EENY, MEENY, MINY, MO...

"Stuck behind the Black, Green, Brown and Blue, ...Now I'm wheelie snookered!"

As the great Tameside ‘Bin Swap’ controversy rumbles on, we were treated this week to an image of our Deputy Leader, Cllr John Taylor, apparently deliberating which bin to use to deposit his weekly letters!

Should it be the Blue Bin for waste paper or the Black, or is it now the Green Bin, for the recycled miasma of political garbage he regularly writes upon it?

Reading his latest drivel, there are times in life when I am unsure whether the imperturbable individual to whom I often refer has not received some authority from some divinity giving him the power to recreate, bend or annihilate the truth.

How, anyone who has benefited from 16 years of cabinet control governance can talk about how proud he is of our democratic process, given our present local authority’s voting system, must know full well that democracy is a total nonentity in Tameside!

Let us not forget that in 2000 it was a Labour administration who forced the vast majority of councils across the country to give up their committee systems and adopt a new executive model of governance.

This cynical move by Tony Blair’s government has had the effect of focusing far too much power in the hands of the Council Leaders (Roy Oldham and now Kieran Quinn) and a few of his hand-picked colleagues, which in effect has allowed this small number of career councillors to make unchallenged decisions; thus undermining all the other ward councillors, who, by listening to the needs of local people, know far more than the cabinet cabal about how their particular areas should be run.

Previously, local authorities could take decisions in full council or could delegate decision making to committees, sub committees or officers. But now, if an individual councillor has eyes on a long career in local politics, they must learn the rule of the greasy pole and don't question the Leaders decisions!

Then we have the voting situation as I’ve pointed out previously and recently touched on again in Carl Simmons excellent blog: http://carlsimmons-independent.blogspot.co.uk/

Today, as it stands with 52 Labour and 5 Tories making up Tameside council; and local elections only concerned with 1/3^rd of the council coming up for re-election every 4 years, means that in any local election, even if Labour lost every one of their 19 councillors, Labour would still have 33 out of 57 councillors and would still be in control.

We then read from the heavily blinkered councillor that he and his party was against the alternative voting system in 2011 and crowed about the ‘No’ result in the referendum for electing MP's!

Strange then councillor that the alternative voting system (AV) has now been adopted by the Labour party to elect their new Labour leader! Perhaps you could explain that in your next letter (or will you duck the question and harp back on the history trail or enthral us with further adventures of a Train spotter?)

I suppose it depends which way the wind is blowing, eh councillor?

If Tameside is ever to return to democracy, two things must happen.

First, the council should return to the committee system.

Secondly, all the councillors should be up for re-election at the same time.

SLIGHT OF HAND - SMOKE and MIRRORS and LOCAL HISTORY RE-WRITTEN!

The Charge of the Light Brigade as happened it Tameside!

Just what is it with our so called council leaders and their penchant for twisting historical facts?

Upon reading the latest walk down poor-memory lane written ostensibly by Councillor Taylor, we were treated once again to complete fallacy in his opening paragraph!

He wrote, ‘ A century ago this month, Tameside won the first of five Victoria Crosses its men were to receive during the First World War!’

Now first of all, I do not wish to denigrate the honour or bravery of the fine fighting men he mentioned, but if one is to write about these brave souls, then the very least the councillor could do is to give them the courtesy of getting the basic facts right!

The men in question lived in the once proud towns of Aston, Denton, Hyde, Droylsden and Mossley.

Tameside did not exist one hundred years ago! – Therefore Tameside could not have won anything as it was only created, ironically on 1 April 1974.

However, the twisting of historical facts is not, it would seem the sole monopoly of the Deputy Leader. Councillor Quinn can show an equal disregard for accuracy too!

In his Blog (Aug’ 13^th) he states, If Britain was the workshop of the world then Tameside was the workshop of Britain, clothing and fuelling the Industrial Revolution through its cotton mills and coal mines!”

He too, appears to have forgotten that until 1974, Tameside did not exist! And to make matters worse, he went on to tell us that The Moravian Church arrived in Tameside in 1751!

 …Really?

But that’s all smoke and mirrors!

