Will no trade deal with the US and new battery technology info released by US Scientists reduce River Blyth job opportunities?

Recent news from the USA that scientists working at the Penn State University have invented a new type of  non-cobalt battery that is capable of taking the average family car from 0-60 in three seconds, can be fully recharged in 10mins from a normal domestic supply and will give a range of 250ml between charges has made us here at Murky get our thinking caps out of their boxes and begin to ask if the technology factory being pushed by British Volt-Siemens, promoted by ADVANCE northumberland to be built in the Blyth River estuary has been superceded by both its timing and the Governments handling of our national image abroad and the limited trade deals being locked in after Brexit?

The unique American invention is seen by the world’s technology press as being prime to President Joe Bidens wish to refresh the USA commitment to a greener future and his need to increase jobs in America Country-wide.

The new batteries are based on lithium ion phosphate batteries which are much cheaper to produce than those using cobalt and have been extensively used by those who live in more remote places in the USA, Canada and Australia who have no access to mains power to live a modern lifestyle off-grid for a number of years. But the secret to the new longer use, longer range and quick charging ability is that the American batteries contain hot-core technology and can heat up to its prime operating temperature of 60 degree C very rapidly, has built in quick cooling abilities and has an expected running life of two million miles before it needs to be changed or recycled. With the average UK Motorist still driving less than 12,000Ml per year it would mean cars fitted with this new American battery will only need 10 minutes of cheap rapid charging four times per month and the batteries will last eleven times longer than the lifespan of an average family car.

The recycling of shorter life and lithium ion cobalt batteries appears to be a major element of the British Volt-Siemens partnership who have engaged a construction partner to develop their factory and car batteries are not the only product expected to be produced in Blyth as on the horizon sits the change over from domestic gas appliances to household solar and cheaper night-time off peak grid, coupled with battery stored energy to assist air source heat pump technology to heat homes in the future but the partnership appears to have been locked in to batteries for the car trade as its regular profitable prime line for production.

 

So our questions are: will the British Volt-Siemens partnership be able to secure a licence to produce the much cheaper American invented batteries here in Blyth without the Uk Government securing a trade deal with the USA which President Biden has put on the back burner?

 

If not, will the Blyth plant simply become the dumping ground for the recycling of the more dangerous lithium ion cobalt batteries and old car lead acid batteries as fossil fuel vehicles are phased out over the next 9 years through the Johnson edict?

 

As the North of Tyne region has experience of Siemens pulling the plug on huge factory sites previously what guarantees will be put in place by Government to ensure Blyth has a reasonable jobs future in a plant that is envisaged to be heavily Government sponsored?

 

How will the much vaunted problems being experienced but not yet reported on at ADVANCE Northumberland affect the Council Taxpayer locally if things go wrong with this massive plant or will losses have to be borne by the residents of the much larger North of Tyne combined authority? 

 

https://britishvolt.com/news/britishvolt-selected-blyth-northumberland-as-the-site-of-its-first-battery-gigaplant/

 

UNIVERSAL CREDIT SCANDAL

Don’t let Northumberland’s Tories off the hook because their Government Abstained!

This week the spinning top u-turning Tories in Parliament decided to hide behind a supposedly free vote and abstain against a Labour motion to retain the £20 top up of Universal Credit after April 2021.

The Government top up of benefit paid out to 5.7M families is planned to face a cut from April 12^th of £85.05 per month, approximately the average cost of food shopping for a family of four.* The abstention allows the Government to put off its decision to embed an increase into Universal Credit until April.

Here in Northumberland a similar motion was laid before the Council by the Labour Party an its televised meeting on 6^th January 2021 with the gung ho Tories voting down the motion asking the Council to press Government to retain the increased payment to those in need.

The Tories a minority administration at County Hall is made up a number of pseudo barons who were baying for the blood of the poor, forgetting they are democratically elected to represent everyone in their wards and that even in Tory voting wards people now claim universal credit in high numbers because of their own Governments poor handling of the pandemic and Brexit arrangements.

