Living your life in the public domain is for some people a way of life. Many newspapers and magazines thrive because members of the public wish to read lots of mindless and facile stuff about "celebrities" (Although to be fair Dr's surgeries would be dead boring without reading materials like that, even if they are several years out of date.)
Let's be clear, we aren't averse to a spot of gossip, to use the appropriate cliché "there's no smoke without fire" There has been a certain dismissal recently, which in our opinion (with only a few selective titbits at our disposal) should have most definitely resulted in one of these
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To claim or not to claim, that is the question!
But ended in this .........  |
However we understand that particular amount, although totalling more that a chief fire officer gets (we won't say earn) in a week is small fry compared to the whopping £42,000 that Jim Andrews, the Chair of South Yorkshire happily handed over to several senior staff during a period of perfectly legal industrial action by the Fire Brigades Union. We could rabbit on about the who, what and where but this has had a significant amount of coverage in the press. Bottom line is these people were contracted to work whatever hours were required of them and had no provision for overtime payments in their contracts. If do you fancy having a read at the shameful episode this article gives a good explanation of why we and many other people are campaigning for Cllr Andrews and CFO Courtney to resign.
But lets put all that aside and take a more in depth view of the man who made the decision to pay the "overtime" - Cllr James Gregory Andrews, BEM If you click on his name it will take you to his declaration of pecuniary interests, we are interested in particular his declaration under para 2d - Body whose principle purpose is to influence public opinion or policy.
A spot of amateur handwriting analysis clearly shows he is much fonder of the LABOUR PARTY than UNITE the union, in which union doesn't warrant the use of uppercase and sort of trails off into the distance, but it is UNITE and Cllr Andrews membership of it that made us howl with laughter - the man is in our opinion clearly a hypocrite of the highest order.
Let us show you our reasoning below
UNITE are very clear on the subject of FOI's - in fact they wrote a response to the Independent Commission for FOI's call for evidence (20 Nov 2015)
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| Unless you are a Labour chair of South Yorkshire FRS !!!! |
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| So come on Jim you know you want to resign really ! |
It seems bizarre that a councillor who publicly allies himself to the biggest Trades Union in the country would covertly give thousands in payments to management to basically break a lawful strike !
When an audit revealed -
...... the payments, which officers received for working during strikes over the last two years, were withheld from public scrutiny because they were considered too “sensitive”.
and that FOI approving UNITE Union man Cllr Jim Andrews
PERSONALLY APPROVED THE SECRET PAYMENTS
Now we do know he isn't a fan of democracy as he recently blocked a proposal to have a vote of confidence in......yes you guessed it
HIMSELF....
And from the horse's mouth Neill Carbutt, Brigade Secretary of the South Yorks FBU
"He stopped a question and statement from us (the FBU) on our position of no confidence in him and chief... He stopped Barnsley trade council speaking, Yorkshire post and a member of public. Apparently he could as he's the chair?"
Is this a man that UNITE the UNION wish to have in their ranks as a Brother ?
A man who conceals payments, refuses to allow perfectly reasonable questions at PUBLIC meetings, declines questions from the legitimate press (gawd knows what they all get up to in private!)
But for now it appears Cllr Andrews is wearing a coat made from
As things sure as hell aren't sticking to him......
But we reckon that might not be the answer, personally we consider the fact that shortly after he very kindly gave Courtney and Co extra money he was awarded the BRITISH EMPIRE MEDAL and if you read the announcement it is very specific
Councillor James Gregory ANDREWS
Deputy Leader, Barnsley Metropolitan Council and Chairman,
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority.
For services to Local Government.
It was awarded in the
New Years Honours of 2015 !!!
It's not us is it?
Do you also smell a
To date Cllr Andrat (whoops sorry, we mean Andrews) has apologised but steadfastly refuses to resign as does CFO Courtney.
We think this is the ultimate insult to the FBU and members of the public
WHY????
Tomorrow we will write more regarding the Seven Principles of Public Life something else that appears to have disappeared without trace recently.
