A Bit Of A Deadleg? by Les May

EARLIER today in a telephone conversation with a friend he commented that he thought his local MP was ‘a bit of a deadleg’. Now I’ve not had any dealings with this gentleman, who is the MP for Heywood and Middleton, so I cannot comment on the veracity of this statement. But it did take me back a few years to when our old friend Simon Danczuk, or as he is now more commonly called ‘the disgraced Simon Danczuk’, was MP for the neighbouring constituency of Rochdale.

MPs (and Councillors) hold their position thanks to the trust of the public so if you want to shift them because you don’t think they are up to the job or not being honest with the people who voted for them, it’s the public you have to find a way of telling.

After Danczuk published his book about Cyril Smith in 2014 the Letters page of the Rochdale Observer was for the next 18 months or so filled with correspondence challenging Danczuk account, asking that he produce some evidence for his attempts to link Smith with the unsavoury goings on at Knowl View school and pointing out that a story in the book involving the Northamptonshire Police was completely untrue.

If my friend wants to use the local media to publish his disquiet about his MP Chris Clarkson, he won’t be so lucky. The reader’s letters page of the Rochdale Observer has shrunk almost to the point of invisibility. In 2015 it occupied a full page and there was enough room for the editor to allow a three quarter page letter from Andrew Wastling, who now sends material to Northern Voices because he cannot get it published elsewhere.

Those of us who contribute to NV don’t fool ourselves into thinking that it is read by as many people as read the Rochdale Observer so it is no substitute for an inquisitive and questioning local paper with a boisterous letters page.

NV’s readership is more likely to be drawn from the subset of potential Observer readers who would identify themselves as to the left of the political spectrum, but who refuse to be be swayed by the present vogue for identity politics and the drift towards ‘cancel culture’, so in no sense does it compete with other local news outlets. Seeing it as a competitor was the mistake Rochdale Online made when it wanted to use material from Northern Voices without attribution to its author.

Local News Partnerships, which include both the Rochdale Observer and Rochdale Online, are a well intentioned attempt to support local news outlets and maintain their viability at a time when they have come under pressure from the availability of news on the World Wide Web 24/7. But the unintended consequences have been that the sense of place and local identity which local newspapers provided has vanished because essentially the same story can appear in a regional and local paper, and a diversity of voices has been replaced by what is essentially a single uninquisitive ‘foghorn’.

This lack of scrutiny has emboldened some of our local politicians to start down the track of believing that they no longer accountable for their actions. Rochdale already has one local councillor who first solicited a postal vote then voted twice in the 2018 local election, seemingly without suffering any consequences. In recent weeks we have seen that one councillor did not seem to think he had to even accept e-mails sent to his Rochdale MBC account. We have also seen that at least one councillor think it unacceptable that he should be questioned about why a council official who is supposedly doing a full time job with Rochdale MBC is being allowed to ‘moonlight’ in another well remunerated role.

In about eleven weeks time people in Rochdale are going to be asked to choose who they want to represent them on the Council. If all we are treated to are press releases from councillors because they are ‘good copy’ how can we do this in any meaningful way? It is time to shine some light on the murky political world of Rochdale.

********************************************************

Seven Arrested After Rochdale Police Drug's Raid

YESTERDAY, ROCHDALE ONLINE reported that seven people had been arrested after police executed warrants in Rochdale. Three warrants were executed on Taylor Street, Middleton, Blanche Street, Rochdale, and White Lees Road, Littleborough.

Four men - aged 22, 26, 35 and 42 - were arrested on suspicion of section 45 of the Serious Crime Act.

The men aged 22 and 42 were also held on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and the 26-year-old man was additionally arrested on suspicion of conspiring to supply class A drugs.

A 23-year-old woman was also arrested on suspicion of possession of class A and class B drugs and section 45 of the Serious Crime Act.

All are now in police custody for questioning.

These new arrests follow other Rochdale arrests on the 28th, August in which three people were arrested after police executed warrants on Sykes Street and Hardwicke Street in Rochdale, as part of an investigation in to the supply of drugs in the Deeplish and Newbold areas. On that occasion Inspector Andrew Fern, of GMP's Rochdale district, said: "Enquiries are ongoing but the initial indication is that, this morning, officers seized class A drugs with an estimated street value of £900,000. Drugs blight communities so this is a really positive result."

It is worth noting that Newbold is recognised as a notorious 'hotspot' in a problematic district, and that the police have set up Operation Beehive to try to help the local communities there.

Inspector Andrew Fern said: "Investigations of this nature rely partly on intelligence from members of the public living in our communities so I would like to use this opportunity to appeal to anyone who thinks they may know something which may help us rid the streets of drugs to get in touch."

Earlier this year Northern Voices together with others had a meeting at Rochdale police station about the difficulties with regard to the Newbold district in which we raised our concerns about drugs and gangsterism.

*************************************************

Is Labour losing its traditional voters?

by Brian Bamford

A POST ELECTION REPORT   from  Steve Gillan (POA), the TUC-JCC General   Secretary, POA, claimed 'Brexit was a key issue' and Labour lost 37% of leave voters who voted Labour in 2017, and 21% of remain voters who voted Labour in 2017.