Viewers who have commented to us at Murky say they were shocked when the two Councillors for Prudhoe the area with the highest deprivation figures outside the South East of the County and the rural coalfield voted this motion down, with both Councillor Ken Stow and the man who is regularly photographed doing the job of a litter picker although he is a very highly paid member of the County Council cabinet, Councillor Gordon Stewart whose ward is exposed to all the deprivation problems of an ex industrialised area, gloated as he voted.

Two Towns now blighted by ‘new deprivation’ caused by Tory mismanagement, Haltwhistle and Hexham saw its Councillors carry out an assault on their neighbours, in the case of Councillors Homer and Cessford who aired superiority on the subject and their former neighbours in Haltwhistle as the now Blyth based lover boy Councillor Ian Hutchinson stabbed those in need through his vote with the bumbling rural based Rupert Gibson following suit.

The Labour Party tell us they didn’t expect any other from the Cramlington based Tories and reading the graffiti in Morpeth residents themselves expected the Castle Morpeth mob to be anti-social and treat anyone who is in dire straits as lepers.

Our Labour colleagues also commented on the Tories from the North who scream and shout regularly when Labour speak about child deprivation in the South East and rural coalfield areas that they also have rural poor. According the recently released figures the rural poor have increased by 450% yet those same Conservatives voted NOT to support them.

1)     There’s about to be a major shift in emphasis by the County Council where officers and workers have had a bad time with the Tories in Northumberland, the elected Tories have been accused of bullying, racism, corruption and dodgy land dealing and more, they are being investigated by a multi disciplinary task force. Which will report in the public domain shortly.

2)     In a few days time, everyone in the County who does not have a postal vote will be offered the opportunity to sign up for postal voting to try and get the elections in May completed on time. After all of these debacles by Northumberland Tories take the opportunity to sign up and show your distaste of their actions against you and your neighbours over the last four years through the ballot box.

 

Labours notes to help benefit claimants

 

If you're a parent struggling to cover your bills, you may be entitled to extra financial support. See what you're entitled to below.

If you're on a low income, you may be able to claim income support, jobseeker's allowance (JSA), or housing benefit - which can help with rent.

·         If you're on sick leave because of coronavirus but don't qualify for sick pay, you can get a one off £500 covid support payment from the government.

·         The Healthy Start scheme supports parents with food vouchers. You qualify if you’re 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under four and get income support or another benefit. Payment vouchers start from £3.10 a week.

·         Make sure you seek help from the Council and claim Council Tax benefit

·         You can get free NHS dental treatment if you're pregnant when you start your treatment. To get free NHS dental treatment, you must have a MATB1 certificate issued by your midwife or GP and a valid prescription maternity exemption certificate (MatEx).

·         You're also entitled to free NHS dental treatment for 12 months after your baby arrives. To prove your entitlement, you will need to show a valid maternity exemption certificate, a notification of birth form (your midwife will give you this form) and your baby's birth certificate.

·         Eligible employees can also take up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave. The first 26 weeks is known as ‘Ordinary Maternity Leave’ and the last 26 weeks as 'Additional Maternity Leave'. The first 6 weeks is paid at 90% of average weekly earnings (AWE) before tax while the remaining 33 weeks is £151.20 or 90% of their AWE (whichever is lower). These are the rules for those claiming Shared Parental Leave instead.

·         If your child is below the age of 18 and you don't live with another adult, you can apply for 25% off your council tax.

·         All parents can claim Child Benefit. This is a state subsidy of £21.05 a week for your first child and £13.95 a week for subsequent children.

·         If you've a three or four year old child, you can register for the government's 30 hours free childcare scheme on top.

·         The Care to Learn scheme can help with childcare costs for parents still in education. It's £160 per child per week if you live outside London or £175 per child per week if you live in London. All payments will go directly to your childcare provider.

·         As well as the above, there are also water bill discounts, free prescriptions, free school travel (and uniform relief) and energy bill discounts that you can claim.

*     https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/average-uk-household-cost-food#week

 

 

 

 

Con artists when caught simply spin anti-clockwise!

This week we have had illustrated to us all how bad the con artistry within Northumberland Conservatives has got and how those Conservatives with a slight sense of conscience have begun to rally against the Mussolini style propaganda framework that has been developed by a small gang from within the Tory ranks to feed their ‘victims’, the public of Northumberland a crumb or two in the expectation that they will believe they have had a glorious feast laid out before them.

