Thursday 30 March 2017

Green Activist Mick Coat's Statement

 on the Rochdale Turner Brothers Asbestos Site:

I must apologise for my unavoidable absence; accordingly I have submitted this written report with regard to matters surrounding the TBA site and my concerns.  Clearly there are a number of issues that should be in the public domain.
Afterall it is us who are most affected by the problems of this highly contaminated site.

This is the question I put to Rochdale Township regarding the TBA site.
'Has the site survey on contamination been completed?  Are there any preliminary results and will these be shared with RMBC councillors and council officers?  Will these be shared with the Save Spodden Valley group?  What action do the owners intend to take to remove the illegally dumped rubbish on their site? What progress has been made in terms of prosecution by the Environment Agency?  What action has the council taken to address the public health threat posed by this rubbish to the residents of Rochdale?'
I recieved the following replies.
First, the survey has been completed this month.  Originally we were told it would be completed in 3 weeks in October.  However it took 4 to 5 months.
Why?

Secondly, I asked if preliminary results would be shared with councillors, council officers or experts from Save Spodden Valley?  The response was that the report would eventually be published at a later date. Presumably the answer to my question was 'no'.

Thirdly I asked about all the rubbish that had been dumped on the site by the lorry load.  No information was forthcoming about a prosecution by the Environment Agency, the response being that this was in the hands of the Environment Agency.
No comment was made with regard to the council's duty to protect public health.

I prefaced my question by saying that in the light of the council's wish to see 250 houses on site (Stragetic Housing Land Availability Assessment 2016) the problems of the site should be dealt with in a transparent and open way.
In addition I offered to take councillors and council officers round the site to show them my concerns. This was met with a stoney silence from the councillors.  Clearly not interested.

Subsequently Cllr Biant has ascerted that the rubbish is 'mainly inert'.
What does she mean by 'inert' – not dangerous, not disease ridden, not contaminated?  What tests have been done?  As this is private land what tests have the site owners undertaken, or have the council undertaken tests on behalf of the owners?  Can we have access to the results of these tests?
And most alarmingly,  MAINLY inert. I really do not think that mainly is good enough. Just a few germs, a little bit of asbestos?   Not good enough.

It seems that the phrase 'mainly inert' is more appropriately applied to councillors, not the rubbish on site.

Mick Coats
Rooley Moor Road

Ashton Town Hall left structually unsafe after demolition of TAC building!

Cock-up at new admin centre - Ashton-under-Lyne

It seems that construction giant, Carillion, have dropped a huge clanger when they demolished the old 'Tameside Administration Centre' (TAC) in the centre of Ashton-under-Lyne.

We understand that when the old TAC building was being demolished, a joist, that was integral to both the structural stability of  the TAC building and Ashton Town Hall, was removed leaving the old town hall structurally unstable and in a hazardous state.

A source within Tameside Council (TMBC), has told Northern Voices that it will cost around £5m to put things right and to make Ashton Town Hall structurally safe. We understand that Tameside Council are claiming that they are covered by Carillion's liability insurance. In the meantime, Ashton Town Hall is unusable.

Last May, Carillion, came under fire when Russell Scott Primary in Denton, had to close when "significant defects" were found which did not comply with fire regulations. Head teacher, Steve Marsden, said: "An assessment had ruled that the safety of pupils and staff was 'compromised'." 

TMBC and contractors Carillion plc, denied this, and said the school had: "the necessary fire, building control, and other certificates required by law and is insured to operate."

Rochdale Unite's Job Centre Protest!

Brian Bamford - NV Joint-Editor (far-right)
 

FROM 9am this morning until lunch-time, the Rochdale Unite Community Branch set up a stall across the road from Rochdale Jobcentre, and issued leaflets protesting against unfair benefit cuts. 
Besides members of the local branch the secretary of the Greater Manchester County Association and another colleague were in evidence, and a delegate from Tameside Trade Union Council came over to offer support.
While I was there several claimants endorsed the campaign and were advised by the activists on the stall.
This was a national day of action against unfair benefit cuts, and Unite the Union issued the statement below:

Thursday 30 March 2017
National Day of Action Against Sanctions
JOIN US
 
More and more people are facing benefit sanctions. 300,000 people have had their benefits suddenly stopped by sanctions in the last 12 months.

Many of whom have been plunged into poverty, unable to heat their homes or even eat. How is this meant to help prepare people for work?
 
Benefit sanctions must be fought against


These sanctions are cruel and handed out for ridiculous reasons such as:
  • Arriving minutes late to a meeting 
  • Not applying for jobs when waiting to start a new job!
  • Missing an appointment on the day of the funeral of a close family member.
- See more at: http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/communitymembership/day-of-action-against-sanctions/#sthash.jpQGFLNQ.dpuf

Some Subtle Social Engineering Experiment?


 What Are Rochdale's 'Alpha- Councillors' Up To?

