Liverpool subCulture

Letter from Colin CoverUp to city council employees following recent press reports

Dear colleague,

Contrary to recent misleading and totally erroneous reports concerning payoffs, incompetence, waste, negligence, corruption, cover-ups, stress and bullying within the council, I can confirm that Liverpool City Council is not committed to supporting all our staff or council tax payers.

To promote awareness and offer supportive solutions to this sensitive issue the council participated in the recent National Stress Awareness Day on 5 November 2008.

We also plan to play a full part in International Pay-Off Day, which will be held in Nassau, the Bahamas, in just a few weeks time.

Exciting plans are also underway for the Take the Piss out of Council Taxpayers and Waste all Their Money seminar, which will form a major part of next year’s Lib Dem Annual Conference.

I wish to reinforce the position of Liverpool City Council in that we have a zero tolerance approach to good governance.
Any form of bullying, incompetence, dodgy deals, kick-backs, inappropriate relationships with pop promoters, afternoons on the golf course, blackmail attempts, threats and incidents of senior officers feathering their own nests whilst in the workplace will not be fully addressed through jointly agreed policies and procedures.

Reports of bullying, pay-offs, blackmail, threats, corruption and the abuse of power and position for personal and financial advantage are in fact very low for an organisation of this size and each is thoroughly investigated by the Oldham Echo.

Similarly, stress related absence to sun-kissed haciendas, mansions in Formby, or country houses in Wales are at levels comparable with other core cities.

Our non-commitment to support staff has been further demonstrated by the implementation of a range of family-friendly policies and flexible working arrangements for senior officers - they can visit the golf course when they feel like it, but particularly on Friday afternoons; my Exec Management Team all have season tickets for shows at the Echo Arena, we have personal parking facilities for our luxury cars; we have personal showers for any doctors on the growing payroll; we harass, threaten and intimidate anyone who doesn’t roll over and accept the way we do things; we only follow the rules when it suits us; we laugh at the provision of professional counselling services; the introduction of a free confidential helpline available to all staff and their immediate family members is routinely derided – who would be stupid enough to ever use it?; the development of a jointly agreed Stress Policy which will never be put into practice; and the appropriate expensive training for managers at expensive conferences and the introduction of Open access clinics by the Occupational Health Service which has been personally negotiated by the good Dr McElhinney, to be launched on 18 December.

Colin Hilton

Chief executive

ARISE SIR PHIL! - A knighthood for Our Lord Redmond

MULTI millionaire bench-maker Phil Redmond is being touted for a knighthood in the New Year's Honours List.
Our Lord Redmond - and we shall continue to refer to him thus, both for his tonsorial 'style' and his more wondrous and miraculous abilities as 'saviour of Liverpool' - has found friends in high places.
Step forward Lord Derby, a fellow landowner and faithful friend of the common folk of our fair city. (That's a lot of effing, eds).
For it is the squire of Knowsley who has been quietly championing the cause of Our Lord, as the man who finally put Liverpool's culture on the European map.
(Albeit from the comfortable vantage point of his £20million mansion in Frodsham).
Yes it is Phil we have to thank for the massive pay-offs, the cock-ups, the damp squibs, the crap marketing and the rash of new diy benches that have suddenly sprouted up all over the city as the people of Picton and Liverpoool 8 have suddenly risen in joyful acclamation of Capital of Culture.
Lord Derby, who now 'works' for one of the many finance houses who have well and truly ****ed up the economy with the credit crunch, has been going around lobbying for Our Lord amongst the city's great and good.
He has been asking 'movers and shakers' to give their support to a Knightood for Our Lord.
Quite why Lord Derby, who some mischievously say is now on his uppers as a result of said credit crunch, would want to do multi-millionaire Phil a favour, is quite beyond us.
But what response has this secret campaign for support been getting?
Some have listened politely to the noble Lord's entreaties on behalf of the nascent 'Sir Phil'. Some have been less polite in their response. We put it no stronger. We leave it your imagination - you are perfectly capable of filling in the blanks.
Of course, Our Lord will be in illustrious company with other knighted 'people' like the evil Sir Diddy and other thieves and famous ne'er do wells, when he eventually bows his knee in front of Her Madge.
'Alright, Queen,' we can already hear Phil remarking, before entertaining her with his interminable 'Scouse wedding' metaphor, repeated for the 967th time.
Meanwhile Our Lord is also busying himself with the firework display at the Pier Head which will mark the end of a fantastic year of culture and which, it is confidently being forecast by the Oldham Echo, will be witnessed by a greater global audience than the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States.
Can't wait...

LIB DEMS ON TRIAL (PART 2) - "You realised you had been rumbled...."

A SENIOR Liverpool councillor on trial for breaking election law yesterday claimed he “found” leaflets smearing a rival political family.
Cllr Steve Hurst, executive member for corporate performance, is accused of delivering offensive fliers during the 2007 local elections.
Pink leaflets – purporting to be published by The United Socialist Party (TUSP) – were pushed through doors in Liverpool’s Woodlands Estate.
Titled “Walton Scab”, they attacked Labour councillor Pauline Walton, who was not up for election, and her husband, Keith, a firefighter.
They claimed she was learning to lap dance and that he crossed the picket line during a firefighter strike.
Cllr Hurst admits he was in the area on May 2, 2007 – the day before polls opened – but claimed he was only delivering legitimate Liberal Democrat leaflets.
He is accused of breaching section 110 of the Representation of the People Act, which requires all election publicity material to detail the name and address of the printer and publisher.
He denies the charge, but if found guilty, faces a fine of up to £5,000.
In the second day of the trial, he told the court he picked up the supposed-TUSP leaflets while electioneering in Woodlands.
Cllr Hurst said: “Not far from where I had started, I found some discarded TUSP leaflets, about five or six. I read them, seen how derogatory it was. I had never seen anything like it in my life. Any opposition leaflets, we should take them back to the Lib-Dem HQ for information purposes. This is something all councillors do.”
He said he tucked them under his Lib-Dem leaflets and continued.
Later, Cllr Hurst came across Mr Walton and his two sons, Ben, 23, and Lee, 26.
He claimed Ben and Lee set upon him on Selside Walk, while their father took pictures on his camera phone.
Cllr Hurst added: “Lee Walton attempted to grab the leaflets out of my hand. There was no way he was going to get the leaflets from me – I was too strong, so he got me in a headlock and at all times he was trying to get the leaflets from my hands.
“My cap fell off and my sunglasses got kicked to the ground. We fell against the floor or the fence. I was kicked in the face.”
Cllr Hurst said the attack appeared at the time to be unprovoked.
Under cross examination, prosecutor Mike Gregory asked why Cllr Hurst did not put the TUSP leaflets in his backpack.
Cllr Hurst explained time was short and it would have been “awkward” to take off his bag.
Mr Gregory also challenged Cllr Hurst over his reaction when confronted by the Walton men.
Mr Gregory said it was “odd” Cllr Hurst did not simply hand the leaflets over to Mr Walton and explain the situation.
Mr Gregory said: “I suggest to you, that you said nothing about the leaflet at that stage because you had been delivering them.”
“That’s incorrect,” Cllr Hurst said.
“Was the baseball cap and glasses a disguise?” Mr Gregory continued.
“It was a hot, sunny day. That would be the advisable attire to wear in a hot sunny day.”
“You realised you had been rumbled and instead of engaging them in conversation you instead tried to grab the offending camera?”
“No.”
The case continues.

(courtesy Daily Post)

LIB DEMS ON TRIAL (PART 1) - ROTTEN TO THE CORE ....(courtesy of the Daily Post)

A LEADING Liberal Democrat councillor in Liverpool attempted to smear a rival by distributing a leaflet attacking her husband and suggesting she was a lap dancer, a court heard yesterday.
Cllr Steve Hurst, a firefighter, who is accused of breaking election law, was allegedly wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap while said to be distributing the leaflets.
The day before the local elections in May 2007, leaflets were posted through letterboxes on the Woodlands estate, in the Belle Vale ward.
The pink leaflets titled “Walton Scab” attacked Labour councillor Pauline Walton, who was not up for election, and her husband, Keith, who is also a firefighter.
The leaflet claimed Mr Walton had “scabbed” during the firefighters’ strike, and that he was unpopular at his private golf club (Lee Park, where Cllr Hurst is also a member).
It also stated: “Your Labour councillor leaves meetings early to go to lap dancing (or line dancing – I’m not sure which) classes.
“Don’t vote for scabs, vote for a real socialist party, vote TUSP [The United Socialist Party].”
Cllr Hurst, executive member for corporate performance and ward councillor for Wavertree, is accused of breaching section 110 of the Representation of the People Act on May 2 – the day before the local elections last year.
The section requires election publicity material to include an imprint detailing the name and address of the printer and publisher of the material.
He denies the charge, but if found guilty, faces a fine of up to £5,000.
Liverpool Magistrates’ Court heard how Mr Walton had been at home in Egremont Lawn, Belle Vale, on May 2, last year when he received a call from a resident in nearby Ridsdale Lawn, saying she had received an “offensive” pink leaflet.
Mr Walton said after collecting the leaflet from Edith Turner’s home, he decided to confront TUSP’s election agent, Jim Wilson, who also lived on the estate.
Mr Wilson denied being involved and told Mr Walton he would report it to the police.
Karen Davies, of nearby Appleby Lawn, called round at the Walton household soon after and said she too had had the pink “TUSP” leaflet, the court was told.
Mr Walton said soon after he left with his son Ben, 23, to look for the person posting the leaflets, and were joined by older son Lee Walton, 26, who was just arriving home from work.
Mike Gregory, for the prosecution, said they found Cllr Hurst in Selside Walk where Mr Walton took a photo of him on his mobile phone.
“He had in his hands yellow leaflets folded over, and as he got close to the door, he was taking out pink leaflets from the middle and posting them through the letterbox,” said Ben Walton.
The Waltons claim that after they were spotted by Cllr Hurst, he “lunged towards” Keith Walton and tried to grab the camera phone.
Lee Walton said: “My dad shouted out ‘I’ve got you now Hursty.”
Lee Walton said he got Cllr Hurst in a headlock to protect his father, while Ben Walton grabbed Cllr Hurst’s hands down by his waist, the court heard.
After a brief scuffle Cllr Hurst wriggled free of the pair and ran off down the road.
The court heard his baseball cap, a sunglass lens, and some leaflets – a number of yellow Lib-Dem fliers and some pink TUSP leaflets – were left at the scene.
“Mr Hurst scuttled off and shouted some abuse to my dad calling him a scab b------d,” Lee Walton told the court.
He denied the only reason he grabbed hold of Cllr Hurst was to get the leaflets from him.
When defence barrister Janet Reaney put to him that there were pink Lib-Dem leaflets among those that fell on the ground, he said he did not know.
Ms Davies told the court she had seen a man wearing a baseball cap and between 5ft 6ins and 5ft 9ins tall walk down her path and deliver a leaflet to her door – a pink TUSP leaflet.
Linda Murray, of Selside Walk, also told the court how she had seen a man in a baseball cap deliver a pink leaflet with a “personal attack” on Pauline Walton and her husband.
She said she noticed him because “he had a baseball cap and I thought it was one of the smackheads”.
She said she left her house to confront the man, but then saw the Waltons “legging” it past and heard a commotion round the corner.
In the following day’s election, Labour’s Janet Kent won the Belle Vale seat with 1,639 votes, beating the sitting Lib-Dem councillor Ian Phillips by just 134 votes.
The case in front of District Judge Richard Clancy was being watched by an observer from the local government ethics watchdog the Standards Board for England.
The case continues

NEW SERIES: Our Lord Redmond writes exclusively for Liverpool SubCulture

TALENT. You've either got it (like me, obviously) or you haven't.
Culture Secretary Andy Burnham is a young lad with talent too. He's just made me boss of the Museums in Liverpool.
So stuff you Loyd Grossman, a here-today, gone-tomorrow pasta sauce maker.
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
That David Fleming has been as nice as pie with me ever since I got the job.
And his wife Alison, who Sir Diddy once hired as his own personal spin doctor. Or Nurse. As the case may be.
But a lovely lady - and very well connected at the Beeb.
Do you know - she put her own name forward for that job! Some front, eh?
Talent will always out.
That's what I thought when I first came up with the great idea of having a giant talent contest at the Echo Arena.
I was watching the X Factor at my place in the country when the light suddenly went off in my head.
I know, I thought, watching Simon Cowell grinnining away like a maniac, I could pinch his idea lock, stock and barrel and I bet those gullible Scousers will fall for it.
And how right I was.
Don't you see?
Get a few thousand deluded, deranged or desperate people to turn up at the Arena, patronise them like crazy for the day, pick someone half decent, give them a grand of council taxpayers money as a prize and a walk-on part in Hollyoaks and...(Sir) Bob (Scott's')s your uncle!
The winner is all smiles, thinks they are about to do a Will Young world tour (whatever happened to him by the way?) and owes eternal gratitude to yours truly.
I smile modestly and give lots of TV and radio interviews to gullible, uncritical journalists while carefully preening my hair and affecting a thick Scouse accent and a chirpy bloke-next-door-demeanour.
And the losers?
Well they've all had a nice day out at the Dock haven't they? What's the problem?
And what's more, its all about community engagement!
With 2,000 people queuing up outside the Arena on a wild goose chase, no-one on the blogosphere or anywhere else, can possibly claim there has been no community engagement in 08.
It's a win-win for yours truly!
Told you I had talent.
Yet another success in my special year to add to all my other successes - Ringo, and Paul, and my museum jobbie, and the craven Echo's unquestioning support, and my song for Liverpool, and my superlambananas, and my do-it-yourself bench contest.
What more could people want? Bread and circuses?
Culture has provided true engagement.
It has been truly life changing.
Thanks to me.
This is what I mean when I say that Liverpool will stage the best ever Capital of Culture.
No one gives a toss about the other Capitals of Culture anyway.
Where was it last year?
Where is the next one going to be? In 2009?
No-one has got the foggiest.
So they can't be that difficult for us to beat can they?
Despite the council's best efforts at cocking it all up.
But with the talent we have here on the banks of the Mersey, talented people like me can really put Liverpool on the global map for the first time ever in our great history.
My close mate Mike McCartney was right when he said there was more talent in the Liver Bird's little toe than in any other city in the world.
Obviously true.
More talent than New York.
Or Los Angeles.
Or Brasilia.
Or Berlin.
And more talent than Bejing, next week.
Obviously.
And Mike and my good showbiz, celebrity friends Les Dennis and Clare Sweeney will do a great job in judging that talent, giving it a chance and taking the city forward to a brighter future.
Where everyone can aspire to being a Sinatra impersonator.
To do that, takes real talent.

