Over to the Express and Star for another installment of local taxation rises. This time with Walsall Council announcing a 2.94% increase which is heralded in the Express and Star with the headline ‘Tax rise lowest in area’.

There are two issues that seem to crop up in relation to this. Firstly that I questioned as to why the article on council tax rises for Wolverhampton only reported the ‘Band D’ figure and it’s good to see that the Express and Star have reported the actual figures for all the bands for Walsall but anyone would think the Express and Star were biased and I’m sure it would have nothing whatsoever to do with the political control in the respective boroughs.

However, and this really does indicate rather poor journalism in the use of the headline. Now I’m not exactly sure what the Express and Star determines to be ‘area’. Is it Wolverhampton and Walsall? In that case then yes, factually accurate but at lease from my perspective, if we are talking about comparisons then I would consider ‘area’ to mean the four Black Country boroughs (please, no arguments about the boundaries of the Black Country) of Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley and Sandwell.

This is strange because Sandwell Council put out this press release the other day.

Now forgive me for questioning the mathematically competency of your average Express and Star hack but isn’t 2.9% less than 2.94%?

That said and I’m sure like any other householder, the figure that’s really important to me is the bottom line actually cash amount.

I know I should do a nice table with all the bands in it but it’s late and I can’t be bothered so here’s ‘Band A’ as that’s what is of more concern to me in actually living in one.

Sandwell: £855.88
Wolverhampton: £941.52
Walsall: £948.94

Dudley don’t announce theirs till March 3rd so we’ll have to wait on them but it’s fair to say, Walsall, despite the nice headlines isn’t exactly the cheapest place to live. Let’s not get on to the quality of services either shall we.

Not literally of course. I’m one of those people who has always sought out knowledge and tries to work things out. Much in the same way that I possess the knowledge and skills to illegally rip DVD’s, I also have also over the years accumulated what could be defined as the slightly darker side of the techie nature. I’m not a hacker per say, nor a cracker either so much in the same way that I possess the knowledge to undertake what are decidedly illegal activities, I simply choose not to because it’s against my own principles.

That said, and one of the reasons I’ve been very busy was that I had something rather complicated to sort out with Walsall MBC the other week that required me to pop into their OneStopShop up at the Civic Centre in Walsall.

I’ll start by saying which will not be a surprise to regular readers that I don’t hold Walsall MBC in particularly high regard. I’ve visited the OneStopShop twice before and on both occasions I’ve been dealt with by a member of staff who really didn’t appear to know what they were doing and subsequent problems that arose after those encounters only went to confirm that. I also find it a bit of a pain that I should have to go all the way up to Walsall to sort these things out because they are too inflexible to sort out the issues any other way but there you go. In time past I could have gone to the Neighbourhood office in Willenhall which is a whopping couple hundred yards walk from the house but since the Tories closed them all down and centralised everything (note to self, don’t believe Tories that talk about communities) now us poor residents of Walsall have to wade our way through the complete mess which passes for the road system around the town.

While I was at the OneStopShop waiting my 38 minutes to be served (yes I did time it) I noticed that they’d got some public terminals for web access so I decided to check them out. They’re a bit pants really. Anything interesting or useful like Google are inaccessible along with it seems most blogs so that probably explains why the computers are sitting there unused while their highly inneficient Pentium 4 processors burn up electricity for no reason. Strangely enough this site isn’t restricted which is strange given how critical I’ve been of the council but there you go.

What I did notice however, being the curious Penguin that I am is the setup of the machines. They’re quite restricted in what you can use on them for obvious reasons but with two glaringly obvious exceptions.

First up, there are various bits of the Window XP operating system running and available which if you know what you’re looking for would provide any would-be hacker/cracker a good starting basis for trying to break into their system. I won’t obviously say what but as my blog is read by a number of people up at yon council I’m sure someone will tip-off the IT bods to have a look.

Secondly, and probably more indicative of the times is the rather easy access to the DOS prompt. Now for those under 30 who are not techie bods you probably won’t remember this but back in the days before all these cute little icons that you click to load stuff there was what’s called the Command Prompt. It’s easily recognisable as a black screen with a little flashing white cursor where you can actually type stuff to tell the computer what to do. I was very amazed to find it easily accessible on the public machine and in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing can be an absolute dream for getting in and causing all kinds of mayhem. Perhaps the techie bods at the council are young and don’t know what it’s for or what it can do, or perhaps they’re just schooled in the click an icon approach of a Windows system but someone tell them that this isn’t really a good idea.

In fact, having the computers set up in such a way really isn’t advisable. I mean have they never heard of ‘dummy terminals’ or hey, they could always be really kicking and up to date and run bloody virtual machines through an entirely different server than leaving their system open to attack like that. Just a thought really, never mind, it is only Walsall Council after all.

It was announced today that my wonderful Tory run local authority, Walsall MBC had spent £6,419 in the last two years replacing 1,139 stolen and presumably lost or broken wheelie bins but as Walsall Council has a policy of making residents pay for replacement bins to the tune of £16.50 a time this figure seemed a bit odd. (note, these figures are for last 2 years although they do cover some of this financial year so presumably mainly cover the period when the cost of a wheelie bin was £16.50. The Council gracefully subsidised the ‘cost’ of the bins to the tune of £2. Anyone wishing to purchase a bin now has to pay the full £18.50)

Now for a little sum. 6,419 divided by 1,139. That would be £5.64 each. So here’s a question. Where does the other £10.86 go then or £12.86 since this years budget increases?

Now there’s a quandary in these figures because if we correspond the costs per bin released against neighbouring Sandwell £11.74 or Wolverhampton on £14.98 the costs released by Walsall Council seem to be well below average. So there’s two scenarios here, neither of which particularly puts the Tories in a good light.

They are either really super-efficient being able to supply wheelie bins at a cost rate of £5.64 and creaming off the rest of the money they actually charge residents because they have a monopoly cartel over the local supply and can abuse it. Or, somehow their figures seem to exclude things like administration and delivery that other Councils have included and the £18.50 figure that residents have to pay for a wheelie bin reflects the true value of purchase and costs in which case why can Wolverhampton and Sandwell deliver the same product and service significantly cheaper than Walsall?

