Signing off

And so ends my accidental two-year misadventure in the British political system.
I'm still not entirely sure how I got involved in all this in the first place!

For anyone like me - an ordinary, non-political punter - tempted to follow where I went before my advice is:

For God's sake, no: in this sewer there is just too much **** to wade through.

Umami, umami, it drives you flippin' barmy

Adventures In Extreme Taste #7.

I call this creation "Kamikaze Kuppa" and dedicate it to the Tokyo Celtic Supporters Club:

Take one heaped tablespoon of Bovril.
Take one heaped tablespoon of the reddest (ie strongest) miso you've got.

Combine in a mug containing half a pint of hot water.
Stand well back

Blog being repaired - honest!

Due to great upheavals in the personal life I've been held up a bit on fixing the blog. But the links in about the last 15 posts should be good now & I'll fix the rest as soon as.

There'll also be some v. interesting new posts soon, particularly about a quango called "Standards for England". You'll remember that Eric Pickles suggested abolishing them as an actual impediment to functioning democracy - well, I may have amassed some evidence to back up the Community Secretary's plan...

All will be revealed: please look back in next week!

Labour of Hate Pt 5!

From here in the North Herefordshire People's Government In Exile I have just managed to extract the following minute from Leo Council:
Question from G Pardoe

Now, some in Leominster have questioned my assertion that North Herefordshire Labour Party basically do exactly what Bill Wiggin & North Herefordshire Conservative Association instruct them to do.
And they have asked me for proof of my assertion.

Hmmm...

"G Pardoe" is Gerard Pardoe, prominent Labour party activist and Labour candidate at the May elections (I royally trounced the Blairite no-mark at that election, but that is no excuse for his loyal defence of Tory expenses shyster Bill Wiggin in his complaint to Leo Town Council!).
His missus Emma is also a Labour party member of LTC.

I would note also that one of those who "passed" (ie: approved) Mr Pardoe's complaint to LTC that I might be wasting public money drawing attention to Mr Wiggin's expenses was - you guessed it! - anti-establishment socialist firebrand Phillipa Roberts!

Bill hits those boundaries for six!

Hmm - this could get interesting.
In June the Daily Mail reported that the Tory party were going to sacrifice Bill Wiggin MP in the forthcoming boundary shuffle as he has become an embarrassment.
This appears to be coming true and Mr Wiggin would have no chance in the new Ludlow & Leominster constituency against Ludlow's popular Phillip Dunne, who has never had to pay back thousands of wrongly claimed expenses and apologise publicly to the House of Commons.
So this desperate attempt to whip up a campaign to save Mr Wiggin's seat has been dropping through letterboxes.
Trouble is, local politician Phillipa Roberts is claiming on her FaceBook page that she received this inside a House of Commons envelope with a covering letter by Mr Wiggin. Ms Roberts is Labour but she was a candidate at the last general election & it's hard to believe she's making this up.
This doesn't sound like the sort of thing the rules would allow, does it?
I'm back in Leo this weekend: will check out how many of these letters have been delivered...

Blog under repair!

Today, 27th Oct, I started fixing the links working backwards through the Blog (changed broadband provider  etc). The old ones will be finished next week...

 Meanwhile, have a look at my new Blog - which will run in parallel to this one - about my adventures on Merseyside!
S.P.Q.L

The Hereford Times they are a-changing

... but not voluntarily, you understand.

A year ago next Wednesday the Parliamentary Committee on Standards and Privileges found that my MP Bill Wiggin had seriously breached their rules in claiming false expenses.
The influential local paper the Hereford Times had to report this, but the editor, Wiggin groupie Fiona Phillips, published a false story making out that the breaches weren't serious and were some kind of accident.
Today the Press Complaints Commission forced her to publish this retraction on page three with the same prominence as the original false story.

It shows the weakness of the PCC that it took them so long to have a seriously false story amended. But it's rather splendid too, as Mr Wiggin's wrongdoing is splashed to the people of Herefordshire (everyone reads it) just as he hoped they'd begun to forget about it!

Ms Phillips hates my guts - she recently published a spiteful piece more or less commending the police for intimidating me on Mr Wiggin's behalf ( that is currently under investigation, I'll post stuff about it when it's no longer an official case).

What the editor doesn't know is that this year, especially during the May elections, I was running a mole inside her paper. Here is the transcript of some of the facebook messages between the mole - whom we'll call 'Hereford Hack' and me, edited to protect confidentiality & so La Phillips can't guess the identity of the mole.

I think it's in the interest of everyone in Herefordshire to see just how much information about dodgy politicians and execs the reporters uncover which is then spiked by the editor...

Kafka's "The Trial" now playing in Herefordshire

This letter from the office of our Deputy Chief Executive came through my letterbox, swiftly followed by this one.
They illustrate how he earns his six figure salary.


