KNOWING NOTHINGSEEMS TO BE POPULAR IN MURKEYLAND.

Over the Easter holidays it was noticeable that the hot weather led most Tories to dine at barbecues with lashings of grog.

The murkiest team of all were at lidl’s best from the moment the firelighters were thrown on and the charcoal tipped on top.

After a while the chatter turned to whom they thought was responsible for giving them as good as they have dished out for several years.

As they slurped and gassed it was decided that the former leader of the Labour Group and the Clerk of Berwick Town Council and their spin doctor, witness C, were responsible for some of the anti-tory truths that have been issued in response to their Murky Blogspot on Council servers and that the whole package was put together by Grant Davey when he was leader of Blyth Valley Council shows how strong and how much damage white lightning mixed with lidl larger can do to one's mind.

Their blame game rant shows that the Morpeth %&£ ring leader, the cuddly boys and their northern chick have actually lost the plot and expect to con all of the people all of the time, when in reality they have gone out on the airwaves with spin that shows they were too blasted to check that Grant Davey never held the post of Leader at Blyth Valley., or for reference, I would hope has no access to County servers from a domestic dwelling in the Town of Blyth and for security reasons only known to the current ‘secret council’ in Morpeth, neither has Northumberlands Parish Councils.

Keep trying team, but try to get at least one of your facts correct or just pack it in and accept Labour are coming back stronger than ever.

Northumberland Tories in a Mess

The recent changes in the leadership of Northumberland Labour Group have exposed the flanks of the local Tories to a massive blow from which they won’t recover from before the next local government elections or the local North of Tyne mayoral elections for that matter.

Although given three months notice of the impending change of leadership in the Labour Party in Northumberland the Tories massive internal mess at all levels has left them unprepared and extremely ill equipped to manage and plan for change in their oppositions ranks.

Tories in Northumberland have used the constant attacks filled from a stream of degradation, that criminal acts had taken place in the company ARCH. Although they have known for over seven months that Northumbria Police had found no criminality at ARCH they shelved release of that report until they could put together a cover all web to state their false disbelief.

They used their ally the chair of the audit committee at the council to legitimise their plans, letting her expose what little reputation she has to public ridicule as she tried to spin out falsehoods centred on the fact that the Northumbria PCC is a Labour Party member, wrongly attacking the Chief Constable into the bargain.

Their crumbling empire, based on spin and accusations of bullying and truthlessness, has led to them not being able to recruit a local candidate for a by-election in Holywell Ward, and having to rely on the aging Sir John Hall to endorse their candidate for North of Tyne mayor as Cllr Peter Jackson and his team fight and fail to prove they aren’t disgraceful bullies at an industrial tribunal.

The local Labour Party’s new team isn’t tainted or even linked with ARCH, have already had their wider party supporters expose the extreme costs to the ratepayer of remaining in County Hall at Morpeth and are seeking a full investigation into the costs of audits and investigators who purport to be experts at ARCH and let the public know how much those costly decisions, along with the legal protection bills to cosset the current Tory Councillors through the legal minefield their rougery has got them into has been ripped from services the Council Taxpayers expect to be delivered on their behalf.

Lifting the curtain on Daljit’s Kremlin

County Hall has become a strange and fearful place since 2017. Secret meetings and conspiracies are the order of the day, and constitutional abominations like the informal cabinet are accepted as if they’re reasonable and normal.

The outcome of the employment tribunal brought by Sarah Kirk and Chris Stephenson has shone a little light into some corners of Daljit Lally’s ways of working. What’s interesting is how little interest is shown in what’s been revealed by the self professed queen of transparency, Georgina Hill.

In case you’ve not followed the tribunal story, here’s the short version. Two senior HR managers were made redundant in 2016. Both went to tribunal with a skip load of claims about why their redundancy was unfair. Amongst the skip load of complaints was an allegation by Sarah Kirk that she’d been discriminated against because she complained about Barry Rowland leaving NCC with a compromise agreement and a confidentiality clause.

Barry was an Executive Director, and a former chief exec at Newcastle. He was pretty divisive; people either loved him or hated him. Sarah Kirk’s allegation was that Barry was manouvered out by Daljit Lally, who went to an employee who worked under Mr Rowland, and persuaded her to complain that he was bullying her.

NCC’s defence to that claim by Sarah Kirk wasn’t to deny her version of the facts, but to claim that she hadn’t blown the whistle in the right way, so shouldn’t be protected as a whistleblower, and any way, she deserved to be made redundant.

