Posts Tagged ‘Chris Blakeley’

One of the most amusing – and breathtaking – acts of political cheek of recent times is to see the Tories claim that they are the true party of progressives.Below is a  little reminder of just  how ‘progressive’ the Tories really are.

British People are losing their homes, David Cameron is Losing Track

You would think watching the hubris demonstrated by Wirral Tories that Seacombe has suddenly turned into a safe Tory seat, simply because former Socialist Cllr Knowles has abandoned his obviously shallow principles for reasons known only to himself and joined the Tories (though I suspect that losing his £20k + Merseytravel allowance had something to do with it).

The reality is that there is a great deal of anger from the people of Seacombe in the way Cllr Knowles has treated them, with many unhappy in the way they have had a Tory Councillor foisted upon them, and all we have spoke to want him out.

No doubt Cllr Knowles is enjoying mixing with his new Tory chums like Cllr Chris Blakeley, Tory Party Chairman Eric Pickles and no doubt he is looking forward to meeting the great leader himself David Cameron, but if Cllr Knowles had an ounce of decency left then he would resign and let the people of Seacombe have their say. But I doubt that will happen as everyone knows including Cllr Knowles and the Wirral Tories that the Tory hubris in Seacombe is pure fantasy.

However there has been one side effect, that is the number of people beating a path to the door of Seacombe Branch Labour Party in order to join the Labour Party and help rid Seacombe of former Socialist Cllr Knowles.

Wirral Conservative Councillor Cllr Chris Blakeley recently wrote an article on his Blog highlighting another article in the Liverpool Echo revealing how much money Merseyside Local Authorities have spent on employing private detectives to “snoop on the people of Merseyside”, the title of the article on Cllr Blakeley’s Blog "No Hiding Place" sums up perfectly his view on this subject.

Reading the piece in the Echo it becomes clear that Wirral Borough Council spent a mere £2800 investigating injury claims.

This is important because of eye watering insurance excesses, Wirral Borough Council in common with most other large organisations is largely self insured, ie when a claim is lodged against the Council in the majority of cases it is Council Tax Payers who pick up the bill not the Council’s insurers, in fact the money the Council had to put aside to meet claims in 2004/5 was £5.7 Million, which of course impacts on the Council’s ability to deliver front line services such as Social Care

Since 2005 however claims against the Council have been more thoroughly challenged, which is where our private detectives come in. the result of this policy has resulted in over £3.8 Million being made available to invest back into public services such as Social Care. This Document makes a very interesting read.

I think that Cllr Blakeley should make it clear to his constituents and every other Council Tax Payer in Wirral whether he supports Wirral Borough Council’s efforts in reducing spurious claims against Council Tax Payers or does he believe that Council Tax Payers should just pay out millions to everyone who puts a claim in?

Alastair Campbell has written an excellent analysis of the distasteful emails sent by Damian McBride an advisor to Gordon Brown who has since resigned, to Derek Draper editor of the left of centre independent website labourlist.org, who was looking for material to set up a left of centre ‘gossipy’ website called Red Rag in response to some of the more rabid right wing websites the content of which are more likely and not to be scurrilous in nature.

It must be said however that despite the Conservative Parties outrage at the content of these emails and quite rightly so I must say, Gordon Brown and other senior Labour figures have been at the receiving end of some quite shocking personal abuse on these right wing websites and from their supporters.

Whilst insults and personal attacks having been going on for years even locally the content of these emails was particularly juvenile and inappropriate and McBride’s subsequent resignation was the right thing to do, an apology from 10 Downing Street has since been issued and the view of Gordon Brown is that there is  “no place in politics for the dissemination or publication of material of this kind”

The fact is that these rabid right wing websites only exist because the Conservative Party is such an empty vessel and as we all know empty vessel’s make the most noise, whereas the Labour Party has a record to be proud of.

It is this record and how Labour can build on it with progressive policies for the future as opposed to the regressive politics that Cameron & Co enthuse about, that should be at the heart of the message being put out by Labour.

The simple fact is that only Labour has a positive message as opposed to the Conservatives who have nothing to say, hence why they have to rely on chasing headlines and photo opportunities at all levels.