It’s interesting to seen how David Cameron has truly changed his party. Nolonger the heartless uncaring breed of Tories that drove our public services to the brink of collapse throughout the 80’s and 90’s. He’s reassured the British people that it’s safe to vote Tory again. That they care about our communities, our elderly, our young and about worker’s welfare and conditions. Gone are the days when people would have to fear for their job or suffer changing working conditions that make them worse off. It’s great to see that Dave has instilled this caring ethic into his party and as someone who happens to live in a local authority (Walsall) controlled by his party that I have to accept as a cynical old leftie that I was wrong about the Tories. They really have changed and one has to look no further than Walsall Council’s budget for this and the forthcoming years to appreciate the focus and dedication that Tories at the local level have towards delivering top notch public services to us residents of all ages and circumstances.

In fact, I thought I’d share a few of the highlights with you, of course with a bit of commentary and interpretation of my own. Enjoy.

Increase of 10% on all leisure facilities activities:

Yep, that’s 10%, no not in line with inflation. After all, in a Borough that has one of the worst obesity rates in the country, forget about encouraging people to exercise or take part in sports activities, nah lets just try and screw some extra money out of them. After all if people stop going to the leisure centres, we can always claim they’re under-used and shut them in the future saving even more money. Everyone’s a winner eh? £170,000 extra in the kitty there, k’ching.

Increase the price of meals on wheels to the elderly by 10%:

Hey, why not hit the elderly, after all they’re rolling in money from all those pension credits and winter fuel payments that the Labour Government is handing out. It’s about time Walsall Council clawed back some of that money to cover all the costs of the service, after all Walsall Council isn’t a charity you know, why should it subsidise the cost of services to some of the most vulnerable in our community. Extra £30,000 coming in from that one, lovely.

Increase staff car parking charges by 20%:

Hey, come on, these Walsall Council staff already get massive salaries so why shouldn’t we rake back some of it off them by upping the amount they have to pay to actually work here by 20% and look at how much it should bring in for us! A whopping £148,000 a year, that should cover us for some legal bills for other staff that we unfairly dismiss shouldn’t it?

Bereavement services:

Proposed fees and charges to take effect from 1.1.07. Not quite sure how this one works out as this budget is for the 2007 budget onwards and was only agreed by the council on 26th February. Presumably customers as I’m sure they’re referred to of the bereavement service between 1.1.07 and when it was passed will have to pay any arrears. Strangely enough it doesn’t lay out what charges or fees but the simple message is, it’ll cost you more to die in Walsall than it used to.

Fairer charging movements:

You could miss exactly what this one is about, it’s such a vague description and even the description lacks any real clarity but what it amounts to is the removal of subsidy to people who receive home care so that instead of paying 58% of the costs at present, those in need of care will have to pay the whole 100% of costs themselves. Caring Conservatism in action there then. Mind you it does save Walsall MBC £97,631 so that can’t be bad can it?

Additional charges for scaffolding licenses:

Where there’s a few bob going you can always be sure there’s an entrepreneurial Tory looking to cash in. Yes, want to put some scaffoling up in Walsall, if you’re a commercial property then yep, you’re going to have to cough up too. £10,000 in the kitty.

Increase landscaping fees by 15%

It’s another one of those above inflation increases in fees but yep, another £30,000 per annum into the council coffers, lovely.

Car parking charges for Norfolk Place:

Forget free parking, if there’s a few quid to be made we’re in there, £10,000 thank you very much.

15% increase in charges for Bryntysilio places:

Those not familiar with Walsall will probably never have heard of the place but it’s one of those outward bounds centres where kids go on school trips. I never got the chance to go when I was a kid, we were too poor and there weren’t any grants available but suffice to say Walsall MBC is going to screw some more money out of the schools or more precisely the parents of the kids who go there, hey those parents only pay the highest rate of Council Tax in the West Midlands anyway, they’ve got plenty more spare cash for the Council to cream off them. £21,144 thank you.

Increase fees to cricket and bowling clubs:

Fancy indulging in one of our nations favourite sports or a relaxing game of bowls, well, it’ll cost you more in Walsall now. Another £4,000, not that much but it all helps.

Increase to residents parking permits by 100% £10-£20 per year:

Hey, if people want to park their cars outside their house and don’t have a drive, why not hit them, after all there’s not much they can do about it can they? £4,500 in the bank from that one.

Exploring sponsorship for large floral planters and all floral barrier baskets:

Advertise on a flower pot, go on you know you want to, just the thing to give your company the profile it needs. More on this later but it’s interesting to see that Walsall Council tried this idea with advertising on islands, there’s plenty of signs on the Borough’s islands saying advertise your business here. Haven’t spotted any that have so the assumed income of £30,000 per annum from this is a bit on the dodgy side.

20% increase in car parking charges:

Someone remind me what the inflation rate is again? So park your car in a Walsall car park and expect to pay a lot more for it. Another £123,000 a year coming in from that one.

Increased charge for replacing a wheelie bin:

Up from £16.50 to £18.50. Increase of £2 to eliminate the subsidy that Walsall Council pays, bless them, I really appreciated how caring they were to subsidise the cost of buying a bin off them when I moved into my house. £2,000 for that one.

Increase of collection charge for bulky items to £12.50:

It doesn’t say what the previous charge was but I have it stuck in my head somewhere that it was £10 so that’s a 25% increase in charges that effects primarily the elderly and poor who don’t have transport to take such items to the tip. Another winner in Compassionate Conservatism there then. £23,000 that one will net Walsall Council.

10% increase in charges to collect trade waste:

Running a business in Walsall? The council wants more of your money, above inflation? You wouldn’t expect anything else from Walsall MBC would you? £23,000 extra for that one.

Charging for transport within adult services:

Six little words you could easily miss but how much they mean. Are you an adult with a special needs? Need to get to a day or care centre that the lovely old Council used to transport you to? Well, sorry, Walsall MBC isn’t a charity you know, no you’re going to have to pay for it now and hey look at how much money we can make out of some of the most vulnerable people in our society! £468,000, that’s nearly half a million quideroonies! It’s almost enough to pay off former employees who have taken us to tribunal for unfair dismissal and bullying and generally being a crap employer. (Not that any case actually got to tribunal if any lawyers drop by, the Council prefer to settle these things quietly and out of the public eye).

Reconfiguration of management:

Nice way to say we’re going to sack some people and save £64,168.

Business process re-engineering:

An even more convoluted way to say sacking people but they’re only agency staff so we don’t have to pay redundancy or anything like that. £83,405 saved there and a few more families without an income but who cares.

Implementation of SX3 releases:

More sackings, only agency staff again so don’t worry, not important. £40,544 saved there.

