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Toxic Rochdale Lib Dems: Rowen Confidence Vote?
What an extraordinary rebuttal machine the Rochdale Lib Dems have!
For example in comments on my last post. Here we are pointing out that Cyril Smith is a dodgy old bastard. In let-me-count-the-ways. Oh dear, not enough fingers and toes. And not a hero.
That Cyril's professional Lib Dem apologist Jeannie is something of a muppet.
That Cyril's professional Lib Dem apologist Dave ia a toxic, drunken, smear merchant.
That Cyril's professional Lib Dem apologist and protege Paul, nurtured since his teenage years, is an extraordinarily weak character. Smaller-than-life. Allowing toxic Dave to use a parliamentary job to work on a political project to defend the indefensible.
A Health Centre in Rochdale is named after Nye Bevan. Jeannie the health hero doesn't have a clue who Nye is. And she defends the toxic Smith's remarks. Joining the old fool in blaming Rochdale workers for their own fate. As they "knew the risks". My arse they did.
There's some connection too with that other secret millionaire. Lib Dem donor Chris Grieves. Property man. Like some of Rowen's other business friends. Involved in an off-shore joint venture with some of them after all.
Anyhows. Rather than dealing with the issues we have anonymous Lib Dems with the old chestnut of pretending asbestos is the same as coal. And also bizarrely attacking Nye Bevan.
Perhaps this needs to be tested with the electorate of Rochdale? Perhaps Paul Rowen should resign now along the lines of David Davis? Give the people a chance to judge how good for the town Saint Cyril was?
The Lib Dems could lead their electoral address with a full frontal attack on Nye Bevan. He liked a drink. Could be a tad unpleasant. Was rather left wing. Was around at the same time as Oswald Mosley. Delivered the National Health Service against extraordinary odds.
Meanwhile Labour could lead on the well-documented facts of Sir Cyril's teenager fiddling. Before he was kicked out of the local Labour party. Where he has served as an unsatisfactory local treasurer. How Cyril became an independent during his mayoral year. Get the chain, then take the piss. And seeing the opportunity of a rather poorly, in fact terminally-ill-with-cancer, Labour MP how Cyril aligned with the Liberals in 1967 to get his arse on the green benches and his snout in the trough.
That could be followed with a few dollops of asbestos scandal. And some discussion of Cyril's record on poor Stefan Kiszko and his mother. With Cyril's old asbestos ally the Tory David Waddington posting an astonishingly inept defence. And the resultant protection provided for the real perpetrator and friend-of-the-franchise Ronald Castree.
Who will come off better? Lib Dems attacking the long gone Nye Bevan? Or Labour setting out the real life woes of the incumbent Smith-Hennigan-Rowen franchise?
17 comments:
Chris, you are falling right into Dave Smith/Cyril Hennigan's dastardly trap.
They want Rowen wrung out to dry, as with any good laundering operation. Godfather Cyril never wanted Paul in the first place. When Cyril eventually started campaigning for him it came with the poisoned chalice of sleezy slush funding.
Now straight talking Cyril is allowing Paul Rowen to be burried in sleeze. And Dave isn't helping with his clever anonymous rants.
If PC plod investigate corruption in Rochdale Lib Dem funding then who is really screwed? Some old guy and a young whippersnapper who takes photos and writes the odd press release and speech for the less able councillors? No. The buck stops with the current MP.
It is Paul Rowen who gets it all in the neck. If the allegations are true, then all this sleeze could result in a criminal conviction.
Who steps into Paul's shoes as an young, dynamic political operator? Dangerous Dave Hennighan MP wanabee.
Dave has been threatening something BIG.
What a dirty game Lib Dem politics is.
Dave Hennigan could not survive the media spotlight of a by election.Haven't you seen the photos?
"wrung out to dry" is a new spin on hung out to dry.
Ha ha.
"Wrung" past tense of the verb to wring (out). Wet sponges come to mind.
Very apt for the Rochdale Fib Dems. Screwed up rather than well hung.
David Miliband yesterday gave the speech of a leader in waiting to the Labour Party Conference.
So much so that he even admitted afterwards that he had to tone it down so it didn't come across as a "Heseltine moment!"
Despite more spin from the Brown camp suggesting all is fine and everyone is happy as ever the plot goes on.
Yesterday it was revealed that the latest figures in on the plot are Hazel Blears and Caroline Flint.
One report suggests that Gillian Merron may also be in on it after declining to appear on stage during the Foreign Affairs debate yesterday.
And another suggests that there is dismay amongst the Cabinet ahead of Brown's speech later today with some openly saying that it could well be an "acute embarrassment!"
Earlier on Sunday John Prescott and Charles Clarke were Literally at each other's throats on The Politics Show, David Miliband was promoting his Leadership campaign for Progress ready for the Downfall of Glenrothes, and John Cruddas was demanding a 45 per cent tax rate for anyone earning over £175,000.
In the words of Rebel Labour MP Barry Gardiner: "It's like a family putting on a good face at Christmas, when underneath it all, the family knows there are problems and that they need to be addressed!"
Just to pick up on an earlier thread (and I promise you that it is relevant).