So what we’re left with is an accusation that Daljit Lally chose to reward a bully with a payoff and a secrecy agreement in order to secure a swift exit for him, and the job of Deputy Chief Executive for herself. What’s odd is that Daljit Lally hasn’t chosen to speak against that accusation.  Nowhere in the findings of fact made by the judge is there anything to suggest this was a fantasy or a fiction; instead there’s just the suggestion that Sarah Kirk went about it the wrong way, and got some of the details of who she told and when she told them wrong.

Now amongst the odd things, like the way Daljit Lally chose not to give evidence, is Barry Rowland;s response to all this. He could have offered to give evidence to rebut the central accusations about his behaviour. Instead he made an application to have the tribunal hushed up, because he had a confidentiality agreement. He failed, but he’s said nothing in public to defend himself against these accusations. Given that he’s still a public servant, in the Falkland Islands, you might wonder why that is.

What does Georgina Hill have to say about the use of public funds to pay off and silence an employee accused of bullying? Nothing. Zilch. Nada. She’s got lots to say about anyone who agrees with Northumbria Police that her ‘investigation’ into Arch has produced no evidence of any criminality, but on the subject of senior managers hiding each other’s disciplinary offences behind confidentiality agreements, she says nothing.

In all the circumstances, anyone with a shred of credibility would be asking how it can be that public money could be used in this way. The problem for Hill is that there’s no way for her to smear Labour politicians from such an investigation. Instead there’s a risk she’d sabotage the career of Daljit Lally, who is throwing money at Berwick to ensure Hill can continue pretending to be an independent advocate for the town while doing whatever her patrons at County Hall want. In Daljit’s Kremlin that appears to be how politics works.

Northumberland Tories Failing

in their attempts to Turn Back Laws Established in 1736

A Court set to sit for a fortnight in the established by the Romam Empire Fishing Port of North Shields (although its name derives from the Middle English from the sheds used by the fisherfolk who dwelt there).

This court is hearing the very complex witch hunt against a former Director of Advance/ARCH v Northumberland County Council naming among others the Current Leader of Council Peter Jackson, about whom its been fixed by the press, that he was a Director of Advance/ARCH and sat on the Audit Committee of that organisation.

In Court its now ingrained into the records that Advance Northumberland was simply a name change from ARCH and that through the Tory manifesto issued in Peter Jackson’s name, he stated he would scrap ARCH, a Company he was a leading Director of, Cllr Jackson was asked if he knew what the responsibilities of being a Director of a Company were.

Moving away from a case in motion but keeping on the subject of Northumberland County Council and the lead up to this very complex matter, the Council through its Audit Committee led by the ex- press secretary for the Tory MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan, witch-finder General, Cllr Georgina Hill, has over a series of months lined up the case being heard at the moment, by challenging the integrity of the new Chief Constable of Northumbria Police Winton Keenen, and the honesty of Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Vera Baird.

In a well rehearsed audit committee meeting that reported on a matter where Northumbria Police found no criminality occurred at the Company ARCH, the desperate for good news Northumberland Conservatives, sought the use of another Police Force in order that they can take the eyes off the findings that will come from the Court Case above.

Integral to the Georgina Hill debacle is the independent head of the internal audit partnership for Northumberland and North Tyneside Allison Mitchell, yes that’s the person who dealt with another massive mess by the Tories the devastating disaster that was the investigation into the ‘North Tyneside Crane’.

Allison Mitchell, is covered by her CIPTFA membership, she now needs to tell what she knows and answer the questions about the Committee she serves in Northumberland that of Cllr Georgina Hill whom she’s allowed to turn an audit committee into a scrutiny panel, a function the audit committee is not set up to embrace. A committee that is swamped with right-wing activists and is fixated through it chairperson on leading the charge on bad news stories against the Company Advance/ARCH in a wicked way designed to colour a Court Case against a former employee and others who dare defy the Tory farmers who have tight control over County Hall.

It’s a pity but its now squeaky bum time for Ms Mitchell and she needs to audit her options which are rapidly running out before confidence in her decision making runs out completely.

Support from Ms Hill will not ride to her rescue as history has shown in the past, she only loyal to her own thinking, so on this we will remind them both: Set in statute, witch hunting was outlawed in 1736.

Jacksons Dilemma

Sue or Resign.

