Quango Corruption

Early this year a wannabee liberal democrat councillor knocked at the door, mistook me for my ex lodger, who I threw out for drugs, and insisted I couldn’t be the owner because I wasn’t on the electoral roll. That because I wish a plague on all your houses, I politely told him. The last time I voted, I went on, was for the Monster Raving Loonies as they are the closest one can get to ‘none of the above’ or a conscientious objection. Even that is difficult now given the changes that have been made to the corrupt electoral system meaning that the Loonies have to pay a small fortune out of their own pocket to stand, given they will lose their deposit. Do you get my drift, I asked him? He offered me his email and encouraged me to write to him with some issues!

The poor chap didn’t know what he was letting himself in for! He replied to my initial salvo saying he felt that most of the issues raised were more cock up than corruption, as I had opined. A couple of emails later he asked if I had any evidence for my claim that the Council Tax for my maisonette was in fact in the wrong banding. Of course, I replied and handed him the dossier. Needless to say, he now blanks me and refuses to reply to emails for comment of any kind. I guess the truth is painful.

To the uninitiated, council tax bands were valued in 1991. Surveyors look at sales data for comparable properties and they can adjust that using the House Price Index for the area, type of property and dates sold vs the date valued. There are identical properties to mine sold at the time, in the same road which clearly place it in Band B, not Band C. I’ve been overpaying for nearly 20 years.

I put in a Freedom of Information Request to the Valuation office Agency asking them which firm valued the banding back in 1991 and on what basis. That is, what comparable properties did they use to make such an error. I have experience by the way of doing more than one leasehold extension in the First Tier Tribunal and also the High Court. I’m Aspie remember.

Anyway, the VOA rejected my freedom of information request saying they were not obliged to answer on the basis of a technicality. Namely, that the law does not allow the naming of the firm as it would reveal someone’s identity. Obviously, this raises the question of how corrupt officers can be held to account for egregious errors if they are allowed to forever remain anonymous and more importantly their corrupt methods are not allowed to be scrutinised.

I took this above their head (in theory) to the seemingly pointless government quango that is the Information Commissioners Office. One year later they upheld the VOA’s position and agreed that corrupt officers need not be revealed or their methods questioned. They even agreed with me that all the information for valuation purposes was in the public domain already! In other words, you appear to be right but our role is to protect and cover up the corruption. Or alternatively, maybe the councils are already bankrupt due to their mismanagement and your claim is not something we want to pay out on, or have a light shone on!

For the record I have to be registered with the ICO as both a landlord and a PT. Why is it ok for them to give away my identity, one asks but not those in corrupt organisations? Is it now British government policy to protect the failing and ensure they only fail upwards ?

Ol’ Farage is using his platform to attack the FCA at the moment on similar corruption in financial services. I too was denied a bank account when I was a stripper and had my Paypal account stripped from me like a velcro-ed pair of trousers. I challenged it at the Ombudsmen and was told they banks were allowed to discriminate against my profession, if not my gender, race, sexuality, etc. My Equity card counted for nought.

My experience is that writing to politicians is largely a waste of time and asking spineless journalists, who are on the payroll to shine a light, is like headbutting a brick wall. Many traditional publications say they accept opinion pieces from riff raff like me but I’d say that’s nonsense, especially if you are from a working class background and definitely not if you rock the boat. Don’t start me on the conversations I had with the media liberal elite types when trying to promote the stripper book years ago. I think they thought someone like me emitted the black death from my pores. If someone out there knows a decent politician or journalist please send them in my direction