If ever there was a picture that wanted His Lord and Ladyship to stick their fingers down their throat this is it.
The hypocrisy on display is truly sickening. Let us explain why :
There has been a lot going on behind the scenes within Community Safety. As you might remember there was the usual PR bullshit within the local media with the announcement that ‘The Safer Wirral Hub’ (FFS!) was moving to Leasowe’s Solar Campus site as a joint initiative with all new cushy jobs and wage rises for the select few.
It was the shape of things to come that Wirral Council’s Community Patrol Officers (CPO’s) are the only ones not in the picture. In fact as far as we understand they are only requested to attend solar Campus if a bit of car parking duty is needed or a CPO needs picking up.
Apparently the CPO’s are now back to where they were 20 years ago in a ramshackle house on the grounds at Cleveland Street depot and are being requested to take on the duties of more senior officers which they have been covering for over nine years but with an agreed payment when they cover.
Now the powers that be want to make it part of their duties – without payment at a loss of up to £3k a year for some officers. As a source tell us :
Meanwhile in the real world Community Patrol Officers are currently going through a consultation that will change their shift patterns and take up to three thousand pounds out of their annual earnings.
Officers have been covering for supervision carrying out their duties for over nine years and receiving a payment for doing so as their wage bands are so far apart E to a H.
This new consultation wants to evolve these duties into the officers job descriptions without any further progression to their pay band but still have a single senior officer on a Band H overseeing.
This single post will be between the soon to be discarded Control room officer supervisor ( 30 years service with no blemishes) and ex mayors chauffer(with historical numeracy skills and a way with the ladies) who do we think will get this? The dubious character of the likely candidate speaks volumes
The consultation is over and the choice given is accept or bye bye.
Jobs for the boys at the top with fuck all on the shop
It’s Wirral Council’s same old mantra – something for nothing but aimed at the manual workers from the lower grades.Effectively punishing the lowest paid staff to retain one highly paid position when working class lads have covered it for the past ten years.How are CPO’s meant to make Wirral’s residents safe when their jobs aren’t secure?
What’s more the CPO’s have not been allowed to see their own job description as Wirral Council’s utterly corrupt HR department say they don’t have it.
Isn’t it a shame that people are reduced to making Freedom of Information requests to find out information to which they are legally entitled? :
But what really galls us is the likes of Cllr George Davies are still in a position to make decisions about people’s lives and livelihoods when he should have been run out of public office years ago. Lucky for him -and unlucky for us – he has low friends in high places who have got him out of deep shit of his own making.
Under these circumstances could this make ‘Gorgeous George’ the ultimate class traitor?
Cllr George Davies hangs his head in shame. Correction : he has no shame.
Today’s Wirral Council Cabinet meeting gave the powers that be the opportunity to respond to the criticism levelled at them by central government that they couldn’t organise a bunfight in a bakery when it comes to local planning issues with their failure to produce a ‘Local Plan’.
Unfortunately spineless council leader Cllr Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies , in his inimitable style, delegated the task of chairing this meeting to his hapless deputy , Cllr George Davies. But where was Pip? – New York? Reno? Cannes? China? Apparently anywhere but his ward in Birkenhead or Wallasey Town Hall! Consequently we’d like to send him an early Easter present – a petri dish. Perhaps he’ll be able to grow a scrotum in it!
Inevitably it didn’t work out well as Gorgeous George hid behind his PC screen (which makes a change from hiding behind Frank Field’s skirts) and , as usual, embarassingly read out a pre-prepared empty speech which bore a remarkable similarity to an exclusive statement issued to Wirral Globe by Pip in his belated response to Sajid Javid, the Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government,and his letter threatening government intervention which we exclusively revealed to the people of Wirral – Making Plans For Wirral
The use of the term ‘dead wrong’ was a dead giveaway that this was a Martin Liptrot-scripted case of talking loud and saying nothing. Watch in horror from behind the settee from 7.30 minutes in of the John Brace video as Cllr George Davies has the temerity to say that as a government minister Sajid Javid is “entitled to his opinion” . Whereas the truth of the matter is that Javid is entitled in LAW to insist that Wirral Council abide by their statutory obligations and produce a coherent ‘Local Plan’ .
