Local Elections - May 5th

[The Great Dictator]

SAB actually said he won't shake hands with a Fascist, i was there when she told Mary Fleet.

[fred c]

SAB actually said he won't shake hands with a Fascist, i was there when she told Mary Fleet.

What dimension are these tossers living in, "he won`t shake hands with a Fascist".....

Yet he & even more tellingly the CEO, expected members of the public to stand when he, even after being outed as a Blatant Liar entered the council chamber.

What can members of the public expect if Cranney assumes the mantle of ceremonial Mayor/Chair of Hartlepool council & they refuse to stand when he enters the chamber.....

Will she have everyone thrown out ? the moral compass of HBC needs re-calibration as a matter of urgency.

[Hartlepudlion]

Surely the Electoral Roll for Bishop Auckland is the first place to look. Then what about the Labour Party records, DVLA, the Land Registry etc.
Councils can also run credit checks on people, access their passport details, police checks and even bank accounts. It's amazing the access to our personal details that Councils can have. In theory only 'senior' named persons have this access but in practice junior personnel have been given the access codes as the senior is too busy. They can even invoke the Terrorist Act on the flimsiest of excuses. Cllrs are not allowed this access but I wonder how this is implemented?

[steveL]

SAB actually said he won't shake hands with a Fascist, i was there when she told Mary Fleet.

Well based on the accuracy of your version of the Fraser/Riddle incident I would say that it's just as likely that the lady had baked a cake especially and flung it in SAB's face.

[The Great Dictator]

Don't dispute witness accounts unless you were there to see it for yourself.

[steveL]

Someone mentioned about the post-pubescent Isaac and the legitimacy of his own candidature in Hart Ward. On his campaign literature he claimed to have moved to the Bishop Cuthbert estate which is true - in 2011, I think and he even stayed there for a few months before moving to Horden in County Durham. This means that he will be on the electoral roll for Durham; not Hartlepool which is in fact the case. This makes him not eligible to stand as a candidate in Hartlepool unless he either had a business in Hartlepool or worked in Hartlepool during the 12 months prior to his candidacy.

This was brought to the attention of Peter Devlin and when he made his inquiries to Wells he was told that young Isaac had indeed worked in Hartlepool during the previous 12 months.

Doing what? You might ask - well working for the local Conservative Party, that's what, and we know it's true because Wells said so. 

Apparently, the party was putting together a Calvin Klein underwear catalogue - for charity purposes only, of course.

Either way, this explanation was more than enough to satisfy the make no waves Returning Officer.

I think this goes some way to explaining Wells' sudden interest in maintaining IVF facilities at Hartlepool Hospital. I understand that Wells has several more embryos, just like Isaac, in development incubators as we speak. 

[Foggy]

Thanks for answering my question about Isaac Duffy.  I suspected there was something fishy about the situation.

As for Mr Devlin, I presume he went to university to study law at some point in his life and I would imagine a rather important word cropped up a few times during his time there...Evidence. I know it might have been a while ago but I think Mr Devlin needs a gentle reminder that what comes out of RMW's mouth does not constitute 'evidence'.

Actually, I think he could do with a refresher course on a number of aspects of his role.

[steveL]

Don't dispute witness accounts unless you were there to see it for yourself.

er...I was...but then as a s**t-hot, totally observant witness you obviously saw me.

[gmeasor]

This refers to a previous post.  For Foggy Furze, I watched each of the black envelopes being opened that were the postal votes and the vast majority of them were Labour.  About 90%

I then watched each of the ballot boxes being opened and sorted, and the majority of them were UKIP, about 60%

So, if votes on the day were counted, UKIP would have won Foggy Furze.

How could the voting pattern be as polarized as this?

It is rather curious that nobody votes for Labour in this town, but they keep getting in.

[DRiddle]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-36220568

Strictly speaking this fella should be in big trouble for tweeting the result before it was officially announced. Still, i guess it's a pretty minor offence compared to the stuff that goes on in some towns.

[Heknocks68]

Quite sad that local politics, ref skullduggery as mentioned/reported on, has descended into lavatory or should that be labortory standards. If there should be a re run in the burn valley ward, then labour must be omitted from it for knowingly allowing a candidate to stand knowing the person to be inellidgable, should the case be proven. Clearly the red tory's and the blue labourites are at best dubious. But then again, when your trying to protect your self inflated income as opposed to seeking gainful employment, its not that suprising I guess.

[steveL]

Dead right.

There are so many stories whizzing around at the moment it's hard to separate the grain from the chaff. On the night, Wellsy was heard giving battle orders to the troops (Labour troops that is) telling them that they all need to get together 'to freeze them all out completely'. By 'them', I guess he means all non-coalition councillors (well apart from Lauderdale who I think just turns up to water the plants.)

Forget all the public spin; Labour are awash with private chit-chat and groupings at the moment.

Council meetings are certainly going to get more interesting now that we have some UKIP members who actually know how to speak.

[The Great Dictator]

Shame Jim Ainslie went the journey he was a top man, the department he worked with are upset at his loss and fear the new incumbent.

[DRiddle]

I hope they do try and freeze us out. They've frozen me, Paul and Brashie out for the last two years. How did that work out for them? Embarrassed in the chamber every month, packed public galleries, people literally protesting on the streets about the hospital and a crowd of people chanting "Labour out!" at a public meeting.

Statistics can be made to say pretty much whatever you want, but these are facts.

- Labour 'lost' well over 6000 votes at local over the last 12 months. 13,388 people voted for local Labour candidates in 2015, compared to just 6,923 in 2016. The 'general election bounce' that saved Beck and Cranney didn't bounce for Ainslie, Payne and others just one year later.

- But we're also now at a stage where close to 2 out of 3 people who DO bother to vote in local elections in Hartlepool, do NOT vote for Labour.

- 39,490 voted in last years General Election in Hartlepool. 25,411 of them did NOT vote Labour. That's 65% (Pretty much 2 out of 3).

- Under Ted Leadbitter and even under Mandelson, Labour could pull in 50-60% of the votes in Hartlepool, and local Labour councillors would romp home with totals of over 3,000 per candidate.

Where as under 'Wright and SAB's version of the Labour Party, Iain has turned Mandelson's majority of 17,508 into a majority of just 3,024. Christopher has managed to make the local Labour group so repugnant 2 out of 3 of the voters who actually bother to vote in local elections refuse to endorse his leadership with by putting an 'X' next to the rose.

That's quite an 'accolade'. In a Labour town, under a Tory government, right in the middle of hard hitting austerity agenda... 2 out of 3 voters don't want Labour.

I'm happy in Akers-Belcher is taking advice from Wells. In fact, whoever IS advising him, people keep doing exactly what you're doing. You're very close to completing the 'oppositions' mission for us. 

[marky]

I notice Wells got just over 50% of the vote in Rural West which makes it Labour's strongest ward