Increase in vacancy management for School Crossing Patrol Wardens:

I’m a bit confused as to what this one means. I can only surmise that the £20,000 saving comes from not appointing people to the posts as Lollipop ladies or gentlemen thus saving a few quid on general turnover of staff. I can only draw this conclusion from a story recounted to me regarding someone who had applied, been assessed and accepted for the job but waited over three months without being taken up. Of course this is hearsay and I usually don’t go into that realm so take it with a pinch of salt. What one has to question though is that if the Council spends money assessing people then keeps them hanging on, presumably in that time they might go off and do something else which would work out to be a false economy, not to mention putting the lives of our little ones at risk by not covering crossings outside of schools.

Cleaning and school crossings efficiencies:

This is cutting back on supplies so presumably the Lollipop people will have to provide their own bits of chalk and the cleaners will have to make do with a bit of spit and polish. Saves £4,000 though.

Out of hours team (mental health):

This is a big saving, a whole £240,000 of a saving. What it actually means is sacking six members of staff. So now any mental health services provision need in Walsall over the weekend, evenings or bank holiday will have to come from Wolverhampton as Walsall has decided to outsource the service to them. This does of course beg the question at why it is cheaper to outsource the service if the same cover is needed then Wolverhampton are going to have to employ extra staff to undertake this work which is tacit admittance that super efficient Tories in Walsall can’t run things as well as those clunking old Commie Labourites up in Wolverhampton.

Senior Management restructure - Learning disabilities and young people:

More sackings, 2.5 posts this time saving £155,000 although no one actually has the one post so it’s just a reduction in potential service delivery but hey, it’s only young people and those with learning disabilities after all.

Sport development - realignment of work:

The actual description of this policy is to concentrate on revenue generation meaning that sports in Walsall isn’t anything about the good of the community, helping improve people’s health in an area with shocking obesity and heart disease rates, no it’s about making money. Oh and a ‘review’ of resource intensive activities like narrowboat trips and one to one coaching so the clear message here is that if you think your kid might be a sporting genius move the hell out of Walsall because the council sure as hell isn’t going to encourage them, unless of course you’re rich and can afford private lessons that is. All for a saving of a pitiful £24,000 a year.

Restructure of all finance areas:

More redundancies, £112,759 and a few more poor sods without a paypacket to take home.

Closure of Norfolk Place depot:

Another two ‘potential’ redundancies. £47,000 of cuts there then.

Restructure of Corporate performance team:

More sackings saving £50,000.

Reduction in Art Conservation:

Not many people may be aware but Walsall actually has quite a good collection of fine art housed in the New Art Gallery in the town centre. Well, if they start falling apart or looking a bit tatty then you can be rest assured that in the pursuance of saving £1,350 it’s been money well saved. After all, it’s not like any of the stuff is really worth anything, just a bit of paint on a canvass really, who cares about that?

Reduction on the use of agency and temporary staff:

This refers to greenspaces which one can only presume means parks and our various wooded areas. More specifically it relates to seasonal security staff so if the little buggers decide to burn down Rough Wood in Short Heath or generally cause a nuisance and make ours parks a hell hole for people to enjoy with their kids then we can be safe in the knowledge that it’s all been worth it to save £30,000.

Deletion of Community Sports Worker post:

Another poor sod without a job and hey, it’s only sports stuff again, we’re not interested in that rubbish in Walsall are we? Well, unless it makes a nice bit of wonga for the council that is. £18,964 saved to boot.

Deletion of part-time duty manager post:

Another one bites the dust saving a whopping £11,260.

Deletion of part-time golf attendant post:

Another person without an income although I have to admit I am curious as to why a part-time golf attendant was on £17,387 in the first place.

Cease funding for Walsall in Bloom:

Back to the flowers thing that we mentioned before. Over the last few years all these flower boxes appeared across Walsall and they actually look quite pleasant although whichever muppet decided on the location of the one’s in Willenhall this year needs shooting but this cut appears to be saving £8,000 which in my mind seems a bit on the cheap side for all these flower and is curious because as the other section mentioned, they’re looking to raise £30,000 in income from sponsorship so where exactly is that extra potential money going?

Maintenance of building:

Relating specifically to the New Art Gallery and meaning that preventative work will be stopped. So if the New Art Gallery starts to fall down you know why and of course as all sensible people know it’s far cheaper to do the work when it’s almost delapadated than it is to keep things in check every year and it saves a massive £6,000 too.

Repairs and maintenance - supported housing:

Saving £107,000 which amounts to a cut in spending of 46% so if you just happen to live in supported housing as many vulnerable and elderly people do, don’t expect to get things replaced very quickly, you can join a nice long waiting list instead.

Delete post in Physical Regeneration:

Yep, you know what this means by now. £40,000 saved there.

Delete two planning enforcement posts:

Get the picture? £55,000 saved and two more poor sods on the dole.

Schools catering service:

This one’s particularly interesting as it’s an issue that reached national headlines with the whole Jamie Oliver thing. I know I’ve said it before but lets just remind ourselves. Walsall is an area with depressingly high levels of obesity, chronic heart disease rates and generally the kind of place that needs serious investment and change to address these issues that blight many people’s lives. However, this policy, instead of encouraging children to eat a more varied diet actively specifies that there should be reduced choice on the menu. So is it back to the days of my youth when you could have anything you liked as long as it was chips? Thankfully I never ate the sodding things. Oh, almost forgot, £150,000 saved and who knows how many millions it will cost the NHS to sort the problems out in the future.

Restructuring of One Stop Shop:

Another redundany, £17,000 saved, lovely for that person.

Delete post of Children’s residential training co-ordinator:

Only something to do with children, not important, £18,000 saved, lovely.

Stop the opening/closing of football changing facilities:

This one perplexes me as is says stop the opening/closing of these facilities. Does it mean they’re going to be shut up completely in which case there will be nowhere for the kids to change before or after a game of footie? Or does it mean completely leaving them open for all time but unsupervised in which case the heroin addicts will be quite happy to know they’ve got somewhere to go and shoot up. Saves £18,000 though.

Discontinue grants to non-Walsall Council run museums:

This one’s close to my heart so I apologise for any strong feelings that I may express but to be more precise this means the Lock Museum in Willenhall. 5 years ago Walsall Council slashed the funding to the museum leaving it in a position where it had to close. To see it through it had to sell off assets and was eventually taken over by the Black Country Living Museum as an outreach centre. It’s a cracking little place and a homage to the industry that built Willenhall making it the lock making capital of the world, but who cares about that when you’re a bunch of money grabbing scabby Tories who don’t give a toss about heritage, that meaning the heritage of normal working class people who’s industries they systematically destroyed in the 80’s. Still, that wonderment of pride in our heritage nets a saving of £13,650 so it’s really worth it. Let’s just hope the Black Country Living Museum can keep things going.

