We can’t take any credit for this latest revealing insight into the warped mindset of Wirral politicians but we are more than pleased to publish it.
Now we have no problem with prospective parliamentary candidate Cllr Tony Norbury buying a property in Buxton nestled as it is in newly-Labour controlled High Peak Borough Council but please, please, please we don’t want him to give us that bleeding heart socialist rhetoric whilst he’s at it.
Oh, and as far as we’re concerned his spelling (Yavonne Nolan???) , having the handwriting of a 7 year old and a preference for “PVC Wood Look Alike (sic) DoubleGlazing” would be reason enough to exclude him from high public office forever…
In the 1st picture you can see Cllr Tony Norbury’s declaration on Wirral Council’s website. He states he owns NO property in Birkenhead or anywhere within the boundaries of Wirral Council. He states that he only RENTS a property in Birkenhead.
The 2nd picture is from his Facebook page, Tony for Birkenhead. He has been out with his ‘comrades’ campaigning for Yvonne Nolan in Rock Ferry and talks about pursuing socialist policies that will “keep OUR wealth in Birkenhead”. Whilst he calls on keeping “our wealth in Birkenhead” he doesn’t appear to think that applies to him.
Picture 3 shows 50 West Road in Buxton, Derbyshire, which according to Rightmove was bought in July 2015 for £135,000. The link shows a planning application made to High Peak Council by a Mr Tony Norbury (with the same mobile contact number Cllr Tony Norbury lists on Wirral Council’s website) submitted in March 2018.
Tony has decided not to invest in the ward he represents as a Labour councillor, not to invest in the parliamentary constituency he wants to represent as a Labour MP, not even within the Labour controlled Liverpool City Region…
We were alerted to the fact that Cllr Chris Meaden had changed the party status on the Wirral Council website and that she now classed herself as ‘Independent’. This struck us as somewhat ironic as Cllr Meaden aways struck us as one of those councillors who did as they were told by the local Labour Party elite and was quite content to be swept along on Rock Ferry councillor Moira McLaughlin’s coat-tails as it was an easy ride. We were once again minded to recall that old joke Q: What’s the difference between a supermarket trolley and Cllr Chris Meaden ? A: A Supermarket trolley has a mind of its own.
The belated declaration of ‘independence’ was all very reminiscent of an adolescent flouncing off Facebook when no-one is paying them any attention and hoping for a few ‘U OK Huns ?’
Despite the Liverpool Echo headline Yet ANOTHER top Labour politician quits party -blaming ‘hard-left’ takeover our initial reaction to such a political hasbeen was CBA. However reading the local media coverage it is clear that Meaden has taken her acting out her adolescent angst to another level and be seen a-bitchin’ and a-snipin’ and a-moanin’ all over the local papers (the story in the Wirral Globe written by the same ‘Local Democracy Reporter’ Tom Houghton is a barely disguised re-write ) . As washing your dirty linen in public goes, the soon to be ex- councillor Meaden seems to have dug out the skiddy undies from the bottom of the washing basket , talking of ‘verbal attacks’ , ‘public attacks’ and ‘double standards’ . Much of her bitterness is directed towards Yvonne Nolan , her successor as Labour Party candidate for the Rock Ferry ward.
I believe over the coming months more information about Ms Nolan`s past involvement with politics will emerge and I don’t believe she is fit to serve the people of Rock Ferry. With her term coming to an end this spring, Cllr Meaden was ousted at a selection meeting back in October. But she said some of those present had “never attended” a branch meeting, while others had “never so much as delivered a leaflet’.That makes me believe that the meeting was packed with the aim of removing me and replacing me with Yvonne Nolan and the intention is to bring her in to lead the group.
Now we can’t comment at this stage whether Nolan is fit to serve the people of Rock Ferry but we do know that there are a few current Labour councillors who are DEFINITELY unfit for public office but has Cllr Meaden ever publicly voiced her concerns about them? No, she hasn’t ! – and it suggests to us that the Rock Ferry selection committee made the right decision in getting rid of someone who was quite happy to follow the orders of a PROVEN dishonest,bullying and controlling Labour cabal whilst it suited her which makes her declaration of independence nothing more than an exercise in pointlessness.
Strictly – and relatively (!) – speaking we should have done this story straight after our Cannon Fodder post as it concerns Cllr Kate ‘Copycat’ Cannon’s mother Yvonne Nolan. However such has been the extent and significance of this week’s leakage we’ve had to delay until now. Let’s call it a case of ‘leakus interruptus’ . The same applies to the much anticipated glittering ‘Leaky Awards 2018’ where such has been the response to nominations and suggestions that we’ve had to put them on hold until we can fully do them justice.
But back to Ms Nolan who, as you can see below, has attracted a lot of attention for someone who is not yet a Wirral councillor – although she has been, no doubt will be again come May and indeed, come what may .
Most , if not all, of the attention and uncomradely comment has come from Cllr Moira ‘Matron’ McLaughlin who has taken umbrage that Nolan is on ‘her patch’ (geographically and politically) ever since the latter ousted Cllr Chris ‘Yus, Milady’ Meaden as an elected member candidate for the Rock Ferry ward.
Now anyone who rubs ‘Matron’ up the wrong way is OK with us , so we thought we’d do a bit of digging as to what Councillor -in -waiting Nolan was up to before she rocked up in Rock Ferry.
