A new hit parade for Liverpool subCulture...

WE are delighted to officially announce that the Liverpool subCulture blog, banned by the Lib Dim city council, has now attracted more than 100,000 readers.
We thank you all.
Our most sincere thanks of course, must go to all those who have made Liverpool subCulture a small, but such a beautifully formed, footnote in the proud history of the blogosphere.
We mean of course, our rich cast of characters:

• The evil Sir Diddy (first and foremost)
• The rottweiller McElhinney (still in our sights)
• The smiling assassin Hasitall (who has undergone several reincarnations, but who has now turned history on its head by conspiring against the current chief executive - my how times do change!)
• Chas 'show me the money' Cole (still raking in forests of cash from the city)
• The Storeyteller (still unable to hold his own water)
• Fireman Bradley (wounded badly, but limping to meet his coup de grace at the Standards Board)
• Colin CoverUp (seriously unimpressive and comprehensively discredited after going native)
  The Harbarrowboy (more brass neck than gold medallions)
• Our Lord Redmond (rampant egotism and fake celebrity of a true phoney)
• Donald Bullshitter (cocking up on a daily basis, but still taking the money)

We know them all so well now.
And so, thankfully, does Liverpool.
And there are a whole host of supporting extras - Mr Bumble, Randy Newman, Sexy Rexy, the craven Echo, Clare McCogloose, etc, etc, who have all added to the fun and games.
But most of all, we wish to thank and congratulate some 'real' Liverpool stars - Tori Blare, Prof Chucklebutty (and his missus) and Pete Price - without whom Liverpool subCulture would never have continued.
Good on you.
We hope that we may also take a little credit for encouraging these great new voices in the Liverpool blogosphere - long may they continue.
Meanwhile the city council continues to protest to Google in an attempt to ban the blog - demonstrating their daily contempt for the city council's taxpayers.
And, of course, their total contempt for truth, justice and democracy.
Which is were it all started...

CAPTION COMPETITION: SPOT THE BIGGEST CROOKS...

The voice of the people - we could not say it better.....

Dr X. Laughing Sandwich has left a new comment on your post:

This behaviour is endemic within the Executive Board of the council and that of LDL.

It has been cultivated and necessitated by a conspiracy of covering up greed, incompetence and the unbelievable criminal squandering of public monies.

The reality is that a group of controlling officers in Liverpool who are on salaries way out of proportion to other Local Authority Executive officers or even Executives of private companies, or for that matter, the parliamentary cabinet and the prime minister himself.

It is a group who have awarded themselves huge bonuses and performance related pay and a group will do anything that they need to do in oder to protect their positions and hide their incompetence and deceit.

A group who upon realising how big a salary gap they had created between themselves and the next level of management beneath them, set about inventing two or three entirely new management tiers in the 75k to 195k income brackets.

Under cover of making fit the council management fit for purpose, the real objective was to justify their own salary levels by creating a visible rising structure. The result of this new tier? Their Achievements?

Well we only have to look at each consecutive appalling and damning judgement of each and every audit and the resulting laughingstock that is Liberal-democrat run Liverpool.

This group who were complicit in renewing contracts that had clearly been shown to be at worst totally corrupt and at best a mockery of the concept of Best Value, who spoon-fed misleading and falsified information about services to either stupid or completely gullible councillors to convince them that this was the way forward aided and abetted by a few Elected Members with their own agendas and who were in the pockets of LDL.

All set about driving this forward and treating the backbenchers like fools.

To achieve this, they deliberately ran services into the ground disposing of key jobs through a voluntary severance scheme that had no proper funding, refusing to fill vacant posts and starving key services of finances with the aim being to make the remaining staff look incompetent or incapable and therefore ripe for absorbing into Liverpool Direct.

Then LDL set about recharging the council at least three times the original cost of providing the same services and a call centre service more interested in external lucrative contracts than doing the job they were supposed to do.

A wonderful new service, who took on and then bullied untrained young people to work from scripts dealing with the jobs once done by qualified experienced staff that had deserted in their droves unable to stomach any more.

And the line they were given was to keep the public away from getting the help they needed if it was likely to be one that would involve a cost.

A group that initially under Henshaw but also to everyones genuine and deep sorrowful dismay under Hilton, with the support of Storey and Bradleys cabinet allowed the sinister Team Liverpool to drive these changes through, tolerating no opposition or questioning of how this would improve services, bullying staff into submission.

Using the Big Lie technique presenting lies masquerading as reports. and presenting financial projections and alleged savings that did not add up from day one.

Anyone who questioned this found their life was made hell and they either shut up or left.

They allowed Team Liverpool to play a never ending game of relocation with staff teams and services so that they could charge the council tens of thousands of pounds for each and every unnecessary but highly lucrative move.

No questions asked or reasons given and any challenge seen as not being a team player or not being progressive.

For over four years they shifted and moved often the same teams and staff around form building to building, floor to floor and crammed people into hot desk offices, where they often had to wait 2 hours of a morning to access a computer.

They have given the council rooms in buildings which the city council own and charged them for the use of their own premises, the list could go on and on.

Enough has already been written about the financial joke that is the IT service and cost of personal computers and IT equipment.

This is the group that has at the same time presided over the worst financially controlled council in Britain.

The group who still take their performance related pay and bonuses and massive golden handshake or silencing deals when they have become either so incompetent that they cannot be maintained in post or that they threaten blackmail.

The group who to get themselves out of the financial mess they have created, and still maintain their high earnings, look each and every time to cutting back services to the most vulnerable need groups and front line staff.

They would never consider cutting the stranglehold and financial abyss that is Liverpool Direct because without them, they would never have achieved this level of pay, self importance and the idea that they can do as they damn well want, when they want because nobody is able to or prepared to stop them or challenge them.

Joe Anderson, if you don't see this then you must be blind.

If the decent Lib-Dem back benchers who have been treated with contempt by their own party leaders don't see this then you will be tarnished for years to come with the accusations, rightly or wrongly of corruption or incompetence or both.

So of course they would go to these extremes to protect themselves, and it is about time everybody woke up to the fact that this council has become a disgrace to public office and public services and the decent hard working staff with any sense of the reality must be sickened and ashamed, and would probably be ready to comply with any genuine public enquiry.

