Time to move on...

Morley is a small town and inevitably small town politics can be very parochial. Every week, I read the local rag and think whether any of the stories and goings on are worth the effort of putting up here. As I am somewhat out of the local political limelight these days I can often only guess at the real stories behind the local news.

Rather than struggling to keep the posts interesting and topical here, I think that now it is time to put away the Morleygate soapbox and move on.

This blog is going to be retired and future posts about Morley (and anything else that takes my fancy) will appear at Shades of Grey, my regular blog.

My thanks to those of you who have dropped by and added their tuppence worth along the way, it has been interesting.

Always leave the audience wanting more is an old showbiz saying, so I leave you with a video- featuring the bus ride from Tingley Bar to the side of Morley Town Hall.

(The whole world is on YouTube somewhere...)

Hurrah!

Some activity on the Town Council website. Lots of links broken within the pages, but most of the Home ones lead somewhere. Meeting dates are up and even a smattering of Agendas for recent meetings. Minutes would be useful...

This Blog is now on holiday until September, as is Shades of Grey.


...unless something particularly interesting happens in Morley, worthy of mention. (& not Terry Grayshon going to a Garden Party).

Town Council Notice Board

Well, it seems to be in use now, there are a few Morley in Bloom posters in it and a thank you letter from a trader. No "Official" notices in it though, the July meetings list is still on the main board near the streetmap

Sounds expensive...

News reaches me that Town Councillors might be going to vote themselves expenses or allowances.

Cllr Sanders (the new Mayor) has regularly complained about not getting reimbursed for all of the letters and phone calls she makes whilst cajoling the landlords down at Morley Bottoms. The previous Finance committees have always knocked it back however, on point of principle. The reason for this is that Parish Councillors are not allowed by law to claim expenses for anything undertaken within the Parish. (They can, however, claim for items outside the boundary, e.g. for travelling to a training day in Leeds). Councillors are at liberty to make phone calls from the Town Council Office, or take post there to be franked.

It is now possible, however, to get an independent renumeration panel to set allowable sums. This comes at a cost, of course. The cost of paying it to all the Councillors (regardless of participation) and the cost of administering the scheme. Already there are rumours of a new Admin Assistant as the Real Admin assistant is covering for the Town Clerk who is on long term sick leave.

The biggest cost will be in the pockets of those who pay Morley Town Council precept. It doesn't sound to me as though there is much cutting of cloth to suit the means, 2006/7 is already a deficit budget drawing on reserves.

I have a softcopy of the previous position of the Finance and General Purposes Committee on Councillor expenses:

• Morley Town Council commenced in May 2000. At that time, it was understood that elected members of town and parish councils are unpaid, as the bodies are the first tier of local government.

• Councillors could claim for mileage and subsistence expenses if performing an approved duty outside the council boundaries (conferences etc.) No allowances were paid for attendance at meetings, committees or any other approved duty within the town council area.

• New regulations came into force on 1st May 2003. These allow for a basic allowance to be paid to members of a town council. This allowance is separate from the travel and subsistence expenses referred to above.

• The basic allowance is calculated to cover the expenses which are associated with the basic duties of being a local councillor.

• The basic allowance is set by a parish remuneration panel. Such a body must be set up by the responsible body, in our case this would be Leeds City Council.
The panel could only be established if requested to do so by a town or parish council.

• The cost of setting up a remuneration panel would be £900 approx. This cost would be met by the councils requesting it (i.e. one council would pay the full cost, nine councils would pay £100 each etc.)

To date, and to the best of my knowledge, such a panel has not been requested by any of the local councils within the Leeds Metropolitan District.

• The new rules were published by the National Association of Local Councils as Legal Topic Note 24. These were considered by Morley Town Council’s Finance & General Purposes Committee at our meeting held on 13th November 2003.

• At that meeting it was proposed that the existing payments for travel and subsistence be maintained, and we would also ask that a dependent carers allowance be considered for members having caring responsibilities. It was agreed that this would be put forward to the Independent Remuneration Panel as part of a joint submission by the Yorkshire Local Council Association.

• We did not support the payment of a basic allowance to members of Morley Town Council.

• These resolutions were approved at the full meeting of Morley Town Council held on 17th December 2003.

• The regulations (The Local Authorities (Members’ Allowances)(England) 2003) do not make provision for the payment of personal expenses incurred by individual elected members.

• It must be emphasied that the allowances as detailed apply only to approved duties, i.e. activities that the Council has asked a councillor to undertake.

My position on this is simple. If you want an allowance to be a Councillor, stand for Leeds City Council. Morley Town Council does not have any real responsibility or authority and most of the money (which comes entirely from Morleians) goes on admin & double taxation. If MTC ever gets any truly devolved responsibilities (and the funding to go with it) then there may be a case. Otherwise One Million Pounds (and counting) is not good value for a talking shop and civic pride programme.

