Considering Political Cheap Jacks?

NV EDITOR:    
A 'Cheap Jack' according to one English dictionary is described as  'A seller of cheap inferior goods, typically a hawker at a fair or market' 

Rochdale despite not now having an open air market of note has had more than its fair ration of political cheap jacks.  As I write this today a headline on the front page of the Rochdale Observer declares:  'Council boss set to face standards committe'.   Last August a draft report of an independent investigation found the Rochdale council leader Allen Brett had 'brought his office and the council into disrepute'.   The reason being that an audio recording had been released suggesting he may not spend money in non-Labour voting wards.
Soon after these revelations of Brett's hubris came to light, we were treated to another cavalier character, Faisal Rana who chose to break the law and vote twice in the Spotland and Falinge ward.  In the light of these two recent trangressions by two local politicians, Carl Faulkner sent the letter below to the Rochdale Observer.  After some weeks it has yet to be published, so Northern Voices has now decided to publish it.

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Dear Sir/Madam,

When a sportsman or woman are found to have used illegal methods to gain even the smallest of advantages over their opponents, they are suspended and then banned from further participation. Their achievements wiped from the records.  It does not matter whether they were clear winners or whether they finished last. The issue is all about fairness and maintaining the integrity of whatever it is that people hold dear.  The accompanying excuses are always the same:  ‘It was a genuine mistake’;  ‘I thought it was legal’;  ‘I didn’t understand the rules’ etc.

But in Rochdale, the local Labour Party takes quite a different approach to cheating.   At the most recent meeting of the full council  (Observer 20th October), councillors were asked to support a simple motion directed at a Labour member.   This councillor had previously received a police caution after admitting his guilt to two separate acts of electoral fraud, committed in order to obtain an extra vote.  In a disgusting display of arrogance and self-interest, every Labour councillor present opposed the simple request that the councillor concerned should consider his position.   In opposing this request, Rochdale’s Labour Party councillors were effectively saying that such dishonest behaviour doesn’t matter.

The irony of this, is that not many months ago, most of the same councillors were eager to parade their ‘one man, one vote’ credentials at any event that was celebrating 100 years since some women and all men were allowed to vote (once).   I wonder what the first three Rochdale suffragettes, jailed in 1907, would make of it all?

Perhaps once-upon-a-time, it’s possible that some of the councillors would have actually done the right thing.  But on display that evening, I only witnessed the politically pickled minds of councillors who are, in truth, a disgrace to the historic Labour movement and what it once meant to the people of this town.

Yours,

Carl Faulkner

Rooley Moor Road

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