What we find to be ‘dead wrong’ in the above horrorshow is that someone who has used racist slurs and offered a sweetheart deal to scammers in return for smearing a political opponent is deemed to have the moral authority and political gravitas to challenge the accusation that he is monumentally incompetent when it comes to fronting Wirral Council’s planning portfolio.
Just watch and tell us whether it makes you feel proud that the people above – and Cllr George Davies in particular – are responsible for making decisions that affect you and your life.
Wirral Council ‘leadership’ in action. These are the people who make decisions about our lives whilst avoiding the public gaze from behind their (smoke)screens .
However little did we think that 4 years later we would still be waiting for the biggest scandal ever in Wirral politics to be fully exposed. Call it our spectacular naivety in underestimating the power that 4 politicians hold locally but it is astonishing to us that this particular 4 x 4 is still on the road. So , for those of you unfamiliar with the Wirralgate story , which for a start off means you’re not a regular reader of Wirral Leaks , we’ll break it downfor you. It goes a little something like this :
4 Wirral Council complainants have a recorded telephone conversation involving the Deputy Leader of Wirral Council where he uses a racist slur to describe a senior council officer and offers the complainants what they themselves call a ‘ sweetheart deal’ . They are asked to hand over a document smearing Tory leader Jeff Green and their suspect claim for compensation will be sorted without the necessity of all those bothersome legal processes. They hand over the document which was written by one of the complainants (and just for clarity was NEVER in the files of the former head of law Bill Norman, as was claimed by former leader of Wirral Council , Cllr Steve Foulkes.) Foulkesy subsequently hands over the document to Liam Murphy – the political editor of the Liverpool Echo. Murphy later makes a covert recording of the covert recording (!) and when later outed by Emma Degg the former Wirral Council head of communications to whom he played it, suddenly Murphy is no longer the political editor of the Liverpool Echo ! Go figure!
Council Leader Cllr Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies later claims that the 4 complainants were using the recorded conversation to settle their compensation claim . The complainants record a meeting they had with Pip listening to the Cllr George Davies telephone conversation. Pip asks of one of the complainants whether he is recording the meeting. He wasn’t – but another of the complainants was. So now they have a recording of Cllr Phil Davies, the leader of Wirral Council listening to a highly incriminating recording his deputy! BINGO! Pip is heard to say on the recording :
” I can’t defend this”
But of course he has to – George Davies is not only his deputy but Frank Field’s electoral agent and confidante. No wonder Pip agrees to a bogus ‘inquiry’ by long time Field associate Nick Warren which was nothing more than a means of securing the complainants more than the £3,000 they’d been offered for their ‘time and trouble’ and a sum of public money much more in line with what the incriminating recordings are worth to the big 4 – if not to Wirral council taxpayers.
Of course Frankenfield, Power Boy Pip, Foulkesy and Gorgeous George wouldn’t have got away with the cover up for so quite long without the passive local political ‘opposition’, the complicity of the local press , Merseyside Police and senior council officers past and present, the compromising of other investigations where Cllr George Davies and Cllr Foulkes were allowed to get away with persistently lying and where the complainants refused to take part ( hey, wasn’t there a cheque in it for you guys or something?) and, most pertinently, the failure of the complainants themselves to ‘go public’ with the recordings despite the fact they’ve played fast and loose with local media for 4 years – and it must be said , even us , but you may have noticed we gave up on them doing the right thing a long time ago. Wirral Leaks is NOT and never will be a bargaining tool. The irony being that whilst the complainants were more than willing to go public with allegations that they could never properly evidence they have withheld incontrovertible evidence proving that the big 4 are utterly corrupt. Draw your own conclusions ££££££££.
Ultimately to us this is just an example of Frankenfield’s feudalism – getting his own way and doing exactly what he wants and knowing he’ll never be challenged. Another example was his backing of last night’s EU Withdrawal Bill in the House of Commons , thereby defying Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who asked Labour MPs to vote it down. Could this be the same Frank Field who voted for EU enlargement and the accession of Eastern European countries in 2003?
