3 March (Part 1) - One is John Fuller, the other is full of hate and prejudice
One
of these men will greet and acknowledge the public who attend council meetings.
Engage in polite conversation when the opportunity arises, enquire about the
wellbeing of children he knows are going through difficult times, answers
questions honestly and doesn’t stray from the subject or engage in cheap political insults.
Instead he quietly does his best for education in Bexley. It may not be the best
borough in every single respect but it is the best when it comes to giving parents their
first choice of secondary school.
The other man never speaks to any member of the public, refuses to answer any
question from a member of the public whose past political leanings are not to
his liking, and distributes political insults like confetti, especially if
the target is young and female.
Apparently such people are educationally incapable of drafting their own motions.
When
not thus occupied he invents stories and delivers them to the police intent on
getting a blogger imprisoned - he succeeded but only for 24 hours until a judge
intervened - and he invents stories to feed to parliamentary candidates neither
fully acquainted with the borough’s recent history or with Read’s vile ways. To
Ms. Firth’s credit she deleted her Tweet when she realised the sort of man
with whom she might be coming too closely associated.
Almost needless to say Read is in charge of Bexley’s worst performing portfolio,
Children’s Services. Available statistics are several months out of date but
they are the best there are. Bexley is reported to have the worst Children’s Services in London,
being either bottom or close to the bottom of the pile in every measured
parameter. Read will tell you that things have improved since he took over from
former councillor Katie Perrior who has gone to spend more time with her
business, and probably they have, things could hardly be worse.
Would it be churlish to point out that Bexley council’s press release to the
News Shopper claims an 80% first choice success rate but
The Guardian quotes
the true figure of 77·5%? According to Bexley council’s website in what will presumably be a rapidly pulled page,
so reproduced here, they hit 80·5% last year.
So things have gone down hill just a little. Why does council leader Teresa O’Neill (featured prominently in the
News Shopper’s report) always find it necessary to lie and exaggerate?
