Coventry Telegraph - Talking Politics

Growing up under Thatcher - & why people must speak their minds

2013-04-12T12:21:57Z

AMONG those of us who were born in the 60s, grew up in the 70s, and lived the 80s and beyond, Margaret Thatcher's death has been spoken about for decades.

In recent months, in preparation for the Iron Lady's passing, some Conservatives have transparently been plotting a trap to ambush anyone speaking ill of the dead.

Their plan was to demonise for political gain any so-called "left-winger" celebrating the death of the self-styled nation's grandmother.

It hasn't worked. I, for one, am pleased there's been an honest and open debate.

Personally, I've deliberately held back comment until now, partly out of respect for a human being's passing. I certainly haven't felt compelled to link on social media songs from back in the day which envisaged her passing - Elvis Costello's 'Tramp The Dirt Down' being just one example.

I've also avoided reading nearly all commentary this week. As with millions of others, my views have already been formed over decades.

Yet people should be free to express their thoughts and sentiments, including celebration or anger. No doubt she would have expected and wanted it - as a self-declared fighter for freedom and free speech (unless of course, your name was Gerry Adams, gagged on the Beeb by her government diktat in the 1980s).

People of my generation and older grew up in a different world - one of intensely polarised and politicised culture. It reflected a period towards the end of the Cold War when notions of class struggle and fear of nuclear attack were still prominent - a fear which struck in the hearts and minds of the young.

There have been many improvements in people's qualify of life since, as well as many political failures to advance humankind.

The Thatcherite period was our political education. The youth culture that developed around it was rich - in music, theatre, literature, TV and film.

I'm really glad I grew up in that period. In many ways, it has shaped my professional life, in scrutinising all party political perspectives.

The punk and post-punk/indie ethos encouraged the young to get involved in the world - whether it was joining a party or organisation, writing a fanzine or playing in a band - sometimes doing benefits for striking miners.

Anti-Thatcherite sentiment found its way into the pop culture mainstream. It was a counter-culture with force to rival the 1980s "new romantic" materialist and commercial excesses - which perhaps more reflected "yuppie" Thatcherite culture.

Coventry's greatest band The Specials' number one single, Ghost Town, was - and remains - among the greatest cultural documents of a time when the West Midlands' manufacturing heartland felt its heart and backbone ripped out by Thatcherism.

The sentiments of those who remember the miners' strike, and 1980s unemployment, remain with those Warwickshire, West Midlands and wider communities who experienced it.

It remains with the then hard-left foes of Thatcher now in charge at Coventry City Council, including Labour leader John Mutton. His leaked email joke to colleagues about flying a flag above Coventry Council House for Thatcher's funeral with a "smiley face on" reflects lingering bitter feeling, as does Labour councillor Dave Chater's reply about "preferring to see her hanging from a flagpole in the early 80s."

Community and family strength of feeling has been passed down the generations. Current Coventry band The Enemy's frontman, Tom Clarke, took to Twitter this week to denounce the ex-Prime Minister who had "caused grief for so many families".

He once explained to me in interview the picture on the front sleeve of the brilliant 2007 Enemy single, "You're Not Alone" - a song partly about 1970s/80s industrial decline in Coventry.

It carried a picture of his late uncle Mick O'Gara standing side by side National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill at a picket line in the 1984-85 strike. Tom paid heartfelt tribute to his uncle, an NUM convenor at Keresley colliery - one of several now abandoned local pits.

The Coventry Telegraph's front page headline on Tuesday - "The Woman Who Divided a Nation" - probably sums up opinion in Coventry and Warwickshire, and the wider country.

Our headline was featured by Nick Robinson on the BBC Six O'Clock News. Taking to Twitter to attack the BBC for similar comment was Stratford Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi - who partly grew up in Iraq, where the Conservative government was arming Saddam Hussein with tools for weapons built at Coventry's Matrix Churchill factory.

Of course, her supporters have been vocal. One high-profile, well-written and thought-provoking defence of Mrs Thatcher came from ex-Coventry Evening Telegraph political editor, my former colleague Paul Dale. The respected ex-Birmingham Post journalist now writes the Chamberlain Files blog.... (continued on next page)...

Taking on the "cosy liberal-left", Paul's blog (entitled "Why the lady is for mourning") urged Thatcher's Premiership from 1979 to be understood in the context of overblown 1970s union power, inflation-busting pay rises, the three-day week, and her blowing away a post-War political consensus involving "swollen public spending" as the too-costly price for full employment.

Paul recalled his personal experiences of "the sheer awfulness, the monochrome desperation of a nation that was staring into the abyss of hyper-inflation, economic disaster and the certainty of unemployment at levels that make subsequent dole queues appear tiny in comparison."

Throwing money at "uneconomic" industries increasingly unable to compete in a globalised market was adding to the problem, he argues.

He points out Labour in power embraced Thatcherism ever since the Thatcher and Major Conservative period of 1979 to 1997.

In many senses, he is right on the last point. But my years of studying the reality behind the pro-Thatcherite rhetoric unearths a more complicated picture.

Did Thatcher really replace the supposed stifling "tyranny" of the public sector, its unions and national debt with personal "freedom", a "small state" and low taxation - with families freed to be active participants in a shareholder democracy?

And, if so, what has been the outcome over 34 years?

Here's some key economic observations:

* Mrs Thatcher did not reduce overall taxation, as I pointed out to then shadow chancellor George Osborne when interviewing him in 2010 - a son of Thatcher if ever there was one.
In fact, she shifted the tax burden more towards those least able to pay, preferring indirect taxes to income tax, especially away from top rates for the rich.

* Neither did she get public sector spending as a percentage of national income (GDP) below 40 per cent - despite privatising the nationalised industries, selling council houses and cuts.

* Government debt as a percentage of GDP went on rising under the Tories, and rose again by the end of the last Labour administration. It continues to rise under today's Con/Lib Dem coalition.

* Crucially, the UK's balance of trade problems continued, with the decline of the manufacturing base and imports outstripping exports.
All sides of the new political consensus today agree it remains our biggest problem, for our region and nation.

* Crucially too, neither party learned from the boom and bust we witnessed in the Thatcherite decade of easy credit.

The 2008 global financial crash must surely represent the failure of the post-1979 Thatcherite neo-liberal consensus, which replaced the post-War consensus called Butskellism, which Paul Dale refers to.

"We are all Keynesians now", was the already forgotten cry after 2008.

For three years, centre-right and centre-left governments responded by bailing out bank debt, or turn to short-term public investment to prevent even worse catastrophe.

I fear the lessons of the global marketplace will still not be learned.

New solutions to intervene in the worst excesses of the market - which commentators on right and left agree must be increasingly global - will be sacrificed by the narrow interests of domestic politics and political cycles.

That is likely to be the case whoever wins power in the UK after 2015. Here, the rise of UKIP threatens to force the so-called modern, compassionate Conservatives even more to the right.

On social policy, the Blair years at least forced Tory navel-gazing over what Conservative frontbencher Theresa May herself warned had become "the nasty party". We remember the homophobia of Clause 28, the 1990s right-wing ministerial rhetoric about single mums, and the "back to basics" prism of the mythical Victorian family which shaped policy.

Most importantly, the sons and daughters of Thatcher - those born-to-rule - are in charge today, without a convincing mandate.

They are of the same generation - but a world apart from the people and culture I grew up with in Warwickshire in the 1980s.

Fortysomething old-Etonian Prime Minister David Cameron was in Coventry yesterday, as protests took place in Coventry city centre over the "bedroom tax" and other welfare cuts imposed this month.

Yet Cameron was nowhere to be seen by protesters during his clandestine visit.

Instead, he took loaded questions in front of TV cameras from staff at energy giant E-On. Those staff defended inflation-busting hikes in families' gas and electricity bills. Cameron insisted competition between the 'big six' energy companies was better than the monopolies of Thatcher's day.

