Angela Rayner- So much for anti-poverty!

 by The Blue Knight.

September 2018

Ashton Waterloo by-election, 6 September 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Pauline Hollinshead	889	52.5	4.9
	Green	Lee Huntbach	448	26.4	12.7
	Conservative	Therese Costello	357	21.1	7.8
Majority			441	26.1	2.4
Registered electors			8,717
Turnout			1,697	19.5	7.2
Rejected ballots			3	0.2	0.1
	Labour hold		Swing	1.2

 Editor note:  The result above is of the election in Tameside's Ashton Waterloo ward in which poverty campaigner, Charlotte Hughes, was turned down by the local Labour Party as a candidate because she was behind with her council tax.  Only the Green candidate had an improved showing on a poor turnout of 19.5%.

*****

Angela Rayner‏Verified account @AngelaRayner

Angela Rayner in red centre writes on Twitter on the 6th, Sept.: Absolutely superb win tonight for newly elected Cllr Pauline Hollinshead in Ashton Waterloo Ward part of my constituency. Our local Labour teams worked very hard in this by election and residents backed Labour&Pauline. Nice to see the wretched Tories finish bottom!

 

THE most recent appointment of [Ashton] Waterloo Ward Councillor, in May 2018 was someone many of the residents had never heard of.  The campaigning was done underhanded and the Ward areas which would have caused some consternation and controversy were not visited.  Despite what will be inferred to the contrary, this was a safe seat, did not need a high density Labour party members canvass and this person was parachuted in to fill the vacancy. 

 

There appeared to be a pecking order as to who was next in line!

This caused some unrest inside the Labour party members. Feathers were rustled.

I have had no dealings with the person elected, but it appears that he is an officer of the neighbouring, next door, Oldham Council. Continuing the Nepotism route.

The By election now about to occur in Waterloo Ward is happening as the result of the death of a long serving, sometimes controversial Ward Councillor Cath Piddington.  She was a stalwart for her residents within the ward.

I believe certain people had been earmarked to fill this role from within the Labour group, but these people have now fallen from grace due to their differing views over the lack of involvement of residents and their views and their wishes not being responded to, by the council. 

 

The anti-poverty campaigner Charlotte Hughes was identified from within the local Labour group as being the ideal prospective candidate.  However it appears that someone within the Labour group decided that this now did fit within the well-defined nepotism route and highlighted the fact that Charlotte was behind on some of her Council tax payments.

This in effect caused her to be de selected from the group.  This has now caused ructions from sitting Councillors within Tameside.  There has been lots of cat calling and spats over the selection of the new candidate for the ward. 

 

However a recent, 22/08/18, public Twitter spat took place between the current Deputy Mayor, Leigh Drennan, Labour Ashton Hurst Councillor with residents and ward councillors of the Waterloo Ward.

This occurred as the result of Tameside Councillors and prospective candidates being accused of jumping on the bandwagon by attempting to draw in those essential votes by selectively agreeing to support a current campaign, which is causing problems for Tameside and the Waterloo Ward, over the sale and planning issues, regarding a small piece of public open space bordering Daisy Nook, known to the locals as The Backfield. (See Save the Backfield Campaign)

This has caused an unprecedented furore and backlash within the council.

The crux of the matter and in reality is that Charlotte did not fulfil the nepotism role, that Tameside Council appear to actively encourage.  Unlike Councillor Faisal Rana [in Rochdale] with his many houses in his portfolio, she would not fit in within the Shameside Council by owing council tax. 

 

Charlotte, unlike some of the Tameside Councillors does not own several other houses or property abroad, does not own property to rent out for a high income within the borough or further afield, does not own a holiday home where she can vanish for several months a year. Charlotte by her own admission is poor, in debt and working class.  The term working class will be a unknown phrase to most of the Tameside Council, as their own well paid safe seat jobs continue to provide a high level of income or “wage “as some councillors have recently referred to it.

How can you have a fair representation of the population if these people do not understand the true predicament of many of the people who find themselves at the lower end of the pecking scale and in debt?

Where is the support of Angela Rayner now? Nepotism continues to roll on.

********

Continuing Nepotism on Tameside Council

by The Blue Knight.

