After last week's review of Cllr. Mike Leddy's blog, it seems that he is somewhat reluctant to tell us about his adventures last week.
I am assured by Mrs Kelly, that the above location isn't in Brandwood.
Or is it? Who knows? Perhaps he has just popped round the offy for a Malibu.
Rest assured, I will update you all on the hard toil that is being Labour's spokesman for housing, as soon as Mike is back.
Later tonight, the annual sick-inducing festival that is the Oscars takes place in Los Angeles. On display as usual will be the usual display of fake emotion and over the top tear bursts.
Back in here in Birmingham, many observers are wondering whether Cllr. Zoe Hopkins, Labour councillor for Kingstanding, is perhaps a little guilty of such attention seeking behaviour herself.
Hopkins was seen at the first February meeting of the city council sobbing in full view of her fellow councillors and the public.
Naturally, this has generated considerable debate amongst opposition councillors and activists. What could the matter be?
Well, according to contributors to The Stirrer forum, Zoe has apparently been deselected. Hopkins herself has done little to dampen down such speculation and in fact is alleged to have confirmed what has happened to opposition councillors.
This afternoon Adrian Goldberg, the left-wing editor of the Stirrer Website has issued something of a rebuttal to these claims. However, as PragueTory points out on the discussion thread, no one trusts any denial issued by the Kingstanding Labour Party.
You see these people have "previous". Last May, Cllr. Catharine Grundy was given the shock of her life after scraping re-election by just 80 votes over the local Tory wunderkind Gary Sambrook. Grundy's campaign was dogged by accusations that she wanted out and was not committed to the ward.
It is one of the worst kept secrets in Kingstanding that Kane & Grundy can't stand the sight of Zoe. They can't work together, which is bad news for the long suffering Kingstanding electorate. Hopkins is also a Bore/Ward loyalist, which of course Kane and Grundy are not.
All this constitutes a crisis for Labour in a ward they have come to believe is their own.
With no elections in Birmingham this year, the infighting in the Erdington Constituency Labour Party should generate considerable interest.
Of course principled politicians would do the decent thing, call a by-election, and allow the people of Kingstanding the opportunity to elect people who want to serve them, and not gauge each other's eyes out.
Alas, they are not that way inclined.
Monday.
Leddy says that he started his week by looking at the Planning Portal of Birmingham City Council's website for items impacting on his Brandwood ward. Although there were a couple of items affecting Brandwood, our eagle eyed councillor saw no need for any personal action. Let's hope so, eh Mike!
He then tells us that he took on the might of Severn Trent Water over the parking of their plant and equipment. I might call him him the next time the woman across the road parks her Ford Focus across my driveway.
Tuesday.
Cllr. Leddy then informs us that he is a mover and shaker behind the Druids Heath Festival (eat your heart Michael Eavis). June 20th is the big day and he asks us all to put it into our diaries. Consider it done Mike!
Our Michael bemoaned the lack of local enthusiasm amongst local people to get involved in the organisation of the event. Perhaps they haven't got the time Mike! I mean they probably just want to turn up and enjoy the festival. That's how these things work Mike, the public turn up, and the "martyrs" who organise things get their egos massaged for 2 minutes. Leddy tells us that he has been given some responsibilities. Therefore, I look forward to seeing him on the day providing directions to the onsite Portaloos.
Cllr. Mike then tells us that he is preparing to brief "Sir Albert" on housing matters ahead of the next meeting of Cabinet. That's funny, I thought it was Albert who told his spokesmen what to say and think!
In what was obviously a "packed" Tuesday, Mike tells us about how he took on the might of the West Midlands Police (Severn Trent, then WMP, tomorrow the World?). He was dealing with a problem that a resident was experiencing over a parking issue. He tells us that he hates such "jobworths" and that "he'll sort them out". Tell me Mike, why do you think that these days there is a tendency amongst public servants to boss people about? Why do they think that they ALWAYS know best than the rest of us? The answer is simple Mike, your Labour government - never happy than when they are telling us that they know best how to run our lives.
Wednesday.
Nothing down for Mike today. What was he up to? I really think we should be told. Has he gone on short-time like the thousands of others in the this country who are having to suffer as a result of Gordon Brown and the Labour Party's incompetence? The chances are, Sir Albert wasn't happy with the housing briefing and demanded that it be resubmitted with all truthful facts about Cllr. Lines' performance removed.
Thursday.
Routine day as a councillor he tells us, whatever that means? You really are a tease, councillor. Apparently he went to a house meeting. House meeting? Whose house did you meet in? Is it an event where drum n' bass fills the room, and Labour activists pop coloured smarties into each others' mouths to give them that political high?
