For many on the outside, the scandals of Oldham council will have started with what is the now infamous council meeting approximately 3 years ago, when at public question time, allegations of grooming cover-ups were voiced, but it’s not so simple, you see, public questions have to be e-mailed in, prior to meetings, and ‘apparently’ they are selected in order of receipt to be answered within the allotted time. The more suspicious amongst you could be forgiven for thinking that this serves several purposes. Forewarning of things being found out, giving time to ‘hide them deeper? Time is given to prepare ‘acceptable’ answers to shut people up. What if I said it was worse? What if I suggested to you that council insiders were acting in the role of average members of the public, put in place to take up the allotted ‘public’ question time at said meetings, to prevent more ’embarrassing’ questions to be asked, would you believe me?
The Stooge
I watched and re-watched a certain council meeting online and studied it closely. Funnily enough, you learn quite a bit by watching the people on the outskirts who don’t think they are subject to scrutiny. This was the full council meeting of 6 Nov 2019
There is also a utility called ‘youtube time’ which allows linking to specific sections of a youtube channel so please click here to go directly to the subject content. Here is a link to a specific section of the above meeting.
Call me paranoid at this point if you so choose, and I could be completely wrong, I am making no accusations here, but something didn’t feel right. But because the time for asking questions at a full council meeting is extremely limited (now only 15 minutes for Oldham Council), I have a couple of questions.
1) If a council knew that some rather embarrassing questions were going to be asked since they have them in writing beforehand, does that mean they can be very selective with them?
2) Would it be beyond reason to suggest that regarding said council if the other allegations re ‘alleged’ corruption and grooming cover-ups are to be believed, would they also use delaying tactics to avoid certain other questions being asked?
As I said, I make no accusations, however, I have 4 photos here. One is a still from the said council meeting video where a member of the public is asking a question, and the next 2 are 2 versions of the same photo, one of them a zoomed version, of Debbie Abrahams publicity propaganda. The fourth photo just highlights the questioners comfortable familiarity with Council leader Sean Fielding.
It turns out, the person taking up ‘public’ question time when the council KNEW they were going to get embarrassing questions was a gentleman called Josh not only was he an up-and-coming member of Oldham’s young Labour Party, he was nominated by the party before this meeting as the new candidate for councillor to take the place of Stephen Hewitt, a councillor who was de-selected for speaking up against Oldham council with regards developments in his ward.
Also worthy of note, due to Josh’s obvious familiarity with the various players in the local Labour Party hierarchy, had his question been a legitimate one (based on his own need as an Oldham resident to get the answer to the question he raised), couldn’t he have achieved this by simply approaching Cllr Mushtaq on one of the many occasions he bumped into him at say for example Debbie Abrahams office or at party meetings or even by phone? Instead, it ate into the restrictive time allowed by the council for the less well-connected public to raise their concerns and get answers. This was the same council meeting that later erupted with the now infamous “Bare Faced Lies” speech by Oldham council leader Sean Fielding!
Firstly, I believe 100% that Josh was put there to fill in time. However, this is NOT a witch hunt. I have no evidence to say that Josh was a willing and fully informed participant in the alleged deception. For instance, I would be more inclined to believe that another council member had approached the up-and-coming, enthusiastic and ambitious young Labour member and said something along the lines of :-
“Listen, Josh, since you are up and coming and all that, how about, to get you a little practice, we get you up in chambers to ask a question so that you can get a feel for what it’s like in there?”
Let’s not forget, people like these have been doing this for years! They are not strangers to setting others up for falls. If the above was the case, I hope Josh has learned from this, and that he reads and watches a lot more, because he allied himself with a pit of vipers and got bitten! It’s actually a shame that it has come to this, but please find attached Josh’s last announcement. If he was victimised as a result, he absolutely should not have been. Blame the machine that made him.
Could it also be a coincidence that another well connected member of the labour party in Oldham, one “”Syed Maruf Ali” branch secretary of the labour party in Werneth Oldham, also chose that particular evening to raise a question to eat up the time that the ‘general public’ had available?
Despite the above, Josh is still an active member of Oldham labour party and is still pursuing a position as a labour councillor.
Spankd 