Who does Tony Lloyd MP think he is kidding?

Is ROCHDALE Becoming Queen Of The Rotten Boroughs?

EDITORIAL NOTE:

PRIVATE EYE may yet award Rochdale the prize of the 2020 Queen of the ROTTEN BOROUGHS if things carry on as they are at Rochdale Council. At least two of the town's wards have given cause for serious concern in recent years owing to the curious customs of some of the residents, and both are within the boundaries of what is Tony Lloyd's constituency of Rochdale.

Readers may be well aware of the distasteful historic nature of the politics of Rochdale stemming from Cyril Smith's terms in office first as a Rochdale Labour councillor, and later as the town's Liberal MP from 1972 to 1992; then there is Simon Danczuk's time as Rochdale MP from 2010 until 2017 when he ended up in fifth place standing as an independent candidate following his suspension from the Labour Party for what he himself called "inappropriate and stupid" behaviour in 2015, when he exchanged perverse messages with a young 17-year-old girl; thus it was that Tony Lloyd became the new Rochdale MP on the back of Simon Danczuk's disgrace. In both the earlier cases of Smith and Danczuk it was suggested that the authorities turned a blind-eye to what was taking place in Rochdale's political arena.

Now the concerns raised by Carl Faulkner in his letter below suggest that Rochdale's current MP, Tony Lloyd, may be oblivious to some strange goings on inside the Rochdale Labour Party: for example in 2018, Rochdalian Faisal Rana received a police caution after registering himself at two different addresses and managing to vote twice, he later became a local Rochdale councillor. Most decent people would regard this as disgraceful conduct, but not it seems some in the Rochdale Labour Party. Now, it seems, Councillor Rana is promoting himself as a possible heir to Tony Lloyd and a future MP for the town.

What is perhaps even more worrying is that some weeks ago Carl sent this letter to the Rochdale Observer and it has yet to be published. The Rochdale Observer, it will be recalled, was one of the newspapers that failed to report the story when Rochdale's Alternative Paper first tried to expose Cyril Smith.

The leopard, it seems, cannot change its spots!

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Dear Sir/Madam,

WHO does Tony Lloyd MP think he is kidding? He has recently raised concerns about the fairness of elections in a faraway country called Belarus. This is not a one-off. He has a long standing record of ‘concern’ about fraud in elections. Back in 2004 he stood up in Parliament and said that electoral fraudsters should know they would be sent to prison. His own website boasts of his multi-country involvement in helping to ensure fair and fraud-free elections.

So, it would be easy to assume that this man would speak out about electoral fraud wherever it occurs. Especially if it happened here in Rochdale. Anybody believing that would be wrong.

This is because in 2018, electoral fraud came to Rochdale and made the national news. It was the year a councillor in his own Rochdale Labour Party, was outed as an electoral fraudster. A man who had dishonestly registered himself at two different addresses, applied for two separate postal votes and then voted twice in the Rochdale’s local elections. Despite being caught out, the hard-faced electoral fraud councillor refused to resign. This person was not unknown to Tony Lloyd. It was someone who had been closely involved in Tony Lloyd’s 2017 General Election campaign.

At the time of the fraud, decent folk quickly and publicly condemned the councillor and called for him to resign. From Tony Lloyd there was only silence. But his hypocrisy did not end there. I wrote to him, asking that as my MP, would he make representations to the Attorney General and request a change in the law that would automatically prevent future electoral fraudsters from serving as councillors.

His initial response was to try and fob me off. He then attempted to ignore me. Eventually, he simply said it was something that I could do myself. Not quite what you would expect from an MP who likes to portrays himself as the protector and promoter of fraud-free elections.

However, his hypocrisy knew no bounds and he still wasn’t finished. In 2019 a Tony Lloyd General Election leaflet dropped through my letter box. There, staring out from the leaflet was the gurning fizog of his friend, the electoral fraudster Labour councillor.

What a shameless hypocrite of an MP we really have. Rochdale deserves better.

Regards,

Carl Faulkner

ROCHDALE

NB All the above can be verified if requested.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/councillor-who-voted-twice-rochdale-15028865

From whence did social welfare come?

 State Control or Social Initiatives?

 by Brian Bamford

LES MAY engaging with Carl Faulkner's comment and considering the founding of the NHS, writes:

'As my Libertarian friends endlessly remind me there were other schemes in operation even before the NHS was a gleam in anyone’s eye.

'Bevan would have been familiar with the Tredegar Medical Aid Society as he was the local MP. In return for contributions from its members it provided health care free at the point of use. (my emphasis)

'This model of funding was rejected by Bevan.'


Les clearly admires the Attlee government of 1945, which formed the first Labour majority government and in particular he favours its Keynesian approach to economic management aimed to maintain full employment, a mixed economy and a greatly enlarged system of social services provided by the state.  This amounts to a supreme faith in what in the 20th century amounted to Fabian managerialism.  It is a view that after the Second World War prevailed in which it was considered that as George Orwell observed in 1946:  'For quite fifty years past the general drift has almost certainly been towards oligarchy'*   (James Burnham & the Managerial Revolution [1946]).

At that time after the war it must have seemed that big government was onto a winner, and Orwell then felt able to write:  'The ever increasing concentration of industrial and financial power; the diminishing importance of the individual capitalist or shareholder, and the growth of the "managerial" class of scientists, technicians, and bureaucrats; the weakness of the proletariat against the centralized state; the increasing helplessness of small countries against big ones; the decay of representative institutions and the importance of one-party regimes...'

