Crooning swinger gets cut short at charidee event

Paul Rowen has an expensive way with words. But that comes with claiming a very high Parliamentary communications expense.

In his [sic] latest missive on Rochdale Online there is a sorry tale that could be mistaken for a slur on local cuisine.

After yet another mysterious plug for local businessman Terry Mason, Paul (or is it Dave/Adam?) goes on to describe future Mayor, swinging Keith Swift's shortened stint crooning at the India Lounge. (Both still available for parties/coroporate entertainment at short notice)



No explanation about how poor Keith bacame ill. Just a quick plug for the charidee event then a description of the Rochdale Online "business development executive" being rushed to infirmary.

Is that a way to curry favour with local businesses that host local Lib Dem bashes?

Get well soon Keith.

It looks as though being an ambitious local Lib Dem is a hazardous activity. Especially after the heated competition to fill poor Cllr Alan Taylor's trunks as leader of Rochdale Council.



With the Hothouses now out of the frame, the competition for Alan's civic crown jewels is becoming nasty. Had the Lib Dem "Rat Pack" soprano been munching on a spiked onion bhajee meant for someone else? Was he about to sing like a canary about party shenanighans?

Poor Alan. Is he about to be "retired" this weekend?

Who will wake up next to a horses head this Sunday morning?

The hairdresser or the "acting" leader?

Rochdale's multi-million pound turd polishing

First, let's get something straight- We love Rochdale.

But we hate the fact that our town is turning into a shithole, because of (in no particular order):

Spin

Corruption

Cover-up

Mismanagement

Failed regeneration projects

All the above are connected, as are those who are most to blame for our town's failings. Just follow the pay grades. Those £100K salaries (plus benefits) are certainly not performance related.

Rochdale is not run by those who are elected.

The politicians are usually mere mouthpeices used to embellish press releases. They appear in photos cutting ribbons at the opening of white elephant schemes and “initiatives”.

Hard-hitting official political criticism might amount to the odd bit of pothole pointing.

By the next general election we will know just how much in excess of £1,000,000 Paul Rowen will have received in salary and expenses. Will he be judged on his performance?

But who really pulls his strings?

Rochdale is widely known to be an “officer run” town. The officers include the senior executives from Rochdale Council plus “partners” such as the Rochdale Development Agency, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and Impact Partnership. The connections with paid advisers, consultants, “businessmen” plus the slippery lobbyists and public relations executives means the trough has had to become bigger in the past few years. Just how much this Mafia of the Mediocre are paid is sickening.

Millions of pounds have been wasted in spin, mismanagement and cover-up. You will never read about much of it in the 'local' newspaper, the Rochdale Obscurer. Ask yourself why?

Don't worry, RAW will investigate and publish the truth about what is going on. Perhaps, now that the Guardian Media Grope is leaving town, we should print a paper version of this website and call it ROP- Rochdale's Only Paper.

Our themes will be simple - to investigate the scandal of official Rochdale:

Spin, Corruption, Cover-up, Mismanagement, Failed regeneration projects.

Lets start with... SPIN

An “undisclosed amount” is currently being spent on council spin for a “marketing strategy” and “rebranding exercise”

Deputy Mayor Keith Swift Regeneration “portfolio” holder, Rochdale Online "business development" executive and Frank Sinatra impersonator (you couldn't make this shit up) is quoted saying:

“We have acres of green space and we could attract businesses and jobs, it is just about getting that message across”

Green fields? What about £350,000,000 muddy fields that were once green fields?

Not Kingsway Business Park- there are far too many people in the photo.

Kingsway Business Park is an example of a gold plated, highly polished turd that has failed Rochdale.

As many council employees are having their salaries slashed through pay and grading,Rochdale is just about to get a “Director of Transformation” - for the mere snip of £120,000 p.a.

Ms Smith, new £120k turd polisher

Rochdale Council has just announced its new internal promotion of

"Executive Director for Transformation".

Oldhamer Pat Smith (no relation to Cyril or T.Dan?) will:

“help to boost the town's image and tackle some of the negative perceptions following 12 months of bad publicity as Rochdale repeatedly hit the headlines”.

Smoke and mirrors. Useless form over substance. Tackling "perceptions"
and boosting the town's "image" is paper-based turd polishing.
It is not the systemic, root and branch reform Rochdale desperately needs.

Rochdale Council already spends almost £2,000,000
on media management every year.
The Chief Exec likes to have “positive messaging” for Rochdale.
Add to this the bloated salaries and expenses of the high fliers in all the public bodies serving (themselves in) Rochdale. Are all these senior officers fully accountable?

