Joe Anderson, Derek Hatton arrested among others....

[Bruce Spanner]

9 minutes ago, Rico1304 said:

Whereabouts? 

 

This was in Vegas, when James Purnell was up there.

 

[halewood pete]

Wheeeeeeeeee.....

[Barrington Womble]

On 26/03/2021 at 07:36, Colonel Kurtz said:

The point is people will do nothing becuase these crooks hide behind a Labour badge and distract the electorate with talk of the “evil Tories”. Read the report and you see these gangsters have basically taken over the council and were systematically robbing it by selling property too cheap or buying land at inflated prices to enrich themselves and their mates. They get away with it becuase either people say opposition to them is politically motivated or “what about the Tories, they’re worse” mentality. Meanwhile they keep syphoning off the cash in plain sight. I think the decent people of the city need to ask themselves why they let this happen time and time again. 

You know what, some of what you say is right. These cunts do get away with it because they wear a labour badge, because things are so partizan in the city, all you need is a pig with a labour rosette and it'll be voted in. I am re-watching boardwalk empire at the moment and reading some of the articles this week and thought it all sounded like a plastic Nucky Thompson/Johnson. 

 

However you say "evil Tories" like it's not a thing. This is the most despicable government we've ever had. Aside from them being taken to court more times than I think every government in my lifetime combined (and normally lose),  they've gone out of their way to allow this virus to spread and kill people because all they gave a fuck about was getting people back into butty shops and nandos. This is without talking about the catastrophe of the early part of the crisis and there was no ppe because we hadn't stockpiled, because they wouldn't pay. Or all the vulnerable being kicked back to care homes because the NHS has been so destroyed by these cunts after years of austerity, that there was nowhere to keep the ill and they sent the virus back to kill even more.  Then alongside of that, they've stolen from the public purse. This from the same party that played its part in "The Truth" headlines, which is quite ironic as it almost feels like they have been picking the pockets of the dead this last year. 

 

The big difference here, when this council has been caught, the labour party has stood up and said it's not acceptable. All Johnson and his cronies have done when they've been caught, is shrugged their shoulders and carried on the grift. They are the very definition of evil and it is beyond any kind of reason they should be telling anyone how to eradicate corruption. 

[YorkshireRed]

He makes some valid points and it’s good that the likes of Kurtz and his ilk feel they can contribute to the debate in a place we’re they’re very much swimming against the tide. Makes the GF a far more interesting place.

 

I can’t help thinking though, that some of his contributions have been a not so subtle party political broadcast on behalf of the Conservative party. 

[General Dryness]

15 hours ago, Captain Turdseye said:

We’d wipe New Zealand off the map. You haven’t even got any nukes, you worthless pieces of shit. 

We're besties with China now. You'll be first in line for re-education. Or more likely just education.

[Section_31]

Kurtz, again, I don't know what you're on about in terms of "evil Tories" talk. Liverpool has ousted Labour before, it votes Labour largely due to a lack of alternatives, the corruption you're talking about has only broken as a story in the last few weeks, it's not like people have been sat there for years going "oh, Anderson gave all my money to his son, but at least he's no Tory, he's got my vote!"

 

People vote Tory or Labour based largely on their experiences of where they live, there is nothing new in this at all. How many Buckinghamshire hamlets would oust their Tory councillors if they were found to be up to no good? 

[Gnasher]

Get Joe and Deggsy running the fucking home office. Straighten it out.

[Barrington Womble]

27 minutes ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

Which large multi national is going to invest in a city where the director of regeneration has just been sacked under suspicion of corruption ? 
 

Which multi-mational doesn't embrace corruption at every turn where they think they can get away with it? The Tories have been running this very brand of politics for centuries. The big difference is they know how to get away with it, know how to protect their mates when the corruption is discovered and know how to find a patsie when someone has to take the fall. Every single level of government in this country (and probably every country) is awash with corruption and it rarely prevents investment from big money sources. What does restrict investment is a narrow overall vision, which has been an unfortunate aspect of the this current local government in Liverpool. They've been corrupt, been poor at it and been so poor at it, they've failed to attract the real investment while they had their fingers in the cookie jar. 