Alfred Molina said “good cons are all based on the victim's need, and the successful con artist is the one, I guess, who can exploit that. I remember reading something about this, that one of the great traits of confidence tricksters is the level that they flatter their victim.”

The budget process of Northumberland County Council is underway with long term portfolio holder for finance, Councillor Oliver of Corbridge telling his victims that his version of flatlined budgets for a decade under a Tory Government are ‘not cuts’ and the removal of almost 33% of Council jobs through that period are ‘not cuts’, simply “efficiencies” and his description that cost and material inflation doesn’t affect the spend of Council placed his version of this years budget well and truly in the category of a poorly planned con. 

Particularly when coupled with his view that his increased borrowing to deliver nothing of value on behalf of his victims was much less than someone else was going to borrow is conjecture somehow justified because his victims need the good news to know that he is emptying their pockets through a 3.74% increase in your Council Tax which he describes as 1.99%.

In order to back up his statements he said look at the wonderful Borderlands Deal and look at how well Government are treating this County and we will have this and that major project delivered to give you a glorious future etc., etc. His spin both forward and backwards was clarified with his short cover note of “borrowing may have to go up in future”.

 His quotes on Borderlands, the Northumberland Line, A1 modernisations and a battery factory on the River Blyth estuary show that he doesn’t read the press items put out by his own Government who are now set against borrowing by Councils until Austerity 2 has paid back the new national debt accrued this year and that the Scottish Government is edging ever closer to bankruptcy. But as victims its nice to hear what you want to hear when your whole life has been turned around by events beyond your control but thats how Con artists work.

He then rambled through the suite of numbers which he hasn’t let Council Officers release to the public, possibly in the hope that victims don’t seek reparation or even ask questions why since May 2017 have the Councils accounts under his watch not passed the test for Best Value as set by auditors?. Why the Councils auditors and investigating Lawyers not reported back to the Council and the public on the allegations lying at his door? Why an internationally admired external auditor walked away from his clutches? Why is he trying to recruit his fifth Head of Finance in three years? and why have Councillors and not professional officers delivered the current message to his victims? Could that be because they don’t wish to be spun into his latest web?

But all’s not well in the Tory ranks as Councillor Oliver tried to pull a similar con at a planning meeting where his well practised art is covered off by national rules of engagement. And what an explosive engagement it was with the strict rule following planning chairperson Councillor Colin Horncastle exposing the bullying of officers and the twisting of the rules to get his own way by the artist Oliver who must have left his pallette of colours at home. His failure was pounced upon by the opposition and the Labour Party ran out a video clip which said it all.

 

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffb.watch%2F2-OZwqfW6V%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0_SZLwNyusro2HaLvMpQvge-4PTPyFxjRut8EWrGebKNX_zVcwBjpicUc&h=AT1V1LE06KgThckJ6yjZQHK1FVyXTJWx5SqV8uSqTYKdNmN_E-C0Hpr1n7NEZP1cqTtY3fEFDZMZTXFG_qV_MDyxlbnw76-UWSKjj9wgK7vMNewiGR7EL6HvGWLeHk2Ow7sgNqENREj1Fk_F&__tn__=R]-R&c[0]=AT0rCLEC3ghGmXJ-T9af2krk3oEtjSGvqF4-rhVxE87oKAKgl7VbR85AsqmeMHMOqkhFZfCP2crSxVjDe6cI_l18oX5nA0FIwfT3EyOpPQH3vpPekNnyVYnbYyfuzMZxaAMym1oc_Zx5r32rxtMpaoACR2uGYgBAa7s

‘Shamatuers’

 In control of almost £1Bn of public cash.

What a week this has been for Northumberland’s obviously schizophrenic rebirth of Stan and Oly, Councillors Wearmouth and Oliver who rolled out a pathetic consultation with Councillors on live TV using a set of slides which must have been produced on an Atari Zx.