Well done - you're sacked!!!!!

29/2/2008

Message from Cllr Warren Bradley and Chief executive Colin Hilton

Dear colleague.
At a meeting of the executive board today, 29 February, a number of reports were considered which outlined significant successes for the city.
The members and senior officers present were unanimous in wishing to convey the appreciation to all staff for their hard work in continuing to deliver high quality services and significant improvements for the people of Liverpool.
Much negative publicity in recent weeks has obscured some of this success but it is important that we continue to give public recognition to the work of staff, partner organisations, elected members and communities across the city who are committed to driving forward this improvement.
Well done and continue the good work

Warren Bradley
Leader, Liverpool City Council
Colin Hilton
Chief executive

Message to staff from Colin Hilton

Dear colleague
The council is currently in the process of setting its budget and updating its medium term financial plan.
The ruling group have now set out their proposals which address the funding gap in line with revised priorities and in the light of the recommendations from the Audit Commission.
These are being presented to the Resources select committee tonight (Wednesday) and executive board this Friday which will in turn recommend a budget to the council for a decision on 5 March.
Naturally there will be concern about the impact of potential service changes and the implications for staffing levels in the council. It is inevitable that faced with a prospective funding gap of such size that the proposals will lead to the deletion of a number of posts.
This will not however be of a scale which is significantly different from other budgets in the last 10 years and it is likely to equate to around 200 posts out of a total workforce of 9,500 (excluding school staff who are not affected by these budget proposals).
In line with priorities these reductions will be targeted and not fall uniformly across all services. Of course you will want to know how this general message impacts on your own service areas and managers will be briefing and consulting on the way forward with you over the coming weeks.
This scale of reduction has always been successfully managed by the council using staff turnover and vacancy management to achieve a substantial proportion of the savings requirements and efficiencies.
It remains the ambition of the council to continue to use redeployment under the new proposed procedures going before council as the main mechanism for delivering these reductions.
This means operating the central vacancy management system for all portfolios until this is achieved. Voluntary severance arrangements will operate under the new procedures but there will not be a general open invitation for applications. Instead those service areas which are the subject of reductions will be able to utilise this facility with authorisation from the relevant ED in discussion with HR and Finance but strictly in accordance with the agreed procedures.
Working together and with the co-operation of staff and trades unions I am sure that we will be able to deliver this and minimise the need for any compulsory redundancies to ensure that the council is on a firmer financial footing in order to provide a greater level of security and certainty for our services in the future.

Colin Hilton
Chief Executive

Twigger is the last to twig that the postman doesn't ring twice

Lib Dem councillor Paul Twigger has 'jumped before he was pushed' after being caught using university facilities for the Lib Dem campaign in Knotty Ash.

Twigger has quit his job at Liverpool's John Moores University after being confronted with the evidence by Vice-Chancellor Michael Brown.

But Twigger now faces an internal Town Hall investigation after trying it on a second time - this time by using city council facilities!

Twigger first fired off thousands of letters to voters in Knotty Ash using the JMU postal franking machine - thus saving the Lib Dems a small fortune in stamps.

Unfortunately for him, an eagle-eyed Labour voter in Knotty Ash was amongst the first to receive one of the missives and noticed the JMU postmark on the envelope.

The public-spirited voter immediately alerted Labour Party officials who sent an official complaint to JMU (with a proper stamp, eds)

Twigger was hauled in front of Brown and, under questioning, admitted that he had used the JMU franking machine to send out election literature.

Of course, Twigger insisted that he had sent 'only a few letters' out to voters. (He would say that, wouldn't he? eds)

A chastened Twigger apologised after hurriedly submitting his resignation - before he could be suspended pending a full-scale disciplinary investigation by JMU.

But Twigger did not learn from this - and tried it on a second time. (Nothing if not consistent, eds)

After shoving envelopes through the JMU franking machine, he did exactly the same thing in the Lib Dem office at the Municipal Buildings with a city council franking machine!

Again, one of his Lib Dem letters, complete with city council franked envelope, was handed to Labour officials by a concerned voter.

Now an internal enquiry Town Hall enquiry has begun into Twigger abusing his position and mis-using council taxpayers money for the Lib Dem campaign.

None of which should come as a surprise to any of our loyal readers.

After all, the Lib Dems have spent the last decade mis-using council taxpayers money.

We got it wrong....

Liverpool Subculture would like to issue an official apology to all our readers, to the people of Liverpool and to the millions of little fishies swimming in Salthouse Dock.
All of them will vividly recall the amazing scheme that the Liverpool Culture Company first came up with to stage the Paul McCartney gig at the Salthouse Dock.
The plan was simple (minded, eds).
Stun the fish swimming about in the dock.
Transfer them to a giant goldfish bowl.
Put lots of seats into the dock.
Arrange global TV rights.
And Bob's your uncle.
Then wake up the little fishies and put them back in the dock.
Sound.
Culture Company Director Kris Donaldson (£150K a year, plus Performance Related Pay at 15 per cent, per annum, adding up to around £190-£200K a year) and Lorna Dickenson (£100K a year former BBC producer) were both strong champions of the stun-the-Salthouse-fish scheme.
Frogmen were hired to delve deep into the dock's murky depths and all sorts of soundings were taken, before sadly, the great brains behind the Liverpool Culture Company and the Lib Dim city council finally decided that the scheme was not a go-er.
(Getawaywithyou? Really? What a terrible pity! You do surprise us! eds)
To our eternal shame, Liverpool Subculture has wilfully and persistently mislead our readers, the people of Liverpool and the poor little fishies in our coverage of this exciting, bold and imaginative scheme.
We reported that the feasibility studies for Salthouse Dock had cost a cool £250,000.
We were wrong.
Woefully, unforgiveably, abjectly, wrong.
Incorrect.
False.
Off beam.
Way off target.
Telling porkies.
A Complete Fabrication.
Making it up.
It was Defamatory.
Actionable.
A total lie.
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is that the total cost of this non-event was..... £330,000.
Of hard-earned council taxpayers money.
Down the drain.
Wasted.
Thrown away.
Mis-spent.
Pissed up against the wall.
Frittered away.
Squandered.
We should like to apologise sincerely for our terrible mistake.
And we promise, we really promise, that this kind of breathtaking blunder will never, ever, ever, happen again.

OUR LORD REDMOND'S FAVOURITE BENCH - MILLIONS TAKE PART IN EXCLUSIVE ECHO PHONE VOTE

TENSION is rising as the Echo reveals the short-listed designs for its Capital of Culture 'Bench of the Entire Universe' contest. masterminded by Our Lord Redmond.
Millions of Merseysiders are expected to take part in the exclusive and extremely testing reader poll to pick the best bench for a person to sit on.
They are likely to have to have to take into account a huge range of incredibly complex considerations, including things like comfort; whether the actual bench is cold or warm; whether the actual bench leaves any marks on your buttocks when you stand up; and whether you prefer to hang about on street corners and become an ASBO type person or whether you have now learnt the error of your ways and prefer to sit on one of Our Lord Redmond's actual special benches and thus make a meaningful contribution to society and Liverpool's brilliant reign as a premier European city under Fireman Bradley.
As Our Lord Redmond has already remarked so aptly:
"Benches. They are not simply something to sit on. They are part of Liverpool's awe-inspiring world-class regeneration. They have the power to move. Literally. To inspire people beyond words. To encompass all that is good and decent in humanity. To lift us above the humdrum and to soar into the clouds, into the far flung corners of the galaxy, to boldly go....." (that's enough Star Trek, eds)
There is also likely to be a tie-breaker which goes along the lines of:
"My bench is better than yours, according to Our Lord Redmond, because.................................................... (in not less than 50 words, to be judged by one of Fireman Bradley's clever spin-doctors).
So you can see why people are getting breathlessly excited by all this in our world-class year as Capital of Culture 2008 and why the people of Anfield and Old Swan and Tuebrook are marvelling at the sheer leap of imagination that is required to fashion one of these 'benches'.
Hopefully the winning design will be sat on by Our Lord Redmond when he is carried through the street of Liverpool by a cheering and ever grateful populace for rescuing the city from its worst excesses.
Then we can all sit down and relax.
But in case you missed it - here is the Echo's eye-popping exclusive about their exclusive competition about the actual bench. Exclusively.
Spot the deliberate piss-take.

TODAY we unveil the shortlisted designs in our Benchmark competition.
Would-be designers inundated the ECHO with their creations for the contest, part of the Open Culture project, created by Phil Redmond and backed by Merseyside’s media.
The winning design will be developed into a full-size bench and a number of them will be put around the city to mark 2008 and as a legacy beyond Capital of Culture year.
Now it is down to ECHO readers to choose which bench is their favourite.
Voting runs all week to pick two finalists who will then have their benches made into prototypes before the winning design is finally chosen.
Phil Redmond, who launched Open Culture to encourage people to get involved in Capital of Culture, said: “We set a creative challenge and I’m very pleased with the response.
“I said at the beginning, it’s not simply a bench. It’s also a cultural resting place, something to sit on, reflect, read, or just watch the world go by.”
Hundreds of entries were also received from Merseyside schools and a separate shortlist will be printed in the ECHO next week when readers will also have the chance to choose a finalist from the schoolchildren’s designs.
ECHO editor Alastair Machray said: “We’d hoped for a good response to our competition but the sheer volume of entries was incredible.
“There were many really innovative, obviously well thought out designs and it was very difficult to whittle them down to just eight.
“All the shortlisted entries are distinct in themselves and make use of all sorts of materials, including wood, metal and recycled plastic.
“Whichever the readers choose as their favourite will form a unique contribution to 2008 and well beyond.”
The eight shortlisted entries include a 3-D model by James Lawson, who envisages his “08 Culture” design being created in recycled plastic.
Adrian Mercer has created a “Heart of Culture” design featuring solar-powered LED lights, while Brian McDonald harks back to the city’s engineering heritage with a galvanised steel Meccano-style seat.
He said: “With Meccano you could build anything from huge cranes, drawbridges and aeroplanes – and even park benches.
“I based my bench on Meccano because it was a large and successful company from Liverpool which gave pleasure, and still does, to many people both young and old.”
L Roberts has designed a ship-shaped seat with a back encompassing the city’s landmarks and the musical refrain of All You Need is Love.
Meanwhile, Joel Phelan sent in a series of designs, of which a wooden “chess bench” complete with a checked board and waterproof clocks to time players was chosen for shortlisting by judges.
Gres Mercer has incorporated a practical cycle rack in an 08-themed retro Mersey Ferry bench.
Ilsa Parry’s word-filled Storyteller bench celebrates Liverpool’s unique accent and language. Its designer said: “Every person has a story to tell, and Scousers tell them best. To read the full story you may have to revisit the resting place many times.”
Finally, Colin Powell has offered a “playful” concept called All Together Now, which he says he wants to “celebrate the positivity, humour and cameraderie of the people of Liverpool.”
Vote for your favourite bench
* VIEW the designs here (PDF)
CALL 0901 229 1800 and key in your two digit vote choice.
or
TEXT LEVOTE followed by a space and the two-digit number you wish to vote for and send your text to 84080
Terms and Conditions: 1. Calls will cost 25p at all times, although network charges may vary. 2. Text messages are charged at 25p plus standard message rate, and this service is available to all networks. 3. Number of entries per person is not limited. 4. Usual competition rules apply. 5. The competition is open to UK residents aged 18 and over at the time of entry, except employees and their immediate families of Trinity Mirror and each of their group companies, and anyone professionally connected with this promotion. 6. Lines will be open from 11am Monday, March 31 until midnight Friday, April 4 2008. 7. Full Trinity Mirror terms and conditions are available on request and can be viewed at www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/rules
culturechat.merseyblogs.co.uk/
And if more than ten people waste any of their hard-earned money on this nonsense, there is probably no hope left for the entire human race.

BENCHMARK? A PAIN IN THE ARSE FROM OUR LORD REDMOND....

OUR Lord Redmond has launched his great cultural initiative for 2008 - Build your own bench! The Echo, pitifully but predictably, has started a Readers Campaign inviting bench designs. (No 673 in a series of totally duff reader campaigns). At first, we thought the Benchmark campaign was tongue in cheek and some mischievous reporter was taking the piss. Now it's clear they are perfectly serious. How any self-respecting journalist can write this kind of shit, is beyond us. Perhaps we should join the Echo contest and build a papier mache bench made up out of all their slavishly uncritical stories about the Culture Company? It would certainly be big enough to provide seating for all the staff the city council is now sacking because of the money they have wasted. Perhaps the bench could go outside the Culture Company's HQ at the Fun Palace? It is laughable. Absurd. Surreal. Inept. Gob-smacking. We reproduce below the Liverpool Echo's campaign. Although which of the sycophantic plonkers in Editor Machray's team was responsible for this nonsense is a complete mystery....

read this and weep.....