Neither would he make himself available to the local media to answer local concerns - rare in my experience of interviewing cabinet ministers and Prime Ministers, including him.

Had I been able to, I would have asked him whether high West Midlands unemployment at 8.7per cent was continuing Mrs Thatcher's legacy. It would have presented the PM with an opportunity to explain to local people if there really is a robust plan for regional growth - amid the void of austerity cuts.

Those cuts include Thatcher-busting spending reductions of up to 33 per cent to councils, police, fire and public bodies struggling to provide public services to local communities - with heavy job losses in the regions.

I would have asked him if the "bedroom tax" - now penalising social housing tenants with Housing Benefit cuts for having a so-called extra bedroom - could become his Poll Tax, the policy which eventually saw Thatcher removed from Downing Street.

I could go on for ever.

Suffice to say, the Prime Minister who pledged to bring "harmony" has all-so-predictably brought division in her death, as in life. Those words as she crossed the Downing Street threshold still strike discord in the minds of many from my generation.

Coventry must do more with its rich medieval "hidden gem" tourist attractions

2013-01-30T11:31:49Z

In his BBC TV series Great British Journeys, ex-Thatcherite minister turned media personality Michael Portillo is moved by Coventry.

During his stop-off by train, he is underwhelmed by Coventry station, observing of post-war stations: "I remember in the 1960s being very impressed by this brave new architecture. Nothing dates faster than yesterday's view of the future."

He tells his audience Coventry is "not really on the tourist trail", surmising Nazi bombing is the reason.

Then, while visiting the cathedral quarter and strolling along medieval Spon Street, he says: "I'm feeling really guilty. I've done a big injustice to Coventry.

"I've always known it was destroyed in the war and therefore I've never come here to pay it any attention. Now I find it's full of these wonderful medieval buildings really as good as any English city."

His suggestion that Coventry's history is being undersold to the world finds an unlikely ally in Labour's recently appointed culture and tourism cabinet member at Coventry City Council, Ed Ruane.

This week, he risked offending colleagues by showing me disturbing damage and neglect at the often shut council-owned St Mary's Guildhall. It is described by Dr Jonathan Foyle of the World Monuments Fund as the country's "finest surviving medieval guildhall" on one of the "best medieval streets", complete with unique treasures to rival Hampton Court.

While Coun Ruane spoke of Coventry's "missed opportunities" to promote itself and link up with national tourist board Visit England, Dr Foyle has been discussing the possibilities with some in the city.

Conservative culture minister Ed Vaisey heard proposals last week during a visit to Coventry's 14th century grade I listed Charterhouse, at Charterhouse Fields, city centre.

According to Dr Foyle, it houses one of the country's finest pieces of Elizabethan artwork from its days as a private residence once owned by Sir Robert Dudley. There are also stunning older frescos testifying to its Carthusian monastic history, when Coventry's priories and monasteries placed it among the wealthiest cities in the world.

Yet few Coventrians, let alone global tourists, even know the city's "hidden gems" exist. Recent decades have seen the Charterhouse used as a City College training centre.

Ian Harrabin, of the new Coventry Charterhouse Preservation Trust, wants to bring it back to life as a tourism and cultural attraction. He told the minister restoration would require £1.5million to £3million from heritage lottery funding or elsewhere.

The minister also heard of a grand Coventry plan to link the Charterhouse with the current Far Gosford Street heritage revamp and other heritage sites in the city's "historic core" for a major lottery funding bid.

It would create a giant city centre heritage quarter. One suggestion was that other grade I listed buildings could be brought into the trust for commercial use, with revenue cross-funding the Charterhouse.

Mr Vaisey observed it could be an "inspiring place for Coventry". Yet his idea of seeking a wealthy benefactor was less well received.

The government has cut funding for arts and culture in austerity. Ministers have called for philanthropic trusts funded by private super-rich individuals to fill the gap.

Dr Foyle disagrees with Coun Ruane's idea of the council bringing in an outside trust to manage the guildhall. He argues such trusts often lack the resources to effectively run heritage attractions.

In a climate where even small funding for council conservation officers has been lost, I asked the minister what could usefully be done in austerity to pump-prime Coventry's heritage and tourism ambitions.

He insisted lottery funds were increasing, and ministers were keen on restoring the nation's heritage. He said Charterhouse's plans "ticked all the boxes", especially with plans for community and cultural activity.

The counter view is that government funding cuts for culture are counter-productive. What better way to stimulate the economy than doing more to attract tourists?

A group of MPs this week mooted giving councils powers to levy a "tourism tax" or "hotel room tax" on bookings, with revenue going back to council coffers.

While some suggested the money should be ringfenced for local tourist promotion, Tory opposition councillor Kevin Foster said it would be "an effective way of ensuring travellers go elsewhere".

It has long been said of Coventry that visitors see the cathedral then jump back on their coaches.

Witnessing the decline of the guildhall, where the fabric reeks of old fatty food and is disturbingly shabby beyond the Great Hall's splendour, it's clear something must be done.

Small charity shows council and business the way forward with Living Wage

2013-01-23T09:38:21Z

CALLS are growing for Coventry council and the region's other largest employers to lead by example and introduce the "Living Wage" for low paid staff.

As things stand, a small city centre-based charity is leading the way.

The Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre is the only Coventry and Warwickshire organisation on a list of about 100 Living Wage accredited employers, published for the first time in November.

Despite funding pressures and growing demand for its services, the charity also ensured its subsidiary trading companies have also signed up to the Living Wage. They include social enterprises where migrants will work.

As we reported on Saturday, ruling Labour councillors have set up a Living Wage taskforce to examine the idea. It will not come in time for this year's 2013/14 budget, to be set next month. At least 11 councils, including Birmingham City Council, have already introduced it for their lowest paid, including cleaners, dinner ladies and the notoriously low paid care sector.

So too has the Greater London Authority, some hospitals and universities, and the government's Department for Work and Pensions is looking to sign up - with more civil service departments expected to follow. London 2012 became the first Living Wage Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Living Wage, launched a decade ago by campaign group Citizens UK, is set each year by policy researchers at Loughborough University to cover the actual cost of living - or the basic essentials for a comfortable standard of living.

Employers are urged to voluntarily raise their lowest wage to £7.45 per hour (outside London). That is above the statutory National Minimum Wage of £6.19 per hour for those over 21, £4.98 for over-18s, a paltry £3.68 for 16 and 17-year-olds, and a miserly £2.65 for apprentices. Accredited companies range from high street chain Lush to accountancy giants PwC and KPMG.

It is argued the Living Wage saves the taxpayer in tax credits and sickness absence, means higher staff morale, and more money spent by recipients on local businesses and the local economy.

Labour party leader Ed Miliband recently said Labour in government would only grant government contracts to private firms paying the Living Wage.

PM David Cameron says businesses are encouraged to take it up, but warns Labour's plans could breach EU procurement law - dismissed as nonsense by Miliband, given councils' take-up already. It could become a political battleground at the next election - just as the minimum wage was in 1997, when the Tories opposed it.

Conservative city councillor Allan Andrews insists it should not just be a Labour issue in Coventry, and is calling for cross-party talks.

He is a board member at the refugee centre, which wants to set up a 'Living Wage council' of local organisations coming together to steer citywide implementation. The Living Wage Foundation, when accrediting public organisations, seeks evidence of steps to ensure contracted firms follow suit.

Coventry council deputy leader George Duggins argues this requirement is one area where a Living Wage is more problematic than simply introducing it for around 2,000 staff, and 700 casual staff, who earn less than £7.60 among a 14,000 workforce (including 6,700 in schools).

He estimates the cost for directly employed staff would be £700,000 amid 27 per cent government funding cuts to councils, with 800 more job losses expected, and staff set to get their first pay rise (just one per cent) since 2009.