Over the week in full public view we have seen those who believe they were democratically elected as the professional officers of the Council bare their other temporal halves in full Trumpian style and show the watching world how bullying your way to the top excludes you from accepting that rules exist and that their innate belief they have unquestionable powers similar to a sun god is welded into their grey (or is that Murky) matter. The game they played out in front of a live audience could have been boxed and sold as, ‘Pathetico’ the latest board game for the under 5’s.

We have also witnessed at first hand by Olly of the bullying and demeaning of minor officers on a planning matter. Followed by the obvious to all split in the Tory Party when he was pulled up about not following the rules, (sun gods don’t have to apparently) and his twisted and self belief that his PR is the true PR, when as we know he spun out a propaganda item on how good he was at handling the covid 19 pandemic across the County.

Thats enough of Olly!

‘Stan’s’ involvement, as the man who turned Northumberland County Council into the secret society showed himself up well and truly as he sat there in his capacity as Chair of Advance Northumberland spinning out sickly ‘I love you please come and speak with me comments’ and I will dole out cash to upgrade your high street to the shocked members of the opposition at all of the Local Area Council meetings. His spun out platitudes were a strong and simple emetic as the faces of the opposition members greened before they threw up. Stan the man has locked down Northumberland so much that at this weeks meetings even his Leader Glen Sanderson and his Deputy Leader Richard Dodd abandoned all hope and didn’t bother to turn up and neither did the professional officers whose job it is to run the Council, manage the staff and accurately deliver advice to all members and the public on an almost £1Bn budget.

Where were the top financial officers, or the CEX and her Deputy? Have Stan and Olly had them chained up in the Tower when they crept in to swipe the Raven that reported to have disappeared, or have they been issued with copies of Zoom that can let Covid 19 through the County Council’s secret electronic system?

 

Talk of the Town You bet your life it is!

 For us here at Murky its good to have a social media run around late in the evening after Cabinet whether its being held at County Hall or in person via an e-media platform reading details spun among known confidants and close supporters now that the infighting among the County’s top Tories has hit warfare level and the closest fans of both sides are wanting to be first to run out the news.

Last night was better than usual as the delegated few were warmed up after chucking out time even though the bar is in their own living rooms and were showing off like mad.

We would like to think that the top tories get down to denying what we have learnt from their pals but doing that will further stretch the conspiracy theorists  beliefs that the Tories in Northumberland aren’t sure what the truth is anymore!

So what have they been crowing about?

Apparently, after clearing the joyous spin which is normal from the Tories the Council is going to lend ADVANCE Northumberland the cash to begin the roll out at Bedlington and develop an Aldi store in Bedlington on the ‘Hole Site’ at a very advantageous price to Aldi.

We have to agree that apart from it placing pressure on Morrisons and Lidl it will tart the site up a bit and be of benefit to the Town, but it isn’t a sports centre and isn’t the offer being run out by the Bedlington Independents who have bankrolled the Tories for the last three years by sacrificing their votes on the alter of regular and ongoing false promises.

The problem the lastest cost to the taxpayer offer to Aldi the new borrowing requirement to ADVANCE Northumberland is, the Bedlington Independents and Northumberland Conservatives have informed the taxpayer previously that they have already funded the project.

Councillor Wallace and the Council as shown below, ran out the story in 2018 that £6.5M had been loaned by the Council to ADVANCE to undertake the roll out of development at the Bedlington Hole Site.

What happened to that cash? as on 14th January 2020 ADVANCE Northumberland lodged two years of accounts with Companies House showing losses of £4M in 2018 and another £4M in 2019.

On 20th January 2020 the Companies Auditor EY resigned from the clutches of ADVANCE Northumberland followed by a flurry of resignations from Councillor Board Members including the then Leader of Council, Councillor Peter Jackson one of the accused in the leaked emails to Councillors and the press.

https://find-and-updatecompany-information.service.gov.uk/company/11161983/filing-history

So as this matter is now the ‘Talk of the Town’ the question needs to be asked, Should ADVANCE Northumberland be allowed to handle cash from the Council or should the workforce be transferred to the Council and Northumberland County Council handle the regeneration of its Market Towns and growth projects itself?

