No. I am Spartacus!

Posted on December 6, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

Banksy masked up

The launch of Home Sweet Home – Bristol’s very own Banksy book – tonight at the Apple is shaping up to be good sport.

Not only will it feature local grafitti types, photographers, banksy fans, art scene movers, publishing shakers and er, plenty of “local characters” there’s also going to be loads of local journalists there on the hunt for that elusive and once-in-a-lifetime Banksy interview opportunity.

Already, The Blogger learns, competition is fierce to deliver that exclusive Banksy interview to Northcliffe’s finest. Go down and join the fun. It’s free in too.

Aside from the doppleganging opportunities to be had there’s also live painting from old school legend: INKIE who worked closely with Banksy in his early years + FLX & CHEBA plus DJ’s Dub boy + Plate tectonics.

Which all sounds far too fashionable for The Blogger who will be staying at home, tucked up with a mug of cocoa reading the Electoral Commission’s indispensable 87 page guide, Donations and loans: guidance for political parties in Great Britain.

Oh the glamour!

Posted in Banksy, Bristol | Tagged , , | There are 3 comments

KRS guest post

Posted on December 5, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

Roger Livingston I presume

 Bristle KRS

Posted in Bristol, Labour Party, Local government | Tagged | There are no comments yet

Roger and them

Posted on December 5, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

Gotcha! Yesterday we mentioned a city council officer – Roger Livingston – who works for ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ in an office at the Council House where tens of thousands of pounds worth of apparently anonymous donations to the Labour Party are being administrated.

Today we can reveal that the official job title of this local government officer – whose wages are paid by you dear reader – is the rather prosaic sounding ‘Political Assistant’. And there’s absolutely no surprise that he’s working for ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ as he’s proved himself to be a completely useless little retard who would fit in only too well.

Indeed such is the level of Roger’s incompetence that an email meant for his boss, Mark Bradshaw – fully and frankly discussing a member of the public who had the temerity to write a scrupulously polite letter to Bradshaw on the seemingly innocuous matter of his thoughts on plane flights – was sent instead to the member of the public in question! Oh dear.

And what a revelation it is! Despite clear rules forbidding Roger, as a council officer, from engaging in any party political activity whatsoever, it appears that part of his job is to make, er… Party political enquiries regarding members of the public that contact Bristol Labour councillors!

Specifically, if a member of the public contacts their Labour councillor, Roger will be tasked with snooping into their background to find out what their political affiliation might be. All at the council tax payers’ expense of course.

In the case of this particular correspondent we learn that Roger “Can’t quite link her direct(sic) to the Greens,” before telling Bradshaw – entirely non party politically you understand – “but [we] need to be on the safe side.”

The use of the “we” pronoun is an especially nice touch from this non-party political council officer don’t you think? Is he suggesting that the whole of Bristol City Council needs to be “on the safe side” where people with Green leaning beliefs are concerned? I think we should be told.

But not only is Roger selflessly watching out for those evil Greens on our behalf, he also has a frankly hilarious line in fruitbat scientific theories he shares with Bradshaw (and us). “I think it’s got more to do with the sun,” he sagely writes of global warming.

Of course Roger. Global warming’s caused by the sun, the moon’s made of cheese and you have nothing whatsoever to do with the tens of thousands of pounds worth of anonymous donations to the Labour Party registered from your office.

Surely enough is enough? Whoever’s in charge down at the Council House ought to be kicking this party politician-on-the-rates out of our local authority by his completely unprofessional partisan arse right now.

Here’s Roger’s unfortunate email exchange in full:

> >>> “Xxxx Xxxxxx” < Memberofthepublic@…>

> 22/09/07 13:14 >>>
>
>
> This message was also sent to: Cllr Mark Bradshaw
>
>
> Xxxx Xxxxxx
> xx Xxxx Xx

> Bedminster
> Bristol
> BSX XXX
>
> Email: Memberofthepublic@…
>
> Saturday 22 September 2007
>
> Dear Mark and Colin
>
> When I think of how cheap it is to fly these days, I feel concerned about the environmental impact of flying. Would you be willing to let me know what your thinking and strategies are around reducing the environmental impact of flying and to let me know what steps, if any, you are taking to encourage cleaner aircraft and to increase the tax or tax emissions on all flights.
>
> Thank you for your attention.
>
> Xxxx Xxxxxx >

> Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:20:58 +0100
> From: roger.livingston@…
> To: Member of the public@…
> Subject: Re: Letter from your constituent Xxxx Xxxxx

>
> If you bGoogle “Xxxx Xxxxxx” with the quotes she appears to have signed every green petition going. Can’t quite link her direct to the Greens. But need to be on the safe side.
>
> Happy to draft a reply. (My own view is that I don’t believe man has caused global warming – I think it’s got more to do with the sun. And I’m still not convinced ANYTHING we do will make a difference. Al;so am anxious that this huge diversion of cash towards anti-global warming measures might have been better spent on the poor – who are still right on our doorstep.) However….. will draft reply.
>
> Could do with with the PLP briefing on global warming – could you send it to me?
>
> Roger
>
> Roger Livingston
> Political Assistant,
> Bristol City Council
> 0117 922 2013
> 07957 474865
>

Posted in Bristol, Labour Party, Local government | | There are 36 comments

Those dodgy Labour group donations in full . . .

Posted on December 5, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

Bristol Labour Group - dodgy donations

Here they are. Labour Party donations originating from an unincorporated association based in a publicly-owned building at an office staffed by council officers . . .

Posted in Bristol, Labour Party | | There is 1 comment

Labour funding: Do we have two associations with one member working from the same office?

Posted on December 4, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

It gets murkier and murkier with regards to whatever ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ is and their generous £10k cash donation to the Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party.

It almost seems as if there’s two Bristol Labour Groups operating at the Council House. On the one hand we have one organisation – ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ – which has an office at the Council House, called either the ‘Labour Members Services Office’ according to the council’s website or the ‘Labour Group Office’ (pdf) according to the council’s weekly Members’ Information Service newsletter.

And working in this office are at least two council officers who are employed, not by the Labour Party but by us, the council tax payer. One is called Roger Livingston, although we’re still tracking down his precise job title. The other is Laura Protheroe, known as the Labour Group Members’ Support Officer. She, rather conveniently (although this might become rather inconvenient), is the partner of Labour Councillor, Fabian Breckels.

The purpose of this office and the staff is to provide support services to Labour councillors on Bristol City Council – who are apparently known as ‘the Bristol Labour Group’. However, legally, this office and its staff can only work on council business. The staff and the facilities provided by the taxpayer should not be used for either private purposes or for working on party political or campaigning activity, such as say, fundraising and party donations.

Obviously then this office and its staff, despite sharing a name and address, can’t have anything to do with ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ that gave a cash donation to the Bristol North West Constituency Party can it? Because that would mean that council officers and council facilities would have been used for party political activities and party fundraising matters.

Is there another ‘Bristol Labour Group’ then? Another one specifically for party political purposes and fundraising rather than council administrative purposes? Or are cash donations to the Labour Party being channeled through a council office at the Council House with the help of our entirely disinterested city council officers?

You also have to wonder how this £10,000 cash donation is being accounted for and by who? The paper trail so far leads directly to a publicly owned office staffed by public servants.

Who exactly was responsible for the fundraising and the consequent donation and who is keeping the records of it all and where on earth are they? Let’s hope it’s nothing to do with the ‘Labour Members Services Office’/’Labour Group Office’ or its staff because that’d be against the law.

But if they’re not in any way responsible then who is? All we know at present is that it’s a group working out of the same office with exactly the same name and exactly the same address. How very odd.

And remember we’ve got nowhere near finding out where this cash came from yet!!!

Further info’: The Blogger’s research team has contacted the ‘Labour Members Services Office’/’Labour Group Office’ requesting their membership list, accounts and governing documents in order to help clear up any confusion here.

They have also contacted the City’s legal officer regarding placing a complaint about the Labour Party’s registered interests.

A further complaint will be made regarding possible maladministration by council officers apparently engaging in party political activity and allowing our public facilities and address to be used for party political purposes.

A freedom of information request will also be made to obtain any membership lists, accounts and governing documents with regard to ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ that might be on the council’s premises, held by the city council or its officers.