Having read the excellent Letters Page in the PONT NEWS where Councillor Peter Jackson Leader of the Conservative Group and Leader of Council threatens to personally sue the Directors of Lugano Dissington Ltd., and one of the Directors of that Company, Allan Rankin surprisingly beckoning him on to do so in order that the truth behind Jacksons threats are revealed to the public, has left Peter Jackson with a huge dilemma.

Peter Jackson is the top Local Government representative for the largest geographical area, with the largest population in the North of Tyne Combined Authority. As such he carries the burden on his shoulders to show that local politics doesn’t carry the same stigma as the politics of sub-Saharan Africa.

Peter Jacksons and his group, openly attacked the business interests of Lugano in early 2017 with a strange move to make sure that Lugano did not build a Garden Village, backed by Peter Jacksons Government on land near his own. That action led to the commencement of a serious Law Suit the defence bills of which are being born by the Council Tax payers of Northumberland.

Due to circumstances that this blog is not party too but which Allan Rankin alludes to in the Pont News Letters Page, Lugano had to withdraw its case.

So much public money has been spent on this matter that due to the old adage ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ Peter Jackson needs to fulfil his threat contained in his letter in order that in Jackson’s own words “substantial legal costs” are at least revealed to the population who have been bankrolling him and his cronies for 17 months and that the true personal costs of the alleged bullying by Council top Councillors and Staff on others come out so that the electorate can judge for themselves.

Peter Jackson only has two courses of action if he wants to stifle the truth any longer, SUE OR RESIGN.

The letter are on page 10

http://www.ponteland-tc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/PNV-Apr-19-issue-163.pdf

IF YOU REPEAT A LIE OFTEN ENOUGH IT BECOMES THE TRUTH!

Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State”

Background

Deloitte produced the report featured in this article in 2013 for the Labour Group’s management period of the Councils partner companies. Once accepted by Council in early 2014, the Head of the Internal Audit Partnership, Allison Mitchell, managed the processes for the full group of companies and the Council..

Process
The process in line with the featured report meant that ARCH’s audit committee team, Councillors, Peter Jackson, Jeff Reid and Grant Davey were guided through the agreed process by the Head of the Internal Audit Partnership, for almost four years.

Assurance
The report being put to the Councils Audit Committee led by the Berwick Terrier Georgina Hill, has singled out a number of happenings and events that have been poisonously denigrated on social media and run out by the Tory edited Times Newspaper, nothing new is being put out by the Head of the Internal Audit Partnership.  

Were sure that the ARCH Audit Committee members are at this moment in time asking why did she not tell them if she thought the processes were wrong and as none of the actions by the board of ARCH are unlawful why write a report that is so damaging to her own reputation and let people who have no shame or self control manage the report in public?

Comment

The head of the internal audit partnership is the internal auditor for the Council and its Groups of Companies and had adequate opportunity to comment and have those comments published with the annual accounts of ARCH and Advance, that opportunity wasn’t taken.

Councillors are democratically elected to follow the guidance of officers in making democratic decisions. As their decisions weren’t challenged by the professionals running the service one has to ask why wait almost two years to inform the public?

The Siege of Hexham 2019

Designed by Tories, Delivered by Tories, with the Full Help of a Tory Government

Today is a day to go down in history, when a Town that believes it sits in the heart of the UK becomes fully dependent on Chris Graylings expensive rail travel as its Tory MP, Tory Council and Tory Government have had it cut off by road from the rest of society.

Its often been said that the Tory’s in Northumberland couldn’t organise a P**$ up and today is proof that those soothsayers are correct in their judgements, as the A69 is blocked with traffic from Brockbushes roundabout to Haydon Bridge, cutting off the Abbey town of Hexham to both commerce and visitors alike and will be like that until the middle of the summer.

This latest ‘road improvement’ scheme has been planned for a number of years, with Highways England being its prime sponsor. The Local MP Guy Opperman has waxed lyrical on many occasions as to the benefits this laughable ‘road improvement’ scheme will bring to the Hexham area.

But the nub of the problem may be that lack of control or is it ability to organise a prime scheme anywhere in the County, which lies with the Leader of Council, Peter Jackson and his portfolio holder for highways and local services Cllr Glenn Sanderson, both rich farmers who must have a great knowledge of engineering on a major highway.