We uncovered this Freedom of information request made to Manchester City Council which is most informative in many respects as we understand the ‘named individual’ involved is Ms Nolan herself.
We understand that the cool half a million + for three years work was paid to one of the prospective Wirral councillor’s companies – which is very ‘tax efficient’ of Nolan isn’t it? Nice work if you can get it and you can certainly get it in the Socialist Republic of MCR where there are 96 Labour councillors (count ’em) and er,that’s it!
Now we’ve got no problem with people earning a wedge (or in this case a very,very big wedge) as long as it comes with the requisite understanding that whenever we hear councillors (rightly) complaining about local government cuts and the emaciated state of council finances that it comes with the acknowledgment that somehow from somewhere there’s always money for council consultants and there’s always consultants ready to swoop upon the council cadaver and pick it clean.
Quite how Nolan squares any future ‘hard left’ rhetoric with the information above when she sweeps to power in May will be interesting to observe as will her thoughts on her Labour colleagues record on safeguarding vulnerable adults over the recent past and Rock Ferry Cllr Matron McLaughlin’s appalling track record in particular.
As the above Green Party leaflet doing the rounds shows opposition parties are delighting in the fact that the local Labour Party continues to enact a form of political autophagous. What is surprising is that some members of the Labour old guard are so under threat from their own members that they appear to be colluding with the opposition in ensuring maximum damage is inflicted upon their own body politic.
Consequently we couldn’t let Monday’s full Wirral Council meeting go without commenting on the dramatic scenes of Cllr Moira ‘Matron’ McLaughlin being allowed to open proceedings with a ‘short statement’ comprising a triple whammy of slagging off what she considers to be ‘the wrong sort’ of members of the Labour Party , rewriting history and that old stand-by, feigning victimhood.
Thanks to the John Brace film productions you can watch the ‘playing to the gallery’ unfold below from the 8 minute mark:
Apparently the local Labour Party no longer has the values that she ‘holds dear’ – which, based on her appalling track record, from our point of view, can only be a good thing! Whilst ‘Matron’ still graciously approves of a small number of local Labour members there can be no doubt that they will be the same members usually referred to on here as a ‘cabal’. Understandably the ‘cabal’ resent the challenge to their long held power base from what the Rock Ferry councillor describes as an ‘organised takeover by the hard left’ and Matron is now apparently their appointed spokesperson.
Needless to say there was the usual (unsubstantiated) allegations of ‘bullying,harassment and vilification’ by local Labour party members which Matron claimed had been raised at local,regional and national level and been ‘ignored and tolerated’ and therefore ‘condoned’…or perhaps there just wasn’t any substance to them. Just sayin’ ! She actually identified herself and others such as recently deselected Cllr Chris Meaden and Clllr Ron Abbey as ‘victims’ – no,really! Victims of what ? Democratic party processes? We’re just surprised at this point she didn’t reach for a hanky and dab away the crocodile tears for full dramatic effect.
Remember this is coming from the councillor who ignored,tolerated and condoned appalling PROVEN and EVIDENCED bullying and harassment when she oversaw an utterly toxic and dysfunctional culture within the Department of Adult Social Services (DASS). Matron preferring to be comfortably numb – then and now – to the ‘unpleasant’ reality of what was happening within DASS courtesy of her corrupt Cheshire chums.
And on she went in full Hattie Jacques in Carry On Matron mode complaining about Cllr Chris Meaden’s replacement who she pointedly refused to name but in a far from comradely manner described her previous tenure as the leader of Wirral Council as being ‘chaos’.
Yvonne Nolan (for it is she) was described as being ‘parachuted in’ and of having no knowledge of the area or any interest in Rock Ferry. ‘It’s disgraceful’ Matron harrumphed as though she’d caught Sid James having a crafty fag under the bedsheets. Once again the hypocrisy was staggering as Matron went all ‘Cassandra’ on us and predicted that Nolan would be an ‘absentee councillor’. Er,hang on a minute can somebody tell us how far Wirral Council ‘leader’ Cllr Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies’ home is from his safe Birkenhead ward? Just askin’!
Apparently it was the Mayor’s discretion to allow Matron to chew the scenery , sorry make a personal statement. The current Tory Mayor Cllr Geoffrey Watt didn’t afford Labour councillor Tony Norbury the opportunity to reply. But then he wouldn’t would he? This was stage management at it’s most cynical. It was an absolute pass the sickbag moment as the Tory benches rose in unison to give Matron a standing ovation. It was interesting to note that not all Labour councillors stood up to applaud. Ever the chancer former leader of the council Cllr Steve ‘Foulkesy’ Foulkes can be seen nervously twitching in his seat but resolutely stayed put, obviously not wanting to upset his new found allies on the ‘hard left’ who keep him in a position of power and influence.
Watching this sickening scene was an insight into how politics on Wirral has long been nothing more than a pantomime with the main political parties playing their parts. All trying to upstage each other by pretending to be outraged and shocked and appalled before nipping into the Mayor’s parlour for a little snifter and a pat on the back. No wonder when a challenge to the status quo (and allowances and expenses) arrives it is met with catcalls from the supporting cast and luvvie speeches of support from opposition party leaders . It would seem that for long standing politicians at Wirral Council , familiarity breeds content…
Wirralleaks 