Guest Blog No. 2 - Mick Davies

Guest blogs are the thoughts of individual authors.

I am delighted to be able to welcome my second "Guest Blogger", Mick Davies. Here is a short auto-bio and then the post itself.

Mick Davies

I have recently severed my links with Sandwell after a thirty year relationship as an Officer of Sandwell Council, a resident and, for the last ten years, an elected Member. I have been involved in community development for most of my working life and currently manage two Children's Centres. A long-standing and active member of the Labour Party I resigned in 2011, the reasons may well be the basis for a future blog. I am a democratic socialist and realise we may have lost the argument for socialism at this point in time but if we lose the argument for democracy then we all lose out. Hence this posting.

GUEST BLOG No. 2 – MICK DAVIES

THOUGHTS IN TRANQUILITY

Asinos oves ducuntur.

Over the last few months I have followed the ‘debate’ on social media concerning the ‘goings-on’ at Sandwell Council and, particularly, the antics of the so-called ‘Leader’. I admit this has been slightly one-sided as I do not follow Darren Cooper on Twitter or Facebook nor subscribe to what is claimed to be ‘his’ blog – ‘View From the Gutter’ – although it is, of course, written by an unfortunate officer of the Council. I will not name her to spare embarrassment.

I can see the attraction of Twitter to Cooper as it does not require an ability to write, spell nor have any knowledge of grammar and it allows him to bully and ridicule those who happen to question him and his regime. The recent blogpost here by Bob Woods and his reaction to it showed him up for the boorish, bullying buffoon he is. Having said that, at least his use of Twitter is mostly public (he blocks serious opposition) whereas anonymous back-stabbing is usually his preferred modus operandi.

Take for example, the time when Cooper was in the throes of ousting his predecessor, Bill Thomas. I was, of course, still in the Labour Group at the time. He phoned me to say: ‘I hope you don’t mind but I have got someone to ring Thomas and tell him that you are holding a meeting of the left of the party at your house with a view to causing trouble for him.’

Another good wheeze is that used when Councillor Jayne Wilkinson was bullied and hounded out of the Labour Group as a result of the leadership receiving ‘an anonymous letter from a long-standing member of the Labour Party.’

That is not to say, as will be seen from Twitter, that Cooper is not averse to open bullying too (as recent formal complaints show) and some of his behaviour in the ‘bear-pit’ of the Council chamber has been despicable – notably his treatment of the late Councillor Docker. 

And so we come to another of his leadership traits. Shortly after he became Leader a ridiculous video was prepared at public expense – 38 minutes long – glorifying his accession to the throne. Of course, there is no truth in the story that this was originally to be called ‘Lie Story’ until someone suggested putting an ‘f’ in the first word. Nevertheless, there are clear examples of Cooper being ‘economical with the truth’......

The most serious incident I was involved in shows him and his protectors in all their glory. I was particularly concerned about the abject failure of Sandwell’s most vulnerable citizens via the disastrous Children’s Services portfolio. Cooper had, of course, once been the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People but was completely out of his depth. He was, for example, instrumental in appointing a ‘saviour’ for the Service from Bournemouth who was thankfully poached by Birmingham only to be suspended and eventually leave under the terms of a confidentiality agreement.

When Councillor Bob Badham took on the Children’s Services role I asked him a number of formal questions about the dire state of the provision. Cooper’s friend and political ally, Deputy Leader Mahboob Hussain, was, at the time, supposed to be politically responsible for carrying out improvements recommended via external inspectors. But things weren’t improving in this critical area as a series of Ofsted inspections proved. Enough was enough and I called for resignations including that of Cooper himself.

This was all too much for ‘The Eternal Leader’ and he attacked me at the next full Council meeting stating that: ‘he wasn’t taking lessons from a champagne socialist who lived in a house worth £400,000, whose socialism came from text books and not from the street as his does’. The crowning glory of his bullying and ridicule was to hold 3 chubby fingers up – counting them twice – and announcing to the baying members: ‘I have personally done a trawl and found THREE questions from Councillor Davies’. This was totally untrue and I publically called him a liar whereupon I was stopped from responding further by the Mayor and officers.