We have seen the result of whistle blowing and handing over dossiers of evidence.

Nothing!

Because those called to or expected to investigate it are a part of the problem.

The demand should be made now to central government for a full public enquiry into the political and officer led management of this city and immediate intervention powers used to take control.

Without this, there is no current credible way forward.

PREMONITION OF AN UNCIVIL WAR or BATTLE OF THE GIANTS: the smiling assassin versus CoverUp

UNCIVIL WAR has broken out between the smiling assassin Hasitall and Colin CoverUp.

At stake is Hasitall's £220,000-a-year (plus 15 per cent Performance Related Pay) position as Executive Director (Resources) which Hilton wants to scrap.

Hasitall was behind the publication of the council's Blankety-Blank report into Tony Parrish's liverpool-evil-cabal blog.

The secret report, which had most of the names blanked out, fingered the Storeyteller as the source of info on the blog and recommended that he should be reported to the Standards Board.

But Colin CoverUp, in the time honoured traditional fashion, refused to take any action against the former council leader.

CoverUp decided another Standards Board investigation into Storey would sound the death knell for the Lib Dims and expose them as complicit in blackmailer Sir Diddy Henshaw's corrupt rule.

So Hilton quietly buried the report in his bottom drawer - until Labour's Joe Anderson rattled his cage and finally got his hands on it last week.

Hence the not-very shock headlines...

Painting Title: Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War), 1936 Salvador Dali

For the last year, Hasitall has been quietly simmering away in fury at Hilton's refusal to take action against Storey.

He wanted revenge because his own corruption had been comprehensively exposed by the legendary blog - his relationship with Chas 'show me the money' Cole; the New York marathon; his son's band Abe appearing with Status Quo at Chas's Summer Pops; free parking for Chas; the spiralling cost of the O8 Place to fit out Chas with an office, etc, etc.

So when it became clear that Hilton, at the Fireman's insistence, was now lining up Hasitall for the chop, the smiling assassin decided to act.
He wanted to get his revenge in first after it became clear that he was soon going to be the 'scapegoat' for Liverpool being named the worst financially run council in the country by the Audit Commission.

(Not so much the scapegoat really though - he is the city's Treasurer after all! eds)


So Hasitall, who leaked the first Tony Parrish report to the Echo a year ago, made sure the final report - produced by his own internal audit staff, of course - got into the hands of Labour's Joe Anderson.

The smiling assassin was quite happy for the Storeyteller to be fingered, but his real target was Hilton - for failing to refer the whole issue to the Standards Board.

In doing so, he scored a direct hit!

The report exposes CoverUp as politically biased, in protecting the Lib Dims and letting the Storeyteller off the hook.

It also reveals that CoverUp ignored an official recommendation and publically raised huge questions marks about his own professional integrity as £225,000-a-year chief executive, (plus 15 per cent Performance Related Pay).

(Not that we were in any doubt about that, anyway! eds)

CoverUp decided to cover-up for the Lib Dims.

So another everyday story of Liverpool politics!


Meanwhile, as the civil war between the smiling assassin and Hilton now rages, stay tuned for more instalments!!!!

It ain't over yet by a long way.....

To readers of the Liverpool Daily Post......

WELCOME - to the Liverpool subCulture blog.

• Legal




• Decent




• Honest




• Truthful

(Unlike the city council)....

The rottweiller and LDL - theft on a grand scale......

HENSHAW'S rottweiller Dr David McElhinney has been accused of ripping off the people of Liverpool - by a local government watchdog.

McElhinney's Liverpool Direct Limited is now revealed as charging the city council an extra £15million a year - but no-one knows what for!

"It is not clear what these charges are for," says the local government improvement agency, the IDeA in stark and unequivocal terms.

The report reveals that McElhinney's LDL partner, British Telecom has pocketed a staggering £57million in management fees from LDL in the last two years alone.

While McElhinney's LDL empire has alone trousered an astonishing £123million from the city council for 'operating costs' in the same two years.

(Not all of this has been spent on a private shower for McElhinney, of course, eds)


“The basis of billing is opaque and management information does not include any cost information. The lack of transparency on billing and the value for money in the core contract have raised doubts about the value for money overall, ” says the IDeA, with breathtaking understatement.

It adds: "The spirit of the partnership is not working to the advantage of Liverpool City Council”.

You can say that again.

Full marks to the Liverpool Daily Post for lifting the lid on the LDL scandal by publishing details of the leaked IDeA report.

The IDeA have been brought in to run the rule over the worst council in the country - and come up with solutions for improvement.

They have now demanded an urgent review of the LDL operation.

McElhinney's transfer from the city council to become chief executive of LDL - secretly mastermined by Henshaw before he was forced to quit - is also questioned by the IDeA.

“The arrangement for seconding a Liverpool director to run this contract further blurs lines and loyalties - and should be addressed.”

The rottweiller's reaction to this devastating indictment of his personal empire was typical - he lied.

He immediately tried to publicly deny that the IDeA had called for an urgent review of the LDL contract with the city council.

Then he tried to bully council staff into issuing a statement refuting the independent and impartial findings of the IDeA.

This time, however, the rottweiller could find no allies who were prepared to cover-up and justify the systemic corruption at the heart of LDL.

What is utterly remarkable about this grand scale rip-off and larceny, of course, is that it comes 18 months after Colin 'Cover Up' Hilton promised to sort out the LDL joint venture with BT, after admitting that it had cost the city council millions of pounds.

A secret report by KPMG - which Hilton steadfastly refused to make public - had made 37 separate recommendations to tighten up the deal with LDL.

Hilton, who is being paid £250,000 a year as chief executive of the worst council in the country(plus Performance Related Pay at 15 per cent every year), promised to implement all the recommendations in full by March of this year.

Hilton, who is on the LDL board, has clearly failed to do so - at least according to the IDeA report.

The other Lib Dim member of the board, Councillor Peter Millea, also appears to have been completely incapable of getting a grip on things in the interests of council taxpayers.

Any suggestion that McElhinney, a Liverpool FC season ticket holder, has exerted any improper influence on Millea, also a Liverpool FC season ticket holder, is completely without foundation.