But then Frank’s not one to let facts or truth get in the way of his one man mission which is the greater glory of HIMSELF – and it seems Wirralgate musn’t be allowed to get in the way of that amoral juggernaut.
Storm the barricades: Power Boy Pip in his ‘The North Face’ windcheater doesn’t know whether to laugh at Cllr Brian Kenny in a hi-viz jacket or cry that he could have been the MP for Wirral West
Corbyn’s Tour of Wirral
As we have previously highlighted, the Wirral West constituency is the only local point of interest for us in the forthcoming General Election as it promises to be a closely contested marginal seat . Hence the presence of Jezza himself yesterday on West Kirby beach in support of current Labour MP, Margaret Greenwood. Let’s face it – in terms of profile it’s an improvement on ‘Lord’ Prescott and Labour Deputy John McDonnell who turned up to do the good cop/bad cop routine last time around.
Nevertheless our sources tell us it was much like the weather – despite the numbers it was a bit of a damp squib. Organisers couldn’t quite co-ordinate the Corbyn motorcade with The Velvelettes classic ‘He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’ booming out on the PA – but full marks (or should that be Marx) for trying.
Corbyn turned up later as the support act for The Libertines at Prenton Park at the ‘Wirral Live’ concerts taking place over the weekend – although we’re not sure it’s exactly ethical that people turning up for a pop concert should be involuntarily treated to a party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party. Having said that we couldn’t name a Libertines tune between us here at Leaky Towers. But we suspect that lead singer Pete Doherty would most definitely feel at home round here and would have no doubt provided a boost to the local economy. Just sayin’
Working Hard For Frankenfield
Some of you lucky people have received Birkenhead MP Frank Field’s campaign leaflet published by his political agent Cllr George Davies. We know this as we’ve been forwarded a copy. First thing to say is why did Gorgeous George bother wasting Labour party funds on publishing such a pointless item when we all know that all Frankenfield needs to do to get elected is NOT support a corrupt local regime complicit in the abuse of vulnerable people. Oh………..
The leaflet is most curious as Frankenfield seems to concede that the forthcoming General Election is a foregone conclusion.
He says he’s going to:
Push the new government to negotiate a Brexit settlement that makes our country fairer and more prosperous while enabling us to control our own borders ,our own laws and our own taxpayer’ money
Build pressure on the new government to protect and strengthen the NHS and social care
Encourage the new government to place every household automatically onto the cheapest available tariff for their gas and electricity
So is he saying – the Conservative Party is a shoo-in or that he will be challenging his own party? Modern politics can be so confusing! As far as we’re concerned there appears to be a hare’s breath between all of the political parties after your vote. Not least when you consider Theresa May’s Tory Smorgasbord of policies nicked from left,right and centre.
For example did you know that analysis of party manifestos by Resolution Foundation shows Jeremy Corbyn would go ahead with most of former Tory chancellor George Osborne’s planned benefits cuts. This includes at least a £7bn slash to welfare even if Labour wins power. Apparently three-quarters of the huge package of benefit cuts announced by the former chancellor in 2015 are yet to be implemented, including a major reduction in support given to the low-paid, and limiting payments to families with more than two children. Did Jezza mention any of this during his rousing speeches over the weekend? Just askin’ .
Finally – we just need to reiterate our apolitical credentials. We do not intend to exert any political influence over our readers. All we ask is that you question everything, especially when ongoing political campaigns seem to confirm the old adage that politics is showbiz for ugly people!
Pic courtesy of Wirral Globe : We’ve edited the innocent party on the left (if there is such a thing)
Decorum – admittedly not our strong point – prevents us from commenting on the previous incumbent as councillor for Claughton but as you can see from the gormless picture above (‘Thumbs up everyone!’) Gillian Wood is the newly elected third councillor for Claughton after a spectacularly underwhelming 30% voting turnout.
Jolly Gilly , all perky in polka dots , finds herself flanked by the two other councillors for Claughton who we regard to be the two most dishonest and disreputable politicians at Wirral Council (well, now that Jim Crabtree has finally been found out) . Cllr George Davies and Cllr Steve Foulkes (for it is they) then find themselves flanked by the two politicians who have scandalously sustained them in their positions of power. So it’s a thumbs down from us for council leader Cllr Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies and Birkenhead MP Frank Field as we find ‘The Crafty Foxes’ all present and incorrect in the same corny photo-op.
