HENSHAW, EITHER SUE US OR SOD OFF!!

Taken from Henshaws Evil Cabal Blog, an anonymous person informs Tony Parrish that Henshaw is going off on one over the blogs and Mr Finnegan. No mention of Mr Storey though?

HENSHAW, GLAD YOU HAVE LEFT LIVERPOOL, DON'T COME BACK AYE?
THERE'S A GOOD GNOME.

COMMENT ABOUT HENSHAW POSTED ON GOSSIP BLOG

Anonymous said... to get serious for a minute...you should know that Sir Diddy has run as fast as his little legs will carry him to his solicitors, following the post on the henshaw evil cabal blog about the Guardian lecture. he is threatening writs, libel actions, injunctions, judiucial reviews and all kinds of other legal jiggery pokery to again try and close the blog down. his solicitors are brabners again. This has all come from a colleague of his wife (who is herself a nice person, given who she lives with). Sir Diddy is also apparently in regular contact with Mceilhenny and halsall and the three of them met for dinner before xmas at a hotel in Cheshire - but i doubt whether Diddy paid! One bizarre thing - he has also been talking to the cops to see if he can persuade them to do something. he says he is being persecuted! The irony of it! He is really worried about the Guardian lecture and whether anyone is going to take the piss out of him publicly in front of the great and the good and has seriously talked to someone from the guardian about improving security or pulling out! christ knows who he thinks he is. but his solicitors have advised him to carry on. He is apparently furious at Finnegan and the Tony Parrish campaign, which appears to have had a big impact at westminster amongst labour mps and in other local councils. according to the girls, henshaw is afraid that he is now regarded as being completely persona non grata and worries constantly about important people snubbing him. which must be true! but the best news is this - they are talking about leaving liverpool and moving somewhere else! hurrah! anyway, watch out for the lawyers lads - even though he is full of the usual bluster, you never know what he will do when he gets in a tizz. and he has got the money. will try to keep you up-dated on any other developments... Thursday, January 11, 2007 2:34:00 PM

TONY PARRISH, WHERE ARE YOU?

IN THE SUMMER OF 2006, A BLOG SITE CALLED LIVERPOOL EVIL CABAL,APPEARED ON THE INTERNET AND TOOK LIVERPOOL BY STORM.

THE BLOG WAS CREATED BY THE NOW INFAMOUS TONY PARRISH.

LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL PRESSURED THE BLOG TO CLOSE DOWN.

COLIN HILTON BANNED ANY COUNCIL WORKER FROM READING THE BLOG.OR WAS IT DR DAVID MCELHINNEY?

THE LOCAL LIVERPOOL NEWSPAPERS HEADLINED THIS BAN, THE POLITICIANS FROM THE LIVERPOOL LABOUR PARTY OBJECTED TO THIS BAN AS IT INCLUDED ANY COUNCIL COMPUTER, INCLUDING THE LOCAL LIBRARIES, THIS IN EFFECT BANNED THE GENERAL LIVERPOOL PUBLIC FROM READING THIS BLOG.

GAGGING THE LIVERPOOL TAX PAYERS IS NOT A POPULAR STANCE TO TAKE.

THIS OF COURSE HAD THE OPPOSITE EFFECT AS HUNDREDS OF COUNCIL WORKERS RUSHED HOME TO READ THIS EXCITING BLOG, JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE BANNED FROM DOING SO.

WHEN PEOPLE ACTUALLY READ AND DIGESTED WHAT THIS BLOG WAS PROCLAIMING, THEY WERE SHOCKED AT THE DIRTY DEALINGS OF THE LIVERPOOL EVIL CABAL, THE VERY PEOPLE WHO WERE BANNING THEM FROM READING THE BLOG IN THE FIRST PLACE.

THE NEWS WAS OUT AND COLIN HILTON HAD HELPED IN PROMOTING THE SITE. WELL DONE COLIN!

AFTER A FEW MONTHS, THE COUNCIL SUCCEEDED IN PUTTING PRESSURE ON TONY PARRISH AND THE BLOG WAS SADLY CLOSED DOWN.

NUMEROUS PEOPLE, INCLUDING MYSELF, HAD SAVED ENTIRE PAGES OF THE BLOG,

THE NEWS WAS OUT THERE, THE COUNCIL COULD NOT STOP THE INTERNET WORLD FROM REPRODUCING THE WORDS OF TONY PARRISH!

A FEW MONTHS LATER, ANOTHER BLOG APPEARED, THIS WAS CALLED, LIVERPOOL SUBCULTURE.

THIS BLOG HAD MORE EXCLUSIVES THAN THE ECHO HAVE EVER MANAGED!

THE SUBCULTURE SITE HAD ALL THE USUAL SCANDAL THAT WE HAD READ IN THE LIVERPOOL EVIL CABAL BLOG, INCLUDED IN THIS SITE WAS ,GOSSIP, CITY OF THE DEAD, POSTCARDS, REVIEWS OF CULTURE AND THE TONY PARRISH FRINGE.
AFTER A WHILE TONY TOOK THE POSTCARDS AND THE TONY PARRISH FRINGE OFF THE BLOG AND CONCENTRATED ON GOSSIP, FACTS OF SUBCULTURE AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD SITE.

