| A Journey of Truth – Chapter 9. |
| This Chapter at a Glance:
• The Preface – A Cruel Odyssey and ‘Reggie’s Renaissance’; • Episode 1 – CFA’s Legal Responsibilities; CFA Statutory Duty; The Ineluctable Question? J’Accuse ! • Episode 2 – Contempts of Courts; The “Hardship Route”; Corporate Falsehood; • Episode 3 – Compelling Evidence of Deliberate Corporate Mendacity; Blackmail; My Discipline Misdemeanour; Obtaining My PRF; • Episode 4 – Alleged ‘Overpayment’; Misconduct in Public Office; CFA Chairman’s Role; Suspension and Prosecution; • Episode 5 – The Clerk to the CFA responds; • Episode 6 – FSV~RRB Observations; • The Bugler’s Comments – A Clerk’s Exit Strategy. |
| A Cruel Odyssey and ‘Reggie’s Renaissance’ |
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All that follows is the Truth not an opinion; not even an opinion which the Bugler always publishes with supporting evidence; just the Truth. In writing and presenting his personal thoughts disabled FSV-RRB sought assistance from his comrades and concluded that any renaissance to his present life was best achieved by laying his accusations and evidence in the form of an open letter directly at the feet of those he justifiably accuses of ruining his life in his hard earned tranquil retirement, and how this ruination was deliberately and iniquitously visited on him by public civil servants who were meant to serve and care for him, when his turn for pastoral care finally came from the LFRS.
They conveniently chose to forget the death or serious injuries that many Firefighters uncomplainingly suffered which inevitably led to their compulsory discharge from a Service which they loved. These admired Firefighters were, and remain, the last bastion of hope in the protection of all the working people of Lancashire. Citizens who have worked hard all their own lives to provide and care for those whom they hold most dear, their families; the roof over their own hard earned homes; and indeed, their very lives. Firefighters are a sanguine group of professionals with a vocation who expect little, if anything, in return. They pay their way at 11-14% and more of their monthly salary for their well-deserved pensions after long and loyal service to their Communities, but a little Justice now and then might go a long way to encourage the next generations of Firefighters to step forward to serve. This is disabled FSV-RRB Truth, or as he describes it , ‘Reggie’s Renaissance’, a cruel oydessy in which the essence was simply to be believed; that when he said he had done his duty, it was so; and when he vainly protested to those who actually knew the truth, those who iniquitously withheld the Truth from him, that this also was so. In the bitter end it was left to him to prove his Truth by himself. Here is his unapologetic story told with commendable objectivity but straight from the Heart… |
| A Cruel Odyssey – Episode 1. |
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Antully, France, 71400. email XXXXXXXXX Friday, 6th November, 2015.
Chairman Lancashire Combined Fire Authority Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service HQ Garstang Road, Fulwood, Preston. PR2 3LH
A Complaint – Malfeasant Pension Maladministration – The Pensions Regulator. Dear Chairman, In a recent letter to one of my colleagues your Mr. Warren(Head of People & Development) pointed out the following… “Lancashire Combined Fire Authority is the scheme manager for the Firefighters Pension schemes”. Accordingly, as the Chairman of the Combined Fire Authority, you are the person ultimately responsible in law for my Pension Scheme and it is on this basis that I place this formal Complaint before you which is Misconduct in Public Office coupled with the Malfeasant Maladministration of my Pensions, in violation of Public trust, by certain named staff under your direct legal control, or indirect control by means of Contract, namely, the Lancashire County Council ‘Your Pension Service’(YPS), your pension service delivery contractor. CFA’s Legal Responsibilities. 1. It is my belief that my incontrovertible evidence, which I will place before you in this Complaint, referred to as ‘material of significance’ in The Pensions Regulator’s Code of Practice, No. 14 ‘Governance and administration of public service pension schemes’(April 2015), constitutes material breaches of the relevant provisions of the Pensions Act 2004. This requires you as the person responsible , without delay, to fulfil your Statutory duty which is to investigate and report my Complaint directly to the Pensions Regulator, so that it can be fully and impartially investigated. 2. My compelling evidence of criminality, which I will now present to you, is taken from my Personal Record Files, which includes pensions records, in a file released to me through the legal action of the Information Commissioner. 3. Your Statutory duty is, in part, referred to in this Guidance Paragraph 272 under the title ‘Whistle Blowing protection and confidentiality’. For clarity you are referred to as the ‘Reporter’ : “The Pensions Act 2004 makes clear that the statutory duty to report overrides any other duties a reporter may have (my underline)such as confidentiality and that any such duty is not breached by making a report. The regulator understands the potential impact of a report on relationships, for example, between an employee and their employer.”. 4. Such is the level of criminality involved in the malfeasant management of my pensions, “the material of significance”, that it routinely incorporated institutionalised malpractice by LFRS and LCC staffs under the direction and control of the day-to-day delegated scheme manager, Mr. R. Warren. Practices of : • Plain dishonesty; • Non-confirmation of information regularly supplied to the scheme administrators by Members; • The failure to record accurate information about Members’ individual DWP benefits and data in their Service records; • Appropriate essential records not being regularly maintained, or monitored; • Inadequate, irregular, or non-robust internal audit controls leading to unsustainable losses to the Public Purse; • Scheme assets not being safeguarded; • Poor governance and maladministration; Paying the wrong types of pensions over decades; • Malfeasance in covering up maladministration and conspiracy to defraud; • Acting deliberately in contravention of the law; • Knowingly, in direct breaches of Statutory duty, failing to report significant pension Scheme maladministration to The Pensions Regulator. 5. It is my belief, supported by publicly available LCC/LFRS Minutes and records, that these unsupervised institutionalised practices will lead, and have led, to a lack of Member confidence in the entire Lancashire Firefighters’ Pension Scheme under your jurisdiction resulting in Scheme assets not being safeguarded, extending to recorded losses to the Public Purse of over £2mil+. 6. It is my, and the Lancashire Public’s reasonable public interest expectation, that in the interim you will immediately suspend all those LFRS staff , those persons I will identify below, who have been engaged in these unlawful practices, if only to protect their rights in law and in natural Justice. 7. In respect of LCC contracted staff it is assumed that that you will liaise with the Leaders of the Coalition of the Lancashire County Council, to whom this letter is copied, to ask for the parallel suspension of their named YPS staff, namely, Mrs. D. Lister Head of YPS, and Ms. J. Wisdom Performance Manager. Your Statutory Duty. 8. Since 2007 the Lancashire Combined Fire Authority in conjunction with the Lancashire CC have repeatedly been asked in published supporting correspondence, and patently failed, to transparently investigate and address these scandalous failures of pension management and to report them to The Pensions Regulator. 