James Purnell's "Golden Goodbye"

It has been revealed that Stalybridge & Hyde MP and former Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions, James Purnell was given a "golden goodbye" for when he resigned as a cabinet minister back in June.

If an MP is to leave their ministerial post under any circumstances they are entitled to a severance payment equivalent to one quarter of their final salary. James Purnell's salary for being in charge of the DWP was £144,520 plus a generous pension, this would mean that Purnell would of been paid a staggering £36,130 for resigning from his government post.

Commenting on the news, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Steve Webb said:

“People will be shocked to learn that former ministers get these pay-offs even when they have been sacked or left of their own free will.

“Ministers should not be rewarded for failure.

“While thousands are losing their jobs, failed ministers get a huge payout on top of their salary as MPs. This can’t go on.”

And if James Purnell loses his seat come the next general election, he will get a "resettlement grant" between £32,383 and £64,766 depending on the length of service as an MP or 50 to 100 per cent of his final salary. The first £30,000 of any ‘resettlement’ payment is tax-free.

According to the TaxPayer's Alliance, the "resettlement grant" is an alternative to redundancy and has been established to help MPs to adjust to "non parliamentary life". Diddums! This will come as a culture shock to Purnell who is nothing more than a career MP.

Source: Liberal Democrats

Flippin' Heck!

What do we have here? Not learning from his London apartment left like a pigsty, James Purnell's so called primary home is looking a right shit tip. Judging from the above picture with the kitchen sink, cooker and washing machine left in his front garden for all to see, it would seem that James Purnell is having a new kitchen fitted.

But why is James Purnell doing up his home when neighbors can't recall him staying over one night since buying the property in 2002? Only one can assume the village gossip in Broadbottom that Purnell is a fraud - according to green book rules, Purnell needs to stay at his primary residence (which he has nominated his Broadbottom home) for at least 183 days, so he can claim an additional costs allowance on a second property - which he has nominated in London, where he can always be found.

Because James Purnell is never in Broadbottom - not 183 days, he is fraudulently claiming for a second home at the expense of the taxpayer. Since the anger over MPs expenses, people are more savvy over the rules which puts Purnell in the spotlight. So we can only assume that Purnell has flipped his home to appease the commons authorities so he now pays for his London lifestyle from his own pocket.

Related article: Who Lives in a House Like This?
Hat-Tip: Longdendale Conservatives

James Purnell's Expenses

To view James Purnell's expenses, MP for Stalybridge and Hyde then:

PLEASE CLICK HERE

If only real life was like this...

James Purnell's "Conservative" Reading List

Yet more expenses have come out for Stalybridge and Hyde MP and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, James Purnell. Instead of the more trivial items, The Telegraph is starting to get to the nitty gritty of his expense claims.

Many have argued that the careerist MP is a Conservative in wolves clothing and looking at the books that James reads, that would suggest so. James, who is close friends of the former Prime Minister Tony Blair and tipped as a future leader of the Labour Party, claimed a total of £42 on books from Amazon courtesy of the taxpayer which included:

Reflections on the Revolution in France
Edmund Burke

According to the Telegraph, this book is kept by Conservatives as a case against 20th Century Socialism. Other books by the author include "The evils of revolution".

Amazon price: £6.29


Modern Conservatism
David Willetts MP

Penned by the Conservative MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Willets is seen as a 'centrist moderniser' in David Cameron's Conservatives. Before becoming an MP he served as a researcher to Nigel Lawson and later Margaret Thatcher's policy unit.

Amazon Price: £0.01 (Used and New)


Good to Great
Jim Collins

Jim Collins is a management theorist. According to the Telegraph, the book tells readers “there are no silver bullets to greatness”.


Amazon Price: £15.39



Following on from the article, the Telegraph alleges that James claimed £247 for 3,000 “flexible fridge magnets”. We can only presume that they are for the big fridge which accommodates £400 a months worth of groceries. Also claimed was £223 for a new digital camera which was classed as an office expense.

On another article, The Telegraph attacks MPs who used taxpayer funds to promote themselves with local sports teams. Purnell claimed £411.25 on a programme advertisement for the 2004/05 season at Stalybridge Celtic Football Club as part of his communications allowance. The Telegraph doesn't mention any further advertising after that. Perhaps it had something to do with the small detail that there was a general election in 2005?

