14 April (Part 1) - On Wednesday 13th April democracy died in Bexley
I
thought I should go to last night’s Council meeting for several reasons. It was
the last one before the election, I hoped to hear some sensible answers to some
interesting public questions and to find something which would knock me off the electoral fence.
I have never voted for None of the Above and don’t particularly want to start now.
To some extent the evening was a disaster. It is so long since I attended in
person that I forgot to take the recorder batteries that had been on charge all
day and I picked up the wrong lens for my camera but it did at least confirm
that my political antennae are still in reasonably good order. As expected the
public questions were filibustered out of contention.
The evening began with the unscrupulous or maybe easily manipulated Andrew
Curtois asking Cabinet Member Leaf to waffle on about his budget. Leaf is a man
who can talk non-stop for more than half an hour and to make sure he could
swallow up almost all of the allotted 15 minutes he had prepared a long and
rambling speech. By some miracle of anticipation he had a prepared speech in answer to the supposedly impromptu secondary question too.
That no one with an interest in democracy, or for that matter financial acumen
should ever vote for David Leaf (Blendon) is a given but the same must go for
Andrew Curtois in Falconwood who clearly has no intention of going against the
corrupt practices which are rife within the ruling elite of Bexley’s Conservative Group.
That, plus sitting next to
a bad tempered Belvedere Conservative candidate and the
shenanigans by both the Mayor and Councillor Caroline Newton later in the
meeting convinced me that I must vote Labour in Belvedere. From what I hear,
Labour Councillors can be fairly obnoxious to each other but that is several
steps away from being obnoxious towards everyone and democracy in general.
Every Labour Councillor comes across to this member of the public as a decent,
friendly and well-meaning individual and that is what counts, not the intensity
of their alleged squabbles among themselves.
As I said in a mid-meeting Tweet it is not safe to blindly vote Conservative in
Bexley, it is imperative to research what they stand for and how they behave.
As a life long Conservative I would not hesitate to vote for Howard Jackson In Barnehurst, Steven Hall in East Wickham, Frazer Brooks in Falconwood, Richard
Diment and June Slaughter in Sidcup, Andy Dourmoush and Lisa-Jane Moore in Longlands, and finally John Davey and Peter Reader in West Heath. If you have
been counting that is only nine names out of the 45 candidates. It needs to be taken into account there are a lot of
unknowns this year but I would rule out at least five of them from what I know already
There are a few who are perhaps borderline OK. James Hunt (Blackfen) has been
following the course trodden by many a Mayor before him. Fair at the beginning of
his term but increasingly objectionable towards the end as realisation that he
must rejoin the baying mob sets in. At yesterday’s meeting, on one occasion, I
felt he was aggressive and erring towards being nasty which is not the James I know.
Sue Gower (Blackheath) is never nasty but she is too keen to toe the party line
when I am pretty sure she doesn’t really believe a word of it. A few names are
well known deceivers if not occasional liars and there is another handful which
have shown their true colours at least once over the years which cannot be forgiven.
Maybe I should add James and Sue to the recommended list because they are
approachable if needs be. None of the remaining ‘excluded’ fall into that category.
Note:
I left the meeting early because my Easter timetable allows almost no time for
blogging and this is being written late on Wednesday. The usual more detailed
report will appear here eventually.
Apologies, I seem to have
used this title before.