Roger Ellis - worth every penny?


The Rochdale Observer suggests RMBC Chief Executive Roger (the dodger) Ellis is the officer that costs our town the most to employ. Is this true? Are there any others that have been missed from the Taxpayers' Alliance's Rich List?

What scale should senior Rochdale Officers be judged on?

On a literary topic akin to that what Stephen Fry refers to as "Complete loose-stool-water. Arse-gravy of the very worst kind".... RMBC is very coy accounting for all the costs of its glossy, full colour, propaganda newspaper “Local matters”.

Freedom of Information requests by local blogger Matt Simms should uncover this - but only time will tell.

We repeat, here are the local scandals that RAW will be investigating- FOR FREE:

SPIN, CORRUPTION, COVER-UP, MISMANAGEMENT, FAILED REGENERATION PROJECTS.

Pardon our potty mouths, but it is time to flush out the turds rather than polishing them at great expense.

Rochdale deserves much better.

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" Cyril Smith arrested for historic sexual abuse "...

...is not the sort of headline appropriate for an April Fool's jape.

The arrest hasn't happened - but should have.

The claims of sexual abuse on vulnerable young lads by Cyril Smith, late at night, in the Cambridge House hostel, has been subject to a conspiracy of silence by Rochdale's Establishment for years.

It is a serious scandal that will, one day, be fully investigated.

Cyril Smith remains the 'elephant in the room' in polite society.

Cyril never sued Rochdale Alternative Press or Private Eye when the details of his abusive spanking and non-consensual testicle squeezing were published in 1979.

For years, hacks and editors at the Rochdale Observer have known about the claims of Cyril's sexual abuse at Cambridge House- and elsewhere - but the Powers That Be in that great Liberal Institution have helped keep things quiet.

The founder of Scott Trust (that owns Guardian Media titles) - CP Scott - must be turning in his grave.



In today's All Fools' Edition of the Rochdale Obscurer, the grubby spanker Cyril Smith spits venom at the closure of the local Rochdale Observer offices as part of the GMG regional titles centralisation to Manchester

In testicle-squeezing fury, Cyril proclaims the Drake Street closure as:

"A tragedy, a disgrace and a real blow to Rochdale and destruction of part of its history over the last century".

How very telling.

Cyril Smith- The very man who has bullied Rochdale Observer journalists and editors with abusive phone calls and threats to get them sacked - many times over the past 50 years.

Cyril Smith- The very man who is well known in Drake Street for orchestrating bizarre letters for the Readers' Page.

Cyril Smith- The very man who has greased the cogs of the local Establishment- Rotarians, Freemasons, asbestos company directors and others for his own advantage and petty vanity. At the expense of the lives of his victims and those who blindly trusted him.

Cyril Smith- The very man who has helped ensure the Rochdale Observer never reported one word of the serious allegations of sexual abuse and financial impropriety that has dogged his political career.

No wonder Cyril Smith laments the departure of his local Rochdale Observer office.

This could mean he is losing his strong and infamous grip on Rochdale.

Cyril's letter in the Rochdale Observer on April 1st 2009 could also go down in infamy for another reason.

The Mother of All Freudian Slips !

On the loss of the Ob office he writes:

"Norman Scott must be turning in his grave".

NORMAN SCOTT ?!

Is this the same Norman Scott horribly satirized by Peter Cook as "a self-confessed player of the pink oboe"?

Norman Scott?
The male model who in the 1970's accused Jeremy Thorpe, his alleged former lover and Leader of the Liberal Party, of attempted murder. Poor Great Dane Rinka took a bullet for Norman Scott in a scandal that ripped the Liberal Party apart and ended Jeremy Thorpe's career.



A young David Steel then took control of the keys to the skeleton closet.
(The little chap that who defended Cyril Smith for "merely smacking a few bare bottoms").




Cyril was central to the Norman Scott/Jeremy Thorpe scandal. The Rochdale MP was Chief Liberal Whip (no pun intended) at the time.

In old Fleet Street circles Cyril Smith was known, back then, as a prolific leaker.
30 stones of grossly obese moving and shaking.

A friend at the Daily Mirror ghost wrote his autobiography "Big Cyril" and he protected his huge hide by keeping on the right side of the Daily Mail, Express and tabloids with a combination of his "cheeky chappie from Lancashire" persona plus illiberal "hanging and flogging" soundbites and the canny, shameless, liberal leaking of documents and confidences.

