The Rise and Rise of Sandwell's Shokat Lal

This blog has consistently pointed out the corruption, cronyism and incompetence at bent Labour Sandwell Council and, occasionally, further afield. And so it is good to be able to report on local government's new wunderkind - unbelievably in the Heart of Darkness itself!

Shokat Lal started his first job as a council Chief Executive in bent Labour Sandwell in 2023 replacing Interim CE, Kim Bromley-Derry (KBD), surely the richest man in local government. KBD was brought in via a secret deal with the Local Government Association and a hearing before the Information Rights Tribunal is listed for 11th March where the Skidder is trying to flush out more information about this episode and also the LGA's involvement in the appointment of Imogen Walker as the Leader's wet nurse.

KBD replaced the disastrous previous pair of Chief Exec's - the disgraced Jan Britton and David Stevens. Of course, he went on to get the gig as Lead Commissioner when the Government was forced to act against corrupt Labour Sandwell.

Lal had previously worked at another basket-case Labour Council, Rotherham, where he toiled alongside the former disgraced Leader of Sandwell, Steve "Squealing" Eling, who did so much to instituitionalise corruption in the benighted Borough. As above, this was his first promotion to Chief Exec - with the help of KBD - and he was immediately paid the highest figure ever for Sandwell's top job - £185,000 in early 2023. Despite the £20m black hole in the Labour Council's accounts he received a nice pay-rise so that in 2024 his salary was up to the bracket £195,000 to £199,499 for a 37-hour week, plus gold-plated pension.

No wonder Lal was anxious to go out on the p*ss at a grand do in Wolvo with us taxpayers' picking up the tab. Here he is partying with Labour Cllr, Peter Hughes and his wife, former Labour Cllr Pam Hughes. This blog exposed the Hughes's relationship with property developer, Satnam Sahota (Skidder's passim). Despite this, and the fact that Pam Hughes was in breach of the Councillors' Code of Conduct and would have faced the music had she not "retired", Lal ensured that us taxpayers paid for them too to join the beano.

KBD has been feathering his already amply nest with various local government gigs - even though this blog showed that he is apparently incapable of keeping proper records of his actions, something the last Secretary of State for Local Government, Michael Gove, incredibly thought was absolutely fine!!!! He has also been allowed to retain his company directorship with large property developer, McLaren Construction.

KBD has been raking it in since Sandwell with a stint as Interim CE at Basildon. He also advertises himself as a "Special Advisor" to Dudley Council and he has now been sent in as a Commissioner - although the new Government has changed the name to "Ministerial Envoy" - at Tower Hamlets. The latter is an interesting gig for KBD noting that McLaren Construction moved its HQ into that London Borough and is also undertaking a number of lucrative developments there.

Meanwhile in Sadders ... As above, Labour has blown a £20m hole in the accounts and so yet another round of council tax increases, rent increases and across the board fee increases are coming real soon to the local pro-Labour morons. All - so far - backed by the spineless rump of Tory Councillors ROFLMAO! This is a good time to remind ourselves of this from our friends at Sandwell Corruption. Last June Labour Leader, Kerry "Dim Kez" Carmichael, boasted of her hitherto well-hidden financial acumen, and that the Council was NOT in a financial mess:

Just 4 months later. even her pals at the Express and Star were calling this proven liar out, and pointing out that the five-year financial plan "makes for bleak reading"! 

Recently, the Regulator of Social Housing issued a damning report on slum landlord, Sandwell Council. Here is a succinct summary from the experts at "Inside Housing":

"In Sandwell, the regulator found a number of issues with the Safety and Quality Standard due to the council’s tenant satisfaction measure return.

These included how the local authority was only able to evidence that required asbestos management surveys or re-inspections had been carried out on around 2% of relevant buildings.

Despite electrical safety inspections having been completed for 96% of its 27,900 homes, Sandwell Council was unable to monitor or report on the completion of remedial actions.

The council has a backlog of more than 14,000 overdue repairs, with over 90% of these yet to be assigned for completion. Plus, accurate, up-to-date information was available for only 5% of its homes."

Readers might be wondering where I am going with this, and also thinking that Shokat Lal still has much to do. The fact is that everything is now so wonderful in Sadders that Lal has been permitted (at the crucial period when the budget is being set) to go off and work, when necessary, as one of the two other "Ministerial Envoys" appointed to help KBD in London at Tower Hamlets!

The newish Labour Government thinks that Lal has somehow "cleaned-up" bent Sandwell and so can be farmed out to other authorities now. As do Sandwell Labour! Needless to say - and once again - there is silence from the hapless Tory Councillors about this incredible situation.

I duly wrote to SMBC querying the payment arrangements involved here and, for once, actually got a reply:

Now here's an idea. Let Lal keep the £1k per day from Tower Hamlets, reduce his role to 4-days a week and cut his pay pro rata i.e. by 20%. There's an instant saving for the hard-pressed taxpayers of Sadders!

