The Reverend Rees’s rookie finance chief, Craig “Crapita” Cheney, has issued a bizarre and slightly mental statement attacking the Bristol Cable after they published an article this week claiming the Reverend was employing MORE – not less – bosses at the council on salaries of £50k a year or more.
In a meandering outburst lacking in either PRECISION or CLARITY – and obviously written by arse-covering council managers for him – Cheney fails to CONFIRM or DENY the accuracy of the Cable’s central claim. Instead he ATTACKS the paper for quoting information he personally signed off as accurate and complete and ready for public consumption.
“The MISTAKE [The Cable] made is in the READING of a table of data contained in the council’s draft annual statement of accounts,” Cheney spins with a straight face. Of course, how silly of people to read the data Cheney supplied in his accounts! That’s not what a published “table of data” is for at all is it? Cheney then cheerily slags the Cable for “not approaching the council to RESEARCH and CLARIFY the nature of that data.”
Er, why would they? Is Cheney claiming anything he publishes needs to be researched and clarified because it’s probably a load of BOLLOCKS? Is this not a little time-consuming for a council claiming to be struggling to resource basic public services and confusing for journalists who might think information provided by a local authority finance department in their Statement of Accounts is ACCURATE and COMPLETE?
Cheney’s contention is that his “table does not reflect the number of council employees who receive a basic salary of £50,000 or more per year as was reported” because it includes low paid staff who received large redundancy pay-offs last year. On the basis of this THIN CLAIM, Cheney then demands an APOLOGY from the Cable while dismally failing to publish information that does accurately “reflect the number of council employees who receive a basic salary of £50,000 or more”!
Cheney’s demand for an apology is deranged for, at least, two reasons. First, the error is down to Cheney’s own SLOPPINESS and INABILITY to present information unambiguously and accurately. For some reason, the chump has departed from the usual custom and good practice of previous years and not stated in his accounts the number of employees earning £50k or more only because they were in receipt of large payments last year for ‘loss of office’. Why?
Moreover, despite taking the time to issue his long, rambling and self-serving statement, Cheney chooses NOT to correct his schoolboy presentation errors properly. Where’s the unequivocal clarification of how many of the 222 staff listed as earning £50k plus last year are only listed due to their redundancy payments and how many are receiving a salary every year in excess of £50k? Why is Cheney so coy about providing this SIMPLE INFORMATION in his daft attempt at aggressive rebuttal?
This leads to the second reason why Cheney’s demand for an apology is ridiculous. He hasn’t REBUTTED the Cable’s main claim – that the city council is employing MORE staff on £50k a year than they were a year ago! Are they or aren’t they? Cheney must know.
The Cable needs to tell Cheney, Rees and the Labour Party bullies to fuck off and provide the FULL PICTURE they have on these salaries. Like the council has managed to do in every other year they’ve published salary information.
What’s the big secret this year?
What kind of gutless turd writes an article without putting his name to it? You work at the council right? So you act like attack dogs, but are too afraid to suffer the comeback. Pathetic. You think you are journalists, but you are just trolls. Elaborate trolls throwing rocks from a bush. I don’t know Craig, but he clearly has one of the hardest jobs in Bristol and is hardly rewarded for it. George Ferguson left an absolute shitpit and the Tories have reduced funding by 80%. The thought that his colleagues feel it appropriate to write cynical unresearched bullshit and post it all over social media anonymously is absolutely pathetic. You calling him a bully is like the Daily Mail labelling others Enemies of the People. You would be sacked in the private sector and should be grateful that the public are happy to keep you employed whilst you seem to be working on unrelated troll sites. Should I set up an anonymous website exposing public sector workers who are happy to take public money and spend their time writing anarchic troll sites? No, because that’s what geeks like you would do if it wouldn’t mean exposing yourself. What kind of anarchist works for the state? Wasters.
Inside the mind of a Craig Cheney groupie:
– Wasters work for the state
– Anarchists aren’t allowed to work for the state
– if you work in the public sector and hold political views they disagree with, you should be sacked
– if you work in the private sector and hold political views they disagree with, you will be sacked
– Cheney, on £28,472.68 for a part time job with no fixed hours and no job description, doesn’t earn enough money. Although he thinks a Living Wage of £14,718.60 is good enough for his staff who do all the fucking work.
– Sacking lollipop ladies on £3k and replacing them with executives on £50k plus salaries to attend meetings to save money is one of the hardest jobs in Bristol
– The Bristolian is written by Craig Cheney’s colleagues
– You should all be grateful for a job
– You think you’re journalists
– Something about the Daily Mail being really awful
– I’m not setting up an anonymous website exposing public sector workers who are happy to take public money and spend their time writing anarchic troll sites (good idea, this, as it’s a bit niche)
– Trolls
– More trolls
– Elaborate trolls
– Er, that’s it
Thanks for that. Great read. Why not try and extend your interesting thoughts into book form and give it a title like, say, ‘My Struggle’?
Yes it’s all the fault of Mayor Redpants, clearly wielding immense influence from beyond the political grave. What a desperate line of argument.
The last couple of articles seem to have touched a nerve, keep it up.
Funny how Rees courted the Cable during his election campaign no when subjected to scrutiny he doesn’t like it.
Perhaps someone should tell Rees and Cheney that anything you want printed is PR. The other stuff is journalism.