Stop providing ornamental annual bedding across all areas:

Back to flowers and stuff now. There’s a junction in Darlaston, sadly I can’t remember the name of the road but there’s an excellent chippy on the corner of it that does those orange coloured chips. Outside of it is an area that obviously once had a bedded area for plants. It’s now just compacted dirt from all the kids running over it and quite frankly looks really crappy. Well, coming to every town centre soon it would apear the same. Walsall’s starting to look decidedly grotty under the Tories. Mind you some kindly business people might step in to help out. I remember a few years back, the raised bed area in the town centre outside the Weatherspoons pub was looking absolutely awful so the pub said to the council they’d be happy to pay for it to be done. As the story goes Walsall Council agreed but being the money grabbing gits that they are, whacked in a charge for planning permission to allow the pub to replace the plants that had been neglected by the council for all those years. So perhaps it’s just a scheme to raise some money out of local businesses for planning permission to do a job the council should be doing in the first place. Who knows? Saves £38,000 by the way.

Reduction in development funding:

When in doubt, hit the youth services, it’s only the young, they can’t vote and it’s the police and everyone elses problem to sort out when the kids ain’t got nothing better to do than cause a nuisance. £25,000 saved by the coucil though.

Forest Arts Centre:

Stop events on the weekend. Just remind me when people partake in leisure activities? When they’re not at work perhaps? Very sensible move, but hey, it’s only that arts nonsense, not important and saves £24,500 a year.

Rationalisation of parks service:

Sacking one of the rangers in plain English. Saves £23,000.

Playground fitting service:

Don’t worry if that swing breaks and cracks your child’s skull open we’re saving money on repairs here, a whole £7,500 as well.

Reduced opening hours for libraries:

Feel like immersing yourself in a bit Chaucer, Mary Shelley or Oscar Wilde? Well if you live in Walsall forget doing that after 6.00pm because every single library will be shut because saving £45,000 is far more important than that weird culture thing, anyway, libraries only encourage the plebs to get ideas above their station, we can’t have that can we?

Reduced opening hours - Leather Museum:

Fancy going to the Leather Museum in Walsall on a Sunday, you know, that day of the week you haven’t got a clue what to do with the kids apart from drag them round garden centres? Well forget a trip to the Leather Museum, it’s shut to save £10,000.

Discontinue grants for non-council run museums:

The Jerome K Jerome birthplace museum now. Oh well, never mind, who’s interested in the bloke who wrote Three Men in a Boat and counts among the very few people who’ve ever been heard of who come from Walsall all for £2,200. It is only heritage after all.

Discontinue ‘right to read’ project:

If one were ever to lay the accusation of completely uncaring and backward thinking at the door of the Tories then I don’t think a more adroit example could be found. This scheme was to help and encourage ‘looked after’ children to read. Often a group that fall behind academically, who need all the extra encouragement they can get to prevent them going off the rails or ending up with mental illnesses, lack of opportunity, no qualifications or just simply dropping out all together. It is so nice to know that the Tories in Walsall value £25,000 over the myriad of lost opportunity and social ills that they will potentially create by this action. They should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Reduce the frequency of highway herbicide spraying:

If you’re starting to get the picture that Walsall is looking decidedly like a town in some Western movie with the flowers swepts away then it’s nice to know that the greenery will be replaced by weeds along the roadside, what next, tumble-weeds rolling down the main road in Bloxwich? Saves £48,000 though.

Reduce gully cleansing to a reactive service:

The devil’s in the detail with this one. Reduce the number of crews from 3 to 1. I’m reliably informed a crew is two people as in the job of cleaning out drains is a two man job. This begs the question, apart from it involving yet more people, four this time getting the push. If there is only one crew to cover the whole of Walsall then what happens when one of them goes on holiday as presumably they will be allowed to at some point? I wouldn’t fancy a blocked drain that week. Saves £45,000 (next year)

Reduce highways maintenance to a reactive service:

Same as the last one, unspecified redundancies of staff and basically forget the idea that someone out there is making sure potholes are filled in and kerbs are in a good state of repair, unless you report it yourself, it ain’t going to get fixed. Saves £100,000 though.

Staffing restructure:

This time social services. Forget that these people work with the most vulnerable people in our society, that they have highly stressful jobs and experience truly horrendous things in their pursuance of making life better for others. Forget all of that and remember that Walsall doesn’t really care about the vulnerable because 10 of these people are up for the chop saving £320,000. It’s only social services after all, who uses them?

Reduction in project funding:

£86,000 cut out of youth project funding. Hey, it’s not like we want to give the kids all these free things to do in community centres is it? We want them all down the leisure centres paying the newly hiked prices so we can made a bit of money out of them and if they can’t afford it well who cares about the less well off in our society anyway.

Reduction of hospital social work team - older people’s services:

Well at least it’s being fair, the Tories in Walsall have shown they don’t care about the young so why not cut back on the services for the elderly as well. This will save £300,811 a year although it says it won’t make people redundant, merely stop the service and redeploy them. However this does beg the question of what importance the Tories put on the social value of the work that is currently being done, obviously none whatsoever.

Road safety education within schools:

All to save £11,000. One would think that Walsall Council has something against children. Not only is there a lack of Lollipop people, what looks like a bad recruitment setup for them but on top of that obvious safety concern they’re cutting back on teaching the kids the Green Cross Code (Is it still called that these days?)

Decrease in purchases:

Cut back on buying books and other media for libraries. After all who’s going to be in them anyway as we’re cutting back on the opening hours. Saves £10,000.

Negotiation of a saving on post morem and mortuary services:

Are the bodies going to start piling up in the streets? Well no because the wonderfully Tory run Walsall Council seems to need the support of those Commies across the border in Wolverhampton again as it looks like they want to outsource this too to save £30,000.

So there you go. A few of the wonderful things to expect in a Tory run area. I think what it highlights is that despite the best efforts of Davey boy to present his party as caring, compassionate and changed from the heartless money obsessed Tories that became so despised is that he’s either failed, failing or got a hell of a lot more work to do. We only have to look at what happens when Tories get into power, thankfully not nationally but at a local level like here in Walsall.

