Same Old Danczuk!

by Les May

A week ago in an article for Northern Voices, I wrote:

‘OSTENSIBLY Simon Danczuk’s 2014 book ‘Smile for the Camera’ is about the sexual peccadillos of his predecessor Cyril Smith. But a careful reading shows that the intent was to so closely associate Smith’s antics with the Liberal-Democrats that the party became permanently unelectable in Rochdale so securing a safe Labour seat for Danczuk for as long as he wanted it.’

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/the-benefits-of-20-20-hindsight.html

A recently ‘leaked’ letter from Danczuk to the Chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) tends to confirm my view.  Danczuk wrote:

‘Finally, I would like to point out that both local and national Liberal Democrat activists/representatives would have been even more aware of many of the issues regarding Cyril Smith though your inquiry appears, so far, to have been quite limited in regard to investigating such matters.  I was wholly convinced that key Liberal figures were well aware of Cyril Smith’s abuse but chose to do nothing. Perhaps this is something that deserves more attention.’

This is typical Danczuk.  As with his assertions in the same letter regarding whether Richard Farnell knew about the unsavoury goings on at Knowl View it represents only Danczuk’s opinion.  Just when did his conversations with Farnell about abuse at Knowl View take place?  Were they after November 2012?   If they were then should we not ask whether Danczuk only found out about Knowl View after he was contacted by someone who had been hawking around his story about a ‘cover up’ for years and had suddenly discovered someone to believe him?   As always he offers us no facts only vague generalisations implying that Farnell knew about Knowl View when what was actually commonly spoken of was Cyril Smith’s antics at Cambridge House.

I find Danczuk claim that he ‘thoroughly examined what went on at Knowl View as part of my research for the book’ difficult to take seriously, because the book is full of assertions made without evidence and when asked in October 2016 to provide real evidence he could not do so.

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/

As for his attempts to smear Jim Dobbin with, ‘Relatively new to this town, I found these attempts to cover-up abuse very strange.  I was puzzled as to why local politicians like Jim [Dobbin], but also others, had not raised concerns when they had the power to do so.   At an appropriate time, I did put on record the abuse that Cyril and others committed.’  I find them beneath contempt because Danczuk’s idea of ‘an appropriate time’ was two years after Cyril Smith died, 33 years after his behaviour had been reported in Rochdale’s Alternative Paper (RAP) and a year after Danczuk had applauded enthusiastically at the unveiling of a Blue Plaque to him in 2011.  As for ‘the others’ we are still waiting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5iL2dDSyl0

If asked to choose between believing Richard Farnell’s version of what he knew about Knowl View and believing what Simon Danczuk’s says he knew, I’d believe Farnell every time.

If you want to know why follow the links below.

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/operation-clifton-further-discredits.html

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/nv-review-of-smile-for-camera.html

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/our-long-running-crique-of-smile-for.html

No Double Yellow Lines for Rochdale Blacklist Co.

AT LAST night's full council meeting of Rochdale MBC held in the Gothic revival Town Hall, Tory Councillor Pat Sullivan tabled a question about problems encountered by the contractor maintaining the highways in Rochdale.  Councillor Sullivan's quiery was:
'Recently contractors [Balfour Beatty] were putting yellow lines down and were unable to complete the job as two cars were parked.  Should the contractor not put notes out the night before in order to make sure that the work can be completed?'

Even Councillor Ashley Dearnley, Leader of Conservative Group and Shadow Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, got involved.  These construction companies are not always competent themselves, the building firm Carillion which has a partnership with Tameside MBC once claimed it couldn't repair the leaking roof of Ashton Library because it didn't have a long enough ladder at its disposal.

In March 2015, Rochdale Council took out a Highways Maintenance Contract with Balfour Beatty until 2020.

The works Balfour Beatty will do includes jobs for the repair and minor improvement work to the Council's highways infrastructure, including it seems double yellow lines.

What was not mentioned at last night's Council meeting was that the Rochdale Council has a contract with a firm labelled a blacklister by the Information Commissioner's Office [ICO].

The ICO website states:
'During 2008/09 the ICO carried out an investigation into employment blacklisting in the construction industry.  As part of that investigation, the ICO seized information from a company called The Consulting Association.  Some of the information we seized amounted to a 'blacklist' of individuals who were considered to pose a risk to their employers if employed within the construction industry.'

No doubt Labour Councillor Allen Brett, the newly crowned leader of Rochdale Council (not to mention his predecessor Richard Farnell) has forgotten what one of their earlier predecessor Colin Lambert said in 2013:  'Rochdale MBC wanted no truck with companies who blacklist workers and trade unionists'.

Ofcourse, it was Colin Lambert's friend, the deceased Labour MP, Jim Dobbin, who in 2012 sponsored the early day motion:
'That this House is aware of the campaign led principally by the trades unions, the GMB, UNITE, UCATT and others for justice for blacklisted workers, many of whose lives have been ruined by the secretive and malicious practice which has denied them employment in their industry without them having either the knowledge or privilege of being able to see or challenge information listed against them; believes such practices to be fundamentally wrong and against the very principles of freedom and democracy; and calls on the Government to condemn such behaviour and consider introducing new legislation to prohibit such practices.'

These days with Rochdale Council still under the control of Farmell's Labour Party cronies like Councillor Brett, companies such as Balfour Beatty with a history of blacklisting trade unionists are now on easy street being awarded fat public contracts by uncaring Labour councils like Rochdale MBC.

