Back in 2010 in Tameside, we had a leadership battle between Labour councillors with the then incumbent leader Roy Oldham and Councillor Kieran Quinn. At the time Roy was suffering from cancer and had little time to rally support and ended up losing the leadership in May last year. He died just two months later. I always had respect for Roy, but we also had our disagreements. One of them was over political assistants, a position highlighted by the TPA as a non-job.
I remember Councillor Kieran Quinn’s first speech as leader where he promised that he’d change several things which would please Tameside’s bloggers who, at the time were questioning the need for political assistants in the face of incoming budget cuts. To Councillor Quinn’s credit, he removed both Labour and Conservative political assistants which saved the council £67,438 per year.
However, a year later it seems political assistants are creeping in under a different name. Tameside Council has just appointed Mike Kane as a “Senior Executive Assistant” to work in the leaders office. Kane has moved from working for Stalybridge and Hyde MP, Jonathan Reynolds as his office manager, a job he inherited when former Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell stepped down from the seat. He also briefly served as a Labour councillor for the Northernden Ward at Manchester City Council.
The above text is part of another brilliant article by the Tameside Tax Payers Alliance, to read the whole piece click here. Tameside Citizen
18 comments:
If Mr Quinn managed without an assistant of this kind previously why, when the council is in such dire financial straits, does he need one now.
Then there's the stench of Tameside's Council Tax payers funding Union rep's wages to the tune of £350,000.
As long as the brain dormant majority keep voting for the Labour mafia Tameside will continue to rot from within.
One would like to express concern over several items in this post which simply are not factual.
Mr Kane was an elected councillor representing Northenden for 17 years, so far far from "brief" - if Mr Billington had done any real research he would have found this out for himself I am sure.
Further to this I am not sure whether Mr Billington's ability to use the English language was comprimised during the writing of this opinion blog, but surely if Mr Kane had "inherited" the job of office manager from James Purnell then that would have made Purnell his own office manager. When indeed the case is that Mr Kane was Purnell's office manager a role which he continued to carry out for Jonathon Reynolds. The role was not inherited in any way, shape or form. Unless of course there is another meaning of the word I am yet to discover?
Finally, I'd like to make a point that Mr Billington, who ran what now appears to be the deceased Tameside Eye blog, seems to be nothing but a boy who likes to shout a little about absolutely everything the Labour party does in Tameside. And the best bit of all is that it is clear the electorate in Tameside don't agree with Billington, if they did I doubt the council would have quite so many Labour representatives.
The article is rightly summed up about Quinn's priorities - how can he afford a political assistant when he is allowing SureStart workers claim voluntary redundancy. I bet the press department with their newly redesigned Tameside Citizen magazine have all kept their jobs.
Above comment has clearly struck a nerve. Why don't you condone this apparent misuse of ratepayers money?
Steve, so you attack me for saying that Kane was briefly a councillor. Sorry, someone had told me otherwise.
As for Kane inheriting his job, he did. He kept it from working for James Purnell and continued working for Jonny Reynolds when most would have to reapply for their jobs.
Is this your best response? You must try harder. The fact still remains that Tameside Labour are wasting our money. Answer why Quinn should have a political assistant or an "executive assistant" as they are now called. The fact is you can't justify this when Tameside is choosing to prioritise its cuts on frontline services.
You may well think that the electorate don't agree with me or the TPA, but the vast majority are unaware of the TPA and what we are doing in Tameside.
glad this liam guy does shout about everything labour does . its called EXPOSING THE WRONG DOINGS OF A SET OF BENT BAST----
Never trust Billington he's a creep.
Liam Billington is diamond in the rough. Without his tireless work exposing these freeloaders they would truly run amok.
Yeah when he's not stalking Sean Parker.
John Taylor's brother-in-law, Vinny picked on the wrong guy the other day. He got a good thumping outside his pub in Dukinfield.
A guy and a woman laid into Vinny.
Does anyone get the impression that the 'anonymous' pest sniping from the sidelines is the convicted racist from Dukinfield?
Could be right!
Smoke 'em out
Paranoid out of my mind with worry you maybe right, it could be him.
If you are worried you need to call the Paranoid help line on 01254 875277.
Typical of Quinn to pick a Party loyalist over a person who would more useful as an assistant but politically neutral.
I want a job like these people. They do nothing and get paid loads of bread.
'The electorate in Tameside don't agree with Billington', 70 to 75% of the electorate don't bother to vote in Tameside.
The Labour machine gets 1500 or so diehards, pensioners, thickos etc to turn out (most of them signed up postal voters, a system repeatedly condemned as corrupt by the judiciary), and a feeble Tory opposition allows itself to be rolled over.
Whoever said 'the brain dormant majority' was dead right.
A Taxpayers’ Alliance and YouGov poll shows more than half the country would like to see an end to the controversial practice of public sector union officials being paid while they do union activity instead of working. As the unions don’t have to pay their staff and national organisers, they can spend the money raised through subs on political activity, like funding the Labour Party.
The TPA reckon that at least £67 million is being diverted from frontline services into the pockets of union officials. As Guido has been showing you over the last few months, these officials are up to no good. If the unions want staff they should pay for them out of union subs. Guido isn’t surprised the public are rejecting this absurd loophole.
Steve Roberts - the brutal truth here is that the socialist leader of this rotten borough has hired a socialist apparatchik to be his "Executive Assistant". That in my considered judgement is a clear illustration of the existence of a policy of jobs for the boys. As long as you're a good socialist and will do what the leader of the politburo wants then you will go far in this life.
Liam, I believe you've made some mud stick to these socialist demagogues and they don't like being exposed for being the money wasting freeloaders they quite obviously are. The truth evidently causes them serious acute pain and I encourage you to continue digging into their corrupt activities and carry on exposing them for what they really are.
Liam does a great job exposing these corrupt bastards. And I believe there is more to come.
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