9 January - New blue and old blu
Please excuse the absence, I took the opportunity to embark on a massive, overdue but somewhat
premature Spring clean of the house while there was little or no Bexley Council news around.
I
had been tipped off that the usual Conservative ‘Team’ leaflets would be going
out towards the end of January but Councillor Read has Twittered himself
delivering the first I have seen.
He has returned to Northumberland Heath where it is by now common knowledge that
Aaron Newbury was expected to stand for election but the new leaflet reveals
that he is joined by Duwayne Brooks. Northumberland Heath is one of Bexley’s two Councillor wards.
If the name sounds familiar it is because you are old enough to have been
shocked by the events in Well Hall Road 29 years ago. Duwayne was with black
teenager Stephen Lawrence when he was fatally stabbed by a gang of white men and badly
treated by the Metropolitan Police afterwards. The usual attack the victim
technique which is all too common in police circles.
Duwayne’s victimisation by the Met led to him being awarded £100,000 in damages.
Subsequently he followed a political career as a Lib Dem Councillor in Lewisham
but switched his allegiances to the Conservatives in 2018. Presumably he will have changed his address too.
I am hoping that Philip Read might now hear at first hand how my friend Michael Barnbrook knew
Stephen Lawrence personally due to their shared interest in athletics and
continued his association with his parents, and in particular his father Neville after the murder.
Michael gave evidence in support of Stephen at the Macpherson enquiry but
despite all that Councillor Philip Read refused to answer a public question from Michael Barnbrook and got
as close as he dared to calling him a racist
as his justification - which clearly it wasn’t.
Returning to the Spring clean; I wish Councillor Craske would hurry up with the
collection of old electronics he mentioned a few moths ago. What is one supposed
to do with a 13 year old blu-ray disc player that weighs 6·5 kilogrammes?