Lal and Bent Labour's £4,000 p*ss-up + WMP politicisation

Just another quick reminder of the update to the revised legal notice below. Please take a look if you haven't already done so.

Lal and bent Labour whoop it up in skint Sadders - no austerity now!

In my last post* I explained that newish, highly-paid, Chief Executive, Shokat Lal, had been out partying at taxpayers' expense with Labour Cllrs Randhawa and Hughes at a fake "Business Awards" event. And this despite Sandwell Labour's hatred of business and enterprise!

These utterly meaningless "awards" ceremonies are a gift that keeps on giving as there is a steady stream of gullible fools anxious to part with their - or in this case, OUR - money. The way these scams work is that the organiser sets up a posh black-tie event and then canvasses local business to buy tickets at it. Usually, "Joanna Bloggs Limited" receives a random sales email that the company has been "nominated" in a certain business category - "best new business", "community excellence champion" and other such b*llocks - and is invited to fork out at least £90 per head to attend the beano. If the company is mad enough to fork out they get included for an actual - and wholly pointless - award - selected by cronies of the organisers. The only real winners are, of course, the organisers themselves.

One such is a major rimmer of bent Sandwell Labour, Ninder Johal of Nachural Events. Here he is playing the fool with his old mucker, former Sandwell Labour Leader, and wife beater, Darren Cooper. 

Johal is said to also be a personal friend of Cllr Pam Randhawa. I have written to her asking if this is correct but she has failed to respond. Nevertheless she managed to bag herself a seat at the posh do, at taxpayers' expense.

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request makes interesting reading not least since it shows that Lal hasn't got his finger on the pulse and the paid service is as shambolic as it always has been during the currency of this blog.

Due to redactions in the FOIA reply it seems a third party was involved but we can see that Johal had sent out a round-robin looking for sponsors (rather than businesses per se). This came to be dealt with by Sandwell's "Anchor Network Coordinator in Sandwell Growth [sic]" whom Lal is bizarrely refusing to identify via the FOIA. The person claiming to do this job is one Nicy (correct spelling but pronounced "Nicky" - ! - ) Morgan. At some point Tony McGovern - Sandwell's flash Director of Regeneration was also involved.

The "invite" was vague - starting "How are things? Hope all going well? Please could you forward this to the correct person internally? Thanks." But it did also include the enticing comment that it was "an excellent opportunity to promote ... your new CEO."

Ms Morgan (it seems) tried to get the "budget" to attend this worthless event - i.e. to get someone to agree to shaft us taxpayers. McGovern started to get copied into correspondence but in Lal and McGovern's circus the paid service claim that they cannot trace who actually authorised the booking. Lal says there is no document showing who in the incompetent Authority agreed to expend public money on this event. Nevertheless, Ms Morgan was able to say to Johal on 2nd June, "It's a yes" plus a smiley emoji.

At some point Ms Morgan (?) invited Lal and McGovern to attend the bash but it seems that Lal didn't read the email since a further email from Sandwell's Communications and Corporate Affairs Manager  (who he/she?) was then sent to Morgan (?) on 19th June which makes interesting reading:

"Shokat has just messaged me to ask:

Hi I have just seen on linkedin that we are sponsoring the Nachural summer dinner in July ‐ i am just interestedin knowing what this is costing and do we get any time at the event to speak ‐ and who is leading this? thanks"

We have seen time and again that the deeply corrupt Council is using messaging systems - WhatsApp etc - to avoid leaving a paper trail showing what is really going on. Happily this message was recorded in a subsequent email. Clearly Lal is intending to carry on in the same manner as his disgraced predecessors, Britton and Stevens - and that is something the Commissioners need to address whilst they are still in situ.

This also shows that the partying decision was not made by Lal himself. The assumption must be that McGovern made it, but couldn't be arsed to keep any records about it. Lal appears to be concerned about the cost as well he might be since it was £4,000 plus vat. But clearly the new CEO was comfortable with this since he was quick to don his best bib and tucker to get some free food and booze.

