The Questions Wandsworth Won’t Answer
In last night’s statement Wandsworth Council declared that they would be suspending Tory fraud suspect Councillor Robert Morritt at their next council meeting. What they did not mention is the fact that the next full council meeting is at the end of October. Council sources also indicate that Robert Morritt has not had the Conservative whip withdrawn. Wandsworth Tories are back to ignoring Guido’s follow up questions. Despite being suspected of defrauding Wordsworth Conservatives, it has fallen to the council to take to action. The local party seems in complete paralysis – Morritt has refused to resign and is digging his heels in.
The statement itself is once again riddled with inaccuracy. For example, the claim that “all the allegations concern his alleged activity before he became a councillor.” This is just not true. Agent Morritt became a Councillor Morritt on election day in May 2010. When he was sacked from Wandsworth Tories, he was a councillor. A clear allegation made by Guido here certainly relates to when Morritt was a councillor. Subsequent investigations that resulted in Morritt paying back £5,000 all took place in late 2010 when Morritt was sitting on the Wandsworth Council. Silence though…
For the sake of transparency, here are the questions that Wandsworth Council and Wandsworth Tories are avoiding:
- The next council meeting is not until 17 October, so Morritt’s suspension will not be effected for nearly nine weeks. Will he continue to attend committee meetings until that time?
- Will his expenses and attendance fees connected with committee membership be withdrawn immediately, when he is formally suspended, or not at all?
- Does he remain a member of the Conservative Group on Wandsworth Council? If so, does he continue to attend political meetings with fellow Conservative councillors? Does he continue to receive Conservative Group papers and communications?
- If he is still a member of the Conservative Group on Wandsworth Council, what steps have been taken to suspend him from it? When will his suspension be effected?
- Is he still deputy chairman of Putney Conservative Association? Have there been any discussions with CCHQ about this? What is Justine Greening’s view?
- If he is still deputy chairman of Putney Conservative Association, what steps have been taken to remove him from this post? When will this be effected?
- What investigation is it that Council Leader Ravi Govindia now anticipates will be undertaken into this affair? Who will lead it? What will its terms of reference be?
As Guido said at the beginning of this expose, this goes all the way up.
Wandsworth Conservatives seem to be making it particularly hard for themselves by thinking if they say nothing it will all go away.
It won’t…
Has anyone called the police?
We own the police.
No you don’t you just rent em!
My best sources are from within the force. But being a Guardianista all my articles are in the public interest and you can’t touch me Barry Leveson.
Maybe they are all corrupt?
how did ‘maybe’ find it’s way into that sentence?
It seems not and there must be a reason why the powers that be at Wandsworth Conservatives do not PC plod going into their financial affairs.
Thank you for calling the police service. In order to better serve our communities, all our officers are attending equality and diversity learning experiences at the moment.
Please leave a message after the tone, or press * to hear this message again, in 27 different languages.
Or why not follow us on Tw@atter?
Do not worry PC Plod I will soon outsource you to one of the Indian call centres on the Moon that I have been investing my money in.
Thank you for being callings the police service. In order to be better at serving your communities, goodness me, all our temporary unpaid officers are attending equality and diversity learning experiences, good sir.
Please be leaving a message after the tone, or press * to be hearing this message again, in 27 different languages.
And no, you may not be cancelling your cóntract.
wot it is innit
It doesn’t make plod look very good does it? Clear allegations of potentially criminal behaviour, which need answering, yet no involvement by the local boys in blue.
What is happening these fine days of modernity at the Met.?
London Olympics: Cameroon athletes ‘abscond’.
Where the feck are they?
Plod does not want to get involved as it may infringe the lucrative contract they have with the encumbent arseholes.
No but we’re going to.
If it looks fishy and smells fishy it probably is fishy.
Stop talking about me.
How’s the hangover, Confucius?
Not too bad, thanks. Comes and goes every 24 hours.
Own up – your name is really Kung Fu Tze
Smell moi Fishy Fingers
They make us look like nuns
The Olympics make me sick. I hate this kind of stomach turning patriotism. It’s just like Germany in 1939.
Nice chatting to you all but I must get back to my mansion in an exclusive area of Los Angeles where I pay virtually no tax.
Fuck off you has been
To be Fair Cocaine has the unfortunate side effect of rendering the user incapable of maintaining a proper perspective on events.
Put a sock in your grumpy old poof.