The hole for James just gets deeper ...

James Purnell's Constituents Not Fooled At All

Click to enlarge
This week's Advertiser carries a postbag of angry letters published in relation to Stalybridge & Hyde MP and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, James Purnell's expenses and his somewhat "empty" call for reform on MPs expenses. Nobody was fooled...

Now there has to be one idiot and that came from Labour party member, Dr. Kailash Chand (Pictured with Purnell at the 2005 General Election) who thinks MPs expenses should be kept secret! 

And today, James Purnell faced fresh allegations from the Daily Telegraph that like Hazel Blears, owes money in unpaid capital gains tax and new expense claims. This time for claiming £395 on an accountant for “tax advice provided in October 2004 regarding sale of flat”. Which means he is too lazy or thick to fiddle his own expenses. Another spokesman for James Purnell responded to the Telegraph stating:

“Any allegation that James avoided capital gains tax is completely untrue. When he bought his constituency home, the sale of his London flat fell through, but it was sold within the period that HMRC continue to treat it as not being liable for CGT.

“No one pays CGT when they sell the only house they own and James was not liable for capital gains tax on his London flat.

“This would have been true for any taxpayer — there was no special treatment. To be clear that he was paying the right tax, James sought advice at the time and has since contacted the HMRC to ask them to double check. HMRC have confirmed that there is no CGT to pay.”

Which we agree with. Purnell owes NO capital gains tax. He is telling the truth when he says his primary home is in London and he is never in Broadbottom. He has a lot of questions to answer for claiming a second home allowance. Since becoming an MP in 2001, Purnell has claimed £143,695 on his London home. His record on TheyWorkForYou shows that James has constantly claimed the maximum in Additional Costs Allowances.

Purnell continued to refute the claims that he avoided paying capital gains tax on the BBC's North West Tonight (below) by saying "I do not avoid taxes, I do not seek to avoid taxes, I believe people should pay their taxes and I paid every penny that was due".



When James Purnell was asked by NWT if he would be suing the Daily Telegraph for being accused of something that's not true, he dodged the question by laughing it off saying "I hope you enjoyed my welfare speech and I'm delighted you came".

Expenses maybe a laughing matter for James, but not for his constituents. Judging by the comments made in the local press, they are eager to get rid of this hypocrite.

Who Lives in a House Like This?

Who lives in a house like this? Well this Labour MP really likes his net curtains. Known to be a mucky MP - not for his reputation as a womanizer with his numerous flings with women or the auctioneering of the Hutton report signed by Alistair Campbell and Cherie Blair, but by his somewhat lack of cleanliness. Notice how the bins have been left knocked over and the PVC windows need a good scrubbing. Over to you David...

Yes this is the home of the Cabinet Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions, James Purnell MP. The MP for Stalybridge & Hyde who has a salary of over £140,000 per year supposedly lives in a terraced house which he bought in 2002 for £50,000 as his primary home at 66 Mottram Road, Broadbottom.

Purnell quickly obtained the house after inheriting the "safe" seat of Stalybridge & Hyde from Lord Tom Pendry after being dropped in there by his long time good friend, Tony Blair in an attempt to make it look like as if he was a local lad. James lives in quite a desirable area of Tameside. The house prices for the area are considerably low in comparison to other houses in the area which averaged over £75,000.

Rumour has it that the houses in that row of terraces suffer from subsidence hence the cheap price. So presumably a bank wouldn't hand out a mortgage, so he would have to buy the house outright. Money being no problem for James after being privately educated from the Guildford Royal Grammar School which currently costs £4244 per term.

Lets cut to the chase. Purnell is one of the MPs currently being investigated by HMRC for dodging paying Capital Gains Tax for "flipping" his primary home. The Times originally reported in 2008 that Purnell sold his London "mansion" in 2004 as his primary household in order to avoid paying capital gains tax. Yet he claimed the full amount in additional costs allowance (ACA) for his second home through 2001 to 2003. However somewhat conveniently for James, he could not remember which property he claimed on between becoming an MP in 2001 to 2003. He claimed to the Times that "parliamentary authorities had destroyed the records because they were so old". According to the Express, James is not offering to pay back the dodged capital gains tax.

