Uncle Joe strikes again

So Liverpool has a new Lord Mayor, many congratulations to Frank Prendergast, and good luck for his year as Liverpool's first citizen.

After his instillation on Tuesday, I was invited to nibble some cheese with a few mates living behind the skirting board in the Town Hall ballroom.

So my little ears pricked up when I heard Joe Anderson get up to speak.

Uncle Joe decided to live up to his namesake's reputation for err, "redrafting history".

So says Uncle Joe, our new Lord Mayor was responsible for the development of Liverpool One. But Frank is a shy and retiring man, so he allowed the Lib Dems to take all the credit.

Even to my untrained ear this didn't sound right. So I did a little digging.

It's true that Frank Prendergast had a major influence on Liverpool One. He almost caused the whole thing to collapse!

In his last days as leader of the council Frank did a deal with a certain property developer who has a reputation for not developing the sites he acquired. He sold an option on Chavasse Park

to Bill Davies for a meagre £50,000.

Years later, just as the ink was drying on the Council's agreement with Grosvenor, up popped Bill Davies demanding the right to build a shopping mall on the park or £hundreds of millions in compensation from the council.

At this point most developers would have walked away, but luckily the Lib Dems managed to persuade them to stick around.

According to the Daily Post, it cost the council £2 Million to fight off Bill Davies option. So thanks Frank. As Uncle Joe said, you can really be proud of your contribution.

Will this endear me to Scousers?

Labour's Mr Ed has been taking advice from Luciana on how best to endear himself to the people of Liverpool.

Anyone from the Lib Dem campaign team is reading this? You might want to stick this picture on a leaflet guys.

"AV? Is that a lip gloss?"

One story you may have missed during the AV referendum was an interesting quiz on how Merseyside MPs would vote.

Most presented rational reasons for and against, apart from two Labour MPs.

Rosie Cooper refused to answer! Well it is a secret ballot after all, so you can't expect to be able to find out what your MP thinks on an important matter of state!

Meanwhile, Luciana Airhead MP had been too busy worrying about what to wear at the count, and trying to identify the next rising star in the Labour party to attach herself to. So it was unfair to expect her to have a position on a major constitutional issue.

She was reported to be abstaining, "What is AV anyway, is it a type of lip gloss? I think I recall people talking about it in the commons, but I was reading an interesting article in Heat magazine."

Telling the Tories where to go...

... To their natural home in Labour, obviously.

Joe Anderson continues to swell his ranks with Tories, after welcoming arch Thatcherite Steve Fitzsimmons to his increasingly discontented band.

The ink had hardly dried on Steve's membership form when £1000-a-week Joe announced that the former Tory Leader and parliamentary candidate would be standing for Labour next May.

Well if you can't find any talent on your own benches, poach it from somewhere else!

On being welcomed by Anderson he told reporters that he had, "Nothing but respect and admiration for his friends in the Conservative Party!" So that sweeps away any doubt we might have that this is nothing more than naked opportunism.

If elected, he will join the growing ranks of Labour Tories, including Young Conservative Jobling, former aide to Thatcher's ministers, Windy Millar, and tory landlord and quangocrat Frankle.

Bessie Bradock is spinning in her grave!

Labour dumping in Childwall

One thing about you humans, you love to leave food and other goodies laying around for me and my furry friends. Only the other day someone left an all-you-can-eat-buffet bin bag in my pack passage (oh eh misses!)

You dump rubbish everywhere, you even let your dogs dump on the pavement. No wonder we see so many leaflets from you politicians complaining about dumping and demanding action.

But imagine my surprise when a Childwall Labour leaflet was used to line my cage recently. Such is the public service from those nice Labour people, it appears that they caught this man in the act and decided to name and shame him.

There is really no excuse for dumping on our streets, even though Labour closed the last public toilet in Liverpool.

Good things in small packages

Hi there folks.

If your here looking for a blogging canine then you'll be disappointed. Since the dogs scarpered many of us have had a small hole in our daily internet experience.

It's obvious that this blog is missed, why else would a blog that hadn't been updated this year be receiving almost 2000 visitors last month alone?

