Louise Lawrence, Barbara Everson, Reece Forrester...

What is happening at bent Labour's "expert" Sandwell Human Resources [sic] Department at the moment? 

Regular readers will know from previous posts that pathetic groveller Darren Carter was suspended for his grotesque behaviour is the absurd suspensions of the cabinet secretariat (blogs passim and see legal notice below.) He was the statutory s.151 Finance Officer at SMBC and one of the four Directors underneath Jan Britton, the now-disgraced former Chief Executive.

Ex-Leader (yes, they are dropping like flies) Cllr Yvonne Davies managed to get into Oldbury Council House (OCH) from her luxurious Herefordshire home to say:

 "I would also like to pay particular tribute to the Cabinet secretaries. In perhaps the vilest of many vile political deeds they were marched unceremoniously off the premises and suspended under the previous [Eling] regime. A harder-working and more loyal group of staff you won't find anywhere. Thank you Jane and your wonderful team. If I've achieved nothing else I hope I've helped to make you feel valued and indespensable as the workers that you are. This Authority needs people like you.

(Red Yvonne still showing as "Labour" on SMBC website despite current suspension.)

We all know that there was political involvement in this decision not least from the "ranting man" - a Councillor with access to the inner rectum of OCH heard shouting "I want the f*ckers [ie the secretaries] out and I don't want the f*ckers back." Carter may perhaps be assuming that by keeping his mouth shut he will get a half-million pound pay-off like others? Whatever the position he has refused to dub in "the ranting man" (and other senior Labour Councillors involved in this shaming degringolade) but has maintained the fiction that he alone made the catastrophic decision based on "expert" advice from, er, Sandwell's own HR department.

There is a temporary s.151 Officer in post (a legal requirement) and everyone is tight-lipped about Carter. It SEEMS that he is still suspended so that WE are paying his high wages whilst he sits at home (metaphorically) w*nking over photos of Steve "Squealing" Eling. That's where your money goes in this corrupt Labour shambles folks...

Meanwhile - and despite his shocking conduct - a number of Councillors, including some of the worst scum in the Labour Group, are SUPPORTING Carter!

In the meantime the head of HR, Richard Luckman, left suddenly and without explanation. He was deeply unpopular with some staff - not least for ringing a little bell when he wanted the drones to gather round and listen to his inane witterings.

[There are also serious questions about the amount he spent on HR's offices in Providence Place (PP). He is said to have wanted it to look like an "Apple Store" and even the stools were said to be £140 each. More info welcome on this please...

Now the word on the street in that "senior HR Manager" "lol" Louise Lawrence has also gone in mysterious circumstances. Official sources claim this is confidential but her email account is blocked. She herself still claims to be employed by SMBC on her LinkedIn account but many say she has gone.

We do know that she was also most definitely involved in the shocking secretary scandal. It is not clear whether she was the "expert" the nasty Carter supposedly turned to but my Tribunal case flushed out emails showing her involvement - not least a facetitious email to Stuart Taylor seemingly making a joke of the horrendous situation the wronged women found themselves in.

So what is happening in HR? Over to you dear Readers"!

Staying on the subject of Sandwell HR Luckman's PA, Barbara Everson, left a while ago (and it is said the megalomaniac found he needed two replacements for her single post.) The Skidder has fielded loads of complaints from SMBC staff over the years about the three unions. There was (and still is) a widespread perception that the unions were too close to Labour Councillors and management including Luckman's HR guys and gals. There is widespread concern about the unions ignoring the rights and wrongs of dismissals provided that us taxpayers gave the departees a generous pay-off. The Jez Hall affair was a particularly egregious example where very many people thought his treatment by Britton and Co. was wholly unacceptable.

Disclosure of documents about Jan Britton's war on The Skidder has produced yet another odd episode - involving La Everson. She wrote the following to a Sandwell union rep (one on Facility Time ie paid by us taxpayers to be a trade union apparatchik rather than a "normal" employee):

You will see that Everson agreed to meet the Union Rep at Providence Place. All very cosy. I asked the Council to disclose the envelope of letters but have been told officially by the Council's legal department that the documents have been destroyed by another employee (NOT the union rep or Everson) as the documents did not relate to Council business! Sandwell refuse to name the employee (info welcome) but what the f*ck was going on here between taxpayer-funded employees? HR and a Union conniving over letters seemingly collected to cause me harm whilst at work and on council premises. These are the lengths these scum will go to in an effort to shut this blog up!

[Thanks to anon for the letter on the planning application.]

Another odd affair is developing over at the big-spending and useless Sandwell Children's Trust. SCT was set up, of course, because of the disastrous performance towards vulnerable children by Simon Hackett and the Labour dictatorship. The job was taken out of their hands but a Labour crony put in charge - Jacqui Smith. Despite the horror story for local kids she can seemingly manage to run this sh*tshow whilst appearing on Strictly Come Dancing. Let's hope the BBC introduce the Hornpipe this year since she has been burning through money like a drunken sailor (apologies, as always, to inebriated matelots.)

A whistleblower recently expressed concern about a vulnerable adult who is alleged to have an interest in, at "best", imitation firearms. It is claimed that a worker in SCT's Leaving Care Team visited him and took a picture of himself with one of the weapons which he then placed on Instagram. And it is true, Reece Forrester of SCT pictured himself brandishing a Millbro 357 Airsoft Revolver with a caption saying "When Monday Home Visits End Like This" and smiley emojis. I will leave it the court of public opinion to decide how appropriate this glorification of firearms is by an employee of a Children's Trust but an important question is whether the child in care in under 18 since it is illegal to buy these items until majority. Further is it appropriate for carers to "borrow" items - especially imitation firearms - from their charges for selfies? It may be that Forrester has answers to explain his extraordinary conduct but having raised the incident in writing with Smith's SCT they have, er, declined to substantively respond. The usual rule in the care of minors in the real world outside bent Labour Sandwell is that the interests of the child are paramount. However, one "Reece Forrester" is named as a Unison branch steward at SCT. Can SCT's inactivity and Forrester's union role be related perchance? I think we should be told don't you readers?

(Cartoon from the ever brilliant Private Eye - BUY THE CURRENT EDITION OUT NOW!)

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PROUD TO HAVE BEEN TROLLED BY DICKHEAD DARREN COOPER DECEASED!

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 2 from 15th February, 2020)

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 passim” and to earlier posts mean any individuals concerned about purported defamatory material should 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

Every now and again we make a genuine honest 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 make appropriate corrections forthwith.

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

Hackett & Lion Farm Tribunal Cases.

My apologies for the rather thin offering of posts lately but many readers are aware that, amongst many other things, I was preparing for two days of Sandwell Council Tribunals which were held online last week. In the meantime the civil war within the Labour Group in bent Sandwell has burst forth in spectacular form with more Labour suspensions and threatened suspensions as Spellar and Co try to bring the scum back to the surface for more corruption, cronyism and incompetence. More on this very soon!

Tribunals

Over the years I have put in a number of Freedom of Information requests (FOI's) and Jan Britton's bent paid service have frequently failed to comply with the law and respond properly. The range of unlawfulness ranges from GROSS delay to deliberate lying.

There are many problems with the FOI system which a bent council like Sandwell take advantage of. The law is that only documents that are "held" by a Council at the time of the request MAY have to be disclosed. Thus Britton and Co simply ensured that there were NO records kept at all of key meetings including all the main really bent deals - The Public, The Ice Rink, Lion Farm Fields etc! What a way to run a large, supposedly democratic, local authority!

