Rowen, Knob of Butter MP: Bullies Obbie Into Redaction

Joke doing the rounds in ever decreasing Rochdale circles:

Q. So, what is the difference between PR Paul Rowen MP and a 40p Banana?
A. One is Yellow and Crooked, the other is just a Banana.

This is appalling of course. But hey ho. I've cleaned it up. And you have to take every little scrap of relief you can get in benighted (and be-knighted) slap down Lib Dem Sir Smith Rochdale.

We're not sure what it could be in this tepid Rochdale Observer (ex-) news item (also above as it now appears) that could be either wrong or more to the point both wrong and actionable. But like the Parliamentary Fees Office the GMG paper has adopted their best forelock tugging deference and redacted the whole blooming lot.

Their mistake is not moving on from the snacks and morsels to the meat of the story, when it comes to PR Paul Rowen MP and his lager louts. Only time will tell whether it's all within the whacko rules, or not, but PR Paul Rowen's arrangements certainly have a whiff of the sewer of sleazishness about them:

Office rented from Lib Dem Party and/or Lib Dem flavoured Company, most of the rent recycled one way or t'other to the political party;

Extraordinarily over-priced little adverts on party propaganda, meaning the tax-payer pays for Lib Dem fibs and distortions;

Tax-payer funded advertising at various sports grounds, with PR Paul Rowen MP having let it be thought that he'd paid from his own pocket;

An unaccountable "Printing Society", also taking in dirty laundry;

An industrial specification envelope stuffer;

Agents, as they call themselves, instead of Caseworkers;

Web Design contract given without any pretence of tenderising to a local media outlet that is almost always nice to PR Paul and horrid to his rivals;

FOOTNOTE: then there's all the snacks, morsels and beverages. Even the 40p banana. The fact Rowen's flat cost twice that of his chum John "Bull" Leech MP. A few hard to explain payments here and there.

PR Paul Rowen MP is making a big mistake in being so, ahem, heavy handed with the local media. Just like Sir Cyril Smith MBE. Though, in public certainly, Cyril never did turn his horny size 12 hands unto the Obbie, did he?

And the Rochdale Observer would appear to have unnecessarily backed down to the bullying nonentity and basically lightweight MP PR Paul Rowen, at least momentarily, and they too could well pay for their redactions.

The people of Rochdale are furious at PR Paul Rowen MP and his million pound, and counting, spending spree.

The people of Rochdale are furious at the "redactions" in the official papers. They quite reasonably want the whole story.

And now the people of Rochdale have every reason to fear that their local paper won't even stick to their guns in reporting even those heavily edited expenses.

Perhaps the Rochdale Observer are worried about losing the Rochdale MBC advertising? They shouldn't. How would it look if XYZ Lib Dem council withdrew adverts because the local paper would not hide the dodgy stuff in an MP's allowances claims?

Whatever the GMG thinking, it's not looking very good to this blogger.