September 2018

Ashton Waterloo by-election, 6 September 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Pauline Hollinshead	889	52.5	4.9
	Green	Lee Huntbach	448	26.4	12.7
	Conservative	Therese Costello	357	21.1	7.8
Majority			441	26.1	2.4
Registered electors			8,717
Turnout			1,697	19.5	7.2
Rejected ballots			3	0.2	0.1
	Labour hold		Swing	1.2

 Editor note:  The result above is of the election in Tameside's Ashton Waterloo ward in which poverty campaigner, Charlotte Hughes, was turned down by the local Labour Party as a candidate because she was behind with her council tax.  Only the Green candidate had an improved showing on a poor turnout of 19.5%.

*****

THE most recent appointment of [Ashton] Waterloo Ward Councillor, in May 2018 was someone many of the residents had never heard of.  The campaigning was done underhanded and the Ward areas which would have caused some consternation and controversy were not visited.  Despite what will be inferred to the contrary, this was a safe seat, did not need a high density Labour party members canvass and this person was parachuted in to fill the vacancy.
There appeared to be a pecking order as to who was next in line!
This caused some unrest inside the Labour party members. Feathers were rustled.
I have had no dealings with the person elected, but it appears that he is an officer of the neighbouring, next door, Oldham Council. Continuing the Nepotism route.
The By election now about to occur in Waterloo Ward is happening as the result of the death of a long serving, sometimes controversial Ward Councillor Cath Piddington.  She was a stalwart for her residents within the ward.
I believe certain people had been earmarked to fill this role from within the Labour group, but these people have now fallen from grace due to their differing views over the lack of involvement of residents and their views and their wishes not being responded to, by the council.
The anti-poverty campaigner Charlotte Hughes was identified from within the local Labour group as being the ideal prospective candidate.  However it appears that someone within the Labour group decided that this now did fit within the well-defined nepotism route and highlighted the fact that Charlotte was behind on some of her Council tax payments.
This in effect caused her to be de selected from the group.  This has now caused ructions from sitting Councillors within Tameside.  There has been lots of cat calling and spats over the selection of the new candidate for the ward.
However a recent, 22/08/18, public Twitter spat took place between the current Deputy Mayor, Leigh Drennan, Labour Ashton Hurst Councillor with residents and ward councillors of the Waterloo Ward.
This occurred as the result of Tameside Councillors and prospective candidates being accused of jumping on the bandwagon by attempting to draw in those essential votes by selectively agreeing to support a current campaign, which is causing problems for Tameside and the Waterloo Ward, over the sale and planning issues, regarding a small piece of public open space bordering Daisy Nook, known to the locals as The Backfield. (See Save the Backfield Campaign)
This has caused an unprecedented furore and backlash within the council.
The crux of the matter and in reality is that Charlotte did not fulfil the nepotism role, that Tameside Council appear to actively encourage.  Unlike Councillor Faisal Rana [in Rochdale] with his many houses in his portfolio, she would not fit in within the Shameside Council by owing council tax.
Charlotte, unlike some of the Tameside Councillors does not own several other houses or property abroad, does not own property to rent out for a high income within the borough or further afield, does not own a holiday home where she can vanish for several months a year. Charlotte by her own admission is poor, in debt and working class.  The term working class will be a unknown phrase to most of the Tameside Council, as their own well paid safe seat jobs continue to provide a high level of income or “wage “as some councillors have recently referred to it.
How can you have a fair representation of the population if these people do not understand the true predicament of many of the people who find themselves at the lower end of the pecking scale and in debt?
Where is the support of Angela Rayner now? Nepotism continues to roll on.

********

Fraudulent Faisal & Charlotte, the Single Mother

by Brain Bamford
Labour Shuns Single Mother & Embraces Election Fraudster

Charlotte Hughes - Dumped by Labour for Council Tax Arrears

WHILE in Rochdale the Labour Party appears to be only too willing to excuse Councillor Faisal Rana, a vulgar fraud who voted twice in the local elections last May, breaching the Representation of the People Act 1983; in nearby Tameside the local Labour Party has blocked a single mother, Charlotte Hughes, from standing in a by-election in Ashton Waterloo ward because she had fallen into debt with her council tax.

