(Thursday blog)
Today I’d like to nominate three remarkable individuals for the Scumbag of 2019 (so far) Award.
1. Gillian Beasley – Acting Returning Officer Peterborough City Council
We now know a little more about the recent Peterborough by-election.
For the Parliamentary by-election held on 6 June 2019 there were 13,682 postal votes issued. 9,898 of these were returned of which 400 were rejected due to either the signature or date of birth (or both) not matching official records (does this mean they were so obviously fraudulent that even Peterborough couldn’t accept them?)
The number of votes cast at a polling station was 24,500. Overall the number of verified ballot papers received was 33,998. This means that 28% – more than 1 in 4 votes – were postal votes.
I’m no psephologist. But a postal voting rate of 28% seems high to me – the national average is 18% (2017 general election) – and I would have thought that given the Labour Party’s history of organising postal voting fraud in Peterborough, the Returning Officer might be minded to be extra careful in checking the validity of so many postal votes.
However, Gillian Beasley the Acting Returning Officer has issued the kind of “Go f**k yourself” press release that government departments, NHS bosses and charity bosses usually issue when they are criticised.
This claims that all postal votes were carefully checked. I, of course, believe her. But there are some nasty, cynical, negative people who might not be so convinced and so I have included Ms Beasley in today’s Scumbag of 2019 (so far) Award.
2. Mark Dampier – Hargreaves Lansdown
Mark Dampier, 62, is the head of research at Hargreaves Lansdown, making him one of Britain’s highest-profile financial advisers.
He has reportedly long been a cheerleader for investment manager Neil Woodford. Dampier and his wife have reportedly just netted £5.6 million by selling Hargreaves Lansdown shares less than three weeks before the company became embroiled in the furore over the suspension of Neil Woodford’s main fund.
Dampier reportedly sold shares worth about £600,000 on May 16, when the stock closed at a record high, and his wife Annette, 63, reportedly offloaded shares worth £5 million the same day, according to a stock exchange filing.
Both sales were at £23.92 a share. The stock closed down yesterday by £5.23, or 22 per cent, at £18.69. If the couple had sold at that price, they would have been £1.23 million worse off.
The timing of the sales could appear embarrassing for Hargreaves Lansdown, although there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by lucky Mr Dampier or his lucky wife.
I, of course, believe that Mr Dampier and his good lady wife were just lucky when they sold so many millions of pounds of shares in his employer just before the shares crashed by over 20%. But there are some nasty, cynical, negative people who might not be so convinced and so I have included Mr Dampier in today’s Scumbag of 2019 (so far) Award.
3. A ‘German’ expat living in Thailand
This short video features what looks like a German expat living in Pattaya. Pattaya is a city about 100 km from Bangkok and is famous for its wonderful weather, beaches and possibly over 20,000 local ladies and boys who earn a living on their backs, on their knees and in any other position their customers may wish.
The scene takes place at the Friendship Supermarket on South Pattaya Road. The Friendship Supermarket is popular with Western expats as it sells a wide range of Western food products.
The more people who see this video, the more likely it is that someone will recognise the guy and he will be treated as the utter scumbag he so obviously is:
The Peterborough fraud is so obvious it’s laughable – or would be, were the consequences for honest voters not so disastrous. I thought there was a law against insider trading – which the shenanigans of Damper and spouse clearly was (in my ever so humble opinion). I’d like to believe Hargreaves Lansdown will be called to account by the FCA for their employee’s conduct, but somehow I doubt it. May I suggest you add BARON Hall (aka Tony Hall) DG of BBC and his sidekick SIR David Clementi, Chairman of said organisation to your list, for their mean and miserly mugging of some of the oldest, frailest, least articulate, least able to fight for themselves members of the UK population. What fine examples of the British gong system they both are?
I confess to being one of the nasty, cynical, negative people.
And I agree totally with Stillreading’s post.
Thank you, Mr. Craig.
Mad May is my choice. A one women wrecking ball. Not only destroyed the Tory Party, (no great loss there but could let in the even worse the Corbyn Marxist cabal) and with her craven grovelling to Brussels, she surrendered any chance of a decent Brexit deal -and now in a final two fingers up to the British public, she wants to cut our greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. An act of national economic suicide should the idiots in Parliament go along with that particular lunacy. How long will it take for this country to recover from her disastrous period in office?
I think one to add is the so-called comedienne (yes, I’ll use the non-pc term!) and her joke re battery acid. Perhaps a side-order of the BBC who are supporting her !!