(You can see an example renumeration panel assessment here, .pdf file)

Letter of complaint

Nigel Bywater of Airedale Terrace grumbles in the paper this week about the lack of notice for the annual general meeting (I think he means the Town Meeting). The office advised him that it had been on the Notice Board for three days, all that they are required to do. He also grumbled that it hadn't been publicised on the email Forum (and perhaps doesn't realise that it has been deleted). He pointed out Leeds website areas about encouraging local participation.

He asks what the MBIs will do to put this right. I await next week's letters with interest.

A big name for Morley!

If you don't ask, you don't get...

Town Council rather quiet...

I'm having withdrawal symptoms. I don't get agendas through the letterbox any more. I don't really know who is on what committee. There is sod-all about it in the papers, apart from caped photo-ops. The website is moribund. The discussion list was killed off. The new notice board is bereft. I don't know what they are plotting. No newsletters for a while now.

Is nobody interested? Probably not. As someone said to me recently- "is so & so on the Town council, or the proper one?".

One million Pounds, and counting...

Obtiser letters

Robert Finnigan replies:

Actions speak for themselves (Journalist headline)

YOU have recently printed letters from BNP councillor Chris Beverley and former Independent councillor Stewart McArdle criticising the Morley Borough Independents. Both claim to avoid publicity yet are quick to use the newspapers to further their own self-promotion – thereby using the same process they condemn others for using.
The Morley Borough Independents will continue to work hard to deliver on the programme that got them elected and will not be detracted from this work by those who chose to bicker in the newspapers.

Finally, contrary to BNP Coun Beverley’s report last week, the ‘A’ Frame on Millbeck Approach is being partially financed by Morley Borough Independent Coun Terry Grayshon. We believe that in such cases actions speak much louder than words.

COUN ROBERT FINNIGAN

MORLEY BOROUGH INDEPENDENT

I think it succeeds in making Chris Beverley look stupid. It doesn't actually challenge any of Stewart's points though...

Ripples from Stewart Mc's letter last week

A couple of letters, but not eactly earth shattering.

The first is from Derek Bradley and I think his flowery prose obscures the message somewhat.

Stewart McArdle's valedictory letter encompassed many views which he has long held and, more importantly, has long applied.
Indeed Rudyard Kipling may have coined the phrase "true to his salt" for such people throughout the world, not just the Indian continent.
His is correct also in his forecast that being "a true independent" is to commit political suicide in Morley, think Slingsby, think Welham!
Would your readers, if not Stewart, accept that "a rose by any other name
would smell as sweet"?
The larger picture on Morley Town Council is that, yes, they all come under the same banner, but the various elected councillors have different issues introduced to them by our citizens which they must pursue if they are true to the promise they made to supporters during the run up to the last election.
Stewart infers that now we are congregated under the one party banner then the party will decide what to push and what to discard.
This must not be confused with a councillor independently pursuing a citizen's concerns, either direct to the relevant department of Leeds City Council or, by choice, within the committees of Morley Town Council.
This keeps the citizen informed and safe in the knowledge that will apply to future concerns also.
I have been following this simple axiom since council year 2000.
DEREK BRADLEY
MBI, Scatcherd Ward
MORLEY TOWN COUNCIL

Meanwhile, Chris Beverley of the BNP City Councillor responds (but not to follow up any of the allegations he made). A strange mixture of tongue in cheek parody and pot calling kettle blackism.

Stewart McArdle's letter in last week's Observer and Advertiser shed some well needed light on the inner workings of the Morley Borough Independents Party.
Mr McArdle spoke about the endless press releases and letters sent out by the MBIs in order to create the illusion that they are responsible for the work of others. A perfect example of this can be found in last week's paper with the article entitled 'New move to solve motorcycle problem.'
The implication is that the Morley Borough Independents have been responsible for these measures. As usual, however, that is not the case. For a start, the ginnel that is to benefit from the A-frame deterrent is on Millside Walk, not Millbeck Approach. The MBI's have not even checked their facts before trying to claim credit for other people's work.
I have been in touch with a number of local residents from this area over the past year regarding the continued problems with anti-social behaviour associated with this ginnel, which includes the issue of the illegal riding of motorbikes through it.
I have liaised with the local police and also youth workers who have targeted this area, and I have also been in touch with various council officers and departments with a view to the possibility of having the ginnel closed altogether (which a considerable number of local residents want) or at least to have the issue of illegal motorbike riding addressed through
such measures as those discussed above.
I was happy to recently find out that an 'A'-frame has been approved for this location, which should at least stop motorbikes being ridden through this ginnel, if not address the other related problems. Whilst I am happy with this result, I had not intended to send out a press release about this, as I believe that councillors should spend their time just getting on with their job and helping people with issues like this, and less time crowing about such achievements in the press.
Nevertheless, if people would prefer to see an MBI-style comedy press release from me regarding this issue, complete with a photo of me grinning and pointing at the newly-installed A-frame, please let me know and I will see what I can do. I might even invite the MBIs along for the photo-shoot!
COUN CHRIS BEVERLEY
British National Party
MORLEY SOUTH, LEEDS CITY COUNCIL

Meanwhile, Morleytoday.co.uk gives errors whilst morleyobserver.co.uk goes through (although the site is actually still widely based around morleytoday.co.uk URLs at present).