A recent comment in Heywood and Middleton from a Labour canvasser, campaigning on the doorstep, told me people were closing their front doors when they realised it was Labour on the knocker.  

It was said that this dislike seemed to be down to two things: an intense dislike of Jeremy Corbyn and Labour's stance on Brexit.

Heywood, near Rochdale, has long been a solid Labour constituency but at the General Election in December the local Labour candidate was defeated by the Conservative.  

Steve Gillan in his report also claimed 'we should be building on, increasing and challenging the growth of the far right, anti-semitism and Islamophobia.'

 Yet,  as the Secretary of Tameside TUC, I wrote twice to Jeremy Corbyn asking him where he stood as regards the case of the persecuted Pakistani Catholic Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan.  She had drank water from a cup used by Muslim fruit pickers to quench her thirst and had spent eight years on death row.  The family sought asylum for Asia in the UK but nobody from Theresa May's government was prepared to meet her husband and daughter when they came to London.  May refused asylum to the family because she said it could lead to racial unrest in the UK and put the lives of British diplomats at risk in Pakistan. 

Meanwhile, Corbyn never gave us a reply and I'm not aware of him speaking publicly about her case. We concluded that he was frightened of alienating the Muslim Labour vote.  I asked a Labour Party friend to speak to Angela Rayner about Asia Bibi. Rayner told him that Labour was supportive but the problem was the family hadn't applied for asylum in the UK, which was untrue.  Corbyn, did however, speak out publicly in support of the Isis bride, Shamima Begum, demanding that her British citizenship be restored. Asia Bibi and her family were eventually given asylum in Canada where she campaigns on behalf of other persecuted Christian's in Pakistan.

The Heywood and Middleton constituency in Lancashire has a strong Roman Catholic presence, having received immigrants following the Irish potato famine in the 19th Century.   Among today's fashionable addicts they they are now yesterday's people and the recent failure of Rochdale's Labour councillors to condemn an axe attack on four tree surgeons working in the Newbold area of Rochdale in October 2017 by an Asian gang shouting 'white bastards' at them, seems to be a symptom of post-modernity.  This might sound like blatant 'Orientalism', but the thing is Irish Catholics are no longer the flavour of the month in politics, and the local Labour Party is more inclined to wag-its-tail and fly the flag of Kashmir or Pakistan outside Rochdale Town Hall these days. This may go some way to explaining why Heywood and Middleton, which is one of the two Rochdale constituencies, now has a conservative MP.  Labour is so frightened of offending the Asian clans that it appears to be losing the white working class.

*****************

Tories take Monkey Town in the North!

 This is the story of a small, south-east Lancashire town called Heywood.   A place that is also rather affectionately (or disparagingly) known as 'Monkey Town’.

Old Heywood postcard.

*************

LAST NIGHT the Tory Party beat the Labour Party's incumbent, Liz McInnes, for the Heywood & Middleton constituency in Greater Manchester  to become the constituency’s first ever Tory MP, on a disastrous night for Labour nationally. 

The Tory victor, Mr Clarkson, agreed that national issues like Brexit likely contributed to his victory.

He said:  'It was a combination of factors. No result is about just one thing,

'Brexit was  an issue on the doorstep, but also people didn’t like Jeremy Corbyn - they didn’t want him to be Prime Minister - and that put a lot of people off voting Labour. A lot of people stayed at home.'

The former MP Liz McInnes, who had been MP for the constituency since 2014, remained at the count until the very end, putting on a brave face following the results, which saw the Conservatives receive 20,453 votes.  Ms McInnes came second with 19,790 votes.

The seat has, up until now, always been held by Labour.

This year, 47,641 ballots were issued, and 153 votes were rejected.  The new MP, Mr Clarkson was elected with a majority vote of just 663 votes, in one of the lowest turnouts in recent years.

*********************

Building Our Local Democracy:

 Building Our Local Democracy (BOLD)

AN Open Meeting of Building Our Local Democracy will be held next Thursday.  

BETTERS BUSES MEETING:

To let you have your say on how our bus services could be improved. Chance to see the Consultation Document on getting our bus services regulated. Speakers include John Boughton, Unite Union, Marie Douglas, Greater Manchester Older Peoples' Network and others. 

 Time: 7.30pm Thursday 14th. November 2019.

 Venue: Function Room, Middleton Archer Pub, Kemp Street, Middleton M24 4UA

Please try and support this event which is promoted by Better Buses for Greater Manchester and locally by BOLD (Building Our Local Democracy).

********************

Rochdale Labour Aim at Restoring Trust

 Leak of Motion for clean break with past politics

LAST Wednesday, the West Heywood and East Middleton wards agreed to move the motion below which raises concerns about the proposed reinstatement of a former Rochdale Labour leader, Richard Farnell, who many in the local Labour Party and among the public beyond who generally feel he was discredited by the finding that he lied under oath at the  Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).  

The tenure of the motion suggests that the people moving it feel that not only has Richard Farnell become totally toxic by his insistance that he was unaware of what was going on at Knowl View residential school, but that the culture created by Farnell's successor, Alan Brett, is now stifling any remaining remnant of decency in the body politic in Rochdale. 