The sponsorship of a meaningless "awards category" at £4k of our money provided a table of 10 tickets but, curiously, only four attended. As pictured above Lal, Hughes and Randhawa were quick to get their noses in the taxpayers' trough plus one "junior employee", whom Lal is refusing to name (although the smart money is on Morgan). If this was such a prestigious event and we had paid for 10 Cllrs/employees to attend anyway, why did only 4 show up? And that's £1,000 a head just for a night out.

Lal has confirmed that the taxpayer-funded food and alcohol for the jolly and, no doubt, he and the "junior employee" have declared this on their Employee Declaration of Interest.

As above, normal attendance tickets for these w*nkfests start at £90 a head. In fact Johal is already trying to flog tickets for the self-same event next year at £110 per head. I duly wrote to Cllrs Randhawa and Hughes asking why neither had declared the jolly on their own Register of Interests. Hughes failed to respond but Randhawa wrote this:

"The council was one of the sponsors for the event and the costs of any hospitality received is valued by the council to fall below the threshold (£50) requiring disclosure on the Gifts and Hospitality Register."

When an event is publicly priced at well over £50 per head who the f in the Council "valued" this at under £50? Was this Lal himself so that he didn't have to declare his own register entry. I think we should be told don't you readers?

Sandwell Police - support by association?

This blog has occasionally run a "Cops*ckers" feature showing social media posts where the local cops are seen to be - metaphorically - fellating Sandwell Councillors. We have also seen that, for reasons unknown, the local plod and noddy plod (the PCSO's) literally - and I mean literally - have been seen queuing to be photographed with lying Labour Cllr Parbinder Kaur (who was found to be in breach of the Councillor's Code of Conduct when she lied about her property interests). Why FFS?

There has been some improvement in local policing in general recently, and in their social media output in particular. Long may it continue - although there are again signs of slippage when it comes to Kaur:

Now here's a thing. Cllr Kaur has very publicly been supporting the campaign for a separate "Sikh State" called "Khalistan" to secede from India. I was communicating - separately - with two Sikh readers recently who both expressed concern with regard to this. They were anxious to assure me that not all local Sikhs supported the Khalistan idea. 

But now Kaur has sailed to even wilder shores actively supporting Hamas, a proscribed terrorist group in the UK:

Perhaps Sandwell Police should be a bit more circumspect about who they associate with? Or do they endorse Kaur's views?

Quick updates ...

In my last post (link below) I mentioned that Lal is fighting full disclosure of Matt Huggins's coffee van - alleged bought unseen from eBay. It is believed this is the actual vehicle:

AND Lal is also preventing disclosure of the letter of complaint bizarrely sent by Surjit Tour to Aileen McColgan KC concerning alleged deficiences in her handling of the McNally case. That has now been referred to the Information Commissioner.

Same old, same old Sandwell ...

Watch this space for a big story - hopefully at the end of this week plus outrageous behaviour from the local Tory Group ...

* https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2023/10/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-next.html

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 4 from 8th October, 2023.)

I cannot list every previous mention of individuals referred to in the entirety of this blog. Where I refer to a specific story please follow the supplied hyperlink since this forms legal justification for later comments. Similarly references to “posts or Skidders passim” and to earlier posts mean any individuals concerned about purported defamatory or otherwise unlawful material must read later posts in the context of earlier posts. Full information can also be supplied within a reasonable time upon application via email to thesandwellskidder@gmail.com

We may also add hyperlinks or references to content in our associated blogs, “As The Crow Flies!” (at crowmultimedia.blogspot.com) and Rotten Council Governance - Legal Review (at rottencouncils.blogspot.com). Reference to content in those blogs also forms part of the context, meaning of, and justification for, contents in this blog.

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.

Every now and again we make a genuine error and get something wrong. If an error in the blog affects you please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com and we shall use our best endeavours to remove offending material and/or publish appropriate corrections forthwith (together with an apology, if applicable).

