Prats of The Week - Durham County Council

Gosh, it's Thursday already and I have yet to make my internationally renowned Prats of The Week Award.

This week it goes to Durham County Council for its bizarre practice of paying a £12K clothing allowance a year in total to its chairwoman and vice chairwoman.

Despite this not being the norm for other councils, and despite being roundly criticised for its profligacy, Durham refuses to axe the allowance.

However, so as to make ends meet, the council is cutting its budget by £200M over the next 5 years and axing 1,600 jobs.

Nice to see that it has got its priorities right!

I dare say it will cover the costs by increasing council tax.

Durham County council, well deserving Prats of The Week!

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Nanny's Child Snatchers

As loyal readers are only too well aware, Nanny is a hypocrite.

A fine example of such hypocrisy can be seen in a recent decision by Nanny's chums in Durham County Council to remove a yet to be born baby (when it is born) from its mother Toni McLeod, because they believe Mrs McLeod would pose a "risk of significant harm" to the child.

What kind of risk does Nanny think the child will be exposed to?

It seems that Mrs Mcleod has violent links to the English Defence League (EDL), and that Nanny does not wish the child to become "radicalised". Nanny has also told her husband Martyn that he would be unable to care for his child, because he is a full-time soldier just back from Afghanistan (are soldiers not capable of bringing up children then?).

Please now compare and contrast this to Nanny's approach to the children of extremist Islamic cleric Abu Qatada, who was allowed to remain with his ­children when he was briefly remanded on bail earlier this year as the Government tries to deport him.

Lib Dem MP John Hemming is unimpressed and is quoted by The Express:

“It raises a curious question as to why Abu Qatada is allowed to radicalise his children but the state won’t take the chance of allowing Toni McLeod to look after her baby in case she says something social workers won’t like.

I am very strongly opposed to the EDL, which I believe to be a racist organisation, but I do not think we should remove all of the children of the people who go on their demonstrations, however misguided they may be.

This case is one where the ‘thought police’ have decided to remove her baby at birth because of what she might say to the baby. I wonder what the baby’s father is thinking when he fights for a country which won’t allow him to have a child because of what the child’s mother might say.

Toni now accepts she was wrong to have gone on EDL demonstrations but freedom of speech means nothing if people are not allowed to say things that are thought to be wrong.”

Nanny is a hypocrite, and should be kept well away from children!

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Prats of The Week - Durham City Council

Tis a wet and grey Thursday morning, what better time to award one of my prestigious and internationally renowned "Prats of The Week" Awards?

This week it goes to Durham City Council.

For why?

Just ask the parents and kids who use the Allergate play area.

For you see my loyal readers, the council went unto the playground and conducted a health and safety audit.

What did they find?

Swings, roundabouts and slides etc; all the normal paraphernalia that you would expect to find in a playground.

Problem?

Well, yes actually.

The council deemed that these items posed a safety risk.

Can you guess what they did children?

Yes, that's right, the council removed all of the equipment (aside from one toy bike on a spring) from the play area.

For the record, there had never been any accidents of merit there.

I should point out that the council are not finished with their quest, they will conduct audits in all their other play areas and will remove equipment that they deem to be a risk.

Nigel Dodds, Durham County Council’s sport and leisure manager, told the Northern Echo that most of the equipment was manufactured before 1998, when European safety standards replaced the British predecessors, and therefore did not meet modern day requirements.

An "interesting" explanation, and a slimy piece of buck passing

However, there is one small fly in Dodds' oinkment. The council, I assume has been conducting annual/regular health and safety audits since 1998 have they not?.

How is it that this has only been adjudged to be a problem in 2011?

The council, having removed the kids' playthings may then care to wonder why it is that the kids end up hanging round street corners looking bored and looking for trouble?

Durham City Council, well deserving Prats of The Week! Incidentally they also won this award in 2007 (well done lads!).

As noted before on this site, Councils are the enemies of the people!

