Stoke on Trent MP's are calling for City Council officials to publish their investment portfolio in wake of the announcement that £5million of taxpayers money is frozen in one of the Icelandic banks that have gone to the wall.
More than £1billion was invested by around 100 of our countries authorities.
This money was invested in this way following treasury guidelines about investing public money in the safest places and spreading it around so that authorities are not reliant on one bank. The interest earned on these investments are crucial to local authorities and often mean that council tax rises are kept to the minimum.
I have no criticism of Stoke on Trent City Council for investing our money but welcome Rob Flello (pictured) has announcement that he is to look in to the Iclandic Bank Landsbanki and its UK subsidiary Heritable Bank's credit rating prior to their collapse.
Credit ratings are often the only indicator of how a company are performing as adverse reports lead to the rating going down, however these adverse reports do take time to filter down to the companies credit rating.
Stoke Central MP Mark Fisher wants the Council to publish their full investment portfolio and said this to the Sentinel "The city council has got to publish its portfolio so we can see if there are other things. This is taxpayers' money and we have a right to know what they have invested in."
I suppose it's one of them cases where our local authorities are damned if they did and damned if they didn't. We as council tax payers would be outraged if we found out that our council had missed out on an investment opportunity which led to a hike in council tax or a reduction of public service levels, that said given the uncertainty of the international banking sector i would hope that the Finance Officers were monitoring the banks credit ratings on a daily basis.
The government is working with the Local Government Association to find a way of securing the members money.
The question that needs to asked to our Council Financial Officers is that what happens to council tax if this money is not recovered, and if there is to be a rise, how much would this be?
Once again though it is the normal men and women that will be expected to make up any shortfall. Our national banks are being bailed out to the tune of billions of pounds for effectively losing billions on the USA sub prime mortgages fiasco.
What do you think of this situation and what do you want our local authority to do now........
Read the Sentinel article by following this link:
49 comments:
Someone should tell this 2nd rate chancer that it's a bit bloody late to be closing the stable door! Why the hell wasn't he driving at the council to invest the money locally? What the hell has he ever done for Stoke-on-Trent, and why is he getting his face about now?
We have three Labour MP's, and not a one of them is worth the huge amount of money they get paid!
On PMQ's on the 8th October, Gordon Brown said the government would NOT be guaranteeing moneys invested by councils.
Apparently, councils have financial experts that guide them?!
In May 2001, under the guidance of then Home Secretary David Blunkett, a document by the inauspicious name of the "Revised tenancy agreement" came into being.
A fascinating document this, a guide to what has to be provided by anyone/organisation, wanting to house asylum seekers.
Anyone that thinks the BNP is being racist when it criticises the asylum seekers and what they get, should first read this. I'd tell you what was in it but you wouldn't believe me, so put in an internet search for,revised tenancy agreement, and see what comes up. Enough to make you change your mind.
The ONS (Office of National Statistics) have released figures that show the birthrate in England has multiplied fivefold in a decade!
It's your children, and grandchildren that will suffer the full consequences if we do not get immigration under control!
It's no good asking these Labour MP's, their idea of controling immigration is to let more in!
Craig,
I am not sure if it is a genuine mistake regarding your calculation of birth rate statistics or if you are being disingenuous.
Allow me to clarify-
a)The birth rate in 1997 was 1.65
b)The current birth rate is 1.91
Conclusion:
The birth rate in the last decade has increased by 15.6% NOT fivefold (500%).
Nigel, the figures state that the birthrate has gone from 0.33% to 1.65%. That is just short of fivefold.
Craig,
The UK has NEVER had a birth rate as low as 0.33%, no figures whatsoever, anywhere support your standpoint. In fact NO COUNTRY ANYWHERE AT ANYTIME has had a birth rate less than 1.29 (Greece).
The birth rate in the UK hit an all time low of 1.63 in 2001, it is NOW 1.91.
Those figures are all from the Office of National Statistics.
Here is recent birth rate figures of fellow EU countries:
Ireland: 1.99
France: 1.90
Norway: 1.81
Sweden 1.75
Netherlands: 1.73
Germany: 1.37
Italy: 1.33
Spain: 1.32
Greece: 1.29
Nigel,
Thank your posts, we need to keep hilighting Craigs wild flights of fantasy!