by Andrew Wastling
I READ with total incredulity that Council Tax payers in Rochdale will from 1 April be paying more on our Council Tax bills than people in Manchester.
This news stunned even those friends & neighbours of mine tempered  on the hammer & anvil of local council stupidity by serial  antics from Rochdale Council over the years.
After all only last year Manchester was voted the best place to live in the UK beating even London which was ranked ten places lower. Rochdale as we know was not.
The Global Liveability Survey compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit scored 140 cities worldwide out of 100 in the areas of health care, education, stability, culture and environment and infrastructure. Manchester scored  88.8 out of a 100 and was ranked the 43rd best city in the world to live in.
I am not sure where exactly Rochdale ranked in 'the 140 best cities to live in worldwide' but it must with some certainty have been much higher than Manchester to warrant this years 4.99% increase in Rochdale's Council Tax? Anything less would be Daylight Robbery .
I just wonder what Rochdale folk , (who pay more in all Council Tax Bands A - H  than Manchester residents), get for our money from Rochdale Council  that people in Manchester, (who pay less in all Council Tax Bands A - H  than we), do not get for their money from Manchester City Council?
I can only assume that word must have spread that we have a dedicated, specialist SAS standard trained cohort of 'Alpha-Councillors' invested here in the very heart of our community who have selflessly put Rochdale firmly on the local government map.  So proactive have past councils been that their list of triumphs is both exhaustive & colourful .
A toxic asbestos site - once the worlds largest asbestos factory - has been allowed to crumble into lethal ruin with no regard for the long term safety  of the towns residents for decades' Surely merits the considerable extra money we all pay as tax payers just on it's own?
Councillors who switch party without any due regard to political principle or the voters. Party's that rise & sink without tangible trace except for the extra expenses claimed as a separate political entity  in the Council - incidentally does anyone know what happened to the much heralded but quickly demised Rochdale First from 2014 they showed some initial promise ? Personally I think that for entertainment value alone this episode of local government shenanigans was worth an entire 1 % increase of itself ?
We have seen a £250 Million regeneration programme that has prioritised a £50 Million 'Norman Keep' - AKA ' No.1 Riverside '- ( almost flooded before the ink on the hastily signed insurance policy for the building  was signed !),  above scandalous levels of poor housing, lack of opportunity, local child poverty, and generational social exclusion, employment & skills gap.  Long promised retail developments few locals will be able afford to shop have taken precedence over community cohesion by Councillors that have all but ignored near 1930's levels of poverty & shoddy , damp rented housing, unfit in some cases for human habitation , the ingrained and widely denied second & third generation unemployment in some wards.
It's not just the shocking recent history though is it that calls into question the probity and transparency of local politics in this town.  All the kids on the Working class state I grew up on knew from an early age not to take sweets from a certain local politician in the 1970's so how our local adult councillors at the time remained unaware of the rumours remains beyond most rational people.  Especially when we had the benefit then of Rochdale Alternative Press to keep us informed about 'Fat Man's' activities.  From that edition onwards  it was clear that there was something rotten to the very core of local Rochdale politics and that a culture of historic denial or best just sweep it under the carpet - like the asbestos at Healy Dell - where hopefully it'll all just be forgotten about in time?
Its not just the skeletons still rattling in their  closet from  the 1970's that need concern us still - nearly half a century later - true to local form we still see new closets being crammed full by a political class at several steps removed from the majority of  local Rochdale folk yet again. he attempt to criminalise the homeless, beggars and under 18-year-olds is only  the most recent example of other notorious examples of the total and complete failure of local authorities to protect those they had a clear & obvious duty of care for.  This is an example of a mind set and dysfunctional internal narrative that posits that we - the Council - are beyond reproach , forever above accountability ,investigation and always without blame. In fact it is the victims of our successive failures of governance & policies who are at fault never us.
It's precisely this kind of insidious non-thinking culture that allows some of our more delusional or remote local decision makers still think they are once again unaccountable & above independent public scrutiny and natural justice.
The much heralded Kingsway Business Park was allowed to house a company so notorious for shoddy employment standards & practices that the DWP no longer allows adverts for the company to be carried on the Universal Jobs match site. Despite their near Victorian abuse of worker rights we have a nominally Labour Council recently reward this companies attacks on local working peoples employment rights by allow this Dickensian throwback to:   'extend  their European headquarters at Kingsway Business Park by 600,000 square feet to a total floor space of 2m square feet.'
It's clear that : '£100,000 in planning fee income' buys a lot of acquiescence  from our  'Alpha-Councillors ' who silence merely masks their complicity and tacit collaboration in the systematic abuse of local workers statutory rights exposed so graphically in last years C4 undercover report that should have come as no surprise since as long ago as 2013 concerns had been raised publicly about this new millennium workhouse.
This single handed attempt to undermine workers rights would also possibly warrant the 34%/51% expenses increase for Councillors - especially one would have though those councillors who are trade union members.  It's just this kind of co-worker solidarity we have grown accustomed to from our 'Alpha-Councillors '.  Long may our brothers & sisters in the Town Hall continue to stand with us in the  struggle - lets make the 'birthplace of cooperation' proud shall we comrades?
We best not forget from our list the disgraceful levels of Department of Work Pensions (DWP) sanctions have been imposed on vulnerable local claimants for weeks on end without so much as a whimper of protest from local Red Tory Councillors who continue feed their faces on £9.95 a head tax payer subsidised buffets whist simultaneously imposing a further £39 MILLION of Blue Tory austerity on local public services.  Indeed these quislings and complicit facilitators of central government cuts to northern communities & front-line services remain resolutely  in denial about local malnutrition rates, spiralling debt and food bank voucher use across the Townships.
We have seen also a disgraceful attempt to ride rough-shod over the human rights of people with learning disabilities & their desperately worried families & support workers by a shambolic, barley competent  consultation process  on  a proposed re-modelling of Adult Social Care that looked as if it had been compiled on the back of a fag packet. We have seen the Council widely ridiculed for its crass 'swearing ban ' across the media from Russia Today to the Telegraph for its ill conceived Public Space Protection Order that is so we are told hoped to be extended to schools gates.   Though quite who will pay for this is still open to debate since when the Council proposed schools pay for their own school Crossing patrols in December 2016 they were told that: '30 out of 63 schools were not prepared fund crossing patrols'.  As with the Adult Social Care remodelling proposals after a public outcry this nonsense was also rather hastily quashed.
As to proposals to store hazardous waste near a residential area in Castleton one can't help but wondering whether our 'Alpha-Councillors' are engaged in some kind of subtle social engineering experiment to ascertain how many toxic or hazardous industrial sites can be crammed into a five mile square inhabited area without producing genetic mutations among the local population - not too many more we suspect !
Once the news that Rochdale is a 'Social Utopia' governed by an elite of 'Alpha -Councillors'  extolling True Labour values & principles to the down trodden, huddled masses and their fame spreads far and wide across Greater Manchester we should expect an imminent exodus of aspirational  Mancunians re-locating to Rochdale?  Thousands of fleeing 'Economic & cultural migrants ' fellow workers & citizens eager to avail themselves immediately of Rochdale Councils superbly run public services , our fabulous public facilities , our renowned global cultural identity and international status that we will now all be able to expect as a right in return for our increased council tax bills?
As the great Dario Fo once said of comedy & the essential satire of politicians:
'At the root of everything I write is tragedy.'


The Cauliflower Racket -


or some vegetables are more equal than others

By Andrew Wastling

____________________________________


BY way of reply to yesterday's piece Beggars Opera or Comic Opera? - Strangling Civil Liberties on a United Front, I'd like to raise a few points.

I don't doubt for a second that the nauseating culture of palpable nepotism and political cronyism was once again alive and flourishing  at Rochdale Town Hall  :It was like viewing a tribe of back-patting gangsters as both the Tory and Labour politicians vied with each other to heap on the praise ' writes the articles author. I can almost picture it now.  All we are really lacking is a corrupt City Mayor, a few more henchmen in double breasted suits with Fedora hats carrying violin cases ,a couple of high profile payola busts with a snazzy Bix Beiderbecke soundtrack piped into the council chamber. Retro Gangsterism - its the new rock'n'roll  !

Or maybe a more toned down theme more akin perhaps to a scene from Brecht's famous play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1) portraying as it does the rise of a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster - Arturo Ui - and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition to become chief vegetable gangster. The parallels are sometimes striking .We really should have a copy in the Library at The Ministry of Truth as No1. Riverside is to be shortly renamed.

Whichever is closer to the truth our town hall has of late  become an almost absurdist  theatrical experience where some of the performances  would not be out of place delivered in Al Capone pin stripe suits accompanied by gangsters molls with a mobsters getaway car revving up round the Town Hall - just in case anyone has to do a quick runner!
In this fevered political atmosphere its perhaps not  surprising that bashful Councillor Blundell did not intervene to challenge Councillor Sullivan and Councillor Howards motion to extend Public Space Protection Orders to the gates of local schools. Those  well known haven  for anti-social & criminal elements across the Borough ! Makes no difference , as Woody Guthrie said : ' Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen'.

After all it was only at the beginning of the month that Councillor Blundell was loudly proclaiming across the air-waves of  Key 101 radio station News on 8 March  that unless you were an 'aggressive beggar' you had '  absolutely nothing to fear from PSPO's. The Council 'is not the Gestapo' the Councillor responded slightly nervously . Quite right Councillor and we are here to ensure it never becomes anything close to resembling it. Even  if some members of our council would rather forget it those opposed to PSPO's maintain that :           'the price of Liberty is eternal vigilance.'

councillor speaks to Key103 about plans to stop anti social behaviour in the town centre.