Recently released government archives confirm it was Cyril Smith who made the first approaches on behalf of the Liberal Party to help form the Lib Lab pact. He was the ideal choice given that he owed a huge favour to Home Secretary Jim Callaghan following the dropping of the investigation against Cyril of the Cambridge House sex abuse allegations.


Apparently Special Branch personally picked up the Cyril Smith "paedo" files from Lancashire Police HQ at Preston and sent them to that there London for safe keeping.

The Scott/Thorpe affair was manna from heaven for a troubled Wilson administration. There is much intrigue about the political shenanighans at the time- it is fair to say that Cyril Smith was very much out of his depth: MI5, "Operation Clockwork Orange" Very British Coups, Heath's little Helpers and a Paranoid Wilson in the mix was too much for the Northern bully used to being a big fish in a small pond.

However, in the early day's of his Parliamentary carrer Chief Whip Cyril Smith was a modest man who thought himself eminently suitable to be the next Liberal Party leader.
As Chief Whip of a minority party in a not very well hung parliament, Cyril was in a key position as whip-cracking kingmaker. Just what documents were leaked and by and to whom is still shrouded in mystery. Is that why arrogant and unrepentant Cyril Smith remains so confident to this day that he is "protected"? Even Minister of Justice Jack Straw remains somewhat coy.


At the time the Liberal Party Leader desperately needed help from his Chief Whip, Cyril Smith admitted himself to Birch Hill hospital with a dickie tummy. Two weeks of non-specific illness kept him out of the limelight.

Those with long memories recall that, although lying low, the public telephone was wheeled to Cyril's NHS bedside and kept there permanently. A huge stack of 2 pence peices were used by the fat Machiavelli as his party crumbled.



Anyone with an interest in the Scott/Thorpe affair can find lots of books and infomation to quench their curiosity.
This was certainly not Cyril Smith's finest hour.

Sexual abuser, bully, informant, sneak, disloyal, dishonest, criminal?
Such phrases shouldn't be for the Court of Public Opinion to decide. For far too long, the doors to that Court were blocked locally by the likes of the Rochdale Observer.

Natural justice must prevail. Cyril Smith should be held accountable for his past (mis)deeds.

CP Scott must be turning in his grave.

"a newspaper is much more than a business as it reflects the influences and life of a whole community"

Do those fine word include sexually abused young apprentices and asbestos cancer sufferers?

We wish the Rochdale Observer well in its new Manchester offices - well away from Cyril Smith's sweaty grasp.

But please - start exercising those Scott family values - for Rochdale.

Postcards from the Edge...of Rochdale

Pisspoor Paul Rowen is at it again. Looking for opportunities for some cheap, meaningless headline that allows his name to be associated with the big boys.




The Charlie's angels Brains Trust that is Rochdale Lib Dem HQ have come up with a corking way to put some vim into Rochdale's economy.

Paul Rowen has sent Prime Minister Gordon Brown a "wish you were here" postcard.

Holidays? "Shop local" Paul Rowen? Where does he wish he was?

Paul likes a holiday. He often goes away with local "philanthropist" second-hand car dealer Terry Mason and wife.

In December as Gaza burned, Paul was on a sunlounger in Thailand.

Paul likes Thailand. He was there with "the Masons" in 2004 when the tsunami struck. Then again the year after.

Paul also likes to travel to Africa to have Ugandan discussions about charidee. Modest? He certainly doesn't like to talk about his links with Rochdale "businessmen" and his charity involvements.

Dressed in his white suit - like the Man from DelMonte - Paul Rowen likes to say yes - if the cash is going to a good cause.

But no, Paul's present press release is a postcard from Rochdale aimed at having a dig at Gordon Brown

Rochdale's current MP gushes:

"Tourism could provide one of the routes out of the recession...while I can do my bit to support tourism in Rochdale, it takes increased government support to do it for the whole country.”

Shallow, opportunist bollocks and nonsense. So nothing new there then?

Paul Rowen promoting Rochdale?

Is this the same MP...

that invited GMTV to do a hatchet job on his own town by visiting the Falinge flats that Cyril helped build?



that allowed the Rochdale Devilment Agency to commission photos of Manchester to promote our town centre?

That has allowed the wheels to fall off our town with almost a billion pounds of shattered dreams and failed regeneration jobs-for-the-boys?

What tourist activities would Paul Rowen promote for a spankingly good time in Cyrilville?

• Mudwrestling at the nearly empty failure, the Kingway Business Park?