It would be unthinkable that McElhinney could have 'bought off' Millea with any favours or inducements.

But the explanation for Millea's apparent silence is still a complete and baffling mystery. What has he been doing to safeguard the interests of the people of Liverpool?

Meanwhile it is worth reminding ourselves of Henshaw's role in this daylight robbery of council taxpayers's money.

You will remember that he was the architect of the LDL joint venture with BT and that he brought McElhinney with him from Knowsley to force it through in Liverpool.

This is what Henshaw, now in charge of the North West's National Health Service, had to say about LDL and the joint venture with BT:

"Liverpool was in a fairly desperate state of circumstances in ’99. We had the third from worst record in terms of quality of service and delivery, and we charged the highest council tax in the country.
And here we had to really look at the future and transform ourselves radically into a whole new wayof delivering public service.
A number of local authorities are making use of BT’s ability
in business transformation. What we are using, are technology platforms as a core part of that transformation agenda. And so with BT you are getting that expertise and depth on telecoms’ game, but also a huge growing support in terms of what you need to do in business transformation. For me they have been a massive addition to our
weaponry here in the recovery of Liverpool and the transformation of the city council. I think it’s a pretty compelling offer.
HR was in a muddle like the rest of the business, and what we needed
to do was do that full scale transformation, moving it from a very high cost intensive transactional business with HR people around the organisation in separate pockets, into a basically web enabled system self serve intranet based operation, and BT were hugely supportive of using the platforms that we were building with them, as well as offering expertise and help in just moving the business away from the old model tothe new construct. They’ve gone through a lot this themselves they are still in journey and transformation so we did a lot of listening to them about the problems they’d faced.
BT have been a very powerful partner with us, the technecological platforms they’ve got, the skills, the depth and all that is I think is well spoken about and well researched and well evidenced. But what’s been most important with this joint venture we have with BT has been the collaborative nature of that relationship. We each work to our strengths, we bring strengths to that relationship.
And it’s very much founded on the outcomes rather than process of the engagement.
We’re basically doing over a million transactions a month both in revenue, benefits and other associated areas. This is one of the essential bits you’re judged by as a local authority. If you aren’t getting this right, you aren’t doing the basics right. So this has been an absolutely central part of the recovery agenda, and it was a mess. Now that was actually quite challenging, major risk management challenges there about stopping the systems for well over 6 weeks we thought at one stage and actually keeping services levels at least going whilst we fixed everything and built the new platforms.
BT have bought a huge expertise in technology, a huge understanding of big mass transactions systems, but equally we’ve bought something to the party and I think it was a very good illustration of both a contractor BT and a client working together seamlessly.
Here we were sitting down facing what was quite an attractable
problem in terms of quality of business and cost space.
But by working together and bringing expertise from both sides of the equation, we’ve found a solution which was tailored to Liverpool and which we were now rolling out elsewhere. BT is very supportive here, we had a very very carefully planned project, very very carefully evaluated, very good risk management analysis on it and we did a very good job of this. We turned around far quicker than we thought, anticipations
were at the high end of our expectations in terms of the timescale, most
importantly the business didn’t collapse. We actually kept on, not at the higher levels, but the business carried on and confidence wasn’t shaken amongst our customers. And within a matter of weeks, we were back up again and recovering to really high performing top quartile type performance was being achieved.
We’ve moved the performance of the authority up dramatically from a
very poor rating to a good rating, knocking on the door of excellent. And we’ve also massively reduced the cost space of the business taking £120 million out over five years. Head counts down from 23,500 to 19,000, but overall this is now a high performing quality business that’s delivering the quality of service to our customers that wasn’t the case in the
past." Sir David Henshaw

What utter, self-serving bollocks this little man talks.

Other interesting stuff here: More bollocks from Henshaw about LDL

LDL "save millions for Liverpool" - you couldn't make this stuff up. But they do!

Cover Up monitors Anderson's mobile - and breaks the law for a second time....

Colin Cover Up has broken the law for the second time - by monitoring Labour leader Joe Anderson's private phone calls and publishing their details.

Mr Hilton, CBE, the city council's £250,000-a-year chief executive (plus Performance Related Pay at 15 per cent, eds) has fallen foul of Labour Leader Joe Anderson just days after it emerged that he was routinely breaking the council's own rules.

Now it transpires that he has routinely broken the law of the land too.

Astonishingly, Cover Up has broken the Data Protection Act by authorising the monitoring of Anderson's phone calls as part of an internal inquiry into the leaking of details about the Paul McCartney 'Liverpool Sound' concert at Anfield.

Anderson was amazed to find that investigators had covertly monitored the calls he had made on his council mobile phone (which he pays for) without seeking either his permission or authority, as part of their report.

The city council has now admitted it has broken the law - and Acting City Solicitor Ken Unworthy has been forced to issue a grovelling apology to Anderson for breaching Human Rights legislation, as well as the Data Protection Act.

Anderson meanwhile has already complained to the Information Commissioner who, readers may recall, found the council guilty of breaking the law over publishing details of mobile phone records exactly a year ago.

Legendary Liverpool Solicitor Rex Makin is also now chipping into the fray on behalf of Anderson, scenting blood.

The Information Commissioner ruled last June that the city council had broken the first principle of the Data Protection Act by publishing details of former Communications Director Matt Finnigan's phone calls (as well as his emails) in the Storey/Henshaw battle over Sir Diddy's pension demands.

Well, the slow-to-learn-its-lesson city council under Cover Up and 'new broom' Bradley has now done exactly the same thing again!

Regular readers will recall that back in April, Sir Paul Macca gave the incompetents at the Culture Company an ultimatum to hand over the organisation of his gig to his events company.

Macca demanded that the Lib Dems hand over £1.9million for the gig or he would pull out - and they meekly complied, despite the city council being £62million in the red.

The Daily Post and Radio Murkeyside followed up the Liverpool SubCulture report. The Furious Fireman then angrily denounced the leak on Roger Phillips, fearing that making public his cock-up's would cost him more votes in the May local elections.

Anyroadup, the Furious Fireman then forced Cowardly Colin Cover Up to authorise an internal investigation into who had leaked all the confidential details.