Craig,
whilst again I remind you that I am not a current Labour voter, even though it's all you accuse me of, I will defend Rob Flello. A more effective MP you could not wish for! That's what i mean, you are looking through those white tinted BNP goggles again!
Craig I agree, Tony I disagree, regarding Rob Flello. But then I ony go by my experience. To me if you look at what he says he is doing or trying to do, it all sounds fine. I suspect it is likely his heart is in the right place. I think he likes the being a friendly guy and talking to people bit of being an MP. But then if you look at what he actually achieves on your behalf, or on mine anyway, it's sod all! I just don't think he is goal oriented enough. If you could have someone nice and friendly who also gets things done then great. But if not I'd rather have someone assertive enough to achieve outcomes.
As for investments, well I guess you can't blame councils for taking financial advice and spreading the investments around. But I'm with Craig on steering clear of the foreign banks. That's only because personally I'm not a risk taker. You don't get as rich that way but you have less potential hassle. But if you are a council and you've got someone you can put on the task of dealing with any hassle I guess the better interest might seem more worth the risk.
Nigel, I've left a message for the guy that wrote the report. As soon as he gets in touch with me, I'll get in touch with you. Had a look myself but there are so many different pages that info could have come from.
Tony, Rob Fellatio is the same as 99% of Labour MP's in that he is a waste of time! Why is it whenever the question, "what has he done for this city?" crops up, you
you conveniently pass it over as not worth answering? You can't pick and choose. I'll answer your questions, but I expect the same in return. You really need to stop with that colour prejudice too Tony, even though your discrimination seems to be against white folk, that's still racist.
Nicky, good point about Flello, but like all MP's at the minute, he seems to be in it for what he can get. Why else would he work with that Jimmy Krankie lookalike,
Hazel Blears. I have no idea why the council would think that investing money in a bank would be better than investing money in this city, but they obviously do.
At a time when we as a city cannot afford more financial strain on the limited resources we have, the EU have come up with a
plan of attack worthy of Blackadder! And before you ask Tony, that isn't a racial slur!
Known as CCCTB- Common consolidated corporate tax base- it is designed to be a single business imposed tax base that equates to being, one size fits all! Said to aiming to take £73 billion out of Britain in the next ten years, that's the same as a
£1200 bill every year, for every inhabitant of these islands!!
Add to this the complexity of the tax laws, and the huge increase in
administration costs, and you get a glimpse at just how damaging this could be.
We need to get out the EU, so all you Labour and Tory voters need to tell your MP's and representatives, or their won't be any country left for your kids to inherit.
Craig,
A little commonsense would not have gone amiss.
It's all well and good passing the buck and blaming whoever wrote the article but YOU read the article and YOU had chance to digest the birth rate figures and information YET you still deemed there to be nothing wrong with the figures in so much as you had no qualms about passing said information on.
IE: Birth reate figures are calculated for the average amount of children a woman in any certain country will have. Some women will have a higher number than the average birth rate, some much less or none at all.
In theory to meet replacement levels and for any given countries population to stay stable the birth rate must be 2.0.
Which leads me back to the "0.33" birth rate that you gave. For that to be true it would mean only 1 in 3 women were having children and of those 1 in 3 they were only raising 1 child.
Like I stated earlier a little commonsense would not have gone amiss.
Nigel, here's the info you wanted on the birth rates.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/majornews/3173087/Englands-population-growing-at-fastest-rate-since-records-began.html
Tony! Where do you get that Flello is an 'effective mp'?
This guy is a Government YES man who only does what the Prime ministers office tell him.
He couldn't care less what the people of Stoke think or do, he always follows the cabinet office line.
Take for instance the issue of 42 days detion without trial.
You won't find anyone in stoke on trent supporting that governemt bill and it is about to be thrown out anyway.
Remember tony, in politics you have to trust the view of the elected mp as being an independent view for the beneficial apect of the people who put him there.
Flello is a YES man who is only after promotion and nothjing else.
He is a cheat and worse than a liar.