Perhaps the paper have wised up that "MorleyToday" was more realistically "MorleyLastWeek" and maybe a name change might be in the offing?

UPDATE: Morleytoday.co.uk working again- it just seems rather flaky at times.

MBIs help labour shock

The letters page Councillor thank yous are now coming to an end, although there was another "Uriah Heep" humbled one.

Ex-Councillor Stuart McArdle has a letter in the Obtiser that comes as a surprise...


perhaps the revelation that the MBI's were delivering leaflets for Labour candidate Jack Dunn will come as a shock to many.


Read the whole thing HERE

As suspected, MBIs now have a lot more clout on the Leeds minority administration.

Councillor training I'd like to see...

Burning our money

I'm a fan of the Burning our money blog, which has the following strapline:

They spend 43% of our income, yet fail to deliver decent services. They promise prosperity, yet tax and regulate our economy into stasis. They talk up social justice, yet consign millions to welfare dependency.

Enough is enough. We the peasants demand our high-spending, high-living, conflicted politicos mend their ways.

The scary figures quoted on Wat's blog make the expenditure figures of Morley Town Council look somewhat trivial. However, they have a habit of adding up...

In an earlier posting, I guesstimated the tax hit on Morleians to be round about the £1m mark. I was fairly close:

2000/01 £104,870
2001/02 £104,870
2002/03 £104,870
2003/04 £152,900
2004/05 £166,661
2005/06 £166,661
2006/07 £171,650
2007/08 £171,650

TOTAL £1,144,132

This is from the local authority precept which is applied as a supplement to the council tax at various ratios depending upon the house banding. (Blogged before: The default band D is £17.85).

The 2007/8 budget is for about £220k so the taxation isn't enough and reserves are being drawn on. This isn't sustainable, of course, in the longer term the Council will need to cut its cloth or dig deeper into our pockets.

Now £17.85 doesn't sound a lot, but £1.14 Million does, especially when a lot of it goes on double-taxation for things we supposedly already pay for, like local policing and keeping the parks tidy.

I'd question spending more than a Monkey's worth of Wonga on crockery as well!

Political punks...

A strange tome in my Inbox...

Went to vote, and noticed there was a Paul Cook standing in our ward

"Oh", I quipped "He used to be drummer with the Sex Pistols."

Later when I saw the results, I saw Stephen Jones had also been elected.

" Ah", I opined. "He was the Sex Pistols guitarist"

Needless to say, I scanned the rest of the results eagerly.

Nearest I could find was J.Beverley. Sid Vicious' real name was John Beverley, so that'll do.

Now all we need is a Rotten councillor... :)

Missing in action...

The Morley Town Council mailing list has disappeared. No announcements or apologies, just deletion.

Karen (The Wife one) says it might have been deleted by mistake, but this is very unlikely as when you choose the delete list option it goes through an are you sure? consequences routine.

It would seem that someone perhaps doesn't like the potential risk of what could be posted up there, e.g. opinions that don't align with the party line and are therefore "inappropriate" in PC speak.

It wasn't a particularly good mailing list, being inactive for long periods and populated by the usual suspects with entrenched opinions.

However, it was a communication channel for many Morleians and even had admirers from visitors abroad. To delete it unannounced in such a fashion is immature, childish, petty and vindictive. It is the sort of thing the Labour Party would do, not the new occupants of the "Morley Numptorium"...

Uriah Heep

The First post's Mole says that for Gordon Brown to be "truly humbled" whilst he (and his team) has been vigourously and ruthlessly getting MPs to get them to sign up to him is cynical in the extreme.

There is a curious parallel here- Terry Grayshon wrote a letter to the Obtiser last week saying he was also very humbled- whilst the MBI SWAT team spent time off work three weeks before the election targeting hundreds of voters with personalised letters, presumably up to the limit of their allowable expenditure.

I don't mean to tar the MBIs with the same brush as Labour, they couldn't even get anywhere close to being as manipulative, sleazy, callous or downright shady in their pursuit of power. I think it is just an unfortunate choice of words with the benefit of hindsight.

Having said that, the MBIs still want to be strong on News Management- there is a letter from Gareth Beevers that reads as though it has been written by others. (You get the feel for these things when you know the people involved).

Anyway, Terry "Uriah" Grayshon has been elected as Deputy Town Mayor. He has joked about it for the last three years and now it is likely to happen.

(The Town Mayor for this year is Joyce Sanders, no surprises there.)

The Abolish Morley Town Council Party?

Interesting goings on at Bury St. Edmunds...

could it happen in Morley?

is it worth the circa £1,000,000 collected in precept taxes since formation?

One million pounds. food for thought...

Worth a look...

http://republicofhydepark.blogspot.com/index.html

A Councillor's view on the Leeds minority power struggle (that the MBIs could tip the balance on).