Just on another point - the unions are demanding of their Labour puppets that they do what they are told and introduce 4-day weeks across the board. This despite the UK's appalling productivity figures. Will Lal remove himself from any discussions on this subject when the Sandwell unions try to force this issue? Surely he has a clear conflict of interest?

One of the criticisms of the 4-day week is that many people will take on extra work, set up businesses etc. on the day they are supposed to be looking after themselves and their families (whatever the f*** that means). Our wonderful firefighters , for example, are past masters at running such side-hussles, and now Lal is showing that it can even be done in the sick, over-staffed, sclerotic world of town halls!.

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 

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.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.

My AI Profile - A Grok of Sh*t?

I dipped my toe into the murky waters of Artificial Intelligence (AI) sometime ago - publishing a post entirely written using this new wonder. I am now indebted to Sandwell Community Activist, Darryl Magher, for forwarding a profile of me via Elon Musk's AI tool, Grok. I should say that Grok has thrown up different versions of my profile and this is just one of them.

I am including a couple of comments/clarifications, but will leave it to you, dear readers, to form a view as to the accuracy or otherwise of the piece.

My soliciting days did include a spell in Sadders, but were mostly spent elsewhere.

AI fails to mention the harassment of me by Sandwell Labour Council's bent cronies at West Midlands Police leading to several unpleasant trips to police stations and interviews under caution. It also fails to mention death threats, threats of extreme violence and threats to burn my house down, plus an actual assault on me by the next Mayor of Sandwell, Melia, who was duly convicted at Dudley Magistrates for attacking me.

I am pleased that AI has picked up the fact that I organised the UK's first ever "Corruptour" with permission from the originators of the idea in Mexico City. This involved a small party touring various sites in Sandwell including Providence Place (where Labour cost taxpayers a mere, er, £22.5 m) and the former public conveniences in Oldbury - the epicentre of the "Boggate" scandal!

A different Grok version puts the number of views of The Skidder at 1.9 m which is incorrect. At the time of writing the figure is just under 2.75 m and that does not include some Sandwell-related posts on associated blogs, As The Crow Flies and Rotten Councils.

I have fought two separate cases in the High Court Media and Communications List plus an action of the High Court, Birmingham District Registry.

This is putting it very mildly - the Labour Council, trade unions and Labour's cop pals have tried to bankrupt me and to have me imprisoned over many years.

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 

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.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.

Sandwell Lib Dem "Fuhrer" Outgoing ...

Why do the Lib Dems hate Sandwell? Since 2013 - when this blog - started they have done precisely nothing in the Sh*thole Borough. Recently the Lib Dems have been doing well both in respect of winning Parliamentary seats and many council seats elsewhere. The principal reason for local Sadders failure is that the Party has been under the control of crazed, Labour-rimmer, Mark Smith ("The Fuhrer").

Year after year, the Lib Dems have avoided all Sandwell issues and maintained a vow of silence worthy of Trappist monks. Yet when an election is called they gather a few candidates and expect folk to actually vote for them! Even in Sandwell the outcome is inevitable, and the Party is humiliated.

Smith is so pro-Labour that he cannot bring himself to criticise the corrupt local Dictatorship. His rare, inane, utterances have been foaming-at-the-mouth rants against the, er, Tories even though Labour has been in total control of Sadders for half a century! 

As Labour corruption riddled the Council under "Leaders", Cooper and Eling, Smith remained silent. As green space across the Borough has been destroyed by Labour (and more is threatened by the concrete mixer), Smith has remained silent. As the bent Dictatorship led the Council into very costly Government "special measures" (at a cost of £2m +), Smith remained silent.

Campaigns have sprung up to save Londonderry Fields, Brandhall, and Lion Farm, but the Fuhrer has ignored them all. Smith rarely attends Council meetings (and seldom do his selected candidates). Speak to the candidates at election time and they are completely unaware of the myriad issues raised in this blog and elsewhere. In short, they are not serious candidates, and should be an embarrassment to the national Party.

As above, the national Party has done well and last May won a rake of seats taking around 17% of the vote. In Sandwell Lib Dems' latest hilarious newsletter [What that - Ed?] the fantasist Smith boasts of the "progress" made in Sadders in '24 where his rag-tag slate garnered, er, 4% of the vote!!! In the very next paragraph Smith returns to more important matters and describes a curry night at a pub with Walsall "colleagues".

Of course, the supremely arrogant Smith won't accept his part in this shaming degringolade. This was the campaign photo for last May's local election:

In the latest Lib Dem propaganda sheet, Smith explains, without irony, that the local party is leaving X (formerly Twitter). The reason is unexplained but presumably relates to the alleged "toxicity" of the site. Yet despite the publicity surrounding 2024 Lib Dem candidate, Wikas Khan, Smith allowed his local selection and flaunted him - front left - in the above photo. Of course, Khan's abusive behaviour on X/Twitter was so bad that HE was sanctioned by that site (and more than once). Toxic indeed!