When it was pointed out that the proposal document for Rochdale Council does not use the word aggressive beggar but only beggar in the text I was accused of 'splitting hairs' and promoting 'fake news' .I'll leave it to Councillor Blundel to justify to the Public precisely how a PSPO initially proposed for use against aggressive beggars in the town centre ( in the councillors own words) has transformed itself  less than four weeks down the road into a one size fits all quick fix for a multitude of issues the Council have failed utterly to get to grips with?

At this rate by Palm Sunday we can no doubt look forward to the reintroduction of Prohibition, unlicensed Speakeasy's on The Butts, local Protection Rackets & wholesale counterfeiting & gangsters across the entire Borough. Ah, the joys and pitfalls of turbo charged capitalism combined with a soon to be almost unregulated neoliberal global economy.

Just for the record PSPO's outside schools can in a matter of hours after a chat with a senior Police Officer be transformed by a single council official into a ban on parents holding a 'Save Our School Rally' at the school gates in opposition to future closure plans . Don't say you haven't been warned folks.

Recent Twitter comments from bashful Councillor Blundel hardly instil widespread confidence such as :

's press release on the Rochdale PSPO is not factual, scare mongering and is completely alien to what the council wants to do
( 24 March 2016 )

Or the equally strident if slightly pompous :

Elected local representatives are making this decision. load of London liberal elites looking down their nose at northern towns
( again on 24 March 2016)

Segments of this Twitter feed appear to not only fly in the face of reality but seems to fly directly in the face of Council claims the PSPO proposal was being put out for consultation and not be a decision made by 'elected local representatives' for a start - not to mention fly Icarus style into the truth of the Sun. They are indicative of the kind of juvenile responses some of our local councillors resort to when caught bang to rights with their trousers down by people outside the Rochdale 'bubble', who not only quite obviously know what they are talking about , but are able to run circles round our local 'Alpha-Councillors' with those awfully annoying facts and the even more despised evidence which even our local Rochdale decision makers have to reluctantly number crunch from  time to time. People  who have an in depth understanding of the Law & the Legal System are often problematic for Rochdale Council .Just refer back to the embarrassing public thrashing our council got in the national media from those with a crystal clear understanding  of the Health & Social Care  Sector. Liberty after all have only been advocating on British Law since 1934 so I'm sure we'd all defer to Councillor Blundel's greater breadth of legal working knowledge & experience on the complex intricacies of PSPO's than actual British Lawyers, (2).


It would be illuminating  to know precisely which part of Liberty's PRESS RELEASE is not factual, scaremongering so we can all reset our thought processes from 'thought crime' to acceptable Council approved cognitive dissonance immediately ?

Perhaps Councillor Blundell can clarify for us lowly proles how we should think sometime soon . So none of us get ideas above our station or get into the annoyingly bad habit of asking tricky questions of our betters?
______________________________________________________________________________________


(1). The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui or That Well-Known Racket .The scenario that Brecht presents is recognisably possible at other times, past, present and future. He points to a time of recession: people are suffering increasing hardship in deteriorating circumstances. Crime is on the increase, unemployment soars, street violence erupts. An enemy is at work, the people are told; a scapegoat is sought and hounded, while the well-off, anxious to preserve their position, join in the hunt or merely look the other way. Under similar circumstances Chicago produced Al Capone, and Germany produced Hitler, who rose to power on the backs of the wealthy establishment, which thought it could both control and use him, but which was blinkered by its fear of the "enemy within"



(2). Liberty is also known as the National Council for Civil Liberties. Founded in 1934, they  are a cross party, non-party membership organisation at the heart of the movement for fundamental rights and freedoms in the UK.
They promote the values of individual human dignity, equal treatment and fairness as the foundations of a democratic society.
Liberty is entirely independent. They're  not affiliated with any political party and they receive no Government funding – which means they're free to fearlessly and robustly criticise Government policy and truly hold the powerful to account. They  promote the values of equality, dignity, fairness and accountability in all that they do. 



Wednesday 29 March 2017

Beggar's Opera* Or Comic Opera?

Strangling Civil Liberties on a United Front
by Brian Bamford
Tonight, at Rochdale Town Hall's Full Council meeting of the Rochdale Town Council, it was more like watching a stage show of Bertold Brecht's 'Threpenny Opera' than serious politics.  It was like viewing a tribe of back-patting gangsters as both the Tory and Labour politicians vied with each other to heap on the praise.  Talk about cosy council politics!

Councillor Liam O'Rourke even pontificated on how often the local Tories would join up with the governing Labour lads and lassies to proclaim and pass proposals and present a united front, no matter the perverse political origins of the proposals.  At one stage we were left wondering if the bashful Councillor Blundell was having an affair with one of the Tory lassies, so intimate was their demeanour.

There is much of the tragi-comedy about politics in Rochdale these days, which even in its own petty way rivals Brexit and Trump on the stage of national and international politics.

A major asbestos scandal has dogged the town for decades, the site of the former asbestos factory is now fast becoming a dump for waste which is being fly-tipped on an industrial scale; buildings surrounding the town centre neglected for decades are now cracking and disintegrating to such an extent that recently the trams to the town centre had to be stopped and buses diverted; travelling people now threaten Cronkeyshaw Common; market traders disappointed with the poorness of their trade in groceries have formed a co-op and are threatening to leave the town and now the Greater Manchester Spatial Strategy threatening the Green Belt around Rochdale.

But recently, it has been the proposals for issuing Public Space Protection Orders with on-the-spot penalties that has been causing consternation.  And this seems to be where the Tories and labour parties are uniting most.  Tonight, Councillor Sullivan and Councillor Howard moved and seconded a motion for extending the imposition of Protection Orders to the proximity of schools.  The motion stated:
'This Council welcomes the future consultation on potential use of Public Space Protection Orders in the Town Centre and recommends the introduction of similar Orders to enhance road safety outside schools.  As a Council we are committed to protecting the safety and welfare of the Borough's children, which is often put at risk by irresponsible parking outside schools.  The Council calls upon the Cabinet to develop proposals to trail Public Space Protection Orders around schools with known parking problems to tackle the associated risk to children, parents and carers; and following a period of monitoring to establish the success of this intuitive, the Council should explore options to roll out a programme of Protection Orders around schools.'
What this means is that extra unnecessary laws will be brought in by the law-makers of Rochdale to duplicate laws that already exists.  Natural justice, it seems, will now be binned in Rochdale!
What began with a Labour Party campaign to clean-up Rochdale Town Centre of beggars and other  'wrong-uns' , is now moving relentlessly on to a campaign against improper parking around school yards.  To get support for the motion one councilor last night even invoked images of car-keys being snatched by an angry schoolmaster trying to restore order and cat-fights by parents outside the school gate over parking spaces as mothers hung up their handbags to freely sally-forth in a fiery frenzy claiming the right of place to a space nearest to the school gates.
Bring on the 'On-the-Spot' Fines for Rochdale's disabled beggars and down and outs! 
Let's have more 'Public Space Protection Orders' against irate parents who park badly! 
The good Councillor Jane Howard, the Shadow Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and seconder of the motion relating to good order at School Gates, even whinged last night about not just swearing, but about one councilor actually 'blaspheming in this Council Chamber' she said, as had happened at the last full council meeting. 
With such examples of innate wickedness, the good councilors of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale couldn't vote the motion through quick enough!  The band-wagon to corral the public is underway!  Bring on the Zoo-Keepers!



