highlights: council leader Iain Malcolm rigs ballot to cheat tory Pat Piggott out of victory

Election fraudster - council leader Iain Malcolm

Mr Monkey would like to take readers back to April 2000.

Councillor Iain Malcolm was up for re-election and it was widely believed that he faced a tough fight against Patricia Piggott, a strong Conservative candidate.  

 

Many people including Iain Malcolm believed that he would lose his seat to the Conservative so he decided to take matters into his own hands and rig the ballot to ensure he won and there was no better way to do this than by manipulating the postal vote – Labour’s recently introduced new election fixing tool. 

Councillor Iain Malcolm ensured that every elderly person in his ward was registered to vote and encouraged them to vote by post. He assured them that there was nothing complicated about the process especially as he and his associates would be on hand to fill the ballot papers in for them and even offered to post them on their behalf.

Councillor Iain Malcolm particularly targeted care homes, sheltered accommodation and OAP bungalows. As a sitting councillor no council employee was going to deny him access so he was free to come and go as he pleased.

 

As the election was nearing its climax, councillor Iain Malcolm was increasingly worried about the reaction on the doorstep and decided that it was time for drastic intervention otherwise he would lose his seat.

 

Around the same time the sitting MP for South Shields, Dr David Clarke was planning to retire at the next general election which was due to be held within the next year or so.

 

The only problem was that councillor Iain Malcolm had been selected to sit on the Parliamentary panel and was likely to be selected to replace Dr Clarke as Labour’s parliamentary candidate at the forthcoming election – something Dr Clarke was desperate to avoid, he even raised the matter with the then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

 

Dr Clarke despised everything Iain Malcolm stood for, he didn’t trust him and questioned his integrity. It wasn’t long before Dr Clarke was proved right.

 

Prior to polling day councillor Iain Malcolm instructed all Labour party members in Horsley Hill to go around people’s homes collecting any postal voting envelopes that hadn’t been posted on the pretext of “we’ll post them for you”. But instead of posting them he asked his supporters to hand them over to him.

 

A crucial part of Iain Malcolm’ strategy was to ensure that the postal votes from care homes, sheltered accommodations and OAP bungalows were collected in person. He entrusted this task to an unsuspecting Labour party member called Tom Taylor. He told him to take all the envelopes to his house and that he would come and collect them later.

 

After he had collected them he called Iain Malcolm to tell him that he had finished his task and that they were at his house awaiting collection. Shortly after Iain Malcolm arrived.

 

Tom’s wife Mary, asked Iain Malcolm to step inside the house and when he saw that Tom was as good as his word and had collected a large number of envelopes he sat down and started to sort through them. Then to the total and utter dismay of these life long Labour supporters he started to open the envelopes in their front room and removed the ballot papers. Any votes for Labour were returned to the envelope and resealed for posting and any votes for Pat Piggott, the Conservative candidate were destroyed.

 

In the early hours of May 5^th the election result was announced and as people had predicated it was a close run thing. Iain Malcolm was declared the winner with 785 votes with Pat Piggott polling 709 votes, a difference of just 76 votes.

 

Iain Malcolm celebrated his victory by announcing to a handful of associates that he had cheated Pat Piggott out of victory by destroying her votes and said that he’d done what he’d needed to do to ensure that no Tory took his seat.

 

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? Part 2 of this disgraceful act of betrayal will follow shortly.

 

UPDATE: Saturday 28th March at 10.35am

Yesterday was a record breaking day for Mr Monkey’s Blog with 4,163 hits being recorded. Bloggers also helped set an all time record for the highest number of hits on a single post.

 

UPDATE DATE: Friday 27th March at 20.55pm
Apparently Mr Monkey’s blog was mentioned at yesterday’s meeting of the full council and by all accounts it caused quite a stir. Some councillors appeared to want a hole to open up and swallow them. Others managed to raise a wry smile but sadly one or two just sat there with a blank expression on their face.

twinkle toes

Mr Monkey popped into his local for a swift one last night and caught a glimpse of Britains Got Talent – seems the whole country is obsessed with reality tv shows.

This chimp couldn’t help noticing that one of last night’s semi finalist – a brother and sister team – looked as though they came straight from the set of Strictly Come Dancing as they performed a high octane ballroom dancing routine.