What Would You Have Done?

by Les May

RICHARD Farnell’s claim at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that he knew nothing of the unsavoury goings on at Knowl View which came to light in late 1991 and early 1992, seems somewhat implausible.  But this wasn’t a civil or criminal trial so ‘implausible’ is the most definitive thing that can be said.

The demand by one of the solicitors at the inquiry that he resign is just theatre; a bit of playing to the gallery to make it look as if he has earned his fees and that the inquiry has achieved something worthwhile.  Even so I find it difficult to imagine that Farnell has much of a future in Rochdale’s political scene.  Like Danczuk before him he has become a liability to Rochdale Labour party.

No doubt some of the careerists who discover they have backed the wrong horse, not once, but twice, will miss him; his numerous enemies will gloat and the rest will remind themselves of Jim Dobbin’s comments in 2014 that Farnell was perhaps unwise to take on the job of Leader with questions about Knowl View still unanswered.

I agree with Jim Dobbin.   But I also think that whether Farnell ‘knew’ or not is irrelevant.  Focusing on this distracts from the substantive issue of whether RMBC acted reasonably and appropriately when the Shepherd and Mellor reports of 1991 and 1992 referred to the high levels of sexual activity amongst the boys at Knowl View, some of it coercive in nature.  Would Farnell ‘knowing’ have made any difference?

The stories about Knowl View had already had an airing in the Independent on Sunday in September 1995 which no-one seemed to notice, least of all the people doing the shouting now. When they re-surfaced in 2012, with Danczuk fanning the flames, in the minds of the public the term ‘sexual abuse’ did not have its present increasingly elastic definition. It conjured up the idea of being something that adults did to children or other vulnerable individuals.  I doubt that in the minds of most people it encompassed situations where it was ‘boy on boy’ or where youngsters actively solicited homosexual contact.

The evidence points to the fact that where the contemporary evidence pointed to an adult having had sexual contact with one of the boys the police pursued the matter and prosecuted the individual concerned. What is less clear, at least to me, is the question of what is/was the legal status of the ‘boy on boy’ sexual activity, which appears to be what was going on at Knowl View.

Had it been a mixed school I don’t think this sort of query would have arisen. I’m not anti-feminist point scoring here when I say the lad, but not the girl, would probably have have been prosecuted.

So I’m going to ask YOU what YOU would have done if you were a senior council officer and the report prepared by sexual health worker Phil Shepherd had plopped onto YOUR desk at the end of 1991 and YOU had read;

‘The present situation within the school is described by the staff as follows:
One boy who is homosexual has contact with an adult outside the school.

Several of the senior boys indulge in oral sex with one another.  

'Reputedly five of the junior boys have been or are involved in 'cottaging' in and around public toilets.  Men as far away as Sheffield are believed to be aware of this activity and travel to Rochdale to take part. 

'One eight-year-old is thought to have been involved.  The police are aware of the problem.  What action has been taken is not known. 

'One rent boy has been removed from the school.  The suggestion that he may return soon has angered the staff. 

'Some boys have been "forced" to have sex with others.

'This degree of sexual activity, if it is factual, points to fundamental problems within the school.’  (my emphasis, because the first action which was taken was to commission a psychologist to visit the school to ascertain whether the claims were true.)

So what would you have done? 
Would you have closed the school immediately even though it served three local authorities?
Would you have insisted on prosecuting the older boys who indulged in oral sex?
Would you have insisted that the boys involved in ‘forcing’ others be prosecuted?
Do you think the term "sexual abuse" is the best way of describing what was found?

The term I have repeatedly used about what was going on at Knowl View is ‘unsavoury’.  What people do in the privacy of their bedroom is not my business.  When these things happen in an institution like a school or a prison I find it distasteful.  They should not have happened at Knowl View.  They should not have been allowed to happen.   But they did.

The reason seems to be that in terms of priority special schools like this were at the back of the queue for resources, for visits from educational advisers and for adequate staffing.   As for the ‘naughty boys’ who were at Knowl View it may have been ‘out of sight, out of mind’, an attitude we perhaps all shared.   Also Rochdale MBC was busy reorganising its secondary education provision in the years immediately prior to 1990.   At the same time the Thatcher government was encouraging schools to ‘opt out’ of the Local Education Authority and some schools were holding ballots of parents.

The substantive question is, when confronted with a serious problem at Knowl View, which may well have been in part of their own making, did the officers concerned react appropriately or did they try to ‘cover it up’?   My view is that they acted appropriately and in a timely fashion.   If you disagree, I ask again, what would YOU have done?

I’m told there are people close to the local Labour parties who are talking about ‘a crisis of sexual abuse in Rochdale’.   If they are I can only ask, What crisis? If they talking it up as a means of bringing down Farnell there are two things to say. The first is that their efforts are redundant; Farnell has no longer any credibility and won’t want to face the electorate.  The second is that they are ‘piddling in the same pot’ as Simon Danczuk.  In 2014 Danczuk talked up the problems at Knowl View which looked like an effort to discredit Colin Lambert who has just delivered Labour an astonishing electoral result.  Is this really who they feel happy to be compared with?    Just look what happened to him.

Richard Farnell: Something to hide?

WHEN in June 2014 Rochdale MBC had begun a council-commissioned inquiry is into whether there was a town hall cover-up relating to possible sex abuse at Knowl View, the late Jim Dobbin,  then Labour MP for Heywood & Middleton, said it was the ‘wrong time’ for Richard Farnell to take power as leader of the Rochdale Council.  Mr Dobbin then reminded us that it was Richard Farnell, who had just taken over was also leader in the early 1990s when the Knowl View sex abuse scandal was first being investigated.