*  The Beggar's Opera is the story satirised politics, poverty and injustice, focusing on the theme of corruption at all levels of society. Lavinia Fenton, the first Polly Peachum, became an overnight success. Her pictures were in great demand, verses were written to her and books published about her..   Elisabeth Hauptmann (with Bertolt Brecht) and Kurt Weill adapted the opera into Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) in 1928, sticking closely to the original plot and characters but with a new libretto and mostly new music.

Allinson on BBC 2 Daily Politics!


Workplace activist, Ian Allinson, who is standing as a "grassroots socialist" candidate for the position of General Secretary, of the trade union, Unite, was interviewed yesterday by Jo Coburn, on the BBC2 'Daily Politics' show. Both Gerard Coyne and Len McCluskey, who are also standing in this election, declined to appear.

Allinson, is the only candidate in this election who is not a full-time paid trade union official. An employee of the global tech firm Fujitsu, in Manchester, and a trade union convenor, he is the underdog in this election having fewer branch nominations than the other two candidates. If elected, as General Secretary of Unite, Allinson has vowed to forgo the six figure salary that goes with the job and to work for his current pay. He also wants to see all Unite officials elected, rather than appointed.

Questioned by Coburn about being the favoured candidate of the 'Socialist Workers Party' (SWP), Allison said that he had a broad range of support within Unite. Nevertheless, Allinson's political background is within the SWP.

During the run up to the election, there has been a certain amount of mudslinging between two of the candidates. Gerard Coyne, the West Midlands, Regional Secretary of Unite, accused McCluskey of taking a loan off the Union to buy a property in London and  he claims that McCluskey, is more interested in Jeremy Corbyn, and the Labour Party, rather than Unite members. His brother, Kevin Coyne, is  also a national officer of Unite.  

Coyne, is seen as the candidate of the Labour right and the one candidate who is most acceptable to New Labour and the bosses. He was recently given column inches in Rupert Murdoch's "Sun" newspaper, to present his election address, entitled - "I'll get your union back." He says in his election address to Unite members - "Just last year, Unite put £417,000 of your money into a luxury London apartment for his (McCluskey's) personal use."

Writing for the Murdoch press, is hardly likely to endear Coyne to many British trade unionists, given the way in which, the Murdoch press have vilified trade unionists over the years. Rupert Murdoch also backed Donald Trump in the U.S. Presidential elections and News International, was also embroiled in the phone-hacking scandal.

Unite have stated that the loan made to McCluskey was a -"shared equity arrangement made with officials required to move to London with the property being sold after the official left the post." However, prior financial assistance of £90,000 was given to McCluskey in 1994, to buy a house with his then partner, Jennie Formby. In 2013, Formby was appointed Unite's political director on a salary of £75,000.

Len McCluskey, has been General Secretary of Unite since 2011 and until his resignation, in December 2016. In his election address, McCluskey says - "I'm overwhelmed that nearly 1200 branches - more than 80% of the total - have nominated me... I regret that this election has been marred by so many smears and lies by Mr Coyne, aided by the right-wing anti-union media, designed to undermine your union to further his own ambitions..."

Yesterday, on 'Daily Politics', Allinson said that he felt that Unite had not put up enough fight against government austerity policies and the recent Trade Union Bill. Like many Trotskyists, he believes that English workers are always itching for a fight but are being restrained and held back by the likes of trade union leaders, like McCluskey. He said that he was in favour of the free movement of labour across countries and opposed Trident. He feels that the money could be used to create sustainable jobs and to build more council housing. Asked about the allegation that McCluskey, was intending to affiliate Unite to 'Momentum', which supports Jeremy Corbyn, he said this was utter nonsense as only a Unite conference or the NEC, could make that decision.

Len McCluskey recently stated that Jeremy Corbyn should be given 15 months to see if he could improve Labour's opinion poll ratings. If not, he feels he should be replaced by another leader. Allinson, supports Corbyn unequivocally, in spite of his shambolic performance as leader of the opposition. Although Labour held Stoke in a recent by-election, with a reduced majority, it also lost the safe Labour seat of Copeland, which went Conservative.  At the Richmond by-election held in December 2016, Labour lost its deposit and got fewer votes in the constituency than there were Labour Party members.

Jeremy Corbyn, leads a party that was pro-Remain and pro-EU, yet he's been a life-long opponent of Britain's membership of the European Union. After the vote for Brexit last summer, he stupidly called for Article 50 to be invoked immediately. John McDonnell, also claimed that Britain leaving the EU was nothing less than an "enormous opportunity." In February, having seen all their amendments defeated, Corbyn led his Labour MPs into the House to vote alongside the government for its Brexit bill. However, some Labour MPs, opposed the three line whip and voted against it.It was reported that immediately after Labour voted for the Brexit bill, some 7,000 Labour members stopped their standing orders and packed it in. Caroline Lucas of the Green Party, said that the un-amended bill was the "blueprint for an extreme Tory Brexit and Labour waved it through."

Already there is speculation as to whom might be the next Labour leader. Keir Starmer, Clive Lewisand Rebecca Long-Bailey, have all been tipped as future Labour leaders.

Ballot papers for the 2017 election of Unite General Secretary were sent out on Monday 27th March.

Farnell is in Great Fabian Socialist Tradition

WRITERS on the left in Rochdale have been anxious to infer right-wing tendencies in the proposal of the Labour Council to inflict on-the-spot penalties upon the beggars in Rochdale town centre.   Were as, for my part I see Richdard farnell and even Simon Danczuk in the great tradition of Fabian state socialism.

Some leftist critics of Rochdale council have summoned up references to the German laws of the 1930s, and people like the pacifist Phillip Gilligan was  driven to write in the Rochdale Observer (March 18th, 2017):
'....after coming to power in Germany, the Nazis sought to exclude many groups from their so-called "national community", including those who they labelled "asocials".  There measures became steadily more oppressive and, in just one week in 1937, 11,000 beggars and homeless people were arrested and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp.  They were never seen again.'

Before Hitler and the Nazis established any kind of clean-up campaign against anti-social elements it was the Fabian state socialist Bernard Shaw who who as early as 1931 was filmed delivering a 'Paramount Sound News Exclusive' which caused outrage at the time.  J. Kelly Nestuck writes describing this encounter  vividly:
'In the black and white footage, Shaw, with his Irish lilt and smug grin, seems to argue in favour making everybody "come before a properly appointed board, just as he might come before the income tax commissions," to justify their existence..

'If you're not producing as much as you consume, or perhaps a little more," he suggests, "then clearly we cannot use the big organisation of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can't be of very much use to yourself.'