(Hey, the blog could potentially earn a distinction in this year's Academy Alliteration Awards! eds)

Councillor Anderson, who has of course, a fine, noble and upstanding record of ensuring the Liverpool public know exactly what the Lib Dims have been up to, was interviewed by the council's po-faced internal audit team during their leak inquiry.

And their official leak report has now been officially leaked, unofficially.

(You really couldn't make this stuff up, could you? How funny is that? eds)

The leak report is unable to come to any definite conclusions at all about who leaked the details of the Macca ultimatum (of course not, eds)

But, with an amazing burst of political insight, it points a trembling finger at Councillor Anderson on the basis that Labour might just have had something to gain from embarrassing and exposing the Lib Dims in the run-up to the May local elections.

(Blimey. Shades of Inspector Clueless here. Impressive investigatory skills and fantastic powers of deduction being demonstrated. Might have had something to gain eh? - do you really think so? eds)

However, the council report reveals that it secretly monitored Anderson's mobile phone calls and publishes how he phoned certain numbers.

And that's not the slightest bit funny.

Indeed it infringes the Human Rights Act and the Data Protection Act.

We think the Information Commissioner may well take a very dim view of the city council's repeated law-breaking.

WE NAME THE GUILTY MEN FOR HER MADGE: NO 1 - THE SMILING ASSASSIN HASITALL..

CHEERS! Leader-in-waiting Richard Kemp provide an insight into how he will celebrate victory on Monday...

Lib Dim Leader-in-waiting Richard Kemp has provided a fascinating glimpse into how he will celebrate victory on Monday.
Kemp, who looks increasingly likely to defeat Fireman Bradley in the battle to be Leader of Liverpool city council, is determined to set a good example to our citizens.
He has already made it clear to Lib Dim colleagues that he intends to develop long-term strategies (and he has got tons of strategies, ed) against teenage obesity, under-age drinking and anti-social behaviour.
And he has pledged to personally launch a new crusade to clean up the city centre's streets so that families can enjoy them.
Interesting then, that in the Local Government Association’s First magazine, Cllr Kemp, has written about his own personal activities with refreshing frankness.
Here is one fascinating extract: “Life at a Lib-Dem conference is gruelling. We start meetings from 8am and finish drinking at 7am! "We train and drink, we talk and drink, we pass resolutions and drink, we sometimes drink and pass resolutions – which is not thought to be in the right order. But we do work hard!”
How reassuring it is to know that our great city is going to be in the hands of such a fine, responsible and upstanding leader.

LIVERPOOL SUBCULTURE EXCLUSIVE: After 10 years in power, Lib Dem Leader-in-waiting, Richard Kemp confesses all....

Here is some plain speaking from Cllr Richard Kemp, Lib Dim Leader-in-waiting.

(Taken from his speech at www.togetherwecan.info-files)

Thank you very much indeed for inviting me here today.

I was delighted to hear so many people laughing before, I actually come from the city of Liverpool, I am sure that many of you have been there.
We have a saying in Liverpool which means that we actually like comedians.
We have a saying that 'the good comedians get on the clubs, the very good comedians like Arthur Askie, Jimmy Tarbuck and Ken Dodd get on the telly - but the real comedians get on the council'.
I have been a councillor for a long, long time in different parts of Liverpool, and that means some of the most deprived parts of the country.
They didn’t go wrong because people failed to be involved, they didn’t go wrong because there wasn’t a sense of community down the Dingle or in Granby.
They went wrong because people like me fundamentally failed the people in those areas.
They failed in the type of policies that they promoted, the planning policies, the housing policies which split communities up.
And they failed because they allowed a difference in delivery between rich areas and poor areas.
So in the context of Liverpool we allowed things to happen in Liverpool 8 which is a working class area, which we would never allowed to happen in Liverpool 18 which is a middle class area.…

...the fundamental challenge must be to convert the rhetoric of people like me - and I can do rhetoric because we have big mouths in Liverpool, we can do that quite well - but we need to convert the rhetoric into reality, in Liverpool 8, in Balshall Health and Sparkbrook, in Hackney, in places like that.
For too long people like me have messed around with the lives of people like you.

Thank you.

How refreshingly direct, Councillor Kemp. Best if you sod off then and stop messing with peoples lives. Hypocrite.

LEAKED: EMAILS BETWEEN BRADLEY AND HILTON - "LET'S HAVE MORE CHIEFS AND WE CAN SACK A FEW INDIANS..."

BELOW is an email exchange between the cowboy Fireman Bradley and Cover Up which has kindly been leaked to us.

It reveals the arrangements which the £60million-in-the-red city council is making to employ five new highly paid Assistant Executive Directors.

We don't know how much this little lot will cost, but we reckon in the region of half a million quid. A mere snip.

At the same time CoverUp warns of 'tensions' around the staffing levels of the plebs which will have to be 'carefully managed'.

(Basically he says 'we may have to sack some people because we ain't got any money and can't redeploy them or give them voluntary severance anymore', eds)

Of particular interest to loyal readers (and you are growing in number at a fantastic rate btw) are the arrangements to appoint a new £100,000 a year City Solicitor, a post currently occupied very badly by the bald legal eagle, Ken Unworthy.

CoverUp's stark warning to Bradley that certain councillors - no names, no pack drill - might be prejudiced about Unworthy and may need to be excluded from the appointment panel reveals the civil war which now exists between the ruling Lib Dims and senior officers (the off-spring of the cabal, eds)

CoverUp also reveals his plans to hire ruinously expensive legal advice to prevent the eventual appointment being legally challenged.

In other words, Hilton is hiring legal advice about a legal appointment which may be legally challenged by the bald legal eagle Unworthy if he doesn't get the job.

Still with us?

But it's nice to see a united team really working together on behalf of the people of Liverpool isn't it?

However, it is also of immense relief to see Cover Up and the rottweiller McElhinney are now having regular cosy chats about staffing matters. (Like putting a paedophile in charge of a nursery, eds)

The rottweiller McElhinney, who is now pulling more than £200,000 a year with Performance Related Pay, will be leading the charge to get rid of people.

However, Town Hall watchers will be fascinated at what the email exchange reveals about the relationship between Bradley and CoverUp.