The problem with this approach is that it represented a shift from the capitalist and the dividend grabbers to a 'new boss class' of the technical elite functionaries blessed with cushy jobs and all on a generous state stipend.  As Orwell observed above it became 'the weakness of the proletariat against the centralized state'.  There was still the spirit of entitlement of the elite and the dependency of the working-class.

The difficulty is still that this analysis is too mechanical as well as managerial and top-down.  It lacks an evolutionary grasp of how the concept of social welfare entered and developed inside our culture.

Colin Ward described how the social concepts permeated sociologically:  'Anarchists are frequently told that their antipathy to the state is historically outmoded, since a main function of the modern state is the provision of social welfare.  They respond by stressing that social welfare in Britain did not originate from government, nor from the post-war National Insurance laws, nor with the the initiation of the National Health Service in 1948.'   **
 

Rather as Mr Ward argues:  'It evolved from the vast network of friendly societies and mutual aid organizations that sprung up through working-class self-help in the 19th century.'

This is what is implied by Carl Faulkner in his perceptive comment on this Blog:  'It could be argued that is was predictable that the NHS was established by a Labour government due to it being elected in 1945 - when plans for what was to be called the NHS were well advanced but lost in the mists of time.'

Indeed it was 'lost in the midst of time', as the anarchist Mr Ward explains:
'The founding father of the NHS was the then member of parliament for Tredegar in South Wales, Aneurin Bevan, the Labour Government's Minister of Health.  His constituency was the home of the Tredegar Medical Aid Society, founded in1870 and surviving until 1995.'

It gave medical care for the local employed workers, who were mostly miners and steelworkers, but also (unlike the pre-1948 National Health Insurance) for the needs of dependents, children, the old, the non-employed: everyone living in the district.

A retired miner told Peter Hennessey that when Bevan initiated the National Health Service, 'We thought he was turning the country into one big Tredegar.'  Alas, it was not to be, and as Mr. Ward observes in his brief book:  'In practice the Health Service has been in a state of continuous reorganization ever since its foundation, but has never submitted to a local and federalized approach to medical care.'

More seriously Ward argues 'ever since full employment and the system of PAYE (automatic deduction of tax as a duty of employers) was introduced during the Second World War, the central government's Treasury has creamed off the cash that once supported local initiatives.' 

Furthermore, in keeping with the spirit of local spontaneity Colin Ward suggests:   
'If the pattern of local self-taxation on the Tredegar model had become the general pattern for health provision, this permanent daily need would not have become the plaything of central government financial policy.'

There is a price to pay for the pattern of State funding medical care applied by Nye Bevan and approved by Les May, and it now being played out as different governments enact various outsourcing schemes promote what Ward called 'the virtues of profit-making private enterprise.'


What follows from this debate is what will be the consequences of the pandemic for the psychology of the general population?  Will people look to the state for salvation in fear of a repeat performance of another potential pandemic threat or second wave?  If so, I suspect it will represent a reactionary response to the politics of the pandemic.




* Oligarchy, government by the few, especially despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes. Oligarchies in which members of the ruling group are wealthy or exercise their power through their wealth are known as plutocracies.

**  'ANARCHISM: A Very Short Introduction' by Colin Ward (Oxford) 2004.

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'Thank You Nye Bevan', Revisited

by Les May

  Carl Faulkner said...

'It could be argued that is was predictable that the NHS was established by a Labour government due to it being elected in 1945 - when plans for what was to be called the NHS were well advanced but lost in the mists of time.

'Contemporary news reports from 1944 demonstrate that plans for the NHS were already well advanced. They had moved on considerably from the Beveridge Report in 1942 (see: Towards A Healthier Britain - (Minister Of Health's Speech 1944)

'Unfortunately, the whole issue has been claimed by Labour and its supporters as 'theirs', with seemingly total and utter reverence towards one man.

'Like the substitute who makes his first appearance late on and scores the winning goal in the FA Cup finaal, it is often the politician who is in the right place at the right time, who receives all the praise - even if they never claimed nor asked for it themselves.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyjbUK88CB4

Thursday, 14 May 2020 at 17:49:00 BST

CARL Faulkner’s comment above about my original article rather misses the point of what I was trying to say.  As my Libertarian friends endlessly remind me there were other schemes in operation even before the NHS was a gleam in anyone’s eye.

Bevan would have been familiar with the Tredegar Medical Aid Society as he was the local MP. In return for contributions from its members it provided health care free at the point of use. (my emphasis)

This model of funding was rejected by Bevan.   The scheme that was eventually introduced was, and is, funded from taxation.  That is why I think we should be happy to say; ‘Thank you Nye Bevan’.   And I make no apology for saying so.

The advantages of not making it a contributory scheme can best be seen by contrasting it with National Insurance.  In the 1970s many married women were seduced into paying reduced NI contributions. When they reached the pensionable age for women they only then realised the disadvantage they had brought upon themselves.

At some point we are going to have to rethink how the elderly, infirm and disabled members of our society are cared for in order to bring some parity between the Care Service and the NHS in terms of provision of resources in the form of personnel and resources.   I would argue strongly for a service funded by taxation on the basis that we all run the same risk of needing such care at some time in our life just the same as we all run the same risk of needing care by the NHS.

