LibDem Councilor Hits Back at Critics

by The Bristol Blogger - The Bristol Blogger Sat May 24, 2008 16:35 bristol_citizens at yahoo dot co dot uk

A letter in today's Post:

We were cross and disgusted to read on the Post front page that a councillor is getting £900 a month allowance even when she isn't living in Bristol ("You've got to go", May 22).

We had just come back from a meeting with our son who has learning difficulties. He and other people like him have lost their jobs and some their training at the Knowle West Health Park Kitchen/Cafe due to the cafe making a loss and also because the council is stopping the funding to support the people with learning difficulties.It seems as though the most vulnerable are always being affected by cuts.

We then read on page three of the Post of Carol Rummels who's battling lung and brain cancer having to pay £1,500 a month for the drug that's keeping her alive ("£1,500-a-month bill for treatment that's free in Scotland".

This surely isn't right. What's going wrong with our country?

Chris Pratley, Ashton Vale.

So, as usual, we can't afford to look after the city's most vulnerable but there's plenty of money for Shirley to use for extended holidays in the US. Would Shirley's money be enough to keep the Knowle kitchen open?

by Steve Sat May 24, 2008 22:00

If she's there on a visitor visa, the maximum stay is 3 months, no work allowed. When that expires she'd need to leave the country and return again. Returning to the UK at the end of of march for the April 1 meeting is exactly what you'd do if you went to the US in January; after a short break she could be back.

The other thing you can do in the UK while back is apply for some other visa; for the various work permits and things you need to start the process in the UK, at the London embassy. I don't know about marriage-related visas. Once you start the green card process to get a US passport, you cannot leave the country until you become a citizen.

If she spent 6 months or more in the April 2008-2009 tax year, she'd no longer be a UK resident for tax reasons and possibly avoid paying income tax on UK income, bank accounts, etc. Coming back for a week would be OK, but it has to be 6 months+ out the country in a single tax year. Which leads to another question. Is that 900 pounds/month going to be taxed -and if so, by which country, UK or US?

by The Bristol Blogger - The Bristol Blogger Sun May 25, 2008 15:03 bristol_citizens at yahoo dot co dot uk

Shirley's £900 a month is an 'allowance' to cover expenses not a wage and is therefore not taxed. This makes it worth something like £14 - £15,000 before tax. Not a huge amount but probably more than home care workers, caretakers and road sweepers receive as a basic salary.

And remember - any other council employee actually has to work 40 hours a week, 48 weeks a year to get their money, rather than announce "I've got a lot on my plate at the moment" and then swan off for three months at a time to Florida safe in the knowledge that tax payers' cash will still land in your bank account each month regardless of what you do.

by Jog Sun May 25, 2008 18:16

Wrong Blogger. Councillor's allowanaces are taxed, they are seen as income by Inland Revenue, and are treated the same as any other income, & are taxed at source. The only untaxable income is disability benefit, such as DLA.

Don't over-egg this story... she's already well out of order...

by Bristol Blogger - wrong again Sun May 25, 2008 18:35

councillor's allowances are taxed, actually. One phone call could have confirmed that, but best not to bother, eh?

by kofi Sun May 25, 2008 18:50

Blogger, stop reading your imaginings into and between the lines of what others have written.

Make fewer assumptions about what you think anybody might have said, and simply read what was written, without embellishment.

If you can, just imagine how a non white bristolian might 'read' this thread, and then try to imagine why whites only use bimedia.

Can you imagine how much better bimedia would be if it were not all white?

Probably not.

by imcvol Sun May 25, 2008 20:15

'Can you imagine how much better bimedia would be if it were not all white? '

we have non-whites in the collective, i would imagine we have more among our readers/posters. try to avoid spreading inaccurate rubbish like this.

this thread has had no content which can be reasonably reckoned to be racist in any way shape or form. if someone is abusing a public post then they deserve criticism irrespective of their skin colour.

