23 February - Another council pantomime
There was a full council meeting last night with mayor Sams presiding in full
‘fish out of water’ mode. Exude confidence he does not and Wishy Washy
effortlessly rose close to the heights of incompetence and partisanship achieved by his old
mum Widow Twanky. He began proceedings with his tired old speech about any form
of recording not being permitted and for a moment I felt he had his eye on my
pencil and notepad. Following that it was question time. Wishy Washy made great
play of his intention to time things carefully as he didn’t want democracy to be
given more freedom than strictly necessary. Not that it actually got much of a
look in at all. Bexley council has successfully banished public questioning
with a draconian set of rules and if any should manage to wriggle past they are
deemed “vexatious” by WW Sams and cast aside. The only questions permitted now are of
the arse-licking variety designed to allow a cabinet member to blow his or her
trumpet. And so two failed Conservative electoral candidates and a councillor’s
wife were lined up with their tongues at the ready.
Amandeep Singh Bhogal of 108a Lower Road, Belvedere asked councillor Gareth
Bacon to say how successful Bexley’s refuse services have been and he duly (and
rightly) did just that. John Ault of 6 Westergate Road, Abbey Wood asked councillor
Campbell to confirm that the Strategy 2014 programme of savings was on schedule
and he duly did - although without
the caveats
reported at the recent Public Realm meeting.
Mrs. Christine Bishop of 76 Danson Crescent, Welling asked councillor
Bailey to tell us about the money Boris Johnson had granted Bexley via his Outer
London Fund, and she duly did. Sidcup is going to get £1·8 million apparently.
None of these Conservative sycophants could have been truly interested in
proceedings, they all left together the moment question time ended. Is it not
ironic that Bexley’s plan to discourage questioning by publishing home addresses
makes it so much easier to confirm a question is planted?
It was then councillors’ turn to ask questions. Councillor Deadman (Labour) asked
Craske “when he is likely to follow Westminster’s example and stop 24/7 parking
charges”. Craske duly lied. “Bexley will never have 24/7 parking charges” lied
the habitual liar. Councillor Deadman asked him to “stop playing with words” and
helpfully rephrased his question in a manner even a moron might understand.
Craske retaliated with his well rehearsed diatribe about Bexley having the cheapest parking and
more of it than anywhere else in South East London. Once a liar always a liar.
Councillor Philip Read chimed in with more of the same. Once again the car park
in the historic centre of Greenwich with its tourist level parking charges was
reported as if it is the norm for the Royal borough. Craske as his wont interspersed his
bile with anti-Labour jibes based on events long gone.
Councillor Margaret O’Neill (Labour) managed to provoke a minor storm by asking about the
number of new homes to be provided by the regeneration of Larner Road. She may
be concerned by the government’s failure to ring-fence
Bexley’s £697,379 New Homes Bonus and that the council may have no intention of
spending the money on new homes. Councillor Bacon had covered the housing numbers reasonably well at
the recent Public Realm meeting
and Cheryl objected to the suggestion she hadn’t. I’m not sure she gave precise
figures on that occasion (622 homes demolished, 648 new ones to be built) but her
implication was plain enough. She strongly defended herself against the
suggestion that something was being hidden from view - the New Homes Bonus
perhaps? - to the point that mayor WW Sams told her to stop, but she did not. I
was on Cheryl’s side with that one.
After
a short and pointless anti-Labour party speech by councillor John Waters, the
mayor said time was up even though on his own admission there were two minutes
to go. We were thus deprived of the opportunity to hear councillor Philip Read
crawl up Craske’s rear end with a question which included the assertion “that
Bexley waived parking charges for six days over the festive period”. In fact the
only truly free day was Christmas Eve tacked on to the usual days when parking
staff demand the day off. Even then it didn’t apply to all car parks and
the
machines were still taking money because users didn’t know about the last minute
concession. Council leader Teresa O’Neill said later in the meeting that that
freebie day was financed by the council staff who went on strike just before Christmas.
Councillor Stefano Borella then put forward a Motion which included a resolution that the
council should “champion diversity in all cases including gay rights and
promoting equality at every opportunity”. He then provided a lengthy treatise
on the history of gay rights (or lack thereof). He didn’t manage to go back as
far as Leviticus Chapter 20 Verse 13 but he did get back to the Wolfenden Report
of 1957 and reminded everyone of the almost forgotten gay rights campaigner, Leo Abse MP.
Borella portrayed every Conservative leader before Cameron as wickedly homophobic and said the Labour
party had, for the last fifty years at least, been quite the reverse. All the
progress towards gay rights had been the work of Labour said councillor Borella
while aiming vitriol in the direction of Mrs. now Lady, Thatcher at every
opportunity. It was an over the top performance with as far as I could see, just
one aim: to lay a trap for Conservative councillors by praising David Cameron to
the heavens and then expecting them to fail to show total support for gay marriage
and their party leader. Borella won applause from Labour councillors for his cunning
while the Tories sat in stony silence.