Glenn may have a bit of an excuse as his master, the Council Leader is trying to cut the terms and conditions of his staff. Its been said by wags that its in order to bank more cash to design an even greater number of road improvement schemes to go wrong. He should consider his position after this debacle.

Well if your sitting in the traffic on the A69 over the next few months remember that once the staffs pay gets cut you may be asked to donate to food banks in Hexham as the cost of rail transport to the heart of all England to feed a population under siege will be much higher than if they had left this highway alone in the first place.

Tories attempting to Mainstream Fake News Team

With the Tories ‘Secret Council’ exposed on television this week by the outgoing Leader of Northumberland Labour Group Grant Davey, over them holding what they describe in the report as an ‘informal cabinet’ where the Tories agreed to slash the terms and conditions of their workforce, kill off the single status agreement and remove the Trade Unions and their members from national pay bargaining.

This almost ‘STAZI’ like activity took place whilst at the same time putting huge wage hikes into their budget for top staff, raising top staff pay levels well above those the Tory Leader of Council, Peter Jackson, complained about in 2015 in his half famous ‘footballers wages’ speech.

To cover over this ‘secret activity’ and to direct staff minds away from the dreadful cuts they are facing, we expect the Council to spin out ever more fake news surrounding ARCH in the next few weeks. As usual they will pump it through Georgina Hills ‘Toxic’ audit committee probably justifying it with a report from the man described in a recent bullying tribunal case as the Councils ‘Hired Gun’ Steve Crosland of Crosland Consulting who in an attempt to mainstream his activities has been made a Director of the Councils arms length company Active Northumberland. He reports directly to the Deputy Chief Executive of the Council Kelly Angus, number two in the STAZI and HR Director of the Council responsible for staff pay and conditions.

In order to ensure that the Council can support the ‘Wayne Daley’ plan to ‘gift £80M of public money to schools who have left the Council education system and academised themselves on into the private sector’; The workforce will be made to pay to cover up the Tories messy budget and medium term financial plan along with paying the massive legal bills the Council is running up to protect its Chief Executive and others from exposure to the myriad of bullying cases the Council is locked into. The Council employs more than 6500 staff covered by the single status agreement and the terms and conditions cuts will permeate through into lower spend in the local economy over the next two years, making businesses also suffer the consequences of these dreadful and possibly unlawful decisions by Northumberland Conservatives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZijLmTW7YI

Is Northumberland County Council 2019/20 Budget Lawful?

On Wednesday 20th February 2019 Northumberland County Council went through its annual budget process.

The full Council in Northumberland, a Tory led local authority sat in front of the very bad tempered on the day Chairperson, Councillor Richard Dodd, who bragged about his constitutional knowledge to everyone sat in front of him with the Councils chief executive sat beside him, Mrs Dalit Lally CBE. (Its on you tube link below)

At the meeting, Northumberland Labour Group pushed forward a number of amendments to safeguard the poor, protect the disabled and halt the attacks on their heartlands of Blyth and Ashington, whose fragile economies will be hacked downwards by the Tories scarification of deprived families incomes who dare to claim Council tax benefit, extending the Tories national attacks on the poor into Northumberland’s most deprived communities.

A number of Labour’s amendments were ruled out of order with the reason that Mrs Lally’s Officers hadn’t had time to crucify them and add them to the spiked haemorrhoid of unacceptable to her and her political allies, the Tories policies.

Labour amendments and motions were designed to improve people’s lives in Northumberland, they failed to make the political cut in the Tory mantra they were designed to do through the application of constitutional process by the chair and his political advisers blanketing him on the day.

Two of Labours motions had to be heard, even the twisty use of the rules of debate couldn’t halt them and in front of those who seem to know and brag that they do, the constitution and the law surrounding local government, inside out, the Leader of Council, the millionaire farmer, Councillor Peter Jackson said the council should put two amendments together and vote on them.

That process took place and the Tories and their Bedlington Independent allies voted the joint motion which was not composited by the motions movers from the Labour Group down. They then accepted a motion from one of their own team as an amendment and moved to vote on the substantive motion.

Ugh ugh. That process is completely outside of the Councils constitution and should not have occurred. The Councils chief executive, chairperson, legal advisor and section 151 officer allowed this flawed process to take place, all amendments have to heard individually.

So it’s now down to the Councils External Auditor EY to rule on this anomaly and tell the public and the Council taxpayers of Northumberland if their budget is lawful or if the Leader of Council and chief executive should resign over this debacle?

