3 May - A rare moment of agreement
There was a very rare event in Bexley’s Council chamber last Wednesday, total agreement among all Councillors.
63 Councillors. Next year’s 45 will be more than enough.
Labour Councillor John Husband (Lesnes Abbey) put forward a Motion calling on the Council “to help the disabled lead more
fulfilling lives by taking positive steps to employ them when they have the
necessary skills and to give preference to firms employing the disabled when
purchasing goods and services and awarding contracts”.
Councillor Husband spoke for just over six and a half minutes in support of
his more than reasonable suggestion and no Conservative actually disagreed with
it but they were not prepared to graciously accept it. Good Motions must always be seen to be theirs, so they amended it.
Unless the name William Shakespeare appears at the foot of a page nearly
everything written can be improved upon as I realise every time I look at
yesterday’s blog and so the Conservative’s amendment was indeed an improvement.
It expanded disabilities to specifically include physical, mental and hidden
impairments which is undoubtedly a valuable addition.
Councillor Alan Downing (Conservative, St. Mary’s) spoke for four minutes in support of the Amendment.
Quite why he felt it necessary to go on about it for such a long time, I have no real idea. Perhaps he
wanted to give sufficient time for the fact it was a Labour Party initiative to be forgotten.
To make sure it might be forgotten, Councillor John Fuller (Conservative, Christchurch) went
on in similar vein for just short of four minutes. However it cannot be denied that the
Conservative’s Motion offered an improvement over the original.
The Labour Group recognised that too and were very happy to accept the
enhancements, so just for once, every Councillor raised an arm in support of the Amended Motion.