Presumptive Press

The Morley Obtiser has a story on the front page about the forthcoming literature festival in October.

In it, it describes the Deputy Mayoress, Joyce Sanders, as the Mayor-elect.

Seeing as how the meeting appointing her would not take place until today at 7pm, it is extremely presumptious of the paper as the Mayor is decided by who the Councillors vote for.

However, with 23 Morley Borough Independents and only one dissenting voice in Joanne Beverley, BNP Member, it is pretty much a given other than interference from an act of God.

(Traditionally the Labour Group would propose Stuart Welham in a bit of mischief making but that won't happen for the next four years).

On the basis of near unanimity, will the MBIs dispense with their behind closed doors pre-meeting? There is no longer any justification to have to stage manage the meetings these days.

On another note, i wonder who the deputy Town Mayor will be? Suitability is based on both inclination and capability, not just longevity. My guess is Wenda Whitehead...

Back from the edge...

UKIPhome site went rather quickly. It is now back as DroogieBlog, written in Nadsat.

Get your oranges out and wind the key...

http://www.droogie.com

You might need to load the dictionary/translator...

Morley Annual Town meeting...

...will be held on Tuesday 15th May at 6pm in the Town Hall.

Diddly-squit publicity though, apart from the statutory announcement on the Town Hall notice Board (undated)- no agenda given.

I'm not even certain that I was aware of it as a Councillor pre- May 3rd, although I have the recall capability of a goldfish these days!

I wouldn't expect there to be a particularly high turnout for this meeting. It is a statutory obligation but doesn't achieve a great deal.

Other Obtiser articles

In the paper, BNP Councillor Nick Griffin describes how the other parties " behaved disgracefully " during the campaign, presumably referring to the Searchlight leaflets and the anti-BNP slant of the Labour leaflets.

A little bird tells me, however, that the police contacted him during the election to enquire about what the MBIs had put out that was supposedly illegal and libellous as the leaflet claimed that the police had been contacted and nothing had been heard at Morley Police Station. His reply was to the effect of he had no idea what it was about...

In amongst the thanks to the electorate by various candidates, there is a letter from Derek Bradley's Wife, Hazel, commiserating for the stalwarts who had lost their seat.

IN writing to thank the many voters who have had the confidence in us to represent their interests in our town and Scatcherd ward, our thoughts turn to two former town council stalwarts who will no longer represent parts of the Morley electorate.
I refer, of course to Mrs Amy Teale and Stuart A Welham.
My husband tells me of Amy's unfailing courtesy whenever addressing councillors within and out of the council chamber. Her questions on issues were well researched and penetrating and she always appeared to have the support of her fellow councillors. She always led from the front.
How do you condense 45 years political service into a few lines? With great difficulty.
Stuart served the people of Morley unswervingly both on our old, illustrious borough council as a Labour councillor, thence on to our new town council as an independent since inception in year 2000.
He regularly brought some of the traditional wordplay of the borough before the new town council and - by so doing - reminded us all of the right way and the wrong way to address the Councils a body.
For many years he was chairman of the Highways Committee and always made sure the interests of our citizens was of prime importance, indeed paramount.
His being fluent in German also suggests his motto could well be "ich dien" (I serve) - and he did, too.
We shall miss more councillors in the future. Let us hope they have elegies such as these.
COUN MRS H P BRADLEY
Scatcherd Ward,
Morley Town Council

The letter has the tone of being written by Derek himself and the praise for Amy seems a bit over the top- she frequently demonstrated that she was clueless on procedural matters and could get hopelessly muddled if the meeting strayed off-message from the briefing. This is someone who thought that converting a former toilet block to a Cafe couldn't be allowed because it would be a health hazard...

The praise for Stuart Welham is also somewhat over the top- although I admired his political incorectness, he would frequently make derogatory comments of others that were clearly audible but discreetly ignored for the sake of an easy time of it. He also typified the area in his hubris- You can always tell a Yorkshireman but you cannot tell him much...

Tories put the boot in Gordon Brown

(I've seen better, but it gave me a small wry smile)

Newspaper Editor thinks MBI need a name change...

Bob Evans, the Editor of the Morley Obtiser, offers an opinion on Quasi-Independence.

The big winner, both in town and city polls, was the Morley Borough Independents. They took both Morley North and South in the city elections and became the major player in the town elections.
Perhaps now it is time for the MBI to consider a change of party name.
The Collins English dictionary quotes independent as: "free from control in action; judgement" and "not dependent on anything else for function, validity, etc".
With the continued rise of the MBI, it would be hard to argue that it is now not a political party in its own right. Perhaps "The Morley Party" or "The Morley Alliance" would be more appropriate.

You can read the full article HERE (if their flaky website is working).

Bob, it is a party in its own right- see the electoral commission. Their accounts are online as well.

(They did it to get recognised status as a grouping on Leeds City Council).

