Back in Business?

I've just gone through the process of verifying this site and I'm considering a return to the fray, either here on this site or perhaps in a new blog. Watch this space.

National Identity?: It's A Red White & Blue Herring Is That

This image appeared when First Post tried to annoint Sadiq Khan as Britain's Obama and Labour's London Mayoral candidate (then a crowded field to be fair). But hey! David Cameron, our Prime Minister, has made a controversial speech in Munich of all places, welcomed by a NeoCon in the Telegraph and the at times odd Quilliam Foundation to name but two.

Not so much for Mehdi Hasan in the New Statesman. And there's this corruscating soundbite preview by Sadiq Khan speaking to The Mirror.

This rebuke for Cameron's alleged propagandising for the EDL on the day of their latest damp squib of a demo in moistened Luton was in turn rebuked by the rather ludicrous Baroness Warsi. She in turn being rebuked by the first NeoCon mentioned, one Nile Gardner, for "the debacle of Baroness Warsi’s controversial address at Leicester University" which Nile reminds us was not sanctioned by Number 10. Something of a rebuke-athon.

Political Betting ask should Sadiq have dissed the PM and his gert great dog whistle?. LOL's contribution (5) to the ensuing discussion:

National solidarity is far less important in this matter than human solidarity, what one academic/author* called “species consciousness”. National identity is a red white and blue herring.

National identity is over-rated. Being human is the thing to consider.

* writing on 18 September 2001 of the events of 11 September 2001

OOPS: I Did It Again -> Tories Vote Against NHS, Again

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

I think I did it again
I made you believe we"re more than just friends
Oh baby
It might seem like a crush
But it doesn"t mean that I"m serious
"Cause to lose all my senses
That is just so typically me
Oh baby, baby

:Chorus:
Oops!...I did it again
I played with your heart, got lost in the game
Oh baby, baby
Oops!...You think I"m in love
That I"m sent from above
I"m not that innocent

You see my problem is this
I"m dreaming away
Wishing that heroes, they truly exist
I cry, watching the days
Can"t you see I"m a fool in so many ways
But to lose all my senses
That is just so typically me
Baby, oh

:Chorus:
Oops!...I did it again
I played with your heart, got lost in the game
Oh baby, baby
Oops!...You think I"m in love
That I"m sent from above
I"m not that innocent

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

"All aboard"
"Britney, before you go, there"s something I want you to have"
"Oh, it"s beautiful, but wait a minute, isn"t this...?"
"Yeah, yes it is"
"But I thought the old lady dropped it into the ocean in the end"
"Well baby, I went down and got it for you"
"Oh, you shouldn"t have"

Oops!...I did it again to your heart
Got lost in this game, oh baby
Oops!...You think that I"m sent from above
I"m not that innocent

NW Libdemology: Rochdale Lib Dems Seem Proud of Their Libels

It was around a week ago now, on the eve of the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, fought over scurrilous leafletry and in which Tim Farron claimed with no hint of irony that his party had turned their back on their unremitting filthy tactics, when your blogger of Labour Loveliness facebooked this comment which ought to have been a clue for Rochdale Lib Dems to wind in their disgraceful campaigning methods, and at least practice "sheepish" for when they were inevitably caught at it:

Lib Dems in a neighbouring constituency have shown their commitment to clean campaigning by sticking out a leaflet featuring a couple of naughty Labour ex-MPs and their Labour opponent on an equal footing. Well, there is a sneaky question mark. But it is bang to rights libel by juxtaposition.
Utterly libellous and extraordinarily put out by the Director of a local media organisation owned by the respectable Oldham Chronicle. Lib Dems in this neck of the woods are dirty as hell and all their butter wouldn't melt hypocrisy is being seen through by the people.
Elwyn Watkins placed something like 58th of 60 in a councillor laziness index produced by Rochdale Observer a couple of years ago.
He has conspired with the rest of the sick Rochdale Lib Dem crew in an allowances tithe scheme generating huge amounts
which were neither declared to the EC or triggered the required annual accounts (LOLs passim).
And he has conspired in the outrageous contrived tenancy the former Rochdale MP Paul Rowen had in renting using tax payers' money from a Lib Dem organisation at an "independent" rent set by one of that organisation's Directors. The local party and their John Bull printing soc also tenants (also LOLs passim).
Cleaning up politics? Elwyn Watkins is a lazy disgrace from a local party who don't have the first idea about honesty and clean campaigning.

Other points to look out for on this gutter snipe leaflet. The responsible Lib Dem councillor quotes a "Local resident" who is actually his partner, and also quotes a rightly maligned publication which (a) has often seemed little more than a propaganda and defamation machine for Rochdale Lib Dems and which donated via main man Malcolm Bad Boy Porn-O to Paul Rowen's failed campaign, and (b) that is his own direct employer, and (c) of which he is a Company Director. And this Lib Dem councillor - Keith Swift - has been defending this "Guilty" libel over and over and over again on BBC and commercial radio, BBC TV and (for publication tomorrow) the inkies. Keep digging you great fool Keith!

I imagine that steps towards legal action are imminent if not already underway. The Lib Dems nationally are said to weighing in with talk - would you believe a single word (or three letter acronym: VAT, EMA, FJF) Clegg's sidemen say these days? - of an enquiry. Simon Danczuk and Rochdale Labour should settle for the title deeds of 144-146 Drake Street, knock it down, and finally banish the very bad smell that has been drifting over the Town since Cyril Smith were a wee scrawner rifling in the bins for bacon rinds in the ginnels of Spotland.

FOOTNOTE: Needless to say Mr Swift's handiwork is also chock full of all the usual lib Dems lies about the economy and the cuts and the pupil premium and all that.

Elwyn Watkins: Miserable, Lazy, Stay Away Rochdale Councillor

Dateline June 2009: Rochdale Observer name and shame Elwyn Watkins for attending only nine of a more generally representative 35 or so, with the high achievers touching 68. Elwyn received between £7,000 and £15,000 a year over his last couple of terms as a councillor but appears to think that this absolutely shocking work rate fits him to be the next MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth.

I have no idea why Phil Woolas didn't concentrate on this killer statistic instead of some of the other attack lines. This is damning. Table in larger size below. Click to enlarge further.

Oldham East and Saddleworth: Debbie Abrahams is Labour PPC

The members of Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency have run the proverbial tape measure over the three candidates set before them by the party following interviews of some 14 candidates of about 60 who expressed interest in this Labour-held seat.


Debbie Abrahams won on the first vote polling a couple more than the combined votes of the two former Oldham mayors. LOL are repeating the basic life story material below.

What else is there to say? Debbie's other half is the immensely popular Lancashire and Milnrow cricketer John Abrahams, raised and educated in Heywood. He captained his county, leading them to Benson & Hedges victory in 1984 and winning the Man of the Match award though he did not bowl and got a duck. Top captaincy!

John is now manager of the England U19 team and is pictured with captain Azeem Rafiq (r) as they prepare for their first match in Bangladesh, Mirpur, October 11, 2009.

The Lib Dems (and the Tories for that matter) are already running round chatting fart about the Colne Valley result from May. It was Tory target 21 and the Lib Dems, who also overtook Labour as our national vote slumped, had the personable Nicola Turner rather than a horrendously lazy whining windbag.

That was of course before the Lib Dems had let down everybody that voted for them and according to detailed polls lost between 50% and 67% of their support, even slumping from 30% to a remarkable 4% voting intention if there was an election tomorrow in a recent poll in the North East and in the range 8-10% in national polls. And what's more the Tories were not trailing Labour and not nursing a significant negative approval rating.

Finally LOL learn that there has already been remarkable activity on the telephones. It will be fascinating to watch how MPACUK (Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK) and their friends - not least among the East Lancashire Lib Dems - respond to this selection.