How very practical and rational these old fashioned state socilalists like Shaw were, and somewhere I seem to remember that Malcolm Muggeridge, who knew many of these Fabian socialists, would ponder the puzzle about whether if the great man Shaw and a lame beggar were in a boat and one should have been sacificed which one should go overboard; Muggeridge took the view, as I recall, that humankind would benefit far more 'if  it was Shaw who took a header into the depths'.

Most anarchists and decent people would have no hesitation in making a similar choice if Simon Danczuk and/ or Richard Farnell were poised aboard a craft in difficulties with a pair of limbless beggars.


Tuesday 28 March 2017

Daniel Clayton & the Rochdale Allotments

Letter to Editor of Rochdale ONLINE (28th, March 2017) :
Dear Editor,

Further to my recent letters about the creation of new allotments in Rochdale, I am now in a position to reveal that within the last 12 months twelve new plots have been created.
http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/138/community-news/107621/kellett-street-allotment-plot-thickens

Many thanks to Val at Townships & Communities for her efficiency and thoroughness in dealing with my enquiry.

Her letter states:
“In 2016 / 17 we have created 12 new allotment plots at a derelict horse grazing site on Kellet Street.
In 2013 [this site was] derelict and dangerous structures plus fly tipping of tyres, fridges, a boat etc.
All this has been cleared, the perimeter secured with fencing / gate repairs and new installation, small car parking area to prevent parking issues on already congested streets around the site,

Japanese Knotweed treated, path network created and new allotment society set up to run the site. The work to get the next 20 plots on this site ready for allocating is nearing completion and these should be ready for allocation from mid-April.

Work is also ongoing with our Estates Department to identify other sites and as a result of that process multiple sites are now being tested for suitability (checking access, if the soil is contaminated etc) prior to organising works to bring these other sites into operation as allotments during 2017 and 2018.”

Hence, by the end of next month 32 of the promised 100 allotment plots will have been created.
I had stated in a previous letter that my hunch was that the actual figure would be zero and it is reassuring to know that some work is being done. However, as things stand, just 12% of the stated target has been reached so I do not feel that my cynicism is entirely unwarranted.

Finally, I’d like to wish good luck to the people now tending those new allotments and to the people waiting for a plot of their own.

Growing one’s own food is a beautiful way to foster a relationship with nature, and with issues such as the exponential use of foodbanks these are vital skills that we all need to share with each other.

Yours,
Daniel Clayton
Rochdale Green Party

Inconvenient Questions at Rochdale Township!

GREEN Party activist, Daniel Clayton in a letter in this Wednesday's Rochdale Observer challenges the process and working of last Wednesday's Rochdale Township Committee.  Mr. Clayton, who was present at the Township Committee to hear a response to his query which we set out below:
'It was reported on 14 March 2016 that the Labour Group wanted to adopt a policy promoted by the local Green Party to create additional allotments in Rochdale.  How many allotments have been created over the 12 months since then?'
The Chair described Clayton's question as 'too politically motivated'.
How extraordinary!
The Chair told Mr. Clayton, that his question was tardy and hence, as Private Eye might say 'Reply came there none!', but he then promised that a written response would be forthcoming.
It now seems that in truth the question from the Green Mr. Clayton had been in fact been received in good time but that it had been forwarded to the Environment Dept., and seeming lost in the Council machine.
The Chairman was much kinder to one of his council colleagues, Allen Brett who got pride of place with the questioning allowing him to use the Township as a platform to ask his own question about when the Metro tram would be able access the town centre again after the recent upset caused owing to the long-neglected buildings on Drake Street?  Councillor Brett, it seems, is anxious to prove his worth since he moved to represent a ward nearer the town centre.



Monday 27 March 2017

Comical Carryings-On Among the Comrades

by Brian Bamford
LAST Monday the latest meeting of the Friends of Freedom Press (the directors) ought to have been held at the building in Angel Alley just off Whitechappel High Street in London. Alas, when Ernest Rodker, a director and Friend, arrived in time for the meeting he found the building closed and shop shut up.
The meeting had been called-off at very short notice. Fortunately, more by luck than good management, no directors or ‘Friend’ from the North was already on the train bound for the South at the moment when the event was called-off at the last minute.
There is a certain slap-stick nature to the going-on at the premises of Freedom Press which matches most of the prejudices of the enemies of political anarchism.
Donald Rooum, who retired or resigned as a Friend of Freedom Press earlier this year, did so it is said because of certain over-wrought behaviour at some gathering over a year ago at which at least one Friend declared himself to be scared-stiff.
Absurdity seems to follow the English anarchists in the dealings with everyday affairs.:
In a book review of Malcolm Muggeridge’s book ‘Chronicles Of Wasted Time’, which Scott Alexander did in 2015, he reported upon some hilarious goings on at the anarchist or Tolstoyan Whiteway experimental colony originally founded in 1898, where the former editor of Freedom Tom Keele went to live after he abandoned the capital. Mr Alexander writes that:
The land was cheap in those days. And they (the founders) acquired it by purchase; then to demonstrate their abhorrence of the institution of property. Ceremonially burnt the title deeds. It must have been a touching scene – the bonfire, the documents consigned to the flames, their exalted sentiments. Unfortunately, a neighbouring farmer heard of their noble gesture and began to encroach on their land. To have resorted to the police. Even if it had been practicable, was unthinkable. So after much deliberation, they decided to use physical force to expel the intruder… The invading farmer was, in fact, thrown over the hedge in the presence of the assembled Colonists. There were many such trag-comic incidents in the years that followed; as well as quarrels, departures, jealousies, betrayals, and domestic upset. In the end, the Colonists found it necessary to re-establish their title to the land by means of squatters’ rights, and then proceeded to bicker amongst themselves as to who should have which portion.’
In 1909, Gandhi visited the Whiteway Colony in 1909, and pronounced it a failed Tolstoyan experiment.  As to the fate of Freedom, which ceased serious publication in 2014, well the jury is still out on that one.

Sunday 26 March 2017

Loneliness of the Longdistance Whistleblower!


by Brian Bamford
Derek Pattison - Joint Editor wrote on 9th, March 2017:
'I feel compelled to comment. There is no doubt that Mr. Wainwright's help in exposing this blacklisting scandal, was absolutely invaluable to many building workers.  This was because he was a 'blacklister' turned 'whistleblower' and had valuable inside information.  However, when he gave evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee, he was asked at what point he realised that there was something reprehensible or immoral about blacklisting construction workers.
'Many people (including those on the Scottish Affairs Select Ccommittee) felt that he did not act as he did, because his conscious pricked him, but because he had been shit on by the company he worked for when he raised the issue of alleged corrupt practices and they took detrimental action against him. Some people feel that he really blew the whistle because he was a disgruntled employee who wanted to get back at the company that he worked for.
'There is nothing surprising about this and people often do blow the whistle for similar and not unrelated reasons, rather than acting in the public interest.
'Mr Wainwright refers to his meeting with Ian Kerr.  As I understand it, Kerr said in his evidence to the SASC, that Mr. Wainwright had said that Tarmac (the company he worked for, now Carillion) did not need his services because they had their own information about construction workers and could operate their own blacklist.
'Understandably, Mr Wainwright will now want to minimise his involvement in this scandalous practice of blacklisting, and engage in ex-post facto rationalisations.  No doubt, Alan will be happy to expand on these matters and answer questions about this, when he meets trades unionist to talk about his role in the blacklisting of construction workers.'
Derek Pattison, the joint-editor of Northern Voices, wrote the comment above earlier this month in response to an appeal from the whistle-blower and former costruction industry boss, Alan Wainwright in a legal case against Balfour Beatty.  Derek, in his account below, was clearly anxious to show that there is much that is complicated in the affairs of men and women:  the line between morality and expediency may well be a fine one.  It is now worth reminding ourselves by re-reading what the journalist Rob Evans had to say in The Guardian on Friday the 15th, May 2009:

Alan Wainwright: The lonely life of a construction industry whistleblower 

by Rob Evans Friday 15 May 2009

Alan Wainwright
Blacklist whistleblower, Alan Wainwright. Photograph: Christopher Thomond 

How former manager exposed how workers were being secretly blacklisted. 

