REVEALED: SENSATIONAL COST OF 2008 OPENING CEREMONY AT ST GEORGE'S

The 45 minute show at St Georges Hall, which opened Capital of Culture 2008, cost an astonishing £4.5million.
That's the shocking tab which will now have to be picked up by Liverpool's council tax payers.
It works out, by our calculations, at about £112,500 per minute (£4,500,000 divided by 40).
Or £118 for every man, woman and child in the audience! (£4,500,000 divided by 38,000)
The show, which police estimated drew 38,000 people in front of Lime Street, featured Ringo as the special guest star with his 'Liverpool 08 - I Left You" dirge.
Other highlights included:

• some non-Liverpool bearded bloke providing the commentary
• quite a lot of people standing on roofs pretending to be playing guitars
• a parade of 'C' list celebs, including the Lib Dem Lord Mayor and Our Lord Redmond, who came on and waved at the crowd
  
• and the quip from one bloke in the audience as he was showered with paper confetti: "that's my council tax money".

Loyal readers will also recall our exclusive photo of Colin CoverUp and the Harbarrowboy having a free drink together at the after-show private party for the great and the good.

The £4.5 million cost is double the amount which was forecast - no surprise given the appalling incompetence of the Culture Company, overseen by the worst council in the country.
The cost escalated after Fireman Bradley told CoC chiefs:"The show must go on - whatever the cost."
He warned them that he would not tolerate a repeat of the Mathew Street fiasco.
Culture Company bosses, including the holidaying Kris Donaldson and Our Lord Redmond, have been desperate to try and keep the final cost covered up.
To no avail.
We expect them to do everything possible to avoid answering a potential Freedom of Information question, clearly and directly.
Never mind truthfully.
But we would encourage our loyal readers to ask that question.
Meanwhile our Lib Dem run city council is £62million in debt, closing old folks homes, leisure and sport centres, raising charges and increasing the council tax by the maximum allowed - almost double the rate of inflation.

• No 38 in a Liverpool SubCulture series 'Stories you won't read in the craven Echo'.

Fireman Bradley's mum writes to the craven Echo about his private life being damaged....

WHAT are we to make now of Fireman Bradley's Mathew Street complaints about his private life being damaged?
You will recall how the Fireman choked back tears as he complained to journalists how he and his family had been personally affected by all the negative publicity surrounding the Mathew Street fiasco.
(Taunts in the street about freebies to Las Vegas, mega pay-offs, official inquiries, worst council in the country, etc, etc. This was as scapegoated Lee Forde was left out in the cold outside the Town Hall! eds)
Now Bradley's mum has written a tear-jerking letter to the Echo complaining about how she never gets to see her lad.
Apparently, he doesn't get home until very late at night and never sees his poor missus, Pauline.
Bradley's mum Pam, who was previously viewed as a shrewd political operator, whinged about all this in her extraordinarily embarrassing public missive to craven Echo editor Alistair Mackrey.
Strange then, that Bradley has managed to persuade wife Pauline to emerge from the shadows and stand as a Lib Dem candidate on May 1st.
Hardly likely to protect his family's privacy we would have thought.
Perhaps he and Pauline plan to meet in future over the hustings?
There is also further evidence that Bradley's no doubt wholly genuine desire to protect his family does not extend to all publicity opportunities - but only when it suits.
Otherwise, the Fireman would surely not have agreed to this photo opportunity taken by self-styled PR guru Carolyn Hughes, which shows him posing apparently happily with Pauline at Christmas....


We can only observe that if the people of Liverpool have any sense at all, Bradley will get a lot more time to spend with his family after May 1st.

Macca's concert is already £2.5million in the red and will cost council taxpayers a fortune - while Lib Dims make old folks pay!

Paul McCartney's Anfield concert is to cost council taxpayers double what was forecast - while services to the public are being slashed by £62 million.

The final bill to put on the Macca show - the Liverpool Sound - is anyone's guess with almost two months still to go and the Culture Company trying to keep a lid on every last detail.

Chickens are wandering around without any heads inside the Millennium House Fun Palace and everyone involved has been sworn to secrecy.

But we can reveal that council chiefs had been banking on the gig costing the city just £1.2million - even though the Harbarrowboy originally promised it would be"cost neutral."

Editor's Note: This is an accounting term which basically means: "I am trying to pull the wool over your eyes becaus I have no idea, so I am going to try and blag my way around this one and hope that I will be off-ski with a huge pay-off before the chickens come home to roost."

The £1.2 million cost to the city council was calculated once sales from tickets (now costing between £334-£288 on t'internet) and income from the BBC and other suppliers, souvenir-sellers and merchandisers etc had all been taken into account.

The actual bill to council taxpayers so far is, however, £2.5million - double what was forecast.

And given the financial mismanagement for which the Culture Company is famed, the final tab that council tax payers will have to pick up is likely to be at least FOUR times that original figure.

Meanwhile the Lib Dim council is closing two old folks care homes at Leighton Dene and Boaler Street as part of a £20 million package of cuts to the caring services alone.

Other services are being slashed and charges increased while the Lib Dims frantically try to plug the £62 million gap created by the spendthrift and stupid Culture Company. A sorry state of affairs which the Lib Dims of course allowed to happen, through their weakness and incompetence.

