ON SECOND THOUGHTS...WE DO HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THE AXING OF THE SUMMER POPS

SMILING ASSASSIN STRIKES AGAIN

Two media matters have come to our attention about the city council's decision to scrap the Summer Pops:

Media Matter No 1)
At 3pm yesterday, two hours before the city council officially announced it was axing the Summer Pops, a press release fluttered onto the desk of news outlets in the city.
The press release sensationally broke the exclusive news to stunned journalists that the Summer Pops would not be taking place this year.
Who was this well-informed media missive from you may well ask? (good question, ed.)
Step forward Chas Cole, millionaire boss of CMP Entertainment and one-time marathon runner.
Chas 'show me the money' Cole, you will recall, is the man who has so far cost the city council more than £3million of council taxpayers money to subsidise the Pops.
Yes it was Chas, dear reader, who managed to break this exclusive story first.
But who tipped him off?
As CMP were just one of three private companies who were all bidding for the Pops, Chas should have had no inside and exclusive track on the news of the council's decision.
The finger points at Phil Halsall, aka the smiling assassin, and the father of young Liam (whose band 'Abe' appeared as support to Status Quo at the Summer Pops in 2005 and then promptly disappeared back into obscurity, you will remember, ed).
The highly paid Executive Director Halsall, (you will be well aware of this too, ed) is the man who is single-handedly responsible for the city's finances, which this year have ended up in a £50million cuts crisis.
And Halsall it was, of course, who signed the cheques for the last six years to pay his mate Chas for the Summer Pops.
Media Matter No2)
James Barton of Cream was appearing today on Radio Merseyside to talk about the Pops and ways in which Cream might still work with the city council to save the event this year.
But before he arrived an email suddenly appeared at the Radio Merseyside news desk.
And this media missive, marked NOT FOR PUBLICATION systematically, and highly selectively, rubbished Cream's tender proposal.
It revealed all kinds of highly confidential details about the Cream tender in a highly selective, prejudiced and partial manner.
Radio Merseyside was given permission to use part of this email as unattributable 'background' information.
(This means they could use the information in their report, but not say where it came from, ed)
Who was this media missive from? you may ask (another good question, ed)
Step forward the city council's newscentre.
For, astonishingly, the email was sent by an un-named press officer.
But who put the press officer up to it?
(As we know, they don't do things without being instructed to do so, ed)
And why did the council issue this wholly irregular email which, as well as being inaccurate, also broke all council rules of commercial confidentiality.
Just who authorised this flagrant breach of all council rules and procedures? (a terrifically good question, ed)
The finger points at the smiling assassin, Mr Phil Halsall, again. (Also now known as 'the weasel' as in Pop goes, geddit? ed)
Of course it could also have been some other council employee. Perhaps Dr McElhinney then?

An observer writes: Both these incidents reveal just how fundamentally corrupt the city council now is. Highly placed officials can give the inside track to their mates and then abuse their positions as public servants to try and damage their mates' business rival. It is utterly disgusting, cynical and shows the contempt they now have for democracy and public accountability. But will anyone do anything about it? Certainly not Colin 'Cover Up'.