Skidder Election RESULT Special!

Addenda in Bold 06/05/22 - I mostly wrote this blog yesterday but revised it at 3 am this morning. My first version was even more critical on the Tories. From my travels around Sadders I feared that they would not win ANY seats. But it is astonishing that they performed badly last night when, due to Labour corruption, cronyism and incompetence, first the Children's Services and then the whole Council have had to be placed into special measures. And yet Labour GAINED two seats! It is simply incredible. I have to work today and so am only adding a couple of points here that I originally omitted.

The morons of Sandwell have voted for MORE Labour corruption, cronyism and incompetence across the bent Borough. Despite 48 years of Labour failure and the Council being placed into special measures (the cost payable by locals) the thick, grunting, populace decided they rather like being consistently shafted up the derriere. Rather than trying to clean up this unholy mess of a place the jostling hordes of ignorami think being ripped off, and held in the iron grip of poverty, is rather a good thing. Their mewling sentimentality about the plight of Sandwell kids is all a show, and they are content to flush the already stunted life prospects of their offspring straight down the toilet. This uneducated pack of losers simply will not open their eyes to what has been happening as Labour have plunged the six towns into a spiral of decline. Like those they have elected, they are responsible for the state of the Borough.

Certain special interest groups, faith organisations, charities etc think they can get a good screw out of a bent Labour Council. In reality they get a little lick of cream whereas the rest of the Borough eats sh*t. The only hope - and it is a fairly slim one - is that the Government Commissioners will stop the rot to an extent and halt the worst excesses of this Labour mafia. 

One other glimmer of light is that Kerrie "Dim Kez" Carmichael, allegedly the "leader" of bent Labour, and her cronies were all part of one of the most corrupt Cabinets of modern times. Under the tyranical Steve Eling they collectively trashed the rule of law, and institutionalised corruption in Sandwell Council. Dim Kez and Co f*cked it all up before, and set in chain the Borough being put in special measures. There can be absolutely no doubt, given their startling lack of ability and willingness to ignore the rule of law, that the same team will f*** it up once again. Perhaps then, this ghastly galere can finally be booted-out.

The people of Great Barr and Yew Tree even elected a recently convicted Labour criminal, Steve Melia. What message does that send out beyong the borders of this sick, sick Borough. (And Labour have also got two Councillors already with spent convictions)

Sandwell folk - you live in a deprived, unhealthy, uncultured sh*thole. You voted to stay in that quagmire of misery and disappointment. If I am still around at the next election I will remind you of that. You had a choice and you blew it. I really hope that you suffer the consequences since that is exactly what you deserve.

It's been a very poor night for the Tories. They are heaping the blame on Boris and national factors but seem to have run a hapless campaign.

There were faint stirrings of positive change when the Conservatives got two and a half MP's elected in Sandwell in December, 2019 (a half because James Morris also represents Halesowen which is, of course, in the Borough of Dudley. (Labour is left with just the useless London-resident, John Spellar.)

On the whole, the MP's have done a good job and they were instrumental in unveiling Labour corruption and gross mismanagement so that the bent Council was placed into special measures in March. The two youngsters - for that is what they are - Shaun Bailey and Nicola Richards, have had a very steep learning curve but they have, for the most part, worked diligently and consistently raised the profile of Sadders in the House of Commons and elsewhere. 

But there are constant rumours that the three MP's are not working as a team - indeed, anything but. James Morris is now a Government Whip and working extremely hard (check Hansard if you don't believe me). Maybe he is too busy to oversee/help his more inexperienced colleagues? Someone in the Conservative Party needs to get a grip on this apparent lack of teamwork since it is in danger of poisoning the wider local Party (and has, arguably, done so already).

Then there is the enigma of West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street. There are rumours - but persistent ones - that he is a divisive figure within the local Party with, some say, an undue influence on some of the local Conservative Councillors and officers. There are allegations that there is a clique around him who are favoured to the detriment of others. He is seemingly driving some matters at West Mids Combined Authority level which affect Sadders with little or no consultation with locals - in the Party or otherwise. His shape-shifting on Lion Farm is an embarrassment and an insult to locals.