by Gary Hopkins - Liberal Democrat councillor Mon May 26, 2008 09:33

After publishing false allegations against one of our Cllrs and our local party as if they are facts Kerry McCarthy is now starting to back down.We are all aware that the flexible Paul Smith is very closely connected to Kerry and was her campaign manager. Is there any connection between Mr Smith's desparate campaign to get himself elected as the Labour MP for Bristol West (this includes Ashley and shortly Easton ward ).? Who was posting allegations under psuedonyms to get this story running?
Ms. McCarthy is now claiming that her outbursts were nothing to do with party politics ho.ho.ho. Is this why she attacks a Lib Dem Cllr in the neighbouring constituancy of a Lib Dem MP and ignores the allegations against ,for example Cllr Chowdhury in Easton which until Gordon Brown decides to allow us to vote in a general election is in her constituancy.
Mind you when you see what happens when he is here ,marching against building on the railway path and then 2 days later voting the other way, Easton residents might wish he would turn up even less frequently.
Cllrs get sick,(Shirley was admitted to hospital with a suspected stroke,)and there have been lengthy absences over the last year from more than 1 Lab/Tory Cllr. During her temporary absence Shirley has had the super energetic and efficient Lib Dem Cllr Jon Rogers providing a service to the residents of Ashley that people in many parts of Bristol "represented" by Ms McCarthy's compatriots would envy.My ward colleage Chris Davies is lord mayor this year and as a result I expect for this period to do rather more of the local bread and butter work that Chris normally tackles so energetically. We are a team.

by Anarchist606 Mon May 26, 2008 09:38

I would not say she is lazy, as there is no evidence to suggest that, from what I see she has been ill - so lazy is an unfair criticism unless you have some evidence of this?

But more interesting is what might happen if (when?) she does resign, I assume there would need to be a new election. Last time the Greens came within 110 votes of Ashley, and with the bad press the LibDems have got from this, that gives them the best chance ever of taking the seat for some time - unless they blow it by not getting their act together.

I don't think the Tories have a chance in the ward and traditionally it is very left/green and Neo-Labour have got no chance - the region, judging by the proliferations of anti-war material in windows in the area is anti-the Iraq debacle. Indeed Neo-Labour have been in retreat in this area having lost the local councilors and the MP for the region some time ago.

http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=26244

by baffled Mon May 26, 2008 18:20

Come on then Gary, let's be honest about this. Perhaps you could answer the following.

1. To your knowledge, has Cllr Marshall spent a significant amount of time in the USA in the last few months - let's say four out of the last eight?

2. How many Lib Dem group meetings has she been to in the last eight months? Just a guestimate...?

3. Is she still an effective local councillor?

4. Why has no Lib Dem made a proper, official denial? Jon Rogers said he 'would not speculate' for the reasons surrounding her absence.

5. Is Shirley ill/on holiday/deciding whether to move to America/ absolutely fine and raring to go?

6. Do you think it's reasonable if she has claimed allowances while she has been away?

Oh, and in terms of absences of other councillors, one was Tory Councillor for Stockwood David Morris. He was away for a period of months because he had a heart attack and was very very unwell. Thankfully he's on the mend now, In the interim, the Lib Dems decided to put out a leaflet or two in Stockwood, complete with a local candidate. To put it in to context, the Lib Dems came in a rather pathetic fourth in the last local elections in that ward. Some of their activities are utterly loathsome and immoral.

by Deconspiracist Mon May 26, 2008 18:33

BristolandBrief wrote; “I really like the suggestion that the Councillor in question is "answering her critics." Of course the case for the defence (such as it is) is put by Dr. Jon Rogers … I wonder if she will ever speak for herself again. The people of Ashley elected a person and not a party … I realise you are used to speaking for her Dr. Rogers, but if she wants to defend her self to the people of Ashley... let her do so on her own.”

Very good point.

Or could it be that they don’t have computers and email in the Americas? Perhaps that explains why we are hearing only from Cllrs Rogers and Hopkins.

The latter asks “why she [Kerry McCarthy] attacks a Lib Dem Cllr in the neighbouring constituency of a Lib Dem MP and ignores the allegations against, for example Cllr Chowdhury in Easton … and there have been lengthy absences over the last year from more than 1 Lab/Tory Cllr.”

So who are these other delinquent councillors then? Some council websites display statistics on what percentage of their scheduled meetings councillors have actually attended. Does the Bristol City Council website do this? If not why not?

One thing I’ll say for John Kiely, though I disagreed with him on many points, as a councillor he was extremely hard-working, and very committed to the ward and its welfare. Will we see his like again?

by The Bristol Blogger - The Bristol Blogger Mon May 26, 2008 20:17 bristol_citizens at yahoo dot co dot uk

We keep being told Shirley is ill. So what exactly is wrong with her?

We're told vaguely - if dramatically - that Shirley had "a suspected stroke". But all this really tells us is that she didn't have stroke but something rather less serious.

