Prof. John Clancy

Visiting Professor, Birmingham City Uni Business School; former Leader, Birmingham City Council; former solicitor; 25 years a comp school teacher; genealogist.

[Prof. John Clancy @johnclancy]

How Birmingham City Council went ‘bankrupt’ being unnecessarily forced to pay hundreds of £millions into its pension fund to pay off a deficit which never existed. It was always in surplus. Labour didn’t listen. They’re not listening now.
https://t.co/o4SV6XlrDV

[Prof. John Clancy @johnclancy]

My recent interview with @edjames_ on BBC Radio WM. The continuing presence of Labour Govt Commissioners in Birmingham has subverted democracy at the ballot box. Starmer's Labour still runs the city.

They've been here for 3 yrs, &have been out of their depth from day one. Voting Brummies made a judgment about them too.

They came due to a 'bankruptcy' declaration by officers now widely accepted as a false judgement from extreme incompetence, misinformation and legal misadvice, which shamed the city and did irreparable damage to its reputation around the world.

The commissioners have shown their shameful failure over 3 yrs &must leave or be withdrawn. Chief officer Roney should be allowed to get on with her job without them: she has more experience than the lot of them put together.

None of them had the professional or life experience to be able to do this job, and Birmingham shouldn't have been taking advice from them.

And Birmingham should ask for its likely £4 million back for their always woeful advice.

Begone.
https://t.co/mgEoMOR5AD

[Prof. John Clancy @johnclancy]

My recent interview with @edjames_ on BBC Radio WM. The continuing presence of Labour Govt Commissioners in Birmingham has subverted democracy at the ballot box. Starmer's Labour still runs the city.

They've been here for 3 yrs, &have been out of their depth from day one. Voting Brummies made a judgment about them too.

They came due to a 'bankruptcy' declaration by officers now widely accepted as a false judgement from extreme incompetence, misinformation and legal misadvice, which shamed the city and did irreparable damage to its reputation around the world.

The commissioners have shown their shameful failure over 3 yrs &must leave or be withdrawn. Chief officer Roney should be allowed to get on with her job without them: she has more experience than the lot of them put together.

None of them had the professional or life experience to be able to do this job, and Birmingham shouldn't have been taking advice from them.

And Birmingham should ask for its likely £4 million back for their always woeful advice.

Begone.
https://t.co/mgEoMOR5AD

[Prof. John Clancy @johnclancy]

Olley literally on the money, again. Every West Midlands councillor, new or old, needs to read this, & start asking its Questions. https://t.co/rbObQTgTbI
"If a fund is genuinely in surplus, and if pensions can be paid securely, then money extracted from employers beyond what is needed is not prudence. It is hoarding. It is the quiet diversion of public money from today’s services into yesterday’s actuarial anxieties....

"If pensions can be paid securely, why lock away public money that councils, schools and public services desperately need now?...

"Publish the assumptions. Explain the funding position in plain English. Show the downside risk. Show the upside. Show the effect on council budgets if contributions were reduced. Show what safeguards would protect members. Show why 0 per cent is impossible, if it is impossible.....

"Kensington & Chelsea’s 0% employer contribution decision has blown a hole through the old defence....a different question can be asked. If a fund is strong enough, why keep taking money at the old rate?...

"A pension fund that cannot consistently deliver timely service to its members should not expect a standing ovation for clever investment charts. People cannot eat a pie chart. They cannot pay the gas bill with a governance dashboard. They cannot take a “funding strategy statement” to the supermarket and ask whether it covers the weekly shop." @olleyatGRIT

[Prof David Bailey @dgbailey]

Why Ferrari’s first EV provoked such a backlash. New blog. https://t.co/FTXQaQr8xb

[Prof. John Clancy @johnclancy]

https://t.co/IEZQvYtve6
“Birmingham is not Lincolnshire. It is not Wellingborough. It is not Leicestershire. It is not Bexley. It is not Essex. It is not Hampshire. It is not a water company. It is Birmingham, which is to local government what a live tiger is to pet ownership: technically in the same broad category, but only a fool treats it as transferable experience.”

[Prof David Bailey @dgbailey]

The Avon at Twyning today. Like Seurat’s Les Baigneurs.

[Prof David Bailey @dgbailey]

About time…. Something the Commissioners & previous @WMLabour @BhamCityCouncil failed to realise despite the many warnings over the last few years by @johnclancy & myself. Gove’s axe-man Max Caller even attacked us as ‘financially illiterate.’ Who’s financially illiterate now?

[Prof. John Clancy @johnclancy]

It was 40 years ago today….
Here’s Rachel and me on our Whitsun Wedding in 1986.
Our Ruby Wedding Anniversary today. Love you Rache x
Happy Whitsun, everybody!
Hang on….Don’t only OLD people have Ruby Weddings….
Er…..

[Prof. John Clancy @johnclancy]

@dgbailey Soooooo 1986.

[Prof David Bailey @dgbailey]

@UniteEconomy And the Commissioners need to get out of the way. They have intervened in this dispute, ‘instructing’ the council . See for example:

[Prof David Bailey @dgbailey]

No! We need exactly the opposite to this. Commissioners are a problem @bhamcitycouncil NOT a solution. “In the name of God, go!” https://t.co/rFxhSkCL5p

[Prof David Bailey @dgbailey]

@brumlabour still waiting for @uklabour to colonially appoint its leader amidst the Westminster PM psychodrama. Farcical that other parties having to wait around for talks on a rainbow coalition for @bhamcitycouncil because of @UKLabour’s micro mis-management of the local party.

[Prof David Bailey @dgbailey]

New rainbow coalition @BhamCityCouncil shld stress to govt that we’ve had enough of commissioners. Big questions over their role in the bin dispute. They also failed to listen over the grotesque WMPF surplus & claw back money to the city. They are a problem not a solution.