Brexit – For or Against?

A couple of Wirral Leaks readers have been in touch seeking clarification on last night’s Brexit vote after hearing on the BBC local news that ALL North West Labour MPs voted against Theresa May’s Brexit deal. This would appear to be very poor reporting or deliberately misleading information from the BBC – nothing new there then!

The confusion arose after they’d earlier received this message :

Here’s how the Liverpool Echo reported how Merseyside MPs voted :

We  await with interest how today’s ” No Confidence” vote in the House  of Commons goes. We know at least one North West/Merseyside/Wirral MP who won’t be looking forward to a General Election should Theresa May lose …

 

Wirral Leaks Scoops the Mooney Scoop

As we reported earlier this week in our Will the Red Mist descend at Misty Blues? story Cllr Bernie Mooney was under some pressure this week to preserve her nomination as Labour candidate for next May’s Wirral Council elections.

 

Here’s a reminder of Mooney’s rap list:

• Multiple complaints about phone calls, done to promote herself – not permitted.
• Using an email address “Wallasey Labour Party”, when the email was from her personally
• The email had the Constituency Labour Party Office address on it and a photo which included people who had not been asked for permission, and were not in fact endorsing sitting councillor Mooney
• Repeated canvassing of Branch members by phone using the Party database at a time when this is not allowed by the rules
• Some of these phone calls also misrepresented the situation, implying that a candidate had already been chosen, and so discouraging members who favoured a full selection process from attending the meeting
• Leafleting in support of a candidate inside the meeting venue, with other copies of the leaflets next to the signing in sheet, which is also not allowed
• All of this conveyed the impression that the sitting councillor was the official or preferred candidate of the Labour Party
• It was unfair to other potential candidates who might otherwise have been invited to address the meeting, and be given the chance to become the Council candidate in May 2019

So here’s subsequently what happened at ‘Misty Blues’ according to an eyewitness to the Liscard Labour Branch meeting held on Tuesday 20th November

 

All changed.  Very businesslike coming together with work to do.

A new and different motion:

“This branch notes the Branch Officers’ proposal that the Liscard shortlisting meeting should be re-run.  The branch however also notes the advice of the Labour Party that this is not appropriate and that instead, the issues

can be explored by a “change of circumstances” interview.  The Branch therefore calls on the Local Campaign Forum (LCF) to follow that advice.”

This motion was voted upon and overwhelmingly agreed.

The above “advice of the Labour party” was received from North West regional officer Anna Hutchinson, who had previously stated there had been “no material impact” and that the original Mooney winning vote had been above board, despite the clear evidence of multiple procedural breaches.

Mooney waited until the end to deliver a speech.  Nobody present applauded, not even her own entourage.

Mooney has to now go before the LCF for a change of circumstances interview in accordance with Labour’s democratic rulebook.  Basically to decide whether she can stay on the list of potential candidates for a re-run selection panel.

The LCF is populated by members who will decide whether the democratic rulebook is applied and may not be minded to grant much leeway should the sitting councillor’s repeated, multiple breaches of the Labour Party rulebook

be confirmed.

One outcome of the Change of Circumstances interview could be that Councillor Mooney is stripped of her potential candidacy and victory handed to the losing candidate.

These are the Democratic Labour Party rules, strictly applied to all, now and in the future and will be rigorously applied to put an end to the repeated laissez faire interpretation enjoyed by Wirral’s right wing councillors and their sympathetic NW regional rep.

However the reason we have delayed reporting these developments is because we have become aware that there has been an orchestrated campaign to circumvent party processes and an unknown “Labour party rep” has plied the ever compliant Liverpool Echo with the material for a potential story. So it would appear that some anonymous person appears to be feeling the heat.  Who could that possibly be boys and girls ?

This (militant) tendency of the local press to go for outlandish headlines and ‘trial by media’, rather than reporting on internal proceedings will no doubt be welcomed wholeheartedly by BBC-funded journalists. Luckily, once again, Wirral Leaks got there first.

