22 November (Part 1) - All mates together
It’s amazing what sort of people are deemed good enough to be Conservative Councillors in Bexley, Cabinet Members even.
Readers
who have been around a long time will remember the infamous ‘Obscene blog’. An example of it is shown here but there was lots more in similar vein.
The police eventually traced the source to Councillor Peter Craske’s phone and
found even more unpublished work on it. In retrospect it had to be Craske’s
work, he was the only person who knew all the facts in his various blogs. Elwyn
Bryant and I had indeed gone to the Civic Offices on Friday 10th May 2011. Elwyn
suspected Craske from Day 1 but it seemed too far fetched to be true.
My MP Teresa Pearce contacted me about the obscenities immediately, Elwyn’s did
not. He had to book an appointment to see James Brokenshire.
James Brokenshire said he was “appalled” by what he was shown and probably he
was. Everyone who sees Councillor Craske’s handiwork is.
Now we wonder whether Elwyn’s MP was genuine in his immediate response or is he
just plain forgetful. Maybe it’s neither and obscenities are a normal part of
Conservative Association life.
Who did James Brokenshire choose to sign his nomination papers for the
forthcoming election? One Peter Harold Craske. Maybe there is a clue there on
why James Brokenshire told Elwyn Bryant that it would be “inappropriate” to
back his pursuit of the filthy minded blogger.
The police dragged their feet and lied when it came to investigating the source
of the blog. They told me that the trail had gone too cold after they had in fact traced the source IP address.
A new Borough Commander, possibly unaware of the cosy relationship between the
police and Bexley Council, arrested Councillor Craske very nearly 14 months after
the crime was committed. Four months later he was mysteriously let off the hook
contrary to advice from the Crown Prosecution Service.
Elwyn Bryant has a theory about that too. He thinks that the then Mayor of
London, Boris Johnson, gave instructions to drop the case. To be honest, no
other theory neatly fits the facts. He was right about the likely source in May
2011, maybe he is right again.
There was of course a complaint about Bexley police which went on and on until
as recently as 2018. The report spent 20 odd pages listing all the funny business that
Bexley Police got up to and then suddenly, on the last page, changed tack and
said no one did anything wrong.
It was almost as though the main investigator found the truth but when his
bosses came to sign off the report they decided that it might be political dynamite.
James Brokenshire however must think Peter Craske is an OK sort of bloke to have him sign his nomination
papers. It’s not quite in the Epstein Prince Andrew league but are all Conservatives so unconcerned
about the sort of people they hob-nob with?