Fortunately the previous owners failed to come up with a particularly original password, and tonight I finally cracked it. Honestly I'm surprised nobody tried it before, but I got there first - so consider this blog under new management!

Sally and Dude, thanks for all the fun in the past, but you have let us down and it's time for you to sling your hooks. They say that every dog has his day, and yours has gone.

Fortunately I'm more than up to the job. It helps that I'm small enough to squeeze into to the hidden corners of power - you won't believe some of the political gossip I get to hear.

I've been warned that there may be a cat loose on this blog, although none of us have heard from him. Still I'll need to be on the look out for any fury rivals popping up on here.

Please bare with me while I get used to this, but I'll try and eek out a few small stories to wet your appetite over the next few weeks.

What? You don't believe a simple hamster can perform the same job as a dog? Well just look here!

Who needs dogs? I'm cheaper to run, and you don't need to walk me when it's raining.

Bye for now, Hammy.

Who to condemn?

It's been a while since Maria (Gold Taps) Eagle featured on these pages. So thanks to the reader who brought to our attention this recent story in the Daily Post about 190 job losses in her constituency, as Novartis transfers them to Italy.

Normally we might expect any MP let alone a Labour MP to condemn the move and be demanding meetings with the management to reverse the decision. But instead of condemnation she blames the ConDems, and praises the company.

By coincidence, Maria's constituency Labour party got a £3000 shot in the arm from the Swiss owned pharmaceuticals company, who have also made larger donations to the Labour party.

Labour have a long standing relationship with the firm. Before selling out for £542Million and netting a cool £70million for himself and family, Paul Drayson regularly hit the headlines for his controversial Labour donations which exceed £1Million.

As reported here in the Guardian "Mr Drayson's firm, Powderject, received a £32m contract for smallpox vaccine without normal competitive tendering, shortly after donating £100,000 to Labour."

This resulted in a parliamentary inquiry, which failed to identify any improper activity. But Labour ministers were servilely criticised by the Parliamentary Ombudsman for refusing to comply with freedom of information requests, describing it as "a matter of great concern."

Mr Drayson was then made Lord Drayson by Labour, and he promptly gave another £1/2Million to the party. He was also appointed a Minister in the Blair and Brown Governments.

Strangely Novartis's donation doesn't appear to be listed on Maria's parliamentary register of interests. Neither do donations from Peel Ports or housing association South Liverpool Housing.

Have you seen this dog?

Fight amongst yourselves

Almost every day I receive comments on this site that are very obviously from Labour councillors or activists using this blog to wage war against their own enemies within the Labour party.

Most of them are rejected as potentially libellous or just far too offensive to appear here. I mention this because yet again I'm in the dog house with one reader for allowing a comment that on reflection just crosses the acceptability line.

I wish I could let you see the venom that exists within a party that has already descended into civil war 6 months after taking power. But I can only allow a handful of the milder comments.

So you won't see any of the disgusting homophobic comments directed against a female Labour councillor in South Liverpool. Nor will you see the allegations that another stole money from a residents association - unless we see some evidence to back up the claim. Or the repeated accusations of another Labour councillor being a wife beater... or the accusation that a candidate standing in north Liverpool will sleep with anyone but his wife.

Why don't you all just hire a boxing ring for a night and get it all off your chests?

Comments littered with F, C and T words are always rejected, as are racist, sexist, ageist or homophobic posts, or abuse directed at someone's physical appearance or impairments. Before pressing "publish" this site asks the question "if the politicians involved were MPs, would Private Eye publish this?" If not, don't bother to send it in.

love and licks to all of you,

Sally

Loosing another job

Former MP Jane (all you can eat for £400 a month) Kennedy understandably hit the roof when David (boost my pension) Henshaw was appointed to Chair Alder Hey Hospital trust.

Having been sacked previously as a Health Minister after being thwarted in her attempt to stop him becoming Chair of NHS North West, she described him as "A man in whom I have no confidence and for whom I have no respect".

Yet she had another reason to vent her wrath at her opponent.

Those of us paying any attention when she announced she was quitting as an MP, before her expense account could catch up with her, will recall she planned a career "working with the health service".