#callanotherbudgetcouncil

#stopthebullies

https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/NorthumberlandCountyCouncil/media/About-the-Council/transparency/Constitution.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZijLmTW7YI

Sunday Times ran a short article on how ‘dirty money

On 10/02/2019 the Sunday Times ran a short article on how ‘dirty money’ from Russian and Eastern European oligarchs cash is being paid into Tory Central Office.

Its long been known that its then distributed through the veins of the Tory ‘hole in the wall’ system by regional chairmen and out to Branches and beyond to pay for the fight against ‘socialism’.

n Northumberland in particular is closely linked with the Berwick MP Anne Marie Trevelyan exposed by the Labour Party in North Northumberland and the cudgel taken up by the local press. https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/mp-responds-to-50-000-election-donation-claims-1-9124219  She denied any involvement of course.

The well known bullying Tories in Northumberland seem to have lost some of the close links they traditionally had with Conservatives on the ground who religiously supported them both financially and physically. As that support has dwindled through the permanent attacks and vitriol poured out on social media by the likes of the Northumberland Murky Blogspot and other sites, the right wing masters of spin have now become ever more reliant on running with the political big boys who will want payment back.

The Chairman of the North East Conservatives is one Richard Wearmouth a leading Northumberland Councillor and an energy trader, owning a large number of companies in that field. He is also the Chairman of ex-ARCH company Advance Northumberland the developer of the massive Energy Central business park which is wrapped around the river Blyth in Northumberland and is expected to be the panacea that drives up employment in one of Britains worst unemployment blackspots. It was a brilliant Labour Party idea that took off in the eyes of regional businessmen and led to a cable being laid from Norway into the Blyth Estuary to power up the region. This 2016 video explains some of whats going on. https://youtu.be/6tg8ULvctOE unfortunately the idea is now stolen by the bully boy Tories with whom payback arrangements from those who’ve made an investment will have to be arranged.

Energy trader Councillor Wearmouth wearing one of his other hats as Chairman of the NE Conservatives and his distribution, or is it doling of funds is well documented. It comes in from Central Office and he then looks after his many tentacles by honouring them with a regular shower of cash. Berwick seems to be a popular place to offload the moolah, now we wonder which Murky person gets his support from that neck of the dark woods?

http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/?currentPage=1&rows=10&query=richard%20wearmouth&sort=AcceptedDate&order=desc&tab=1&et=pp&et=ppm&et=tp&et=perpar&et=rd&isIrishSourceYes=true&isIrishSourceNo=true&prePoll=false&postPoll=true&register=gb&register=ni&register=none&optCols=Register&optCols=CampaigningName&optCols=AccountingUnitsAsCentralParty&optCols=IsSponsorship&optCols=IsIrishSource&optCols=RegulatedDoneeType&optCols=CompanyRegistrationNumber&optCols=Postcode&optCols=NatureOfDonation&optCols=PurposeOfVisit&optCols=DonationAction&optCols=ReportedDate&optCols=IsReportedPrePoll&optCols=ReportingPeriodName&optCols=IsBequest&optCols=IsAggregation

Northumberland’s Hidden Directors Where are they?

As Northumberland with its partners City of Newcastle and North Tyneside’s populations move towards electing a mayor, we thought it was probably time to check out who’s steering the ship across the County, the North of Tyne’s largest partner, in the absence of a number of top officers rumoured to be in hiding from harassment by the current Tory administration

Its been brought to our attention that the top director from Northumberland Geoff Paul, the man who did all of the slog to ensure that the North of Tyne mayoral combined authority got off the ground, has been bullied out of his post and is taking a tribunal case against the Council. He's just one of several we know of.

The Northumberland rumour mill grinds on with whispers that the Deputy CEX of Northumberland finds himself in the same plight, the Finance Director Barry Scarr is off work with depression following a very commonly known (even among roadworkers and gardeners) argument with the centre of Northumberland’s messy steerage, part time very well paid CEX Mrs Daljit Lally.

Further more as rumour millers know there’s even more strange news, that Mrs Lally Daughter has secured a good job with a car in the department which last year her mum received a £34K bonus for travelling abroad for, the hidden from view ‘International Department’. Are these stories linked in some way?

There may be a simple explanation; her daughter may have been the best at interview. But then again I suppose you can’t climb the ladder of success if you keep your hands in your pockets.