On the 3rd, August, an excited local Tameside MP, Angela Rayner wrote:  

'Congratulations to anti poverty campaigner @charlotteh71 who has tonight been selected as our Labour Party candidate for Ashton Waterloo Ward in my constituency in the upcoming council by election. I look forward to campaigning hard with Charlotte and our Labour Party team.'

Alas, it was not to be for on August 8th, Charlotte wrote on Twitter that she had been deselected owing to an unpaid council tax bill: :   
'However I owe council tax, a big NO NO. I’m not ashamed of being poor. It’s a fact. I’m working class and proud of it. However to cut along story short I have been deselected because of this.'

What distinguishes the single mother Charlotte Hughes in Tameside from Councillor Faisal Rana in Rochdale, is that the Rochdale Councillor is a rich director, who also has a portfolio of some 32 houses in central Rochdale, while Ms. Hughes who lives in a council house is poor, and has been driven by misfortune into debt.

The cunning swindler and manipulator of the election register is acceptable in today's Labour Party, while a person down on her luck becomes a persona non grata  in the eyes of the great and the good in today's Labour Party in the Greater Manchester area.

 ***************

Putting Tameside TUC in its Place!

Manchester TUC: They Know Their Swedish Meatballs!

LAST June, in a posting on this Blog, Blanco Posnet  wrote:
‘… a former Public and Commercial Services Union (P.C.S) representative, John Pearson, was confronted by an angry Jobcentre worker outside Ashton Jobcentre, who rebuked him for displaying a P.C.S placard while protesting against benefit sanctions. Although the P.C.S union have called on their members to support groups campaigning against the Tory Government's sanctioning regime, the member of staff, (who we understand to be the P.C.S union rep at Ashton Jobcentre), denied any knowledge of this.'

Then on the 6^th, August, Blanco Posnet  posted something entitled ‘Are Ashton Jobcentre acting like NAZI's?’, which included the following:
‘… only last week a meeting took place in Ashton between P.C.S. union representatives and two invited activists who have been campaigning against the governments iniquitous sanctions regime outside Ashton Jobcentre, for the past 12 months.  The meeting was initiated by Annette Wright (pictured above) a union official of the P.C.S union and President of Manchester Trades Council, and Evan Pritchard, a lay branch official from the Greater Manchester Unite Community Union.’
After a meeting today of the Greater Manchester County Association, the union officer, Annette Wright, was asked by a Northern Voices’ journalist as to what was the constitutional status of the meeting referred to above which was held at Ikea, famous for its Swedish meatballs, in Ashton-under-Lyne.  She said that it was convened as a joint meeting of the PCS, and the Unite Greater Manchester Community Branch.
Blanco Posnet had also written, last August: 
‘… it seems that much of the time [at this meeting] was taken up in admonishing Charlotte Hughes, a leading figure in the campaign…. [and that] Ms. Hughes, a “hardworking” single-mother with four children, who runs a blog – ‘The Poor Side of Life’, a weekly diary of events outside Ashton Jobcentre – was asked to remove items from her blog concerning Ashton Jobcentre and the P.C.S. union.’  When this was raised today by the Tameside delegate in his report at the Greater Manchester County Association of Trade Union Councils, Ms. Wright became flushed in the face and her colleague from Manchester TUC, John Clegg,(bottom right of picture), was heard to utter a four-letter word, and both began hectoring the Tameside delegate.  Even the Northern Voices' Blog was mentioned in their excitable ejaculations. 
Oh dear! 
Both Mr Clegg, and Ms. Wright insisted that the matter had been resolved, and said that it was not a matter for the Trade Councils of Greater Manchester.  Ms. Wright claimed that Charlotte Hughes had not complained of her treatment, and that everything was amicable.  The duo then went on to lambaste Tameside TUC, which has helped to finance the campaign against unfair benefit sanctions in Tameside.  
After the meeting was over,  Ms. Wright was asked when she was going to put in an appearance on the picket outside the Ashton Jobcentre. 
To which, reply came there none!

Are Ashton Jobcentre acting like NAZI's?