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust is yet to follow the lead set by Barts and the Royal London hospitals. UHCW employs 6000 staff. Cleaners, catering, security and other maintenance staff are hired by private firms which maintain the privately financed PFI hospital at Walsgrave.

Warwick University says none of its 5,000 staff are paid less than the Living Wage. But it seems since students raised questions, it has not examined accreditation any further, or whether it could do more to encourage contracted firms to introduce it.

University spokesman Peter Dunn said it was difficult to see how such a condition could be applied when the university purchases goods and services across the European Community.

Labour opposition councillors at Warwickshire County Council are yet to put any pressure on Conservative leaders to examine the idea.

Louise Bennett, Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce chief executive, said members had not raised the issue, and suggested it could "put undue pressure" on firms in tough times.

It would seem Coventry has a long way to go, but could yet lead the way.

Does disputed '14,000 jobs' bid near Coventry Airport really have 'very special circumstances' needed for green belt go-ahead?

2013-01-16T10:31:56Z

A DISPUTED plan to create "up to 14,000 jobs" near Coventry Airport is among the first major tests of a government policy pledge to protect green belt.

An important private meeting of Warwick District Council's planning committee members takes place tonight.

Those ten councillors will decide what extra information they will need to decide on the Coventry & Warwickshire Gateway scheme in the months ahead - after deferring a decision before Christmas.

They will consider commissioning another consultants' report assessing the scheme's true jobs potential. It follows acceptance that two previous reports were limited in scope and remit - one commissioned by the developer; the second by councils whose leaders support the scheme.

The second, by Soho-based GL Hearn, casts so much doubt on the jobs claims they become virtually meaningless. Yet it has been used by council planning officers as support for the 14,000 jobs figure, to justify building on the green belt in tough times.

Strength of feeling about protecting the "green lungs" separating cities, towns and villages escaped no-one attending the Christmas planning meeting.

In pantomime season, 150 protesters booed, or wildly applauded protesters' arguments from parish councils in Baginton, Stoneleigh and Bubbenhall, and eminent ex-Warwick University economist Alan Roe, ex-principal economist at the World Bank.

Some characterise them as Nimbys. For others, the Gateway should be supported, even if the best evidence suggests a few thousand jobs, as argued Labour councillor Alison Gingell when Coventry's planning committee backed the scheme.

It was left to Warwick's planning committee chairman George Illingworth to eloquently concentrate minds on the main planning considerations.

The Gateway must meet two crucial tests. In his view, it failed both.

It would contravene local development plans under which brownfield sites for employment remained available. Second, he argued, it contravened the government's National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), finalised last year.

After protests, ministers made alterations to bolster green belt protection, while encouraging planners to enable building elsewhere with a "presumption in favour of sustainable development."

The NPPF states: "The government attaches great importance to green belts. The fundamental aim of green belt policy is to prevent urban sprawl."

It adds: "As with previous green belt policy, inappropriate development is, by
definition, harmful to the green belt and should not be approved except in very special circumstances."

Councillor Illingworth argued there were none for the 700-acre Gateway site.

The committee's vote was evenly split. Coun Illingworth could have used his casting vote to reject the scheme. Instead, the committee deferred its decision pending more information.

The jobs claims comprise a technology park ("up to 4,000 jobs") a separate warehouse and logistics park (up to 6,000), and 4,000 at nearby Whitley Business Park - stimulated by airport owner Sir Peter Rigby's developers' pledge for £30million road improvements. It lies almost empty a decade after gaining planning permission, despite promises of thousands of jobs.

When viewed as three distinct components, it becomes even more difficult to argue against using largely baron brownfield sites earmarked for employment instead, examples being Ryton or Ansty Park.

In planning terms, "14,000 jobs" misleads in arguing "very special circumstances" - as 4,000 would be off-site on land with planning permission.

In planning, a "sequential" approach often applies.

Shops or homes must first go in a city centre or district centre, or brownfield, until it is used up.

The Gateway would bypass that principle.

As Mr Roe argues, the Hearn report mainly quantifies how many jobs could be created from the type and density of Gateway buildings, rather than likely demand.

Hearn's report states it was not commissioned to review the Gateway's "financial viability" or "deliverability".

It concludes there is "inherent uncertainty" in the jobs claims, including over "net new jobs" rather than local firms relocating.

Planning officers concede it was commissioned as a "report about a report" - to examine the earlier report by Savill commissioned by Sir Peter's joint venture development company.

Should Warwick Council grant planning permission, communities secretary Eric Pickles could "call in" the application for his determination, with a planning inquiry assessing if there are "very special circumstances".

If Warwick rejects, protesters could ask a High Court judge.

In one test of the NPPF, Pickles found "very special circumstances" for a £19million rugby stadium with warehousing in Wakefield green belt, concluding there was a need for a community stadium.

If the Gateway gets through, expect a lot more green belt to be lost, despite ministers' fine words.

Why the Godiva Festival should stay in the park - despite the politics

2013-01-09T09:49:02Z

IS this week's debate about moving Coventry's successful three-day free music festival from the War Memorial Park to the city centre as much about politics, as money and music?

The council's Labour leaders have noticeably not been singing from the same hymn sheet on the issue. The decision to hold a public vote emerged from a division of opinion between senior Labour cabinet members.

Feelings are running high, with some passionately seeking to persuade movers and shakers to back a switch to the city centre.

Those in favour include rising Labour politicians Ed Ruane and Lynnette Kelly. Against is council leader John Mutton, who Labour group insiders believe could face a leadership contest weeks before this summer's Godiva Festival.

It's a legitimate debate - whether or not there is political manoeuvring between Labour group characters and factions who don't always see eye-to-eye.

Councillors Kelly, cabinet member for city development who will seek to become Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington, and Ruane, whose cabinet portfolio includes tourism and culture, both want to stimulate the flagging city centre, where one in seven shops lies empty.

Yet my sense is the vast majority of people will instinctively want to keep the Godiva in the park - a natural large space for a music festival.

The city centre's streets are a long-established alcohol-free zone, although some councillors say that could easily be varied with a special events licence. But would all traders welcome a mass influx of festival goers?

Does the city centre have the capacity to host a large-scale festival which has attracted 120,000 visitors?

There is the excellent new 8,000-capacity events space in Broadgate, the under-used Millennium Place and other squares. But the festival has grown into a multi-cultural, multi-events offering - not just a few bands in a few tents.

Coun Ruane insists the public vote did not simply come about because of last year's eleventh-hour cancellation due to heavy rain and "dangerously boggy" conditions - after £440,000 council spending, and predicted £130,000 income lost - resulting in a hugely scaled-down version with local bands in Broadgate.

He says he and Coun Kelly had approached Coun Mutton about getting more return on investment from Godiva and the £580,000 events budget, earmarked for a £40,000 cut.

Coun Ruane said he identified a lack of joined-up thinking and "cross-marketing" of events to generate city centre income, even with the Olympics.

Poor location and marketing of the festival, he believes, has seen people come into Coventry and head out-of-town to the park. He insists the city centre's squares could accommodate the typical Godiva main-stage crowd.

The counter-argument comes from Pete Walters, formerly of ex-Godiva organisers CV One, who believes a city centre Godiva Festival would inevitably be hugely scaled down.

For many, time would be better spent on early planning for the park, to prevent any heavy rain becoming an untimely showstopper during the fortnight the festival is being set up.

It can surely be done. Hyde Park hosted Bruce Springsteen with emergency tons of bark in the wettest summer on record, after flooding knee-deep days before. The Olympics torch procession in the War Memorial Park took place on the same weekend the Godiva Festival was cancelled.