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Cllr. Rana commited the crime, did he do the time?

 

by Brian Bamford & Les May

with help from Carl Faulkner

Last year Allen Brett Rochdale's council leader said Cllr. Rana had ‘stepped away’ from his cabinet responsibilities.

ON the 16th, August 2018 businessman and big time Rochdale landlord, Cllr. Rana, was said to have 'stepped away' from his responsibilities as assistant to the finance portfolio holder Labour leader Allen Brett. It must be a cosy relationship.   In August last year Cllr. Rana was outed as a vote swindler by Carl Faulkner for falsely claiming two postal votes, Council leader Brett was quick to defend Cllr. Rana.   

After expressing initial regret Brett said:  'Naturally I am disappointed in Cllr. Rana's error [but] he is a very talented individual who shares our collective passion to improve our borough.’

Now the landlord Rana, who duped the electorate in 2018, is now comfortably back in the saddle next to the boss-man Brett. 
 
Who says crime doesn't pay?

Cllr. Rana must be very talented to purloin two postal votes for himself out of the British electoral system and to now land a top job helping the Council leader Cllr. Brett to run the town's financial affairs. There are not many of us that could do that and get away with it.

Farooq Ahmed, who was in charge of finance in 2014, was not so lucky as Cllr. Rana; when a fellow Labour Councillorr Neil Emmott claimed he had been the victim of a homophobic remark from Cllr. Ahmed.  Cllr. Ahmed was alleged to have warned him to 'mind his back' in an altercation on Cheetham Street in Rochdale.  Cllr. Emmott was at the time working for the now disgraced Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, who ultimately left the Labour Party under a cloud.   Cllr, Ahmed ended up leaving the Labour Party after he was convicted of a public order offence.

It's a strange world in which someone guilty of a public order offence loses his position as head of Finance, while a self-confessed election fraudster keeps his job.  Perhaps poor Cllr. Ahmed, who is of Bangldeshi origin didn't put his nose in the right place, or maybe he simply didn't own enough real estate in Rochdale.

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Election statement by MICK COATS

'MAKE A DIFFERENCE' VOTE Mick Coats: Spotland and Falinge ward Green candidate:

THANK YOU for reading this.  I am standing as the local candidate for this ward.  This is an election about what we can do locally and why it is important to vote.  We do not need another party hack elected in Spotland, who will be more concerned with obeying orders sent down from their party leader than addressing the issues in the ward.

First, a word from Carl Faulkner who has stood as an independent in the ward over several elections.We have fought together on a number of issues, both believing that Rochdale has had a poor deal from the main political parties and their politicians. We have tried to make sense of local politics.

Carl says:  

'Locally I have been very concerned with issues that affect us – particularly the pitiful standard of our local councillors.  We cannot rely on them to represent us in the way that they should. They have done nothing to protect our open spaces, done nothing to deal with the old, highly toxic Turner Brothers site or even to tackle the problem of speeding.  I have worked with Mick on these and other issues.  Unlike the other candidates, he actually attends meetings and questions councillors.  He is the only candidate worth your vote.'

We have fought to resolve the problem of the old Turner Brothers Site.  It is a 72 acre wasteland of toxic material, mainly asbestos.   It is too dangerous for housing and the safest solution is to turn it into a country park.  What does the Labour Party candidate say about it?   Nothing!

Another problem is cars speeding.  It is a problem for us all.  But what is Labour's solution to deal with cars speeding on Rooley Moor Road?   It is to remove cars parked on the road (which act as a natural restraint on speeding cars), allowing cars to go even faster.  It makes no sense.

Until now we have had the opportunity to question councillors at the local Forum. This was held four times a year in a central location with good public transport where the public could question councillors.  Now the local Labour Party have unilaterally decided to hold these Forums in the middle of Falinge Park.  Why?  Few people live near the park, it is mainly populated by various animals and birds with only a few people living nearby.  Is the Labour Party going to 'talk to the animals' like some latterday Doctor Dolittle?  (An all too appropriate name perhaps).

Locally we should be ensuring local work is done by local companies with local people.  In the past we even had consultants coming into the town (from Yorkshire!) to tell us what we need to do to improve the town.  Other towns (for example Preston) have kept services local and reaped the benefits.

Locally, and nationally we should not be building on Green Belt land.  Nor should we be building anything other than affordable houses to buy or rent.   There is enough land available for housing that has previously been used in other ways.  (Where there was once factories and shops for instance).

These derelict sites could also be given over to local groups to use prior to being used.  There is a lot of land all over Rochdale that has lain unused for years.  Let people use it for recreational purposes until it is needed.

I do not understand why there is a threat to demolish some of the 'seven sisters' against the wishes of residents, and I fully support there cause.  Another issue that does not make sense.

These are local elections, but national Green Party policies are relevant locally.  The council should clearly and openly oppose fracking.  Integrated publically owned railways and buses are common sense. These should also be electrically powered.  Building laws should insist that all new buildings incorporate environmentally sound measures such as solar panels.  Policies to improve the environment are of particular concern to me.   Having experienced pollution elsewhere I know how important it is to stop choking the planet.  These measures should be in the minds of the local council and opportunities should be taken to further them where possible.

Our policies are vital and we would encourage main stream parties to adopt them.  We can take credit for some policies already but the important thing is to get them introduced, not to look important.