It’s the services of the young, the elderly and the most vulnerable people that get hit first. The culture of greed, of making money out of people instead of providing service that benefits all, not just those in a position to pay for it. It’s about allowing opportunity for all, based on their talents, not their ability to pay that sets Labour apart from the Tories. In that sense the Tories haven’t changed and it’s truly sad to think about the amount of lost opportunity, particularly to the young people of Walsall that will be the result of these misguided policies.

Anyway. I highlighted many of the issues here but there is actually a sum total of 83 areas where the Tories are cutting into funding. Take a look at it here and then wonder to yourself if the Tories really have changed?

Just really a post of sympathy to Jon Worth, who has been duly added to my blogroll for being up there in the higher strata of the political blogosphere, (he talks about serious stuff, not innuendo and tittle tattle crap) not to mention a good open sourcer.

He’s having a few problems with his council tax by his Tory/LibDem run council. I can fully sympathise, we had similar difficulties with our council tax up here at Walsall MBC which also used to be a Tory LibDem coalition, till the Tories took over of course and it’s even worse now. A wait in the OneStopShop is not for the faint hearted when it comes to irate punters getting rather miffed that their landlords are threatening to evict them because the council hasn’t coughed up the money.

One might think the council’s a bit on the skint side with all those payments due to staff it’s unfairly dismissed through poor managerial practices but that would just be cynical. However, it’s nice to know that Tory-Tory/LibDem run councils share such common problems. You never know, they might just share other similarities.

It’s been interesting in Walsall, and I’ll try to say a bit more about the matter than my young fresh faced and chipper mate Paul Mac.

I’ll start with a brief reflection on my own humble predictions that I made in the last post. Not far out but not spot on either which is always annoying as I’m usually quite good at this stuff. However it begs a few questions and perhaps a little more analysis of what was actually going on in specific wards.

I happily got it wrong on the positioning of the parties in Short Heath, the BNP didn’t come second as it seems for some reason their vote across the whole of the West Midlands seems to a petered out and fallen back. Hopefully this is a pattern that will continue ad perhaps the electorate have started to realise what they really are as a party.

I got the jitters on polling day about Blakenall, Darlaston South and Brownhills. Thankfully in the case Brownhills they were uncalled for and an excellent hard working local Labour Councillor was returned. Sadly in the case of Blakenall and Darlaston South those jitters turned out to be well founded.

In Blakenall we lost to the DLP (Democratic Labour Party) by 15 votes. The DLP have been targeting this ward for years. On paper Blakenall should be the safest Labour ward in the Borough, although it vies closely with a couple of other wards who should also be far safer than they actually are. All I can say is if anything it should have been last year that the DLP would have seemed likely to gain this seat, put off by a very good campaign then. Why this year? Well, I wasn’t involved in the campaign this year so I have no clue how well or badly it was run but the margin is of course very slim. I’ve been conveyed two versions of the events at the count, the first that a recount was not allowed because staff were tired and the second that the Labour candidate decided not to have a recount because he thought the staff were tired. If the former then I’m sorry, this is democracy and whether the staff are tired or not is irrelevant. If the second account is true then the Labour candidate is a complete and total tit. If it’s a case of only 15 votes then it’s a recount and tough if the staff are tired or not.

On Darlaston South which rightly did go to a recount the margin was even less at 11 votes where the Independent defeated the sitting local Councillor. It wouldn’t have been for any lack of trying on our part as the campaign there was probably the best run and organised in the Borough which the result shows given how far off the mark we were last year when the Independent was returned. This time it was his wife up and plain and simple, they won. Did they deserve it? Well no and Darlaston South is all the worse off for losing probably their most active and dedicated Councillor for someone who I’d have a good bet will do sod all for the area.

The one I missed was Pleck. This was the only loss by Labour to the Tories in Walsall and in some respects needs a little more explanation.

The Labour candidate was new in that the sitting Labour Councillor was stepping down. That sitting Labour Councillor was the Muslim Councillor who after winning in 2004 crossed the floor from the Tories. He’d got there on a communal vote as a Muslim and simply the Tories put up another Muslim and pulled in enough of that communal vote again to take the seat back. I won’t complain because we won the Palfrey Ward last year from the Tories on pretty much the same basis but from my own personal perspective, I’m not a lover of communal politics and although I could write a dissertation on the subject I’ll just note that I recognise that in so far as building strong local democracy, I believe that communal politics has the potential to do more harm than good.

So there you go, apart from that my predictions were pretty much on the money. It was particularly nice to see the LibDem Nadia Fazel get completely shafted in my own ward even if it was by a much higher margin than even I’d dare to commit to. All in all not really a lot changed in Walsall, we’re still in opposition, we stand next to no chance of winning the council back any soon and despite what a complete and utter shambles the Tories are making of the place they can sit pretty for a fair while yet.

I am thinking of another post regarding this issue, concentrating more on the broader view of strategy and interpretation of how the political dynamics are working in Walsall but I shall desist for now as I’ve been to two counts in the last 24 hours, not slept much, am overly tired to concentrate to the extent that the subject matter requires and simply can’t be bother right now, I’d rather do something not remotely linked to politics for the next few hours.

I’m going to stick my neck out here and do a bit of election result prediction. Feel free to shoot me down should I get things spectacularly wrong but give me credit that at least I’ve got the bottle to put myself up for a potential right drumming.

Just for information I penned this article on April 28th 2007 in the early hours of the morning. I’ll be releasing it around about the close of polls on election day. There may be an hours discrepancy in terms of the time stamp as I can’t be bothered to adjust my sites times to BST but you’ll see it definitely went up before the votes were counted and feel free to save it but I promise not to try and pull a fast one by retro-editing it simply to make myself look good or get out of the shit if I get it spectacularly wrong.

So here’s how I think the make-up of Walsall will look come next Friday.

Tories 32
Labour 21
Independent 1
LibDems 6

Which is actually how it stood before the election.

In fairness it could be anything between:

Tories 34
Labour 18
Independent 2
LibDems 6

and:

Tories 30
Labour 22
Independent 1
LibDems 6

So anyway, for you delectation I give you a quick run down on what’s going to happen in Walsall. It’s by no means exhaustive and of course there’s things I know and factors at work in some cases that I have no wish to put into the public domain for use by other parties against us but just for a bit of fun and for Paul Macmanomy to take the piss out of me when I get it spectacularly wrong here we go:

Birchills Leamore: Lab Hold

This on paper should be one of the safest Labour seats in the borough yet last year the majority over the Tories got down to 80 something (can’t be bothered to look it up). The reason for this was that the Labour Councillor at the time Carol Rose defected to the Tories, strangely enough she did this a week or so after she failed to get selected to stand for Stourbridge in the 2005 General election after she was flaunting her wares as a committed Labour person so she obviously thought the Tories were a better prospect for her future. She’s standing again but against Tim Oliver the current leader of the Labour group she doesn’t stand much of a chance.

