Wirral Leaks Election Selection – The Results

 

Phew! we bet you’re all glad that’s it’s over and you can all get back to what passes for normal on Wirral.

It seems to be very much a case of ‘as you were’ with no gains or losses for any political party in the local elections . However considering the effort that Labour put into trying to topple lone Green councillor Pat Cleary in Birkenhead & Tranmere this has to be considered a huge moral and political victory for the popular and hardworking councillor deep in hardcore Labour territory . Although superannuated  Birkenhead MP  Frank Field was in attendance at the count and said he hoped for Labour success in his constituency even ‘The Field Effect’ couldn’t save them. This must come as a bitter blow to someone who is used to getting his own way in what he regards as his own personal and political fiefdom.

Everything’s Gone Green : Green in the background and Green to the fore makes reds go green with envy !Pic courtesy : Wirral Globe

Cleary thanked the people of Birkenhead and Tranmere for re-electing him “in the face of a horrible,negative campaign by the Labour party” . Meanwhile Wirral Council leader  Cllr Phil  ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies stood by with a face like a smacked arse as Wirral CEO  Eric ‘Feeble’ Robinson read out the result .

We were left wondering which one of the following options that Stressed Eric will choose to do with his mega electoral expenses :

a) deposit in an offshore bank account

b) donate to a local charity

c) prop up the bar and order trebles all round in ‘Brew Dog’

The closest result of the night was in the Pensby and Thingwall ward where Labour candidate Kate Cannon held off the challenge of Conservative candidate Michael Collins by a mere 23 votes. Close but no cigar for the poacher turned gamekeeper . Suffice to say that some of our most devoted readers were very pleased indeed that their former colleague experienced the bitter taste of disappointment.  Schadenfreude can be such an unseemly emotion but can be so,so satisfying.

Meanwhile ambitious Labour councillor Gillian ‘Gilly’ Wood came over all stateswomanlike as she was (inevitably) announced the victor in the Claughton ward and starting channelling the Pankhursts. Unfortunately the gravitas was somewhat undermined by the reporting of her profound words as follows (full report read here ) :

Suffragits ? Faught?  Listen guys and guyesses from the Globe we know it was a late night – but really?  As Her Ladyship said : ” The rousing speech ended up not so much Emmeline or Christabel but more Emily Davison .” Perhaps suffragits was a subliminal message about the gits that Gilly has to suffer .  Those gits being Gilly’s her fellow ward councillors – Cllr Steve Foulkes and Cllr George Davies.

As you know a couple of the reasons that we continued Wirral Leaks whilst in self imposed exile is that we wanted to cover the local elections and reach a million hits . It looks like that serendipitously that both events will coincide within a few hours. So it will be just a case of tying up a few loose ends and we can finally enjoy our day in the sun.

 

Wirral Leaks Election Selection – 1 week to go

We didn’t know whether the local elections had been cancelled as you’ve all been very quiet and then suddenly our inbox (and your letterbox) has been pounded in the hope of a big finish and/or happy ending (!) and then suddenly we realised it must be the last week of local election campaigning!

GREEN SHOOTS

You poor ,poor people – it’s a case ‘Hobson’s Choice’ for most of you and if you’re living in Birkenhead & Tranmere ward you’re really unlucky – it’s a case of ‘Jobson’s Choice’!

Talking of which – here’s an interesting factoid :

Just sayin’

SMEAR CAMPAIGN 

We’re a broad church here at Wirral Leaks and we’re always happy to redress the political balance if people approach us with tales of political hypocrisy . Here’s one we received this week from Kipper Central titled  Local UKIP Candidate in Smear Campaign

Here we find ‘Labour Rose’  Cllr Christine Spriggs apparently involved in a smear campaign :

Paula Walters, the UKIP candidate for the New Brighton ward on Wirral council, is being targeted in a politically motivated smear campaign. The Liverpool Echo, owned by the overtly left-wing Trinity Mirror group which owns the Mirror stable of newspapers amoung (sic) others, has teamed up with local Labour councillor Christine Spriggs to try and force Ms Walters to stand down.

A smear campaign with racist allegations?  Perhaps Cllr Spriggs needs to check the conduct of her Labour colleagues Cllr George Davies and Cllr Steve Foulkes before she starts throwing stones in glass houses!

Just sayin’

ASTERISK OF HOPE 

Talking of which many of our readers have been in touch asking permission to use Wirral Leaks content in their election campaigning only to find the object of their objections wasn’t standing . Most prominently – and once again for all the wrong reasons  – was Cllr Steve Foulkes aka ‘Foulkesy’ . Someone had done some research and sent us this picture of the 2015 election result and claiming that the asterisk meant ‘retiring councillor’ . We don’t want to dash their hopes but we think Foulkesy is here to stay . How else is this piece of poliical detritus meant to feel important? And what’s more the good folk of Claughton seem to enjoy the spectacle of fisticuffs with the missus!