If you are sad enough to want to visit the Sandwell Lib Deb website (honestly - don't bother), Smith still has the above photo in pride of place on the header. And so he is still backing the infamous troll. Also, many regular readers will recognise the chap on the right - local campaigner and good egg, Clive Heywood, who reports that he, er, no longer has communications with Smith and the Lib Dems. And so the Skidder is helpfully providing an update of the photo for you:

BUT - great news! In the latest newsletter Smith describes himself as the "outgoing Chair". Good riddance to bad rubbish and perhaps this may herald a new dawn for a genuine Lib Dem opposition in Sandwell. There is plenty of work to be done - particularly as the Tory opposition has imploded so spectacularly - as Labour tightens its stranglehold on the benighted Borough.

And on the subject of the Tories ...

It was hard to believe that Sandwell could have a worse MP  than Tom "Twatson" Watson (although Spellar ran the serial shagger close) and there were high hopes for Nicola Richards when she won what was West Brom East for the Conservatives. Alas she proved to be a disaster. Indeed, even many Tories agreed with the popular view of her locally. She also fell out big style with the WBW MP, and their inability to work together was both childish and insulting to local voters.

We still don't know what really happened in Solihull. We do know that although sitting MP, Julian Knight, strongly pleads his innocence in respect of allegations made against him and implies that his own party was involved in a plot to remove him, he was defenestrated. Richards immediately threw her hat into the ring to grab his safe seat having decided to run away from the folk who voted for her in Sadders and who she was doing a p*sspoor job at representing. She was shortlisted (despite her track record) but a strong campaign arose locally where many Tories detested her. When she was finally given the bum's rush by the Blue Silhillians she is said by some local Tories to have stormed out of the meeting, further besmirching her already tarnished reputation.

You will all be happy to note that Richards has been given a job with PR agency, Cratus Group, which seems to have detected a degree of talent and ability in Richards that has passed everyone in Sadders by. Cratus Group boasts that they "manage political and reputational risks" and so Nicola does not seem a natural fit there. They also claim to be able "to influence national policy on some of the most important issues facing the UK" - in other words, something Richards was supposed to be doing as an MP but, er, didn't. Good luck, Cratus!

Meanwhile, readers will know that the Tory MP's locally all lost their seats in '24, and that the Party's number of Councillors fell to just five. At the last full Council meeting only TWO of the five were able to manage their affairs sufficiently for them to be able to show up. You will be glad to note that the TWO who could be arsed specifically voted WITH Labour in respect of the Council Tax base, housing rent increases and, even worse, the reduction in the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme which will affect the most vulnerable Sandwell residents. YES - this "opposition" actually specifically voted FOR these disastrous Labour policies brought about by the £20m hole in the accounts under the Dictatorship. What an absolute sh*tshow!

And finally - do come shopping in West Brom (if you are wearing body armour)

There is an uprising in West Brom by small traders who are fighting the hated Town BID. This is a crackpot "Business Improvement District" which makes traders pay extra tax (called a levy) whilst providing well-paid jobs to people who are supposedly providing the services which the traders are already paying the bent Labour Council to provide anyway via their business rates. In actual fact, the principal activity of the BID team is to operate as copper's narks.

The big shops like Tesco tend to vote for BID's to destroy small shops and prevent them from providing a modicum of competition. They can afford to pass the extra tax (levy) on, in higher prices to customers, so that ordinary folk end up paying the price. And struggling small traders cannot simply up their prices in difficult market conditions.

Twelve months ago, bent, business-hating, Sandwell Labour heaped more misery on local traders with a crazed campaign exhorting folk not to buy new stuff during January. This year, the new(ish) Labour Government is shafting small retailers/publicans/restaurateurs etc with minimum wage hikes, higher rates and National Insurance increases which will inevitably cause devastation - particularly in deprived sh*tholes like Labour Sandwell.

Please support the small traders in West Bromwich - if you are brave enough to go there. And you need to be brave. Many of you will have seen the horrific scenes of machete-wielding yobs taking to the streets before Christmas - no doubt whilst the local rozzers wo/man "crime prevention" stalls in the warmth of the shopping centre or sit in the office tweeting pro-Labour propaganda:

Even a Labour Councillor, Tory turncoat Archer Williams, described how he had been "frightened" by adults throwing fireworks about in the High Street. This, in a bizarre "speech" at the last full Council meeting. Williams failed to address Madam Mayor (lol, corrupt liar Syeda Khatun FFS) - by her correct title and then collapsed into a fit of giggles. When he composed himself he said that the firework throwers were "adults, grown adults" - presumably to differentiate them from those many unfortunates in Sadders whose growth has been stunted by poverty and malnutrition? He made no mention of any police presence again, nor of the attendance of the BID's paramilitaries. And so once again, Labour Councillors are warning you about wasting your time and money in West Brom! Mind how you go!

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 

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.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.