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The Friday Roch: Rochdale Qualgo Whimpers Back
Rochdale Online have kindly re-keyed the second of the Rochdale stories in Private Eye this week ... so we don't have to. Seems the Rochdale Development Agency chief exec John Hudson, paid gersquillions* with little in the way of concrete outcomes but plenty of hot air (Town Centre impression above), has decided to follow the bollock weighing bare butt smacker Sir Cyril Belch MBE and come out fighting. Hasn't worked for Cyril. Will it work for Honest John?
* Around £150,000 plus generous package is the order of germagnitude.
INCIDENTALLY: Rochdale MBC and RDA appeared to have been saved by Europe from having to go ahead with the potentially disastrous and muchly disputed Town Centre contract let to Wilson Bowden Homes, snapped up for £300M I think by Barrett Homes, and then devalued instantly on their troubled Balance Sheet to some £3M.
Will they give it to Barrett again, given that their process was so good?
7 comments:
Oh Piss Crawl,
What a dumb fuck you really are sometimes! I wouldn’t scratch beyond the service of this one too much as you may not like what you find.
I am sure this whole thing has nothing to do with the fact that Rochdale’s Labour Predator was hired by one of the LOSING bidders.
Vision 21 seem to have very close links to Ask developments also. And didn’t they make a huge donation to Manchester CLP? And weren’t you the LOSING candidate for Manchester Central at the time? And are you still claiming you didn't see any of that money for your campaign?
The truth will all come out soon.
What are you on about anon? You abusive spoonerist bitshag you.
I will scratch and sniff where I wish. And you who "never post anonymously" will have to like it and lump it.
As with Cyril and his bum spunking, ball tickling, sex beast hanging, asbestos toting CV I think you may be getting all puffed up with righteous indignation rather too soon for your own good.
And that of your boss and your be(k)nighted Rochdale LD party too. And there was me thinking you'd been warned off making a tit of yourself online?
You are of course conflating a constituency party (Manchester Central) receiving funds from a legitimate business on behalf of the City Party (Manchester LGC) and declaring them properly, and my own standing in a ward election within that constituency and city (for City Centre), the latter being one thirty secondth of the LGC and in 2004 after boundary changes judged the 32nd least winnable.
Whether any contribution I got for city centre from lgc or central was from jumble sales, dinners, members subs, appeals or legitimate declared donors is unknowable and irrelevant.
I don't think the money from any funds source was passported through to any particular ward or expenditure. And, as discussed before, city centre was not in any sense a priority or considered a winnable ward at that time.
And, for what it's worth, I must say that any city centre developer trying specifically to get Labour elected there to benefit their business would need their head examined.
The Lib Dems in situ are so completely bloody completely useless at development control and on planning and on everything that keeping them in place would make a lot of sense. Whereas for other businesses that do not make political contributions getting rid of the anti-risk, anti-fun, anti-business Lib Dems would be smart as hell.
Come on. Would you put Kenny Dobbo or that cat fighting woman, what's her name?, in to bat to stop a development getting excessive?
One example. The useless Lib Dem man - a senior if somethingly compromised LD councillor - tried to get the Jacksons Wharf at Castlefield decision deferred. Meanwhile the Labour man, a first time candidate, worked with local residents to get the application refused there and then.
The snidery on the Labour PPC for Rochdale is I think nonsense and you know it.
PPCs have to work. They are not, unlike Rowen and his political bootboys, funded by the taxpayer.
In the particular matter of ASK I must declare that by happenstance I know Andy Dodd a sometime Director through his management of Simply Red and his charitable activity with Band on the Wall etc.
And I might say that I also know people in loads of other companies. Developers, lawyers, accountants, entrepreneurs, marketeers and so on and so forth.
Though I've not been a fundraiser for the LP. If I were though I would obviously start with the people I know and work out from there. That's logic. Finding people you don't know with no interest in your town - the logical result of your argument - is clearly not the way to go.
Meanwhile in Rochdale it is getting on towards four years since the Lib Dems declared any legitimate donations whatsoever. Though that Grieves man paid for a Charabang for a protest once.
Either this is because all local political activity is now being funded by the MP thanks to us taxpayers. Or it is because the RLD massive are failing to declare any and all donations. Or ... there are of course other permutations.
Such as loads and loads of small donations. Which would of course show up in the accounts submitted to the EC ... although this is not a strong area for the RLDs.
Though it must be said that the accounts that HAVE been submitted are a veritable feast of trouble for Smith, Rowen, Hennigan and anyone else who nails their colours to Cyril's sordid mast.
For the record, as I'm at my keyboard, I'd like to mention this:
The senior LD councillor who was PPC in central last time received a substantial donation from another councillor. And more still from some vaguely defined local party funds. Not declared to the EC.
The senior LD councillor who was PPC in gorton donated the whole costs of his campaign - encapsulated as it goes on a single invoice/statement from his own company - but this didn't appear in any declaration to the EC.
The senior LD councillor who was PPC in Man Wit managed to extract £23,000 from the life savings of a local pensioner, including a big slice in the eve of poll moments, thanks to calling this old girl to a "thank you" meal, plying her with gin and angostura bitters (which she had to supply herself), and taking her for another whopping cheque ... but he did not declare any other donations.
This blaggard returned a cheque for £500 to one donor. Who was actually pissed off enough to sound off. And the blighter also went on to declare his paying back of an undeclared donation/loan to a completely different senior citizen. Happened to be his own mum. She got paid back, for an undeclared donation, unlike the other supporter.
The Blackley PPC geezer - more recently spotted allegedly throwing a Seig Heil salute in Council (found unproven) - almost certainly didn't see his local party declare how he paid for his campaign either. But I've not checked.
Come on you anonymous so-and-so! Bring it on!
Why did Rochdale Lib Dem group award a huge contract to Wilson Bowden against a huge amount of advice? Including from the Labour PPC who knew it were wrong ...
And if it were such a good decision why on earth have they rescinded it?
Will they go for an overstretched specialist house-builder again?
Or for one of a dozen experienced mixed use developers with SUCCESSFUL DELIVERY.
Some of which might happen to know someone from one party or another or even have at some stage given a legitimate, declared donation, or something.
This is too good to waste in comments Chris. Take this LD twunt into the light blinking. Obviously Dave Haemorrhoid directly or via one of his tosspotdemologists is itching for a fight. Take them on.
Tosspotdemologists may be a port-manteaux too far. The again perhaps it'll catch on?
Then again I meant ...
Qualgos are important for inept local politicians to take the credit for stuff they haven't done.
No wonder Dave is so angry, Rochdale is a basketcase. Casj wasted on muddy fields, bombsites and dodgy deals done but nothing to show for it.
The wheels are falling off. The rats are leaving the ship and Drake Street Lib dem HQ has the feel of the last days of Saigon. Shredders wizzing, emails and hard drives being deleted, receipts being doctored?
Ask Al Capone. There is no escape from Alcatraz.
The lights are on in Drake Street but nobody's there...
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