Dear Rotherham Politics readers,
Just in case you had fallen asleep content in your slumbers that the new Wickersley ward Laybah Councillor, Ms Stasi Commissaress, was busy beavering away on behalf of you and your fellow Wickersley residents and Rovrum townspeople.
Well feast your eyes on this piece of utter drivel which surpasses any previous records for sheer banality …
Twitter: Emma Hoddinott
@yorkierosie it is! Though I could say I’ve aged well! 2 hours ago
@Chris1966 Nearly! Its a thank you for volunteering at the Olympic Games. 2 hours ago
A nice surprise to get a letter from the Prime Minister today! 2 hours ago
Got a letter from the Prime Minister, “a nice surprise” eh?
And a rich millionaire top Tory toff PM at that!
I know what I’d do with that letter.
I’d keep the darned thing so so secret that no-one would ever know that me as an Old Labour socialist voter had ever received anything, let alone “thanks” from one of the much-detested Blues who have heaped so much pain, suffering and injustice on my old coal-mining and steel-making town.
But not Ms Stasi Commissaress, oh no!
She has to tell all her chattering clarsses Champayne Sewshallist Laybah Luvvies “that I’ve had a letter from the PM dear”, oh do parss the Pinot Grigio there’s a dear.
Canapes, anyone?
The sooner this insincere career-climbing Pilgrim finds a safe well-paid Parliamentary seat to sit on the happier I’ll be. Oh and take that other relative newbie ward buffoon with you, purleez.
What a pair of utter deadbeats. It must be murder for poor old hardworking Cllr Sue Ellis having to work with two such trivial muppets. I bet she has to watch her back at every turn.
Kind Regards,
Grald-Hunter
Rotherham Politics 
Would have been a time when a Labour Party member let alone a Labour councillor would have been marched to the gallows for fraternising with the ‘enemy’ . How times changed under Tory Blair. What on earth has happened to the Labour Party?
Until they go back to looking after their own just like the Tory posh boys do I see no future for them.
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Oh dear oh dear, this twitter twatter does seem to get a lot people in to a bit of bother. I agree any letter from the Tory Toff should be sent back wrapped around a brick with a note saying stick it up where the sun dont shine.
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So ‘Little Miss Bossy’ gets a letter from ‘call me Dave’? Big deal! It’s very easy to toss it off at the Olympics if you are on full pay! That’s not volunteering in my book?
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I agree, I am awaiting a reply from North Yorks County Council regarding her pay when she was in London. I have been informed by a councillor that she was on full pay, it having been agreed a couple of years ago by the unions (quite a few had volunteered their minions for the Olympics.
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First Response from NYCC
In response to your query received on 3 September 2012, Ihave looked into the issue you have raised and respond as follows.
Emma Hoddinot has an entitlement under Council terms and conditions for some time off for her role as a councillor . This entitlement applies to all Council staff in relation to time off for public duties as detailed in a National Agreement which covers all local authority staff across the country resulting from the legal requirement under the Employment Rights Act 1996 part VI. 50. It is incorporated into the Council’s leave policy for staff which states:
“Entitlement: Up to 12 days paid leave (pro rata for part time staff) can be agreed to allow staff to serve on a public body, or to undertake public duties, for example, a magistrate, a Justice of the Peace, member of a local authority (Parish or District Council), statutory tribunal, NHS Trust, Health Authority, Prison Board of Visitor, or school governor; and attending related training. Staff should give as much notice as possible of requests for absence”.
Only staff in Politically Restricted posts would be prevented by their council employment from standing and or being elected as a Councillor. Emma is not in such a post. These posts are defined by Statue and applied to Council posts in North Yorkshire accordingly.
I understand that the Council meetings Emma attends for Rotherham are usually held on an evening and so do not interfere with her employment and related duties for the County Council as a Unison Officer. The Unison branch operate a time recording arrangement and any time required off work for public duties is managed accordingly with flexi and/or annual leave taken as required. There is some flexibility if Emma needs to attend an occasional meeting for Rotherham during the day whereby she makes this time up on duties for NYCC at another time due to evening meetings or work undertaken at home on evenings and weekends which is a regular requirement.
I hope this address your concerns. I am satisfied having looked into it that Emma’s role and duties as a Councillor for Rotherham Council does not compromise her employment by the County Council and does not detract from her time spent on duties in her role employed by the County Council
Regards,
Justine Brooksbank
Assistant Chief Executive (Business Support)
01609 798580
Mandy.Bond@northyorks.gov.uk
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Cass, unless I’m much mistaken, NYCC seem blissfully unaware of Pilgrim Emma’s recent sojourn at the Olympics? Who actually did approve it? We should be told!