OH WHAT FUN WE HAD READING THE EXCLUSIVES!

TONY RECEIVED INFORMATION FROM PEOPLE HIGH UP IN THE LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL AND EVEN HAD COPIES OF WARREN BRADLEY'S EMAILS!

TONY PARRISH HAS BECOME A NAME IN FOLK LAW AND I AM PROUD TO HAVE SUPPORTED HIM IN HIS QUEST TO OUT THE CORRUPTION OF LIVERPOOL EVIL CABAL.

NOW AS SUDDENLY AS HE APPEARED, HE HAS DISAPPEARED FROM OUR INTERNET?

WHERE ARE YOU TONY?
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?

THE LAST POST TONY PUBLISHED WAS CONCERNING AN EMAIL HE RECEIVED FROM GOOGLE, WHO ADVISED HIM THAT LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL WERE NOT REALLY HAPPY WITH HIM POINTING THE FINGER AT THEM AND SUCCEEDING IN UPSETTING A NUMBER OF THE EVIL CABAL.

LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL WERE THREATENING GOOGLE!

IS THIS THE REASON OUR HERO HAS TAKEN HIS BLOG OFF THE INTERNET?

HAVE THE EVIL CABAL GOT HIM?

DID THE BALD EAGLE FIND HIS SAFE HOUSE IN THE WIRRAL?

DID MACCA THREATEN HIM WITH HIS LUFFA?

THE FAMOUS "HENSHAWS EVIL CABAL" IS STILL ACCESSIBLE BUT SADLY THERE HAVE NOT BEEN ANY RECENT POSTINGS.

TONY IF YOU STILL READ THE BLOG, LET US KNOW YOU ARE SAFE?

HAVE THE EVIL CABAL MANAGED TO GAG YOU?


SOME WORDS OF WISDOM FROM OUR LIVERPOOL WHISTLE BLOWER

Tony Parrish
Posted on 15 Jun 2006 12:18 pm (Report this comment)

Tony Parrish: To anyone in Liverpool, it is absolutely amazing that Hutton has appointed Henshaw. As chief executive of the city council Henshaw mounted an attempted coup d'etat against the Leader of the Council, Mike Storey, when the city council turned down Henshaw's bid for a £360,000 pension deal. In a typical fit of pique, Henshaw announced his retirement when the council turned him down (this was in March last year) and then appears to have changed his mind. However he got rid of his media chief, Matt Finnegan (suspended on trumped up charges) because he did not like the publicity that his announcement and the council's decision had attracted. Then he got access to Finnegan's computer and used emails from the Leader of the Council, expressing his opposition to the pension deal, to try and blackmail Storey and then to try and get rid of him! Everyone in Liverpool knows Henshaw is a greedy little (literally) bully who is only interested in himself. Other MP's - former health minister Jane Kennedy - have objected to other lucrative part-time jobs that Henshaw has secured since finally retiring from Liverpool in March. Henshaw is also getting more money than the Head of the CIvil Service for this CSA job! Try icliverpool or the guardian or telegraph for more on Henshaw. It is absolutely incredible. Rumour has it that this report has been done months ago and they just want Henshaw to front it. He's an arrogant, nasty piece of work, who is full of bull.