Don't forget, Trentham Forever,
Flello is also parliamentary private secretary to the hateful
Hazel Blears!!
How can you trust anyone that has anything to do with her??!
Nigel, you are without doubt the most pompous git on here!
If you don't like the figures, complain to the bloody Telegraph
newspaper!!
Rob Flello is a nice chap, whose heart is in the right place. I have met him on numerous occasions, and he is always willing to debate. However, as he is a Labour MP, he like the rest, has to follow the Labour policies. He is one to speak out, when he feels, the wrong decisions are being made, but unfortunately, his hands are tied, and when it comes to the crunch, he has to go along with what the Labour Government says. Unfortunately, that is politics for you. As Brooneyes states, the Council has financial experts, who probably saw it as a good idea to put money into these Icelandic banks. People make decisions, sometimes they work out for the best, but unfortunately, because of the banking crisis, this has not, and now money may well be lost.
Craig,
The Telegraph claim that The Office of National Statistics figures show that the rate of change has increased fivefold through this decade, from 0.33 per cent in 2001 to 1.65 per cent by 2011.
If you read it properly it means the PERCENTAGE RATE of change it is not that the actual birth rate has increased by fivefold.
Back to the UK statistics and figures, if digested and interpreted properly, merely state that the annual change in birth rate statistics of 0.33% in 2001 were minimal or even stable. Even the annual change of 1.65% is very small. An increase of anything by only 1.65% is very small.
The problem is that you stated "the birth rate in England has multiplied fivefold in a decade!" when in fact it is the rate of annual change that has increased by that amount, the actual birth rate has increased by only 15.6%.
Nita, your grasp of politics is wrong.we have four mps around here and you'll find they are all labour and they voted the other way.AGAINST 42 days. so to say that labour has to follow what the leader says is wrong.they are here to represent you and me and not gordon brown.yes we all know they should follow the party line but that is only for amateurs and those seeking patronage for a payroll vote.robert flello is cheating everyone in this city because he wants to be a secreatary in government.he is totally untrustworthy and lies to us in the south of this city. he is a YES man and nothing else.
nita, What is this about Flello MP being a nice chap?
nice! nice! nice chap? What has that got to do with anything?
Mark Meredith is a nice chap and he's just shut your school!
Nice chaps are not the question or the answer.
It's about being truthful, honest and trustworthy for the right reasons.
Robert Flello is certainly going to be called to account for his yes mentality towards the people of this area.It is a useless stance to take whether you are nice or horrible.
Craig,
I see you resort to the usual childish name calling and insults when you have been exposed as a spreader of misinformation and scaremongering.
It's not pompous for pointing out statistical misinterpretation.
It would be a waste of time and effort complaining to the Telegraph as they have only published facts and NEVER stated in the article that the actual birth rate had increased by that amount, only the rate of change. It's your own misinterpretation that is at fault.
You really wanted to believe that the birth rate had increased by fivefold when commonsense would have saved you the embarrassment!
Margaret, I agree, because these people are so nice, and appear to be on your side, you believe everything you are told. I tell you what, as it stands now, we trust nor believe no one, as they all have their own agendas.
Nigel, you are quite right, it is not pompous to point out someones mistake, it's the snotty tone you take whilst pointing it out that's pompous.
Apologies, checking the ONS site for myself it does say change, though I'll argue till the cows come home over your," the birthrate
has ONLY increased by 15.6%!!.
Considering that the vast majority of that is from immigration, that's a bloody big chunk!
Margaret, I have to disagree with you, Mark Meredith is NOT nice. He's never uttered a word of truth to any of the electorate in this city.
My view is that anyone in politics is out for their own ends. They have their own agenda to push. In some cases, this is promotion within government, and locally it's a power trip to see who can run the city. And sometimes, it's about how much money they can make.
But in my experience, very rarely does anyone become a councillor or an MP for the good of the people they represent. If that's how it starts off, they very quickly become indoctrinated into the corrupt goings on and realise that the "good" way can't work.
Sorry if I seem a little cynical, but I've not yet met anyone representing any political party who I genuinely believe.
And NO-ONE seems interested in the BSF Programme and the fact that the city's education system is being turned into at best, a laughing stock, and at worst, the greatest disaster ever to hit Stoke on Trent.
