Councillor/Commissionmer Shaun Wright: I am sure that readers of this blog are tiring quickly of the assertions and innuendos about whether Councillor Wright received donations to his selection (not Election) campaign to be the Labour PCC candidate that were not registered with the Electoral Commission. Among those who have an interest in this matter being laid to rest must be those organisations who have been suggested as the sources of such donations.
The other issues facing the entire South Yorkshire Policing community including the Commissioner are far too serious for any doubts in this matter to linger. I am therefore showing below in this entry to this blog the full and direct contact details of a senior responsible official within the Electoral Commission:
Martin Carr, Senior Adviser
The Electoral Commission
3 Bunhill Row
London EC1Y 8YZ
Tel: 020 7271 0513
Fax: 020 7271 0505
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk;
If anyone has any evidence in this matter, they should contact this official directly or stop making assertions. It will not do that unsubstantiated rumour and assertion are being used as a substitute for evidence in such a serious matter as this. We are entitled to believe that any Elected Police and Crime Commissioner has always acted in full compliance with both the law and with all the appropriate rules and regulations that concern their Election. Time for that to be proven beyond all doubt.
Chris Longley
Rothpol would appreciate a little clarification from your good self:
Are you leaving comments as a member of the public, or in some professional capacity?
If it is in a professional capacity, for whom do you work and whom do you represent?
Rotherham Politics 
There’s a lot of innuendo in your posting dear “Chris Longley” …
“I am sure that readers of this blog are tiring quickly” – on what independently-accredited evidence base do you make that unproven statement?
“must be those organisations who have been suggested” – on what independently-accredited evidence base do you make that unproven statement?
“are far too serious for any doubts in this matter to linger” – on what independently-accredited evidence base do you make that unproven statement?
“they should contact this official directly or stop making assertions” – on what independently-accredited evidence base do you make that unproven statement?
“unsubstantiated rumour and assertion are being used as a substitute for evidence in such a serious matter as this” – on what independently-accredited evidence base do you make that unproven statement?
“We are entitled to believe that any Elected Police and Crime Commissioner has always acted in full compliance with both the law and with all the appropriate rules and regulations that concern their Election” – on what independently-accredited evidence base do you make that unproven statement?
“Time for that to be proven beyond all doubt” – on what independently-accredited evidence base do you make that unproven statement?
You seem to speak for a lorra lorra purpeel as Cilla B sez on telly, or are you a one-band like me?
As Prince Charles may have once said: “I’m all ears, do tell me more”.
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First I really am Chris Longley, not “Chris Longley”.
I do not hide behind a pseudonym such as “graldhunter” must surely be, unless graldhunter is actually some kind of Rotherham politics in-joke that everybody else knows.
I took the trouble to find out the name of the Electoral Commission officer who can and will deal directly with this matter, and I have published his contact details for all to see.
With Hillsborough Orgreave and the child abuse scandals casting enough shadows already across South Yorkshire, there is no space left for any extra doubts about any part of our police and crime system. And that includes the PCC.
I have provided Electoral Commission contact details so that those with any evidence about the conduct of the Election or the selection processes that preceded it will have a direct point of access, something I have not seen before.
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Thanks for your prompt response. Grald-Hunters name is as you correctly surmised is a Rothpol readers private joke! Everyone at the Lubyanka is familiar with him in the flesh!
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Dear “Chris Longley”,
I do not hide. I simply choose to use a nomme-de-guerre, “Grald-Hunter”.
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Why the hell would anyone wish to bother themselves with the Electoral Commission, when it’s thorough scrutiny that’s needed.
As for being “entitled to believe” in the integrity of Rotherham Council – yeah, you’re entitled to believe in what the hell you like, but experience shows how that sort of entitlement went the same way as foster parents being entitled to be left to get on with giving children a secure and loving environment, to which they too have an entitlement.
Don’t make us laugh; well actually you did – oh no, that was a sneer!
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I repeat that my name is indeed Chris Longley. For clarification to Rothpol and all your readers, I am a member of the public. I am affiliated to no political party, I never have been, and nor will I ever be so affiliated.
I supported – on an apolitical basis – Robert Teal JP the Liberal Democrat candidate in these recent PCC Elections.
I did so because I have known him for thirty years as a good and decent man. In my opinion he would have made an excellent PCC. Sadly the electorate thought otherwise.
But the meat in this issue is that Robert’s campaign became tired to the point of sheer frustration with the number of anonymous rumours that reached us about Councillor Wright.
Whenever we asked “sources” for evidence there was none forthcoming. It is also worth saying here for absolute clarity that we received no such rumours about any other candidate who stood in these PCC Elections.