[Barrington Womble]

11 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

How many Buckinghamshire hamlets would oust their Tory councillors if they were found to be up to no good? 

I reckon they'd pat them on the back providing the general prosperity was good and council taxes were low. 

[YorkshireRed]

1 minute ago, Gnasher said:

Get Joe and Deggsy running the fucking home office. Straighten it out.

One for the threesome thread! Those two with Priti Patel. It might be a bit niche but there’ll be some deviants on here that would like to make it up to a four ball. 

[stringvest]

The problem is in Liverpool, like the rest of the country, people are willing to accept imbeciles, morons, crooks and cunts in charge as long as they chime with their own personal outlook.  The added issue with Liverpool's particular bunch is they have no imagination, no work ethic, and they don't even know how to talk to the world outside their little bubble.

[Kepler-186]

One thing the city missed out on is having the Imperial War Museum North based where the Battle of the Atlantic was fought and won from.
 

Peel has got the beeb and Granada as tenants in Media City in Salford. We’ve got a noisy, polluting port at Seaforth running 24/7 employing 500 people locally, and the seaman’s mission feeding and clothing the foreign sailors from Third World countries. 
 

They want to spend £250 million on a road while London and South East get billions in projects. 

If they get round to doing Bramley Moore will it bring the number of jobs they claim? I’ve seen the US cities fight over franchises and this often comes up. In any case, it’s not joined up with the transport system, neither is the genuine success story of the independent sector at the Baltic. 
 

It’ll ruin even more round Goodison even with a legacy project. 
 

Kurtz is making sense, but there’s just zero Conservative presence in the city itself. 94 I read was the last councillor. 
 

Out towards Southport yeah, parts of the Wirral near the golf, sure.  The Southport mob are fuming because Labour run Sefton Council bought the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, and its made a big loss this past year, but they keep quiet about the austerity since 2010. I challenged one of them when he was mouthing off on FB to canvass round Linacre Road or out in Netherton and explain the benefits of 40 years of trickle down economics to the residents there. No answer.

 

 

 

[sir roger]

7 minutes ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

Let’s see what happens in 6 weeks. The voters have their chance to send a message to Labour about what has gone on, let’s see if they send it. 

You might struggle to notice one way or the other as in the poorer districts the turn out is usually less than 25% anyway. The Libs may make some inroads in the leafier suburbs to the south.

 

[Harry Squatter]

Everyone in Liverpool should fucking despise Joe Anderson. Whether he goes to prison or not he's done virtually nothing to build on the 2008 Capital of Culture award and just overseen years of stagnation. He still hasn't paid back the 89 grand he used in legal fees a few years ago. He gives no impression that he's a remotely serious politician or can talk to business leaders to attract proper jobs to the city. 

 

Instead of trying to get Liverpool to rival Manchester in terms of office space and transport infrastructure he's just been happy for Liverpool to be another Blackpool for stag and hen parties. 

 

We also have local councillors who actively oppose outside investment and do everything they can to stifle progress. The Bixteth gardens fiasco stopping a £200m investment in grade A office space where a certain councillor likened a smackheads evening hangout to the hanging gardens of Babylon. He basically opposes anything that potentially gets built because someone might make money from it.

 

When Liverpool One was built, Cesar Pelli designed the Chavasse Park building. But the tinpot planning department decided to tell the fella who designed the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur that his design was shit and made him cut it down to a stumpy business park design.

 

The city of Liverpool has a lot of potential but it's been held back by people who only give a shit about themselves while telling its inhabitants that everyone is constantly against us.

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

That’s not been my experience. I’ve been an accountant for 30 years and the only 2 times I have been asked for a bribe was once in Brazil and once a housing association in the north west. 

C level.stuff in major corporates is all about lining each others pockets. It doesn't need to be as blunt as a bribe. 

[Bruce Spanner]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/28/liverpool-council-corruption-scandal-threatens-labour-power-in-the-city

 

'It was a devastating indictment of one of Britain’s most powerful councils: a “rotten culture” of dubious contracts and backroom bullying, where staff were silenced and official records dumped in skips. The government’s damning verdict on Liverpool city council was summed up by a single word on the front page of the local newspaper: “Failed.”

