Friday, November 16, 2007

DAVID VERSUS GOLIATH: AN ASTONISHING SPECTACLE

And so it came to pass....

Congratulations firstly to Lee Forde for a brave and principled stand in the great traditions of David versus Goliath.

The shocked and angry expression on the face of Fireman Bradley today, as the media clustered around the city's former Events chief, was truly a delight to behold.

For some obscure reason, the Fireman and his accomplices, Story-teller and Cover Up, seemed to have forgotten that Lee Forde is a true son of the city.

Ie: he will take no shit from anyone.

These three powerful men resorted to secrecy, smears and lies to try and trash the reputation of one of the city's decent public servants.

They failed.

Mr Forde's reputation is today intact - because he employed weapons of truth, honesty and courage to defend himself.

A guilty man does not stand outside Liverpool Town Hall inviting the media to interrogate him.

A guilty man acts like Warren Bradley, hiding in the Town Hall and hurriedly scuttling away from the scene of his crimes.

(Or a guilty man swings in his hammock, munching ice creams and murmuring 'manana', eds)

Storey-teller, who has a streak of cowardice a foot wide running down the entire length of his missing spine, was, of course, nowhere to be seen at today's festivities.

Even though it was his £100,000 cut in the budget which prompted the entire Mathew Street debacle in the first place. Disgraceful.

Colin CoverUp, meekly cowering behind his desk in the MO like a third rate bureaucrat, was protesting that the Mathew Street Inquiry Report was "the Leader's report, not the city councils." What a weasel.

In a sense, however, CoverUp is correct. The inquiry report was not an official city council report at all.


In terms of the extraordinarily inappropriate language used, its juvenile sniping tone, disgraceful manipulation of the facts and wholsesale misrepresentation of the evidence, it owed more to a dog-eared airport paperback, than an official report on behalf of Merseyside's biggest public body.

Of course, the report had been delayed for three months partly to allow Fireman Bradley and the Storyteller to hire hands from the PR world to re-write and spin it.

Contemptible.

It was an exercise in wholesale character assassination and scapegoating the like of which we have never seen in Liverpool before.

Neither Bradley, Storey, Hilton or the Harbarrowboy (laughing all the way to the bank in his Spanish hacienda, eds) were to blame for Mathew Street. It was all little Lee Forde's fault.

So outside Liverpool Town Hall today, it was, literally, David versus Goliath.

When is the great city of Liverpool ever going to have a civic leadership which is prepared to step forward and take responsibility for its actions?

With this gutless shower of Lib Dems? Never.

And now a word or two about our friends in the media....

(Here we go, eds)

The cancellation of Mathew Street was one of the worst public relations disasters - and most costly blunders - experienced by Liverpool for a generation.

But it was also the visible culmination of a catalogue of mismanagement, incompetence and stupidity from the Culture Company.

This organisation has been a shambles for the city ever since Sir Diddy hatched its misbegotten birth.

Nothing new here for the papers, then.

We simply ask of the media, especially our friends at the craven Echo: "Why did you not focus on the little man, the David battling the city council Goliath with all its huge resources, power and corruption?

"Why did you lazily and meekly reproduce the discredited conclusions of an obviously tampered report -and not give equal space to the accused?

"Why are you so far up yourselves, that you cannot see what is being done in the name, unbelievably, of local democracy in your own city?"

Timewasters.

What was news today was the truly shocking spectacle of Liverpool's current political and managerial leadership openly and cynically trying to shift the blame for Mathew Street onto the innocent.

These men have no shame. No conscience. No integrity.

Morally bankrupt. Emotionally vacant. Politically inept.

And, we vow, you won't escape that easily....

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

First class Tonys, first class. On the subject of the media - disgraceful interview with the Fireman on Radio Merseyside by Leigh Bennion, who then gave two minutes to Forde and repeatedly interrupted him after allowing Bradley to bore us all to tears with ten minutes of incoherent rambling. Where was Roger Phillips - at least he knows what really went on.

