PoliticalHackUK

It's now your poll tax, John, and you voted fo...

2013-01-19T19:18:46.280Z

It's now your poll tax, John, and you voted for it. You didn't have to and the numbers you quote are tiny compared with the size of the council's budget. The government back-tracked but you failed to. Where are your priorities?

Could you provide evidence to support the 'too...

2012-12-24T09:53:10.925Z

Could you provide evidence to support the 'too many leave the service due to ill health' and the 'die soon after retirement' claims? In particular how does BCC collate the latter figures?

Surely his campaign includes his website? No menti...

2012-12-19T06:08:19.530Z

Surely his campaign includes his website? No mention there. If he's going to rely on the 'running mate' argument as a reason for appointing 'not on merit' I don't think that's good enough. Was her name on the campaign literature? I wasn't fortunate enough to receive any.

I'm surprised the Labour Party is so relaxed about a 'not on merit' appointment.

Sorry it took a little while to add this comment (...

2012-12-18T17:41:36.176Z

Sorry it took a little while to add this comment (I deleted the duplicate follow-up).

Bob's campaign included reference to Yvonne and the press certainly covered it.

Any error is down to me, not Ian! I may have misqu...

2012-12-18T17:40:38.149Z

Any error is down to me, not Ian! I may have misquoted him. By the way, I don't claim to be an expert on benefits. If I've made a mistake, I will always correct it.

Feel free to drop me an email with more detail in confidence and I'll pass on the comments to Ian.

If you and Ian Ward don't understand what ESA ...

2012-12-18T13:16:03.669Z

If you and Ian Ward don't understand what ESA (an out of work benefit) and DLA (support given regardless of work status due to additional costs of disability) are then this is very worrying.

DLA is being replaced by PIP over the next couple of years.

ESA is the replacement for incapacity benefit.

At no point does anybody move from DLA to ESA.

What the disabled community is seeing is that the descriptors used by the DWP sees disabled people excluded from receiving both DLA and ESA.

Using a tick-box threshold for qualification of 100% CTB will see the council discriminate and financially worsen the lives of disabled people already disadvantaged by the DWP.

I looked at various official websites promoting th...

2012-12-17T09:40:35.320Z

I looked at various official websites promoting the candidacy of Bob Jones and there was no reference to Yvonne Mosquito on any of them.

The legislation allows PCCs to appoint deputies 'not on merit'. A shame that Jones took advantage of this.

Fair point Fergus. Glad somebody else reads these ...

2012-10-21T00:34:38.584+01:00

Fair point Fergus. Glad somebody else reads these ramblings.

Hi John - think you mean "Old Warley", n...

2012-10-19T16:51:32.763+01:00

Hi John - think you mean "Old Warley", not "Old Weoley"!

This proposal scares me more than many I have seen...

2012-10-14T14:47:40.214+01:00

This proposal scares me more than many I have seen coming out of this Government. I do hope people don't fall for any soft sell on this, some could lose far more than they realise....

Well said sir. This is a terrible ill thought-out ...

2012-10-08T15:39:45.444+01:00

Well said sir. This is a terrible ill thought-out proposal. Regardless of the value of your shares, if you work for an SME, whose shares are not traded on an open market, there is no way to accurately value the shares or anyway to realise the value of them via sale. In the end whether you are getting £2k or £50k you are giving up employment rights for something that you cannot sell and therefore are worthless.

Perhaps because Theresa May is Home Secretary for ...

2012-09-24T21:04:06.178+01:00

Perhaps because Theresa May is Home Secretary for a coalition government and Matt Bennett is the Conservative candidate for Police Commissioner (which, just like elected mayors, is intended to be independent from government)?

Zero tolerance as well. Don't think his commen...

2012-09-24T17:10:50.331+01:00

Zero tolerance as well. Don't think his comments about Mitchell fell into that category.

Makes you wonder, actually, if Clegg is being smar...

2012-09-19T23:30:45.369+01:00

Makes you wonder, actually, if Clegg is being smarter than we think. Reminding people about tuition fees right before the conference season may cause both the public and activists to focus on that 'broken promise' when what they should really be focusing on are the ridiculous policies that have slipped through on Clegg's watch. Much easier to be hated for tuition fees than reviled for NHS, welfare reforms and police cuts.

John, I am merely pointing out that your blog entr...

2012-09-14T16:55:45.762+01:00

John, I am merely pointing out that your blog entry is being economical with the facts.

I do hope that you aren't accusing me of lying...

2012-09-14T14:47:58.513+01:00

I do hope that you aren't accusing me of lying, Martin...

John Hemming was invited. FACT.

There was nothing preventing him from coming to the meeting anyway. FACT.

End of story. End of storm in teacup.

The Council Leaders office e-mailed John Hemming w...

2012-09-13T12:50:44.107+01:00

The Council Leaders office e-mailed John Hemming with the message: "Unfortunately the make up of the delegation has already been settled, and Paul Tilsley was invited on behalf of the LibDems. As we only have half an hour, we are having to be extremely firm with numbers, but the delegation would be happy to invite you to the post meeting de-brief in Portcullis House, if that were helpful? " How do you interpret that message to mean "yes John, feel free to pop into the meeting"

Readers of this blog can get the true facts on my blog at http://martinmullaney.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/why-did-birminghams-labour-council-ban.html

Given that I was told I was not invited they are n...

2012-09-13T10:42:38.129+01:00

Given that I was told I was not invited they are not very good at inviting people. On receiving a vague email about the day I asked for confirmation and did not get it.

Incidentally the current official Labour position ...

2012-09-06T17:54:15.401+01:00

Incidentally the current official Labour position is that I was invited, but they have not found the email that they claim to have sent to me.

In Newcastle under Lyme we have 9 recycling recept...

2012-08-19T14:22:00.631+01:00

In Newcastle under Lyme we have 9 recycling receptacles! Too much..

Interesting that Martin was a student at Birmingha...

2012-05-18T11:23:47.460+01:00

Interesting that Martin was a student at Birmingham University. Perhaps he saw the success of your blog then and an idea was planted?

LOL! Congrats on winning back Birmingham council!...

2012-05-05T04:24:31.556+01:00

LOL!

Congrats on winning back Birmingham council!

Fantastic summary, this needs to be made into t-sh...

2012-04-02T23:07:14.633+01:00

Fantastic summary, this needs to be made into t-shirts and billboards!

Molotov Maude now has CallMeDave's 'Full confidence'. The clock is ticking...

We will have to agree to disagree on this. The on...

2012-03-27T13:38:59.967+01:00

We will have to agree to disagree on this.

The only way hours would have been cut is if Stewart had got his way.

The hours of Acocks Green library are protected fo...

2012-03-27T00:21:19.035+01:00

The hours of Acocks Green library are protected for just six months and the cut will come into effect in October 2012.

All the Constituency Committee have done is kick the can down the road for six months and into the next administration - a blatantly cynical political move.

The other libraries had funding allocated for the full year ahead - that was not the case in Acocks Green.

At least this is one cut that the electorate will be fully aware of on May 3. We can't tell them about the £1 million that will need to be sliced from Yardley's budget in 2012/13 - because the constituency committee won't tell us.