OUTGOING Prime Minister Tony Blair is being asked to approve a Downing Street petition calling for Sir David Henshaw to be removed as Chair of the North West Regional Strategic Health Authority. http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/
But don't hold your breath that TB will suddenly see the light about Sir Diddy, as he departs at the end of his 10-year rule at No 10.
So far the hard-pressed e-petitions team at Number 10 have already rejected three separate anti-Henshaw petitions.
The excuses for rejection offered by the Civil Service mandarins (all colleagues of Sir Diddy of course, ed) who administer the petitions web site have grown steadily more absurd and preposterous.
It seems they are intent on protecting one of their own.
Why is Sir Diddy, who pockets £40,000 a year in public money for being Chair of the RHA, so protected?
Why cannot he be critiscised, face a public call for his dismissal, or be held to account (even by Number 10)?
So much for democracy in our National Health Service.
We expect to hear very shortly that Attempt No 4 to petition the Prime Minister to dismiss Henshaw has also been rejected.
In the meantime, you can have a look at the three previous attempts to expose Henshaw as an evil blackmailer...
Attempt Number 1 came with this petition to Number 1o:We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to: 'remove Sir David Henshaw as Chair of the North West Strategic Health Authority' in the light of statements made by councillors in Liverpool and reports on a number of blogs, including the Henshaw and the Evil Cabal blog, we consider Sir David Henshaw to be unfit as a public servant to be left in charge of the region's health service. (seems a perfectly fair petition to me and would, no doubt, have got considerable public support, ed)
And this was the eventual response from No 10:
Hi,
I'm sorry to inform you that your petition has been rejected. Your petition was classed as being in the following categories:
* Potentially libellous, false, or defamatory statements
Presumably the bureaucrats believe it is "potentially libellous" to say that Sir David Henshaw is unfit to be in charge of the region's health service. This of course, ignores the views of 20 MP's, including the chair of the Labour Party, Hazel Blears MP and former Health Minister Jane Kennedy, MP, who said exactly the same and publicly protested about Henshaw's appointment.
Attempt No 2:
The petition was edited and re-submitted as follows:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to: 'remove Sir David Henshaw as Chair of the North West Strategic Health Authority' In the light of statements made by councillors and officials in Liverpool and reports on a number of blogs, including the Henshaw and the Evil Cabal blog (perfectly factual account, ed)
But this was the response from No 10:
Hi,
I'm sorry to inform you that your petition has been rejected again.
Your petition was classed as being in the following categories:
* Potentially libellous, false, or defamatory statements
So it looks as though, in our great democracy, you cannot now even make reference to statements made by senior councillors about Henshaw's blackmail and attempted coup d'etat!Notice how no details of these were even given in the petition, but it was still rejected by Number 10.
So here was Attempt Number 3
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to: 'remove Sir David Henshaw as Chair of the North West Strategic Regional Health Authority' because his previous behaviour as chief executive of Liverpool city council makes us fear for the future of our Health Service (perfectly understandable point of view, ed)
But this was the response from the mandarins at Number 10:Hi,
I'm sorry to inform you that your petition has been rejected.
Your petition was classed as being in the following categories:
* The names of individual officials of public bodies, unless
they are part of the senior management of those organisations
* Language which is offensive, intemperate, or provocative
Now they appear to have decided that we can't even name Sir Diddy, nor say anything at all about Sir Diddy, even though he is being paid as a public servant on a public body. (And they don't like the fact that we fear for our Health Service either, ed).
Anyway this is Attempt No 4:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to: 'remove Sir David Henshaw as Chair of the North West Strategic Regional Health Authority'. (simple and to the point, ed)Presumably they will reject that as well, because it refers, outrageously, to Sir Diddy by name. (Perhaps we should go for the record of having the most petitions rejected by Number 10? ed)
Sir David Henshaw

Here's some more inside gen on Sir Diddy.
Did you know that he reads the blog avidly and even posted a comment on the Guradian lecture post? He was 'Intrigued' apparently - check it out.
Anyway, you are right, he was desperate to avoid a scene at the lecture and made special arrangements to swap his appearance, so he could avoid any unpleasantness with Mat Finnigan.
He has also spoken to Councillor Paul Clark about the blog and warned him that Chas Cole has million of pounds to sue. Henshaw is also furious that Storey's evidence to the Standards Board has been leaked so successfully and is now in the public domain, via this blog and the other evil cabal ones. He had a real go at Clark about all that - accusing Storey of leaking it etc, etc, although he says Clark is useless. Clearly he feels a bit vulnerable about what was in Storey's statement.
The stuff from Antrobus and Clark particularly, apparently still worry him as does the accusations of him being a blackmailer and extortionist. You have touched a nerve there Tony, I would keep going if i were you.
He is also desperately worried that all this will continue to follow him to the health service.
The bad news for him is that Hilary Armstrong is on her way out when Brown takes over from Blair, (Henshaw's wife openly talks about his good friends Hilary and her husband Paul!) so he has been trying recently to arrange meetings with the Treasury, presumably to try and ingratiate himself.
He has also set up his own little company called The David Henshaw Partnership, with some of his 'mates'. Have a look at Comnpanies House to see if it is registered.
Hope this helps...
11:33 AM