"That Is OUR Money!" - James Whale's FURIOUS Rant On Birmingham City Council Declaring Bankruptcy 

Incompetent and corrupt

Birmingham council pays out 30 million pound for consultants. Thats a ridiculous amount of money to waste .

They need to STOP spending money on woke projects, diversity & equity/equality departments and HR and go back to basics and essentials.

I wouldn't let Labour or the Tories run a bath........

James is absolutely right, any so called Government money, is our money!!

The council is busy spending money on expensive " diversity" projects . If i lived in Birmingham , i would not be paying council tax for them to waste it on woke friendly street names like they have done recently .

Too many immigrants bringing in ALL families (not just their own) abusing the system that Liebour started.😊

Every single counsellor in Birmingham should be sacked and NEVER be allowed in politics or any government job ever again. The fact is, nothing will happen to them.

When mentioning social care does that include the thousands of migrants wanting SOCIAL CARE, which I will say, I dont want a single penny going towards any migrants.

They budgeted £19 million for a new it system which has cost over £100 million. That is incompetence, nothing else.

I'm totally stunned that he didn't try blaming it on Brexit.

Well said James - as a brummie I can tell you we weren't consulted on whether we wanted the games - the commisars decided

The councils employ people into non jobs and they the higher ups are on ridiculous salaries. Instead of paying themselves so much they should use the money to provide service that have been paid for.

Labour councils wasting money on distorted ideology......shocker !!

They put up council taxes and still didn't have enough money to run the council.

If we bail them out will it come from our Overseas Aid budget? Birmingham is a foreign city.

I am sick to death bailing out banks, power suppliers and now fecking city councils!

A taste of things to come from Labour

Mr WHALE is perfectly correct. Tory or Labour, there is no such thing as "Government money" The public purse is filled only by taxation.

Public institutions that are funded by taxpayers know that normal economic constraints do not apply to them. They will be bailed out by a reducing taxpayer base

Well said James! 👏

So, what happens to the council tax payments, where will that be going if the council have declared bankruptcy?

Government departments appear not to understand what public money is. Once they get their grubby mits on it they treat it as if it belongs to them. Councils stopped providing services themselves, giving this over to private companies who bleed our finances dry. The people must find a way of defunding this corrupted process.

I d like to know how much of the budget is spent on migrants in that place

We've no teeth left to be kicked in.The guys right, amateurs from top to bottom. Professional in spending other peoples money. This has to stop now,these people are not accountable.

How dare these councils waste taxpayers money, especially on frivolous projects. They should stick to their core responsibilities!

What is happening in Birmingham, will happen to the UK if labour win the next General election…. It was ever thus .

This is what the whole country will be like when labour take over...

Auditors need to go in to find out what the councils are wasting the money on

councils have raised taxes and drastically cut services yet there staffing levels remain high, if you are providing less services you need less staff.

The government have no money 😂its our taxes and hard work

The books need scrutinising, see how much was wasted or went on friendly contracts

"not their fault" is not something real leaders say.

They are supposed to be public servants but they act like Lords. This is years of fat salaries and endless draconian schemes which have backfired massively as Birmingham residents resisted fines.

50 years of EU and Socialist policy has crippled us. The system has collapsed due decades of slippage. over 40% of council spending is on adult social care (whatever that encompasses). Education, Refuse, Higways all around 7 % each. AND the council is only able to cover 50% of the bill. We arent earning enough wages to be able to pay the ££ required to support the system.

Every council currently in financial strife have high migrant populations, migrants flock to cities where they can be among their own, so basically, the cost of housing, feeding, protecting and policing these migrants is now bankrupting cities! London wont be far behind when massive numbers of businesses are forced to close and people cant work! Add that on top of migrant costs in the capital and it can't be far behind... All Labour councils, all migrant heavy areas, this is Britain's future under Labour! They will open the flood gates to migrants due to the fact that 80% of ethnics vote Labour, and we will see more and more councils going bust trying to cope with costs! That money has to come from somewhere and far too often its our pocket!!

Birmingham Council gets £3.8 Bn Annually the vast majority of that budget goes on Adult Social Care Many of those people will have gained Citizenship in there final decades as care costs are not covered in the places they have come from. The Initial Mandate of Councils was to look after The Highways. Within the Adult Social Care Sector the Bosses of these Companies see the Councils as a Cash Cow. Pay the workers Statutory Minimum Income whilst they Ride the Halal Gravy Train.