ENTRIES have started to roll in for the ECHO’s Benchmark competition.
The contest, to design a bench to be built and placed in the city, appears to have captured the imagination of readers.
Benchmark is being organised as part of the Open Culture initiative launched by Phil Redmond and supported by Merseyside media.
It is aimed at give more people the chance to take part in Capital of Culture celebrations.
ECHO editor Alastair Machray said: “It’s obvious people are keen to rise to the challenge of designing a permanent piece of art in Capital of Culture year.
“There are some very imaginative entries coming in. Some of them are even three dimensional. And at this rate the judges are going to have their work cut out to narrow them down to a shortlist.
“We want people to let their imaginations run wild and create something that’s both useful and at the same time beautiful or thought-provoking.”
Designs can be submitted to be created from wood, metal, plastic or even recycled materials.
The competition is backed by our sister paper the Daily Post, Radio Merseyside and Radio City.
Judges from the ECHO, Open Culture and Liverpool’s public realm team will draw up a shortlist, with ECHO readers voting for the three finalists.
A prototype of their benches will be built with the public deciding on their favourite.
Ten of the winning benches will be placed around the city as a legacy for 2008.
The closing date is Friday, February 29.
CREATE your design for a culture bench in black or white or in colour and in pen, pencil or graphics.
Send the design, stating in which material it is to be made, by post to:
Benchmark competition, Editorial, Liverpool Echo, PO Box 48, Old Hall Street, Liverpool, L69 3EB.
Or email your entry to: catherinejones@liverpoolecho.co.uk
You must include your name, address and a contact phone number. Closing date for entries is Friday, February 29.
cagtherinejones@liverpoolecho.co.uk (sic)
What a hideous sop to cultural engagement.

THE "FUCK UP AND FUCK OFF" BRIGADE - AND HOW MUCH THEY COST COUNCIL TAXPAYERS

LIVERPOOL DESERVES BETTER THAN THIS - by LEE FORDE

I have compiled the attached dossier with a heavy heart and after a great deal of soul-searching. I know that it will damage the city I love and will shock many people.

But I believe that I have a public duty to tell the truth about what happened over the cancellation of the Mathew Street festival and in the days following the publication of the city council’s now discredited internal inquiry report.

My intention is to clear my name of any blame whatsoever. The city council’s own report, as this dossier reveals, has now been disowned by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Warren Bradley – he has admitted that the report’s findings are incorrect.

Nothing less than a full, independent enquiry into all the circumstances of Mathew Street will now be sufficient to allay the growing concern. I will provide any information in my possession to an independent enquiry and will offer full co-operation. I have nothing to fear. I shall also be asking my local MP to officially raise this matter and related matters contained here.

This dossier concentrates in particular on the actions and behaviour of the Leader of the Council and the former Leader, Councillor Mike Storey. I regard their underhand actions in conspiring to get rid of the chief executive of the Culture Company - for whatever reason - as both unethical and utterly immoral.

I believe that the whitewash carried out over the cancellation of Mathew Street cannot disguise the extremely serious issues which exist at a very senior level in the city council and the Culture Company. The battle between officers and politicians which is being constantly fought, is damaging Liverpool and making casualties of the innocent and blameless. They are being cynically made the scapegoats while the guilty go free.

In my view, some of the senior personalities involved in this shameful episode have shown absolutely no regard or concern for other people. They appear perfectly willing to wreck other people’s lives and sacrifice the careers of others to selfishly try and save their own positions and promote their own particular plots.

They have shown themselves to have behaved without honour, decency or a shred of integrity.

Liverpool deserves better than this. Liverpool deserves the truth.

That is the purpose of this report – it is for others to decide the further action which is necessary in Liverpool’s best interests.

Lee Forde

CAST OF CHARACTERS

a) Sir Diddy - Sir David Henshaw, former chief executive and mastermind of the evil cabal. Greedy, blackmailer, corrupt, liar, coup plotter. Now Chair of the health service in the North West - despite the opposition of 25 Labour MPs. Tony Parrish's sworn enemy. Successfully exposed by the now legendary liverpoolevilcabal blog. Fled Liverpool with tail between his legs. TP still out to finish him off. Small man - giant ego.
a)Sir David Henshaw
a)Sir Diddy
b) The rottweiller - Dr David McElhinney, chief executive of Liverpool Direct Limited. Henshaw's right hand man. Twisted, vicious, irredeemably nasty piece of work. Robbed the city blind to feather his own nest and his own predilections for blonde women. Should be in jail.
b) The Rottweiller's bolt hole
b)Blondes
b)boxing hobby benefits from LDL
b)The rottweiller
c) Hasitall, the smiling assassin - Phil Halsall, Executive Director and third member of the evil cabal. City now £23million in the red thanks to his incompetent financial stewardship. Hypocrite, liar, worthless. Hanging on to his job by the skin of his teeth.
c)Hasitall
d) Colin CoverUp - Colin Hilton, current chief executive. Whitewashed the wrongdoing of the evil cabal. Lacklustre and incompetent bureaucrat. Not exactly inspirational.
d)Colin CoverUp
e) The fireman - Warren Bradley, current council leader. Spectacularly out of his depth. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer. A puppet of his parents, Storey and Paul Clark. No discernible beliefs, except hanging on to power, so an ideal Lib Dem. Constantly given the run-around by officials, who take the piss out of him behind his back..
f) The storeyteller - Mike Storey, former council leader. Consistently weak.
g) The Harbarrowboy - Jason Harborow, former chief executive of the Culture Company. Promoted way beyond his abilities by Henshaw and Storey. Ruinous mis-management of Culture. Perma-tanned from constant trips abroad, laden with gold jewellery, ecky-thump accent. Cost the city tens of millions of pounds. On the run in Spain, where he has bought an ice-cream factory. Sickening, arrogant little jumped up con-man. Just like Henshaw.
g)The Harbarrowboy
h) Donald Bullshitter - Kris Donaldson, acting chief exec of Culture in the Harbarrowboy's absence. Can't take decisions to save his life. Fantastically spendthrift, no judgement, like a frightened rabbit caught in headlights. There is genuine amusement that the most incompetent of them all has risen to the top! All teeth, irritating US drawl and no substance. Probably voted for Bush. Living proof of the phrase 'couldn't run a piss-up in a brewery'.
ha) The Great White Hope - Phil Redmond, multi-millionaire Labour Party member. Self-styled saviour of 2008 and voice of the people. Lagubrious, loutish demeanour. Affects a thick Scouse accent for public appearances. Self-interested ego-maniac eyeing up his chances of becoming first elected Liverpool Mayor. Appears to believe he is a central character in a low-grade soap opera. Keeps on referring to 'when I was at Brookside, we did this...." without any apparent shame. Has done nothing so far but get himself headlines in the Echo.Utter waste of space.
ha)Redmond attacks BBC for perfectly impartial report
ha)Redmond makes stupid promises
i) Ken Unworthy/the bald legal eagle - Michael Kenworthy, crap city solicitor.
j) Lee Forde - former Events boss, warned that Mathew Street could not be delivered because of Harbarrowboy's massive cuts. Jumped ship rather than have his professionalism and integrity compromised. Fighting the city council for constructive dismissal. Victimised and subject to dirty tricks campaign by the council. We are on his side.
k) Joe Anderson - Labour Leader. The best hope for the city. Hasn't put a foot wrong, harrying the Lib Dems at every turn. No nonsense - set to wield the axe amongst the fat cats. Determined to clean up the city.
l) 'Randy' Newman - Paul Newman, £90,000 a year Head of Communications for the Culture Company. Stabbing Joe Riley in the back is just one of his many offences. Staff secretly snigger about his Leslie Phillips 'Carry On Doctor', "well, hell-oo..." drawl at the sight of an attractive new woman. Hence, also known as 'lascivious Leslie'. A proven liar, bully and worst of all, completely ineffective. Lives in Gloucester - only here for the money and the next fat cat job. Currently cosy-ing up like crazy to Bryan Gray, from the NWDA, in an attempt to get a new job.
l)Randy Newman
m) Joe Riley - irritatingly opinionated columnist at the appallingly downmarket Echo. Self-styled 'expert' on all things cultural. Appears to have had the wind knocked out of him after being disciplined for falling asleep during a Jimmy McGovern play. May not have the bottle anymore to critiscise the council/Culture Co. Lacks awareness of any wider world outside the narrow confines surrounding his desk.
m)Riley attacks CoC stupidity
n) Robbing Archer - Robyn Archer, Aussie Artistic Director personally appointed by Henshaw. Did bugger all but take the money and flounce around town with a girly retinue on 'scoping' exercises. Paid off with £360,000 by the Fireman. Absolutely disastrous episode for Liverpool.
x) more to come...

INTERNATIONAL NEWS! BUENOS DIAS SENOR!!!!

By now, our loyal readers will have grown accustomed to the international attention which Liverpool subCulture attracts. But we thought one small technical detail about one of our global afficionados might be of particular interest.
On 11th October 2007, beginning at 06:16:11, we had one particular reader in Spain, (of all countries! eds) who spent a total of 6 hours 16 mins and 0 secs reading the subculturegossip post 'HAS JASE DONE A RUNNER ALREADY?'
He spent almost as much time on the blog as Trinity Mirror, The Mersey Partnership, the Audit Commission and Liverpool Direct!
We have now labelled this entry on our internal monitoring system 'The Harbarrowboy in Spain' - and he gets a groovy little Spanish flag icon alongside his technical details for showing such conspicuous interest in our humble little efforts. This will enable us to keep you posted of his future interest in the blog.
Still, you would think there would be something else to do around the hacienda, wouldn't you?

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Our Lord Redmond cancels closing ceremony so 2008 will end....

OUR Lord Redmond has cancelled plans for a closing ceremony for 2008 - because there is no money left in the kitty.

Redmond, a multi-millionaire who lives in Cheshire, pulled the plug at a meeting in the Millenium House Fun Palace this afternoon.

He had appointed himself as the producer of the show and was due to take all the credit for single-handedly designing a showpiece event.

Liverpool subCulture understands that these were some of Redmond's planned highlights:

The March of the Superlambananas - a parade of all the Japanese-made statues which were erected around the city.

Karaoke Kop - a massed choir in the Oldham Echo Arena singing their favourite Beatles songs.

'I'm a Scouser, get me out of here!' - a new series broadcast on closed circuit TV all around the city where celebrity scousers try to out-do each other with their quaint Scouse mannerisms. This was Our Lord's own, totally original, idea.

Build your own bench, sponsored by Rapid. A mass creative cultural experience for local people to show how fully engaged they are in Liverpool 2008. In a new innovation, benches can be made from wastepaper made in Oldham. Redmond said: “I said at the beginning, it’s not simply a bench. It’s also a cultural resting place." (He did actually say this, eds)

Build Your Own Pub, sponsored by Cains.

A great after-show party for Phil and his mates, including Pete Price (welcome back Pete, eds), Clare Sweeney, Sinbad and various other extras from Brookside.

The Phil Factor - Our Lord judges the world class local talent who come on, trip up over some tatty 08 branding and then start singing old Frank Sinatra songs. Into the wrong microphone.

'Standards are Slipping' - a look back at the city's rich political history, culminating in a pyrotechnic re-enactment of the Fireman's famous 'Walk of Death' to judgement day by the Standards Board for England.

Carry On Cover Up - a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek romp through the farcical goings-on at Liverpool Town Hall.

Double Your Money - a live casino on the waterfront where council taxpayers give up all their money to incompetent council bureaucrats who then disappear to retirement homes in Formby, Spain and Wales.

Unfortunately we are now going to miss all these treats. Because all the money has been spent. Gone, Vanished. Disappeared. The cupboard is bare. There is no more dosh. It doesn't grow on trees yer know. We are brassic. Aint got a cent, lah. On our uppers, Phil mate.

Redmond had originally wanted £1million for the end of the year show when he began planning his great moment six months ago. Then the budget was halved to half a million - the amount being paid to Hasitall as a reward for his incompetence. Then the budget was going to be dependent on what could be raised in ticket sales for seats for the show at the Oldham Arena. Then at today's meeting, Redmond was finally told there were no more spondulicks.

What's more, since the long-suffering Culture Company staff are all out on their ears on December 31st, not many were going to be daft enough to rally around to make multi-millionaire Redmond look good.

No doubt he will now try to cobble something together with a few of his 'mates' to try and save his face. But it won't be anything like what he had planned - or the people of Liverpool had expected.

Perhaps the Oldham Echo can organise a 'Save the Show' campaign?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

FAMOUS FIVE DISAPPEAR FROM TREASURE ISLAND by Enid Blyton

WHATEVER has Colin CoverUp done to the Famous Five?

His 5-man Executive Management Team (EMT) has now all but disappeared from the law-breaking city council.

The only two left are CoverUp's mate and chief 'yes' man Stuart Smith, who was last spotted hiding under a desk with his hands over his ears and regeneration boss John Kelly (who has had such an impact on the city that we had quite forgotten him, until reminded by one of our commentators below).

Its the end of an era and no more lashings of Cains ginger beer and ham-fisted sandwiches for the super-directors.

The smiling assassin Hasitall has been booted out of the Municipal Buildings with a half a million pay-off after making the council the worst in the country.

Social Services Executive Director Tony Hunter, last seen looking like death warmed up after years of bullying by the rottweiller McElhinney, has legged it to become chief exec of Cleethorpes or somewhere equally obscure.

The 'Cultural' Exec Director, otherwise known as the Harbarrowboy, has been given a £250,000 pay-off, a season ticket to Tans R Us and a hammock on the Costa del Cock Up.

As one blog contributor has aptly noted, that leaves only Cover Up and nonentities in charge of the lawbreaking city council - the worst in the country.

Difficult to get a quorum for EMT meetings then.

Good to know that the city's biggest employer is in such safe hands, if you will forgive the pun.

Never mind though.