The Heywood and Middleton Constituency Labour Party below urge a change of leadership to create a 'break with that (spirit of) Richard Farnell and Allen Brett, in order that trust and confidence in the local party can be restored'.

Wed 03/07/2019 21:59

 The Motion states:

'In light of recent press reports relating to Richard Farnell and Allen Brett, Heywood and Middleton CLP/ branch note that: Richard Farnell was suspended from the Labour Party when the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) reported its finding that he had lied to the Inquiry under oath; his replacement as Leader of Rochdale Council, Allen Brett (himself found to have brought the authority into disrepute) is reported to have said that he will be pressing for Richard Farnell’s suspension to be immediately lifted; the Executive of Rochdale CLP have apparently written to Labour North West Region in respect of the suspension, with their meeting minutes referring to selection meetings in September and the unfairness of Richard Farnell being “in limbo”. Heywood and Middleton CLP/ branch are of the view that: regardless of the outcome of Richard Farnell’s suspension, his behaviour at the IICSA and IICSA’s finding that he lied under oath, reflect very badly on the Labour Party in Rochdale; perceptions of Allen Brett’s behaviour compound this, along with his call for Richard Farnell’s immediate reinstatement; there is a risk as borne out by responses on social media, and in spite of the good work of many councillors and party members, that the Labour Party in Rochdale Borough loses trust and credibility in the eyes of the electorate. And so, (Heywood and Middleton CLP/ branch) call on Rochdale Council Labour Group to bring about a change of Rochdale Council leadership in a way that represents a clean break with that of Richard Farnell and Allen Brett, in order that trust and confidence in the local party can be restored.'

 Passed at West Heywood and East Middleton so far. On the agenda at Castleton branch next week.

***************************

Lies, Damn Lies and Labour Councillors

by Les May

AT first sight it might seem that the most important political development in Rochdale in recent days is the decision of two well known Labour figures to join the Brexit party.  But any crowing from Labour’s opponents may be short lived.  If it’s members get their way it’s raison d’être will vanish on the first of November.  Only if they fail will it have any further reason to exist.   Either way it looks like a move into a political cul de sac.

Of more long term significance is the decision of Councillor Jacqui Beswick to resign the Labour whip and sit as an Independent.

She is reported to have taken the decision due to the way the party had handled false allegations against her. She has said ‘I believed that after the local elections my complaint would be dealt with, sadly that wasn't the case and I have been told recently that it could be quite some time before that happens’.

There is rather more background to this story than is apparent from this statement.

About six months ago I attended a meeting of people with a background in the Labour movement,  Labour activists and supporters, and some with a Trades Union background.   Most lived in the Heywood and Middleton constituency.  Also present at the meeting was John Blundell who represents a ward in the Rochdale constituency.   From the start it was clear that there was some antagonism towards him and his presence was not welcomed by a majority of the people at the meeting.

A number of people at the meeting were aware that another Labour councillor had made serious allegations against Councillor Beswick and wanted to discuss the matter further. The unwelcome Councillor Blundell managed to block any discussion by suggesting that repeating the allegations might be construed as defamatory and that the allegations were ‘under investigation’.

There were a lot of people at the meeting who will remember what Councillor Blundell said and a recording of exactly what he said may exist. I don’t think anyone present will believe a word he says in the future and it may be that some will conclude that he was lying.

The treatment of Councillor Beswick by the Labour leadership of Rochdale council looks very much like what is known in trades union terms as ‘Constructive Dismissal’.  A Labour councillor has a right to expect that when allegations are made against them they will be investigated by the party within a reasonable time frame. The failure to do this is analogous to a ‘repudiatory breach’ in employment terms.

There exists a significant lack of trust in the Labour leadership in Rochdale amongst many people who are otherwise solidly behind the Labour party. Labour politics in Rochdale has been described to me on a number of occasions as ‘a cess pit’. The treatment of Jacqui Beswick will do nothing to sweeten the smell from it.

More details can be found at;

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2019/05/labour-party-strange-allegations.html

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2018/06/brave-new-world-hatching-eggs.html

BOLD & the local media

How much freedom of speech do we really have?
John Wilkins

THIS article summarises the problems a local campaigning group BOLD (Building Our Local Democracy) based in Middleton, has encountered with regard to freedom of speech.

It is an issue which is central to much of what the group is about as illustrated by the first two aims of the group:

1. Encourage more people to exercise their democratic rights, in order to bring power and decision making closer to the people.

2. Promote more democratic accountability and transparency in central and local government, public and private bodies.

Our last but one meeting focussed on the latest of a catalogue of scandals involving Rochdale councillors.  This being the caution accepted by the now Councillor Faisal Rana for casting votes in two different constituencies in the last round of Council Elections. Individual members of our group have contacted the Council, Heywood & Middleton Labour CLP and even the Local Government Ombudsman.

The last meeting concentrated on why many local people in Rochdale Borough will be oblivious of this and earlier scandals as there is inadequate coverage of local politics in the media here.  The local printed papers rarely print a letters column these days which was a way of getting more exposure on local issues.  Until recently Rochdale On – Line was an outlet for those wanting more political stories being put into the public domain.  A prolific contributor on politic issues as well as some of our members have complained about the dearth of comments from residents being published now as well as the archive of previous letters being deleted.