As mentioned in the past, we are confused as to why James Purnell is charging the taxpayer over £2,000 a month to rent a London apartment which he leaves like a tip, yet he has sold his mansion off. It just doesn't make sense. It is obvious that Purnell is keeping his Broadbottom home as a shed to claim it is his primary home so he can keep to his comforts in London where he was originally a councillor in Islington to claim ACA.

Purnell is already digging a hole for himself by bleating to the local press that expenses need reform. It as seen as by many, too little, too late especially after being caught with the hands in the till. As one reader pointed out, Commons guidelines say that for a home to be classed as a main residence, a MP needs to spend more than 183 days a year there. Going off the above pictures, it is highly unlikely that James lives here. After conversing with neighbours, they confirmed that they know that the house belongs to James Purnell, but they have never seen him there. Instead we are lead to believe that when on constituency business that James spends his time in the Raddison Hotel in Manchester.

We, the taxpayer are paying for James Purnell to live a lavish lifestyle in London at our expense by scoffing through £400 a month on grocery expenses whilst his constituents struggle to pay the bills and suffer from high levels of unemployment as a result of Labour's recession. What makes it all worse is that James is telling the public that there needs to be a crackdown on benefit claims - it isn't really credible coming from a minister abusing those rules. He even has the nerve to say that £60 a week Job Seekers Allowance is enough to live on, yet he claims many times over that. His position as MP for Stalybridge and Hyde is untenable and we don't mean a sacking from Gordon Brown, but the only option to get rid of this crook good and proper - the ballot box.

Purnell Pockets £10k

For the third time within a month, Stalybridge and Hyde MP and Cabinet Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions, James Purnell has been yet again caught abusing the Parliamentary expenses by claiming £10,143 more for his rent on his London home which he left like a "pigsty".

The Sunday Express (who must really have it in for James) have revealed that Purnell was claiming £2010 a month for his rent yet according to bank records actually only paid £910 every month. Out of the £2010 Purnell would "reimburse" his ex-fiance, Lucy Walker.

The news comes after the porky parliamentarian claimed £400 a month on groceries and £100 a month on hiring a cleaner.

What confuses the mafia is that James sold his London "mansion" in 2004 as his PRIMARY residence and dodged paying £20,000 of capital gains tax regardless of claiming a SECOND home allowance. So if he sold a property then why is he now renting somewhere? Does Purnell have another house elsewhere which we don't know about? Is he building a property portfolio whilst we pay for him to pig out?

It is clear that James Purnell has been taking the piss out of the tax payer - whether it is in the rules or not. As the man in charge of a crackdown on so-called benefit cheats and enforcing stricter rules on claiming disability benefits he contradicts the message he is trying to send out to the public by fiddling the system himself.

Another Mucky Minister: James Purnell's Pigsty

James Purnell, the Labour MP for Stalybridge & Hyde and Work and Pensions Secretary has been in the press this morning after an exclusive from the Sunday Express. Pictures reveal that Purnell lived like a pig in his £1,820 a month London apartment he rented despite claiming £100 a month in cleaning and £586 in repairs totaling £1636 as part of his MP's second home allowance.

Pictures from James Purnell's London apartment
James racked up a £5,000 bill in damages whilst living at the apartment. The property management company in charge of the apartment are holding Purnell's £2,520 deposit. According to the Sunday Express, he still owes £1,523.12.

James Purnell's constituency "home" in Broadbottom isn't much better either. Purnell bought the home in 2001 for £50,000. However locals tell the mafia he is never there and it looks a mess. So where does Purnell live when he is on constituency business? Well we are told he stays at another shithole - the Raddison in Manchester Piccadilly.

This comes weeks after it was revealed that James Purnell claimed £400 a month in food expenses on the tax payer. He eats like a pig and now we know he lives like one.

