22 September (Part 1) - Nothing much changes
In odd moments I have been restoring old blogs. For technical reasons it makes sense to start on the oldest first
and I am now up to November 2010. Some of the old stuff looks to be very trivial
in retrospect but probably no worse than today’s. Councillors back then were
always prepared to bend the truth if they could get away with words carefully chosen to deceive.
For example, the
Council hired Parsons Brinkerhoff to advise them on road design and paid
them around £4 million. What did we get from that? Nothing discernible.
However at a Council meeting Councillor Craske denied there was a £4 million
contract and on that basis refused to answer
questions about it claiming that there was no such contract.
The truth was that there was more than one contract and the total cost was £4
million. So no single £4 million contract. Clever, devious or dishonest? Untrustworthy certainly.
A similar device was employed yesterday by Councillor John Davey (Conservative
West Heath). I enjoy reading John’s Tweets, usually amusing, frequently putting
the boot into Sadiq Khan and recently making mincemeat of a would-be Labour MP.
But then he engaged with someone who was advocating taking Bexley back to the
1950s when cars were few and far between. John said he was happy to use his car
for which he was accused of listening to black cab drivers at the Conservative
Club. John replied that he was not a member. Why would the master Tweeter do that?
But he can claim it is true because he is Chairman of the Association, not a Club.
Yesterday TfL sent me an email to inform me that today is Car Free Day. I think I might celebrate by driving to Sainsbury’s instead of walking.
London will not survive on pedal power and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. There’s a
contradiction if ever there was one. They cause gridlock and are a massive blow
to the economy.