EVENTS at the Jobcentre in Ashton-under-Lyne, get murkier by the day. We understand that only last week a meeting took place in Ashton between P.C.S. union representatives and two invited activists who have been campaigning against the governments iniquitous sanctions regime outside Ashton Jobcentre, for the past 12 months. The meeting was initiated by Annette Wright, a union official of the P.C.S union and President of Manchester Trades Council, and Evan Pritchard, a lay branch official from the Greater Manchester Unite Community Union.

Although the P.C.S. union is officially committed to support initiatives that seek to undermine and expose the 'draconian sanctions regime that exists in Jobcentres', it seems that much of the time was taken up in admonishing Charlotte Hughes, a leading figure in the campaign.

Sources have told us that the P.C.S. area representative for Stockport and Tameside, who was present at the meeting, made it abundantly clear that he was vehemently against working with groups opposed to sanctions (contrary to P.C.S. union policy) and expressed the view that he had no sympathy with the plight of the unemployed or those who opposed sanctions.

Ms. Hughes, a 'hardworking' single-mother with four children, who runs a blog - 'The Poor Side of Life', a weekly diary of events outside Ashton Jobcentre - was asked to remove items from her blog concerning Ashton Jobcentre and the P.C.S. union. The irate Stockport P.C.S. official also demanded that she remove all references to Jobcentre Staff  "only doing their Job" as he insisted this had Nazi connotations!

Over the last 12 months, Ashton Jobcentre has repeatedly made petty complaints to the police in a vain attempt to get protesters arrested. The police indicated some time ago that they felt that this was a waste of police time as it was not unlawful to engage in peaceful protest. Despite this, the Jobcentre have persisted with their petty complaints and have even threatened protesters with an injunction.

"FIVE MORE YEARS OF TYRANNY!"

Charlotte Hughes stood for the  Green Party as their Parliamentary candidate for the seat of Ashton-under-Lyne, in the May 2015 General Election. A local community campaigner and social activist, Charlotte runs a blog called 'The Poor Side of  Life'. The following article which we are publishing in full, is taken from her blog:




"Shocked could be a word that I could use, but I won’t. Thatcher got voted in for a second and third term in Parliament despite much opposition. So then the Tory party got re elected it wasn’t so much of a shock, it felt like something had died in our country. Yes the Tories have regained their power and will no doubt use this power, unopposed by anyone to inflict the worst damage that has ever been known to the poorest in society. 

I was interviewed by a local paper whilst at the election count and the reporter said to me “How would you feel if the conservatives won the election?” I said that I would feel sick, I would cry. I would not be crying for myself  I would be crying for the people of this country. A country that will be systematicically destroyed and taken apart by the Tory party for the benefit of the rich. I don’t use the name that the Tory party have rebranded themselves with. The very name conservative does not suit them. The definition of the word conservative is to not like change, to be quiet. Well they are going to do exactly the opposite. We know this. They plan to dismantle this country as we know it bit by bit, piece by piece. Every single safety net that we have relied on will soon be gone. If it doesn’t benefit the rich then it will no longer exist. Make no mistake they don’t care for anyone who isn’t one of them.

My first experience of the Tory party began when Mrs thatcher came into power. Even as a child I knew that this would be bad. For the first time in my life I felt what it was like to be poor. We had holes in our shoes, filled by cardboard and had no money for anything other than to exist. If it wasn’t for my grandparents we wouldn’t have had new clothes. My father was an engineer, a trade he didn’t really like but it was a job and we depended on it. Back then we had local industry, and we depended on that industry. I was told that the Tory party were bad, they only looked out for themselves and he was right. As a result there was strikes, but as a child I knew that what they were fighting for was right. I remember arguing with my parents about this. But I always had this belief that we must stand up for what is right.

So what now? Do the people who have voted in this government again realise exactly what they have voted for? I doubt that they do. Many I suspect have read and believed the mainstream news and voted as a result of the innacurate stories in the newspapers. Here’s a list of what will most likely happen, now there is no one to stand in their way.