As one gravy train was pulling into it's final station, she hoped her connections could be timed to jump on board another train. So it's not too surprising that JFK also applied for the cushy number of Alder Hey Chair. After all, this is a "job" paying £42K per year for 2/3 days a week of work (no doubt with also the opportunity for expenses) so you would expect two of the city's greediest to be following the money.

But sadly for her it was not to be, and while Henshaw won the race, Jane didn't make the shortlist.

To lose one job to such a vile little man is unfortunate. To lose two seems more like people are trying to tell you something. Still, I have found a job vacancy you might be interested in, and you will be employed by another of you old mates, Joe Anderson. It will allow you to share your vast knowledge of catering on a budget. Details here.

'To Infinity And Beyond'

Labour's Leader Ed Rubberband bounced back into the spotlight following he paternity leave with a brand new slogan borrowed from Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear, promising to go beyond new Labour.

This prompted the press to label him "Buzz Lightweight" after his disastrous performance at PMQs and on the Today Programme last Friday, attempting the define the "stretched middle" that Labour are now pledged to fight on behalf of - having decided the poor are already in the bag, so stuff 'em!

So one of my regular readers started to wonder, just for a bit of fun, if Ed is Buzz Lightweight then which character is his even more lightweight pet Luciana.

Well there were only two serious contenders.

Jessie The Yodeling Cow Girl shares the cold staring eyes and fake smile. She hyperventilates just at the thought of being left on her own to do things and requires a minder at all times.

The other contender had to be Slinky. Standing out for speaking with a Southern accent and possessing a lightweight plastic head, the resemblance is striking.

Feel free to send in other members of Labour's Toy Story.

Legal dog house

I have been passed an interesting e-mail from a solicitor employed by Dr Ansari, who takes issue with the recent article about his donation to Luciana's campaign.

In the interest of fairness I will list his complaints, as this blog has always allowed a right of reply to humans named here.

1. Dr Ansari claims he made no donation specifically to fund Luciana. (Although Luciana lists his donation in her declaration of interests - so is her declaration a lie? If so I apologize to Doctor Ansari and suggest he takes action against Luciana for defaming him.)

2. Dr Anwar maintains that there was no major scandal associated with him. The proxy donor in question just happened to rent a flat from him. (Well I make no argument either way, however two Labour supporting newspapers linked him to the scandal, therefor it is fair for this blog to report that he was linked to it.)

3. There is no evidence to suggest that the Labour NEC considered Dr Ansari unfit for office. (I make no such suggestion, merely quote the example given in the Daily Mirror by a Labour insider as to why someone might be vetoed by the NEC.)

4. Dr Ansari has not submitted "controversial planning applications" in Liverpool. (Depends on how you define controversial? However the majority of planning applications he has made in Liverpool have either been refused or presumably would have been refused if he hadn't withdrawn them. And as a private landlord making a profit by housing asylum seekers in hostels, he can hardly claim to be in an uncontroversial business)

5. Dr Ansari has very little in the way of property interests in Greater Manchester. (So by "very little" is it accepted that he does indeed have property interests in Greater Manchester?)

So I am glad we could clarify all that for Dr Ansari.

Luciana's broken promises

I was stopped in the street the other day by a total stranger who recognized me from this blog. He berated me for letter Luciana get off the hook for breaking one of her campaign pledges.

Apparently, and I must have missed this, Luciana publicly pledged at various hustings meetings during the election that she would just concentrate on being Wavertree's MP. She wouldn't be taking on any portfolio or doing outside jobs.

So how does she square that with being made Shadow Climate Change spokesman as part of her reward for backing the right Rubberband? Or her lucrative writing for public relations magazines and survey filling.

A broken promise, absolutely. 100% commitment to Wavertree, well as one would have been candidate for the seat would say, "My Ar$*"

Luciana & the landlord

Rich friends are always helpful in politics, even if you sometimes have to hold your nose while trowsering their cash. Just watch out when they come back to you after the election though.

Joe Anderson has run a very successful line in taking cash of private developers, and not worrying too much about what they might expect in return for greasing your way into power.

Luciana too is not afraid to accept money from friends with interesting reputations.