The pretentious and precious poseur, Morrissey, was considered a joke by fans of popular music in the 1980s with his camp dancing while waving a few dead daffodil stalks around and warbling his utterly pathetic whinging lyrics. Nowadays he seems to have an equally “precious” fan base whose adulation has given the lugubrious leftie a serious messiah complex.
Just because his nerdish fans, who seem to consist of self-loathing, friendless loners who only leave their bedrooms and X-Box virtual worlds in order to see their hero in concert, hang onto his every trivial outpouring, Morrissey actually believes WE are all interested in what the pathetic and paranoid tosser has to say.
Methinks you know too much about him.
This is starting to appear like there are others involved in what could be institutional corrupt practices. That would explain why morrit is being protected. Keep digging Guido.
Who signed the (blank) cheques?
Disgusting! We want honesty and decency in those who hold public office.
And me!
Me too, it’s disgusting!
Stomach churning, almost makes David Brent’s efforts funny.
And us
And me
How dare you! If you criticise me again, I shall again be very very very sad. And that’s a violation of my human rights.
How much did that rent-a-shrink cost you?
Who cares? I couldn’t afford not to.
Pity I couldn’t put it on expenses, though. That makes me sad. Hmm. I feel a compensation claim coming on..
You are all hypocrites.
Make that 3 Bhuna’s please Sayaeeda, my friend won’t be here for half an hour or so… Thanks Luv.
Amateur hour at Wandsworth Town Hall, it seems. What the hell is going on down there? Did they not think all this through before releasing the statement?
It’s no wonder Morritt can run rings around them all if this is the level of engagement……
Rumoured that it’s Rob Da Expenses himself who is dictating the press releases …
Mr Morritt is just an amateur when one compares him with Degsie.
Sounds about right. More or less reckons he runs things down there.
Stinks!
Morons. http://tinyurl.com/bqcjevx
Proper kangaroo court, this.
Boing!
Whats that you say Skippy?
boing
O roight theres an orange geezer with a broken leg lying in the bush!!!
You’re pleased to see me aren’t you, dear?
BOING !!!! I am, Elsie.
Steady on Zeb it’s a female
lol ;- )
He’s twisting my melon man. Are you going to call the cops?
I wonder what else they are hiding?
Heteroflexibility?
My Reg, god bless, used to enjoy his yoga, dear.
I hope they are not hiding my Willy!
Mensch and Cameron have been disasters, Lib Dems just shat the bed, Boy George hasn’t got a clue what he is doing just like Brown.
All Labour have to do is replace dick’ed and they’d sail back in straight away seeing the population has the memory of a goldfish.
What do we need a memory for? Everything’s online, mate.
Anyway. I think we should have a Labour government. We’ve not had one of them before. I reckon it would be brill. I bet they know how to solve the problem of all the debt and that.
What am I doing here? This isn’t the Easténders fan site. Is it? When’s X-Fáctor on?
Who are you?
You’re not wrong about the memory.
It’s no wonder political small fry
Should seek to enrich themselves on the sly
The big boys are so sold on the idea
They’ve slyly brought countless enrichers here
So self-evident is the country’s gain
That they’ve never felt compelled to explain
Call The Private GS4 Police to investigate.
The same G4S we use to guard our conference, and duff up the odd Octogenarian anti-war Labour Party Member?
Good thinking.
And while you are at it get them to sort that bigoted woman out
Note any old codgers who criticise Newer Liebour will water boarded and sent to a care-home which we also run charging the taxpayer £37k a month per inmate.
We are on the case and will not let the country down!
fnarr fnarr fnarr
Ravi’s on holiday until the 13th August. Perhaps he didn’t take his laptop with him on holiday. Maybe the Deputy Leader can pick him up from the airport to tell him what awaits him back at Town Hall.
That sir would be a clear breach of our very lucrative contract. Boaz
Wandsworth Council, or indeed any other council, has no power to suspend a councillor. They can, by decision of the Full Council, remove a councillor from committees or chairmanships, but they couldn’t suspend one, nor could they stop the basic allowance a councillor recieves.
That is a democratic protection to stop councils suspending someone for being of the wrong political party, for example. I guess they are proposing to take this chap off committees, but unless they called an emergency full council meeting, that would have to wait until the next regular full council. With the abolition of the Standards Board, there are far less opportunities to suspend councillors, but even then it took months and rarely resulted in anything more than a reprimand.
The only exception would be if a councillor were declared bankrupt, or convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than 3 months imprisonment, when they’re kicked off automatically.
