Sod the Arab Spring - by Richard... Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Sod the Arab Spring - by Richard... Wednesday, August 24, 2011

We can do without second-rate politicians grandstanding on issues over which they have little control and of which they have little comprehension, spending money we haven't got, while neglecting domestic issues.

Whether or not the politicals and their gormless claque realise it, we have enough crises over here to be going on with, not least local authority management taking the piss.

The latest example is Hammersmith and Fulham Council's highly paid chief executive. As his council was presiding over the biggest cuts in living memory, Geoff Alltimes saw his pay rise by £11,193 to 281,667 in 2010, making him the second highest paid local authority boss in the country.

We then get Essex County Council boss Joanna Killian cutting £4,000 from her salary - only to receive a £6,900 bonus. Accounts show Killian took home £289,173 in 2010/11 - £147,000 more than the Prime Minister - despite previously agreeing to take a five percent wage cut. The pay was topped up with a £6,900 bonus and an extra £1,100 towards her pension, despite County Hall having to make £98m worth of cuts.

On top of that, we have County councillors in Norfolk rejecting suggestions from communities secretary Eric Pickles that the chief executive's post is a non-job. Pickles is keen on councils saving cash by sharing top officer posts and has previously questioned both the value and substance of the chief executive's role, with the present post-holder David White taking a basic £205,000 a year in salary. But members of the county council's corporate resources overview and scrutiny panel has given the idea the "thumbs down".

Then we have a ghastly situation over in Northern Ireland, where convicted murderer Mary McArdle gets a job as a SPAD on £90K – an insult to the victim's relatives and their community.

There are so many of these sort of episodes that it would be unwise of ministers to ignore them. Whether it is hospital bosses getting away with murder, obscenecompensation payments, officials living high on the hog, or just wasting money, people have had enough.

Despite the determination of the politicals not to take the riots and looting as a warning sign, we are not alone in seeing them as a response to organised looting by the parasite class, which is seriously pushing its luck - witness the political cartoon in the Independent.

The Boy maybe today rejoicing in the ransacking of Gaddafi's compound, but if he lets the sores here fester, his compound will be next. It won't then be an Arab Spring he is looking at but a British fall.

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Hackney looters hit the jackpot - by Richard... Tuesday, August 23, 2011

While their less skilled partners-in-crime are beingbanged up by the plod, two lucky Hackney looters have already walked away with jackpots worth a total of nearly £300K - and they get to keep their loot.

The lucky pair are Sue Primmer, former assistant chief executive, communications & consultation at Hackney Council, and Belinda Black, former corporate director (customer and corporate services), also of Hackney Council.

Sue is an exceptionally lucky lady. On a pay scale of £33,666 pa in 2009, she left the employ of the council, handbagging a severance package worth £106,603. Her position has since been filled, so the payoff could not have been attributable to redundancy and the lucky, independent-school-educated Primmer has gone on to work as marketing & communications director at Excelian, a company that says it "services niche vendor technologies".

Lucky looter Belinda fared even better. With her job title of corporate director (customer and corporate services), she took £45,211 from the council coffers for less than five months' work. Then, on leaving, she was paid an extra £135,462 as, says the council, "compensation for loss of office".

Belinda added to the pay dirt with another £6,438 in pension contribution to bring her total loot to £187,111. But, not content with this, she is extending her looting career as "interim director" for "customer services and transactions" at nearby Newham council.

This is the official, incidentally, who had to apologise last summer for Hackney call-centres telling enquirers that no Conservative candidate was standing in the borough's mayoral election, even though Andrew Boff, a Boris Johnson aide, was standing for the Tories. Her incompetence, though, is not reflected in her ability to feather her own nest.

And all of this goes to show that, if you want to do a really professional job of looting, don't bother breaking shop windows. That is soooooo naff. Get yourself on the council payroll and do it from inside the gaff with an ID pass hanging from your lovely neck.