The snoopers charter will be passed. Say goodbye to your privacy.
The NHS will be sold. There is opposition to this and Caroline Lucas is the head of this opposition. I hope that she gets enough backing to prevent the sale of our precious NHS.
TTIP will happen. This will have vast implications on our country as a whole.
Zero hour contracts will increase. More likely they will become the norm.
The benfit sanctioning regime will become worse, if it possibly can.
Homelessness will increase massively.
No social housing will be built. 
The human rights act will be scrapped.
Climate change investments will be slashed.
The BBC TV license will be scrapped and a subscription based service introduced.
Employment regulations will be slashed, they will merge regulators and cut costs.
The Tory party want to reduce seats in parliament to 600 from 650. This will be pushed through as a priority, making it difficult for another party to get into power in 2020.
There will be a referendum in Europe.
Fracking plans will go ahead. 

Cameron’s majority is wafer thin and he now only has a majority of 10 very rebellious back benchers to whip. Maybe this will work in our favour….
What can we do now? 

All anti austerity parties need to now join together in solidarity. We need to put aside any differences and work together. By doing this we will form a very powerful opposition indeed. We didn’t quite get it right before the election but we can do now. And the Labour Party needs to become the left wing party that it used to be. They will gain more support if they stop cosying up to austerity ideas and plans. They need to start saying no. By supporting all people again not just working people. We also need to look at the SNP and learn from them. They started as a small minority party but have grown massively. 

We can survive this, and we will by joining together. If you work join a union, if you don’t join unite in the community. The Tory party will try and attack the unions as much as possible now. And whilst they haven’t acted as strongly as they should have done in the past I feel that they will start to act more strongly now. There’s strength in numbers and we need to remember that. 

Always remember that a compliant society is easy to control, a non compliant society isn’t easy to control. So let’s not make this easy for them. "

On the stump with Ashton's prospective parliamentary candidates. Elections 2015!

A series of election events known as ‘question time hustings’, have been organised by Community & Voluntary Action Tameside (CVAT), to take place in Ashton-under-Lyne, Hyde and Denton, prior to the General Election in May. On Tuesday evening, I attended the first of these meetings at the Holy Trinity Centre, Dean Street, in Ashton.

Angela Rayner, the Labour candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne, - who was selected from an all women’s short-list - was the first to speak. She began by paying tribute to her predecessor David Heyes, who is retiring at the next election. Ms. Reyner is a socialist but doesn’t believe that people should get something for nothing. Although she is now a trade union official with UNISON, she began her working life as a home help and didn’t go to university. Referring to the financial cut- backs she told the meeting that Tameside Council had lost 50% of its budget and that over 1 million people, were relying on food-banks in Britain in order to feed themselves and their families. “I’m not here to manage the decline she told the meeting.” She also told the meeting that public services should be defended and should remain in the public sector.

Charlotte Hughes, the Green Party candidate, is a single parent who was born and bred in Ashton. She believes that because of this, she is fully aware of the needs of her constituents. Unlike many of the other mainstream parties, who are only interested in ‘hardworking families’, Hughes believes that everybody should be helped, not just those who are in work. She told the meeting that she was sick of the way in which the Labour controlled council in Tameside were using people as guinea pigs to pilot Tory government projects, such as Universal Credit and the so-called ‘Troubled Families’ phase 2 initiative, which is bullying and harassing  single-mothers who are unemployed. She told the meeting, “So far there has been no consultation with the public” about these schemes or the way in which, the Labour council in Tameside, are implementing Tory policies. A community activist, Ms. Hughes, can be seen on a regular basis protesting outside Ashton Jobcentre against unfair and illegal sanctioning. She told the meeting that this year, she had stopped two people from committing suicide.

Another candidate who was born and bred in Ashton is bungling Maurice Jackson, the UKIP (Kipper) candidate. A former Tameside Labour Party member, he was hopelessly out of his depth on the night. Jackson declared that he would not be making a three-minute speech but was happy to take questions. At times, he was barely audible or coherent and struggled to even string a decent sentence together. For most of the evening, he could be seen reading from what presumably, was a UKIP leaflet, in order to check what the party’s policies were. Judging from his performance on the night, he had obviously drawn the short straw.

A Canadian study that was published in January 2012, in the Journal of Psychological Science and reported in the Daily Mail the same month, stated that people with conservative beliefs, were likely to be of ‘low intelligence’ and were receptive to ideas that appealed to their basest and stupidest impulses. 