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A Licence To Spy - Local Councils

The Sunday Telegraph reported that 75% of Nanny's local authorities have used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 over the past year.

The Act gives councils the right to place residents and businesses under surveillance, trace telephone and email accounts and even send staff on undercover missions.

Nanny's councils are using the Act to tackle dog fouling, the unauthorised sale of pizzas and the abuse of the blue badge scheme for disabled drivers.

Durham county council is the biggest user, with just over 100 surveillance operations launched during the period. Newcastle city council used the powers 82 times, and Middlesbrough council 70 times.

Whilst dog fouling, bin crimes, benefit abuse, noise etc are issues that need to be addressed; is the use of RIPA (intended to fight serious crime and terrorism) really the most appropriate response to these issues?

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Prats of The Week

Congratulations to Durham City Council, for winning this week's prestigious "Prats of The Week" award. It seems that in the main only councils ever win this award these days, that says a lot about the "quality" of lour local councils.

Anyhoo, Durham City Council have decided that a local businessman's choice of name for his business is racist and would cause offence.

Fair enough, maybe....

Except for one small fly, well actually some very large elephants, in their oinkment.

-The business is a Chinese restaurant

-The name of the business is the Fat Buddha

-The owner of the business is Chinese

-The owner of the business is in fact Buddhist.

Eddie Fung will open a £1.3M in Durham next month, creating 60 jobs.

Not so fast Mr Fung...you had reckoned without the local council screwing things up.

Cue stage left, Tracey Ingle, the city council's head of cultural services.

Ingle has demanded that Mr Fung change the name because it was "provocative".

Mr Fung quite rightly thinks that the council is talking bollocks:

"I cannot believe that this woman

should go to so much time and trouble

to take issue over an inoffensive name like Fat Buddha.

No Buddhist is going to be offended by this.

The fat Buddha is a symbol of health and happiness.

It is political correctness gone mad."

A spokesman for the Buddhist Society weighed in, also with the view that Ingle was talking bollocks:

"Buddhists regard the fat Buddha as lucky.

To suggest this is offensive is to misunderstand the faith.

Buddhists don't take offence at anything

because to do so doesn't follow Buddhist teachings."

Ingle wrote to Mr Fung:

"To use the name of a major religion's deity

in your restaurant brand runs contrary to

this city's reputation as a place of equality

and respect for others' views and religious beliefs.

The generic descriptive adjective of "fat"

is not in itself a derogatory term when applied

generally the name implies an Eastern offer [sic]

as it is associated with a religion that

grew from Asian countries.

It does not, however, offer vegetarian

cuisine solely nor does it refer to Buddhist belief systems.

The name is provocative."

What the fark is this woman talking about???

Durham City Council came to her defence:

"The department felt the name was inappropriate

in a city founded on faith.

We don't want to offend anyone because

of the different faiths that come to the city.

The council operates a strict non-discriminatory

equal-opportunities and diversity policy across the board."

Who gave the council the right to dictate to people in this manner in the first place??

Councils need to be put very firmly and quickly back in their place by the people; they have grown far too cocky (can I use the word cocky here?).

Ingle dug herself further into the sh*t:

"I stand by the letter,

which asked the restaurant owners to rename the place.

That is where we are now.

We have taken every reasonable step

and I have contacted the company director

and set out my concerns.

The restaurant is in a very prominent

position and it does have an impact

on the reputation of the city.

I have expressed a view as head of cultural

services in dealing with the culture of the city."

Errmmm it simply is not the council's place to dictate to people in this manner.

The Buddhists are not offended.

White middle class do gooders should keep their farking noses out of matters that they don't understand.

Durham City Council and Ingle, well deserving "Prats of The Week".

BTW Ingle actually keeps a blog (not very up to date), but feel free to pop over and post a few messages; it looks like she could do with some.

-Ingle's Blog

Feel free to drop Durham City Council a line, to tell them that they have won the award, via this link Prats.