Purnell Troughs £400 a Month on Food Expenses

James Purnell has come under fire today for claiming £400 a month on food expenses. It is believed that the information has come about as more receipts are leaked to the press. The Daily Star also claims the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Stalybridge and Hyde MP claims for his council tax and utility bills. The receipts are to be released to the public in June.

It really does smack of hypocrisy that it was James Purnell who recently admitted on the Sunday Politics Show that £60 a week Job Seekers Allowance wasn't enough to live on, but those with families could earn up to £400 a week with tax credits (see video above) to pay for cost of living expenses such as food, rent and utility bills etc. Yet he claims £400 a month on food alone.

Under rules set out by the house of commons, MPs don't have to submit receipts for groceries, but they are able to claim up to £400 a month under the second home allowance. According to the Daily Star, James Purnell tried to claim £475 a month on his groceries, but this was rejected.

The question is, if a family can live off the state for £400 a month, then why can't an MP?

Piggy Pendry has his nose in the trough

The Tameside Advertiser carries what should be a devastating article on Stalybridge and Labour Peer, Lord Tom Pendry. Pendry has updated his declaration of interests as a Lord, with one detailing that he received tickets for Wimbledon from Imperial Tobacco.

This has come under fire because it contradicts the message that sports ministers are keen to send out - that a sporty lifestyle is a healthy one, and smoking is definitely not part of that message. Pendry's declaration of interests also show he is quite involved in the world of sport by being remunerated as President of the Football Foundation Ltd, Sports Adviser to Tameside District Council Sports Trust. He also a trustee for Develop Youth Through Sports Trust. A bit of googling reveals he is also a trustee for the England & Wales Cricket Board according to the Charities Commission - which appears to be omitted from the Lord's interests.

But the most damaging of all is that Pendry has previously spoke out against Labour's smoking ban in private members clubs. His "TheyWorkForYou" record shows he voted very strongly against introducing a smoking ban.

So what did Lord Pendry have to say about the claims brought against him to the Tameside Advertiser?

"It’s a point of view but it is not something that bothers me. I don’t see it as a clash at all. I am not a smoker and my work in the field of sport is completely separate."

Well Pendry is lying - he is an avid cigar smoker (see image above). So why make such a blatant lie to the press? Our contention is that this visit completely contradicts his seats on the government funded boards he sits on. It may be a point of view, and it may not be something that bothers him, as demonstrated on this revealing video from the Ministry of Truth. It is recommended viewing as he goes on to justify MPs lying to the House of Commons as well as saying they have a right to do so as they are the voice of God!


It isn't the first time either that Pendry has been brought down into sleaze through his former positions. In March, 2007 he was dragged into a multi-million fraud probe in America. He booked champagne receptions at the Houses of Parliament for Warren McLaughlin, former head of Palm Beach Visitors Bureau. Lord Pendry claimed he didn't get anything for it.

Moving on, Lord Pendry also states he is a parliamentary consultant to Arrowcroft Plc. Which is interesting as Arrowcroft state on their Northwest website:

"Arrowcroft North West was established in 1995 as a joint venture company with United Utilities to develop the surplus land holding within United Utilities` 150,000 acre estate.

Concentrated in the North West of England many of the sites are on the edge of major conurbations, strategically located adjacent to the motorway network."

Interesting. ArrowCroft have been trying to build a leisure complex on greenbelt in Denton on land owned by United Utilities. This was backed by the North West Development Agency which Tameside Council Leader, Roy Oldham (a good friend of Lord Pendry) is a member of and Tameside Council itself. It was to be funded by the Greater Manchester Property Venture Fund (GMPVF), which is a division of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) which by no coincidence is chaired by Roy Oldham and administered by Tameside Council! However the plans were thankfully rejected by the then Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott.

But what is really bizare is that ArrowCroft tried to sue the government for not approving of the proposed Waterside development. So Lord Pendry is a consultant to a company which is suing the Labour government of which he is a member of!

He is also President and shareholder of Oyston Steel Estates, of which he owns 0.5%. The majority shareholder of the business is the multimillionaire Labour Party supporter and convicted rapist, Owen Oyston. According to the Times, Oyston Steel Estates builds property in Marbella on the Costa Del Sol.