Another couple of 'investigations' and 'trials' of me are to take place & they are kind enough to tell me that these will take place entirely in secret. So far, no surprises: this is how the Council conducts all its business these days.


But here they've gone one further, or should I say two further.
Look at the letters. Nowhere do they say what these allegations against me actually are.
Nor do they say anywhere who has made the allegations (whatever they are) against me.


So I'm facing a secret trial which I can't attend, which will hear accusations about me which I'm not to be told about, made by people who are to remain entirely unknown to me.


"Publisher: These plots you're bringing to me are increasingly implausible, Mr Orwell. Get out of my office!"

Shh! It's a secret!

I think the following is a good eye-opener on how career politicians view voters who ask questions.

In spring 2010 I asked  a couple of my Town Council. Their reply concluded with this bizarre & deliberate insult to me as an 'incomer':You're not from round here

The County Standards Committee ruled that it "lacked objectivity and could be taken offensively":Naughty councillors!

Leominster Town Council responded by declaring me a 'non-person' at secret meetings that the public were banned from.
As some here know, I asked to see the minutes of these meetings under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Mayor and Town Clerk strenuously refused, supported by cllrs from the Labour & Green parties.
Then two weeks ago this email from the Town Clerk:

Cllr Miller

Following advice from the Information Commissioner and instructions from the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, in consultation with other Council members, I can now issue you with  the full minutes of the Council meetings held on 6 July 2010 and 17 January 2011.  Please find copies attached.

And here those minutes finally are. Enjoy, they're pretty hilarious!

"Mr Miller can now no longer place articles in local newspapers"

A Labour of Hate pt 4

September 27^th 2011 

Dear Mayor,

On May 10^th, one working day after I was declared a winner in an election to Leominster Council, and a fortnight before the Returning Officer declared that I was now a Town Councillor, the Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the Council made a complaint that I, as a Town Councillor, had conducted a campaign of harassment and bullying.

You chose to accept this logically absurd allegation.

You appointed yourself as chairman of a Grievance Panel. You contributed to a Report on the allegation which you presented to a Secret Session of Leominster Town Council on July 7^th. You chaired this meeting and – according to the minutes I have obtained of that meeting – you debated on the Report and voted to recommend disciplinary action be taken against me on the basis of that Report.

You did all of the above despite having serious prejudicial interest against me, prejudicial interests which our Code of Conduct required you to declare at every step of the course of action you embarked upon.

Those prejudicial interests were as follows:

In November 2009 I and nine other electors convened an Official Town Meeting to discuss revelations about the expenses claims of our local MP. The MP, Bill Wiggin, secretly wrote to all Leominster Town Councillors in a message which several found to be very offensive.

At the December full council Meeting this letter and its offensiveness were raised and the local newspaper the Hereford Journal reported on the discussion.

The Journal reported that your long term partner/common law wife Janet Atkinson said that she had not only received this offensive letter but also “offensive phone calls from Jim Miller”.

As you know, this was entirely untrue. At that time I did not even know who your partner Janet Atkinson was and had never even had a conversation with her let alone made “offensive phone calls”.

After I consulted with my solicitors Ms Atkinson contacted Colin Osborne, editor of the Journal, and beseeched him to print her retraction of the lie she had publicly made about me and her apology. The Journal published this and I was satisfied with the apology.

Your partner/common law wife Ms Atkinson, being a former Mayor of Leominster, must have been upset to have to admit in print that she would make such a false allegation against an entirely innocent elector and I know that she was very angry at having to do so.

It seems natural that you would have shared the upset and anger of your partner in this matter and would have a degree of resentment towards me for requiring the public apology, and that therefore you have a longstanding prejudicial interest against me.

After this year’s May 5^th election you had the Town Clerk publish official documents that you had been chosen ‘Mayor Elect’ by the previous sixteen Town Councillors even though nine of them had not been re-elected to the Town Council. As you know I challenged this as a deeply undemocratic procedure and I boycotted your “Mayor Making”, instead handing out leaflets explaining to those attending why this was an affront to due procedure.

Then, at the first full Council Meeting I attended, I stated that I did not recognise you as having been democratically elected as our Town Mayor. This was prominently reported on the front page of the Hereford Journal under the headline “New Councillor Ruffles Feathers”.

There can be little doubt that my picketing of your Mayor Making and the reporting of my refusal to acknowledge you as a legitimate Mayor have been of discomfort to you; I believe they have undermined the legitimacy of your claim to have been chosen as our Mayor via an open or transparent process.  It seems to me that you have a clear and still pressing prejudicial interest against me.

Mr Clark: can you please tell me why, with such strong and personal prejudicial interests against me, you appointed yourself as the Chairman of a Panel investigating allegations against me? Why you did not declare these prejudicial interests before a Report attacking me to the Town Council on July 7^th? Why you did not declare these interests before chairing that meeting? And why you did not declare these interests and abstain from any discussion or vote on this Report as our Code of Conduct required you to do?