At that time Mr Dobbin told the Manchester Evening News:  

“I don’t think it’s very wise at this particular time, particularly with the inquiry going on into Knowl View.

“Richard was leader at the time these accusations were being made, so I don’t think it’s a very clever thing for Richard to do and if he had spoken to me about it I would have said so.”

This week, before the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, Councillor Richard Farnell blamed senior officers for the scandal, which he said had only come to his attention in 2014.

Councillor Farnell had also been leader between 1986 and 1992, when boys in the council-run Knowl View school were being subjected to horrendous sexual abuse, including rape.

He went on to tell the inquiry - which is investigating institutionalised abuse across the country - repeatedly that he had never heard of any allegations relating to the school until recently, adding:

 'I am not prepared to accept personal responsibility for failing to take action in this matter.'

In a remarkable testimony to the national child abuse inquiry, Councillor Richard Farnell blamed senior officers for not having brief him of the scandal.

Coun Farnell was continually asked about his knowledge of the events by Brian Altman QC, who went on to point out that his own director of education, the director of social services, the chair of education and opposition members were all on record as all having been aware of the allegations.

Yet, Councillor Farnell has still insisted he had never been briefed.

This was a week in which an ex-Labour group chief whip councillor Peter Joinson accused the Rochdale council leader Richard Farnell of 'not telling the truth' to the child abuse inquiry, and of giving 'conflicting accounts' over the reports about sexual abuse at the Knowl View residential school in Norden, Rochdale.  And in turn Councillor Farnell went on to accuse Mr Joinson of faking a note, claiming it was an attempt to smear him owing to internal disputes within the local Labour Party in Rochdale.

In these circumstances of internal warfare in the local Labour Party ought the national Labour Party to be considering if it should suspend the local party?

Fake News or What?

By Les May

‘EX-MP set up deal to keep sex abuse secret’ screams the half page headline on the front page of today’s Rochdale Observer. Look inside and it’s just a claim made by Martin Digan to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.   A claim for which by his own admission he has absolutely no evidence.

Digan claims that a deal was struck between Cyril Smith, the late Jim Dobbin and Colin Lambert, in which Smith would ‘keep quiet’ about ‘a serious offence against a child in a public toilet’ supposedly perpetrated by an un-named Rochdale Council leader, in return for Dobbin and Lambert keeping quiet about sexual abuse at Knowl View.  He also claims to have given a ‘dossier’ about the abuse to Dobbin.  As is all too frequent when claims are made about Smith and Knowl View we are kept in the dark about when these events are supposed to have taken place.  And ‘when’ is critical in evaluating the likelihood that any of this might be true.

We’ll return to the ‘dossier’ later, but just to clarify, Jim Dobbin was Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton from 1997 to his untimely death in 2014.  He had previously been a Rochdale councillor from 1984, Labour leader from 1994 and Leader of the Council from 1996.  Colin Lambert was a Labour councillor and worked in Jim Dobbin’s constituency office.  He later became leader of the Labour group and delivered a stunning electoral result in 2014 before finding himself displaced by the present incumbent.

Now we’ve met Mr Digan before. In the section of Simon Danczuk’s 2014 book where he claims that Smith was sexually abusing the pupils at Knowl View Special School, Digan is the prime witness. I say ‘witness’, but in fact Danczuk writes that although he had been at the school since the late 1970’s he ‘was oblivious to what was happening at the school’.  ‘Oblivious’ or not, it didn’t stop him claiming in Danczuk’s book that ‘boys were sold to paedophile gangs’.  Nor can we consider him to be the most reliable of witnesses.   The story about an event at Knowl View he told in a Radio 4 programme was subtly different from the same story which appears in Danczuk’s book.

As for the ‘dossier’, it’s a favourite term in the Cyril Smith/Knowl View saga, which seems to cover everything from a handwritten note of a short telephone conversation twenty years earlier, upwards. It consisted of copies of two reports one made by Aids worker Philip Shepherd and the other by psychologist Valerie Mellor, which Digan found in the Headmaster’s office and which had previously been submitted to Rochdale Council in 1991 and 1992.

So how likely is it that Digan’s claim about a ‘deal’ has any merit?   In cases like this it helps to ask who stood to gain? Certainly not Labour. From 1986 to 1992 Labour was running the council.  Any revelations about sexual abuse at Knowl View would have have had to be answered by them.  So why would they need any deal as an inducement to keep quiet?  I have seen the Shepherd report and can state categorically that it makes no reference to Smith.  Though I know the contents of the Mellor report I have not seen it in full, but I have been assured by someone who sees themselves as fighting for ‘justice’ for the ex-pupils of Knowl View that it makes no reference to Smith.

Digan likes to be seen as a ‘whistleblower’. Had he confined himself to trying to get the Shepherd and Mellor reports published and in the public domain so that we could see for ourselves what had been happening at Knowl View I would have felt that such a label was justified as that is what I want to see myself because these reports contain information about some very unsavoury goings on between some of the pupils at Knowl View. But, as his present claims show, he hasn’t.

In Danczuk’s book he lets himself be used as a tool for Danczuk to fashion his claims about Cyril Smith and Knowl View school. Now he’s gone freelance.   But apart from the story of ‘a deal’, the best he can come up with at the inquiry is that he had often seen Smith bouncing young boys on his knee during parties held on the premises to coincide with governors meetings.  So no ‘smoking gun‘ then?