Posted in Bristol, Labour Party, Local government | Tagged , , | There are 2 comments

Labour funding: now we have an association of one!

Posted on December 3, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

As reported yesterday, ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ – an unincorporated association listing a Council House address – has donated £10,000 in cash in this year alone to the Bristol North West Labour Constituency Party.

The presumption yesterday was that ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ was made up of Bristol’s Labour councillors. Not so apparently. Today we find that according to the city council’s register of members’ interests there is only one declared member of this association at the Council House – Councillor Royston Griffey, the current Lord Mayor.

This is becoming rather murky. An unincorporated association with connections to the Bristol Labour Party and based within the local authority – apparently with tens of thousands of pounds washing around in it from an, as yet, unknown source – now has only one declared member within that local authority.

The council’s constitution is very clear on this matter:

Registration of members’ interests

13. (1) Subject to paragraph 14, you must, within 28 days of-

(a) this Code being adopted by or applied to your authority; or

(b) your election or appointment to office (where that is later), register in your authority’s register of members’ interests (maintained under section 81(1) of the Local Government Act 2000) details of your personal interests where they fall within a category mentioned in paragraph 8(1)(a), by providing written notification to your authority’s monitoring officer.

(2) Subject to paragraph 14, you must, within 28 days of becoming aware of any new personal interest or change to any personal interest registered under paragraph (1), register details of that new personal interest or change by providing written notification to your authority’s monitoring officer.

Obviously membership of an association generating and managing tens of thousands of pounds for political purposes would fall within the definition of an “interest”.

Can we assume then that no Labour Councillor apart from Griffey is currently a member of ‘the Bristol Labour Group’? Unless of course they have all failed to register their interest? Why would that be? Collective amnesia is it? Or maybe they don’t know their informal little group is actually awash with tens of thousands of pounds and their membership of it therefore needs to be declared?

At present this doesn’t look too good for Griffey does it? As a former middle-ranking civil servant – who owns the Bishopsworth Manor House and rather weirdly likes to walk around styling himself as the Lord of the Manor up there – he appears wealthy and has a string of property and business interests across the city.

And despite having no track record whatsoever in Labour politics, Griffey was handed the safe ward of Hartcliffe by Bristol Labour party in 2002 and immediately started lobbying to get the post of Lord Mayor.

Five years on and Griffey remarkably has his wish granted, along with being the only publicly declared member of an unincorporated association that has donated, at least, £10,000 in cash to a Constituency Labour Party for a marginal Westminster seat in the city.

As things currently stand, it rather looks like the cash from ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ could only have come from its only declared member, Royston Griffey, in a clear breach of the law on party donations.

Cash for mayoral nominations anyone? What a great story, an allegation surely, which only the idiots that are Bristol Labour Party could leave themselves open to? Perhaps our illustrious Labour councillors have something to declare?

The Blogger will continue digging . . .

Posted in Bristol, Labour Party | Tagged | There are 8 comments

Labour funding: local angles (1)

Posted on December 2, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

While leafing through the Electoral Commission’s register of donations to political parties we find a most unusual couple of entries.

It seems that the Bristol Labour Group – an unincorporated association registered at the Council House – made two donations amounting to exactly £10,000 to the Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party this year.

Due to boundary changes, the Bristol North West seat, currently held by Labour’s Doug Naysmith, is likely to be a marginal seat at the next election and the Tories appear to be throwing considerable resources into the area for their well-connected parliamentary candidate Charlotte Leslie.

Now it seems the Labour Party are doing the same for their London-based Oxbridge lawyer candidate, Lambeth councillor Sam Townend (Blogger Passim). No problem there really. If the Tories have the mysterious Lord Ashcroft throwing money at marginals why shouldn’t Labour do the same?

Well the difference is, although we might not like it, at least we know who the Tories’ money has come from. We don’t with this Labour donation.

As an unincorporated association, the Bristol Labour Group – which presumably consists of Bristol’s Labour councillors – does not have to present any public accounts. We therefore have no way of knowing the origin of this £10,000. Hardly the best example of Helen’s Holland’s new “open and transparent” regime is it?

