Tag Archives: Bristol 1st

NO PARKING PLEASE IT’S HOUSING

No parkingWe hear a private meeting in February organised by Mayor Desperation to encourage the city’s LEADING RESIDENTIAL LANDLORDS to take on social housing tenants didn’t quite go as our hapless mayor might have planned.

Our man close to the property business tells us, “George rolled in and delivered a confident, if brief, speech BEGGING LANDLORDS TO TAKE ON COUNCIL TENANTS, which was politely received.”

However, problems soon emerged when landlords started asking some fairly basic questions of George and, “it became apparent George was hopelessly unbriefed on the subject of housing, lettings and tenancy and COULDN’T ANSWER THE QUESTIONS.”

Matters then took a turn for the worse when one landlord piped up, “Well, it might help if we could actually PARK outside the homes we’re trying to rent out.”

A red-faced and, now, visibly fuming mayor angrily shouted back “THIS IS NOT A MEETING ABOUT CAR PARKING“.

Bad move. The meeting broke up immediately in disarray as the majority of the attendees simply upped and headed for the exit to escape from the RUDE AND CLUELESS mayor.

It therefore looks HIGHLY UNLIKELY the private sector will be looking to take on any one from the council’s waiting list in the near future.

Another example of the excellent inter-personal skills and fine negotiation and persuasion talents by our charmless mayor there then.

SECRET HUSTINGS

Leigh-Court-Header2A new phenomenon is emerging at this year’s mayoral election – THE SECRET HUSTINGS. Apparently, petrified mainstream candidates, scared of the Bristolian public – and some of the other independent candidates – and the questions they might ask, are meeting carefully selected audiences at UNDISCLOSED VENUES to answer questions.

The main victims of this process – so far – have been INDEPENDENT MAYORAL CANDIDATES Christine “Pete” Townsend and Paul “Mister Tea” Savile who are deliberately NOT invited to these hustings. Coincidentally, both have been raising difficult questions for the other candidates.

Townsend has been highlighting the dubious practice of SELECTION BY WEALTH AND CLASS in Bristol’s secondary schools while Savile has been addressing issues around street homelessness, particularly the council’s REFUSAL to open any of their buildings for temporary shelter to the growing number of people living on the streets.

This situation has already created one wholesale FARCE with Savile visiting FIVE different venues in search of a SECRET HUSTINGS on housing issues. The hustings were attended by the establishment-approved candidates (George, Labour, Lib Dem, Green and Tory) and a selected audience of polite and non-troublemaking housing “professionals” and “experts”.

Savile did eventually locate the meeting and even managed to blag his way in. But how many more wankers are there in this city prepared to run fiascos like this over the next two months under the guise of democracy?

The Bristolian also learns that Mayor Venturer, Labour’s Marvin “Luther” Rees and Tory, Charles “Thicko” Lucas attended another SECRET HUSTINGS at the Business West HQ at LEIGH COURT MANSION in February.

We understand the Merchant Venturer front organisation held a 45-minute audience with each candidate who were, no doubt, GRILLED on their acceptability to the city’s SHADY BUSINESS ELITE. Luther Rees, in particular, is very tight-lipped about this secret meeting and what he’s promised them.

Let’s hope he hasn’t got one public message for us and another secret one for the wealthy elite!

GEORGE’S LEAFLET BELLYFLOP

George Ferguson leafletHurrah! George’s first mayoral campaign leaflet has appeared on the streets.

No doubt it’s been really carefully thought through by his dodgy new spin doctor MATT “PAGE 3” Baker so it looks exactly like something from the Green Party?

“Do you want a career politician running Bristol taking orders from a party leader in London?” it asks.

Er, no we don’t Matt, you huge plonker. But neither do we want a career politician running Bristol taking orders from a BENT NEW LABOUR SPIN DOCTOR from Rochdale, thanks.

SPIN WATCH WITH MATT BAKER #1

mattbakerA semi-regular series on the ‘chequered history’ of the mayor’s new spin doctor, MATT “PAGE 3” BAKER, former bag-carrier and sleaze slinger for Labour’s hugely entertaining MP for Rochdale, Simon Danczuk.