No doubt he told the police all this when he was interviewed as part of the ‘Operation Clifton’ investigation.   The fact that the police concluded there was no evidence of a ‘cover up’ at Knowl View suggests in the absence of evidence of ‘a deal’ they did not take take the claim seriously. Claims like this just make the inquiry look like an amateurish shambles.

Tonight, Danczuk in the Lion's Den?

THE 'calling out' of Simon Danczuk by Chief Inspector Ian Hanson with it's implication that it is time for him to 'put up or shut up' is long overdue.  But it should not have been left for a serving police officer to do it.

It should have been done a long time ago by the reviewers of his book ‘Smile for the Camera’ who failed to notice the garbled chronology, the same stories being recounted two or even three times, the absence of any clear methodology, the second or third hand accounts being passed of as ‘evidence’ and the ‘flowery flannel’ which is used in the chapters which are supposed to be the authentic voices of the men who were indecently assaulted by Cyril Smith at Cambridge House.

It should have been done by the journalists who even today are still writing that the book ‘detailed’ allegations against Smith and Knowl View school.  Anyone who actually takes the time to read the book is struck by the grandiose claims yet complete lack of detail to back them up.

It should have been done by the Home Office Select Committee who asked Danczuk to give evidence in the summer of 2014.  In the preceding weeks Danczuk trailed that he was going to be questioned about his book.  A week or so before the meeting this changed to ‘he would name names if he was asked’. In the event the Committee did not question Danczuk about the book but allowed him to change the subject to the so called ‘Dicken’s dossier’.

As a result the press began to put the spotlight on Leon Brittan and Danczuk called for ‘an over-arching inquiry to investigate all allegations of historic abuse’.   http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/politicians-paedophile-ring-simon-danczuk-mp-calls-ex-home-secretary-leon-brittan-help-uncover-1454929.  Well he got it didn’t he!  It’s on its fourth chairman, is likely to cost more than the £100 millions originally predicted, is unlikely to report until at least 2023 and no-one seems to know what to do with it.  Well done Simon!

Even after Northants police investigated Danczuk's claim that Cyril Smith was found with a boot load of child pornography, taken into custody and subsequently released by the force without charge and found it to be entirely bogus, the media have continued to treat his other claims as entirely credible.  Instead of looking more closely at these claims journalists have regaled us with lurid stories about his private life.

On page 112 of his book Danczuk says: ‘Boys were beaten and raped continually by men as far away as Sheffield who had travelled to Rochdale to take part.'  and a few lines later he has his ‘witness’ say 'These boys were sold to paedophile gangs.'

These claims were not based upon interviews with men who told him this had happened to them. They were based upon what had appeared in a 1991 report sent to Rochdale Education and Social Service departments which said nothing of the sort and a statement attributed to his ‘witness’.  In Danczuk’s own words on page 109 we read:  'For many years he was oblivious to what was happening in the school – until he was promoted to head of care and began to realise that things weren't quite right.'  This was in 1994, when he read the 1991 report.

Any reputable journalist could have asked Rochdale MBC for a copy of this report and checked Danczuk’s claims against the facts.  No doubt the police did just that during Operation Jaguar.  I’d like to have been a fly on the wall when they asked him about his claims in the book!  We do know that the police did interview the ‘witness’ and presumably asked whether he made the statement about boys being ‘sold to paedophile gangs’ attributed to him by Danczuk.

I have discussed this and many other reasons for being sceptical about the book at http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/nv-review-of-smile-for-camera.html and at http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/our-long-running-crique-of-smile-for.html .

But let’s put aside my scepticism and give Danczuk the benefit of the doubt here. Let’s take his claim at face value. Let’s put the spotlight on what he did when he was approached by men claiming to have been sexually assaulted at Knowl View school.

Now we know the law firm Slater and Gordon were not backward in coming forward as soon as Danczuk’s book was published as can be seen at http://www.slatergordon.co.uk/media-centre/blog/2014/04/allegations-of-abuse-against-cyril-smith-victims-seek-answers/ .  What’s not clear is whether they were interested in helping the police investigate the claims in the book or just touting for business.

When an MP is informed of a crime having been committed his or her duty is the same as that of any other citizen; to encourage the complainant to speak to the police immediately.  I have been told, but cannot independently verify, that this was the policy of the late Jim Dobbin MP in cases where allegations of sexual abuse were reported to him.

There should be no conflict of interest such as might arise if a book was contemplated.  There should no prior discussion of the details of the complaint as this serves only to contaminate the evidence making it more difficult for the police to get at the truth.  The same problems will arise if the police have to conduct interviews with people who have already been interviewed for a TV programme. Too close involvement with the complainant, before the CPS have decided whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute, would not be the action of a responsible MP.

After the decision of the CPS that there was insufficient evidence to initiate  criminal proceedings against anyone about what had clearly been some unsavoury happenings at Knowl View, a period of silence from Mr Danczuk would have been welcome.  The major effect of his interventions in the investigation of abuse has been both negative and very expensive to the public purse.  

