Turning A Blind Eye

by Les May

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL recently published it’s global rankings on public sector transparency. In the past the UK has been in eighth position.  Now we have dropped out of the top ten most transparent nations.  This fall suggests that we should not be complacent in tackling misconduct in public life.

Larger issues such as the suspension from Parliament of Ulster MP Ian Paisley for failing to declare two jaunts paid for by the Sri Lankan government reach the national press and are quickly stamped upon.  These are not the major problem. It’s the complacency about the ‘drip, drip, drip’ of seemingly minor issues of misconduct which leads to increasing distrust of institutions, officials and politicians, and ultimately to a decline in standards in public life.

In recent years Rochdale has had two issues of complacency with regard to somewhat dodgy goings on at the ballot box.  In 2016 a ‘marked register’ went missing under mysterious circumstances in the Spotland and Falinge ward.   I use the word ‘mysterious’ deliberately because no police investigation followed what might have been deliberate theft after a council officer simply declared it ‘lost’.  Other towns take matters like this seriously.

The second was a Rochdale Councillor for the same ward who admitted improperly soliciting a postal vote and then using it to vote twice in the May 2018 local election. Both of these are serious offences.  Again the two offences were treated with complacency. Instead of looking at the seriousness of the crime, which he should have done, Labour leader Allen Brett turned a blind eye to this and chose to look only at the nature of the punishment received; an admission of guilt, a police caution and no jail sentence.

In October 2018 Tory leader Ashley Dearnley raised this matter in a full Council meeting.   Unanimously Labour voted against the Dearnley motion, which is interesting.  Now I know that not all Labour councillors were so complacent as Brett about this example of electoral fraud.  The fact that the Labour vote was unanimous suggests to me that Labour councillors were instructed to vote in a particular way.  That such things do happen can be gleaned from the comment of the ex Labour councillor for Balderstone & Kirkholt who said, ‘I was being told how to vote, being threatened ...’ after resigning from Labour and joining the LibDems.

Allen Brett may have been able to brush this piece of misconduct under the carpet and keep his disgraced councillor onside in August 2018, but it may yet end in tears for Labour.

Last May the ward I live in came close to a serious upset for Labour.  Very unexpectedly the young Tory candidate came close to beating the Labour incumbent.   If he decides to stand again this year and chooses to make an issue of Allen Brett’s obvious willingness to support a Councillor who admitted electoral fraud who knows what might happen? 

********