain some leverage with the local press spare a thought for the runner up in the parliamentary candidacy race. Poor Cllr Tony Norbury – who received 116 votes compared to Whitley’s 224 – is having a torrid time of late. Not that we’re particularly sympathetic. Norbury always seemed to be spectacularly naive as to how local politics works. At the end of the day he just didn’t have the right connections  – be that with the press ,unions or self-serving politicians . Moreover can we just say that political posturing with placards is no substitute for a deeply held belief in tackling racism, especially within the local Labour leadership (i.e. Cllr George Davies).

Apparently Norbury’s week got even worse as not only is he not off to Westminster – can you imagine? – he’s also off the local panel list and therefore cannot run as a councillor in May 2020!

They say bad luck comes in threes so we can only hope and pray that his Buxton bolthole wasn’t flooded during the recent Biblical downpour!…

Frank Field’s Home Supporter

We’ve already raised the issue of  Cllr Moira ‘Matron’ McLaughlin’s political affiliations in our Social Justice Worriers post . However, for obvious reasons – to Wirral Leaks readers anyway – Field’s electoral agent and Wirral Council Deputy Mayor George Davies has to keep a very low profile on the political front at the moment and so it would appear that ‘Matron’ has taken over the role as Field’s faithful factotum.

So much so that she is allowing Field to use her home address as a P.O. Box for his new political venture. As you can see on the Birkenhead Social Justice Party website you can write to Frankenfield c/o Matron’s Rock Ferry residence:

We know this because it is the same address that Matron provides as contact details on on the Wirral Council website.

Now on the assumption that Matron and Field are not co-habiting then we really think the former should do the honourable thing and declare herself a Birkenhead Social Justice Party supporter and knock the ‘Independent’ malarkey on the head.

Silly us – whenever have either of them done the honourable thing?…

 

 

Frank Field’s BS Justice Party

Will Field need a new electoral agent? I think we should be told…

After yesterday’s announcement of today’s announcement (or should that be pronouncement) we learn that Frank Field is still in deep denial that his political game is up.

In typical passive aggressive Frankenfield-style he hijacks this weekend’s announcement about who will be his successor as Labour’s next parliamentary candidate and gets his retaliation in first.  For what it’s worth and with the backing of some powerful unions our money is on Mick Whitley to be the victor in this particular long drawn out debacle.

However back to the star of the show – and forever the drama queen – we have  Frankenfield outside Birkenhead Town Hall telling us he will be fighting the next General Election under the banner of the Birkenhead Social Justice Party or the BS Justice Party as we’ve already taken to calling his latest vanity project.

Frankenfield will be 80 the next time the General Election is due, however with the Tory government now down to a working majority of one an election could be any time soon. Whenever it does take place it seems inevitable that in the interim we’ll have to get used to even more bogus news stories which will be endless variations on today’s tired old tune from the former Labour MP for Birkenhead :

I will be standing again as a candidate at the next election with the aim of doing what I have done for 40 years: always putting the interests of our town and our country first while championing the views and interests of the underdogs in our society.

Come off it Frank , you’ll just carry on championing your own personal views and interests and denigrating anyone who disagrees…

One question : Will Field’s electoral agent and current Deputy Mayor of Wirral Council Cllr George Davies be joining Field in his new political (misad)venture or is he waiting until he gets the mayoral chains for him and his missus next year before he too jumps onto Field’s sinking ship of fools?…

CCG and Mrs Jones

Our health correspondent Dr Love provides us with a commentary on recent events concerned with the proposed closure of two local walk in centres and the role of the  Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Cllr Christine Jones. It really makes you wonder whether they’ve ‘got a thing going on’…

Dear chum

Councillor Christine Jones is the joint chair of Wirral’s Joint Strategic Commissioning Board.

She acquiesced when their recent meeting was turned into – for the most important item on the agenda – a meeting of the CCG Board. ‘Legal’ because Council and NHS budgets aren’t ‘pooled’ for the related purpose, but a smack in the gob for councillors. (And see the John Brace reference below.)

The CCG agreed unanimously to close two walk-in centres.

Cllr Jones forgets to say that ANY closures had been opposed unanimously the previous week by a joint meeting of Wirral and Cheshire West and Chester Councils attended by Labour and Tory councillors.

She repeats the argument that people were ‘confused’ about existing services. NO reasonable evidence has ever been presented for this.

She accepts that there will be improvements in NHS111 (now rechristened variously ‘Ask Alexa’ and ‘Fuck off and die’).

She accepts that axed services will allegedly be covered by extra GP appointments, ignores the 100,000 missing NHS doctors and nurses, and accepts the CCG’s clear statement that this appointment system won’t necessarily be with a GP but with various assistants (less skilled, lower paid).