Liverpool subculture comment:

Paul McCartney's concert may well be fantastic and may well create a huge amount of positive publicity for Liverpool - God knows the city needs it after the chaos caused by the Lib Dims.

And frankly, four months into Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture, it is about the only event so far which will attract global attention and enthuse local people.

But......

Paul McCartney's concert will not keep open two old folks homes which the Lib Dims are closing, nor sweep the streets of dog muck, nor give the jobless new skills and training opportunities opportunities. Nor will it make life for the city's pensioners any better.

For one brief day, it will make a lot of people happy - and that is a good thing.

But will it bring any lasting benefit to Liverpool?

The McCartney concert is part of the bread and circuses roadshow which the Lib Dim council want to cover-up their legendary shortcomings.

We are not being killjoys, but let no-one forget:

W have the worst council in the country.

It is £62 million in the red.

It is closing old people's home and slashing services.

And it has paid out a fortune to incompetents and crooks.

As the bloke on the No 38 bus said to us only the other day:

"Did you see that on the blog? This bloody council is spending at least £2.5million of our hard-earned council tax money on a multi-millionaire global superstar, who may be a terribly nice guy who has always done his bit for the city with LIPA and all that, and who thankfully has just got shut of his horrible shrew of a gold-digging missus, couldn't stand her - a complete nutter obviously, and he seems a generally all-round good egg even though he is apparently a bit tight with the readies and is normally the last to get a round in I've heard, but then musically, of course, happens to be a bit of a once-in-a-lifetime-genius who has made some fantastic stuff and still appears able to turn it on big style even though he must be getting on in years, mind you he doesn't look so bad for his age, altho i expect he must be spending a small fortune on moisturisers and stuff and his new bird doesn't look half bad does she? I say good on him, you only live once, but then you've got to live and let live - or live and let die which of course was the title of one of his best numbers when Linda was still alive, amazing how the press have suddenly rehabilitated her now that she's gone when they were forever sticking the knife into her as a carrot munching headcase when she was alive, but anyway he's alright is Macca, but then he doesn't have to live here does he with that numsbskull the Fireman in charge and Colin trying to cover everything up and the Lib Dims killing each other in the public prints and the craven Echo burying its head in the sand and hoping it will all go away and services getting worse and have you been down Kenny lately? Fucking disgrace the way things have been left to slide there.....continued Page 94

CLEIN'S VERDICT ON FIREMAN BRADLEY AND THE STOREYTELLER: 'CRASS....... STALINIST.......INTOLERABLE.....DISGRACEFUL......SMALL CLIQUE IN POWER...."

WE can now bring you (highlighted below) the full text of Education boss Paul Clein's resignation letter, thanks to the Liverpool Confidential web site.
His devastating letter echoes many of the accusations against Fireman Bradley and the Storeyteller which the Liverpool SubCulture blog has been alone in publicising over the last 16 months.
You never read any of this in the Echo before did you? Or on Radio Merseyside?
That's no surprise.
We now feel vindicated. We told you so. We have been right all along.
But no-one should forget what has caused both Clein's resignation and Firth's deselection - the debacle over Mathew Street.
Bradley and Storey and Harbarrow and Hilton all ducked responsibility for the biggest PR disaster in Liverpool's recent history.
Instead they sought to put the blame on little Lee Forde's shoulders.
And the Echo, Radio Merseyside, Radio City and the rest of the cowardly media - with one or two notable exceptions - were willing accomplices in that shocking miscarriage of justice.
They failed to hold those responsible properly to account.
They failed to carry out their duty as guardians of the public interest and the public purse.
They failed to examine in any detail all of the circumstances leading up to the Mathew Street fiasco.
So you will well understand why the Liverpool subCulture blog won't be taking any lectures from the media.
Lee Forde has been entirely vindicated by Clein's resignation and Firth's de-selection.
We hope it is some comfort to him for the way the city council tried to destroy his reputation and his career.
Now it is for the people of Liverpool to make the real judgment on the way their city has been run by this complete shower of bastards.

Clein's letter (and some choice extracts):

"I have been considering my position since late November 2007......" (publication of doctored Mathew Street report)

"I went along with a number of policies about which I had misgivings......"

"I feared right from the start when Storey was handed a specially created Cabinet position.....that the fallout from the Henshaw/Storey split would become self-perpetuating....that appointment by Warren was a crass decision...."

"Stalinist treatment of Firth.....intolerable and utterly illiberal.......engineered for having the audacity to ask the Group Leader entirely legitimate questions over a matter (Mathew St) whose fallout threatens the long-term interests of our group. (Where is Warren's promised writ to the Daily Post by the way? I think we should be told.)

"The colleagues who perpetrated this should hang their heads in shame. They have betrayed basic principles....disgraceful episode.....my position is untenable....."

"A small, increasingly illiberal clique in positions of power........whose main focus seems.......obsessive revenge."

PS. Notice how Clein focuses on Bradley's empty threats to take the Daily Post to the Press Complaints Commission? The Post - one of the few notable exceptions - had the audacity to accurately report Bradley's lies over Lee Forde and Mathew Street and his Perroni Plot with the Storeyteller against the Harbarrowboy. Bradley has not issued a writ against the Post. And he won't be issuing a writ against the Post. Because he lied to them. That's the Leader of the great city of Liverpool, for you.