Just sayin’

Wirral Leaks Election Selection – 2 weeks to go

PEACHEZ ‘N’ POLITIX 

So after being open for 6 months Wirral Council ‘s Planning Committee unanimously pulled the (butt) plug on Birkenhead ‘gentleman’s club’ Peachez . However the other Birkenhead ‘gentleman’s club’ was out in force bemoaning the bump’n’grind. Council ‘leader’ Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies even put in an appearance . Might we suggest this was more in support of Birkenhead & Tranmere ward candidate Paul Jobson – for whom the decision was described by Pip as a ‘fantastic victory’ – than a genuine concern that Peachez was turning the town into a hotbed of moral turpitude. Remind us , wasn’t Pip part of the crew who flew to sleazy Reno hoping to be twinned with a town who’s main attractions are booze,strippers and gambling? Whatever happened to that hook-up ? The only stripping Wirral councillors now seem to be in favour of is the stripping of public assets.

We think that Power Boy Pip’s appearance in the Liverpool Echo video included in their Pip on Peachez story should itself be x-rated. Inevitably Wirral Labour described his performance (and it was a performance ) as ‘powerful’. Pip once again used the phrase ‘sordid business’ and it was hard to tell whether he was describing Peachez , his blatant electioneering or Wirral Council’s modus operandi.

However we had to laugh at the inevitable inane comment from that ultimate exemplar of political and personal decorum Cllr Steve ‘Foulkesy’ Foulkes:  “I don’t know much about these places but I’ve not seen one in Liverpool on the main thoroughfare” he said sounding like a snooty, teetotal maiden aunt all of a sudden.

Bizarrely the refusal for planning permission was moved on the grounds that it would “not promote a positive image of the area”  – which prompts us to wonder whether any of the councillors involved in the decision leading to Peachez going tits up have actually been to Birkenhead lately? Just sayin’ !

THORNY ISSUE FOR LABOUR ROSE

Tory Wirral Council group leader Ian Lewis managed to get a front page from Wirral Globe ‘blasting’ reports that 170 foster children went missing in 2016/17. The revelations gave further insight into why Children’s Services have been deemed inadequate by Ofsted.  In response Paul ” Boycey’ Boyce , Wirral Council’s Director of Children’s Services was in in full ” that was then,this is now”  “right direction” “moving forward”  mode  – you know the drill by now. However taking things even further in her local election campaign leaflet Labour Rose (no sniggering at the back) Cllr Christine Spriggs simply rewrites history when it comes to the past failures in Children’s Services.

We readily acknowledge that since 2010 the decimation of local authority funding under Tory rule has had a severe detrimental impact upon local services.  However we would ask local politicians to be honest  – a big ask we know – and acknowledge in return, that many of the failings in recent years with regard to vulnerable people, both young and old on Wirral, have had more to do with bad management and poor scrutiny.  Consequently the £20 million (of your money) that Wirral Council are putting into Children’s Services are because they have had to remedy these past failings are less to do with “Tory cuts”.

Wirral Leaks Election Selection 2018 – 3 weeks to go

FAILURE TO LAUNCH

The ‘failure’ of course being Wirral Council ‘leader’ Cllr Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies who ‘launched’ Labour’s  local election campaign earlier this week. We’ve been sent the email and picture that was sent to Labour Party members and which found its way swiftly over to us from a number of sources, which is ironic as we understand Pip has been bemoaning the number of leaks emanating from the party faithless disillusioned with the local political ‘leadership’. The email was accompanied with the comment :  “Leaks? – oh dear Pip here’s another one!:    

Hello –

Today, alongside Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, I launched Wirral Labour’s local election campaign.

As you know, the choice for local people at this election is very clear – a Tory Party obsessed with austerity, cuts to the budgets of Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, falling numbers of nurses and doctors in our NHS, a crisis in teacher recruitment in our schools, and cuts to the Local Authority budgets which provide vital services to Wirral residents.

Read more from my speech here:  https://wirrallabour.wordpress.com/2018/04/10/labour-is-last-line-of-defence-against-savage-tory-cut…

On May 3rd, residents can choose a Labour Council which acts as the last line of defence for Wirral families and residents against these damaging Conservative cuts which are gambling with people’s lives.

I hope to see you on the campaign trail!

