Snouts in the Trough exposed!
What an interesting thing we listened to this morning on BBC London. The Vanessa Feltz show had not only the Glorious Leader, Chris Roberts, on it, but also the leader of the Tories Spencer Drury. We can't deny we feel slightly responsible for it, after all, the Daily Mail did run a story story today with the headline "Council spends £95,000 on luxury box at new Dome".The Glorious Leader was on the radio charging the Tories with hypocrisy saying that they themselves had taken free tickets for the Dome. Later on at the end of the show the Tory Leader Spencer Drury said he had turned the offer of tickets down as it would be hypocritical. So who was it taking the tickets?
It appears it was the Tory Culture spokesman, Nigel Fletcher. The councillor had accepted the tickets after opposing spending the money on the box. A tad hypocritical no? We did enjoy the defence he posted on his blog a few hours ago, basically it's a load of crap. Apparently he only took the tickets in order "to see at first hand who these [community] groups were" that the Council said would benefit from the tickets. If that's the case why wait until you got mentioned on radio before saying anything?
Putting the Tory culture spokesman's hypocrisy aside for a moment though, we did enjoy hearing the Glorious Leader telling Vanessa that he wasn't going along to see Bon Jovi anyway and so was "clean". If that's true, why is he - as Nigel Fletcher points out - on the guest list along with Councillor John Fahy and the Deputy Leader Peter Brooks?
Could it be, just maybe, that on Friday night he was going, and mysteriously something that happened on Saturday made him suddenly decide he wasn't? After all, Councillor Fletcher would still be going too if the story hadn't broken. They're all guilty of having their snouts in the trough, and they're "livin' on a prayer" if they think they're not.
Labels: Chris Roberts, John Fahy, Nigel Fletcher, O2, Peter Brooks, snouts in the trough, Ticket Watch
posted by greenwich.watch at 6:26 pm
11 Comments:
I'm enjoying this.
Nigel Fletcher. Isn't he the one out of That's Life?
Nigel Fletcher called the box an "ill-conceived proposal."
His opposition obviously didn't stretch so far as to turn down the tickets. By planning to attend he was giving a legitimacy to the whole idea of the box. He was also backing the image that it's not just for the ruling party.
anon: "I'm enjoying this."
We thought our little logo was particularly inspired.
Good for you GreenwichWatch, and you have every right to criticise me for even considering the notion of accepting Labour's invite. But in fairness, you don't mention that my attendance would have been conditional on paying the cost to a local charity, which I thought was the only right thing to do. But you're right - I should have turned it down flat.
All's fair in love and scandal.
request all the names of those who use the box under the freedom of information act. there may be some interesting 'local companies'who have teh privilege to use it. even better, give teh elderly the council are kicking out of their homes the streisand tickets!
any1 seen the IBM advert about boxes?
trough watch
I wonder what the Audit Commission will have to say about 'use of resources' at Greenwich Council? Probably not much unfortunately... and the National Audit Office are too busy sending the Auditor General to 5* hotels abroad. This kind of culture of taking the taxpayer for a ride spreads from the top, where a bad example is being laid and others follow suit in the belief that it is acceptable.
£95,000... why, that's only 3 walnut whips per household per year!
As for what the Audit Commission will have to say, I'm afraid the only voice that this administration listens to is the ballot box. And we stupidly, stupidly returned another Labour administration.
You can't request individuals names under FOI but you could ask for the names of all the groups they intend to invite and the number of guests per party. That way you'll discover how many freebies the council will be giving themselves and there employees.
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