WORST COUNCIL IN COUNTRY LATEST: FIREMAN RUNS FOR COVER

FIREMAN Bradley is refusing to give interviews about the city council being ranked the worst in the country. He has disappeared from view, completely. So too has every other member of the Lib Dim Executive Board. Colin CoverUp is also hiding under his desk. So that leaves Hasitall lined up for Roger Phillips's prog on Radio Merseyside - so perhaps the smiling assassin can take questions from the people of Liverpool about the shambles they have created in the last ten years? Christ knows who the city council are going to offer for interview to City Talk - probably Coco the Clown! Meanwhile click here for the Daily Post story. And we wait with bated breath to see the spin in tonight's Echo...

RILEY FACES SACK....THANKS TO PAUL NEWMAN

THE Liverpool Echo’s longest-serving journalist Joe Riley faces the sack thanks to the £114million Culture Company.
Its £90,000-a-year (with performance-related pay, eds) Director of Communications, Paul Newman, aka The Invisible Man, made an official complaint about Riley to Echo Editor Alistair McRae.
Newman, who lives in Hertfordshire and commutes to Liverpool during the week, branded Riley “a disgrace to journalism and a disgrace to Liverpool”.
(We shall return to this amazing accusation from this invisible man whose name we keep forgetting, eds).
So what caused the astonishing outburst from 'snitch' Newman which has led to Riley’s suspension and has journalists agog at (the unholy) Trinity Mirror?
Quite simply, Joe Riley fell asleep during the premiere of Jimmy McGovern’s extremely disappointing play, King Cotton at the Liverpool Empire.
While other bored members of the audience were walking out of the Empire half-way through to do something infinitely more interesting like catch a bus, or count the pigeons, Joe had forty winks.
He had been on duty, apparently, since 7am that morning when he had also been at the launch of some obscure Culture Company event.
However, Mr McGovern, (who we had previously admired, eds) was sitting a few seats away from the Echo scribe and took umbrage at him dozing off.
Precise accounts vary but there then followed an unseemly and noisy confrontation at half-time in the bar at the Empire with McGovern tearing into Riley with a four-letter tirade.
For some obscure reason, which has still not been satisfactorily explained to us, self-styled PR photographer Carolyn Hughes phoned the Echo editor from the foyer of the Empire. (Jesus, what the **** did it have to do with her? Are these people all in the pay of the Liverpool Stasi? eds)
Anyroadup, unsuspecting Mr Riley wanders into the Echo the next day and all hell is let loose.
We should point out at this stage, that we would have no sympathy for Mr Riley if he had gone on to pen a review of King Cotton after snatching forty winks during the first half.
But he didn’t.
Like the old trouper he is, Riley admitted he had fallen asleep and suggested that fellow Echo scribe Katherine Jones, who was also at the premiere, should do the review instead.
Fair enough, you might think.
But oh no…
McGovern appeared on the Roger Phillips programme later that morning and was allowed to whitter on about Riley like a true luvvie for the best part of 20 minutes.
(Gosh, this is better than Corrie, isn’t it? eds)
Riley’s only offence, of course, had been to find McGovern’s play so interminably dull that he had dropped off. (A view which we also share, eds)
Meanwhile the snitch Newman, self-appointed guardian of journalistic ethics and moral arbiter for Liverpool, had fired off his ‘Riley’s a disgrace’ missive to McRae in a clear effort to get him sacked after 38 years unblemished service to the Echo (surely cause for a proper disciplinary investigation? eds)
Riley was duly suspended and appeared last week at a disciplinary hearing, the outcome of which we await with bated breath.
However…
(This is the good bit now, eds)
We have some things to say about Mr Newman, (right) whose career in Liverpool has been distinguished by consistent incompetence, failure and invisibility.
(Oh goodie, eds)
The first is this: be very careful about making complaints about the personal behaviour of other people in a work-related situation. People in glass houses...
We are reasonably sure that your wife and family would not be at all happy if a complaint was made about your own personal behaviour in a work-related situation. Know what we mean?
(ermmm, we think so, eds)
Secondly, if you paid more attention to doing your job which the people of Liverpool are paying for through the nose, then you wouldn’t have time to fire off self-righteous, poisonous little missives to editors.
Thirdly, we are sure it has not been lost on our readers, that Mr Riley, for all his faults, has been one of the few local journalists to give your bosses at the £114million Culture Company and the city council, a difficult time.
You saw your chance to try and do Riley in and thus remove a thorn in your side, didn’t you rat-face?
Well, we hope you are thwarted and that Mr Riley returns from a hopefully relaxing suspension to his desk, unbowed and undeterred.
And we hope Newman’s disgraceful role in this nasty little episode is not quickly forgotten by journalists on Merseyside and elsewhere.
(another cracker, we love it when he gets all angry, eds)

THERE'S SOMETHING VERY FISHY ABOUT THIS - COST OF ANOTHER CULTURE COMPANY COCK-UP

THE cost of the Culture Company's doomed Paul McCartney concert at Salthouse Dock will be at least £250,000.