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So now we’ve snared x3 of Da Rovrum Laybah Luvvies of late with their banal twitter-twatter –
1. Del Boy, Da Rovrum Laybah Champayne Commissar, tee hee 🙂
2. Cllr Not-So-Newbie Longshanks with his grovelling public apology, tee hee 🙂
3. Da Stasi Commissaress with her “letter from Dave”, tee hee 🙂
And they’re sposed to be the future of politics, and the best that Ed Millipeed can muster 😦
Keep em comin Rovrum Laybah Luvvies, do please.
You twitter-twatter away, cos we’re a listenin-n-a-lookin, ROFPMSFL 🙂
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Grald Hunter.
Every one of the gamesmakers got one of the letters of thanks from David Cameron, I don'[t know if they were all the same but I presume they were similar. Two friends of mine in Scarborough have got them, and a lot of other people besides, so it’s really nothing to get yourself wound up about. What I would like to know from Miss Hoddinott is whether she took paid leave, annual leave or unpaid leave in order to spend 2 weeks swanning around in London, instead of dealing with her triple responsibilities of North Yorkshire County Council, Unison, and RMBC Wickersley Ward. Perhaps she would care to comment. The fact that it came from David Cameron is because he happens to be Prime Minister- has the election gone another way it would have been Gordon Brown.
Now this applies to all three of you. I have lived over the last 25 years in North Yorkshire, except when I have been seconded or contracted elsewhere. It is Conservative run with Lib Dem, Independent and Labour councillors forming the opposition. It isn’t perfect, but it ain’t bad. It covers a vast geographical area with a vast variety of problems and councillors of all parties work hard in a way that would frighten the Rotherham lot to death, by virtue if the distances they travel. There are Town and Parish councils, again with mixed representation. Only now and again do things erupt into mud-slinging which tends to entertain the electorate. When I hear people grumbling I have an urge to tell them to come and live down here and find out what it is really like. There are the occasional upsets at elections but not many. The councillor for my ward is Conservative, and been there since shortly after I moved in. He is hard working and well liked, in other words he gets on with his job as a councillor – I don’t ask for more.
As a result of this I have learned not to see any particular party as the enemy rather as a different way of looking at things When there is an election the gloves are off, and then it settles down for another 4 years.
Now lets come to Rotherham, a once great little town, now seriously struggling, with a council that is corrupt and inefficient, and used a a launching pad for any trades union actvist who wants to get into parliament, A joke for the job of PCC and an MP who is greedy and rapidly becoming a laughing stock. Pin a red rosette on a donkey or monkey or a one eyed one horned etc and it will get elected. Grald Hunter, you go on about Tory Toffs, – have you looked at the Labour Front Bench? You and Anne go on about the old Labour Party – what happened to it? It failed to get irself elected so dramatically it had to go and rethink its entire strategy. You are right about Blair Anne, the reason he got elected was not because he was Labour but because he was a Pink Tory. the electorate didn’t want the Old Red Brigade they’d seen enough. in the seventies.
Grald Hunter, the Tories didn’t decimate Rotherham, they merely finished a job off that was started by Labour in the 60s. The situation with coal and steel was unsustainable, and the axe fell, but it had been suspended by a thread for years. Other countries were producing steel cheaper than we were, and the demand for coal plummeted in the rush for gas and cleaner fuel. other industries had already gone by then – textiles,shipbuilding, engineering. We failed to keep pace and lost out.
Anne, you say Labour should look after its own, just who are their own – they’ve certainly not done me or anyone in my family any favours over the 13 years they were in power. Where’s no fat pensions in our family, I can tell you, I wasn’t in government service long enough to have built up a big one, I absolutely loathed the job, and now rely on my own contributions in the hope that I may be able to work long enough to afford to retire. Nobody else ever worked for the nationised industries. My sister did have the unnerving experience of having a police shield wall outside her house while a few hundred of Scargills thugs wrecked fences and pulled down walls for ammunition, and completely wrecked her neigbours porch and greenhouse settling a an old score with a deputy they didn’t like. Do you still want the truth from the Miners Strike, you won’t like it when you get it.
UNtil you get rid of that mafia in the Council you will never get any progress in Rotherham.