Moreover this is an awful lot of money to raise. Are Helen and Peter Hammond down at the Whitchurch Car Boot every Saturday? (Er, not any more. They shut it down last month! Ed) £10,00o works out at £400 per councillor, a considerable amount of money if they’ve donated it themselves, particularly for a group that has fought some tough and expensive local election campaigns themselves this year.

And are Helen and Peter aware that unincorporated associations are liable to Corporation Tax? So let’s hope the Inland Revenue have been fully informed about this Labour Party fund apparently awash with cash.

And while everything may well prove to be above board in this particular case, the process that Holland is running for donating money to Bristol’s Constituency Labour Parties is easily open to abuse. How do we know – given the current climate in the Labour Party – this unincorporated association isn’t being used as a conduit by an individual donor wishing to hide their identity?

We don’t. There’s no publicly available checks and balances in place. We have to instead rely on trust! The Blogger will be delving deeper into this . . .

Posted in Bristol, Labour Party | | There are 6 comments

Cancer on the case (again)

Posted on December 2, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

Another big shout out to Evening Cancer editor Mike Norton and his super smart newsroom boys.

“PAY AS YOU THROW” thundered the front page of our ever so good local newspaper yesterday.

“ A “pay-as-you-throw” scheme charging householders £2 per sack to take away rubbish they cannot fit in their bins could be introduced in Bristol,” they explain.

What a revelation. Indeed The Bristol Blogger only told you about this over two months ago. And it was contained – albeit cunningly disguised – in a press release sent to the Cancer by the council on 17 September.

It’s good to know that the Cancer journos don’t even bother reading the press releases they type out now.

Posted in Bristol, Bristol Evening Post, Environment, Journalism, Local government, Media, Recycling | | There are 4 comments

Labour funding: it's getting very personal!

Posted on December 1, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

Any hopes that the Labour government might get a day off and a chance to regroup today were destroyed when the increasingly disgruntled dodgy donor, David Abrahams, took to the pages The Guardian to give his side of the story.

Abrahams has also now claimed that Brown’s personal fundraiser, Jon Mendelsohn, was told about his third party donor arrangements at a dinner of the Board of Deputies of British Jews on 25 April.

This is being hotly denied by Mendelsohn, who earlier in the week denied having any knowledge of Abrahams’ donations at all before admitting he had indeed known about them since September after Abrahams read out his correspondence from Mendelsohn to Jeremy Paxman live on Newsnight!

Under pressure Mendelsohn has also failed, so far, to serve a promised libel writ on the Evening Standard, which made allegations on Wednesday that Mendelsohn knew what was going on far earlier than September.

Elsewhere, a close associate of Abrahams, Eric Moonman appeared on Sky News last night to defend his friend. Demonstrating how personal all this could get, he told viewers – for some reason – that some very ambitious politicians of “a certain sexual orientation” get themselves wives, and pose as happily married men to help them to achieve their political ambitions.

Who could he be referring to?

Anyway, it’s the Sunday papers tomorrow . . . Ho, ho, ho.

Posted in Labour Party | Tagged , | There are no comments yet

Housing: stealth stock transfer?

Posted on December 1, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

Bristol Council Housing

There’s allegations over on Bristol Indymedia that Bristol City Council may be attempting to transfer its council housing stock by stealth to the private sector.

The allegations centre around the role of the council’s new Housing Management Board, which supposedly plays an advisory role in the formation of Bristol’s public housing policy.

This board currently consists of four councillors, four council tenants and a couple of independents. However it has already run into criticism because the tenants weren’t elected to this board by other tenants but selected instead by councillors.

It’s also been criticised for taking over the role of the council’s own Area Housing Committees, which – while viewed as ineffective and deliberately mired in council bureaucracy – do at least consist of properly elected tenant representatives.

Now the council want to increase the powers(pdf) of their Housing Management Board to provide it with similar powers to an ALMO (Arms Length Management Organisation) or RSL (Registered Social Landlord). Both are considered soft forms of or halfway houses to privatisation.

The fact that the future of Bristol’s council housing will soon lie largely in the hands of four unelected council tenants selected by councillors should be cause for considerable concern. The Blogger will be reporting more on this in the coming weeks.

Posted in Bristol, Housing, Local government, Privatisation | Tagged | There are 5 comments