Pendry is close friends with Owen Oyston and whilst Oyston was in prison serving a sentence for raping a then underage 16 year old girl, Pendry accused Tories of leading a dirty tricks campaign over an alleged financed secret investigation which led to the conviction of Oyston as well as campaigning against the Crown Prosecution Service.

In 2007 Oyston attended a Labour Party bash hosted by Gordon Brown costing £10,000 a table. Gordon Brown urged Labour Party members not to accept any donations from Owen Oyston, but it appears being a shareholder of one of his businesses is perfectly OK.

His interests as a Lord stretch out as far as family, his son, Dominic Pendry is an assistant for him and - as we know all too well - his son-in-law, Longdendale Councillor Sean Parker-Perry, is married to his daughter, Fiona, and was working as a "Parliamentary Political Operative" to Stalybridge & Hyde MP, James Purnell up until recently after a series of reported fall outs. Back in 2005, Pendry defended his son-in-law, Sean and continued his hate for the CPS when Sean was taken to court for theft.

Other declared interests from Lord Pendry include being paid £1,000 a month from the Stamford Group as a Parliamentary Advisor, Chairman of the Angel Trust and also receiving a cruise from Los Angeles to Miami as a guest of Saga Holidays in return for lectures on Parliament and on sport. All expenses were met by Saga but Pendry paid one half of the drinks bill.

He also claimed £54,000 in tax free allowances last year and attended the House of Lords for 143 days.

Nice work, if you can get it.

James Purnell Drops His Wallet

Not to miss a beat where our Stalybridge and Hyde MP is concerned, the Mirror is once again reporting another gaffe about James Purnell losing his wallet which contained his House of Commons Security Pass, only weeks after he lost his "red box" on a train.

According to the Mirror, James Purnell had dropped the wallet on the busy Dean Street in Soho London whilst getting out of a cab. A passer-by then picked up the wallet and returned it to the police. James was ever grateful for the honest citizen who returned the wallet complete with bank cards and cash and called him back to say "thanks", according to the passer-by he said:

“I told him I thought it might be important because I could see he was an MP. Mr Purnell replied, ‘I’m not an MP, I’m a member of the Cabinet’”

But for Nice But Dim Jim, he is an MP - for Stalybridge and Hyde. He even forgets who he represents these days. Dizzy cow!

The Londonist Blog has a more interesting take on things. Although a source close to Tameside Mafia tells us that whilst in gay Soho, Purnell had his pants around his ankles having a bit of trade and that is how the wallet fell out on the floor.

James Purnell's False TIF Claims

James Purnell was in the Tameside Advertiser last week posing in a cramped train brought on by a constituent challenging him "to see for himself" over the poor condidtions commuters face by having to travel from Stalybridge Railway Station. The Advertiser states that James was "astonished at the crammed carriages and agreed it was ‘unacceptable’".

Poor James forced himself to take the First TransPennine Express service where he had to stand next to a toilet in Standard Class like most people do. The Tameside Andrex spouted that the experience for James was "claustrophobic and uncomfortable" - Diddums! Luckily for James, there was no red box lost this time.

So after seven years of being an MP, James is waking up to the problems that his constituents have to put up with to travel to work. But it isn't the first time James Purnell has brought up the issue of overcrowded trains and poor service in general at Stalybridge Railway Station. He did a petition in 2002 and again (notice the same picture was used) in 2003. So twice Purnell has appeared in the press to "express his concerns", but what has he actually done to solve the problem? Sod all by the looks of things.

Moving on, James Purnell uses the opportunity before the TIF Referendum to promote his support for a "yes vote" by saying:

"We need billions of pounds to improve these services. We need more carriages and more services. That is why the TIF proposals and the congestion charge are so important"

However, as one reader pointed out in the comments of the article on the Tameside Advertiser website, there are no extra carriages or services promised for Stalybridge Railway Station. If you look at the TIF Map [PDF Link], you will see that there is no mention at all for extra carriages or services at Stalybridge Railway Station, just a Park and Ride - & the land on which it will be built just so happens to be owned by the GMPF!