The lean green sewing machine

On the way to the election count last friday, I wandered down to the library as I was a little early. I noticed that the Labour HQ had been fitted with new doors and windows so I took a snap.

On reviewing my photos, I now notice that the Watermelonmobile is parked up, so CCMP was in.


News reaches me of more gossip on how he was nobbled to make way for Ed Balls. The "plot" is currently on Times Online

Morley Town Council results

The Morley results ARE published, just in a more obscure bit of their website.

Figures are not given for the electorate or the number of ballot papers so I have based the percentage figure on the highest number of votes received plus the number of spoilt papers. As voters could vote for any number of candidates up to the maximum (3, 4 or 5) and quite a few voted for zero without the papers being classed as spoilt, there were a much higher number of voters than the figure may suggest.

(I will request the details from Leeds).


In Central Ward, BNP came second and fourth, with Labour third. In Churwell, BNP came last.


BNP came second and Labour third in Elmfield, I expect that a fourth MBI would have succeeded in this Ward, but they presumably deferred to Stuart Welham who did rather badly as an Independent, coming in second last to Albert Slingsby.
In Scatcherd, BNP came second and there wasn't any candidates to come third!

Note that there is a clear percentage gap between MBI and BNP.

In Teale, BNP beat Labour and the two (BNP) Independents came last. In Topcliffe, BNP came a closer second but beat Labour in their heartlands.

Town Council results

...still not up on the Leeds Website so analysis will have to wait.

The winner results are up on the Town council website though, which looks rather similar to the MBI site list (which doesn't include the BNP Councillor, unsurprisingly).

The site has been updated but doesn't have too much content yet.

It is also broken under firefox...

Town Council gets a new notice board

No, that isn't whitewash, it is protective paper on the perspex.

Results- a closer look.

Here are the official results for Morley North & South, images from a spreadsheet. I've postulated the spoilt papers so that the percentages match and I've ordered them as to vote share. Note that BNP were second both times, the Lib Dems came last and when the share of the electorate (rather than the share of the vote) is looked at it is rather pitiful- less than 20% voted for Bob Gettings and less than 15% voted for Terry grayshon.



The Town Council results are not published yet.

Result!

Result- City Council- Independents in North & South.

Town Council- 23 Morley Borough Independents, one BNP, no labour. (Subject to verification).

My own ward has five MBI independents. Was five laboour. Result!

BNP get a result:...

BNP are claiming that the Electoral Commission agree that anti-election material needs to be declared and taken into account at election times.

You can see their story here. I haven't seen it verified anywhere though.

Guessing the results:

I won't put money on it, but I reckon the results tomorrow might look like the following:

City Council:
Morley South- Terry Grayshon (MBI), 2nd Mike Mee (BNP)
Morley North- Bob Gettings (MBI), 2nd Stuart McArdle (Independent) (OR POSSIBLY THE OTHER WAY ROUND, A CLOSE CALL!)
Ardsley & Robin Hood- jack Dunn (Labour) 2nd Joanna Beverley (BNP)

Town Council:
Morley Borough Independents 14
BNP 6
Labour 2
Independent 2

I wouldn't like to put names in frames for the Town Council though, it is too hard to call.

In a final push...

Labour did a last minute leaflet drop today. A bit late fellas, I went to the polling station at 7:15am.

David Langham is the City Council candidate.- I don't know him, although I did know his Dad Peter who used to be the Town Council Mace Bearer until his unfortunate death in early 2006. That connection is a bit of a "so what?" to me as I didn't think it of any relevance to him standing as a Councillor, let alone feature in his shiny leaflet.

I do know the three stooges listed here. Not exactly a hard sell, what?

It is a sad reflection on local Labour that they can only drag along three candidates for the five seats of their only "safe" ward. (and only muster eleven candidates overall when the BNP managed twelve).

Election day

I nipped into the polling station on the way to work. I was about the fifth to vote, although someone followed me in (who wanted to vote for Leeds, but not Morley).

The City Council ballot paper was white, the Town Council one was green and had two columns whilst the sample ballot fixed to the booth was a single column, a contradiction which I thought was potentially confusing for the more hard of thinking voter. As a passing comment, the shade of green for the Town Council ballot was MBI green!

Something else I noticed was the lack of official mark (the stamp out or emboss used to show it came from the polling officer). On querying that I was told "we don't do that any more".

(It is still in the rules though about not disclosing what it is).

Both votes went in the same box- one more job to do tomorrow, separating them before bundling, counting and sorting.

Politics is getting personal

Today I received a personalised letter from Cllr Terry Grayshon (as did Karen). They both had 2nd class stamps so they were probably posted on Saturday last week.


This might be what the BNP are supposedly getting upset about, although probably not.

The letters included the following leaflet.


Let us have a reality check here. The only place the MBI have real power (but not control as they only have one third of the Councillors) is on the Area Committee South. The Council as a whole is run by a rainbow alliance of Conservative, Lib Dem and Greens who form the executive posts as they have a 52 seat majority (of 99). (The people excluded are Labour (40), MBI (4), BNP (1) and two Independents).