ALAN WAINWRIGHT is a whistleblower who appears to have had a significant hand in changing government policy. The one-time construction manager used his inside knowledge to expose the clandestine use by companies of blacklisting that has prevented trade unionists and alleged "troublemakers" getting jobs.
By going public, he set off a chain of events which resulted, on Monday, in an announcement from the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, that the government was finally going to outlaw covert blacklists. Mandelson had been forced to act after a watchdog closed down a private investigator allegedly at the heart of blacklisting in the construction industry. Wainwright played a key role in helping to unmask the investigator, who is due to be prosecuted for breaking the data protection act on 27 May. This week he is pleased, but keen to stress that others, including trade unionists and politicians, deserve the credit as well.
He has trodden the familiar path of a whistleblower – battling for a long time in obscurity while being ignored by those in power: "It was demoralising not to be believed." Like other whistleblowers, he suffered for going public – losing his job, having no income, using up all his savings to live, experiencing a lot of stress, and fearing he would be evicted from his home: "It affects your relationship with your children, who are the most important thing in my life."
Industrial strife
Wainwright, 45, grew up in Deeside, north Wales. He started off as an electrician then ran a recruitment agency before being recruited by the Tarmac construction firm.
His whistleblowing story starts in 1997 when he was the national labour manager at an engineering company, Crown House (then a Tarmac subsidiary). He had been told by a senior manager that construction companies paid a private investigator, Ian Kerr, for information to "ensure that certain workers did not gain employment on their projects". He was told to meet Kerr because the vetting was being extended to Crown House's labour force.
"He [Kerr] definitely made it clear that they were undesirable people who had a history of causing disruption to projects," Wainwright says.
He had two meetings with Kerr, who said that many construction firms supplied him with details of workers on his database. As an example, Wainwright was shown a list of more than 100 names. According to Wainwright, Kerr said that when someone applied for a job, the company would forward their name to him so he could check his database. Wainwright said that if a worker was rejected, a simple "no" would come back, with no other explanation.
Wainwright's department faxed a weekly list of names to Kerr; later the lists went to Tarmac's head office: "It was very discreet, a closely guarded secret. It was made clear to me that I was not to discuss it with anybody, and I didn't." However, something was stirring in his mind: "I knew deep down that there was something wrong with it."
Yesterday, Laing O'Rourke, which now owns Crown House, said that in recent years it had bought companies which had paid Kerr, but this had been stopped.  In 2000, Wainwright briefly worked for the Drake and Scull construction firm. He said his managers sent him a list of 500 workers, with their national insurance numbers, which it had received from rival construction firm Balfour Beatty.  He said the listed workers had been employed on three large construction projects that had seen a lot of industrial strife, and that the list was distributed to managers to ensure some workers were not employed.  The memo, dated August 2000, advised him to "keep this information confidential".
The Emcor construction company, which owns Drake and Scull, said it was aware of the list described by Wainwright: "We have employed individuals named on that list, at the time and subsequently. We do not condone blacklists."
By 2004, Wainwright was a manager for Haden Young, a subsidiary of Balfour Beatty. Within a year, he came across what he thought was fraud by employees, but says his bosses were not interested in finding out the truth – a claim they deny. "The management shunned me," he says. "It got to the point where I felt very isolated, alone and alienated. It was one of the most distressing periods of my life."  He initiated a grievance complaint against the company, but began to worry that he himself would be branded a troublemaker.
In a letter to his head office in July 2005, he wrote: "The company operates a blacklisting procedure for new recruits and hired temporary agency workers to check for any previous history of union militancy, troublemaking."
Copies of Haden Young faxes from the time show lists of names being faxed to head office so that, he believes, they could be vetted.
Yesterday Balfour Beatty said it did "not condone the use of 'blacklists' in any circumstances and has taken steps to ensure that none of our companies use such services."  In 2006, Wainwright quit Haden Young but lost an employment tribunal claim. He was by then convinced that he had been blacklisted as he had applied unsuccessfully for more than 150 jobs.  He believed he had to make a concerted effort to expose the blacklisting if he were ever going to get work. He set up a website and posted names of hundreds of workers he believed had been blacklisted to alert them.
Unfair dismissal
He linked up with workers who thought they were being blacklisted, shared his inside information with them and gave evidence for them in industrial tribunals.  Three workers won their case in 2007 for unfair dismissal when a tribunal concluded that a "disgraceful" blacklist did exist in the construction industry.  A Guardian article on the cases last June caught the attention of the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, the official privacy watchdog.  He investigated because he was worried that workers were unfairly being denied jobs.  As Wainwright had met Kerr and still had documents concerning the alleged blacklisting, he was able to help him.  Investigators raided Haden Young premises and tracked down the elusive Kerr to a nondescript office in Droitwich, Worcestershire. In February, they raided Kerr's premises and seized a secret database of 3,200 workers, effectively finishing the 66-year-old's business.
Thomas then named 40 construction firms including Balfour Beatty, Sir Robert McAlpine, Laing O'Rourke, Emcor and Crown House, which he said had been clandestinely using the database to vet potential workers. According to Thomas, the firms bought details of the individuals' trade union activities and work record from Kerr. Workers were said to be labelled, for example, as "Communist party", "lazy and a trouble-stirrer", "Do not touch" and "Irish ex-army bad egg".  Among the entries was one on Wainwright recording how he had helped blacklisted workers.
Now the jovial Wainwright is happily out of the construction industry and working for a concert ticket business.
He is animated about who are the ultimate culprits –  the directors of the construction companies. "Ian Kerr is not the primary cause of this.  The companies set him up in business, funded his existence from the start, and each name on the list would have been provided by the companies.  The directors took the decisions to join the system."
He is not ready to celebrate the end of blacklisting yet as he is waiting to see if Mandelson manages to draw up a proper law to eradicate it. "I am cautiously optimistic, however," he says.
Alan Wainwright's new blog on the construction industry blacklist is now live
Alan Wainwright: the CV
Born Chester 1963.
Career 1979-1989, qualified electrician; 1989-1993, managing director of own recruitment business; 1993-2000, national labour manager, Crown House; 2000, business improvement director at Emcor Drake & Scull; 2001-2004, human resources consultancy work; 2004-2005, production manager, Haden Young; 2006-present, concert ticket buyer, after 200 unsuccessful job applications.
Family Divorced, son 21 and daughter 19.
Interests Writing, performing and watching live music.