Britton and his close associates were also assiduous in trying to expunge records from the system. The late Smethwick Scumbag, Darren Cooper ,was still in the morgue when his emails were - for obvious reasons - deleted. Members of Britton's staff - including a senior Council Solicitor - lied to the Information Commissioner saying that these emails and others were irrecoverable. Thanks to me pushing six cases to a Tribunal and Britton being booted out Sandwell was forced to admit the truth but then claimed that the computer system was so crap it was difficult - and very expensive - to find the documents. (In the Hackett case below, Britton's bent team also wiped the emails of Melanie Dudley and Pardip Sharma immediately upon their departures. In the latter case Sharma was a qualified solicitor and there are strict regulatory provisions of the Solicitors Regulatory Authority which have certainly been breached by this.)

Even where a council has documents it can plead all sorts of legal "defences" against disclosure. The upshot of all this is that using FOI's is a very poor weapon in exposing fraud and discovering truth.

Hackett - Tribunal

Way back in 2016 The Sandwell Slasher, Cllr Simon Hackett, received some highly confidential information about a child. He immediately, and in breach of confidence, blabbed this to Darren Cooper. Shortly afterwards Cooper held a "political meeting" (though a member of Britton's staff, Jane Perham, was paid by us taxpayers to attend - and there is no explanation given for this and she has not faced any disciplinary action.) The highly confidential information about the minor was then discussed again at this meeting - where Hackett was present - and thus disseminated to even more people who should not have been told. Not satisfied with this the pusillanimous Hackett was told to inform the Chief Whip - then the odious Derek Rowley - and duly did so. It seems that even this dimwit may have realised he had overstepped the mark since he sent this pathetic arse-covering email to Rowley:

Wednesday 17th February, 2016 10.35

Morning Derek,

This is to confirm that last Wednesday xxxxx papers were presented to me xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

I immediately saw that one of the papers I was asked to sign was in relation to xxxxxxx. I therefore spoke to the Leader who said I need to notify the Chief Whip. I therefore rang you last Wednesday.

A standards complaint was made to the corrupt Council about this gross and obvious breach of confidence and data breach. Four other allegations were added and I have written extensively about them elsewhere -  not least one about Hackett pissing in a bus shelter. 

Melanie Dudley was both Assistant Chief Executive and Acting Monitoring Officer at the time and as a Labour Party crony was fully expected to exonerate The Slasher. She duly did in respect of most of the charges (she did find that Hackett had urinated in a public place but that he was not acting in his capacity as a councillor at the time - he was just pissed out of his head.) But she found he did breach confidence rules about a child - how could she find otherwise? She says she discussed local resolution of the matter with Simple Simon and suggested the "punishment" would be to attend a half-day course on these issues. Meanwhile she would check whether the breach of conficence was also a data breach (again, how could it be otherwise?) She alleges that the snivelling sh*t Hackett agreed to this which should have been an end to the matter.

But Watson, Eling and Co were outraged and Melanie was told to amend the report and exonerate Hackett. She told The Skwawkbox website of Eling threatening her, "Do you want to fall out with me?" But she bravely stuck to her guns and was duly forced out. For the 6 months she had worked that year the Council's accounts show she received nearly half a million pounds of our money. The moment she was out the door and 8 months after the event Eling and Rowley's ever-present companion, Cllr Syeda Khatun, suddenly gave statements contradicting the original evidence and Jane Perham (who should not have been there in the first place and now working for, er, Eling) changed hers. And lo, Simon Hacket was suddenly "innocent".

Since January, 2017 I have been trying to obtain (a) the original report and statements; (b) the later statements of Eling, Khatun and Perham and (c) the amended report "exonerating" The Slasher. But Britton resisted this all the way.

Eling repaid Jane Perham by sh*tting on her and her cabinet secretarial colleagues in the suspension fiasco (posts passim and see legal notice below) but her misplaced loyalty (at best) meant that even then she didn't dub the tyrant in.

But Milko (Eling) and The Parkie (Britton) were by now on thin ice "lol". Soon these turds were flushed away. The new regime looked at the original investigation again and found cause for considerable concern. Thus the Hackett investigation was re-opened last November and, incredibly, is still going on (even noting the Covid crisis this is risible.)

In the meantime, the Information Commissioner agreed (natch) with the irate parent that Hackett's conduct was a data breach. The parent also brought a civil action and SMBC have accepted liability for the data breach (damages remain to be assessed.) But Britton's bent paid service argued that these findings were irrelevant because Hackett had been exonerated by the original inquiry! Of course, this argument became rather hard to maintain when SMBC itself called that whole investigation into question.

Last Tuesday, The Chief Executive, TWO SMBC solicitors and an expensive London Barrister spent the day telling the Tribunal that, because of the NEW investigation still dragging on, it would be unfair to give disclosure as this would impinge on the data protection rights of HACKETT himself!!!! You couldn't make it up. (Of course, Mr Pissy-Pants himself declined to attend the Tribunal.)

I can't say more as the judgment of the Tribunal is awaited but don't hold yout breath.

Meanwhile the sheer cowardice and spitefulness of Hackett has led to huge expenditure by the taxpayer ie the costs of the original investigation, the cost of the 2016 fake "investigation", the costs of the civil case (and any damages awarded), the costs of the new, ongoing, investigation and all the costs of the Tribunal proceedings. Add to this the additional costs of the pay-off to Melanie Dudley (who was due to leave the following February) and  we have to be talking well in excess of £100k. What an absolute scandal.

Lion Farm Tribunal

Day 2 saw SMBC put up the same expensive crew for a day to conceal the truth about the bent deal to develop Lion Farm Fields. Once again judgment is still awaited and so there are certain things I cannot say just yet but things were slightly different in this matter as the Information Commissioner had, for once, sided with me in respect of some of the issues and ordered Sandwell to make make certain disclosures. These documents are being placed on a separate blog. This is a work in progress but you can view the effort to date at:

http://savelionfarm.blogspot.com/2020/09/

The arguments, in brief, were (a) with regard to disclosure of documents relating to the extension of the developer's option(s) and (b) whether SMBC had made proper disclosure in respect of the existing order.

Regulars will know that this deal was "so good" for local people that the bent Labour Council concealed it FOR SEVERAL YEARS. They hid the deal under the title "Junction 2 Regeneration". They then gave it a secret codename, "Project Patrick". When Dr Alison Knight appeared to write the infamous "Knight's Sh*te" report on late 2017 it was called "Junction 2 Development Opportunity" (more soon on this.)

Under Jan Britton the searches for  documentation of the corrupt deal were done under different names and a mispelling of the developer's name. I say that was deliberate. In any event Sandwell claimed there were NO documents for a multi-million pound deal! Yes you read that correctly - NO documents ie they were not saying there were no disclosable documents (withheld via claimed exemptions) they saying no documents even existed. This was, of course, a lie and I am uging the Information Commissioner to bring criminal prosecutions against 2 named persons and any others caught up in this (but, again, don't hold your breath...)

Once the disgraced Britton was out documents appeared but still not adequately. Now the Council tried to bamboozle me by saying that it had searched totally irrelvant titles like "lion farm" (ie. the estate separate from the Fields) and "land by the M5" and had found 100,000 documents so that it was too expensive under the legislation to trawl through them all. Again I think this wilful obfuscation was deliberate.

Things went VERY badly in the morning but I had referred to certain documents which clearly DID exist but which bent Labour had not disclosed. These were miraculously found over the lunch interval but opened a whole new can of worms since they were written under the title "Land off Newbury Lane, Oldbury" and no searches had ever been made under this new "fake" title - another effort to conceal the main deal.