Blakenall: Lab Hold

Again another seat that should be one of Labour’s safest in the borough. Complicated by a very active Democratic Labour Party candidate but despite that Labour should hold it. If we don’t then there should be some very serious questions asked.

Bloxwich East: Tory Hold

Labour held this seat last year by seven votes if memory serves me correctly, anyway not more than ten. That was with a local candidate who’s well known. This year, not a chance of picking up this seat, Tories will walk it.

Bloxwich West: Tory Hold

Labour have an excellent local candidate here and former Councillor who works hard in the area. Despite that the Tories have a far superior organisational structure in terms of campaigning in Bloxwich which accounts for them holding five out of the six seats in a town that on paper should be completely Labour and as above, our one seat is very tenuous.

Short Heath: LibDem Hold

I’m going to really stick my neck out here and give the positions of the parties.

1.LibDem
2.BNP
3.Tory
4.Labour

I’m not going to go into the reasons but Labour will get slaughtered in this ward and the BNP will pick up a considerable amount of votes and clearly be second.

Willenhall North: LibDem Hold

Change of candidate for the LibDems here. They’ve put up the bloke who stood in Willenhall South last year who was so committed to us, so much so that he’s buggered off to a nice cushy safe LibDem seat.

Willenhall South: Lab Hold

Much to the contrary of Colin Ross and Paul Macmanomy saying this one’s too close to call I’ll go into numbers and predict at least a 200 Labour majority over the LibDems, Tories coming third and the Democratic Labour Party struggling to get over 100 votes if that. Simple analysis, Labour has the strong local candidate who lives in the ward, works very much on local issues and getting things done for people round here. The LibDems have put up that woman who used to be a member of the Labour Party, then joined Respect and has now ended up with them. Scraping the bottom of the barrel for candidates is putting it mildly.

Aldridge Central South, Aldridge North and Walsall Wood, Streetly, Rushall Shelfield and Pelsall: Tory Hold.

I’ve done these wards together because they make up the constituency of Aldridge Brownhills. It’s plain and simple, the Labour Party is next to non-existent in this bit of the world, we stand no chance of winning anything however you’ll note I left the Brownhills ward out which I’ll do next. The only ward to watch would be Rushall Shelfield, one of the BNP’s two target wards in Walsall. They’ll do well here, almost certainly come second but overturn the Tories? Almost certainly not.

Brownhills: Lab Hold

This one’s very tricky. If I was to play it safe I’d say Tory gain but I think Labour might just hold on. Electorally Brownhills is a funny ward. In the all-up election in 2004 it returned two Tories and one Labour although it was narrow between the second Labour candidate and the second Tory. Labour failed to gain it last year by a very narrow margin despite having an excellent campaign and a hard working candidate. It is also complicated by being one of the two focus wards for the BNP in Walsall that has almost turned it into a three way tie between Tory, Labour and the BNP. The BNP might pick it up but I think that the combination of a well known local Labour candidate who works hard in the ward may just see her through with those extra few ‘personal’ votes that such candidates get.

Pheasey Park Farm: Tory Hold

Nothing much to say, the Tories will win.

Bentley Darlaston North: Lab Hold

A presumed safe Labour seat and with the candidate who both works and campaigns hard in the area there shouldn’t be a problem in winning it.

Darlaston South: Lab Hold

Another ward with a hard working Labour Councillor up for re-election. Probably has the best run campaign of any in the borough. There’s a threat from an Independent, the wife of the current Independent councillor for the ward who won last year for very special reasons but against the Labour candidate combined with her formidable campaigning approach (at least compared to the rest of the Labour campaign in Walsall) this should hopefully be a Labour Hold.

Paddock: Tory Hold

Not much to say. The Tories will hold it.

Palfrey: Tory Hold

Another funny ward. A lot of Muslim community politics goes down in this neck of the woods. Last year it was a Labour gain and potentially could be a gain this year but I doubt it.

Pleck: Labour Hold

Again a bit funny due to some Muslim politics which saw a Muslim Tory elected in the all-up election of 2005 who then defected to Labour and decided not to stand this year so it’s a fresh Labour candidate but someone who’s known very well locally and works hard so he’ll probably get through.

St. Matthews: Tory Hold

I’m biased on this one as the candidate is the one who stood last year in Brownhills. He’s an excellent campaigner and was prior to the 2005 all-up election, the Councillor for this ward. Following the boundary changes this ward changed considerably. To the cries of gerrymandering and such, a large area with a good thousand or so Tory voters got shifted into this ward and effectively wiped Labour out. Is it possible to regain the ward? Sadly probably not and the Labour Group would be all the worse for the lack of the presence of it’s candidate in this ward sitting on the benches.

So there you go. My prediction for Walsall despite all the bad press, investigations, auditors reports (nicely delayed until after the elections), referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service, the background of what amounts to a completely crap Tory run council and I doubt they’ll be any change whatsoever and if anything maybe a Tory gain of one or two.

feel free to take the piss out of me if I get it completely wrong though.

[Update] As it’s polling day I’m going to stick pretty much with the predictions above but with some rather dodgy feelings regarding the Blakenall, Brownhills and Darlaston South wards.

Haven’t said much about the BNP for a while. Partly because it seems most of the fun seems to go on over in Sandwell when it comes to the assorted ranks of misfits, council tax dodgers, bringer uppers of hooligans which are deftly handled by Unity and Bob, but just so they don’t get all the attention. Seems like Dominic Bugler, the BNP’s candidate for the Pelsall ward over here in the elections to Walsall MBC had to pop up to Walsall Magistrates Court yesterday to face charges of possessing a fake firearm.

Suffice to say it doesn’t appear that he’ll be at the count to see his election result on Thursday as he’s been remanded in custody to appear at Wolverhampton Crown Court on May 8th. Funny lot those BNP people.

As yesterday Bob tagged me about what I was doing on the 20th March 2003 I suddenly realised that there’s one person I had forgot to pass it on to. My old mate Colin Ross. That’s the guy who works for Ian Shires the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Walsall and who’s salary is paid for by Walsall MBC.