I asked my neighbour Elwyn Bryant what gay marriage was to do with Bexley council
and he didn’t know either. Surely if it became lawful Bexley would implement it and
meanwhile it shouldn’t be a priority for any council. That sort of thing, I had believed,
ended with the demise of Looney Left councils. Maybe I am behind the times, but if so I am
not alone. Bexley’s Conservatives were not going to fall into Borella’s trap. For complete
clarity I should at this stage show you Stefano Borella’s Motion. See below left.
It was seconded by councillor Munir Malik who spoke up for the Motion in more
restrained terms.
Councillor Chris Taylor (Conservative) who entered a Civil Partnership only a
year ago proposed a revised Motion. He had had the foresight to have a printed
copy for everyone present. See above right. A somewhat bland and self
congratulatory form of words compared to Borella’s blatantly pro-gay agenda. It
has several times been suggested to me that Bexley council is run by a “gay
mafia” (list of names supplied) but if it is I don’t think it matters - not if
they refrain from obscene blogging anyway - but the council being run for
a gay mafia would be a very different kettle of fish. Borella’s Motion was in danger of
straying into that area.
Councillor Taylor said gay rights are not a matter for Bexley council and
would cost money to ensure compliance, hence his amended Motion. The Labour
sponsors argued that Taylor’s Motion was not a revision, it amounted to an
entirely new Motion and should be ruled out of order. Wishy Washy ducked the
issue by passing it to the council’s legal officer. I got the impression from
what he said that he agreed it was a new Motion but if he did he allowed it to
stand anyway, superseding Borella’s Motion. Well he has his inflated salary to
protect. It gave the green light to councillor Sawyer to let rip with a speech
that probably owed much to his wife Priti Patel MP. It included numerous choice
phrases. Certain activities were not his business nor the council’s. The Motion
was cynical and for nothing other than political gain, to promote positive
discrimination and to score cheap political points. It attempts to create
division where there is none and lives in the Looney Left past. It showed why
the Labour group was unfit to run a council and if anyone wanted proof of that,
tonight was the night. It’s a tragedy that they still want to distribute money like an
incontinent ATM, the gay marriage cause may be just but the Motion is political
window dressing.
Councillor Malik responded but was rudely told to sit down and stop speaking by
the gavel waving imbecile on the top bench. Councillor Malik finished making his
point anyway and as a result overran his allotted time by all of four seconds.
The revised Motion was approved by 45 votes with six abstentions and ten against.
I have a note of which Conservatives abstained and assume that is as a result of deeply
held religious convictions. For that reason they won’t be named here.
Following
all that excitement the council leader’s Report was questioned. There
was more than a little interest in Boris Johnson’s new ‘Routemaster’ bus. For
some reason the Conservatives thought it highly amusing that Craske had
photographed the Labour group skulking behind the clock tower when Boris brought
his bus to town. Small minds are easily amused I suppose. Councillor Craske
could not resist indulging in one of his trademark cheap jibes. He said that
the Boris Bus had visited Bexley more often than Ken Livingstone. Unless the
local press has been guilty of a very big failure to report facts I think this
has to go down as yet another of Craske’s lies. Why does he do it? Is he totally stupid?
Councillor Clark was concerned by Blue Badge crime and quite right too. The disabled
were having their windscreens broken by thieves she said, something I know all too
well to be true. Councillor Craske said that in the last year 60 badges had been
seized, 30 abusers issued with police cautions and eight prosecuted and fined up to £500.
Councillor Ball commented on the road outside the Civic Centre being clogged
with cars on a Sunday since 24/7 parking charges had been introduced and yellow
lines might be considered. Craske
said he only added to the number of double yellow lines if residents asked for
them. No one pointed out that there were no residents in that road nor did Craske dispute the “24/7”.
More than once during the meeting the Labour group expressed dissatisfaction with
certain aspects of the arrangements made for the Howbury area of Slade Green. The
council leader said that surveys had been positive and residents delighted and on
at least two occasions added that the Slade Green (Labour) councillors should be
very pleased that theirs was the only area on the receiving end of council investment.
What there is to be proud of in neglecting the whole borough other than Howbury
puzzles me but if it keeps Teresa happy…
Councillor Munir Malik was concerned for the future of the Freedom Pass and asked if
the Boris Bus was good use of public money. Munir in full flow went on to ask why,
if it was necessary to boost business by waiving parking charges on Christmas Eve,
does it make sense to impose increased charges for the rest of the year? It seemed
to be a question worthy of consideration but mayor Sams banged his gavel, told
Munir to sit down and by implication shut up. It was the second unwarranted attack
on councillor Malik by the mayor and Munir asked why he was being asked to stop when
there was no imposed time limit. He got no answer from Sams so I will give him one.
If you dress up a pathetic little man with a gold chain, deliver him to his parlour
in a limousine and arm him with a wooden hammer, he won’t be able to resist banging
it on his highchair like a baby with a spoon.
It had been announced at the start of the meeting that the final Agenda item (11) might
necessitate exclusion of the public and I decided to get out at that point rather than be
thrown out. However in the minute or so it took me to visit the boys’ room I
found everyone, mayor included, leaving the building.
In total the peak number of members of the public present was around a dozen,
although some of them looked to be council staff. There is another council
meeting next week. I’ll have to check the Agenda to see if it might provide more
gaiety. Craske’s performance might be good for a laugh.