Let's hope MPACUK keep right out of it.

For that matter let's hope damaged goods Nick Griffin, the obnoxious holocaust denier, racist and fascist changes his mind and stays away too. He has something in common with MPACUK's Asgar Bukhari who confesses to having sent funds (£60) and encouraged many others to do likewise to aid the excreable holocaust-denier David Irving, explaining to the Observer that he simply thought him an anti-zionist. How so? At the very least thinking that was the limit of Irving's miscreance would appear very stupid. Irving had claimed that Nazi gas chambers did not exist. Bukhari is anything but stupid.

In the 2005 parliamentary election campaign an extremely unpleasant leaflet appeared in Rochdale in the name of MPACUK, which they were to distance themselves from and apologise for, although the damage was done. I have some unused exchanges with MPACUK on this one. Inconclusive actually. Quite how it was produced in this form without their knowledge and approval remains a mystery. The leaflet was to go on to feature in a parliamentary enquiry.

In spring 2010 MPACUK attacked Phil Woolas, in a rather more measured leaflet, but also including with a video which simply does not appear to show what they say very bullishly that it shows. In both cases the MPACUK action, and in Woolas' case the Labour candidate's childish and wrong-headed reaction to it, assisted the Lib Dems. The links have been plain for all on the ground to see. Watch this space.

>>>>>>>>

Debbie's CV: Experienced PPC, public servant and academic Ms Debbie Abrahams. A good communicator and a public health expert. Here's a blog from her on Comment is Free. And here's an academic profile, drawn from the international URHIS Project:

Debbie Abrahams is a Director of IMPACT - the International Health Impact Assessment Consortium – based in Public Health, a World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre, at the University of Liverpool. She is the lead for HIA research and the commercial work of the Unit. Debbie started work in public health 17 years ago as Head of a WHO Healthy Cities project. Since 1999 Debbie has led over 40 HIAs of various policies, strategies and projects at local, regional, national and international levels. These include HIAs of Birmingham International Airport’s Runway Extension, the European Employment Strategy in the UK and across the EU, the North West Regional Economic Strategy, and many health policies, services and facility developments across the country. Debbie has co-ordinated various multi-centred national and international HIA research projects developing HIA methods, procedures and tools. For example, the European Commission-funded 'Policy HIA for the European Union' project and the 'HIA: Measuring the Effect of Public Policy on Variations in Health' project, funded by the Department of Health. She has acted as an advisor to national HIA developments in Brazil, Italy, Finland and Portugal as well as to the EC and WHO, e.g., on Health Systems Impact Assessment, HIA capacity and methodological development. In addition to collaborating in EURO URHIS 2, Debbie is co-ordinating a project to develop impact indicators for the European Food Safety Authority. Other work includes supporting the development of a new Health Equity Impact Assessment methodology. In addition to contributing to the MPH and e-MPH programmes, Debbie has facilitated HIA Capacity Building projects across England; she is currently leading the North West HIA Capacity Building programme for IMPACT, a joint project with North West Public Health Observatory. Whilst working at Liverpool, Debbie also worked in the National Health Service for nearly 10 years, firstly as Director of Bury & Rochdale Health Authority and then between 2002 and 2006 as Chair of Rochdale Primary Care NHS Trust. Debbie is an advisor to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, Chair of the charity, North West Action on Smoking and Health, a board member of the healthcare charity, ‘Hope Citadel’ and Governor of a local primary school. She is married with 2 daughters.

Oldham East and Saddleworth: Selection Almost Completed

Sadly LOL was running around on buses when the throughly surprising Oldham East and Saddleworth shortlist for Labour was announced. Thoroughly surprising because none of the three has been prominent or indeed mentioned in dispatches by any commentators I've seen. Labour List scooped the poop.

No Gwenda Manco - though now she's broken cover she'll find herself in demand I feel. Classic introductory interview with Deborah Linton in today's Manchester Evening News. Probably a little politically inexperienced, but that's not necessarily such a bad thing. I think Rochdale Labour should aim to have her on their Council Executive within a year.

Cllr Afzal Khan, the ante post favourite by a long chalk with the support of the Trade Unions and also local gangmasters former Rochdale Council leader Alan Brett and Phil Woolas' agent Joe Fitzpatrick perhaps being his problem, will be deeply disappointed I reckon, but he's a professional and he knows his turn will come.

So who is on the list? In no particular order (it's alphabetical) or precedence (I don't know the membership demographics or sentiment). We have:


Experienced PPC, public servant and academic Ms Debbie Abrahams. A good communicator and a public health expert. Here's a blog from her on Comment is Free. And here's an academic profile, drawn from the international URHIS Project:

Debbie Abrahams is a Director of IMPACT - the International Health Impact Assessment Consortium – based in Public Health, a World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre, at the University of Liverpool. She is the lead for HIA research and the commercial work of the Unit. Debbie started work in public health 17 years ago as Head of a WHO Healthy Cities project. Since 1999 Debbie has led over 40 HIAs of various policies, strategies and projects at local, regional, national and international levels. These include HIAs of Birmingham International Airport’s Runway Extension, the European Employment Strategy in the UK and across the EU, the North West Regional Economic Strategy, and many health policies, services and facility developments across the country. Debbie has co-ordinated various multi-centred national and international HIA research projects developing HIA methods, procedures and tools. For example, the European Commission-funded 'Policy HIA for the European Union' project and the 'HIA: Measuring the Effect of Public Policy on Variations in Health' project, funded by the Department of Health. She has acted as an advisor to national HIA developments in Brazil, Italy, Finland and Portugal as well as to the EC and WHO, e.g., on Health Systems Impact Assessment, HIA capacity and methodological development. In addition to collaborating in EURO URHIS 2, Debbie is co-ordinating a project to develop impact indicators for the European Food Safety Authority. Other work includes supporting the development of a new Health Equity Impact Assessment methodology. In addition to contributing to the MPH and e-MPH programmes, Debbie has facilitated HIA Capacity Building projects across England; she is currently leading the North West HIA Capacity Building programme for IMPACT, a joint project with North West Public Health Observatory. Whilst working at Liverpool, Debbie also worked in the National Health Service for nearly 10 years, firstly as Director of Bury & Rochdale Health Authority and then between 2002 and 2006 as Chair of Rochdale Primary Care NHS Trust. Debbie is an advisor to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, Chair of the charity, North West Action on Smoking and Health, a board member of the healthcare charity, ‘Hope Citadel’ and Governor of a local primary school. She is married with 2 daughters.

Following Labour List's information next we have Riaz Ahmed, a former Labour councillor and former Mayor of Oldham. He's currently the Chair of NHS Oldham. He was also an MEP candidate for Labour in 2009 and has an Accountancy Practice in the town. His house was subject of an arson attack after the race riots. By some of those angried up white folk perchance? Here's more from Labour North West:

Riaz Ahmad lives in Oldham where he is Chair of Oldham NHS Primary Care Trust. Riaz was a Councillor for 16 years and was the Mayor of Oldham in 2002/03
As a Councillor for 16 years, Riaz played a significant part in promoting community cohesion and ensuring that the BNP does not get a foothold in Oldham. Riaz has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Preventing Extremism Together initiative and has also worked with the EC commission on Community Cohesion issues. Riaz has a passion for community development and has played a major part in the improvement to the NHS in Oldham as Chair of the Oldham NHS Primary Care Trust.
A committed Labour member and campaigner, Riaz is committed to ensuring that the North West has a strong Labour voice locally, nationally and in Europe.