A council officers' report in September contained practical suggestions, including using higher ground away from the brook; additional track for vehicles to prevent them getting stuck in mud; switching equipment drop-off points to the car park area; managing vehicle movements differently; laying reinforced footpaths; and using drainage systems.

I suspect staging the festival in the park will remain the popular view - whether or not an internet public vote is being manipulated as some claim, with people able to click to vote multiple times.

The debate could stimulate useful ideas about how city centre venues could be incorporated into a wider Godiva Festival in addition to the park - something CV One considered, although Mr Walters says they never had the budget.

It could also help to line up a genuine larger-scale city centre back-stop festival in case of another cancellation due to park flooding.

But for those of us music fans who witnessed the transformation from the early Godiva Festival bands playing to two men and a dog, to the historic 2007 moment The Enemy's incendiary Godiva performance marked the weekend Coventry's finest's first album soared to No.1, the ambitious festival must surely remain as something the city is rightly proud of.

XMAS QUIZ: A sideways look back at 2012

2012-12-19T12:38:33Z

IN keeping with this column's inglorious Christmas tradition, here's a festive sideways look at the lighter side of politics in 2012...

1/ What was Tory ex-chief whip Andrew Mitchell's nickname at his former public school of Rugby, where bobbies protested after his ill-tempered remarks to Downing Street police?

2/ Which classic cartoon nickname did Tory opponent Kevin Foster attempt to stick on Labour councillor Dan Howells for dismissing as a "non-story" our reporting of leadership plots and splits within Coventry council's Labour group?

3/ Which Australian prime minister was her minister Bill Shorten talking about when he said in a viral TV interview: "I understand the PM's addressed this in a press conference in Turkey in the last few hours. I haven't seen what she said, but let me say I support what it is she said."?

4/ Who was the Midlands MP and then environment secretary who this column revealed botched a major government announcement at Coventry station, prompting a spin-doctor to turn the air "Malcolm Tucker-style blue"?

5/ At which railway station did PM David Cameron insist he ate his last pasty, only to be accused of telling porkie pies, following the "Pastygate" scandal when his chancellor slapped 20 per cent VAT on hot pasties?

6/ ..And which Labour shadow cabinet minister reportedly 'ate all the pies' after Ed Miliband and chums rushed to Gregg's high street bakers for a gratuitous photo opportunity?

7/ Which would-be Coventry Lib Dem MP jailed for defrauding students did this column reveal had allegedly used one of his alter-egos to fictitiously kill himself off?

8/ What unprecedented surprise was sprung by councillor Tim Sawdon as he was sworn in as Lord Mayor at Coventry Cathedral, prompting Labour council leader John Mutton to quip it saved the cost of a reception?

9/ What prompted Coventry City Council deputy leader George Duggins in May to say: "I want to give advice to David Cameron. Don't bully us, don't come forward with impositions, and don't offer us dodgy questions"?

10/ Which leading British politician was stumped by US chat show host David Letterman when asked what the Magna Carta meant - raising questions over whether he would pass a citizenship test?

11/ Which leading British politician ate humble pie for breaking an election pledge, only to see a spoof musical version hit number 143 in the UK charts?

12/ What did wombling Tory elder statesman, councillor Michael Hammon, hold aloft to incredulous laughter at a Coventry council meeting, to question whether the council's city centre street drinking ban was working?

1/ "Thrasher" Mitchell 2/ Desperate Dan 3/ Julia Gillard 4/ Caroline Spelman 5/ Leeds 6/ Ed Balls 7/ Vincent McKee 8/ He married Lady Mayoress Nicky Sawdon on the same day 9/ Coventry's rejection at a referendum of the government's idea for an elected mayor 10/ David Cameron 11/ Nick Clegg (apology song for pledge on tuition fees) 12/ A plastic bag full of beer cans he collected

Coventry set for its first female MP since the year Mrs Thatcher swept to power

2012-12-12T09:16:27Z

COVENTRY could be set to have its first female MP since Audrey Wise in 1979 - the year of the winter of discontent and Margaret Thatcher sweeping to power.

For some, the city has been stuck in a timewarp of macho politics from a smoke-filled, bygone era - when some of Coventry's current leading politicians were angry young men.

There may be some angry middle-aged men in the 21st century local party - if national Labour officials seek to promote women above them.

Labour sources close to high command tell me it's likely the party will have an all-women shortlist in the ultra-safe seat of Coventry North East, from which local members will select their next Parliamentary candidate.

The rumour mill has been in overdrive since Bob Ainsworth MP - an old-style macho trade unionist who rose to defence secretary - announced last week he will not stand again, after enjoying huge Labour majorities since 1992.

Parliamentary hopefuls nationally will already be eying up one of the West Midlands' safest Labour seats - a shoe-in to the Commons of giant jackboot proportions.

National officials will be too, believe local party figures who have put in the hard miles as councillors, and now fear powerlessly watching overhead as a national party favourite parachutes onto a shortlist.

They almost spit out the name of Tony Blair's son Euan. This column told you he has been working at a Coventry employment agency Sarino Russo Job Access - where the ex-PM's barrister wife is the boss's "close friend".

Sources close to Coventry North West MP, the ex-minister and Blair family friend Geoffrey Robinson, were adamant he was approached personally by the Blairs - seeking a hand-up in Coventry for their 28-year-old son's Parliamentary ambitions.

Euan was working in Coventry on Monday, but has not responded to my approaches.

Even if he's interested, he could be the wrong sex. Labour sources believe an all-women shortlist is odds-on if Coventry's two other long-standing Labour MPs - Jim Cunningham, 71, and Mr Robinson, 74 - keep their word and stand again. If either doesn't, it's feasible Coventry North West or Coventry South could have an all-women shortlist instead.

But many believe the safest seat is the most likely, with the party serious about having more female parliamentarians. At least half of marginal seats not currently held by Labour are also expected to have an all-women shortlist. City councillor Lynnette Kelly was selected from one to be Labour's candidate in Warwick and Leamington.

One rated potential parachuter tipped by national party figures is Ruth Smeeth, who stood in Burton in 2010.

Recently elected Coventry councillor Jayne Innes stood and lost in Nuneaton in 2010 after being on an all-women shortlist. She insists she won't stand, saying her life has moved on.

Ruling herself out for similar reasons is city councillor Ann Lucas, a member of the party's national executive committee.

There is another important factor. Coventry North east has a strong Asian constituency. It will seek influence on selection, as might Coventry Labour's BAME (black asian minority ethnic) group.

National names like male GMB union official, the economist Kamaljeet Jandu, have been touted.

But an Asian woman might prove a more likely contender.

In the less likely event of an open shortlist, council deputy leader and Coventry North East constituency chairman George Duggins, aged 55, does not rule himself out. Neither does he oppose an all women shortlist. Council leader John Mutton, in his mid-60s, has ruled himself out.

Leading councillors who have long held parliamentary ambitions include Jim O'Boyle, 45, and Phil Townshend, 54, who don't rule themselves out. Ambitious younger councillors include Faye Abbott, Damian Gannon and Ed Ruane - who would not answer whether he might be interested, insisting it would definitely be an all women shortlist.

The selection process could be delayed until the summer, when there is certainty that the Lib Dems will block Tory attempts to have fewer constituencies under boundary changes. If the Tories were to push that through, some big Labour sitting MPs could be debunked and might look around for seats elsewhere - throwing things up in the air.

Ultimately, the local constituency party will select its candidate from a shortlist. If an outsider, she or he will need time to develop a local profile and contacts in a diverse and economically challenged Labour heartland.

The football club, the council and the London PR firm - as talks hit breaking point

2012-11-28T10:00:22Z

A DEAL over the part-council owned Ricoh Arena - which the Sky Blues insist is vital amid liquidation fears - now seems miles off, amid bitter wrangling.

Our exclusive yesterday revealed the two sides appear further apart than ever over renegotiating stadium rent, and over the loss-making football club's hedge fund/private equity owners Sisu acquiring half-ownership of the stadium.

