Mark Birchall – Neil Wilby Media

Local elections in Oldham begin to take shape

In what is probably the most important election in decades, the political parties in Oldham are settling on their candidates that will fight the twenty-one seats that are up for grabs. Since the election in May, 2019 only one poll has taken place and that attracted widespread media attention for all the wrong reasons asContinue reading “Local elections in Oldham begin to take shape”

Council Leader calls for ‘wider representation of views’

Oldham’s Council Leader has urged residents of the Borough to join in the Public Question Time sessions at Full Council meetings, writes Neil Wilby. Cllr Arooj Shah‘s call came during July’s session at which queries had been raised by four politicians, with no unaffiliated members of the public taking part. Two Conservative Party members, RobertContinue reading “Council Leader calls for ‘wider representation of views’”

Extraordinary Council meeting set to rubber stamp top officer appointment

Following an exclusive posted elsewhere on this website on 17th August, 2021 (read here), Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council sits this evening in an Extraordinary session, starting at 6pm, to consider a motion approving the appointment of Harry Catherall as interim chief executive. The proposal to bring Harry out of semi-retirement was considered by the Council’sContinue reading “Extraordinary Council meeting set to rubber stamp top officer appointment”

Disinformation discolours local elections

This article is an adaption from a post on the Valent Newsletter blog, a site dedicated to ‘dealing with Disinformation/Misinformation/Fake News…..and online manipulation’. Full credit is given to both Valent and the author, Hamish Falconer. His article is linked here. It’s sub-heading is ‘A QAnon-style campaign helps topple a council leader’. There are a significantContinue reading “Disinformation discolours local elections”

Number of candidates set to contest Oldham elections drops to 95

With the local elections in the East Lancashire mill town less than three weeks away, the statutory list of wards, candidates, and their proposers and seconders, has been published by Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (see here). There are twenty wards in the Borough, and the Council, as part of its Publication Scheme, provides impressive in-depthContinue reading “Number of candidates set to contest Oldham elections drops to 95”

Absent of evidence

Tameside’s best known political agitator, Raja Miah, suffered a further blow this week with yet more social media bans, writes Neil Wilby. Two of his weekly broadcasts on the ‘Recusant Nine’ YouTube channel, purporting to cover political issues in the neighbouring Borough of Oldham, were removed after both were found to contain defamatory material. AnContinue reading “Absent of evidence”

Beginning of the end?

It’s been a long haul. An investigation that started over a year ago may soon be coming to an end, writes Neil Wilby. Allegations that a police force, a local council and a group of MP’s were engaged in a long running wide-scale cover up of grooming and child sex abuse, in an East LancashireContinue reading “Beginning of the end?”