We have to speculate on the reasons behind this weakening of political expression. Could it be that the financial problems reported to be afflicting this news outlet means they are even more dependent on advertising finance from adverts placed by the Council?

In some ways this is not a new issue as a member claimed the child abuse scandal at Knowl View only became covered properly after exposure in 1979 with articles in Private Eye and later The New Statesan.

One member directly asked a local journalist why there was less coverage of public's letters in the local media.  His response was to the effect that there was little enthusiasm from management for printing views that were challenging to local politicians!  Some members regretted the loss of a political reporter for the local papers who was always willing to publish views from them.  One can only guess that his career change might have been due to the stifling of freedom of expression.

With regard to the national media there has long been an in-balance in newspapers with a more right wing agenda being pushed in 80%.  The BBC was also felt not to be always neutral and quite selective of issues it promoted.  A few years ago I asked the organiser of a meeting on TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) which such an important topic rarely got coverage.  The response was he had asked the same question of a senior BBC presenter to be told 'they 'were leaned upon' not to give the topic much exposure!

An example of the suppression of freedom of expression had been experienced by a member who edits a more left wing periodical.  The paper edition was blighted by the deliberate lack of distribution by the two conglomerates who have a virtual monopoly of it. Since then he has struggled to get just a few on-line editions out having suffered from a vendetta instigated by a local politician and taken up by the blogger Guido Fawkes. Unfounded insinuations of anti-Semitism have resulted in extensive abuse and also death threats to many contributors including a local MEP!

We explored some solutions to this impasse, one of which was more use of social media which is where most of the younger generation got their news.  Northern Voices kindly offered us space to put our views out.  Following a jocular observation that we could fly-post our views on lamposts another suggested the group could produce newsheets to give out in the town centres, particularly as the older generation still often preferred a written format to digital.  The member editor of the paper, The WORD, suggested a leaflet on local issues could be inserted in his paper when it gets back into print again. 
 

It is ironic that as we come up to the 200th. anniversary of Peterloo, an event that captured the attention of newspapers at that time and led indirectly to the creation of the Manchester Guardian, that we are in such a situation now.  We might in the interim return to the spreading of ideas through being like the 'Pamphleteers' of previous centuries!

Follow us on Facebook at BOLD = Building Our Local Democracy or for more information on our group e-mail j.wilkins248@yahoo.com

*********

Not A Clever Idea

by Les May

Just after the 2016 Referendum I met a someone who is a member of the Heywood and Middleton Constituency Labour party. He was not impressed that our MP, Liz McInnes, had resigned from her shadow post as communities and local government minister as a gesture of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn.

Now Liz is one of the few MPs who have ‘had a proper job’ before becoming an MP so I am happy to vote for her. (I also have it from an impeccable source that a political opponent once said admiringly of her that she was known as ‘The Rottweiler’ for her determination to defend workers’ rights.)

A little lamely I muttered something that she would have come under a lot of pressure to join the herd who were calling for Corbyn to go.

An enthusiastic Corbyn supporter he was having none of it! He argued that Labour MPs should listen to the views of members of the local party and could not expect members to do the leg work for them at election time if they didn’t. And he was quite right of course.

I remembered this conversation last night when I read the response of Joan Ryan, the chair of Labour Friends of Israel, to losing a vote of no confidence at her local constituency party where she was accused of smearing Jeremy Corbyn.

So what was Ms Ryan’s response? She called the people who had voted against her ‘Trots, Stalinists, Communists and assorted hard left’.

Given that just over half of the people who attended the meeting voted against her, 94 out of 186, this may not have been the cleverest idea.  Why would any of these people who she has attacked in this unpleasant way want to go round the streets at the next election trying to persuade people to vote for her?

Joan Ryan is not a woman who is meticulous in checking her facts as you will see in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3dn-VV3czc

The video is about 26 minutes long.  The incident involving Joan Ryan starts at about 7 minutes and 40 seconds.

Chuka Ummuna’s recent comments are thought to have been prompted by the votes of no confidence in Joan Ryan and Chris Leslie.  It may just be a coincidence that both these MPs are members of the ‘Friends of Israel’ group. It may also be just a coincidence that Chuka Ummuna (and Angela Eagle) are seen in the video at the Friends of Israel stall asking to be updated. 

******** 

'Brave New World' Hatching Eggs & Councillors

by Brian Bamford

ON the 6th, June, the website 'SKWAWKBOX' ran a story about a series of squabbles in local Labour Party branches around the country, but in particular it focused on some problems in the Rochdale Party.  Much has already been written about the disgrace brought about by the former Rochdale leader Richard Farnell, and Rochdale's former MP, Simon Danczuk.  But now a local Labour party branch has lodged its rejection of the local selection processes and the conduct of those behind them.

Northern Voices two weeks ago, was present at a meeting in the Rochdale ward of Castleton, when the status of the Local Campaign Forums in the Labour Party were discussed.  We didn't report on this then because resolutions and complaints were then still ongoing.

The 'Local Campaign Forum' it seems is used by the hierarchy within the Rochdale Labour Party as a kind of 'hatchery'*  whereby the local party bosses can manufacture future councillors in their own likeness.

