Evidently, the feeling is this. Had Pooter failed in his LGA attempt it would have been much more difficult to persuade him to end his near 14 year rule of taxpayer funded high life.
Well, the Dame has a view on that:it's this.
Unlike other councillors Pooter has never made a bean in his business life. In fact, his business selling cigarettes in Africa sunk without trace so there is a huge financial imperative to keep up his taxpayer income.
Nothing will persuade Pooter to give up any income. He is now delighted the LGA job came along to replace-and possibly increase-the £35,000 he lost when he exited the London Councils and Audit Committee. Beats working for a living in the real world-AND you get to use the new Bentley.
There are some first class Conservative councillors who would make excellent leaders. It's time they threw their hats in the ring and said, 'enough is enough'
Wednesday night meeting was really funny
ReplyDeleteCllr Mason talking about some motion "your feeble majority of 37 in St Charles Ward...."
Cllr Palmer "What a co-incidence, 37 is the collective IQ of the entire labour front bench!"
It had me in stitches all night. Something to collect and savor for life, I think I will use it on my pupils.
I can't stand Labour but if you thought your 'joke' even remotely droll you clearly don't have the intelligence to be teaching anyone!
ReplyDeleteHow embarrassing....the sort of puerile comment one expects to hear from the intellectually deficient but surely not a councillor. But then one remembers it was made by the Council Buffoon whose business and every other track record is-how does one politely put this....lacklustre. And Palmer can't even spell!!
ReplyDeleteYour man is St Charles
I fear that if Cllr Palmer had more brains he would be a moron
ReplyDelete2 days a week at K&C for £66k. 3 days a week at the LGA for £55k
ReplyDeleteK&C gets a raw deal
Finance Director and Chief Clerk Derek Myers need to watch Cllr Cockell's expenses like hawks. Pooter will work out in a nano second what he can get away with - and milk the system for all it is worth
Case Study
Trip to New York to attend a jolly. Invitation to Pooter as Chairman of London Councils. BUT K&C picked up the bill for 5 star hotel, limos and dinner for "friend" (un named) on Saturday night. London Councils paid for first class air travel (at the time K&C only paid for economy air travel).
In the private sector this is called "swinging expenses"
Ever since last year, when the London Councils job ended for Pooter, he introduced a new expenses regime at K&C so that he can now fly First Class on the K&C tax payer
Mr Myers, you have been warned.....
I don't think you quite understand...
ReplyDeleteIt is Myers who allows and even encourages Pooter in his flights of grandiosity(and Virgin Upper Class).
The theory is that if Myers indulges Pooter like a fat and greedy schoolboy he will be left alone to get on with running the Council his way. After all, who sanctioned Myers mega salary costing taxpayers £280,000
per annnum? Yes, none other Pooter Cockell.....
I like the idea of his dinner at the Four Seasons with the 'friend' whose name he 'forgot'....$400 for two!!
ReplyDeleteGreedy old Pooter
You are so right,14.53
ReplyDeleteWhen the drivers mentioned to WASP that Pooter was using the Bentley to take him to London airport and to VIP dinners at the Ritz and the Goring Hotel, his office wrote and denied it!
Then his office admitted they had made a mistake and apologised.
And when the pressure continued to build, Derek Myers issued a statement to say that he had authorised the use of the Bentley so that Pooter could save the cost of taxi fares
You could not make it up.....
Rats nest
There is a trend here
ReplyDeleteWhen the Liberal Parliamentary candidate for K&C wrote to the Audit Commission to complain about Pooter's First Class trips to America, Mr Myers quickly mounted a rear gaurd action and a new expenses regime was introduced to authorise First Class fares for K&C councillors
Myers put it about that the old rules were ambiguous and needed to be tightened up
Its called administrative obfuscation. Unfortunately, in the same week that Myers delivered his brilliant smoke and mirrors act, the Generals and Air Marshalls were obliged to stop travelling First and go second. A little matter of the recession....
In K&C we have built our own banana republic
Why does Eric Pickles allow this cuckoo to carry on fouling the nest?
ReplyDeleteWhy do K&C Conservative councillors put up with this major embarassment?
What if we ran a "No Confidence campaign to clear away the deadwood? It would be a serious move towards wresting back power to you, the taxpaye. If you're interested, visit www.noconfidence.org, and say so
ReplyDeleteI dislike comments by "anonymous". It seems to me that you're a bunch of naughty schoolgirls trying to avoid getting into trouble. Check out www.consultthepeople.org for a place you can stand up and be counted. Share or register.
ReplyDeleteDavid (Le Broquy), I understand your comment about "annonymous" blogs, but sometimes the issues can be clearly articulated and communicated from an annonymous contribution.
ReplyDeleteFor example the historical lesson that "power corrupts" and the fact that Cllr Cockell is now in his 14th year as Leader of K&C, and gets up to some very questionable expense claims against K&C taxpayers. (dinner in New York for a "friend" on Saturday night whose name he "forgot") Such claims were rampant until FOI probes exposed them.
K&C is a small and intimate community where people who expose wrong doing and rock the boat are hounded by the targets. In this environment, it is not surprising that informers and whistle blowers judge "annonympous" to be pragmatic.
Hornton Street is subjected to a regime of fear and intimidation. And greed, derived from the award of sky high SRA's which are the gift of the Leader. Most of the recipients of the sky high SRA's (three cabinet members on more than £50k), and those hoping for them, buckle down and play the game
I'm a young guy who lives in the borough and all the stories of corruption at RBK&C stink. I'm sure the situation is repeated in other boroughs but I think an example should be made of RBK&C. I know a few guys at the BBC who would love to do an investigative story on this.
ReplyDeleteCockell and the rest of his cronies ought to watch their backs...
22:03
ReplyDeleteReally good to read what you had to say. And you are right.Cockell runs the Council as if it were his own fiefdom. He has meetings with property developers and refuses to divulge the content of meetings. A Minister of State is ALWAYS accompanied by a senior civil servant to ensure transparency. Most people are stunned to find out how Cockell rewards himself. Until the Dame exposed these guys I had no idea what they were getting up to.Yes, the BBC need to take a look.
Word is that the BBC are already conducting an investigation into the Council's oppression and dis-empowerment of residents on Lancaster West Estate with regards aspects of the planning process and the choice of location for the proposed Kensington Academy.
ReplyDeleteShould make very uncomfortable viewing for Cockell, Moylan, etc.
Thank you, Mr. Cameron for your remarks.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so worried about the blog being anonymous, as I am about the comments. The blogger posts pretty much every day, and his knowledge, sincerity, and outrage shine through.
My complaint is about the flippant, and fairly trivial remarks made by "anonymous". Very often, you cannot even follow which "anonymous" is speaking to which.
I am grateful to the soldiers in the council for their extraordinarily generous help, but running this borough on fear and intimidation is a social tragedy which cannot be tolerated. My phone number is 07799647160.