17 April (Part 2) - Hang ‘em and flog ‘em
Not my words of course, I might get arrested for them, but from the Daily
Mail when reporting a speech by the wife of councillor Alex Sawyer (Northumberland Heath, £9,543).
I’ve a feeling this blog will be long and wide ranging; blame it on
ex-councillor Leaf who connived with Bexley councillors to restrict residents’
question time at the meeting on 6th April, for it is he who prompted the
enquiries which have led to today’s jottings. When I got home that evening I Googled
David Leaf and found he was still claiming to be councillor for Belvedere.
“Welcome to Cllr David Leaf’s Website”. I should have taken a copy for it had
gone two days later, but
Google’s cache came to the rescue.
From that undemocratic episode flowed information that ex-councillor Leaf was
research assistant to Priti Patel, Conservative MP for the
very safe seat of Witham, Essex and then the revelation that she is
married to Alex Sawyer, councillor for Northumberland Heath.
Ms. Patel gives every impression of being a proper Conservative, not the
namby-pambies most are now, almost indistinguishable from any other
main-stream politician. At her Witham constituency selection committee meeting in 2006
she wowed her inquisitors and trounced the candidate who was favourite to
win, one James Brokenshire. Can’t say I am surprised. I have a friend who is a
Ugandan Asian (‘morning Tariq) and to listen to him you’d think he is more
British than I am. Ms. Patel comes from the same mould. “I said I would
never vote for the euro because I want to see a Britain that is governed by the
British for the British.”
So Priti is no Liberal Democrat, good for her, we need a choice of politicians not uniform colourless nonentities, but is she,
excuse me, whiter than white? Her website says…
She lives with her husband and son in the heart of her new constituency Witham? How many husbands has she
got? The husband we know about says something entirely different on the Bexley council website…
Alex Sawyer says he lives in Welling. This may not be a scandal of Daily
Telegraph Expense File proportions but both can’t be right. But did you expect
the truth? Probably not.
James Brokenshire must have been very upset by being shoved aside by Essex Man
in favour of the aptly named Priti. Essex Man said of him, “James was slick but
he tried to be too clever by qualifying every statement, whereas Priti jumped
straight in and told them what they wanted to hear”. Qualifying statements and
by implication sitting on the fence. Sound familiar?
The Queen Mary Hospital campaigner John Hemming-Clark,
labelled Brokenshire a liar which I thought was more than a bit OTT on the evidence available
but there is not much doubt that James Brokenshire MP faces an uphill struggle to prevent the
demise of Queen Mary’s. He was quoted in the News Shopper of 30th March 2011 as
saying he is pressing for Queen Mary’s to be taken out of the South London
Healthcare Trust’s hands and two weeks later (12th April) the Trust says (I have the letter)
“Queen Mary’s Sidcup is one of South London Healthcare NHS Trust’s main sites. There
are no plans for this to change”.
I think the MP is probably living up to the reputation he
earned at the Witham selection meeting. Qualifying everything and facing both ways at once. He’s
in a difficult position, facing an angry electorate and looking over his shoulder for his ministerial
career. It would be surprising if the odd fib didn’t pass his lips. In fact I
am sure they do.
When one of his constituents pressed him for an appointment to discuss his Queen Mary concerns he
found all the MP’s surgery time had already been booked, but five minutes later James happily made an appointment
with a substitute constituent hastily arranged by the first one. Is no one honest any more?
With thanks to ex-councillor
Leaf and his co-conspirators
for being instrumental in exposing the Sawyer/Patel link and the unusual stated
living arrangements.