That's the astonishing bill so far for 15 months worth of feasibility studies on the lunatic project.

We under-estimated the true cost in an earlier post - by the summer the preliminary costs had already risen to mpore than £150,000.

When all the final invoices are in, the total bill will be at least a quarter of a million quid.

The Culture Company spent the money on investigating whether the concert could ever happen - before they finally switched it to Anfield after reluctantly accepting that the scheme was bonkers.

They had wanted to drain the dock, stun the fishy inhabitants, put them in a giant tank and then erect 25,000 seats in the dock so that Macca could play on the river front.

Alert readers will remember The Echo and Daily Post praising the Culture Company for switching the gig to Anfield - and not cancelling it at the last minute, a la Mathew Street.

Both papers apparently thought this was triumph of sound management.

Just a pity that wiser heads had not prevailed at the Culture Company or the BBC, 15 months earlier then, isn't it?

If they had, a lot of people's time would not have been wasted. And a lot of money saved for something slightly more practical. (Like more police for Croxteth, for example, eds?)

The Culture Company feasibility study included hiring marine experts to make sure the fishy inhabitants of the dock would be okay, employing divers to take the plunge in the dock to inspect it, and sinking concrete bore holes in the dock basin to try and make sure that it would hold 25,000 seats and a rock stage.

All of this - and more - which involved an army of consultants, went on and on and on, before the plug was finally pulled on the plan.

Now of course, council taxpayers are being left to pick up the tab.

REDMOND: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS, OR HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE (NOT). EPISODE ONE - "I WANT 'SCOUSE' CULTURE"

SELF-styled 'man of the people' Phil Redmond is already making a tremendous impact on Capital of Culture.

The multi-millionaire's exhortation to every headbanger in the city to ring the Culture Company with their madcap schemes has already got staff in open revolt.

The procession of nerds, nonentities and ne'er do wells out to try and make a fast buck out of public money, has resembled a lengthy queue of X Factor rejects.

Long-suffering Culture staff, already victims of the Harbarrowboy's regime of chaos, have taken to posing as passers-by to avoid the procession of Culture Company callers who have obviously just escaped from the nearest loony bin.

Staff have also begun to find all sorts of meetings and other wondrous excuses to be out of the office when the phones start ringing off their hooks with nutters at 9am every morning.

Porters have now been positioned to repel any suspicious boarders from the decks of the Titanic.

So, when it might have been wiser to try and win the loyalty of Culture staff, Redmond appears to have quickly alienated them.

And that's not all.

Should any of these idiotic ideas be pursued beyond the back of a fag packet, the creators will quickly find that there is no money left in the cupboard to pay for them.

Unless our multi-millionaire Cultural saviour wants to dip into the £30million he trousered from the sale of Mersey TV to pay for something himself?

If not, the disappointed might end up a bit disgruntled with Redmond too.

And that's not all.

Redmond appears to have alienated Colin 'Cover Up' too by blabbing to the meeja about 'his' plans for 2008, without first agreeing the line with the city council.

Hilton wandered un-noticed into Culture the other day and after about an hour, when he finally managed to attract the attention of a handful of staff, was forced to apologise for Redmond's shock and unaccountable outburst.

In fact, the first that the Culture Company's £75,000-a-year Communications chief, The Invisible Man, Paul 'We'veforgottenhisnameagain', New about it all, was when someone mentioned in passing that TV cameras were filming the unelected Redmond outside the Town Hall.

Hilton promised those staff who were still listening to his mumbling that he would be having a strong word with our new Cultural guru and would be marking his card in future. (Gee, Redmond must have shat himself at that, eds)

And that's not all. (Thought not, eds)

Our hero also appears to have alienated the Labour Party, of which, unaccountably, he is still a member. (Is he trying to buy himself a peerage then soon? eds)
Redmond had the brass neck to appeal to the Labour Party to cease its entirely legitimate questioning and critiscism of the activities of the Harbarrowboys inside The Fun Palace at Millennium House.

He wanted them to stop. To cease. Forthwith.

And thus leave the way entirely clear for him to bravely step into the breach and parade himself as the saviour of our city.

Joe Anderson's response to this remarkable request was suitably short, eloquent and to the point.

And that's not all.

The Lib Dems are similarly up in arms at Redmond's suspicious arrival on the scene of the Culture car crash, thus diverting any chance of favourable publicity next year away from their current leader, Bradley the Fireman (tell me the same old Storey, eds)

And that's not all. (oh get on with it, will ya? eds)

Those in the city who can best be described as 'the chattering classes', 'the great and the good' or ' the usual suspects' are also getting hot under the collar about Redmond.

They are already asking questions about Redmond's connection with Liam Fogarty's campaign for an elected mayor.

Word in the boardrooms is that Redmond has been secretly bankrolling the Mayoral campaign, although we have seen no evidence of this. Yet.

So, after stepping reluctantly into the limelight to introduce Macca at Anfield, Redmond will then presumably wait for a delighted and grateful populace to carry him shoulder high to the Town Hall.

In fact, at the moment, the only people who appear to approve of Redmond is our local meeja.