I have to say that I am not expecting the Tribunal to give me much help here but I can give a rare pat of the back to David Stevens and the SMBC legal department who have VOLUNTARILY agreed - pending any order of the Tribunal - to search for other documents under that title. This is the only known example in 7 years of the paid service doing the right thing in respect of information rights and it is to be applauded. I do so. However... even if documents are found SMBC may still try and claim exemptions against disclosure. But we will cross that bridge if and when we come to it.

Sandwell know they need to be careful here. There is a real chance that this joke development will be the subject of litigation at some point. If there are documents they seek to rely on which they have not disclosed in this process they will be for the high-jump...

And finally...

The rebel army are on the move to get into power jokes like Hackett, Costigan, Zorro and Lachrymose Luke. One of their number is Weirdo Cllr Laura Rollins nee Laura Thickey and, of course, this lot have been spraying the complaints around about the current leadership in an attempt to get them out. They have been claiming antisemitism despite Jedward's twitter feed but panic ensued last week with Rollins frantically deleting her own back catalogue. Happily I had already screenshotted her series of bizarre comments about "rich" Jews. Throwing stones and glasshouses spring s to mind!

I wrote to her about one particular post where she had claimed that she had been Jewish in the past as follows:

Dear Cllr Rollins, 

THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION - JOURNALISTIC ENQUIRY

You have stated on Twitter that you "were" Jewish. Can you confirm (by 10.00am Saturday) what you mean by that please?

No response - perhaps she was busy celebrating Rosh Hashanah!

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Post:  Jules Saunders, 11 Chelworth Road, Birmingham B38 0BG

PROUD TO HAVE BEEN TROLLED BY DICKHEAD DARREN COOPER DECEASED!

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 2 from 15th February, 2020)

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 passim” and to earlier posts mean any individuals concerned about purported defamatory material should 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

Every now and again we make a genuine honest 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 make appropriate corrections forthwith.

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

Red Yvonne's Explosive Resignation Statement!

Back in July, then Leader of bent Labour Sandwell Council, "Red" Yvonne Davies, made an explosive resignation statement at the end of the Council's Cabinet meeting. Cllr Davies has been keen on destroying green space in the sh*thole Borough whilst having property herself in leafy Herefordshire. She backed the continuation of  Steve "Squealing" Eling's (who spends much of his time in a delightful Derbyshire village) plan to destroy Londonderry Fields for the absurd Commonwealth Games white elephant and recently axed Brandhall Golf Course for new houses. She has taken issue with my comments about her backing the bent deal to shaft Lion Farm by wrecking the Fields although she has not made a single public utterance in support of the many protesters trying to stop that piece of Labour carnage.

Her latest Herefordshire pad is described as a "cottage" but is a substantial, near half a million pound, property with adjoining land in sylvan surroundings. It is not so much "seeing the wood for the trees" as seeing the house for the trees. Here's a picture - where the delightful pad is almost invisible due to surrounding woodland - which you can compare with the healthy trees she and the "Comrades" were happy to kill at Londonderry to the chagrin of locals in that built-ip environment.(Second picture from the Save Londonderry Fields campaign group.)

Yvonne has some really tremedous qualities but seems to see everything in black and white only. She was brave and  amazing in supporting me in the C*sucker Trial but there is a story I can't tell you just yet where she also shafted me royal! I am afraid that she was too naive to take on the forces of darkness within the Labour Sandwell cesspit and paid the price. She bizarrely trusted certain members of the paid service in the full knowledge of their "history" and leaves a running sore to her successors.

Curiously she declined to supply a transcript of her electrifying resignation speech and when I went on the SMBC website it had disappeared. Happily the Skidder archivist keeps EVERYTHING and I have prepared the following from the tape. One can imagine this sort of damning indictment in describing the activities of an opposition party. But this it is a public flaying of the shocking conduct OF HER OWN LABOUR PARTY. And far from being "great people" locals are moronic and keep voting this shower of scum back in!

Just one final point. No-one seems to have done anything about the content of this speech at all. One imagines that the three Tory MP's would be banging on doors in the corridors of power demanding action but seemingly not. We know West Midlands Police are corrupt when it comes to matters Sandwell and so we cant't expect the bent Blues to do anything. The "responsible" journalists are, as ever, steering well clear of their keyboards rather than expose whay is really happening.  The Labour Party is still backing Spellar as he drips his poison. The Labour Councillors have absolutely no shame and are carrying on their bitter civil war despite the small background matter of the life-threatening Covid pandemic. The staff - far from being "great" - are showing the usual craven and cowardly attitude they have for the last few years. (Incidentally - five who were encouraged by a still-serving Councillor to make formal statements accusing Hackett of malpractice have, just this week, refused to allow them to be placed in the public domain - even redacted to to provide anonymity!)

This is a fairly long statement from Red Yvonne but it is ESSENTIAL reading:

"I hope you will indulge me to address some of the unveiling things around me. At 9.30 last night I opened an email from the Labour Party and learnt that I was subject to an administrative suspension based on complaints of antisemitism relating to retweets that I made two and three years ago. I haven't had the opportunity to answer these charges but they've suspended me in any case. Of course, some local Party members have chosen to leak these matters to the press. They have then campaigned on the basis of my presumed guilt. For the record I am not antisemitic. I am horrified I might even be considered so to be. Equally I am as aware as our Party Leader of the risks of unconscious bias and the dangers of perpetuating negative tropes. Had I been asked about this - as a male Shadow Cabinet member was earlier this week and about a tweet not two or three years old but as recent as last Saturday -  I could have apologised for my historic misjudgement. Maybe it's because I'm a woman? Possibly it's because I'm a strong woman. Or maybe other factors have been at play which are about the approach I've tried to bring to the running of the Council.

When I became Leader just over a year ago I made a number of promises to the people of Sandwell and the staff of our Council. Among them was the promise that I would act with integrity and I would use my leadership to model the courage and transparency that we need as a Labour Group and as a Council. I said that as public servants we answer to the people of this Borough and they should expect that we will at all times conduct ourselves with the utmost integrity and that we will uphold the highest standards in public life. I also commented, I'm sure you will remember, that we've had in the recent past fallen well short in this regard. Since then I have worked as hard as I can to deliver on that promise. I have lead this Council's conduct and that of its members and officers using proper procedures and processes, upholding the Nolan Principles in public life, guided by core values and principles of decency, honesty and integrity. 

Under my leadership we have ensured the proper seperation of member and officer roles. We have ensured clarity in the responsibilities of the political executive and scrutiny. I have opened the Council up to external challenge looking to learn from the best that we can of what is happening elsewhere. I have worked hard to enhance the Council's reputation with Government, with neighbour councils and with the local government sector more broadly. We are actually doing well and we must continue in that same vein. Quite rightly, where there has been evidence of possible wrongdoing, we have investigated. This has applied to officers and to members. Those investigations have proceeded according to due process. Confidentiality has been respected and those investigations need to continue through due process to a conclusion through the appropriate Council and political processes. No-one under my leadership has been paid to leave. Nothing has been covered-up. I have always insisted that we do the right thing. Through this process some elected members have been asked to account for their previous conduct when it appears to have fallen short of expected standards in public life. I am not going to name names or allegations as due process needs to conclude but people should be in no doubt at all, the people of this Borough should be in no doubt at all, that some of those findings are truly shocking including cover-ups, misuse of public funds, reports being leaked, use of private emails to hide communications, lies being told to courts, clear racism. We did have in this Council a culture of deceit and cover-up, sly lies, snide comments, destructive dripping of poison into the public domain, [mis ?] information and prejudice. In some cases this has absolutely destroyed people's lives and their livelihoods. And I will mention the Wragge Report, something that some people prefer to think is over, is done, is dusted, but believe me - it is not. It remains a stain on this Council's reputation. It is riven with and surrounded by racism and racist intent. With Black Lives Matters shining a light on the casual way that our public institutions enshrine racism it actually breaks my heart that we are presiding over such a racist endeavour. It also represents a flagrant misuse of public funds to pursue political objectives.You must ensure that it is not allowed to be buried again.