It will be interesting to see if the Liverpool Echo still run the story after this latest Wirral Leaks  scoop – but if they do,regardless of political affiliations, at least we can all make up our minds about the objectivity of the local press from the following leaked email :

Hi guys,I’m from the Echo and we’ve received the following report from a Labour rep. Can you let me know if the Liscard Labour branch would like to comment on a potential story? Going to run it asap as the meeting was earlier this week.

Bernie Mooney confirmed as Labour candidate as Hard left Wirral take over fails

Hard left plans to seize control of Wirral Labour Party have been halted as Labour’s most senior officials in the region confirm Cllr Bernie Mooney is reselected as the candidate for Liscard in next May’s elections.

Cllr Mooney is the deputy labour leader in Wirral and was automatically re-selected in a ward-wide election that has infuriated hard left activists in the troubled Wallasey Labour Party.

A Labour source said:

“Earlier this year, the hard left made clear their intention to take over Wirral Labour Party and target seats including Liscard, Bidston, Pensby, Rock Ferry and New Brighton.

“But with the exception of Rock Ferry, rank and file members of Wirral Labour Party have stood up and rejected the hard left takeover and renominated sitting councillors Mooney, Kenny, Brightmore and Hackett.

“The hard left, many of whom have links to 1980’s Militant and the Socialist Workers Party, have now been roundly rejected by the majority of Labour members in seats across Wirral. The Labour Party’s membership has stood up for councillors who have served their communities well for years.

“In a desperate last attempt, local hard left activists tried to use the complex rules and structures of the Labour Party to replace Cllr Mooney with a hard left candidate of their choosing, but the national party’s officials have now drawn a line under their plotting and planning by confirming Cllr Mooney as the Labour candidate.

The source added:

“Many of these hard left activists have only just rejoined the Labour Party in the last year or two after having campaigned for Socialist Party or The Greens against Labour in previous elections.

Ultimately, who represents Liscard is a choice the electors of the ward will make in May, not a handful of left wing committee members scheming in the shadows.”

SPECIAL REPORT : Kingdom Con

Nearly three years ago Wirral Leaks first brought to your attention Kingdom Security Ltd (Kingdom) and the issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) on behalf of Wirral Council in our Cash for Trash  post. We asked the question then :

Is this more about swelling Council coffers than about environmental concerns ?

Now with Wirral Council resorting to desperate measures to raise cash by any means, be it parking charges, car emissions, business waste and land disposal those concerns have continued to grow . When it comes to Kingdom they have intensified even further due to the following report we have received from one of our ever increasing roster of roving reporters:

What will it take to break up the ‘love in’ between Wirral Borough Council and Kingdom? Street cleaning costs haven’t reduced whilst Kingdom have taken over a million pounds away from our Borough since they started their  ‘Environmental Enforcement operations here in July 2015

WBC have allowed Kingdom to rewrite the rules – when it comes to environmental crimes on Wirral the onus now appears to be on the alleged offender to prove their innocence when the only evidence against them is the word of the Enforcement Officer (whose word appears to be sacrosanct, despite receiving minimal training) .The ‘zero tolerance’ approach to littering is the complete opposite to the guidelines issued by Department for Environment ,Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Within these guidelines DEFRA makes it clear in what circumstances FPNs should be issued. DEFRA’s  view is that it is not in the public interest to issue a FPN where there was ‘not clear evidence that the individual intended to cause litter’. DEFRA’s suggested practical ways to deal with such situations ,notably where there is a doubt over a person’s intent, was ‘for the enforcement officer to challenge the person and to state that they have seen them drop something and to ask them to pick it up . Should the individual refuse to pick up the litter then there would be sustainable grounds for issuing a FPN and pursuing prosecution , should the FPN go unpaid’

Following the recent Kingdom WhatsApp leak reported in the Liverpool Echo and Mail Online : Shocking Leaked WhatsApp Chat Kingdom denied WhatsApp was an official means of communication. A spokesman for Kingdom said : ‘Kingdom do not recognise that form of communication . Having seen some of the language used an investigation will be carried out and if necessary disciplinary procedures may follow Kingdom expects more from its staff’ 

Please note that Eoin Henney (Business Manager at Kingdom until Summer 2018)  set up both the Wirral chat group and the North West chat group, which included Wirral, Liverpool and North Wales councils. Below you will find from the What’s App extracts that Eoin Henney was one of the most frequent contributors . We understand that two of the other main contributors are still with the company , as team leaders . Of these two ‘MOR’ is part of a mobile team which is an ‘elite’ group that travels the North West (and North Wales when Kingdom were there)  to prop up areas where the ticket totals were flagging.