• Greased piglet sumo wrestling at Emma Street?

• Cruising Rochdale canal by the new £2 million RDA offices at Lock 50- while the local cider louts lob bricks at the tourists?

• A spot of shopping in our town centre, after the parking attendants have mugged our visitors?

The sad fact is that more people are leaving Rochdale than anywhere else in Greater Manchester.

Here at RAW we love our town.

Rochdale needs help - not stupid press releases from an MP that is failing his constituents by allowing some of his "business" mates and executive officers to grasp our town by the balls.

Rochdale Town Centre, and Lib Dems - No Principles

There is a joke doing the rounds in Rochdale at the moment. Gallows humour following the closure of yet another high street retailer.

"What has our town centre and Rochdale Lib Dems got in common?"

"Neither have Principles"




Who says Rochdale doesn't have a sense of humour? Or irony? "Rochdale is booming" say the faded signs next the rubbled bombsites on Drake Street. Our once proud main street is strewn with cans, kebab wrappers and tumbleweed.

Even the Rochdale Obscurer is closing its office and moving to Manchester.
Will the last one to leave Rochdale please turn the light out.

Some say the rot set in when Cyril Smith was keen to demolish our proud Lancashire town's centre to make for the Brave New World of the 1970's. Quite a few civil engineering companies did very well out of building concrete flats, offices and a souless shopping centre. Even Cyril happened to get at least one cash payout - for being unfortunate enough to have the foresight (or tip off?) buy a shop in a clearance area.




As empty shops and empty offices in our town centre are reaching record level, those geniuses at Rochdale Council and the Rochdale Development Agency have a plan. A £250 million "Town Centre Regeneration" of... more shops. Also included in the scheme (written on the back of a brown envelope?) is a £70 million PFI office block, partially paid for by demolishing old council offices and other fire sales of civic silver.

Private Eye has reported that the bus station will be moved 12 metres to create a £12 million "Transport Interchange" for a metrolink that isn't coming to Rochdale Town Centre.

The public 'consultation' for this quarter of a billion pound scheme was so good, it now has to be run again.

There have been a flurry of defensive press releases from RMBC, RDA and "Impact Partnership" about all the "good news" happening in Rochdale.

However, locals are having none of it. There's a saying in Rochdale: if it looks like shite, smells like shite then chances are -its shite.

But will the people of Rochdale ever find out the full truth about what is going on?

Apparently there is a secret report that confirms that the wheels are falling off Rochdale's regerenation projects. There is talk of cash injections needed to keep these failing projects going. There is also talk of large amounts of cash already paid out for the purchase of town centre properties within the regeneration area. The area that hasn't been properly consulted on.

Shades of Cyril's past shenanighans? Secret deals with businessmen with ransom strips? Profitable property speculation? Secret party political donations greasing the wheels of Rochdale development before they spectacularly fall off?

Word on the street is that Chief Executive Roger Ellis had "gone ballistic" about criticism of the town centre redevelopment. The secret report papers are to be kept secret- by hook or by crook. Anyone leaking infomation will be 'dealt with' most severely. The Chief Executive is most insistent. But morale is rock bottom with RMBC and Impact Partnership staff that have just had their wages decimated by a pay and grade review.

So there we have it. Rochdale- a town that has been 'Rogered'.

Secret council reports. Secret property deals for a town centre development...with no Prinicples.

Sick council leader makes comeback for St Patrick's Day

An unfortunate but thought-provoking headline from Rochdale Online.

The headline is ambiguous: "Sick council leader"


Alan Taylor has been poorly, and we genuinely do wish him well.
Whilst the Council Leader has been recuperating the naked ambition of some Rochdale Lib Dems has been harsh. The knives have been out with sly comments about all his council expenses and allowances still being paid while his deputy does most of the work.

Sick council leader.

This might be a reference to Rochdale Council being sick?
The wheels are falling off most big regeneration projects in our troubled town: Kingsway, Metrolink and the Town Centre redevelopment to name the biggest howlers.
Rochdale is getting a reputation as a "Ghost Town" and "Sick Capital of Britain ".

The millions that get spent on the top salaries for the Borough's senior executives are certainly not performance related.

In stark contrast the council minions get shafted with their pay and grade reviews.



There is huge discontent within RMBC and "Impact Partnership". There is a whispering campaign calling for the sacking Chief Exec Roger Ellis and to scrap the Rochdale Development Agency, Link4Life and other cash cows. But as long as the turkeys hold power in Rochdale they will not vote for Christmas.