9. The LCC Pension Services(LCC YPS) administer 120,000 local authority pensions directly or by contract to other Local Authorities including the Lancashire and Cumbria Firefighters’ Pension Schemes. Statutory, TPR, and Public accountability is held by the LCC Pension Fund Administration Sub-Committee of which you are a sitting member and part of your Statutory duty was, and remains, to ensure that any pension maladministration of significance is reported to TPR: • You have failed your Statutory duty repeatedly because these matters were reported directly to you and recorded in LCC and LFRS Committee Minutes which I have read. Reports of these scandalous failures which you choose to ignore contained, for example, in Minutes of the Meeting held on Wednesday, 13th June, 2012 at 10.00 am in Cabinet Room ‘B’ – County Hall, Preston; • You failed to report to TPR poor governance and maladministration of your Firefighters’ Pension Scheme identified by a Lancashire Scheme Member in March 2007 which had uncovered 2000+/- errors including 167+/- ‘overpayments’ to the highest individual value of £65k, and ‘underpayments’ to the highest individual value of £45k ; • You failed to report to TPR poor governance and maladministration of your pension Scheme identified by the Audit Commission(National Fraud Initiative) in its data matching exercise of 2010 in which it identified 2,215 errors including the payments of pensions to 1007 Members who were certified as dead. • You failed to report to TPR poor governance and maladministration of your pension Scheme identified by the Audit Commission(National Fraud Initiative) in its data matching exercise of 2012 in which it identified 2,060 errors including the payment of pensions to 1012 Members who were also certified as dead. • These failure rates of 1.85%+ are commonly regarded as maladministration; • You failed to take prompt and effective action to remedy these breaches of pension law and to identify and tackle their causes in order to minimise risk of recurrence; • You failed to notify individually affected Scheme Members and the Scheme Membership in general of the deficiencies of their Scheme and the detailed remedial action being taken to restore their confidence in their Scheme; • You failed to take, or pursue, the required Statutory action to a proper conclusion. 10. In framing my Complaint I have drawn evidence from all those, whether directly involved or not, who have supported a campaign for civil rights against the Lancashire Combined Fire Authority in opposing its collective scandalous tyranny in the maltreatment of LFRS disabled FSVs, their surviving Widows, and Beneficiaries, in a dispute involving their pensions since March 2007. Once more you have an opportunity to present and report my irrefutable evidence to The Pensions Regulator which is your Statutory duty. The Ineluctable Question? 11. The ineluctable question I have regularly asked myself is why your Mr.Warren went to such scandalous lengths of corrupt practice to obstruct my legal right to obtain my Service records, my Personal Record Files(PRF)? 12. This year, 2015, Mr.Warren sent me two letters May/August with enclosures. These letters were of increasingly strident threats when, at last in September, he was being legally forced by the Information Commissioner to release my service PRF after 5 years of deliberate obstruction and delay. His vain hope was that this late embarrassingly frantic intimidation would finally deflect me from the task of obtaining my PRF, which I had set myself in November 2010. 13. The enforced release of my PRF now starkly reveals, and confirms, what he knew, and I have always suspected, that he, in complicity with others under his authority, would stop at nothing, including the use of collective mendacity to protect themselves from exposure and the consequences of their, and his, failed legal duty which is, and remains under Statute law, to correctly administer my pensions as the LFRS delegated day-to-day pension Scheme administrators and manager. 14. Mr. Warren’s obvious attempted intimidation in his letters invites my response in kind. My Complaint uses evidential content from my PRF; correspondence with him; from FSVs associates; from Court released LFRS internal records and emails; and from the Information Commissioner. The drafting and framing of my Complaint, which I have approved, also includes the advice of the civil rights anti LFRS pension campaign pro bono barrister. J’Accuse ! 15. In defending the indefensible, Mr Warren’s professional persona, he has, since 2007, in complicity with his supervising principals, and those pension management staff with pension malfeasance to hide, without the knowledge or approval of the majority of the 25 Elected Members of the Lancashire Combined Fire Authority(who have signally failed to fulfil their Public inquisitorial mandate),regularly engaged in conceiving, authoring, and authorising undisguised corrupt practices. His deliberate denial of the existence of information recorded in my PRF is a classic example of his corruption. 16. Mr. Warren has in his oppressive regime, as a matter of published fact, compelled innocent LFRS staff under threat of discipline leading to loss of their employment to engage in an unwarranted, unjustifiable, amoral pogrom, against any person including myself, or group of people, who had the temerity to oppose his unbridled criminality. 17. This is a manifest tyranny, coupled with a lawless pogrom of Mr.Warren’s misconduct in public office for his own self-gratification and protection, during which he acted as the primary executor and grandiose sole arbiter for the LFRS, and during which he unhesitatingly stooped to the deliberate use of criminality by Contempts of Court; perjury; miscarriages of justice; blatant breaches of the law both-civil and criminal; intimidation; raw racism, and the false manipulation and malignant criminal misuse of Public and Personal Data under his confidential control, in the presentation of misinformation to Elected Members of the CFA, and thus the Public. 18. It is Mr.Warren’s self-evident and avowed intention to publicly smear, crush, and leave me penniless, and any of his disabled FSV opponents, whilst covering up and defending his abject failure to accept responsibility for the daily maladministration of the Lancashire Firefighters’ Pension Scheme under his direct control since 2002, and for which you the Chairman; the current Chief Fire Officer C. Kenny QFSM; and Mr.Warren by lawful delegation, share legal culpability as its administrators and my Scheme manager. 19. This culminated in the personal application by Mr. Warren of his sadistically vicious financial hardship on me, which was nothing short of blackmail, in the application of his self-authored “Hardship Route” because as he saw it, I failed his ‘5th column’ test which was to betray my protesting comrades, the disabled FSVs. |
| A Cruel Odyssey – Episode 2. |
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Contempts of Courts. 20. Now once more in intriguing, smearing, and covering up his suppurating trail of corruption he states in his threatening letter of August, which included a copy of the Court Judgement against disabled FSV Mr.Paul P.Burns, the intent of which can only have been to intimidate me, that I gave evidence in this 4 day County Court Trial, when it cannot have escaped his notice, because he was present, that I most certainly did nothing of the kind. Simply more deceit which is his stock in trade. 21. Mr. Warren’s unprincipled contempt for the civilised rule of law displays a person who cares little for the laws and conventions of society in which he knows no legal boundaries, a Misconduct in Public Office which climaxed in February 2013 in the Preston County Court before Circuit Court Judge P. Butler(Knight of the Holy Sepulchre). 22. Mr. Warren is indeed correct in that I did provide sworn testimony to the Court but not on the basis he has assumed. But by giving a sworn testimony to the Court Office along with three other members of the Public from the Court public gallery, and two Court officials who between sessions complained directly to Judge Butler, of observed Contempts of Court. Judge Butler has confirmed that these sworn Witness Statements are held on file in the Preston County Court Records. 