The Echo in particular has been wedged so far up his arse that it has almost disappeared from view (no such luck, eds)

One journalist has been heard to speculate that the Echo's abandonment of any pretence at neutrality, impartiality or investigation may lead to an official complaint by the NUJ to the Press Complaints Commission.

The Echo's tame and uncritical subservience to the drawling Deputy Dawg, who appears to think he has just wondered on to the set of a third-rate soap opera, is apparently justified as being "in the city's best interests".

Which, interestingly, is also how they justified their silence over the criminal activities of Henshaw and the evil cabal.

In 2002 Phil and Alexis Redmond sold part of their Mersey TV stake for £30m to private equity group LDC in a management buyout. In 2005 LDC and the Redmonds sold out to London-based rival All3Media in a deal reported to total between £35m and £45m.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY: CULTURE COMPANY LET OFF THE HOOK FOR MACCA COCK-UP

THE Culture Company were let off the hook by the Post/Echo today for abandoning their lunatic plan for a Paul McCartney concert at Salthouse Dock.

Neither paper asked the obvious question: how much has this little detour to fantasy island cost the council taxpayers of Liverpool?

We are reliably informed that more than £60,000 has already been spent on feasibility studies, 'scoping exercises', the hiring of marine experts, health and safety and all kinds of bureaucratic nonsense commissioned by the expensive consultants brought in from the BBC, led by Lorna Dickenson.

The result of this ill-conceived fishing expedition?

A complete waste of time and money.

And no-one at the Culture Company will have to pay, of course.

Interestingly, this insane plan to drain the Salthouse dock, biff the unsuspecting fish on the head and then transport them safely to a giant tank, all so that Macca could play Mull of Kintyre, was the brainchild of Kris 'bullshitter' Donaldson.

He is the Aussie/Californian appointed by Henshaw and Storey as the Culture Company's £150,000-a-year Marketing Director, (now on £198,000 with his Performance Pelated Pay! eds).

His chief claim to fame was launching the '08 logo three years ago (with an army of consultants, eds).

Since then Donaldson has done nothing tangible - except repeatedly hire extremely expensive consultants at the slightest whim to do his job for him.

His latest singularly unimaginative scheme is to 'wrap' all the city's ugliest buildings in scenes from the '08 programme to hide Liverpool's urban dereliction from visitors.

Manchester did this a bit for the Commonwealth Games - but Donaldson has pinched the idea and gone typically OTT.

He is so full of bullshit that only those impressionable few who are mesmerised by his transatlantic drawl and whitened teeth could fail to spot his utter lack of judgement.

It is a quality also displayed in barrow loads by the Harbarrowboy of course, in cancelling the Mathew Street festival.

So the DPost headline this morning should have read: 'Macca concert moved after CoC dock bungle'.

Instead the Post treated the people of Liverpool to the most nauseating and mealy-mouthed cover-up of yet another Culture cock-up.

Unforgiveably poor journalism.

Later aided and abetted by the compliant Echo (no change there, then eds)

Perhaps the explanation for the Post letting CoC off the hook lies in the disgraceful Lib Dem attacks on its journalists for being 'pro-Labour' (the Libs are obviously panicking and have tried to put the frighteners on the Post, eds. Looks like it might have worked.)

Perhaps the Post felt sorry for Bradley after yet another failure to deliver.

Perhaps the Post didn't want Macca to get the message that he is dealing with a bunch of half-wits.

Or perhaps the Post just don't care what happens to the public's money.

Certainly they are failing to hold the Culture Company properly to account for yet another cock-up.

The truth is, of course, that contrary to the incredibly tedious Daily Post editorial today about a 'timely decision', the Culture Company did NOT come clean about the cancellation of the dock.

It had already leaked out (literally, eds) after our world exclusive.

Fireman Bradley leapt into action with his trusty hose when the phone rang bringing reports of another Culture Company firestorm.

So he ate all his recent words about the 'fantastic' dock scheme and instead started to whitter on about the great concert being suddenly lined-up at Anfield.

And the Post swallowed the bait.

Hook, line and sinker.

PS Perhaps the Post can at least ask how much all this has cost so far? And they could also investigate the rather unorthodox tendering procedure adopted in the first place to appoint Lorna Dickenson and crowd to work on this concert.

PPS Even Larry Neild's excellent column today is of little consolation.

TODAY'S INSPIRATIONAL HEADLINES FROM THE LIVERPOOL ECHO ABOUT CRIME, DEATH, MURDER, DRUGS - NOW EXACTLY WHO IS GIVING THE CITY A BAD NAME?

Visitors robbed in visit to Walton prisonA VISITOR to Walton jail had her car stolen after someone took her keys from a secure locker.more

It should have been Rhys Jones' first day at schoolTWO months ago Rhys Jones was kicking a football around Broad Square primary school playground.more

‘Dog was on top of Ellie . . it wouldn’t let her go’A WOMAN allowed a powerful and dangerous dog into her house where it mauled her five-year-old grand-daughter to death.more

Man cleared of murdering teenager Liam SmithA MAN has been acquitted of murdering Liverpool teenager Liam Smith.more

Please find my Ryan’s killerTHE mother of a Liverpool man gunned down in the street today made a heartfelt plea to catch his killer.more

Jane Tomlinson’s marathon fight for life finally endsCHARITY crusader Jane Tomlinson has lost her long battle against cancer, it was announced today.more

City had a birthday to rememberLIVERPOOL celebrated its 800th birthday in style with hundreds of street parties across the city.more (THIS IS THE ECHO TRYING TO SELL THEIR PICTURES OF THE PARTIES....EDS)

Police evict man from ‘crack den’EVICTEDmore

So - obviously nothing positive happening in Liverpool again, today?