Some people should ask themselves why has the Leader of Sandwell Council been forced out? Why has someone gone to the trouble to trawl her Twitter account searching on the basis of possible pejorative terms. Why have they gone back two years to find only retweets or other people's work not even original statements? Is this really about antisemitism or is it about a cover-up of some disturbing truths that are shortly to come into the public domain. Is it more about powerful self-interest seeking to avoid proper scrutiny, proper accountability for those who have fallen disgracefully short of expected standards in public life. And who is behind these complaints you should question? Is it the white male old guard who were at the heart of this shocking behaviour in the past? Who did leak these allegations to the press and deliberately whip-up a campaign to remove me from office? What was the role of the local MP in all of this [ie John Spellar] and ask yourselves how far does the collusion and malign intent reach up into the Labour Party hierarchy. I predict that these same people using the full weight of the Party machine will now try to seize power in Sandwell by contriving reasons to suspend others in the current executive. I was told of my own suspension more than four weeks ago. People knew I was going to be suspended. They will then try to bury all the misconduct allegations. They will bully others by holding the threat of suspension over them. The echoes of four years ago when I was told by somebody the reason they were doing something were because they weren't going to find themselves suspended shocked me to my core. He's still operating today. Those people absolutely should be held to account for their actions - people of this Borough should demand that they are held to account. Responsible journalists should be ensuring that these matters are brought out into the light of day. 

I won't be here when this done. I am resigning my position as Leader but the questions and the choices will remain for the Labour Party, for the Sandwell Labour Group and for the people of this fine Borough. Right now the choice is pretty stark.There is a group of old white men who want to go back - back to the vile baiting, the poisonous leaking, the denigration of fellow elected members for political purposes, the mis-use of public funds for political retribution, numerous officers hounded out of employment because they would not follow the political line or because they fell out of favour with the leadership. Millions of pounds and I do mean millions of pounds of public funds have been spent with little regard to the public purse. A return to the white male old guard who will pay lip-service to equality and black lives mattering but who will seek ultimately to preserve their own power base for its own sake.

Now the Council can embrace a new future where its elected representatives are humble, humble in their service to the public. Where they absolutely respect that they serve only in the interests of the people of Sandwell, where one gives real meaning to the fight against prejudice and inequality and where you have honesty, transparency, integrity in all of your dealings. People of this Borough absolutely deserve the best Council and the best councillors driven by the right values. This self-serving political malignancy and this interference in local leadership by outside Party interests serves only to undermine confidence in this Council's ability to serve its people well. It undermines the institution of local government itself but that future is for others. I won't be here to lead you. I've got things to do, I've got places to go and people to see. But the questions genuinely really do need to be answered long after my leadership is over.

My place will be taken in the interim by the Statutory Deputy, Maria Crompton - she will step into the space. I want to thank the staff of this Council - the finest that there are, working incredibly hard and bringing good Black Country humour to often their incredibly difficult job. Invidious to mention any groups I know but I would mention our fantastic neighbourhood office staff - incredibly supportive to me over the years whether as a backbench Councillor, as a suspended Group member and I hope now as a suspended Labour Leader. I would also like to pay particular tribute to the Cabinet secretaries. In perhaps the vilest of many vile political deeds they were marched unceremoniously off the premises and suspended under the previous [Eling] regime. A harder-working and more loyal group of staff you won't find anywhere. Thank you Jane and your wonderful team. If I've achieved nothing else I hope I've helped to make you feel valued and indespensable as the workers that you are. This Authority needs people like you.

And finally, to the people of Sandwell - it has been my pride and my pleasure to serve you in the various guises that I've been in this area for the best part of 20 years. I remember ultimately none of us, none of us, work for the Council. My Chief Executive, David Stevens, doesn't work for the Council. We all work for the people of Sandwell. It's your Council - it's not our Council. You deserve the best council led by the best councillors driven by the right values. There's political corruption - there has been operating in Sandwell for too long. That's what it serves to undermine confidence in the Council. If I've been able to bring some of those public service values to bear in my work here then hopefully, hopefully, I have made a difference. I think my Cabinet has made a difference. I'm enormously proud of the strong team that we built at the top table, working together positively, not listening to gossip, not dripping poison, following proper process with the right values.

I wanted to leave you with a lovely letter that I had this week while this maelstrom was around me because this is why I came into public office and this is why I try to make a difference and it is from a constituent that I do not know and he says, "Hello again, Cllr Davies. I just felt the need to give a personal thank you to you. I have only contacted you on a few occasions but each time you have been so extremely prompt and efficient with the matter raised and even if the outcome is not that desired your response has always given assurance that one is not wasting their time in going to the trouble to bring matters to the attention of the Council especially when it may be of benefit to others. Again I sincerely thank you and please there is no need for a reply." I think that resident epitomises what I try to achieve in all my working life whether it's as an officer in the voluntray sector or as a councillor. I am very, very, happy to have that letter as my epitaph.

Thank you from Sandwell and you all - be brave, carry on with our work - do not fail in your pursuit of truth and justice. Build a Council that we can be proud of and I shall watch your progress with a huge amount of pride in my heart. Thank you."

Skidder Comment - Red Yvonne remains a Councillor and it remains to be seen whether she will continue to pursue the fight against the endenic Labour corruption from the "backbenches". I should just add that she has finally voiced officially in a Council Cabinet meeting what this blog has been saying. ahem, FOR SEVERAL YEARS!

And finally...

In my last post I referred to the hideous antisemitic posts of a local Labour Party member, Basharat Khan. I sent the post direct to the General Secreatry of the Labour Party but, to the best of my knowledge, Bash has NOT yet been suspended by the Party.

Interestingly Khan - also heavily involved in the plot to destroy Cllr Hadley (see recent post) - is back on Twitter moaning about fly-tipping on land behind his shop. He caused a massive stink about this sometime ago rather than go through the proper channels. Foolishly a sting of Labour Councillors fell for his "campaign" and visited his premises - even though the site is not in their own wards.

We say in the Hadley matter that Khan disclosed a covert tape recording which the person who made the tape claims was "stolen" from him and yet found its way to Billa - Cllr M. Y. Hussain aka "Condom Man". Khan is this joker's right-hand man. Billa has declined to say how (or when) he came by the covert tape altough he had it by LAST DECEMBER at the latest. (Incidentally Cllr Hadley says the tape has also been doctored.)

There is a strong suspicion Khan asked various councillors (ones Billa coincidentally wants to bring down) to his premises hoping to gain detrimental information about them. Cllr Ian Jones was one who attended.

The current interim Leader, Maria Crompton, also paid court to this moron. Mysteriously, having viewed the piece of land where the fly-tipping has allegedly taken place, Bash invited Maria into his shop where there are CCTV cameras and then attempted to hand her an envelope. Very wisely Cllr Crompton declined to take this! Bash strongly denies to the Skidder that he was trying to trying to compromise Cllr Crompton in any way but what was/is he up to? 

Cllrs have no need to visit this land and dance to Bash's tune as Council officers have the matter in hand and are following due process. If they want to make fools of themselves though...

Last year Bash phoned me and told me that he was communicating by direct mesaages with Cllr "Inane" Elaine Costigan, Cllr Caz White (girlfriend of married ex-Cllr Dave Hosell) and with Hosell himself. And who should crop up on Twitter supporting Bash's latest rants about the "fly-tipping" than Costigan herself even though the land is miles from her own Wednesbury sh*thole ward. Bearing in mind Costigan's penchant for opening her gob I asked her whether, in supporting Khan, she was also endorsing his antisemitic Twitter posts. But answer came there none...

