Pete Boggs

It's not a pleasant thing to read about people losing their homes. All the more so when those people have been given dud advice and false hope by tinfoil hat wearers. In Mr Crawford's case one wonders whether he might have had a claim for misselling and would perhaps have been better advised if he'd gone to his local CAB or Law Centre.

A pledge Denise but what's that worth? They might be full of p*** and vinegar and having a party to big themselves up but what have they actually achieved? Didn't they get chased out of Swansea? Also anyone who thinks offering sweets to school kids is a clever PR move has to be pretty bloody clueless. I agree they're a threat but at the same don't underestimate their crass stupidity.

John Johnson certainly seems to have modelled himself on Blofeld. I wonder if he's a cat lover? Wasn't Snowzell the preposterous turd who talked about "storming nations"? Dream on pal, dream on.

I thought there was something about him that was familiar...

Nothing against red haired people by the way, just wondering why anyone would want to look so absurdly freakish in what I'm guessing is a publicity shot.

Give the high probability that PC Plod and Cllr Greenhow (or whatever he's calling himself these days) are Lodge Mates I suspect this one's likely to remain in the NFA file. Incidentally, has anyone told him that ginger bristles growing from the Adam's Apple are not a good look. Someone should have a word.

This one's going to run and run.

Gratifying though it would be to see the third rate Mr Burns impersonator given his P45 and told to “do one†with no travelling money, I wouldn't get my hopes up. This is an authority that routinely pays off its senior officers regardless of how egregious their wrongdoing. Locals will remember the Crookall report and the former head of ICT who regularly got boozed up with her flunkies on the public purse. There was a cast iron case for dismissal due to gross misconduct but the Council let her go quietly with a sizeable wad of hush money. The precedents aren't good I'm afraid.

He doesn't seem very interested in answering your most recent question Denise. I think you might have hit home there.

He certainly is full of sh**. Unlike Mr Cheung's disused public karzi.

If the standard of literacy displayed in his campaign leaflet is anything to go by, you might be waiting a long time. What the hell's an "unbstantiated website" - one that has a kind of ghostly floating existence somewhere up in the ether?

This is a wind up isn't it?

A little bird tells me that a recent bidder for a Council contract was allowed to submit their tender after the deadline date. This was after a Councillor had "a word" with the Council's Solicitor. I suspect that this doesn't qualify as one of the "exceptional circumstances" in the Council's contract standing orders that permits a late bid. Might be worth making making an FOI request to ascertain the contract, the firm, and the name of the Councillor as well as any connection between them, plus the written reasons for allowing the late bid (if any). Could give you some ammo to chuck back at them Maverick?

Tapes are a bit old hat these days. Aren't they more likely to be sound files (WAVs, MP3s etc)? Possibly obtained using a clandestine recording device like a spy pen. They're readily available from Amazon, Ebay etc.

I see the Hereford Times has got hold of the senior management recruitment story: http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/12880679.Council_ready_to_spend_nearly___40_000_to_find_three_new_bosses_on_salaries_worth_around___300_000/?ref=mr Chief executive going to be bigging the Council up in the world's most boring magazine, the Municipal Journal. Given the Council's penchant for recruiting senior officers from the ranks of the dismissed, the corrupt and the paid off, I'd have thought Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs column would have been a safer bet.

Ditto Bill Norman. A man with a disgraceful history of colluding in and/or covering up corruption. He's not going to do anything to upset the status quo.

I'm sure it's not the first time he's made that mistake Roger, or the last. Poor old Brian the Brain, a man whose genius seems destined to be recognised only by himself.

Slow news day at the HT?

I didn't miss them. I just didn't think they were particularly worthy of mention. Bog standard conspiracy theory iconography. I'm surprised there weren't a few pictures of David Icke's lizards just to complete the full set. I don't doubt that elderly, handicapped and otherwise disadvantaged people are exploited by institutions but I would suggest that their interests are not going to be well served by self styled crusaders for justice who think it's a good idea to wave Swastikas about in conjunction with the Star of David. There's also a section on the site wibbling about commercial liens - an invented concept that has no validity in English Law, at least not in the way its proponents think it does. Bonkers. I think Stilton Cheesewright has been through this in sufficient detail already.

Nice graphics. Two stars of David and a Swastika. Very tasteful.

I remember enjoying the Beiderbecke Affair but then thinking it lost its way in the sequels. I'm all for taking the mickey out of the Council's self celebratory inner circle, but would suggest that dubbing the post holders in question Big Al and Little Norm runs the risk of turning them into genial comedy figures, which they manifestly aren't.

I dare say Megilleland's post explains in greater detail, but to summarise: Market supplements are a temporary increase to an already fixed salary when the authority is experiencing difficulty recruiting to a particular post. They're a tacit acknowledgement the authority isn't paying the going rate for the job. Generally used when the economy is on the "up" and supply of candidates is restricted due to there being numerous other attractive opportunites open to them. However, I think we'd all agree the economy isn't really at that stage yet. I'd suggest the difficulty in recruiting could be due to other factors. I can certainly think of two other authorites where departments can't get people, even when they do offer market supplements, because they're such unpleasant places to work due to deeply dysfunctional management. SteveC, you are of course entirely correct.

Not necessarily. By my reckoning this is the third time the legal services job has been advertised since Norman restructured (i.e. decimated) the legal and committee sections. He's tried to make it more attractive with a market supplement but I'll be interested to see if he gets any takers. Word gets round doesn't it?

Sorry to see this. Wasn't a bad pub - did a decent pint in there. Was there any effort made to market it as a going concern?

Bobby, your heart is in the right place as your posts on Rose Tinted Rags show, but at the end of the day nobody gives a monkey's about the rest of it. You can issue fight challenges to the likes of Alastair McNeil and Bill Norman until the cows come home but we all know nothing is going to happen. Possibly your energies might be better spent directed to where they can make a real difference rather than giving it the large one on the internet where nobody really gives much of a toss.