Private Landlord Anwar Ansari handed over £4000 to help fund Luciana, despite his involvement in a major donations scandal in 2008 when he helped fund Alan Johnson's bid to be Labour deputy leader, as reported by those well known Tory rags, the Daily Mirror and the Grundian.

According to reports, a penniless migrant who arrived on a student visa, Waseem Siddiqui, handed over thousands to Johnson's campaign despite not knowing who the now Shadow Chancellor was. He later admitted that he was acting as a proxy. Purely by coincidence Mr Siddiqui's landlord just happened to be one Anwar Ansari.

This isn't the first time Mr Ansari has been caught in controversy. In 2006 he was selected to be a Labour candidate in Croydon's council elections. Mysteriously he was vetoed as a candidate by Labour's ruling NEC. No explanation has ever been given but Labour insiders suggested to the Mirror that a person's fitness for office was a possible reason for the NEC taking this unusual step.

Neither has there been any explanation as to why Mr Ansari should choose to donate to a candidate standing so far away from Croydon.

In what we are sure is another astonishing coincidence, an Anwar Ansari has submitted a number of controversial planning applications (including one for a 63 bed hostel) in Liverpool that have been refused.

By yet further coincidence, someone by the same name has also got property and planning application interests in Greater Manchester, where Mr Ansari also happens to spread his benevolence towards the Labour party.

Isn't it amazing the sort of coincidences that can be found when one spends a few minutes researching on the internet? It's a pity Liverpool hasn't got any investigative journalists, instead of leaving it to a poor old border collie to dig up the dirt.

Oh and proving she hasn't given up her Camden links, another major donor to Luciana's campaign was Baron Mitchel of... Camden. You couldn't make it up.

Joe Who?

More news from China, and Liverpool's disastrous £380,000 Liverpool day.

A major cock up on the communications front meant that many of the invited chinese bigwigs where unaware that Joe Anderson was leader of the council. Joe Who they asked, as they binned their invitations, deciding not to waste their time listening to anyone other than Warren Bradley!

Further damage was done to Liverpool's reputation, after Anderson broke with protocol and pushed in to speak before local civic dignitaries and then gave a dismal speech made without once looking up from his notes.

In what was perceived as a further snub, Anderson also used his time there to attempt to court a rival chinese city, a move widely seen as rude and disloyal towards his hosts and our twin city.

In the words of one officer speaking on condition of anonymity, "It was a diplomatic disaster! One visit (by Joe Anderson) has wrecked much of the goodwill built up during the rest of the Shanghai expo."

So another fine investment by Labour then!

Perhaps Joe should have watched some of those HSBC adverts demonstrating how a little local knowledge, and respect for local culture and etiquette, can stop you looking like a complete arse.

Joe picks Manc champ

Despite a flourishing Liverpool Chinese community and the oldest Chinatown in Britain, Joe Anderson drove up the M62 to find a champion for Liverpool's Chinese business community.

Appointing Dr Lee Kai Hung, who is Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, Joe outraged many in the city's chinese community, many of whom are based in his own ward, after he failed to consult with them before picking Dr Hung to be their champion.

Purely by coincidence, Dr Lee Kai Hung is founder of Leepark Properties Ltd, who have been a major donor to the Manchester Labour Party this year, in an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Lib Dem MP John Leech.

Is Joe now courting Dr Hung to become part of his growing portfolio of property developers that have been bankrolling the local Labour party?

‘Surely the rich have suffered enough?’

While the coalition are at least working to make sure the pain of clearing up Labour's economic mess is shared out (such as the latest £10bn tax haul from Brits with Swiss bank accounts), a telling line from the Labour-Lib Dem negotiations in May shows us the rich would have got off lightly if Labour were trying to fix the economy.

An outraged Mr Balls, objecting to nasty Lib Dem plans to cut taxes for the low paid, raise pensions and introduce a pupil premium argued 'We have all these expensive Lib Dem pledges,' said Balls, 'but how do we fund them, and cut the deficit?'

Lib Dem David Laws then explained: 'Look, Ed, as you know we are proposing that the higher personal allowance is funded by progressive tax reforms of the type I would have thought Labour would support - higher capital gains tax, a new mansion tax and reform of pensions taxation.'

