28 February (Part 2) - The big deception. It has been a long time in the planning
Although we know that Bexley’s Council Tax increases for 2017/18 will be 3·99% because no one ever successfully argues with Cabinet decisions, it’s not until tomorrow’s Full Council meeting that it will be endorsed by a huge majority of Councillors.
However
getting to the vote will not be all plain sailing, the Tories have been setting up their
usual man trap for Labour for several months but this time with even more
pre-preparation. It has
been obvious at every recent Scrutiny meeting and Councillor Craske has been
furiously Tweeting about it for a couple of weeks.
Recently the Tories
went on line
to reinforce the strategy.
Their web page is a bit cleverer than usual, it doesn’t contain any obvious lies for me to
pick apart. But it’s far from being entirely honest.
The
political ploy within the budget strategy is to make big cuts but sweeten the pill with a few relatively
inexpensive improvements some of which are no more than cancelling previously announced cuts.
From my right of centre view point it looks like the usual politicking about
which there is little to complain about but it puts the opposition in an impossible position.
They will want to vote against swinging cuts in the Adults’ Social Care budget
(respite care, parks maintenance, street cleaning, recycling, CCTV, where does
one stop?) but to do so they will have to vote against a handful of saplings and
the reversion to the original higher street cleaning budget. When Labour does
so, and I am guessing that will happen, the Tories will publish a list of
Councillors who voted against the trees and their Green Mean Street Cleaning
Machine. It will look bad but it hides the whole truth.
It’s definitely a clever strategy by the Tory spin doctors but
equally definitely it is an attempt to dupe the people of Bexley. Generally
speaking it is not Bexley’s policies that I take great exception to; it’s Bexley
Council’s constant deception and occasional criminal behaviour. Goodness knows why they
feel the need to tread that path because a no dishonesty policy would quickly lead to the
demise of BiB. Ultimately the policies are for the electorate to judge but no one
else is currently attempting to pass on news about Bexley Council. The local
newspapers do no more than regurgitate
Press Releases and Twitter.
Tomorrow evening’s meeting will likely produce verbal fireworks.
You can be sure that the Mayor will be her usual schizophrenic self, cutting
opposition Members short and letting Tories speak well beyond the allotted time.
Being Mayor brings out the worst in even the most decent of Councillors. Pretty
well every one follows that pattern. I am tempted to quote examples but won’t
because they were probably only following instructions. Underneath there was a
decent enough bloke struggling to be let out. I say blokes because all female
Mayor’s have been far from decent anything.
Another
thing Mayor Eileen Pallen is likely to do is to reinterpret the Constitution on the hoof. She blatantly did so
at
the last Full Council meeting.
Meanwhile you will get Councillors Read and Leaf throwing personal insults at
the opposition and probably Councillors Craske, Davey and Sharon Massey joining in.
It will be interesting to see how Labour reacts this time or even if they are
able to react. To speak they have to catch the eye of the Mayor and there is
none so blind as those who refuse to see.