The prospect of Arena Coventry Ltd itself now hitting serious cashflow problems, or financial difficulties, raises further questions for council taxpayers.

Might the council ultimately have to consider stepping in financially if Yorkshire Bank lost confidence in ACL's ability to service its debt?

Sky Blues chief executive Tim Fisher accused ACL - owned by Coventry City Council and the Alan Edwards Higgs Charity - of placing unreasonable rent demands on the relegated Division One club due to other ACL financial difficulties, not simply because of the £100,000-a-month rent the club has refused to pay since March.

He alleged ACL was only refusing to go well below its offer of halving rent (to £650,000-a-year) because of its own difficulties paying the mortgage, and falls in stadium sponsorship and naming rights.

Separate rumours allege global accountancy firm Deloitte has been sent in to ACL by Yorkshire Bank to help restructure its debts, with £15million of a £21million mortgage believed to be outstanding - amid fears ACL would not be able to pay it back.

We sought a response to that rumour from Weber Shandwick, the London-based PR giant hired by ACL to "crisis manage" media enquiries, including into the now stalled talks over Sisu acquiring the Higgs charity's 50 per cent share in ACL.

Some estimate the market rate for hiring Weber Shandwick at an unconfirmed £600-an-hour. Whatever, they don't come cheap.

A leaked email written by council leader John Mutton in September had stated hiring the PR firm was the idea of council chief executive Martin Reeves, who is also an ACL board member.

The council then told this column Weber Shandwick would only be employed by ACL, not the council - and city taxpayers' money would not be spent.

Yet no council figure has since been willing to comment on the ACL/Sky Blues talks - which have also involved them - beyond the ACL statements put out by Weber Shandwick, which council officers were aware of.

With money tight, what is ACL - a private company backed by expertise from council executives paid by the public purse - getting for its money from Weber Shandwick?

Not much, it would appear. So far, in response to press questions, it has forwarded on limited emailed ACL statements. Any advice to ACL would appear to be, 'Say as little as possible' - whether city taxpayers or Coventry City fans like it or not.

Asked specifically about the Deloitte/Yorkshire bank rumour, a statement we published yesterday referred to the Ricoh's business, concert and sporting successes including the Olympics. It also called on the club to "control its costs" and not "blame all its financial problems on stadium rent.. a small part of its overall difficulties."

The proverbial "politicians' response" had ducked the specific question.

We responded by stating that, unless they commented further, we would add a line stating ACL had declined to comment specifically on the Deloitte/Yorkshire Bank rumour.

Weber Shandwick responded with a one-line email: "It would be completely untrue to say that we declined to comment. We gave you our statement."

Is this all really value for money? There was a time when council officers would more readily be interviewed, not hide behind brief emails via PR officers/agents.

The Weber Shandwick response does tell us something. As well as not denying the rumour, it tells us ACL will hit back at any potential attempt by the Sky Blues or Sisu to present ACL as being in the financially weaker position.

Some, including fans hostile to Sisu, construe it is all part of an attempt by a private equity firm to drive down a price on rent to around £200,000-a-year; and a price on a part-publicly owned stadium to tiny amounts. It is, after all, what private equity firms have been known to do when acquiring companies.

It seems talks are at breaking point - yet the stadium and Sky Blues still appear largely mutually dependent.

Worrying times indeed for the city and our football club.

Now Electoral Commission says government ignored advice on 'misleading' PCC voting instructions

2012-11-21T14:48:13Z

COULD these badly worded instructions in polling stations, which told voters how to vote in last week's police commissioner elections, have misled people?

Could they even have skewed the outcome in places including Warwickshire?

Since I raised the issue, many believe they could have misled, or at least were not as clear as they should have been.

Some candidates shared that view, including retired airline pilot and Independent Ron Ball, who won the Warwickshire election.

Labour candidate James Plaskitt won on the first round of voting - which counted people's first choice votes. Mr Ball only accumulated more than 50 per cent of the vote when second choice votes were added from the ballot papers of voters whose first choice went to the eliminated last-placed candidate, Tory Fraser Pithie.

Several voters stated on Twitter they interpreted the voting instructions as meaning they would HAVE to vote for a first AND second choice candidate for their vote to be valid.

Some said polling station staff even told voters they had to vote twice, based on the instructions. In fact, it was entirely up to voters whether they wanted to vote once or twice.

Now the Electoral Commission tells me the government ignored its advice over the precise wording of voting instructions and ballot papers.

It wanted both to emphasise more that people "can" vote twice. No such wording was on the ballot paper itself. It will now review the issue to see if lessons can be learned.

Warwickshire's returning officer Paul Lankester is to include the complaints in his report. He joined widespread criticism of a lack of government information, which many blamed for historically disastrous turnouts of 15 per cent and less. Non-voters were also sending a clear message to Westminster they did not want these elections.

Only eight of the 41 police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections across England and Wales were won on the first round of first choice votes.

It seems likely many voters would have only wanted to vote once and that many Labour or Conservative voters would not vote for the opposite party's candidate as a second choice.

Ron Ball was always likely to benefit from being the only independent candidate in Warwickshire - where just three candidates stood.

The elections were heralded as the dawn of the independents - a rejection of party politics.

Yet not many knew Mr Ball was only standing as an independent after losing out to Mr Pithie when the Conservatives selected their candidate. He was also backed in literature by the Lib Dems, who did not field a candidate.

The voting instructions stated:

"Please follow the instructions below to mark your ballot paper.

Do not mark in any other way or your vote may not count.

* On this ballot paper you can vote twice. Vote by putting a cross (X) in the box.

- In column 1 next to your first choice candidate, and

- In column 2 next to your second choice candidate.

* Your first and second choices should be different.

Use of the words "CAN vote twice" (my emphasis) is buried in the form of words. The instructions could, and should, have stated, in one line, that a second choice vote is optional.

The Electoral Commission's own website advice to voters, including with a cartoon video, had clearly emphasised voters did not have to vote twice.

The Home Office said the written instructions were "based on templates used by the Electoral Commission" and "were designed to be very short, simple and easy".

Defeated Tory candidate in Warwickshire, Fraser Pithie, said: "People were misled into thinking if they didn't cast a second vote, their vote wouldn't count at all. How many people would have cast a second preference had they known they wouldn't have to? Whether it would have changed the vote, I don't know."

He added many Conservative-minded voters may not have voted for the independent as first or second choice, through fear of the Labour candidate getting in.

Mr Ball said: "I would agree that the wording could have been better. Personally I would doubt that it would have affected the outcome of the election.

"This was not the government's finest hour when it comes to organising elections, but I'm not going to allow that to affect what I do from here."

EXCLUSIVE: Did these polling booth instructions mislead voters, and skew police commissioner elections?

2012-11-17T11:26:19Z

Could these badly worded instructions in polling stations, which told voters how to vote in Thursday's police commissioner elections, have misled people - and skewed the outcome in places including Warwickshire?

As a voter, I read these instructions - posted on the wooden polling booth - several times. I felt they could heavily mislead, and were likely to be interpreted by many voters as meaning they would HAVE to vote for a first AND second choice candidate for their vote to be valid.

I raised it with staff at the polling station who told me other voters had raised the same concern - and I was told staff had notified the elections office.

After tweeting my concerns on Thursday (election day) and Friday evening (after results came in), other tweeters responded by saying they HAD felt misled - that they were being told in the same written instructions they would have to vote twice.

In Warwickshire, independent candidate Ron Ball won the election on second choice votes. He had been behind Labour candidate James Plaskitt in the first round of voting. The retired airline pilot and former magistrate is now the county's first police and crime commissioner (PCC).

Other results too, among 40 other police commissioner elections nationwide, were influenced by a second round of voting - in which voters' second choice candidates were counted.