James Purnell Saves the Nation's Post Offices (Just Not in Stalybridge & Hyde)

It has been trumpeted in the national press today that James Purnell has saved Britain's Post Offices by retaining a £1bn 'Card Account' contract from 2010 to 2015. The key decision was made by himself and the newly appointed Cabinet Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), Lord Peter Mandelson. Purnell clearly mixes in questionable circles.

However much a "saviour" of the Post Office Purnell may appear to be, in his own constituency of Stalybridge and Hyde, things ain't so rosy. Since becoming an MP in 2001 his constituency has lost 10 post offices with another two not looking so good.

Image credit: Steve Bell's Comment Cartoon in Today's Guardian

EXCLUSIVE: Stalybridge & Hyde Conservative PPC Applicants

We have an exclusive that Stalybridge & Hyde Conservatives got to meet applicants on Tuesday night wishing to be the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for the seat in the next general election. The prized picked person will have the honour of standing against the Cabinet Secretary of state for Work and Pensions, James Purnell.

The names of the candidates include:

Rob Adlard: Former Manchester City Centre council candidate. Now living in Longdendale.
Kashif Ali: Deputy Chairman of Manchester Conservatives. Was agent to Rob Adlard.
Kamran Ghafoor: Former Oldham MBC Councillor candidate for the Alexandra ward.
Stephen Holland: A councillor for the May Bank ward at Newcastle Borough Council.
Sajjad Hussain: Former LABOUR candidate for Manchester City Council in the Longsight ward!

Whoever is selected does have a good chance of winning if the local election results were anything to go off. At the local elections of 1st May, in the eight wards that constitute Stalybridge & Hyde; four were won by the Conservatives (Hyde Wernerth, Stalybridge/Dukinfield, Stalybridge North, Stalybridge South) three by Labour (Hyde Godley, Hyde Newton, Longdendale) and one by the Mossley Independents. The total number of votes polled by political parties in these eight wards was as follows:

Conservative: 9,225 (39.67%)
Labour: 8,347 (35.89%)
Liberal Democrats: 640 (2.75%)
Green Party: 1,601 (6.88%)
BNP: 1,375 (4.78%)
Independent: 1,113 (5.91%)
UKIP: 952 (4.09%)

If these figures were replicated at a General Election, the current Rt Hon Secretary of State for Works & Pensions would be out on his arse, and James Purnell would no longer have any reason to make token visits to either Stalybridge or Hyde.

Resources:

*Past General Election Results
*2008 Tameside Council Election Results

James Purnell Loses His Red Box

It was revealed in the Sunday Mirror yesterday that Work and Pensions Secretary and Stalybridge & Hyde MP, James Purnell has lost his red box (no laughing at the back). Purnell left his ministerial red box on a "packed train" on October 4th from Macclesfield to London. Inside the redbox was casework details from Wayne Bowers, who is currently unemployed and living in Gorton. He asked his MP, Sir Gerald Kaufman for help claiming benefits.

According to commuters on the first class Virgin Pendolino service, Purnell was acting arrogant and showing off walking up and down the train whilst leaving the confidential documents open. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, one passenger said:

"We recognised him straight away and he seemed to be showing off a bit. He kept leaving the box and walking in and out of the carriage talking on his mobile. I think he realised people knew who he was and was playing the big man. His behaviour was unbelievable. He was very arrogant"

Sounds just like our James. Shame then that James has broken the law - the Official Secrets Act, section 8 to be precise - Crown Servants are responsible for safeguarding information. Plus also the Data Protection Act.

James Purnell's spokesperson responded to the articles by saying:

"It was one file from an MP with the attached correspondence and was returned safely within three days. Obviously, James is very sorry for the mistake. He has not broken any rules or guidelines"

Errrrr .... why is James Purnell's spokesperson responding to such a serious issue? We think we know why. Fellow Labour cabinet minister Shaun Woodward threw on a lavish £60,000 party in Marrakesh, Morocco. According to blogger, Guido Fawkes, 20 other members of the Labour party were there. We have our bets that James was there too.

We would like to remind readers that this isn't the first time that James has been careless with peoples personal data. Prior to the local elections in May, he allowed former assistant and endorsed candidate for Hyde Werneth, Claire Francis to ask for constituents National Insurance Numbers for a feedback form. The story was broken by former blogger, Tameside Eye which eventually led to local paper, the Tameside Reporter and then the Telegraph picking it up.