Did Power Boy Pip suspend Cllr George Davies when he heard the tape where he heard his namesake racially abuse a senior officer of Wirral Council and offered a ‘sweetheart deal’ to a favoured group of complainants ? Of course he didn’t – Frankenfield was having none of it. Gorgeous George is his political agent and Pip is weak.
Did Power Boy Pip persuade Cllr Steve Foulkes to stand down when Foulkesy received his mayoral nomination in an attempt to prevent bringing the local Labour Party into further disrepute. Of course he didn’t – Foulkesy was having none of it. He’s shameless and hardfaced and Pip is weak.
Does Gilly know what’s she’s letting herself in for , does she care or will she succumb to the lure of ‘scroundrelism’?
Meanwhile Her Ladyship asks the pertinent question as to why Frankenfield looks like a vintage municipal binman? Could it be the poverty tourist and virtue -signalling gesturist is going for some retro street-cred?
Following the time-honoured tradition of burying bad news it was announced (or rather it was dragged out of them) just prior to the elections ,that the North West Labour Party had suspended Wirral Labour Councillor Louise Reece Jones pending a further investigation.As you can see from the press report they are desperately trying to keep this one on media lockdown. HERE
Consequently, we have been asked whether we know why Cllr.Reecejones had been suspended – and needless to say – we do.
This is Wirral Council we’re talking about – where leaks are in direct proportion to secrets.
We publicly stated on Twitter that we wouldn’t want to jeopardise due process (an alien concept at Wallasey Town Hall) so we’ll keep a watching brief on this development for now.
We expect the usual – a report to be released on Christmas Eve stating how robustly Labour Party investigated the matter and there will be press release stating either a) there is no case to answer or b) appropriate sanction will be made as such misconduct will not be tolerated (unless you’re Cllr.Steve Foulkes or Cllr.George Davies).
Talking of which we were excited about new kid on the blog “The Morton Distortions” written by Wirral Council whistleblower Martin Morton but somewhat like Cllr.Reece jones that currently also seems to be in a state of suspended animation.
From what we’d read there were a couple of revelations about the Wirralgate scandal which we didn’t know about – but much of it we already knew and had already disclosed.
We’re just waiting information from a couple of sources and we’re ready to publish “The Definitive Guide to Wirralgate”.
Might we suggest that it might be useful to her if Cllr Reecejones reads the guide so as to understand what conduct the local Labour group think is or is not acceptable.
Failing that we think her only hope is to foster a friendship with Frankenfield very,very quickly or her days are numbered.
This will mean that belligerent, camera shy Councillors ( that’ll be you Councillor Steve ” No Strike ” Nibbers O’Niblock and Councillor Harry “Crisp Packet” Smith ) will need to have a makeover and be ready for their close-ups courtesy of keen cinematographer John Brace – who has now firmly established himself as Wirral’s answer to Cecil B.De Mille.
In what must have been the last meeting he filmed before it became a legal right Mr.Brace treats us to a recording of a meeting of Birkenhead Constituency Committee held on July 24th 2014 (and from which we have taken the rather delightful still above)
There are 5 parts to this cinematic magnum opus on Youtube but to be perfectly honest we soon got bored of what seemed to be The Frankenfield Drone Show and found ourselves fast forwarding through the recordings.
However it seemed to us that at whatever random point you watched the recordings the Committee was talking crap.
No change there then you might say.
However this time we mean dog crap, fly tipping and dumping.The Committee seemingly confirming “The Maddox Maxim” ( former Chief Executive Stevie once declaring at a public meeting that all that the people of Wirral were interested in was dog crap).
Not to decry the people of Birkenhead and these may be genuine concerns but we must say that if the level of debate is confined to crap it says something about the limit of the Committee’s ambition.
We also glimpsed Power Boy Pip having a petulant pop at Local Government Minister Eric Pickles’ edict concerning the legitimacy of spending public money on town hall “Pravda” publications.Pip couldn’t understand why they couldn’t go straight to press with all the news about the fabulous work that the Birkenhead Constituency Committee is doing.
