Propaganda on the Rates

There is something that stinks at Tameside Tories and it is the vulgar smell of hypocrisy. The Tameside Conservative group led by John Bell is campaigning to end the council's propaganda which has won an "excellent" rating by the Audit Commission. In a recent article on the Tameside Tories website Councillor Bell states:

"We will not support ‘propaganda on the rates’. At best, the publicity coming out of Tameside Council has been brazen, and at worst – as we saw with the information about the EU Treaty on the website 18 months ago – illegal"

So what does Councillor Bell have to say over his political assistant, Richard Ashton illegally producing election material for the Stalybridge & Hyde and the Denton & Reddish constituencies? He is also the sole editor of the TamesideTories.com website and the Tameside Tories Twitter account. Richard Ashton also writes letters to the press on behalf of Councillor John Bell which local journalists should be able to confirm as Richard emails them out to the editors of the Tameside Advertiser and Reporter.

Richard also takes a lot of time off work to perform his political activity, but states to the Head of Democratic Services, Robert Landon that he is "working from home". He recently took three weeks off to manage the disastrous Denton North East by-election. The irony is that Richard Ashton is holding a fringe meeting at next weeks Conservative Party Conference in Manchester on "how to win a by-election" as part of his role as chair of the Conservative Political Officers Network.

The tip of the iceberg has to be this article on the Tameside Tories website attacking Denton & Reddish MP, Andrew Gwynne for not attending yesterdays speech made by Gordon Brown.



The image above is claimed to have come from "an anonymous Labour delegate" leaked to Tameside Tories! Laughably the faces have been blocked out - for what reason is unknown.



It's funny because the picture was posted by Ed Balls according to Andrew Gwynne's Twitter status three days ago - way before Brown's speech to Labour conference. You can see the original above which includes other senior delegates including Tom Watson, Ed Balls and Kerry McCarthy. I really doubt that a cabinet minister is going to miss the PM's speech.

As part of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 the law explicitly states that politically restricted officers like Richard Ashton are not allowed to have a political role in or outside the workplace.

What Richard Ashton has done is a lie and is an attempt to deceive voters into thinking that Andrew Gwynne is against Gordon Brown. This is disgraceful coming from a paid officer of the council. Richard Ashton is paid a whopping £28,000 a year as a political assistant to the leader of the opposition. It is Tameside council taxpayers' who are funding Tory propaganda and for that Tameside Tories have a lot to answer for.

Live Blog: Tameside Full Council Meeting 29/09/09

This is a test "broadcast" to see how a live blog of Tameside Council's Full Council Meeting would work on Tameside Eye. I have in the past tried to tweet and send emails to people, but the coverage is rather sketchy.

For today's meeting you can view the agenda. I have asked three questions to the Civic Advisory Panel which consist of:

1. With the scandal surrounding Lord Sheldon's expenses and his attempts to avoid paying inheritance tax, should the road Lord Sheldon Way be renamed? May I suggest we use Fraud Sheldon Way?

2. Can the leader please confirm his support for Councillor Steven Smith who was recently found guilty of drink driving and his cabinet position as well as his position on the Liquor Licensing panel? How is it that the liquor licensing panel whose objective it is to ensure responsible drinking throughout venues in Tameside, has one of their members to be found to abuse alcohol and put other peoples lives at risk as a consequence of his actions.

3. Can the Leader of the Council please explain as to why he is so important to be chauffeur driven in two brand new Jaguar's? The leader is always spouting on how "green" we should be saying how we should all recycle and be more energy efficient, so why isn't he driving around in a Toyota Prius with the rest of his Tameside Patrollers?

Whether they get answered or not is another thing. To view the live debate on Cover It Live just click the watch now button bellow. The coverage starts at 5PM when the full council meeting starts. Any member of the public can attend the meeting at Ashton town hall.