17 April - Blackfen & Lamorbey
The
election
in Blackfen & Lamorbey looks like it will be interesting. We have
five current or former Councillors standing for election. Peter Craske,
Brian Bishop and Frazer Brooks for the Conservatives, Lynn Smith for Reform
UK and former Conservative, fed up with not being able to do his unrestrained best for residents, James Hunt.
Peter Craske needs no introduction;
pretty much barge pole territory for me. The driving force behind the revamped Broadway and all its strange traffic priorities. Maybe you like it…
Brian Bishop has not done a lot in all the years I have known of him, if he has I must have missed it. A bit too close to
pub
wrecker Kulvinder Singh for my liking. Is it right that the then Chairman of the Planning Committee was so
keen to be seen hobnobbing with the man himself?
Frazer Brooks is the all-round nice guy who is employed by Joy Morrisey, MP
for Beaconsfield. Frazer is one of the few Councillors to have visited me at
home, but only in an electioneering role. He was once very helpful to me in the
Council Chamber under the stony gaze of Teresa O’Neill. That takes guts and
makes him one of a select half dozen.
Lynn Smith was the UKIP Councillor for Blackfen from 2014 to 2018. We never
totally lost touch with each other and whilst she is not a home
visitor we have met socially a few times. One of the few people I am happy
to trust with my innermost political thoughts and ideas for getting the country out of
the mess it is in. You may assume she is in the same political ball park as
I am and if you are looking for an old school Conservative, then Lynn will be a safe pair of hands.
Which brings me to my oldest political friend in Bexley, James Hunt. Very
much an Independent who will do what he thinks is right without fear or favour.
My choice in Blackfen and Lamorbey would have to be James, Lynn and Frazer.
If you want someone who will turn off his Council chamber microphone to
spite a deaf man in the public gallery, then Peter Craske is your man obviously.
If only the Belvedere ward offered such talent. Maybe it does, but I have no
leaflets and no inside information. Things might be different if I was a Labour
supporter but that party has tried my patience - and robbed me rotten - just
a little too often since July 2024. That comment will no doubt ensure I never
get a Labour leaflet through my letter box.