Leader of Greens at Ashton Jobcentre protest!

Natalie Bennett - Green Party Leader

GREEN Party leader, Natalie Bennett, came to Ashton-under-Lyne on Tuesday to support a protest that has been taking place outside Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre, since August 2014, against unfair benefit sanctions and benefit cuts.  However, it is unlikely that you will read about this in Tameside's only local newspaper, the Tameside Reporter, now exclusively owned by New Charter Housing Trust Limited.  Yet, we are reliably informed that the press were briefed about Ms. Bennett's visit to Ashton yesterday, but as usual, were conspicuous by their absence. 

Councillor John (Wag) Taylor, the Deputy Leader of Tameside Council, was spotted skulking about across the road from the Jobcentre, observing the events that were taking place.  When invited to join the protest, he declined, saying that he was busy doing his shopping and was off like a rat up a drainpipe.

Councillor Taylor, a.k.a. (el Cabron), has voiced criticism on social media about the Jobcentre campaign and Green Party member, Charlotte Hughes, a leading figure in the campaign, calling her 'The Bag Lady'.  Apparently, Taylor thinks that Ms. Hughes, a self-employed single-mother of five, should spend her free time looking for work rather than protesting outside the Jobcentre against benefit cuts. 

We might well ask, when Councillor Taylor, intends to come off the public purse and get himself a proper job?  For the last 30-years, he has been a full-time Labour councillor sponging off the taxpayer.  No doubt, this wouldn't look good on anybody's CV, but as they say, people who live in glass houses, shouldn't throw stones!

Cllr. John ( 'el cabron') Taylor's Spanish Villa Casa Azul

We do wonder what is happening to the Labour Party today?  Although the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, has vowed to fight the Tory government's austerity policies, the Labour controlled Manchester city council, recently tried to imprison seven people who had been living in tents to highlight the plight of the homeless in Manchester.  Rough sleeping in the area has risen 150% in the last five-years.  This case was rightly thrown out of court by Judge Allan Gore, who said the council's case was fundamentally defective.  Dismissing the council's case, he said:

 'there is no dates, description of behaviour or identification of which allegations are made against which defendant.  That is a fundamentally misconceived and inappropriate way to advance criminal proceedings when the council ... seeks to commit people to prison.' Striking out the council's application, he said the council must foot the bill for the defendants legal costs, which could amount to many thousands. 

Although the Labour Party now says it is committed to fighting austerity, Labour council's across the country, have collaborated with Tory government cutbacks at every step.  With the election of Corbyn, the time is now ripe to throw out these Labour Party carpet-baggers who are in it for the money, and put in their place, people who believe in socialist values.  If Corbyn's Labour Party are fighting austerity, when are the local Labour council's going to join in?  Trying to imprison courageous people who fight the government's austerity policies, was an appalling act of incompetence.  We call on Sir Richard Leese to resign!

EX BNP candidate jailed for harassing German next-door neighbour. Everybody needs good neighbour's!

A former BNP candidate who stood four times for election in Dukinfield, has been jailed for 14 weeks for harassing his German-born next-door neighbour.

Roy Kevin West (48), of Glenmore Grove, Dukinfield, was found guilty of breaching a restraining order which prevented him from "making direct or indirect contact" with Mr. Bernd Kugow and Susan Holt, his next-door neighbour's. The order also prevented him from mentioning or making reference to them on the "internet, via social networking, blogging and discussion forums."

Last year, West was given a 12-week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months and subjected to a curfew order, after he subjected Mr. Kugow to verbal abuse calling him a 'Kraut', after he confronted him about a display of union flags and poppies which West had erected to face his neighbour's home.

In 2009, West pleaded guilty to racially aggravated public order offences against Mr. Kugow. The court heard that West, who had three St George's flags and a Cornish flag in his back garden, had attempted to put up a Union Jack by attaching it to Mr Kugow's shed. And when Mr Kugow objected, West flew into a rage, calling his neighbour a 'Kraut *******' and telling him to '**** off back to Krautland' before adding 'kill some more Jews'. West also told his neighbour to 'remember Dunkirk' during the 10-minute tirade.

West originally pleaded not guilty to racial abuse but shortly before he was due to take the witness stand for his trial at Tameside Magistrates' Court, he dramatically changed his mind and admitted the charge. His solicitor said West felt under pressure to deny the charge because of his position in the party.

After his arrest, the BNP leadership complained that he was the victim of a 'malicious prosecution' and tried to organise a demonstration to protest against the arrest. But the protest was called off when West said he wanted the case to remain a private matter.

 Mr Kugow said his neighbour later apologised over the incident and came to his house with a box of chocolates and a handwritten letter. He said West sat crying in his kitchen as he admitted his guilt.
West was later fined £125 and ordered to pay £200 costs and a £15 victim's surcharge. He was also ordered to pay Mr Kugow £50 compensation.

In 2012, West was acquitted at Oldham Magistates Court, by District Judge Prowse, on a charge of pusuing a course of harassment against John Taylor, the deputy leader of Tameside Council, when the Crown said it would offer no evidence if he accepted a restraining order. The two-year restraining order, prevented West from going within 50 metres of Cllr. Taylor's home in Dukinfield.