Mr Monkey mentioned that he thought it was a shame that more people did’nt take up ballroom dancing and to his surprise a number of locals admitted that they were taking lessons and that they’d been on a waiting list for several months before the could join a class.

What Mr Monkey heard next had this chimp falling about in fits of laughter and he almost choked on his beer.

Apparently councillor Ed Malcolm, aka ‘Big’ Ed and his long term slapper lover councillor Olive Punchion, aka Aunt Sally have been taking ballroom dancing lessons for several months and they’re still crap at it.

Mr Monkey reckons councillor Malcolm’s desire to become the belle off the ball may stem from his childhood fascination with dressing up dolls. Either that or he intends to marry Aunt Sally and wants to surprise his guests when the odd ‘happy couple’ perform the first dance.

The thought of Ed and Olive strutting their stuff on their wedding day is enough to give anyone a nightmare.

Imagine Aunt Sally, the 80 year old scarecrow clinging onto ‘Big’ Ed, the 4ft dwarf for all she’s worth? And what about Big Ed hugging Aunt Sally in a motherly embrace for comfort and security, and to stop him falling over – it’s a good job she’s past lactating or he’d be suckling her too.

But don’t worry Ed, whatever happens this chimp will be there to witness your big day, you have little choice but to invite him!

deputy mayor, councillor Tom Piggott will step down in 2010

Earlier this week Mr Monkey told bloggers that he was following up a story about the new deputy mayor, councillor Tom Piggot. CLICK HERE.

Mr Monkey can now reveal that councillor Piggott the current deputy mayor has been persuaded to step down in late February to make way for Joyce Welsh.

Councillor Malcolm has been grooming Joyce Welsh for several years and is seen by him as a major player in his attempt to keep the Independents out of Biddick Hall. He has recently put her in charge of the women’s group of the local Labour party, appointed her as a school governor and has put her on several outside bodies where she represents the council.

There’s only one problem – his brother Ed Malcolm’s long term mistress councillor Olive Punchion is due for re-election in 2010 and she has no intention of standing down, especially to make way for a usurper.

Mr Monkey has now learned that councillor Piggott will retire on ill health grounds just before the deadline for nominations in 2010. This will allow Iain Malcolm to impose Joyce Welsh on the ward without the need to follow the selection process.

He has told his close associates that his plan would also catch the Independents off guard as they would not have enough time to find a second candidate – that was until Mr Monkey revealed his plan to the world.

Labour councillors paid almost half a million pounds

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

When bloggers look at the figures it’s easy to see why so many Labour stalwarts have been around for so long. No wonder they squeal like pigs on the way to the slaughter house when they face the prospect of being dragged away from the trough.

Mr Monkey also reckons that this is why their lives are decimated when the electorate kick them out and why so many of them try and grab someone else’s seat on the council. This is the only way they can get their snouts back in the trough – there’s never been any honour amongst thieves especially when it comes to money.

Here are some of the highlights from The Labour Greed List,

• Coun Iain Malcolm made the highest claim at £32,435 (£623.75 a week)

• Coun Alan Kerr claimed at £23,319 (£448.44 a week)

• Coun Ernest Gibson claimed a record £4,932.27 for travel and subsistence

• Coun Rob Dix treated himself to a new BMW when he was elected. This delivery driver receives an annual boost to his salary from the taxpayer of around £14,000.

• After replacing Paul Waggott as leader of the council, Coun Malcolm promptly put the boot in by not giving Coun Linda Waggott a place at his trough. She was the only Labour councillor not to receive a special responsibility allowance.

Mr Monkey was staggered to learn that almost half a million pounds of taxpayers money was paid to just 31 Labour councillors and for what? Most of them can’t string a sentence together and couldn’t care less about the people they represent, that is until it’s time for their re-election.

The cost of each Labour councillor to the taxpayer in 2008 – 09 was a staggering £15,029.83.