Thus the regime which first laid eggs with Simon Christopher Danczuk and his aide Matthew Baker earlier in this decade, may now go on to hatch other specimens in a similar mold to Richard Farnell and the present Rochdale Labour leader Allen Brett.  Interesting bets are now being placed upon Councillor Sara Rowbotham being dusted-off for future glory in the realm of Rochdale politics:  a former sexual health worker, Ms. Rowbotham, for those who haven't heard of her, was portrayed by Maxine Peake in the docu-drama 'Three Girls'.   

According to the current report on the 'SKWAWKBOX' website:
'Seven Labour branches so far, as well as the whole Heywood and Middleton constituency party, have passed the resolution shown below and have sent it with evidence they consider shows rule breaking.  However, because of distrust of Labour’s regional office, the resolutions have been sent instead to the regional board, the body that oversees councillor discipline.'

These kind of ructions have long been going on in the Rochdale Labour Party, only last December the secretary of Rochdale Constituency Labour Party, Sharon MacLean, resigned in protest at what she describes as the party’s ‘inaction’ over the Knowl View child sex abuse scandal.

Sharon MacLean said Rochdale Council leader Richard Farnell should have been suspended over his handling of claims boys were being abused at the residential school.

In her resignation letter shown to the Manchester Evening News, Ms MacLean wrote:  'I am no longer able to be part of a local leadership that has defended [former Rochdale MP] Simon Danczuk , voted for 34% councillor allowances in a time of austerity and now, most importantly, defend the current Council Leader of Rochdale Council around the issue of CSA.'

Rochdale Labour Party may be in power and in office, but it is not a very united entity.

*   A hatchery is a facility where eggs are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish or poultry. It may be used for ex-situ conservation purposes, i.e. to breed rare or endangered species under controlled conditions; alternatively, it may be for economic reasons (i.e. to enhance food supplies or fishery resources).

******

Rochdale Labour Party Split?

ROCHDALE LABOUR PARTY, according to sources inside the party, is for all practical purposes split in two.  Following the local elections on May 3rd, the Labour councillors voted to re-elect Councillor Brett as their leader and therefore the Council leader by 29 to 16.

Since then, a meeting of the local Heywood and Middleton Constituency Labour Party (CLP) members has voted by 32 to 1 against Coucillor Brett, on the grounds that he has brought the party into disrepute, owing to his recorded comments about possible discrimination in how road repairs are conducted in the town.  

It is believed that elements within the party with entrenched cultural preoccupations in central Rochdale have been propping-up Councillor Brett in face of his critics.  One source close to the Labour Party told Northern Voices that there are now two Labour Parties in Rochdale.

On the 16th, December last year, the NV Blog in a story entitled 'Musical Chairs on Rochdale Council' reported:
'COUNCILLOR Allen Brett, Coun Farnell’s deputy, got the job as leader of Rochdale Council, after he was nominated by Councillor Sara Rowbotham and seconded by Councillor Neil Emmott,  The motion for Allen Brett to become Coucil leader was also supported by Councillor Ashley Dearnley and a number of  Conservaties.'  

Since then on the 5th, May this year, over a hundred 'grass-roots' Rochdale Labour Party members from 18 local wards issued an open letter calling for fresh leadership 'to take the borough forward'.

******

Councillor Furlong may be praying for rain!

YESTERDAY, after appearing before an independent panel, the Middleton Labour Councillor Chris Furlong  confirmed that he has not been reselected to stand in the May 2018 local election.

 

Councillor Furlong has said:  'I will not be standing anywhere next year.  I will continue as Labour councillor until May 2018 for the people of North Middleton.  I will continue to work hard and stand up for the people of North Middleton as best as I can, which I have done since 2014.'

The councillor continued to say:
'There has been speculation regards the reason of why I did not appeal the decision not to allow me on the Labour selection panel for next year’s local election.  I did originally appeal, and it was an appeal I thought that I would be successful with.  However, I decided to withdraw that appeal.'

All of the above was reported on Rochdale online, but what was not reported was Councillor Furlong's final paragraph:

'I have been informed that there may be information that may be made public during the forthcoming Cambridge House/Knowl View Inquiry about an individual.  I would like to point out that the individual in question is not me or anyone actually connected with me and this information was not even provided by me, however, this information has helped me come to the decision to withdraw my appeal.  I cannot say any more until after the inquiry when I will expand further on why this information helped me decide not to appeal and I will not be making any further comment until then.'

Given the continuing dire speculation surrounding the position of the Labour leader of Rochdale Council, Richard Farnell, with regard to what may come out of the forthcoming enquiry into Knowl View school, it may be that Councillor Furlong is being a trifle tactical here, and even, dare one say it, praying for rain?

******

Professional Politicians & Political Gravy Train

by Les May

A week or so ago a someone who has no liking for politicians rang me to say that he had come across a ‘tweet’ saying the Liz McInnes would no be standing as a candidate for the Heywood and Middleton seat at the general election.   The reason she gave was that she is not a ‘professional politician’.  But as my caller pointed out we need more MPs like that.  That is more MPs who are not ‘professional’ politicians.