If tonight’s meeting ends with Mr Danczuk’s credibility severely dented then he has only himself to blame.  In my first review of Danczuk’s book I wrote:

‘The writing style adopted is to let the narrative drive the evidence not the evidence drive the narrative.’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer- reviews /R3A7XZP51EW0A6/ref=cm_cr_pr_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1849548757  

Police investigations have in the words of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Northampton to be ‘evidence led’. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-33716982

John Gummer’s comment in January 2015:

 ‘Anybody who doesn’t have real evidence should recognise that it is a wicked thing to do to make allegations about anybody, even if you don’t like their politics.’  could have been tailor made for Danczuk.  https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/23/lord-brittan-child-abuse-allegations-wicked

Reviewers, journalists and politicians may be taken in by a forceful and confident narrative.  The police require evidence. And tonight that could prove to be Mr Danczuk’s undoing.

Rochdale Sex Abuse Report in Long Grass

Letter published in Rochdale Observer in March:

Dear Editor,

 

News of the delay in the release of the local report into sex  abuse in the 1980s and 1990s at Knowl View special school is disconcerting, particularly given that it is the Rochdale Council under Richard Farnell that is proposing this move.  In June 2014, the then Heywood and Middleton MP Jim Dobbin warned Richard Farnell that it was 'not wise' for him to become Council leader while this investigation was in progress.

 

Now we learn that Mr. Farnell, who also had led the Council in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the events complained of were taking place, is leader of the administration that is proposing to dump the Garman inquiry, and to merge its findings inside the wider Godard inquiry which will not be published for many years hence. 

 

Because Mr Farnell may have given evidence and may well feature in the Garman report it may now be seen as self-serving that the Rochdale Council under his leadership is kicking the results of the investigation into the long grass.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Brian Bamford.

Green's Tough Task in Heywood & Middleton

ABI Jackson is the Green Party candidate for Heywood and Middleton, and is a Middleton lass who went to the Catholic Cardinal Langley High School, and she completed her Master's Degree at Huddersfield University.  Ms. Jackson has said:
'I joined the Green Party because they stand against austerity, and for investment in decent jobs; against fracking and for sustainable forms of power; from the beginning, they have opposed the bedroom tax.'

The constituency's former MP, Jim Dobbin, was a devote Roman Catholic, and he often pointed to the diverse nature of the area it covered from middle-class residents in Norden and Bamford, to working-class families in the council houses of Langley which straddles the two towns of Heywood and Middleton, to Alkrington south of Middleton town centre where Jim Allen the left-wing scriptwriter for Ken Loach's films and once upon a time Granada TV's Coronation Street, used to live and ultimately ended his days.

Jim Dobbin's final few years as MP had been tragic and acrimonious as well as eventful.   The local Labour Party in the area was bitterly divided between those who supported Dobbin a traditional Labour MP, and those who preferred Simon Danczuk MP for the neighbouring constituency of Rochdale.

In 2012, Heywood was shocked by a sexual grooming scandal in which white girls as young as 13 were systematically abused by a  group of older men.  Later nine men - eight of Pakistani origin and one from Afghanistan - were jailed for between four and 19 years.

The authorities were found to have failed to address this criminal activity for years, with some claiming this was down to a fear of being landed with the accusation of racism.

Ms. Jackson has made safeguarding the vulnerable as one of her core policies in her campaign.  Her Green Party flyer says:
'With recent child abuse scandals and the recent revelation that 1 in 4 of our care homes fails its quality tests, we are clearly failing to protect those in need.  We need a fundemental review of what we should be doing as members of society to care for and protect those in need.'

She and the Greens will have an up hill struggle in Heywood and Middleton which is traditionally Labour.  Although the recent lack lustre performance of the Labour Conference and Ed Miliband and the bitter conflicts within the local Labour Party may help Ms. Jackson a bit. 

Poll says Labour win in Heywood & Middleton

THE first POLL by The Sun in the Heywood & Middleton constiency of the former MP Jim Dobbin suggests that Labour will win, but that Ukip will come second.

The full figures are:
Labour 50% (Up 10% on 2010)
Ukip 31% (Up 28%)
Conservative 13% (Down 14%)
Lib Dems 4% (Down 19%)

The one worry for Labour is that 19 percent of voters have not yet made up their minds. The Ukip figure also shows an enormous leap from the 2.6 percent which Ukip recorded in 2010. The poll suggests that 35 percent of Ukip’s support comes from Labour, and 33 percent from the Tories.
Polls in by-elections often affect the dynamics of the campaign, and build up momentum for a challenging party. While Ukip may succeed in further squeezing the Conservative share of the vote, it is hard to see how, in the remaining seven days, Nigel Farage’s party can bridge the 19 percent gap suggested by the Survation polling figures for The Sun.

In recent days, according to a senior Ukip source, the party has redirected some of its resources away from the Clacton by-election and towards the Lancashire seat, in the hope that it can pull off a shock double defeat for the two main parties.

- See more at: http://blogs.channel4.com/michael-crick-on-politics/byelection-bacon-butty-battle-heywood-middleton/4443#sthash.X3WULnqU.dpuf

Rochdale Council Boss Asked to Step Down

BECAUSE of his period in office as leader of Rochdale Council up to 1992 Richard Farnell who took over against as Council leader last May has been asked to stand down by the prospective Liberal- Democratic parliamentary candidate for Rochdale, Andy Kelly.  Mr. Farnell was the leader of Rochdale Council in the early 1990s at a time when reports were produced about child abuse at Knowl View residental school for boys.  Mr. Farnell has recently insisted that he knew nothing of these reports at the time he was in office.