Yours faithfully

Jim Miller

Why the expenses scandal will never really "go away"

I caught a bit of Ed Milliband today. He's not my political cup of tea but I tend to like him as a bloke.
An old Oxford mate who took the Civil Service route has told me (off the record and all that) that Ed M. is the most decent politician he has worked for in Whitehall.
BUT.
I don't know if Ed Milliband is definitely honest. I don't know that his expenses claims were morally decent.
Because the one thing that needed to happen - a full, public inquiry led by a judge into all the expenses claims by recent MPs - didn't happen.

My own MP Bill Wiggin, for example, owned a 5-storey house in Fulham, with an eye-watering mortage, when he was elected in 2001. He bought a second home in his constituency outright, then simply designated his Fulham home (which was and still remains his main family home) as his "second home" thus making you and me pay for that mortage to the tune of more than 100 grand and counting.

Lots of them did it. But Mr Wiggin is my MP so I went & looked at what he had done.

Today Ed Milliband promised to strike a "new bargain" with the British people.
I don't think he means it.
Because I don't think he cares about what the Bill Wigginses sitting around him in Parliament have done.

Labour of Hate pt 3

A small snapshot (I have plenty more)of the depths Leominster Labour will sink to to attack me.
Simon Joseph is a local self-proclaimed "socialist". Here is his Facebook page which lists Michael Meacher, Stephen Twigg, Lewisham Labour Party as his friends along with MPs Gisela Stuart, Mandy Richards, Barry Gardiner and the last Labour Mayor of Leominster Richard Westwood.

Below is an extractfrom just a short period on the Facebook page of "What I Heard About Herefordshire Council" on the evening of August 2nd. There was a conversation about how the unions had lost their power & I made the mistake of making an innocuous comment about my dad, when Mr Joseph began claiming to have records of my treatment for mental illness which he was going to publish.
He seems to think he really does have such records and perhaps he somehow has the records of another Jim Miller. But what if it was true & I really had been through the mental health system?
Are there many things more depraved than threatening & taunting such a vulnerable person?

This is the snarling face of the modern Labour party, mates with Michael Meacher and all, at least here in Herefordshire:
------------------- 

FACEBOOK PAGE: “WHAT I HEARD ABOUT HEREFORDSHIRE COUNCIL”  EVENING OF AUGUST 2^ND

Jim Miller: My old man once ran for leadership of the TGWU, then the largest free world Union. He came 4th, not bad since he was the Communist candidate!

Simon Joseph:  Are you in a Union Jim? Or are you one of those middle class trade unionists who like the idea but spend their subs on good whisky? You're not working class, and you don;t speak for the working class. You're a failed comedy write with a history of mental illness. You're not the only one with a search engine, matey boy.

Jim Miller: Dear Simon Joseph, "with a history of mental illness" is entirely malicious, untrue defamation and I ask that you apologise here in the forum where you made your defamation within 24 hours.

Jack Townsend: I saw Philippa Roberts speak a few times in the hustings for the General Election and thought her by far the best candidate. Only a matter of time before she gets to Parliament I thought. Now she seems to have plummeted to the extent that she surrounds herself with spokespeople like Simon Joseph, who come across as small minded, cowardly and malicious Tory apologists. WTF happened?

What I Heard About Herefordshire Council: I think the two points are connected. "Do what you have to do" is as true in the Labour Party as it is in the Conservative Party.

Jim Miller I think it's only fair to give Phillipa the chance to defend her reputation: http://www.yourconvenience​.co.uk/PRobertsAug2.pdf

Simon Joseph: I look forward to your letter Jim. You'll be sending the police round I expect. You do look silly when you deny things we can plainly see to be true. Better hope no one has any of your files from institutions you may have "visited". Duh duh DUH! Hey this is getting exciting peeps!

Simon Joseph:  Spokesperson for Phillipa Roberts? The lass who stood in Hereford? Another Parish Councillor (Christ who isn't?) Never met her. Try again LOL Of coiurse the truth is the hardest thing for you to beleive, I'm Independent. Real Indepenedent, not Jim Miller Independent. He's abused that word, allthough in a literal sense I suppose he is, he speaks only for himself. I voted for Jim Miller when I thought he was a voice of the Leominster people. I regret that now. And I aim to put it right.

Simon Joseph Oh Jim will it have a oolice postmark? Or from your solicitor? I want to frame it see, shame if it got recycled. See, you think I'm stupid enough to make falce accusations, but I'm not. You are, obviously, but most people are not you not "like" you. Have a little think about what I might have to make me say that. But send the letter anyway, I look forward to having a giggle.

Fi Edwards: My daughter has suffered from depression since a teenager, and has been diagnosed as having a mental illness. The prejudice of employers, peers even some members of my own family has been quite a shock and difficult to accept. Whether Mr Miller has a 'history of mental illness' or not is of no interest to me and I wish him well whatever. As for Simon Joseph, to use mental illness as an insult, a taunt and a threat is unforgiveable and shows you up to be without sensitivity, intelligence or values.