 

·         Talk of the Town: Councillor Wallace - Market Place Update May 1^st 2018

  

Councillor Wallace - Market Place Update

By Russ Wallace, May 1, 2018 in Talk of the Town

 

 

Russ Wallace

 

Posted May 1, 2018

I am delighted to learn today that NCC have released £6.5m to allow the Bedlington Market Place development to move to its next stage.

This is not the big publicity announcement of the various retailers – that will come later, but the release of this money allows the development of the site to go ahead. Building will begin later this Summer and hopefully be completed by late 2019.

Bedlington has been Northumberland’s forgotten town for far too long and this project represents an important landmark in ensuring our town thrives for generations to come.

I have been involved in this development since it was first proposed over three years ago and since our election last May the Bedlington Independent Councillors have been pressurising the administration to get the development underway

I am therefore particularly pleased at this news and confident that Bedlingtonians will give the development their full support.

The full NCC press release is copied below.

Thank you for reading.

Best wishes

Russ

Northumberland County Council : Press Release 1^st May 2018

Bedlington Redevelopment Progresses 

Plans to give Bedlington the vibrant town centre that it deserves are moving to the next stage following funds being released by the board of Northumberland County Council’s regeneration company for a multi-million pound redevelopment.  The scheme when completed will include a new store for a well-known food retailer, additional retail units, car parking and a number of new apartments which aim to transform the town centre economy. 

It is projected that up to 200 jobs could be created by the scheme once completed. 

In total the next stage of the works are expected to cost just under £6.5m with other funds previously having been agreed for land acquisition and other preparatory works. The regeneration company is already in the process of discharging planning conditions for the scheme and tenders from contractors for the construction are due back within weeks, subject to agreeing contracts construction work will start later this summer. 

Speaking about the news the Chairman Cllr Richard Wearmouth said, “The new council administration said from the outset that doing right by the residents of Bedlington was a key goal for us. These proposals have the potential to be truly transformational for the town, giving a boost to the high street by pulling in additional footfall and generating new jobs for local residents. I am hugely looking forward to the start of work on the ground later in the summer.”

The three independent Bedlington county councillors, Malcolm Robinson, Bill Crosby and Russ Wallace issued a joint statement saying, “This is very welcome news for Bedlington and something which collectively we have been working towards ever since our election last year. Bedlington has been Northumberland’s forgotten town for far too long and this project represents an important part making sure our town thrives for generations to come. We are delighted at this news and confident that residents will now give the development their full support”  

 

 

Labour Council to Freeze Your Local Tax

 At its meeting this week, its expected that Labour controlled Blyth Town Council will freeze its precept to 0%.

The Labour Group on the Town Council whose work brings them very close to the people know how local folk are struggling at this moment in time through 11% of the Adult population unemployed and an unreleased number of families on furlough.

Blyth Labour Group who have taken the Marmot report 2020 on deprivation into consideration decided to work in harmony with other agencies on Operation Elf. 

It was designed to give support for those in need and children living in poverty in the Town and ensure families got some respite over the Xmas period, with the Mayor of the Town Warren Taylor visiting every street in Blyth with gifts and cheer for those who required help and to be seen by those who pulled out all the stops to donate to this very worthy cause.

Blyth Town Labour Group in the shape of the Council normally sponsor the Music Festival (Blyth Live), Blyth town fair, fireworks events along with arts and other public festivals held in the Town throughout the year with Councillors supporting local events organised by others between their own programmed work and have brought a good many tourists to the Town through their constant efforts in the field of public arts.

Councillors tell us they are not yet sure about the events program for 2021-22 and won't be until the pandemic has eased but they will be waiting to pounce and organise a good many things for people to enjoy as soon as they can.

                             

Toxic Tories still Inventing Fake News on ARCH

 Nick Oliver one of the two Councillors who put their own false reports through the Councils audit committee process on the Councils arms length company ARCH after Auditors and lawyers found ‘nothing of significance’ to report after the Police found there was no criminality in ARCH, in order to cover up for the massive expenditure and cost to the public purse of the change from ARCH to ADVANCE Northumberland  or what it has cost the taxpayer under his watch as finance portfolio holder for the Council, went public last year with an accusation that was based on a lie:

He outlined a situation under the previous administration in which the former chief executive and council leader would agree projects – ‘some very worthwhile’ – with Arch officers as part of the investment committee and then agree the loans from the council to fund them.