As right-wing Thatcherites, UKIP seems to draw their fair share of English cranks into their ranks. The former UKIP MEP, Godfrey Bloom, resigned from the Party after calling women ‘sluts’ and after complaining of foreign aid going to ‘bongo-bongo land’. Another UKIP member declared that the floods which brought havoc to parts of Britain two years ago were caused by the Wrath of God, after the introduction of ‘Gay Marriage’.

Most of the evening was taken up with questions from the floor. One questioner complained about a lack of political leaflets through the door. All the candidates said it was either down to lack of funding or resources. Bungling Morris said that UKIP didn’t have any money to back the candidates and that he was a paper candidate.

Ms Rayner, was asked how she would retain public services in Tameside when the Labour Council was a privatizing council? She responded that it was all about giving adequate funding to local government. Asked if she thought the number of councillors could be reduced as they now had less to do, since many public services had been hived-off to the private sector, she said she didn’t believe in reducing things to their lowest common denominator. 

For the Green’s, Ms Hughes said there was a lack of transparency in Tameside Council and that the council leader was getting an ‘obscene amount of money’. She believes that councillor’s allowance should be on a fixed ratio vis-à-vis council workers wages and salaries.

A questioner asked the candidates if they agreed that volunteering should stay voluntary and asked if the voluntary sector should be participating in the Government’s workfare (work-for-your-dole) schemes.  

Ms Hughes said that she was against workfare and was a member of Boycott Workfare. She thought people should be paid a decent wage for a decent day’s work. The UKIP candidate said his party didn’t believe in workfare. (UKIP have branded claimants a ‘parasitic underclass of scroungers’ and have plans to stop them buying tobacco and alcohol). Ms Reyner said that she didn’t want to bring back the work-house and opposed workfare (which the last Labour government introduced with their work-for-your dole schemes). She favours more apprenticeships as a way of getting people back to work.

Another questioner asked -  “If elected would your government remove the market principle from the NHS?” 

The Green Party candidate said yes. The Labour candidate said her party would repeal the Health & Social Care Bill. The UKIP candidate said his party would remove car-parking charges and was against the privatization of the NHS.

From the floor, another questioner asked: “Do you agree with Nigel Farage (UKIP leader) that the NHS should be replaced with an American style health system? Bungling Morris, denied that Farage had ever said this, whereupon, the questioner offered to show him where the quote had come from.  Ms. Reyner then said that both the leader and deputy leader of UKIP had said they wanted to privatize the NHS.

All three candidates were asked about their views of Europe. Ms Rayner said that she was pro-Europe but it needed reform. “I don’t believe immigrants come here just for housing and benefits. We’ve been enriched by Europe. It would cost us £6.5 billion if we came out of Europe.” Ms. Hughes said that it was Green Party policy to stay in Europe but the party favoured a referendum. “Immigration is positive. The NHS would not be what it is without immigrant workers.” Mr Jackson said that UKIP wanted a referendum. “We have an Islanders mentality”, said gaffe prone Morris, “I think we should come out of Europe.”

A questioner asked: “What do you think of fracking in Tameside, even if Tameside Council supports it?” 

Ms. Hughes said that the Green Party was against fracking. “You wont be able to insure your house if it is near to fracking. Fracking leads to pollution. Fracking is being rolled back in America.” The UKIP candidate said that his party were in favour of fracking. Ms Reyner said that Labour was not entirely against fracking but that it must be safe and the decision should be taken locally.  “I’m not going to rule fracking out.”

The outcome of the Parliamentary elections in Tameside next month, is probably a foregone conclusion even though Jonathan Reynolds is defending a 2,700 majority in Stalybridge. Labour has held all three seats for as long as I can remember.

Although UKIP have gained support from the blue-collar, male, working-class former Labour voter in the North, who struggle financially, and feel left behind and alienated from the political class, they are unlikely to get elected in Tameside. UKIP has virtually no support among the financially secure and the thirty-and-forty age group of university graduates. Support for UKIP is also weak among women, white-collar professionals and the young.

The Green Party, who will probably struggle to retain their deposits in the Tameside elections 2015, do have some good policies such as the citizens basic income, renationalisation of railways, a living wage, a wealth tax, and a maximum pay ratio (no executive should receive more than ten times the salary of the lowest paid worker). However, these policies tend to get overshadowed by wackier policies like banning sporting events such as the Grand National and dog racing.