Labour’s Motion No1 will breath new life into Northumberland’s ‘Dead Cats’ and may cause a meltdown among the fractured Conservatives?

Wednesday September 1st 2021:NCC Full Council.

Northumberland Labour Group has placed a motion onto the Councils agenda to try to engage the massive conservative controlled Northumberland Unitary Council into a debate to derive more equality for women in local politics.

From a real murky point of view this is the right time to bring an equality motion to the fore. Labour has aggressively fought itself for two decades to ensure equality among candidate numbers and encourage more women into local politics at all levels and this motion from their Leader, Councillor Scott Dickinson in support of women's rights, is designed to engage the Council into a debate on equality of action as well as the little bit of stiff upper lip service that emits from the faces of all the broken groups of Tories on the Council. The debate on the matter may bring the splits among the anti-social Tories to the fore. It could, if the Morpeth splinter Group decide to talk, get people to ask if the Taliban operates from County Hall in Morpeth as some of the attitudes and platitudes towards women from elected Conservative Councillors has been disgraceful over the last 13 years since the Unitary Council was formed.

From the moment that a leading conservative began threatening to sue anyone who mentioned he was allegedy involved in a sex worker scandal. The Tories, particularly those from the Morpeth splinter group have gained a reputation for their anti-women antics. The well publicised botched suspension of the female councils chief executive officer and the recent attacks during the debate on changing a health and social care contractor against the Councils female head of finance are just a couple of pointers out in the public domain which illustrate the hidden attitudes of Conservatives against women and the equality of women in society.

We at the Murky wish to use a 2021 video link from the open web pages of the ‘Farmers Weekly’, to illustrate the problems facing women in rural society today and let us all note if Councillors from Northumberland will support the Labour Group equality motion in Morpeth, a Town famous as the birthplace of equality activist Emily Davidson or will the costs of equality become the catalyst for another carpet sweep and the treatment of women be placed behind the costs of veterinary services for the stock on their farms, a matter the County Council has to take into consideration ever since the national foot and mouth epidemic was alleged to have started from a base in rural Northumberland?

https://www.fwi.co.uk/farm-life/health-and-wellbeing/domestic-abuse-a-hidden-rural-issue-that-needs-exposing

Cramlington Tories split away from desperate MP

An appeal by Adam Parson’s one of the few Conservative members still supporting Blyth MP Ian Levy for help to deliver Levy’s leaflets in Blyth shows exactly how the Wayne Daley led Cramlington Conservatives have split away from the Levy camp and how Ian Levy is left sitting in the wrong trumpet section of the wrong band.

There was a time just a short while ago when the Cramlington Conservatives would have pulled out all of the stops to aid Levy but the problems facing his friends from the ex-Morpeth mob who are now formed as the second opposition group at Northumberland County Hall behind the Labour Party, when linked with the changes suggested by the boundary commission have left Ian Levy MP at the starting gates.

Were sure that conversations will be underway to confirm which top Tory from either Northumberland or North Tyneside gets the chance to run in the potential new marginal seat of, ‘Seaton Valley with Monkseaton’ constituency, but as the reputation of the Government fades into the sunset and the Labour Party follows the methods used to remove Neville Trotter in the past then the potential for a race to the bottom for the nasty party members from either Cramlington or Blyth may be taken out of local hands altogether! 

Broken Administration must now get a grip to play their part helping business over the

 

CHANGE FROM CE MARKING!

The infighting among Conservatives at Northumberland County Council, the cause of their massive turnover of staff through alleged bullying and the investigations into the behaviour of some Tory Councillors came to a head recently with an internal fight among themselves over who should partner with the Council to deliver some Health and Care services on the Councils behalf.

This unnecessary fight about due diligence and the scope of the Tories ‘New Deal’ was blown out of all proportion and defined the three way split in the ranks of Northumberland Conservatives so much that even the Hexham Courant woke up and smelled the coffee, reporting the fact, long known by observers of the activities at County Hall news that the Tories in Northumberland are now a broken force. 

We here at Murky have been reporting on the splits for quite some time and now wish to bring to your attention that former bitchy fingernail scratches have now turned into blackening and festering sores that won’t heal in the lifetime of this Council, but the bigger picture is what the Council is not doing to help local business. Whilst all of this infighting and hatred halts progress of the system of local governance set up in 2008 when the District and County Councils were abolished and an all purpose unitary Council was set up to help the County work for all. Since 2017 the Conservatives have only worked for themselves, business help has diminished dramatically as different landed gentrified Farmers bring their versions of sheep mart rules into the public domain.

An all purpose unitary Council has the responsibility of helping and aiding all business, not just agri-business, through change yet we are hearing from businesses that they need localised help with the change from the EU CE Marking to its replacement the UKCA Mark.

For those who aren’t aware this change is one of the biggest shocks for business through BREXIT as when the transition period ended last December the UK lost its place in CE Certification a very costly consultant led process to gain an administrative marking which affirms products conformity with EU health and Safety legislation and tough environmental standards for goods sold in the EU.

