I
suspect most Bexley households will be getting one of these; tailored to their
particular ward. It is Bexley News, subtitled, ‘News from your Bexley Conservatives’.
It’s a propaganda sheet but unlike the one issued by Greenwich council, you are
not forced to pay for it and it doesn’t attempt to usurp the position of the
local press as does Greenwich Time.
Not everything in Bexley News is untruthful, but being issued by Bexley
Conservatives, some of it is. They quite rightly remind us that
under Labour, Bexley’s council tax went up by a staggering 40% but if that was such a bad
and wasteful thing to do (I’m inclined to think it was) why was there no equivalent reduction under the Tories to
bring us back to the old trend line? The Conservatives are still collecting all that extra
cash and spending it on something. It can’t all be going on pay for the top brass, like the technical
adjustment to the Chief Executive’s salary that saw it go up by £36,000 in one
year authorised by the leader of the council. Oh, to have friends like that!
Perhaps Bexley’s Tories believe their own propaganda because Bexley News repeats the li(n)e that
Bexley has “one of the lowest council tax rates per household in Outer London”. We
haven't, unless you count being in the bottom half qualifies.
Bexley Tories then compound the misinformation by claiming that they froze council tax rates
for two years in a row. That may have been their aspiration but it is not what happened.
They take us for fools with memory loss problems.
In a Conservative propaganda sheet it is probably mandatory to lie about the
opposition party. "There were gasps from the public attending the March budget
meeting when Labour councillors voted AGAINST freezing council tax. The packed
public gallery watched as, one by one, Labour councillors stood up to condemn
the freeze before voting against it”. No they didn't, that is an outright lie.
Protest groups tend to be left-leaning and inclined to back Labour and not
jeer them and the night in question was no exception. There were no gasps from the gallery
and rightly or wrongly the public protest was directed at Conservative councillors voting to
deprive vulnerable children and adults of day care. I was there, I saw it, and I would have reported any ‘gasps’.
I did however report
sporadic outbreaks of jeering but they all came from
Conservative councillors in pathetic schoolboy mode. One of them yelled out “tosser”.
Bexley’s Conservatives accuse Labour of “complete contempt for Bexley taxpayers” but surely lying over
and over again to Bexley taxpayers is doing exactly that? Lying Bexley Conservatives just can’t help themselves.
Last time I said that I was told Bexley council is claiming that this site is
Labour party inspired. If Bexley Conservatives look up their old records they
will see that I used to be a member of their party. I turned against them when
they lied to me a couple of years ago and I’ve never had to look far to find more examples.