Mr. Kelly, who was until last May a Milnrow councillor, said:
'It is worrying for Rochdale that Ed Miliband refused twice in the glare of the public spotlight to support Richard Farnell as Rochdale Council leader.  Given Ed Miliband's very vocal stance on Rotherham, I am now seeking his view on the Rochdale situation.  It does appear odd that the council leader denies knowledge of not one or two council reports, but three reports on Knowl View written during his first time as council leader.  The current Labour approach needs an intervention from Mr. Miliband for the confidence of the Rochdale public.  I think it would be better for all parties if Coun. Farnell stepped down for the duration of the investigation.'

The Rochdale Observer tried to contact Mr. Miliband's office but he was not available for comment before the Observer went to press.  Councillor Farnell declined to comment when approached by the Observer.

Earlier this year Richard Farnell took over the leadership of Rochdale Council from the then leader Colin Lambert, following an internal party coup.  At that time, Jim Dobbin, then the MP for Heywood and Middleton, told Northern Voices that he thought that throwing Mr. Lambert out and installing the new leader to run the Council was 'unwise'.

Jim Dobbin's Funeral

LABOUR leader Ed Miliband, the House of Commons' Speaker, John Bercow, the Deputy Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, John Prescott, shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham and shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, all attended the funeral service at Salford Cathedral of Jim Dobbin, the MP for Heywood and Middleton, last weekend.  There was no sign however of the Labour MP for the neighbouring constituency of Rochdale Simon Danczuk, who was said to be on holiday.

Jim Dobbin, whose constituency includes Castleton, Norden and Bamford as well as Heywood and Middleton, had been in the Commons since 1997.  He died aged 73 on a Council of Europe trip to Slupsk in Poland at the beginning on this month. 

Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow Health Secretary said of Jim Dobbin that he had 'always pledged to do more to protect the NHS'.

The by-election for Mr. Dobbin's constituency seat will take place on October 9th.

Labour, Ukip & Jim Dobbin's old consituency!

WHEN soon after Jim Dobbin, MP for Heywood and Middleton, died in Poland the Labour Party made an early announcement of the date of the by-election, Ukip accused them of running scared.  Yesterday Jennifer Williams of the Manchester Evening News tweeted that:
'One Labour source said to me earlier re anti-politics Ukip vote: 'Middleton don't even like Rochdale. Why would they like Westminster?'

Down South they wouldn't understand that places like Middleton and Heywood on the south and west side of Rochdale have clear and distinct identities of their own:  in Middleton the people are known as the Moonrakers suggesting a taste for booze; Heywood is nick-named Monkey Town because they are supposed to have holes in their stools to accomodate their tails.

Last week, Nigel Farage sent out a carefully crafted letter to constituents argueing that the people up North and the working-class had been betrayed by the Labour Party. 

Now Michael Crick is asking:
'Is Labour in serious trouble in the north west seat of Heywood and Middleton, where the party faces a by-election on 9 October?'

Reports in the Rochdale Observer suggest that things were not smooth in the run up the selection of Liz McInnes as the candidate for Labour in the constituency.  Liz McInnes is a councillor in Rossendale, works as a healthcare scientist and is a Unite union rep.

However, while Rochdale councillor Karen Danczuk originally tweeted her dissatisfaction that 'not one local person has been short listed for Midd & Heywood', she has now retracted her comment to give support to the 'fab local candidate' Liz McInnes.

Mr. Crick claims local a Labour source told him:  'Shadow cabinet members are sh****** themselves about losing.'

Local trade union sources told me last weekend that the fratricide within the local Labour Party in the Rochdale area has not healed up yet.

Jim Dobbin MP, dies in the Saddle!

JIM Dobbin, Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton, died suddenly died in Slupsk whilst on a Parliamentary trip in Poland, aged 73.  Jim was first elected as MP for Heywood and Middleton in 1997 which includes Castleton and Bamford, having earlier contested and lost Bury North in the 1992 General Election.

He had been elected as a councillor in the Borough of Rochdale, becoming the Labour group leader in 1994, and then became the leader of the Rochdale Council in 1996.

Jim Dobbin was a member of the Transport Scrutiny Select Committee as well one of Britain’s representatives on the Council of Europe.  A Roman Catholic he chaired the all-party Pro-Life Group, and he was awarded and invested as a Knight of the Pontifical Order of St Gregory the Great from Pope Benedict XVI.  He married Patricia Russell in 1964; the couple had two sons and two daughters.

In his last Parliamentary Letter, in last Saturday's Rochdale Observer, he wrote:
'MPs have been back almost a week now in Parliament and colleagues are wondering what on earth is happening in Rochdale at the moment. The way in which Rochdale has been focused upon recently has dragged the town into disrepute and created a skewed perception of Rochdale.  I hope that people, including politicians, are mindful of the need for balance as well as transparancy in their communications about the community of Rochdale.'

Earlier this year Jim gave helpful advice to Northern Voices, when people associated with our publication presented written evidence to the Home Affairs Committee regarding material contained in the recently published book Smile for the Camera.  Being a regular reader of NV he recognised the contribution made by the publication in the outing of Cyril Smith in November 2012. 

After we contacted him about the existence of a blacklist in the British building trade he told me that he had supported Early Day Motions against the practise, and on January 13th, 2013 he spoke out on his website:
'Blacklisting is a national scandal which resulted in workers being denied employment and prevented from putting food on the table merely for exercising their human right to belong to a trade union, standing up for their colleagues or for raising legitimate health and safety concerns.'