Since Stilton Hilton refused to back Bradley's account of the Peroni meeting with Lee Forde, the pair have enjoyed a 'frosty' relationship.

More like ****king Siberia, we hear. The pair never speak and now only communicate on very formal terms. The Fireman is said to feel 'betrayed' and 'badly let down'.

But not half as betrayed and let down as Lee Forde feels, we wager.

For his part, Stilton Hilton has completely given up on the Fireman and now regards him as 'beneath contempt' and 'both childish and stupid' as he told his Executive Management Team recently.

At this juncture we shall make a daring forecast - we confidently believe that Bradley will have been forced to quit as Leader within the next month. We will treat you all to a night out if we are proved wrong. If we are right, the drinks will be on you!

Here's email exchange No 1....

------Original Message--------

From: Bradley, Warren (Leader of the City Council)
To: Hilton, Colin (Chief executive)
Cc : /*Executive Members
Sent: Sun Feb 03 09:27:43 2008

Subject: Interim appointments at senior level

Colin,

Following the information provided by you regarding interim appointments at AED level, can I have a definitive timescale on each post and whether the post is necessary?

Also can I have an update on the HR issues that have been raised on several occasions by individual EM’s, and what process is being implemented to remove our unease.

Thanks

Warren Bradley
Leader of Liverpool City Council

Sent from my Blackberry Wireless Handheld

-----Original Message--------
From Hilton, Colin (Chief Executive)
To: Bradley, Warren (Leader of the City Council); /*Executive Directors
Cc: /*Executive Members
Sent: Sun Feb 03 11:09:25 2008

Subject: Re: Interim appointments at Senior level

Certainly
AED Policy and Programmes- Richard Nutter will take over from Mark Kitts on 17th March
AED Community Safety- Agreed by panel last week to advertise on a one year secondment basis to citysafe partners
City Solicitor – Currently out to advert and with recruitment specialists Rockpools. Provisional panel date is 28th Feb. We will need to ensure the panel availability also takes consideration of any member who may be viewed as having a prejudicial interest in respect of any applicant. I shall be using external legal advice in this respect once applicants are known.
AED Sport Leisure and Libraries – Currently held by Chris Briggs. This will be considered in bringing forward proposals in May for the post 08 structure of the Authority.
AED Chief Executive - Currently held by Peter Cosgrove. This will be considered in bringing forward proposals in May for the post 08 structure of the Authority.

Critical considerations in respect of the last two posts will be the agreed priorities of the administration, decisions on commissioning, outsourcing and partnerships, decisions on the neighbourhood agenda, the legacy and cultural strategy and the medium term financial plan.

On Human Resources issues there is the general interface with LDL. David McElhinney and I have been meeting more regularly and embarked on a series of managerial actions to assist in better management of strategic and opertional (sic) matters. The single status and equal pay work is now better resourced and making progress.

Policy work has been prioritised to make the new Redeployment/VS/CR system effective and operational.

Sample case study reviews of matters raised particularly by Councillor Fielding eg the case involving employee YP have produced reports and recommendations leading to changes of practice where appropriate.

As I hope you will have seen particular high profile work eg Gladstone House has been thoroughly undertaken despite the attempts to portray a very different picture by the TUs although I am certain members were not naieve (sic) enough to take the statements made at Council at face value.

Finally I would point out that both the organisation and financial environment is different from a few years ago where large swathes of staff represented significant over manning, there was a tolerance capacity of hundreds of people permanently rotated on redeployment into wholly unsuitable positions and vs packages including enhancement were much more readily available. It is necessary now to be more robust but with less resource than before and this is going to produce tensions that will require careful management.

If there are specific issues continuing to cause concern at a policy level then I am only too happy to discuss them with the member concerned or through Peter as the responsible Executive Member.

Best regards

Colin Hilton
Chief Executive
Liverpool City Council
Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008

Sent from my Blackberry Wireless Handheld

COMING SOON: LEAK NO 2: Who says: 'I would not appoint Kenworthy'? Stay posted.......!

WIRRAL EXCLUSIVE: PROF CHUCKLEBUTTY GIVES HIS VERDICT ON ADOBE ACROBATS, THE CUSTARD COMPANY AND RUDE VAN WINKLE...

By Jove! It's me Sir Diddy, here to celebrate with you.

Today, to mark this historic occasion, instead of my usual frivolity, I offer you a serious address, no not me house in Aigburth “Stillgrabbin” I’ve flogged that, although it still hurts that I couldn’t get at that 50pence piece that fell behind the old boiler, well Lady Diddy is hard to shift after a hard day at the factory knotting sausages.

Here Ladies and Cheltenham, on what should have been a special day for me, had I not been forced to retire on wealth grounds, is my speech to open the Capital of Custard.2008.

They wouldn’t let me make it on the night, even though it was though my glorious leadership that we won it.

Instead, the crowd got a few ramblings from the Anaemic Mermaid herself, Phyllis Redmond, the man who turned the custard company around, so they couldn’t see that he’d done nothing for five years.

“We did it,” he proclaimed!

Through a mouth that looks like somebody sat on a pasty.

“It’s like a scouse wedding!” So you’re all condemned to years of fighting and misery trying to pay for it.

What an inspiration!

Had I still been at the helm this is what you would have got at the Sir Diddy Arena (as it should have been called)

By Jove Missus, We did it!!!! It’s been like a scouse wedding here…..(hang on cut that bit Lady Diddy)

Yes, by Jove, Capital of Custard 2008.

Can you all see me at the back? What do you mean you can’t see me at the front? Can somebody get me a bigger box?

Welcome to Liverpool, the year in which Liverpool itself is the show!

After five years of the Custard Company using every opportunity to make a show of us, it has arrived at last. Here we are in a giant shed in the docks. Yes I know many of you have wanted to see me in the dock for a long time.

Did you all go on Friday?

What a spectacle it was on the steps of St David’s Hall. It left the crowd wanting more, you could here thousands of voices winding back down Lime Street saying over and over again “Is Da F**kin it?”

Nearly three million quid spent on that box of Bengo matches and the three rockets trading standards confiscated in November. Thirty-five minutes of quality entertainment and Pete Price.