The Government has come up with a new international standard they hope will be globally acceptable, that acceptance will be tested rigorously  through the highly hyped trade deal with Australia. Some may feel that as ‘Les Patterson’ was once their self imposed Minister of Culture to the UK that Australian standards may be lower than the EU but we can assure you they are just as strong and stronger in many cases.

Following almost two years of turmoil for business with only retail recording excess profits, (much of it untaxed by this Tory Government) firms are expecting the business departments of Unitary Councils to help with the necessary change through the sums they retain from Business Rates. Many Councils are on the ball and trying to help with the needs of companies who are struggling, having to engage expensive compliance consultants and some are giving Grants to cover the costs to ensure they aren’t creating future unemployment blackspots on their turf; but apparently Northumberland hasn’t even offered help with the declaration of conformity forms for firms who carry the CE Mark currently and need help with the changeover.

Conformity is essential if business is to survive the imposed changes to a global market and not rely on cover from the EU so we the public need to know why a massive Council set up to serve the whole of the County of Northumberland and run by the supposed party for business is being let down and when a clear truce in the infighting among the Tories will be called to deal with the most important phase of change for manufacturing business in this County for three decades.

NCC aiding privatisation of the NHS

Where is the evidence for change?

With the major public sector trade unions coming out against a faction of the County Council Tory administration wishing to set up an agreement between the Council and Harrogate NHS and begin the break up of their long standing partnership with Northumbria Healthcare NHS trust we here at murky need to ask where the evidence sits that change is necessary?

The last Labour administration at County Hall displayed great loyalty towards the Northumbria Trust by buying out the PFI of Hexham hospital and then building a fire station within the hospital grounds to help generate funds to expand people services at Hexham.

They also loaned cash to finish off Cramlington emergency hospital, modernise Alnwick facility, build a new hospital in Berwick and build Haltwhistle hospital all through the partnership agreement between the two bodies and closed the gap between care and health in some of the Countries most deprived areas in the County of Northumberland with staff from both organisations working together as one.

NHS meeting minutes available online show that the latest news of partnership breakup was driven by Councillor Peter Jackson and his henchwoman Cllr. Veronica Jones, who had a report for change presented to the NHS Trust Board in Oct/Nov 2019. But following our ring-around of Labour Councillors, the Tory administration have not issued that report to Councillors. Yet here we are with Tory factions fighting each other over the breakup of a huge well funded partnership and the man who led the Council and had the change report drawn up now trying to stop it, after allegedly speaking with a private health provider, why!

All of the reports including the Peter Jackson statements on the Health International Department where the external auditor proved he didn't know his backside from his elbow needs to be made available to ALL residents of Northumberland before the unions begin to take industrial action to save a partnership that has become accoding to the chair of the audit panel, as seen on you tube a playground prank, being fought out between Tory factions to see which group of nasties can run your Council.

Spite and Malice will further expose damaging Tory management of your cash!

 

For those who read local newspapers or follow Northumberlands political situation online you will be aware that a huge consultation is underway on changes to see if you wish to have local health and care managed by an NHS organisational partner from Harrogate or if Virgin Health should be engaged by the Council to ensure Health and Care in Northumberland is privatised early on your behalf.

The Conservative administration at County Hall have accepted the use of the NHS Model in a similar vein to near neighbours North Tyneside Council. A report on choice was presented to the one party cabinet at County Hall and the Leader of Council, Councillor Glenn Sanderson steered his colleagues towards the use of the NHS Model, that choice is under challenge via the call in process from the ultra right wing splinter group led by the shamed and disgraced Councillor Peter Jackson and his team of extremist followers centred around the former Castle Morpeth District Council zone.

What is a call-in?

From time to time, the Cabinet of the Council may take a decision that causes concern to some councillors to such an extent that they believe the decision should be changed. The Local Government Act 2000 requires every council to have a mechanistic process which allows for executive (cabinet) decisions made but not yet implemented to be 'called in' for consideration by scrutiny. This includes decisions taken by a single party Cabinet (collective or individual) or decisions delegated to Chief Officers.

The use of call-in is usually triggered by opposition parties. Differing political positions drive the camps engaged within the scrutiny process but this one is very interesting indeed as the call in has been triggered by members of the same party as the decision makers and that Party, the Conservatives have suddenly split in a Frank Kafka style undelegated metamorphosis into three distinct insect groups. Groups we will call the ‘splinters’ who aim to privatise Care and Health, the ‘superintendency’ those central to the Leader of Council and the ‘nucleus’ group a centrist cluster based around the geography of Cramlington.

This whole episode appears to have come as a shock to the Northumberland Labour Party. When they were last in office 2013-2017 they formed a partnership with Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust in an attempt to integrate health and care to offer the Counties public a seamless service without increasing costs. Labour invested heavily across the County, building Haltwhistle hospital, financing loans to develop a new hospital in Berwick and to help in the completion of the Cramlington Emergency Hospital facility. They also began the International department to trade knowledge world wide to help bring in much needed funds to both the NHS and the Council. The Leader of the splinter group, Councillor Peter Jackson the once high and mighty ‘Sun King’ of the Tory Party has been consistent in attacking this project along with the Officers of the County Council at every turn and is still at it even though his public allegations against the department were proven to be false.