If it’s true that you guys work for the council then you can’t be anarchists: Anarchism is a political philosophy that advocates self-governed societies based on voluntary institutions.
If you don’t put your name to your work then you are trolls.
Red pants had signed off an overspend of millions per year, which would have put the council under direct rule had it not been addressed.
If you want to make everyone happy don’t be a leader, sell ice cream.
Marvin Rees isn’t a leader. He won’t take responsibility for his decisions.
Does anyone know Jack Lopresti? Can he hire Marvin a van?
I think you’re confusing anarchists with wealthy hippies and liberals who can buy themselves fake ethical lifestyles. Working class people sell their labour for wages. Anarchists aren’t interested in tarting up that relationship through bourgeois ethics, they want to destroy it.
Anarchists don’t believe in government. How can you work for the council and call yourself an anarchist? It makes no sense. Unless you are spending every day trying to destroy the institution, which, let’s face it, you aren’t. Are working class people not allowed to have ideologies now? Since when did that become the privilege of the bourgeoisie? Anarchy and trolling are not the same thing.
Anarchists must sell their labour for wages. Everything else is bullshit. An ethical hierarchy of ‘acceptable’ wage-labour is liberal bollocks.
Hahahaha. What are you doing for them that you can’t do elsewhere? Hahahahaha. Anarchist and council administrator. Oooooh watch out everyone. Here’s a rebel anarchist with a great knack for filing papers and photocopying. He simply can’t get a job anywhere else!
Nice to see you’ve come round to our point of view at last, stupid There’s no such thing as an anarchist job. If you need any more guidance, let us know.
Wow, great come back. I can see why they value you so highly. It really works to call someone ‘stupid’. I’m going to start doing that to win arguments from now on. Thanks, Bristol Blogger. And thanks for replying during work hours. You’re really sticking it to ’em!
But you are fucking stupid. You think the Bristolian’s written by Craig Cheney’s colleagues and that you can have an anarchist job. Doh …
I don’t and haven’t said either of those things. So, you’re losing the stupid argument. That said, you could do some freelance marketing work (you’re in marketing right?) for the Anarchist Federation or Movement Against the Monarchy and that would technically be an anarchist job.
It is hypocritical to call yourself an anarchist and work for local government. You can’t be shouting ‘bring down government institutions’ and then clocking in for a 9 to 5 at a government institution.
Look, I’m conscious that I’m doubling your website hit rate and that’s the last thing society needs, so I’m clocking off. Hadn’t heard of you before, but it is very clear that you are a fake and you need to get a different job. I hope you find someone that likes you or that someone at the council remembers your ten year anniversary and you lose the bitterness at not getting the gold pen you so wanted. YOU’RE STUPID! RASPBERRY! (that’s your level, right?)
A further lecture on anarchism from a mincing liberal. Now we should be doing marketing? Please, do everyone a favour and fuck off to Filwwod and get your head kicked in.
“Red pants had signed off an overspend of millions per year, which would have put the council under direct rule had it not been addressed”
It’s up to the current bunch in City Hall how they deal with that situation, including the choice of who gets or stays hired, how much they get paid, how that information is presented, and how they handle the press. Complaining about how ‘difficult’ a job certain people have because of previous decisions doesn’t exempt them from scrutiny.
Gary Charles you’re a funny middle class cunt arnt you ? Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and say it to my face ? I’ll be on filwood Broadway tonight at 8 outside the old cinema in a white van. I’ll give you ten minutes you smug cunt
Say what to your face?
I’m not sleeping with you. I’d at least need to know your name.
You fucking bottler. All mouth no action. What you doing instead ? Wanking into your mums knickers ? You fucking nonce
just amazed that people are taking Bristolian seriously ?? Just kids playing at being keyboard warriors. Lighten up all, give them space to grow up
So Rat. Why aren’t you bothered by the labour council employing a greater number of high paid staff when it promised the opposite and then publishes a press release which seeks to confound the truth ?
Why attack the only source in town which highlights that fact ?
Why not condemn every other source of news in town which wont report this fact ?
What’s anarchism got to do with the Super Soaraway Smiter anyway? It seems to me that the Smiter has been clear that it supports ordinary folk taking on the powers that be in the courts (Stormin Norman, for ex), which is exactly right and a far cry from a traditional lefty position. I think you get the odd snippet of gold that you would not get from any other source, and if they don’t get it 100% right it’s better than the complete silence you get everywhere else. Holding elected representatives to account is everyone’s business, not strictly speaking anarchism (in a formal sense) and not dodgy at all. I don’t see where people are getting the anarchism thing from, though I get the punk ethic, what with some of your *ahem* covers.
Keep up the good work.
You are absolutely correct. The Bristolian doesn’t claim to be anarchist. The claim was made for us. Just thought we’d take issue with the morons on this thread that, bizarrely, think you have to have a certain kind of job to be an anarchist.
Oh, and I thought I’d mention for any other budding anti-authoritarian whistleblowers out there in oppressive workplaces, that having political opinions is now protected from unfair dismissal, and as I understand it from day one. This has been since a driver working for a care home was sacked summarily for having political opinions his boss didn’t like. He took it to the european court and won. His opinions weren’t very nice, but that’s not the point, it changed the law so nice people can have opinions and not be sacked for them either. I think it’s great that the Bristolian is encouraging the people to exercise their hard won rights, there should be more of it.