An outraged Peter Mandelson spluttered, 'Surely the rich have suffered enough?'

So there we have it. A 4th term Labour government would have been too frighted of upsetting their rich friends, do nothing for the poorest in the nation, and leave everyone in between to pick up the tab for the financial mess.

In fact the only financial concession made was by Ed (tea-boy) Rubberband who stumped up for tea and pastries.

Amazingly, even the Tories were more willing to tax the rich and ease the burden on the poorest in society. And so children, that is how all the left wing policies that Labour refused to consider, found their way into government policy.

And we are all still waiting to see how Labour would propose cutting the deficit, while making cuts that didn't really hurt anyone, least of all the rich.

Greedy mini-Joe

In taking on his new role as "people and organisational change champion", Joe Anderson's right hand man and "enforcer" mini-Joe Hanson has been awarded a £6,500 Champion Allowance.

Apparently his role involved many arduous meetings with unions, although how much of that is truly Council business instead of Labour party business? And if the job is to lighten Anderson's load, shouldn't the swag come from the pile big Joe has grabbed for himself?

I have since been passed some interesting information that will surprise many of the Labour councillors who voted for Hanson's handsome pay out.

It seems that, despite claims that this new champion role has become a full time job for mini-Joe, he claims FIVE salaries from council tax payers!

£10,000 as an ordinary councillor

£5,600 to represent Liverpool on Merseytravel

£4,500 as chairman of a Merseytravel committee

£3,600 as deputy chairman of another merseytravel committee

and now a £6500 Champion payout.

Making a grand total of over £30,000 a year, on top of his Jaguar pension.

I'm sure Joe thinks his pay rise is "champion" as they say in Yorkshire, but will that view be shared by day centre staff soon to face the sack? Or the many Labour backbench councillors kept in the dark and on a shoestring?

All he wants is a little respect!

Don Anderson has been working hard to cement his position as head of the Labour Mafia in Liverpool.

Already proving himself to be "untouchable" after he escaped investigation for apparently (according to the Echo) tipping off Labour councillor Ben Williams about a child porn investigation, allowing 207 files to be deleted before the cops arrived.

Now he's bullied the police into dropping charges of using a mobile phone while driving with claims that our hard pressed police made it up and were prepared to lie in court - well it's hardly a charge of tax evasion, but it would have done for starters!

Last night, I'm told, he stood up in the council chamber and publicly threatened the inoffensive and universally popular councillor Pat Moloney, with a warning that he would "see him on the streets later!"

I believe a police report may be pending, but will untouchable Don Joe have his collar felt?

Meanwhile I fear for my former pal Dude, lured over to the dark side after Don Joe made him an offer he couldn't refuse, he recently confided in me that he's been questioning his decision to jump into bed with the Labour Mafia.

Now no one seems to have seen him for the past few days and I am starting to fear that he might have received two pairs of concrete paws from his new colleagues.

If anyone out there has seen or heard anything, please let me know as we are all worried about him.

Save our jobs

Lovely Luciana and our other courageous Labour MPs voted to spare themselves from a "vicious cut" that would reduce the number of MPs by 50!

Critics say that MPs shouldn't be spared when everyone else is facing cuts, but surely we need more MPs not less. Liverpool MPs wouldn't be able to cope with anymore workload, and have effectively already suffered a massive pay cut now they can't claim for food or speculate in property at the taxpayer's expense.

After all, MPs like Luciana are now having to fill in surveys to raise extra cash, as Sally rather unfairly pointed out.

Worse still, Luciana could be the one to who faces the sack. Under the plans Liverpool is likely to lose one MP, and just a glance at the city's political map shows that Luciana is the obvious "piggy in the middle". Will any of the other four be willing to walk the plank for her?

Now I'm going to get myself a banner and protest. Save our MPs!!!

At last! One Labour liar gets caught out

It couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke, well perhaps Joe Anderson, but a senior Labour minister has been found guilty of spreading lies and racial hatred in a bid to hold on to his seat.

Phil Woolas will now be booted (we can only hope literally) out of parliament and face a massive legal bill, thanks to a campaign described by his own campaign team as designed to get white working class sun readers angry.