We predict that the outcome of this latest episode in ridiculously bad governance, spitefully designed to hoist the deposed ‘Sun King’ and his Castle Morpeth’s splinter group back into power. This episode of crazed power grabbing will damage the Conservative Party at all levels and damage the opportunity some may feel they deserve as the Boundary Commission works over traditional seats in the North East on the Tory Party’s behalf and the splits in Northumberland’s Conservative Party will never heal.

Superintendents Group

Sanderson

Wendy Patterson

John Riddle
Colin Horncastle

Trevor Thorne

Daniel Carr

Castle

Colin Hardy
Mather
Plozzaj
Renner Thompson
Seymour
Watson

Splinter Group

Dodds
Jackson
Homer

Cessford
Wearmouth
Bawn
Oliver

Darwin

Hutchinson

Paul Scott
Gordon Stewart
Towns

Jones

Nucleus Group

Daley

Echilvechen
Dunbar
Flux
Ferguson
Humphrey
Scott Lee
Swinburn

Austerity leaves Northumbria 1500 cops down, yet Tories can’t support change?

 

Over the last decade £100m has been removed from the annual budget of Northumbria Police. enough to employ an additional 1500 officers and equip them very well indeed.

Northumbria, a force managing some of the most diverse areas in UK Policing, with two major cities massive urban patches, huge rural areas, three very busy ports, and a great number of minor ones, thousands of miles of highway, a very long border with a nation being policed under different laws and vast patches of deprived areas along with two of the wealthiest villages in the UK, Darras Hall and Cleadon sitting in their patch.

The police and both Crime Commissioners over this time period have managed their diminishing budgets very well indeed but the latest cuts from the scissors of Priti Patel has caused uproar among Northumberland’s Tory splinter group members.

To manage the latest sets of cuts the Police have decided that they must concentrate their resources on policing crime on the ground and rely on initial contact with the public through their call centres.

The latest televised County Council meetings and open comments on social media has thrown up opposition to the PCC and Police agreed plan for 2022/23 to close face to face contact at police stations so that funds can be released for front line activity from none other than loyal to the Tory internal opposition and splinter group member, Ex-cop and regular litter picker (doing Council workers out of a job) Councillor Gordon Stewart of Prudhoe, who apparently doesn’t want to hear about his own Governments failings to fund the police correctly and is set against the closure of more face to face contact with the Police.

Following this enforced change for Northumbria Police we at murky now feel we know, or is it allegedly suspect?, ‘that may be a Police term’ why this Councillor was an early out during previous enforced cuts or was he a volunteer to ensure his redundancy lump sum was maximised?

Tories to give Animals ‘Greater Rights than Working Families and Pensioners’?

 

We have seen over the last decade how Conservative governments have punished those who fight for the rights of working people and pensioners. The lies told by the Tory Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, about his supposedly having a plan to manage your care and the removal of the need to sell your home to pay for a broken system that can be fixed if the will he purported to have was there, brings fear to the doors of most pensioners.

A decade of Anti-trade union laws and the slashing of benefits for those in need leading towards the creation of a greater social underclass and the removal of medical advisers from medical health appeals are just three headline changes brought in by the Tories to damage working families and most recently the inspections of refugee and migrant centres by MP’s have described the conditions that we as a nation keep and now treat other members of the human race in desperate need is testament indeed to how society has begun to accept a have and have not society as a norm.

The latest set of rules to batter those who have not had high class private schooling or don’t belong to a top London club, are on their way through Parliament via the ‘Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill’.

Of course in Northumberland the treatment of staff who work for the Tory Council in office has been well documented. The bullying and lies told about workers who may in some way have said a single wrong word against those in localised power who think in their dreams that they too are a member of a local branch of the Bullingdon Club is abominable. But the news that another top officer is leaving the Council and that the number of ex-people who are trying to remove ‘Northumberland County Council’ from their CV’s is growing rapidly show how lowly Tories who think they know more than their top staff will stoop to pick off those who may show the ugly side of their power trips which haven’t helped pensioners or working families.

We here at murky admire the long term pressure put onto the Conservatives in power by animal rights activists and the Animal Welfare (sentience) Bill would be a super-duper way forward if the Government introducing it were to treat humans who don’t comply with the Tory ideal in a better fashion or Tories who have to rely on their patrons from the development industry who will be massively hit by this bill ( it affects housing sites and therefore development costs greatly) and were sure it will be modified to suit money making before it becomes an act of Parliament but we must remind those who march to bring the plight of people worldwide to the fore should ensure they bring the problems that living in a society where local vermin (that's not a description of Tories by the way although on second thoughts!) will have much greater rights than the family man who washes your windows or the pensioner who guides your children across the road after school.

Why not begin the much needed education of people about the state of the UK today by writing to your MP and getting her or his thoughts on the Government plans to treat Animals better than working families and pensioners and promote a Human Welfare (sentience) Bill to run in tandem so at least people will have equal rights to the pets they adore or the rabbits in their local field?