20 January (Part 2) - Hiding her face
About
half the things you read here are sparked off by reader comment, more than half
so far this month, but there is not often much follow up comment. If asked why I
offer the opinion that Bonkers mainly preaches to the converted. Dissenting
voices almost never come forward.
It wasn’t really dissent, but an email correspondent at the weekend did give me a ‘why did I
not think of that?’ moment. He said that to put David Bryce-Smith
in front of the cameras last Thursday evening
was an act of cowardice by Bexley’s ruling elite. Why wasn’t cabinet member Linda Bailey put
forward? And the man was right. Normally when a council gets itself into some
sort of trouble it’s its leader or a cabinet member who defends their policy. Poor old
Bryce-Smith is merely the well paid lackey who does what he is told.
Shunning responsibility is not a new thing in Bexley. When former leader Ian Clement
dipped his hand into the till,
his deputy Teresa O’Neill didn’t have a clue about it. Or so she said.
When she was told that a load of obscene nonsense which appeared on line could
only have come from a council source, it disappeared within a couple of hours.
But she didn’t have a clue who had done it. Or so it was said.
When Nicholas Dowling sent an email about parking charges simultaneously to
every councillor, guess who quickly sent out a round-robin to
instruct all the Tories to keep schtum.
Teflon Tess always manages to be somewhere else when the spotlight is switched
on. It’s an art form too many politicians have developed to perfection.