It clearly throws into doubt the judgement of Ed Rubberband for making him a Shadow Minister when he knew the judges were still considering their verdict. It's even more insulting to make someone your spokesman on a sensitive subject like immigration, after a clearly and blatantly racist campaign. Perhaps he will now join the BNP where he should feel more at home.

Clearly there are a number of parallels with Luciana Berger's campaign, designed to portray the Lib Dems as somehow running an anti-jewish campaign against her. In one case, she even ran off to the Jewish Chronicle with an anonymous leaflet, which she tried to portray as being from her Lib Dem opponents, even though she knew that it was the Lib Dems who had reported it to the police.

My sources tell me that this has carried on since the election, with a few Lib Dems building up a dossier of evidence for a slander case from a number of people who have heard her label them as "anti-semitic".

Better start filling in more surveys to help cover those legal costs.

Nice work if you can get it

As if being an MP wasn't highly paid enough, the enterprising Luciana Berger has found out that there are even more lucrative sidelines to be had.

While many of her constituents would have to work a 12 hour shift to earn £75 just so they can put food on the table, Lucy is able get the same payment by simply "filling in a survey" - 20 minutes work by her own estimate or £225 per hour!

Some have to stack shelves to make ends meet, but filling in surveys has become a nice little earner for our Lucy, some earning her up to £150 - nice work if you can get it.

She also earns £200 an hour writing bimonthly articles for Public Affairs News - no I've never heard of it either! Apparently it advertises itself as "essential reading for lobbyists" now there lies a can of worms waiting to be cranked open! She even twitters for them!

Still, you can't expect a girl to get by on a mere £64,000 a year, not when there is a collie keeping a beady eye on your expenses!

Con-Dem cuts

I was with Joe in the chauffeur driven car (perks of office eh!) listening to the spending review on the radio, and we where both left apoplectic (well Joe was only apoplectic after I explained what the word meant) .

So this is what the Con Dems are doing

A 19% cut in government funding - taking us back to 2006 levels - instead of the more responsible 20% cut Labour promised before the election. How irresponsible can you get?

What's more, they won't even be cutting the NHS - even though Alistair Darling pledged to include them in our 20% cut!!! Instead they are taking it out on poor higher rate taxpayers like poor Joe Anderson.

Highlights include:

• Permanent tax on banks
• axing tax relief on people who save more than £50,000 a year in their pensions
• benefits cuts for the rich
• £900 million crackdown on rich tax evaders 
• higher capital gains tax for rich

Even more irresponsibly, the con-dems plan to increase spending, including:

• More money for schools
• a £7bn "premium" for poorest pupils
• more money for the NHS
• £2billion for social care
• More cancer drugs to be made available
• More investment in transport (including £100 million for Liverpool's railways)
• 150,000 new affordable houses
• 75,000 apprenticeships every year
• £1billion green investment bank
• More overseas aid
• £1bn regional growth fund 

What do they think they are doing? We can't go on wasting money like this!

It's just lucky Gordon signed the contract for the two aircraft carriers before the election. Now it would have cost more to cancel them than to build them. Ha! We got you there!

Even worse, they plan to cut back on vital nuclear warhead, delay trident's replacement, cut back on fighter planes and cut back our armed forces to a level where we couldn't even afford to invade Iraq again!!!

After seeing how the country is being run by a bunch of lilly livered liberal lefties, it just makes me even more glad that I made the brave decision to defect to Labour this summer.

Councillor of Dibley

Time for a lookalike of another of the new crop of Labour Councillors. Apparently this was sent to Dude a couple of months ago, yet he refused to publish it.

Don't recall Dude refusing to publish cruel lookalikes of Lib Dems before Joe dangled a sausage in front of him. The phrase "two faced hypocrite" comes to mind!

So here it is, Warbreck's own Councillor of Dibley, Maria McEvoy. A spitting image for Dibley's dippy Alice Springs Tinker. Enjoy!

Letting the cat out of the bag

A bit of a cock up on the con-dem front yesterday, after big Joe accidentally admitted that a forth term Labour Government would have slashed services for deprived communities.