One of us is probably completely losing it because you seem to imply that the ciy centre ward you fouhgt in the council elections is the least marginal in the whole of the city.
I think the correct psephological term for this is BOLLOCKS. I am willing to stand corrected. I tend to believe that you were being lied to because the only other conclusion would be that you are a liar.
Please show your workings (and then we can proceed to Stage 2)
And some Fib Dems know all about BOLLOCKS don't they?
Cough please?
Dear Smithologist
Every year following the council elections hard results, allowance for any boundary changes or new developments, and any other data are fed into a difference engine, the handle is turned, and out comes a list of all seats in winnable order for Labour.
In 2004 - with a completely new City Centre ward covering only around half the area and half the population of the previous central was ranked 32nd in this exercise.
It must be said that there was a very tiny amount of data available for the city centre part of the old ward. No voter iD to speak of. Very small turn out according to marked register.
It may be that the seat was not quite as bad as the new Chorlton Park ward, or the post-war Burnage but that is how it was ranked.
I'm not about to publish an internal document but if you would like some corroboration before you wind your silliness in and apologise you might try asking one Richard Wilson. Now a Lib Demmer.
At the time he had been deselected as Lab Cllr for another seat and put his name forward. He was not selected. Soon after this he crossed the floor "on principle" over council funding for the arts and suchlike, specifically Urbis.
But he will be able to confirm the ranking. Whether we all agree with it or not that was what the tables said at the time.
Richard is a decent fella at heart and is also party to various LD shenanigans with at least one issue on which I'd trust him to tell the truth if the police came knocking.
All the best
I followed your advice and came across some very interesting info. Let me share.
After the 2003 city council elections, Central ward was the 6th most marginal in Manchester for any party. The result there was even closer than my own beloved Whalley Range where Christopher Paul became the first Labour candidate in a generation to lose the seat - and lose it so heavily that it became less winnable than Central. The fact that the loss meant that the Lib Dems won the ward for the first time ever must have made it even harder to bear.
A few monhs later the ward boundaries were redrawn for the whole of the city. Central Ward (with a few changes) becme City Centre Ward. Parts were moved to other wards and none were added (Source: The Boundary Commission for England)
As one 'expert said'
"The redrawn city centre ward lost almost all the social housing immediately north of the inner ring road. As it turns out the Lib Dems... were surprisingly strong on those estates." (Source: Chris Paul, Labour of Love)
This brilliant piece of analysis is backed up by the fact that the ward the estates were moved into subsequntly saw a significant rise in the Lib Dem vote. It also evidences the saying that "even a blind pig finds an acorn every now and again."
Therefore, Ciy Centre ward must have been even more of a target for the Labour Party in 2004 or even a nominal Labour defence.
Yet you claim that it was bottom of the list of seats to be won by Labour.
How could it be less winnable than seats like Withington, Levenshulme and Wihington - all having LD majorities above 30%. There were also Labour seats with majorities above 40%, but you are saying that City Centre ward was less marginal than even those.
One Labour activist put it as follows "Readers may be unaware that the Conservatives are still in third place in City Centre, with Labour closely challenging the Liberal Democrats".
A Labour insider said "Central Ward (which is now called City Centre ward) is a top target for the Labour party this time".
The ward you fought must have been in the top 4 or 5 seats to be targeted in 2004.
Basically, Chris, you're either a liar or an iiot - you choose.
Tht's just 2004, the situation in 2006 is even more intriguing and revealing.
More anon
Dave H. is back!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tanned, refreshed and full of vim.
Others may have colds or man flu but not Dave. That is the power of Beacham's Powder.
All those words. Were does he get all that energy from?
Soda bread. Great for a hangover. All that baking powder.
Charlie Says: don't talk to strangers.
But if they are a 30 stone MP who has puppies to show you then you shouldn't be ruled by Charlie.
Eh Dave?
Anybody who dounts that standards in our primary schools are going down the toilet need only to read the last three posts to see otherwise.
You all make the Jeremy Kyle Show look like it was hosted by Stephen Fry.
A fair comment E.H.C.
Certainly one not to be sniffed at.
Hey kids. Just say no.
Time to draw a white line under this subject. For now.
Standards certainly are slipping when the tax payer is expected to provide a toxic political boot boy with £40,000 parliamentary wages and he spends all his time with his bovver boots on causing mayhem.
As well as the standards of written English slipping of course we have some evidence of arithmetically challenged Libdemologists when it comes even to the published version of accounts. the police should call in the bank statements and the petty cash books.
And take a look under Saint Cyril's sweaty mattress for ill-gotten gains and the like.
The knives are out with Rochdale Lib Dems.
The only hacking now going on in Rochdale Lib Dem central is the sort of hacking that ends with a metaphorical axe in the back.
Dave has gone too far. Will he be able to keep his job when the shuffle happens?
Night of the Long Knives- quite apt for some of the private views expressed by some the older, nastier, Fib Dems.
A significant membership of Rochdale Lib Dems are underrepresented in Cabinet posts and authority.
They are not stupid and deserve far more respect.
Come Eid there WILL be changes.
Insh'Allah.
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