Quote:
Originally Posted by katex
Don't know what you thought of that letter Garinda in the Observer from Marlene Haworth (Conservative St. Oswald's councillor)? I didn't think it did her party any favours.
First of all onslaught of Labour ministers prostituting themselves for up to £5,000 per day comparing it against pensioners' income. Then hitting out at Greg Pope and the expenses. Lastly, reference once again to Graham Jones 'misusing' his position to improve the landscaping on the street where he owns one of his two houses. The last little bit is a bit of a spin. Seemed like she was clutching at a few straws to deride them.
Finishes up by stating "This stinks and we should get rid of the lot of them; Labour is rotten to the core"
Just thought it was a very childish letter .. bit like when Jaysay strikes out with meaningless insults (sorry Jaysay .. luvs ya' really).
Think it did Labour more of a favour, particularly as they had a lovely photograph of Graham looking smart in his suit, holding the mike as if he was going to give us a rendering of The Red Flag ..  |
I've now read the letter. I don't think it should have ever been written or published.
Graham posted about this on his blog. You can see it in full at
Graham Jones: Tories in new gutter smear campaign: My deceased grandmother's house is their latest personal attack line
I asked him on three separate e-mails to retract this part (the first time it was rewritten, but it still remains now):
Quote:
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Originally Posted by g jones
And the third smear of many...
Last year there co-incidentally there was a Freedom of Information request from a Tory activist about all councillors expenses, and from my perspective particularly my phone bill which was very high. This was due to me being the primarily carer for the last 5 years of her life. I do not know how someone would know to ask for this as it had never been asked for before.
The FOI asked for Mobile Phone expenses but not mileage (mine is £zero) or Carers allowances (£zero again). It also asked for conference allowances for one particular year and no others, the only year I went to a conference. I am amazed how Tory activists can guess just what to ask for to try and cause the maximum damage of personal pain?
The activist concerns has stated to me at the time that this was done without any malice and out of desire for information from all Councillors.
Why would a Tory activist seek this information? It came at a time I was informed people were looking at Council affairs internally for political reasons.
As it was I paid for all personal calls, line by line and met with the Managing Director to make sure everything was satisfactory and he knew fully and clearly my difficulties. My gran had dementia and was dying and being in touch was beyond any cost. She brought me up in later life.
Clearly the headline phone figure would have been damaging information in itself and my suspicion is there was political advantage behind the FOI, possibly at the expense of my grandmother again.
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It's essentially about me. All I did was use FOI legislation to request ALL councillors expenses as I was interested in it. There are a lot of supposed links and 'suspicions' in what I just quoted. There are many inaccuracies, for example I did ask for travel expenses. Graham seems to believe that I didn't ask for some things because his were £0 (and therefore no political advantage) except I requested food and it was £0. I had no knowledge of what would be revealed until after they came back, too, of course.
They basically add up to Graham accusing me of requesting the information to political advantage at the expense of his grandmother. To be honest that's a shocking smear on myself.
Neither the letter nor what I have quoted above should ever have been written or published. Graham is doing exactly what he claims he is against. What he has written about me he has only done to back up his case of 'smears by Conservatives'; except when it comes to myself, there is no smear, or malice. I was never aware of his family situation until he informed me himself after the expenses were publicised.
To be honest they're all as pathetic as each other. I couldn't imagine Greg Pope doing something like this.