We have had to remove the direct comment facility from this blog due to the malicious activity of a West Bromwich woman but we are pleased to receive comments via email to thesandwellskidder@gmail.com, on Twitter via our publishers @CrowMultimedia or via our dedicated Facebook Group: “The Sandwell Skidder - Speaking Truth to Power!” We are happy to publish any sensible commentary and offer a right of reply where applicable. We can also publish “guest” posts on mutually agreed terms.

If you consider that anything written is defamatory or otherwise unlawful please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com or telephone 07470 624207 forthwith. If your complaint has merit we shall endeavour to make immediate amends.

The great Sandwell coffee van mystery - plus Lal and KBD

PLEASE NOTE - the Legal Notice attached to all Skidder blogposts has been slightly amended. "Version 4" of the Legal Notice dated 8th October, 2023 is, as ever, shown at the end of each post - including this one - and can I urge all readers to familiarise themselves with the new version below. Thank you.

Shokat Lal acts to protect Huggins

The (relatively) new SMBC Chief Executive is having his first go at running a local authority. Coming in when the Commissioners (lol) are in situ should have made it easier for him to free himself from the sick Sandwell Labour dictatorship. But he (or more particularly, she) who pays the piper calls the tune, and Lal was given a big pay-rise by corrupt Labour over his predecessor, the disgraced David Stevens.

Lal has lost no time in picking a fight with me (which he obviously assumes is a wise career move) but then that is hardly surprising given his previous association with Sandwell's former weirdo "Leader", the crazed tyrant Steve "Squealing" Eling. The Squealer works, of course, for another basket case Labour Council, Rotherham where a massive sex abuse scandal was exposed involving the Council and local plod. The beleaguered Council brought in Lal, perhaps because of his presumed legal expertise in matters related to RMBC's local difficulty. Here is one of a number of documents showing that the Derbyshire-resident pair worked closely together:

If Lal is suspending his own judgement based on the rantings of Eling and Dim Kez then he must surely be hastening his own downfall?

Despite his very high salary, Lal has lost no time in going out partying at the taxpayers' expense. Here he is whooping it up at a fake "business awards" event with two of his puppeteers, Labour Cllr's Randhawa and Hughes:

[And yes, folks, I do have a Freedom of Information Request in, to see how much WE had to pay for this grotesque charade.]

Prior to Lal's arrival, Interim Chief Executive Kim Bromley-Derry (who, incredibly, was then made Lead Sandwell commissioner by Michael Gove in a rigged process) began removing swathes of public records from the Council's website. This was done deliberately to hamper journalists and campaigners from digging-up dirt. Despite KBD promise that some of the information would be put back up, it wasn't. Now Lal himself has presided over the launch of a new website with even more documentation deliberately removed. [We are setting up a group to ensure that the Council replaces the missing info - starting with minutes of old Council meetings.] This is absolutely appalling and given "leader" Kerrie "Dim Kez" Carmichael's deterimination to bury the past, one has to suspect that this outrage was a political decision and that Lal is Labour's willing tool.

In the meantime, The Skidder has been bombarded with calls, texts, messages and even letters about Mr Matthew Huggins and some of the issues raised are ongoing matters. Another tranche of communications was received recently concerning the purchase of a "vintage" coffee van similar to the one pictured above. I duly sent a press enquiry to bent Sandwell.

Several members of staff had contacted me about this purchase claiming, amongst other things, that it had been purchased on ebay, that it was a heap of sh*te, and that it was supposed to be used around various sites but the Council were struggling to insure it.

Lal's team claimed that the Council had purchased the van "in accordance with procurement guidelines". It was "primarily" for use at Lightwoods but also for other events and "usage at wedding hire" (the Bride is always latte lol!) The vehicle was specifically chosen - wait for it - because of "its aesthetics aligning with Lightwoods House"! The vehicle was fully functioning and only required some "minor work".