PROMISING action ... Andy Zuntz, executive director of Rochdale Council, Jo Purcell, executive director of strategy and partnerships for NHS Heywood Middleton and Rochdale, Chief Superintendent John O’Hare, , Mohammad Naeem, the chairman of the local public service board, Roger Ellis, chief executive of Rochdale Council and Craig McAteer, managing director of Link4Life.

Local's writing on the Rochdale Observer online are revolting.

Or was Rochdale Online having a cryptic dig at Alan Taylor's past. "Sick"- according to some. Many years before he was Council Leader, hirsuite Alan was Cyril Smith MP's agent as well as a cheeky Rapmate of the Year 1975.



Alan has the key to the closet where many of Cyril's skeletons are hidden. For him to remain silent may be very loyal but some say it is "sick". But as long as he is silent then Big Cyril should protect him. Full council allowances and expenses are a small price to pay for keeping a lid on what happened all those years ago. Allegations regarding Cyril Smith and sexual abuse, civic sleeze and planning corruption.

Surely nothing like that is still happening in Rochdale?

That would make Rochdale Council very sick indeed.

If there are corrupt shenanghans going on in Rochdale then Cyril Smith and his apologists can Póg mo Thoin rather than spank it. Time to call the Garda and clean up Rochdale.

Tiocfaidh ár lá.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!




.

Time to get tough on crime- and the causes of crime?

A photograph has just been released of 2 suspicious looking characters lurking around on Oldham Rd.





Appearing somewhat unkempt and dishevelled, they were taking photographs of a crime scene. When spotted they ran off in the direction of Drake Steet.

Was this morbid curiosity or something more?

It is suspected that the 2 characters are none other that Rochdale Lib Dem paid "agents" Johnny (the machine) Swarbrick and Adam:Power (in clever woolly hat disguise). They have both salaries paid for via, what appears to be, some rather creative accountancy with Paul Rowen's
Parliamentary expenses.


"Agent" Adam:Power (with another silly t-shirt but no woolly hat) pictured with the older man who insisted does not pay directly for Adam's services.

FOI requests are still being processed to get to the bottom of how Paul Rowen MP's expenses pay for staff and rent at Lib Dem HQ at Drake Street. There is also a need to get to the bottom of mystery cash from local benefactors to the local Lib Dem cause. Very murky.

And all very odd from Paul Rowen - the supposed champion of Parliamentary transparency.

It looks like people are starting to see through him.

Back to the recent crime scene:
In 'tagging' circles it is often the vogue to photograph ones own grafitti. In 'dogging' circles some like to take photographs of other people's activities. Some photographers just have too much time on their hands.

Obviously if this is a criminal matter currently being investigated, it would be inappropriate to engage in conjecture as to why 2 paid staff members from Paul Rowen's office were acting suspiciously on Oldham Rd with a camera. Then running off when they were spotted.

Are there any similarities with past shenanignans that have attracted the attention of Paul Rowen's paid staff?

During the last Labour Party Conference, diddy Dave Hennigan openly bragged about his achievement in getting a scoop in the Daily Express.
Some naughty unknown person had accessed the open webpage of the Rochdale DLP and changed the picture of Gordon to that of Miliband (Anyone with access to member information could have done it). Within hours of the cyber-vandalism, Lib Dem Voice and diddy Dave were posting furiously. Dave got busy with a non-denial denial, cyber-trolling and a press release suggesting "disloyalty" within Rochdale DLP.

What a great use of Rochdale taxpayers' money?

Gaza burns, world credit markets crumble, Rochdale goes to the dogs through inept political local leadership yet a highly paid Dave Hennigan (together with 2 taxpayer funded helpers) engage in childish tactics?

If Rochdale Lib Dems have drafted a press release on a recent act of criminal vandalism then a disturbing pattern is emerging.

At this stage everyone is innocent until proven guilty. All paid staff for any MP will know that aiding, abetting, conspiracy, procurement, and promotion of criminal activity can certainly be unparliamentary as well as illegal.

As for vandalism: Is it time in Rochdale to get tough on crime- and tough on the causes of crime?


UPDATE:
Have those cheeky lib dem soap dodgers pictured above scored a coup by getting Dave Ottewell to put their photo on his blog? Was it their handywork? The photo was taken from a lower angle than that Chris Paul has published. Rochdale Lib Dems have form on very low angles. Was the Ottewell blog snap taken by the chunky Milk Tray boy Adam Power? Or was the shot taken by the scruffy man by the grassy knowl?