This could well change on Friday, although in what way is anyone's guess.

One full day of campaigning to go...

...and I've actually seen a couple of signs up on telegraph poles in Morley!

They were both for Grayshon, the Morley South/Central Ward Candidate.

"BNP leaflet allegation are lies"

The Morley Borough Independents have repudiated the allegations of the BNP. The following appears on their website:

"
At election time we expect a number of allegations and counter allegations to be made. People often claim credit for the work of others and will attach themselves to the success of others.

However the BNP in Morley have produced a new low.

We can assure you that no leaflet issued by the Morley Borough Independents is either illegal or potentially Libellous. It appears to be nothing more than scaremongering tactics by the BNP.

If you have not received one of the leaflets from the BNP making the allegation, below is a copy of the section of the leaflet in question. The leaflet does not substantiate the claims made and offers readers no indication of what the alleged misdemeanours could be.

There has been no complaint made to West Yorkshire Police about any Morley Borough Independent Leaflet and neither has the matter been reported to the Legal Services Department of Leeds City Council.

The BNP in Morley seem hell bent on trying to silence anyone who speaks out against them, by using their bully boy tactics.
"

You can see it online HERE

Morley South Candidates

From last weeks Obtiser, the choices I have on offer within my home Ward for Leeds City Council.

(Click for a more legible version)

Meanwhile, in a large City a few miles away...

From my The First post Sunday Paper Digest:

A member of the Labour group on Leeds city council has been caught on tape discussing plans to commit electoral fraud in next week's local elections. Leader Keith Wakefield instructed canvassers to help elderly voters to complete postal ballots and offer to post them, but then destroy those that were for other parties. (Sunday Times)

If this is true than the man is scum and deserves to get banged up and barred from public life for the next twenty years.

This is really going to give them an election boost on Thursday...NOT!

Funny how he didn't mention it as a tactic in Winning the battle for ideas in Leeds: Keith Wakefield writes on the upcoming local elections.

UPDATE: The actual story isn't as simple as the headline suggests, but still very bad. You can see it at Times Online Here and commented on here.

Accusation repeated

Another leaflet repeating the accusation, this time in Central Ward.


I ought to say that I've not seen anything illegal or libellous fram any candidate, outside of claiming false credit and the general manure about how the opposition are useless and only they can save the world etc. With the exception of Stewart McArdle, they are all guilty of that.

Accusations of wrongdoing

The Town Council elections are starting to get nasty.

Friends of Morleygate have passed me a leaflet from Elmfield Ward (my own Ward, but not the one I live in).


There is an interesting accusation in the spiel. Click on the image below to see a large version:


If true, then the MBIs are in big trouble. If false, the BNP are. However, I would think it very unlikely that either side are daft enough to do this. I'm more inclined to think that the MBIs are going to be used as some sort of stalking horse in some sort of Searchlight accusation and the BNP will apologise afterwards but have made their point.

Town Council List Censorship

The Town Council has an online mailing list, called Morleylist. Up until the legendary free speech suppression episode at the March Full Council meeting, I was the Webmaster and list administrator.

Afterwards, I made it clear that if they weren't prepared to listen to me, I had no intention of carrying on with my informal duties and whilst I didn't actually resign from being a Councillor, I chose to (mostly) withdraw from participation as a Member.

(I will cease to be a Member this Thursday of course once the elections take place as I am not re-standing).

Yesterday, I received an email from someone asking me "What happened?" and with the subject LISAGATE. I went and had a look on the site and noticed that ten posts had been deleted, without explanation, by someone with access to the List Management account.

I have seen the posts (they turned up in my daily digest) and they did degenerate into what might be called "inappropriateness" but some of them were simply critical of the Morley Borough Independents.

There is probably an argument that a forum such as this should be suspended during the run-up to an all-out election but there is also an argument against as well.

BNP 'oop (Morley) North

Morley Obtiser politics special

This week, candidate testimonials for the three Leeds City Council seats have been published.

Bob Evans, the Editor, was so underwhelmed that he editorialised about it.

One thing does strike me, reading through the statements from the candidates this year.
It appears that politicians from all parties are claiming credit for the same things and are also wanting the same things to make Morley a better place.
If that's the case, why is there any need for political parties?

You can read the whole thing here.

Searchlight highlights

Our 8 page comic treat, supported by the Daily Mirror and lots of Public Sector Unions.






Even the MBIs hold their nose and link to their websites.

That MP letter in full...

(OK, not totally in full, I blotched out my address. There are strange people out there...)

His website that is no longer live can be found HERE and you can't send messages HERE.

I recommend this book for him... or maybe even that one.

Some leftovers...

I mentioned some leaflets but never got round to fully uploading them.
The Socialists...






and the blackshirts...



No, we're not, although some people will.

A Town Council leaflet!

"...the only group fielding a full team of woman in Topcliffe..."

Sloppy proof reading there!