Anonymous said...

What about that Chris green fella then? Is he a scapegoat as well?

Anonymous said...

As expected Colin cover up has done yet another amazing whitewash job with his, so called 'independent', enquiry. He has laid the blame fairly and squarely at the door of two handy scapegoats who are no longer in the employ of the culture company.

Even more amazing is the fact that after painting himself whiter than white, and even after a thorough cleansing of the report at the instigation of the Fireman under threats of legal action by the disgraced former council chief, cover up didn't have enough whitewash left to thoroughly cover all the dirt on the fireman and the Storeytellerpatches of which are still showing.

Could it be that Colin is losing his powers?

Anonymous said...

Quote of the day - "the report was not amended it was changed slightly!" - the Fireman to Leigh Bennion. No wonder they won't let him give live interviews!

Anonymous said...

During the interview with Leigh Bennion; Leigh stated Lee Forde had raised his concerns with his line manager; then questioned was this not the correct proceedure for Lee Forde to take? The Fireman stated publicly that yes he did follow the correct proceedure! Obviously then they are out to personally damage the reputation of an innocent man - it's disgusting!

This is definately a case of David v. Goliath; except (according to the blog sites) our David seems to have the backing of masses in Liverpool.

Lib Dems - your days are numbered you spineless bunch of fuckers; go cower away and lick your wounds.

David - you truely are an honourable man, stand tall and proud; you definately have the backing of this person.

Anonymous said...

I would just like to thank to all the people who have been in touch and offered support, thanks to all the people who took the time to write in and phone in to various media institutions.
It has helped me and my family a lot in getting through this personal attack and character assassination.

Anonymous said...

No Green was just a bungling incompetant - read the report.
Only there because he was a close friend of Harbarow for many years.

He was the operations director in charge of operations and systems. The report notes that there was'nt any so he was a failure.
Prior to becoming the Ops Director (jas's Mate) he was the commercial director in charge of getting the money in - looks like he was not too good at that either as I recolect the culture company has a massive funding gap. one that the rate payers of the city will have to fill out of their own pockets.

Forde and his team have an exempary track record of safe events delivery in the city of Liverpool.

You do the maths

Anonymous said...

What about Joe Anderson too he resigned from the board about the same time. Cant they blame him for some thing too?
Seems like those who get out get a kick up the arse on the way !!

Anonymous said...

Have you read that report !!
No wonder Bradley does not want the original comming out it was probably written in Crayon!"!

How much did we the tax payer pay for this ? My god five months to do that my 12 yr old daughter could have done it in one night !!

Anonymous said...

I’ve read the report and it’s a disgrace. It contradicts itself, jumps about through time and space so the reader finds it hard to create a time line and blatantly points the finger at a middle manager who the report admits did not have responsibility for “Developing …Annual Budgets” (a main point in CEO Culture Co. job description as outlined in the report) and who is stated throughout as reporting concerns.

Page 21 paragraph 2 of the report states: “There are also differences between whom officers thought had agreed the Mathew Street Festival budget. Jason Harborow and Alan Southward (Head of Finance @ Culture Co.) believe the Mathew Street Festival budget was agreed between Chris Green and Lee Forde. Chris Green believed that the original budget was discussed and agreed between Lee Forde and Alan Southward.”

I’m sorry; just remind me who is being paid £150k+ a year to manage the company?

Oh yes, it’s the CEO who’s job description (as outlined in the report) states this post will “Provide strong leadership to the Liverpool Culture Company organisation in the development of events and operational plans. Lead the development within the Liverpool Culture Company of strong on going programs in Marketing, Communications and Public Relations, Finance and Legal Stewardship.”

Who also must “Take responsibility on behalf of Liverpool Culture Company for the use of public funds as allocated by Liverpool City Council and ensure that public funds and assets are effectively and efficiently used and monitored in accordance with the Annual Budget and Business Plan”

I think they got the report a little mixed up; yes there where communication issues (obviously) and yes it was grossly mismanaged (obviously) but not by middle management; by those at the top as the job description highlights.