Finally we have Cllr Abdul Jabbar - Mayor of the Year 04-05. Abdul is a councillor for Coldhurst ward on Oldham Council, where he is shadow to the Performance and Value for Money portfolio. Here's part of his welcome from Oldham College:

Cllr Abdul Jabbar, originally from Bangladesh, first came to the UK at the age of 12 with his family. He was amongst one of the handful of Bangladeshi pupils at Breeze Hill, Oldham with limited English language skills. Abdul made sure he rapidly learned English and then Urdu to communicate with the handful of Pakistani kids at his school. He said: " In Bangladesh we could never have made serious advancement but here it was possible, especially though education." From such humble beginnings, Abdul’s career path has been an inspiring one – Abdul pursued his British education by gaining numerous qualifications to masters level and then pushed forward with a career in the housing profession. Abdul didn’t stop there; in 2004 Abdul became the first Bangladeshi to become the Mayor of Oldham. During his time as Mayor, Abdul was focused on promoting Oldham and stated that “one of my most important charities in my year in office was the creation of the Oldham Educational Trust to improve people's skills and prospects - anyone can be helped. After all, without education, where would I be?"

At this point one can only sigh gently and admire the ninja skills of the Labour Party's officials, one or two regional MPs (Aburnhamcough), and National Executive Committee. The hustings and vote by constituency members will take place on Sunday. LOL shall be represented. Possibly thereabouts in person, depending on timings vs my band practice. Blog on that soon.

UPDATE 23:45: BBC North West news made Riaz Ahmed the favourite. My source reckoned Debbie Abrahams had it in the bag. Abdul Jabbaz is a consumate networker.

Oldham East and Saddleworth: Shortlist Development 2

One strangeness about the Labour List review of the prospective runners for the candidacy was that only one female candidate was mentioned. Early doors Maryam Khan who stood in David Chayter's patch in May had been mentioned, but a daughter-dad run off was never really on the cards. And so only the fanciful speculation about our own Lucy Powell remained.

Now Ed Miliband's chief of staff, Lucy Powell's name has often been mentioned in connection with the seat, but really? Why would she? Categorically NO is the word from sources extremely adjacent to Ms Powell.

With Elwyn for the Yellow Tories and Kashif Ali for the Blue Tories this could all be a bit of a testosterone fuelled male affair. There was talk for some good while - emanating from Tory members who think themselves very much in the loop - of a celebrity woman candidate (Kirstie Allsopp) for the Blues, but that story did not develop legs, possibly because Manchester Tories were tipped off (by moi) and took robust evasive action.

So just three wise men is it, this Christmas tide?

But what's this? Step forward Gwenda Manco, born in Oldham, decades in Labour in the area, social enterprise founder (working with vulnerable women in Rochdale and Oldham), aged 56, two grown up sons, hubbie retired from a successful local haulage business, and ten years working in Styal women's prison.


Proper salt of the earth local woman, contributing immensely but quietly to the community, with some strong local champions.

Gwenda runs a hand spinning business, very appropriate indeed for the area with its dark satanic mills textile heritage, and currently also works as an Associate Priest, working in the community mostly, based at St James' Church, Calderbrook. In fact it was Chaplain she was at Styal.

Is there another cleric in the House? Now Paisley's gone?

If Labour want someone on the shortlist and possibly even as a candidate - though there would be a mountain to climb to shift Afzal, favourite of the powers that be in Oldham I understand and a brilliant MP in the making, then a throughly local, textiles business, woman priest could be just the ticket.

Oldham East and Saddleworth: Shortlist Development 1

So, Labour List attempted a run down of the runners and riders for the Oldham East and Saddleworth candidacy for incumbent Labour. Not sure where they got their information, but am sure some of it is seriously far-fetched. Almost like a Lib Dem policy commitment.

Following the fall out over Mr Phil Woolas' continued first childhood when it comes to applying student union manners to parliamentary elections, and that Mr Elwyn Watkins not being best pleased to be called names and all, despite his Liberal Democrat chums (8% and sinking fast YouGov/TheSun) being at it left right and centre, also porkies, and the throwback court taking Mr Watkins' part ..

Labour are due to decide on a candidate this Sunday ..

The clear front runners - also in the waiting for seat-blocker Sir Gerald Kaufman to retire stakes in Manchester Gorton - were Manchester's youngest ever/first Asian lord mayor Cllr Afzal Khan who owns a solicitor business in Oldham (based in and representing Cheetham Hill), and MCC's Executive Member for Culture n'all Cllr Mike Amesbury who was Wythenshawe-born and Yorkshire-bred, a reasonable combo for the moorside borders seat I'd have thought.

Couple of developments in the last 24 hours however.

Development one: Mike Amesbury has fetched his hat out of the three ring circus and withdrawn. This is very genuinely to spend more time with his young family. So, does this give Comrade Khan a clear run with the likes of the old-stager and aparatchik Peter Wheeler, and young gun Josh McAllister his only viable opposition? You'll have to read the next blogpost in 15 minutes time.

EXCLUSIVE: Coalition Leader Resigns Over Revolting Libdemologists

STOP PRESS Fri 1 PM: As you'll see from comments Cllr Gregory Couzens has resigned the Lib Dem whip and joined the humungous independent non-group. Not sure whether the Tories decided to black ball him or he is biding his time. Local opinion is divided on his electoral prospects in May. To be fair the divisions are largely on the margin of his catastrophic minority.

Word is the independent non-group consisting of these seven numpties plus some earlier runaway Lib Dems will be forming a party. Why? So they get support in the Town Hall - on the Council Tax payers of Rochdale - and, very important, so they get a Leader's Allowance - on the Council Tax payers of Rochdale - not to mention committee places as of right!

The way they are going they could become the second group if they pull this off. But will Cllr Gregory No Mates Couzens (right) be able to persuade this riff raff that his egotistical self promotion and silvery scissor skills are what's required?

Rochdale Online's report. Though don't believe a word spoken by either Couzens or Mulgrew. Good to see Labour calling for Couzens' scalp, as it were.

Meanwhile in parliament there has been an exchange between Simon "Slayer" Danczuk, who must take at least some of the credit for the Lib Dems' disarray, and Eric "the Eel" Pickles whose party's general exploitation of this sorry party and ideological attacks on local government and particularly poorer communities is also of course a factor:

At Commons question time, Mr Danczuk told Mr Pickles: "Your failure to stand up for councils in the Comprehensive Spending Review is having a devastating impact on jobs and services in Rochdale.
"Homes provision, community centres, adult care services and much more are being cut.
"The situation is that bad that six Liberal Democrat councillors resigned last week and later the Liberal Democrat council leader stood down.
"Because of these cuts, the local authority is in turmoil. When is the minister going to stand up for local government?"

Lib Dems "Need Lead in Their Pencil" - Pickles

Mr Pickles replied: "I would have thought you would be seeking to congratulate the coalition Government because we recognise that a number of authorities are more dependent on grants than others.
"In particular, we face a very difficult task so far as Rochdale is concerned in having to bridge just short of GBP6 million taken away by the last Labour government from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund and we're certainly seeking to cushion them.
"So my advice to you is go back to Rochdale, put a bit of lead in their pencil and let them get on with protecting the frontline services rather than fighting among themselves."

--

STOP PRESS Fri 9 AM: According to Rochdale Online Irene Davidson remains leader of the Lib Dem group. They also have Cllr Dale Mulgrew - the ring leader of the coup - offering weasel words:

The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Councillor Dale Mulgrew said: “The turn of events over the last week have been incredibly difficult for Irene and her options have become more and more limited by the day.
“I think most reasonable and decent people will once more question the motives of the six whilst Irene was in hospital.
“The process of de-selection is not a matter for the leader but for the constituency party executive.”
Councillor Mulgrew concluded: “Irene continues to make a good recovery and it is hoped she will be out of hospital before the weekend.”