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Post:  Jules Saunders, 11 Chelworth Road, Birmingham B38 0BG

PROUD TO HAVE BEEN TROLLED BY DICKHEAD DARREN COOPER DECEASED!

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 2 from 15th February, 2020)

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 passim” and to earlier posts mean any individuals concerned about purported defamatory material should 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

Every now and again we make a genuine honest 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 make appropriate corrections forthwith.

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

Basharat Khan's Vile Facebook Posts!

WARNING - this is a news item reporting the use of vile antisemitic images and content of a deeply offensive and shocking nature. This filth is not, of course, the view of the author.

 In my last post I described the activities of Mr Basharat Khan, the right-hand man of the ludicrous Sandwell Labour Councillor, Mohammed Yaseen Hussain aka "Billa", aka "Condom Man" (pictured below). Bash also purports to be a member of the Labour Party but, as we have seen, he was endorsing a letter before the last general election (which he has not yet denied writing himself) whereby the Tipton and Tividale Mosque threatened to collectively boycott, er, The Labour Party, unless the Council agreed to sell it some land! Labour went on to lose the seat:

http://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2020/08/basharat-khan-and-pk-slur.html

We also saw in the above post that he is part of the plot to bring down Labour Cllr Jo Hadley. She had a conversation covertly taped. The person who made the tape claimed that it was "stolen" but we know that Billa had it by last December at the latest. The tape allegedly records Cllr Hadley using a racist term but she states that the tape has been doctored. Bash boasted months ago that he "had something good" on Cllr Hadley but only recently sent it to the Labour Party suddenly claiming to be "outraged" by the comment.

Incidentally the BBC have refused to answer the following email (sent to Midlands Today and BBCWM) about how they came to report all this:

"Both MTD and WM presented stories last week about Sandwell Councillor Joanne Hadley.

The story was:

1. Based on a taped covertly obtained phone conversation;
2. The tape was then allegedly stolen according to the maker;
3. It was shown to a number of other councillors by a Cllr last December; and
4. It came into the hands of Mr Basharat Khan, an associate of a Sandwell Councillor.

Bearing in mind that you have refused to publish researched stories which I have attempted to present to you:

1. Can you explain the provenance of the tape?
2. What checks were made as to the authenticity of the tape?
3. Knowing that the tape was covertly obtained and possibly stolen (and that Cllr Hadley was disputing the validity of the tape) on what legal basis did you decide that it was appropriate to run the story?

I am told - and this IS only rumour - that the BBC had cold feet about running the story until Adam Smith made wild and abusive allegations on Twitter. Can you please confirm whether Mr Mayor or any other BBC employee encouraged Smith to run this to "clear the way" for Mr Mayor's piece? "

As ever, I am indebted to readers who started to contact me. Bash may be screaming "racism" across social media (many months down the line) but I should take a look at his vile antisemitic comments. I was told by a local resident that Bash "hates Israel" but Mr Khan refused to answer my question to him about this.

The IHRA has published a "working definition" of antisemitism which has been widely accepted (even by the Labour Party despite an attempted "qualification" by the vile Jeremy Corbyn.) I just need to explain the term "blood libel" - this is a the appalling accusation that Jews ritually sacrifice Christian children at Passover to obtain blood for unleavened bread. 

1.   IHRA Definition of Antisemitism: Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (eg. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.

Bash Khan used an image on Facebook of a Jewish man ritually slaughtering a child - "classic antisemitism":

2.   IHRA Definition: Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli Policy to that of the Nazis.

Bash, perhaps taking his cue from a notorious tweet of Labour Cllr John Edwards:

 

Bash is able to opine that Israel's activity in Gaza is "genocide":

3.   IHRA Definition: ... Stereotypical allegations about...Jews...eg of the Jews controlling the media, government and other societal institutions:

Bash:

Bash's beloved BBC "lol":

In a really bizarre Facebook post Bash asked in an online poll whether "ISIS" is not an extremist Muslim death cult (copyright Tony Blair) but, in fact, the "Israeli Secret Intelligence Service":

There were only two votes for this absurd and offensive notion one of whom was, wait for it, Bash himself!!!!

And we now know from Bashthat that he and his co-religionists are not just exercised by how to extract land from the bent Labour Council but also pray for the total destruction of Israel (and this is a 2019 post):

MEANWHILE "CONDOM MAN" GOES NATIONAL!

Way back on 12th May, 2020 this blog reported on the sick antics of Billa during lockdown - in particular, cadging PPE from nursing homes and filming himself "donating" it to Sandwell Hospital (when they had full stocks and were donating PPE to, er, local nurisng homes!) In a later blog I showed that, not very bright, Billa was donating PPE to a massive company ultimately based in a tax haven! (See posts and legal notice below.)

http://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2020/05/cllr-m-y-hussain-tipton-green-tosser.html

Enter stage left the ludicrous Liam Byrne MP, a man who made one of the most notorious political errors of judgement ever in 2010 but seemingly wishes to "go for gaffe gold" again as he campaigns to become the next West Midlands Mayor. Notwithstanding the above post (which led to two standards complaints to Sandwell Council which have now been referred by the Monitoring Officer for full investigation) Labour's Byrne felt able to appoint Billa to an absurd "taskforce" investigating [sic] the effects of Covid on BAME folk. (We await an explanation from Byrne why he ignored the blog and the standards complaints in making the appointment and perhaps he will get in touch...)

But you can rely on Bash! In his absurd propaganda bigging-up Billa he splashed photos of Condom Man congregating in a Greets Green property with a number of others seemingly in breach of the Covid regulations and thereby dropped the great man right "in it" lol! And this story has gone national via Mail Online and you can read it all here:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8689323/Councillor-BAME-covid-deaths-taskforce-investigated-flouting-social-distancing-guidelines.html

(More info on the latest Billa rumours very welcome...)

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Post:  Jules Saunders, 11 Chelworth Road, Birmingham B38 0BG

PROUD TO HAVE BEEN TROLLED BY DICKHEAD DARREN COOPER DECEASED!

LEGAL NOTICE (Version 2 from 15th February, 2020)

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 passim” and to earlier posts mean any individuals concerned about purported defamatory material should 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

Every now and again we make a genuine honest 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 make appropriate corrections forthwith.

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

Basharat Khan and The "P*K*" Slur!

Nothing is ever straightforward in bent Labour Sandwell. Yesterday the comrades hit the headlines again for all the wrong reasons with what appeared to be a straightforward allegation ie that Labour Cabinet member Jo Hadley was secretly tape-recorded using the expressions "asian politics" and "P*k" (she says the tape has been doctored and before you pooh pooh that, read the whole of this post.) There are more twists to this tale than a Curly Wurly bar and so make yourself a cup of tea, sit down, and prepare to be astonished. If I can just ask you one thing - please note specific dates here...

The Numbers Game

Sandwell has been a Covid 19 hotspot. You might think the comrades would suspend their bitter civil war unleashed by Steve "The Squealer" Eling for the good of the community but the Labour dictatorship has sh*t on the Borough for 46 years and so why stop just because of a global pandemic? 