When he appeared before District Judge Craig Osborne, the following month, to answer two charges of breaching another restraining order, West told the court, that he believed that Cllr. Taylor and his neighbour had been acting in collusion and that he had been filming Cllr. Taylor, on one of his frequent visits to Mr. Kugow's home.  While the filming of Mr. Kugow washing his car was upheld as a breach, the filming of Cllr. Taylor was dismissed as a breach. The Judge said that although "West had behaved like a juvenile idiot", he was surprised that New Charter as a Registered Social Landlord (RSL), had got involved in a neighbour dispute when Mr. Kugow was an owner occupier. The Judge had also told West that if he breached the injunction again, "you will be well advised to bring your tooth-brush with you to court on the next occasion. Breach it and it's jail; or nothing."

Originally from Dewsbury, West moved to the Tameside area some years ago. Before taking up residence in Dukinfield, he lived in Hyde, where we understand he was also known to have had trouble with the neighbour's. We understand that West is currently residing in Forest Bank prison pending transfer to another jail.

On the stump with Tameside Council`s Deputy Leader, Cllr. 'WAG' Taylor! Does he need help with anger management?

Local council elections in Tameside are normally a boring affair. Usually, fewer than one-in-three people bother to vote and the council in this one party state, has been dominated by Labour for over three decades. With so few people voting, it is questionable whether those who get elected to the council, have any real democratic legitimacy.

In the recent May elections, where there was a 39.91% turnout (one of the highest turnouts ever in Tameside due to the AV referendum), the Lib Dems (the fag-end of the Tory party) didn't even bother to field a candidate. In Hyde Werneth, the Conservative leader John Bell, just about managed to hang on to his seat against Labour`s candidate, Raja Miah. However, though Labour failed to make any in-roads into the Conservative minority, there was a Labour gain in Mossley, where Labour`s candidate, Idu Miah, a local post office owner, became Tameside Council`s first ever Asian councillor.

Though there were few surprises on the night, one thing that people can look forward to in the Tameside elections, is the annual dust-up between councillor John (Wag) Taylor the Deputy Leader of the council and his bête noire, the BNP candidate, Roy West. West, a convicted racist, saw his vote halved since standing last year. Other BNP candidates also got a similar thrashing with their votes collapsing.

Though Roy West failed to win this election, he did nevertheless, manage to provide much needed entertainment on the night in his ongoing spat with Councillor 'Wag' Taylor outside the Dukinfield community centre. Judging from the above video, West appears to have won this round, if not the election, as an enraged councillor Taylor, can be seen 'wagging' his finger threateningly at his BNP rival.

In politics, it is generally advisable to keep one's cool when confronting political rivals however odious, they may appear to be. Now that 'Wag' has risen to the dizzy heights of Deputy Leader, we wonder whether he might benefit from taking a course in anger management. But as local people say around here, you could stand a monkey for election with a Labour red rosette, and it would get elected.

JOHN TAYLOR THE 'BIG BROTHER' OF TAMESIDE COUNCIL!

Dukinfield councillor John Taylor (pictured above), the Deputy Labour Leader of Tameside Council in Greater Manchester, loves to vent his spleen in his weekly letter to his local rag the Tameside Reporter. So numerous are his letters that many local people have nicknamed the paper the 'Taylor Times'.

This former welder and keen Manchester City fan known locally as 'Wag' Taylor (an epithet he acquired owing to his rare attendance at school), dislikes the Human Rights Act(brought in by New Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw),benefit cheats, fireworks,and illegal immigrants. He also is in favour of national identity cards and is a huge fan of the deviant performance artist Ms. Vicky Leyton, better known as 'Sticky Vicky' the vaginal magician.

Several years ago after returning from holiday in Benidorm, councillor Taylor, (the then Chair of Tameside Social Services) took up his pen and doggedly wrote to the 'Taylor Times' (sorry the Tameside Reporter) and said:

"I was on holiday last week in Spain, in a place called Benidorm, where they have a famous local act, a lady called Vicky Leyton, known as 'Sticky Vicky'. She would go down a bomb in Staly Vegas" aka Stalybridge.(see Northern voices 7).

More recently councillor Taylor has turned his mind to more weightier matters such as dog fouling and dog control orders as well as alleygating. He has become something of a hate figure among some local dog owners who recently organised a demonstration in a local park, in opposition to the restrictions placed on dogs and their owners such as the requirement to have maximum lead length of two metres.

Although a Labour councillor, councillor Taylor`s political views would not be out of place in the columns of the Daily Malice, sorry, the Daily Mail. Like the Daily Mail, he also detests the Human Rights Act. Last December (2010) he wrote in the Reporter: "The human rights act is an act that protects criminals and terrorists. We do not need this act in Great Britain." Last February (2010) he was pictured in the same paper proudly displaying his newly purchased ID card. He told the paper:

"From what I understand, people who come to this country, whether they are immigrants or asylum seekers - have to have one of these ID cards - and so they should. If people come to this country and don`t get an ID card I would want to know why...People always bring up the Big Brother stuff but I don't have a problem with that, it is there to look after you...ID cards, CCTV and surveillance are all making things safer - It`s just part of everyday life...Get used to it."

Amazingly,despite his right-wing reactionary views and his penchant for banning things, two years ago, councillor Taylor, claimed that he`d received death threats after being posted on the fascist website 'Redwatch'. Some people have suggested that politically he has far more in common with those on the far right than he realises.