Burnham pledges free bus passes for 16-year-olds, but not for over 60's!

Labour Mayoral Candidate - Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham, the Labour mayoral candidate for Greater Manchester, recently launched his mayoral manifesto. Amongst other things, he pledged to roll out free bus passes for 16 to 18-year-olds, who live in Greater Manchester.

According to a recent report by the “Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change” (CRESC), published in November 2016, Greater Manchester is a city region marked by low wages and precarious work with an acute shortage of social housing. Despite this, the report points out that fares for public transport are high and most commuting is by car. The report says:

“Excluding movements from Salford to Manchester, 60 to 70% of the commutes in to Manchester City from the nine other boroughs are by car. Commuting to work accounts for less than 20% of trips in Greater Manchester.”

Since the deregulation of buses under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1986, bus trips in big cities outside of London, have collapsed from 2bn trips a year to 1bn. Moreover, while fares have risen, services have worsened or have been cut altogether. Around 40p in every pound of revenue that bus companies take, comes directly as a subsidy from the taxpayer.

By contrast, bus use in London since the 1980s, has gone in the opposite direction, from 1bn to 2bn trips a year. Under ‘Transport for London’ (TfL), everything from the fares, the bus route, the timetable, and the profits that the bus company makes, are decided by the Mayor and TfL. Under the “Oyster Card” fare system, which everyone must use, Transport for London have introduced a standard single fare for journeys which allows passengers to pay one single fare if they change service within one hour. Free travel on bus, tube or tram, is available if you live in a London borough and are over 60-years of age.

However, if you live in within Greater Manchester, you are no longer entitled to a free bus pass when you reach 60-years of age. This change came about in 2010, when the qualifying age for a free bus pass, was moved incrementally, each year, towards pensionable age.  

As a 62-year-old man who lives in Labour controlled Greater Manchester, I must pay full bus fares until I qualify for a free bus pass (if there are still free bus passes) in September 2020, when I will be almost 66-years of age, possibly riddled with arthritis, and with a long white beard, and a walking stick. Like many people, the high cost of travelling on public transport in Greater Manchester, means that I rarely use it nowadays.

While I don’t begrudge giving a healthy 16 to 18-year-old a free bus pass, it seems outrageous to me, that because I don’t live in Greater London, I cannot get a free bus pass as a man in my sixties, but would be entitled to it, if I lived in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.


Although I accept that many people who live in Greater Manchester may be totally unaware that they no longer qualify for a free bus passes at 60, the government must marvel at the way in which they get away with this in England - cutting people’s benefits while at the same time, cutting taxes for the multinationals and the rich. No doubt, they must wonder why, the people of Greater Manchester and the other areas of England, put up with such blatant discrimination in transport policy within the regions of the UK.  No wonder, some politicians get awarded lucrative part-time jobs in the city.

Saturday 25 March 2017

Unite row between rivals McCluskey & Coyne

International Business Times:reports:

The bitter row between Len McCluskey and Gerard Coyne, his main rival for the leadership of the Unite union, continued on Friday (24 March). Coyne told International Business Times UK that McCluskey has spent "far too much time" focusing on Westminster politics and suggested the current general secretary is Jeremy Corbyn's "puppet master".
"People really do believe it's time for a change and a sense that under Len's leadership we've spent far too much time focusing on Westminster politics and not enough time on supporting our members and protecting them through difficult times," he said.
"I'm actually saying that the relationship with the Labour Party is likely to be very different under my leadership. Not in that we don't affiliate – that's within our rules – but the focus on the leadership of the Labour Party and effectively being a puppetmaster to the leader of Labour Party that will definitely end under me.
"There's a big enough day-job here in being the Unite general secretary then trying to be the general secretary of the Labour Party at the same time. I think you'll see a very different and tangible change when I'm successful."
Coyne, who is Unite's regional secretary for the West Midlands, issued the attack against McCluskey with just days to go before voting opens on Monday 27 March. Unite is the UK's largest trade union with more than 1.3 million members and the organisation is a major donor to Labour.
But, like other unions, Unite's membership has fallen over recent years. More than 42,177 people left the organisation Between 2012 and 2015, according to the union's annual returns. Coyne wants to make Unite "relevant for the 21st century" and introduce a new "family membership" to boost the union's influence.
"We want to reach out and bring them into the family of Unite by making sure that if their parents are already Unite members that they get that protection the union can provide," he said.
Coyne added: "One of the realities is that since 1979 trade union membership has been declining year-on-year. Part of my argument is that the union has not been relevant to the world of work is today and it's changed quite rapidly, not just in terms of the loss of manufacturing jobs, but in the structure of the way people are involved in work.
"You've seen a massive increase in zero-hours contracts, almost one million people, there's 1.6 million people on agency contracts and more than four million on self-employment, a lot of those are on bogus self-employment where they are working for one employer and it's a means of avoiding National Insurance Contributions [from the company]."

Operation Clifton Further Discredits Danczuk

by Les May
WHEN Simon Danczuk, the MP for Rochdale's book ‘Smile for the Camera’ was published in April 2014 it was applauded by almost every reviewer.  But there was one slightly sceptical note struck by Nicholas Blincoe who reviewed the book for the Daily Telegraph.  Whilst almost everyone else seemed to accept at face value everything that Danczuk and his aide Baker had to say about Cyril Smith’s activities, Mr. Blincoe was more cautious in what he said:  
'If it emerges that Smith, who died in 2010, raped young boys at Knowl View, the failure to act earlier will seem unforgivable. But the guilt will be shared.  Everyone in Rochdale read the RAP story.  I pored over it as a 13-year-old. There was never any doubt over Smith’s guilt. So why did no one do anything?' and 'Investigations into Knowl View by the police and council have been extended to discover Smith’s role, if any, in the abuse. We will soon know if Rochdale’s sympathy for Smith was a terrible mistake.'  

‘Smith’s guilt’ here refers to the story which had appeared in the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in 1979, about him carrying out fake medical examinations and spanking young men at Cambridge House Hostel in the early 1960s.  The reason ‘There was never any doubt...’ is that when the story appeared Smith huffed and puffed and blustered, but did not sue.

In the event Blincoe’s prediction of May 2014 that ‘We will soon know...’ proved to be wildly optimistic.  It has taken not one, but three, investigations to get at the truth about what Baker wrote and Danczuk put his name to.  
Essentially their credibility rests on three claims: 
1)  That Smith was protected by, amongst others, the security services, and was effectively immune from prosecution, 
2)  That Knowl View special school was a ‘sweetshop for paedophiles’ and Smith took full advantage of it,
3)  That there was a ‘cover up’ by officers of Rochdale Council about what was happening in the school. 
Now we have known since July 2015 that the first of these claims are false.  
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-33716982

This is what I wrote about this incident on the Northern Voices blog in September 2015: 
On pages 221 and 222 of his book is a typical Danczuk story about Smith.  In recounting this story he forgot the collateral damage being caused to the reputation of the Northamptonshire Police:   
'His car had been pulled over on the motorway and officers had found a box of child porn in his boot.  The police were naturally disgusted and wanted to press charges.  But then a phone call was made from London and he was released  without charge Senior officers had threatened the officers involved with dismissal if he was not released immediately.  The mood was tense and sullen as officers stood back while Cyril breezily walked past them to freedom.  All the staff who knew about it were threatened with the Official Secrets Act if they discussed the matter any further.  Once again Cyril walked out of the police station knowing he was a protected man.'  