The death of Jess Phillip's mate, the wife-beater and former "leader" Darren Cooper split the Labour Group between the Eling/Watson/Spellar faction and the rest (a substantial minority.) As soon as the vicious Squealer was in power he set about trying to eliminate all opposition which included other Labour Councillors and some employees of the Council. Eling and Marshall met with me and asked me to collaborate in this endeavour. They set up the infamous WhatsApp feed. There they asked me to give a very senior employee, Assistant Chief Executive Melanie Dudley "a kicking" and Eling forced her out when she refused to kowtow to his tyrranical demands - at enormous cost to us taxpayers. Melanie was not only a senior employee but also a prominent figure in the local Labour Party (she stood as their candidate for Dudley North last December.) Melanie gave a statement to the bent Blues about this pair and says she was also verbally abused by Eling at Bill Archer's funeral (which he denies.)

On their WhatsApp feed they envisaged one of their main targets, Labour Cllr Ian Jones, "sp*nking over Cllr Maria Crompton in her bikini" as this would be more preferable than him "doing" his wife, also a Labour Councillor. The thing here is that Maria was not only a fellow Labour Councillor but also an EMPLOYEE of the Party and yet was subjected to this horrenous attack.

If this is the sort of thing they were doing to their own people what were they prepared to do against their political enemies? Eling was eventually suspended from the Labour Party for various alleged misdemeanours and has been trying to come back ever since (although he lives for much of the time in North Derbyshire.) Tom Watson tried to filibuster a Labour NEC meeting but in trie Tommy-style f*cked up and only succeeded in making things worse. Even though Eling, aka the Milkman, caused bitter division in the Sandwell Labour Group John Spellar MP (Labour's sole MP in the Borough now) and his puppet Gurinder Josan are campaigning to have him exonerated, seemingly with the active support of Pete Madeley and Jamie Brassington of the Wolverhampton Express and Star who have been busy plugging his absurd statements recently. (They peddle the myth that he "doesn't know" what he is supposed to have done wrong (!) without ever mentioning that he employed a top and expensive solicitor in London with a very high reputation for dealing with Labour Party issues!)

Even when Eling was suspended by the Party he tried to stay on as Leader of the Council before even the comrades had had enough and booted him out - replacing him with Spellar/Watson rimmer Cllr Steve "Luvvie" Trow. Luvvie considers himself to be an "intellectual" but is as deep as a pool of p*ss. He was heavily involved in the scandal surrounding the Stalinist Show Trial of Ian Jones. This feeble character soon threw in the towel and, indeed, recently gave up altogether and left the Council. Unfortunately he is far too weak a person to now blow the whistle on what has been going on but good riddance all the same.

Just as Eling's appointment split the Group down the middle as some saw the light of what he was trying to do, so did the appointment of Cllr "Red" Yvonne Davies. As with Eling she appears to have made no attempt whatsoever at conciliation with some of the more sensible rebels. Thus right from the off the "Elingites" were determined to bring her down. Here is a list of the 26 hardcore rebels (now reduced to 25 by the demise of Luvvie Trow):

This contains the names of the usual suspects, the really vile people like Costigan, Zorro Hughes, Jedward, Piper and Paul "the Cipher" Moore plus Sandwell's new "brightest star" the ludicrous, sweating, sniffing Mohammed Yaseen "Condom Man" Hussain aka "Billa" (of which much more anon.) At least four of this shower are currently being investigated by Sandwell Council for alleged misconduct ie Hackett (of course), Lachrymose Luke Giles, Syeda "Friend of Derek" Khatun and Condom Man Billa himself! The rebel plan was to increase their gang in the May elections, topple Red Yvonne and immediately stop these enquiries - which even before Covid were mysteriously proceeding at snail's pace under David Stevens and Surjit Tour. Why?

But Covid stopped the May elections. Two Councillors have died and two (including Trow) have simply buggered off. This leaves 68 live [sic] councillors. But four Councillors are not now Labour and so cannot vote (yet) for the rebels leaving a Group of 64. Technically the rebels need 32 plus one to ensure the complete destruction of the Borough. But not all these may vote in any leadership election eg at the last full Council before lockdown Cllrs Steven Jones and Mo Rouf had to physically support one comrade into the Council House, a situation made more pathetic by his trousers falling down in the process! Thus the rebels are still - possibly - short even if the 25 attract a few waverers.

Accordingly the rebels have worked on 2 tactics. Two of the "independents" are Cllr Bill "Nonentity" Cherrington and nasty Caroline "Caz" White, the girlfiend of ex-Cllr and "King of the Sandwell Trolls", Dave Hosell. The three are very active in a network of trolls on social media (with others) and frequently attack Cllrs Yvonne Davies, Maria Crompton, Jo Hadley and Wasim Ali. Caz and Cherry attempted to set up the "United Sandwell Party" to attack Yvonne and were assisted by none other than the suspended Labour leader, Steve Squealing Eling himself (we have the proof which has been sent to the Labour Party.)

I am not sure if even the hardcore rebels could stomach Caz back in their ranks although she is close to Costigan. There have been attempts to bring back the absurd Cherry.

Julie Webb is an enigma. I have always found her very likeable and I can't even remember what she is supposed to have done to merit suspension. She has told the Skidder directly that she has hopes of returning to the fold. She usually seems to me to be sensible and so you would think she would stand up against the rebels but who knows? (If you would like to tell us Cllr, please get in touch.)

That leaves blowhard buffoon, foul-mouthed, Bill Gavan. Now relieved of his duties as Tom Watson's personal grovelling manservant "Alka Seltzer" Gavan has Spellar's personal backing for an instant return to boost rebel numbers. Billy Boy flounced out of a meeting saying he was leaving Labour but then changed his mind lol. He then changed it again and DID leave. Then he ACTUALLY joined the Tories online but they didn't want him and threw him OUT! Why on earth would Labour want this plank back (and this is without discussion of his other myriad failings.)

The other tactic is to reduce the number of the opposition by getting Councillors suspended from the Party. Labour nationally is in total disarray at the moment following it's own deep division between the normal people and the Corbyn crazies but the mere mention of anti-semitic or racist words seems to merit instant suspension with no proper investigation at all by the General Secretary. The rebels know this... I hope the Party is ready for some big legal bills!

I will write further on the Red Yvonne situation in another post but it seems Paul Moore (a former Watson employee) put in a complaint about her allegedly anti-semitic comments on social media (ignoring those of fellow rebels like Jedward and Piper - although the latter has expunged his account of his frequent derogatory comments on "Israel" and "Zionists".). It is said that part of the complaint was about comments made about George Soros - a hate figure of the anti-semites. But even a cursory check by Labour's General Secretary - had he bothered to make one - would show that Red put up a number of Tweets calling out the attacks on the Hungarian for the ridiculous hate-filled conspiracy theories they are!

I know this sounds amazing but I am told this plot goes right to the top of the Labour Party. A senior figure has assured my that Keir Starmer is, unbelievably, friendly with the London-based Spellar and is taking a personal interest in Sandwell. I am told that the useless  Spellar, who has done so much damage to the Borough already is Iago, dripping poison into his Captain's ear. Starmer is said to want the rebels to succeed and wants another nonentity Watson rimmer, Cllr Liam Preece, to be the next Leader. Thus he is said to be comfortable with Spellar and his allies engineering suspensions of LABOUR PARTY MEMBERS! The corollary to this is, logically, that he also wants the investigations to be stopped against Hackett and Co which is a pretty extraordinary two fingers up at any concept of justice by a former Director of Public Prosecutions!

The Jo Hadley Plot

The rebels think that if they can get another two Councillors suspended they can win the day. They had even pencilled in next Monday for a Labour Group meeting to mount their coup but have pulled this since they are not quite there. But having disposed of Red Yvonne they have targetted Jo Hadley.