What a complete Libocrite this pathetic wee joker is!

--

Last week we told you all about the mess that is the Rochdale Lib Dem Party. RIGHT HERE. Six Lib Dem councillors had resigned the whip and gone independent. A seventh was sniffing around for a berth with one of the other main parties. All was not well. How could things possibly get worse?

The demon coiffeur Cllr Gregory Couzens had staged a kind of a do, a coup attempt you might say. A letter was prepared demanding Cllr Irene Davidson the leader of the Lib Dems, of their local Condem pact, and of the Council - for just 11 months - should stand down. She is pictured here with former RAP playmate of the month and green grocer Alan Taylor, her predecessor. He's gone now.

A number of the Lib Dem group had signed up, probably thinking that when this feisty prison officer was flat on her back in hospital - a bit crook as they say in Cell Block H - might be a great time to give her a good old fashioned kicking. I'm not going to be revealing the names of the signatories. Not just now. But they know who they are.

But anyway, when their motion was put to the vote they lost. And what's more the resignations started. Word is that Deputy Leader and one of the main rivals for the parliamentary candidacy of Rochdale Dale Mulgrew, more on whom anon, is the Prince of Dumbassness behind the whole thing.

Some of the defecting crew had already I believe defected from Tory to Lib Dem in past lives. Experienced renegades? Or rather perhaps experienced self-preservers.

Today we can reveal more. Cllr Irene Davidson, who was in hospital in the very poorly ward when the coup was attempted having a kidney removed as part of her cancer treatment, has submitted her resignation as Group, Coalition and Council leader in writing. Basically because her people were defecting and those that were left were scheming against her.

The word on the streets of Deeplish, of Spodden and of Falinge is that this Liberal Democrat strategy in this town is playing out completely according to the plan of the masterminds behind it. That being that they become un-partnerable and lose any part in control of the council, set Labour up to be some part of the ruling arrangement, watch them dealing with incredibly difficult budget decisions, thanks to the ConDems in Westminster, and try to become popular opposing all this as pavement politicians and misery mongers.

A far cry from the Rt Hoon Nick Clegg's assessment of the Lib Dems as a party hungry for and competent in control of councils. They are on the run from responsibility. They want to be in opposition, minimise losses and rebuild; rather than facing such a meltdown next May that they are basically back to the fitting in a single taxi model which applied to the party nationally before Cyril Smith was elected to the House.

Back to Cllr Dale Mulgrew. Born again tosser. Utterly incompetent. Utterly ruthless. Horribly ambitious for a bear of such little brain. Dale's dad of course is Jimmy Cricket the old school Irish comedian with the welly boots, and Dale is constantly pimping dad's wares as agent/manager. Old habits die hard and this chump is organising a comedy council, a comedy councillor group of ever dwindling numbers, and a comedy forward strategy.

One other thing? Cllr Gregory Couzens, one of the few of the Rochdale Lib Dem rat boys who once could make a coherent plan, who once upon a time could string a sentence together, and who could formerly command any real respect from the people of the town, well he's blown it completely.

Possibly trapped by Cllr Dale Mulgrew he collected the signatures of the clowns against their leader, and he both failed to sign the thing himself, and failed to win the day. He's now putting the finishing touches to his application to join the Conservatives. Could be in coalition with Labour within a week.

Dale Mulgrew - the brains behind the Get Irene operation?

Rochdale Libdemology: Scraping the Fetid Barrel of Bad Behaviour and Poor Taste

STOP PRESS (added friday evening) - a sixth councillor of a previously Lib Dem flavour has boldly gone where so few Lib Dems have been before - principle and self-respect - and resigned from the Lib Dem group. Amazingly this is one of the crimper Cllr Greg Couzens's own team. Councillor Todd. As pictured below. A seventh councillor - who I would personally not touch with a proverbial is apparently negotiating for a "free" to Labour. There may be more.

STOP PRESS (added Saturday 8.00) Lib Dem Group and currently Council Leader Irene Davidson is now reported to be dealing with cancer rather than a merely "routine" kidney removal as the rebel Lib Dem cabal led by society crimper Gregory "no holds barred" Couzens attempted to give her the heave-ho. Not as nice as they make out these Lib Dems, are they?

So far the Manchester Lib Dem group have only lost one councillor to independence - Kenny Dobson (ring name "Dobby Dulux" in reference to his bright colour choices in boxing apparrel) - and they have been putting a brave face on the collossal loss of this veteran fighter and inveterate grafter. Are more to follow? Will there be a "Didsbury Declaration for Self Preservation"?

STOP PRESS (Sunday 22:43) Word is second de-selection may in fact be to allow the Old Etonian former Conservative defector William Hobhouse a clearer run at re-election, rather than to boost Angela Coric.

FIVE - count 'em - Rochdale Lib Dems are resigned to life in the self-imposed cold following a tumultuous meeting on Wednesday evening (17 November). Rochdale online has some of the details HERE. What Cyril Smith's favourite digital organ does not report:

Cllr Naim Mahmood and Councillor Doreen Brophy-Lee have been de-selected to create possibly safe seats - but who knows given national meltdown in Liberal democrat fortunes;

These are earmarked for the disgraceful former MP Paul "Banana" Rowen and for the former councillor Angela Coric who was herself only recently ousted in her very own night of the long knives;

Councillors Flynn, Flynn and Davison (Castleton, above celebrating) have around a half century of service to the people of Castleton in Liberal and Lib Dem colours. Pat Flynn alone has 30 years and has never seen the like of the current feral worms fighting over a corpse;

Charming hairdresser about town Cllr Greg Couzens, a rival along with expenses and contrived rent rascal Rowen to welly boot comedian manager Cllr Dale "Cricket" Mulgrew for the parliamentary candidacy, took the opportunity of Leader Irene Davidson's unfortunate confinement in the very poorly ward at the Infirmary, for a kidney removal and tests, to propose and lose a vote of no confidence in the poor woman's leadership;

Having lost five group members he may feel able to stage another night of the long twinkling scissors in a few weeks time.

Here's a taste of the situation - as reported by Rochdale Online _ from Cllr Pat Lynch, seen above with the Lynch mob hubby Ted and colleague Peter Davison (no relation):

Councillor Pat Flynn added: “I am dismayed with the broken promises, especially by the deputy prime minister in relation to university tuition fees.
“I am dismayed by the local leadership and I don’t like the direction the Lib Dems are going in.
“I was quite upset last night but I feel happy about my decision now.”
Councillor Pat Flynn said she understands there are more Liberal Democrat councillors who are considering resigning.
“As you can imagine it was quite a bitter meeting,” said Pat Flynn, “I will now sit as an independent Councillor. I have always said my first concern is Castleton – not the Liberal Democrats.”

The disgraceful would be demon barber Greg Couzens (rear) is pictured below with two of his models - Councillors Clegg and Todd (no relation) - loyal to the slithering parsel-tongued crimper. For the moment at least.

Even without the often drunken Heywood slimeball David Hennigan - sacked by Paul Rowen over one intoxicating embarrassment too many - now working for John Leech and Manchester Lib Dems with an immediate visible effect on their by-election fortunes and horrid nastiness - Rochdale Lib Dems are capable of quite extraordinary chaotic lifestyles and self-destructive behaviour. Watch this space.

Simon Danczuk MP: Turns Another Lib Dem Fibber Into Jibber

So, you marveled at Mr John Leech's impersonation of a soggy rag doll as Mr Simon Danczuk MP of Rochdale put it to the people that, quite simply, Mr John Leech was entirely the wrong person to be lecturing and hectoring on the matter of lies on leaflets. His Lib Dem campaign team - including in his own leaflets in 2005 and 2010, and also in the likes of Chorlton and Hulme - were often riddled with lies, (and also lined with riddles).