Craig,
I have reread my posts and don't detect any sort of pomposity or "snooty tones" whatsoever and I'm sure anyone else reading them will agree. In fact my posts were completely devoid of emotion, clear, concise and conclusive in exposure of gross misunderstanding/misinterpretation of statistical information.
It seems you have a habit of showering anyone who highlights you or your parties shortcomings mistakes or misinformation with petty childish name calling and venomous bile. Although to be fare, anyone who dares to have a thought or opinion with which you happen to disagree with, meets a similar outcome.
What are you on about?
I've apologised for my mistake, what more do you want?
Lots of people disagree or have their own opinion on a spectrum of subjects, I do not resort to anything that it present in the post to me.
Get a life Nige.
Craig,
you finally only admitted false claims due to my perseverance. You still persisted in your claims for several posts after my exposure until said claims became completely indefenceable.
I am sure MANY, MANY people would beg to differ at your statement that you don't pour bile on other posters who have opinions that you just don't like. The evidence is all over these blog pages.
Oh, I see, you're one of those are you! So I expect we'll be hearing about this for some time to come, at least until the swelling in your head starts to lessen.
I don't pour bile on everyone, just whiny, pompous gits like you.
I did not persist in anything. I posted figures from someone I trusted and they were wrong. I apologised, but you don't want to shut up about it. That's all there is to this.
Ok, Ok, Apart from the Trentham issue (sounds like what have the romans ever done for us! It's a joke Craig no need to start) Rob Flello was very effective on dealing with anti social behaviour in several areas of South Stoke. He is also heading up a cross commons task force on dealing with the BNP and the rise of popularity.
All Craig is bothered about is pushing the immigration issue, yes we all agree something has to be done on this and it's a fact that people can not get in to our country as easy as they did five years ago. It is a fact, whether Craig likes it or not that immigration issues will not be sorted out here in Stoke! You talk of answering questions Craig, what about the one i asked you yesterday? I'll try again, which BNP councilor would contest a mayoral election if this city chooses that style of government? and would it be Nick Griffin or Simon Darby that will come in as their political assistant? Nige has you spot on and thank god he's thorough with his research (birth rates) or you'd have got away with yet another piece of BNP lies and propaganda! At least be honest and say that the reason you are pushing the mayoral system is that it's the only chance your party have of getting some sort of power isn't it? That is why i will vote LEADER!
Tony, if you want to know what I think, ask, don't make out that you know me, or that you understand what it is I want to see achieved. Flello can't have had any notable success fighting anti-social behaviour, because the laws aren't there to back up any campaign. All that happens is they get evicted to another part of the city.
Neither Nick nor Simon will run as elected mayor. That would be the perfect example of taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
The only thing Nigel has is a crappy attitude! I made a mistake, I apologised for it, but I'm still hearing about it from you two, and unlike you said, it wasn't a lie,
just a balls up over the wording.
Tony, I can say, hand on heart, I don't give a flying ***** who you vote for. You are one of those stupid people prepared to cut your nose off to spite your face, and we as a party don't need your kind of fanatical bigotry.
Tony says that we (BNP) as a party are interested in nothing but
immigration.
If that's the case, how is it that we've put before the council two policies? How many have your independents put forward? Or the Tories?
You get so caught up in your spite that you can't see what's right there in front of your face.
What's the point in talking about candidates for a mayoral system when we don't know that's what we will get? The time for that is after the vote and we know what we will be faced with.
Craig,
No I don't know you, never claimed to. The question I asked you was which one of your councilors would contest the mayoral election for the BNP? I never said that Nick Griffin or Simon Darby would stand for mayor, I asked which of them would come in as a political assistant? Section 30 dispersal orders were used in our area and were effective and were at the instigation of Mr Flello.
thing is Craig I have been accused by you of being a leftie ( which seems to be the norm when someone disagrees with you) truth is I don't know what i am! Since I left the LP I am a floater. Don't get the hump though it's all in the debate, now please answer my questions! LOL
Did you see Flello on BBC1 politics show today? He was saying about how he prefers the mayor system in general but doesn't want to have it in Stoke-on-Trent at the present time so he will be voting for leader.
