Guest Blog by Audrey N. Stables
After the national expose of the Brent Council racism,
discrimination and workplace bullying scandal in Private Eye’s last edition, Davani,
Gilbert, Ledden, Potts and others named and shamed may well have thought they
deserved a rest from the limelight.
However, it seems that Rotten Boroughs (Private Eye’s
regular dodgy-local-authority section) is not the only page that the Civic Centre chums will now want to flick
straight to as they check their cuttings each fortnight. The cartoon below
appears in the current edition of the Eye and, though it principally relates to
similar scummy practice by some NHS managers, will surely resonate with Davani
and Gilbert and Fiona Ledden (and, even more so, with some of their more
honest, and therefore no-longer-employed, ex-colleagues).
So - the story so far reads:
ReplyDelete1. Scandals take place with the whole organisation in a mess politically and at officer levels.
2. Potential adverse impact on all Borough residents, to make £30m + cuts after short-termism by the Labour leadership.
3. A catalogue of comments on the blog, and coverage in Private Eye.
4. Employees in fear of their jobs (and hence their homes and families), and too scared to stand up and speak out knowing that they will be fingered for the same shabby treatment of Rosemarie Clark and others.
5.The cull of the entire Environment Department in centralising everything that was working well and delivering essential frontline services.
In-fighting between the Senior Management Interims and Consultants and the deletion of the chief lawyer (Ledden).
The same lawyer trying to bully a member of the public (Paul Lorber) into exposing his sources of information - firmly and typically robustly pushed away by the former Council Leader (good for him!).
Begs the question what else can be done? National exposure? Whistleblowing to Eric Pickles? An anti-Labour campaign to rid the Brent MP's ahead of next May's General Election?
Who can mobilise the residents to have a 'public enquiry' type investigation into this utter shambles? The Green Party?, a coalition of disaffected Councillors, Stonebridge residents and the former Lib Dems whose activism has been dented by the loss of seats on Labour Council, but not dimmed?
In the name of God, can someone FORCE Gilbert, Davani, Butt and others to sit up and take notice?
No chance of that happening, Butt has his new Communications team covering his ass something he couldn't expect from the old comms team hence he had to get rid of them.
ReplyDeleteNot doing a very good job then. See front page of Kikburn Times. Ass uncovered in its full glory I would say!
DeleteIndeed. And well done and welcome to Natalie Raffray.
DeleteGod here, Anon.
ReplyDeleteBit busy at the moment. Too many demands on my time.
150,000 English people wanted me to 'Save the Queen' at Twickenham yesterday and then Wembley today. I try to concentrate on that and then I hear 'Oh my God!' every 2 minutes from that woman on 'I'm a Celebrity' (and at 30 second intervals from every teenage female in the English speaking world).
Then there’s Isis wanting me to cleanse the world of the Infidel and sending martyrs up here every ten minutes demanding their 72 virgins and a room for the night. What I’m trying to say is that getting rid of Davani, Gilbert , Ledden and Butt is what they call a bit of a First World Problem.
Still. I don’t want to let you down. Once I’ve got Christmas out of the way I’ll see what I can do. Until then I’d advise keeping up the pressure by organising a Facebook page, encouraging past and present employees to provide as much solid information as they can to as many media institutions as they can and in a form which constitutes a readily useable story (links, connections, Ofsted, Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman etc etc etc). I hope this helps.
Oh, one other thing. I submitted my vote for Rosemarie Clarke for the Brent Staff Achievement Award ages ago but I haven’t heard anything since. Isn’t the announcement of the winners a bit overdue? I know she got more votes than anyone else because I’m omniscient. Get on to them tomorrow. I’d do it myself but I’m a bit busy with Advent and all that.
Any problems, get in touch in the usual way.
Universal Love to All
G
And also with you.
DeleteThanks be to God!
Fiona Ledden has the power to end it if she chooses and turn Whistleblower.
ReplyDeleteOut of the goodness of your heart please do it for the good people of Brent.
The people of Brent have been sacrificed enough. It is about time someone who has any compassion for society and can actually do something about it and make a stand.
You are the only one Ms Ledden. Your soul will be redeemed in such a courageous act.
Re final sentence: I 'll decide that one if you don't mind.
DeleteG (smitey face)
It's impossible for her to be a whistleblower given her role to ensure probity in the council as that would suggest she has not been doing her job, but simply turning a blind eye.
DeleteIf Potts gets her job she might have second thoughts and turn on them.
DeleteThat would be the way to end their antics in a public manner.
all very painful all the ridiculous structures put up a few years ago my senior managers are now crashing down. The organisation appears to be reverting back to the 80s with junior staff demoriilised by the actions of senior staff who are quite frankly incompetent ad only waiting a pay off. Alas it does nothing for the residents of brent. Unfortunately their is no leadership a Chief Executive who is not visible and a Leader of the Council who seems not to be able to string a sentence together. It makes you wonder why anyone would want to work there.
ReplyDeletequestion is it a rotten boro?
ReplyDeleteNot the borough itself (as in place), certainly the Borough as an organisational entity. But nothing that a few judiciously located ice-picks wouldn't sort out.
Delete