This election is important as local democracy is being abused .  People are being ignored and worse. At the last election a candidate actually voted twice; a criminal offence that resulted in a police caution. His election as one of our councillors was allowed to stand.  But why did he think it was ok to vote more than once?  Why did his fellow councillors accept that he did not know that he was not allowed to vote twice?  What does it say about their view of what standards a councillor should aspire to?  Now he is the agent for the current Labour Party candidate. (The agent is responsible for the right procedures to be followed by the candidate!  No further comment needed)

We have also had recent examples of other councillors failing to reach the standards that we have a right to expect from them, including the council leader.  The main opposition are also failing to hold the current council leaders to account.   We need to reclaim local democracy.

Just a personal note; I live in Spotland and am married with three sons, two of which ran the Manchester marathon.  I am a season ticket holder at Rochdale football Club (Up the Dale!), play in Rochdale quiz league and am a supporter of several local drinking establishments.

Make a change, give me a chance to shake up the local political establishment and hold them to account.  We have been labelled a 'rotten borough' for far too long.  Just complaining is not enough, you have a vote, use it.

Mick Coats 

66, Rooley Moor Road,

Tel. 07590595473

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Cllr. Rowbotham, Big Cyril & Single Issue Politics

by Brian Bamford

ON the 5th, December Carl Faulkner, an independent analyst and investigator concerned about the decline of common decency in local political life, published a video skillfully outlining the attitude of most Rochdale councillors to the importance of democratic procedures in local politics.  The video entitled 'Birds of a feather:  Protecting the Guilty' * and commenting on the Rochdale  full council meeting of Oct. 2018, that  describes in detail how councillors of a Labour complexion gave spirited support to one of their brethren who is a self-confessed fraudster using postal ballots to vote more than once in the last municipal elections in Rochdale.

This artfully designed video superbly captures the depth to which Rochdale politics has sunk, with the now disgraced Council leader Allen Brett calling on the Council to let the culprit fraudster, councillor Faisal Rana, be 'allowed to continue his good work'.  Councillor Brett was responding to a formal motion from the Tory leader of the opposition inviting Councillor Rana to 'just reflect on the positon that he's in and the position that he's put the Borough in'.

The Rochdale Labour councillors are by now well immune to controversy and scandal having endured pantomime politics for decades under the tutelage of such tacticians as Simon Danczuk, Richard Farnell, and now Allen Brett.  Perhaps we ought to mention that at the time the tragedy of Cambridge House was in being as a going concern in the 1960s, Cyril Smith was a big noise in the Rochdale Labour Party.

The now disgraced Council leader Allen Brett is merely the ultimate conclusion of a rather bad bunch.  Alongside him Sara Rowbotham cuts a curious figure as his deputy, it was she who rose to fame when Maxine Peak portrayed her in the 'Three Girls' dramatisation on TV.  She is interesting because she has a following among a campaign group called 'Parents Against Grooming' or PAG.**

PAG supporters were out in force at the Council meeting at which Allen Brett defended the self-confessed fraud Faisal Rana.  But they were clearly less interest on electoral swindling than on the exploits of a dead man in the last century at Cambridge House etc.  Historical memory is not to be ignored, as we know that even today that Spaniards are anxious to unearth the bones of victims of General Franco in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.  If the supporters of PAG want to explore and campaign for what they call the 'survivors' of Cyril Smith they are entitled to do so.

What is worrying is that in doing so, and pursuing a single issue, the PAG campaigners  may be overlooking what is now under their own noses:  that is that they themselves may be being used as 'useful idiots' by an ambitious politician to feather her own nest.  I can't say this for certain, but their own heroine Sara Rowbotham has gone on record of making allegations against other Rochdale councillors, yet at the meeting PAG attended Sara had no qualms about joining the 'Roll of Shame' and backing the electoral fraud, Faisal Rana.

In this respect by getting carried away with the virtue signals and grandstanding of these half-baked ambitious politicians aren't you being a bit myopic?   Before you start to 'Look Back in Anger', just consider that I was one of those folding RAP in the cellar on Spotland Road, when in May 1979 the allegations against Cyril Smith at Cambridge House were first about to be put into the public domain.  Also, this Northern Voices Blog together with John Walker former joint editor of RAP; the Westminster Blogger, Paul Waugh; and the much lamented former Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk,   created the conditions for PAG to exist after Danczuk made his speech in Parliament in 2012 (see the excerpt from the Northern Voices Blog archive in November 2012 below).***

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*    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFFKrkQaKqw&feature=youtu.be

** See the video link in which Sara Rowbotham denounces Councillor Allen Brett entitled

'3 BOYS , A GIRL AND A GROOMER ROCHDALE COUNCIL PART 5': 
PART 5 OF SURVIVORS MATTERS EXPLANATION AS TO WHY ROCHDALE BOROUGH COUNCIL HAVE REPEATEDLY MADE PROMISES TO THEM ONLY TO LEAD SURVIVORS ON THE ROAD TO NOWHERE , WHILST ROCHDALE COUNCIL TRYING TO PORTRAY ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND CHANGE

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9gXUO6bK0qRQxCqmjKBenQ

***   Monday, 19 November 2012

It Was The Voices That Did It!