We are sure it won't be too long before Cover Up again appoints a costly firm of headhunters (breaking all the city council's procurement rules) to scour the country looking for 'top talent'.

"We are determined to appoint the best possible leaders," said a grim-faced council spokesman "to take Liverpool forward to a bright new dawn where children play happily in sun-kissed meadows, couples skip hand in hand through the latest shopping mall and literally millions of journalists from the Washington Post visit the city to witness a huge £1.8million thing lumbering through the streets (obviously Lord Redmond's ego, eds)"explained a council spokesman.

With the post of City Solicitor now being advertised for the third time (still no takers) perhaps word has got about?

Maybe we can stand-by for a whole new team of overpaid, lacklustre bureaucrats appointed on £225,000 a year, plus Performance Related Pay, to transform the worst council in the country into a new Jerusalem.

Yeah, right.

Historical note: You will recall that it was the evil Henshaw who first appointed four yes men (and one woman) as £150,00-a-year Executive Directors soon after being named chief executive by The Storeyteller.

The Famous Five then were:

Colin CoverUp (Education)
Hasitall (Resources)
The rottweiller McEhinney (specially brought by Henshaw from Knowsley to mastermind dirty tricks)
Annie Shepperd (daft as a brush)
Charlie Parker (cockney wide boy).

Friday, September 05, 2008

The cost of failure for Hasitall.......

FAILED City Treasurer Phil Hasitall is being paid off with half a million pounds after making Liverpool the worst council in the country.

Details of the record pay-off are exclusively revealed in today's Daily Post.

It means the smiling assassin Hasitall will be departing next Spring after 10 years with the city council following the Audit Commission offically ranking Liverpool as the worst council in the country for its financial mismanagement.

We wonder how much he might have got if he had done his job properly?

The hated Halsall is known for a few other things:

He is a mate of Chas Cole, promoter of the Summer Pops

He gave more than £3million of council taxpayers money to his mate Chas for the Summer Pops, breaking all council procurement rules

He went on holiday to New York with his mate Chas and his other mate, the rottweiller Dr David McElhinney while signing the fat cheques for Chas

He went to the same school in Southport with his mate Chas and Colin Cover Up - talk about the old school tie!
His mate Chas gave Hasitall's son Liam a slot for his band 'Abe' as support to Status Quo at the Summer Pops - the band have since sunk without trace
The cost of The 08 Place spiralled half a million pounds over budget, after his mate Chas got special treatment for his office inside from Hasitall's other mate, the rottweiller McElhinney

His mate Chas got free parking from the city council at a cost of £19,000 - Hasitall authorised this
Hasitall allowed The Harbarrowboy to waste millions on Capital of Culture cock-ups and then went cap in hand to the Government begging to be bailed out

Hasitall has spent the last three years leaking like crazy against Colin Cover Up and Fireman Bradley after unsurprisingly failing to get Henshaw's job

Hasitall was, of course, a fully signed-up member of the evil cabal with Sir Diddy and the Rottweiller. Their major claim to fame, of course, was their corruption, dishonesty and cowardice.

An avid Daily Torygraph reader, Hasitall distinguished himself at the city council by putting his personal greed above all else.

But he did provide some lighter moments - Hasitall's two most memorable public appearances were:

1) Telling Mick Ord at Radio Merseyside how, thanks to Hasitall and McElhinney, city council staff were now going to get preferential treatment for tickets for the first Paul McCartney gig at Kings Dock - and then being slightly bemused when a firestorm of protest erupted

2) His now legendary TV interview with the saintly Gordon Burns on BBC North West Tonight earlier this year when the £230,000-a-year Hasitall was questioned about the council being the worst in the country for financial stewardship.

(This landmark interview is now being replayed by PR companies all over the North West as a classic example of how not to do a TV interview - Hasitall was rude, arrogant, dishonest and seemingly extremely put out that somone of his seniority and obvious intelligence was being held to account for his record as a senior council officer and why should he even deign to answer silly, stupid and ridiculous questions from a mere TV reporter who clearly didn't understand anything at all about figures and after all what was it to do with him anyway? I'm not fucking accountable to him or the great unwashed in Garston sitting at home watching the telly with their egg and chips on their laps waiting for Eastenders to start, I'm fucking accountable to that other dick-head Bradley and his stupid side-kick Hilton who are as bad as each other and I can pull the wool over their eyes any day of the week, anyway I would rather be on the golf course than sitting in a stupid fucking cupboard on Paradise Street talking to some idiot in a fucking studio in Manchester.)

Sort of thing.

Meanwhile Labour, for entirely understandable reasons, have been concentrating their attack over the council's financial failures soley on the Lib Dims.

In order to reap the obvious benefits, Joe Anderson has sought to extricate Hasitall of all responsibility, while pinning it more firmly on the back of Bradley et al.

Which is fine, but not the whole truth.

Hasitall is just as complicit in taking the city council to the brink of bankruptcy as the incompetent Lib Dims.

And now he has got his reward - half a million pounds of council taxpayer's money.

It is they who will now be picking up the tab for his failures for many more years to come.

While Hasitall lives up to his name.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Gordon steps in to spare Halsall's blushes...

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has stepped in to spare the blushes of the smiling assassin Hasitall as he fights to save his failing reputation.

Some impish person, with a mischievous sense of humour (who could that possibly be? eds), appended Halsall's signature to the excellent petition currently on the No 10 Downing Street web site, calling for an independent investigation into the city council's finances.

Readers will recall that the Lib Dim city council was branded by the Audit Commission as the worst council in the country for its lack of financial stewardship, ably masterminded for the last nine years by the smiling assassin.

No sooner had Phil Halsall's name appeared on the petition than it was spotted by panic-stricken minions in the City Treasurer's department.

They urgently tracked down the £230,000-a-year (plus Performance Related Pay) smiling assassin on the golf course where he was swinging the lead, (shouldn't he be slinging his hook? eds).

Hasitall went ballistic, seeing the jape as all part of the civil war with Colin CoverUp and a further attempt to discredit him (are any MORE attempts needed? eds).

Hasitall immediately contacted the bald legal eagle Ken Unworthy, a close ally in his fight with Cover Up, to demand immediate action.

Emails were soon winging their way to the hard-pressed web master at No 10, demanding that Downing Street immediately remove Halsall's name from the petition.

There followed lengthy legal exchanges between the worst council in the country and No 10 - including threats of a High Court injunction - all carried out at an unknown cost to the taxpayer.

Halsall, renowned for his Daily Torygraph reading habits, also had the cheek to consult Unison, to intercede on his behalf.

Hasitall even went to see his mate Chas to see if he could help out by offering to throw a fund-raising gig for Gordon.

Finally, Colin Cover Up was reluctantly forced to intervene and write to No 10 vouching for the hated Halsall's bona fides.

(Oh, the ignomy, the ignomy, eds)

Eventually, No 10 relented and agreed to remove Halsall's name from the petition, allowing him to return to the golf course with his reputation, er, intact.

Any suggestion that Gordon is now considering bringing in Hasitall to aid his besieged Chancellor, is, of course, entirely without foundation.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

'It's not unethical' says ethics girl over probe into £75,000 Lib Dem chat for spin doctor!

ETHICS girl Paula Keaveney faces an investigation by the Standards Board after trying to stitch-up a £75,000 job for a Lib Dem spin doctor.

Councillor Keaveney, Lib Dem cabinet member for Ethical Governance, is being reported to the ethical watchdog - for 'unethical behaviour'!

Keaveney wrote to all Lib Dem councillors and her Lib Dem Party colleagues asking them to identify likely candidates for the position of Head of Communications with the worst council in the country - and offering to have a little chat.

Nudge, nudge, wink-wink, knoworrameanlike?

Keaveney, a 'lecturer' in Public Relations at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, also emailed work colleagues in her desperate hunt for 'one of us'.

Keaveney has already earned her nickname as Liverpool's own Ethics Girl by resolutely failing to take any action against Fireman Bradley, the Storeyteller and Colin CoverUp for their repeated wrong-doing.

Suggestions that she has been bribed with a babycham and bag of crisps are simply not true.

Keaveney is however, by complete and utter coincidence, on the selection panel which will eventually be appointing the unlucky spin doctor on £75,000 a year.

So it could prove quite an advantage to have an intimate chat with one of the people doling out the job, if you were a Lib Dem spin doctor desperate to jump ship from Nick Clegg's Cowley Street headquarters as election disaster stares you in the face.

Legendary Liverpool solicitor, 'Sexy Rexy' Makin revealed in his craven Echo column, that Keaveney had written thus to the Lib Dems:

"If anyone wants a general chat about the "challenges" this post might involve, I am more than happy to talk to them – although I can't do a lot more than that as I will be on the panel."

What a pity. Of course we only have Councillor Keaveney's word for it that the conversation, which itself is highly inappropriate, would not stray into other areas of interest to would-be spin meisters.

But it would clearly give any candidate a distinct advantage to have a harmless chat with a member of the appointments panel in advance.

It goes without saying of course that Councillor Keaveney would never dare abuse her position

Or tell the candidate the questions likely to be asked.

Or the answers that would go down well with her Lib Dem colleagues.

Or the elephant traps to avoid when trying to seduce the panel members with spin.

No.

It would just be a general chat about the challenges which might be involved - The Fireman, Storeyteller, CoverUp, worst council the country, Capital of CockUps, lack of legacy, Hilton's civil war with the smiling assassin Hasitall, the rottweiller McElhinney's corrupt LDL, The Standards Board, The Harbarrowboy, Our Lord Redmond, to say nothing of Tony Parrish's blogging friends.

And unethical ethics girls.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Firemen Bradley and Hurst make Liverpool 2008 a blazing success...

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A new hit parade for Liverpool subCulture...

WE are delighted to officially announce that the Liverpool subCulture blog, banned by the Lib Dim city council, has now attracted more than 100,000 readers.
We thank you all.
Our most sincere thanks of course, must go to all those who have made Liverpool subCulture a small, but such a beautifully formed, footnote in the proud history of the blogosphere.
We mean of course, our rich cast of characters:

The evil Sir Diddy (first and foremost)
The rottweiller McElhinney (still in our sights)
The smiling assassin Hasitall (who has undergone several reincarnations, but who has now turned history on its head by conspiring against the current chief executive - my how times do change!)
Chas 'show me the money' Cole (still raking in forests of cash from the city)
The Storeyteller (still unable to hold his own water)
Fireman Bradley (wounded badly, but limping to meet his coup de grace at the Standards Board)
Colin CoverUp (seriously unimpressive and comprehensively discredited after going native)
The Harbarrowboy (more brass neck than gold medallions)
Our Lord Redmond (rampant egotism and fake celebrity of a true phoney)
Donald Bullshitter (cocking up on a daily basis, but still taking the money)

We know them all so well now.
And so, thankfully, does Liverpool.
And there are a whole host of supporting extras - Mr Bumble, Randy Newman, Sexy Rexy, the craven Echo, Clare McCogloose, etc, etc, who have all added to the fun and games.
But most of all, we wish to thank and congratulate some 'real' Liverpool stars - Tori Blare, Prof Chucklebutty (and his missus) and Pete Price - without whom Liverpool subCulture would never have continued.
Good on you.
We hope that we may also take a little credit for encouraging these great new voices in the Liverpool blogosphere - long may they continue.
Meanwhile the city council continues to protest to Google in an attempt to ban the blog - demonstrating their daily contempt for the city council's taxpayers.
And, of course, their total contempt for truth, justice and democracy.
Which is were it all started...

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Our Lord Redmond wants Superlambananas back again next year....

Thursday, August 07, 2008

The Harbarrowboy's health: Did Mr Bumble shop the Storeyteller?

TRANSLATION: Did the Liverpool Echo's Joe Riley reveal that the source of an exclusive story about the poor health of the Culture Company chief executive, Jason Harbrow (sic) was the former Leader of the city council, Councillor Mike Storey, CBE?

That is the rather convoluted question we ask following mounting (sic, ed) allegations about the conduct of Mr Riley, Councillor Storey and the city council.

Readers will remember that the Storeyteller is well and truly for the high jump by the Standards Board when they eventually blow the cobwebs off their quills, loosen their starched wing-tip collars and finally give their verdict on their interminably long-running, long-awaited, long anticipated investigation into Bradley and Storey.

The Harbarrowboy, who pocketed £250,000 as a reward from the Lib Dim city council after cocking up Mathew Street, is now hell-bent on exacting his revenge on Storey, the Fireman and Colin CoverUp.

The Harbarrowboy has alleged to the Standards Board that, as well as being buillied by Bradley, the Storyteller told the Echo that poor Jase had suffered a heart attack when in charge of the Culture Co.

This was clearly contrary to Rule 37, Paragraph 47, Sub Clause 34, of the city council's Rules Which We Dream Up But Which We Only Ever Follow When It Suits Us, Otherwise We Tend To Quietly Forget About Them Because We Are In Charge You Know, Buster.

In other words, Storey broke all the rules by talking about a council employees health to the world's press. And the craven Echo.

This is what actually happened.

Bradley was riding in the city council Jaguar with the Storeyteller who was having a go at Jase and the Culture Company cock-ups, when Bradley told him told him that Jase had taken a powder and was in hospital with a dodgy ticker .

The Harbarrowboy had gone off work from the Fun Palace to have tests.

Bradley and Storey, thick as thieves in the Jag, then went into a huddle and began plotting what to do with such useful information. This was on Thursday night (28th June, 2007 - pre the Mathew Street debacle)

On Friday morning, on his way to the Executive Board meeting at the Town Hall, the

Storeyteller (not untypically, ed) immediately rang Joe Riley to spill all the beans.

The Storeyteller told Riley that he and Warren did not want to be quoted in the Echo (not untypically, ed) but poor old Jase was on sick leave and looked to be on the way out.

