The young and enthusiastic reporter for the News Shopper (and other organs
funded by the BBC) Tom Bull, who I have been pleased to sit alongside through many a Council meeting is leaving
the Shopper to further his career elsewhere and good luck to him.
I have enjoyed having his company there not to mention his undying support
during the Fothergill business. Similarly it has been nice to have
someone alongside me at meetings making similar observations to my own.
My email folder tells me that Tom has only been around to report on Bexley (plus
Bromley and Greenwich) for 19 months and Councillor Teresa O’Neill has seen fit to send him a Good Luck Tweet.
An interesting coincidence. Precisely 19 months after Bonkers was born to
report on Bexley Council she had her friends send me the following. Some of my reports
were critical of Bexley Council, just as Tom’s have sometimes been.
The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards later formally withdrew the warning but it was the perfect illustration of how not so long ago the leaders of Bexley Council had the police under their thumb and were able to break the law with impunity - and did.