It seems likely at least some voters would have only wanted to vote once. It also seems likely to me many Labour or Conservative voters would not vote for the opposite party's candidate as a second choice - so would choose the independent.

Ron Ball was always likely to benefit from being the only independent candidate in Warwickshire - where just three candidates stood.

I raised the issue with Paul Lankester, the returning office for the Warwickshire PCC election.

He said the written instructions were national instructions, used across Warwickshire polling stations. He said they had been approved by the Home Office, with the possible involvement of the Electoral Commission.

He added: "Having received the complaint, I will record it in my report. We always do one after any election.

"There is an allegation people could have received misleading information, so we will bring it to the attention of the Home Office and the Electoral Commission.

"The election is over now, but it may be there could be lessons to be learned."

In my view, the only part of these written instructions which suggests voters had the option of voting for one OR two candidates came with the words: "On this ballot paper you CAN vote twice" (my emphasis).

But this is buried in the form of words as a whole. The instructions could, and should, have stated, in one line, that a second choice vote is optional.

Mr Lankester was one of many who have criticised the government over a perceived lack of information available to voters on the PCC elections -a factor which many believe contributed to historically low turnouts of 15 per cent and below.

These written polling booth instructions could be considered inadequate information at best.

In my view, the low turnout further demonstated the failure of the government's political experiment with both elected mayors, and police and crime commissioners.

It seems people did not want the government's idea of local "direct democracy".

In not voting on Thursday - and with nine of ten cities including Coventry rejecting the idea of elected mayors to run councils in May's referenda - the vast majority sent a message to Westminster they did not welcome the government's idea of having a single elected representative to run local public services.

There were many other factors at work too, of course. At least with elected mayors, voters were given the chance to reject the whole idea at the ballot box. There was no choice with PCCs.

Government ministers insisted having an individual representative directly elected by voters would be more democratic and accountable.

Yet they did not apply the same principle to government, cabinet, or the prime minister - who is not directed elected by voters.

ADDITIONAL: Defeated Tory candidate in Warwickshire, Fraser Pithie, has responded by saying: "The instructions were not clear, and should have been. People were misled into thinking if they didn't cast a second vote, their vote wouldn't count at all.

"The way it was worded led to confusion at the point of people casting their vote. How many people would have cast a second preference had they known they wouldn't have to? Whether it would have changed the vote, I don't know. But it did cause confusion."

He said such confusion would also have been avoided by a first-past-the-post voting system, favoured by many Tories - even though Labour's Mr Plaskitt won in the first round of votes, after voters' first choices were counted.

Mr Ball stood as an independent after initially failing to secure the Conservative nomination won by Mr Pithie. Mr Ball was also endorsed in some literature put out locally by the Liberal Democrats, who did not field a candidate.

Mr Pithie added: "If it had been first-past-the-post, or if the rule on second preferences was made clear, there would not have been so many Conservative-minded voters trifling with the independent, through fear of the Labour candidate getting in."

The first round of voting returned the following votes:

Ball, 21,410; Pithie 20,571; Plaskitt 22,308.

The second round voting (second preferences) after third place Mr Pithie was eliminated:

Ball, 11,821; Plaskitt 2,892

FURTHER UPDATE: Simon Payne, chairman of Warwickshire Police Federation, the officers' "union", said: "I came away from witnessing an historically important election for the police and wondering whether it was democracy.

"We don't have this in general elections under first-past-the-post. So it was unusual to see someone come out on top in the first round of voting, only to see the second choice win it.

"I don't think people understood the significance of second choice votes, and the people I've spoken with thought they had to vote twice. It wasn't made clear that it was optional."

Under the "supplementary voting system" used for the PCC elections, the losing candidate after first choice votes were counted was eliminated. Second choice votes on the loser's ballot slip were then added to the votes of the remaining candidates. The process continued until the winning candidate had more than 50 per cent of all votes.

Only eight of the 41 PCC elections across England and Wales were won on the first round of first choice votes.

WINNING CANDIDATE RON BALL SAID: "I had heard about the issue and I would agree that the wording could have been better.

"Personally I would doubt that it would have affected the outcome of the election. If you look at the count, a significant number of Fraser's voters didn't make a second choice so they clearly were aware that one was not required.

"This was not the government's finest hour when it comes to organising elections, but I'm not going to allow that to affect what I do from here. There's a job to be done and I intend to get on with it."

It's all gone silent at Coventry City Council over bailiffs, after more flip-flops than Brazil beach

2012-11-07T11:17:28Z

FOR some of his Labour council colleagues, it was the moment George Duggins morphed into Tory chancellor George Osborne.

The Coventry City Council deputy leader stood up at a council meeting and launched a dismissive counter-attack against this newspaper's revelations about the council's contracted bailiff firms.

The man who since 2010 has pledged a Labour council would protect the most vulnerable Coventrians from coalition government austerity cuts was now wading into the vulnerable.

At its worst, the often highly capable Duggins' address slurred the vulnerable people whose cases we highlighted - including one in which the council had previous admitted to us inappropriate "errors" by its bailiffs.

Two of Coun Duggins' Labour cabinet colleagues privately told me many Labour councillors were amazed by the "ineptitude" of his response.

Some are vying for position ahead of a possible Labour leadership contest against Coun Duggins next year, if leader John Mutton is replaced.

Yet any dissenting Labour councillor voices were not heard - one worryingly undemocratic aspect of Labour's colossal majority.

In the cases of a suicidal mother, and a disabled woman with a stress-related condition, we gathered evidence they were paying by agreed instalments. Yet the council's hired bailiff firm Newlyn plc still demanded they pay debts in full, threatened to add more extortionate unexplained fees, and enter their homes while they were out to seize possessions - heaping more stress on unwell people. One woman received ten threatening letters in two days.

Phone calls recorded and heard by me revealed how the bailiffs in two cases - including the mother on NHS suicide watch after a run of bad luck with family break-up and redundancy - failed to notify the council of potentially vulnerable circumstances. They are duty-bound to do so in government guidelines, and apparently in the council's own "guidelines" and Newlyn's own code of conduct.

Coventry Citizens' Advice Bureau has concerns national guidelines are often breached. Yet as a council-funded organisation, it feels it can only take public criticism so far.

Sensitive handling could have seen Coun Duggins requesting our evidence, or visit the people to assess their evidence neutrally, as I had done.

Instead, he slurred them, creating the illusion - in George Osborne style perhaps - that people on benefits, or unable to pay bills, are scroungers.

"The public would have little sympathy" if they knew the facts of these cases, he blasted. They were not there to defend themselves. So it was left to me in a few choice words.

Enter Tory Lord Mayor Tim Sawdon: "If the member of the press wants to participate, he should get elected."

"And end up like you?", I quipped back. I was not kicked out.

Despite the humour, Coventry voters might expect better from a Labour council than dismissiveness of evidence of gross error and unfairness against the weak.

As this column has stated, of course council tax collection has to be maximised on all Coventrians' behalf. But it has to be done fairly.

Coun Duggins suggested this newspaper was wrong to call a previously agreed 2008 document protecting the vulnerable a "policy". In fact, as Tory councillors forced him to accept, he himself had called it a "policy" in a letter in this newspaper just last month - not "guidelines" as he was now stating.

The notion this former document was a "policy" which had since been dropped was in fact initially stated in a recorded phone call by the council's own revenues officer, Rory Pritchard. It triggered my investigation.

Whether or not it was a "policy" or "guidelines", the council in a statement to us months ago confirmed the document was no longer in place, since Newlyn plc and Equita Ltd became the council's contracted bailiffs last year. Now Coun Duggins insists the "guidelines" were transferred to the new bailiffs last year.

In short, Coun Duggins' response to our bailiffs investigation has seen more flip-flopping than the Copacabana beach.

