Wirral In It Together

12th June 2017

At the beginning of June we lodged an allegation that the Prime Minister had lied about an opponent during the election campaign.  We viewed this as not just unlawful, but serious and potentially damaging because it occurred during a live election broadcast attended by Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn.  This programme was watched on the BBC by many millions – a large number of whom would not yet have made their minds up on how to cast their vote.

We later updated the story here and here.

As you can see at the above links we’ve notified four separate regulatory or police bodies whom we felt needed to be aware of a potential criminal offence.

With the Crown Prosecution Service finally replying in an email today, all four have now responded.

This was our first notification email:

Here is the YouTube link again for those interested in watching the alleged offence:

https://youtu.be/MFzbGa7MKJg?t=1011

This was the email we received today from the Crown Prosecution Service:

Then our response, also today:

And the CPS came back with the following, also received today:

And the final email in this exchange was sent this afternoon at 5:39 pm:

Not surprisingly, plenty of questionable and contradictory points have been made above by the CPS and we won’t be outlining or challenging these until we’ve received Nick Vamos’ email and got in touch with him.

But rest reassured that this blog post will be updated as and when that happens.

11th June 2017

This is an update to the allegation we made here while the UK General Election was underway.  We followed it up here.

In the process of reporting this alleged crime – on the part of Theresa May – which is described at Section 106, Sub-section (1) of the Representation of the People Act 1983, we notified the following bodies:

1. The Metropolitan Police (responded, now acting upon the allegation)
2. The North Yorkshire Police (responded, have passed primacy to the Met)
3. The Crown Prosecution Service (no response yet)
4. The Electoral Commission (acknowledged, see below…)

Here’s the email response received from the Electoral Commission on 9th June 2017:

And our response:

We accept it’s a bit of a side show when you consider that the Met Police are currently investigating, but for the Electoral Commission to refer us to guidance, and fail to spot a potential crime, it does indicate either a lack of urgency or a tendency to ‘pass the buck’ on the part of the body that was set up to regulate all ballots and elections.

Watch out for updates !

It’s time to get rid of the suits

8th June 2017

In a screeching departure from the politically neutral rantings of Wirral In It Together, today we’re calling for all our readers, young and old, to use their votes to put an end to the last 20 years of neo liberal puppet governments – the corporate apologists – pretending to be people-centred, but put up to act in the interests of corporations.

Today’s Tories are funded and backed by not just 5 Tory tax avoiding media billionaires, but by the banks, chiefly HSBC.  The last 20 years of ‘political options’ have been foisted upon us…  under the insulting guise of ‘providing choice’.

That’s finally come to an end and one thing is for sure, Jeremy Corbyn’s record indicates that he is indeed ‘on the right side of history’.  We can see that if we cut through the desperate media crap.  And although he originates from a background of ‘acceptable’ Social Democracy, he is supremely electable within this system.

Which is why we’ve constantly been told the opposite.

And it’s also why he is feared and despised in equal measure by the 1% i.e. the very wealthy, whose governments – both Tory and Labour – have been privatising our essential services since Thatcher, foisting PFI schemes onto the public purse of our grandkids, and imposing grinding austerity onto the rest of us for the last 7 years through reasons of naked greed and misplaced Tory ideology.

Bankers’ bonuses are UP in case you hadn’t noticed.  In other words, there is no austerity for those directly responsible for all our ills.  These City Tories are in a position to avoid the carnage, and through #ToryDirtyMoney are able to ensure that the politicians they own will impose it onto not just working class people but the entire 99%, many of whom would like to attain membership of the elite, but never will.  Because there’s a well-upholstered, upper class, bloodstained hunting boot firmly planted on their heads.

HSBC bank even had one of their own directors appointed, Rona Fairhead, via then Chancellor George Osborne,  to Chair of the BBC Trust, just for good measure.  Hence the slew of anti-Corbyn propaganda that’s been raining down on us via our TVs and Radios and laptops and iPads and phones throughout this seemingly endless election campaign.

We’ll keep this very brief, but like we say, tomorrow begins the biggest damage control job since the Attlee government was voted in in 1945.

That can only begin if you go to your local polling station today and vote Labour. Today is the people’s chance to seize the moment again, like their mothers, fathers and grandfathers once did.  THE HUDDLED MASSES.  That’s us.

Get out there, grab back some power of your own, and put an end to the misery today.

#VoteLabour

6th June 2017

As readers may already be aware, we’ve reported what we believe to be a crime to the following organisations:

The Metropolitan Police – acknowledged by email – see below.

North Yorkshire Police – not acknowledged yet.

…and now, the Electoral Commission – automatically acknowledged…

…and the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) – automatically acknowledged.

Here is the text of our submission, sent to the Electoral Commission and CPS this evening:

Dear Electoral Commission,

I wish to report a false statement being made by a senior election candidate which I believe breached the terms of Section 106, Sub-section (1) of the Representation of the People’s Act 1983.

