A week into the year an email was received from the Office Manager for the MP for South Shields for a home phone number for someone who appeared to be taking over the running of the office, a Mr Keith Palmer.
It should have been ignored but curiosity got the better of me especially as the call to my home was made from the MP’s office – 0191 427 1240.
I immediately regretted returning the call as Mr Palmer made it very plain that his views about UK Docks were based on misinformation which, judging by the content, had been conveyed to him from one of the more Senior Managers of South Tyneside Council.
As events unfolded over the next few months they began to mimic the events of five years earlier and the parallels are obvious in retrospect.
The main ones being the misuse of a procedural or disciplinary codes to shoot the messenger and then the setting switches to intercept or block emails i.e. deter the messenger:
- Messrs Buck and Palmer by misusing a Parliamentary Code which overlooks the fact that I do not work for any MP.
- Mrs Hayley Johnson by misusing using section F of a code dealing with persistent and unreasonable customers overlooking the fact that there was only ever one complaint to the Chief Executive about his staff misleading the Local Government Ombudsman and it was perfectly reasonable because his staff did lie to the Ombudsman.
In the first case the mail is then blocked by some anti-hacking soft ware produced by mimecast. In the second case there is a filter set so that all my emails are put through to Customer Advocacy and they determine how and if they are answered – nearly all are evasions or denials .
Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive. . . .
In Mr Palmer’s case it was his wish that the Council had misled the Local Government Ombudsman be replaced with the lie that the MP for South Shields had been asked to influence the Local Government Ombudsman.
In the Council’s case it is that they misled the Ombudsman to make it look as if our claims about the shed are false so they need take no action and it all stems from the building inspector ignoring the breaches in planning control in September 2013:
The matters and allegations raised by your constituent are well documented and have been subject to a number of enquiries from Mr Dawson and other local residents over a lengthy period of time. Hayley Johnson
Corporate Lead Officer, Strategy and Performance – 25th June 2015