25 February - Bacon. A little egg on our faces
When I made vaguely supportive noises about Bexley’s refuse
services and then proceeded to wonder how the responsible cabinet member
could possibly be in full time paid employment and fit in three
councillor-type
jobs as well I was unaware that a similar question had been sent to the council
by Michael Barnbrook. I met Mike at the first council meeting I attended and we
have kept in touch ever since. You may not know who he is but you should; he has
made something of a career of bringing down politicians. Derek Conway, former
Bexley MP, Ian Clement one time Bexley council leader and convicted fraudster,
the ex-MP for Leyton, Harry Cohen, the two Wintertons, the clutch of Labour MPs
who ended up in the dock for expenses and mortgage fiddling and the previous
Speaker of the House Michael Martin all came a cropper because of Mike
Barnbrook’s complaints to the police. If you don’t believe me Google it. Not
that there is much publicity and you will have to look hard because
Mr. Barnbrook once stood as the BNP candidate in Welling and came within eight
votes of unseating the Conservatives. The media isn’t keen on portraying a BNP
member as anything but a baddie. (Be cautious if visiting obscure websites you
might find, some bring up (possibly spoof) virus reports from Russian sources. Probably harmless if you
ignore them but it may be wise to stick to
The Daily Telegraph and
Guardian sites.)
I’ve not seen Mike’s letter but I believe it suggested that Gareth Bacon has as
many as six local government jobs whereas I found only three but whatever the
case, the council rejected Mr. Barnbrook’s letter as not relevant to them and I
suppose they had a point as much of it was about non-Bexley matters. However to
Mick’s amazement he received a personally addressed letter from Gareth Bacon who
had somehow been alerted to his enquiry. Mr. Barnbrook is suitably impressed
by Gareth’s openness and so am I. He didn’t have to write but he chose a more reasonable course.
Councillor Bacon explains that for some of the jobs (the ones I didn’t find out
about perhaps?) he is only a substitute and has never been called in so the time
spent on them is zero. He also makes the valid point that the London Assembly
meetings are all held during the day and Bexley’s are held in the evening, so
there is no conflict between those two, only between his City Hall
responsibilities and his ‘proper’ job presumably. So it would appear that
councillor Bacon despite all his lucrative responsibilities in London is in
practice not disadvantaged when it comes to looking after Bexley and his rubbish
(recycling) brief. Maybe he is not quite the expert time manager I took him to be after all.
Sorry; now I am being flippant.
There is no word on the free travel card claimed and the perverse attitude to police
thuggery but this is supposed to be a conciliatory piece so they will be glossed over for today.
That Gareth Bacon took the trouble to write such a friendly letter to Mike
Barnbrook is quite obviously commendable to say the very least, if only some of his fellow councillors
were as forthcoming. Mike’s own ward councillor is Peter Craske and despite his
responsibilities to Mick as a constituent absolutely refuses to respond to any
of his letters or emails. You can be quite sure that when enough evidence has
been accumulated Mr. Barnbrook will have Craske just as he did
all the other ne’er do wells that have gone before.