Riley, not known in unholy Trinity Mirror as Mr Bumble for no reason, then set about trying to 'stand the story up' for Page One.

Like a true investigative journalist, Riley immediately rang the city council's newscentre for the truth (sic, ed) and told them something along the lines of: 'Warren and Mike have told me that Jase has taken a sicky with stress. Can you give us a quote?'

This was all news to the newscentre staff (not untypically, ed) and there was much huffing and puffing and phoning around by various functionaries. (Randy Newman was uncontactable in the morning for some strange reason.)

Uncle Tom Cobbley and all were involved and it was all hands to the pump as the city council leapt into action (well, stumbled about a bit, ed).

Mr Bumble phoned various council functionairies literally a dozen times, telling all who cared to listen that 'Mike' had told him off the record that poor Jase was on his last legs and could he have an official statement in response from someone who was vaguely in officialdom.

Apparently Mr Bumble, the Echo's longest-serving and most experienced journalist, did not realise that to all and sundry at the Municipal Buildings he was cheerfully and repeatedly breaking the First Rule of Journalism: Thou Shalt Not Reveal Thy Source.

Quite what the journalists union, the NUJ would make of all this is an interesting question.

Even more interestingly, CoverUp himself then woke up, lurched about a bit and then phoned the Echo, begging them not to publish the story because Jason was only just a bit off colour and would be returning to work soon. (Cover Up is not, surprisingly, a qualified doctor, but then he is paid £250,000 a year, plus Performance Related Pay, so he does know the health status of all 19,500 city council employees.)

Thus the story did not appear.

But poor Jase was forced - against a genuine doctor's orders - to return to work the next week to avoid shock horror headlines in the craven Echo.

The Harbarrowboy went bananas when he discovered the Storeyteller's role.

A huge internal investigation was launched into precisely who said what, when, to whom, and why, which involved interrogating anyone found holding a biro in their hands at 8.30 am on the morning in question.

Even the Jag's poor chauffeur was quizzed as a torch from the pound shop was shone in his eyes and Ken Unworthy wound up the rack.

The chauffeur 'didn't hear a sausage about Jase taking a sicky', of course.

Meanwhile the Harbarrow demanded that Cover Up take serious action against Storey and immediately report him to the Standards Board.

And guess what happened then?

Colin CoverUp wrote a formal letter of complaint about Councillor Storey to the Standards Board.

But he never sent it.

He put it carefully in his bottom drawer (shades of the Rottweiller McElhinney) and kept schtum.

And Cover Up never admitted he had never sent the letter to the Standards Board until confronted by the suspicious Harbarrowboy six weeks later when all the fuss had died down.

By which stage, poor old Jase was busily cancelling Mathew Street (in revenge? ed) and planning his lucrative exit.

The smiling assassin Hasitall has been dining out for the last three months on this story, telling anyone who will listen all the intricate and interesting details and highlighting both the actions of the Storeyteller and the complicity of Cover Up.

The Fireman appears to have got off the hook, so far - no doubt the Standards Board will be more interested in his email to Hilton calling for Jason's neck and the Perroni plot in the front room of his home in Wavertree.

Meanwhile Labour's Joe Anderson has well and truly fingered Cover Up for, er, 'covering up' for the Storeyteller and thus sealing his own death warrant.

So what lessons do we learn from this interesting city council saga?

1) Don't trust Storey.

2) Don't trust Bradley.

3) Don't trust Cover Up.

4) Be careful talking 'off the record' to Riley.

5) Don't go on the sick.

6) Always look after the chauffeur.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

CAPTION COMPETITION: SPOT THE BIGGEST CROOKS...

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The voice of the people - we could not say it better.....

Dr X. Laughing Sandwich has left a new comment on your post:

This behaviour is endemic within the Executive Board of the council and that of LDL.

It has been cultivated and necessitated by a conspiracy of covering up greed, incompetence and the unbelievable criminal squandering of public monies.

The reality is that a group of controlling officers in Liverpool who are on salaries way out of proportion to other Local Authority Executive officers or even Executives of private companies, or for that matter, the parliamentary cabinet and the prime minister himself.

It is a group who have awarded themselves huge bonuses and performance related pay and a group will do anything that they need to do in oder to protect their positions and hide their incompetence and deceit.

A group who upon realising how big a salary gap they had created between themselves and the next level of management beneath them, set about inventing two or three entirely new management tiers in the 75k to 195k income brackets.

Under cover of making fit the council management fit for purpose, the real objective was to justify their own salary levels by creating a visible rising structure. The result of this new tier? Their Achievements?

Well we only have to look at each consecutive appalling and damning judgement of each and every audit and the resulting laughingstock that is Liberal-democrat run Liverpool.

This group who were complicit in renewing contracts that had clearly been shown to be at worst totally corrupt and at best a mockery of the concept of Best Value, who spoon-fed misleading and falsified information about services to either stupid or completely gullible councillors to convince them that this was the way forward aided and abetted by a few Elected Members with their own agendas and who were in the pockets of LDL.

All set about driving this forward and treating the backbenchers like fools.

To achieve this, they deliberately ran services into the ground disposing of key jobs through a voluntary severance scheme that had no proper funding, refusing to fill vacant posts and starving key services of finances with the aim being to make the remaining staff look incompetent or incapable and therefore ripe for absorbing into Liverpool Direct.

Then LDL set about recharging the council at least three times the original cost of providing the same services and a call centre service more interested in external lucrative contracts than doing the job they were supposed to do.

A wonderful new service, who took on and then bullied untrained young people to work from scripts dealing with the jobs once done by qualified experienced staff that had deserted in their droves unable to stomach any more.

And the line they were given was to keep the public away from getting the help they needed if it was likely to be one that would involve a cost.

A group that initially under Henshaw but also to everyones genuine and deep sorrowful dismay under Hilton, with the support of Storey and Bradleys cabinet allowed the sinister Team Liverpool to drive these changes through, tolerating no opposition or questioning of how this would improve services, bullying staff into submission.

Using the Big Lie technique presenting lies masquerading as reports. and presenting financial projections and alleged savings that did not add up from day one.

Anyone who questioned this found their life was made hell and they either shut up or left.

They allowed Team Liverpool to play a never ending game of relocation with staff teams and services so that they could charge the council tens of thousands of pounds for each and every unnecessary but highly lucrative move.

No questions asked or reasons given and any challenge seen as not being a team player or not being progressive.

For over four years they shifted and moved often the same teams and staff around form building to building, floor to floor and crammed people into hot desk offices, where they often had to wait 2 hours of a morning to access a computer.

They have given the council rooms in buildings which the city council own and charged them for the use of their own premises, the list could go on and on.

Enough has already been written about the financial joke that is the IT service and cost of personal computers and IT equipment.

This is the group that has at the same time presided over the worst financially controlled council in Britain.

The group who still take their performance related pay and bonuses and massive golden handshake or silencing deals when they have become either so incompetent that they cannot be maintained in post or that they threaten blackmail.

The group who to get themselves out of the financial mess they have created, and still maintain their high earnings, look each and every time to cutting back services to the most vulnerable need groups and front line staff.

They would never consider cutting the stranglehold and financial abyss that is Liverpool Direct because without them, they would never have achieved this level of pay, self importance and the idea that they can do as they damn well want, when they want because nobody is able to or prepared to stop them or challenge them.

Joe Anderson, if you don't see this then you must be blind.

If the decent Lib-Dem back benchers who have been treated with contempt by their own party leaders don't see this then you will be tarnished for years to come with the accusations, rightly or wrongly of corruption or incompetence or both.

So of course they would go to these extremes to protect themselves, and it is about time everybody woke up to the fact that this council has become a disgrace to public office and public services and the decent hard working staff with any sense of the reality must be sickened and ashamed, and would probably be ready to comply with any genuine public enquiry.

We have seen the result of whistle blowing and handing over dossiers of evidence.

Nothing!

Because those called to or expected to investigate it are a part of the problem.

The demand should be made now to central government for a full public enquiry into the political and officer led management of this city and immediate intervention powers used to take control.

Without this, there is no current credible way forward.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

COVER-UP'S SECRET PHONE SURVEILLANCE (CONT) - LETTER FROM JOE ANDERSON TO LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCILLORS.....

From: Anderson, Joe (Councillors /Municipal Buildings)

Sent: 06 July 2008 17:08

To: /*The Liberal Democrat Group Councillors; /*The Labour Group Councillors; /*The Liberal Group Councillors; /*The Green Group Councillors

Cc: Kenworthy, Michael

Subject: Monitoring of phone calls

Importance: High

Dear Councillor

Re: Secret searching of Councillors phone records.

I feel I have no other option but to write to every Councillor of the City and set out what I consider to be a grave breach of the Council’s policy and procedures and probably actions which have broken the law. I believe this is an issue that affects us all and I am asking for your support.

Some weeks ago I, along with others, was asked to co-operate with an inquiry being run by the Council and I was also asked that, if required, would I agree to my Council e-mail traffic being looked at. Like all Councillors, my email traffic contains information and correspondence of a highly confidential nature, particurlarly involving casework issues and politically sensitive material. However after some consideration I agreed to this and was interviewed by Internal Audit.

I asked for a copy of the findings of the investigation and received a copy of the report in June. I was totally shocked and disgusted to see the Council had not only inspected my Council email facilities, but had also monitored my telephone calls (which included both Council and private) and reported on them within the report itself . The details included who I had phoned and how many times, the information also included the telephone numbers of who I had phoned. The Council commented on the number of times I had called a particular member of the press. I have of course demanded to know who gave the permission for this to take place and I have also demanded to know who else has had there phone records checked in the past.

Whoever gave the instruction for my private telephone records to be checked has, at least:

I. Exceeded the powers of their office
II. Acted outside of the Council’s own policy and procedures
III. Invaded my privacy as Leader of the main opposition (possibly others)
IV. Probably broken the Data Protection Act
V. Almost certainly breached the Officer/Member protocol
VI. In all probability infringed my civil liberties (and possibly others)
VII. Clearly abused their power as an Officer of the Council

I have sent as a number of FOI questions about whether others have in the past had there e-mails or phones secretly monitored. I have also sent of a complaint to the Information Commissioner and asked whether the law has been broken. The City Solicitor has also referred the Council to the Commissioner and apologised (some comfort to me and you).

There has been much public concern about Council's apparently misusing surveillance powers which do exist against members of the public. In this instance it seems that a Councillor has been targeted for an inproper intrusion into private records, by the Council. If the Council behaves like this against the Leader of the Opposition, goodness only knows how it would behave in relation to a backbench Councillor or a member of the public. We as Councillors rely upon our Officers to behave in a proper manner. If they do not, the bond of trust is destroyed and elected members are unable to carry out their duties properly - the end result is that the public are not well served.

I hope you will agree with me that firm action needs to be taken. To this end, I am going to move an amendment to the Motion before Council on the 9th that demands a full and independent investigation into this matter the investigation should look at the following:

Ø What other members have had their records checked?
Ø What Policy has been used to undertake these outrageous secret searches?
Ø What other occasions have e-mail, telephone records been checked since 2005?
Ø What reports have Councillors seen on secret searches?
Ø Who authorised the search of my phone calls?

I believe this is as serious incident as I have ever witnessed in public life. Democracy is precious to all of us and we must defend our rights as elected Councillors including our civil liberties, right to privacy and respect. We can not accept any Officer viewing themselves as above the law and acting in such an unacceptable manner.

This is not a political issue. I am calling on Councillors from each Party to support my actions and demand an independent inquiry as only this can restore trust. We must then take decisive action against those who have behaved in such a way.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Joe Anderson

Sunday, July 13, 2008

PREMONITION OF AN UNCIVIL WAR or BATTLE OF THE GIANTS: the smiling assassin versus CoverUp

UNCIVIL WAR has broken out between the smiling assassin Hasitall and Colin CoverUp.

At stake is Hasitall's £220,000-a-year (plus 15 per cent Performance Related Pay) position as Executive Director (Resources) which Hilton wants to scrap.

Hasitall was behind the publication of the council's Blankety-Blank report into Tony Parrish's liverpool-evil-cabal blog.

The secret report, which had most of the names blanked out, fingered the Storeyteller as the source of info on the blog and recommended that he should be reported to the Standards Board.

But Colin CoverUp, in the time honoured traditional fashion, refused to take any action against the former council leader.

CoverUp decided another Standards Board investigation into Storey would sound the death knell for the Lib Dims and expose them as complicit in blackmailer Sir Diddy Henshaw's corrupt rule.

So Hilton quietly buried the report in his bottom drawer - until Labour's Joe Anderson rattled his cage and finally got his hands on it last week.

Hence the not-very shock headlines...

Painting Title: Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War), 1936 Salvador Dali

For the last year, Hasitall has been quietly simmering away in fury at Hilton's refusal to take action against Storey.

He wanted revenge because his own corruption had been comprehensively exposed by the legendary blog - his relationship with Chas 'show me the money' Cole; the New York marathon; his son's band Abe appearing with Status Quo at Chas's Summer Pops; free parking for Chas; the spiralling cost of the O8 Place to fit out Chas with an office, etc, etc.

So when it became clear that Hilton, at the Fireman's insistence, was now lining up Hasitall for the chop, the smiling assassin decided to act.

He wanted to get his revenge in first after it became clear that he was soon going to be the 'scapegoat' for Liverpool being named the worst financially run council in the country by the Audit Commission.

(Not so much the scapegoat really though - he is the city's Treasurer after all! eds)

So Hasitall, who leaked the first Tony Parrish report to the Echo a year ago, made sure the final report - produced by his own internal audit staff, of course - got into the hands of Labour's Joe Anderson.

The smiling assassin was quite happy for the Storeyteller to be fingered, but his real target was Hilton - for failing to refer the whole issue to the Standards Board.

In doing so, he scored a direct hit!