Next day I proved my case by e-mailing all members with the TWENTY-NINE questions I had asked Bob Badham and a number of former colleagues expressed regret at the actions of Cooper and his cronies. But he was not done yet. Next, Sandwell Council’s Head of Legal and Governance, Neeraj Sharma phoned. Despite the fact that I had proved Cooper ‘wrong’ an unspecified number of "other" Labour members had, allegedly, complained about my use of the word ‘liar’ and I was invited to apologise. I demanded to know the identity of the complainants but surprise, surprise they wished to remain anonymous. I refused to apologise stating that the word ‘liar’ was not an insult but a description. It all went quiet for a few weeks and then Neeraj phoned again requesting an apology. Once again I declined having proved the facts and I again requested details of the anonymous complainants as I wished to consider a complaint of harassment against THEM. I offered to go before any tribunal to show Cooper up for what he is. Silence descended again then yet another call from Neeraj but this time (several weeks after the event) saying that (still) anonymous members were now alleging that I had actually called The Great Leader ‘a fat liar’. I may be many things but I am not ‘fatist’. By this time Ms Sharma was sounding distraught and despite her offer to ‘sort the matter out amicably’ I declined to apologise again & heard nothing more.

I have now stood down from the Council. It is to be hoped that highly-paid Ms Sharma will stay with SMBC for some time to come as a suitable reward for her loyalty to the ‘leadership’.

And so, it seems that all this will continue as the ‘Leader’ and his circle have an iron grip on the Council and Labour Group with virtually no opposition. Thus other strange anomalies arise. On 24^th April, 2014 I did see a tweet from Cooper mentioning an article in The Guardian relating to councils sitting on their emergency funds for the poor and where he added:

‘Not in Sandwell all allocated to most in need’.

This was not the information I was getting at the time and I asked an officer who informed me that only some £800,000 of £1.3m had been spent. I am sure Councillor Cooper will now disclose the full monthly breakdown of this expenditure over the financial year so as to clear up this curious discrepancy.

Ahh Happy Days – although there are times in the long reaches of the night when a strange recurring image of Gepetto, the grey-haired puppet-master Councillor Hussain, and a curious little wooden top with an expanding nose haunts my well-earned repose.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG

e   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com              t   @bcrover  (Vernon Grant)

Confidential phone no: 07599 983737


INVITATION TO “GUEST” BLOG

I am looking for interesting people of an independent frame of mind to supply a guest blog post to “The Skidder”.

The “rules” are pretty simple:

1. ANY subject/theme but with some sort of relevance to Sandwell (so politicians need not necessarily write about politics unless they want to!). Not just about you unless a story has a wider resonance. Obviously nothing illegal, libellous or too rude;


2. You MUST supply an e-mail which can (and will) be publicly-published with the blog (so that folk can contact you direct with any complaints etc rather than me). If you cannot do that, I am afraid that is, literally, end of story. You can always set up a new account so that your main account remains private;

3. I will take a “light” editorial view and make suggestions if applicable. I do not intend to interfere if I disagree with your views but only to make suggestions, correct possible errors etc. I will not publish any amendments unless they have been specifically agreed with you first.  Thus if we cannot agree, that is the end of it and the piece will not be published. As, ultimately, I am responsible for the blog I am afraid I have to reserve the right to reject any piece submitted.

The piece should be fairly short and definitely not longer than would fit on one ordinary page (unless you have something VERY special to say).

A one or two line “autobiography” will be helpful (as long as it is true!)

The blog must be your own work (so that rules out one prominent local figure!)

Julian Saunders aka “Vernon Grant”.


E-mail: thesandwellskidder@gmail.com