"A suspected stroke" is not a medical condition, although it is suitably emotive tosh that can be bandied around by desperate Lib Dem politicians attempting to fool the gullible.

Indeed what is this unusual condition that so ails Shirley that she needs over 6 months off work but can still happily criss-cross the Atlantic seemingly without a problem?

Oh, and why does Shirley's automatic email message tell us she's on leave? That's not the same as being sick is it?

And finally, perhaps Gary, Jon or Shirley, as the employers of over 10,000 staff, could tell us what would happen, according to their own policies, to a member of their staff who went off on long term sick leave and then was discovered to be jetting off to spend long periods of time in sunny Florida with their new American spouse?

Bristol City Council has a diabolically high rate of sickness absence among its staff. Hardly surprising when you see what their bosses get up to though is it?

As usual we have to ask where's the leadership at Bristol City Council?

by Deconspiracist Tue May 27, 2008 08:29

Leadership?

See the gold-plated leadership from the managerial and political classes in business, the media and the professions of our developing corporatist state under the Lib-Lab-Con Party.

by Gary Hopkins Tue May 27, 2008 09:40

I was very careful in my recent posting not to name other Cllrs.from the Lab/Cons who had been absent due to illness. I note that under the pseudonym of "baffled" a green party politician has outed David Morris. He was seriously ill for a while and obviously by force of circumstances unable to fully function for a period. Quite rightly nobody from any party attacked him or even mentioned the illness and he was given time to resume his duties. Would we have had people demanding his allowances be frozen?
Whilst I have found Charlie Bolton ,if sometimes a little naive,to have high moral standards. One of 2 of his political compatriots in the green party amazingly make the appalling new Labour spin machine seem almost morally acceptable.
Come on "Baffled" at least have the courage to announce yourself.

by Boyd Tue May 27, 2008 14:19

Ill / on holiday / one of many that goes awol for months / whatever - wouldn't the whole thing be sorted out if she just didn't claim her allowance for the time she is away? Then she would qualify for Statuatory Sick Pay (unless she has another job that would pay her sick), and she could do whatever the fig she likes. if she did fig-all, she'd be no worse than most in the council.

As for the catfighting on here, its like 4 people standing neck-deep in a sewer arguing about who farted, to be frank.

Meanwhile, above you and below you, the world rolls on.

by Nick - Green Party Tue May 27, 2008 15:59

The Green Party is a whisker away from taking this seat, either in a bye - election or in 2009.
Our Candidate has just had a baby and is unlikely to go AWOL!

by Bristol Dirt Bag Tue May 27, 2008 18:39

Naive? A Green ?

Surely not?

by The Bristol Blogger - The Bristol Blogger Tue May 27, 2008 19:03 bristol_citizens at yahoo dot co dot uk

Thanks Gary for explaining what Lib Dems think "high moral standards" are.

Colluding to deliberately withhold information in the public interest from the electorate it seems.

Brilliant. You couldn't make it up.

For a bit more entertainment, any chance of a Lib Dem picking up Gary's baton and telling us what they think low moral standards might be then?

by still baffled Tue May 27, 2008 21:52

David Morris' illness was well known about - it was mentioned several times in council meetings. It is hilarious that you talk about moral standards considering the utter moral bankcruptcy of putting out leaflets in Stockwood - where you had previously done nothing - at such a time.

Oh, and you didn't - or perhaps couldn't - answer my questions. We will await the result of the big meeting with Cllr Janke and Cllr Marshall tomorrow. Better start getting the stock phrases out 'after careful consideration,' 'fantastic servant to the people of Ashley,' 'spell of illness,' and then start preparing the first Green attack leaflet. You going to need 'em.

by Nothing unusual Thu May 29, 2008 20:47

What a bizarre post, accusing a party of being morally bankrupt for putting out leaflets! I understand that since being ousted from the council by Labour and the Tories last year, the Lib Dems have been putting out leaflets all over the place where they havent before. I hear they are even putting them out in Avonmouth, where they are also currently in 4th. Presumably you think they are cynically expecting Spud Murphy to die as well? Ridiculous I think.

In fact, looking at the map I see Stockwood is surrounded by Lib Dem wards and is an obvious place for them to put out leaflets. Not only that, but as the Greens are 2nd, and there is a lot of overlap between the Green and Lib Dem vote, that makes it even more of a prospect.

by baffled Thu May 29, 2008 22:26

Erm, putting out leaflets in Avonmouth makes perfect sense because you have a candidate who is deluded enough to think that Bristol NW is anything other than a Lab/Tory marginal. You're right about green/lib dem overlap though, and you'd be wiser plugging away in Bristol West where people who won't vote Labour are starting to ask what the point of the lib dems is if the Greens are to be a viable local force. I guess we shall see what people think in the next few weeks.