There are references to the club within both chats we have viewed   – membership to this “club” is restricted to officers that issued 100 or more tickets within a month, which earned them a special competency payment.
This has recently been changed to £5 bonus for every ticket over 4 issued in a single day with no upper limit.
The constant request for “scores” is proof that it is just giant competition between officers and regions, where they win and the public lose. There is no mention of the environment,of educating the public or anything professional whatsoever in the attitude, whilst the fact that numerous official instructions are issued through this medium proves Kingdom used WhatsApp as a business tool. The contempt the Kingdom staff (who are after all acting on WBC’s behalf) have for the public, particularly those in Wirral is painfully obvious.

On May 9th this year, whilst the tendering process for the new contract was underway , WBC sent the following emails to Kingdom which includes the following line from Susan Bannister : I have been advised that we only had 1 officer out on patrol on the Bank Holiday Saturday (I’m unaware of patrol hours ) and no officers on patrol on both Bank Holiday Sunday and Monday . This is unacceptable and Rob Cain will be looking into a default notice in this regard’ 

However as you can see from the WhatsApp chats ,once the enforcers reach their target on a Sunday,they are free to go home,irrespective of the contracted hours … wonder if WBC agreed to that ? How ,less than 5 weeks later , were they awarded a new contract for 3 years with a 3 year extension option?

As we know WBC have often denied that Kingdom staff are incentivised and receive bonuses for issuing FPNs as we also have copies of Wirral competency payments spreadsheets . We have to say for a company handling so much personal data there have to be serious concerns about Kingdom’s security ,given the leakiness of its own documents and communications.

Finally, Kingdom enforcers like to give people the impression they have caught an offence on camera. People need to know these recordings don’t start until Kingdom start speaking to them. Now that’s an ‘information deficit’ that you won’t find in WBC’s Wirral View…and whilst we’re discussing what does/doesn’t happen we’ll leave you with some video footage of a Kingdom operative threatening to stop someone from boarding a bus .These people have NO powers of detention , even a PCSO can only detain for a maximum of 30 minutes , Kingdom enforcers – zero minutes. Has this staff member been suspended,reprimanded or advised as to what the limits of his role are?

Or what about the Kingdom officer openly selling  cigarettes on Facebook? Shouldn’t people who enforce the law for a living be equally scrupulous in their private lives? We wouldn’t like to think that someone who makes a living from taxpayers was depriving HMRC of revenue and especially when we understand they were involved in a particularly shocking example of Kingdom’s ‘zero tolerance ‘ policy’

 

 

 

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…

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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…

SEND for Help

You know we are always happy to oblige with enquiries such as this:

Could you get any information on Wirral Councils new SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) manager John K Wood

From Huddersfield has he been drafted in on big wages to plug the holes on the sinking ship for the special education needs department as Margaret Morris and Paul Arista have recently departed with a SEND Ofsted inspection on the horizon

The answer to which is  – well, other than we know this particularly expensive consultant named above got the gig in July we haven’t got a lot to go on …which usually means Wirral Council are keen to keep something under wraps .

And sure enough and also happy to oblige are Liverpool Echo – who came up with a recent article with the snappy headline  Wirral becoming safer for vulnerable children as borough takes first steps to addressing chronic failings that left too many at risk of abuse

Yeah – if you say so. Or more accurately if Children’s Services Director  Paul ‘ Boycey’ Boyce and Cllr Bernie ‘The Bruiser’ Mooney say so – ‘Council chiefs believe vulnerable Wirral children are safer ‘ Well that’s alright then ! All we’ll say is that seeing is believing – and whilst it may be true that vulnerable children are safer let’s face it, in the words of the pop philosopher Yazz, ‘The Only Way Is Up’!

