Dick Tracey, Chief Beaurocrat at Northwood House is leaving for a bigger wage packet over at The North West Development Agency, Kirkby Times predicted what we all knew, namely that this petty beurocratic pen pusher would head to greener pastures as soon as he got the chance. It was revealed in the general vacancies in the Liverpool Echo that the Northwood SRB Managers post would come with a salary of up to 41K!, that's almost twice as much as a fireman. Dick Tracey, who was about as much use here as the proverbial ashtray on a motorbike, will doubtless be getting paid a lot more off the North West Development Agency.

The Northwood SRB partnership has seen local political players bought off with a variety of grants dished out from some 12 million the Northwood SRB partnership claim to have 'secured'. Dick Tracey's appointment and the massive wage awarded for this new post was allowed to happen because local political players knew that the 12 million odd would be dished out to those who played Blair's game. As one so called community activist confessed "Well, we can't be seen to be political now" This was in reference to Kirkby community organisations being involved in political activity.

The likes of Dick Tracey and the so called 'regeneration experts' are good at spotting the cliques which are to be found in each small Town like Kirkby. They manipulate them and seek out the political careerists who have no principles except getting paid as much as possible. Kirkby is unfortunately full of these people. The SRB funds were always going to be a magnet for them, this money could have been used for a lot of good things but as usual, all the wrong people are involved for all the wrong reasons. Dick Tracey must have found his time here pretty easy. 20 years ago he would have been eaten alive, but nowadays, some plum voiced pen pushing wannabe can come here and get away with murder, because, to be frank, the level of radical Working Class political opposition here in Kirkby is non existent.

Maybe 'honest politics' is dead. The phrase itself is a contradiction for many. Most of us look down on those in politics, and in Kirkby, many ordinary locals see the political arena here as so clique ridden and rotten that they give up ever having any input into the actual decision making here. The Council, by their very make up, are anti democratic and under Blair's regime, we have seen the ordinary man and woman, the Working Class, being driven out of any local decision making. Dick Tracey's job itself was unnecessary as is the whole SRB partnership as it stands. The only 'ordinary' local members of the committee are all recipients of SRB grants and there are no locals on the committee who could be said to be independent. The SRB committee should be made to give a public account of how much exactly has been spent so far, the money paid to Tracey and the various pen pushers in Northwood House must be breaking a good few hundred thousand a year. Knowsley Council get the rent by the way, and Jim Keight is lurking on the SRB committee, no surprise there.

Good riddance to Dick Tracey. Who can forget the man who's ego was so big that he appeared 4 times on a small 4 page SRB 'news' paper. Or gave computers away to kids expelled from school, or dug up the wood and planted wildflowers. Yeh, he was a right one alright, let's wish him all the worse in his new Job. By the way though, anyone who met Dick generally forgot him instantly. All in all the Tracey's of this world are the parasites. A new breed of an age old problem, those who contribute little but demand a lot. The beaurocrats come to Kirkby, not out of charity or any good will; they are here because they follow the green pastures. These pen pushers pop up in all sorts of Working Class communities to leach what they can. These people are a cancer. The UK has hundreds of thousands of Tracey's, good for nothings who get 40K a year at least whilst Blair and his Stooges declare war on the Fire Service to save a mere pittance. Maybe Dick thinks he is worth 40K a year, most locals would say he is not worth a bean. Kirkby Times will go along with that. The Mans done absolutely nothing for the community, he just wasted money which was never his and elbowed his way into grabbing credibility for a bunch of schemes which he will not even be around for when they fail.

It will be interesting now to see what happens once Dick's off to his new Job. Who will apply for the vacancy? Bet there's a few desperate local political players right now looking at the 40K prize, wondering if they can do a power-point presentation and use words like 'strategy' 'partnership' and 'regeneration' in the interview in front of a 'panel'. 40K is a disgrace, it should be reduced to 20K and the excess money used to build a playground next to the Northwood SRB office, never mind a fenced off wildflower garden. There's also a 'Strategy Officer' job going for 22K a year. There must be at least a Dozen idiots in Northwood House, home to the SRB mob, who award themselves grand titles and grand wages whilst doing relatively little apart from sucking up the money.

For information relating to the SRB jobs, you have to phone Eileen Smith on 0151 443 4035, she's the 'Northwood SRB Program coordinator', another really grand sounding but likely utterly futile role which pays well no doubt.