And it also seems an employee of a contractor for his department recently lost a memory stick with source codes and password for the Government Gateway project. Only last week a civil servant was fined £2,500 for losing confidential papers on Al Qaeda. James should suffer the same fate and be investigated by the police. On the Sunday AM show Gordon Brown showed little concern and said he hadn't had the chance to speak to James. We think he must go - you can't have one rule for one and one for the other. As our graphic indicates, Purnell is holding up two fingers to the electorate. He thinks he's bulletproof.

It seems that James Purnell is more than prone to these gaffes even though he has got rid of his office monkey, Councillor Sean Parker-Perry. So cue our latest campaign to get rid of James, every time he fucks up, you will see our new badge "Jim Nice But Dim".

James Purnell Isn't Working

New figures in the Manchester Evening News revealed last week that Tameside has been hit with a rise in unemployment by 24.4%, which is higher than the national average at 19%. Now this is quite alarming considering that Tameside is home to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, James Purnell MP.

Purnell recently has been spouting on about "work for dole" reforms and has been praised from all corners apart from his own constituency where in the local press he got into a war of words with an alcoholic *hic*. The interview was done by one of Purnell's local brown nose, Terry Duckworth Nigel Pivaro, who recently left the Reporter to work for the Daily Star. For local folk reading the blog, have they noticed the Tameside Reporter running regular features on Purnell focusing on these very "work for dole" reforms which are spun to say "hey it won't affect you". Well we shall see, but these rises in unemployment don't look too promising for James.

But rest assured if you are unemployed, Purnell does feel your pain (or so he would like you to think). The Independent had this interesting piece:

Whispers in the Commons reach me that minister James Purnell might have resigned had he been a casualty of the recent reshuffle. Still, a P45 would not have caused Purnell too many sleepless nights. In the early 1990s he found himself unemployed and did what any self-respecting young man does – sign up for the dole. "I remember queuing for a good hour, outside the kind of building that gave East German architecture a bad name," he writes in a local paper. Now he is Work and Pensions Secretary, and boasts: "My department employs over 100,000 people and spends more money each year than the entire GDP of Denmark." Perhaps now's not the best time to mention such extravagance?

Regarding the extravagance, in a Freedom of Information release it was revealed that the DWP had spent £2m on cabs in the past year. Taxi for Mr. Purnell please!

Now when I go to James Purnell's website to view his biography, where he details his career:

"He was a researcher to Rt. Hon. Tony Blair MP during his time as Shadow Employment Secretary, 1989-92. After graduating, he went to Hydra Associates 1992-94, and then became a Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research 1994-95 on their media and communications project.

He went on to become Head of Corporate Planning at the BBC from 1995-97. He then returned to work for the Prime Minister Tony Blair as Special Adviser on culture, media, sport and the knowledge economy from 1997-2001"

And in 2001 he became MP for Stalybridge and Hyde and the rest, as they say, is history. So back to the point of unemployment, where does the unemployment fall? He says he was working in the early 1990's. Is James Purnell lying about being unemployed?

Purnell is touted as the next messiah for the Labour Party, and even though he copied Tory policy, he likes to think he is the one to reform work and pensions. Here's how I see it: the press are (wrongly) claiming that Crash/Flash Gordon Brown has been the savior to the world economy by bailing out banks. If Gordon can save a few banks, surely Purnell can save a few jobs too? Things don't look good at the DWP at all, it was recently revealed that unemployment is expected to rise to 2 million by Christmas. It seems James Purnell isn't working.

Sean Parker-Perry: "Meet with me to find the Truth"

Longdendale Councillor, Sean Parker-Perry has once again rushed off to his good friends in the local press this week to defend himself against the claims made by ourselves on this blog and the No Mottram Bypass blog. We didn't speak to the local press and nor did our friends over at NMB, so who did? Sean has clearly shit his pants.

No Mottram Bypass has already covered what was said in the Tameside Advertiser. The local blogosphere knows what has gone on between Councillor Parker-Perry and his boss, James Purnell and his forced "resignation". The official line was supposed to be "family commitments", but someone else had already used that excuse that week. Instead we hear the most bizarre excuse ever that Sean Parker-Perry has resigned from Purnell's office to learn sign language!