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Bitter,I saw it a little differently
However we all have our opinions
I just remember the times my mum cried herself to sleep while my dad struggled with the dilemma of fighting for his rights or feeding his kids
One thing I learned from my parents and the people who helped us was…
It is better to die on your feet then live on your knees
Please do not attempt to slag off a fellow human being pushed into adversity by government policy
Have a go at the politicians prey do
You ripped Darren Hugh’s and Read to shreds about their comments
Yours are equally as bad
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Thanks Maximus, for your first comment. Welcome to Rotherham Politics.
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The thugs were in uniform and on horse back not in jeans tshirts and plimsols,you have a very jaundiced view on what we miners went through cass. I am eagerly waiting for you to tell me the truth about the miners strike.
Dave Smith
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Cass
Unless you actually lived in a mining village during the miner strike, you can have little if any concept of how miners and their families were treated. I did and still do, I saw first hand how South Yorkshire Police acted. They have nothing to be proud of.
I find it astounding that you call good hard working men ‘Scargills thugs’ . The now ex miners would be appalled at such a bias description. The vast majority were guilty only of fighting for jobs and a future. Even Norman Tebbitt now admits the Tories went too far with pit closures.
I don’t need you to tell me the ‘truth’ about the Miner’s Strike , I actually lived amongst it.
Thatcher’s years of power led many to believe that people can exist in isolation – the look after number one mentality. I do not believe any of us can do this without losing our humanity.
We could debate the coal and steel industry, we could discuss other Countries subsidising their industries to the detriment of ours, but you probably wouldn’t believe it.
My Labour Party was the one who implemented the NHS (for which I am truly grateful) it was the one who implemented the Chronically Sick & Diisabled Act (again I am truly grateful) it was the one who tried to help all those who were unable to be a complete part of your society. That is the Labour Party I want to return – the one who values ALL people whatever their capabilities. I want a Labour Party which does not want us to return to ‘poor houses’ and ‘paupers’. Idealistic ? Yes I am , but I tell you what Cass , I am not bitter about what others can and do achieve. You could say life handed me a bum deal, but it is one which I am here to enjoy because of the old Labour Party.
‘A society is judged on how it treats it’s old and vulnerable’
That is MY Labour Party.
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Hear hear anteggs; you make a very valid point and one that many forget.
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My respects for all following this thread
I hope the refounding efforts can reflect on grass roots politicians who have lived and worked in our areas
So they can represent Rotherham
With all our warts an all.
Rothpol well done on this debate
Leadership and representation is key to the existence of our town
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On the matter of Twitter has anyone noticed that Darren Hughes has blocked his Twitter account and has gone to ground, how surprising?
For Hughes to have turned off the oxygen of publicity must have hurt, all those opportunities to inform the world about his association with Shilo, Rush House, Rotary etc.
For someone to close down one of the most effective social media forums while desperate to be re-elected to RMBC to prevent another gaff calls into question his ability to judge what is publically acceptable and what is not.
It also speaks volume about the man that Gillian Radcliffe is still waiting for an apology.
Anyone like to guess if one will be forthcoming?
I expect that in the future Emma Hoddinott and other Labour members will be a little more careful in what they put on Twitter.
However loved the comment on Twitter describing Shaun Wright as a Div
From the Urban Dictionary Div
Actually originates from prison slang in the UK. A job often given to the lowest inmates was to put cardboard dividers into boxes. Someone given this job was a ‘divider’ or a ‘div’. Now used as an insult to those who display stupidity.
In Wrights case how apt!
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Shaun Wright still silent on the issue of embarrassment in his past! Why?
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The days of RMBC Councillors being able to hide in dark corners are over; the bright light of public scrutiny is here to stay.
We may not have an effective opposition in THT; however this site provides the forum to challenge their uttering’s and behaviour whether it’s in the chamber or on Twitter, Facebook etc.
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Let’s get back on track with the issue of Da Stasi Commissaress’s childlike delight at getting a “thank you” letter from a millionaire Bullingdon Club top Tory toff who happens to be the PM of the ConDom government that is imposing slash-n-burn tactics across the entire spectrum of British public and commercial life.
If Da Stasi Commissaress is such a dedicated and committed Trade Unionist, Wickersley Ward Councillor and NYCC salary dragger why on earth doesn’t she twitter-twatter on the highly important social issues of the day … but maybe this is her highly-important social issue of her day?
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