You have only to look at McInnes’s Wikipedia page to see that she became an MP after nearly 35 years working in a quite different sphere of life.   And why she chose to stand for Labour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_McInnes

If you want to see the consummate ‘professional’ politician in action look no further than the MP in the neighbouring constituency of Rochdale.  Ever since Danczuk was elected in 2010 he has ‘milked’ his position for all it’s worth.  It’s not just the pay-offs from the Daily Mail for his contribution to articles attacking Corbyn or the cash he has received for revelations about his private life which have appeared in The Sun which are part of this process.   His book about Cyril Smith is so full of fanciful assertions masquerading as ‘facts’, so repetitious, so full of ‘flowery flannel’, that it is unlikely that it would have found a publisher had he not been an MP.

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

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

Whilst his predecessor Cyril Smith was an apologist for the asbestos industry he does not seem to have taken ‘freebies’ such as Danczuk has taken from another killer industry, tobacco.   No one has ever suggested that Liz McInnes has ever behaved like that.

But finally Simon’s antics have caught up with him and he will not be a Labour candidate for Rochdale in the upcoming election. That doesn’t mean the ‘pay days’ are at an end of course but no one is going to be dishing out heaps of cash for his views on the Labour leadership. But it’s worth pointing out that contrary to the stories coming from some sources he has not been ‘banned’ from standing as a Labour candidate.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-latest-simon-danczuk-banned-labour-party-rochdale-karen-danczuk-a7712241.html

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/01/labour-bans-rochdale-mp-simon-danczuk-from-standing-in-election

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/exclusive-labour-expels-danczuk.html

What the NEC actually said is ‘After considering the case of Simon Danczuk in detail and speaking to him in an interview, the Labour party’s NEC endorsement panel today unanimously recommended that he should not be endorsed as a Labour candidate.’  This would seem to neatly get round the question of a ‘legal challenge’.  Natural justice would seem to have been served.  And if he does decide to stand as a candidate in opposition to Labour he will have sacked himself neatly resolving the question about whether his suspension from Labour should be lifted.

So it seems that there is only one bit of unfinished business yet to be resolved.  That’s the investigation by the Metropolitan Police into the little matter of the £11,000 Simon had to repay because he was not entitled to it.

Guilty by Association!

by John Wilkins

ON reading Andrew Wastling's character assassination of Rochdale Councillors in Northern Voices, I was inclined to make a plea of mitigating circumstances for a tiny minority of them. However I, like several thousand residents, have already told the Council Leader in a petition and many in letters, how concerned we were to hear they (the councillors) had agreed to accept pay rises between 34 & 51%.  Basic Maths (without the need for a calculator) shows that equates to a rise of 4.25% pa. rise over the eight years when there has been minimal change in allowances. Surely a compromise of 8% now and implementing the full rise in allowances when the number of councillors is reduced from 60 to 40 might have been acceptable to residents.

Sorry I used a 'C' word there, compromise, which along with other 'C' words consultation, co-operation and compassion appear missing from the vocabulary of many councillors.  The 'd' word, democracy, is also missing from the Council Leader's vocabulary.  Why else would he stifle his Labour colleagues opinion on the issue by imposing a whip to make them vote for the rises without even the option of abstaining?  Andrew's description was more colourful “bullying air of entitlement & arrogant self justification.”   The word arrogant is an appellation is one which does fit some, but not all councillors, perhaps spineless at worst or lacking an independent mind fits a few others though.

I will make a case for the defence of some councillors because it is oh so easy for us to criticise people in public office when, as with myself, they have not tried to get elected.  Two Liberal Councillors voted against the rises. I understand four Labour councillors were 'indisposed' and one, there may be more, councillor has told me he voted on party lines but has informed the leader he would not be taking the increase personally.

Ability to listen to residents and even seek out their views should be a requirement for all politicians.  When have canvassed in the past for would - be councillors, the candidate and myself always sought out resident's views and used questionnaires as a tool to find out their concerns. In nearly 10 years residing in Middleton South Ward I think I might have seen just one leaflet asking for my views. This has not stopped me asking THEM questions and inviting them to meetings on important issues such as TTIP and Inequality. Possibly too complicated for them to have an opinion! One of my councillors has never replied to 6/7 letters I have sent, another responded once after I visited his constituent's surgery. The third, bless him naively being new, replied to me when asked if if the immense cost of developing Rochdale Town Centre was warranted and if so would Middleton, Heywood and other satellite towns have similar funding for projects. He also quickly responded to a more mundane request for leaves to be cleared in a stretch of pavement used by the elderly.

A Community hub in Middleton Town Centre called the Lighthouse Project had to re-locate twice in 12 months firstly from the Warwick Mill and then from the Cromer Mill in North Middleton. The Lighthouse offers activities for a variety of people from elderly, single dads through to unemployed. The latter have benefited hugely from the free use of computers to do their job searches, getting a warm welcome (including a cuppa!) and advice. The Lighthouse along with other community centres in the town means there has been less strain on social services and fewer 'I Daniel Blakes'.  Why is this relevant you ask. Well its original location was in my ward and none of the councillors I mentioned have been of any real help to the enterprise and surprise, surprise, none of them replied to my letters of concern nor to other Middleton residents I know. Common courtesy would say these councillors should at least acknowledge receipt of correspondence, even if they feel unable to help or disagree with comments. There I go again I used a 'C' word Courtesy.

