The unusual site banners are to bring attention to the fact that Labour activists in Bexley are manipulating Facebook Groups with fictional posters. They deny it, threaten police action for ‘harassing’ a fictitious character and then demonstrate their willingness to impersonate by creating a false Administrator account in my name. The banner on display is chosen randomly from a selection of three, with a fourth bearing the familiar Bexley Council is Bonkers logo.
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.