In around ten minutes time (23:30) you can perchance tune in to Granada for Party People and see the esteemed presenter Rob McLaughlin almost literally bury his head in his hands as Lib Dem meltdown specialist Mr Chris Davies MEP turns himself into a quivering, blithering wreck before Mr Danczuk has even got into his stride.

Our spies at the recording tell us that the mullering was so complete that there was muttering about getting a big fight night purse for a rematch on Sky.

Lying Leaflets: John Hospital Hoax Leech, a Vile Hypocrite

This video, taken from the Politics Show North West segment of Sunday 7 November, deserves wider distribution than it has had to date. Unlike his April appearance on the same show Mr Leech has not so far uploaded this one to his sites. Why not? Because Withington Lib Dems and Manchester Lib Dems in general - for whom Leech is the de facto leader and "brains" and tax payers' "bank" behind the operation - well they're not averse to tell big whopping porky pies and carrying out personal smears too.

In fact Leech's people have even hired the oft disgraced smearologist Dave Hennigan who Simon Danczuk's opponent Paul Rowen decided he had to let go after one two many embarrassments. His mucky fingerprints were all over the nastier elements of Leech's team's campaign, for example in Chorlton ward in May. And also I fear in their magnificently unsuccessful smearage of the same Labouur candidate in Hulme Ward on 4 November. They were comprehensively mullered into a poor third, 1000 votes behind despite NINE leaflets in a couple of weeks.

Simon Danczuk could have talked about that campaign. The Lib Dem attacks on Labour's candidate were uttery personal, utterly unfair and inaccurate and utterly hypocritical given Leech's weasel words in this clip. Simon outs him for his campaign's Christie Hospital Closure Hoax and also lands a few telling blows on Student Top Up Fees and VAT.

John Leech is a vile Hospital Hoaxer and continues his attempts to dissemble and hide absolutely vile below the belt campaigning tactics. Leaflets like the one Simon brandishes were even distributed to patients arriving for chemo- and radiotherapy sessions. Leech told them they must urgently sign his petition to save it. Utter nonsense. LDs appear to be smirking in the photo. Doctors did not submit a petition. Or say CH would close. Leech has NOT repeatedly debated. He has run away from debate. Frit!

His 2010 campaign repeatedly featured a story about a dentist - actually a Lib Dem member as well though that was never revealled - and Leech claims that he somehow secured the man's practice and funding. Early research indicates that this claim may be somethingly pushing out the boat of fibbage too. Investigation ongoing.

We'll be back to that and also to Leech's people's vile Hulme and Chorlton campaigns before too long. In the meantime please be linking to this post in your Facebook, your tweets and your blogs. Many thanks.

Hazel Blears: What Was Hazel Actually On About?

Andrew Neil, "is he still alive?" you ask? well yes sir he is, has a twinkle in his eye. This may be why twinkly Hazel Blears appears to like the man, despite he being a degenerate Tory rascal, and included his Daily Politics (Tuesday) in her coming out media matrix at this year's Labour Party Conference in Manchester. Quite a flurry of activity actually, after the best part of eighteen months concentrating on constituency matters and keeping her head down.

So, here she is accepting perhaps half a dozen significant fringe appointments and speaking, for the most part off the cuff without notes and in her own inimitable down to earth way. Plenty of interviews with scribblers and with broadcast media. Good value is Hazel and despite the cheeky twinkle, and the odd edgy truthful aside, I didn't see her put a foot wrong myself. Two of the fringes I witnessed myself.

An 100% straightforward and faultless performance alongside Ben Bradshaw and others at the Demos/Dr Fosters health debate, discussing how the NHS might get more for less; answer: prioritise public health and prevention and keeping people out of acute care; and providing an absolutely coherent explanation of why she defended Salford's maternity services, yet supported the reconfiguration agenda as a whole. It was and is ridiculous and lame not to be able to grasp the possibility of doing both at once.

Plus a bold, brave appearance at the Progress/Quilliam event "How should the British left engage with Islamists?". Probably the most controversial thing she said there was a perfectly reasonable aside about one or two of the leadership contenders and their new found fallibility on Iraq. To recap on that one: Ed Balls crossed over without much reluctance to a with hindsight anti-war position, David Miliband the same with somethingly more reluctance, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott stayed true to their respective spears and ploughshares, Ed Miliband wasn't there for the vote and had no real previous.

She did have that born again weasel Andrew Gilligan gurning and reaching for his smart 'phone to tweet some wry poison but, let's face it, after almost 50 hustings and 20 other events the leadership candidates' moves on this were no secret.

Somewhere or other Hazel had clearly stated the blooming obvious - that there was some "wicked and malicious stuff" within Labour Party ranks - clearly I think referring to the likes of Damien McBride. He was of course found out and drummed out of his employment as a press wrangling impression manager.

When ambushed with this - reduced disingenuously to "wicked and malicious" by Brillo and very disingenuously indeed referring to "some actions of Labour while they were in government" or words to that effect (you can see for yourself above) Hazel Blears clearly could not remember using the phrase at all, particularly given the disingenuous way that the old fart Andrew Neil, "is he still alive?" you ask? well yes madam he is, had put it.

She tap danced her way out with some somethingly incorrect but not too unreasonable suggestion that when she used the terms "wicked and malicious" it was generally about Tory cuts. Hazel then pinned the tag on the personification of Tory wicked maliciousness, you've guessed it, Eric Pickles.

On Wednesday the old tool Andrew Neil played back a tape provided by ePolitix. This was mischieviously edited at the front end, there was no sign of the question she was addressing or of the front end of her first sentence but we can let that pass, but it is Neil who is bang to rights.

He had not put this to Hazel or advised her he would be broadcasting it. And Hazel Blears was clearly referring to "stuff" like McBride's unused Red Rag attack lines, and like the uncomradely briefing and behind the scenes belligerence that was a hardly secret feature of the Blair-Brown years. "Stuff in our party" is what she said and meant. Andrew Neil is a tube.

That the utter sleaze bag and smear merchant Guido Fawkes and other conbloggers and contweeters should get their knickers in a twist over this is just bloody typical of the breed. Scumbag Andrew Neil, "is he still alive?" you ask? well yes doctor he is, put something to Hazel in an utterly dishonest, disreputable and distorted way. Within that context of "government actions" she could not remember using the clause.

No doubt, had Hazel Blears remembered her throwaway sub-clause, actually boosting the benefits of a clean, fresh start under Ed Miliband's New Generation and distancing the bad old days of McBride and Co (and the current ways of Guido Fawkes, Iain Dale et al), she wouldn't have had the slightest compunction in correcting Neil's disreputable crapitude.

Hazel Blears did not lie. She could not remember. She was mistaken in her speculation about how she might have used the clause. Largely due to misdirection from that old rascal Andrew Neil. Whether that was intentional or just pig ignorant and careless we may never know. Perhaps he'll own up? We'll see.

LOL predict that Hazel Blears will be on the Daily Politics today and that Andrew Neil will be well wrong if he does not admit that he ambushed her and put the point to her in a highly misleading and unfair way. The remarks were not about Government actions at all, any more than this time they were about Eric Pickles and his wicked and malicious Tory government, they were about well known internal Labour squabblings, briefings and carve ups.

The correct point of departure here will be that the Tory Government is going for "wicked and malicious" as their core strategy. They are going to try to make the poorest in society pay for things they had no part in causing and let bankers and others continue to profit from them. It is indeed "wicked and malicious" to run a "doom" narrative and claim dishonestly that savage cuts are essential.

