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News and Comment January 2019

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1 January - No longer Bonkers?

So here we are again with little to report about Bexley Council. Did our Conservative council cancel the free holiday parking days this year? I’ve seen nothing about it so I suppose it did and if so it will be the sort of thing we should expect for the year ahead. More service cuts and more stealth taxes as it faces up to the inevitable consequences of a government wasting our money on other things. Councils must stand on their own two financial feet in future. It has to be waste, how else can one explain the highest tax levels ever with so little to show for it?

Will 2019 be the year when patience with government evaporates? For Christmas someone bought me a yellow safety jacket to keep in the boot of my new car, I suppose the fact that a family member had his car demolished by a Czech juggernaut on the M25 (†) a few days earlier and found himself sitting on the central barrier had something to do with it. However taking my argument with corrupt police officers beyond the written word is not very likely.

Christmas for me consisted of too much crawling along motorways. I successfully kidnapped the old lady and transported her to Hampshire where she will remain until next Saturday. She seems to be perfectly happy if given domestic chores to do while asking me “are you Malcolm’s brother? I don’t think I have seen you since I came back from Burma”, which was in 1930 and I do not have a brother.

Where will Bonkers go this year? Driving itself to near extinction is very possible. It really has become a chore to keep it going, there are so many other things I would rather do. Nine years ago the objective was to expose Bexley Council’s blatant lies which in some cases proved to be a cover for their criminal acts but by 2018 the Conservatives’ dishonesty rarely extended beyond lying about their achievements and misrepresenting their Labour opposition. The most disreputable characters have disappeared (Leader excepted) besides whom the remaining ogres Philip Read and Peter Craske are mere amateurs. Read may well be an idiot at times but I don’t think he has ever been caught out lying and while Craske excels at misrepresenting the truth he successfully manages to maintain the persona of loveable rogue.

Of the remainder the majority strive to do a decent job and some I quietly admire and even like on a personal level. No names obviously, I have no wish to wreck their political careers.

Whether Bonkers has persuaded Bexley Council to clean up its act or whether my lack of time - and energy - to dig as far beneath the surface as used to be the case is creating an illusion I do not know. Maybe 2019 will be the definitive year.

Neglecting Bonkers still doesn’t come easily and my conscience was badly pricked last Saturday. I was in Wilton Road, what passes for my local shopping centre, chatting to a friend who asked what I would be doing tomorrow (Sunday). I said that just for once there was absolutely nothing I had to do so I wasn’t sure.

A lady who must have been within earshot said something like “perhaps you should get on with your blog”. Ouch! And I haven’t a clue who she was, but I can’t go waffling on about nothing every day just to keep things going even if an exception has been made for New Year’s Day.

Happy New Year to everyone.

TweetBy the way, on 21st December it was reported here that Council Leader Teresa O'Neill had written nothing on her Twitter account apart from #doitforbexley. Yesterday she excelled herself with praise for a new shop on Long Lane.

No jokes about old trouts please.

There are no Council meetings worth attending for another two weeks. See you then?

† My son who has been studying vehicle safety for all his working life and who does work for government departments, TfL and the European Union long ago told me that one of the most dangerous manoeuvres one can make on the motorway is to slowly pass a foreign registered lorry. From the high up left hand driving position of a large vehicle it is impossible to see a small car sitting beneath the off side cabin door where it may be beyond the reach of the mirrors. Get past quickly and preferably using the third lane.

This is exactly what happened to my relative. Spun around two or three times by the Czech lorry then shunted by it into the central reservation and totally demolished a couple of minutes later by a car travelling far too fast. Somehow he had by then found the time to don his yellow jacket and scramble on to the barrier. No injuries to speak of.

 

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