WHY LEE FORDE REALLY QUIT THE CULTURE COMPANY...

EVENTS MANAGER Lee Forde quit the Culture Company because the Mathew Street budget had been slashed - threatening public safety.
The Harbarrowboy unilaterally halved the amount of money being spent on events such as Mathew Street, the Hub Festival, the Lord Mayor's Parade and the Christmas Lights switch-on. Harbarrowboy was under pressure from Cover Up to reduce the amount of public money being used by the Culture Company after squandering millions on consultants, astonomical wages and pie in the sky schemes.
He was told to reign-in the Culture Company's mounting expenditure in the run-up to 2008.
But he also personally decided to save up some money for next year's events so that 2008 would not turn into the damp squib we have all feared.
Jase planned to splurge it all on public events next year so that he could go out in a blaze of "glory" having delivered an apparently successful Capital of Culture.
Forde expressed his concern at the implications of the sweeping cuts and refused to keep quiet. (Good for him, eds) He warned the Harbarrowboy that such draconian cuts would put public safety at risk and contravene strict health and safety regulations.
But the Harbarrowboy told Forde: "I don't want any discussion about this - just get on with it."
Forde then submitted his resignation in disgust, telling the Harbarrowboy that it was impossible to deliver such events without compromising public safety.
The Culture Company tried to put a brave face on his shock departure, 'Jase' arrogantly telling the BBC in an interview that no-one was indispensable and that they would carry on as normal.
In fact, the opposite was true. (see TP's previous post about Forde's departure for an entirely accurate account of the likely impact, eds)
Forde's departure meant little work was done on Mathew Street, which was left to his deputy Eddy Grant to try and pick up.
The £150,000-a-year Harbarrowboy failed to adequately manage the resultant gap and then eventually decided to cancel a festival which was not even his to cancel.
The result?
Uproar.
Forde is now the victim of a disgraceful and all too typical attempt by the city council and the Culture Company to shoulder all the blame for the fiasco.
The Echo was told (apparently by Bradley) that Ford was on "gardening leave" - a sickening and disgusting attempt to smear him.
His deputy Grant is now on long term sickness absence, as a result of the mounting pressures he was put under.
This effectively means the Culture Company has lost its senior Events chiefs at a stroke - an amazing 'achievement'. This is likely to have further implications on events in the city.
One Culture Company insider said:" Lee has never been a 'yes' man and when Jason told him to implement the cuts, he couldn't keep quiet any longer.
"He refused to put up with the incompetence. And no-one took control of the situation or did anything significant about it. It's a classic case of management failure."
Meanwhile, we can also reveal that the Harbarrowboy has been sent on 'gardening leave'. Cover Up told him to go and take a week off while the dust settled over the Mathew Street debacle.
He is due to return to the Fun Palace tomorrow (Tuesday) - but is unlikely to get a quiet reception.
(All will soon be revealed....eds)

POSTCARD TO THE CULTURE COMPANY FROM THE HARBARROWBOY

Dear all,

I couldn't get any answer from Liverpool Direct, so I decided to send you a postcard instead. Probably a lot quicker.

I am having a lovely time here on the Costa Del Tanningmybacksideoff, sipping Pina Coladas.

I gather from that skinny fella who is our Communications Director - I've forgotten his name - that the Daily Post would like to interview me this week about the forthcoming 'Not the Mathew Street Festival.'

Can you just tell them that I have nipped out of the office for a quick sandwich and will be back soon?

Please don't let them find out that i have gone off on my jollies, just as everything is going pear-shaped.

If the Post are really desperate for some answers, can you get two of the girls to get off their arses and give the Post an exclusive interview about the programme for next year.

They don't need to say anything new - just the usual vague and empty promises will do.

Something along the lines of "world-beating....stunning events....Jase working his socks off...worth every penny, etc, etc." The usual bollocks.

We could even mention Pete Postlethwaite again, if we are really desperate.

Also can we slip in somewhere that the announcement about the 2008 programme will be in November, rather than next month as we originally promised?

No-one will notice and it will give me a bit more time to try and get Maccas phone number from someone who met him when he last came to Lipa.

By the way, has anyone seen the forgetful fireman recently? I hear he wants to be known as Hawkeye from now on because he will be keeping a beady watch on us all.

He may be watching us like a hawk, but he is still parrotting the same platitudes.

Perhaps he should be called The Parrott instead?

Have internal audit finished going through all my emails yet as part of their so-called "investigation"?

I wonder if they will find the emails I sent to Warren about the problems with Mathew Street? He now appears to have conveniently forgotten them - perhaps he doesn't look at his emails anymore after what happened to Storey-teller?

Anyway, I'm sure 'Cover Up' will make sure Bradley sees only what he wants him to see.

I hope all the fuss has finally died down now about that little Beatles event that we cancelled? It was crap anyway.

