Unedited version
The Reiver
Chinese Style
It can’t have escaped your attention that this magazine is beginning to look East, we cant help but do anything else, what with LTI set to be owned by Billionaire company Geely and Wirral MBC also embracing the land of dragons and emperors, by going on a cushy £28K trip to Shanghai.
Well, I am pleased to advise that taxitalk has decided to look towards Chinese investment. No, it isn’t sending Derek Cummins down to the ‘Sun Ying’ for a carry out prior to the editorial team meeting. I’m talking major investment. Of course the editor will still be Dave Millward, only it will be pronounced ‘Dawid Miwwad’, the co-editor ‘Dowack’ was unsurprisingly keen on the move, mind you, this was no real bombshell, ‘Chang’ sponsor his favourite football team.
As avid fans of the Pink Panther movies both Dawid and Dowack are hoping their new Chinese investor will be a little bit like Kato ‘that little yellow feind’. They can practice Karate in between brainstorming sessions. Indeed, with a little luck Kato will pounce on them just when they least expect it.
Pictured above; an editorial meeting yesterday
With the above in mind we have a few short stories from the far-east that will be of obvious interest.
A supposedly dead woman surnamed ‘You’ was sent to a funeral home in Taizhou, Zhejiang province - and was found to be still alive. She was sent by ambulance from a hospital, where her family had given up on medical treatment because of the exorbitant costs involved. According to the hospital, ‘You's’ family said she was already dead on arrival and asked them to deliver her body to a funeral home. A bystander donated 3,700 yuan (US$455) to the woman's family and finally sent her back to the hospital.
In Kunming last December a burglary suspect named Xing Kun was alleged by police to have used a paper banknote to open his handcuffs and hang himself with shoelaces in a local police station.
An 18-year-old "black taxi" driver Sun Zhongjie was detained, fined and his car seized in an unlicensed cab sting operation. In protest, Sun cut off one of his fingers in front of the cops who busted him. Don't worry, our Dowack still types with one finger anyway!
Watch out......It’s those wacky councillors!
Not turning up this month is....
I didn’t know being a councillor involved crime fighting, yet this is all in a days work for these veritable super heroes, or perhaps not. New Cross ward councillor Madeleine Long is a member of Lewisham Council’s safer stronger communities select committee, which scrutinises the council's crime reduction policies to make boroughs safer. Since joining the committee in April last year, the Labour councillor has not attended any of its seven meetings. The lack of attendance has been criticised as her ward has been named ‘a murder hotspot’, the New Cross ward was 40th out of 626 wards in London for total notifiable crimes in February this year.
It’s not all ‘fightin crimz dudes’. It’s sometimes about having to get to learn things. One councillor who will definitely be learning things this month will be Tendring district councillor Mick Skeels after he declared an interest about a planning application but failed to leave the did declare a personal interest in the application, but remained in the meeting during the discussion and when councillors voted on whether to pass it. He also took part in a site visit with other councillors.
It ain’t half **** mum!
Those wacky councillors seem to like employing other wacky folks. A council housing boss who wore **** uniforms and sent racist texts has been axed from his £90,000-a-year post. Hammersmith & Fulham acted after Gareth Mead, 44, was shown wearing outfits for sex games. A text to men he met on fetish websites allegedly said: “Gas the Jews and W*gs.”
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang....a reckless matter
It’s all going on in Kent. If you remember we reported in March about a Councillor caught kerb crawling, well since then a few other councillors seem to have been accused of various misdemeanours. Cllr Jane Chitty, the strategic planning portfolio holder, is alleged to have bullied an employee near the public reception area at the council's Gun Wharf headquarters. She is also accused of failing to treat the officer with respect. Cllr Ray Maisey has been accused of disreputable behaviour after it was alleged he concealed personal interests in a planning application at Cuxton parish council and later Medway council. Cllr Mark Reckless faces three allegations brought by three Medway council officers, including the council's chief executive.