Cyril Smith - the Legend Falls

LAST WEEK, Northern Voices was party with others to the opening up of a story that has lied in the shadows for decades.   We cannot claim all the credit as we did not do the original research into Cyril Smith:  that was performed by the editors of the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in May 1979, when they first published the story and were threatened by Cyril Smith's solicitors at the time with a 'gagging writ'.  Private Eye and the New Statesman followed through with reports but the case against 'Smith the Man' was killed before it reached the mainstream media.  Later attempts to resurrect the story also failed because those giving evidence against Sir Cyril Smith lacked the confidence to put their names in the public domain. 

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Baffling Ballot Box Probe

Editorial Note:  IN May 2017, Northern Voice produced the piece of investigative journalism below in which we tried to shed light on the shady goings on in the Spotland and Falinge ward.  That was at a time when mysteriously a marked ballot register disappeared without adequate explanation.  Since then the voting irregularities of the new Councillor Faisal Rana has further damaged the image of Rochdale.

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In Rochdale, a lack of curiosity at the top?

Written up by Les May based on research by Carl Faulkner and Brian Bamford

THERESA May’s ostensible reason for calling a General Election is that her slender majority of 12 was an obstacle to passing the legislation needed to cope with the fallout from the UK leaving the EU.  The cynical amongst you might wonder if it was not also an opportunity to distract attention from the fact that criminal charges are being considered by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) against at least 30 individuals in the Conservative party.  Some have been MPs in the 2015 parliament and contributing to Theresa’s slim majority, some will be candidates in this election and could be re-elected.   Electoral fraud isn’t just something that happens in other countries it happens here too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_fraud 

It’s not just the Tories who have played fast and loose with the rules on election expenditure.  In recent years Labour and the LibDems have both been fined by the Electoral Commission for breaking election expense rules.  What makes the Tory case different is that the CPS is investigating whether there is evidence that candidates and their agents may be guilty of filing false spending returns. If they are both could be charged with fraud.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alexandra-runswick/election-expenses_b_16146174.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-election-fraud-prosecutions-cps-election-campaign-result-overturn-battle-bus-a7689801.html

This type of fraud is easy to detect once you are alerted to what is happening.   There’s always a ‘paper trail’.  In fact a year ago as part of its ‘Check a Tory’ campaign the Daily Mirror put the election expenses of Tory MPs on line and invited readers to scrutinise them.  What’s much harder to detect is when a small group, with or without the tacit agreement of local party bosses, exploit weaknesses in the system to rig the ballot.  Having a system which ‘on paper’ is foolproof, is fallible if the people who are supposed to implement it fall down on the job.

In August 2015, the government put out a press release announcing that, ‘Sir Eric Pickles, the Government’s Anti-Corruption Champion’, was to review the question of electoral fraud.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sir-eric-pickles-to-examine-electoral-fraud

A year later it was published.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sir-eric-pickles-publishes-report-into-tackling-electoral-fraud 

So far so good.  But as I noted above any system is only as good as the people who implement it. This is what the Electoral Commission have to say about those people:

‘Local Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Returning Officers (ROs) manage elections, and are uniquely placed to detect and prevent electoral fraud.  They should have robust plans in place to identify any suspicious behaviour and should work with the police to investigate any potential electoral fraud.’  (my emphasis)

But what actually happens when something ‘suspicious’ does occur.   Just how easy is it to get anyone to take notice?  Things seem to have changed in Rochdale since 2011 when ex-council leader Colin Lambert was outspoken about what needed to be done.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-13192008 

Over a year ago Northern Voices was sent the extremely well documented correspondence between a candidate in the Spotland and Falinge ward at last years Rochdale Council elections, and the various bodies which are supposed to deal with questions of electoral fraud.  It runs to some 22 pages.

At that election a 'marked register' went missing.   It should have been handed to the Returning Officer at the point at which the ballot box and other official documents were delivered by the Presiding Officer at the close of poll. It was either accidentally lost or deliberately stolen.  There can be no reason why one of these alternative explanations should be favoured over the other.   If we are to take the fight against electoral fraud seriously the ‘precautionary principle’ suggests that in the absence of evidence to the contrary it should be assumed that it was stolen, the police should be informed to that effect and a full investigation launched.   It did not happen.

What is clear from this correspondence is that, in spite of Pickles bluster in The Telegraph:
'We should never be frightened to look under the rock when what is crawling underneath threatens us all. It is time to take action to take on the electoral crooks and defend Britain’s free and fair elections', when a complaint is made, no one wants to shoulder the responsibility for making sure that a proper investigation is launched.  It seems that Pickles was right about one thing, ‘the authorities are in a “state of denial” and are “turning a blind eye” to election fraud.’

Equally worrying is that the complainant, Carl Faulkner, who stood as an independent candidate, claims that he was not informed of the loss of the missing register as he should have been and that he was told ‘all candidates were informed about the missing register'.  Northern Voices made an effort to contact the other candidates to find out if and when they were told about the missing register.

Mick Coates, the Green candidate, was quite clear that he had not been officially informed that the mark register was missing.

Enquires with the Lib-Dems suggested that this was also the case with their candidate Matthew Allen, and Ian Duckworth, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party, was unable to confirm that their candidate, Steven Scholes, had been informed either.

Wendy Cox the Labour candidate did not answer the question directly but said:  
'Thank you for your email. I have passed this to the electoral officer.'  

Quite why she felt she had to ask the electoral officer whether she had been informed, is unclear at this point.  A week later she was asked if there had been any response and replied suggesting that NV should contact the electoral officer directly.  On the 10th April the joint editor of NV wrote to the RMBC Chief Executive, Steve Rumbelow for clarification.