What can you say about Jo - the archetypal "Black Country Wench" who refers to herself on Twitter as "the Gob". I have got to know Jo during many hours as a journalist standing outside Oldbury Council House in all weathers to bring you happy people stories. Jo is a smoker and so we have some comparatively long chats. It is fair to say that, as with myself, her language is "industrial strength" and that I have heard her use "the f-word" on many occasions. Over many years I have never heard her use "the c-word" and neither have ANY of the many people I have spoken to over the last 24 hours, although it is claimed she used the word in the covertly obtained "tape".

Many of the cowardly comrades complain about me behind my back but, like Red Yvonne, Jo is one of the very few Councillors who will give me both barrels if she thinks I am wrong. She has phoned me and expressed her views stridently. Two recent examples - when I made a comment on social media about the cost of her scheme to replace doors across Sandwell with "secure" ones she phoned me and strongly supported this decision. This alleged "racist" also phoned me to complain about my articles about Cllr Iqbal Padda and she was cheering his appointment, and that of Rajbir Singh, to the Cabinet and celebrating its diversity.

She has never uttered a single word to me - of many thousands lol - which is in any way "racist" or derogatory of BAME identifiers and, again, neither has anyone I have spoken to been able to come up with an example.

Cllr Hadley can be strident and direct - again as with Red Yvonne - and a lot of insecure men (of ALL faiths and none and of every ethnicity) can't handle that. She would be the first to admit that she is not great at expressing herself in written form and does sometimes make a fool of herself with her expressions but so what? Hardly a crime?

Jo is also suing the Council on matters which will shime a light on the activities of Hackett and Eling. The case is sub judice and I cannot say anymore at present. But she has also been attacked for this by the Hosell troll network.

Unfortunately she is hated by Cllr Mohammed Yaseen Hussain - a man who sat next to me at a recent Sandwell Council Cabinet meeting and whispered to me when Cllr Wasim Ali was speaking that he is a "f*cking tw*t."

Billa is actively communicating with the troll network of Dave Hosell, Caz White, Cherry and others and is represented on Twitter by his spokesmen (note "men") Basharat and Vika Khan (who are related.) His rise in Labour Party ranks has been meteoritic despite the impression that he gives out (and which must be an act) that he is as thick as two short planks. Most of the Labour group are also aware of the lurid stories about his personal life and we can only assume that they believe the allegations are untrue. That includes WM Mayoral candidate Liam Byrne who, nothwithstanding all this AND his current behaviour during lockdown, appointed him to a ridiculous Covid "enquiry" (ROFLMAO) as a BAME "community leader."

There is much speculation about how the unemployed Billa portrays an aura of affluence - at least by Tipton standards. But this blog exclusively disclosed his antics during lockdown when he suddenly morphed from being unemployed to being a "key worker" - allegedly flaunting his Sandwell Council pass to "prove" this. We saw in my post:

http://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2020/05/cllr-m-y-hussain-tipton-green-tosser.html

that he was cadging PPE from a nursing home which he then filmed himself donating to Sandwell Hospital (who, at the time, had enough and were themselves donating PPE to, er, nursing homes!) The unemployed Billa stated publicly that his wife was complaining how much money he was spending on PPE to give away. In another post I showed that this moron was donating "his" PPE to a major multi-million pound company that is based in a tax haven! (see posts passim and legal notice below.)

Bash Khan is another interesting and controversial character. He too has appeared in this blog not least for his public threat before the General Election that the folk from Tividale and Tipton Mosque would not vote Labour if the Council refused to sell them some green space to the side of the Gate Street premises:

Rather curious behaviour the General Secretary of the Labour Party might think from a, er, Labour Member.

Labour sources in Sandwell claim that he has also threatened unspecified "consequences" if Labour Sandwell do not push the sale through but, until recently, Yvonne Davies and Jo Hadley stood firm against the deal (those two eh? You don't say!)

Bash used to be a Tory (as did Jo Hadley and her late husband, Dave.) Bash has stated in writing that he has known Jo since 2003 but did NOT "know" she is an alleged "racist" until he heard the tape - seemingly in December, 2019. At that time he was bombarding social media about litter on private land behind his shop. It is not the place here to go through his ridiculous conduct there but suffice to say he had a public spat with Jo about rats supposedly causing a problem for another local business. Cllr Hadley tried to explain that Sandwell Council were not responsible for exterminating every rodent in the Borough and that the other local businessman should consider hiring Rentokil. This enraged Bash who wrote to me on 17th December, 2019:

"Got something very good on Joe [sic] Hadley in time will expose her."

He has written that his complaint against Hadley is not related to the Mosque land deal but that "it started with the rats tweets and she got carried away". There was nothing whatsover "racist" that I have seen in any of those Tweets.

Bash has told the BBC that he was "shocked" at Hadley's alleged use of the word "P*k*" but not apparently so shocked that he made an immediate complaint. Note that it is Bash himself who says that he has the information and not Billa. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS DATE THOUGH - 17th December, 2019 which, at the latest, was Bash's "date of knowledge".

Bash refuses to say HOW he came by the tape. Every single person I have spoken to has pointed the finger one way - at Billa!

When he was a Tory Bash was Jo's mate. In January this year - after the infamous tape was circulating and he had said he had this to bring her down "at the right time" - he was accused of trying to usurp the WBW conservative branch and responded (without the deletions in the offensive word):

28/01/20: No I didn't usurp anything I was elected chair of WBW by the way Joe [sic] and her husband Dave both supported me. I drifted away Bcz I became aware that  P*k* members were not so welcome at the conservative club."

So even though Bash was shocked at Jo's "racist" comment he is not stating it here or in any of the following:

28/01/20: Love you really Joe [sic]!

11/01/20: Joe [sic] it's always a pleasure to engage with u, it always ends in a result and satisfaction Xxx.

12/02/20: I really agree that at least she [Jo] engages good or bad #jo4MP I've known Joe [sic] since our days in the Tories together many years ago."

01/03/20: .... saying that Jo does work hard, she seems to get upset with me for no reason.

The person who made the covert tape suggested "mediation" to which Bash replied in a manner which suggests he was not screwed up dealing with a foul "racist":

01/03/20: No need for mediation jo is well known to me just her late night tweets can be a bit foolish at times!

Back to dates: Billa and his associates had their hand temporarily stayed by Covid but decided that the Labour war inter se was far more important than dealing with the crisis when people locally were dying. Thus Bash made a written complaint about Jo Hadley to David Stevens and Surjit Tour at Sandwell Council copied to a Solicitor and to two officials of the Labour Party including the then General Secretary. He has shown me the heading of the complaint but refuses to show be the content of the letter dated 10th March, 2020. (Incidentally the BBC reported Sandwell Council as saying they had received no complaint about Cllr Hadley as of yesterday. Given what Bash has shown me, this appears to be untrue. I have written to the Council about this and await a response.) 

At the same time the efforts to get rid of Red Yvonne had started.

Asian Policitcs

Part of the alleged complaint against Jo is that she used the word "Asian Politics". Here Bash has a point since many in Sandwell who are called "asians" are, of course, English born and bred. Care should be taken in using that term. Having said that it is widely used. There are also live concerns in Sandwell about infiltration of certain groups into Labour and many of my informants from the local Muslim community contact me to complain vociferously about this. 

All other parties have complained about postal voting results in Sandwell (although not Labour natch) and the BBC (employers of Mr Rob Mayor) contacted me to see if I could help with a possible documentary about Muslim women being compelled to vote in a certain way by the "head of the household". The Labour Party itself has been concerned and actively intervened in Sandwell to curb suspiciously sudden and/or large membership applications and subsequent packing of meetings. Even the sainted Billa seems to have attracted many new Labour adherents to the Party - no doubt due to his selfless example of socialism in action.

