By Nathan Williams
June 30th 2005
“No one is above is above the Law.” What a most wonderful saying
and no
doubt coined by equally ‘wonderful’ and ‘highly’ principled
members of our
ruling elite as so much fodder to feed to the gullible populace.
As a someone who is interested and lives in Hull, I think it was almost a
year ago since I saw our then intrepid Leader of Hull City Council,
Councillor Colin Inglis take on the might of non other than the then Home
secretary David Blunkett and refuse to suspend the then Chief Constable
David Westwood of Humberside Police for incompetence in the wake of The
Bichard Inquiry into the tragic series of events that allowed Humberside
Police to destroy vital information that could possibly have saved the
lives of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells by sounding alarm bells over the
chequered sexual history of the Soham child killer Ian Huntley.
At the time it seemed you could not turn over to any television news
channels without seeing Councillor Inglis sitting on some TV studio couch
absolutely wallowing in his own importance as a political man of
principle. I just shook my head in disbelief and smiled, and knew
vengeance would come swiftly. It was indeed a brevier performance from
our glorious and self professed man of principle, council leader Colin
Inglis, and a classic case to any in the psychiatric profession of a
condition called “Delusions of Grandeur.” Also when you live in
a glass
house you don’t throw stones.
Watching TV that night Councillor Inglis seemed to be filling almost every
national news studio in the country in those few days. I must admit as I
watched that an old American film came to mind about the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbour, called Tora, Tora, Tora. This too was another self
delusional historical event, and the words I recalled from the film were
after the attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the Japanese Admiral in
Command turned to his subordinates and said in a fearful and dramatic
tone, “I cannot help thinking we have awoken a sleeping giant and filled
him with resolve.”
Of course the only difference between the two events as I see it, was the
Japanese Admiral was smart enough to see what he had done, and Councillor
Inglis kept on going full steam ahead on his political Kamikaze mission.
What Councillor Inglis did not seem to grasp was one of the simplest rules
in the establishment political game, and that is that small-time Labour
Councillor’s from northern backwaters like Hull do not take on the might
of heavyweight political ANIMALS like David Blunkett, and then go on to
grandstand against Blunkett on national television.
Oh yes Councillor Inglis was enjoying his fifteen minutes of national fame
and that was clear for all to see. David Blunkett must have been bouncing
off the Home Office walls with rage or Kimberly Quinn’s’ bed,
every time
Councillor Inglis made another TV pitch as the politician of principle. I
am only surprised he never made it on to the Richard and Judy’s couch
like
other politicians with chequered pasts like President ‘I did not have
sexual relations with that woman’ Clinton.
I remember having a telephone conversation with Angus Young of the Hull
Daily Mail during Inglis’s spat with Blunkett and we were both of the
opinion that Colin Inglis had become drunk with power- not unlike many
local politicians who seem to be immune to Humberside Police
investigation, but this time he did not seem to understand the political
implications of a ‘nobody’ like him trying to make a national name
for
himself by taking on Blunkett.
So the events, which followed, and the subsequent investigation of
Councillor Inglis on alleged child abuse offences came as no surprise to
those seasoned New Labour watchers. I imagine, and I am sure the telephone
conversation between Prescott and Blunkett went something like this.
“John, because it’s your town usually the police turn a blind eye
to
councillor shenanigans in Hull, but this Inglis bloke is making me look an
idiot. So I’m going to feed him to the press. You keep your head mate.”
Well so successful was this strategy of political vengeance that today Mr
Inglis is no longer Leader of the Council, no longer Chairman of the local
Police authority, in fact he is no longer a member of The Labour Party,
but has been suspended pending the outcome of North Yorkshire Police
investigations into more child abuse allegations. I doubt somehow unlike
the many New Labour dodgy cabinet ministers who have lost their jobs in a
sea of sleazy allegations that Inglis will be back.
In fact after talking with the journalist who instigated the police
inquiries, it would seem that Humberside Police initially refused to
further investigate Councillor Inglis, and it was only after the media
group that this journalist worked for gathered together their own legal
team and looked at the alleged evidence, and then threatened Humberside
Police that if they did not investigate the matter, then they would bring
their own private prosecution against Inglis, that knees began knocking
together and the Police lost their bottle.
It indeed smacks of political vengeance of the most insidious kind and the
timing is not without coincidence. And now that Blunkett is back, no
doubt looking for some other married women’s bed to warm, he is probably
watching events pan out in Hull with a grin on his face, “Suck that one
Inglis you Bastard Upstart.”
And now thankfully we can all sleep safely in our beds in Hull knowing
that Councillor Colin Inglis no longer sits on the local Police Authority
and that such eminent and principled local politicians like Councillor
John Black have been pulled from the political skeleton cupboard and given
a seat on the Humberside Police Authority. Yes for those who may have had
a memory loss, the same John Black who in 1998 was Deputy Chairman of a
Housing Trust that sanctioned the sale of newly renovated former council
houses to a company where his best friend’s son, JONATHAN Prescott was
a
director, and a man named JOHN Prescott, some sort of spelling mistake
apparently, was the company secretary. Though it was all above board,
John Prescott’s office that investigated the affair said so.
But at least we can be assured
that Councillor Black will ensure the same
‘high’ standards as previous are maintained at the Humberside Police
authority, because there are also allegations that at a local homeless he
runs, the staff members were downloading child pornography. This appears
to be yet another episode of those reporting it to the local Police
saying they were ignored to this day and under investigated. But be
assured something was indeed done about these allegations, the woman
making the allegations got the sack.
Oh well such are the trials and tribulations of political life in Hull. I
have no doubt that one day someone will try to flush the political toilet
in Hull again, just as those gutsy Hull factory workers did in 1998 in
trying to expose the crooked Labour politicians who appear to run Hull
City Council with impunity from the Law. They too got fed to the press by
the Labour spin-doctors, but they made a mint out of stupid Prescott
because they had set him up. The affair became a book called now famously
Dustbingate, and now according to the newspaper ‘The Independent’,
soon to
be a film.
It is probably an indication of the times we live in that whilst the media
and Police stood by while Hull was being fleeced by dodgy and crooked
politicians, it took ordinary hard working people on a night shift making
plastic bottle tops to stop John Prescott and Councillor John Black in
their tracks.
I was proud to help write that book with those people and if only more
people had that kind of guts to stand up to our corrupt politicians our
City might return to its once great past.
Bloody good on ya’ lads!!! You scared John Prescott to death.