We still await any evidence the supposedly "open and transparent" council has reviewed the suicidal mother's case, and for clarity on whether the "guidelines" have any contractual basis - as they should surely have.

My findings are being raised in Parliament, and I am told our investigation may be forcing some important changes, to cap the amount bailiffs add to vulnerable people's bills in extortionate multiple charging for one visit.

Not that the now strangely silent council has yet clarified for readers. Watch this space.

Justice for BBC journalist Russell Joslin - a man of the people

2012-10-31T08:32:37Z

MY long-time friend and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire broadcaster Russell Joslin - whose funeral takes place today - was a man who in life, and through his journalism, brimmed with humanity.

Last week, he was the journalist who became the story - after his apparent suicide. He hit the headlines nationally and internationally.

Though nothing can bring back Russell, the coverage was small mercy. From the large trail of evidence he deliberately left behind, it is categorically what he would have wanted.

It followed exclusive reports in this newspaper of his family calling for a BBC inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death, and of texts he sent to friends, including me.

As my investigation yesterday revealed, Russell spent his last days in contact with BBC West Midlands managers and HR officials desperately trying to resolve the work-related issues that tormented him and tipped him into being off-work this year with anxiety and depression.

The BBC apparently denied to him having any record of his earlier complaints that he was sexually harassed and bullied by a former high-powered BBC female colleague from 2007 - who cannot be named for legal reasons and now works elsewhere at the BBC.

He felt these and other concerns were since covered-up or ignored, and that he had been unfairly sidelined - unable to let his immense creative talent flow, through the roving reporting he excelled at.

The facts must be established by the coroner and others. As we revealed yesterday, detective sergeant Sue Coutts clearly told me and Russell's family the police were preliminarily investigating, in particular, the bullying and harassment allegations. The BBC has now said its internal inquiry will be "overseen by an external professional".

It followed my call, live on the BBC, for an independent investigation into whether Russell's concerns were adequately handled by the corporation's management in his final days, this year and five years ago. The family backed that call.

I am a supporter of the taxpayer-funded BBC. If it is seen to be transparent, and upholding the highest standards in public life, it must now itself insist on a full independent inquiry.

I was invited onto BBC Coventry and Warwickshire to pay tribute to Russell, give my views about his allegations, and comment on what should be done.

I was told the BBC wanted to report the death of Russell - a friend to many staff there - in an objective way.

Little wonder, you might think, amid allegations of a BBC cover-up over Jimmy Savile's sexual abuse - following the eleventh-hour scrapping of a Newsnight broadcast.

Tragically, from Russell's texts we reported on Friday, the Savile scandal was a major trigger for his heightened anxiety.

In particular, he was irritated, and went into overdrive to finally get matters off his chest, when a certain BBC personality - who cannot be named for legal reasons - commented nationally over sexual abuse at the BBC.

His family - including dad Peter, the ex-Warwickshire chief constable - has commented on these issues.

Today, we remember Russell as a genuine class act; an infectious, jocular and irreverent character who loved people's company, making him a fine journalist.

Russell always had time for people. It made him as popular in the bars and cafes of his home town Kenilworth, and his beloved Ireland, as he was in the professional circles he moved in.

Those who knew the long-haired 50-year-old bohemian may be surprised to learn he was a handsome, quiffed, stripling in the 1980s when I first met him - looking like the fifth member of The Clash or he had stepped out of a 1950s Montgomery Clift film.

He loved music, cooking, theatre and reading. He told his Irish mum Kathy that books were to be left around and picked up, not to be put away in cupboards.

Other inquiries must decide how, appallingly, he was found suffocated in St Michael's mental health hospital where he was supposed to be safe - three days after being struck and largely uninjured by a bus, in what his family believes may have been a cry for help.

Coventry and Warwickshire, and the country, has lost a quality man and broadcaster. He will be widely missed.

I share his family's desire for some posthumous semblance of justice. His concerns about the BBC must finally be fully and openly addressed, and lessons learned.

The bizarre world of fraudster & would-be MP McKee - and calls for new action after my probe

2012-10-25T16:28:20Z

MANY Coventrians have personal anecdotal insights into the bizarre world of would-be MP turned convicted fraudster Dr Vincent McKee.

They include politicians, churchgoers and journalists - circles he moved in before being incarcerated in prison last week, to serve perhaps half his two-and-a-half year sentence.

They include many victims of this unrepentant con-artist; the self-proclaimed devout Catholic who stole from bank accounts of students and their families.

I've known ex-Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate McKee for years. He swings excessively from combative aggression to charm personified, as a jury heard.

In 2010, I suspected he had something to cover up when he went to eccentric lengths to ingratiate, insisting he "personally escort" me for a "three-course meal".

He picked me up at the old Telegraph offices, drove round the block to his student tuition firm - one minute's walk away - and had office staff prepare food, which I ate off my lap.

He alluded to business difficulties and disputes. He made uncomfortable claims about his early years, including being injured by an IRA bomb in 1972, which the jury heard.

When I enquired more last week, he said it was at a Belfast bus station, and he was one of few survivors. This time, his face contorted as he claimed it wasn't something he could talk about. Scholars of Northern Ireland's "troubles" could perhaps say whether it accords with history.

The jury also heard his strict Presbyterian headmistress mother rejected him; and he was in care as an "emotionally disturbed" child. Yet he presented no evidence from the witness box.

Neither did the jury hear evidence of another alleged fraud revealed in my exclusive investigation on Saturday. It raises serious questions over why, and whether more prosecutions should be sought.

We reported one of McKee's ex-firms, Godiva Corporate Training, was still taking money from a client's account DURING his six-week trial, before he was found guilty of 25 frauds committed before January last year. The jury couldn't reach verdicts on more recent other cases, or of perverting the course of justice. He denied all.

The client was Lizie Gower, wealthy MD of West End TV advertising firm Academy Films.

It transpired Coventry Crown Court judge Peter Carr had rejected Coventry trading standards' application to put her evidence before the jury, partly due to its lateness - evidence suggesting McKee's activities were continuing.

Last month, she discovered her Coutts bank account had been inexplicably debited more than £10,000 by Godiva Corporate Training since booking lessons in March for her student son, with McKee's ex-firm UAT.

She had dealt in March with someone with a Northern Irish accent, who she said also used a laughably fake Caribbean accent. He called himself "Eammon Kennedy", which the trial heard was one of McKee's false names used under his self-proclaimed "pseudonym strategy" .

During the trial, she phoned the firm's same mobile and was told she was speaking with "Michael Hughes", as "Eammon Kennedy" had left.

In further calls, he allegedly pretended to be frantically arranging a £9,500 refund after she threatened the police. He then posted allegedly bogus receipts.

When I examined Ms Gower's records, the mobile phone numbers logged were the same ones I have often used to speak with McKee.

What Ms Gower then claimed would be hilarious, if not so serious. After she confronted him saying: "You're Vincent aren't you?" and his initial denial, "Michael Hughes" proclaimed Vincent's virtues. Of how Vincent was bravely struggling on with "terminal" cancer, and was innocent.

Vincent's tangled web of deceit had apparently arrived at the surreal point where one of his fictitious alter-egos was killing himself off! Freudians would have a field day.

In January 2011, Sky News' Jason Farrell broadcast evidence of fraud allegations, and we investigated complaints - heaping pressure on the local authorities to finally prosecute over complaints they knew about since 2008.

Coventry council's trading standards last week decided against a re-trial on the outstanding charges - after the trial cost UK taxpayers an estimated £300,000. The police never wanted to prosecute - apparently partly as amounts defrauded were not great enough.

Despite contrary claims by McKee's defence barrister, audacious McKee told me he intends to defy new UK court restrictions over his business dealings, by selling teaching services in the UK from his new company in Ireland, Godiva Corporate Training (Ireland) Ltd.