Fast forward to the recent Open Day to show the facilities in the Lighthouse plus the Foodbank and a wheelchair hire facility which share their premises.  The only councillors I saw there during the 4 hours I was there were two of the councillors I previously said were indisposed for the vote on allowances.  One of these showed his vocabulary had the 'c' word compassion, spending time advising a woman who had been made homeless.  The other renewed his commitment to raise money for the venture.  The Monday afterwards this councillor attended an open meeting on Mental Health organised by our non politically aligned campaign group.  The councillor who said he would not take up his increased allowance also fulfilled a promise to attend. For Andrew's benefit all three of these councillors also work full time so they are not 'de-skilled' as he puts it.

Andrew said:  'Many (Councillors) appear to  have little or no respect for anyone but themselves and their evident contempt for the voters will without a doubt cost many of them their seats to independents in the next local elections'.

Sorry Andrew, Richard Farnell does not agree with you, as he thinks the electorate have short memories and will have forgotten about the issue by next May's elections.

Andrew you and I and other like minded residents need to find suitable candidates whether independents, or from parties other than the current ruling elite.  They need to be supported then to rid the Council of some of the 'dead wood' there at the moment.  I hope we can find candidates who can LISTEN and can claim to have most of the c' s: compassion, ability to co-operate, a belief in consultation, blessed with courtesy and the ability to compromise.

'Always Look On The Sour Side of Life'

How Ken Loach Renders Reality on Film

Reviewing  'I, Daniel Blake' & the impact of 'Social Realism'

by Brian Bamford

Reverend David Grey, a former friar, at Ashton Jobcentre

THE film Ken Loach's 'I, Daniel Blake' had the biggest domestic opening of its director's career with receipts of more than £2 million after its first three weeks.  Audiences predictably have been massive in Newcastle where the film is staged.  But also on social media, where the hashtag #iamdanielblake took off.   It is to be released in the USA on December 23^rd.

The Euro-septic MP, Iain Duncan Smith at one point complained that the film was unkind to the staff at the job-centres and benefit offices, who were enforcing the sanctions which is central to the film's message.

As things turned out audiences in this country have been flocking to see the film, which portrays the difficulties experienced by a Newcastle joiner with an heart condition trying to make sense of the British benefit's system. 

Working class culture has a rich tradition in many post-war British films.  In 1996 I interviewed Jim Allen, one of Ken Loach's screen-writers and a former building site worker, who had just collaborated with Loach on the film 'Land & Freedom' about the Spanish Civil War, and had previously worked with him on 'Raining Stones' (1993). 

At that time in an essay entitled 'Rendering Reality on Film: art and the emotion racket' (The Raven, Spring 1996), I wrote:   

'... in Raining Stones in 1993 (based on a council estate in Middleton, Greater Manchester), they are  concerned with the problems of survival on the dole in Britain today.  How to get by on a council estate amid the loan sharks and drug pushers.  Making out and leading a decent family life, in the aftermath of an era of social blight and desperation for the poor that shows  no sign of ending in the near future.'

Loach himself is uneasy about being identified with 'social realism' because he thinks it pigeon-holes his films puts off the public, he has said:  'It's a way for critics to isolate someone's work... As a film-maker you just want people to come with an open mind.'

Some doubt the accuracy and truth of the events in the film, although Mr Iain Duncan Smith has given a radio interview in which he said:that the film showed 'the very worst of anything that could happen'.

The benefit agencies and jobcentres have long been held responsible for inflicting suffering upon people at the bottom of society's pile.  Only last week the National Audit Office which found that  the Government spent £147 million more on administering the system than was saved through sanctions.  In my capacity as a Trade Union Council Secretary in Tameside, Manchester, I recently wrote to Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS union that represents jobcentre workers:

'...  the protests at Ashton Jobcentre are now in their second year...  During the last two-years, staff working at Ashton Jobcentre, have made numerous complaints that they have felt threatened by protests taking place outside Ashton Jobcentre.  While this has often led to police intervention, no protestor has ever been arrested, cautioned, or rebuked in anyway.  The police have often considered these complaints, as time-wasting or baseless...  You may be interested to know that on one occasion, the Reverend David Grey, a former friar from Gorton Monastery, entered Ashton Jobcentre dressed in clerical vestments (see picture) to offer staff spiritual guidance and counselling..  We were later told that the Jobcentre had summoned the police on the pretext that staff felt threatened and intimidated by this man of God.'

This kind of corny confrontation between the British benefit bureaucracy and the claimants has been going on for as long as I can remember.  It's an authentic long-running farce played out daily up and down the country.  Towards the end of the film, Daniel Blake asks to sign-off as a claimant saying that applying for work with a heart condition like his was just wasting everyone's time and only served to humiliate him as a claimant.   The film critic Antonia Quirke has written:  'Very few people can hit you in the thoracic cavity like Loach.  Of course I cried, as I always do...'.

This is what my mother would have called a 'tear jerker' or Bertold Brecht the 'emotion racket', but while social realism may scare some off the cinema Danny Leigh in the Financial Times suggests:

'That is the essence of modern social realism – a place on the screen for people often seen as statistics'.