Name	Allowance	Travel	Subsistence	Total	Weekly Cost
Anglin, J	11,760	–	–	11,760	226.15
Bell, J	16,464	–	–	16,464	316.61
Boyack, P	13,833	691.25	152.33	14,676	282.23
Brady, W  E	16,464	–	–	16,464	316.61
Clare, M H	16,464	–	–	16,464	316.61
Dix, R	14,112	–	–	14,112	271.38
Dixon, T	15,352	1,566.80	315.62	17,234	331.43
Donaldson, A	8,168	–	129.63	8,297	159.55
Foreman, J	16,464	800.15	214.01	17,478	336.11
Gibson, E	16,186	3,431.90	1,500.37	21,118	406.12
Hanson, T	16,464	–	–	16,464	316.61
Kerr, A	22,408	733.47	177.63	23,319	448.44
Leask, E	14,112	–	–	14,112	271.38
Lewell, E L	11,760	–	–	11,760	226.15
Malcolm, E	16,464	1,253.10	605.91	18,323	352.36
Malcolm, I	31,817	239.00	379.82	32,435	623.75
Maxwell, N E	16,464	228.50	72.94	16,765	322.40
McAtominey, E	12,962	638.40	53.12	13,653	262.56
McCabe, J G	14,112	–	–	14,112	271.38
McMillan, A	11,481	–	–	11,481	220.78
Meeks, J	14,112	334.60	160.61	14,607	280.90
Perry, J	16,464	–	–	16,464	316.61
Piggot, T	11,760	–	–	11,760	226.15
Punchion, O	11,760	102.40	–	11,862	228.11
Scorer, B	14,112	211.20	111.75	14,434	277.57
Sewell, J	16,464	658.75	734.78	17,857	343.40
Spraggon, S	11,203	151.20	–	11,354	218.34
Stewart, A M	13,833	114.90	88.47	14,036	269.92
Strike, A	11,760	56.00	–	11,816	227.23
Waggott, L I	7,056	–	–	7,056	135.69
Walsh, A	8,486	372.00	15.42	8,873	170.63
TOTALS:	450,321*	10,892.37	4,712.41	465,925*	8,973.16

*These figures do not include pence

ballot rigging by council leader Iain Malcolm – what happened next

'Postal votes for Pat Piggott abducted by council Leader Iain Malcolm'

Last week Mr Monkey published the findings of his investigation into ballot rigging by Labour council leader Iain Malcolm at the 2000 local elections.  

At the time it was widely predicted that councillor Iain Malcolm would lose his seat to the Conservative candidate, Patricia Piggott so he took matter into his own hands by arranging for party members to collect postal votes from unsuspecting members of the public by offering to post them on their behalf.

Little did they know that he had no intention of posting them – not until he had ‘sorted’ them. He did this by opening the ed the postal vote envelopes, removing  ballot papers and destroying the ones that had voted for the Conservative candidate. He then carefully resealed the ones that had voted for him and posted them back to the town hall. Councillor Malcolm’s fraudulent activities had ensured that he was declared the winner

CLICK HERE to read part one of Mr Monkey’s investigation in full.

Councillor Malcolm celebrated his ‘victory’ with a handful of associates who’d helped him secure his victory by either collecting postal votes, illegally completing them, opening them or destroying them. He even boasted that he’d cheated his way to victory by defeating the Conservative candidate.

His associates included, his brother Ed Malcolm, councillor Michael Clare, Arthur Meeks, Rob Dix and Mark Walsh.

After councilor Iain Malcolm was sworn in for another term the unsuspecting party members, Tom and Mary Taylor, who he’d cynically used to collect a large proportion of postal votes from the elderly and whose house he’d used to open the postal vote envelopes were finding it difficult to come to terms with what they had witnessed.

They were honest people with principles and high moral values who had been unwittingly dragged into Iain Malcolm’s plan to rig the ballot in his favour. This whole affair increasingly played on Tom’s mind and gradually his health started to deteriorate. Unfortunately Tom was torn between his loyalty to the movement, his duty as a party official (he was the local party treasurer) and his own consounce.

For months Tom agonised as to whether he should contact the police or confide in another party official but he didn’t know who he could trust after witnessing councillor Iain Malcolm ballot rigging in his own front room. Almost a year passed before the opportunity finally presented itself.

Tom’s ill health had prevented him from carrying out his duties as the party teasurer and it had also resulted in him missing a number of executive meetings. He was also unable to produce the treasure’s report for the South Shields Labour party’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) – something which the party’s constitution required.