23. I did state in this sworn Court statement how I observed Mr.Warren and others representing the LFRS/LCC blatantly, in Contempts of Court, engage in personal perjury and by the misuse of banned electronic devices communicate between themselves, contrary to published Court notices on the Court room walls, collude with your LFRS Solicitor Mr.A. Harold; the LCC Head of Pensions Mrs.D. Lister(YPS); and by the use of physical signals suborn your own complicit primary witness Ms. J. Drinkall MBE(LFRS-Rtd) who was in the Witness Box. 24. In an obviously pre-planned staged choreography of perjury Mr.Warren and these others collectively conspired and intrigued to pervert the course of Justice by defeating the legitimate cross examination of Ms. J.Drinkall MBE(literally behind the back of the Litigant-in-Person), disabled FSV Paul P Burns. 25. These Witness Statements are linked directly to the Court’s own tape records of Judge Butler’s rants on this specific matter, including his failures to act, and now lie on file as a matter of Public and Court testimony. 26. All of this misconduct in public office coupled with its unashamed oppression, which documentary evidence supports in released comprehensive internal email exchanges with politicians, was condoned with the prior knowledge and tacit approval of the former Chairman of the CFA County Councillor D.O’Toole; you as current Chairman of the CFA; and the recently retired Clerk to the CFA, Mr. M. Winterbottom DL( Lancashire Under Sherriff and Deputy Lord Lieutenant); the former CFO Holland(now DCLG government Fire Advisor); and your current CFO, Kenny. The “Hardship Route”. 27. Mr.Warren it is who conceived and authored a deliberately inhuman, punitive, and secret LFRS policy known as the “Hardship Route” which was intended to, and did bring direct financial hardship to myself and others who refused to accept his financial intimidation and bullying and who were simply exercising their democratic rights within a free society. It is a matter of factual record that in a circulated self-authored email(Released by the Court) Mr. Warren described the purpose and “principles” of the application of his “Hardship Route” to your former CFO Holland and to the political leaders of that time. 28. Mr. Warren did without compunction, apology, or remorse, conceive, direct, and engage in collusion with his staff, as my irrefutable and compelling PRF evidence now confirms, to send myself and other disabled FSVs, their surviving Widows, and Beneficiaries down this “Hardship Route” because we would not yield to his criminality, bullying, intimidation, and his oppressive misconduct in public office. The intended effect of which in my case was to drive me into personal bankruptcy to a point where today I live in virtual destitution in a chicken shed with a bucket for ablutions within an unconverted dilapidated barn in a farmyard in France, my last refuge. Corporate Falsehood. 29. At the commencement of Mr.Warren’s personal pogrom against me on the 26th February 2008 he insisted that I attend a meeting at Service HQ under threat that if I did not do so he would stop my pensions(unlawful) and my DWP benefits(only the DWP can sanction this) which are all classed as my income, giving the explanation for my required attendance as- ‘overpayment’. Under direct duress I did attend with my Fire Brigades Union representatives of which I am an out of trade member. But, Mr.Warren had not the personal courage to attend himself. 30.This type of meeting, as other harassed and intimidated FSVs and their families had earlier reported, and were to report subsequently in the media was in effect both a combined ‘kangaroo court’ and ‘ambush’. 31. This pre-choreographed staged meeting was attended by your deputy pension Scheme administrator Mr. Hamilton, his assistant Ms J.Hutchinson(Office Manager-Pensions), accompanied by Ms J. Wisdom(LCC-‘Your Pension Scheme’), your contractor’s Fire Service Pension Performance Manager, all of whom it is now clear to me, were there to enjoy my shock, alarm, and despondency. It is an interesting reflective footnote that none of those mentioned above had a single Pension Management qualification between them. 32. Mr.Warren and his cohorts decided after consulting my PRF to use, contrived blatant falsehoods to deliberately misrepresent the recorded facts in my PRF to me, which was that according to your deputy pension Scheme administrator Mr. Hamilton at the meeting, I had failed to inform the LFRS that I had been, and was, receiving deductible DWP Benefits in support of my ‘qualifying’ service injury(which had led to my early compulsory Service discharge) and that as a consequence I had been ‘overpaid’ the sum of £37,899.33(LFRS Internal Document entitled “Fire Injury Pension Reviews. As at 21 Jan 08” ) for which your Mr.Hamilton demanded immediate repayment. 33. When I protested that I had informed the LFRS of the status of my Benefits on the day I was compulsorily discharged, and had signed an LFRS document to that effect, which surely must have been recorded in my PRF, your Mr. Hamilton, clearly acting on Mr.Warren’s instructions, refused my request to let me see my PRF even though he had it in his possession on the table in front of him at this meeting. 34. It is obvious now, after consulting my released PRF on the 15th September 2015, the day after your Mr.Warren handed over a copy to me, that all those present, whom I have named above, were absolutely aware before this meeting that Mr.Warren and they were engaged in criminal corporate falsehood and the deliberate maleficent misrepresentation of the pension facts contained in my PRF. 35. Those named above, acting under Mr.Warren’s direction, repeatedly in falsehood upon falsehood asserted, in the presence of my FBU representatives, that I had not informed the LFRS and/or the LCC YPS about the receipt of deductible DWP benefits when they knew from shared knowledge which Mr.Warren and they had accessed in my PRF(recorded emails confirm that shared knowledge access) that I had informed the LFRS of my DWP status from the very first day my pensions were put into payment. These compelling facts which they collectively knew were recorded in my PRF which was lying on the table before them at this meeting, facts which they refused to allow me or my FBU representatives to view. 36. In carrying out this criminal conspiracy of grossly corrupt deceitful malfeasance upon me (and without doubt others), acting under Mr. Warren’s express instructions, it is now unequivocally clear that the sole purpose of this ‘cover up’ was to prevent the exposure to public accountability of those present who had failed in the pension administration of the Lancashire Firefighters’ Pension Scheme, including the conveniently absent Mr.Warren, the delegated daily pension Scheme manager. |
| A Cruel Odyssey – Episode 3. |
| Compelling Evidence of Deliberate Corporate Mendacity.
37. The enforced release of my PRF now provides irrefutable and compelling documentary evidence of deliberate corporate mendacity under Mr. Warren’s directions and the falsification and denial of the existence of my PRF DWP records which directly rebutted the LFRS accusation that I (and no doubt others as well) had failed to inform the LFRS of the status of DWP benefits which I was receiving; pension maladministration by the LFRS which resulted in my alleged so-called ‘overpayment’. 