This is the first time in a decade that bent Labour has ever been concerned with "aesthetics" and, in any event, this is b*llocks.

I pressed with further questions about the circumstances of the purchase and the insurance but Lal has pulled the plug and forced me to make a Freedom of Information request for further facts. I have, of course, done this but this means Lal has kicked the can down the road (no pun intended) and, even if Labour do not try to use loopholes in the law to prevent disclosure, it is likely to be many months before I can put the replies in the public domain. Lal is also deliberately causing more expense to the public by taking this step. He is playing the same games as disgraced Britton and Stevens. Perhaps this is inexperience or perhaps he thinks he is cleverer than them?

Incidentally, whilst making the FOIA request I have included queries about the cafe/restaurant at Lightwoods since there are ugly rumours (and I put it no higher than that) of bent Labour trying to do a sweetheart deal to give the new franchise to a crony. We shall see ...

Lal's exodus

I have referred in these posts to the so called LGA (Local Government Association aka Lying Greedy Arseholes) Peer Reviews of bent Sandwell. There have been two in relatively recent times where wrongdoing is brushed under the carpet, or not even mentioned at all, and where some jokers from other councils claim that reform is underway in the bent Borough and that everything in the Sandwell garden will soon be rosy. Lal's arrival was meant to herald a new age of management stability but what has actually happened? TWO directors are out. Gillian Douglas was a short-lived Director of Housing before realising that she was at risk of destroying her career in the corrupt Borough and jumping ship. Even worse - the top finance person, Simone Hines, is on her way. She was the eventual replacement for the useless a***-licker, Darren Carter (Skidders passim ad nauseum), and her post is one of the most important in the Council - so much so that it is a statutory position - s. 151 Officer.

With the accounting records in disarray at Sandwell, computer system failures and Grant Thornton, the supposedly "independent" auditors, involving themselves in political matters this does not augur well for the Lal era. 

Of course, the one who should be out is still there ... Lal seemingly hasn't got the cojones to lance that poisonous boil.

McNally - Tour "complains" to Leading Counsel

The repercussions of the corruption surrounding the McNally case rumble on (there's more to come folks). Regular readers will know that disgraced former Chief Executive, David Stevens and the highly controversial Monitoring Officer/Head of Legal [sic], Surjit Tour, conspired with Public Health boss, Lisa McNally, to bring an absurd High Court case against me, and to unlawfully fund it with YOUR money. They fell at the first hurdle - costing you £100,000.

Back in 2018 Tour had instructed Anya Proops KC, of expensive 11KBW Chambers in London, to shaft me. One must assume that Ms Proops gave Tour unpalatable advice as no legal action was issued at that time, although Tour says Proops did say - even before McNally was employed at SMBC - that the Council could legally indemnify employees to bring claims in respect of their personal social media accounts - which, with respect to Leading Counnsel, is, in legal terms, b*llocks. There is more on this on our associated blog dealing with legal matters via the link below, and a brand new post about the Solicitors Regulation Authority's feeble response to the racism disclosed in the Cox Review at bent Sandwell:

https://rottencouncils.blogspot.com/

When Tour and the others cooked up their scheme they decided not to re-instruct Ms Proops but instructed another KC in the same Chambers, Aileen McColgan. We have seen how Tour had Sandwell Legal Department's Daughters of Cain, the now departed Solicitors Maria Price and Julia Lynch (willingly assisted my Vanessa Mahersmith) concoct a ludicrous narrative about my supposed misogyny. McColgan had returned to practice from academe where she wrote extensively about female equality in the workplace and women's human rights (two subjects I am equally anxious to promote). Accordingly she was the perfect choice to "play" Tour's corrupted hand of cards. I have commented elsewhere on McColgan's performance but, of course, McNally's case was struck out at the first opportunity (at considerable financial cost to myself), and at great cost to the taxpayer.