However I thought I’d make it a bit more specific in terms of dates and times, so here goes. I’d like to ask Colin what he was doing at:

10.37am, Thu 1st Mar 2007
2.56pm, Thu 1st Mar 2007
4.30pm, Thu 1st Mar 2007
9.18am, Fri 2nd Mar 2007
10.43am, Mon 5th Mar 2007
10.40am, Tue 6th Mar 2007
12.41pm, Tue 6th Mar 2007
4.52pm, Tue 6th Mar 2007
12.01pm, Wed 7th Mar 2007
12.37pm, Thu 8th Mar 2007
10.34am, Fri 9th Mar 2007
10.41am, Fri 9th Mar 2007
11.05am, Fri 9th Mar 2007
2.41pm, Mon 12th Mar 2007
4.47pm, Tue 13th Mar 2007
9.46am, Wed 14th Mar 2007
3.37pm, Wed 14th Mar 2007
10.58am, Thu 15th Mar 2007
11.07am, Thu 15th Mar 2007
5.03pm, Thu 15th Mar 2007
10.20am, Fri 16th Mar 2007
10.19am, Tue 20th Mar 2007
2.02pm, Tue 20th Mar 2007
10.29am, Wed 21st Mar 2007

OK, it’s a rhetorical question, I know the answer. Colin was posting to his blog and has been throughout the day for the last few years. Feel free to browse his archives he’s been at this for quite a while.

The only problem I have is that I thought Colin worked up at Walsall Council for Ian Shires, the Leader of the LibDems in Walsall and these times that Colin seems to post to his site throughout the week appear to fall pretty much within what would normally be defined as the traditional working day.

I only say this because I spotted this little article on the Express & Star’s website where it appears staff at Walsall Council caught doing things like downloading stuff and posting to their personal blogs might get into rather a bit of trouble.

I’m sure we’d all hate that to happen to Colin wouldn’t we?

NB.

I have of course recorded Colin’s entries for this month should they be requested from me for further investigation if Colin tries and pulls a fast one by deleted them or removing the timestamps.

Wasn’t exactly sure how to approach this one. The temptation as always when people turn up and make stupid comments and have a go at you is to give them a good slap down. Especially when they are from your political opponents.

I’m still tempted but I am minded that despite the fact that I am openly partisan I also consider myself to be a fair person. I am also tempted to include copious amounts of profanity in this particular post but have decided not to on the basis of having done my fair share of it lately although a little may slip in.

Now just for the record, I’ve said it before, in fact it was included in the first post of this blog that I welcome informed and polite commenting, even if people disagree with me. I fully accept that we live in a society where many people’s views can differ and within our party dominated political structure it is the case that those who take particularly strong interest or views of a certain persuasion often end up supporting one party or another.

I have no problem with that. I also believe that an enlightened political discourse is to be encouraged in a democratic society and if my site can be a small vehicle through which people can discuss things in an informed and appropriate manner then I positively encourage it.

I’m also aware that like any community of people there are rules albeit unwritten, and etiquettes that must be followed. Those that step outside of these rules and etiquettes are quite often and justifiably so chastised. This is as relevant to the online community as much as it is to any other. This is why I’m going to deal with a comment raised in this post.

Danny Havering wishes to imply that in some way I may be envious of the way a young person like Cllr. Rachel Walker has risen to be a Councillor because the Tories are such an enlightened party in Walsall and give young people a chance and my party has in some way conspired to keep both me and other young people out of winnable seats. He’s also rather naughty in through his comment sending out the guarded inference that he knows my identity.

Let’s deal with these issues one at a time. My anonymity for a start. Again, please refer back to my first post on this site and the response I gave to my old mate Paul Macmanomy on the issue. I do not choose to emblazon my site with my name nor do I (as of course I could) choose to run it in a way that ensures my anonymity. In fact I even give instructions on how to find out who I am and openly acknowledge my first name. What have we learned from this? Danny is either clever enough to use a whois tool on a URL in which case I bow in absolute awe of his supreme tech knowledge or he’s been put up by someone who has or someone who’s having a good guess at my identity from what I’ve written. Either that or it’s a deliberate inference inspired by someone not capable of doing this but has a good idea who I am and wishes me to fall into the trap of ‘outing’ myself. Either way, my identity is no secret and if they’ve been so stupid as to have not either worked it out by now after 4 months or try to trap me into revealing it then I truly feel sorry for them.

Second point. Again refer back to my first ever post in relation to how I conduct myself in terms of having a go at parties other than my own. I won’t attack other parties or particular representatives of them purely on the basis of party politics. Sometimes a bit of fun but if we’re talking serious criticism then it’s the issues that are important to me. I will however admit to not being equal in my treatment of different parties. This is based purely on my personal experience in dealing with them and the extent to which I either view their perspective on the world or their actions.

So just for the record I actually am not predisposed to be particularly venomous towards Tories. I do actually respect the long history of the Tory Party and in the fact that although I may personally despise the principals and ideology behind it I do recognise that those people who support or join it do believe in something. Anyone who does know me will also know that without doubt the party for which I purely despise simply because it believes in nothing and stands for nothing is the Liberal Democrats. In which case it can be seen in my writing that I do reserve a rather harder line against this party than I do for the Tories.

Now on to Walsall politics. Danny Havering correctly identified that I stood for election in the Short Heath ward. A big round of applause for that one. Should I be in some way envious of Cllr. Rachel Walker’s rise at a young age to being given a winnable seat, getting on to the council and becoming a cabinet member, no. Here’s why.

Firstly he implies by his assertion that there is in some way a pecking order by which the Tories pick their candidates in Walsall. The Labour Party is democratic in it’s nature and just to put your mind at ease, we don’t pick candidates in line with ‘that person’s done their apprenticeship in a crap un-winnable ward and we can move them up to standing in a safe ward so they can be a councillor.’ Not that it is any of Danny Havering’s business but just to put him right on this one. I have sought to be selected as the Labour Party candidate on four occasions. In three instances I was selected and stood and in one I wasn’t, I will be the first to admit that the candidate in that case who was chosen was the right choice there, and in case he was wondering, no it wasn’t the Willenhall South by-election in 2005 for which I did not attend the selection meeting as a potential candidate.

If this means that the Labour Party in Walsall somehow discriminates against young people then Danny Havering should really make sure that he has some foundation before he expresses such views. In the case of Waheed and Aqeel there are equally good reason for why they did not seek to stand and he really should not comment on issues that he knows nothing about.