James Whale nailed it. Our councils are run by people with little business experience, but enormous power to spend large sums of our money, while paying themselves well. Not only that, care costs for keeping people alive, who have no quality of life and wish to pass away are continually increasing…pointless waste of money, that benefits a few people who run care homes.

Civil disobedience is the best option, refusing to pay, or not pay. If we choose to follow the same old same old, and let councils and government keep pushing us closer to the gutter, then we are a subservient coward people. Sometimes people MUST make a real stance that leads to a better life. I'm not for violence, violence gets you nowhere. But refusing or refusal is a strong message to government.

I wonder how much they spent on anti car campaigns, inclusivity training, and wrapping police cars in rainbow colors

Councils need to stop wasting money on unwanted projects and rubbish, if they just ran the key public services and stopped all the vanity and woke projects they would be able to work.

There's no demand for 2 million for 'woke' Street signs. Councils spend on virtue projects not on service delivery !!!!!!!

If local authorities were run efficiently funding wouldn't be an issue for what they actually do.

At one time councillors did not get paid . They did it to help. Once they started to be paid like anything else it is abused. By all. Council meetings all food and drink free. Fares for getting there free. Even if they share a minibus they claim individual train fares etc etc etc.

Can you imagine these local councillors having control over your taxes

Shame we dont know the demographics of the council workers. Like most tax payer cash stolen it ends up abroad and cant be reclaimed. Usually there is a trail leading to "Pakistan." Our Politcal correctness is not only silencing us, its bankrupting us.

This local authority should look up the meaning of governance of public money.

This is what you get with socialist ideologies !!

This is par for the course with labour good at giving away other peoples money

There is no democracy there is no tory or labour - the sooner people realise this the better for everyone

Any other job and this level of incompetence and corruption would deserve sacking and prison!!!

If the country is billions of pounds in debt , why should it be any different for local councils ?!

Tories have been rubbish,but labour would be calamitous quite frankly. Even if money was cut,surely you cut the clothe accordingly. Don’t overspend if you don’t have it!!

I worked for BCC for 5 years in the 80's and have friends who are both working there or recently retired. Its a mess. Always has been since the 1970's. The corruption amongst Labour councillors is legendary with expense fiddles and dodgy planning approvals. The staff situation now is that they can't recruit good people, good people wont touch it. There are ethnic/religious cliques amongst the politicians and staff . Any suggestions for improvement are canned by unions/politicians. The job of senior managers is simply to survive and find ways around obstacles put in their way. There is no accountability and the local elections are, as a judge said, run like a banana republic. It needs a thorough root and branch clear out.

The problem with all local authorities is that they can not retain or recruit quality staff. And that includes the tory run authorities, too. Clever people are well aware of this and are usually the first to leave if someone of a lower IQ is promoted over them and are happy to do a lesser paid job, which entails more risk and is performance related. Within the public sector, everyone gets the same pay, regardless of attendance and effort. I know of a chap that was so vital for the everyday functioning of a local council's IT department that the management refused to promote him. Every time he got to the end of the finishing line - when competing a project, there was somebody waiting there ready to take away the prize from him. About thirty years ago, a newly opened chemical plant started recruiting in the northeast. Having plenty of new vacancies, they contacted many of the local recruitment agencies for candidates. After a while, it was clear to them that a certain demographic was identified as problematic. In the following months, all recruitment agencies were notified not to send them any prospective employees who had previously worked in the public sector.

It is as James Whale said, amateurs who can't do their jobs. Nearly every management role now is filled with a person who just can't do their job well at all, but they somehow get by by being covered by other poor managers. The lower down staff keep picking up the pieces. Speak to some of them for long enough and you can see there is nothing going on in their heads.

BIRMINGHAM PAYING THE PRICE FOR HOUSING THE 3RD WORLD 😢

Take a long hard look Britain if you vote Labour this will be the outcome for the entire country, labour have always shocking at balancing the books; Dianne Abbott, enough said! Equal pay while largely correct, expect when your paying a woman or a man who’s been in the job less time than someone else the same bloody wages. That’s not equal pay that’s just in job rewards and pay bands.

Wow! Just checked what Birmingham Councillors were paying themselves, Well over £150,000 and that's only the top twenty councillors, now that big money for running a council into bankruptcy. R.