Unfortunately the planned opening choral piece from the Grotty Cash Asbo Ensemble, singing my very own theme song, “Pick a pocket or two” had to be postponed when they were all arrested during rehearsals.

I have enlisted the help of renowned Liverpool lawyer and pothole expert, my old sparing partner, Sir Rex of the Hesperus to get the choir released. As you know, I will do anything for a tenor.

Did all enjoy the aerial artistes? That was a mistake you know.

Young Clara MeCogloose was showing Jasper Hottlebottle a sketched out proposal to have a Toxteth Riots sequence on the steps outside the hall, the custard company’s idea of how to engage communities, and Hottlebottle said could you do it with Adobe Acrobat.

So MeCogloose, who is a bit daft in one ear, promptly rushed off looking for some dozy acrobats. Well ladies and gentlemen the idea of the aerial acrobats clearly captured the imagination of the people of the city.

I was touched by the hundreds of requests by people asking to see me suspended from a rope as the main feature for the grand opening.

Unfortunately I suffer from Vertigo with Sagittarius, the Robbing Archer on the cusp. That’s why I can only go to grade 6 Cuban heels. Yes missus, otherwise I get Diddy Spells!
We have a spectacular show for you tonight!

Those of you who know me know that I am a great supporter of our wonderful Liverpool Phil. No not pasty face Redmond! The Philharmonic!

I understand that Arriva have given one of their finest conductors the night off to be here with us.

What’s his name again? Petroleum Jellyco..who? Vascular….Verysilly….Potato? I can’t read this… thought you had spell checked! Is it Raphael Benetton ? What happened to the other fella…Simon Throttle?

Anyway, they’ll be knocking out a few numbers later, including, from the Lib-Dem Book of Patriotic Songs, Land of Hopeless Storey and Rule Blog Ban Ya, along with old favourites, The Plight of the Bumbler Bradley and Amazing Gross Misconduct.

Later for the kids and the Leader, we have some cartoons. The Bugs Bunny Men, Pete Wylie Coyote, Sonia the Hedgehog, MacElhinney the Pooh (that’s a euphemism) The Wombats of Wimbledon, Foghorn Leggarty with his Rooster for Mayor campaign and of course the one and only Pingu Starr from The Arctic Monkees. He’ll be performing in his new singlet again plus the classic hit, “What would you do if I once sang in tune”

Pingu will be signing copies of his new release at the Arena later this evening and all next week in the Pound Shop on Breck Road. I hear Frankies Gone to Holly Oaks so they wont be here.
And despite attempts by a local politician to prevent Farm products being brought in to the Arena, following his experiences of foot in mouth, it has been agreed he will hide in the Ladies when they come on stage to perform their renowned anthrax, er anthem, “All the money’s gone”

There’s more, Ladies and gentlemen, by Jove an authentic voice of Liverpool youth, it says here, then he must have accidentally slipped by the Custard Company to be on stage here tonight, unless he’s the son of one of them, RudeVanWinkle will be performing his rap tribute to Liverpool 08…. here’s a short taster. Riuven is it?

“ Liverpool, it’s 08

you gonna pay for it mate

cos the guys with the purse

been nothin’ but a curse

now it’s here

and the beer

is sellin’ at a rate

that I cant afford a drink,

what I got to celebrate?

You had five years bro,

to plan and you fail

Wasting money you aint got,

you should be in Walton gaol

What you’ve done to the people,

will be done to you I hope

When you’re in the prison shower,

bendin’ down for da soap”

By Jove, Missus, cover the vicars ears, that brings tears to your eyes!

A very Rude Van Winkle.

Finally to say to you all, whatever this bunch of rogues and halfwits supposed to have been leading this have or have not done over the last five years, the hard working staff and ordinary decent Liverpool people involved at the front line of all this have been doing their best to make it a meaningful year beyond the earnings and egos of the incompetent bunch of self serving, self important, careerist money grabbing opportunists trying to claim the credit….well imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so thank you.

Many, if not most, of the events and highlights would have happened anyway but at least this year you might pop along to them and even enjoy them.

If you can get something out of it wonderful, personally, I can’t. all the big money has gone so I’m off back to my new adopted home away from Grotty Cash and back to Mirth of Tydfil in Wales.

Liverpool I left you and I always let you down.

So c’mon Liverpool, get down with D.Diddy and let’s party….sorry special free invitation only to Malmaisson.

No Scousers.

Yakkie Da Everybody Yakkie Da! Wednesday, January 16, 2008 2:29:00 AM

CHRISTMAS TREAT: SEE THE EVIL CABAL CELEBRATE THE HARBARROWBOY JOINING THEIR RANKS....

Click on the link below to see the Evil Cabal in action this Christmas as they celebrate Jason joining their rotten, corrupt, greedy and lying ranks (who said the season of goodwill was alive? eds)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1703727964

It takes a while to load, but it's well worth the wait.

With thanks to Liverpool Confidential for the inspiration @ Some elfin around

PS Why not join in the fun and have hours of festive frolics with some of our famous characters?! And see Gossip for the Scrooge who said 'No' to Mathew Street! eds

MATHEW ST/MTV/'SONG FOR LIVERPOOL'....AND THE HITS GO ON!

WHILE we're on the subject of hits....

There were almost 5,000 hits on Liverpool subCulture last month - the highest monthly total for 2007.

Exactly 4,775 hits were recorded during October, the highest number on record (geddit?eds).

Visitors included the Audit Commission (regulars, eds), the BBC, unholy Trinity Mirror (virtually full-time on line, eds), JMU, Knowsley, The Mersey Partnership (loyal readers, eds), LIPA, FACT and the usual suspects - Liverpool Direct, the Palace of Westminster, various PR companies in Liverpool and London and other interesting passers-by.

Sir Diddy has been logging on regularly from Hawarden Golf Club - one of his favourite clubs -and the smiling assassin Hasitall is a regular reader out in Formby.

Of course we have also had the same visitor, but with different IP addresses, from sunny Spain (hiya Jase! - You don't have to keep on moving to internet cafes, unless the Rottweiller is after you! eds).