In an interview on fat cat pay, Joe inadvertently said, “I made it clear BEFORE THE ELECTION that at a time when the government is withdrawing millions of pounds in funding to our most deprived communities, it is essential this burden is borne fairly and not solely on the backs of the lowest earners."

Err, with the greatest respect Joe, you have gone a bit off message there. We aren't admitting any more that a Labour Government would have made cuts, particularly not ones that would have hurt anyone.

(That way we can portray every con-dem cut as evil, such as taking child benefit off poor people earning more than £44,000 a year - even poor working class folk like Joe himself will loose out, outrageous!)

I thought that Waddington's job was to protect Joe, not print slip ups like this. Why didn't he spot this? I only wish I had been in the pub to sound the alarm, instead of being sent off to purchase the meat pies.

massage the figures

Dude's comments yesterday about Labour membership figures yesterday got me thinking about where these 32,000 extra members Labour claim to have gained since May actually are (a third supposedly from the Lib Dems remember).

Why haven't we seen them at the conference? Line them up ate to the podium to tear up their membership card and condemn the con dems. Otherwise we will assume you have only got what we can see, half a dozen people and a feeble minded canine blogger!

The figures revealed in the leadership ballot result work out at 177,559 members, that's 559 more than they reported in may 2007.

Meanwhile I am informed that Lib Dem membership has increased by over 4000 since May, while just 500 have resigned or failed to renew their membership.

So it looks like Labour's story of mass defection is as much spin as their stories of Charlie Kennedy's imminent transfer to the red team.

Give it up lads, it's fairy stories like this that have stopped people believing anything you say.

Thoughts from the conference floor

Finally got online to update you on the Labour leadership.

As you may have heard Ed-Mili won the backing of my fellow Labour members. Err, well, actually he didn't! The majority actually backed David Mili, and I can actually give you the exclusive figures for Liverpool, which are pretty similar to the national figures.

David 399 votes   Ed 308 votes

So how did the party end up with the candidate it didn't want? Union votes from those wonderful people who hand over fat cheques to the party every time we are on the verge of bankruptcy. Money talks eh?

So Ed wins by less than a 1% margin, as long as you don't include the 36,562 ballots that didn't get counted. Unfortunately 10% of people forgot to tick the box on the ballot paper saying they support the Labour party - yes that almost caught me out too.

I must admit I am relieved that Andy Burnham didn't win (even though the majority of Walton members backed him).

Don't get me wrong, I would be proud to have a Scouser lead my party, but not one who tells journalists that his favourite word in the english language is "gobsh*te" - it hardly projects the most favourable image of our city.

So who did I vote for? Now that he's won I can admit to backing the winning side, as so many will over the next few days! Well, the lovely Luciana told me to.

Meanwhile spare a thought for poor John Prescott, the overwhelming winner of party votes to be treasurer, who was utterly defeated once the union block vote was added.

Still trying to get me head round how Labour democracy works, but isn't it a pity all elections can't be fought this way?

Conference glee

Sorry for not posting this week, I'm still getting over my glee club hangover - I've never had so many saucers of beer put in front of me!

For those of you who don't know, the Glee Club is the last night of conference Liberal get together and sing song.

Far from the despondency and defections predicted by Labour, everyone joined in to mock Labour's arrogant believe that the Lib Dems exist just to act as a life raft for failed Labour governments.

A rendition of "The Pink Flag" went down well, but not as popular as "Lib Lab lie" (to the tune of "American Pie" complete with the memorable chorus:

"So bye, bye to the great Lib Lab lie

That it's made in heaven,

'cos that's pie in the sky

Us Lib Dems will take courage and cry

Tony Blair can F*** OFF and die

Tony Blair can F*** OFF and die"

Actually plenty of Labour readers might enjoy that one!

So on to Manchester, when we will find out which Rubberband will take over stretching the truth for the Liebour Party.

Rumour has it that Labour's highest profile defector will be addressing conference. No not Charlie Kennedy, that was just another Labour lie. Step forward Liverpool's great turncoat, and head up to the podium Dude. You must be barking mad!

Another day protesting against the condems, and this time people actually turned up to join us, perhaps they got the day wrong, or didn't want to be associated with yesterday's Labour only event.

