Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Propaganda vs Facts

Right from “the off” (well earlier than that to be honest) I was concerned that the South Tyneside Independent Alliance was being just a little economical with the truth in its literature distributed around the borough, and were continuing to persuade the people of the Westoe ward in South Shields that they should take a chance on re-electing a man who has a track record of failing to turn up to council meetings to represent their interests. They carried on insisting that their candidate “resigned” on some point of principle to deliberately force a new election for the vacant seat on South Tyneside Council.

Yet all of their remaining councillors who turned up at the last full meeting of the council had the opportunity to publicly back this claim when the vacancy was formally declared, and they singularly failed to do so. Therefore I decided to email each and every one of them to seek their considered view on the matter.

Dear Councillor,

at the meeting of South Tyneside Borough Council on 30th. July 2009 a report was presented on the Agenda detailing the events leading to the current vacancy in the Westoe ward of South Shields. The report from the Head of Corporate Governance was comprehensive and included a detailed chronological timetable of events which included the representations and intercessions of Mr. Allen Branley, his wife Cllr. Jane Branley, and your Deputy Leader Cllr. Ahmed Khan.

No questions were asked of the report, no challenges were made to the report, and no councillor wished to speak to the report, consequently it was agreed nem con (by all).

This being the case, can I ask if you are all now in unified agreement that Mr. Branley was lawfully removed from South Tyneside Council as a result of his failure to attend any meetings within a consecutive six months period?

Further, will you publicly disassociate yourselves from the erroneous and false statements included on literature recently published on your behalf and distributed throughout South Shields and South Tyneside telling electors that Mr. Branley had resigned his seat?

I sent that back on the 8th. August to Cllrs. Ahmed Khan, Jane Branley, Geraldine White, George Waddle, Victor Thompson, Gordon Finch, and John Hodgson. I’ve posted on the issue consequently here and the best response that we got was some obscure argument about the meaning of nem com. I thought you’d be interested to know that in respect of this straight forward request for a comment or two from one of the larger groups of councillors in South Tyneside, not a single one of them has responded in the last sixteen days.

Should I now take it as read that they do not want to publicly disassociate themselves from the erroneous and false statements made on their behalf on their literature distributed amongst the populace? Do they now believe implicitly that false propaganda is far more important than facts?

Another important question that I have put to the Alliance through these pages in the past year that still remains unanswered is “why is the South Tyneside Independent Alliance not listed on the Register of Political Parties held by the Electoral Commission?”  The Conservative Party is, The Liberal- Democrats are, the Labour Party is, and even the South Tyneside Progressives are, and we can view their accounts to see how they are financed.

How is it that the party/group that makes the most noise about transparency and accountability in South Tyneside fails to live up to its own standards and continues to be secretive about its structure and financial footing (clearly they have a lot of money to expend on printers and distribution companies)?

I think we are owed an explanation.

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Around the blogs this morning

Some posts you may like

• Recall the UK Parliament – John Redwood
• Scrap working tax credits – Dizzy Thinks
• Thank God they are not running a war – Coffee House
• Fruit and Nuts – NHS Blog Doctor
• Dissent will not be tolerated – Devil’s Kitchen
• 7/1 that Salmond won’t survive – Political Betting

I’ll tell you about some emails in a minute.

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Com Res poll shows public support the Tories

Mike Smithson at Political Betting asks if the Conservatives are winning the public war of words over the NHS, and illustrates his findings with the first public poll since Dan Hannan waded into the American debate over their health reform proposals.

When those in the sample were asked to say whether they agreed or disagreed that “The NHS would be safer under Labour than the Conservatives“, only 39% agreed and 47% disagreed. As we discussed here as the Hannan row was breaking Health Secretary Andy Burnham seemed unable to get traction on an issue that appeared to be very good news for Labour. These numbers must be very worrying.

Of course Burnham didn’t help matters by suggesting that there were no longer any waiting lists in the NHS. I’ve just enjoyed enormous benefits from the NHS and although I was on a waiting list it was quite a short one, I have every confidence that the Tories will continue to look for ways to improve the service and deliver more for less.

Andrew Hawkins, the boss of ComRes chief exec, says “This is a killer for Labour – they have lost their advantage on one of the biggest electoral drivers”

And so it should be, the NHS has been around for sixty years now and has enjoyed life under a number of Conservative governments, just what makes Labour think that they have some sort of exclusivity over the nation’s health?