Jim Miller ‎@Fi: there seems to be growing awareness that people with mental illness are being discriminated against, especially in the employment sphere, in ways that would not be acceptable on gender or race or physical disability reasons. As I say, I've no history of mental illness myself but if I did I hope I'd have the courage to be open about it as this is one of our society's taboos that needs to be addressed.

Cíara Monahan ‎@Simon, you might want to check your privacy settings. at the moment anyone can read your page and see your friends list/conversations with NHLP!

Glen Simmons Disappointed you told him. It was quite illuminating to read about how much he misses London and how Leominster is full of yokels and inbreds. The guy is even uglier on the inside.

Simon Joseph Yay! Keep biting guys this is hillarious. It's Jim who's suffering. You never shut about his madness do you? LOL I'm Bill Wiggin in disguise you know. No wait, I'm Ed Milliband! No, father christmas. It's so exciting PMSL You lto are brilliant. Village idiots one and all. And most of you don't even live in Lemmer! So many secretive profiles with so much to hide. Funny Farm United.

Sheila Meek: Simon is suggesting he has access to Mr Miller's records from 'mental institutions' which of course is impossible as patient confidentiality would be paramount (plus of course Mr Miller has made it clear he has never had a mental illness). If Simon obtained such records he would have done so illegally. To threaten someone in this way is inexcusable. Imagine if Simon threatened someone in this way who genuinely did have a mental illness, then the consequences could be tragic, and Simon would be facing serious charges.

A Labour of Hate pt 2

The letter below, sent today, shows how Labour in the Shire Counties are quite happy to intimidate people on behalf of the Tory Grandees.
Eddie Clark is the supposedly socialist Mayor of Leominster. He and his wife have run the main union in the county, Unision, for years. But at the drop of a hat he calls in proven Wiggin boys to do a number on me at taxpayers' expense.
The letter is self-explanatory. But it's worth knowing that the following Labour councillors voted to approve Ferrari's Tory hatchet job when it was presented to them:
Philippa Roberts (official Labour candidate for Hereford at the last General Election!); Mollie Cook; Emma Pardoe; Charlotte Barnet.
-------------------

Dear Mayor,

In May, one day after I was elected to the council and two weeks before I was enrolled as a Town Councillor, the Clerk and Deputy clerk made a complaint that I as a Town Councillor had embarked upon a campaign of harassment.

For your own reasons you decided to accept this logically absurd allegation and set up a Committee to “investigate” it. You invited Benson Ferrari to sit on that committee.

In September 2009 the front page of the local newspaper prominently reported that Benson Ferrari had made a complaint of harassment against me to West Mercia Police:
Leominster Journal Sept 16 2009
The police found absolutely no basis for Mr Ferrari’s complaint which was therefore false and malicious.

Why did you invite someone you knew to have made a false and malicious complaint of harassment against me to “investigate” a new complaint of harassment against me which might well be false and malicious?

Why did you fail in your duty to ensure that any investigatory committee you set up was fair and impartial?

As you are well aware, in April last year I took Mr Ferrari as a named respondent to the High Court. Two judges ruled that he was unlawfully sitting on Leominster Town Council and they summarily expelled him from his position:
High Court ruling.
 I have little doubt that this was a humiliating experience for Mr Ferrari. He clearly has a great personal prejudicial interest against me.

The following month Mr Ferrari signed the nomination papers of Bill Wiggin at the General Election:
Returning Officer's acceptance of proposers
 As you are well aware, at that time I had made a serious complaint of wrongdoing against Mr Wiggin to parliament. My complaint was upheld and Mr Wiggin forced to pay the money back. A second complaint of mine against Mr Wiggin for potential fraud is currently being investigated by parliament as you are well aware. It is clear that the signatory to Mr Wiggin’s parliamentary candidature would have a great political prejudicial interest against me.

Mayor – why did you allow someone with great personal and political prejudicial interests against me to sit on a panel investigating serious allegations against me?

Why did you allow such a prejudiced person to compile a report about me and why did you yourself present that report to the Town Council at a secret meeting?

Finally, why did you allow Town Council to debate and vote on a report against me which had been compiled with someone who was so evidently not impartial, not unbiased and not disinterested?

Why, Mayor, have you so singularly failed in your duty in this matter?

Yours faithfully

Jim Miller

My first & last "Council Report"

After all the harassment by local police I promised my partner we'd be out of Leominster by the beginning of October, which is fair enough.


Bizarrely, the only official thing I was ever asked to do by Leominster Council was to prepare a report with Felicity Norman, the leader of Herefordshire 's Green Party, on local democracy called "Listening To Leominster".
Here it is.