In fact Labour's way, measured moves over a decade or so instead of panic and mayhem over four years, was and is the right way. Growth is the answer. Meanwhile the wealthiest should pay a fairer, greater share. Tories either don't or won't get that.

Their ideological programme of destroying and privatising the health service, and our rapidly improving schools system, and public services in general, and dog whistle attacks on the poorest, and indeed screwing employment and investment in both public and private sectors .. that is wicked and malicious.

Strange Case: Cyril Smith Blackmail Beatings and Medical Exams

UPDATE Wed 13:04: Here's a transcript of the Rochdale Alternative Press follow up:

Rochdale Alternative Press (RAP)
June 1979 (Number 79)

RAP’s revelations concerning Cyril Smith published in our last issue was a story in which the national press have been interested for a long time. What prevented them from publishing previously was the laws of libel – which still prevent them from publishing it now. RAP has not received a libel writ from Smith.
Once the story was out the media interest continued. Several taxis from Manchester offices of newspapers arrived at Rochdale newsagents to buy a dozen copies each. The People sent its representative, Harold Holborn, accompanied by a Rochdale Observer reporter! John Derricot of the Mail, Bill Jenkins of the Sun, Mike Nally of the Sunday Observer, Chris Bryer of Granada, Chris House the crime correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph, and the news editor of the Star have all had conversations with us about the story.
Libel of course remains the problem, as of course it has been ours. Clearly what we have said about Smith is defamatory. The only defence therefore against libel is that what we have said is true. Our London lawyer’s advice was simple: if you know it to be true, print it. We did.
The one national paper with enough courage to carry the story so far was Private Eye. It’s edition of May 9th ran a summary of the RAP story as its lead article. It repeated the allegations RAP had made and included the extracts from sworn affidavits made by the young men concerned. Private Eye has frequently received libel writs from politicians. It was not received one in this instance.
None of which stops Smith from continuing to condemn others. As recently as his Ob ‘Letter from Parliament’ of 26th May he commented on the actions of Labour Councillor Bob Crossland [“who had the effrontary to attend the Mayor making ceremony without a tie, and to sit and read throughout the ceremony....”]. He (Smith) found that behaviour to be ‘disgusting’ unlike, apparently, holding young men’s testicles and beating their bare bottoms, as he has done.
But we must again repeat, most disturbing is not what Smith did. It is the fact that he never had to answer for himself through the normal processes of law or face the publicity that would have involved. There is still every reason to doubt that the police file even got as far as the D.P.P. – in spite of a statutory requirement for it to do so. Until it is clear that he is subject to the same justice as the rest of us he should keep his mouth shut.

<<<< End of Update


RAP patiently lay out their evidence against Cyril Smith and are puzzled about how this did not lead to the due process that would have followed from such compelling evidence involving any other man. Transcript will follow.

UPDATE Sat 22:42: That transcript:

RAP has obtained evidence that, during the 1960’s, Cyril Smith was using his position to get lads aged 15 – 18 to undress in front of him in order that he could get them to bend over his knee while he spanked their bare bottoms or let him hold their testicles in a bizarre ‘medical inspection’.
The evidence comes from the interviews conducted by RAP over the last six months and in the form of statements made on oath before a solicitor. The allegations are not new – some were originally made as long as 15 years ago, but they were made in statements to the police during their investigation of these allegations in 1969/1970.
There is also disturbing evidence to suggest that that police investigation may not have had its proper end.
RAP decided last September to investigate the allegations in order to determine the facts in an area dominated ever since by rumour. This was prompted partly by the stance Smith had adopted in the Thorpe affair. And partly by the fact that his position as M.P., like his election campaign, was totally based on his personal character of “Smith the Man” – there was part of that man which has to date been concealed and which we feel to be sufficiently disturbing for it to be made public.
Here we present the results of our investigation:

(1) THE POLICE INVESTIGATION
The investigation, carried out by Lancashire Constabulary’s Task Force, started some three years before Cyril Smith first became Rochdale’s MP. It lasted for around 6 months.
It was stimulated by allegations made by a young Rochdale man while he was being questioned by police in connection with charges of indecent behaviour, in Risley. In the course of his examination he claimed there was, in effect, one law for the powerful and another for the poor. He alleged that Cyril Smith had done similar things but got away with it.
Cyril Smith was then Alderman, Chairman of the Education Committee, and soon to be prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the local Liberal Party which he had not long ago rejoined .
The young man concerned had been a resident of the Cambridge House Boy’s Hostel, on Castlemere Street. That hostel then became the focus of the police investigation as they interviewed not only its residents but its committee members - including Bill Harding, Harry Halstead, Alan Lovick and Ron Watson, who were asked questions about the role of the committee members in discipline and medical examinations.
These committee members, while admitting with various degrees of reluctance that they had been interviewed by the police, all denied then, as they did again to RAP, any knowledge of improper activities within the hostel. Some of the residents however had clear and, both to us and to some of the police, convincing memories.

(2) THE HOSTEL
The hostel had been set up by the Rochdale Hostel for Boys Association, a voluntary group formed late in 1960 under the joint inspiration of Probation Officer Bill Harding, its chairman, and Cyril Smith, its secretary. With the aid of Rotary Club money to guarantee its rent for the first two years, the assistance in renovations of the Round Table, and of other committee members like Alan Lovick who provided cost price furnishings, the doors of Cambridge House were opened as a hostel for working boys in February 1962.

[Clipping inserted within the main body of the article]...
“We earnestly hope that we have found for boys a home in which they can find the right moral character building influence.” Smith at the 1964 AGM of the hostel.

It had room for 20 boys, though it average less. The solid basis of its membership was a dozen lads who were apprentices with Whipp & Bourne. They had originally been employed in the firm’s Scottish works but were moved to Rochdale when that closed down. Increasingly, residents were also recruited from the ranks of those in care or from broken homes.
It closed at the end of 1965, primarily through lack of funds and, in particular, because after a lengthy debate, the council endorsed the decision of its Children’s Committee not to increase the grant it was giving to the hostel, by the additional £700 they were being asked to. Strangely, there is no mention of the hostel project in Smith’s autobiography ‘Big Cyril’ which was published in 1977.

[Clipping inserted within the main body of the article]...
“I believe there is a place for corporal punishment....there is a place in law for a good hiding.” Smith in the Rochdale Observer, 21 April 1979.

(3) THE STATEMENTS
During the investigation the police took statements from 7 or 8 of the boys who had lived at the hostel and from at least one who had not. RAP has traced 10 ex-residents and one who, though never having been at Cambridge House, made a statement to the police.
Of the 10, three have nothing but praise for Cyril Smith. The other 7 have all made allegations which fall into one or both categories:
BEATINGS
They have described to us Smith’s role in providing discipline. Two extracts from sworn statements given to us illustrate the procedure:
(1) From a man now married with 4 children and living in Rochdale, describes how, while at the hostel and aged about 16 he took a day off work from the job Smith had arranged for him. His absence from the job was reported to the hostel and he was interviewed by Smith:
“He gave me the choice between accepting his punishment and leaving the hostel. I said I would accept his punishment...He took me into the Quiet Room. He told me to take my trousers and pants down and bend over his knee. When I had done that he hit me four or five times with his bare hands on my bare buttocks.”
(2) From a man, single, living and working in Rochdale, then aged about 15, describes how after he had been reported for a minor offence:
“Cyril Smith found out that I had taken some money. He asked me if I would accept his punishment or be dealt with by the authorities. I said I would accept his punishment. He told me to take my trousers and pants down and bend over his knee. He trapped my hands between his legs. He hit me many times with his bare hand and I pleaded with him to stop because he was hurting me. This took place at the hostel. Afterwards he came to my bedroom and wiped by buttocks with a wet sponge.