Council leader fumes as 'evil-cabal' site is blocked

Aug 10 2006

By Larry Neild, Daily Post

LIVERPOOL council leader Warren Bradley last night demanded to know who ordered the blocking of a controversial internet blog set up in a war against senior council officials. The leader's call came just hours after the council's chief executive, Colin Hilton, revealed he had asked for a police investigation into the so-called "Liverpool-evil-cabal" website. Thousands of people are looking onto the site, but council staff, councillors and visitors to internet rooms at public libraries and one-stop shops, have found the site has been blocked. Last night the city council denied the site had been blocked on the orders of Liverpool Direct, the company jointly owned by the council and BT, headed by former executive director David McElhinney. A council spokesman said the order for the blocking had been made by the city council, and carried out by Liverpool Direct who run the computer website servers on behalf of the council. "The city council took the decision to block access. Liverpool Direct runs servers for the council and the libraries and an instruction was issued to them by the council to block it. "The council has a duty of care to its staff and as a consequence took a decision to block access to this anonymous site, which makes allegations that would not be printed or broadcast by the media. "An increasing number of council staff, some relatively junior, have been named and it has caused a considerable amount of distress and upset to them." But Cllr Bradley last night appeared to come to the defence of the controversial site. He said: "I had a meeting with the head of libraries Joyce Little, and asked about the blocking of the website. I was informed that it had been done by Liverpool Direct. I want to know why we as a council are blocking access to sites that people with their own computers can access without problem." One view among councillors is that the deliberate blocking of the site has prompted people to seek it out on external computers. Chief executive Colin Hilton finally broke his silence on the website by issuing a message to more than 20,000 council staff, as well as the 90 councillors. In his communication, issued through the council Intranet - a site closed to the general public - Mr Hilton reveals the council has gathered evidence which is helping to identify the mystery author of the blog. The website, now compulsive reading among council staff and many of the city's key movers and shakers, contains many intimate details about council activities that point to information being fed by town hall insiders. The phrase "evil cabal" first emerged in a series of e-mails between former leader of the city council Mike Storey and the head of the council's media department, Matt Finnegan, currently suspended. The council spin-doctor has been away from his office, on full pay since April of last year as part of an investigation into a series of e-mails between him and Cllr Storey in which there was evidence of a plot to smooth the exit of Sir David Henshaw from his post as chief executive. Mr Finnegan is due to fight for his reinstatement to his Dale Street office at an internal disciplinary hearing next month. Mr Finnegan cannot comment about his situation at the city council because of the forthcoming case, scheduled to be heard by a panel of councillors. Last night his solicitor, Rex Makin, said: "There have been numerous rumours about the identity of the blogger. There is no evidence about the authorship of the blog. As far as I am concerned reference to a criminal investigation is futile since criminal libel was abolished some years ago. Those who sue for defamation, as Oscar Wilde found out, may discover that the cure is worse than the disease." Last night a spokesman for Merseyside Police said: "We can confirm that several complaints have been received in relation to the website. Inquiries and an investigation are on-going." Hilton's letter of explanation to Liverpool Council staff "YOU will probably be aware that some weeks ago an internet blog site was set up to run a series of libellous articles in a journalistic format. "The initial targets for its malicious activity were senior officers of the council, but over time references have been made to a wider number of staff, causing both distress and anger. "To date, I have held back from making any public comment on the matter in order to deny the site any credibility and to prevent further publicising its existence. "Behind the scenes, however, we have been working with colleagues in audit, legal services and the executive member for Central Services, Cllr Richard Marbrow, to put in place steps to deal with the anonymous author of this disreputable website. " I can now inform you that we have gathered evidence which is helping us identify the author. Today, on my instruction, officers have started investigations on the evidence received. I have also formally asked the police to launch a criminal investigation. I have received a number of requests for information from people who intend to pursue civil action against the author and will be taking legal advice on this. We are also attempting to have the website removed in order to prevent further upset to colleagues. "You will realise that I cannot give you any further information, but I think it is important to give all employees reassurance that matters are in hand." Blogger to face legal action Aug 23 2006 EXCLUSIVE by Deborah James Daily Post Staff LEADING Liverpool council officials and others named on a controversial website about town hall dealings are preparing legal action against its author, the Daily Post can reveal. City lawyer Mark Manley confirmed he is acting for several people who want to sue the author of the Liverpool-Evil-Cabal blog for defamation. It is understood the group include current and former council officials and other high profile city figures named on the website, which criticised and attacked the council's former management team. The website attracted over 80,000 visitors during July and August, but was shut down amid controversy about its contents last week. Last night Chas Cole, who runs Summer Pops operator CMP Entertainment, confirmed he is among those who have sought legal advice after his business was discussed on the site. He said he was prepared to sue the mystery author of the site, who wrote under the name "Tony Parrish", when he is unmasked. Privately at least one council official believes the group now have firm evidence about who wrote the blog. Solicitor Mr Manley, of Brabners Chaffe Street, said: "I have received a number of instructions from a number of people which led me to take appropriate steps to close down the blog, which we did. "The highly defamatory comments published about a number of people on that site cannot go uncorrected. "I anticipate that when our inquiries are complete the author or authors of those statements will be sued." The website, which had a humorous tone, listed Tony Parrish's occupation as "whistleblower" and interests as "victory". Mr Cole said: "Whoever it may be I will sue them. I have taken legal advice, and we are prepared to take legal action. "We are planning action against whoever the blogger was, whether that be one person or several people. "I have heard all the rumours. If they prove to be correct then I will sue the author and his associates if there are any. "The evidence from what I hear is in the hands of the council. I will be interested to hear the outcome of the council investigation." The blog is named after a comment by Cllr Mike Storey in a dossier of e-mails between him and the council's suspended media chief Matt Finnegan, which led to Cllr Storey standing down as council leader. It focused on alleged conduct by three town hall officials, former chief executive Sir David Henshaw, resources director Phil Halsall and Dr David McElhinney, managing director of the Liverpool Direct call centre. Mr Halsall declined to comment last night, and Sir David and Dr McElhinney were not available for comment. The site also heavily criticised the council's approach to Capital of Culture, the departure of artistic director Robyn Archer and an investigation into council contracts with private firms Enterprise and BT. Earlier this month Merseyside police were called in by council chief executive Colin Hilton, and he blocked council employees from viewing it on municipally-owned computers. Police said the website did not break the law, but it was taken down 10 days ago. deborahjames@dailypost.co.uk