I imagine the Echo will have gone back to its daily diet of crime and second rate celebrities - I'm sure we could suggest a few names who could help them out on that if they need any more?

Anyway, time to go - I've got to have a look at some new property.

See you for the birthday party - Storey will be back from his jollies then too!

lots of love,

Jase xxx

- Pass the sun oil can you, darling?

With apologies to E.J.Thribb, aged 17

So, farewell then

Mathew Street.

'And the beat goes on',

You used to sing.

Then the council

Cancelled you.

Was it a Barrowboy?

Or a fireman?

We shall never know

It will be Covered Up.

Meanwhile the empty city streets

Will Echo to the sound

Of laughter.

TONY'S BLOG UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT: PITY THE CULTURE COMPANY ISN'T!

Dear loyal readers,

We have missed you.

That's why we have persuaded the legendary Tony Parrish (alive and well and living in clover, somewhere across the water, surrounded by a bevy of gorgeous followers catering to his every whim, ed) to hand over his blog to his fans (that's us, ed) so that we can carry on his good work.

And there has been no better time for a new, tougher, more uncompromising broom to sweep through Liverpool subculture than now - when the dunderheads at the Culture Company appear to have finally gone bonkers/insane/committed hara kiri - by cancelling the Mathew Street festival.

As we speak, our favourite organ, the Echo is launching a last ditch bid to hold Europe's biggest outdoor music festival (what about Glastonbury? ed) in a pub somewhere off Old Hall Street.

Our current council leader Warren Bradley has flown back from the Canary Islands, muttering "crisis, what crisis" under his breath and has also revealed his own personal 'no booze' rescue plan to save the festival.

At any moment, we are expecting Gordon Brown to divert his attention from boring foot and mouth disease and form a four piece combo with Blair, Prescott and Campbell called "the Spinners" to make a guest appearance in someone's back yard in Kensington and save the Festival.

Oh what fun we are having.

What is clear from this monumental cock-up is that the remnants of the cabal are still in control of Culture.

Bradley has allowed them to take control without the slightest effort at holding them to account.

Arrogant, unaccountable, undemocratic and a law unto themselves, Colin Cover Up and The Harbarrowboy appear to have decided amongst themselves to cancel the Mathew Street Festival.

Just like that. ("Or it could be like that" - Tommy Cooper)

Warren Bradley has professed total ignorance (no surprise there then, ed).

Which makes us wonder why anybody would want to vote Liberal Democract ever again when their leader doesn't have a clue what is going on in the city.

What's the point in voting for him then?

It seems we would be better off abolishing inconvenient elections all together and just letting Cover Up and his band of incompetents run the show forever (and award themselves huge pay rises every month, no doubt, ed)

In the meantime, Liverpool will be left to become even more of a music hall joke, scores of businesses will go to the wall, thousands of visitors will be left with nothing to do and the city will lose one of its genuinely international events.

Whats more, hard-faced Harbarrowboy and Hilton appear to have been a bit surprised by the universal outrage which has greeted their bungling decision.

Which shows how lacking in judgment they are and how little they understand the city of Liverpool.

It's a bit like the Town Clerk of Rio de Janeiro cancelling Mardi Gras and being a bit surprised that people have got just a teentsy weentsy bit upset.

What cast-iron fools we have in charge of our city.

Bradley should resign - the Mathew Street debacle happened on his watch. Professing ignorance compounds his error.

As the senior politician he must take full responsibility.

But before he goes, he should demand the resignations of both Harbarrowboy and Hilton who are complicit in the worst Public Relations disaster for Liverpool since Degsy decided to become a full-time member of the Tendency.

They are clearly incompetent and out of their depth. Their arrogance in thinking that they could get away with such a decision is typical of the cabalist rule.

They treat the people of Liverpool with utter contempt and have no respect for the city's culture, its history or how it is viewed by the outside world.

That is the only conclusion to be drawn from what Bradley himself has admitted is 'a fiasco' which now appears to be the subject of a full-scale, sadly not independent, investigation.

Even the Echo agrees and certainly the people of Liverpool must be in despair at this monumental cultural cock-up.

Time for a clear-out and a clean-up.

And time we had politicians in charge who could get a firm grip of the shower of greedy wasters at the Culture Company and the city council (preferably around the neck, ed). No one would notice any difference if the Harbarrowboy was sacked.

Either that or we could always get Warren to give Chas Cole a ring and see if he can save the day ?

Perhaps we can hold the Mathew Street Festival in Sefton, instead?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(What do you think of that for a first effort then? Not bad, though I think we could have been a bit more direct and uncompromising. Yeah, I know, i pulled a few punches didn't I? Never mind, you will get the hang of it before too long - - and there will obviously be lots more opportunities to have a go. That's true. Do you think Bradley will really sack Harbarrow? No chance, if he did he would be admitting he was in charge of a catastrophe - they will all hang on to their jobs and we will lurch on to another crisis. Suppose your right....)