There are also party rules governing suspension from Conservative Groups. From memory, I think automatic suspension from the group is only triggered by being charged with a crime – accusations alone aren’t sufficient. Otherwise, suspension would need to be agreed at a meeting of the group. I could be wrong on this bit – haven’t read the rules for some time.
all of which points to a good reason to involve the police. Enough is enough, Morritt’s ridiculous denials have gone on too long and the idea of it continuing until October revolts me.
Does anyone know how to call the cops in on a fraud case? Does one just wander in to Wandsworth nick and say “Evening Sergeant, I’d like to report a Robbery”?
I’m sure is a certain number of elected members at Wandsworth Council call for an emergency Full Council meeting, one can be organised.I f anyone has access to their consitution they can check if tha can be done, rather than wait 9 weeks.
…They should have paid attention to the posters here – polite wisdom is that we’re a bunch of foul mouthed loons, but we always seem to spot a potential pratfall before the ‘experts ‘ do !
These sort of things didn’t happen on my watch! ‘cos it was too small!! Fizzy drink please!
‘Wandsworth Conservatives seem to be making it particularly hard for themselves by thinking if they say nothing it will all go away.’
It’s the new way!!
Well that’s probably the advice from Conservative Central Office. They seem to think that the strategy worked well for Tony, and the troughing MP’s etc. So as clones of Blair they’re trying it on!!
Seems to working for Cheshire East Council, eh Brian
This is an out of control Council situation being closely monitored by the Wandsworth Whistleblower.
I’m so HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY that this is all coming out! Guido is a legend! Everyone involved in the cover up must go too!
All Wandsworth Cons are worried about is who leaked the docs. Not justice.
who gives a sh!t who leaked it! Thank god its finally out after so many rumours and hushed conversations. Throw the thief into jail, after all you can practically see Wandsworth jail from his flat, almost home from home….
Does anyone know where he works? Presumably can phone up whoever is responsible for dealing with fraud & ask them if they know about this …
This is an experiment so don’t laugh if it goes tits up . A limerick :
There is a blue council in Wandsworth .
Not open – of truth there is a dearth .
It’s not at all funny ,
They’re stealing our money
And winding us up with their hot myrth
*closes eyes and presses submit*
YAY !!
Scans like a gearbox without synchromesh, E.
Thx . It was the linky bit I was interested in trying .
“Wandsworth Tories are back to ignoring Guido’s follow up questions.”
It’s like you’re a nobody.
Just like I am going to be very soon.
Peter Hains got a spare room…
Full training provided.
“The statement itself is once again riddled with inaccuracy.”
Much like your article, Guido. Please re-read the first few paragraphs, and correct it.
Is that you Rob?
Shut up, get out there, deliver some more leaflets, raise more money and stop asking impertinent questions.
Sorry boss. I’ve missed your sociopathic tendencies
Don’t talk back to me, bitch. GO AND GET ME SOME MORE MONEY!
Where are the police?
they should be involved immediately.
call them immediately!
The facts are clear and the issues are simple. Suspension from the Council group is a trivial move. The essential issue is Morritts continued membership of the Tory Party and in particular his membership of Wandsworth/Putney. Once this is resolved the Council matter will automatically follow. It illustrates the fundamental weakness of the Tory Party in general and the local; Party in particular, that they fail to act. It gives the impression that the whole local party organisation is corrupt. They need to act decisively, and now.
What has David Cameron got to do with all this?
All Tory officers in Wandsworth/Putney who have either been involved in the cover-up or otherwise failed to act, should resign. Decent local Tory members should make sure they do. Following that, the newly cleansed Association should turn its attention to the complicit or silent Councillors. To avoid lastin oderous impressions all this needs to happen quickly.
Lots of complicit silent councillors – complicit and silent in most things that are unsavoury down the town hall.
The bureau fat cats of the Council are loving this. Another scandal involving these rather annoying people who get in the way of running the Council. A good scandal keeps the councillors in their place you see, otherwise they tend to get out their boxes.
Been plenty of them too. Its just this new council leader is less good at hushing them up and seems a bit accident prone losing councillors. They only just had a by election over some other scandal. Officers will be having a ball. Ha ha ha.
Goodnight all.
Knowung dont mean boredom. Goodnight.
Boring. Goodnight.
Gore, had some decent claret tonight. Goodnight Mr Morritt, hope the bugs don`t bite/
Goodnight, ALL.
So who was on the management committee when this broke in 2010? It is about time those officers on wandsworth conservatives who knew about this and did nothing were named and shamed. no doubt most of them were Morritt’s chums.