6 November (Part 1) - Tories revert to type. Nasty!
This morning I must complete my yellow high lighting of the remainder of the
papers which I shall be taking to Plumstead police station this afternoon. The
detective sergeant is devoting the entire day to investigating Bexley Chief
Executive Will Tuckley and
the lying councillor Cheryl Bacon for Misconduct in
Public Office. Peter Gussman interviewed at nine o’clock, Elwyn Bryant at eleven and me at
two. I have warned the officer that I have so much documentation that he
shouldn’t expect to get home early. I shall take papers which no one has seen
before, not even Mick Barnbrook who was
interviewed last week.
I shall be aiming to show that Will Tuckley and co. were corrupt by accepting
only the word of the lying Cheryl Bacon and absolutely refusing to look at any
evidence which told a different story. None of the councillors who contradicted
Bacon’s account were interviewed. The evidence against Tuckley is conclusive and
it remains to be seen how the police will decide to close the case down. Find a
minor discrepancy in people’s 16 month old memories, announce a prosecution is
not in the public interest or find that Teresa O’Neill has phoned Boris Johnson
and get an instruction to lay off.
Meanwhile
there was a council meeting last night that needs reporting. It was a
beauty and showed the Conservatives at their obnoxious worst.
At times I almost felt sorry for mayor Howard Marriner. He tries so hard to be
fair to all but faced with the baying mob which is his own party members, his
task is a hopeless one.
Question time was chaotic with a cabinet member dodging questions and doing his best to insult residents again,
emulating councillor Craske on a previous occasion, followed by the usual planted questions from sycophantic Tories; and another
critical motion from Labour.
This council resolves to record its condemnation and rebukes the Cabinet and the
senior leadership of the Council for the continued lack of adequate improvement
in Children’s Services and that there remain further risks to the safety and
security of the Borough’s young people.
The cabinet stooge, councillor Graham D’Amiral, immediately stood up to ask that the public and press
be excluded from the debate as it may result in criticism of those responsible
for the appalling OFSTED reports, the Enforcement Notices and the fact that Bexley
remains worst borough in London by most child protection measures. Not to
mention the responsible cabinet member who did a runner at the last election.
Naturally the Conservatives thought that secrecy was a bloody good idea. Below
is a selection of the Twitter comments that followed.
For technical reasons (image size not used before coupled with the complexities of providing the Mobile option) this Twitter extract may require a browser refresh. Windows F5.
Here’s a few seconds of Tories drowning out a Labour councillor trying to represent her electors and improve the lot of the children of the borough.
Tomorrow I am going to visit a parent who is on the receiving end of Bexley’s murderous catalogue
of child protection failure. Maybe her file of papers will provide something juicy I can report here.
This is a stop gap report on yesterday’s council meeting, what with the police
today and the abused parent tomorrow it’s going to be the weekend before
anything like a more formal report on yesterday’s meeting appears here.