38. The first, documentary evidence, of the many I could have chosen, confirms that 2 years prior, whilst I was suffering the effects of a serious on-duty injury which led to my compulsory discharge, there was a clear paper trail of LFRS knowledge of my DWP benefits status and indeed clear evidence of both incompetence and maladministration in LFRS failures to properly administer my pay, apropos DWP benefits. This, particular example of maladministration, left me without my pensions. Go Here. 39. The second, documentary evidence, demonstrates that on the first day of my compulsory discharge when my pensions were put into payment the LFRS not only included my DWP benefits as a correct deduction from my calculated Injury Pension but I also signed a statement in which I detailed the DWP benefits I was already receiving and in which I gave an ‘undertaking’ that I would( as my PRF records reflect) inform the LFRS of any future changes. Go Here. 40. The third, documentary evidence, demonstrates that Mr.Warren and his collective staff were fully aware after consulting my PRF that they had been repeatedly informed by both me, and more importantly, the DWP annually, of the value and status of my DWP benefits including the fact that several DWP Benefits were being paid under one heading. Go Here. 41. The fourth documentary evidence demonstrates that when a final letter was being carefully drafted by Ms. J. Hutchinson(LFRS);Ms. J. Wisdom(YPS); and Mr. Hamilton(LFRS) for the final approval of Mr. Warren(LFRS) in a follow up response to the meeting on 26th February 2008, a letter which Mr. Hamilton then signed and sent to me, that this collective drafting was a cohesive, calculated, act of criminality in which they intended to deceive and defraud me. 42. All those involved knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that this letter flew completely in the face of the facts contained in my PRF which included substantial DWP referenced records from my PRF which exposed their collective incompetence for what it was, not just the occasional human error, but which knowingly went beyond institutionalised malfeasance to a point where Mr.Warren, and his staff under his direct control, intended to commit a criminal fraud against me, namely repayment. Furthermore, in a final cover up, even though Mr Warren had all this DWP information before him, he knowingly failed to send all that DWP information with this letter to me even though Mr. Hamilton in an internal email stated that he would do so. 43. In this final letter to me, approved by Mr.Warren, Mr.Hamilton unequivocally stated a direct falsehood, that there were no records of me having informed the LFRS of my DWP benefits status, but not satisfied with this collective deceit, he then proceeded to repeat this blatant lie to me once more. Go Here. Mr. Hamilton then went on to state that the DWP had informed the LFRS that there was a further ‘schedule’ of DWP benefits being paid to me which he knew nothing about. This was another falsehood, when in fact they all knew that the DWP had stated to the LFRS ‘that several benefits were included under a single heading’. Go Here. 44. Later when I reflected on these matters I was certain that I had complied with my obligations and that I had informed the LFRS of the status of my DWP Benefits and though having no personal records of my own to confirm this position I nevertheless wrote to Mr.Hamilton on Thursday 20th March 2008 confirming that I had complied with my obligations. Go Here. Blackmail. 45. When the meeting on the 26th February 2008 broke up your Mr. Hamilton drew me aside privately for an ‘off the record’ conversation making clear that he was acting on Mr. Warren’s instructions. He indicated to me that both Mr. Warren and he were aware of a discipline misdemeanour in my past service filed in my PRF and that they had both noted my activist participation with Mr. Burns the leader of the civil rights anti LFRS pension campaign. Furthermore, Mr. Hamilton indicated to me that Mr.Warren would find it ‘helpful’ in any repayment agreement that he/LFRS might make with me if I was able, from time to time, to let him know what this campaign’s planned activities might be. Because I was still in a state of shock, given the large amount of the alleged ‘overpayment’ and the repayment allegedly due, I was non-committal and left SHQ at this point. 46. Later I reflected on this disturbing development, in which both Mr.Hamilton and Mr.Warren clearly had knowledge of an old spent discipline misdemeanour which could only have come from my PRF, and this coupled with Mr.Warren’s ‘under the table’ offer, painted a very sinister picture which did not escape me. 47. It seemed to me that Mr. Warren’s proposal via Mr. Hamilton could only have been approved by your forbear Chairman CC D. O’Toole and/or CFO Holland. A proposal which was that I should in effect spy and report to Mr. Warren from inside the civil rights anti LFRS pension campaign on their activities. An action which would be ‘helpful’ to me resulting in Mr. Warren, and presumably CFO Holland, approving more favourable terms in any repayment scheme Mr. Warren might propose to me concerning this alleged ‘overpayment’. 48 Later Mr. Warren proposed that instead of the £37,899.33(LFRS Internal Document entitled “Fire Injury Pension Reviews. As at 21 Jan 08” ) allegedly due to the LFRS he would be satisfied to receive £25,186.89(LFRS Internal Document entitled “Fire Injury Pension Reviews. As at 21 Jan 08”) which was a proposed reduction of one third(30%), presumably for ‘services rendered’ though from studying these records it is clear that of the 167+/- ‘overpaid’ disabled FSVs involved I was the only one to be offered this ‘opportunity’. 49. It seemed to me that some were more equal than others having their alleged overpayments completely being quashed by Mr. Warren who simply dictated how the Pension fund and its mechanisms ought to work regardless of what the law might state. My Discipline Misdemeanour. 50. Several years prior to 1987, whilst in Service, I was arrested and charged as a result of an affray in a public house whereby, in defending myself against a person I knew I caused him actual bodily harm. After attendance in Magistrates Court I was subsequently fined and as required under the then Discipline Regulations I reported my conviction to my Station Commander. Later I was charged with bringing the Service into disrepute and appeared before the Chief Fire Officer. I was severely admonished and given a final warning by him. In 1988 I was on a list of International Rescue volunteers approved by him to attend the Armenian Earthquake as only the second ever UK response to an International Disaster(The first, also by Lancashire, was to the Italian Earthquake Disaster in 1980). A short time after this successful mission and without solicitation I received a Memorandum from my CFO stating that all records of this misdemeanour were to be expunged from my records. 51. Now that I have seen my PRF it was upon this single document in my PRF that Mr. Warren and Mr. Hamilton, considered and decided, they would take it upon themselves to reverse and reopen a closed CFO’s decision and use its presence in my PRF in common blackmail, should I fail to see the merit of their ‘off the record’ proposal. Go Here. Obtaining My PRF. 52. Because I was uncertain on all counts about what my concealed PRF records actually contained, I repeatedly asked Mr. Warren to release a copy of my PRF to me so that I could correctly evaluate my position, but he and his staff, principally Mr Lee Gardiner your former Information and Data Protection Officer, and Mr.Harold the LFRS solicitor, repeatedly acting on Mr. Warren’s standing instructions, over a 5 year period, refused to do so. 53. On the 3rd November 2010 almost 5 years ago I made a formal request to Mr. Warren under the Data Protection Act 1998 Section 7 to supply me with a copy of my Personal Record File and all my associated subject data and records which the LCFB/LFRS still retained on me. Mr. Warren just ignored my request and in the 5 years which followed he continued to direct his staff Mr. Lee Gardiner and Mr.Harold the LFRS solicitor to repeatedly refuse my lawful request. 54. In particular Mr.Warren directed the LFRS solicitor Mr. A. Harold to oppose with all means at his disposal including the use of a DPAct ‘exempt’ refusal of my request. A ‘defence’ which involved repeatedly restating and recycling the ‘exemption’ that my PRF were not held in a retrieval system which met the terms of the DPA and thus the LFRS were exempt from compliance and thus my requests could with impunity be denied, which was of course simply stonewalling deceit. 55. This legal subterfuge by Mr. Harold your solicitor, who was already fully aware of the Information Commissioner’s ‘Assessments’ that the LFRS was not ‘exempt’, and that ‘all LFRS PRFs ought to be promptly released’, then knowingly engaged in professional deceit with the absolute knowledge that neither the LCFB, nor its successor in title, could administratively function without a Personal Record File retrieval system which specifically identified an individual Firefighter by Regimental Number which the LCFB/LFRS allocated at Recruit stage, at their commencement of Appointment-for the duration of Service of at least 30 years. 