BRADLEY TO FIRTH - TIT FOR TW*T.......

There is one huge unresolved mystery about Kevin Firth's resignation letter.

It concerns the email which Fireman Bradley, then Cabinet member for Leisure, sent to his Lib Dim colleague Firth on November 14th, 2002.

Firth reproduced the email for our edification in his resignation letter, after carefully saving it for more than five years.

Here it is:

From: 'Bradley Warren' <Warren.Bradley@liverpool.gov.uk>

To: 'Firth Kevin' <Kevin.Firth@blueyonder.co.uk

Sent: Thursday November 14th, 2002 7.22 PM

"You have just confirmed to me that you are a complete and utter t-, and you have never lived in the real world, get a life and you might just realise that rosy little cup that you drink out of will eventually crack, this is when all the people will see what I saw a long time ago. How you can represent people from this city or anywhere else is a joke and I am absolutely convinced your little gravy train will come to an abrupt halt as you hit the buffers of life, and see what life actually brings once you raise your head above the parapit."

Councillor Warren Bradley

Executive Member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism

Church Ward

Liverpool city council

Leaving aside the horribly mixed metaphors, we can't help wondering how the Fireman will react when he eventually hits the buffers of life. Can we expect a gracious public apology to all those he has hurt? We doubt so, somehow.

But what is the missing word in the email?

The t- that even the irate Fireman felt compelled to omit? (We are still a family blog, so we have left one suggestion out, eds)

Suggestions on a postcard please - but this is hardly the language one would expect. Is it?

These are the last days of a corrupt and discredited regime....

FRESH details of the de-selection of Lib Dim Kevin Firth bear an astonishing resemblance to a tin-pot third world dictatorship - rather like Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

We can exclusively reveal that Fireman Bradley had at least four votes in the ballot which de-selected Firth!

Bradley turned up to the Old Swan meeting with his henchman, accused law-breaker and chief whip Steve Hurst in tow, rather in the manner of President Mugabe and his collection of thugs.

The Fireman then announced to a startled gathering that he and Hurst would be using 'proxy' votes on behalf of other Lib Dim members who were unable to attend. These included the missing Storeyteller, conveniently.

This bizarre interpretation of Lib Dim democracy was immediately challenged by the party's observer, sent from Regional Office to ensure all the rules and proper procedures were followed.

But to no avail.

Bradley was able to point out that there was nothing in the rule book to prevent the use of proxy votes.

Similarly, there is nothing in the Lib Dim rule book to prevent Lib Dim members frying babies alive in boiling oil at a meeting in Old Swan. Nor is there anything to stop Lib Dim members goosestepping around in Nazi uniform, shouting Sieg Heil during a meeting. (Frank Doran has probably already done this more than once, eds) Or dressing up as bananas and singing It's a Long Way from Tipperary in Swahili, before voting to de-select a councllor. The rule book is silent on all these activities, amazingly.

So on that basis, Bradley and Hurst were allowed to go ahead and vote repeatedly on behalf of people who were not present.

It is not clear precisely how many times Bradley voted, but between him and Hurst their votes accounted for more than a third of the total!

A deeply impressed Robert Mugabe is rumoured to have sent an official observer from Zimbabwe to the meeting in Old Swan so that he could pick up some tips on how to gerrymander his own re-election today.

Bradley also had the brass neck to tell Firth (after giving him the push), that he had actually voted for him.

Sadly the Fireman's vote was not enough to secure Firth's re-selection, especially since, by some remarkable twist of fate, all of Bradley's other votes had been to de-select Firth!

(We couldn't make this up - welcome to a modern Lib Dim democracy, folks!, eds)

12 NOON: ECHO INTERVIEW WITH CLEIN

CLEIN says Bradley and Storey "believe the financial situation of the city is far less important than trying to exact petty revenge.”

11.50AM LATEST: DAILY POST ON-LINE BREAKS CLEIN'S RESIGNATION....

SCHOOLS BOSS PAUL CLEIN SAYS DE-SELECTION OF FIRTH WAS THE LAST STRAW IN BRADLEY'S 'QUESTIONABLE' LEADERSHIP

11AM LATEST: LIB DEMS GO INTO MELTDOWN AS SCHOOLS CHIEF PAUL CLEIN QUITS OVER FIREMAN

STOP PRESS: LIB Dim Executive Member Paul Clein has quit in protest at The Fireman's mis-rule.

Clein, Cabinet Member for Education, has penned a sensational resignation letter to Bradley complaining in the strongest possible terms about The Fireman's behaviour.

Clein takes both Bradley and the Storeyteller to task for their running of the Lib Dim group, the Capital of Culture cock-ups and chaos and how they have made the city council the worst in the country.

Clein's shock early resignation - which had been widely forecast after the local elections on May 1st - comes just the day after deselected Kevin Firth fired an angry broadside at ranting Bradley, branding him a bully-boy.

It also comes after former Lib Dim Beatrice Fraenkel defected to Labour in protest at the way the Lib Dims were running down the city.

To make matters even worse for Bradley, at last night's full council meeting he could not even summon up a semi-coherent explanation for his Las Vegas freebie under perfectly legitimate and persistent questioning from Labour's Joe Anderson.

The Fireman instead resorted to bluster and the usual ranting attacks.

Which fooled no one.

Still, the blog did get a mention as a "defamatory and ill-informed"- but Bradley then refused to explain exactly how, or what, we have got wrong.

We, on the other hand, can supply a long list of all the stuff he has got wrong.

Now the question is: How many more Lib Dims are likely to jump ship before May 1st?

And can Bradley survive even until election day?

STAY POSTED for another exciting instalment....