The other side is a further plug for Terry grayshon on the city elections.

Letter from MP

A Houses of Parliament letter awaited me today. CCMP has disclosed all Morley Together correspondence- but only that sent to Morley Town Council!

An accidental or deliberate misunderstanding? Stalling for time hoping for a good outcome on Friday?

The letter finishes with:

"I hope you support the principles of Morley Together. Please let me know."

Don't worry, I will...

Trouble at mill...

The following was posted to the Town Council mailing list today, but uploaded as a file, so not many people will see it. (I did though!)

Britannia Quarry

As we are heading towards this years elections, there is the usual blatant electioneering propaganda from the Morley Borough Independents (MBI). A recent press release says: Cllr Robert Finnigan, as chairman of the Quarry Action Group which oversees the quarry... The question to ask here is: how could the quarry be overseen by Councillors who didn't attend for at least 13 months? It is noted in the quarry minutes of 27th September 2005, that neither Cllr Finnigan or any Leeds City Council officers attended the quarry meeting, or sent their apologies. Only one resident and myself turned up on 27/09/05 so the Director of Woodkirk Stone said there was no point in him arranging another meeting date.

Let us move on nine months to the 15th June 2006, when Leeds City Council took Woodkirk Stone to court over a breach in section 151 of the 1980 Highways Act. Once again, I was the only councillor who bothered to attend the court hearing, it appeared Leeds Council officers and the MBI party didn't consider the issue important enough to merit their time. I rallied round to get some non Rein Road residents to attend the court to show support for the council's action. I was asked at court by the Director of Woodkirk Stone if I was prepared to attend any future meetings at the quarry and I said I certainly was!

Move on another three months to the 13th September 2006, I was the spokesman of a three man deputation entitled 'Local Residents concerned about Britannia Quarry Morley' to the full Leeds City Council meeting on 13/09/06 at Leeds Civic Hall, complaining about dust, mud and stones falling from wagons, also the non attendance of Cllr Finnigan, Council officers and other MBI Morley South Councillors at the court or Britannia Quarry meetings.

Cllr Judith Elliott seemed more concerned about keeping face with Woodkirk Stone and her colleagues at Leeds Civic Hall than representing the interests of Rein Road residents as a whole. Cllr Elliott was aided and abetted by Cllr Terry Grayshon, who condemned my neighbours for supporting the deputation and clearly let all the Rein Road residents down by abstaining from voting on the deputation with her saying the quarry issue should never have been brought to Leeds Civic Hall.

Cllr Elliott, who is a Rein Road resident, sent me an invitation letter to attend her first quarry meeting on 25th October 2006, using Morley Town Hall as her contact address. I fail to remember seeing her at any Woodkirk Stone quarry meetings before this date, so it is a travesty for Cllr Elliott to say: We will continue to work with residents and the company with regular meetings to address the legitimate concerns raised.

It seems the Government and Councils aren't the only ones running Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) the MBI party are operating their own PFI scheme but in their case it reads: Propaganda From Independents!

I remember a few years ago some people felt so strongly about an issue printed in the Morley Advertiser that they went round and collected all the offending papers, tore them to pieces, then dumped the lot in front of the Advertiser office in Queen Street.

May I kindly suggest an apology is made by the Morley Borough Independents to the other election candidates, including myself and all those people concerned who have been offended by this electioneering propaganda please.

That by the MBI they did everything - without them they did nothing!

Albert Slingsby

Election news- Morley North

My friends in the north advise me that they have had nothing from any Town Council prospectives yet, although they have had the Labour leaflet, shown below.

Ask Colin Challen...

I notice that the BNP have been talking to the Electoral Commission about the far left targeting them. (You can see their spin on it here)

Whilst many might think that the BNP are fair game, they do stand legitimately, lots of people vote for them (for whatever reason) and they are obliged to follow the electoral rules, whilst Searchlight are not.

It is now blindingly obvious that Labour are actively supporting Searchlight, Even Ed Balls is out leafleting in Ardsley and the Leeds Searchlight special edition features Morley Together, including David's school (who claim not to have signed up to it).

It will be interesting to see what happens. Needless to say there is nothing about it online other than on the BNP site.

All of the hoo-hah about Freedom of Information and MPs last week spurred me on to make my own request to the MP Constituency Office today. Here it is...

Colin Challen MP
Constituency Office,
2 Commercial Street,
Morley,
LEEDS
LS27 8HY


Dear Mr. Challen,

I enquired via your website enquiries page for further information on the Morley Together campaign on March 8th, the day after the Town Council confirmed participation despite any information being presented to Councillors. My message was as follows:

Hello, I'm a Councillor on Morley Town Council.
Last night Council voted to note the "Morley Together" campaign and agreed to sign up to the principles laid out in it.
However- no supporting documentation was actually provided and discussion was curtailed prematurely by a move to the vote.
Can you please send me a copy of what we have actually pledged to as otherwise all that I have is what I have read in the Morley Observer & Advertiser.
Thank you in advance,

Ian Grey

To date I have had no reply.

