Labour blatant in use of public money for their propaganda

The latest copy of Labour’s election magazine arrived today.

Well, it claimed to be RCT Council newspaper, and is paid for from the Council budget, but it is hard to tell the difference.

It has had a revamp, changed format slightly, and is now called Outlook News.  The RCT Council website says it is available to download here.  In fact at the time of writing that does not have the latest issue on there.

The publication NEVER features any non Labour Councillors, and this particular edition is quite blatant in its efforts to blame the Westminster coalition for all the ills in the world.  There is a large section on Housing Benefits which claims that RCT are being over-run with extra work because of benefit changes imposed by the coalition. 

The piece on the budget and the raising of the Council Tax by 2.49% lays the blame with the Westminster Government and the cuts they have imposed on the Assembly.   Funny how this doesn’t seem to have affected Cardiff or Swansea in the same way!

The Labour party in RCT are completely shameless when it comes to milking the public purse.

It is not enough their leader is the highest paid Councillor in Wales, and their Cabinet Members take every penny they can wring out of the system. Not enough to employ the son of a Cabinet Member – himself a Labour party member and former council candidate  – and promote him without interview or the job being advertised to head up the public relations department.  Not enough to waste money on their jollies, to which they are ferried in the Council chauffeured car.

They are using  - some may say abusing - Council resources, paid for by the taxpayer, for their own publicity and political ends. Their local party website is full of Council press releases and photographs that they apparently paid the grand sum of £180 for using. The person who would have given them permission is presumably the aforementioned head of Public Relations and Strategy.

We are not sure if the parents of the children who appear gave their permission for their photos to be used in political material.

They are using taxpayers money to subsidise their election material.  Cllr Mike Powell got a telling off recently when he referred to them in the Council Chamber as ‘hypocritical parasites.’  Maybe you should make up your own minds on that one.   Personally I could think of a few more descriptions that would fit – although I am too polite to post them here.