Will be presented at my last Leo Town Council tomorrow.
(Hope no-one looks too closely at the signatures at the end...)

"I have nothing to declare but a prejudicial interest"

... and for most Herefordshire Councillors that means "Oh, nothing then!".


On July 7th a secret meeting of Town Council - held when they knew I was on hols in Scotland - voted to pass a complaint to the Standards Committee made against me by the Clerk and Deputy Clerk one day after I was elected (and when I was not even officially a councillor!)
I've heard nothing more about it - perhaps the Standards people were so embarrassed at its patent mendacity that they lost it down the back of a filing cabinet.


Regulars will know that the Mayor, in order to get the whole thing done before I got back to defend myself, forged Cllr Benson Ferrari's signature on the Report.


But surely the other three authors of this damning expose of my atrocious misdemeanours were entirely neutral unbiased sleuths?


Well, they all three got a few questions from me today.

And I've asked the Town Clerk to place the following questions on the Agenda for next Monday's full Council Meeting:
"Why have members of Council who serve on the Personnel Committee not declared serious prejudicial interests before sitting on an investigatory sub-committee?
And why did three members of Council present a Report to Council on July 7th without declaring serious prejudicial interests in the matters contained within that Report?"

A Labour of hate

Since I was a naive innocent two years ago I've worked out a lot about how this dirty politics game works. But one thing still really baffles me.

Why is it the local Labour party who really, really hate what I'm trying to do in Herefordshire?

Yes, the local Tories constantly try to stop me - I'm trying to have their boss Bill Wiggin held to serious account after all. But with the Labour crew there isn't even any rationality...

I discovered that after two full Council meetings, the Town Clerk and Deputy Clerk repaired to a local pub for a chat with Bill W's close friends and Tory grandees  cllrs Roger Hunt and Brigadier Jones - so I brought this to the Council's attention and asked if it was ok under local govt rules.

At another of the secret meetings which they so dearly love every Labour cllr voted to refer this to the Standards Board as evidence of my "bullying and harassment".

One of those cllrs was Philippa Roberts who was the official Labour Hereford candidate at last year's General Election.


So it seems official Labour policy round here that if you ask perfectly legitimate questions about how senior Tories interact with the machinery of govt, it's bullying!

"Oh what a tangled web we weave

... when we are not only malicious, lying toerags but incompetent malicious, lying toerags."


The Standards Board are investigating the three cllrs who set up the forged "charge sheet" against me - Eddie Clark (Labour) Peter McCaull (Ind) & Brigadier Peter Jones (Tory). But ten others voted to pass the forgery off as genuine so here's a complaint against the lot of them.

(Hmm: two Tories, two Independents, three Greens, three Labour. No LibDems! And I've always thought the LibDems were the really greasy, corrupt local cllrs. I am ashamed of myself.)

Now: will I start to get lonely being the only Town Councillor not being investigated for rank corruption?

Masonic lodge hodgepodge

Looks like the question of whether an elected representative has to declare that they are a Freemason is a complete dog's dinner.
Below is the reply from the guy who runs electoral services for Herefordshire; it's clear even he doesn't really understand the score.

Interesting to follow his Standards link & see in passing that the last Labour govt changed the rules so that judges & magistrates no longer have to reveal that they are Masons.
Blighty's just getting more & more democratic by the day, ain't it?

·         FW: - Freemasons‏

From:	Jones, John (@herefordshire.gov.uk)
Sent:	30 August 2011 12:32:46
To:	Jim Miller (leominsterindependent@live.co.uk)

Mr Miller

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

As usual it is not entirely clear cut, in general the rule seems to be as follows:

Elected Members must Register and Declare an interest as a Freemason if
their membership includes membership of the charitable arm of what would
otherwise be a non-charitable association, i.e. the Grand Charity, unless
they have opted out of such membership.

I have obtained the link below to Standards for England guidance regarding the Code of Conduct which gives further guidance.

It is for each Member individually to make the decision as to if they should declare an interest.

I hope this helps

John Jones

Head of Governance

http://www.standardsforengland.gov.uk/Guidance/TheCodeofConduct/Guidance/Quickguides/FreemasonsandtheCodeofConduct/

Herefordshire politics: a bit bipolar??

The leader of Herefordshire Green Party (confusingly she's also a county cllr for 'It's Our County' the supposed new clean-up-politics crew) doesn't know whether she wants to join my campaign to clean out the sewer round here or have me knee-capped by some local eco unit of the SAS.


It's doing my head in so thought I'd clear the air with some choice illustrations of recent Green Party pro-democracy activism in the Shire.


WARNING: this document contains lamentable punch-pulling (I'm too big a softie for this politics lark, really...)

I.O.C. stands for

It's Our Can of Worms.

Last year, in between looking at MP Bill Wiggin’s expenses claims and the inflated allowances of Herefordshire councillors, I tried to inspect the accounts of my local Town council in Leominster, as is my right as an elector.