In other mad parts of Tameside, Dukinfield Councillor John Taylor has also announced he has learned sign language. Taylor being the councillor who also made false accusations (later dropped) against the now defunct local blogger, Tameside Eye. Coincidence?

In our honest and frank opinion we feel that Sean has fucked up once again over these two points.

1) The Tameside Advertiser says Sean is off to college, where as the Reporter says he is off to University. Conflicting statements are the trademark of a compulsive liar.

Out of interest, we presume Sean Parker-Perry is off to his local college at Tameside to learn British Sign Language. Both courses run in the evening, so why couldn't Sean simply go after work like most folk do?

2) In the Tameside Reporter article, Sean says: "The rumours are nonsense and if the anonymous editor of these blogs would like to meet with me to find out what the truth is I would be more than happy to do so". So Sean wishes to meet with us, and other bloggers. You have to remember that this is the same councillor who made claims to the local police that our and others' articles on him were harassment. Is this proof of his wasting police time?

Sean is more than welcome to send us an email and have his right of reply, but for now we are less inclined to meet such an obnoxious and devious little twat.

James Purnell's Staff Reshuffle/Massacre

Tameside Mafia has been hearing that Stalybridge & Hyde MP, James Purnell has been doing a little hiring and firing recently from his Hyde constituency office.

Regular readers of the blog should know about the fate that befell former Purnell office boy Mike Doherty, although we haven't heard what has become of him since. It is as if he has vanished. However, we do know who his replacement is - Mike Kane (pictured right). Kane was appointed the role of Office Manager in June of this year. Yes, managing two one other members of staff, Sean Parker-Perry and Barbara Charlesworth.

A little about Mike Kane, he was a Labour councillor for the Northenden ward at Manchester City Council and held the prestigious title of Executive Member for Culture and Leisure all up until the May elections where he lost out to the Liberal Democrats by 8 votes.

Like his predecessors, Mike is very fond of the Internet and has his own blog. We shall be adding this one to our blogroll and shall be scrutinizing Mike's post for future reference.

The former councillor (who looks somewhat like Gollum) is far from whiter than white: he recently managed to piss off a reverend asking for a parish council. In the Labour Rose newsletter he headlined "Resign Now". God have mercy on your soul Mike!

It is nice to see that Purnell believes in the "right to work" by giving former Labour councillors a job in his office. Jobs for the boys eh James?

A second member of staff is to receive a long deserved push from Purnell, Longdendale Councillor, Sean Parker-Perry. No Mottram Bypass is reporting that James Purnell has finally seen sense and decided to give his closest cheerleader the axe. The anti-bypass blog says it must be a combination of recent events occurring relating to the arrest of Tameside Eye and the case being dropped. Also their recent posts on Active Longdendale which Purnell was quick to distance himself from. Not to forget the not-so-recent stuff with Sean Parker-Perry's dodgy Internet activities on his Roadmunkey blog (archive) and the silly Wikipedia edits. All the proof of Sean's meddling can be read in this blog post.

However, we became aware of a piece of news last night from Tribune Magazine which had this rather juicy statement:

"SO MUCH for free speech. The delegate from Tameside was barely off the rostrum after delivering a blistering attack on the proposed Manchester congestion charge when he got a text from his boss demanding to know, in so many words, what he thought he was playing at. His boss is Pensions Secretary James Purnell. And the delegate is a councillor."

Interesting they had to go off the free speech line days after No Mottram Bypass published their original article. As for the mysterious "delegate" we have our bets on that this is Sean Parker-Perry. Coincidence?

James Purnell: don't fancy yours much mate...

Such is the verdict of a focus group headed by American pollster Frank Luntz for last week's Newnsight, which looked at the chances of the likely Labour leadership candidates when Gordon Brown gets the heave-ho.

As you'll see from the above highlights of this feature, the assembled group don't even know who Purnell is, think he looks like a 'boy', are very much turned off by everything that seeps out of his mouth, and then finally decide to dump him first.