how much does a progressive councillor cost the taxpayer?

It’s the Progressives turn to face Mr Monkey’s how much do they cost the taxpayer test. 

Like the Real Independents, these closet Conservatives have effectively been bought by Miss Piggy as he tries desperately to cling on to power. Sadly this once major force in South Tyneside politics has been reduced to a handful of has beens that are well past their sell by date, but they do all have one thing in common – they’re useless, and in some case clueless. 

Take councillor Hetherington, one of the Ugly Sisters from West Park, she accepted the position of vice chair of the Riverside Community Area Forum thinking it was a paid position and when she found out it wasn’t she spent the rest of the year sulking. 

Name	Allowances	Travel	Subsistence	Total	Weekly Cost
J. Capstick	£11,760			£11,760	£226.15
K. Hickman	£11,203			£11,203	£215.44
E. Hetherington	£7,056			£7,056	£135.69
M. Robinson	£7,056			£7,056	£135.69
L. Nolan	£7,056			£7,056	£135.69
TOTALS	£44,131	-	-	£44,131	£848.66

 The cost of each Progressive councillor to the taxpayer in 2008 – 09 was £8,826.20

exclusive: an investigation into election fraud and ballot rigging in South Tyneside

'Council leader Iain Malcolm and the South Shields Labour party are under investigation for election fraud'

About 2 months ago Mr Monkey received some disturbing information about a culture of election fraud within the local Labour party.  

At first Mr Monkey thought that the allegations were being made by a disgruntled political opponent of the ruling Labour group but decided to take investigate the them further, especially as they concerned the leader of the council Iain Malcolm who several months earlier had been implicated in the scandal surrounding a payout of around £8 million pounds to two former employees of Newcastle Airport when he was the chair of the remuneration committee. 

Mr Monkey’s investigation has taken over month to complete. He has interviewed many witnesses including some of those either knowingly involved or unwittingly conned in to doing someone else’s dirty work. Mr Monkey’s investigation left no stone unturned and took him to Newcastle, London, Hull and he spoke to people in Brussels, Strasbourg and Spain.  

Within days of investigating the allegations Mr Monkey realised that they were coming from a source that witnessed the events and that the motivation for exposing the culture of election fraud within the local Labour Party had nothing to with politics but everything to do with a exposing the truth about the shocking way Labour has lied, cheated and fraudulently held on to power in South Tyneside. 

For years Mr Monkey has heard rumours about election fraud, ballot rigging, fraudulent selection meetings and the manipulation of party membership lists by a group of individuals desperate to hang on to power at all costs. 

 

Mr Monkey can now reveal that the culture of election fraud is much wider than he first thought and was orchestrated at the very top by council leader Iain Malcolm but it didn’t stop there.  

 

Others implicated include; Ed Malcolm, Michael Clare, Rob Dix, Ann Walsh, John Anglin, John Wood, Ed McAtominey, Nancy Maxwell, Mark Walsh and Neil Maxwell – and Mr Monkey suspects that this is just the tip of the iceberg. 

 

The findings of Mr Monkey’s investigation are too long to be included in a single post so he will be posting on this subject over the next week or so – make sure you don’t miss out by visiting Mr Monkey’s Blog frequently.  

 

Part one of Mr Monkey’s investigation will be posted here later this morning.

Mouths To Feed

The Tax Payers Alliance and The Northern Echo CLICK HERE recently revealed that South Tyneside Council spent more than £25,000 on refreshments between April 2007 and March 2008. But Mr Monkey reckons the real figure is much higher.

This type of eexpenditure is notoriously difficult to track because it can easily be hidden under lots of different budget headings that make no reference to hospitality and refreshments- the Department of Revenue and Customs calls it ’creative accounctancy’ – Mr Monkey calls it fiddling the books.

This system allows senior councillors and officers to manipulate budgets to suit the needs of those who think being a councillor means you pay for fuck all.

Mr Monkey wonders what this year’s refreshment bill will be given the change of leadership and Miss Piggy’s, aka councillor Iain Malcolm’s love for the finer things in life .. providing someone else is paying for it.

Bloggers will remember these posts about the fat twats feeding at the trough CLICK HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE, it seems that under the aptly named Miss Piggy regime, these scrounging bastards are set to cost the taxpayer a whole lot more.

That’s without the new in take of heavyweights such as Papa John Szymanski the editor of the Shields Gazette Malcolm Fanzine, Indy councillors Ahmed Khan, Geraldine White, Gordon Finch and all the other hangers on like former councillors Arthur Meeks, John Wood, Paul Waggott, wannabe councillors Joyce Welsh, Neil Maxwell, Alan Smith, Terry Fairley, arse lickers like Linda Hemmer and any other idiots Labour can find to work for them in return for a few sausage rolls.

With mouths like these to feed, it’s no wonder the leader of the council Iain Malcolm Miss Piggy gave his brother and wanabee Labour MP for Houghton and Washington East the cabinet portfolio that includes overseeing council budgets.