The film has already won the Palm d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and has scored as  a hit at the British box office. 

Jim Allen: Perdition surpressed in Britain!

Read an Interview conducted with Jim Allen conducted in 1995 and a Obituary on World Socialist Web Site.

Sent in by Trevor Hoyle

Reviewing Jim Allen of Middleton, Greater Manchester

THE first attempts to show Jim Allen's play Perdition in Britain and Ireland resulted in it being banned. It was first surpressed in London during 1987, after fierce protests from Zionists forced the Royal Court in London, England to pull the play 48 hours before it's preview. It has since been described as "the most controversial play of the 1980s" (1).
Allen, a longtime creative partner of the British film maker Ken Loach, wrote the award winning films Hidden Agenda, Raining Stones and Land and Freedom. Loach was also to have directed Perdition at the Royal Court. After Jim Allen died in June 1999, Loach said in his obituary in The Guardian (27th June 1999) that "One of the pleasures of his last days was its current successful revival at the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill". Loach summed up the story behind the play: it was how "some Zionists" in Hungary in 1944 had done a deal with the Nazi's:

"In which a certain number of Jews would be allowed to escape to Palestine in return for silence about the destination of those bound for the concentration camps".

Loach also observed how previous attacks on Allen and the play:

"Were as nothing compared to the Zionist fury unleashed when the play was being rehearsed. To Jim's disgust, and to the shame of the Royal Court, the play was withdrawn. Crude charges of anti-Semitism were discounted by critics when the play was heard in public at the Edinburgh Festival".

In a 1995 interview, immediately following the release of Land and Freedom, Barbara Slaughter and Vicky Short interviewed Allen who recounted the problems he had putting on the play. The full text of the interview can be seen on the World Socialist Web Site.

World Socialist Web Site: Could you tell us about the problems you had with Perdition, your play about Zionist collaboration with Hitler's Nazis? Perdition was a very bad experience. I got my bank statement the other day and my overdraft, the lowest it's been, is now £3,000 despite the fact that I've written about four films in six years. We were £20,000 out of pocket for the libel action and that's a killer. A publisher was involved and he paid a lot. But it's very time consuming. I've followed this for six years.
I got an apology from the Telegraph and £5,000, which didn't cover anything.
We never got it on the stage except a shortened version at the Edinburgh film festival, where it appeared for one night. The bloke who put it on said, "I've never ever known such pressure, I'm a nervous wreck. The phone never stopped ringing, from all over the world." One Zionist leader in London said to Ken Loach, "I've got six friends who are very powerful, and we'll stop it going out."
A big producer in the West End did agreed to stage it. Within 24 hours he phoned back and said to Ken, "I'm sorry, forget it, I've had phone calls telling me if I put Perdition on, I will never open again on Broadway. I'm sorry."
The campaign they orchestrated with the press was incredible. It was attacked in America. I was sent a 20,000 word article printed in the New Republic. I replied in 1,000 words to make sure I got it in. Three months later I got a letter back saying, "You will be given the same liberty as any other writer in our magazine" - 100 words or something, in our letter column.
Arising out of that came the libel action. For two years I think my earnings were about £10 a week, plus I was going through a bad time personally because of my wife's illness-phone calls, abuse. You've got no idea what it was like.
A group of us put it on for a week in London, in some secular society. We showed the shortened version. It was packed, mainly by Jewish people, because this was a chapter of their history they didn't know, like Land and Freedom for the Spanish people. I am not exaggerating, there were some people crying, old people, because of the facts that came out in the play about the Zionists doing everything they could to disorganise the Jews, in Hungary, etc. I said to Ken, "If ever I win the lottery the first thing I'll do is hire a theatre and put it on." Apart from that there is no chance.  

Thus, we see the reason for the plays controversy: it shows how some of the leaders of the Zionist movement in occupied Europe collaborated with the Nazi's in the Final Solution of the Jewish people of Hungary. The play is based on an infamous libel trial in Israel during the 1950s, and centres on the head of the Zionist Rescue Committee, Rudolf Kasztner. He sued a pamphleteer for claiming that he help the Nazi's exterminate 500,000 of his own people after admitting to negotiating with the the SS war criminal Adolph Eichmann for the safe passage out of Hungary of just 2000 Jews - many of whom were Zionists from his home town in Hungary.
When the play has been shown again in London, the controversy was reawakened. Elliot Levey, the Jewish actor who directed the new production, said: "It is not historically inaccurate". However, Zionists again attempted to apply maximum pressure to have the play stopped. In a letter to The Guardian (April 26th 1999), David Menton of the Union of Jewish Students suggested that the play was both "Holocaust revisionism" and therefore "one of the most vicious forms of anti-Semitism". He also cites the author David Cesarani as condemning the play for its "revisionism".
Neville Nagler, the director general of the Board of Deputies of British Jews claimed in a letter to The Guardian (April 26th 1999), that Perdition was a "travesty of reality" and "grossly distorts historical fact". But does it ? The main argument of the critics, is that Perdition should be banned because they claim that the basis of which the play is based is historically inaccurate, and therefore is "holocaust revisionism".

For more go to  http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/kasztner.htm