However could it be that, as yet , there’s actually nothing to put in the newsletter other than decidedly un -alluring pictures of what was described as “dog fouling hot spots” (no,seriously).
Legal spoilsport Two-bit Bore then chipped in that it would be best to check as to whether their Pravda publication proposal was actually legal.
They all laughed when Frankenfield suggested that yes that it might be an idea to check on the legal aspects (no doubt the hilarity was ironic as we all know that legalities have not always been a prime concern of Wirral Council)
Other glimpses include a Council Officer genuflecting in the general direction of Frankenfield with the mantra: “Through you Chair ……through you Chair…..through you Chair”
At this point an exasperated Ladyship groaned : “I know what I’d like to put through the chair ….” and went back to watching her more usual type of Youtube “Epic Fail” videos.
So there we were yesterday enjoying a leisurely Sunday morning in the Leaky Towers boudoir flicking through the newspapers when Her Ladyship suddenly shrieked :” Oh my word “Wirralgate” is in The Sunday Times!…..”
I snatched the article from her trembling hands and quickly scanned an article written by journalist Lynn Barber. I then handed Her Ladyship her bifocals and pointed to the title of the book that was being reviewed and which read : “Watergate: The Hidden History”.
However as I read on I fully understand as to how Her Ladyship might have been mistaken :
“Watergate was more then 40 years ago,but it remains journalism’s finest hour – the moment when tireless digging by two investigative reporters brought down a president……..Watergate was by far the most enjoyable political scandal ……because it went on so long and,as in all the best soap operas ,built remorselessly week after week from one jaw-dropping revelation to another……..Thus the great unravelling began……It turned out that all Nixon’s conversations in the Oval Office and in his private office had been recorded…and after a long legal battle,Nixon was forced to release them.This was when “expletive deleted” became part of the language because it cropped up so many times in the transcripts….”
All we need to add is that we can certainly think of 1 “expletive deleted” that will need to made when the transcript of the Wirralgate tape finally emerges from “the hidden history”.
Having said that we’re not sure as to whether “bloody” counts as an expletive these days.However we are sure that the rest of the sentence containing this word will fully warrant both censoring and censuring.
It was here that we compared the case to Watergate case and the disgrace of US President Richard Nixon. Now with the publication of an independent report of monumental , almost pathological , denial we are minded to recall another US President , infamous dress messer , Bill Clinton and his ” I did not have sexual relations with that woman” claim.
The flimsy report of consultant Patricia “Thick &” Thynne which selectively focuses on allegations of a smear campaign against Tory Leader Jeff “Jefferson” Green is simply beyond satire.
All we can do is implore anyone who interested in “how things work” on Wirral is to read the report which consists of 17 pages of pure putrescence
“Further investigation of these matters is unlikely to be the best method of encouraging improved behavior….”
On this matter we can only agree with Ms.Thynne – what is needed at Wirral Council is not an investigation but fumigation.
If the contents of the audiotapes are ever released it will be interesting to observe as to whether some of the statements made in the report will mean that certain Councillors and officers will , like Bill Clinton , er, come unstuck………….
It came as no surprise to us at Leaky Towers to hear that a small delegation of Wirral Council bigwigs had taken flight (especially when we heard it involved The Deadly Davies Duo, Pip & George)
What did surprise us is that the airborne jaunt landed in the pensioners paradise that is Bournemouth for a Local Government Association conference. Why one can almost hear the ‘chink’ of bone china tea cups as Pip and Gorgeous take centre stage
Comrade Burgesski provided unequivocal evidence that his recent irony by-pass operation had been such a success when he declared that their attendance was an “opportunity to showcase Wirral’s achievements and good practice on this national platform.”
Subsequently Wirral Council spokesperson Dee Niall has refuted rumours that the expedition will next be flying down to Rio to advise FIFA’s World Cup officials on hospitality beanos, pay-offs and sweetheart deals……
As our new Brazilian maid Dolores Del Rio said : “Fala sério!…………….”
Wirralleaks 