The Town Clerk and Deputy Town Clerk refused to let me see them on the instruction, I was told, of the ‘Old Guard’ cllrs who run everything round here. So I decided to stand for Town Council to start opening some books.

As soon as I was elected in May the Clerk & Deputy Clerk, aided by Old Guardsmen Peter McCaull, Mayor Eddie Clark & Brigadier Peter Jones, filed a complaint that I was harassing them in my position of Town Councillor. The complaint went in one day after I was elected. Yes, that’s how confident they were that their pals on Herefordshire Standards Board would find me guilty of any jumped-up, ludicrous charge they put in front of them.

They had to get Leo Town council to approve their “report” before it went to the Standards Board. They presented it at a secret trial of me held on July 7^th: no press, no public and no me, as they knew I was on holiday in Scotland that week.

Unfortunately – and unknown to them – cllr Benson Ferrari also went on holiday that week, and his signature had to be on the report otherwise it was not a legal council report. Oops!  Rather than wait for Ferrari to return (when I also would have returned, ready to defend myself from the ludicrous nonsense) Mayor Clark simply signed Ferrari’s signature & he, McCaull and the Brigadier presented the report to the Town Council as a bona fide council document. You can see here a genuine signature by Ferrari, then the signature on the “Recommendations” presented on July 7^th.

When I returned I was anonymously told about the forgery, and Ferrari confirmed he had not authorised it.

I then  emailed all Town Councillors calling for Clark, McCaull & the Brigadier to resign for the good name of the town.

Instead, another secret meeting was held on July 18^th. After Eddie Clark admitted he was the forger Labour’s Philippa Roberts proposed that the Town Council nonetheless vote to accept the forgery as an official council document and send it to Herefordshire Standards Board. This was voted for by the Tory and Labour councillors, and by Felicity Norman who sits in the main opposition group on Herefordshire Council ‘It’s Our County’ - slogan “Bringing a new kind of politics to Herefordshire” - and also leads the county’s Green Party.

When Herefordshire Standards Committee – an untrustworthy body controlled by local grandees and career politicians – received the ludicrous complaint against me and then saw the proof that Ferrari’s signature had been forged, even they couldn’t swallow it and passed the whole matter to the national Standards Board for England.

On 19^th August the leader of the ‘It’s Our County’ party, Mark Hubbard, issued a public statement that signing another cllr’s name on an official govt document is not really forgery so long as you persuade that person to give their consent after the event.

Let's get our priorities straight

As the capital burns, Tory whips - my MP Bill Wiggin is one of them - explain to their MPs what is really important in this situation. This letter was circulated to all of them today.

An Inspector Calls My Bluff

Some interesting correspondence may be developing between me and the police Inspector who sends his officers round to intimidate my family on behalf of disgraced Tory MP Bill Wiggin.

The Inspector's logic seems to be "If I pretend I don't really know what the Freedom of Information Act is, perhaps it won't really apply to me?".

Try again, Inspector. If you intimidate my missus I'm going to find out precisely why...

(This URL added in response to a comment on this Blog entry:
 http://www.westmercia.police.uk/freedom-of-information.html)

'Who Watches The Watchmen?'

I studied the bitter genius Juvenal for A level; never thought I'd end up actually being in his poem "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

After the unannounced visit from a West Mercia sergeant on July 11th - effectively a police raid on behalf of the local Conservative party - I decided to draw a deep breath and make a complaint to the Chief Constable of WM Police and copy it to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Ok, the cops didn't break my arm or keep me in overnight, but they had no legitimate reason for what they did. So here is the complaint.


I'll keep you posted...

Ipsa facto? That's a secret!

The new Parliamentary watchdog IPSA has just announced that the names of any MP it investigates for misconduct will be kept secret.
Well - that's just what happens to you or me if the police investigate us, or we're taken to court, isn't it?


The old watchdog - the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards - was quite open about his investigations, see this public log of inquiries. Sadly, he has been told to stop taking new cases.


This means that, if Denis McShane and Margaret Moran get nicked, and David Wilshere stays ill, Bill Wiggin will be the last MP to be investigated under a transparent process.
What d'you mean you've forgotten what he's being investigated for? Hang on a mo, so have I: let's have a quick shufti.

"that cllr Miller do be hanged by the neck until he is a tame pussycat & furthermoreover...

You see, it's often the pompous, bombastic gobbledyspeak that gets these political types hoisted. "In its entirety" for example.

I mean, once you've voted to pass something to the authorities "in its entirety" it has to be passed warts and all. Or forgeries and all...

EMAIL SENT 26^TH JULY TO ALL COUNCILLORS WHO ATTENDED THE JULY 7^TH WITCH TRIAL

Dear councillor,

Attached are the minutes of the Special Meeting of July 7th; at this meeting you voted to pass a report with recommendations about me, in its entirety, to the Herefordshire Standards Committee.
As you are now aware that report with recommendations has since been shown to be a forgery.