Liverpool council may have squandered up to £100m of public money

Read more

 

The feeling of many Liverpudlians was one of shame, anger and betrayal. “It made me cry when I read the report,” said Jayne Casey, one of the city’s most influential cultural figures. “It’s a city that was standing on the world stage. It’s heartbreaking to see what they did with that opportunity.” The Labour-run council has been at the centre of corruption allegations since its head of regeneration, Nick Kavanagh, was arrested in his fourth-floor office of the Grade II-listed Cunard building 15 months ago. The investigation escalated in December with the arrest of Joe Anderson, the council’s figurehead for 12 years, alongside four other men including Derek Hatton, the 72-year-old leftwing firebrand who ran Liverpool three decades ago.

 

A team of Whitehall commissioners has been sent to oversee large parts of the “dysfunctional” council for at least three years – an unprecedented step for a city its size – while Labour has ordered an investigation into what went wrong. For a city that remains fiercely anti-Tory, there was barely a ripple of opposition to the intervention by Boris Johnson’s government. The prime minister himself has been persona non grata in Liverpool since it was cast as a self-pitying city in a Spectator article in 2004, when he edited the magazine. “Scousers have got long memories,” said one council insider. “You side with the Tories, you’ve slept with the devil. They’re toxic, even today. But this is not a Tory takeover – it’s a team of civil servants.”

 

Instead of an anti-Tory backlash, the drama has reprised memories of Liverpool’s political pariah status in the mid-1980s when Hatton’s Militant-led council plunged the city into near-bankruptcy. Back then, Labour managed to hold on to its control of the council – partly by expelling Militant members – but today the public mood seems more perilous.

A Liverpool Echo poll of thousands of their readers found that 69% intended to change their vote in the impending council and mayoral elections. Such a shift in six weeks’ time would bring to an end Labour’s longest continuous period in power since the second world war.

 

One of those who could benefit from an exodus of Labour voters is Stephen Yip, a Liverpool-born charity founder who has promised to give away his salary if elected as mayor. He has never stood for office before, and is standing as an independent candidate, but even his rivals think he stands a good chance. “The city has improved since the 80s but we’re slipping back. The people of Liverpool deserve better – we might not like our politicians but we need to be able to trust them,” he said on Friday. Labour figures fear losing the mayoralty, a position created by Anderson in 2012, would cast them into the wilderness because the mayor selects their own cabinet and would be unlikely to pick members tainted by the corruption scandal. “We could be completely cut out,” said one source.

 

Yip, a former Labour member who left the party 20 years ago, said he had been shocked by the lack of contrition this week from some of those leading the council over the past five years: “Has one of them had the decency to hold their hands up and say sorry? No. They should hang their heads in shame.”

 

Although the focus has centred on the intervention of Whitehall commissioners, one of the most politically significant elements of the government’s announcement has been overlooked: within two years, only one councillor will represent each of the city’s 30 wards. It will slash the number of councillors by two-thirds, from 90 to 30, potentially tilting the balance of power away from Labour for years to come. “It’s seismic,” said one town hall source. “Forty-seven councillors got suspended over Militant – we’re about to lose 60.” Michael Parkinson, an honorary professor at the University of Liverpool who has written extensively about the city’s history, said it was a “very challenging, depressing moment” and that there was a “real risk of reputational damage to all of Liverpool – not just the council”.

However, Parkinson said the city was not back in the dark days of the 1980s but was under the leadership of a new chief executive, Tony Reeves, who was singled out for praise by the government’s inspection team.

 

The clean-up operation began when, shortly after joining the council in 2018, Reeves received two formal complaints and ordered an internal investigation. Its findings led Merseyside police to launch Operation Aloft, under which 11 people have been arrested over allegations ranging from fraud to witness intimidation.

Anderson, the former mayor, has denied the allegations against him and suggested this week that they were the result of “jealousy”. Kavanagh, his former regeneration chief, has said he had always acted within the rules and would defend his innocence. Hatton has not commented on his arrest.