She fails to follow her own Council’s and her Party’s policies to oppose any closures.

She forgets that her party’s policy (nationally and locally) is to oppose the whole ‘sustainability and transformation partnership’ edifice, of which the CCG and its cut and pasted plans are part.

Her colleague who follows her is also worth listening to – for different reasons.

Here’s the video of the meeting with Cllr Jones’ comments from 31 minutes in. https://wirral.public-i.tv/…/webcast_interactive/429803

But the most jaw-dropping feature of this sorry episode is that last month she wrote to a local campaigner and said, “The community consultation the CCG delivered on the urgent care review proposals showed unequivocally strong opposition to any closure of walk in centres. I stand by the wishes of Wirral residents and council and will oppose any closure of services”.

Campaigners expect councillors (especially from the ‘people’s party’) to have a grasp of the ideology behind the rapid dismantling and demoralisation of the NHS. Our little local difficulty is simply a tiny part of the ambitions of those who would beg a trade deal from Trump and leave any bits which they haven’t already plundered to the slavering jaws of United Health of Minneapolis (the previous employer of NHSE boss Simon Stevens and with huge existing NHS contracts including via its Optum system).

BTW the other joint chair (and chair of CCG) Dr Paula Cowan is a key part of the whole unedifying process. She has form in forcing through cuts https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/fertility-treatment-cut-back-part-12583527

So is it the ‘aristocratic embrace’ that subverts Cllr Jones? Or is it just lovely to sit next to the NHS’s own Emily Maitlis?

She’s going to feel rather conflicted when her council colleagues refer the decision back to the Secretary of State for Health especially now that the whole process has been exposed by local video man John Brace https://johnbrace.com/is-the-decision-to-close-2-walk-in-centres-at-moreton-and-new-ferry-last-week-unlawful/?fbclid=IwAR3fGmjIDxS7NSjvNft2xoyqmX38vmOUERnSCo9tQP4U9P-5qIepFTQXrqw

The meeting video also shows Cllr Tony Norbury saying what a blow this is to the people of Birkenhead. Perhaps he’s failed to notice that elements within Birkenhead Labour – as well as Frank N Field and the local GP who runs an excellent ‘saved’ walk-in centre – are jubilant because ‘their’ Globe-splashed campaign had such a victory.

Yours, Dr Love

 

Frank Field : A Statement of Independence

Frank Field turns to one of his many chosen media outlets (but the one with the biggest circulation and online presence) to announce that the Veteran ex–Labour MP will fight the next election as an Independent

The hagiographic Daily Mail article describes Frankenfield as “…one of the Commons’ most venerable and venerated figures…”  as the MP for Birkenhead declares :

I have decided to fight the seat at the next election against the Labour candidate. I’m sorry it’s come to this.

But then as we know Frankenfield has been fighting against the Labour Party one way or another for many years.

With the Labour candidate for the Birkenhead constituency at the next General Election  yet to be decided it would appear that the current MP for the town has already got his  election bandwagon on the road.

As a well practised political operator (not a compliment), and being close to the action in the House of Commons, is Field anticipating that a General Election is looking increasingly likely to be held before the fixed election term of May 2022, when he will then be nearly 80?…

Frank Field : Is he or isn’t he?

Why isn’t this all going to plan ?!

Is everyone enjoying ‘The Less Than Magnificent Seven’ show as much as us ? The Labour Party splinter group known as the United Kingdom Independent Group (UKIG) are providing us with further validation that following Brexit UK politics is broken and fit only for satire. UKIG? Seriously – you’re going with that? From UKIP to UKIG  – how far we’ve travelled on the road to political disrepute.

However our interest in this particular debacle is piqued by local interest and our favourite MP Frank Field . The eternal question is whether he’ll have the courage of his convictions, grow the requisite genitalia, get off the fence and join UKIG. After all you know what they say – those who sit on the fence are likely to get splinters!

We’ll go out on a limb and suggest that he won’t . As befitting passive aggressive bullies like Frankenfield he’s quite happy to keep paying his Labour party subs , snipe from the sidelines , fail to call a bye-election and let others make an unholy show of themselves.

Whatever his decision Frankenfield will no doubt be very tolerant of people like UKIG founder member Angela Smith who ‘misspeak’ about people having a ‘funny tinge’ – especially when his own electoral agent, Cllr George Davies, has done the same.

