Ed Miliband's As Weak As P*ss!

Ed Miliband has failed to condemn the covert photography of me in the Wetherspoon's pub opposite the Kremlin which was then splashed over social media by Sandwell's Labour joke "Leader", Darren Cooper.

I can do little better that let you read the letter I posted (first class) to him on 10th October. And answer came there none. The boss of Wetherspoons has also failed to respond - maybe he is hedging his bets in case Red Ed wins the next election.........

(By the way - I have yet to address the question whether public money was used to have me followed and photographed in the pub.... No doubt Sandwell's Chief Executive will wish to contact me to reassure me on that score!)

Letter:

Rt Hon. Ed Miliband MP,
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA                                                                                 10/10/14


Cc Mr Tim Martin
     Wetherspoons House
     Central Park
     Reeds Crescent
     Watford WD24 4QL

Dear Sir,

Sandwell Council Labour Leader - Cllr Darren Cooper

The Sandwell Skidder - thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com - is a community blog in Sandwell scrutinising the actions of  your Labour Council there. Your local “leader”, Darren Cooper, takes grave exception to this and uses the medium of Twitter to attack myself and others with great regularity.

Cooper uses the Twitter account “@Sandwellleader” under the name “Cllr” Darren Cooper but claims it is a purely personal account. The local Council bats away all complaints about his tweeting and trolling on the same basis. (I will leave aside his possible connection with various other trolling accounts for present purposes).
   
 A while ago I went with a colleague and sat in on a Council cabinet meeting in Oldbury. This lead to Cooper abusing us both via twitter that same night (even though my colleague is a long-standing member of the Labour Party).

In September, I attended a cabinet meeting alone. Cooper took a photograph of me in the room. When the meeting went into private conclave I went to the Wetherspoons pub across the road. Cooper was not there but knowing that I was attending the meeting he arranged for someone to use Wetherspoons’ facilities to have me secretly photographed. It would appear that this may be “tit for tat” for me putting photographs of a councillor on the blog which she and her husband had themselves placed on the internet and not just via one site but via at least two different methods. Cooper does not seem to see a distinction between using publicly available photographs and covert photography.

Needless to say Cooper could not resist using the covert photo which he placed on twitter that night. I enclose same herewith (apologies for print quality - you can also view it on Cooper’s twitter feed).

Bearing in mind that Cooper is aware that my wife and I have received threats as a result of the blog (some of them from HIM) the placing of my photo on twitter was clearly a provocative and intimidatory act. Incidentally the colleague I referred to above was confronted on Tuesday night and threatened about his use of twitter to criticise the Council. That incident has been reported to the Police.

I would be very interested to hear whether you condone this sort of activity by a senior Labour figure - indeed one you chose to have on-stage with you at last year’s Labour Conference.

I would also like to hear from Mr Martin whether he condones the use of one of his establishments for this sort of covert activity. I appreciate that he receives a lot of business from Sandwell Council (although that will all change when the planned move of the offices from Oldbury to West Bromwich occurs) but the public needs to be confident that his usually well-run pubs are safe and secure environments.

Yours faithfully,

End.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

E-mail: thesandwellskidder@gmail.com              Twitter: @bcrover (Vernon Grant)

Confidential phone no: 07599 983737