Was the council right to block Evil-Cabal website? Aug 15 2006 Action to silence the website raised issues of free speech. Larry Neild investigates Daily Post VISITORS to Liverpool's libraries were banned from visiting a controversial website spilling the beans on life at the Town Hall earlier this month. The Liverpool Evil-Cabal website attracted over 80,000 visitors during July and August as a mystery blogger, known as Tony Parrish, teased and attacked, for the most part, the former management team of Liverpool City Council. The site closed down at the weekend with Mr Parrish, who has become known as the Liverpool Pimpernel, saying "we have now been promised that there will be a proper investigation into the allegations made on the blog". Last week, Merseyside police, called in by council chief executive Colin Hilton, announced that the website does not break the law. Mr Hilton, recently installed as chief executive, wrote an email message on the council's intranet, breaking the council's silence on the issue. He said attempts were being made to have the website removed to prevent further upset to council staff. Council leader Warren Bradley has demanded to know who gave the order for the website to be blocked in the libraries. Like many people, Cllr Bradley is concerned about censorship, although he is no defender of the blog itself. Council staff using municipally-owned computers are also barred from visiting the site. The contents of the blog indicate there is a source, or sources, within the corridors of power, willing to leak sensitive information to the mystery bloggers. The big question, though, is does the council have any right to deny, in a country that promotes the concept of free speech, access to a blog site, however uncomfortable the contents may be for those who feature? Today the Daily Post asks: Was Liverpool council right to block the Evil-Cabal website? larryneild@dailypost.co.uk NEXT YES: The case for >>> Website is a slimy retailer of malicious gossip YES SAYS Cllr Richard Kemp, Lib-Dem representative on the Local Government Association YES, the site should be blocked. Free speech is one of the fundamental safeguards of democracy. Tyrants and dictators close down means of communications to help enforce their tyranny. Too often in our history, those who have defended free speech have appeared like Frodo Baggins taking on the might of Sauron! But the person (people?) behind this blog site is (are) no Frodo - the character that springs to mind is Gollum, the disreputable slimy creature that is evil, devious and disreputable, and lurks in dank caves and slimy caverns. The website is not a champion of democracy but a sordid retailer of malicious gossip, spite, spleen and tittle-tattle. Specific claims have been made against officers. Correspondents have made a series of claims about leading councillors. No-one has yet done the proper thing - to report these allegations to the appropriate external and independent authorities to have them properly investigated. If members or officers are on the take, then it is illegal and they should be dealt with by the police and then by the courts. If they have been doing things which are outside the standing orders and regulations of the council, they should be dealt with by the District Audit Service and then by the courts. If councillors have broken the code of conduct, they can be dealt with by the Standards Board for England. Indeed, a check has recently been done. The Audit Commission has undertaken a governance review of the council. I cannot believe that the things being described on the website could be going on and not have been seen by these people. The report will come out in the autumn, but I am sure that action would already have been taken if 5% of the allegations had any substance whatever. So remedies exist - yet none have been tried - so that leaves the council with two quandaries. The first is about telling the truth. If you knowingly repeat a lie, then you too are a liar. The council knows that these things are untrue. British justice says they are untrue because every person is innocent until proven guilty. The second is how we care for staff. We have a legal duty of care to our staff (including former staff) to protect them from harm and abuse. So, there we are then - gossip but no substance, allegation and no follow up. The council should not assist with this for legal and moral reasons. But, above all, bloggers - put up or shut up. If you really think that there is any truth in what you say, it is your duty and responsibility to go to the police NOW! NEXT NO: The case against >>> Mr Hilton may not like it, but it is called democracy NO SAYS Rex Makin, lawyer AT A time when our freedoms are under threat, it takes either a very brave man, or a very stupid one, to censor freedom of speech. But the new chief executive of the city council, Colin Hilton, is guilty of that in banning the Liverpool Evil-Cabal blog from computers in Liverpool's public libraries. Cllr Warren Bradley did not appoint Mr Hilton as Big Brother to the bloggers. Nor was Mr Hilton appointed to decide what the people of Liverpool choose to read or believe. The council taxpayers of Liverpool pay for the council's computers,the public libraries and the £190,000-a-year salary for Mr Hilton. It is up to them what they do when they surf the web in their local library, provided, of course, that no offence is being committed. And certainly the blog's growing army of thousands of daily readers are not committing any offence. Nor I believe is the blogger himself, who goes under the name Tony Parrish. What Mr Parrish and his associates are doing is, arguably, providing a vital public service to the people of Liverpool. Liverpool-evil-cabal is merely exposing a wider Liverpool audience to startling allegations about the regime of former chief executive Sir David Henshaw which have been circulating among the great and the good in the city for months. The blog asks some serious questions about the awarding of council contracts worth millions of pounds, and questions the relationships and actions of highly-paid senior officers who, we should remind Mr Hilton, are servants of the public. Mr Hilton may not like this, but it is called democracy. Along with the blog's serious purpose comes a fair amount of humour, direct language, gossip and innuendo from Mr Parrish and his readers, of the sort that might be heard on the number 79 bus every day of the week. Mr Hilton's over-reaction has been to ask the police to arrest the bus driver. The police should be after burglars, not bloggers. Banning the blog from council computers has predictably sent thousands of city council staff rushing home to avidly log in for the next instalment. As for Mr Hilton (if it was he who was really behind the ban), he would better serve the people of Liverpool if he investigated the allegations being made. People will not tolerate a cover-up of past procurement irregularities. They look to Mr Hilton to come clean and put his own house in order first. For, as Mr Parrish has eloquently stated, the genie is now out of the bottle and it can't be put back in. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ONE THING TONY? WHERE IS THE GENIES BOTTLE?