And he concluded by saying:
'Allegations that the original intelligence for the blacklist came from police officers are especially chilling and need to be fully investigated as a matter of urgency. Sadly, we cannot say with confidence that blacklisting is no longer happening which is why we are urging ministers to act.'

Other MPs, ought to take notice of these sentiments by Jim Dobbin, and not just MPs, but councillors too:  Jim Dobbin warned that 'It is greatly concerning that blacklisting checks took place on high profile projects funded by taxpayers...’ 

'Rochdale is in the headlines for wrong reasons'

says Richard Farnell

Cleavage Politics on Rochdale MBC

RICHARD Farnell has shown a skill for stating the obvious when he claimed the other day that  'Rochdale is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons', adding gruffly 'and I will not allow a tiny minority of people to drag us down.' 

 

Mr. Farnell went on to say in the Rochdale Observer that 'I have the overwhelming support of Labour members who are getting fed up with the constant political smears.'

  

Chris Jones in the same issue of the Rochdale Observer writes:

'Coun Richard Farnell, who ousted ex-leader Coun Colin Lambert last week, told disenchanted councillors who didn't like his take-over of the ruling Labour party to keep quiet or quit the party.'

 

Mr. Jones continues:

'His (Farnell's) coup, which was backed by a majority of Labour councillors, has intensified the already simmering division within the Labour group between Coun Farnell who is backed by Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk and the dethroned former council leader Coun Lambert.'

Meanwhile in his Letter from Parliament on Rochdale ONLINE today Jim Dobbin MP for the nearby constituency of  Heywood & Middleton writes:
'Councillor Colin Lambert, who has run my parliamentary constituency office in Heywood for the past seventeen years, lost the leadership of the council in unfortunate circumstances. It is recognised across the borough that he had been a strong leader and gave it some real direction. He had the respect of council staff, trade unions and the business community. He also had cross party support. He did not deserve to be ousted in this way. I know he has had a huge number of phone calls recognising his contribution.'
 

The trouble is that with Colin Lambert out of the way, and with the floodlight of public interest falling upon Richard Farnell, who now seems to he may have some skeletons in his own history, will this lead to more trouble in the Kingdom of Rochdale?  Is Simon Danczuk safe if more flack starts to fall on his favourite Farnell?  Will Simon stand-by Richard if everything starts to go pear-shaped?

 

The folly of last week's great coup at Rochdale MBC by the supporters of Richard Farnell and Simon Danczuk begins to look increasingly like Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth; as Farnell trembles and is said to be suffering nightmares; Danczuk's Lady Cleavage comes to the fore; and Guido Fawkes gets in on the act.  What's it all suppose to mean?  As with the earlier bacon butty performance belittling Ed Miliband's difficulties in mastication techniques, is it now being suggested that Ed Miliband's wife has the lesser cleavage and is Simon after the leadership of the Labour Party based on the dimensions of his own wife's cleavage? 

Richard Farnell Shouts 'Smear!'

Northern Saying:  'There is only them as knows their own, Knows!'

COUNCILLOR Farnell the new leader of Rochdale Council has accused the Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton, Jim Dobbin, of attempting to smear him.  Mr. Jim Dobbin had said on the Sunday Politics show on BBC today (Sunday 8 June) it was 'not wise' for Councillor Farnell to become leader of the Council, while a review into the sexual abuse of boys at the special school of Knowl View takes place.


Councillor Farnell, who was reinstalled as leader last week, was leader of the Council between 1986 and 1992.


Councillor Farnell told Rochdale ONLINE today that he was annoyed at Mr Dobbin's comments, he said: 'Any suggestion that I knew about and did nothing about allegations at Knowl View is an outright nonsense. Any suggestion I was involved a cover-up is absolutely ridiculous.'


He continued to say:
 'I am appalled that some people are attempting to use the serious abuse at Knowl View as a political football to try and smear me. It is an utter disgrace - they should be concerned about getting justice for the victims.  After losing a democratic vote by a wide margin, it is incredible that some people are prepared to now sink so low just to try and smear me. I find it sickening and so will the public. 


And more:
'Although it is 22 years since I was last Leader of the Council, I am sure that allegations surrounding Knowl View made to health and council staff during the seven months towards the end of my leadership were not brought to my attention. I ceased to be the Leader in May 1992.  I totally support the independent review and I have already indicated this to Neil Garnham QC. The review team has my complete support.  The review is very important to the Council and Rochdale and the Inquiry should be allowed to get on with its job without interference from politicians.'


An finally, Farnell said:
'Until such time as the Review is finalised I am legally advised that, as Leader of the Council, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further.'


The independent review by Neil Garnham QC is expected to report at the end of next month.

A Crazy Coup!

LESS than a week ago the leadership of Rochdale MBC was taken over by Councillor Richard Farnell when he displaced Colin Lambert, the leader of the Council since 2010.  Both are Labour councillors respectively.  Last Wednesday, we learned of the Cabinet members and the assistant portfolio holders appointed by Councillor Farnell:  Councillor Brett (Agent to Simon Danczuk MP for Rochdale) took over finance; Councillor Iftikar Ahmed Adult Care; Public Health went to Councillor Cecile Biant; Community, Culture & Tourism to Councillor Daalat Ali; Corporate Services & Neighbourhoods to Councillor Neil Emmott; Children & Schools to Counc. Martin; Housing & Environment to Counc. Beswick and Business, Skills & Employment to Counc. Williams.  Most of these seem to be allies of Simon Danczuk M.P. for Rochdale.