What happened next would be incredible anywhere other than in bent Labour but it now transpires that Tour wrote a formal letter of complaint to McColgan about her handling of the case - a case where he had personally corrupted the evidence* - along with others!

You will not be surprised, folks, that Lal is refusing to make the letter public, even with suitable redactions.

Bromley-Derry: another McNally rimmer!

Make way BBC Midlands Today's Nick Owen - your role as McNally's Rimmer-in-Chief is under threat from no less a person that KBD himself. Readers with long memories will remember the comedy gold when McNally failed to mute herself during the all staff Christmas online meeting in 2021 (my post of 5th January, 2002) refers. On the tape "The Mouth of the Mersey" is heard savaging another Council employee, Oliver Knight.

But a kind soul sent me this astonishing absolution of St Lisa to all staff from KBD himself:

Why not listen to the tape again folks and make up your own mind whether Bromley-Derry is pissing down the workforce's legs and telling them it is raining:

How is a Government Commissioner allowed to trot this sort of crap out?

Dying to go to the Park?

Bent Sandwell Labour is destroying green spaces across the Borough but continues to boast about the urban dystopia's "Green Flag" parks. They even put a list up on their website. But three of the "parks" are, er, burial grounds. Yes folks, the crooked comrades have lumped in with their actual parks, Fallings Heath and Tipton cemeteries, and Sandwell Valley Crem. The latter was recently castigated on social media for its tattiness and Tipton Cemetery went national (after a Skidder exclusive) when human remains were left in an open skip for all to see. Just the places to take the kids this weekend - or maybe wait 'til Halloween?

Quote of (last) week

Discussing "a Sandwell resident" last week I was told this: "My mate said he threatened to kick his head in when he caught him giving coke [not the fizzy drink] to his 15 year-old son!" Yet Sandwell Police have been massive rimmers of the resident in question. Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that the person I was talking to was ex-West Midlands Police ... WTF?

PLEASE NOTE THE SKIDDER WILL BE UNABLE TO TAKE CALLS TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY NEXT WEEK - PLEASE USE TEXT, MESSAGING APPS OR EMAIL IF YOU HAVE A STORY.

* Tour, amongst other things, purported to give evidence himself within the Court documents - rather than as a witness - when he had been directly involved in the conspiracy to bring the case and to get Cllr Maria Crompton to wrongly agree that taxpayers should pay for it.

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 4 from 8th October, 2023.)

I cannot list every previous mention of individuals referred to in the entirety of this blog. Where I refer to a specific story please follow the supplied hyperlink since this forms legal justification for later comments. Similarly references to “posts or Skidders passim” and to earlier posts mean any individuals concerned about purported defamatory or otherwise unlawful material must read later posts in the context of earlier posts. Full information can also be supplied within a reasonable time upon application via email to thesandwellskidder@gmail.com

We may also add hyperlinks or references to content in our associated blogs, “As The Crow Flies!” (at crowmultimedia.blogspot.com) and Rotten Council Governance - Legal Review (at rottencouncils.blogspot.com). Reference to content in those blogs also forms part of the context, meaning of, and justification for, contents in this blog.

In most cases we try to give the subjects of these blog posts the opportunity to comment on our journalism pre-publication to ensure the accuracy of our work.

Every now and again we make a genuine error and get something wrong. If an error in the blog affects you please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com and we shall use our best endeavours to remove offending material and/or publish appropriate corrections forthwith (together with an apology, if applicable).

We have had to remove the direct comment facility from this blog due to the malicious activity of a West Bromwich woman but we are pleased to receive comments via email to thesandwellskidder@gmail.com, on Twitter via our publishers @CrowMultimedia or via our dedicated Facebook Group: “The Sandwell Skidder - Speaking Truth to Power!” We are happy to publish any sensible commentary and offer a right of reply where applicable. We can also publish “guest” posts on mutually agreed terms.

If you consider that anything written is defamatory or otherwise unlawful please email thesandwellskidder@gmail.com or telephone 07470 624207 forthwith. If your complaint has merit we shall endeavour to make immediate amends.

