20 April (Part 1) - Read and write no evil
The most curious and maybe most interesting part of Wednesday’s Full Council
meeting was approved without a word of debate. It was the Philip Read amendment to the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.
Councillors have been told not to Tweet while their judgment is
impaired and if Philip Read sticks to the new rule the opportunities for ridiculing
him will be much reduced. The new rules appeared
in draft form a month ago and now they are ‘law’.
What will we do for a good laugh now?
What will Councillor Read do after a glass or two if he cannot freely distribute insults?
But perhaps he will exploit the following potential loophole? Among the Don’ts relating to attacks,
insults, abuse and defamation there isn’t actually anything about directing bile
at residents. You can’t do it to Council staff, colleagues or professionals but
residents seem to be fair game.
Why? Maybe they aren’t so important in the mind of Bexley Council. Certainly the Code of Conduct Committee was
happy to defend insults only six months ago.
I rather like this bit. No blocking except as a last resort. Both Councillor
Philip Read and Council Leader Teresa O’Neill blocked me from viewing their
Tweets from the moment I joined Twitter, and in the Leader’s case from the
moment she set up her own account.
They achieve nothing of course, anyone who uses Twitter for more than trivia has two accounts. One
for posting and another for following account holders who are so ashamed of what
they write they don’t want to see it quoted more widely.
Do what I say, not what I do.
The weird thing is that I usually agree with Philip Read’s more serious musings.