For balance the Echo report curiously references the infamous historical episode of financial abuse of disabled people and asks whether the claims of improvement are yet another ‘false dawn’  –  but it should be mentioned that it wasn’t £440,000 that was stolen by Wirral Council – it was about £300,000 more than that but hey, why bother with facts when the article is predominately about allowing ‘Boycey’ and ‘The Bruiser’ to go on at great length about the bad old days and the dawning of a new golden age for the vulnerable children of Wirral :

The department Mr Boyce walked into was “quite scattergun” and “largely non-compliant” with local authority regulations, he said, describing it as “a service that was disorganised, fragmented, that was unclear in terms of what it was trying to do and the sequence in which things needed to be done to improve things.”

Which is all a bit of a bitch-slap for Boycey’s predecessor Julia Hassall isn’t it? The Echo goes on to tell us that Mr Boyce has ‘wrought the changes’.

Efforts to turn the department around have been dramatic – and boosted by £20m of funding.

There have been suspensions and improvement processes launched, the removal of one whole tier of management from the structure and a massive drive to increase the number of permanent staff within the department.

New management appointments have been made to tackle concerns about a lack of direction from senior figures, while more than 400 workers have been moved under one roof to the Cheshire Lines building in Birkenhead.

So in the interests of balance we thought we’d particularly highlight public perception about how some of £20m has helped with SEND . Firstly from the source who raised the question above who goes on to say :

Is Phil Davies going to leave the council on a high of most improved council 2018 ? It’s an absolute sham with social care improvement – it’s worse now than it’s ever been …

Also providing a counter-balance to the relentless positivity is ‘SEND mum’ who can be found on Twitter @mum_send

Therefore might we suggest that even with a rucksack full of public money and regular upbeat travelogue news about the Children’s Services that there is still a long way to go on that ‘Improvement Journey’ before Wirral Council and their partners reach the long -promised land of adequacy…

Wirral Council ‘leader’ and his shock resignation : Power Boy Pip reaches the ‘Omega Point’

Power Boy Pip’s reflects on his political career  and decides smashing the mirror is easier than doing something about the distorted image. 

There are many curious aspects to Cllr Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies’  announcement that he was packing in politics – not least the fact we got to exclusively reveal the news from a leaked email . As much as we appreciate the leak we would have thought a more appropriate forum for this momentous news would have been the previous evening’s full Wirral Council meeting.

Whilst Liverpool Echo just did a hasty cut and paste job with archive photos shortly after we’d published the story , clearly other parts of local MSM were geared up for the announcement as Wirral Globe managed to get the news into yesterday’s print edition. The Globe also managed to reference to Frank Field’s recent run-ins with the resurgent Labour left despite the fact that this did not feature in Pip’s epitaph for his political career.

We’ll be analysing both the resignation message and Power Boy Pip’s political career in a special commemorative,cut out and keep, full colour supplement on Sunday  titled ‘ THE 30 INGLORIOUS YEARS OF PIP’ – but for now all we’ll say is the hackneyed comment about him wanting to spend time with his long suffering family’  was not only reminiscent of resignations of Wirral Council’s past ( ex-CEOs Maddox and Burgess spring immediately to mind) but is also the time honoured phrase used by politicians just before the proverbial hits the fan…and oh believe us, it’s about to…

There have been various theories sent to us about the sudden announcement  and we believe it may be a combination of all of them. After  Cllr Steve ‘Foulkesy’ Foulkes  reign of terror came to an end in 2012 in an unprecedented vote of no confidence , Power Boy Pip had the chance  to really ,really make a difference to the toxic culture of Wirral Council but instead chose the path of least resistance.