Lion Farm Fraud: Moore of the same + er, more

Warning - this post contains an unpleasant image placed on social media by a British Member of Parliament.

Bent Labour STILL trying to push through fraudulent Lion Farm deal

If an option to turn a massive green space into a retail park is "so brilliant" why are bent Sandwell Labour still trying to get a Tory donor developer to finalise a deal after 11 years? I have written extensively about the corruption surrounding Labour's plot to destroy Lion Farm Fields and am not going to repeat myself here save to say that I have raised this again with West Midlands Police. A senior officer met with me and said WMP "might" consider looking at alleged "economic crimes" in relation to Lion Farm and - apparently - other deals done with Jeremy Knight Adams, a major Tory Party donor. Alas, they have not come back to me ... yet!

Back in 2012 retail was booming yet the transaction could not be completed. Now the industry is on its knees and yet Labour are still trying to do the damaging deal. The Labour "leader", proven liar Kerrie Carmichael, has continued to try to force a deal through and, yet again, this is all being done secretly. This is deliberate to try to ensure there is no judicial review application to the High Court, and it is astonishing that this is being allowed when Government Commissioners are in charge of the Council with a brief to halt the Labour corruption!

The proposed destruction of the Fields is to be discussed again on Thursday - bizarrely by the Budget and Corporate Scrutiny Management [sic] Board. This suggests that some sort of deal has already been done, but how can this be subject to "scrutiny" in, er, secret. Yes folks, the public and press are excluded from this part of the meeting.

Darryl Magher has been to a number of recent meetings when no Tories have turned up but it is to be hoped that someone will attend this one and ask what the hell is going on? Labour cannot claim "commercial confidentiality" when doing a sweetheart deal with the Tory donor to the exclusion of the rest of the world.

Another matter arises in that pathetic Labour Councillor Paul "The Cipher" Moore is supposed to be chairing the meeting on Thursday when he has been trying to push this bent deal through right from the off. I wrote to The Cipher - copying in "Dim Kez", Tory Leader Dave Fisher, and the Commissioners - but have received no response. Here is the email:

"THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION

It is truly incredible given your past history that you are on any scrutiny boards let alone chairing one. However, a specific point arises in connection with the secret (and bent) deal to destroy Lion Farm Fields which you have strongly supported for 10 years.

The bent deal is still, incredibly, being considered by Labour but, once again, everything is being hidden from public view (so much for scrutiny!) However, I understand that an agenda item dealing with the bent deal is before the Scrutiny Committee you "chair" on 5th October - with the press and public inevitably excluded again.

Please confirm within 48 hours that you will recuse yourself from the meeting when this agenda item is dealt with noting your past determination to support the bent deal (for whatever reason you have). More particularly, you were present at the appalling Cabinet meeting of 9th January, 2013 when you and your colleagues received the unlawful report of the inquorate AMLD meeting of 19th December, 2012. You and your colleagues at the meeting acted in a disgraceful and shameful way, dealing with a very full agenda - including the massive Lion Farm option - in just TWO minutes!. This gross negligence by the Committee led directly to the corrupt First Option being forced through.

To pile Pelion upon Ossa you personally presented the absurd and disgraceful "report" of Alison Knight to a meeting on 15th November, 2017 when you knew - or certainly should have known - that this was not an objective report in any way. Indeed it later transpired that Knight's nonsense had not been prepared from any research by her but from information coming from the property developer himself. Nevertheless you put your name to it as you have been so determined to destroy this 19 ha green space for a decade).

There will inevitably be legal action if Labour continues to force through this bent deal through on, at least, the grounds of irrationality and so I also respectfully suggest that your presence when this agenda item is discussed will be grist to the lawyer's mill.

Incidentally, I do not believe any of the Conservative opposition at the Council have bothered to talk to Dudley Council about the reasons why it ditched this same developer from a major project in that Borough. I have - and maybe you and your colleagues should too.