COMING SOON:

REVEALED: THE HARBARROWBOY'S SECRET PROPERTY BUSINESS IN SPAIN or

"Why I go missing every Friday and have such a fetching tan" or

"No wonder the Culture Company is in such a mess when the guy in charge fucks off to the sunshine every weekend to pursue other private business interests...." (allegedly, ed)

ps you can get in touch with us at tonysparrishioners@hotmail.co.uk

REVEALED: The secret email from millionaire pop promoter, Chas Cole to council leader Warren Bradley, which secured the Summer Pops.

BELOW IS A VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT OF AN EMAIL FROM CHAS COLE TO WARREN BRADLEY AND COLIN HILTON. THIS IS NOT A HOAX. WE REPRODUCE THE EMAIL HERE IN FULL, BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IT IS IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST AND HAS GRAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CITY OF LIVERPOOL. THE DAY AFTER THIS EMAIL WAS SENT, THE CITY COUNCIL SUDDENLY ANNOUNCED THAT THE SUMMER POPS WAS GOING TO MR COLE.

---------Original Message------------------------
From: Chas Cole
To: Bradley, Warren (Leader of the City Council)
Cc: Hilton, Colin (Chief Executive)
Sent: Thu Feb 15 12:27:00 2007
Subject: Summer Pops 2007

Dear Warren

I am coming under increasing pressure from the Liverpool Echo to go public on the planned rescue of the Summer Pops. They confirmed some days ago their commitment to provide a value in kind contribution and they are aware that I am waiting for the Council and the Capital of Culture's commitment to provide 100K sponsorship for the event.

I had hoped that you would have been able to provide a confirmation by now, so that it could be announced this week.

Time is running out, another week passes by and the agents/acts are making their final plans for summer tours and, frankly, I fear they are losing patience with Liverpool.

In an ideal world, you would be able to provide the requested commitment and a positive quote by mid afternoon today. This would allow me to confirm with acts during the rest of today and tomorrow that Liverpool is back in the game for this summer.

In addition, we can run a positive joint story in tomorrow's Echo of how yourself, the Council and the Echo have saved the event.

If you are not able to provide the confirmation, it will be helpful to at least have a telephone conversation to gain an understanding of the decision making process and timescale.

Please give me a call on my mobile (deleted at the author's request, ed)

Kind Regards.

Chas


Chas Cole

--------------------------------------------------------------------

ANOTHER CULTURE COMPANY COCK-UP - TO COIN A PHRASE...

LIVERPOOL is hard-up for creative ideas and bankrupt of any influence in Westminster.
Those, we are afraid, are the only conclusions to be drawn from the Royal Mint's refusal to give Liverpool its own special coin to celebrate 2008.
The outright rejection has met with the usual plethora of puns from the Echo (the habit is catching, ed) along the lines of the city being short-changed, etc, etc.
The Daily Post has launched a Culture coin campaign, while the Echo's Joe Riley has weighed in (and that's a considerable amount, ed) with his own beef about the knock-back.
Before long the great and the good will be co-erced into lending (no pun intended, ed) their public support.
This is all part of the rich but predictable tapestry of so-called sophisticated media 'debate' in Liverpool.
But it shouldn't obscure anyone to the real facts about this Culture Company bid for a celebration coin.
First and foremost, it is a pretty shitty idea.
Are we really saying that this is what we want from government for 2008?
A few baubles and trinkets, such as a specially minted coin and a postage stamp?
And then we will all be happy if Gordon Brown gives in?
How pathetic and provincial we must appear in Whitehall.
And how easily diverted we are from the real purpose of 2008 which was, and should be, to use the year to ensure the genuine and inclusive regeneration of the city.
Let's not worry about the jobs which are not being created, the communities which continue to be ignored, the people who are denied hope and the generations which deserve a better future.
No, lets have a campaign about a coin instead.
Utterly ridiculous.
The Harbarrowboy is bleating in the pages of the Echo for the people of Liverpool to get behind his campaign for a coin. (Perhaps he could give a lead by giving the people of Liverpool some of the coins back from his £175,000 a year salary? ed)
At the same time, he is now claiming the credit for Manchester's Commonwealth Games coin, (so it's not even an original idea? ed)
His pathetic demand for Liverpool to have a coin as well, serves two useful purposes -
Firstly, it demonstrates the utter immaturity of the city's cultural leadership and its total bankruptcy of creative ideas.
Secondly, it focusses even more attention on the Harbarrowboy's distinct lack of credibility anywhere near where it matters.
What has he been up to these last three years? Counting his own money?
Twice he wrote to the Treasury, appealing for a culture coin, the first time as far back as June 2004.
Twice he has been routinely ignored by the mandarins at the Mint.
So much for Liverpool's campaign to win hearts and minds in government!
We won't make any comment on what his repeated failures say about the expensive Westminster lobbying services being provided by Jase's mates in the PR company, LLM (see previous posts).
Unbelievably, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown is now being asked to personally intervene to reverse this so-called 'snub'.
And before long there will be the entirely predictable whinging that Manchester got one for the Commonwealth Games, and Newcastle for its bridge, why can't we have one for Culture?
This is a fair question to the simpletons deciding the fish and chip paper editorial policy of our fair city's esteemed organs.
It makes for an easy story and a headline.
But it is utterly besides the point.
A two-bit coin from the Treasury is not what we need for the great city of Liverpool, Europe's Capital of Culture and celebrating its historic 800th birthday this year.