 

Kingdom Come Lately

Inevitably we find Frank Field gegging in on the growing anti-Kingdom Security sentiment spreading throughout Wirral . As you can see the Birkenhead MP  has sent a Valentine’s Day love letter to Wirral Council CEO Eric ‘Feeble’ Robinson asking him to cancel the contract.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again this consummate politician knows which way the political wind blows much more than his Labour councillor colleagues. What’s more Frankenfield has a canny knack of knowing when a Wirral Council CEO is vulnerable. As we remember from history Field took advantage of the,ahem, compromising position that former Wirral CEO Graham Burgess had found himself in. Consequently when Burgess wouldn’t be coerced into making unlawful payments to phoney whistleblowers to protect Field’s electoral agent Cllr George Davies , the sly silver fox was forced into ‘retirement’ . Now with current Deputy CEO David Armstrong indisposed Stressed Eric  will have no-one to hide behind and be particularly  susceptible to political and public pressure. We anticipate that Robinson’s response will be dictated cowering from under his desk.

If – and we hope and pray – when the Kingdom Security contracted is terminated shall we expect headlines in the local press of the kind that we find in the national paper that Field likes to write for :

IT’S FIELD WOT DONE IT! 

However as this leak from the Liscard Labour Party branch seems to indicate that there is growing discontent elsewhere in the Labour ranks which are making Wirral Council’s continuing strange relationship with Kingdom Security to be increasingly untenable

Meanwhile we find a much more robust challenge to Wirral Council staff and particularly the enforcement of the  ‘Engine Idling Policy’ on the Facebook page Litter PLOD Kingdom Liverpool . A timely voice of experience from somewhere that has already ditched the services of Kingdom into the gutter :

Imagine this……

Your employer has out-sourced litter enforcement to a private company. That contract gets extended into business waste fines, dog fouling, PSPO’s and fines for idling your car when it’s not appropriate.

This out-sourcing happens despite 6 other authorities cutting the contracts of the same private company due to serious concerns over the way they interact with the public and how they behave.

Imagine now that there has also been a growing, serious public concern from the outset and that concern is growing. Only a small proportion of the concerned masses have received fines, the majority are concerned because they have WITNESSED the way this unscrupulous and immoral company and its staff operate.

Imagine, now, that, despite ALL this evidence, public concern and morally corrupt staff, your EMPLOYER, the local authority, are granting this company more powers and allowing them the chance to make more money.

Now imagine going to work for the local authority and you find that there is a new management protocol placed in front of you. One which will make YOU the potential target of this disgraceful company…..

How would you react? Would you be angry? Upset? Worried? Concerned that this company, a gang of wannabe gangsters, at best, are now able to target YOU whilst you work for the authority, YOUR EMPLOYER, the same people who keep these rogues on the street.

How would you feel to see THIS?

Kingdom are spreading throughout the local authority like Japanese Knotweed. Unwanted, unpleasant, morally corrupt bullies and they may now be coming for you…. BACKED BY YOUR EMPLOYER

The ‘Right’ Kind of Labour Politician

Following on from yesterday’s Selection Committee non-event at Birkenhead Constituency Labour Party (CLP) we’ve been musing on the cock up or conspiracy aspects of the debacle.

Now , we’re not usually prone to reaching for a tin foil hat especially when Her Ladyship tells us that they’re ‘so last season’ but there were some worrying signs prior to the meeting that the political establishment both nationally and locally were gearing up for a spoiler.

Needless to say Frank Field ally The Daily Mail (aka Fail) , an ever willing receptacle for his self serving rhetoric, was ready with a less than complimentary article on Wirral Labour councillor Tony Norbury and leading candidate to succeed Frankenfield as the next Labour Parliamentary candidate…the day before the Selection Committee was due to meet. Well, what a coincidence! However and as you read on here yesterday in our EXCLUSIVE : And the new Parliamentary Labour candidate for Birkenhead is… post things didn’t quite go to plan…or did they (for some interested parties at least)?

The Daily Mail article titled Labour hopeful lining up to take on veteran MP Frank Field ‘is a hard-left bully with links to group that dismissed claims of anti-Semitism against party’ details how Cllr Norbury had been disciplined by the Labour Party for bullying and revisited issues of alleged anti-semitism which we’d previously reported here

Needless to say local Tories and Frank Field fans were on hand to add fuel to the fire with former Tory Council leader Cllr Jeff ‘Yellow’ Green retweeting a link to the  Daily Mail article with a typically cryptic and cowardly comment: ‘Well,well,well..’. 

Well,well, well indeed! So tell us Cllr Green do you consider Cllr Norbury to be a worse prospect than Cllr Steve ‘Foulkesy’ Foulkes ? You know the one who considers you ‘kindred’? You know the one who organised a failed smear campaign against you and lied about it in an investigation and then there had to be another investigation because he’d lied during the first one and then continued to lie again in the second one? Or is ‘Foulkesy’ the ‘right’ kind of Labour politician who you can sit alongside on the  Board of Magenta Living , trousering the cheque and pretending to ‘play nice’.

As you can see from further tweets this week in support of Labour councillor Chris Meaden fellow Tory councillors Ian Lewis and Chris Blakeley follow the same path when it comes to Labour politicians . There’s a right sort and a wrong sort .