Last year nine Conservative Councillors were elected. There has been factionalism within the Group. They won 9 seats last May plus another in a by election. But after the suspension of one, the defection of another and two idlers they have effectively been reduced to a rump of six. When I asked a Tory Councillor whether the Group would hold together if there was a poor show in the election he gave a nervous laugh. This is worrying although they did win 3 seats yesterday to bring the nominal strength up to nine. It is imperative that they get their act together and soon.

All the 2021 intake were inexperienced. Party figures immediately decided that they did not need to take advice from outsiders even when it was proffered, including from a local eminence grise, community activists like Darryl Magher and, indeed, from myself. The local machine was so confident of sweeping gains across the Borough it banned their candidates from even speaking with this blog before the election. There has been more than a hint of arrogance here, and you know what pride usually comes before ... Indeed on arrival at the count I was told they expected to win "six to twelve seats".

Despite the arrogance there have been allegations of laziness of some Councillors. In the first intake there were two elected Councillors who did absolutely f*** all. Fortunately they were on one year stints and, to be fair, the Party acted quickly to get replacement candidates. They also picked up a wrong-un with Ian Chambers and were considering kicking him our when he jumped ship to Labour:

https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-horror-of-chambers.html

It should be remembered that most of the Conservative Councillors have jobs and getting to grips with Council work on top, when never having served before, is not easy. Labour is packed with pensioners and scroungers who have time on their hands. But they need to set up some sort of support network between themselves and, as above, to seek what outside help is available.

There have been allegations of racism which caused one leader to resign and another to be suspended by the Party. On the other hand, there are two "non-white" Tory Councillors (non-white seemingly being the local Labour definition of any British Sandwell people without pale skins as if they need to be categorised in this, er, racist way) and a slew of "non-white" candidates for the election yesterday (as shown in a recent post). Having said that there seem to be clear indications that some in the local Federation - one person's name is frequently cropping up - who seem to "prefer" white candidates over "others". Whatever the truth, this ugly boil beeds to be lanced without a minute's delay. 

Another problem that needs to be fixed is that the Party at local level is split due to historical boundaries. Thus the candidates for the wards in Rowley Regis are selected and appear to campaign according to their local structure and, so it seems to an outsider, there is no real liason with the Federation in the rest on Sandwell. One Councillor has said to me more than once, "oh that's not within the remit of our Federation". This is absolutely absurd. There are potential boundary changes in the offing which may or may not affect this but the Party must get to grips and present a united, "Sandwell", front right across the Borough. This does not entail full merger of the different geographical groups but some overarching sub-committee to oversee all things electoral. It there Party cannot present a united front between themselves they can't project this to the wider public.

The Councillors who continue irrespective of the election result have also had a steep learning curve politically and they have rattled the comrades on a number of occassions. Cllr Archer Williams was excellent on the Walker Grange fight and Cllr Will Gill is a force of nature. But, as above, there has been a lack of forensic precision and something of a scattergun approach in preparing questions and motions. By way of just one example, they seem to have thrown the towel in on the release of the Cox Review, thus letting Dim Kez continue a cover-up of racism and other unlawful conduct. 

The "shadow budget" was a fiasco and the cause of much internal Tory backbiting. It was served late and a potentially controversial issue regarding Labour's rarely open museums was the first item up. It was bereft of any context explaining the Conservative position. Bearing in mind that most of the Labour comrades don't read agenda papers or their own budget they were never going to read past item one of the shadow budget - and there was an own goal right in front of them.

[When I have asked various Labour Councillors about various instances of corruption, cronyism and incompetence a fair number have told me to my face that they don't care as they are only interested in things which affect their wards! This is partly why corruption has gone on unchecked!]