The danger is McKee and other fraudsters will carry on stealing in the digital age, knowing all about the heavily-cut public services' reluctance to prosecute.

Suicidal mum's case shows why councils' bailiffs are a national scandal waiting to happen

2012-10-17T11:45:51Z

AFTER weeks of investigating how council-hired UK-wide bailiff plcs operate against the vulnerable, I am convinced it is the next big national scandal waiting to erupt.

If Coventry City Council's Labour leaders continue to turn a blind eye, the ticking time-bomb will blow up in their faces - in full national glare.

Change will then have to come. The consequences for politicians at the ballot box would pale into insignificance against the dreadful human consequences of corporate abuse and neglect I am already witnessing.

Take 50-year-old "Ms D", the suicidal mum struck by mental illness after a family break-up last year following both her and her now ex-partner being made redundant in recession.

Coventry's NHS Crisis Team is visiting her for "acute mental illness" after psychiatric treatment and attempted suicide. She is even recognised as unfit to work by the government's benefits assessors.

With help, she is taking tentative steps towards getting back on her feet.

She could do without panic attacks after being chased by bailiffs for a parking fine earlier this year - now a £388 debt - which she is actually paying off in agreed instalments, as Post Office receipts show.

In two recorded phone calls to bailiffs Newlyn, they admitted previously being informed of her suicide risk, and that they had not notified the council.

This is not only a breach of the inadequate government guidelines' "duty" on bailiffs to notify councils of "potential" vulnerability, but arguably a breach of Newlyn's code of conduct. It states if there is "doubt", the case must be referred to the council - for potentially more sensitive, multi-agency treatment.

In those calls, neither Newlyn's officer or bailiff could explain to Ms D how her bill had reached £388. There is only evidence of them sending letters - no van visit - demanding full payment and threatening to seize her goods.

The evidence may form a complaint to the Coventry-based Local Government Ombudsman Dr Jane Martin, who has found maladministration against other councils. Complaints will include the ten Newlyn letters sent in two days to an unemployed woman with a stress-related disability threatening to seize possessions - even though Newlyn and the council accepted in phone calls she was already paying off her debt in agreed instalments.

Dr Martin has called on councils to contractually oblige bailiffs not to extortionately and multiple charge people for letters and visits - often way above legal limits. That call is being ignored.

My findings are to be raised in Parliament by Coventry Labour MPs Jim Cunningham and Geoffrey Robinson in questions to justice ministers, in an early day motion and possibly an adjournment debate.

Justice ministers are due soon to unveil proposals for a new legal limits for bailiffs' charges. The current limit for council tax arrears is typically £24.50 for a first visit, £18 for a second, and the "reasonable" costs of using a van when goods are not seized.

It appears the government - pressurised by the bailiff industry - will actually increase charges, however more transparent charges become. Nobody expects proper industry regulation.

Financially-stricken councils and profiteering bailiff firms have much to gain. Councils add onto bills liability order and court summons fees to help balance their books. More than 12,000 liability orders are issued in Coventry each year - just eight weeks and two reminder letters after initial council tax bills are sent. Demands for full payment follow.

The industry norm seems to be bogus fees and "phantom" bailiff visits, with upfront charges for possession-seizing visits threatened but not carried out. Ignoring warnings of vulnerability by demanding evidence buys time, and enables costs to be ratcheted up further.

Following our coverage, the council is discussing with Coventry Citizens Advice Bureau reintroducing a policy to protect the vulnerable.

It will be a paper exercise if it does not have lawful, contractual teeth.

In line with the ombudsman's ruling on Blaby Council, it must oblige bailiffs within contracts not to excessively charge. Customers should get a clear breakdown of sensible, transparent charges; and bailiffs must finally adhere to contracts protecting the vulnerable.

Clear breaches of contract must be punished, including loss of contract.

Coventry's Labour leaders recently protected the vulnerable by not passing on government cuts in council tax benefits. Coventry must lead the way now.

They have a duty to those who do pay council tax to maximise collection. But they must show compassion and fairness.

Council must act swiftly to protect vulnerable after our bailiffs investigation

2012-10-10T08:50:12Z

MY investigation this week into council-hired bailiff firms making vast profits in the recession from taxpayers' money shines a light on disturbing practices.

The evidence raises serious questions about bailiff industry claims it is caring and modern, not medieval.

If Labour-run Coventry City Council is serious about trying to protect the poor and vulnerable from the recession, leaders should act swiftly to improve matters, with Coventrians facing bailiff action in an alarming 10,000 cases a year.

Our questioning exposed that government guidelines supposed to protect the sick, disabled, elderly and others were clearly breached in at least one case - of a hard-up cancer sufferer - while welfare advisers made the same claim in others.

Bailiff firm Newlyn plc effectively accepted to me it had failed the guidelines' "duty" on bailiffs to hand back cases to councils as soon as any "potential" for "vulnerable circumstances" is identified, for councils to handle more sensitively.

After a run of bad luck including both her and her husband being struck with serious illness, the cancer patient had missed just two months' Council Tax payments. She then received a court summons and a demand for full upfront 2012/13 Council Tax payment of £1200, with the threat of having her home possessions taken away. The bailiffs also added £200 costs.

Newlyn did not deny it had also allegedly wrongly threatened her with prison, in a call to the respected Coventry Citizens Advice Bureau.

Today, we tell the distressing story of a disabled mother-of-two, a former carer on benefits, who the council eventually agreed could make £20-a-month payments. Just three weeks later, she received 10 separate letters in two days demanding £4,000 immediate payment, or else the bailiffs would return to seize her goods - even if she was not in. In truth, they cannot enter her home without her permission.

The letters expose the extortionate bailiffs' charges added onto bills for the pleasure of their visits, supposedly to cover their costs.

One demanded a staggering £773.97 in bailiff costs. Little wonder Newlyn's accounts show it trebled profits in the economic downturn in 2010 to £1.7million, while Equita's profits were £4.5million.

The council and city taxpayers can end up footing the bill for those charges when people cannot afford to pay - whatever the sum value of their wordly possessions eyed up by bailiffs.

It is one reason why chasing impossible debts in full, plus charges, from people simply unable to pay is economically counterproductive.

The council should address some of my unanswered questions.

Exactly how and why did the council quietly ditch a policy, drawn up by cross-party councillors just three years before, which protected the vulnerable from bailiff action, and aimed to raise overall Council Tax collection by basing it on ability to pay?

It was abandoned without due democratic public discussion in June last year when the council changed its contracted bailiffs firms to Newlyn and Equita Ltd, part of Capita Group plc - under a £3.75million three-year contract.

Many people can only afford to pay by instalments and want to - but lost that entitlement after two months' non-payment.

Councils and bailiffs are in a hurry, and the arrangement appears mutually beneficial.

Coventry council, desperate to balance its books amid heavy government funding cuts, has upped its targets for Council Tax collection to help avoid any more than 1000 job losses and colossal £140million cuts by 2015.

Its contract with Newlyn and Equita includes targets to collect 40 per cent of debt in cases passed to them; and to cut an astonishing 40 per cent of people's Council Tax debts from previous years.

Council deputy leader George Duggins is right to say there are many people in struggling circumstances who do pay - and he wants services protected from deliberate council tax dodging.

But he is wide open to challenge in his assertion there is no need to re-introduce a policy firming up protection for the vulnerable victims of automaton intransigence and harassment by bailiffs.

The council did eventually arrange reasonable payment plans one it was belatedly notified of the cancer sufferer and disabled woman's vulnerable circumstances.

But huge anxiety was caused. The frail were badly let down by existing procedures agreed between the council and bailiffs which are supposed to protect the vulnerable.

The council appears to be cutting corners to cut costs. It is not pro-active enough in trying to identify the vulnerable earlier, and those struggling to pay.