Ultimately it is a failure of Pip’s ‘leadership’ – the reliance on a handpicked spin doctor ,the failure to rein in out of control councillors ( Crabtree, Reecejones, Foulkes and George Davies for starters) ,the inability to say ‘NO!’ to Birkenhead MP Frank Field, the all consuming reputation management and the constant denial best exemplified by the fantasy  (Local Government Chronicle ‘Most Improved Council award) taking precedence over the reality (an ‘Inadequate’ rating of Wirral’s Children’s Services by Ofsted).

However it is also what French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin titled the “Omega Point”: “Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! … For everything that rises must converge.”

It is about the rise of the Green Party in Birkenhead (the humiliation of defeat in next May’s local elections had become a reality for Pip) , it is about the rise of Labour left (being held to account by party members had never before been a reality for Pip) , it is about the rise of local blogs ( there is no hiding place for local politicians up to no good any more ) and it is about the rise of political activism from people of all political persuasions across Wirral (especially those defending the Green Belt and the NHS – the likes of which Wirral politicians have never experienced before) .

For everything that rises must converge and together we say that is what is  responsible for Pip’s demise…

 

 

Fieldwatch 2 – The Clash of the Messiahs

 

Frank Field suffers lens envy at the Labour Party Conference

The Labour Party conference held in Liverpool last week cast a Corbyn-shaped shadow over the River Mersey and the neighbouring constituency of Birkenhead and particularly over its former Labour MP Frank Field.It must have been so upsetting for Frankenfield to witness the local front pages singing songs of praise – but not for him.

However, once again give him his due,  Field did his very best to rain on the parade of the Labour Party faithful who came in adoration of their new messiah, Jezza, but it was very much a case of scattered showers in less exposed places than the usual high profile media deluge.

On the eve of the conference Field had a story published in The  Sunday Times titled ‘The Politics of Faith’ where he wrote :

Writing about the link between my faith and my political activity is among the hardest challenges I have ever been given. I can describe my political activity with ease. Exploring the link between my politics and my faith is where I face a quandary. My questioners often think that these are two separate issues that can be consciously joined together at specific times and on particular issues.

It would appear that, indeed , it must have been one Field’s hardest challenges as he fails spectacularly in explaining how he aligns his political activity with his faith. Though, to be honest, if you can make out what the hell he’s going on about you’re a better man than I, Bungdit Din. It starts off reading like the usual ‘holy man in a wicked world’ schtick that Field has been pedalling for years before degenerating into a messianic mess :

Linked to a sacramental view of the world has been a biblical basis for my utopian politics. The leitmotif running through the Old and into the New Testament is the concept of the Kingdom in this world. The historical Jesus heralds a Kingdom at hand, one that is being sought and built, and a Kingdom that is to be completed at the end of time.

My revolutionary politics are about that commandment to seek and, by seeking, to help to build the Kingdom. However, this has always been a collective effort. We are pilgrims, not Napoleons.

Read full story here

Huh? We couldn’t tell if he was talking about less than popular local litter snitches Kingdom Security , as let’s face it they share something in common – preying on the poor and vulnerable for profit and political point scoring.  However there were a couple of insights we found interesting though  :

I was brought up as a Christian at St Nicholas’, an Anglican church in Chiswick, West London. It had a restrained Catholic worship, but a strong distaste of any excess of church millinery. It also lacked, as I was later to learn from my reading, a sense of a Church Militant (Christians on Earth struggling against sin). It did teach me the Catholic faith.

So Field clearly had a distaste for ‘Militants’ of any kind from an early age and it also helps explain his affinity with the local Labour Catholic mafia that he has helped sustain in power despite their many and varied ‘sins’ over the years.

More God-bothering was to follow in an article in Christian Today – which is a first appearance by that hallowed publication on these pages.

The Church Commissioners, who handle investments for the Church of England, have pulled out of talks around buying the loan book of payday lender Wonga.

Wonga, which specialised in high-cost short-term loans, collapsed last month following a surge in compensation claims and former Labour MP Frank Field suggested the Church should consider involvement in a buyout to ensure its loans do not pass to another high-cost lender.

Read full story  here

Now we confess (something Field’s cronies like to avoid doing) that we’re not as familiar with The Bible as St Frank but we always thought that Jesus ousted the moneylenders from the temple rather than trying to buy them out!