Danny is probably young, a bit naive and dreams of one day becoming a Councillor in Walsall (Christ knows why). If his views on UKPollingReport are anything to go by then he needs to spend a bit more time in the classroom. Just who are these floating voters that have come into Walsall South from Walsall North? The only movement was a small area of the Birchills Leamore Ward into Pleck and it shows he doesn’t get out canvassing much if he thinks that area is stacked with floating voters. They might also be a bit miffed after Walsall Council screwed up the 2004 election and disenfranchised them.

As for my own political aspirations when it comes to Walsall Council I simply have none. I can categorically say that I will never seek election to Walsall Council. I simply do not intend to live in the Walsall Borough for the rest of my life. I love my home town of Willenhall, but it is done a great disservice by being part of the Walsall Borough and like many of it’s residents we associate ourselves with Wolverhampton more than we will ever do with Walsall. As I get older I realise that I only have one life, it’s slowly getting shorter, there’s a world out there to discover and I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend the rest of it in the confines of the Walsall Borough.

In relation to the particular post regarding Cllr. Rachel Walker I would point out that rather than attacking her purely on the basis that she is a Tory Councillor there is a very valid point. She went on record, across the front page of the Walsall Advertiser (I only mention that because I know the journo’s from the Walsall Advertiser drop by my site) and said that it’s OK for shopkeepers to put out wares on the pavement when in fact to do this contravenes both council policy and legislation.

If a Councillor and indeed a Cabinet member who is responsible for the relevant department is stating publicly that it is OK to commit an offence then I do believe that on that basis she should be due for a bit of criticism. I have sought only to criticise her on the basis of misinforming the public and I think that is pretty much in line with the policy that I keep on my site.

The internet is a nasty place at times. I try to do my bit to uphold a certain degree of responsibility in my writings. I don’t go in for personal attacks in relation to what people might look like, make assertions as to how people may have got to where they are, I try to concentrate wholly on issues and policy. There is too much in terms of personality politics in Britain and I’ll be damned if I’m going to contribute to it. There are plenty of blogs out there who do that but for me personally I try my best to stick to the issues. So just to give you two examples. Bob Piper has affectionately referred to Colin Ross, that’s the LibDem organiser who also works for Ian Shires the leader of the LibDems in Walsall and who’s job is paid for by Walsall MBC as ‘fat Colin’. No disrespect to Bob, he’s entitled to refer to him in that way as far as I’m concerned but for me I will not mention Colin’s weight as it is irrelevant to me, I am far more interested in what he does or doesn’t say and what he gets up to in a political/professional context.

In the same way I’m sure and there’s a disclaimer in here that I do not personally believe this nor would I use such a description but as an example, someone who wished to criticise Cllr. Rachel Walker could refer to the size of her stature or infer that she got to where she is on the basis of her relationship with fellow Tory Cabinet member Adrian Andrews. That in my book would be a wholly unjustified and irrelevant in the context of the issue that is being discussed as it is the issue that is important, not the individual. The mere fact that it was Cllr. Rachel Walker who made the statement is purely incidental, if Tom Ansell had made it, if Melvin Pitt had made it then the criticism would have been the same. Neither of which people I have ever stood against in an election.

I do refer to Cllr. Rachel Walker’s experience in the article and in no way is this in relation to her age. She is simply someone who has been on the council for less than three years and I think it is fair to say that anyone who becomes a Councillor from whatever party they come from takes time to learn the processes, understand the practices and learn the ins and outs whether they’re a Councillor when they’re 21 or 51. Whether Cllr. Rachel Walker is competent to undertake her role as a cabinet member is entirely up to the Tory group and its leadership on Walsall council. My own personal view is that she may have shown her lack of knowledge of her brief and subsequently not only embarrassed herself but also put shopkeepers in the position where they may be prosecuted in the process.

On to Walsall Council itself. Danny Havering makes the point that Labour have also run Walsall Council at times in the last 27 years and therefore are equally to blame for the lack of implementation of a policy relating to legislation passed in 1980. Yes, I completely agree. As Danny has had a good look through my Walsall MBC section he will no doubt have noticed that I do reserve it for some criticism. In some cases this might be in relation to it being run by the Tories, in others it’s purely that I do not think Walsall Council is particularly good and no amount of Audit Commission star ratings is going to change my mind on the matter. I purely judge it on my personal experience and in comparison to my experience with other local authorities that I have dealt with in the past.

Equally if I think there’s something positive to say about it then I will and in fact I have on two occasions. I’ve dealt with many different departments in Walsall Council over the years and I’m sorry to say that I’ve been disappointed with the service and competency at a number of times. I will however say that I think the election unit is on the whole quite good, apart from the complete mess of the 2004 election count when I spent a full 15 hours of my life stuck in the town hall while votes were counted using a completely crap system devised by the then new head of the unit from New Zealand, and I will also say that although I have only had one dealing with the Planning Office, I thought they were bloody excellent.

This goes for what I may wish to write about political parties as well. I will make positive comments about the Tories if I think they deserve it. I was planning to write something rather complimentary about two of the Tory Councillors in Walsall but if these are the kind of antics Tories wish to play at I may well desist from trying to be fair and even handed. Equally, you never know, one day I might even write something nice about the Liberal Democrats but I highly doubt it.

Finally a few links that Danny Havering might like to follow when it comes to discourse and etiquette on the old interwebnet where he might find some useful advice. Here’s a nice piece by Tyger, I’d pay particular attention to the bit about picking fights with people who could well have considerably more tech knowledge than yourself. Here where Unity gives a friendly warning to a Tory who’s too big for his boots and here where Unity takes to pieces a Tory who doesn’t take heed of warnings.

Oh, and Danny, if you haven’t realised, you’re at the warning stage, if you’ve taken offence by anything disparaging I’ve written I apologise, but in all honesty if these couple of jibes get you then you’re not going to last long in politics mate. You may have a bright future ahead of you and aspirations to become a Councillor in Walsall, maybe even more for which I applaud you. What you really do not want is a vindictive techie with a grudge against you at this stage in your political career.

Anyway, happy hunting for information on my old mate Paul Macmanomy and if you were thinking about trying to find anything on the internet about me then I’ll give you a hint. I am only mentioned on the net in three places. One’s the various election results on Walsall Council’s website and I’ll give you the challenge of finding the other two. However if you’re looking for something exciting, you may well be very disappointed if you actually find them.

Right, now for a serious post about important issues.