30 June (Part 2) - Propaganda alert
Bexley’s
quarterly magazine is fortunately not unrelieved propaganda as those of some
Labour councils appear to be, nor does it try to put the local press out of
business as some councils do but personally I don’t find it as readable as the similar
but fortnightly Newham magazine, possibly because that usually contains more
local history, often of long standing local businesses or biographies of local
people, some of them just elderly but ordinary folk with long memories. But
maybe that is just a personal preference.
Bexley’s magazine is by no means a local Pravda, nor does it resort to the blatant lying that may
be found on the local Conservative website (Labour councillors say there is
no railway station in Bexleyheath. Labour councillor
can’t find the centre of Erith); that is nonsense written by juvenile minds
that might be just as capable of writing
an obscene blog.
The Magazine doesn’t usually make inflated claims like council Leader Teresa O’Neill who boasts
she has given us one of the the lowest council tax
rates in Outer London. More nonsense that has been
debunked before.
No, the Bexley magazine is far more subtle than that.
I don’t fully understand their reasoning on the financial savings Bexley claims
to make each year from one-off cut-backs. The council ran a tram service between
Erith and Abbey Wood until 1935 but it made no money and was closed in 1935. Is
Bexley council still saving thousands a year because they got rid of the trams?
I never took up smoking in the 1950s when many of my friends did. Have I been
saving large sums ever since? I used to spend money on hi-fi gear but I’ve not
done so for a long time. If I added up all the things I have ‘saved’ money on
though a lifetime of changing fads and needs I would be saving more than my
income. I doubt proper accounting works like that. Bexley council tells us
(Magazine Page 15) they are saving £20,000 per year from wrecking the fountain.
How long before that drops off the radar? It can’t be a saving for ever or the tramway
would still get a mention. If it can’t be for ever it can’t be arbitrary either;
accountancy is not arbitrary. Surely
the only true alternative is to accept a one-off cut
provides a one-off saving?
They do it again on Page 10. We are going to save £1 million every year by
refurbishing the Woolwich building for the next council HQ. It may sound like a
saving every year, I can see it may look that way before you think about it, but
if it is true we are still saving money from building the present Civic Centre 30
years ago. Will we soon be saving the money on both HQ moves? No of course not, if it
worked that way the council tax would be zero by now. I note that the ’savings’ from the
enforced crossing of legs right across town have not been mentioned. Bexley
magazine may not be Pravda but it does engage in low-level brainwashing.
Another intriguing statistic in the Magazine is the annual road expenditure. £3
million to be spent on frost damage and other repairs to 300 miles of road. (Page 7.) I
would have thought Bexley had more road length than that but a few arithmetical
assumptions suggests 300 miles could be about right. So that’s £10,000 spent on every
mile, the same as last year. Quite likely much the same as the year before that.
Where is the money going? Are our streets paved with gold? If we look at
councillor Craske’s figures on the cost of Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ) it is
possible to surmise that white-lining costs at least six pounds a foot. If you
think that is a silly figure then blame Craske, he had to justify the CPZ
charges somehow, but that sort of sum makes more than £30,000 for a mile of paint,
so his £10,000 average is going to go nowhere. If you doubt all this the only
explanation is that Craske’s figures were made up to suit himself or Bexley
council is the most mismanaged money wasting shambles imaginable. Difficult
choice I know, but having just seen how they managed TIC I am drawn towards
thinking that Craske may be an honest man. No that can’t be right either.
Pravda : “The official organ of the Russian Communist Party until 1991.”
Brainwashing : “Mind abuse / thought control first practiced by North Korean Communists circa 1951.”