A totally convincing story, but totally untrue.    

How do we know?    

Because detectives have interviewed Danczuk, two former chief constables, about 60 police staff, a journalist who has written extensively about Smith, and several members of the public.   No witness has been found who saw Smith in custody or was involved in his arrest, no reports of the alleged incident have been uncovered and no witnesses have been found from Special Branch.   A manual trawl of its archives was undertaken by Special Branch and the Crown Prosecution Service searched its archives for relevant information.   Both found nothing. 

So far as I know this is the only one of Danczuk's stories that has been subject to scrutiny.  I leave it to your imagination to figure out how much it has cost to find out the truth about it just because he and Baker could not be bothered to check it out before committing it to print. http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-humbug-of-simon-danczuk.html 
Their second claim about paedophiles at Knowl View school was demolished in September 2016 when Operation Jaguar was closed due to the absence of substantive evidence.  
This is what the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had to say: 
‘Between April 2014 and April 2015, 13 files with multiple allegations were submitted by GMP to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) relating to 27 suspects and 16 victims (I think they mean complainants), of both physical and sexual offences.  In 2016 the CPS communicated their decision on the final one of the 13 files that was still under review.  No further action will be taken in relation to this allegation.  In May 2016 a further file was submitted to the CPS and in August 2016 the CPS advised there was insufficient evidence to support a prosecution.’
 
Danczuk did not like this one little bit and responded with:  
'I believe that there has been a catalogue of failings by GMP during the investigation of these crimes.   A failure to prosecute will leave child sexual abuse victims devastated that the people who changed their lives forever will not be brought to justice.  This statement from GMP announcing that they have not been able to prosecute any more abusers will, I am sure, mean that the perpetrators of these horrific and evil crimes will sleep more happily in their beds tonight.’   

In other words he ‘knows’ the people accused are guilty, and if the evidence cannot be found it is due to police failings.   http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/old-news-from-knowl-view.html
Whilst Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd did not see fit to defend the good name and professionalism of Greater Manchester Police, the local Police Federation chairman Inspector Ian Hanson, did saying:  
 '(f)rom his comments I would assume Mr Danczuk is in possession of very specific information that backs up his comments (and) if that is the case then he should refer that information to the IPCC (Independent Police Complaint's Commission) himself immediately.'   

In a Facebook post, Ian Hanson said a statement released by Mr Danczuk on Thursday was 'totally lacking in detail or substance'.   

Inspector Hanson said of Simon Danczuk: 
'.... I will publicly call him out to deliver the firm evidence that he bases his criticism of GMP on to my office by 12 noon on Monday - and I will personally deliver it to the IPCC.' http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/danczuk-given-ultimation-to-cough-up-by.html

As for their claim of a ‘cover up’ this is implied rather than made explicit.  But anyone reading page 113 of their book could not be left in any doubt of what is being suggested, especially as they refer to one council officer by name.  Certainly the media took the view that the police investigation into whether there had been a ‘cover up’ by Rochdale Council had come about because of the book. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/rochdale-mp-welcomes-knowl-view-7501342

Assistant Chief Constable Ian Wiggett from GMP, said:  
'Following the publication of MP Simon Danczuk's book 'Smile for the Camera’, GMP conducted an assessment of the allegations contained within that book. As a result of the assessment, GMP decided that a criminal investigation was required. 
'This also followed consultation with Rochdale Council and the QC conducting the independent inquiry on their behalf. The council asked Neil Garnham QC to suspend his independent review and he has agreed to do so.
'The GMP investigation will now seek to identify whether any offences have been committed in the way that previous reports of abuse were handled or allegedly covered up.' http://www.itv.com/news/granada/story/2014-07-24/investigation-into-alleged-knowl-view-abuse-cover-up/

After more than two and a half years and at a cost of nearly three quarters of a million pounds the Greater Manchester Police investigation Operation Clifton concluded that there was no ‘cover up’ of what was happening at Knowl View.  In other words Danczuk and Baker once again got it wrong.   Now at this point I must declare an interest.  In May 2015 I was interviewed at Rochdale Police Station for some two hours by two officers who were part of this operation.  I handed over copies of all the relevant documents I had amassed during my own investigation and signed statements detailing the information I had provided verbally.  At the end of the interview I was asked to express a view as to whether I believed there had been a ‘cover up’. I said no. So far as I was concerned I was very impressed by the thoroughness of the investigation.   

Danczuk sees things differently.  He has described Operation Clifton as a 'shambles' and he said: 'This must be the most bizarre and unprofessional police investigation I’ve seen in my time in public office.  The police have been effectively investigating themselves.  The way it has been handled by the police warrants investigation.'

What he does not say is that the investigation was set up examine whether there had been a ‘cover up’ by Rochdale Council and that he was wrong to suggest that there had.
This is curious because in April 2014 he had dismissed the existing enquiry into claims of a ‘cover up’ set up by Rochdale Council in January 2014 as a ‘bogus review’ that lacked the necessary independence.  It was this enquiry which was superceded by Operation Clifton.  

He said at the time:  
'It's well known that Rochdale council are knee-deep in litigation over claims of historical physical and sexual abuse and their so-called independent review is nothing more than a defence of the council.  
'I don't know why they're calling it an independent review because the council commissioned it, they've set the terms of reference and the council leader is busy calling round people connected to Knowl View asking them to come and speak to him.
'There's nothing independent about it and I think it's wrong that the council should be investigating serious allegations of abuse that they had responsibility for preventing.' https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/28/cyril-smith-abuse-police-alleged-rochdale-cover-up  

Incidentally, the council leader in question was Colin Lambert who went on to deliver the Labour party a stunning victory at the next election but was then replaced by someone closer to Mr Danczuk.

Operation Clifton cost almost £750,000, Operation Jaguar cost in the region of £500,000, the cost of the investigation by Northamptonshire Police is unknown but we can tentatively place it in the tens of thousands of pounds, if not more.  Taken together the sum is in the region of one and a quarter million pounds.  Even though Danczuk was the proximate factor which led to each of them, he rejects the findings of all of them. 

Allowing Danczuk to remain in a position where anyone might be inclined to take the slightest notice of his views on Cyril Smith, Knowl View and indeed the whole question of sexual abuse of children, is rapidly becoming an expensive luxury the country can ill afford.  But he won’t go until he is pushed and the people to do that pushing are the members of Rochdale Labour party or, if they still won’t do it, Rochdale’s councillors from the other parties need to kick up a fuss and not be cowed by attacks from Danczuk’s cronies.

Rochdale will never climb out of the mire so long as it has Danczuk as its MP.  Blaming the police when they don’t come up with the findings you think they should is lacking in judgement.  Doing it three times is the action of a fool.