John Mann’s latest self-serving campaign against the Conservative District Council has cost Worksop the chance of a new development and over 1000 jobs.

When the Planning Committee voted against the proposed ASDA development at the old Vesuvius works, Mann saw a self-promotion opportunity and adpoted his default stance of running squealing to the Press, a stance which caused him to be criticised by the Commons Standards and Priveleges Committee recently. He also called a public meeting where he spread his ususal lies and disinformation.

Now, Planning Applications are refused often, when the Committee is unhappy with some aspects of the application. In the normal course of events, the Applicant will lodge an appeal and address the concerns of the Committee and the Application will generally then be granted. However, John Mann has politicised this application, and the result of the application being granted would see John Mann crowing about a great victory that his campaign has had in saving the development.

The members of the Planning Committee will be well aware of this. So what do you think the chances are of this application skating through the appeals process as it probably would have done if Mann had not become involved? None, frankly. Mann’s outrageous action will have the effect of causing the application to be scrutinised to the quantum level and in all probablity being refused.

The Planning Committee refused the initial application for good reason. Now they are being vilified in the Press by Mann, forcing them to justify their quite legal and reasonable refusal and pushing them into taking a hard line due to the added political dimension.

The net result is that this development is now probably lost to Worksop, at least in the short term, thanks to Mann’s actions.

Unless a White Knight can provide a solution.

Today in a House of Commons Debate, John Mann said ” I thank the Minister for that answer, and I know that the ministerial team will be keen to visit Serlby Park three-to-18 school, as it has recently knocked back a Tory council attempt to close it down.”

Erm, didn’t we just explain this, that it was the Labour controlled County Council that put Serlby Park school on the closure list and that it was the Tory controlled council who removed it from any threat of closure?

I’m sure that the pupils, staff and parents of Serlby Park School will be less than delighted to find that their school has once again become an unwilling  pawn in Mann’s continuing efforts at self-preservation (the SELF word again) in the face of a growing Tory vote in Bassetlaw.

How he can possibly believe that misleading the electorate on a regular basis and trotting out the same old fantasies will get him re-elected is astonishing.

Except, perhaps, by those voters who let the Worksop Guardian do their thinking for them. A band of believers set to diminish greatly as that peurile pamphlet is about to start charging the good people of Worksop a fiver to access their website.

Today, Mr Mann wrote to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport asking how many residential properties in Bassetlaw had no television licence at the latest date for which information is available. Presumably he is totting up how many households will not have the benefit of seeing his kisser on the box when he is trotted out by the Beeb for his Rent-A-Quotes. Next step will be to identify those households.

So, if you don’t have a TV licence, our advice is to get a one immediately (even if you don’t have a telly) in case he decides to make a personal appearance on your doorstep.

John Mann, the self-appointed, self-serving, self-righteous scourge of the expenses claimants who made allegations of wrongdoing by Alan Duncan, today got criticised by the Commons Standards and Priveleges Committee  for his lack of courtesy in going to the media before Mr Duncan or the Commissioner with his complaint. The Committee found that Mr Duncan had acted entirely within the rules and Mann’s allegations were unfounded.

Running his mouth off to the press is a favoured pastime of John Mann, earning him the sobriquet of Rent-a-Quote. The fact that his comments are often without foundation bothers him not a jot as long as he can see his name in print or his smirking face on the telly.

John Mann writing about the Kelly report in the Indpendent on Wednesday opened the column with:

‘You w*****, you f****** w*****’, exploded one Tory MP to me today, ‘You do not speak for me.’ Indeed I do not.

That about sums it all up. Mr Mann only has his own interests at heart.

He’s bad, bad Nero Brown
Baddest man in the whole damn town
Badder than old King Kong
Meaner than a junkyard dog

With apologies to Jim Croce and Frank Sinantra

Rent-A-Quote specialist John Mann was at it again on the Beeb last night, endorsing the Kelly Committee’s recommendations on MP’s expenses “lock, stock and barrel”.  One of the many recommendations is that MP’s will no longer be able to employ family members on the Government payroll. Hmm. The cycnical amongst you might suggest that Mr Mann’s ‘I’m-squeaky-clean-on-expenses’ stance is nothing more than a bit of skin saving and that he is quite prepared to sacrifice his wife’s job on the altar of self-preservation. There was no suggestion by him that one of his employees, Joanna White, is doing a good job and should not be a casualty of the expenses conflict. That’s right, Joanna White is Mrs Joanna Mann. If he is really serious about his stance, he will fire her now, today, and set an example. Let’s see if he will put his wife’s money where his mouth is.

Whatever else Mr Mann is, he is not daft. He is well aware that the previously safe Labour seat in Bassetlaw is now anything but safe and he stands to lose in May 2010 (or maybe sooner if Pa Broon continues on his hapless course – would you like a biscuit, Pa, to give you energy for the u-turns?)

He loses no opportunity to jump on whatever bandwagon he thinks will ingratiate him with the voters.

There’s an interesting post on the blog ‘The Lone Voice‘ highlighting a bit of Mann double talk.

There is a letter in this week’s Worksop Guardian entitled ‘Mann is just misleading us’

The letter is reproduced in full:

I see that MP John Mann has, yet again, been trying to mislead local residents over planning issues.

As both a local resident and planning professional, I get very irritated when straightforward processes are twisted for what I assume are political ends.

Maybe it’s an attempt to cover up the fact that he has no ideas of  his own about how he thinks his Government’s housing targets (that’s right – they’re imposed on local councils from above) should be met.

I’ve read the same documents he talks about, and they don’t show major development in the villages or propose this Kilton development he keeps banging on about.

So let’s keep things in perspective, shall we, and stop this underhand campaign of disinformation.

Just what we’ve been saying all along!