(His reply to the NV joint editor, Brian Bamford, is printed below together with the response of the original complainant, Carl Faulkner.  Copies of the full correspondence between the complainant and the various bodies which are supposed to deal with questions of electoral fraud can be made available by e-mail from Northern Voices.  It shows clearly that it was the complainant who initiated the contact with the Cabinet Office, Electoral Commission and Police not RMBC.)

The possibility that the register was in fact stolen has been excluded from consideration a priori, even though at the time an exhaustive and unsuccessful search was made at the polling station, and even of people’s cars.   The consequence of deciding that a register was ‘definitely lost’ not ‘possibly stolen’ is that there is a convenient ‘fall guy’ in the form of whoever was in charge of that polling station. They are deemed to have ‘lost’ it and their reputation must suffer as a consequence.

In all this the one thing that is very clear is that whoever told the complainant that ‘all candidates were informed about the missing register' was telling a porky pie. And these are the people we have to trust when it comes to combating electoral fraud.  Robust plans to identify potential electoral fraud?   I think not.

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Dear Mr Bamford
Thank you for your recent enquiry.  Please accept my apologies for the delay in response.
To clarify, the marked register is the copy of the electoral register used in polling stations. It serves as the record of who has voted in the election, and it is kept for a year after the election. The marked register does not indicate who electors voted for, nor does it contain ballot paper numbers. 

Legislation provides that a variety of parties are eligible to access copies of the marked register after an election. Anyone can inspect the marked register, but only certain people can purchase a copy. 

This includes individual candidates and political party representatives.  Usually, copies are requested by and provided to party representatives who would then disseminate the information to their colleagues, including candidates. 

All those who requested copies of the marked registers were informed that a register had not been returned following the close of poll and the steps that had been taken in an attempt to locate it, both immediately after the close of poll and in the days following the election. 

In addition, the Council has been in contact with the Cabinet Office, Electoral Commission and Police on the matter who were satisfied with the steps that had been taken and the measures put in place to prevent any future issues of a similar nature. 

Yours Sincerely
Steve Rumbelow

And here are Mr Faulkner’s observations:
1) Without him actually stating it, it is clear that people were only going to be informed if and when a copy of the register was requested. That is not the same as informing all candidates as a matter of course. It reiterates my position that there was a concerted attempt to conceal the incident by keeping quiet about it.

2) I feel he is attempting to downplay the importance of the marked register, by portraying it as nothing more than a post-election tool for political parties /candidates / interested persons.  This is not the case - it’s primary purpose is as an anti-fraud document - but one which can be utilised by political parties etc.

3) All contact with the police, Cabinet Office and Electoral Commission was initiated by me. They contacted RMBC - not the other way round as his response could be taken to mean.

4) What are the ‘steps’ put in place that did not exist before? The issue is not about how, who, why or exactly when the register went missing but that no candidates nor the police were informed at the time or during the following 21 days.

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ROCHDALE-GATE: CITY OF SHAME!

CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO SEE VIDEO OF FULL COUNCIL
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFFKrkQaKqw&feature=youtu.be

To see The Rochdalian more clearly left click on image

Councillor Ashley Dearnley:  ‘Mr. Mayor, I take no pleasure… in Rochdale being reported in the Rotten Boroughs section of “Private Eye”.’

Northern Voices editorial comment:

CARL Faulkner by creating this YOU TUBE video has accomplished a magnificent work of art, which penetrates to the roots of Rochdale's sad political panorama in all its sordid reality.  It may well even be a microcosm that represents a wider crisis in our culture; that a civil administration like Rochdale town council clasps a self-confessed electorial fraudster like Faisal Rana to its breast is itself an assault on common decency.

The motion proposed by the Tory leader, Ashley Dearnley in the video was a strikingly meek and humble presentation urging Faisal Rana merely to 'consider his postion', having admitted his fraud.  But if the Tories are meek, then the failure of the Liberal Democrats, to utter a dicky bird on the night of the vote was pathetic.

The situation in Rochdale has not been helped by the craven nature of the local press of late.  None of the local media is holding our representatives on the council to account.  The Rochdale Observer is a tired shell of its former self that rarely features a letter's page, and ROCHDALE ONLINE has not only abandoned its letter's section but has now shoved its whole letter's archive down the Orwellian Memory Hole forever.

Thus it has now been left to this regional Blog and Carl Faulkner, a local independent investigator and a relentless critic of the Rochdalian polluted political culture, to throw this scandal into relief.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFFKrkQaKqw&feature=youtu.be

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Rush Hour & a Traffic Survey!

by Mick Coats

EARLIER this year we found out that a local councillor had commissioned a traffic survey (at a cost of £4,500) to specifically identify where parking and waiting restrictions could be introduced on Rooley Moor Road.  This was to increase traffic flow and visibility.  It takes one minute and 30 seconds to travel this route and there have been little or no problems of hold ups.   There have been very few (and no serious) accidents along this short stretch of residential road. Furthermore it is not the main through route to town.  The problem is that the introduction of these measures would result in speeding cars going even more quickly and making the road more dangerous.  This has been pointed out to councillors and the Chief Executive but has been ignored.

In October, two residents of Rooley Moor Road,  Carl Faulkner and Mick Coats, met with Councillor Rana to discuss the issue.  He agreed that the intended outcome of the survey would result with an increase in cars speeding along this road and said he would look into the possibility of stopping the survey.