LIVERPOOL TRADE UNIONS ARE KEPT IN THE DARK AS DETAILS OF 150 REDUNDANCIES ARE MADE PUBLIC

Follow the link below of read in full under this link


http://liverpoolinamess.blogspot.com/2007/06/liverpool-joint-trade-unions-are-kept.html

LIVERPOOL JOINT TRADE UNIONS ARE KEPT IN DARK OVER 150 MEMBERS REDUNDANCIES

LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL JOINT TRADE UNION COMMITTEE HAVE ISSUES A STATEMENT TO ALL THEIR MEMBERS ALERTING THEM TO HOW MANAGEMENT HAVE KEPT THEM IN THE DARK ABOUT THE PUBLICATION OF THE COUNCIL'S DECISION TO PUT 150 MEMBERS OF THE HOME CARE SERVICE OUT OF WORK, IRONICALLY KNOWN AS THE PREVENTATIVE SERVICE!

WHAT THIS SERVICE ACTUALLY PREVENTS IS A GREAT MYSTERY?

SUGGESTIONS ON A POSTCARD WELCOMED.

SEE BELOW FOR THE TRADE UNIONS RESPONSE TO THIS DIRTY ACTION TAKEN BY TONY HUNTER AND SUE TRAFFORD.

IF YOU THINK YOU WON'T EVER NEED TO USE A HOME CARE SERVICE ?

THEN HOW ARE YOU GOING TO PREVENT GETTING OLD?

THINK ON EVERYONE AND GET BEHIND THE CARERS OF LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL AND DEMAND A STOP TO THIS DESTRUCTION OF SERVICES.

MORE TO FOLLOW SOON ON THE REAL BEHIND THE SCENES STORY OF CARING

LIVERPOOL.......

Chair: Bobby Daniels GMB Treasurer: Arthur Moss GMB

LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL JOINT TRADE UNION COMMITTEE

Secretary: Angela Blundell UNISON G.01 Cotton Exchange Bixteth Street Liverpool L3 9LQ Tel: 0151 236 1944

15^th June 2007

HOME CARE STATEMENT

The following is the Statement issued to the trade unions at 3 pm on Thurs. 14^th June 2007

It is the Council’s intention to write to all potentially affected staff with offers of Voluntary Redundancy with terms consistent with the Council’s policy for early retirement of a maximum of 5 added years.

This will result in each employee – including those over the age of 50 and up to the age of 65 – having entitlement to a “one-off” redundancy payment based upon their age and length of service.

Those employees who are over the age of 50 will also, however, be entitled to the early release of their pension and lump sum based upon their accrued benefits as at the date of their redundancy.

These pension entitlements will be without actuarial reduction which would have been the case if the employees had taken early retirement.

No other details were shared with the trade unions at that time. The details would follow probably within the next week.

Management should apologise to its staff for the lack of information.

After leaving the meeting the trade unions were advised a press statement had already been given out and the Executive Director Tony Hunter would speak on local radio.

The trade unions are aware that this is an uncertain time for the Home Care Service and differing statements being issued by LCC are causing confusion.

We have asked for joint meetings with staff and as soon as there is more information we will contact our members.

HENSHAW ON THE TELLY AGAIN!

SIR DAVID HENSHAW HAS BAGS OF CASH BUT WON'T LET THE NHS SPEND IT!!!!

LOCAL NEWS PRESENTER FOR BBC 1 GORDON BURNS HAS JUST INTERVIEWED SIR DAVID HENSHAW , HE ASKED HIM ABOUT THE ARTICLE BELOW.

Henshaw has insisted that giving the nurses and care staff in Hospitals pay rise of just 2.5% is none of his concern.

He insists that the money put aside that constitutes the underspend is for emergency purposes!

WHAT THE HELL IS AN EMERGENCY IN HIS BOOKS?

The health service is in a mess and putting much needed money aside for so called emergencies just proves that there is money to give our medical professionals a living wage rise, it also shows the contempt that Sir David Henshaw has for the workers he is responsible for.

Yet another area that Henshaw has started already to destroy.

I fear for our national health service with him in charge!

This feeling is backed up by a number of high ranked members of parliament including Junior Minister Jane Kennedy MP for Wavertree Liverpool, who resigned her post as she felt so strongly that Henshaw was the wrong man for the job.

GIVE US THE MONEY HENSHAW! Or are you going to fleece the health service like you fleeced Knowsley and Liverpool?

NHS ' is heading for underspend'

The NHS looks like it has underspent by nearly £500m last year after making cuts amid intense political pressure to avoid a deficit, early data shows.

