22 March (Part 4) - Keep it in the family
Bexley council teems with liaisons. Directors and Deputy Directors, man and wife.
Cabinet members and Scrutiny chairmen hitched. HR and Occupational Health,
linked. Twelve elected representatives married to each other, and there is no
easy way to identify the civil partners.
When you go to council meetings questions are planted by councillors’ spouses or
close friends. If you see a pro Bexley council letter in the newspaper it’s odds
on, if it’s not from a councillor, that the author can be linked to one. Only a
couple of months ago a journalist was dropping dark hints to me that he is
hamstrung by Bexley council’s tentacles getting everywhere, and as for the
police: they are joined at the hip.
I
picked up on the news today that UKIP has won their first London borough seat (†), completely
annihilating the Conservatives who had held it before. Earlier this month I had the
first tentative contact from a would-be Bexley UKIP candidate
and last Wednesday whilst leaving the Civic Centre I overheard a councillor in
conversation about the threat they imposed. And then I belatedly looked at yesterday’s
Bexley Times
- those adverts are such a turn-off! - and what did I find? A two page article about
UKIP’s presence in Bexley.
For balance, ahem! the Bexley Times has gone to Brian Silk, supposedly just the
average Bexley man in the street. Mr. Silk condemns UKIP as “a party that
harbours homophobia, no matter how they try to disguise it”. I always research
pro Bexley comments in the press and I wondered if I should similarly
investigate those who might round on anyone showing a lack of enthusiasm for Bexley
council. So I did.
Brian Silk, luckily for me has
his own website, and on it the Bexley council link is there for all to see.
“My name is Brian Silk and I live in Erith. My partner is
Joe Pollard” and lest there should be any doubt there is a direct link to
councillor Pollard’s page on Bexley council’s website.
Like the journalist said, Bexley council has their tentacles everywhere.
† London Borough of Havering. UKIP 39%. Conservatives 13%.