9 March (Part 1) - Go compare 2
At last Wednesday’s public council meeting one gentleman who I hadn’t seen
before videod the disgraceful spectacle and I had a word with him at the interval to ensure he
kept the tape as it will be vital evidence when Bexley’s Standards Board which
has a track record for dishonesty absolves
Mayor Clark of breaking the Standing
Orders, the relevant part of which she read out before the meeting started. I
understand this gentleman was later told he must turn his camera off.
There is another council meeting tonight and the video-man has written to the
council about his filming activities. He has made a major breakthrough for
accountability in Bexley; he not only got a reply but it came from Mr. Moneybags
himself. Never before have I known Will Tuckley reply to anything, nor has
anyone else I know of, but apparently making a record of a public meeting
justifies a quarter million pounds’ worth of executive muscle to swing into
play. Moneybags’ letter says…
“The Council, consisting of the democratically elected representatives of the
borough, has a Protocol governing the way meetings are conducted. This states
that permission from the Mayor, the Chairman of the meeting, is required for
“any video or audio visual recording of proceedings”. You do not have that
permission. Consequently you will not be able to film the meeting.”
Democratic eh? But you can understand why. Youtube would be a perfect place to
show a smirking Clark and her gang laughing at members of the public and
breaking their own rules. Then everyone could see what a despicable lot they are.
In any case Tuckley is almost certainly lying, he will have made that rule up
yesterday and possibly written a note in his protocol’s margin as
tin-pot dictators will.
So for comparison… One of my regular contacts attended a meeting of Westminster City Council
yesterday and took his video camera with him. He asked if it was OK to use it
and they said “yes, OK, go ahead”. Bexley as usual (and understandably) wants to
hide their dishonesty as much as possible. These greedy and largely useless
individuals have got away with it for far too long.