The
News Shopper did a well researched feature on the
petition against excessive
salaries last week and on its letter page two out of three emailed comments were
on the same subject. Someone calling himself Golden Broom Boy had flown into
action without engaging his brain claiming a pay cut would breach contracts. The
petition asked for contracts to be renegotiated, that’s all. It called on the
council to take “appropriate steps to revise all Contracts of Employment”. How
do you think Bexley council changed the conditions of lesser mortals Broom Boy?
John Watson got his group’s petition an airing on LBC radio yesterday morning.
(Transcript
here.) Bexley council’s statement was read out by LBC presenter Nick Ferrari who didn’t
find it difficult to shoot it down. John Watson and his friends are working hard to provide
Bexley council with more media excitement.
Something John and his team have done already is to ask every councillor to sign
the petition but they will all refuse or ignore it. If John gets a reply it will
be along the lines of “I decline to sign your petition as it is a total
misrepresentation of the actual truth”. How do I know? Because that is what
councillor Val Clark (Falconwood & Welling) has said already and circulated as a draft reply to all her colleagues.
The woman showed herself to be
a twit as mayor and she proves herself no better now. How can a request to “appeal to the Leader of the Council,
Councillor Teresa O’Neill, to support her Government and do the right thing by
urgently taking the appropriate steps to revise all Contracts of Employment of
staff at Bexley Council to ensure that no individual’s salary package exceeds
£100,000.00 as recommended by Eric Pickles” be misrepresenting the facts? The
only facts are that the Minister for Communities has told councils what he
considers to be reasonable and Bexley is intent on ignoring him and misrepresenting
both uncomfortable truths. You would expect a greater intellect from a councillor but
they all seem incapable of rising to any occasion. Intellectually bereft.
It seems
councillor Sybil Camsey was right, no councillor will read the petition, they
won’t take any notice and they don’t care.