MEDICALS
We have been told by Dr Ian McKichan, then Rochdale’s Police Doctor, who provided medical services to the hostel and now lives in Rugby that Smith was often present at the medical examinations. Some of the ex-residents we interviewed have stated on oath that they had what they took to be medical inspections from Smith himself. For example, from the sworn statement of a man who lives locally in a new house:
“After a few days in the hostel I was given a kind of medical examination by Cyril Smith. He told me to take my trousers and pants down. He held my testicles and told me to cough.”
We have had similar experiences described to us by more than one other person.

(4) OUTSIDE THE HOSTEL
Our investigation led us to someone who never was a resident of the hostel but who turned out to have also made a statement to the police. He still lives locally with his wife and family and holds a good job. He was one of the many young men Smith has helped over the years. In his case the help came about 1967, after the hostel had closed, in the form of an offer of a job at Smith’s Springs. He took it.
Increasingly, the lad’s parents – he was about 16 – turned to Smith for help in coping with his adolescent adventures. He still remembers Smith telling him that he would help him to sort himself out, but that he would do it his way. And that whenever he did something wrong, he would have his trousers taken down and receive a beating.
On three occasions, the now family man remembers, Smith took him into the front room of his parents’ house after they had reported his misbehaviour to him. On each occasion Smith endeavoured to remove his trousers and bend him over his knee, even to the extent of a wrestling match when met with resistance from the lad.

[Clipping inserted within the main body of the article]...
“Its not a very friendly gesture, publishing that, all he seems to have done is spank a few bare bottoms.” David Steel’s Press Office, 22 April 1979.

(5) Jack McCann M.P.
During the course of the police enquiry, in 1970’s early months, Smith sought help. He visited Dr McKichan in Rugby. He called at the house of a local man who had fostered one of the boys from the hostel . That lad had made a statement to the police and Smith’s visit appeared to have had the purpose of seeking ways of reducing the credibility of the statement.
He also turned to Jack McCann, the then labour M.P. for Rochdale. He had earlier turned to the same man for help in getting his M.B.E. award of 1966. We have had described to us a late night session between Smith and McCann who had been brought over to Rochdale from his home in Eccles for the purpose. The meeting ended with McCann offering offering to make representations on Smith’s behalf.
Jack McCann’s widow, Alice, remembers her husband being asked to help Smith. We know that McCann was concerned about the situation in which he found himself since, though a man of close confidence, he actually discussed it with one associate in the course of a train journey between London and Manchester. That confidant still vividly remembers the conversation and told RAP that McCann had said that he had taken the matter up with the Chief Constable.
Beyond that hint, we have not been able to find exactly what McCann did, or if anything he did had any bearing on the result. Certainly the Chief Constable concerned told RAP he has no memory of ever meeting him. But there is one disturbing discrepancy in the stands now being taken.

(6) THE D.P.P.
The police, at the conclusion of their investigation, appear to have taken the view that there was sufficient reason to warrant a court’s verdict. A file was certainly drawn up by the Officer in charge of the Task Force Team for submission to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
From that point the story becomes disturbingly confused over the issue of whether the file actually reached the D.P.P.
It has always been believed by those in the know that the file was indeed sent to the D.P.P. And that the D.P.P. returned it marked for no further action on the basis of insufficient evidence.
That was what the investigating team were told. That is also what associates of Smith and then the local leading political figures in the Town – who were officially informed of the proceedings – also believed. That was what Smith himself was told by the investigating officer.
An approach to the D.P.P. however failed to confirm that. On our first request for information, the D.P.P.’s press office agreed to answer the question of whether or not the file had been received by them. After making the appropriate search, we were told that they had failed to find such a file. A further approach brought the official statement from the Director: “The D.P.P. cannot trace such a case being referred to us, but cannot confirm or deny receiving it.”
The Director did confirm that, under the then applicable regulations the “Chief Office of Police shall report to the D.P.P. offences....which include indecent offences upon a number of....young persons.”
We also wrote to Sir Norman Skelhorn, the man who was the Director of Public Prosecutions at the time of the investigation. RAP’s letter was forwarded to him by one of his Club’s, the Athenaeum. On Wednesday 25th April we received a phone call from someone claiming to be Sir Norman, on holiday and from a coin box phone, who said that he could remember nothing at all about such a case.
RAP also interviewed Mr. Palfrey, the Chief Constable of Lancashire at the time. He agreed that such a file “should have been sent” but said “I can’t say for sure whether the file was sent or not.” He told us to approach Police HQ. Which we have done several times. Their final comment was “We decline to comment.”

[Clipping inserted within the main body of the article]...
“I believe that a politician’s private life is his own affair and should remain so unless private behaviour jeopardises his political role. I suspect that most men and women have a skeleton rattling round in their cupboard and I think it should be allowed to remain there unless it can be proved that its exposure can right some injustice done to another person.” ‘Big Cyril’ (1977) Smith’s Autobiography.



(7) SPECIAL BRANCH
The file, kept since at Preston, the HQ of Lancashire Constabulary, came to the centre of national events in February/March 1974. Then there was discussion of a possible coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberals. The possibility, if that happened, of leading Liberals holding Ministerial posts, prompted the Special Branch to acquire a copy of the Preston file on Smith which was taken, with special security precautions, to London.

(8) CYRIL SMITH
Throughout the police enquiry Smith asserted his innocence of the allegations. He told his friends at the time that it was a case of an attempt to damage him politically. He pointed to the home backgrounds and records of some of the ex-residents of the hostel as evidence of their lack of credibility. In his interview with the police, with his solicitor present, he denied all the allegations made against him. We have no reason to believe that he would do anything other than that today. RAP wrote to him asking for an interview to discuss the serious issues raised by our investigation, but he did not reply.

(9) WHY NOW?
This is not, though it will be suggested it is, a smear campaign in the middle of an election. Our investigation started, as our records show and those we talked to can confirm, last October when the election was still thought to be a year away. When we published our last issue – which announces the date of this one – we did not know that this issue would be just a few days before an election.
The fact is that our findings compel us to publish. Rochdale is being asked to elect a man as M.P. on a purely personal basis. His election material makes but passing reference to the Liberal Party. Smith himself has consistently and consciously personalised the issue. Once we became convinced that he had, over a period of years, interspersed his undoubted good work with a clear abuse of his position for personal ends, we felt had no choice but to make it that part of what Rochdale’s electors should be asked to take into account.
It had already been reported to us, before publication, that Smith intended to issue a libel writ. That did not alter our conviction that the men we had interviewed were telling the truth. Nor our view that they should not have been left with the indelible mark of their experiences at the hands of Smith. For too long, it is they who have effectively been branded as wrongdoers.

(10) CONCLUSION
It is not RAP’s function to pronounce on guilt or innocence. We do however believe that the investigation of 1970 should have resulted in a court case. We cannot but believe, like many of the men we interviewed, that had the allegations involved a less prominent person, it would have had exactly that result.
We do find Smith guilty of the charge of hypocrisy, over his role in the Thorpe affair. At the very least he might have been expected to remain silent. He did not. We have established that Smith was a major source of the Press’s information on the Liberal Party’s affairs at the time. He was reporting, at his own initiative, the most confidential of conversations with his leader, direct to the Daily Mirror.
We accept that Smith may neither have committed or, even if the evidence gathered by the police investigation had led to prosecution, been found guilty of any criminal offence. But the practices described in the statements made to both the police and RAP must be condemned, not for any sexual content which may be read into them, but because they present a serious abuse of authority.
Private preferences are, and should remain, personal business. The use of public position for personal gratification at the cost of exploitation of others must be prevented.

