25 April (Part 1) - One way or another, the truth will out
I know it is a bit nerdy but I like to study election nomination papers closely. To
me it was important to know that the Conservative candidate in last December’s
by-election chose as one of his ten nominators the man who the police said had
written a whole load of obscenities about me and three friends. It says
something about the man; well both men.
So the currently published nominations
are a big disappointment to me. I’d like to know who nominated my Labour and Conservative candidates especially
as I have been a floating voter. (Maybe not so much since I learned
who the local Tories are matey with.)
The 2022 nominations that are on line are severely edited. We not only have shy candidates
hiding their addresses - which may not matter a great deal - but the nominators’ names are entirely missing.
I emailed Bexley Council to ask if I could go to the Civic Offices to take a
look at the real thing, after all we still claim to live in a democracy even if
it is a rapidly fading one. An immediate reply said the full works would be on
their website by Tuesday 26th April.
I mentioned it in passing to a Councillor friend - I have a few - and he had his doubts about there being total transparency.
Hedging my bets I asked Bexley Council if I could take a look anyway. Just my own ward, I didn’t want to
use up too much of their time. No immediate reply this time which arouses my suspicions.
I have an uneasy feeling that the names of nominators may be far more embarrassing than the French/Craske situation from 2021.
When the Council’s website is updated tomorrow there will be three possibilities. My
suspicions may prove to be unfounded, they may alternatively prove a link which
in a totally honest Council would not exist, or the interesting stuff may be edited out.
There will then be two choices…
i) A Freedom of Information request (but it may be that new legislation exempts
nomination papers as it does for candidates’ addresses.)
ii) Telling you why I am in a suspicious frame of mind.
Not much of a choice is it? I may have to show you a few things.