But there have also been visitors to our little Liverpool on-line community from the Netherlands, USA and South America (buenos dias senors and senoritas, eds)

On a daily basis, about 200 people log into Liverpool subCulture regularly - but on Tuesday, for example, 308 logged on to read all about the trio's exciting trip to MTV in Munich.

In total, Liverpool subCulture has had 38,400 hits in its short but eventful life, Gossip has had 18,166 rumour-mongers and City of the Dead has had 17,640 serious-minded devotees of the machinations of Liverpool's local government scene. Henshaw and the evil cabal has chalked up a creditable and extremely devoted anti-cabalist audience of 13, 047.

And we love you all !!!!!!! (toss of hair, blowing of kisses, fluttering of eyelashes, eds)

INFORMATION COMMISSIONER FINDS CITY COUNCIL GUILTY OF BREAKING LAW OVER CONFIDENTIAL EMAILS

PRESS RELEASE: CITY COUNCIL GUILTY OF BREAKING LAW OVER EMAILS – OFFICIAL 4/06/07

LIVERPOOL city council broke the law by publishing confidential emails between its former Leader and communications chief.
The Information Commissioner has found the city council guilty of breaking the ‘First Principle’ of the Data Protection Act, 1998 - that the publication of any personal information should be ‘fair and lawful.’
The Commissioner upholds an official complaint by Matt Finnegan, the city council’s former Assistant Executive Director (Media), who had accused the council of acting unlawfully in first publicising the confidential emails two years ago.
In the emails, the then Council Leader Mike Storey, instructed the council’s media chief to publicise his opposition to a £240,000 pension deal for the council’s chief executive Sir David Henshaw, who had announced his early retirement.
A report containing the emails was sent to all 90 city councillors in May 2005, after the Liverpool Daily Post reported that the chief executive was demanding Councillor Storey’s resignation.

The draft report, drawn up by Executive Director Phil Halsall - the council’s Section 151 Officer - also contained details of Mr Finnegan’s mobile phone calls and text messages, as well as the emails.
Mr Finnegan submitted his complaint to the Information Commissioner immediately after quitting his job last September, accusing the council of waging a vendetta against him for obeying the instructions of the council’s democratically-elected Leader.

Mr Finnegan’s teenage daughter, who was also identified in Mr Halsall’s report, also submitted a separate formal complaint.
The Information Commissioner has now upheld both complaints, ruling that the council acted illegally.

In his adjudication to Mr Finnegan, the Commissioner says: “It is clear that the decision was taken to distribute the full contents of the Draft Report somewhat prematurely, in response to ‘media pressure’, which we believe was unfair to you.
“It is therefore our view that Liverpool City Council has breached the First Principle of the Data Protection Act 1998 in this instance. Whilst it is acknowledged that this is perhaps an extraordinary case in terms of the nature of events which occurred, and the high profile of the individuals who were involved, the disclosure, having been circulated at such a premature time, was still unfair.”
The Commissioner warns that publication by the council of the report may also have compromised any further disciplinary proceedings it brought.
He adds: “Whilst it is unlikely that this specific situation would arise again in the future, we shall be pointing out to the Council that they do have a general duty to ensure that the processing of all personal data complies with the provisions contained within the Data Protection Act 1998.
“In light of this, the Council may wish to review the actions which were taken in this case and consider whether it may be appropriate to implement further measures in order to prevent a similar event from occurring again in the future.
“The Commissioner would hope that once this contravention of the Act has been brought to the attention of the Council, steps will be taken to rectify the situation.”
Mr Finnegan is now calling for the council to take legal action against Sir David Henshaw, currently chair of the North West Strategic Health Authority, for contravening the Data Protection Act and to suspend Mr Halsall, who is still employed by the council, pending a full investigation into his actions.
Mr Finnegan said: “These two men broke the law. There is no argument about that. At the time, Mr Henshaw even issued an astonishing public statement welcoming the illegal report and praising his own integrity! The council should now show that it is cleaning up its act by taking appropriate action against both men and any others who were party to this decision. Proven law-breakers such as these should not be in charge of any public service for a moment longer.”
Mr Finnegan added: “My complaint to the Information Commissioner was the first of 38 grievances which I had first submitted to the council, for breaching their own internal rules and procedures. The current chief executive, Colin Hilton dismissed them out of hand.
“I am pleased however, that the Information Commissioner takes a very different view from Mr Hilton and has not allowed such illegal actions by very senior employees to be covered up.
“I am also grateful to the Daily Post for making public the astonishing events in Liverpool at the time. In my view, there was an attempted coup by certain officers against the democratically elected Leader, using emails which had been illegally obtained.
“This is a small, if belated, victory for democracy and is a vindication of my actions in obeying the Leader of the Council. I never broke the law – Mr Henshaw and Mr Halsall did. The council will never again be able to get away with treating employees like me with such flagrant contempt for both the law and their own internal rules and procedures.
“If the council had any decency it would now issue an abject public apology to both me and my daughter for acting illegally. But we won’t be holding our breath.
“It has been a sorry and shameful little episode linked directly to the huge pension claim of Mr Henshaw. That began a train of events which have caused significant harm to the public image of the city of Liverpool and have damaged people’s confidence in public servants and public service. I hope the council now deeply regrets breaking the law of the land.”

PUBLIC CALL FOR THE ROTTWEILLER MCELHINNEY TO BE PROSECUTED FOR THEFT

MORE than 200 people have now voted for the rottweiller McElhinney to be prosecuted for stealing millions from the people of Liverpool.
Another fifteen people would prefer it if he was put in the Town Hall stocks instead.
And only five (all blondes no doubt, ed) do not want him to be prosecuted at all.
We thought we would just draw your attention to this historic milestone and overwhelming expression of public concern.
We urge you to cast your vote too by clicking here Send McElhinney to jail
Dont forget the Sack Henshaw petition either which has so far collected 40 distinguished signatures from supporters of truth, justice and democracy!