Sadly not, for it seems the event was with David Blunkett, you know the bloke that made the Police go around bullying people over parking matters, Blunkett was discussing Labour tactics for the future with a room full of Labour Party members. At the end of the session a full list of approved suppliers for white flags was drawn up and circulated amongst those in the room. Some however have had them hoisted for sometime...try driving around Kingstanding, they are everywhere.
Anyway, Mike proceeds to tell us that remarkably they managed to sign up new members. He asks us, "Who said The Labour Party was unpopular?"
The electorate are Mike.
Friday.
Now this is quality. Cllr. Leddy "having a go" at the Tory-led council about borrowing! He also tells us that he is trying to influence his Labour Party colleagues to campaign for a zero Council Tax increase.
You couldn't make it up!
Burden has let the people of Northfield down, he should spending his time campaigning for an improvement to their lives, yet the only thing that energises him are the plights of people who don't vote for him and who don't pay his wages.
This man epitomises all that is wrong with British politics.
Click this link to see how Palestine is high on Burden's list of priorities.
Tonight's Question Time is from Bath, and it should be of interest to those of us from Birmingham, as it features Liam Byrne and Salma Yaqoob.
A fine hypocrisy fest in store me thinks!
Byrne will be giving the banks a bashing, whilst sanctimonious Salma will be telling us that Israel are scum and that it doesn't matter who gains power there because they are all evil!
At least Kelvin McKenzie will be there to add a certain colourful gaiety to the occasion.
The Birmingham Post is this morning reporting that 400 firms went bust in Birmingham in the last quarter of 2008.
Understandably, media attention is often focused on the mass employers in the region. Yet scores of employees have lost their jobs, and continue to do so, in the SMEs that underpin the local economy.
So where are Birmingham's Labour MPs when this is going on? I'll tell you where...hiding, or at least trying to distract our attention by talking about something else.
The most high profile of them is Liam Byrne, Cabinet Office Minister and MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, a constituency that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the UK.
The only time I ever see Byrne quoted these days is when he is taking pot shots at John Lines in the press. Other than that, nothing.
Sion Simon is another MP who seems to have nothing to say about unemployment in his constituency. He is easily being outflanked on the Jaguar issue by Erdington Conservative Councillor Robert Alden.
Gisela Stuart, the 'pretend Euro-Sceptic' MP for Edgbaston, has nothing to say about anything, now that her government has ignored her insincere pleas for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Although she did pop up recently attacking her nemesis and replacement, Councillor Deirdre Alden, in a ridiculous spat about tower blocks.
Khalid Mahmood is a 'rentaquote' merchant who can always be relied upon to stir the pot of racial intolerance, but has nothing to say about the appalling youth jobless figures in the inner city.
Steve "Lollipop Man" McCabe's only public appearance of note in recent months was moonlighting as a crossing warden, a poor taste stunt, campaigning for a crossing that was already being planned by the city council.
Lynne Jones and the rebellious ex-Labour Party MP Clare Short have been in the departure lounge for so long now, waiting for their pensions to kick in, that no one remembers them ever getting elected. McCabe himself spent the early part of his current term of office trying to fight Roger Godsiff for the right to become the MP for Hall Green, a situation only resolved when Jones took the decision to stand down.
Then we have Richard 'Al' Burden, the MP for Northfield, a man who has always been too preoccupied with events in the Middle East, to have to worry about a major car plant going under in his constituency. Of course, now that Longbridge is a desolate wasteland, waiting for the economy to pick up before it can regenerate itself, Burden can spend his time trying to compete with Salma Yaqoob for the 'I hate Israel more than you contest'. Wait until Netanyahu is back in office later today, then we'll hear from him I am sure.
Birmingham needs a new start, with a new group of MPs who will address the unemployment issue head on.
According to a number of news sources, Ed "Fletcher-Dervish" Balls (pictured), who was with Gordon Brown when this terrible economic mess was in incubation, warned a friendly Labour audience over the weekend that the economic crisis currently engulfing the UK could last for a decade and will be the worst recession experienced in a hundred years. He also was pushing the now familiar Labour line that the BNP are the ones who are going to profit from the turmoil.
Naturally, comments like this from Mr. Balls and other Labour politicians are designed to scare the horses and bolster their own precarious positions in their own backyards.
I am much more optimistic than Mr. Balls and his ilk, for I don't share his belief that the working people of this country are so unsophisticated that they will run into the arms of a racist party like the BNP.
Yes, the BNP have tried to jump on the 'British jobs for British workers' bandwagon, but even on the picket lines, their presence will not be appreciated.