 

The wider criminal investigation is ongoing with Liverpool braced for further revelations. The political fallout, however, may only just have begun.'

[Section_31]

I'm gonna vote for Yip, I'd already decided, partly because my local councillor keeps ringing me about her preferred candidate, seemingly unaware that she had the exact same conversation with me the day before. 

[Harry Squatter]

Virtually every development over the past five years in Liverpool has stalled apart from a few student flat developments by London Road and a couple of university developments.off the top of my head there's been the two developments in Pall Mall, the Royal hospital, 3 developments in Leeds Street, a hotel by Lewis's, a hotel opposite Leo Casino and now the Norton Scrapyard site as well as the apartment blocks on the other side. Virtually all of these were stagnant before the pandemic. 

 

The planning department seem to delight in messing up any decent developments yet approve utter shite like that Like Street development with the grim copper cladding. Or the B&M gazebo extension at the Shankly hotel.

 

Liverpool just has the same 3 or 4 developers, all of whom never seem to have any proper cash, get liquidated to avoid paying investors back then sprout up in another guise and do the same again. Or they buy prime sites, submit plans, get approval then just do fuck all with the land, probably turning it into a surface car park with mud and massive puddles.

[Barrington Womble]

Does anyone know how they are able to cut the councillors numbers so deeply? Maybe it's me, but it seems putting power into the hands of a smaller number makes corruption more likely and not less. 

[Barrington Womble]

1 minute ago, Doctor Troy said:

Virtually every development over the past five years in Liverpool has stalled apart from a few student flat developments by London Road and a couple of university developments.off the top of my head there's been the two developments in Pall Mall, the Royal hospital, 3 developments in Leeds Street, a hotel by Lewis's, a hotel opposite Leo Casino and now the Norton Scrapyard site as well as the apartment blocks on the other side. Virtually all of these were stagnant before the pandemic. 

 

The planning department seem to delight in messing up any decent developments yet approve utter shite like that Like Street development with the grim copper cladding. Or the B&M gazebo extension at the Shankly hotel.

 

Liverpool just has the same 3 or 4 developers, all of whom never seem to have any proper cash, get liquidated to avoid paying investors back then sprout up in another guise and do the same again. Or they buy prime sites, submit plans, get approval then just do fuck all with the land, probably turning it into a surface car park with mud and massive puddles.

I've not seen the b&m thing. What have they done there. 

 

I still can't get over whatever the fuck they've done between lime Street and the adelphi. 

[Harry Squatter]

2 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I've not seen the b&m thing. What have they done there. 

 

I still can't get over whatever the fuck they've done between lime Street and the adelphi. 

It's been there quite a while but the original building was one of the nicest designed buildings in the city with a flat iron style design. But they decided to lump this on the top.

 

 

[stringvest]

That’s horrendous cheap shite

[Harry Squatter]

4 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I've not seen the b&m thing. What have they done there. 

 

I still can't get over whatever the fuck they've done between lime Street and the adelphi. 

The Lime street one was ridiculous, all the buildings round there are light grey stone and they ripped out the old futurist cinema. The inside was probably beyond redemption but the exterior could have been saved. They could have easily used a design that would have been in keeping with the area but chose that cheapo cladding and put a Lidl in there.

 

Great first impression when you get out of the train station, especially with St John's on the other side.

[Barrington Womble]

3 minutes ago, Doctor Troy said:

It's been there quite a while but the original building was one of the nicest designed buildings in the city with a flat iron style design. But they decided to lump this on the top.

 

 

It's fucking unbelievable that. Is that block not grade 2 listed to prevent this type of shite? 

[Barrington Womble]

1 minute ago, Doctor Troy said:

The Lime street one was ridiculous, all the buildings round there are light grey stone and they ripped out the old futurist cinema. The inside was probably beyond redemption but the exterior could have been saved. They could have easily used a design that would have been in keeping with the area but chose that cheapo cladding and put a Lidl in there.

 

Great first impression when you get out of the train station, especially with St John's on the other side.

It's a fucking diaster. That was the 1st time I was aware what a mess the city was in. There was a kebab shop there and fellas kept coming in pissed telling him to accept the relocation they'd offered or face the consequences.