At a meeting of the executive Iain Malcolm produced a treasure’s report for the AGM (without the knowledge of the treasure) and said that he would sign it off. Two members of the executive objected to this and said that this was unconstitutional, broke party rules and left the executive open to allegations of fraud.

One of the objectors Geraldine White said that she would visit Tom at his home to see if he was happy to sign off the report produced by Iain Malcolm and would report back. This was reluctantly agreed.

PARTY TREASURER, TOM TAYLOR REVEALS ALL– Part 3 of this disgraceful act of betrayal and election fraud will follow shortly.

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.

Independent Election Challenge in Simonside

Joan Meeks faces an uphill struggle to retain her Simonside and Rekendyke seat at the 2010 local elections.

Mr Monkey has been told by a source close to a community activist that the people of Simonside and Rekendyke are ready for change and are determined to make it happen in 2010.

They feel that for far too long they’ve been taken for granted and it’s time to send out a clear message to the three stooges that this ward is no longer a safe haven for Labour.

Unfortunately for Miss Golden Shower, aka councillor Joan Meeks, it seems her days on the council are numbered and that she will be joining her ex husband Arthur on Labour’s ever increasing casualty list.

EXclusive: Gollum and Aunt Sally’s ‘love’ hideawy revealed

'Councillors Ed Malcolm and Olive Punchion's weekend love nest'

The Gollum of South Tyneside politics, councillor Ed Malcolm has had a tough few weeks preparing for his big day, presenting the council’s budget.

A source close to Gollum has told Mr Monkey that as budget day approached his nerves were in tatters and he resorted to medication to calm himself down, but whatever he took didn’t stop him making a twat of himself and fluffing his lines.

Apparently on one occasion Aunt Sally, aka Olive Punchion – who spent years cheating on her husband to get in to Gollum’s nappy pants – came to his rescue by bringing him a glass of water. That made things worse as he lost his concentration and started stuttering his lines.

Mr Monkey has learned that Gollum and his scarecrow, Aunt Sally decided that after a difficult few weeks it was time to get away from it all and recharge their batteries in a plush and intimate location.

This chimp can exclusively reveal that the ‘odd couple’ spent  last weekend at one of their favourite hideaways – The Royal County hotel in Durham.

A quick look at the Marriott Hotel website confirms that Gollum, aka councillor Ed Malcolm and Aunt Sally, aka councillor Olive Punchion enjoy living it up in these difficult economic times, apparently rooms start at around £130 a night.

Mr Monkey wonders what the hard pressed people of Biddick Hall and Simonside and Rekendyke will make of this?

1p per minute to park

Apparently councilor Iain Malcolm Miss Piggy and her fellow sows in the cabinet have recognised the problems caused by parking charges in South Shields town centre and have decided to take “decisive action”. At least that’s what ‘Big’ Ed Malcolm claimed during his budget presentation at last week’s full council.

According to this blithering idiot, South Tyneside is going to adopt the North Tyneside model of charging 1p a minute – he reckons no one will object to paying 1p for a minute’s worth of parking.

This new ‘radical’ shift in policy means that motorists will now pay 60p per hour instead of 70p. The machines will not give any change nor will the motorist get any extra time in lieu of their change.

With fuckwit policies like this, its hardly surprising our town centre has become so popular with the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband a ghost town.

Aunt Sally Speaks!

'Aunt Sally scares anyone but Big Ed Malcolm'

Big Ed Malcolm’s scarecrow councillor Olive Punchion, aka Aunt Sally is not the dumb bitch she’s made out to be. At least that’s what the council’s press office would like you to think. 

According to this article that appears in the local snooze paper CLICK HERE Biddick Hall, Whiteleas and West Harton is the latest area to get its own Police and Community Together (Pact) forum and Aunt Sally had this to say,

“The council works closely with the police and other partners to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, but we can achieve nothing without the involvement of those who matter the most – local residents.” 

Anyone who knows Aunt Sally will tell you that this crap cannot have originated in her favourite cornfield (more of this later) because the old scarecrow is just not capable of churning out such words of wisdom.

Thank heavens for the council’s press office, the local Labour party would be lost without it.