Pickles: "Councils are 'sitting on billions' as they axe crucial services"

The Dame has not a political bone in her body: she is on the side of the angels: blue, red or a coalescence of yellow and blue.

But she cannot abide political hypocrisy: especially when spouted by Messrs Pickles, Shapps and their runner, Bob Neill. So what have these 'worthies' done to upset the Dame? The Dame likes to snatch a few quiet moments with her online Daily Mail. This morning, as she was catching up on the latest celeb news, she spotted this 

So what's the problem? Surely young Shapps is right to wade into Labour councils whining about being forced to cut back essential services yet sitting on tens of millions of pounds stolen from council taxpayers through greedy over taxation. For sure as hell they did not create it by being smart about saving our money.

The usual excuse is that they need these reserves as buffers against rainy days. This is nonsense. Never have the days been stormier yet no council seems ever to think of dipping into reserves to save services. In fact, were it not for the courage of the Full of Life people their centre would have closed because the Rotten Borough was so keen NOT to use reserves to keep it going.

Which leads us neatly on to Mr Pickles and friends.

Mr Pickles has made no bones about his contempt for councils who ignore his strictures. So what is it he so objects to?

No 1. Overpaid Council Chiefs Well the Rotten Borough should have thoroughly pissed him off. Our own Delboy, Mr Myers is on just a shade over £240k or nearly £6,000 a week with all his bits and pieces. 

No 2. Overpaid Leaders Again the Rotten Borough leads the pack with Sir Cockle on £70,000-a drop from the £120,000 he grabbed last year.  Not to be outdone, his Deputy Cllr Moylan is now quietly accumulating around £130,000 a year from the London taxpayer. That should ensure that his Thai pleasure dome is well staffed with enthusiastic young servants.

IT does not end here: the roll call of friends of Cockle-loyal to his every whim-is long. By playing along with the Leader some are pulling in nearly £1000 a week: not bad for a part time job requiring no qualifications-apart from a degree in sycophancy.

No 3 Council Newspapers Huge Eric has constantly inveighed against the madness of Councils wasting our money on useless propaganda rags. Like the Royal Borer, no one bothers to read it and it's only point is to provide employment to the lazy and inefficient PR Department(cost: nearly £3 million a year) and feed the insatiable ego of our  Dear Leader

No 4  Council Reserves This is the greatest 'mystere de nos jours'. Through relentless year in/year out taxation the Rotten Borough has screwed £177 million from innocent taxpayers. And it does not include further millions nicked from the motorist. So what is the purpose of this vast pool of money? No one quite knows. Certainly not to protect vital services as Mr Pickles has so strenuously demanded.

If it were not so tragic it would be hilarious. But it is sad, and far from hilarious. RBKC is doing everything that Eric Pickles asks it not to do.Yet every week Dear Leader visits Mr Pickles advises him how to persuade councils to toe the line. 


In the topsy turvy world of politics nothing surprises us but surely we have plumbed the depths of lunacy when Pickles takes advice from the greedy poacher, Sir Cockle.