It follows a series of incidents at the end of last year at a planning appeal into the Castle Club in Rochester and over the schools reorganisation programme. But Cllr Reckless - a solicitor in his day job - has hit back, claiming that the accusations are wrong.
Councillor Arrested in knife attack
The Daily Mirror reported that a councillor was arrested over the attempted murder of his wife weeks after allegedly finding her at a hotel with a political rival.
Gwilym Euros Roberts, 40, was being quizzed last night after mum-of-two Catrin, 39, suffered an apparent stab wound at the family home. She was taken to hospital but her injuries are not said to be life threatening. Last month Roberts confronted Catrin and councillor Dylan Richards at a hotel near Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd.
Afterwards, Catrin denied any affair but confirmed she and her husband were to divorce after 16 years. Roberts represents Llais Gwynedd (Voice of Gwynedd), a breakaway group from Plaid Cymru, on Gwynedd county council. North Wales Police said: "A 40-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder following an incident at Blaenau Ffestiniog on Saturday night."
Bully for who?
‘Bullying’ emails have led to a councillor being suspended for a year, wrote the ‘News shopper’.
Colin Willetts, who represented the Cray Valley West ward, was reported to the Standards Committee over emails he sent to Bromley Council staff. These include emails to the chief executive Doug Patterson where he called him a liar, a cheat and a hypocrite.
A standards tribunal found the independent councillor Mr Willetts had breached the council’s code of conduct. It said he had not treated others with respect, he had bullied people and his conduct had brought his office or authority into disrepute. Mr Willetts told News Shopper: “As far as the tribunal is concerned, that was a stitch-up by a kangaroo court made up of four toffs funded by expenses in a four-star hotel.
“I have already put in an appeal.”
Watching Wirral
Last month we told you about the troubles facebook apparently gets those wacky councillors into, well it would appear at least one councillor in the Wirral has had a similar experience.
The BBC reported that Denis Knowles, who represents the ‘Harry’ Seacombe ward, wrote about "limp-wristed" boys leafleting in the area. The comment has since been removed and Mr Knowles apologised, saying he had never held homophobic views. In a statement, Councillor Jeff Green, leader of Wirral's Conservative Group, said: "Councillor Knowles removed the comments and has now apologised for any offence that has been caused.
But Wallasey's Labour MP Angela Eagle, who is gay, said she was "shocked and appalled" by the comment. Angela wed her lesbian partner back in 2008.
Pictured left; Wallasey MP Angela and her partner Maria (pictured right).
I tend to think society (well it’s not society it’s the gay community), are going a bit mental over all of this, you can’t call people gay anymore, why? Well I suppose it hurts their feelings and according to the Liverpool Daily post, encourages homophobia. A newspaper story they ran suggested 1 in 3 teachers hear ‘homophobic’ remarks from schoolchildren, whom apparently use the word ‘gay’ with wanton disbandon. I suppose the other one of the other two hear racist remarks as well, its called errm kids being kids.
The teachers aren’t hearing things, kids call each other gay, in case these teachers haven’t noticed, the kids also do many other things they shouldn’t, but they are after all kids. For what its worth, my son calls me ‘gay’ if I don't let his friends stay round. He calls his mother and his sister ‘gay’ when they disagree with him. He calls his ‘X box’ gay when he gets beat, he calls the television gay when there’s nothing on he wants to watch. I don't think my son is casting aspersions on my, his mothers, his sisters, his ‘X boxes or his televisions sexualities, he’s just using a term that kids use.
Come to think of it, when I was growing up the term then wasn’t ‘gay’, it was ‘poof’.
I’d rather he called all of these things ‘gay’ than ‘f****** s****’ as I tend to, because primarily, I’d have to beat him, and that is definitely against all things PC.
Naturally, the government will sort this type of name calling out, they’ll invest many thousands of pounds in think tanks and working parties, they’ll try to get hip with the kids, then make it a hate crime.
Till next month.....vote Reiver!
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