The report exposes CoverUp as politically biased, in protecting the Lib Dims and letting the Storeyteller off the hook.

It also reveals that CoverUp ignored an official recommendation and publically raised huge questions marks about his own professional integrity as £225,000-a-year chief executive, (plus 15 per cent Performance Related Pay).

(Not that we were in any doubt about that, anyway! eds)

CoverUp decided to cover-up for the Lib Dims.

So another everyday story of Liverpool politics!

Meanwhile, as the civil war between the smiling assassin and Hilton now rages, stay tuned for more instalments!!!!

It ain't over yet by a long way.....

Thursday, July 10, 2008

To readers of the Liverpool Daily Post......

WELCOME - to the Liverpool subCulture blog.

Legal

Decent

Honest

Truthful

(Unlike the city council)....

Friday, July 04, 2008

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Saturday, June 28, 2008

The rottweiller and LDL - theft on a grand scale......

HENSHAW'S rottweiller Dr David McElhinney has been accused of ripping off the people of Liverpool - by a local government watchdog.

McElhinney's Liverpool Direct Limited is now revealed as charging the city co

uncil an extra £15million a year - but no-one knows what for!

"It is not clear what these charges are for," says the local government improvement agency, the IDeA in stark and unequivocal terms.

The report reveals that McElhinney's LDL partner, British Telecom has pocketed a staggering £57million in management fees from LDL in the last two years alone.

While McElhinney's LDL empire has alone trousered an astonishing £123million from the city council for 'operating costs' in the same two years.

(Not all of this has been spent on a private shower for McElhinney, of course, eds)

“The basis of billing is opaque and management information does not include any cost information. The lack of transparency on billing and the value for money in the core contract have raised doubts about the value for money overall, ” says the IDeA, with breathtaking understatement.

It adds: "The spirit of the partnership is not working to the advantage of Liverpool City Council”.

You can say that again.

Full marks to the Liverpool Daily Post for lifting the lid on the LDL scandal by publishing details of the leaked IDeA report.

The IDeA have been brought in to run the rule over the worst council in the country - and come up with solutions for improvement.

They have now demanded an urgent review of the LDL operation.

McElhinney's transfer from the city council to become chief executive of LDL - secretly mastermined by Henshaw before he was forced to quit - is also questioned by the IDeA.

“The arrangement for seconding a Liverpool director to run this contract further blurs lines and loyalties - and should be addressed.”

The rottweiller's reaction to this devastating indictment of his personal empire was typical - he lied.

He immediately tried to publicly deny that the IDeA had called for an urgent review of the LDL contract with the city council.

Then he tried to bully council staff into issuing a statement refuting the independent and impartial findings of the IDeA.

This time, however, the rottweiller could find no allies who were prepared to cover-up and justify the systemic corruption at the heart of LDL.

What is utterly remarkable about this grand scale rip-off and larceny, of course, is that it comes 18 months after Colin 'Cover Up' Hilton promised to sort out the LDL joint venture with BT, after admitting that it had cost the city council millions of pounds.

A secret report by KPMG - which Hilton steadfastly refused to make public - had made 37 separate recommendations to tighten up the deal with LDL.

Hilton, who is being paid £250,000 a year as chief executive of the worst council in the country(plus Performance Related Pay at 15 per cent every year), promised to implement all the recommendations in full by March of this year.

Hilton, who is on the LDL board, has clearly failed to do so - at least according to the IDeA report.

The other Lib Dim member of the board, Councillor Peter Millea, also appears to have been completely incapable of getting a grip on things in the interests of council taxpayers.

Any suggestion that McElhinney, a Liverpool FC season ticket holder, has exerted any improper influence on Millea, also a Liverpool FC season ticket holder, is completely without foundation.

It would be unthinkable that McElhinney could have 'bought off' Millea with any favours or inducements.

But the explanation for Millea's apparent silence is still a complete and baffling mystery. What has he been doing to safeguard the interests of the people of Liverpool?

Meanwhile it is worth reminding ourselves of Henshaw's role in this daylight robbery of council taxpayers's money.

You will remember that he was the architect of the LDL joint venture with BT and that he brought McElhinney with him from Knowsley to force it through in Liverpool.

This is what Henshaw, now in charge of the North West's National Health Service, had to say about LDL and the joint venture with BT:

"Liverpool was in a fairly desperate state of circumstances in ’99. We had the third from worst record in terms of quality of service and delivery, and we charged the highest council tax in the country.
And here we had to really look at the future and transform ourselves radically into a whole new wayof delivering public service.
A number of local authorities are making use of BT’s ability
in business transformation. What we are using, are technology platforms as a core part of that transformation agenda. And so with BT you are getting that expertise and depth on telecoms’ game, but also a huge growing support in terms of what you need to do in business transformation. For me they have been a massive addition to our
weaponry here in the recovery of Liverpool and the transformation of the city council. I think it’s a pretty compelling offer.
HR was in a muddle like the rest of the business, and what we needed
to do was do that full scale transformation, moving it from a very high cost intensive transactional business with HR people around the organisation in separate pockets, into a basically web enabled system self serve intranet based operation, and BT were hugely supportive of using the platforms that we were building with them, as well as offering expertise and help in just moving the business away from the old model tothe new construct. They’ve gone through a lot this themselves they are still in journey and transformation so we did a lot of listening to them about the problems they’d faced.
BT have been a very powerful partner with us, the technecological platforms they’ve got, the skills, the depth and all that is I think is well spoken about and well researched and well evidenced. But what’s been most important with this joint venture we have with BT has been the collaborative nature of that relationship. We each work to our strengths, we bring strengths to that relationship.
And it’s very much founded on the outcomes rather than process of the engagement.
We’re basically doing over a million transactions a month both in revenue, benefits and other associated areas. This is one of the essential bits you’re judged by as a local authority. If you aren’t getting this right, you aren’t doing the basics right. So this has been an absolutely central part of the recovery agenda, and it was a mess. Now that was actually quite challenging, major risk management challenges there about stopping the systems for well over 6 weeks we thought at one stage and actually keeping services levels at least going whilst we fixed everything and built the new platforms.
BT have bought a huge expertise in technology, a huge understanding of big mass transactions systems, but equally we’ve bought something to the party and I think it was a very good illustration of both a contractor BT and a client working together seamlessly.
Here we were sitting down facing what was quite an attractable
problem in terms of quality of business and cost space.
But by working together and bringing expertise from both sides of the equation, we’ve found a solution which was tailored to Liverpool and which we were now rolling out elsewhere. BT is very supportive here, we had a very very carefully planned project, very very carefully evaluated, very good risk management analysis on it and we did a very good job of this. We turned around far quicker than we thought, anticipations
were at the high end of our expectations in terms of the timescale, most
importantly the business didn’t collapse. We actually kept on, not at the higher levels, but the business carried on and confidence wasn’t shaken amongst our customers. And within a matter of weeks, we were back up again and recovering to really high performing top quartile type performance was being achieved.
We’ve moved the performance of the authority up dramatically from a
very poor rating to a good rating, knocking on the door of excellent. And we’ve also massively reduced the cost space of the business taking £120 million out over five years. Head counts down from 23,500 to 19,000, but overall this is now a high performing quality business that’s delivering the quality of service to our customers that wasn’t the case in the
past." Sir David Henshaw

What utter, self-serving bollocks this little man talks.

Other interesting stuff here: More bollocks from Henshaw about LDL

LDL "save millions for Liverpool" - you couldn't make this stuff up. But they do!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The secret phone monitoring conspiracy....(Part 2)

Colin Cover Up's illegal monitoring of Joe Anderson's mobile records doesn't stop there.

Other people's phone records have also been monitored, we can reveal.

And other forms of secret surveillance may also have been carried out by the council as part of a number of internal investigations.

The questions Cover Up must now answer are:

how many other phone records were monitored?

do they belong to councillors, employees, ex-employees - or all three?

who are they?

have they been informed that their mobile phone records have been monitored?

who authorised this?

what other monitoring of individuals has the council carried out?

what action is now being taken against those who carried out these illegal actions?

NB: The council has already confessed: “We omitted to notify the individuals concerned that it also included mobile phone records."

Monday, June 16, 2008

Cover Up monitors Anderson's mobile - and breaks the law for a second time....

Colin Cover Up has broken the law for the second time - by monitoring Labour leader Joe Anderson's private phone calls and publishing their details.

Mr Hilton, CBE, the city council's £250,000-a-year chief executive (plus Performance Related Pay at 15 per cent, eds) has fallen foul of Labour Leader Joe Anderson just days after it emerged that he was routinely breaking the council's own rules.

Now it transpires that he has routinely broken the law of the land too.

Astonishingly, Cover Up has broken the Data Protection Act by authorising the monitoring of Anderson's phone calls as part of an internal inquiry into the leaking of details about the Paul McCartney 'Liverpool Sound' concert at Anfield.

Anderson was amazed to find that investigators had covertly monitored the calls he had made on his council mobile phone (which he pays for) without seeking either his permission or authority, as part of their report.

The city council has now admitted it has broken the law - and Acting City Solicitor Ken Unworthy has been forced to issue a grovelling apology to Anderson for breaching Human Rights legislation, as well as the Data Protection Act.

Anderson meanwhile has already complained to the Information Commissioner who, readers may recall, found the council guilty of breaking the law over publishing details of mobile phone records exactly a year ago.

Legendary Liverpool Solicitor Rex Makin is also now chipping into the fray on behalf of Anderson, scenting blood.

The Information Commissioner ruled last June that the city council had broken the first principle of the Data Protection Act by publishing details of former Communications Director Matt Finnigan's phone calls (as well as his emails) in the Storey/Henshaw battle over Sir Diddy's pension demands.

Well, the slow-to-learn-its-lesson city council under Cover Up and 'new broom' Bradley has now done exactly the same thing again!

Regular readers will recall that back in April, Sir Paul Macca gave the incompetents at the Culture Company an ultimatum to hand over the organisation of his gig to his events company.

Macca demanded that the Lib Dems hand over £1.9million for the gig or he would pull out - and they meekly complied, despite the city council being £62million in the red.

The Daily Post and Radio Murkeyside followed up the Liverpool SubCulture report. The Furious Fireman then angrily denounced the leak on Roger Phillips, fearing that making public his cock-up's would cost him more votes in the May local elections.

Anyroadup, the Furious Fireman then forced Cowardly Colin Cover Up to authorise an internal investigation into who had leaked all the confidential details.

(Hey, the blog could potentially earn a distinction in this year's Academy Alliteration Awards! eds)

Councillor Anderson, who has of course, a fine, noble and upstanding record of ensuring the Liverpool public know exactly what the Lib Dims have been up to, was interviewed by the council's po-faced internal audit team during their leak inquiry.

And their official leak report has now been officially leaked, unofficially.

(You really couldn't make this stuff up, could you? How funny is that? eds)

The leak report is unable to come to any definite conclusions at all about who leaked the details of the Macca ultimatum (of course not, eds)

But, with an amazing burst of political insight, it points a trembling finger at Councillor Anderson on the basis that Labour might just have had something to gain from embarrassing and exposing the Lib Dims in the run-up to the May local elections.

(Blimey. Shades of Inspector Clueless here. Impressive investigatory skills and fantastic powers of deduction being demonstrated. Might have had something to gain eh? - do you really think so? eds)

However, the council report reveals that it secretly monitored Anderson's mobile phone calls and publishes how he phoned certain numbers.

And that's not the slightest bit funny.

Indeed it infringes the Human Rights Act and the Data Protection Act.

We think the Information Commissioner may well take a very dim view of the city council's repeated law-breaking.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Doing anything remotely interesting the week beginning July 14th??????

SADLY, Pete Price is going on his jollies in July, so we won't be treated to his truly amazing radio show on City Talk-but-no-one-listens.

However, all is not lost.

As Pete informs us on his rather excellent blog, his place as "dj" is going to be taken by The Harbarrowboy, fresh from the hacienda.

This could be fun....

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Just when you thought it had all gone quiet....another leaked report on Colin Cover Up

Chief executive Colin Cover Up has repeatedly broken the city council's own rules to appoint squads of headhunters - at a staggering cost to council taxpayers of more than £500,000.

That's the damning conclusion of an internal audit report into the appointment of Executive recruitment agencies, which has been leaked from a meeting of Cover Up's own Executive Management Team.

And it also warns that the city council may have acted illegally in their appointment procedure for a new City Solicitor, because it broke the council's own rules.

(Illegally appointing the top legal eagle, eh? You couldn't make this stuff up! eds)

The report accuses Cover Up, aka the £250,000-a-year Mr Hilton, CBE, and his team of highly paid Executive Directors, of breaking the council's own rules in engaging agencies to fill top positions.

It tells how the city council has engaged two recruitment agencies Veredus and Gatenby Sanderson since April 2006 at a mind-boggling cost of £445,000.

Veredus were originally taken on to handle the appointment of two senior positions in the Regeneration portfolio.

The leaked report says:

"But it appears that another portfolio has used their services without following the quotation procedures. In 2006/7 a total of £208K was paid to Veredus with £39K being paid to them in 2007/8."

(What? The worst council in the country forked out a quarter of a million quid to headhunters to fill just three posts? Are they certifiably insane? eds)

The leaked report says that Gatenby Sanderson were also taken on to recruit four 'executive positions', but:

"they have been used to fill at least one additional position for which quotation procedures were not followed. Having spent £53K on Gatenby Sanderson in 2006/7, a futher £145K was spent in 2007/8."

(This is mind-blowing. Are they totally out of control and above their own law? eds)

Hilton again failed to obey proper procedures when he appointed yet another recruitment agency, Rockpools to handle the appointment of a new City Solicitor (in a failed attempt to replace Ken Unworthy - but that's another story, eds)

The cost of that has yet to emerge but easily takes the total bill past half a million smackeroos....