Isn’t it strange that whenever there’s a hint of unrest and unease within the Labour ranks, the dynamic duo instantly stop writing about their stringent political dogmas and whinging about having to deal with ‘the cuts’ and cynically brief their ghost writers to pen some harmless yet trite utterings in an effort to take the readers eye off the comical political cat-fight unfolding over their leadership contest.

Councillors. Harping on about history is all very well, and it’s indeed important that lessons from the past be learned, but, with all the shenanigans going on with the Labour leadership contest, it just goes to show that this Labour Leadership contest is another glaring extension of Senior Labour party officials political incompetence, organisational fiasco, and downright inability to run, manage or control anything, anywhere at any time!

So, why are we surprised that they choose not to voice their opinions and preferences?

But surely the perspective of our local Labour government as to who they are backing in this chaotic political bun-fight should be announced so that we, the electorate; who keep them in a position to make decisions on our behalf, is vitally important.

Are we wrong to expect the leader and deputy leader and all their acolytes to tell us for whom they intend to vote, so that we, in turn can make an informed judgement as to how their policies will affect us in the future?

As it stands at local level we have a Labour fiefdom with no true opposition and no accountability to the electorate, an example of which you may remember, when they in effect imposed the Council Tax increase on us without the democratic problem of having a referendum as other councils did. And at National level, we have a Labour party that made pledges before the General Election then immediately withdrew them after the General Election!

So, if they say they are voting for Corbyn, they are backing far left polices that will consign Labour to the wilderness, like in the days of comrade Foot and brother Kinnock. 

However, if they back any of the others, it’s more of the same Blair/Brown/Millipede and their debt ridden policies.

WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH!

It is always encouraging to learn that one is not alone. 

At least 3000 people have now taken the trouble to object to the council’s totally irrational bin swap scheme.

A Tameside resident, proving that not all Tamesider's are of the lemming persuasion, has opened an on-line petition stating logical objections to the scheme and questioning the council’s validity in introducing such nonsense.

So far, Kevin Cooper of Denton has gathered the names of over 3000 like-minded souls on: https://www.change.org/p/tameside-council-environmental-services-stop-tameside-council-s-plans-to-bin-swap-the-general-waste-bin-to-the-smaller-green-bin/share?just_signed=true

Throughout this sorry pilot scheme the council has claimed initial success for recycling rates and reductions in items going to landfill, but there is growing evidence, right under our feet, that the new bin swap collection scheme is going to turn out more costly in a whole range of ways.

A seventy eight per cent success rate! Frankly, Tameside Council, that’s rubbish!

Another point you might like to take note of, is when ‘the council’ introduce us to one of their brainchildren, they usually announce it through the particular councillor who is ‘responsible’ for that particular function, however, if their brainchild is criticised in any way, shape or form, it’s always a nondescript ‘council spokesperson’ who is dragged before the media in the hope of appeasing the populous! 

They do this for two main reasons; first a 'spokesperson' is anonymous and therefore cannot be called personally into question. 

The second is to protect the councillor ‘responsible’ from public ridicule thus allowing them to carry on regardless!

In this case the ‘spokesperson’ appears to have missed the salient point in that if a family currently fills their large black bin with general waste over the collection period, that same amount of waste will not fit into a smaller bin, no matter what colour it is!

To put it plainly, the consents of a full big bin, into an empty small bin won’t go!

I urge all my readers to sign the petition. …It won’t make any difference, as those on the council have already decided to proceed with this stupidity regardless, but it will illustrate that these career councillors only come knocking when they need re-electing!

COUNCILLOR JOINS THE B.N.P. (Brain Not Present)

So, John Taylor doesn't like the fact that the late Cilla Black liked Margaret Thatcher and the Tories!

Charles Manson liked The Beatles …So what does that say?

Ironically, according to his own website, we are led to believe that the Dukinfield lad likes Rock and Gothic Music,(which goes some way to explain his close-knit affiliations with Black Plastic Bin Liners) yet Gothic ideology is generally apolitical and Rock Music by its very nature is a form of musical resistance against entrenched power structures of which he himself has clung onto for over 3 decades!

So why anybody should take notice of an ostensibly confused politico with a penchant for abusing ink – an alleged writer who appears to have mastered everything except language and who has now spent most of his adult life wallowing in a political system that is rife with corruption, political incompetence, and a rising tide of public apathy is beyond me!