Role on 2008…!

Anonymous said...

Is anyone gonna start a book on whether the Harbarrowboy will return on Monday?

Anonymous said...

It's a little unfair to completely blame 'Am I really so Green' for the lack of operational direction and sponsorship acheived; didn't the Harbarrow boy hold both those positions prior to getting his mate in to cover his tracks; whilst he shot his way up the company ladder?

Anonymous said...

Lee Forde sorted out the festival perfectly well and in fact grew it into Europe's biggest festival for all those years and then suddenly he goes all wet nellyish when CoCo the Fireman, Banjo Jase, Whitewash Col and Storey the pratt get involved and its all Lee's fault !!!!

These wet Nelly wankers have just got to go before next May

Tori Blare said...

In each case Lee Forde and Chris Green have highlighted concerns, why then did no-one take heed?
At the end of the day who is in charge of the Cities finances?
Halsal?
Was he involved in any of this?
Who has the final say on all council business?
Colin Hilton?
or Warren Bradley?
These two people have been charged with running the City in the name of the people of Liverpool, therefore as far as accountability and responsibility to the people of Liverpool Bradley surely must be the person with whom the buck stops?
Storey teller is a disgrace, he kept out of the lime light for this one and has allowed others AGAIN to take the blame for his cuts in the council budgets just so he could get Henshaw off his back.

Why do people keep voting for these corrupt individuals?

This issue is so similar to Matt Finnegan getting the blame when once again, Storey allowed others to take the shite that he created, what a slime of a man.

Anonymous said...

Leigh Bennion should be sacked for allowing Bradley to ramble on for so long. Apparently Radio Merseyside wanted Bradley to go on live with Maria Eagle but he (or Randy Newman) said no.

Anonymous said...

I've just read the report and I must say that, at the meeting the main players (Storey, bRadley, Hilton, Harborow and a mystery guest) attended on February 21st, (Page 22 of the report) they must have had their noses deeper in the champagne trough than usual. Not a single one of them can agree on what was said.

Anonymous said...

how come the festival cancellation was down to two people? there are over 100 people in the culture company what where they doing?

Anonymous said...

Has nobody joined the dots up yet?
Lee Forde resigns over frustration brought about by indecisive senior management and extreme lack of resourcing (money and people to you and me)
Low and behold here we are in November with a new board of directors, New Ceo, New Ops Director and a proposal to bring in more events staff.
Does this not mean Forde was right all along yet he had to sacrifice his job to bring about this change and did so because he actually gives a fuck about this city.
As a Scouser he could not stand by and watch these outsiders trash the city he loves.
Good on you for doing it lets hope the people of the City support you in return.
We are now in a better position going into 2008 because of your integrity.

Good on yer lad

Anonymous said...

i wonder if any member of the lib dems will have the courage to actually disassociate themselves from this report and protest forde's innocence. they all kept quiet when finnegan was being done in by the evil cabal. will they all keep quiet now when their own leadership is trying to do in forde? is there any honour or principle left amongst them? will one of them have their guts to raise their voice to defend the innocent?

Tori Blare said...

Clein has already gone on record, when the festival was first officially cancelled, stating he knew nothing about the Health and Safety concerns and went on and on about what a disgrace it all was etc etc, therfore he has no choice, he can't retract it now, so will he stick his neck out and challenge Bradley now for the leadership?
Or will he like the rest of the two faced wet nellies stay quiet and let the innocent once again be torn apart by the Storey Teller and HIS CORRUPT CABAL?

Anonymous said...

I just read the report on liverpoolconfidential. What a bloody awful and badly written piece of arsewipe it is.

They choose their preferred villains in the first few paragraphs and then repeat the charges word for word, line for line throughout.

Miss Miss..it was them wot done it Miss! Miss, Miss, it wasn't us it woz them Miss!