I am giving you the opportunity to withdraw your stated desire of July 7th for the Standards Committee to take action against me, in your name, on the basis of a forged document.
You can let me know that you wish to withdraw your name or alternatively H---- D-----, who liaises with the Standards Committee and whose email address is hd------@herefordshire.gov.uk

.

If neither of us hears from you we may assume that you still wish action to be taken against me, in your name, on the basis of a forged report and recommendations.

Yours faithfully,

Jim Miller

"A lift to the polling station in our squad car, madam?"

There's a Council by-election in Hereford.


It seems, from this election leaflet dropping through letterboxes, that you can vote for the Conservative Party AND West Mercia Police with one cross of the pencil!


Puts the Met's corruption into the shade a bit, don't you think?

Let me tell you a (whistlestop) story

For those of you who have arrived late and are thinking "What the &^*% is going on here???" and want to to understand the way this blog illustrates how the corruption in the Halls of Westminster is mirrored in the corruption in the village halls of Dibley and Leominster.

Here is a simple Synopsis of the key events since the Daily Telegraph first named my MP Bill Wiggin in May 2009.

No jokes here, but informative, I hope you'll agree...

How To Bring Down Your MP pt 4

Here it is:
CHAPTER FOUR: THE RETURNING OFFICER'S MESS

(Rushed it a bit, just noticed a stray apostrophe, will excise later!)

How To Bring Down Your MP pt 3

is here:
CHAPTER THREE: 'A PLOY NAMED SUE'


For previous episodes here are
Chapter One  and Chapter Two

The curious incident of the cat that miaowed in the night

"The curious incident being that the cat did not miaow, Watson".


Now that West Mercia police are involved in what's been going on down here, I thought it best to bring in a shamus.
Tedstone 'chums call me Ted' Delamere is the sharpest private eye in Herefordshire and - since he's family - I'll get a deal.


He's famous for solving two of the most baffling cases the county has ever known:

THE MYSTERY OF THE BROWN LAWN

                               and

THE MYSTERY OF THE PAINTED GARDEN
                                 

My favourite Buzzcocks' song: Time's Up

It's more than a week since I asked the Mayor who the forger is who defamed me to the Council's Kangaroo Court of July 7th, and asked that the forger honourably resign.

Last night I gave the Mayor one last chance at full Town Council meeting. As soon as I mentioned the word "forgery" he suspended the meeting.

So that's that, then: the Bill Wiggin Fan Club would prefer the involvement of the police.

Maybe they're banking on the police who intimidated me on Bill Wiggin MP's behalf dropping this complaint down the back of their rather slim 'case closed' filing cabinet?

Guess we're about to find out...

Daring raid frees Blog

In an audacious dawn raid on a security van on the outskirts of Hereford a Blog which was being transported to a high-security facility has been freed.

The raiders were describes as "heavily disguised: they wore black top hats with feathers in them, had threatening bells attached to their knees and were armed with long sticks bearing multicoloured ribbons". A tambourine was used against the security guards

Police believe the gang may strike again - possibly at the Autumn Equinox - and have issued the following papers to explain why the escaped Blog is a danger to, well, er, the police.

POLICE ORDER: THIS BLOG CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

After intensive co-operation between coalition govt Whip Bill Wiggin & West Mercia police, and using special powers first constituted in the Second World War, parliament tonight rushed through the "EMERGENCY POWERS: 'ALTERATION OF A WIKIPEDIA PAGE' ACT 2011.

Under the new Act West Mercia Police ( recently rebranded as the more customer-friendly WestenMark Schutztstaffel) have reluctantly closed this Blog.

An officer will remain at the scene to move people on and tell them there is "nothing to see here" whilst filming them for purely recreational purposes.

"You're nicked, Right Honourable mate!"

On the three occasions Hereford police have come round to intimidate us, they've claimed that they have no choice but to investigate every allegation made against someone. No doubt that will be the excuse, when I meet an Inspector next week, for them investigating Bill Wiggin MP's crackpot allegations against me.

So, of course, this time I'll have my own list of allegations which - if Hereford police are men of their word - they will be obliged to treat seriously:

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST BILL WIGGIN MP

- After the death earlier this year of Osama Bin Laden he assumed leadership of the Al-Qaida terror network at a secret ceremony held in Leominster Masonic Lodge

- In the early 1980s, accompanied by Eton schoolmates known only as “Cammers” and “Osbo” he broke into BBC Television Centre and vandalised the Blue Peter Garden

- He recently attempted to steal the Stone of Scone and return it to Westminster Abbey. The crime was only thwarted when he was unable to find Scotland.

- He killed Shergar, everybody knows that!

- He repeatedly committed arson in a Royal DockYard to the extent that there are almost no Royal Dockyards remaining.

- He wore a burka on the Champs Elysees. You're just not allowed to do that.