Leaflets in Stockwood made no political sense, and my ire was raised by Gary Hopkins utterly absurd 'outing the sick' nonsense.

by Nick - Green Party Fri May 30, 2008 14:54

I wonder why Gary Hopkins is getting so upset at all this, neither he or any of his chums from the Lib Dems have really answered the questions around Cllr. Marshall.

If a councillor from any party finds that they are unable to serve their constituents, due to health or family reasons, then they should quit, end of story.

There are good and bad councillors from all parties, but I understand that through loyalty the Lib Dems are sticking up for her.

Last time they ran Bristol, they were defeated partly due to the planned privatisation of Home Care, I wonder if they have learnt their lesson, although Labour are up to the same sordid plan themselves!

The Voters of Ashley can vote for buisness as usual or for a sustainable, more imaginative approach, Labour are a distant third and going backwards and the Tories got less than 200 votes last time.

by even more baffled Fri May 30, 2008 23:05

Spotted today - our Shirl having her picture taken - no doubt for use in the media and local leaflets - with Babs, Jon Rogers, and Stephen Williams. Clearly, the talks went well and "Our Shirl" has decided not to do the right thing and resign. The Quit and Stay Strategy. How about taking a few tips from former Councillor Astley!

Don't think the voters of Ashley will see it that way though.

by imcvol Thu Jun 12, 2008 14:25

This was a posted article, but should be a comment here:

"by Shirley Not

Shirley Marshall. Check. Huge suitcase. Check.

Cllr Shirley Marshall attended full council last night. Full marks to her. Unfortunately, her card was spoiled when she was seen leaving the council house with a very large suitcase. Perhaps the suitcase contained a bumper crop of council papers - perhaps she's off on another 'holiday.' We don't know, but perhaps Jon Rogers, Gary Hopkins or - heaven forfend - Cllr Marshall herself would care to enlighten the residents of Bristol who are giving her £11,000 a year to represent them. "

by imcvol Fri Jun 13, 2008 09:24

More moved comments;
-
This has become a witch-hunt
author by Shameful

It's quite clear that a couple of activists from the Labour and Green parties, along with the "Bristol Blogger" have decided to turn this into a witch-hunt. They have decided they want Cllr Shirley Marshall's scalp and wont stop hounding her until they get it.

I think this is really shameful state of affairs. Nobody is going to pretend that Cllr Marshall is the best cllr in the city, but to have put her on death row and then stoked up a feeding frenzy like is really not what Indymedia was set up to promote or perpetuate.

The people abusing this site like that should stop.
-
Nothing better to do
author by Ashley resident

Can you not think of anything better to do with your time than picking on a black councillor?
-

by disgusted dionne Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:00

Shirley is such a soft target isnt she!
Why does she attract so much malevolence and vindictiveness?
If the lazy and superficial 'investigative hacks' who write such drivel had even an inkling of what some of Bristols other counsellors get up to, and the moneys they make thru' corruption and back-handers, but then real investigating is TOO much like hard work innit!
I cannot begin to guess how many people get put off from reading or writing here because of such low standards in some of the stories - like this one.
I am just as disgusted by this kind of rubbish on indymedia as I am by corrupt and stupid and greedy councellors, some of who do a hell of a lot worse than Shirley would even dream of, and who always get away with it.

by femi Fri Jun 13, 2008 13:37

a betta story wud be all the counselors who give there mates and familys jobs wiv nice fat salary checks!!!!

by Public Scrutiny Sun Mar 29, 2009 20:00

In addition to the £14,000ish identified earlier, she may also be in the local final salary 80ths Local Government pension scheme (which is unfunded (in all practicality)) , so her real remuneration could be another £3000 - £5000. poss even higher!

While the taxpaying public have to make do with defined contribution pension schemes and face bearing all the risks of the stockmarket, the coucillors have a 100% gold plated scheme, plus generally NO REDUCTION for early ILL HEALTH (as is the case with most private sector schemes) - every wonder why there's so much illness in the Council?)

£1 in £5 of councill tax goes to pay our (ha ha) servants to have a great, secure retirement, while taxing you stupid throughout your own impoverished one!