He subsequently emailed that he could not stop the survey as it was 'imminent and will happen very soon (and) can not be stopped now '.  However an email from highways received shortly afterwards says that 'Due to current workload the scheme has yet to be assigned an engineer'.

Not what you would call 'imminent'.

In response to this Councillor Biant saw fit to insult the residents concerned and ignore the issues raised.

A subsequent email to Councillor Rana asking for clarification has been unanswered.
Why do these public servants show such contempt for the residents of Rochdale?  They appear to believe that they have a sense of entitlement to do as they wish.  The record of public servants in Rochdale is appalling.  The council leader is currently in front of the Standards committee, the previous leader being investigated by the police and an MP (fully supported by both of these people) fell from office after sex texting a 17 year old.

As described in Private Eye, Rochdale has certainly become a rotten borough.

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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.

********

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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Grinding Out The Excuses

by Les May

It seems that at a recent Rochdale Labour Party meeting Faisal Rana’s behaviour in securing for himself two votes at the local elections in May and Allen Brett’s failure to ask for his resignation, were discussed.  The concerns about maintaining the integrity of the electoral process expressed by two of the other candidates in those elections were dismissed as ‘having an axe to grind’ by a councillor who has taken every opportunity to excuse Mr Rana’s behaviour.  The same councillor also argued that if Rana resigned and a by-election was called it would cost Rochdale MBC £50,000. I find this comment bizarre.

Now as it happens I am acquainted with both these candidates.  Mr Faulkner I have met on 3 or possibly 4 occasions.  Mr Bamford I have known for more than 50 years. In spite of our very different political outlook we have sustained a friendship during this time on the basis that we are both believers in George Orwell’s dictum that ‘Freedom of speech is having the right to tell people what they do not wish to hear’.

They may indeed have ‘an axe to grind’. People who stand for political office usually do. I don’t; I have voted Labour all my life; I am not a member of any faction, though I am sometimes to be seen at ‘Friends of Jeremy Corbyn’ meetings; I maintain cordial relationships with my three local Labour councillors, but I too think the behaviour of Rana and Brett is shameful, and likely to end in tears for Labour.

The question that none of the apologists for Rana’s behaviour want to ask is, ‘Why does Mr Rana think he is entitled to vote in the Spotland and Falinge ward elections?’  Surely to have any moral entitlement to vote, or nominate a candidate, one has to have some clear connection with the ward. such as residence in the ward. Merely maintaining a postal or business address in the ward is not enough.

Not convinced?  How about this? I live in the Heywood and Middleton constituency, but have friends in the Rochdale constituency.  I ask if I can give their address as a postal address.  To make doubly sure I set up a company and use it as my business address.   (To see how easy it is to set up a company just type ‘set up a company’ in a Google search box.) I apply to be placed on the electoral register using my new address, having already registered at my old address which is where I live with my wife. To make things easier I ask for a postal vote. I hope to use both my votes in the next General Election.

If this is illegal, what are the chances I will be found out?  Will the people who service the electoral register check my application for registration at my ‘new’ address against ALL the people already on the electoral register? Probably not. So I get away with it unless some vigilant elector spots what I’m up to, or I boast about in on Twitter. It does happen!

If it’s legal what moral entitlement do I have to vote in the constituency in which I do not live?

We now know his actions were illegal.  What remains to be answered is; ‘What moral entitlement did Mr Rana have to deliberately seek out and use a second vote in the May 2018 election?’

Vintage Worx & Carillion - No Comparison!

 Ms. TRACY Powers mentioned below has an interest in Vintage Worx*.  She also shops at ASDA on the baked beans aisle.   Yet this interest in tinned beans doesn't prevent her from seizing the opportunity to promote the cause of her company Vintage Worx.  Especially when quisical characters like Carl Faulkner keep asking akward questions.

Hello Brian,

Was minding my own business when I was collared in Asda by Tracy Powers who had taken umbrage at the Northern Voices article, demanding to know “why have you got a problem with us?"  And why did I compare them to Carillion why are you telling people we are a private company and not a Community Development Trust etc etc etc

My response below.

regards

Carl

*****

Hello Tracy,

Further to our impromptu meeting close to the baked beans aisle in Asda.  I have read the Northern Voices blog and at no time do I mention Carillion. My quotes are clearly marked and highlighted. The article also goes on to state that :  “Vintage Worx describes itself as 'a community led not for profit organisation' registered at Companies House.”     Is that not a perfectly accurate description?

You said you had not read the blog, so I’ll accept that you have been very badly misinformed about its contents. It’s not hard to imagine the motives behind this misinformation. As I emphasised to you, the issue is transparency. Nothing I have been quoted as saying is either factually wrong or deviates from that core principle.

Regards

Carl 

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/seeking-facts-in-sea-of-obfuscation.html

*  Meet Vintage Worx Community Development Trust

Vintage Worx Community Development Trust (CDT) is a community led not for profit organisation dedicated to removing barriers to opportunities and committed to helping people maximise their talents and realise their full potential.
Based within Falinge Park, the local park of one of the most deprived areas of the country, the team of passionate volunteers who run Vintage worx have a nine year track record of successful engagement with the local community, a record that has only been possible through the sheer volume of community involvement in the projects, activities and events that are delivered.
Throughout the pages of this site you will gain an insight into the organisation and the people involved, find out about events, activities and services, learn about the history of our beloved park and be part of the journey we are about to embark on to make Falinge Park a true community park delivering wider social benefits to the area including taking part in community surveys and how to get involved.