Hitherto, former Cllr Mahboob Hussain has been very influential politically within the local Muslim community but Billa and Bash claim to have taken over from him as the "community leaders" in some areas. Indeed Bash was able to openly boast: "We [Billa, Mushtaq Hussain and himself] CONTROL Tipton and Tividale now!"

If, Jo used the term "asian politics" it is a bit rich Bash complaining since this, for example, is something he wrote to me:

"I'm asking Mushtaq [Cllr Mushtaq Hussain] here not to forget this patch... I bet Billa doesn't even know this sh*t is happening. Its asian politics being played by mushtaq..."

Oops!

The Tape and Media Coverage

Mr X made a recording of a conversation with Cllr Hadley. He is renowned for secretly recording conversations. This is not generally illegal if for personal use. Subject to certain exemptions it IS illegal to make such tapes public. He has been spending a lot of time in the company of Billa in the last few months. As above, Bash won't say how HE got the tape.

Mr X told the story that three people visited him at his house. A current Labour Councillor, a former employee of WM Labour and an unknown person. He went out to buy pizza. When he returned his laptop was open. He thought they had somehow found the tape and stolen it. (I sh*t ye not.)

He now tells the Skidder that "I'm not aware how or who got it". He says that he has known Jo for many years, likes her and has vnever heard her use racist language. His exact word - and he made the tape - are:

"This is all politically orientated."

Cllr Hadley seems to be saying that she may have used the word "P*k*" not as a perjorative term but as a quotation of what someone else said to her. She believes that the tape has been tampered with to at least distort the context of what she was saying. (Sandwell Council itself has form for tampering with video tape, of course.) What she claims is that she repeated that person X used the term "P*k*" but the tape has been edited to conceal that.

Dave Hosell and others have been going wild on Twitter recently saying that Hadley was to be "taken down". How did they know if there was not a plot? The tape was passed to a Sandwell Labour-friendly (in my honest opinion) journalist, Rob Mayor of the BBC. He approached Cllr Hadley who put out a press statement which is worth reading in full:

It must be unusual for the BBC to consider using a covertly obtained tape which is also said to have been stolen AND tampered with. As far as I am aware Mayor did not attempt to speak to Mr X. A media outlet needs to show that playing such a tape or relying on it is overwhelmingly in the public interest and it seems they got cold feet. 

In the meantime George Makin got the story. He is an old leftie and close associate of Sandwell Councillor Bob Piper, a leading trouble-maker. George writes incessant puff pieces about the brilliance of Sandwell Labour that would make Joseph Goebbels blush. The good news is that we are all paying for this b*llocks since he is employed via the Local Democracy Reporting Service [sic] which is funded by the BBC. As his stories [sic again] are published by the likes of the Express and Star and Birmingham Mail they too would have been reticent about running the story given the alleged problems with the authenticity and provenance of the tape.

Enter Adam Smith, a trained journalist and thus expected to know the law. Smith has the self-deluding belief that he is a hard-drinking "gonzo" journalist in the style of Hunter S, Thompson whereas he is a shambling, if rather amusing, p*sshead (rather like myself) always cadging drinks and money of folk in pubs (unlike myself). He now writes for that mighty organ, the Erdington Local. More to the point, he used to be the mouthpiece for ex-Sandwell Councillors Mick Davies and John Tipper and for the likes of serving Councillors Hackett and, that man again, Bob Piper. And he recently spent time in Bearwood renewing old acquaintances...

Despite his knowledge of the law this "professional" wrote two abusive tweets. The first made serious allegations against current leader Maria Crompton and the second was about this story. He ended his Tweet with this abusive message to Cllr Hadley (without any deletion of the swear word):

#SoSueMeYouThickPieceOfShit

(Bizarrely "Erdington Local" is part-owned by a local arts charity which is supposed to be apolitical. I think the Charity Commission may be investigationg very shortly...)

I sent a message via Twitter to Rob Mayor asking if the BBC put Smith up to this but he has not responded as yet. But Smith IS big mates with Makin and they were arranging a drink together today. Unfortunately Makin won't speak to me and so I can't ask him whether HE had foreknowledge of what his drunken mate was up to.

Anyway the BBC and MSM publishers of Makin's output seem to have taken the view that thanks to Smith the information was now in the public domain and so they started running the story - again, seemingly, without any further checks whasover! This has got to be a new nadir for the biased local media and sets a very dangerous precedent. The moral of the story is to make allegations via fake social media accounts and the BBC and local papers may well report it too!

Maria Crompton

The next target for the rebels.

In the list of rebels above the Giles family feature. And Luke Giles is one of the people under investigation for alleged discrepancies with his election expenses (innocent until proven guilty.) Luke hit back by making a complaint against Yvonne Davies. This lumbering oaf claimed that in the inevitable horse-trading before the leadership election Red said she would not look favourably on the Giles clan for positions of influence if they were not "on-side". This sort of thing goes on ALL the time in politics but Lachrymose Luke classed this as "bullying" and in went the complaint. With Yvonne gone but the investigation continuing Luke changed tack and changed the complaint so that it ismagainst Maria. Now Maria does have a rather strict and sexy-schoolmarm demeanor but she is small in stature. Cry-baby Giles claims that she was the messenger from Red Yvonne and thus she too bullied him. The picture of the this dolt defecating with fear into the back of his pants whilst the elfin Maria laid into him is just to ludicrous to contemplate even by Sandwell standards.

Go and take up crotchet Lukey - you're in the wrong game!

However, the rebels are plotting against Maria. As ever Costigan is involved. Despite the years of service she has given to the Party both as employee and councillor and the abuse she suffered from Eling and Marshall the rebels are determined to bring her down. They think if they can get her suspended too they are in with a fighting chance.

We saw above how Bash claimed Jo as a friend but has tried to f*ck her over. Watch out Maria since he wrote that it was his "good friend Maria Crompton" who got him back into politcis and the Labour Party!!! 

Keir Starmer - you want to stop listening to Spellar and grow a pair. Are YOU prepared to let Sandwell Labour continue with corruption. cronyism and incompetence in this vile manner?

And Finally, Back to Bash...

The big problem with Bash allegedly being so upset by (also allegedly) being called a P*k* is not just the many months he waited before the outrage was so strong "lol" that he felt he had to speak out (whilst joshing with Jo herself) but that he often refers to himself as one. He used derivatives of the word Pak with a former business including, "Pakeeza Travel" (!) but also set up the "Paksnip" blog.

Despite his alleged long-simmering distress and Jo's alleged use of the word (with all the caveats set out above) he was NOT distressed to hear football fans singing it in an obviously abusive manner:

16/02/20: "singing I'd rather be a P*k* than a Villa fan... not saying the word P*k* hurt me as all that means is PURE... "

It seems that in Bash's world there are degrees of purity.

But, of course, we cannot leave this without mentioning Bash's oft stated tribute to, ahem, my goodself when he has referred to himself often as "the P*k* Skidder"! He has even put it in writing (without the deletions of the offensive word) eg:

17/12/19: I've been referred to as the P*k* Skidder @SandwellSkidder if highlighting corruption and incompetence gives me that name then I'm proud of it.

Bash: what I am doing and the game you are playing are two very different things mate!

STOP PRESS

Bash told me yesterday that he had conveniently blown the whistle NOW at a crucial stage in the new leadership battle and as he promised to do last December because Sandwell Council weren't doing anything about his March complaint. Sandwell Council have confirmed in writing just minutes ago that contrary to the BBC report they DID receive Bash's written complaint sent at nearly midnight on 10th March, 2020 and duly wrote back to him on 11th March, 2020 asking for full details which he then couldn't be arsed to supply. Nothing more was heard until this leak. Odd that isn't it folks?

PS I strongly suggest you record all interactions with Sandwell Councillors!

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