The Ides of May did not happen this weekend.
There was a toga party and a reshuffle, but the conspirators blinked so Cllr Alan Taylor retained his leadership and comfy couch at Rochdale Council.
Alan's bulging civic salary, expenses and allowances still mounted up whilst Irene was deputising. But Dave Hennighan made sure that Alan was occasionally still seen, Kim Il-Sung style, at the odd flag raising outside the Town Hall.
Meanwhile, poor "millionaire" Cllr Couzens will have more time to spend sharpening his hairdressing scissors or impersonating a Chancellor of the Exchequer by allowing photoshopped images of himself with the real Gladstone bag to be used in his council leaflets.
Tit.
With the Hothouses gone there has been a reshuffle of the "cabinet" (the one where the skeletons are kept?). In true Rochdale co-operative style, there has been a divvying out of the lucrative posts in what hardly could be described as a local Government Of All the Talents.
Word on the street is that the new RMBC portfolio holder for Education can bearly read or write.
Just the sort of dynamic sort to drive through hundreds of millions of pounds of PFI school building contracts without needing to worry about the small print?So if Rochdale isn't made up of GOATs then who really runs Rochdale?
Rumours abound that Chief Executive Roger Ellis was the driving force keeping Alan Taylor in power.
Why?
And how come an unelected, unaccountable and overpaid mandarin holds so much power in Rochdale?
A town being 'Rogered'?
11 comments:
Uncanny. The haircut of Kim Il Sung is nearly identical to the top couffure of Alan Taylor standing to attention next to the butcher's apron in the Lib Dem only St Georges day flag raising.
Is Cllr Greg Couzens hairdresser to Rochdale Council leaders AND preserved dictators?
And the loyal fist salutes in the North Korean poster has a near identical "patriotic" salute from two loyal followers on the left (only left in the photo not in practice, apart from when those Ghurka chaps are involved).
Isn't there something a tad creepy about the fluffy Palestinian loving Fib Dems also getting all emotional with the Crusader flag that defeated Saladin?
Or as they say in Yorkshire, do they bat for both sides depending on which way the wind is blowing?
The Hobhouses jumped before they were pushed.
Months ago Paul Rowen MP was openly criticising his golden couple to complete strangers.
What have the Hobhouses been up to to get Rochdale Lib Dems so angry?
The wheels are falling off the Rochdale Lib Dem dreamteam.
Brenda Kerslake has spat her dummy out and resigned in order to be an Independent.
Others to follow.
Just what is going on?
Is there a race to become Top Cat or are they running scared of Officer Dibble?
And now that the shredder has finished destroying the evidence and a large collection of different biros have been used to sort out Paul Rowen's Parliamentary expenses (including genuine coffee rings and dogears on the papers to add age and authenticity) the doors to Drake Street will be open to the M.E.N this Friday to take a look at the books.
(just check the bins)
Is Brenda a brave lady sick to death of the infighting and shoddy deals done within Rochdale Lib Dems?
A council Leader who has been ill and not in attendance for almost a year (but still claiming most salary/allowances/expenses)?
The current MP Paul Rowen on his own special planet that orbits far away from his local party members?
Frenzied spin from highly paid party workers funded by Parliamentary office allowances and communication budget that is there to make it look as though Paul and a few favoured councillors are doing all the work?
It must be a lonely experience for some unfavoured Rochdale Lib Dems.
And with all the rumours of corruption, dodgy expenses and mysterious party political donations from some very shady characters, who blames some from jumping ship as fast as they can?
Watch this space, it is about to get very interesting in Rochdale.
Keep up the good work RAW on your aims of revealing corruption, incompetance, spin and sheer criminality within the corridors of power in Rochdale.
The truth is out there.
There is more to the whole Hobhouse saga than meets the eye.
Which very senior officers at Rochdale Council "could not work with the Hobhouses"?
Why?
Who doesn't get on with the Hobhouses in the Lib Dems?
Why?
Who outside Rochdale Lib Dems put pressure on the Hobhouses to stand down from the planning and township portfolios?
Why?
A good start would be the comments sections of past Rochdale Observer articles online
I once was blind but now can see.
so are you saying that the Hothouses are baddies or goodies?
Million pound Paul is jumping on other bandwagons. This time asking a PMQ about Royal Mail.
With all this talk about paper-based delivery services there is a joke doing the rounds in Rochdale that Paul Rowen wants to save the brown envelope industry.
Is that carrying on a fine Rochdale Liberal tradition going back to Cyril's time?
Lets see who long the following carefully wriiten post remains on this Chris Paul Labour supporting blog!!!
Brown Envelopes? What about Allen Brett?
According to Private Eye magazine a while back Bretty was a no-win no-fee planning and leisure consultant AT THE SAME TIME that he was Labour Leader of Rochdale Council (in coalition with the tories!!!) and whilst he was involved with the planning and the overview and scrutiny committees!!!
All these unfounded smears about Rochdale Liberal Democrats and Sir Cyril Smith will be seen for what they are. Libellous bitter rubbish.
Labour need to sort its own house out before having a go at others.
Rochdale being Rogered eh?
Looks like it's being buggered senseless by gormless Rowen to me.
How can this great lumbering lummox claim for DVD players, thousands of pounds of food, the bloody paint for his flat, fancy bedroom furniture, £6000 envelope stuffing machines and even his damn TV licence and then have the cheek to write about how he feels the pain of Rochdale's unemployed?
The cheeky bastard even claims for his advertising hoarding at Rochdale FC and £700 for every Lib Dem leaflet. So after feeding him to the gills and painting his flat, we even pay for this numpty's propaganda which tells us how great he is.
Meanwhile Rochdale goes to the dogs and Rowen pours himself another large gin.
The cheeky bastard should be chased out of Rochdale for ever.
what unfounded smears about Cyril Smith.
For a bit of published paper based study then read some old back issues of RAP, RIP(1970-83).
Cyril was NEVER successful in legal actions against RAP. In fact he had to shell out cash more than once.
The allegations about Cyril Smith stand.
Sexual abuse, criminal record, dubious cash fundraiser, dishonourable, unrepentant asbestos apologist and shareholder; glutten, bully and smear artist extraordinaire?
Cyril led Rochdale's decline. All potholed roads, paved with developers' gold, lead to Emma Street.
I don't suppose anybody knows what the former editor of RAP is up to nowadays.
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