Now don’t get us wrong we’re not taking sides here as nobody’s hands seem to be clean in this political shitshow and as you know we have pored over philosophical treatises ,mulled over manifestoes and read the political rhetoric and concluded :

However to be frank (and not Frank) we’re  beginning to not care if the so called ‘hard-left’ returnees and entryists are hammer and sickle wielding wild-eyed Trots. Anything, ANYTHING that shakes up the moribund puppetshow that passes for political debate on Wirral where it’s all back to the Mayor’s parlour for a handshake , a sly wink and a slap on the back for a part perfectly played in a political pantomime is OK with us…

 

Fieldwatch 5 : ‘Today Birkenhead, Tomorrow the World’ / Meet Mr Whitley

The barbarians are at the door but at least Frank Field has plenty of other interests to keep him occupied…

Another big news week for the Birkenhead MP .

Firstly comes the news that a struggling Ellesmere Port secondary school has now transferred to The Frank Field Education Trust after crisis-ridden University of Chester Academies Trust (UCAT) abolished itself. But as Cheshire Live reports there are concerns about the move. Ray McHale of West Cheshire Trades Union Council commented :

“We only recently heard that Frank Field was establishing a free school – and his trust is now in charge of its first primary school in Wilmslow. That school is rated outstanding by Ofsted. However, to hand a struggling secondary school to a trust with no experience seems to be courting further problems rather than finding a solution.”

But what’s as long as Frankenfield gets his name on another building eh?

 

Of course the right Royal coup of this week’s Prince Harry/Meghan visit to Birkenhead which served primarily as a distraction from the local political upheaval that Frankenfield faces. However even the fawning local press couldn’t compete with The Daily Telegraph (aka Torygraph) titled Duchess of Sussex reveals she is six months pregnant with the baby due in April or May when it came to squirming sycophancy.  We defy you to read an extract from this report without a) throwing up  and b) wanting to refer Field for a psychiatric assessment :

The couple visited Number 7, a cafe and supermarket which offers discounted foods to help those on lower incomes live within their means…

Before departing, the Duke and Duchess were asked to to jointly unveil a plaque officially declaring Number 7 open, as Mr Field said his short speech had been inspired by Meghan’s own words to him.

“Ma’am as you said, it’s a great example to the country and to the world,” he told her. “Yes it is,” she replied, nodding…

Of the supermarket, he added: ”We want it to be better than Waitrose.”

Whilst ‘Megalomania’ and ‘Delusional’ were the first two words that came to mind we’d be grateful if someone could remind us which century are we living in again? Back to Foodbank Frank’s beloved Victorian era where poor people knew their place, were ever so humble and bowed and scraped to their ‘betters (i.e people with more money and power than them). Meanwhile a couple of days later Prince Harry and Meghan rock up at the Royal Albert Hall for a Cirque Du Soleil gig with the latter all dolled up in a £3,400 Roland Mouret frock  – see here. Wonder whether she picked up the sparkly number at Number 7? After all we know that Frank has aspirations for the enterprise -‘Today Birkenhead, Tomorrow the World!”- which are all well and good , but better than Waitrose?  That’ll be the day you can buy a Roland Mouret frock in  T J Hughes!

From the Daily Telegraph it’s a natural progression to the Morning Star as we bring you news of a pretender to Frankenfield’s crown.  As you can read in the Morning Star’s story Fight to replace Frank field kicks off in Birkenhead

THE fight to replace Frank Field as MP for Birkenhead kicked off today as veteran trade unionist Mick Whitley announced his candidacy.

Mr Whitley, formerly a long-standing convener at the Vauxhall car plant in nearby Ellesmere Port, was born in the area and is the former north-west regional secretary of the Unite union.

He has gained the support of Momentum, which holds a powerful presence in north-west England, while left-wing MPs such as John McDonnell, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Dan Carden have voiced their support.

The local branches of Unite, FBU, RMT, BFAWU and Aslef have also formally endorsed Mr Whitley’s candidacy.

Sources in the Labour Party have told the Star that right-wing former MEP Theresa Griffin is likely to also contest the seat.

Mr Field, first elected to Parliament in 1979, has been unpopular among local Labour members since the 1980s.

He lost a vote of no confidence in August last year, before resigning the Labour whip — and thus automatically leaving the party — a month later.

Mr Field meet Mr Whitley :

I would be honoured and humbled if the members in Birkenhead selected me to be their Labour Party candidate. I would be Birkenhead's voice in Westminster, not Westminster's voice in Birkenhead. #BuildingABetterBirkenhead pic.twitter.com/BYOvdh5huV

— Mick Whitley MP (@MickWhitleyMP) January 17, 2019