Unions suggested the NHS had gone too far in making cuts and harmed care. But the government said any surplus would be re-invested.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has staked her job on the NHS balancing.

Figures compiled by the Guardian newspaper revealed the under spend was estimated to be £456.8m in England.

The Guardian analysed data from England's 10 strategic health authorities, regional NHS bodies which oversee hospitals and local NHS trusts.

If these figures are right, we know that some trusts must have unnecessarily cut back on services to patients Dr Sam Everington, of the British Medical Association

They showed that only two regions failed to balance its books - the east of England and the south-east coast. The north west on its own ran up a £161m surplus.

The figures include the £450m contingency fund - built up over the year by making cuts to training and public health budgets - which was redistributed to NHS trusts in March.

But the data shows a large increase on the three-quarter year point, when the NHS was predicting a small £13m surplus.

It is unclear how such a big surplus has been amassed in the final three months of 2006-7. There have been reports of trusts imposing minimum waits for operations in a bid to avoid paying for treatment until the new financial year.

The NHS had also not had the full £5.4bn increase in its budget passed on for 2006-7. Some of this went to pay off last year's debt of over £500m, but it that still left several hundred million pounds left over.

The Department of Health is due to publish the final figures next week.

'Impacted adversely'

But Dr Sam Everington, acting chairman of the British Medical Association, said: "If these figures are right, we know that some trusts must have unnecessarily cut back on services to patients such as reducing operating lists and clinics, closing wards, cutting education and training budgets, and making staff redundant.

"All of these things will have impacted adversely on patient care."

Other unions also questioned the fairness of staggering a 2.5% pay award for nurses and other health workers when there was so much money left in the system.

But a spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the final figures would be published shortly.

But she added: "The NHS ended last year [2005-6] with a deficit of over £500m.

"This was unacceptable, and we introduced new rigour and discipline in order to put the NHS on a sound financial footing for the future."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/6700663.stm

Published: 2007/05/29 11:48:42 GMT

© BBC MMVII

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/health/6700663.stm

THIS IS THE REASON FOR LIVERPOOL BLOGGERS

THIS POST HAS BEEN COPIED FROM THE WONDERFUL AND FACTUALLY PROVEN LIVERPOOL TIMES.

IF ANY OF YOU HAVE WONDERED JUST HOW HENSHAW CAME TO BE IN POWER AND HOW MCELHINNEY SUDDENLY APPEARS FROM LITTLEWOOD'S TO BULLY AND INTIMIDATE ANYONE WHO EVER TRIED TO STAND UP TO HIM?

READ ON AN UNDERSTAND THE TRUE CORRUPTION THAT HAS AND STILL IS GOING ON IN LIVERPOOL CITY, KNOWSLEY AND LONDON.

Insight into the Henshaw years in Knowsley.

Mon 30 Apr 2007
Posted by admin under: Local News

The impact of David Henshaw on Merseyside is considerable, even if you don’t count yourself as a fan.

Before he took charge of Liverpool he had ruled the roost in nearby Knowsley Council, where life suddenly became easy in this one party fiefdom.

The trail blazing Kirkby Times was the first printed news site to highlight the dubious activities in this council between 1995 – to date; activities that in any other council would certainly have attracted severe sanctions from the government, audit commission, and probably the law enforcement agencies as well.

These included, positions and cash given for votes on land deals, the whip applied on planning applications, non declaration of interests on land deals, Councillors with convictions for burglary and violence holding down senior and sensitive positions. Single Regeneration Poverty Funds ( £35 million pounds ) doled out like confetti to Cllr Keight’s cohorts, this list is not exhaustive, and is only a taste of what went on.

Henshaw with a bag of peanuts


Many have lifted our stories, reassured that our factual reporting is completely accurate.

Gratitude is extended to those very close to events in Knowsley whose contributions allow this further chapter of history to be told.



David Henshaw had arrived in Knowsley Council in late 1989. This had been a bad time for the Council, with the twin problems of a decline in jobs and population.

Before he had time to put his feet under the table the Boundary Commision for England – a body that reviews and determines Council boundaries – announced they were recommending the abolition of Knowsley, with its parts reconciled with their nearest neighbour.

This would have seen Kirkby and Huyton merge into Liverpool, which made sense for the long established social, community, transport and health service links.

The political and financial turmoil in Liverpool was a barrier, which galvanised Henshaw to successfully campaign for the status quo. The rebirth of the Council began, though it was unforeseen it would become entirely based on Huyton.

With a highly professional team of officers the foundations were put into place. We are informed by some of those staff that the political steel was provided by some excellent Councillors. We refrain to mention them by name, but the Councils financial strategy, it health and environmental strategy that they now claim so much credit for, was the driving force of two senior Councillors around 1990-94.

One was from Kirkby ( PF ) the other from Halewood ( TJL ), ex staff say they are the ones who should get the real credit for where the Council are today.

Senior people told us that all the initial top- level meetings with the E.U, Health, Business, and Industrialists, involved Henshaw, his team, and Cllr’s PF. D.L. & M.M.
Henshaw was said to greatly admire their professional image and natural intelligence, handling top executives with natural aplomb.
This was the era the ground was laid for the future success.
It was said Council leader Keight always absented himself from such high level meetings, often preferring to be in his office with the rebel Councillors mixed up in the anti poll tax campaigns of 1989-92.

