13 May (Part 1) - Contrast and Compare
The more one gets to know local Conservative politicians the more that long term Tories like me -
chucked out of a Labour party meeting in 1959 for heckling - may begin to feel that
they should find another home for their vote.
A couple of weeks ago
Bexley UKIP was making a song and dance about Teresa
Pearce (Labour, Erith & Thamesmead) paying her husband Paul a fortune for his role as
her part-time office manager. The UKIP story was complete balderdash. Teresa pays
Paul nothing for that role and not a lot when he takes over full-time for other
staffs’ holidays etc. Something between nothing and £5,000 according to IPSA.
Perhaps UKIP should have turned their fire towards Priti Patel (Witham, Essex)
who employs her husband, Bexley Councillor Alex Sawyer (Conservative, St. Mary’s).
Priti is the President of Erith & Thamesmead Conservative Association. Alex was
also on its Committee until recently.
Alex Sawyer
not only gets £22,615 of Bexley's taxpayers' cash for persecuting motorists, he
also gets a big fat sum for a few hours a week in Mrs. Sawyer’s office. (Click
image for more details.)
Getting on for fifty grand a year for part time work might be easy money but it
doesn’t make Sawyer fabulously rich so he obviously needs another job. Not quite
in George Osborne territory but at least one more.
Alex Sawyer’s is at NASDAQ, the stock exchange, where he’s a consultant. In
true Bexley Tory fashion, according to The Times, he failed to disclose his outside interest to IPSA as
is required by law.
I have formerly excluded Alex Sawyer from the list of Bexley Cabinet Members I
regard as fundamentally dishonest. Maybe I should think that out again.
If one Googles 'Bexley Council Register of Interests’ it leads to this page…
Why? Not exactly friendly or transparent is it? (Last line.)
Maybe if Elwyn Bryant and I booked an appointment to inspect the Register, Councillor Peter Craske could write
an obscene blog about it.
Note: If one hunts around enough the 2014 Register of Interests can be found on Bexley’s website.