Clearly the cut & paste was used so much that they got tired of checking how many times they had pasted the same sentences. Reading the tripe is like having an attack of deja vous every 2 minutes.

What made me even madder was the Echo comment following the Friday story. Whilst they were quite happy to point out that if Forde and Green where still in the council they would have faced disciplinary action, the arselicking Echo then says how we should now move on and it would be pointless and damaging to call for resignations etc. etc.

No it bloody wouldn't. it would be a real sign that we will no longer put up with having the reputation of the people of this city dragged down to the gutter and made an international laughing stock.

They have become a total liability to the City and a total disgrace.

Shame on you!
Shame on you!
Shame on you!


(Well they can repeat themselves ad infinitum!)

Who threw the first punch? The ones that cut the budget. The Chuckle Brothers.
What happened to the buck stops here? The whole leadership have no honour and no integrity and therefore they feel thay have no responsibility.

Forde couldn't have won or got anywhere with these buffoons, you can't argue with Storeyteller once he sets off on one of his harebrained ideas, he is not just incompetent, he is fucking barmy. Any hint of disagreement or questioning is met with mad rolling eyes and odd contorted facial expressions as if their is an invisible fiend in the room shouting things at him only he can hear. (maybe Clein is an accomplished ventriloquist, "fuck off you tosser! Gottle of chardonnay, You need to ge in hoskittle you mad gastard")

How long before we get a look at the original? I suppose one good thing, Forde's constructive dismissal case should keep the wound open and this report should be torn apart during that.

Good luck to you fella!

Anonymous said...

Bradley apparently shat himself when he saw Mr Finnegan standing shoulder to shoulder with Lee outside the Town Hall, giving interviews to all comers...press officers were running around like headless chickens forbidding the fireman from venturing out to do some radio interviews, just in case there was a terrible scene! I would have loved to have been there! How fantastic!!!

Anonymous said...

Time has got to be running out for Bradley!

Anonymous said...

I wish I had been outside the Town Hall watching Finny and Forde, I would have ensured Bradley got outside and would invite the two parties to discuss the report between them.
Finny would be able to steer Forde in the right directions and because of his experiences with the CORRUPT CABAL, and we could have witnessed a good old punch up.
Now that would have been a good headline!
So pleased that Matt has offered his support to Forde and hope they both get some justice soon.
At the risk of ranting, the only way to really get these tossers out though is voting them out in May.
Then the summer of 2008 will be the best year ever, not because of the culture curse but because Lib Dem's will be history and Labour will have gained their rightful place in charge of the City.
When this is complete I will be having a street party, all Anti Cabalists are welcome.

Anonymous said...

The www.icliverpoool.com website is running a pole asking "Is the Mathew Street Festival report a whitewash?" (Front page under advert for Chibuku).

Please vote; it might spark someone to request an independent inquiry which would get to the truth and possibly address the obvious issues the company is brushing under the carpet.

They talk of a new team being put in place to sort out the issues - rubbish, the team hasn't really changed; all that’s happened is they let the one person holding the company together leave - Lee Forde.

The future's not bright (nor orange) it's grey, miserable and expensive for tax payers. We demand to know the truth!

Tori Blare said...

Don't worry we can all just walk around the corner and see a Lamb Banana, and we will smile and believe the world is a wonderful place afterall!
Or so Bradley would have us believe.
Knob Head

Anonymous said...

They all know the truth the just have no balls to put it into public domain.
They have blamed those who have left as the culprits are still employed and it would create a bigger stink if they went after them.
They all knew Hilton, Bradley,Storey and most of all Harbarow he knew full well there was a problem for over a year he is a gutless little shit.

When the festival was cancelled it was being managed by Harbarow, Green and Feather that's the trio the safety report said were not capable of running the event and that was also the police's concern too that the Capital of Cock had assumed seniority could replace ability, well you were proven wrong and you were even incapable of bringing it back to life when you shat yourself after the public reaction.

But we know some one who was about to get it back on track ......

watch this space ..............

How the council use Ripa to spy on you....


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