Henshaw does Kirkby


Around this time – 1990-93 - Henshaw was said to be amenable to others around him. Then a fundamental shift took place, that was to herald a power base never seen before in local government in these parts of the country.

Senior Civil Servants had been perplexed as to why Knowsley Council, which abuts the city of Liverpool , was successful in securing the multi million pound grants that the City Council was unprepared to bid for. Things like Housing, Transport, and Economic regeneration took off in Knowsley, while things stood still in Liverpool.

So something had to give.
Decision making had to be speeded up in Liverpool, as well as a managerial and financial reorganisation.

This anomaly proved a life changing experience for Henshaw. He was quid’s in.

The senior civil servant he had links with was one Jonathan Powell, later to become Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff.

When Blair took charge of Labour in 1994, Henshaw was ordained as a High Priest of New labour, everything else just fell into place.

In 1997 when Labour took power, he dovetailed into every aspect of their sinister and hidden agenda. Nobody or anything was to stand in the way.

Knowsleys new labour Council leader, J Keight, simply enjoyed the ride and a long sweet heart arrangement with Henshaw, that was to later see them both receive honours from Blair, for services rendered !

This created the Henshaw aura of invincibility that is now well documented.

One issue, above all, gives an example of how Henshaw and Keight could manipulate almost any situation to turn fact on its head and spin an untruth.

Around 1994 another man, who was later to gain notoriety, arrived in Knowsley.

Almost from nowhere, Mr David Mc Elhinney popped up to secure a tempory funded post in Marketing (spin ) pushed in by Henshaw.

This was despite the Council having a long list of staff on the ”at risk “ register, and facing possible redundancy.

This situation soon changed.

Mc Elhinney was quickly appointed as an Assistant Director of Leisure Services, a meteoric rise for a man who had only recently been recruited to the Council from a job giving marketing displays at Littlewoods Stores !

It was, in the eyes of senior colleagues, a slap in the face for qualified and professional staff who were overlooked for promotion and put under his watch.


In reality however, he became Henshaws unofficial number two; in control, and without portfolio.

It coincided with increased levels of bullying against staff , together with stress related reasons for higher sickness levels. Issues that were to surface on a similar scale inside Liverpool City Council a few years later.

We now return to McElhinneys role in the awarding of a Council contract – without going out to tender- and his role with others, in receiving overseas travel and hospitality from the firm that were awarded the contract.

Such action, whether approved or not, was once a very serious offence in local government, before new labour came to power.

In 1996 the Tower Hill Community Association, in Kirkby, secured a grant of £43,000 pounds from the old National Lotteries Charities Board ( NLCB ) to provide a new playground for children in the community.

The Association was run by volunteers under the overall management of Knowsley Councils Leisure Services Committee. This brought it under the direct management of Mr Mc Elhinney, and his staff.


The scandal unfolded in Oct 1997, when a local Tower Hill Councillor received a copy of an invoice from a firm called Hags Play Limited, it related to expenditure by the Tower Hill Community Association.

The Councillor acted responsibly and reported the matter to the Councils Director of Finance, and requested an investigation why the invoice should have been sent to him.

The Councillor had also raised the question of Council Officers making an all expenses paid visit to the headquarters of Hags Play Limited in Sweden.

At this stage Henshaw became involved and investigated the Councillor’s concerns.

In a letter dated 19 November 1997, Henshaw stated

“the contract was not put out to competitive tender by the Association”

This was ignoring the fact that the Association was run by volunteers and had specifically asked McElhinney’s staff for assistance with the contract process.

He also identified Mr McElhinney ( Senior Assistant Director of Leisure Services ) and Ms Sarah Atkins, Parks Development Officer as the staff who visited Sweden between 14 –17 June 1997, some four months after the contract was awarded to Hags Play Ltd.

It was later confirmed this hospitality and the other expenses claimed on the trip were not approved by the Councils Director of Finance, and were outside the requirements of the National Conditions of Service for Council Staff.

Henshaw also claimed the Association had awarded the contract to Hags Play Ltd.

He also pre empted an audit investigation to say “ I can confirm that the auditors have not been provided with any other evidence, letters etc, which supports the view that the Association did not agree with the decision at the that time, that Hags Play Ltd be awarded the work.”

The premature intervention by Henshaw was a clear attempt to obfuscate the facts, and pass the buck to people who were not qualified to act in a way he was claiming.

The investigation by his own internal audit staff exposed his letter as a crude attempt to cover up for McElhinney.

In a report to the Councils Audit Committee 25 February 1997, the auditors reported that the Community Associations Treasurer stated categorically that Hags Play was not their choice to do the work.

Alarmingly the auditors report 25/2/97, found “ There are no minutes of the meeting when the decision was made.