The picture painted by the report is of Cover Up lolloping around the Municipal Buildings doling out public money here there and everywhere, without so much as a by-your-leave.

And breaking every council rule in the book into the bargain.

Presumably the Fireman was on a freebie in Las Vegas at the time, or making a speech about how things have got so much better in the last ten years?

The council's Standing Orders say that for expenditure below £100,000, three separate quotes need to be obtained.

Hilton routinely ignored this and gave away contracts to recruitment agencies without following established rules and procedures.

We wonder how many other contracts he has given away and to whom?

The internal report says that the 'three quotes' rule must be obeyed except in emergencies, or where competitive prices cannot be obtained.

It adds:

"In such circumstances it is the Head of Corporate Procurement who decides whether the procurement can be made, not the the Chief Officer (Cover Up)."

In other words, Cover Up old fruit, you exceeded your authority well and truly - do not overstep the mark again. Shades of the evil Sir Diddy, aka Sir David Henshaw.

(Editor's Note: What should happen now, of course, is that Hilton should summon himself to his own office in the Municipal Buildings and read himself a letter, from himself, suspending himself from duty, pending an investigation into these 'procurement irregularities.'

Then, in the time honoured tradition, he should strip himself of his mobile phone, blackberry and council pass; force himself to empty all the council paper clips from the pocket of his smoking jacket and then escort himself off the premises past his open-mouthed colleagues.

He should only pause on the way out, as he passes the rottweiller McElhinney's Jaguar, to quietly advise himself "not to let this drag out, in your own interests."

Then he should ban himself from talking to any of his colleagues, speaking to the media, or visiting any council premises.

He should send himself threatening letters hand-delivered by taxi-courier to his own home late at night, summon himself for medical examinations on a whim and carry out an extraordinary campaign of harassment and attempted intimidation against himself.

If Cover Up thought any of these corporate bully-boy tactics were part of an incredible abuse of power and morally indefensible, he could always start his own blog, or something, to expose those responsible - ie, himself.

But of course, none of that could possibly happen in Liverpool. It would be utterly unthinkable.

Although it would make a suitably surreal plot for our colleague, Prof Chucklebutty.)

Meanwhile, the internal leaked report concludes:

"EMT are reminded that the Contract Standing Orders apply to all officers and must not be circumvented under any circumstances."

Interesting choice of word.

The Executive Management Team are then advised to "consider their position" (some cheeky auditor's invitation for them to resign, eds) "in relation to the City Solicitor Post given that the Contract Standing Orders have not been followed in procuring the services of Rockpools."

What all this means is that Cover Up has been astonishingly reckless with public money, wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of council taxpayers dosh and flagrantly breaking all council rules into the bargain.

And he will brazen the whole thing out with no action being taken against him by the weak and cowardly Lib Dims. Perhaps Cover Up will, however, order a leak inquiry? He has it all to do now.

So an everyday story for the city council, then.

Memo to the city council leak machine: Thanks very much for leaking this report - it confirms our worst suspicions - and we know there is more still to come. If you would care to provide further detail about the other sensational matters mentioned in previous missives, we will be happy to reproduce them here in full for our adoring public. However, can we make a special request? The latest leak passed to us was on a single A4 sheet of paper - that's the ideal length, because we are extremely busy with other matters at the moment and we can't be arsed ploughing through the usual council report gobbledegook of 97 pages of tedium. Keep the next few leaks similarly short and snappy and to the point. You can email further leaks to tonysparrishioners@hotmail.co.uk, or liverpoolsdandypat@hotmail.com, or liverpoolevilcabal@hotmail.com Any of those will get to the right people one way or another. Ta very much.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

WE NAME THE GUILTY MEN FOR HER MADGE: NO 1 - THE SMILING ASSASSIN HASITALL..

Friday, May 30, 2008

WELCOME TO LIVERPOOL ONE - Made by Mancs, Geordies, Cockneys, Poles....anyone but Scousers!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

LIB DIM 'DIRTY TRICKS' - MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS....

TODAY'S excellent story in the Daily Post about the Lib Dim 'dirty tricks' campaign for Leader, tells only half the story.
Post readers will now know that the Boot estate report, which roundly condemned Councillor Kemp's previous activities on the estate, was anonymously posted to every member of the Lib Dem group on the eve of Monday's Leadership election.
The report contained enough damaging material on Kemp to successfully do him in, before a single vote had even been cast by Lib Dim councillors.
"Cllr Kemp said he was in no doubt the mailshot had come from within the Lib-Dems to undermine his challenge, as the labels used were virtually identical to those usually used by the party," the Post recounts.
Tsk, tsk.
Whatever next...

But who could have been behind such a disgraceful tactic?

Who could have descended to such gutter tactics against a member of their own Lib Dim Party?

And who stood to gain most from Councillor Kemp's challenge being torpedoed?

These are all interesting questions....
But there can obviously be no truth whatsoever in the astonishing reports that Council Leader Warren Bradley had, by complete co-incidence, asked chief executive Colin Hilton for a copy of the report just a few days before the Leadership ballot.
Nor can there be any truth whatsoever in the extraordinary report that Colin CoverUp dutifully supplied the Fireman with a copy of the Boot Estate report in double quick time.
For that would mean that:

a) CoverUp had knowingly conspired with Bradley against Kemp.

b) And that Bradley's description of the mystery mailing as 'crass' in today's Post was an example of gross hypocrisy from the city's Leader.

And there remain more questions about the incident of the Boot Estate report.
1) Since it would obviously be absolutely unthinkable for the upstanding Bradley (soon to appear before the Standards Board) to be the mystery mailer - what other purpose could he have had for the report? Bed-time reading?
2) How long will it now take Uncle Joe to get his hands on a copy?
3) Will CoverUp still refuse to give him a copy?
4) And if Bradley did not mail out the report, who on earth within the Lib Dims did?
Any suggestion that the city's first citizen, Councillor Paul Clark, Lord Mayor and a practising barrister, was a willing accomplice, would, of course, be so far-fetched and ludicrous as to be absolutely unthinkable.

Labour MPs slam unholy Trinity Mirror over birth of Oldham Echo

Six Merseyside MPs have tabled a parliamentary motion calling on Trinity Mirror to stop the “haemorrhaging” of jobs from its offices in Liverpool.
It follows the announcement last month that 43 journalists were to be axed from the Liverpool Post and Echo.
In September more than 100 jobs were lost from the city when printing of the papers was moved to Oldham.
Cynics have now started referring to the Echo as 'The Oldham Echo.'
The Labour MPs who have tabled the Early Day Motion – a type of parliamentary petition – are Peter Kilfoyle (Liverpool Walton), Geroge Howarth (Knowsley North and Sefton East), Frank Field (Birkenhead), Edward O’Hara (Knowsley South), Ben Chapman (Wirral South), and Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby).
Read the full text of the motion.
MPs from all over the UK can support the EDM - certainly more Merseyside MPs should be encouraged to sign up.
Please find your MP and ask them to sign.

So if he is not Pete price, who is he?

PETE Price is not Pete Price, according to the Oldham Echo.
That is the sensational news revealed tonight by a man posing as the popular talk show host with City-Talk-but-no-one-listens.
Apparently, the Echo columnist is actually a total phoney. A fake. A charlatan. A rogue. A complete ****ing imposter!
Who would have thought it?
We hope this means that the Echo will now discontinue the phoney Mr Price's crap column forthwith.
If they want to fill the space they could give it to the real Pete Price and his excellent blog at http://peteprice967.blogspot.com/. Or Chucklebutty.
Tho we doubt whether either would ever be quite as funny as the Fake Pete Price.

Letting the Kat out of the bag....

Meanwhile in the Dale Street bunker, Colin CoverUp is trying to work out how to appoint a new team of bureaucrats to replace those that have scarpered with huge pay-offs.
High on his list of priorities, given the worst council in the country's 'wonderful' public image, is the £75,000-a year post of Director of Communications.
Head-hunters have been appointed to trawl for suitable candidates, but it appears that CoverUp could have avoided the ruinous extra cost of the interminable appointments procedure.
He has already let it be known that he reckons the successfull candidate can be found close to home.
Step forward Kathryn Smith, head of Internal Communications with the city council, who CoverUp has earmarked for the role.
Ms Smith is best known for her slavish loyalty to the dreaded rottweiller Dr David McElhinney and her unquestioning sycophancy to Sir Diddy.
She regularly produced astonishing 'motherhood and apple pie' tributes to the evil rottweiller and the greedy and corrupt Sir Diddy in the pages of Council People - the city council's staff magazine.
She has spent the last few months faffing about doing various obscure things with the Culture Company - which has obviously produced a noticeable upsurge in positive perceptions of the Capital of Cock Ups.
Quite how she will cope with the Oldham Echo is anyone's guess.
Nor can she be said to enjoy the full confidence of other communications colleagues who have long suspected her of being the 'spy in the camp' for the rottweiller.
Meanwhile the Lib Dims are scouring the country for a sympatyhiser who will accept their poisoned chalice.
Candidates were actively lobbying the Fireman during the Lib Dim conference, although admittedly their enthusiasm appeared to be directly related to their proximity to the bar and the lateness of the hour.
A battle royal (what, another one? eds) could erupt between supporters of Cover Up's chosen one and the Lib Dim favoured candidate.
But look forward to plumes of grey smoke from the MO building in the very near future as Ms Smith emerges promising a bright new dawn for the city council.
You read it here first...

Sign the No 10 petition for an independent investigation into the city council and LDL

A PETITION has been started on the No 10 Downing Street website calling for an independent investigation into the worst council in the country, LDL, etc, etc.
You can sign the petition here Go On, What Harm Can It Do - May As Well Let the Bastards Know That Some of Us Object To Their Actions.
You can read about the petition here too......
Liverpool City Council has been officially cited as the worst Local Authority in the country.
They are £62,000,000.00 in debt and that debt is rising.
Successive audits have shown significant failings in financial management.
A recent report from KPMG made thirty-seven recommendations regarding the contract with Liverpool Direct Limited.
It is imperative for the people of Liverpool that an impartial investigation be carried out by an incorruptible body accountable to Parliament.
The National Audit Office is the only organisation which has the authority to carry out a wide ranging, detailed and impartial investigation into the financial management of Liverpool and more specifically the relationship between the Local Authority and the companies Liverpool Direct Limited and Liverpool Schools Services Limited.
We therefore petition the Prime Minister to instruct Tim Burr - on behalf of Parliament - to send an investigation team to Liverpool with full powers to access and inspect any and all records and interview any and all persons whom they may deem necessary and to grant any persons giving evidence protection under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.

FIREMAN BRADLEY LIED TO RADIO MERSEYSIDE LISTENERS (AGAIN)

Fireman Bradley lied to BBC Radio Merseyside listeners about the Lib Dem's closure of Leighton Dene and Boaler St old folks homes.
That's according to the independent Commission for Social Care Inspection - and Tony Hunter, the city council's own Director of Social Services!
The Fireman was being questioned on the wireless by Roger Phillips about his city council's closure of the centres, which provide respite care for the victims of dementia and Alzheimers.
To try and justify these digraceful closures, Bradley told Phillips: "Probably 90 per cent of local authorities in the country still don't provide that sort of care and it was highlighted via the inspectors that Liverpool maybe shouldn't be doing this as part of the core business."
Labour MP Jane Kennedy wrote to the Commission for Social Care Inspection to ask if they had suggested - or made any comment at all either in writing or verbally - about Liverpool city council not providing such care in their inspection reports, known as Performance Assessment Notebooks.
Er............. no, came back the reply from Chief Inspector Paul Snell.
Or to be more specific:
"I can confirm that there is no evidence in either the council's Performance Asessment Notebook or any other performance related correpondence we hold that supports any such comments having been made.
"The Business Relationship Manager for Liverpool is adamant that such comments have not been made verbally or in writing," he added.
Then Mr Snell helpfully volunteered the following: "We have also contacted the Director of Adult Social Services (the aforementioned Mr Hunter) for Liverpool City Council, who has confirmed our understanding."
It appears therefore, that even one of Colin CoverUp's overpaid army of bureaucrats didn't have the brass neck to try and dig Bradley out of the hole he had dug for himself.
So, under the relentless Paxman-like Radio Merseyside questioning, fireman Bradley (typically) opted to lie about the views of an independent Inspectorate - in a desperate attempt to try and justify the Lib Dem closures of Boaler St and Leighton Dene.
Cowardly hypocrite.

Lorna departs with £45,000 in her handbag - after costing Liverpool half a million

FORMER BBC producer Lorna Dickinson has been told to clear her desk at the Capital of Culture Fun Palace after failing to deliver anything for the Sir Paul McCartney concert.
But, true to form for all CoC failures, she is being paid off to the tune of £45,000 of council taxpayers money.
That's on top of the more than a half a million quid that she has cost Liverpool for pissing about for the last 18 months.
Dickinson was the genius behind the now legendary Salthouse Dock scheme (Liverpool Subculture, passim) which cost council taxpayers £330,000.
Then of course, there is the £100,000 a year in consultancy fees which she has been slipping into her purse for holding a series of interminable meetings and twiddling her thumbs doing, frankly, fuck all.
So now she has been put forward as Hon.Pres of the Fuck Up and Fuck Off Brigade (proposed: Sir David Henshaw, seconded: The Harbarrowboy).
Dickinson has been unceremoniously given two weeks to tidy her desk and try to account for the dozens of transatlantic flights, champagne lunches and dinners which she treated herself to in her globe-trotting quest to take the piss out of Liverpool.
The cot of this is already rumoured to be in the region of £80,000.
Shame that the penny only dropped with CoverUp after her profligacy was finally exposed by the Liverpool Subculture blog.
(Some minion brings CoverUp regular print-outs).
Interstingly, her former colleagues at the Beeb appear to be trying to fight a rearguard action in her defence, claiming that she was given the push for blowing the whistle on the Culture Company's transatlantic junketing.
As if.....