So Councillor Wright, opponent of Robert Teal that he may have been, is as entitled as we all are to see an end to this. That is why I have sought and why I have publicised the address of the appropriate officer within the Electoral Commission to whom anyone with any evidence in these or any other related matters should speak. And I do mean speak with evidence, not with rumour.
If no-one comes forward, let there be an end to it.
Chris Longley
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Shaun Da Sheep, da Police-n-Clown Commishna, is entitled, to receive challenge, scrutiny, observation and comment from active and empowered citizens.
And he will receive, and is indeed receiving, his just such entitlements.
At the New York hustings, I asked him, and the other candidates, the following question:
“In order to ensure that the Police & Crime Commissioner is free from internal or external, covert or overt influence, if elected, will the candidates accept gifts and hospitality?
Shaun said: “I will try not to accept gifts and hospitality, but any I receive will be declared”.
Darned right they will be declared, cos I will use FOI to demand copies of his Gifts and Hospitality Register, which I will send to RothPol, so citizens can see for themselves just how partial, or impartial, their £80k+ Police-n-Clown Commishna may be.
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Ohhh Chris Longley you sound like my mother when she was telling us kids off. BUT we are not kids. Who the hell do you think you are talking to, you arrogant jumped up little nowt.
I am entitled to believe what the hell I like, just as you are. What you aren’t entitled to believe is that you can force your belief’s on others.
Now be a good boy/girl and leave us to our own belief’s.
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In response to anne(@anteggs49):
I’m a boy, actually. Just for the record. And do please enjoy your anonymous beliefs unaffected by me. Because I’ve looked hard again at what I’ve said on Rothpol and I can’t see how I can possibly be interpreted as “forcing my beliefs on others”. Especially since I have no idea who you may be or what your beliefs are in the first place. But …
Martin Carr, Senior Adviser
The Electoral Commission
3 Bunhill Row
London EC1Y 8YZ
Tel: 020 7271 0513
Fax: 020 7271 0505
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk;
is not anonymous, and I’m not “forcing” anybody to contact him. I am simply suggesting that this is the proper way to bring any relevant evidence – if there is any – into the public gaze.
As an aside, your mum would probably have got on famously with my mum. Mine would have been in her nineties now and I still miss her.
In response to graldhunter:
I’m sorry I didn’t get the Rotherham politics joke about your nom de plume. Is it the Rotherham politics equivalent of Spike Millignan, the well known typing error?
As far as your most recent comments about Councillor/Commissioner Wright are concerned, I am sure that the Declarations of Interest of the PCC and the Records of Gifts Received by the PCC will both be kept scrupulously by the officers within his PCC Office and will be available on demand to members of the press and the public alike.
Kind regards
Chris Longley
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Grald-Hunter is a nomme-de-guerre, simplez.
I hope that Shaun Da Sheep does indeed keep scrupulous records of any junketing and receiving of gifts because, you see, I will find out, both officially and unofficially, whatever they may be,
Town Hall Towers/Lubyanka is not GCHQ and there are enough disenchanged Elected Members and Officers who like to settle score with the Corn Fed Grunters, Muppets and Clowns.
For an hilarous idea of what life is currently like in THT/Lubyanka have a gander at this –
P.S. the active and empowerd Rovrum citizens beat the Corn Fed Grunters, Muppets and Clowns and their ridiculous tram-set idea. The DfT kicked RMBC’s idea into the long grass.
We won – RMBC lost 🙂 Simplez 🙂
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Dear Chris Longley,
i take your point on the rumour, but have you any idea how difficult it is to get information round here? There are layers of secrecy and bloody mindedness to overcome just to find out what seems to be easily obtained information in other areas I live in North Yorkshire, and have dome for a number of years, and don’t seem to have the trouble in finding out what I needed to know regarding either North Yorks CC, or Scarborugh Borough Council. I found out that if you keep the question simple and get to the right person, you will by and large get an answer.
South Yorkshire is notorious on this, even going back to the days of the South Yorks CC, and all the local councils were the same. Doncaster is a bit more amenable since Donnygate, and Sheffield seemed to change its methods when the LibDems took over. Rotherham was a classic rotten boriugh going back to the days of Jack Layden nearly 40 years ago. Dominated by the NUM, full of nepotism ,cronyism, you name it. AND THEY’VE BEEN ALLOWED TO CONTINUE because this is classic ‘red rosette on any object, animate or inanimate they will vote for it’ country.