The Council Officers ( McElhinney and Atkins ) still insisted to the auditors that the Association had made the decision. The audit report went on to say : the auditors have not been provided with any evidence, letters etc, which support the view that the Association did take the decision itself to award the work to Hags Pay Ltd.

This contradicted Henshaws comments in his letter of 19 Nov 1997, which were exposed as baseless, and highly misleading.

At best this was negligence, and incompetence, on a major scale; or at worst arrogance and greed, which elsewhere would attract disciplinary action against McElhinney and Atkins; and also Henshaw, for obstructing the inquiry.

And if proven, amount to gross misconduct, and instant dismissal.

If we accept the former lets not forget this involved a man ( McElhinney ) who by this time had risen to the level of the Deputy Chief Executive of the Council, despite being unable to provide minutes of a body awarding a five figure Council contract !



If it was the latter, they got off Scot free But as usual in Knowsley the villains are the innocent, and the innocent are the villains.

What we may ask was the role of the Chairman of the Audit Committee in all of this ?

Its Chair at the time was then Council leader Cllr J Keight OBE JP.

He saw no problem with these serious beaches of the financial regulations and standing orders of the Council.
This was not surprising has he was up to his neck in the sale of freeholds to his local Labour club, and should have declared an interest in the Liverpool FC academy development instead of steering it through every stage of the Council, threatening any dissenters by imposing the political whip.

Meanwhile, Mc Elhinney had become his favourite lackey freeing up land for greedy developers without taking the trouble to tell the existing occupiers of the land !

What was the role of the District Auditor. The guardian of the public purse ?

With having an office inside the Council they had to tread very carefully with Henshaw, given his high level contacts within new labour

The malpractice in the awarding of a large contract, glaring procedural failures, unauthorised hospitality, and the unauthorised claiming of expenses in breach of the staff National Conditions of Services; was summed up on an Audit Commission report on one side of an A4 single sheet of paper !

And what happened to the other key players in this scandal ?

Mc Elhinney and Atkins grew in confidence, and carried on uninterrupted in their roles in Knowsley, thanks to the Cllr Keight and Henshaw.

The Councils Director of Finance, whose report torpedoed Henshaws lies and obfuscation, left shortly afterwards, amidst the internal fall out in the Council.
He was a highly professional Chief Officer of great ability, and the utmost integrity.


The local Tower Hill Councillor T.R. who simply did his public duty was bullied and hounded out by Keight and his henchmen.


Henshaw grew tired of the squalid political mess around him and got out.
He sought a bigger challenge, and went to Liverpool, helped by new labours machine.

He quickly installed Mc Elhinney into a highly paid management post on a salary that drew gasps of amazement throughout the City of Liverpool.

The salary of £125,000 pounds a year, was being given to a person and who couldn’t even organise the taking and recording of the minutes of a Community Association.

He was allowed free licence by Henshaw to boss around the whole workforce of the City Council. !

The hopeless Council Leader Mike Storey – in awe of Henshaw – justified the appointment and salary calling people like Mc Elhinney “a super director”!

Try telling that to the committee at the Tower hill Commo, or Knowsley Councils former Director of Finance, the admirable Mr David Fellows.

Corruption, and new labour, in Knowsley, sit comfortably together.


This episode, while not earth shattering in its impact, does however characterise why the guilty and corrupt escape, and the innocent suffer in Knowsley, just has they did in Liverpool. And people like Henshaw always want the final word

The long term effect of no action taken over these matters is hard to envisage.

The failure Cllrs Keight and Round to declare financial and pecuniary interests when they had positions of responsibility in a club, on which they voted on in secret to sell freehold land, is by far the most serious.


The law on this is clear and live, the Councillors code of practice says

“Councillors must not seek to use their official position so as to benefit themselves, their professional or business interests, or others with whom they have personal, family or other ties”

Keight and Round held elected positions in the club that gained a freehold deal on favourable terms.

In 2002 Round, on the back of 12 years as planning boss, became the council leader!

Their immunity from any political or criminal sanctions will make it extremely difficult for the authorities to prosecute similar breaches of the 1972 , and 2000 Local Government Act, in the future.

In interpreting the law, precedence and practice will often apply. Clever lawyers can now reasonably argue the application of immunity in this instance probably renders any legal enactment on the non declaration of interests by Councillors obsolete.

The Labour Party on coming into office in 1997, laid down ground rules for the conduct of their Councillors.
This is an extract from a letter dated 3 July 1997, from a national labour party official – Mr Howard Knight- and sent to the Knowsley Labour Council group.

“The labour party expects and requires the highest standards of integrity and probity from its representatives. When there is an allegation of a failure to uphold these standards, the Party will investigate and take appropriate action”

Bold words that have proved utterly meaningless. Fully aware of the failure to uphold these standards in Knowsley, in October 2002, Mr Blair singled out the Council - who have a stall at the labour party conference each year –saying “This is a great Council”

This dubious accolade from a man whose entire entourage are embroiled in the cash for honours investigation says it all. You simply couldn’t make it up !

We thank the many people who have supplied anecdotal information of this period of time in the recent history of what The Private Eye once called, one of the original rotten boroughs.