56. The Courts(2 judgements) and the Information Commissioner(2) had repeatedly ‘Assessed’ and concluded that my PRF ‘was held in a DPA relevant filing system’ and that as a matter of some urgency ought to be ‘promptly’ released to me. Yet in spite of all those decisions Mr. Warren continued to blatantly ignore the law until the Information Commissioner at the Taxpayers waste of time and expense sent a 3 person team to physically examine the filing system in which my PRF was stored. 57. This visit simply confirmed the Commissioner’s original Assessments whilst supporting the independent Courts decisions that it was an Act compliant filing system and that all PRF should be released on legal demand. The Commissioner’s decision tacitly recognised that Mr.Warren in complicitly with his subordinates deliberately and obstructively failed to comply with the law for a 5 year period. But as I well knew this denial of the law and the truth was yet another example of Mr. Warren protecting his own self-interest and covering up his failure of Statutory duty as my daily Pension Scheme manager. 58. Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Hamilton, as you will know as Chairman, have since been suspended with your approval earlier this year, Mr. Gardiner for allegedly making fraudulent expenses claims in excess of £40,000.0. It is common knowledge that he has since resigned. Mr Hamilton however remains suspended for a ‘Race hate’ crime on a member of LFRS staff and whilst both may well be ‘unavailable’ and may not now be in a position to support my claims for my repeated requests to Messers.Warren/Hamilton/Gardiner/Harold for the release of my PRF, undoubtedly both my own private records, and those of the Information Commissioner’s Office most certainly will. It is interesting to note that there is not a single record of my DPA applications for a copy of my PRF contained within my released PRF. |
| A Cruel Odyssey – Episode 4. |
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Alleged ‘Overpayment’. 59. Given all these unlawful and criminal circumstances I have not the slightest intention of reimbursing the Public Purse one single penny which Mr.Warren wrongly alleges I owe. If Mr. Warren had been doing his job robustly as my daily Scheme manager properly for which he is handsomely rewarded, to the value of £110,000.0k pa, he would not have allowed the circumstances to arise which permitted ‘overpayments’ to collectively accumulate in the first place. ‘Overpayments’ which were in excess of £2.0mil+ by maladministration directly under his control and for which you, as the Scheme manager, and ultimately your CFO Kenny as the principal Scheme administrator are inextricably responsible. 60. To reinforce my stance the Pensions Ombudsman in a recent Determination’(Number 2865-June 2015) made a benchmark ruling which said in effect that if maladministration arises in a Scheme which then generates ‘overpayments’ the ultimate responsibility rests entirely with the Scheme manager, not the Scheme members, and accordingly any monies which are wrongly ‘recovered’ from Members must be repaid with interest and the Scheme, namely the LFRS Firefighters’ Pension Scheme, must carry its own losses, and for those losses you, your CFO, and your Mr. Warren are directly responsible in law. Misconduct in Public Office. 61. As I see matters which have directly affected me, Mr.Warren has repeatedly since 2002 misused his public office to unlawfully protect his pension management failures by any and all dubious means at his disposal. Mr. Warren has without hesitation ignored the common law which govern good social conduct and professional conduct in public office when it suited him and has regularly and continuously stooped to base criminality to achieve his own self-protective ends rather than accepting responsibility for his own self-generated failures. 62. Mr. Warren, with his supervising principals, which clearly includes you, have repeatedly manipulated and misrepresented the actual ‘facts’ of what has occurred, to the media and Public at large, which he and you regularly ‘fed’ over this period of time to the Elected Members of the CFA, thus easily defeating their inquisitorial role, and as a consequence their democratic role of accountability to the local Taxpayers and the Public. 63. Mr.Warren’s defence will be, as ever in such cases, that he was only discharging his duty as approved by his Councillors, including you as Chairman, in which he was just a mindful keeper of the good name of the LFRS whilst husbanding the Public Purse. But the facts as I have laid them out to you belie these falsehoods as a glance at my PRF will confirm, as example upon example, of simple iniquity and perversity of pension ‘management’ surface directly under Mr.Warren’s mendacious control. 64. Mr. Warren has without compunction in his daily working life at the LFRS, using my case as a prime example, engaged in unbridled common criminality in public office during which he regularly used institutionalised blatant stonewalling; deceit, repeated mendacity; and by the malign manipulation and deliberate supplying of misinformation to those to whom he is Publicly accountable, including you, when it suited his malignant self-preservation. Your Role – CFA Chairman. 65. How much you actually knew in matters pension, chose to ignore, and/or failed to take action on, or were directly involved in approving, is a moot point for the Combined Fire Authority Elected Members to investigate and ponder on. As a Lancashire County Council elected Councillor it is my expectation that the LCC Scrutiny Committee will surely also want to investigate your role in this pension scandals because of your central role on the LCC Pension Fund Administration Sub-Committee in their oversight and accountability for LCC Pensions Services. 66. Firstly, in the light of your prior knowledge of significant failures in the administration of YPS pension service, including the LFRS, highlighted by the two National Fraud Initiative Reports of 2010 and 2012 which were reported to you as a Member of the LCC Pension Fund Administration Sub-Committee which were materially significant matters which the Committee failed in its Statutory duty which was to report these failures to The Pensions Regulator. Secondly, your past and continuing role in pension related scandalous issues involving Mr.Gardiner and Mr.Hamilton which have involved substantial losses/bribery by payments from the Public purse, for example, to Mr. Hamilton. Suspension and Prosecution. 67. I have called on you to suspend Mr. Warren and all the others involved immediately and regardless of whether or not you have the political will or personal courage to implement such action, including a transparent and independent Inquiry, it is my intention shortly to seek and take legal advice on pursuing, in the long term, personal restitution from your Authority. It is time to send the CFA down its very own “Hardship Route”. 68. By now even you must surely be aware what your Statutory duty is, and remains, in respect of the Law and reporting all these issues to The Pensions Regulator. Your Personal Response. 69. Finally, there just remains your public duty to me as an elected Councillor of Lancashire. I would like you to extend the courtesy to me of a personal direct reply(using the above email address) which should include your acknowledgement of receipt my Complaint and any points you may wish to make. A response which should of course, in observing common conventions, be personally signed by you. That is why, included in your annual allowance, the Taxpayers’ make a provision for your secretarial services. Yours Truly, R.R.Berry.
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| A Cruel Odyssey – Episode 5. |
| The new Clerk-Mr.M.R.Nolan- of the CFA responds to FSV-RRB’s formal Pension Complaint.