The Curse of Culture........

As European Capital of Culture 2008, this is Liverpool's most important year for a generation, goes the oft-repeated spin.
So have you noticed how many senior people/fat cats are departing before 2008 is out and all the glossy brochures have even been sent for recycling?
Do they all know something we don't?
Has the Titanic already hit the iceberg?
Or is it something more sinister?
Let us examine the evidence.....
Drummond BoneHead, Chair of the Culture Company - leaving Liverpool in June.
Jason Harbarrowboy, chief executive of the Culture Company - forced to quit in January.
Loyd Grossman, Chairman of National Museums and Galleries - leaving in June after a fall-out with the irredeemably boring Museums boss, David Fleming.
Sue Woodward, former Deputy Chair of the Culture Company - resigned from Granada TV after being kicked off the Culture Board by a typically ungrateful Our Lord Redmond and quietly-spoken Bryan Gray.
Mick Elliott, Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and pocketing £60,000 for working two days a week at the Culture Company - resigned to go to the DCMS.
Not to mention Robbing Archer, Sir Diddy, Chris Green.
(You said you wouldn't mention them, eds)
Why have all these people, who have all been so prominently associated with Capital of Culture 2008, ended their Scouse sojourns so prematurely?
This is getting spooky....
Could it possibly be......
The Curse of Culture??
And if so, who will be next to fall victim to The Grim Reaper?
Dare we suggest it might be Fireman Bradley?

FIREMAN'S INTERVIEW WITH ROGER PHILLIPS, AFTER COUNCIL RANKED THE WORST FINANCIALLY RUN

Roger: This is not a good report for us is it Warren?
Fireman:Well Roger we’ve got to put it into perspective really haven’t we and remember where Liverpool was and that’s not thinking back 10 years. Liverpool has come an awful long way. The people of Liverpool were asking for lower Council Tax and the Liberal Democrats have delivered that and they also wanted better services and you look at the services that are now delivered by Liverpool City Council. If we look at the most vulnerable either elderly or the Children’s Services the social care we are now delivering at a level that Liverpool has never delivered before. We also look at the bread and butter your schools, your sports centres, your libraries, One Stop Shops in communities, our parks, we’ve got 13 green flag parks. It’s like a new home to me when you get an old dilapidated derelict building you’ve got to bring it up to a standard and I think Liverpool City Council under the Liberal Democrats have certainly done that and I am certain if we did a survey of people in the City do you want Liverpool City Council to sit on £20m worth of reserves or do you want the City Council delivering front line services that affect the most vulnerable and people’s lives in the City. I think that they would vote with their feet and say that we support the policies of Liverpool City Council. We’ve got to look at the financial regulations put in by Government and if you want my opinion about this Roger it is purely political.
Roger: Well come on, you know the Audit Commission is not a political body
Fireman: Well with respect Roger and I would beg to differ on that
Roger: Well how can it be a political, it’s an independent organisation?
Fireman: We can say everything is independent to a certain extent but you know you look at what we’ve got at the moment in Liverpool and we’re delivering top quality services.
Roger: But the problem with this is that you’ve got an overall score rating of 2 which was adequate performance into 05, overall score in 06 was 2 which is adequate performance.
This year it is down to 1 below minimum requirements inadequate performance.
Fireman: Based around financial regulations…
Roger: Yes I’m talking about the financial…..
Fireman: Laid down by government. I mean that’s what you’ve got to remember. Don’t try and muddy the waters and say oh this is about Liverpool City Council and their overall performance. It’s not. You look at the issue that we’ve done about achievements. Liverpool scoring 3-4 on achievement at the moment through the Audit Commission.
Roger: I didn’t know that.
(EDs: Pitiful, just pitiful.)
Fireman: And we do seem to always go to the negatives when we’re looking for something like this.
Roger: The District Auditor was pretty negative about you wasn’t he and…
Fireman: No, I have got to say Roger I would love to have £50m in reserves. I would also love not to have to put additions of £7m into adult social care and £2-3m into children’s social care. The facts are we have got to do that because of the pressures that are on Liverpool at the moment.
Roger: So are other Councils….
Fireman: I’m not willing as Leader of this Council to take away care to the most vulnerable to allow it to sit in reserve. I am not willing to do that and I will go to the stake on that the people of the City. Liverpool now is only one of a handful of Councils up and down the country that is providing moderate care to the most vulnerable people in the City. Now to give people an idea of what moderate care is that is home care. These people who’ve got no family to support them and require a visit in the morning or a visit in the evening to make sure they’re ok to help them to take the pills, to make sure that they’ve got the food. Most Councils up and down this country have removed that care. Liverpool City Council is still allowing our most vulnerable people our sort of care. Now is that wrong, is that wrong?
Roger: Now no one would argue that’s wrong but everyone. But many people are affected by housing. Housing is really poor isn’t it. I mean you are so poor you’ve had to hand it over to a different group to run it.
Fireman: Well with respect Roger, with respect, you’ve got to know what the Housing Corporation have done and in partnership with the Government again it’s easy to say it’s the Council, in partnership with the Government we’ve tackled head on through the Pathfinder areas of the inner core of the City some of the housing inefficiencies of the City. That hasn’t happened over the last five years that’s happened over 30 or 40 years. The problems in Norris Green in housing were prevalent 30 or 40 years ago and weren’t tackled. As an Authority we’ve challenged what wasn’t tackled and we’ve challenged it head on and I opened a couple of weeks ago with Flo Clucas and Marilyn Fielding with Cobalt Housing the first phase of Norris Green. We’ve transformed that area and its got houses for sale and social housing in Norris Green that people are seeking to live in now. We’ve got in a core Edge Hill, Kensington, Kirkdale the same issues that have been there for 30 or 40 years that we’re tackling now hand in hand with the Government. I’m not taking the credit for it and the Government isn’t. We’ve got a schools’ programme that is second to none. Liverpool’s young people are now achieving at the national average. I want it higher than national average to give new opportunity but again I’ll say I’m not going to suit accountants’ financial regulations in London and leave £millions sitting in reserve while we have still got the challenges Liverpool has got and I think people you know.
Roger: Do you think it was a mistake to keep Council Tax down or freeze it over the past few years?
Fireman: Well isn’t it ironic Roger how last week John Healey said how Liverpool is charging £101 a head...
Roger: Because its inefficiencies….
Fireman: Well we have taken £150m worth of inefficiencies out of our budget over the last 10 years. We’ve kept Council tax down which is exactly what Government policy is and is exactly what John Healey is saying. Councillor Joe Anderson is saying something completely different to the people of Liverpool that he will put taxes up to build reserves to put in reserve well again this administration this Lib Dem administration is not going to tax for the sake of taxing to leave money sitting in reserve. We will build up the reserves over a period of years and then we will be able to tackle some of the other issues that we’ve got to do. We recognise the health inequalities. To improve health inequalities we’ve got to have a real stable economy offering real opportunity and raising the aspirations in them poorer communities. You cannot do that leaving millions and millions of pounds laying in reserves and this administration will continue the robust financial management that we’ve done. We’ll carry on delivering…
Roger: If it was that robust we wouldn’t have this problem of £20m overdrawn on Capital of Culture.
Fireman: Roger, lets put things into hindsight. We are still delivering front line services. We are still…
Roger: It’s about £20m overall that we’re short this year – now that’s not robust management
Fireman: But Roger we are going through a budget setting process. Every Local Authority up and down the country is in the same process as us. I remember reading about Wirral being £50m short. Other Local Authorities. I meet the core city leaders who are £40-£50m short exactly the same as Liverpool . And let’s not forget I haven’t come on here to knock the Government I’ve come on here to say that I believe we’ve got a robust financial programme in place that is going to deal with the shortfall. We’ve delivered year on year but I’ll say again I am not going to allow millions and millions of pounds to lay in reserve. Cut front line services to the most vulnerable and then say that’s acceptable. Nor as Leader of this Council am I going to allow Council Tax to go through the roof again which will drive the inability to bring further investment into this City. While the Lib Dems have been in control we’ve brought Council Tax down, we’ve brought renewed confidence and we’ve brought real investment that will bring opportunities to the most vulnerable and I think that is the most important and I think the people of this City will stand full square with us on that. I’m proud of what we’ve delivered in this City over the last 10 years and Capital of Culture is part of that."
AND NOT A WORD ABOUT THE BARROWBOY'S PAY-OFF...

Robyn Archer - AN APOLOGY

In a previous post by Tony Parrish in 2006, it was claimed that the Liverpool Culture Company's former Artistic Director, Robyn Archer had left the company and returned to Australia with an £80,000 pay-off.
We now accept that this report was untrue.
We would like to withdraw the post on behalf of Mr Parrish and apologise unreservedly to Ms Archer for any embarrassment that was caused to her personally or any damage caused to her reputation.
We would also like to offer our sincere apologies to both the Liverpool Culture Company and Liverpool city council for publishing an inaccurate report on our web log and for implying that they would be careless or reckless with council taxpayers money.
We have been asked to make clear that, in fact, the pay-off to Ms Archer was substantially more than £80,000.
She was, in fact, paid off to the end of her contract in 2008.
This means that she was given £150,000 for 2007 and £150,000 for 2008.
To this should also be added £75,000 - half her annual salary of £150,000 for the remainder of 2006.
We would therefore like to make clear that Ms Archer in fact pocketed £375,000 from the council taxpayers of Liverpool.
We apologise for any embarrassment caused by our original mistake.

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT AND WORKERS CONTROL: WE HAVE TAKEN OVER TONY"S BLOG

Tony's Parrishioners have now taken over the Liverpool subCulture blog after persuading TP that the Mathew Street debacle was just cause for re-emergence.
Our aim will be to toughen up his rather mealy-mouthed and polite critiscisms with some proper full-blooded attacks.
We will expose even more of the evil doings of the cabalists, Colin 'Cover Up' and the Harbarrowboy's s band of incompetent dick-heads and divvies.
And we shall ensure the lousy Lib Dems who have let them get away with ripping off the people of Liverpool and taking the piss out of the city, do not escape.
THEY HAVE BEEN WARNED....

WANTED! HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?

THE PEOPLE"S BLOG - BANNED BY THE CITY COUNCIL

Liverpool city council has banned council employees from accessing this blog on their work computers. Worse than that, they have also prevented the people of Liverpool - who pay the council's wages - from accessing this blog on computers in public libraries or in One Stop Shops.
But our voice will not be silenced.
We will not be gagged.
Nor will we be prevented from exposing the corruption, double dealing and rotteness at the heart of the city council and its offspring - the Liverpool Culture Company.

Letter from Colin CoverUp to city council employees following recent press reports

ARISE SIR PHIL! - A knighthood for Our Lord Redmond

LIB DEMS ON TRIAL (PART 2) - "You realised you had been rumbled...."

LIB DEMS ON TRIAL (PART 1) - ROTTEN TO THE CORE ....(courtesy of the Daily Post)

Hasitall should be forced to repay the half a million quid to council taxpayers

Tony's Parrishioners

NEW SERIES: Our Lord Redmond writes exclusively for Liverpool SubCulture

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Well done - you're sacked!!!!!

Forget Foghorn Leggatty and Our Lord Redmond - there can be only one choice for Elected Mayor!!!!!

Twigger is the last to twig that the postman doesn't ring twice

SALTHOUSE DOCK: A PUBLIC APOLOGY

We got it wrong....

OUR LORD REDMOND'S FAVOURITE BENCH - MILLIONS TAKE PART IN EXCLUSIVE ECHO PHONE VOTE

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BENCHMARK? A PAIN IN THE ARSE FROM OUR LORD REDMOND....

Do you wish to see serious disciplinary action taken by the Lib Dem city council against Jason Harborow and AED Chris Briggs over fixing the appearance of SIRENZ at the 2006 Mathew Street Festival?

PART 4 OF LEE FORDE"S DOSSIER - THE FIREMAN GETS AN UPDATE, BUT DOES NOTHING

THE "FUCK UP AND FUCK OFF" BRIGADE - AND HOW MUCH THEY COST COUNCIL TAXPAYERS

LIVERPOOL DESERVES BETTER THAN THIS - by LEE FORDE

CAST OF CHARACTERS

INTERNATIONAL NEWS! BUENOS DIAS SENOR!!!!

HENSHAW ESCAPES.....

HEADLINE HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2008 - the best stories about 2008. Click on your favourite headline....

HENSHAW THE HYPOCRITE DOES A RUNNER - AFTER BLAMING EVERYONE ELSE FOR LIVERPOOL...

Uncertain? Isolated? Not a friend in the world?

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

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

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Labour MPs slam unholy Trinity Mirror over birth of Oldham Echo

Storey for Lord Mayor? The nation votes....

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So if he is not Pete price, who is he?

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Letting the Kat out of the bag....

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Bradley lies to worried old people

FIREMAN BRADLEY LIED TO RADIO MERSEYSIDE LISTENERS (AGAIN)

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Lorna departs with £45,000 in her handbag - after costing Liverpool half a million

The Curse of Culture........

FIREMAN'S INTERVIEW WITH ROGER PHILLIPS, AFTER COUNCIL RANKED THE WORST FINANCIALLY RUN

WIRRAL EXCLUSIVE: Due to public demand, Professor Chucklebutty now has his very own blog!

THIS BLOG IS OFFICIALLY BANNED BY LIB DEM RUN LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL (we are proud to say)

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Robyn Archer - AN APOLOGY

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT AND WORKERS CONTROL: WE HAVE TAKEN OVER TONY"S BLOG

COUNT DOWN TO JAN 20, 2009

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Don"t let the evil cabal and their accomplices get away with it...

WANTED! HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?

Tony Parrish 2008

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