Please reply by 10.25 am Thursday, 28th September at the latest."

This blog recently exposed that not only did bent Labour do the bent Lion Farm deal with Shite Adams  but also flogged him and his wife the old Council offices at Stone Cross in 2013.  In corrrespondence recently seen by The Skidder the disgraced former Chief Executive, Jan Britton, also claimed the Council may have flogged him land in Tipton. Maggie Knight Adams is involved in many of the network of companies her husband operates and is specifically a Director of Alpha (Stonecross) Limited - the Company directly involved in the Stone Cross deal.

No wonder Malvern Millionairess Mags is smiling knowing that Dim Kez, Bob Piper, corrupt liar Hackett and Paul Moore are so anxious to help her and her husband amass yet more riches, and to p*ss on the people of Sandwell at the same time!

Concealment of Addresses

In my post "Come on Sandwell Folk - soil yourselves again!" of 2nd May, 2023 I mentioned that 23 of the 24 Conservative Councillors deliberately concealed their addresses from voters in the May elections and 20 out of 24 Labour ones did the same. I have now established with definitive proof that one of the Tory candidates had good reason to lie when claiming to "live in Sandwell" as s/he, er, doesn't. 

More on this subject soon ...

Vile image right up Andy's street?

Immigration is a serious issue. Many of today's senior Labour Councillors were fully supportive of the late wifebeater "Dickhead" Darren Cooper's "f*ck off" message to the desperate Syrians fleeing a murderous civil war. How times change. Now "the Left" wish to provide refuge for anyone who has the money to pay smugglers to ferry them across the Channel. Whilst some of these folk are undoubtedly genuine refugees, others are economic migrants who, due to Brexit and our poor relationship with the rest of Europe, Britain is unable to immediately deport.

There are very real and difficult questions surrounding immigration not least of which is the pressure on our already creaking NHS and other public services. But anyone who wishes to engage in any sort of sensible debate about this is accused by the lunatic "Left" of being "racist". There is no doubt that there was plenty of racism and xenophobia in Sandwell's decisive vote to leave the EU, but the simple fact is that our Country's economy needs more migrants to prosper. And, when all said and done, we are still a rich country and need to give some of the "huddled masses" a helping hand for purely humanitarian reasons.

But bent Sandwell Labour seemingly wants unlimited and unrestricted entry now for whoever arrives here - legally or otherwise - and the comrades are now bragging of being a "Borough of Sanctuary". Needless to say all the pro-Labour "charities" and other stooge organisations are holding out the begging bowls to grab their share of the taxpayers' money on offer. It seems to me to be cruel and unusual punishment to force asylum seekers to live in sh*thole Sadders, but there we are. Dickhead Daz must be spinning in his grave!

Meanwhile, Conservative MP, Michael Fabricant, put up an absolutely appalling image in respect of the refugee crisis which includes someone urinating and an apparently dead body hanging beneath an "EgyptAir" jet (leaving no doubt that the Middle East and North Africa is where Mr Syrup thinks many of the asylum-seekers are coming from):

Of course our West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street, is a close friend of Fabricant and, at least until recent times, co-owned a property with him. I asked Mr Street whether this Tweet accurately reflected his own take on the immigration issue as WM Mayor and he specifically had his press officer contact me to say, er, "no comment"! WTF?

Hackett at the bus stop lol!

Corrupt liar Cllr Simon "The Sandwell Slasher" Hackett has been commenting adversely on Sandwell bus services. And the other day he demanded an investigation by Transport WM when the number 40 Diamond Bus drove straight past his bus stop. Perhaps Diamond knew of Hackett's infamous history when he was caught urinating in a bus shelter and decided they didn't want The Slasher on their nice bus.

Unsurprisingly his whinge was reposted on X (formerly known as retweeting on Twitter ) by his little rimmer at the Wolvo C*cksuckers, "priapic" pisshead propagandist, Adam Smith, on his "Star Reporter" account. Big news!

