21 Comments
founding
Apr 22·edited Apr 22

Considering the state of the city versus our peers, and the mountain to climb in order to get back even to parity never mind success, I couldn’t give two hoots whether he spends the rest of his days on bail. Double Manchesters unemployment and half their wages has been our trajectory, against a backdrop of dodgy deathtrap building projects and a never ending stream of dubious construction contracts. Plans for revitalisation left languishing. A period for the city even more fundamentally undermining than the Thatcher years. What a legacy.

All that matters is that he is OUT, and we have a chance to recover.

The lords merely soil themselves with their intervention on his behalf, versus the many worthy causes out there.

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Totally agree, I have no sympathy for him. I feel he was out to make a legacy for himself at any cost regardless of the effect on our city. And what’s that about he didn’t know his son was awarded that contract bull####.

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You're right to flag up the extraordinarily long times that people can be left in limbo under "RUI", especially in cases involving local authorities. Another one is Lancs Police's Operation Sheridan where there were raids in 2017 which eventually led to charges in August 2022, including against Liverpool CC's former CEO, Ged Fitzgerald, but which have still not gone to trial, as far as I know.

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Maybe it shows that the criminal justice system has been completely destroyed in most aspects of its functioning since 2010. 50% of magistrates courts have closed. There was a recent Post piece about the lack of solicitors willing to take on legal aid cases because of the funding issues. Around 40% of police have less than 5 years in role and more are leaving than has ever been recorded.

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Not just criminal justice, unfortunately. Big things going wrong in many of our public services. We spend huge sums of money and massive amounts of time on Inquiries that are supposed to "learn lessons" and "stop the same mistakes happening again", while allowing equally bad things to fester elsewhere.

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The echo reported that the file of evidence went to the crown prosecution service in June 2023, so if that is true, they have not made a decision. Hard to have sympathy for someone who forced the council into paying 87k towards his employment tribunal against a Sefton school, and none of it recouped.

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What this highlights is that the law in England and Wales gives little protection to suspects where there is little clear evidence. It encourages lazy policing where Inspector Knacker goes on a fishing expedition rather than react to solid evidence. Sadly, MPs no longer seem interested in protecting suspects,so I can’t see this changing any time soon.

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How remiss of Joe's son to forget to tell his dad that he'd "won" a contract on the demolition of the flyover. Joe must think we were all born yesterday.

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Bloody hell though; 21 scuffers to raid and arrest Joe (*derogatory nickname regarding his physique deleted*) Anderson? It's not like he was gonna make much of a run for it was he?

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Think sometimes they do these things with one eye on the media, and the publicity that it generates, remnds me of the time former Liverpool Goalkeeper Bruce Grobelaar was arrested for supposedly taking backhanders to throw games, the Police in that instance raided his house at first light, accomapnied by (alleged) "Journalists" from a certain rag.What point does it prove?

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Most people might not know this. Michael Heseltine, with the other two aristocrat 'Tory Micks' I call them( Michael Ancram and Michael Howard) all three of them I have met in the past and they all seemed to have a soft spot for this city (Michael Howard was MP for Edge Hill and still is a staunch LFC fan). Heseltine did a praiseworthy job revitalising Liverpool after the the destruction caused by the militants and the Toxeth riot. Unlike his fellow Tory Boris Johnson who was an overt hater of scousers, Heseltine actually trusted all the Liverpool council officials to carry on with the good work he had started. No one ever told our Mick, after the top layer of the militants were kicked out, the roots and tendrils they left behind were in every level of the council departments and Anderson sure as hell was not going to tell him. Heseltine's comment on the 'plight' of Anderson was to hide his ignorance on what have been going on for years. The police investigators have a very good idea on what have been going on. But to pin anyone down for any wrong doing, someone will have to talk. But for a number of reasons, no one had so far. As our council bills and pot holes on our roads continued to get bigger and they have installed a new council CEO who is not exactly everybody's cup of tea, things will not get better.

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I don’t know if Joe Anderson is guilty or not. Or what he is guilty of. Some people may, but not me - and probably not you. If the police can’t construct a case in four years, it’s not looking good for them finishing in forty years. Time to put what they’ve got forward, surely?

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founding

Or, complex matters should take as long as they take.

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The file of evidence from the police was put forward to the crown prosecution service in June 2023. Don’t let facts get in the way though.

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Joe Anderson transformed liverpool with his business acumen. But here’s a question: why did Merseyside Police withdraw his bail just days after nominations closed for the Mayoral Election?

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founding
Apr 23·edited Apr 23

“Joe Anderson transformed liverpool with his business acumen”

Hilarious! Given FDI levels plunged lower than Doncaster, and the city is no longer reported on in “the big six”, you’re so not wrong…

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I don’t know the answer, what are your thoughts on why this may have happened?

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Who knows? I don’t like conspiracy theories, and I certainly don’t like making allegations against the police. But I know of stitch-ups in liverpool politics, and the longer this drags on the more it comes to look like one.

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But I can see why Lord Heseltine made his intervention. Joe Anderson was prominent in realising Heseltine’s advocacy for city regeneration.

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founding

Yeah, that must be it. That must be the reason why institutional investors suddenly wouldn't touch our city with a barge pole. Conspiracy innit.

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What stitch ups in Liverpool politics do you know of?

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