There is also cause for concern in the question of whether the file in this case reached the D.P.P.’s office. RAP believes that this should be the subject of a full and impartial investigation.

Cyril Smith the Man: RAP Take the Great Lump at his Word

As it goes this RAP edition - featuring an exposé of Cyril Smith's activities at Cambridge House which is if anything too polite and generous to him - was published just ahead of a parliamentary election. This had not been planned. The investigation had been running for more than six months. But as the RAP team pointed out Cyril was fighting the election with little or no reference to his party or their (ahem) policy platform.

Cyril Smith MP continued with his personal attacking ways and sneering at the standards of others. He was single handedly leaking shiploads of Westminster secrets of a personal nature. It was vote for Cyril the Man. This brought his character front and centre. So be it.

UPDATE Thu 18:47: Some anonymous reader has had a dig in comments. I'll answer on the face of the blog, including their words in bold:

Anonymous 17:00 say:

I have realised that the reason you ask for the identity of anyone who dares to disagree with you is so that you can trash them and in turn their arguments. So it's strange that you seem to fully support the allegations of someone who has been slightly less than open, transparent and honest in many of his dealings in the last few years.

Really not sure who you are referring to here? Spit it out. Let's have a name. You aren't referring to the authors of the RAP piece or indeed presumably the 2010 Private Eye piece? Which are the items I'm relying on. So what are you on about?

I have no intention of thrashing anyone who is open and honest. I generally only ask commenters to identify themselves honestly when I believe they are themselves vested interests or might as well be. For example that shrivelled mescalic worm David Hennigan has a track record of assuming identities and posting bile and mischief even when and where he promises he will *never* post except under his own name.

Malcolm Porn-O at Rochdale Online knows Hennigan posts under all sorts of assumed names and has a squadron of winged monkeys with multiple personalities who would do likewise at his behest. "Lie my pretties!" Rochdale Observer and MEN almost certainly also have IP records showing this activity. In electronic forums and also in furnishing incredibly inauthentic letters for publication on behalf of sock puppets.

Hennigan has been forced to retract and apologise for and desist from some of this poison. he was sacked by Paul Rowen - who tolerated drunkenness, smearage, lies and deceit, inappropriate behaviour and pure vile nastiness but finally came the straw that broke the Rowen's back. Wonder what that was? Actually Rowen is no longer keeping it to himself. But that's for another time.

"Julia Mahon" did not really post those comments [on Cyril posts]. I think it is reasonable to challenge whoever did put up these Henniganesque comments to show themselves. Don't you? If they come from the paid employee of an MP or of a Council group or of a party it makes a difference as far as I'm concerned. Don't you think?

Anonymous 17:00 went on:

You might disagree but I know it's would you would be saying if these claims were being made in the other direction.

This is just too cryptic for me friend. Also ungrammatical. Skipping words rather than slurring? Slow down. Kick back. Smell the coffee, or the roses.

And what's more anonymous 17:00 adds:

I'm equally sure that if a Lib Dem or Conservative had put out leaflets inciting race hate with the aim of "making the white folk angry" you would have been up in arms about it.

They - Tories and FibDems - have done this sort of thing and not infrequently. Sometimes directly, sometimes via proxies.

Getting people to vote and/or stopping them vote and/or having them vote in certain ways is of course the objective of the candidate, the agent and the apparatchiks. There is a practice in all parties of identifying who is interested in what message and giving them that message. FibDems have famously taken this to the nth degree. Politics is about getting things done and you have to win to have any agency in that. To state the blooming obvious.

The words you quote are I understand from some rather silly private email and not from the relevant candidate but from someone shooting the breeze. I'd be interested to have a close look at Mr Hennigan's postbags, wouldn't you? Some vile stuff there I'd expect, wouldn't you? In fact Hennigan shared quite a lot of his vileness on Rochdale Online forums and in blog comments.

Some examples.

In 2004 Chris Davies MEP and his then colleague Sajjad Karim made an appeal to voters who were asian and muslim to vote in a communalistic way [in the European elections]. Pretty shabby I think. Davies defended this simply saying that his claims were true i.e. that Karim was the only asian and muslim candidate from any party high enough on a list to be elected.

Yes, true, but what were his policies? There was no real indication of these policies. They were hidden from the electorate you might say. Or this segment of the electorate. I would always rather be represented by someone with similar ideas and policies than someone down my street, of the same race, of the same gender, of the same background etc etc. Wouldn't you?

Chris Davies is and was a fool to do this. It green lights the BNP doing the same kind of thing IMO.

One of Sajjad's cronies was Faraz Bhatti of course. Elected as a Lib Dem cllr - and privately comunalistic and nasty I'm hearing in an extreme way - but he soon followed Karim to the Tories - where the same traits have been displayed. His attempt to get a young somethingly hot-headed lad - Hussain - elected as an accomplice in 2009 included the lovely ruse of distributing some dishonest hate mongering from Hizb-ut_Tahrir alongside their bland Tory blandishments. This material included the assertion that the Holy Qur'an was to be banned along with some possibly photoshopped picture of GW Bush and G Brown together.

The purpose of this Tory distributed leaflet was "making the brown folk angry" although I can't say I have an email in which any of the conspirators stated this as a specific objective. They didn't need to. It's obvious.

Of course another instance of this was in Rochdale 2005 when local forces - let's leave it at that for now, but there is a post in the pipe ready almost to be launched - distributed leaflets designed again for "making the brown folk angry" which claimed inter alia that the Labour candidate was Jewish which was untrue and hardly relevant to the voting decisions of an electorate who really ought to be concerned about which party or candidate would serve them best.

That electorate picked Paul Rowen which probably shows that the vile leaflet worked and led to a rather stupid suggestion which put Rowen and Hennigan into power. Yeuch!

Finally, though I have not been able to make it to Watkins's expensive and probably futile court hearing in Saddleworth, I do have some insight into the way the said muppet Watkins waged his own campaign. They say if you want to cry foul in such cases, say something is not equitable, you really need to have clean hands yourself. Elwyn Watkins has some of the grubbiest hands in the business.

I've heard that one of the things EW bah gum published amongst about 60 (yes SIXTY) significant distinct pieces of print in the 6 months to the election was a leaflet/letter, in Urdu I believe, which was naturally enough posted without the benefit of an English translation to muslim households. This, I'm told, had the express purpose of "making the brown folk angry" as did a MPACUK leaflet which was possibly in English only and is openly published by MPACUK, not sure.

So, faced with this, one of the things the often robust street fighting Labourites did was have the Urdu translated and show this to other audiences.

It all gets a bit viral this stuff doesn't it?

A leaflet along these lines was used by Manchester Lib Dems in 2003 in the local government elections in which I stood. With the express purpose of "making the brown folk angry". About the war. It was concocted by a known Lib Dem activist whose name and mobile phone number were on it.

The text was changed mid campaign from something a bit illegal. Both versions were distributed without a P&P or any identification. But it clearly drove the Lib Dem vote.

There are lots of examples and I don't really like any of them - including those I know about from Comrade Phil - however, these sorts of things were in use by both sides in Oldham and Saddleworth. And once they start e.g. MPACUK/ARM in the next constituency in 2005 and Elwyn this time and so on and so forth, they escalate and become the norm. Tit for tat.

My ridicule and disdain for Elwyn's case is on the basis that he would be a rotten MP (as he was/is a rotten councillor IMO) and he doesn't have the sense to recognise that he was using the same tactics and stands to lose his shirt and what's more his bollocks challenging what is normal for the context up there in them there hills. For defamation purposes they talk of "the cut and thrust of politics" or the like.

It's endemic in the area. Regrettable but true. I may well re-write this as a blogpost with links and illustrations. Though I'm a bit busy. Comments and more examples welcome.