Seeking Facts in a Sea of Obfuscation

by Brian Bamford

CARL FAULKNER, the Independent candidate for Spotland and Falinge ward in the coming local elections in Rochdale on May 3rd, has written a letter to the Rochdale ONLINE Blog complaining about how people have been excluded from the cabinet meetings of Rochdale Council. 

Mr Faulkner writes:  'It is my belief that the authority which permits this, is being abused to prevent press and public scrutiny of contentious matters.'

He gives a local example:  'discussions that have been taking place with a view to the leasing out of Falinge Park to a private organisation (Vintage Worx).  The incentive being that this organisation will then be able to apply for external funding grants of up to £2.5 million, to help maintain and improve the park (this is a claim made by the company itself).  There has been no public discussion of this proposal.'

 And he claims:  'Labour councillors and at least one senior council employee, are actively preventing public and press scrutiny of the plans to lease out the park.'

This suggests a reluctance on the part of the Rochdale Labour council to let the public know what is going on.

In his letter Mr. Faulkner tells us the '...process [to lease out Falinge Park to a private organisation (Vintage Worx)] commenced with the presentation of a report by Mark Widdup (Director of Neighbourhoods) at a Cabinet meeting held on 1 February 2017.'

And surprise, surprise, he tells us that 'at that meeting it was recommended that both he and Councillor Cecile Biant should be appointed to the board of Vintage Worx.'

But then there was no proper public scrutiny, because the press and public were not allowed to be present when the report was presented.  At the same time there has been no public discussion of this matter at any public forum before or since that time.

Now given what has happened with the basket-case company Carillion in Tameside, where the former Labour leader of Tameside MBC, Kieran Quinn, truly had his feet under the table with the Carillion bosses through his power base on Tameside Council and his seat a the head of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, it may be of some concern that the Rochdale Labour Councillor Cecile Biant is ascending to the board of Vintage Worx*.  Vintage Worx is not another basket-case giant like Carillion PLC, rather it is a pygmy development trust that could be an acorn from which great oaks grow.

Vintage Worx describes itself as 'a community led not for profit organisation' registered at Companies House.  This development trust seems to survive by applying for grants for what can presented as good causes, and a place like the notoriously deprived Falinge presents itself as something of a honey pot for grant gathering


But what really worries Carl Faulkner, who I spoke to this morning, is the secrecy which surrounds these kind of operations and developments in Rochdale.  

He writes:  'Falinge Park was donated to the people of this town over a century ago.  It therefore belongs to the people of this town.  It is not a council purchased capital asset.  It is for the people of this town to have a say in how it is managed and whether or not its legal status should change.
Any procedure to change its status – particularly if finance is an overriding concern – should be open and transparent.'

 Is this a vain expectation given that Rochdale is virtually a one-party state with no serious opposition from the conservative councillors.

*  Meet Vintage Worx Community Development Trust:
Vintage Worx Community Development Trust (CDT) is a community led not for profit organisation dedicated to removing barriers to opportunities and committed to helping people maximise their talents and realise their full potential.
Based within Falinge Park, the local park of one of the most deprived areas of the country, the team of passionate volunteers who run Vintage worx have a nine year track record of successful engagement with the local community, a record that has only been possible through the sheer volume of community involvement in the projects, activities and events that are delivered.

****** 

Councillors who Snuggled-up to a Super Stipend

Editor Northern Voices:  ON Monday the 19 March 2018 the 

Rochdale Online website reported that in Rochdale the 

Councillor's allowances will 'top one million' pounds.

Helpfully, Carl Faulkner, the Independent candidate for

Spotland and Falinge, exposed how the Rochdale councillors

had shared out their generous stipend pay among themselves.

 Among the opposition, only the Lib Dem councillors 
Andy Kelly and Irene Davidson voted against the rises 
and refused the increase, meanwhile on the Labour 
side councillors Andy Bell, Malcolm Borriss, 
Chris Furlong and Billy Sheerin also refused the increase.
Of the 60 Rochdale councillors, according to Rochdale
Online, all the others including the Tories took the
extra State stipend either in part or in full.

Below Carl Faulkner gives his views on the way the Rochdale 
municipal establishment handled the issue of their own stipend:

NO MANDATE TO UP COUNCILLOR'S ALLOWANCES !
by Carl Faulkner

NOT a single councillor was press-ganged into becoming a councillor.  It is an entirely voluntary position.  Not a single councillor has ever stated that if elected, they will be wanting increased allowances.  

If the allowances were not sufficient, then they should have not stood or alternatively, stepped down – there would not have been any shortage of people willing to take their place.

The way in which the rise in allowances was brought about was indicative of the self-serving way in which councillors and senior council officers often act.  The public were given one week’s notice; the rise itself was timed to come into effect in a year that there were no elections.  

It was a cynical, deliberate act to exclude public opinion from the process.  But it was entirely consistent with the arrogant and underhanded way in which the public (and press) are deliberately excluded from major decisions of public concern.

But should we be surprised?   It is councillors who decide on the appointment of the Chief Executive.  It is the Chief Executive, at a time of his choosing,  who hand picks the panel who then recommended the extortionate rises.  The favour returned.

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