Fill pot holes, take out rubbish and keep the street lights working .. why do you need highly paid consultants and bosses to organise such basic things - I imagine non have even worked in the private sector - total shambles in Birmingham and many other councils across our cities

Why can’t we just look after ourselves…. Putting tax payers money to commonwealth games is shocking!

There's a scary prospect, incompetent, corrupt councils being able to raise taxes. I would strip them of most of their powers

We live in a world of increasing numbers of remote workers renting. Councils no longer have a monopoly. Its easier to move away when they charge higher taxes and provide lower services. Birmingham will likely see people voting with their feet rather than the ballot box. Which is frankly the only language they understand anyway.

James Whale the only one who makes sense

Adult social care is ASTONISHINGLY expensive. £1 million per client A YEAR is not uncommon. Normal client £200,000 p year p person. While they cut support workers pay on 17k a year.

I'll bet none of the near million quid salaries will be slashed.

We have a labour council that is cutting services. Libuarys, leisure centers, swimming baths, street cleaning, road repair, all gone. Yet Labour gets voted in every time.

Didnt labour leave a note at the end of their last goverment saying there was no money left lol Some things never change

Of course it's Birmingham council fault they wasted money on unimportant issues. If they didn't have enough to start with the should have spent wisely. Shame on them trying to blame others.

I'd be investigating the books

What was already complete NONSENSE has now turned into MADNESS! We're being "governed" by lunatics!...

most of them work from france and spain

The problem with all local authorities is that none are held to account on spenditure, They act like the money belongs to themselves and are completely careless. Then, the taxpayers need to pay more simply due to the complete incompetence of the local government We, the public, are so screwed under this crupt system.

We need to deal with the corruption. At all levels

There are too many people allowed to abuse our benefits system. Here’s another one for you........all those people who claim and receive attendance allowance for looking after themselves! Well done!

Why don't we have an anti corruption police that tackles corrupt politicians local and national as well as corrupt public sector workers Inc police and emergency service workers?

First time witnessing a panel discuss a topic that didn't make my blood boil. James Whale is bob on with everything he said. Good talk.

Blame the government for everything, the fact that Labour left this country in such a financial state the government didn’t have much choice about cutting funds

I wonder how many millions were spent on rainbows

My goodness James Whale is eternal, he must be drinking from the fountain of immortality. I remember watching him on tv when I was a kid in the early 90s & he was old then.

We have had dealings with our council over nearly five years ago over a big issue locallly so we got to know all the ins and outs of the council. We discovered a massive wastage of money and they are criminally incompetent. Not only applies to the councillors but council officers. Yes the waste of money and we have evidence of that is jaw dropping.

All down to incompetence and corruption, but this is what you expect from Labour.

If there is bankruptcy or debt in councils it means they are spending beyond their financial means,does not matter if there is less money from government

The perfect example of go woke, go broke.

This explains why Section 106 makes up almost 9% of the price you pay for a new house in Birmingham.

More local referendums on how money is spent. Let the people decide it's their money after all

When local authorities had more control of their finances several such as Daventry District Council lost millions in the Icelandic Banking disaster. Nobody except Mickey Clarke saw that coming.

This is happening all over the country I live in Bradford and the things the council is getting away with is unbelievable

The Worst Council ever ..

How did the people who made the claim against unfair pay think this was going to be paid for? Councils don’t have reserves of cash for this type of incident/claim. If you are suing the council to the tune of £1.7bn you are damaging everyone! Honestly hell mend them. Everyone will suffer due to lawyers and NGOs who make a huge profit off the back of the taxpayer every time!

How about the £2 million Birmingham council spent on renaming streets with 'woke' names? It's a cruel world.

The thought of my local council having tax raising power is after a labour government the second most frightening thing I could imagine

Mike Buckley......A joke of a man who wouldn't even see a great big boil on the end of his nose.

"we are not in chaaaaarge of the Commonwealth"? Yes, yes we are and we also give extortianate amounts to the system.

You cannot truly grasp how much money councils waste unless you've worked for them. It is unbelievable.

Greed, corruption, back handers.

I believe Council’s need to be able to focus on statutory functions ONLY and divert funds accordingly. I know a Council that spent £15m on a Transformation team while having a debt of £15m.

Labour councils are incompetent BUT! I’ll be dammed if I listen to anything JK has to say

They should be ordered to reveal how much was spent on woke policies and promotions.

Council budgets were cut because Labour spent all the money.