Plenty of shouting and tub thumping going on by those of us willing to brave the rain, it's just that I can't help wondering if we were wasting our time.

Yet again the police kept us so far back from the conference centre that I don't think any of my former Lib Dem friends could see or hear us.

In the end we all just laid down our arms (or placards) and surrendered to the rain. Unfortunately my new Labour friends don't seem to share my concern for the environment, leaving The Strand strewn with litter and placards in a scene akin to Bill Bryson's famous festival of litter.

I can't help but feel that the sight of a filthy Liverpool street won't be a more lingering image for these thousands of visitors to take home than our rather lame protest. As much as I love them, sometimes your friends can be such an embarrassment, don't they realise that it's now a Labour council that will have to clean up their mess?

Dude day

Had fun today leading the demo against my former Con-Dem friends.

My new Labour comrades even chose to call the event "dog day" in my honour. Bless them. They really know how to make me feel welcome.

OK there was only about 20 of us, but we made our presence felt, even though those nasty Lib Dems got us banned from protesting outside the conference center by using our own anti-terror laws against us. 

I even had to suffer the indignity of having an over-familiar sniffer dog sticking it's nose up my bottom. Talk about being deep searched!

How illiberal can you get? Don't they realise that we brought those laws in to repress our own opponents, they have no right to use them against is. It's just a sign of how right wing the yellow Tories have become! 

Oh well, looking forward to a bigger protest tomorrow, paws crossed I don't get my fur wet again.

love and licks,

Dude

Where's Wendy?

Wendy Simon, unfairly described on Roger Philips during the general election as "local mediocrity" by a Wavertree Labour member, became one of the first cabinet members to claim her free trip to China this week.

I am told that in order to avoid any embarrassment to Wendy, who is up for election next May, the Council have refused to disclose how much this trip is costing taxpayers. But rest assured it was a pretty penny.

Personnel affairs

Randy Alan Dean is well known for having an eye for the ladies, particularly those under his command! So much so that his affairs have apparently already cost him two marriages.

His second wife is rumored to have walked into the Labour office in the Municipal Buildings and found him in a compromising position with a council official he was working with.

Since then, he has become a big cheese in Merseytravel, where he rose to the rank of Chair of Personnel.

Now Alan is a man who likes to take an in-depth interest in his portfolio, so it's perhaps no surprise that his interest turned to his director of personnel, and his interest became morepersonal than personnel!

A conflict of interest, you would think? So of course, as you would expect, he quickly resigned from that role? Answers on a post card please! (hint - the answer has two letters and begins with "n")

Willkommen Deutschland

One of the biggest surprises on this blog is how big an international hit it has been, particularly with the 1245 of our German friends who logged on to this blog in August alone.

Wherever in the world you are reading this, Dude and I extend you a warm Scouse welcome, and hope you keep coming back to the web's number 1 source for Liverpool politics!

Oh and in answer to your question, no Liverpool politics isn't all like this. We just show you the warm and fluffy side of the town hall capers!

Labour busters

Croxteth is well known for it's haunted hall, so widespread stories of ghosts in and around the area come as no surprise. It has even been suggested that they need to call in some sort of ghost-buster.

Yet Labour sources tell me that ghostly activity has recently been increasing in Croxteth, and there are even rumours that the infamous Stay Puft Marshmallow Man has been spotted stomping the streets (although not too often).

Playing sardines

Dude, I warned you that I will keep retaliating every time you post your Labour supporting drivel!

Perhaps you should try looking at what Mac the Knifeman is going to cut next?

Top of the list appears to be Millennium House, built at great expense by the last Labour Council, but now being considered for disposal.

So where are they going to put everyone, I don't hear you ask? Well, squash them all into the Municipal Buildings, or any other old building the council can't get rid off, seems to be the plan.

So perhaps not the best time to start sacking the cleaners eh? Soon to be slashed by the Mac-Anderson coalition.

No wonder most decent managers have already fled the sinking ship, those that is who haven't been forced to walk the plank because their faces don't fit.

Mac the Knife won't mind how crowded and smelly the offices get though, rumour has it he is currently being head-hunted!... ok, I'll let you make up your own jokes on that one.

Love,

Sally

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