There will be a Council meeting this evening. It will take half an hour to
gather up what I need to have with me and I will be out of the house for best part
of four hours. It will take at least five more to listen to the recording and
summarise it for the web.
And for what?
It has become very obvious over recent years that very few people are interested
in what goes on in the Council Chamber and Bonkers gets far more attention if I
spend 30 minutes on a rant on this or that and spend the rest of the day doing
something more interesting. But if it is not done Bexley Council can get away
with anything because we have no local newspaper worthy of the name.
I already know what will happen tonight. Labour will suggest one of their own
for Mayor while the Tories put forward Councillor O’Hare and vote him in. Then
there will be a eulogy on how brilliant at his job James Hunt has been and a
couple of new faces will end up in Cabinet. My money is on Richard Diment and
Melvyn Seymour. It could be worse but experienced talent is in very short supply.
Teresa O’Neill will remain as Leader because her detractors are still not
numerous enough to see a rebellion through to a successful conclusion.
I have almost talked myself into going to the Oval for a T20 instead. I have a
ticket. The Lizzie line to Liverpool Street and the Moorgate exit to the Northern
line should knock ten minutes off the old via London Bridge route. Crossrail is
going to be brilliant for so many things.
Increasing the number of readers, which are well down on the good old
days when Bexley Council could be relied upon to do something scandalous or
criminal most months, makes rants and winding people up a quite attractive
proposition. It probably explains emails like this one…
I think if Martyn trawls through old blogs he will find one thing that is
totally consistent. Criticism of Conservative lies
has been relentless because they simply won’t stop lying. In 2009 I thought the
lies were so outrageous that the blog was created and then I found that 2009 was not unique.
On policies I suspect that criticism has not really gone beyond this Council’s road
planning being, in the words of the Chairman of the Transport Committee,
“bonkers” and the virtual abandonment of the CCTV to save £200k being a false economy.
Bexley is far from being the worst run Council in London despite its longest
serving Councillors being untrustworthy. I have documented proof that three of them lie.
I voted Labour earlier this month because the
Conservatives only offered candidates who are very closely associated with men with a proven track
record of riding rough shod over planning regulations and who arguably tried to
kill me. In a different ward I might well have voted Conservative. In some wards
I definitely would have done.
Maybe Martyn could bear this explanation in mind and I’d be happy to accept any evidence
of my confusion that he identifies. Personally I believe it is possible to reconcile
believing that Sadiq Kahn is the worst Mayor of London ever and Boris Johnson is
the worst Prime Minister of my lifetime. I would like to see both humiliated
and gone; but Khan more so than the fake Tory.
I may sometimes be in the mood for provocation and reserve the right to push
the boundaries in the hope of a reaction but I would never countenance the
provision of false information; that is Bexley Council’s job.
Note: About 35 minutes and it’s done!