For Mr.Nolans’s background Go Here. Mark Nolan ALLEGED MALADMINISTRATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS’ PENSION SCHEME. Subject to your confirmation that I understand correctly the extent of your complaint, I write to formally acknowledge receipt of it. • A contravention by the Authority’s executive or any person on behalf of the It is my duty to consult with the Executive when preparing this report, which will also be sent to the members of the Executive and reported to the Authority. 1. What action (if any) the Executive has taken in response to that report; My report will also consider whether there has been any breach of the Authority’s Code of Conduct and following my investigation, in accordance with the provisions of the Localism Act 2011 and following the agreement by the Authority to implement proposals made from the Proceedings of New Standards Arrangements WorkingGroup held on 24 April 2012, I may elect to consult with the Authority’s independent person, as to whether there is a case to answer or whether there are remedial steps to be taken, with the agreement of the member concerned. If your complaint Is, in part, against the Chairman of the Authority, the Vice Chairman will be notified as well as the group leaders, as part of the process I have outlined above, which will be subject to your definitive confirmation, as outlined above. Your complaints are potentially very serious indeed and will be investigated as such. I note that you have supplied documents which have been redacted. I would ask that you provide any further corroborating documents, along with un-redacted copies of those documents (or an explanation as to why they have been redacted) within I note that you are domiciled in France but I also note that you are in regular contact with other ex- fire fighters, through a blogging network, for whom you have common interests with them, and who act as one. It is unlikely that your location will be any impediment to the effectiveness of my investigation and would wish to reassure you in this regard. In the event that I conclude there is a case to answer it may also be the case that recommendations will be made for remedial action. This will also give rise to the generation of a report from the Authority in response, for which a definitive outcome and position will be outlined in detail, including any recommendations for remedial action. In the event that I conclude there is no case to answer then it may be the case that no action will be necessary, which will be confirmed in due course. In the meantime I look forward to hearing from you within the next fourteen days with definitive confirmation of the extent of your complaints as per my request and any further supporting and un-redacted documents, whereupon I shall commence my Yours faithfully Nota Bena~ For the orginal letter, Go Here. ~For FSV~RRB’s observations see the next Episode 6. |
| A Cruel Odyssey – Episode 6. |
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Les Cours Barrault Antully, France, 71400. Monday 14th December, 2015. Mr.C.Kenny QFSM Chief Fire Officer LFRS HQ Garstang Road, Fulwood Preston, PR2 3LH FAO Mr.M.Nolan Clerk to the Combined Fire Authority. Your Reference:MN/JLW My Reference: RRB051.2015 My Complaint. Dear Mr. Nolan 1. I have given your letter of the 25ult., some thought; 2. You have carefully explained your role with its Statutory legal duties and as a licensed ‘officer’ of the Court I must assume that you will comply fully, both personally and professionally, in conforming with the spirit and letter of all those duties; 3. You have indicated your intention to investigate the circumstances of my Complaint, in effect to have the CFA/LFRS investigate itself. It puzzles me how you can do that, but then I suppose you would know better than me; 4. Having written at length about the your legal duties in respect of compliance with the law by the CFA/LFRS, and search as I may, I cannot seem to see where you have informed me that that you have already taken the immediate legal steps necessary to discharge the CFA/LFRS compliance by stating that you are immediately going to, or have already completed these Statutory duties by informing the Pensions Regulator, not only about my Complaint, but about all the other maladministration/malfeasances which has taken place with my, and other pensions under your control and the control of your contractor the LCC~YPS, during the past 7 or more years; 5. You ask if my Complaint involves a direct Complaint against CC F.DeMolfetta’s behaviour and it is clear that it does though it seems that I might not have made that point clearly enough to you. 6. You will be aware that recently CC F.DeMolfetta, with ultimate responsibility for my pensions, has fraudulently misused Public funds in response to Mr. Hamilton’s self-evident blackmail (former head of Human Resources and my deputy pension scheme manager) in purchasing his silence by the use of 3 years departing ‘salary’ having been accused of and suspended for a ‘race hate’ crime, for which he was never put on trial, either civil and/or criminal. So it is safe to say that both CC F.DeMolfetta and Mr.Hamilton who are, or have been, legally responsible to me for my pensions are thus both directly involved and thus subject to my Complaint as well; 7. I am puzzled why you ask me for documents which you must surely have in your archives and in your possession and if they have not been retained or deliberately deleted thus not available to you, then this also is a matter which you must address during your ‘investigation’; 8. I regret, and I am puzzled that after informing and inviting me to have a discussion with you about my Complaint that you then refused to speak with me last week when I phoned from France to speak directly with you?; 9. I am sure by now you will be aware that very few, if any, of the 2000+/- Lancashire pensioners who are Fire Service Veterans have the slightest sense of trust in any of the CFA/LFRS councillors, or their pension management staff due to either their total disinterest in this pension scandal or, in the case of the LFRS/LCC staff, their determination to do whatever it takes both legal or illegal to cover up all their criminality during these past 7 or more years; 10. This of course inevitably raises questions in my mind about your trustworthiness a characteristic which I see has already been raised by the posing of 10 reasonable questions to you in person by the media The Morning Bugler regarding how it was that you have obtained your appointment as Clerk to the Fire Authority? 11. I am sorry to say I share those curiosities as well. It would be beneficial to me and any future discussions I might have occasion to propose to you if you were, as speedily as possible, to let me also have your answers to those unavoidable questions. That way we can immediately begin to have a trusting dialogue to which I hope you might , if there is a next time, wish to respond? 12. In any event your ‘investigation’, setting aside for the moment the curious business of you being ‘judge and jury in your own court’ and how you obtained your appointment, will still be useful to me because when all the investigations I have now set in motion at the recommendation of the Pensions Regulator report to myself and the Public I will be able to compare your version with those of the findings of The Pension Regulator; HM Treasury(Public Pensions); the Serious Fraud Office; and the Local Government Ombudsman; 13. I will await the results of your ‘investigation’ with great interest as will no doubt all these other government agencies. If I can assist you further and I am at liberty to do so then then you must not hesitate to contact me. Yours Truly, R.R.Berry. cc. The Pensions Minister Baroness Altmann CBE. The Pensions Regulator. H.M.Treasury (Public Pensions). The Serious Fraud Office. The Local Government Ombudsman. Coalition Leaders of the Lancashire County Council. Chairman and all Elected Members of the Lancashire Combined Fire Authority. |
| The Bugler’s Comments – A Clerk’s Exit Strategy . |
In the end it was all rather simple. It always is. At the end of the day a clerk, albeit a senior one, was forced by the law in the form of the Information Commissioner, to hand over on behalf of the LFRS a long sought after PRF. The law won and it was to this clerk’s personal public humiliation that he was the one chosen to hand it over. It must have been a humiliating day for him but a mortification he is going to have to get used to as it recurs. Due to his lack of forward planning and his failure to read the game of tactics correctly he lost his embarrassing 5 year rear guard action against the Information Commissioner for the guardianship of his secrets and finally he was publicly forced to concede and to reveal his criminality. He also mistakenly underestimated the role of the Information Commissioner who up until now he had regarded as a closet ally, or at least one of his senior staff called White, thus proving to all his menials and underlings that he is not as omnipotent or as omniscient as he thinks he is. The LFRS was forced into compliance with the law by a mere retired Fire Service Veteran whom as a matter of egocentricity this clerk would not normally acknowledge, indeed he would not even trouble himself to speak to if he could avoid it, simply because he would not be as sagacious as this clerk clearly knows he is. When it became unavoidable that this clerk, who thought he had set the agenda, would have to hand over a PRF to this disabled FSV-RRB, and having found himself with no loyal lackeys left to do his bidding because he had ‘loyally’ either suspended, sacked, or driven them out, he was left literally carrying the file. At the PRF handover on Monday the 14th September in the SHQ foyer the Bugler and an independent person, who both went unrecognised in common courtesies( but that was hardly a surprise) were present at this significant moment of victory . It was obvious to these observers that this clerk could not meet anyone’s eyes indeed he could hardly contain his embarrassed humiliation, rage, and indignation, emotions which were fleetingly in turn etched all over his face. He was having to handover a PRF to a mere disabled Fire Service Veteran one whom he would not normally have given the time of day to. The irony of the setting was not lost on the Bugler either, because it was in this same setting on his early arrival at SHQ in 2002 that when this clerk was challenged on the third occasion he ignored a polite common courtesy of ‘Good Morning’, his riposte was “I do not have to talk to the likes of you…”. Later in a graceless, but not unexpected face saving malicious rumor, which could only have come from this clerk it was alleged that those present had acted antisocially and aggressively. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed the greatest social difficulty was refraining from laughing at his self-evident discomfort and distress. What goes round comes around… This rumor is yet another weary example of pathological lying and threatening behavior which the Bugler has written to this clerk about throughout the years chiding him regularly on in his inability to conclude a letter without using the last paragraph to issue a threat. It is immature, infantile, and frankly boring. It seems this clerk is simply incapable of leaving a battlefield, having lost, with any degree of preserved personal dignity, and strive though he might to appear cool and calm as though the ‘experience’ of losing means little to him, he regularly huff and puffs off into the distance planning revenge. All rather like the cartoon character Yosemite Sam who has rather more bluster than brains. The Bugler did regularly urge this clerk to try to be not so beastly but all to no avail.