The Tories have been too polite. Dim Kez lied twice within MINUTES of being elected Leader and the Conservatives let her get away with it. Surjit Tour is running rings round them (although it is to be hoped that the Government Commissioners will sack him soon). As I have written before, they have arse-licked absolute scum like Paul Moore (who repaid their trust by helping the defection of Chambers!) Carmichael was in Eling's Cabinet when corruption was absolutely rife, but the Tories are not picking her record apart. 

The Tory Councillors constantly use a tactic at meetings - forcing "named" votes (which the public can't see on the website unless they sit through the video). Even the Tory Councillors are not keeping a record! Sometimes a named vote has to be taken by law, notably on the annual budget. But the Tories are using the procedure on all sorts of issues which only serves to greatly prolong meetings (to no avail as no-one is keeping a public tally). Once again this is the scattergun rather than a forensic approach. It should only be used where matters are highly controversial or where there is likely to be a split in the Labour ranks.

The failure to wield the stiletto with due precision was shown by the absurd "vote of no confidence" in Dim Kez at the last Council meeting. An absurd motion in that it was not only bound to fail but gave the comrades the chance to rally behind their "leader" prior to the election. 

As someone who these Labour ***** have tried to destroy for YEARS, I personally warned the Tories to keep their distance and not to get into bed with these bastards - but they seem not to have listened. They are in a cage fight but are scrapping according to Marquess of Queensbury rules. FFS get the gum shileds out and start biting!

The election campaign has been hapless. I have been in the following areas talking to people about Sandwell Labour corruption - Cradley Heath, Blackheath, Oldbury, Smethwick/Cape Hill (in 4 different spots), Wednesbury (in two spots), Bearwood, Yew Tree and Friar Park but when I have been speaking to people they tell me, rightly or wrongly, that they have not been getting this message from the Tories. In a couple of instances people have accused me of making it up that the Commissioners have been brought in (at Sandwell's expense) to sort out the rotten Borough, because they has not heard it "from the candidates". WTF?

Maybe I have missed this and the subject is being discussed on doorsteps, but that is not what folk have been telling me. It is an absolutely open goal for the Conservatives and they appear to have shot wide of the post.

On a positive note the six existing Councillors are semi-battled hardened and they have some good new blood to help them along. They are going to have to fight for all they are worth like the Ukrainians facing the monstrous Russian bear.

Once again, the Lib Dems have been a complete waste of space. They are totally invisible all year and then expect people to vote for them. As I have stated elsewhere, the Lib Dems have no future under their crazed local Fuhrer, Mark Smith, and he should do the decent thing and resign. The Party needs to get out on the dog shit-smeared streets of Sadders and start helping to protect people from Labour corruption. This a 365 days a year project and if they are intending to stick around in Sandwell they need to start a comprehensive re-build NOW.

A number of folk I have talked to as I have visited a number of wards before yesterday's election were shocked that The Green Party has totally given up on Sandwell. It has no local structure and put up no candidates. When I criticised the Birmingham Greens on Twitter for ignoring the people of Sandwell their response was simply to block me (and I am a "Green" voter despite their economic policies!). There are dozens of "green issues" in Sandwell and perhaps some local environmental protectionists can form their own Party to join the contest next year (assuming there is not a restructuring of elections in Sadders as it moves away from annual voting.

There was another magnificent performance by independent candidate, Richard Jeffcoat in Tipton Green who scored over 1,000 votes again but was defeated by the Labour Party machine. A really sad note tonight as he just has so much to offer. Incidentally, there was a very late surge of Labour voters shortly before the polls closed in this ward. 

When I started this blog there was no real opposition to the Labour dictatorship at all (if you discount the Kippers who had a national agenda rather than a local one). One gratifying aspect of recent times has been the way locals have mobilised on specific issues - Save Walker Grange, Save Brandhall Green Space and many others. But most of the population showed again yesterday that they too are corrupt scum. The future looks very bleak indeed for them and their families but they have made their bed and must lie on it.

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