But what at first seemed like a triumph for Farnell and Danczuk by last weekend was looking more like a political tragedy akin to Shakespeare's Macbeth.  Even last Wednesday night, after the full council meeting, it is rumoured that several councillors did not stay behind for the Mayor making ceremony:  some, it seems, left in disgust at Councillor Farnell's take over.

This weekend in the Manchester Evening News, the Heywood and Middleton MP, Jim Dobbin, has hit out at Councillor Farnell saying it was the wrong moment for him to be taking over in Rochdale.  Richard Farnell, who took power last week, was also leader in the early 1990s when the Knowl View sex abuse scandal in Rochdale was first being investigated and when the controversial reports into sexual abuse of boys at the school were being produced.

A council-commissioned enquiry is currently looking at whether there was a town hall cover-up.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Dobbin - who was Coun Farnell’s deputy at the time in question - said he had made a ‘bad move’ by taking over again now.

Sources close to Councillor Farnell have told Northern Voices that he is presently suffering nightmares, and hadn't anticipated all the attention from the media about what he knew about what was going on in the 1980s and 1990s, when he was last in power as leader of the council. 

Mr. Dobbin said:  'I don’t think it’s very wise at this particular time, particularly with the inquiry going on into Knowl View.  Richard was leader at the time these accusations were being made, so I don’t think it’s a very clever thing for Richard to do and if he had spoken to me about it I would have said so.'

Up to now Simon Danczuk the MP for Rochdale has defended Councillor Farnell saying that he is the object of a politically motivated 'smear campaign'.  But it is hard to see that the media are doing anything other than their job in asking questions. 

In the pay of the Daily Mail!

Challenge to Labour MPs who write for the right-wing press

 

IN last Saturday's Rochdale Observer Jim Dobbin, the Labour MP for Castleton, Norden & Bamford, lashed out saying: 

'It upsets me when Labour parliamentarians go public and criticise the leadership.  Those are issues for internal debate and discussion and should not be subject of interviews on television or the right wing press...  some of the parliamentary articles I have read recently, some of them paid articles, do political harm to parties and politicians and very little to address the real issues for individuals and communities.'

 

This attack comes at a time when the Rochdale Labour Party is experiencing some turmoil over who will be the leader of the Labour group on the local council.  This issue should be cleared up tonight when the former council leader Colin Lambert is to face an attempt by Richard Farnell to overthrow him.  Councillor Farnell was the leader of the Rochdale Council in the early 1990s, some councillors have encouraged him to stand against Councillor Lambert. 

 

Councillor Lambert's style of leadership has been described as 'abrasive' by some councillors, but his position has not been helped by the scandals such as those of sexual grooming and the continual controversies surrounding the inquires into Knowl View special school.  Even Richard Farnell himself has been questioned as to his knowledge of what was going on at Knowl View while he was leader of the council in the 1990s:  so far he has failed to comment on this.

 

The Rochdale Labour M.P. Simon Danczuk has been strongly critical of the Rochdale Council under Colin Lambert's leadership; both over the grooming scandal and over the council's conduct of the investigation into Knowl View.  Many of his attacks have appeared in the media, and he has also blasted the leadership of the Labour Party nationally in the press, some of this he has done in articles paid for by the Daily Mail.

 

Indeed, on the day of the launch of his book in April Mr. Danczuk justified his getting paid by the right-wing press by saying that the Mail was the 'best newspaper', and in joke, that Paul Dacre was a bit 'too left-wing' for him.  At the same time he assured us that he was not involved in a 'moral crusade' of the Mary Whitehouse type.  This may be the kind cavalier conduct that worries Jim Dobbin M.P.

Jim Dobbin gives backing to Council Enquiry

LABOUR MP Jim Dobbin has given his support to the joint enquiry of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Rochdale Council into the claims of a cover up over Cyril Smith's links at the former Knowl View Children's Home in the 1980s an 1990s.  This comes amid recent suggestions by another local Labour MP that the Rochdale Council will be investigating itself.

A letter in tomorrow's Rochdale Observer from Les May entitled 'CYRIL BOOK BEEFED UP', and suggesting that the authors of the Simon Danczuk book 'effectively draw on only three sources' and 'conflate two issues which really need to be kept separate':  these are 'the contents of the reports sent to council officials regarding sexual activity between boys and youths at Knowl View School, who received the reports and what action they took...' and so on; and the 'second quite separate issue [as to] whether there is any evidence that Cyril Smith engaged in sexual activity with a pupil at Knowl View or any other school'.

This suggestion that Simon Danczuk and his colleague Matthew Baker, have carelessly extrapolated on of the solid evidence produced  in the publication Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in their research of the inappropriate behaviour of Cyril Smith at Cambridge House Hostel for lads and published in May 1979, to go onto build a bigger story that has yet to substantiated by the facts is quite serious.  There is expected to be a parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee enquiry next month, and already some reviewers in the media have suggested that the book 'Smile for the Camera:  The Double Life of Cyril Smith' by Simon Danczuk and Matthew Baker is a rush job, poorly researched using few identifiable sources, badly written and uneven.

None of this is helped by the fact that there appears to be a struggle within the Rochdale Labour Party for dominance between different factions.  This seems to have been the case for some time.  What is important here is to establish the facts and to separate what is known from gossip and speculation, and to avoid the serious issues of child abuse becoming a political football in a smelly little faction fight within the Labour Party.