VICTORY FOR THE BLOG (Part 2): City council forced to reveal the cabal's wages

LIVERPOOL city council has now been forced to reveal exactly how much it has handed to its highest paid executives.
As we said last week a dozen of these officials, (mainly Henshaw's cabalists), trouser more than £100,000 a year of council taxpayers money.
The council , under Colin Cover Up, had refused to reveal the details of their salaries despite a Freedom of Information request from the Taxpayers Alliance.
But Cover Up, who now gets quarter of a million himself, relented late last week after we exposed how the council were breaking the law.
He finally decided to tell the Taxpayers Alliance how many and how much the fat cats were pocketing. But he refused to individually identify who was earning what.
(He thinks the public don't have a right to know which individual fat cat is being paid vast amounts for the Big Dig, the £29million cuts crisis, the Edge Lane fiasco, millions wasted on Liverpool Direct, Everton leaving the city, The Sefton Pops leaving the city (shurely shome mistake?) etc, etc, ed).
However by a simple process of elimination, greedy Sir Diddy emerged as the top earner, stuffing an abosolutely obscene £360,000 of public money into his swag bag before hurriedly departing from the scene of his crimes at the Municipal Buildings.
The rest of the info supplied is just a list of salaries for the year 2004-5 (to which we shall be returning, ed).
Suffice to say that the smiling assassin, Hasitall, the evil rottweiller McElhinney, Colin Cover Up (when education chief) and former regen chief Charlie 'spiv' Parker were all pocketing more than £150,000 apiece. In other words they had given themseleves these huge salaries.
But don't be alarmed, the city council has revealed that the salaries of the fat cat four were less than £169,000 (oh, that's all right then, ed)
The Daily Post covered Sir Diddy's salary after first ignoring the Taxpayers Alliance survey, but their story also unfortunately contained Warren Bradley's mealy-mouthed semi-justification. Thusands of embarrassed readers cringed while reading him desperately blathering on about the cabal saving money to pay the lowest paid workers (as if, ed).

Click here: Greedy Henshaw steals a fortune from the people of Liverpool.






Meanwhile Larry Nield continues to stick the knife in with some aplomb.

Well done Larry!

CITY COUNCIL REFUSES TO SAY HOW MUCH TOP OFFICIALS ARE BANKROLLING...

Liverpool city council has again broken the law by failing to respond to a Freedom of Information request - and covering up how much top execs are paid.
Details about the wages bill for chief executive Colin 'Cover Up' Hilton, treasurer Phil Hasitall (also known as the smiling assassin, ed), the rottweiller McElhinney, the Harbarrowboy, the bullshitter Donaldson, etc, etc, are all missing from the Town Hall Rich List, drawn up by the Taxpayers Alliance.
Their survey of more than 230 local authorities in Britain reveals the names of 578 public servants earning more than £100,000 a year.
You can view all the gory details, by clicking here on Fat Cats. Liverpool's non-entry is right at the end of the huge survey.
Liverpool of course has more than a dozen officials who are trousering more than £100,000 a year of council taxpayers money - but none of them appear in the survey.
Under the Liverpool heading, the entry only reads that the Freedom of Information request from the Taxpayers was acknowledged - but no response has been received from the city council.
(Is anyone ever going to hold this ****ing organisation to account? ed)
The Alliance had asked for details of all those earning more than 100 grand a year and how their salary was made up, ie bonuses, Performance Related Pay, car allowances, phone allowances, expenses, etc, etc.
Interestingly, if the council had decided to obey the law rather than flout it, the FOI request would also have revealed details of Sir Diddy's pension pay-off and final salary.
The survey makes for really fascinating reading - for example you can find out what former Social Services Director and well-known barmpot, Annie Shepperd is now handbagging at Walsall - £178,000 a year, thank you very much.
And details of the remuneration of top execs at Wirral, St Helens and Sefton are included in all their glory.
But not Liverpool...
It should be fairly obvious to all that Cover Up has an awful lot to hide and has decided instead to break the law and refuse to answer the Freedom of Information request.....we wonder whether anyone will ever find out exactly how much the city council are hiding?
In the meantime, of course, the council is facing a £29million cash crisis and a 10 per cent cut in services across all departments.
One thing that won't be affected by the belt tightening, of course, is the salaries of Cover Up and his cronies.
And you may well ask what has been our campaigning local media's response to this wall of silence about how much public money is being paid out on fat salaries for the fat cats?
Not a dicky bird...

THE SUMMER POPS: JIM FIXED IT FOR THEM!!!!

Sir Jimmy Fixit ABE said...

Now then, now then, goodness gracious me, guys and gals.

Not owwwnly Top of the Pops, but now the Summa pops, you see.

Gone! Oh! Oeeh, oeeh, oohh!

When I was running the marathon with Chas and Dave, who appeared with me many times you see, both of them more rabbit than Sainsbury's.I asked them to try and get Sho-waddy-waddy, for this years event,top billing!

but no they had other ideas, Sonny and Cher tribute band singing " I got you a gig, Abe"

Now I have been in this business menny-menny years ladies and gentlemen and I have been round the block.

You cannot have a tribute band as top of the bill. So my suggestion was, Pinky and Perky to be brought on as top of the bill but apparrently they had done a runner to France when they heard that The Scaffold may be on stage.

So if you are reading this boys, the scaffold in question is the one with Roger McGough, the limerick writer, although I thought he was from Liverpool, Martin Boermann..no, that's not right,no, John Gorman, who invented the bucket of water, and the brother of Lonnie Donnegan, Mike MeCamera.

Just imagine the crowds singing along at the end of the Pops to Thank you very much for the Aintree Iron. Oh yes! you see....

Thankyou very much for the sunken pier head

thank you very much
thank you very very very much.
Thank you very much for the traffic chaos,
the line 1 tram scheme,
The Iconic fourth grace,
the massive pension,
the office shower,
the Status Quo gig,
The Kensington One Stop,
The free car parking,
the half price child fares,
The robbing Archer.........thank you very very very much!

Actually it's quite a long song, maybe that's why they pulled the plug.

Never mind there's always next year...and the Phil Harmonica Orchestra are free to perform outside of the new met centre. Just a few coppers and a bottle of Thunderbird is all that would cost.

Monday, February 12, 2007 12:50:00 AM

ANOTHER CULTURE COCK-UP - POPS GOES, THE WEASEL!

Summer Pops axed....

Do we need to say anything at all about this utter shambles?But here's the picture gallery of the guilty men...