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News and Comment November 2019

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26 November (Part 3) - Louie French meets Diane Abbott

So there I was waiting for just short of 40 minutes on a rainy Crayford station for the train back to Abbey Wood and the phone rang. It was Danny Hackett tipping me off that Joe Robertson’s letter to Abena was on the instructions of Conservative HQ. He had heard that the Sixth Form election strategist was Matt Hancock, Health Secretary.

By the time I got home a couple of other messages were saying much the same thing and sure enough it is easy to find Louie French’s (Eltham Conservative candidate) and Thomas Turrell’s (Greenwich and Woolwich) letter on line.

At least Louie (Deputy Leader at Bexley Council) made no unnecessary additions to his letter. Unlike Joe Robertson he did not think it clever to splash his Labour rival’s private email address all over Twitter and send a copy to the Bexley Times. Joe’s own email address is strangely missing.

He has borrowed David Evennett’s address too. In 2017 E&T Tories had a Belvedere address and in 2015 used King Harold’s Way, a Councillor’s address. I get the impression that the Conservatives are not serious about contesting Erith and Thamesmead.

I’m not sure why but I found Louie’s letter rather less annoying than Joe’s. Maybe it is because by the time I read it I knew it was written under duress. Maybe it is because I know that Louie is not a bad person. You can tell that Louie at least took a look at the content and modified it before sending it on its way. He speaks of four questions when there are only three. A touch of the Diane Abbotts.
French

Click the image to see the complete letter.

Maybe I expect too much of election candidates. On 4th November 2009 Teresa Pearce sent me an email to introduce herself as the new Labour Candidate for Erith & Thamesmead. In 2015 Anna Firth (Conservative) knocked on my door to introduce herself and her husband Edward and we shared several cups of tea talking about politics and things. Neither were cynical moves, as you know, some of the more crooked local Councillors would have probably saddled me with a criminal record by now if it was not for Teresa’s interventions and Anna Firth (now campaigning in Canterbury) has several times thanked me for my continued support; in the current campaign too.

We will not see the like of them in Erith & Thamesmead again.

I don’t really want any contact with local election candidates; I launched this blog ten years ago to highlight the lies told by Bexley Council and in particular those that were coming at the time from their Highways Department, with never a thought that it might evolve into offering political comment, presumably annoying one half of the readership one day and the other half the next.

Even so I do wonder why no one since Teresa and Anna have thought it worthwhile to reach out and attempt to build a bridge of sorts. Bonkers does not have as many readers as when Bexley Council’s criminal activities provided a scandal a day but even now the statistics say (if they can be believed) it reaches more than 5,000 residents every month, many of them visiting every day. Most in the Erith & Thamesmead area I would guess.

But thank goodness for small mercies.

 

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