I am now writing to make an open government request for all the information to which I am entitled under the freedom of information act. In order to assist you with this request, I am outlining my query as specifically as possible. If however this request is too wide or too unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the act, you are required to advise and assist requesters.

The Morley Together Campaign – Letters, correspondence, emails, media (audio/video), presentation materials, notes of telephone conversations etc. sent and received pertinent to this activity.

I understand that under the act, I should be entitled to a response within 20 working days. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Yours Sincerely,




Ian Grey




I look forward to getting some stuff to look at by this time next month.

(Letter template supplied the guardian, of all sources!)

Leaflet checklist- 10 days to go...

City Council- (italics- leaflet received, bold- diddly squit!)

GRAYSHON TERRENCE MORLEY BOROUGH INDEPENDENTS
JAMIESON KEELY JOANNE THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY CANDIDATE
LANGHAM DAVID PETER THE LABOUR PARTY CANDIDATE
MEE MIKE BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY
SADDLER JAMIE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
SLINGSBY CHARLES ALBERT INDEPENDENT

Town Council- sweet Fanny Adams.

Posters seen around town- Big fat zero.

Election fever- not yet...

Driving back through Churwell this afternoon, Karen commented that there was a distinct lack of "Vote for me!" type signs. Indeed I haven't noticed any posters in windows yet. (Not that I've been particularly looking). No rosette wearing, vote touting hopefuls near the Town hall this morning either.

Still, there is next weekend.

The Obtiser has promised candidate biographies next week, along with a list of Town Council hopefuls. (You saw it here first, of course.)

No Town Councillor leaflets through the door yet.

Out for the count...

A while back, I did consider asking one of the candidates if I could be a polling agent so that I could be present as an observer, then the City Council offered to pay me to do it! They also asked me if I would consider doing the actual vote at a polling station on the Thursday, but I couldn't justify two days off work.

Today, I received confirmation that I am to be a counting assistant for the Morley North election. (& possibly the Parish/Town Council ones as well, although it isn't actually mentioned).

The count is on Friday 4th May at 10am in Morley town Hall and I will be paid £40 (gross) for doing it. I am also informed that recounts will incur a supplementary fee.

I am obliged to keep some stuff secret, namely names (& register numbers) of electors who have or have not voted, who they have voted for or what the official mark is (that punch/stamp the polling clerk uses just before they hand you the ballot paper.

These are the same undertakings that everyone who participates in the count has to agree to from the clerks to the candidates. Obviously, counting staff must not be employed in any capacity by a candidate or party at the elections. (That probably includes leafleting, but I'm not in the pay of any politicians, paid or unpaid.)

Autorantic virtual moonbat

Via the power of the internet, direct access to Morley Labour Party HQ at Unity House.

Meet Excalibur, used for composing letters to the editor.



Hat tip: Bill sticker, who exposed me to it ages ago but I forgot...

Terry Grayshon's leaflet

Unsolicited, Cllr Terrence Grayshon Esq. has graciously sent me a soft copy of his election flyer. (He always did have high standards when it comes to sartorial eloquence so I imagine he wants his tome to meet the highest presentation standards)




This is better than my leaflet - the colours are more vibrant and it isn't creased. It doesn't show the printer though- PDQ Printing Services Ltd.

Terry- I'll add a ClustrMap to the site so you can see where in the world people are who are admiring your leaflet.

Schools signing up to Morley Together

I had been rather surprised that David's school had signed up to Colin Challen's Morley Together, it hadn't been raised at Governor meetings and wasn't in the Head's report. (The Stephen Lawrence award, by comparison, had been discussed at length).

Anyway, the Head and senior management team inform me that they haven't signed anything, agreed to anything or received any certificates. Apparently CCMP mentioned it on the way out from a Stephen Lawrence event and they expressed some interest to find out more.

So, yet again, all is not quite what it seems.

Newspaper day

The letters aren't overly inspiring this week. There are features, however, about Nick Griffin (BNP Chairman) visiting Morley, also a large advertorial about Ed (Blinky) Balls MP who promises to move his office to Morley if elected. (Not a big surprise there, the office rent probably keeps Unity House solvent). The headline is "Minister: I will work hard for independence and a strong economy". The independence he refers to however, isn't from Political Parties, the Union or the European Union, it is just a throwaway remark about us being a proud, independent area, whilst he delivers Searchlight leaflets.

Through the door tonight- Morley Mirror leaflet, from Labour. It has results of recent polling they have conducted: BNP 31% Labour 28%, MBI 22%, Others 17%. (That adds up to 98% so the numeracy of it is rather suspect!) They claim that they have overtaken the independents as the main challenger to the BNP. It is possible that they buck the national trend and bounce back, but I wouldn't bet money on it...

New leaflets

I've received a copy of Terry Grayshon's shiny green and white leaflet through the door today, it is awaiting scan.

Meanwhile, over in Morley North, the two flavours of independents have been busy.