Have you ever heard of pilgrims? I don’t mean the faithful on their way to Jerusalem or Mecca, but the union officials paid for by local authorities? This is the root cause of some of the rumours you have heard during the PCC elections. I have not seen the declarations of expense yet, but I can assure you there will be others beside myself going through them with a fine tooth comb.
You may be lucky enough to live in an area where the stench of town hall corruption and inadequacy are not permanently in your nostrils. Yes, it is annoying to listen to things which appear to have no foundation, but there is never smoke without fire.
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has anybody heard if shaun da sheep has to give up his role as councillor?
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Not yet, but rowing back, because no one in labour wants another by-election any time soon! When a few might come along all at once? Perhaps, next May, might be a good time for them?
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What about his pigrim job with Barnsley, is he still doing that as well
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Dear Casstrickland
Thank you for your letter (above this note in the Rothpol blog). I am so very sorry that you see South Yorkshire in the way that you describe it. I have to say that in the round it is not a picture of the South Yorkshire that I myself see in 2012 through my eyes, and if it were so I would find that greatly depressing for all who live and work here.
The difficulty we faced during the PCC campaign – and still do to a degree, although the frequency of such contacts is falling away now – remains the difference between the unsolicited communicating of rumour to us and the absence of evidence to back it up.
Whilst the “no smoke without fire” argument may be tempting for a very very brief moment before we dismiss it, the serious issue here is that the entire South Yorkshire Policing community needs a PCC whose credibility is unimpeachable in every way. There are enough real and very public shadows that must be lifted – Hillsborough, Orgreave and the child abuse issues – for there to be an urgency about making absolutely sure there are no others.
It may be unfair, but the PCC in South Yorkshire has an unenviable job to do by comparison with many others of these novel appointments. The eyes of the world will be on South Yorkshire these coming months and years as the results of the various IPCC and DPP Inquiries reach their conclusions. In these circumstances there is simply no room for any other extraneous issues to cloud matters further.
Kind regards
Chris Longley
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My advice to you Mr Longley is to take off those rose tinted glasses and look deeper as many of us have and you will see things as they really are here in Rotherham.
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Chris, you may be able to assist with the following:
Has Commissioner Wright been subject to an enhanced CRB check?
If he has, the results should be published, purely in the interests of transparency and openness.
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This Longley person puts me in mind of the Conisbrough Canary that used to twitter on in this website, whereby he assumes everything within Rotherham Council is carried out on a professional level.
Er no, that is not the case – be assured by someone who has over forty years experience of that outfit.
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Dear “Cliftonbird” and “Dear Cerberus”
Thank you for your letters.
I hope my views about anything, including local politics, are not rose tinted. The vast majority of locally elected politicians I have met over many years in public and voluntary service have sought office because they believed they could help to create a better place for the people of their locality by doing so. I still hold that view, and I am sad when a small minority concoct events that sem to prove otherwise.
I have to say that to my knowledge and during the campaign the issue of CRB checks has never been raised by anybody in respect of Councillor Wright. I have also to say it never occurred within the campaign team of which I was a member.
Plainly what did arise was the manner in which he may or may not have excercised his scrutiny and other obligations in respect of the safeguarding of Rotherham’s children during the half decade in which he was the Rotherham MBC Cabinet Member with those responsibilities.
Kind regards to both
Chris Longley
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From Chris Longley MBE:
This is the text of an email I have sent today to the Home Affairs Select Committee
“Andy Boyd
Senior Committee Assistant,
Home Affairs Committee
House of Commons
Dear Mr Boyd
Thank you for your recent emails.
I wonder if the Home Affairs Select Committee has yet received the Reports, Committee/Safeguarding Board Agendas and Minutes from Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) that the Committee indicated they required when RMBC officers attended the Committee to give evidence recently.
Enough time has elapsed for their receipt.
I hope that the Committee will use those reports et al to establish the decision making timelines and responsibilities that fall on the one hand to RMBC officers and those that fall on the other hand to RMBC elected members in the matter of the systemic abuse of children in the borough over the half decade that is already documented in the public domain.
I hope also that Councillor Wright will be asked to give oral evidence only when these decision making timelines and responsibilities have been clearly established from the documentary trail, and not before this is done.
I would be very grateful, again, if you would confirm to me when Councillor Wright is to be invited to give evidence.
Kind regards
Chris Longley MBE”
Text of email ENDS
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For information :
The United Kingdom Parliament Home Affairs Committee Update
01/21/2013 . This information has recently been updated.
29 January 2013
3:30 pm
Subject: Localised child grooming
Witness(es): Ann Cryer, former Member of Parliament for Keighley
Could this mean that Shaun Wright will be on the next updated diary list ? (or will he be too busy with his new deputy ?)
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