Translation:
He doesn't think labour has a hope in hell of getting their labour candidate as mayor after the mess Meredith as made of things in the labour name. If he thought labour could win he'd be in favour of the mayor system. Also he's a bit scared we might get a BNP mayor so he would rather there is a leader at present. Then he hopes sometime in the future the BNP might be less popular and labour will become everyone's favourite again (in his dreams). Then he'll want to change to a mayor system.
So he has nothing to say on the actual systems at all.
Pathetic.
Exactly what I've been saying,Flello knows his masters in London want him to shout up for the Mayor but he knows the writing is on the wall, so he's trying to play to all audiences.
He's a YES man after a YES man's job and he has a little band of followers in his area who are also YES councillors. Check out who is YES for Mayor and bingo you see a total stitch up.
Same people who screwed Longton High and parents in trentham.
Well said Trentham Forever, right on the money!
Nicky, you almost got it right!
Flello is terrified that the BNP will take the mayoral place should that be the choice, and what terrifies him is the chance that would offer us to by-pass their ridiculous no platform stance, and deliver our message direct to the people! The day that happens is the day Labour lose this fight.
Nicky,
Yes I saw "The Politics Show" and I agree with you comments. I rather think that Rob Flello was rallying his troops and issuing a warning about the possibilities of a BNP mayor. That's his job i suppose, but I would have loved it if he (or anybody from the Labour Party) had come out and said what an absolute balls up Mark Meredith had made of being Mayor! This is the reason that I could not stay in the LP any longer.
Craig,
Thanks for the mail, I'll have a look tomorrow. Come on now can I have an answer now please?
Pondlife can't answer questions like that Tony 'cos his party don't trust him enough to give him the answers! It's on a need to know basis, that don't think he needs to know
TruthTellerTwo
So Truthteller Two appears, and wants to know who the BNP are going to field as candidate?
Well have the other candidates come into the open yet?
Can it be that T, T, is not privy to that information, SHAME LOL.
Look,
Forget all the crap and innuendos, I asked Craig HIS opinion of who the BNP would field as candidate. TT2 please do not post as that as that was my alter ego as well you know! If more posts appear we may have to remove them so be fair and choose another name!
Tony, as soon as we know which system we will be facing, I'll post our candidate for you. There is no point in doing so until we know.
Flello banged on about the BNP taking the Mayor's role because it's the best scare story going.
Vote Meredith just in case the BNP take it.
Bollocks!
Craig,
So you can come on here commenting on everything through your BNP goggles but when the debate, yes debate, not fact, turns to something where you are asked YOUR opinion you run scared of giving it!My my, it always has to be the party line doesn't it?
So is this what we can expect of you Craig? No debate, just a party election broadcast every time you post! Can Craig the person step forward and replace Craig the BNP programmed robot!
I don't think the BNP locally have a credible candidate either for mayor or leader, so i think they'll probably go for walker or coleman.the new councillors for the bnp are just pawns and are politicaly thick.
Tony, put your brain in gear before you engage you mouth.
What is the point of me saying who our candidate will be, when we don't even know which system we will have to work with?
As for the rest of your comments, well, it looks like you've fallen back to spiteful and childish.
Anonymous, have any of the other parties released thier candidates names? Are you harrassing the Tories, Labour, LibDems and independents in this way? No, of course you aren't, and that's because like Tony, you're spiteful and childish. Grow up and don't be so bigotted.
Craig i have done no such thing, read back over your previous posts, there is only one person that has been childish and spiteful.
I was asking you as a person who you thought would make a good candidate. I can not see why you would be so evasive, this isn't bloody question night, I'm not Dimbleby
So, Brooneyes/Craig Pond has the audacity to accuse people of being spiteful, childish and bigoted.
Isn't that a case of the pot calling the kettle b.....
Craig.
Rob Fellatio ?
Is this something you are an expert in ?
I should have known - I thought the way you chewed your gum - open mouthed like cattle chewing the cud - was just cheap and common, but now I know you are just keeping your mouth muscles in tune, for what you really do !!
Anonymous, you seem to be mistaking me for our elected mayor!
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