The incident occurred on Friday 2nd June 2017 when a statement was made in response to an audience question during the BBC One programme “Question Time Leaders’ Debate – May versus Corbyn” which was broadcast live from the city of York commencing at 8:30 pm.

The subject matter was an allegation by Theresa May that her opponent Diane Abbott “wants to wipe the records of criminals and terrorists from the DNA database. That would mean we could catch fewer criminals and fewer terrorists”. I believe this to be false, potentially malicious, serious – due to the size of the TV audience and the potentially large number of undecided voters – and a criminal offence, and have reported the incident to both the Metropolitan Police and to North Yorkshire police.

Here is a link to a YouTube video of the incident. This should commence at the time the question was being put to the Prime Minister:

I have further information to send which would provide background, context and justification for my allegations, however the format of your reporting system prevents me from attaching files.

I’d be very grateful if you could acknowledge my message and advise,

Many thanks,

Paul Cardin

Response received from the Metropolitan Police SET Electoral Fraud and Malpractice Team

3rd June 2017

During the Question Time Leaders’ Debate, broadcast live on BBC One last night from the City of York, we are alleging that Prime Minister Theresa May committed a criminal offence in the form of a false statement, with regard to the conduct of an opponent, provided in response to the above question, which she knew to be false and which breached the terms of the Representation of the People Act 1983.

The offending statement occurred 17 minutes and 11 seconds into the broadcast. Here is the relevant excerpt, starting a few seconds into the clip:

As the statement did not provide an answer to the gentleman’s question, and appeared to be opportunistically “crowbarred in”, we believe this incident to be premeditated and by the very nature of its content, designed to adversely impact upon the electoral prospects of the Labour Party and by extension all its candidates for the forthcoming general election.

This is extremely serious given that it was a live broadcast watched by millions of people, many of whom will not yet have made up their minds on where to cast their vote on 8th June 2017.  When judged against the information provided below i.e. excerpt of Section 106, Sub-section 1 of the Representation of the People’s Act 1983, we believe the statement to represent a clear breach.

The terms of the Representation of the People Act are very clear and advice has been issued and made available to all contesting parties by the Electoral Commission, the regulatory body of ballots and elections within the UK.

We have reported this incident to the Metropolitan Police today (see below) because we believe nobody is above the law of the land and the Prime Minister needs to be held accountable for her actions.

Relevant Excerpt from The Representation of the People’s Act 1983

We follow politics closely, have done for some years, and do not believe Diane Abbott has ever made any statements indicating that she wants to wipe the records of criminals and terrorists from the DNA Database. 

Further reading:

Get The Innocent off the DNA Database by Diane Abbott

Hansard Online – Diane Abbott Contributions

Metropolitan Police reference number: BCA-1932-17-00

Update

Some relevant and up-to-date reading on this subject, kindly forwarded this evening by James Turner QC – @JamesTurner37 – on Twitter:

We were notified earlier today that something was amiss with Dr Adam Sykes’ declarations inside some of his election material.  Dr Sykes is the Tory candidate challenging Alison McGovern’s Labour majority of 4,599 in Wirral South.

After making some enquiries and tweeting Dr Sykes, the concerns that were raised have not been addressed, explained or cleared up.

Dr Sykes was in touch on Twitter when notified, claiming his innocence and a possible ‘error’ on the Wirral Council website.  Wirral council is controlled by Labour.

Let’s have a look at the material.

Firstly, here’s an excerpt from the election publication which raised eyebrows when posted recently to households in Wirral South:

The statement “Adam set up his own computer software business in 2013 and now employs six local people” is the one under the microscope here.

Let us examine it.  We went to www.wirral.gov.uk/councillors and browsed to Dr Sykes’ register of interests, where all company associations are required to be listed.

This information is 4 years 6 months old.  A lot could have happened in that space of time and probably has.  However, it’s required by law to be regularly reviewed, kept accurate and up to date.  If as an elected member, you’re not making the declarations you should be or not ensuring that following declared changes to your circumstances, the published information is accurate, then you’re in the wrong, and risking the lodging of well-founded complaints.

As for the information itself, the listed company “Guananej” does not exist.  At least not on the Companies House register where it would be statutorily required to exist.

Councillor Sykes tweeted earlier, and in vague, unhelpful terms, to tell us that his company (no name provided) was started in 2013 (after the date of the above information):

We still didn’t know the name of the business, but if “that” was his old one, what was the name of the new, current one, the one he indicated in his leaflet, when pushing his credentials as an employer of local people?

We tweeted, asking him to fill in the gaps, but have received no response as yet:

It soon became clear via a separate tweet in response to Barbara Caulfield that the name of his new company was “Livepoint” or “Livepoint Software Solutions” as declared on the Companies House website.  It’s worth noting that the same person is registered twice, but under two different names; Adam Sykes and Adam Christopher Sykes.  Adam Sykes for Livepoint and Adam Christopher Sykes for a now dissolved company called Quanano. I don’t believe that’s permissible, one person having two identities.  Imagine if one identity’s company went bust, it’s proprietor having asset-stripped the company and done a runner. The other, unassociated identity would remain in the clear.