With best wishes,

Cllr Phil Davies
Leader of Wirral Council

NICK’S PICK

From the same photo session as above comes this delightful pic featuring Labour’s Claughton councillors Cllr Steve ‘Foulkesy’ Foulkes ,  Cllr ‘Gorgeous’ George Davies and the other one. See here : Gilly Keeps Bad Company in Claughton

Line of Tory ? – well if you say so!

There they are basking in the successful electoral lustre of Metro Mayor Steve ‘ The Brickie’ Rotheram. Does the Brickie know who he’s mixing with? All we’re saying is that if you take Cllr Gill Whatsherface out of her picture we wouldn’t be surprised to see former British National Party president Nick Griffin standing there. Just sayin’!

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

We thought that a long standing mystery had been resolved when we’d been sent the leaflet below. Wirral leaks readers may remember our  Campaign Fail story from the 2016 local election  involving Labour  candidate (and now Labour councillor) Tony ‘Lifeboat Disaster’ Jones. You may recall that Jones distributed election leaflets without showing name of agent, candidate or printer on the leaflet . As we reported at the time :

The Electoral Commission takes these things very seriously. Section 143 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 introduced a new requirement for all election material to bear the name and address of the printer, promoter and the name and address of any person on behalf of whom material is being published (and who is not the promoter). A candidate or election agent contravening this provision is guilty of an illegal practice.

Cllr Jones has subsequently proved to be very mysterious about his contact details. However we thought the mystery had been solved when we saw these details until we told this wasn’t an election leaflet but a newsletter and that fellow Labour Cllr Christine Spriggs resides at a different address . All very confusing :

LOOKING AT THE PEACHEZ

Pip told us he was on the campaign trail. Little did he tell us he would be mainly conducting it from the gutter. We’ve already told you about how the local Labour group are focussing on ousting sole Green councillor Pat Cleary. We also told you a while ago about ‘gentleman’s club ‘Peachez’  here. These two unlikely subjects collide in this desperate electioneering ploy from Pip and gormless Birkenhead & Tranmere ward candidate Paul ‘Hand’ Jobson who are suddenly wanting to close down the so called strip-joint in downtown Birkenhead.

 

The first thing we have to say about the Wirral Globe story :  Campaigners call for Birkenhead strip club to be closed down   is to ask – Who the hell is Pip to talk about ‘sordid business’ !?

Whilst a representative declined to comment on the Wirral Globe article Dustin Paul from Peachez did post this marvellous riposte on the Globe’s Facebook page :

I would like to offer anyone of the Wirral Globe readers free admission this weekend just say WIRRAL GLOBE on entrance to the club and you will be granted free entrance to see how nice the club is for yourself!!
Hope to see you all in Peachez this weekend!!
PS thank you Wirral Globe for the free advert last time we had to pay you to advertise Peachez in your paper!!!

Which just goes to show that those who take money for advertising are in no position to publish politically motivated stories judging those who take notes in the knicker elastic! Just sayin’!

Reds Go for Greens

As this leak from the Labour Campaign Forum (LCF) proves the campaigning for the local elections to be held in May has already begun.

The man in charge (no laughing at the back) is LCF Secretary  Cllr Paul Stuart, a man who is a past master at plotting and scheming as certain members of the Wallasey Constituency Labour Party (CLP) can testify.

As you can see the local Labour Party has but one target in May and that is to oust Pat Cleary the incumbent Green councillor in Birkenhead & Tranmere .

The campaign is based on the desperate, lazy and unimaginative # VoteGreenGetBlue . The man they’re relying on to achieve a Birkenhead & Tranmere Labour stranglehold is Paul Jobson (see below). Doesn’t he look peachy keen in his Labour Party fleece with his name on? Bless! Just to reinforce the lowest common denominator aspect Jobson is seen here being promoted on the Frank Field’s Community News Facebook page (run by Anna McLaughlin – daughter of Labour Cllr Moira ‘Matron’ McLaughlin) . No doubt to enable him to trade on the Field brand name. It’s just a shame that Jobson has chosen to promote his credentials by purloining the single -use plastic (SUP) campaign championed by , yes you guessed it ,Cllr Pat Cleary. Oops!

Read all about it here : Cutting Plastic Waste In Wirral

As a source tells us : “The motion, to begin with, was highjacked by the Labour Party in the form of a press release and a story with their friends at the (Liverpool) Echo.”

Article here: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/wirral-aims-first-place-merseyside-14021616

More a case of #VoteRedGetGreen ! This is reinforced by our final picture as it would seem that Team Foulkes may have misunderstood the Cllr Stuart memo! Oops ! they did it again! #LETSGOGREEN