- The Fall of the Roman Empire, by some appalling kind of psychic back projection.

- Attempting to persuade a sitting Pontiff to delete the ‘happy ending’ from the New Testament.

- Colluding with Stephen Hawking to destroy existence itself by creating a 4” diameter  Black Hole in the Masonic Lodge, Leominster

- He was observed traversing the City Road in both directions, repeatedly entering, leaving and then re-entering the Eagle public house. He then, in broad daylight, popped the weasel 

How To Bring Down Your MP 2

CHAPTER 2 'JIM'LL AIRFIX IT FOR YOU'

Parental Advisory: contains precisely one baker's dozen of words formerly considered obscenitous.
Nae bairns, y'ken?

How To Bring Down Your MP

Everything you are about to read is entirely fictitious.
And oh, how I wish that were true.

CHAPTER 1 'WILL WIGAN: HIS PART IN MY DOWNFALL'

Bill Wiggin's crackpot 'allegations'

Ok, I'm going to take these allegations by my MP Bill Wiggin - made against me under the Protection From Harrassment Act and served on me by West Mercia police force yesterday in a frightening, unannounced morning visit to my family home - one by one.
The allegations by Mr Wiggin that make any sense in the English language, that is.

1: I "claimed he has rigged public meetings".
About five thousand local folk have made the same claim, because about five thousand have seen this Hereford Times video on youtube.
This was the only meeting Mr Wiggin ever held to explain his false expenses. The meeting said "Open To All" but only a couple of minutes in you can hear Wiggin's bouncer - Brigadier Peter Jones - saying "I'm sorry I can't let you in unless you've been specifically invited by Bill".

2: I "accused him of attempting to block my election to the local council"
The Daily Telegraph's Jon Swaine is still waiting for Mr Wiggin to sue him over this entirely false story: 'Wiggin Steps In To Silence Candidate'.
It's been a long wait.

3. I "accused him on the internet of being corrupt"
Wait a tic - can someone check if we are on the internet? We are?
Ok: Bill Wiggin is corrupt. Next.

4: I "accused him of fraudulently avoiding Council Tax"
Be careful, Mr Wiggin. I accused you of fraudulently claiming council tax, in expenses, from the Fees Office.
Actually, it wasn't me, it was the Parliamentary Committee on Standards and Ethics in their 72-page Report on Bill Wiggin MP 2010
But you don't have to wade through that! Why not take Mr Wiggin's own word that he overclaimed council tax, something that normally acquires a criminal record?
You see, in order to get the Sunday Mirror to agree with the Press Complaints Commission that the 4 1/2 grand he paid back last October WASN'T for his phantom mortgage, he told the PCC that the repayment was for expenses and council tax.
Clever Mr Wiggin: catching himself bang to rights there.

Ever wondered...

...what the sound of corrupt politicians digging sounds like?

It sounds a lot like this letter received this morning from the Town Council.
My reply is below.

Which do we think Benson Ferrari is: corrupt or frightened? I'm guessing the latter as he is in his early twenties.

"Dear Councillor Jones,

Your letter to me (attached) contains two lies.

Firstly, that the document referred to was "initialled" in Cllr Ferrari's name.
It was not. A full forged signature was written on the document.

Secondly, that Cllr Ferrari agreed to this action in advance. You may have prevailed upon him to say that now; I have documentary proof that Cllr Ferrari did not approve of the forgery in advance.

In light of your lies I have no course of action but the following: if, by close of business today, I have not received the name of the forger and their resignation from Leominster Town Council I will ask for a police investigation.

Yours faithfully,

Cllr Jim Miller"

Corruption

Right at the top of British politics and down here at the bottom: rancid. People like my dad who fought in the Second World War would wonder why they ****ing bothered.

This morning I emailed the following to our (unelected) Mayor. No doubt they are already huddled in a room figuring out which lie they can get away with.

Dear Mayor of Leominster,

As you will now be aware, a forged document was presented to Town Councillors last week. Since the purpose of the document was to blacken my reputation and persuade councillors to report me to the Standards Commission, the forgery is malicious and very serious.

I think – just – that this appalling business can be settled without calling in the police force.

Via email and also face to face I have asked the Chairman of the Personnel Committee, cllr Brigadier Peter Jones, to tell me who the forger is. He has refused to answer. As the Chairman who presented the forgery to cllrs, Cllr Jones must - at the very least - resign from the Personnel Committee as he is no longer a fit and proper person to serve the Council in that capacity.

As Mayor, and also as a co-signatory of the forged document, you must know the process whereby the forgery was presented. Accordingly you can easily and swiftly ascertain (if you do not already know) who the forger is. Please make this information available to myself and all other cllrs as a matter of great urgency.

If the forger is a Town Councillor then that person, if they are mindful of the good name of Leominster and its representative body, must now resign from the Council.

Yours faithfully,