I still wonder about the costs of the new front entrance at South Shields District Hospital, and what effect it has had on patient’s treatment.

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£300 for three nights in Ambassador’s residence

The South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary may feel that his mini break was a bit frugal, but I suppose there will be many in South Shields who will be asking if in these hard times he might not consider taking his sons camping like they do? Why doesn’t he have a “staycation” like Gordon Brown, and pay the market rate in this country, it would help show some empathy towards those most affected by Labour’s debt induced recession. Perhaps he’d care to spend a bit more time here and let the lads enjoy Tommy’s Parties (where I spotted one of his Labour colleagues enjoying herself yesterday) with a stay at the Sandhaven Caravan and Camping Park down on the sea front.

Using tax payer funded villas is hardly likely to endear him to the folks of Shields, especially after the revelations over his second home expenses!

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Provides great comfort to terrorists around the world.

Will it answer any of the questions though? Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague has more questions here.

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ABBA is OK, but……

(Anyone But Branley Again) I’d like to say you know it makes sense, as the folks of Westoe ward in South Shields consider their options in choosing a new councillor, I’d like to think that they could turn to the Conservative candidate in a ward which long ago became used to voting Conservative in the County Council elections. However, if you are considering ABBA be wary, there is one other candidate that most of us would not wish much success for, there will be a meeting on Monday evening (24th. August) in the RMT union office in Mile End Road, South Shields if you wish to be United Against Fascism.

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Overtime and supplements paid to staff when off sick

We must love the NHS with total commitment and blind faith without any discussions about reforms, modernisation, value for money, priority spending targeted to the most beneficial areas?

The sensible debates have to start soon.

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South Tyneside politician about to change coats again perhaps?

Back in March 2006 I introduced you to Ian Proud, a local man with strong political ambitions, I used to work with him here in South Shields about twenty five years ago (he had a strong sense of humour then too), I even took his wedding photographs for him at Jarrow Register Office.

Back then I considered his coat of many colours as he moved from one party to another, then another. He moved to Newcastle and became a city councillor, I called him a political chameleon in April 2008 and we discovered that he’s now part of a longish list of politicians who couldn’t make their minds up on which side of the fence had the fewest spelks. In May of last year he managed to prop up the poll by coming last in a local election representing UKIP, and now rumours come to me from Newcastle that once again he is about to change his technicolour dreamcoat.

There are strong suggestions that he is seeking the candidature for the Conservative Party in the Denton ward, where he has previously ran as Lib-Dem, Labour, Independent, and UKIP. So if anyone can confirm what Jarrow born Proud is really up to, I’m sure we’d be interested to hear from you.

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Angioplasty went well

I’m still feeling a little sore in the chest and in the wrist where the incision was made, but the angioplasty procedure at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital on Wednesday went very well. In a near three hour session four additional stents were inserted into the coronary arteries and some other “wiring” was applied, as well as investigations into something called Wolf Parkinson White Syndrome. Didn’t manage to get much rest in there because of the terrible heat, and with building work proceding just a few yards away outside all windows had been closed to reduce infections from air borne dust.

Consequently I slept for a full twelve hours on returning home!

Yesterday was a minor miracle, just walked from the West Park in South Shields down to the Market Place, along King Street and returned via Fowler Street and Chichester Road. A week ago this would have taken hours with a number of stops to recover my breath, yesterday it was a breeze (at a gentle pace of course), no stops, no pounding of the chest as you walk uphill from the bottom of Fowler Street, and no breathlessness, and no pain in the hips (I’m sure that was a side effect of a drug that I no longer need).

So spent some time replying to some emails yesterday, and saying thank you for the kind thoughts and wishes, looking forward to something a little more strenuous today.

I was very happy!

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The squirrel comes too

I’ll be missing in action for a few days, somebody please inform Andy Burnham that as a Conservative supporter I’ll be happily placing my life in the hands of the NHS, and no we don’t want to kill babies, introduce euthanasia for old people or socialists, and we don’t want to burn hospitals to the ground. Maybe while I’m away someone might manage to elevate the debate to sensible intelligent levels.

I’ll be in Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital for what I hope will be the final procedure to keep my heart ticking nicely and enable me to get on with my life without pain and breathlessness, I have every confidence in the coronary team there and I’ll be back home and at the keyboard very shortly.

In the meanwhile comment moderation is on and the squirrel will pop up now and then to ward off the Monkey (he’s back in business under a new name (surprise, surprise). See you all soon.

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