“That cannot be right and there’s a massive conflict of interest,” he said.

Coun Oliver also pointed to the previous administration’s medium term budget for 2017-2020 which delegated authority to the chief executive and leader to agree individual loans to third parties, primarily Arch, from a three-year pot of £450million as a ‘situation with no proper scrutiny or control’.

Murky’s investigations into the Governance of ARCH through papers lodged in public with the Local Enterprise Partnership find Councillor Olivers latest splurge during the current Budget process and his last two budget processes to be Completely untrue! And we have been led to believe by top people from the region that his statements are subject to the current multi agency investigations into Advance Northumberland and the Council with the public and the press waiting for the roll out of reports into the Tories particularly news regarding the reports on Advance being sued by the huge construction conglomerates working at Energy Central and how much the outcome will cost Northumberland’s ratepayers?

https://wwwchroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/northumberland-county-council-could-exposed-18790307

The constant spin by his false report writing partner Councillor Richard Wearmouth on promises surrounding projects around the County which haven’t been delivered has exposed Councillors Olivers mismanagement of public finances as they now can’t even get their stories together and through their need to protect themselves after the loss of former Leader Peter Jackson who condoned their behaviour, members of the public and opposition members on the Council which includes the nearly as Toxic Tories who support the new Leader Glen Sanderson,  have great difficulty believing the half truths dug up and spun out as fake news from the now ousted Peter Jackson administrations Portfolio holders, a Group which includes Oliver and Wearmouth.

Last Year the Toxicity Twins ran the idea of an investment board to replace a fully audited, proper and complex procedure that  included at all counts, trusn and corners the Leader of the Conservative Group Councillor Peter Jackson who had to condone all decision making is truly quite amazing, its as if the Tory Group did not trust him? And now he’s been ousted but what have the investigators dug up that isn’t misery for the Council Taxpayer?

But to show that ARCH and the Council was Governed correctly under the Labour Administration we have listed some of the headlines from the LEP reports into their Governance methodology, a methodology that was thought so safe that ARCH ran the issue of Government Rural Grant Funding on behalf of the region.

Arch and the Council operated as follows :

 

a)     Projects of an infrastructure nature were reported at the Councils capital works working group.
It looked at the Councils needs and wishes for physical infrastructure as well as Capital spend right across the County. Business plans were drawn up and the cross party group containing members of all political parties decided which projects were best delivered by the Council and which would be best undertaken by ARCH. Councillor Jackson sat on this committee.

b)     The decisions of the working group were reported to the Cabinet of the Council where Councillor Peter Jackson was a member. Unlike today with the £1Bn spending Council being run by a one party Tory cabinet Labour ran a mixed cabinet with members of all political parties among its prime decision making body, with Councillor Jackson representing the Tories, Councillor Reid from the LibDems and Councillor Kelly standing up for the Independents on the Council.

c)      The chosen projects were then transferred to ARCH, joint projects that were of a regeneration nature designed primarily by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership where Councillor Peter Jackson was leading member as part of the scrutiny process were also openly reported through the Council’s and ARCH Governance processes.

d)     An investment committee also met at ARCH which included Councillors and Officers and members from public and trade bodies where the pro’s and con’s of the projects were debated. Lending rates were set by the investment committee at a level to ensure they could be delivered and paid for in a reasonable time. This committee also discussed the recycling of ARCH profits to suit the ‘profit for purpose’ needs of both the Council and the communities of Northumberland.

e)     Projects then went on to the ARCH Board made up of professionals and Councillors, Councillor Peter Jackson was a prime member on behalf  the Tories on that Board which discussed the merits of the investments chosen to be delivered and the management of the company from  a legal perspective as prescribed by the Companies Act.

f)       The projects, finance and progress were monitored by the ARCH audit committee where Councillor Peter Jackson sat as a  member of the committee.

g)     The decisions regarding finance were recorded in the Councils Treasury Management system and monitored from there, that information then went on to the Councils Audit Committee for scrutiny through audit. The whole process was open and involved Councillor Peter Jackson and his Tory Group.

h)     It is correct that some financial decisions could be made by the Chief Executive in conjunction with the Leader but these could not break the Councils spending rules of ACCA, AGIG or Treasury management, were of a very minor nature and did not involve ARCH, it’s a pity that Councillor Oliver didn’t read the minutes of the Councils Audit Committee before he made his original opinion known in the press or ran out his latest untruth’s during the Council’s latest budget process.