This was a story that was also picked up by ITV . The accompanying article on their website included an artfully crafted photograph of  Field looking as though he has the weight of the world on his shoulders as if it was he himself who had a massive debt to pay off.  But then Field knows that poverty and hardship is always best experienced vicariously and as the basis for a tear-jerking anecdote.

Woe is me…my favourite gingham shirt hasn’t been ironed.

Next stop was the anti-Corbyn Guardian and a call for an enquiry into the gig economy (hopefully something that Field will be forced to experience first hand for a change)

“The inquiry will, I hope, shine a bright light on the extent to which justice is being evaded in the gig economy,” said Field, who resigned the Labour whip late August. “We will be looking to suggest any immediate changes that are required, both to the law itself as well as its enforcement, to ensure no company is able to evade justice.”  Read full story here

Which is a typically hypocritical Fieldian sentiment  – relentlessly calling for individuals and organisations to be held to account and yet doing everything in his power to ensure that those who slavishly support him evade justice.

Field also tried to geg in and take some credit for the Birkenhead’s House of Fraser Store SAVED headline in the Liverpool Echo  . The decision to keep the store open was made by ‘Sports Direct’ boss Mike Ashley . We doubt very much whether Field writing a letter to Ashley six weeks ago made a blind bit of  difference as clearly the decision was based on renegotiating rents with the landlord. What remains to be seen is how long ‘House of Fraser’ store continues to stay open – it’s not exactly Beattie’s is it? Indeed ‘House of Fraser’ is to ‘Beatties’ what Frank Field is to local politics –  a shadow of its former self and something of a spent force.

…and the omnipresent Field media presence doesn’t end there with only today Wirral Globe belatedly covering the EXCLUSIVE : A Clean Sweep for the New Momentum Broom in Birkenhead CLP story under the extraordinary headline Corbyn supporters ‘gain complete control’ of Frank Field’s former Birkenhead Labour Party  which we think pinpoints exactly some of the misconceptions that led to a vote of no confidence in Field by the Birkenhead Constituency Party (CLP) in the first place . It is NOT Field’s ‘Birkenhead Labour Party’ and nor is he automatically entitled to treat Birkenhead as his personal,political  fiefdom…

 

 

 

 

 

The Party’s Over : Is Frank Field Killing The Thing He Loves?

We hate to renege on a promise but we thought we’d comment first on the reasons why Birkenhead MP Frank Field claims he has resigned the Labour Whip (although not the Labour Party) before we embark on uncovering why we really think he’s resorted to such desperate diversionary tactics.

But first let us thank our readers for the press extracts above and consider some facts surrounding this week’s grandstanding media onslaught. As we know facts are something that Field has a history of  ignoring , preferring instead opinions (particularly his own). The issues that led to his resigning the Labour Whip and, more importantly for Frank , wall to wall mainstream media coverage are set out in his resignation letter and expanded on in an ‘exclusive’ interview with the ever compliant and servile Liverpool Echo where apparently Field ‘opens his heart’. We don’t really need to do the punchline do we?

We’d now like to highlight  four salient points that may have been making the national headlines but have been somewhat lacking  in local knowledge.

ANTI-SEMITISM 

It would seem we’re not the only ones sitting here in utter bemusement wondering why Field the so-called ‘outspoken maverick’ all of sudden voices his public concern about anti-semitism in the Labour Party . We won’t dignify his declarations of concern with the term bandwagon-jumping. We prefer the words offensive, manipulative and exploitative . We’ll leave the last word on the matter to newly elected Labour councillor Jo ‘Lady in Red’ Bird who posted today on New Ferry & Bromborough Labour Party Facebook page :

Cllr Jo Bird is frankly fed up

I am a newly elected Labour councillor who is Jewish, in a ward bordering Birkenhead. Frank Field MP chose to use antisemitism as his excuse to resign from the Labour whip. I am frankly fed up of anti-Jewish racism being used as a political weapon to attack Labour Since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader a few years ago, my Jewish lived experience is a ‘broad church’ Labour Party showing solidarity and support to the many as well as the Jews. More than 100 members from all wings of Wirral Labour Party worked together to elect me, in our successful local by-election this month. We spoke with over 2,100 residents and I heard no-one raise the issue of antisemitism. Unlike Frank Field, my constituents’ highest priority is ending cruel Conservative government cuts to services we all rely on. The New Ferry part of my ward was devastated by a huge explosion in March last year and the government’s response is shockingly pathetic.

