14 February (Part 2) - Today’s excuses are…
Sometimes when you see fewer than usual blog posts here it means there is
nothing to report. At other times it is because there is so much going on that I am
failing to keep up with it. Now is such a time.
Yesterday afternoon I was interviewed for an hour and a bit by someone from
Birmingham City University. They are doing a study on the role of blogs within
local communities or something like that; I simply haven’t had the time to check
up on what they are up to but there is of course
a website.
I think it is fair to say they were amazed by the lengths Bexley council has
gone to to suppress comment and the degree of criminality that has been exposed. I gave
permission for the recording to be made available if they so decide. The interviewer was
also rather surprised to hear that Bonkers is a single handed effort, albeit
with quite a lot of independent information providers.
This week alone I have received three letters from the police. One from the
IPCC, one from the DPS and one from the Deputy Assistant Commissioner. It would
appear that alleging that two senior officers and Will Tuckley are guilty of
Misconduct in Public Office sparks quite a lot of interest. So far the police have responded very positively
and an earlier complaint is no longer being handled at Constable level.
I believe the evidence against Chief Superintendent Dave Stringer is devastating
and leaves no wriggle room. Not that anyone will be surprised given the
reputation of the Metropolitan Police if some far fetched excuse is concocted. I
had to reply to one of the letters and
it may shed some light
on where the complaint is going. In case you are a newcomer to Bonkers I should
explain that all of this stems from the cover up operation and the need to
“resolve councillor Craske’s situation” after a load of obscenities were found
to have been originated on his phone line.
See Timeline.
Then last night I attended another council meeting. It provided little of
general interest so I am not going to spend much time on reporting it, but
something will appear here eventually.
I think I have caught up with the emails delayed by
BT’s reluctance to properly
investigate a fault but new ones keep arriving. I doubt those that ask me to
grab photos of this or that are going to be dealt with any time soon, and the
weather is as big a disincentive as time.
Comments on election leaflets are interesting but would be even more so if
accompanied by a scanned copy. Requests from election candidates for lists
of things extracted from Bonkers will necessarily go on a long list of things to
do. About all I can find time for right now is to answer one email question. Yes
Bexley does rank among the lowest crime areas in Greater London. The figures
vary over time and we have had rather more murders in recent years than other
boroughs but on general run of the mill crime, if there is such a thing, it
would be hair splitting not to accept that Bexley is among the safest boroughs
in London. Comparing it with areas elsewhere in the country that the police
think are similar to Bexley produces a less favourable result.
IPCC : Independent Police Complaints Commission. DPS : Metropolitan Police
Department of Professional Standards.