In summary, there seems to be a completely unhealthy concentration on ARCH matters by Councillor Oliver when in reality the largest sums that may be worth worrying over are that of the Councils massive loans to the NHS where Councillor Olivers own Government are closing down the amount of spending power NHS trusts have and he should ask, will that affect the Council Taxpayers investments?

 

Did Councillor Hill ask the right question to the wrong half of the fracture?

 

At the last you tubed full council meeting of Northumberland County Council during questions to the Leader and Cabinet, Councillor Georgina Hill responding to the strong rumours from the very broken team of Tories surrounding the pantomime throne at County Hall asked the Leader, Councillor Glen Sanderson, if the 'Council had asked Government Ministers to place the Council in special measures'?

Councillor Sanderson answered NO!

At the close of the meeting social media was alive with keyboard activists asking if Councillor Sanderson had lied to the public.

We here at Murky aren't sure that he did lie as following our full trawl of rumour mill comments mainly from known Tories on the special measures issue we believe Councillor Sanderson simply answered the question as asked. But was he guilty of missing out the truth behind the iron curtain the Tories have cast across the stage at the 'Morpeth Playhouse' they are the prime actors and fading stars on?

First of all we will look at why a Council that has made a disastrous mess of its finances with leading members of its administration being investigated for Bullying, Corruption, Dodgy Land Dealings, Racism and we now are led to believe Threatening Behaviour would need to be placed in special measures? instead of following the road its currently set on. That set road is one where the allegations which are being investigated by top Lawyers and External Auditors before any criminal content of those investigations are reported to the police. 

We believe that its because if a Council is placed in special measures by Government its top officers are automatically removed from office by Government. 

The current situation the Tories find themselves in was released into the public domain following an email from its top officer being leaked to all Councillors and on to the press, the guilty Councillors are terrified that without help from their Government they are facing prison at worst or at least, ruination of their already sullied reputations.

Councillor Hills question was valid and she deserves an answer to it as she has been used by the Tories and we suspect bullied by them in her position as Chair of Audit to legitimise untruths for the last three years but with this massively fractured group battling behind the scenes on a regular and ongoing basis who should she place a re-framed question to? We believe the new question should be something surrounding 'who asked MP's and Ministers to seek an old pals act favour and place Northumberland County Council into Special Measures'

Councillor Sanderson's answer may then be different.

But the answer to that question may already sit on the recording of this meeting on Youtube or if you can access a digital recording even better. Simply hone in and study the faces of Tories at the meeting they tell their own story. You may also be able to define who sits on either side of the serious political fracture while your watching!

 

People under 48 demand to know why they are not able to access a Euro Passport?

There seems to be a very vocal spin off from the social media conversations started by students who are now asking why they, as people who were born as Europeans have had what they consider their birthright denied to them through the Governments failure on Brexit?.

The UK joined the European Community via the common market on January 1st 1973 everyone born after that date up until 31st December 2020 did have a dual nationality as both Europeans and UK residents. People born before or after 2020 are UK or British residents and do not have the ability to claim European residents status.

Those chatting on this matter seem to have a much wider view of the situation than us here at Murky but it seems that the lack of consultation on Brexit with the public and the cutting off from Parliamentary debate has suppressed the question they now demand and answer too.

They argue the differences given by the UK Government to Bulgarian Nationals and Southern Cyprus as a state allows the difference they seek to be absorbed into every day life and would certainly widen the scope for people in this age band to hold dual nationality with their now former greater Euro family.

We are sure this argument and technical conversations will run further and we here at Murky will ensure we bring this subject back to you as pressure begins to be placed on Government by the under 48's.