ANTI- RACISM

Field is really pushing his luck with claims that the Labour Party should be ‘a champion against racism’ when we strongly assert that he knows HIS OWN ELECTORAL AGENT CLLR GEORGE DAVIES HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF BEING RACIST. It is widely known that Davies has in the past used a racist slur ( “bloody useless Chink” ) during a recorded telephone conversation which was concerned with offering to settle a non-existent legal claim to someone to help organise a smear campaign against the then leader of the local Conservative group.  A later post will identify those who have either heard the recording, have a copy of the recording or know of the recording  and who have chose to collude with racism and criminality for personal and/or professional gain  – we guarantee it will certainly help clear up a few local mysteries.

And do we have to mention Cllr Davies’ old chum and former Labour leader of Wirral Council Cllr Steve Foulkes and his ex-Mayoress missus and their alleged shameful behaviour last year in Sorrento? Read here : Sorrento Shame : Holidaymakers claim they faced ‘racist abuse’

Was Frank himself ‘a champion against racism’ then?

BULLYING/INTIMIDATION/’NASTINESS’

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Field’s ramblings is the claims of bullying ,intimidation and what he calls with typical prissiness , ‘nastiness’.

As anyone who has dared to challenge the local Labour Party elite will testify that bullying and intimidation and abuse of power has been their modus operandi for as long as anyone can remember . Where was Field’s condemnation of ‘the corrosive culture’ of the Labour run administration as it was described in one of a number of damning reports concerning Wirral Council?

Perhaps the most disturbing and shameless  reference that Field has made is about former Wirral Council Labour councillor Louise Reecejones (LRJ)  . Wirral Leaks first reported concerns about LRJ’s conduct in 2015 – see Suspension Suspense and we have continued to do so,often exclusively ,to the extent that we are referenced in Wirral Council investigation reports. Again where was Field’s public condemnation of LRJ when as a Labour councillor she was found to have repeatedly breached Wirral Council’s Code of Conduct . Moreover did Field ever comment on the case of former Labour councillor Jim Crabtree convicted of making malicious calls to LRJ threatening to kill her and making specific reference to the murder that had occurred the very same day of Labour MP Jo Cox? If Field ever wanted a PROVEN case of criminal ‘nastiness’ this is it – Crabby – Guilty as Charged – but again not a peep from Field.

Now suddenly Field finds he has something to say about LRJ to fit with his current utterly contrived narrative and accuses LRJ of contributing to the death of former Wirral councillor Walter Smith. Although we have known about the allegations against Walter Smith and have made passing reference on our blog, out of respect for the dead and considering we’d never heard a bad word about him, we have refrained from publishing anything on the matter. Obviously Field has no such qualms about making serious accusations involving the death of a Labour colleague as a means  to substantiate his claims of bullying and intimidation within the local Labour Party.

The hypocrisy is staggering when you consider that Field has been the protector and benefactor of PROVEN liars, bullies and racists within the local Labour Party for many years. Could it be that Field has only suddenly become concerned about the matter of LRJ because it is she who chairs the Bidston & St James Labour group which initiated the removal of the whip by the Birkenhead Constituency Labour Party ?

Meanwhile Field is now making noises about standing as an Independent Labour candidate at the next General Election and sounding out the local electorate in the expectation that his adoring constituents will vote in their droves for the Pope of Poverty . We believe this is not a noble,principled stance but the Machiavellian manoeuvring of an egotistical, sanctimonious hypocrite. Didn’t we once say it would be his own hubris that would be his downfall ? Frank Field – ‘ The Truth Will Out’…