Livepoint’s registered address is in Oldham but the actual company is physically situated in New Hall Lane on the Carr Lane industrial estate in Hoylake, Wirral, here:

So all appears to be in order apart from the two identities and the fact that despite having the Livepoint company incorporated on 19th February 2013, four and half years later, there is a bogus company falsely declared on the Wirral Council website, his actual company is nowhere to be seen, and the Conservative councillor and June 2017 election candidate has still not ensured that the correct declarations have been made public.

Let’s hope Dr Sykes clears this up before 8th June and responds to our tweeted requests, because Wirral South residents reading this deserve a better standard of service and may decide not to back him.  We will be only too pleased to put the record straight with any information he provides.

We will not be tweeting Wirral Council to notify or to ask them to put their house in order, having tweeted the basket case 100s of times since joining Twitter in May 2010 and never receiving a response.

2nd June 2017 – Update

For some context, here is a piece of literature put out by Wirral South Conservatives dating back to the time of the external investigation into abuse by senior officers of Wirral Council Social Services, who were protected by Wirral Labour councillors.

This was a hideously ill-advised attempt at gaining some cheap publicity, and also a prime example of how politicians are prepared to scare people into voting for them using whatever means available, and with whatever threatening imagery came readily to hand.

To add insult to injury they didn’t bother to mention the fact that it took the sustained courage of a Social Services whistleblower – Martin Morton – to bring these gory details to public attention.  In response, the Labour administration tried to cover it all up, forcing Mr Morton from his job.  He remains unemployed to this day.

The stark difference between blogs such as Wirral In It Together, Wirral Leaks, John Brace and the various political party machines is that we bring wrongdoing to public attention in the public interest, and in the hope that those with the power to effect change will address the failings and right the injustices.  Whereas, political parties do it for themselves, in the interests of attacking their opponents and with the hope of winning votes, all on the promise (often bogus) that they are the ones to be trusted.

So on the strength of the above, and their behaviour in central government, can the Conservatives be trusted?  We’ll leave that with you…

To assist Wirral South voters, we’ve indicated and circled their June 2017 General Election Conservative candidate, Dr Adam Sykes.

5th June 2017 – further update

Upon checking the Wirral Council website and Councillor Adam Sykes’ Register of Interests we’re pleased to report that he’s been as good as his word and has had the information updated to reflect the situation as it stands – he is a Director of Livepoint Software.

The issue of registering twice with two separate identities (as both Adam Sykes and Adam Christopher Sykes) on the Companies House Register (see above) still remains.

22nd May 2017

Following a failure by Wirral Council to properly respond to an urgent FOI request – sent three months ago – we’re now in a position to update the public.

We’ve made two previous posts on this evolving scandal here:

FOI Request to Wirral Council ~ Discretionary Housing Payments

UPDATE: Leaked Wirral Council email: Discretionary Housing Payments Unlawful for 18 Months

Despite constant assurances for many years by Wirral’s PR and press people that the council is most improved, is open and transparent and has come on in leaps and bounds since the dark days of:

• hideous abuse of learning disabled people
• theft from their bank accounts of £736,756.97 over 9 years
• forcing out of whistleblower Martin Morton
• accreditation of gangster care companies
• failure to investigate Wirral councillors with questionable connections
• concealed death(s) and no subsequent case review
• a failed cover up
• failed governance (following “excellent” governance training by an “unconnected” and “unconflicted” external investigator – Anna Klonowski – now CEO of Bristol CIty Council – who shockingly didn’t investigate the councillors in the frame, who may after all have given her further training contracts)
• attempts to reimburse abused people with “peanuts” rather than the full amount
• a whitewashing external investigation
• a failed LGA “improvement board”

…in reality we’ve still no idea what on earth is actually going on inside this place.

We say this because the responses to this FOI request have been defensive in the extreme. We were even forced into making public an email from Director of Law Surjit Tour, where he was at pains to avoid making any admission that the council had in fact broken statutory law for a period of 18 months.

Yes, this is Wirral, and once again, they’ve taken the low road.  With such determined attempts to use our money to put up smokescreens and occupy the shadows, we’ll need to try and drag that admission “from their cold, dead hands”.

The hidden responders, whoever they are – because it sure as hell ain’t the name on the FOI responses – have only succeeded in creating a mountain of work for themselves by trying to fob us off – with an extremely weak and evasive first response.

This was naturally followed by our request for an internal review, and that’s where it seems to have sent them into a tailspin.  They requested an extra 10 days to respond – due to the detail inside our internal review – created by their own inadequate response, remember – but have now overrun their self-imposed time limit of last Friday – 19th May 2017.

We’ve been doing this long enough to gain a strong sense that this FOI request will have been causing self-inflicted palpitations within the heart of this “most improved” but practically dead on its feet, ailing beast.

Today, we will copy in the Information Commissioner’s Office to the following, and send a separate request, asking that they step in and get it sorted…  again…

We can almost hear these obedient, loyal, tight-knit bureaucrats’ collective groans of anguish, all the way from leafy Winsford.