Incidentally, I still cannot bring you the final instalment on the thousands Hackett had shafted the taxpayer for with his lies since the Council has not yet settled the costs of the second civil case it lost trying to cover-up his wrongdoing. But the truth will out soon ...

Runaway Nicola and the Baggies

It is customary for all local politicians to pay homage to my own favoured team, and the Tories have been in overdrive trying to "save" The Baggies. Let us hope they put as much effort into saving Lion Farm Fields although most of you will know that local MP, Nicola Richards, is running away from West Brom East in search of a safer seat - what is popularly known locally as "doing a Watson" (although his new perch is ermine-lined).

Bizarrely, Nicola has taken to the media to praise the role of WBA's managing director, Mark Miles, in takeover talks. That would presumably be the same WBA director Mark Miles who was appointed as a Trustee of The Albion Foundation on 12th March, 2018 when (a) his employer WBA were plundering "their" charity for large sums, and (b) the Trustees signed off incorrect later accounts which then had to be rectified. Hardly a glowing endorsement of his skills or his ability to detect conflicts of interest? Nicola should know about all this. Whilst she wasn't involved in the matters this blog has exposed she has, herself, been a Trustee since July, 2020. I have as little confidence in Mr Miles as Nicola has in winning WBE again.

BSF - B for Bloody; S for Stupid; F for Fool

There is nothing bent Sandwell Labour likes more than going back and sniffing its old turds. For those thinking of voting Labour remember their absolutely disastrous runaway expenditure on Private Finance Initiatives when it paid huge sums for infrastructure and then eye-watering sums for maintenance for, typically, 30 years. These contracts included bizarre expenses such as payments of over £100 to change a light bulb. Needless to say, banks, financiers and long-term contract winners usually coined-it at the expense of us taxpayers.

One such scheme was the ruinously expensive "Building Schools for the Future or BSF" scheme. Naturally bent Sandwell Labour loved the idea of getting the instant kudos for opening new school buildings whilst the taxpayer was shafted for three decades. This is how Private Eye Magazine recently described the BSF:

"This imposed huge extra costs and often produced less than ideal infrastructure. An industry of consultants and bankers grew-up around it adding yet more layers of public-private partnership ...., and even more cost. Few argued with [then] education secretary Michael Gove when he scrapped BSF ..."

One of the "few" who did argue was bent Labour Sandwell. Long ago this blog described how a handful of councils started legal action to reverse Gove's decision. Corrupt and incompetent Sandwell joined the legal action after the deadline had passed but the Judge allowed them to continue with the others whose legal departments had managed to start the proceedings on time. Soon there were photos of Jan Britton and sundry Labour Councillors celebrating a great "victory" over Gove outside the Oldbury Kremlin. But as with most of the utterances of these sleaze merchants they were talking b*llocks. The Court had not overruled the abolition of the scheme as some in Sandwell Labour claimed at the time but effectively ordered that the Government reconsider how the abolition of the scheme was to be implemented more carefully. Gove went ahead with the abolition, with a watered-down scheme in its place.

The BSF was dead but bent Sandwell Labour used it anyway in the corrupt deal to destroy The Public. They claimed that they could simply gift a £6 million contract to their pals at Interserve without having to put it out to tender, under the BSF "framework". Whilst I pointed this corruption out at the time no-one had the b*lls or, more importantly, the money to challenge any of this in Court.

Given how PFI deals have been shown-up as a complete disaster (eg. the new Sandwell Hospital) only a moron would mourn their passing. Many councils elsewhere are trying to buy themselves out of the contracts to try to save money. 

But there's always one isn't there? Step forward none-other than Dim Kez who has taken to social media to complain that the mouldy concrete Wood Green Academy 'would have been rebuilt under "Labour's Building Schools for the Future programme"'. What a BSF ...

Help Please?

Getting reports that anti-business Sandwell Labour are causing parking problems for firms in Oldbury? Any more on this anyone?

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