Clerks like this, especially the pompous hollow drum type, cannot consider that other people exist independently let alone that they have separate identities who are not a ‘possession’ of those who inhabit such an unprincipled narcissistic world. If we are to draw a conclusion from the courageous example of persistence by FSV-RRB PRF we can only conclude that more institutionalised falsehood, created and directed by this clerk, will also be revealed as PRF after PRF are opened to scrutiny by their owners and lawyers. As revelation follows revelation the LFRS will find the truth an increasingly uncomfortable bedfellow as it is required, in Statutory duty, to report all this to The Pensions Regulator. Presently two more disabled FSVs, the personal victims of this clerk’s appalling miscarriages of justice have applied for their own PRFs and more will surely follow as the hidden secrets pour out. Secrets which are contained in thousands of LFRS PRFs and most especially those of at least 167 disabled PRFs the victims of their Scheme manager’s maladministration and manipulative malfeasance of their pensions. But what was this clerk’s futile objective in defending his lost cause in the first place? Was it to protect the good name of the LFRS or the Public purse? It was neither of these high principles because civilian employees like this seldom think along the proud Service lines of a Public moral compass, or as others do, out of a sense of loyalty to the Service who pays them. Their world is egocentric and they can only see what they want to see and always from their perspective of self-gratification or ‘career’ self-enhancement, and when, as now, they are found out, their self-preservation ‘fight or flight’ psychology engages. This flight or fight response, also called the “acute stress response” which generally disguises strong conscious feelings of actual insecurity and inferiority was first described by Walter Cannon in the 1920s as a theory that animals react to threats with a general discharge of their sympathetic nervous system to support self-preservation . In this case self-preservation encompasses all that this clerk holds dear and as he sees it his professional life’s accomplishments. Namely, his carefully cultivated self-image underpinned by the enjoyable use of sledgehammer autocratic power coupled with perpetual threats and bullying for which alas he wrongly believes he is feared. What he forgets is the ‘comparator’ or as it is crudely known in Firefighter circles the ‘Camel’s balls theory’ which goes something like this… If you have fallen through the odd roof, been caught in the routine ‘shower’ of falling masonry and been burnt in a flashover or just blown up, or down, as the excitement demanded the ‘comparative’ experience of a mere huffing and puffing clerk is hardly likely to raise the odd eyebrow in passing. In fact such dramatic exhibitionist histrionics which this clerk lately engaged in are simply bound to create a silly caricature of himself which inevitably draws image eroding jokes and behind the hand sniggers. Little wonder that challenges to such ‘authority’ follow.
When this clerk first came to the LFRS in 2002 from North West Rail/Manchester Town Hall/Poole College of Education depending on which edition of his biography you are expected to believe, or in which order he has published or re-amended it, it raises an immediate question. Why would the Head of Human Resources directing a claimed 35,000 employees suddenly decide to ‘promote’ himself downwards to become a lowly civilian head clerk to about 1200 LFRS staff ? When Holland recruited this clerk through the back door without any bothersome compliance with Equal Opportunities law he was expected as a new broom to carry out a ‘health check’ on the pension Scheme, for which he was responsible, but he failed to do so. One supposes this was too menial a task for this Grandiosity. When next Holland and his clerk recruited Hamilton, they both failed to instruct Hamilton, as the working deputy Scheme manager, to carry out this essential audit either. So there can be no one else to blame for the subsequent collapse of the pension Scheme in its terminality of maladministration which was not identified by this ‘diligent’ troika of clerks but by an honest (now deceased) disabled FSV, a former Fire Station Commander. Knowing this Gauleiter of Files as we all now know him, and how instinctively he would react in self-preservation to this career threatening disaster it was inevitable that there was only one route he could take. The inevitability of blaming everyone, especially the victims the disabled FSVs, but they were in good company, which included his disaffection with his pension contractor’s staff and his own Rottenfuhrers(section heads) whom this clerk regularly climbed over on his way up his monkey tree to this magnificent failure as head of maladministration of the LFRS Firefighters Pensions Scheme Fund. This calculated cover up was precisely what he commenced do on the 25th September 2007 when he first deceitfully reported his discovery to the CFA, in what has now long been suspected, and is at last confirmed, of a massive and organised cover up by himself and those he coerced to help him, which included not only staff, but ‘uniforms’, and acquiescing politicians. In crafting and publishing this lie to the CFA the truth could be disposed of in his usual cavalier fashion but in this massive manipulated cover up which was actually to save his haughtiness from professional humiliation and embarrassment he could not even run a classy cover up, could he ? But long runs the fox… This simply demonstrated to his ego his mastery of deceitful manipulation for his own self-gratification and self aggrandisement. He thought in this cover up, because all Firefighters were beneath contempt, that they would be easy meat to his manipulative blackmail presumably because he thought that they, like him, had their price. No doubt he has his price as we shall all see shortly, but this failure of many failures was his inability to understand the complexity and loyalties of Fire Service comradeship which simply confirms the barrenness of his human understanding of such virtues in a normal world. He has always known that his weakness in this corporate falsehood was that someone, such as a lowly retired disabled Firefighter, would inevitably break through his defences and expose the truth of how he manipulated the facts which he deliberately kept hidden from those he accused of being guilty. He knew, and continues to know, that this weak strategy of a tissue of lies, this wondrous web of deceit, was bound to collapse sooner or later and that in spite of all his efforts it was all bound to end in personal ruination and in spite of his most gallant efforts he is about to lose all that he fought so deviously to preserve, his self-gratifying self-image. The galling part for him must surely be that in the end his teeth were pulled by a bunch of mere disabled Fire Service Veterans whose fortitude and determination he grossly underestimated, qualities in their professional lives which had saved many a Citizen from their ultimate doom. All that these disabled FSVs were seeking was the truth, fair play, and the Justice; Firefighters in their former lives the likes of which this grandiose clerk could not actually contemplate who required the exercise of a small social grace which was clearly an anathema to him which consisted of simply saying a, ‘Good Morning’ ! |
Grandiosity, which needs to be topped up regularly, rather like Pete in Steam Boat Willie, will be a word long remembered after this clerk has gone because it is inextricably associated with him. His grandiosity started on Day One when he chose the title to describe himself and his position. It said it all “Director of People & Development” whilst of course ignoring the fact that he had abysmally failed in his three previous appointments so perhaps he could have done with a little ‘development’ himself? Perhaps a little modesty might have gone a long way from these prior repeated failures and indeed perhaps God does love a trier and he certainly was that, but what is grandiosity and why the use of the past tense? Well of course this clerk, as all the rest of us know, is on his way out because he has boxed himself into a corner of deceit. He is such a poor strategist, but perhaps as usual he will be the last to know. What exactly is professional bureaucratic Grandiosity and how can one objectively describe it? Grandiosity refers to an unrealistic sense of superiority—a sustained view of oneself as better than others which causes the clerks of this world to view others with disdain as inferiors whilst reinforcing their sense of uniqueness to themselves and how worthy they are, but not that anyone else might actually notice or care. This coupled with the unerring self-belief that few others have anything in common with them and that only they can be understood by a few or very special people which of course would not include anything remotely like a Firefighter or any other unmentionable ‘underling’, and most especially anyone who fails to respect them, who is viewed with undisguised contempt and scorn. As we have seen lately in the hurried departures from the LFRS, and more will follow, those of a grandiose disposition have not the slightest compunction in using those around them to advance or protect themselves and these used vassals having served their purpose are then discarded without the slightest thoughts of loyalty, humanity, or scruple. Perhaps this is all rather exhibitionist, another trait which included this clerk’s proposal to break down Harold’s locked door when the use a mere cleaner’s key would do, but that would mean asking a mere cleaner…