Apparently needing to top-up his paltry MPs salary of £67,060 plus generous expenses, Baker’s former  boss, Simon Danczuk, bagged himself a lucrative NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR gig back in 2013 when Shine Bid Services paid him £1,000 for a couple of days work a month over about 6 months. This salary works out at a very tasty £125k a year pro rata, considerably more than the majority of his Rochdale constituents could expect to earn.

Shine Bid Services help unnamed clients secure funding – usually from government agencies – and they make a big deal of the fact their name NEVER appears on any bid. “We are the back stage assistants,” gushes their website, “shying away from the spotlight to ensure you are always the star of the show.”

Which is all very convenient for an MP keen to sell their influence but keep any of the gory details away from prying eyes. Because, while Danczuk declared  in his Parliamentary Register of Interests that he worked for Shine Bid Services, he DID NOT MENTION any clients he represented or helped get government contracts or funding for.

Of more interest to us in Bristol, where the Baker’s pitched up, is the fact that, Danczuk had two staff registered with the House of Commons authorities with Parliamentary passes and access in 2013. One of them was Matt Baker (based in the North West not Westminster) who on his own Register of Interests made a NIL RETURN.

This is rather odd as Baker’s partner Margaret Quinn works for, er, Shine Bid Services!

So it was all very cosy in Rochdale wasn’t it? Let’s just hope Baker hasn’t brought these bad habits to Bristol then.

ANAL PHONEY ‘INDEPENDENTS’

The ‘INDEPENDENTS FOR BRISTOL’ (IfB) – Mayor Redpants’ second crack at creating a political ‘party that’s not a party’ in under a year following his ‘Bristol 1st’ ticket – is picking up pace, with eight people so far selected to run for council seats.

A typical flavour of IfB comes from its Clifton candidate, chartered accountant Brenda McLennan, the finance & operations boss at the Arnolfini Gallery. From her £800,000 CLIFTON WOOD MANSION she is promising “to shake things up at City Hall” as one of these “new types of politician” running for the IndyRedpants. And how very, very new her personal management practices are at the Arnolfini.

McLennan’s snooty art gallery recently advertised for stewards, offering to pay them the princely sum of £6.20 AN HOUR – a whole 1p an hour more than the minimum wage! And for that “a flexible approach to working days and hours is required” as the gallery is open six days a week!

Just the kind of progressive attitude to low pay and employment this city needs more of, isn’t it?

GEORGE: ‘JOBS FOR THE GIRLS’

Maverick hiring practices suggest Mayor Red Trousers fully intends to take a firm grasp of matters in his office

George and Zoe, sitting in Uni...The direct appointment of former Destination Bristol PR hackette ZOE SEAR as Mayor’s Assistant on a generous £45k-a-year whack by kindly uncle figure and noted bachelor-around-town George Ferguson has raised a few eyebrows – not least for the absence of any competitive recruitment process for the post.

Mayor Gorgeous batted any criticism aside, however, claiming he was entitled to directly appoint an assistant under the provisions of the Local Authorities (Elected Mayor and Mayor’s Assistant) (England) Regulations 2002.

And he’s absolutely correct. However, the same legislation – backed up by the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 – also makes it clear that the post is POLITICALLY RESTRICTED, meaning that Zoe should not take part in any party political activities.

So how come Zoe is listed with the Electoral Commission as the Nominating Officer for George’s political party VANITY PROJECT, Bristol 1st? Does she intend to continue as both Uncle George’s personal media guru and his party functionary? And how will she manage to fit in her duties as the Mayor’s £865-per-week bag carrier whilst still managing her own marketing consultancy Tonic?

With all this going on it seems likely that Zoe may let her directorial obligations at her quietly forebearing hubby’s ad agency slide a little…

 Especially as Mr Ferguson and Mrs Sear are bound together in some ‘fresh’ moves of their own by playing hard and loose with the law barely three months into Bristol’s brave new world of municipal mayoralty…