Unfortunately, it is the Labour Party and their anti-British policies that has spawned the BNP monster. When they deservedly return to opposition, they can dust off their placards and their Searchlight subscriptions and do what they have to do to help remove the boil of national socialism from the British political scene.
However in government, Labour, like they did the late 70s, have created the fertile conditions for the BNP/NF to grow.
Another reason, if we didn't need it already, to demonstrate that Labour are a disaster in power.
In a piece of classic socialist posturing, the man who has wasted BILLIONS of pounds on gold sales, flawed IT projects, compensation for hurt feelings, bailing out banks, etc.., our Prime Minister is expressing angry exasperation about bank bonuses.
Well after seeing my taxes poured away weekly in the Society Guardian jobs page for the last 12 years, I am afraid I have no sympathy for him.
Some of the bonuses may be obscene Mr. Brown, but not as obscene as what you have presided over.
Rage on mate, no one gives a toss what you have to say.
Well this Nottinghamshire Deputy Headteacher thinks so.
Probably a bit unfair to castigate or demonise a whole group of people who may be living their lives in the way they do for specific reasons. However, there is an awful lot of truth in what he says.
His message will of course fall on deaf ears in liberal circles purely because of the language used.
But of course a large residual group of the population in constant need of the state's assistance is what makes the Labour Party tick. If such people didn't exist then there would be no jobs, no grants, and no sinecures for their supporters.
Depressing.
So as soon as Coun Leddy splits hairs about the performance of Birmingham City Council's housing department, he is quickly left floundering when the performance of the last Labour administration is brought to his attention.
From soundings I have taken amongst some of his colleagues within the Birmingham Labour Party, they believe that Housing is not really his thing and suspect that he covets the position of Deputy Leader Ian Ward or may be that of his ward constituent Sir Albert Bore!
Anyway, Coun Leddy has joined the ranks of Labour's councillor bloggers, and given his penchant for playing the class warrior it should be an interesting read. Like our old friend Chris Hillcox, Coun Leddy lives a good few miles away from the area he is campaigning in, currently lamenting the fact that Oscott is turning blue again after years of Labour neglect.
Leddy's blog will be one I shall be monitoring over the next few months. You can be sure I will be commenting on it here.
John Prescott, a man who was proud of jumbling his words and letters, hasn't taken too kindly to Carol Vorderman's tie-up with the Tories.
The former Countdown mathematician is to work with the Conservatives on a Maths Task Force and the former Labour street brawler isn't happy.
You see according to Prescott, Ms Vorderman is to blame for the credit crunch - personally I thought it was Gordon Brown, but what the heck!
Apparently, by appearing in those personal loan adverts on afternoon telly which were being shown during kids TV programmes as busy mums were cooking the tea for the kids, the glamourous Carol was putting the idea into kids' heads that mum and dad should go and borrow £25k at 9.6% interest.
Johnny boy, you are a waste of space.
After being wiped out at the ballot box by the voters of Weoley, the Labour Party have decided that the best way to rebuild their base in the ward is to do so under a cloak of secrecy.
I have discovered that former defeated Labour Party candidate for Sutton New Hall and Erdington, Chris Hillcox (Pictured), has surfaced in Weoley Ward.
Using the same misleading tactics that saw him make no inroads into Erdington, Hillcox has set up a front organisation called Community Action Northfield (CAN) and has launched a blog called Pride In Weoley, which must be annoying the City Council's Northfield Constituency office as their excellent and informative "Pride In Northfield" website has been up and running for some time.
Erdington residents may recall his "Erdington Echo" venture which purported to be apolitical, yet only ever contained far-fetched criticisms of Erdington Conservative councillors. As late as last November, "The Echo" had been distributed as a leaflet (printed by the Labour Party).
However, now it seems that both Labour and Hillcox have decided that Erdington is like flogging a dead horse and that his "talents" are best deployed south of the city.
With the aid of Google Maps, I was able to discover that the distance from Hillcox's house to Weoley's Castle Square is over 15 miles and the journey to his new political home takes around three quarters of an hour... and that's on a good day.
It is not clear if and when Hillcox will actually come clean with the people of Weoley and make public his political affliation. Nevertheless, what he and the Labour Party are doing is highly dishonest, and they should be condemned for this dishonesty.
Like the party nationally, the Birmingham Labour Party are experiencing public anger and ridicule. The last thing voters who are losing their homes and jobs wish to see are Labour Party activists telling them just how well Gordon Brown is running the country.
Now that I have "outed" Mr Hillcox, both he and the Labour Party should campaign as socialists and not in the shifty dishonest guise of Labour front organisations.
My thanks to Weoley resident GN, for alerting me to this deception.
