16 June (Part 2) - They are all made in the same mould
I met up with fellow truth seekers, John Watson, Elwyn Bryant and Michael
Barnbrook a couple of weeks ago. As usual Mick was keen to update us on his
complaints to police about the Tories abusing the election expenses rules.
One of the MPs included in Mick’s complaint is
Kelly Tolhurst who beat Anna Firth, the woman gets everywhere, in an open
primary before the General Election in Rochester and Strood.
However perhaps more interesting to local readers is that Mick produced evidence
suggesting that a Bexley Council employee had committed a criminal offence. Someone
with very long experience of the Council pointed out that if it had connived with the employee no offence
would have been committed, which cast doubt on whether Mick’s case would hold up.
Bexley Council being dishonest too can never be discounted.
It may have
been me who suggested that instead of getting the police to look
into things we might give the new Chief Executive, Gill Steward, an opportunity to show her
mettle by Mick taking his concerns to her. It wouldn’t have worked with Will Tuckley, but you never know, his replacement might be fair minded.
Mick phoned the CE’s office to say that he wished to discuss a sensitive issue with
her, one with the potential for a criminal prosecution, and that she might be
either interested or be able to show him that all was above board.
The response was a telephone call back to say that the Chief Executive has no free
time for a meeting and Mick should write in. So the new Chief Executive hasn’t
taken Mick’s report that Bexley Council may be harbouring another criminal particularly
seriously. Perhaps she doesn’t know how many times his reports about public
servants have hit and brought down their target.
There is one obvious answer to whether the CE has no free time and it is to FOI a copy of
Gill Steward’s work diary for the coming month to see if she is fibbing or not.
That was done once before and Bexley Council refused to play ball but the
Information Commissioner soon sorted that out. If the new Chief Executive wants
to be difficult, two can play at that game.
Note: This is a slightly revised version of the blog posted
five hours earlier which incorrectly stated that Mr. Barnbrook had already written to Gill Steward.