But what we can be certain of is that Hamilton and Gardiner both having served their purpose have been sent to the clerk’s Wall and the Bugler fears they will not be the last victims of guilt cleansing which will allow this clerk to defend himself in the future by pointing the finger at the ‘departed’ as the guilty party whilst appearing to remain stain free himself. Such clerks have their own measure of the Devil’s luck. Take for example Hamilton’s self-inflicted demise. Ever the opportunist this clerk seized the moment to see off Hamilton whom he never liked nor trusted and of course the feeling was mutual. The only question was who would wield the ‘Et tu Brute’ dagger first. Disposing of Gardiner was simply a fly swatting exercise in the deployment of this clerk’s armoury of secrets on all those he holds close and dear for his self-protection. Gardiner failed to learn the lesson handed out by CC O’Toole with his wretched mileage fraud which is of course far from concluded. Most Firefighters never forget the ‘experience’ in some domestic properties where they have had to actually wipe their boots off on the way out. It seems that the LFRS SHQ has become rather like this where people pause to wipe the blood off their boots on the way out such is the level of intrigue and backstabbing. But is there a point to all this bloodletting? And are there more victims to come? Once more there can only be one end game, this clerk’s self-preservation, at which up to now, it has to be admitted he has been singularly successful. His problem is that up until now no one was capable of analysing and exposing his agenda before he can put into operation, as Baldrick might say, a ‘cunning plan’ which always includes an exit strategy. It is clear from this analysis that no one in his sphere of interest, whether below, or more particularly above him is safe from his machinations and to think otherwise is to act the fool. No one in this, or any other associated organisation, including his contracted pension ‘experts’, should feel themselves secure or safe from this career predator, or as he once described the Bugler, this “wounded animal”. It would be prescient of them to evaluate their career defensive position because they are going to need one. Just ask his former bosses and the Trade Unionists at NorthWest Rail in his previous appointments. As this clerk sees it in stark terms of self-preservation he must quickly make clear to those he knows are currently plotting his downfall, because he is such an embarrassment to the LFRS, that he holds their future in his hands rather than his in theirs, and that he will not go lightly, or inexpensively. As we have seen in the case of FSV-RRB he will not hesitate to use blackmail to achieve his ends but first he must secure himself within his Coliseum of Secrets and to do so he must eliminate anyone who he considers to be a threat to his exclusivity of secrets and leveraging knowledge and unfortunately the one who still remains and who might threaten this exclusivity of blackmail is the unfortunate Harold, the LFRS solicitor, who stands in his way and Harold knows it. Whilst Harold might have the qualities of self-preservation, they are not immediately apparent, so he must go in the scheme of things and right now he is hugely vulnerable. The LFRS has just appointed a better qualified and more Court accomplished solicitor in prosecuting its own cases which Harold was incapable of doing. So why does the LFRS need two solicitors when one will do? An amalgamation of tasks which results in a substantial saving on Harold’s salary and emoluments, including his pension.
All rather an interesting spectacle for the blood thirsty uninvolved observer at SHO as CC G.Driver Leader of the Lancashire Conservatives regularly and boringly gleefully states … “You couldn’t make this up if you tried”. When, not if, this is achieved, this clerk’s Coliseum of Secrets will secured against all comers and then he will have become indispensable and untouchable because he will hold in his exclusive hands all those personal secrets, misdemeanours, fraudulent expenses claims, and peccadilloes that he has assiduously and surreptitiously collected on potential opponents for this very moment in the past years. It is a well tried and tested technique he has regularly used in the past. First seek out the weakness and then when it becomes opportune in self-protection, like now, use it ruthlessly. Secrets, just like those Hamilton held and used which bought his path to freedom recently which will be bound to help this next clerk to escape justice also using the self same techniques and path smoothed by willing and press ganged corrupt politicians with their own secrets to hide. But perhaps the price to the Lancashire Taxpayers might be a price they are not prepared to pay? These victims, including these vulnerable politicians, will be invited into his gladiatorial arena to serve their purpose to him or to be eliminated and if they are slow to awaken to the threat in their midst then they will pay an even heavier price as they become subject to this clerk’s will. Because, make no mistake, he is an accomplished ‘reputation’ assassin as he has demonstrated regularly in the past and quite recently in the present. If anyone is going down it is not going to be him, and/or if he is going down then he is not going to go down alone.
Could it be that this clerk might attempt to make amends? Throw himself on the mercy of the Court of Public opinion at this late stage? The clerks who inhabit this corrupt type of world and have to contemplate this scenario are driven by their innate arrogance and can never contemplate the final humiliation of defeat Their strange abnormal solution tends to be self-immolation along the lines of a ‘Devine Wind’ solution. It is a strange philosophy which simply increases their personal sense of final martyrdom which they carry forward into their next career failure. So the questions remain what is the price and who will pay it? Because when the end inevitably comes and it all comes out in the final wash and the guilty are called to account their memory of their roles and self-serving antics and criminality will as usual be economic, selective, and amnesic. For them the truth is always relative. They think they have skillful ways of feigning an air of justified innocence, and they think they are adept at deceiving others with their glibness, but they will be wrong. As Benjamin Franklin once put it … “ We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately…”.
And what will the conclusion be for those Firefighters and the disabled FSVs who will have no role to play except to note the last man standing? And what will the present Chief Fire Officer do, if anything? In ‘Firefighter speak’ we have observed the cracks in the arches, the plumes of dust from the brickwork, the lean and bulge of the walls, the sewerage lifting the manhole covers, now it is time to withdraw and stand safely at a distance as we observe this corrupt edifice collapse. It is a fascinating end game, but end game it is, and when it is concludes the Warrens, Hamiltons, and Gardiners, and others yet to fall on their own swords, will be no more and a jaded and threadbare LFRS will be left with its national professional reputation in tatters. An exemplar of Holland’s great corrupt iniquity visited on Lancashire, which is a great shame for those who have the misfortune to currently serve under its badge and in its uniform.
But the Questions remains how in this 21st Century were these vagabonds allowed free rein by the Elected Members of the CFA to practice and self-evidently enjoy these antediluvian dark age sinister errant and erratic misbehaviours? It has been said that these symptomatic practices raise questions for a casual observer which appear to suggest unseen under currents of worthlessness, emptiness, and hollowness with a futility of purpose which can only be attributed to issues of dysfunctional self-esteem which seem though to be ameliorated by the use of a vengeful unscrupulous secret ‘court’ with its mantra of ‘I will, because I can’? Whatever the theory is, which will continue to be debated around the messroom table, the actual intent and purpose was the ruthless application of immorality with its designed omnipotence over these disabled FSV, their Widows, and Beneficiaries whilst flexing the muscles of vindictiveness and contempt on the Hardship Route; a route free from any moral constraints or scruples; the sole and exclusive ultimate objective of which was to humiliate and dominate the innocent. |