30 November - Valiantly fighting their corner from a position of weakness
Bexley Labour has put out
a Press Release about the Mayor’s unjustifiable
(ULEZ) assault on the least well off members of society. They are in a tough place. They know that
it is an affront to democracy and has nothing to do with air pollution yet have
to be seen to support a Labour Mayor. Being decent people but tribal like all
politicians they have trodden a careful path to
avoid stamping on too many toes.
If a pollution charge was needed it was needed 20 plus years ago when
engines were undoubtedly unnecessarily dirty; not now when 85% of engines are ‘clean’
and that figure is heading towards 100% at a reasonably rapid rate without the
threat of Labour fines.
Labour claims to have obtained concessions for disabled
drivers but that is not what the TfL website says. It speaks only of
an exemption period.
Labour Councillors justify their support for further taxes on motorists by
referring to 162 annual deaths in Bexley attributable to “dangerous levels of
air pollution”. One wonders why most of us were not dying like flies when engines
smoked and buses stank. Were none of the 162 unfortunately born with bodily
weaknesses or later took up smoking?
The figure, if it is true at all, relates to people who died of breathing
difficulties but attributing them all to old cars is simply desperation on the
part of our Labour Councillors who must know in their heart that they are
valiantly creating a smoke screen to mask Khan’s true intentions. A London wide
road pricing scheme to fund his various vanity projects and grandiose lifestyle.
Click image to enlarge it.
I
will try to get to Dave Putson’s Cost of
Living meeting tomorrow as we seem to share the view that Sunak’s government
should be brought down as soon as possible. We may differ in our preferred
methods but I would like to know what he and his colleagues have in mind. The
problem is Sunak but the solution is not Starmer.
It is a little puzzling that his guest speaker is a Consultant Paediatrician and
I do hope that children’s health is not going to be linked with ULEZ via Khan’s dubious statistics.
My expression of
doubt that ULEZ is a health issue and that it is in fact a Trojan Horse for
road pricing was widely supported and only the usual anonymous Labour activists
slavishly pushed the Mayor’s crooked Agenda.
I asked how it was that I lived through the pea soup London smogs, was driven
around as a child in a smokey 1930’s Austin and later drove a polluting old
banger myself. I walked central London’s streets for more than 30 years when you could
barely breath for bus fumes but still manage to run for a bus when necessary.
The anonymous responses were “I have lived in Bexley for most of my life and
have asthma” and “I have a friend who lived in Catford and died of asthma” which
doesn’t prove anything other than **** happens.
I had a school friend who lived in rural France all his adult life and he died of asthma too.
The ULEZ advocates don’t really have an argument, we may have needed it in the
20th century but not any more with cleaner engines rapidly being usurped by electric motors.
28 November (Part 2) - Zero tolerance
Short
of time I drove to Sainsbury’s less than a mile away at seven this morning. Not
easy because of inconsiderate commuter parking. Why people use expensive cars to
obstruct roads and risk damage I have no idea.
Sainsbury’s had two travelators working - when did that last happen? - and the
price of margarine - which it used to be called, was up by a further 65 pence since I last
bought some making it exactly 50% more than it was last Spring. Quality Street for a cheap present was down in
price from last Christmas but so was the weight - by 120 grammes compared to the old box in the garage.
I was back home in a matter of minutes after carefully negotiating the
obstructions and within minutes a commuter parked his car by my drive exit (but
almost legally) and ran off with his briefcase.
Something snapped, this has gone on for years so I took my camera out on patrol.
Within 150 yards two pavement parkers, one across the dropped kerb at a road junction and another
partially across a private drive. Four photos were
submitted to Bexley Council.
Within the hour one of the pavement parkers and the private drive blocker had gone but the other two were given tickets.
If Bexley Council and local Councillors are
not interested in the Crossrail parking problem
the only thing left is to make things uncomfortable for offenders. I have got over thinking it is a bit mean, some motorists need to be
taught a lesson. I will make it a daily ritual.
28 November (Part 1) - Nothing is sacred to Bexley’s Philistines
Crayford Marshes which are officially designated Metropolitan Green Belt
has been put up for sale by a penniless Bexley Council following its failure
over twelve years to get the borough a government grant at the same level achieved by Greenwich. Bexley is the highest taxing Conservative borough in London.
They hope to get in the region of £4·3 million for the desecration of yet
another of Bexley’s green lungs, home to so much wild life. Buzzards, Kites,
Egrets, Herons and Kingfishers to name just a few birds.
Bounded by two rivers with a third running across it the site is an obvious
flood risk and may not be suitable for housing and mineral extraction would be
the likely outcome of a sale.
If you take the Sidcup loop line train before the cross borough service is cancelled in two weeks time
you can take a good look at the land in question.
Area for sale marked in yellow.
The sale is being handled by Carter Jonas in Cardiff.
26 November (Part 2) - Khanage. He is out to get you
It
was a mistake to try to get ahead of the game by putting Part 1 on line
yesterday. The idea was to take a day off today but at the same time get in
quickly with Dictator Khan’s decision to impose more motoring taxes.
Today The Daily Telegraph reports his comments in more detail. He makes no bones
about his plan to introduce road charging across London. Electric vehicles are to be included.
The people who support his sham air pollution concerns must be mad; mainly if not
entirely Labour or Green so one should not be entirely surprised.
Khan announced some while ago that he would charge electric cars within his existing central London
Congestion Charge Zone In 2025 so no one will escape his obsessive greed. It is
all part of the big plan to drive everyone but cyclists off the road and London
to be Europe’s Karachi.
Speaking of EVs, the ignorance about them is almost laughable. They are not for
everyone and Boris Johnson and however many successors there have been since he
was at No. 10 all aim to make them mandatory by 2030; but there is no way EVs can suit everyone.
Fine for pottering around London and the occasional longer trip but only if you
can charge the thing at home. Otherwise it is too inconvenient and too expensive.
There is no way I would go back to petrol but that is no reason to force
everyone to follow suit but the real facts ought to be out there if potential
buyers are to make the right decision.
Yesterday at around 2:50 p.m. I was listening to Talk Radio which claims to be
the Voice of Common Sense and sometime it is but not in the lead up to three
o’clock. They were discussing electric cars and the station allowed some buffoon to put
forward the following scenario.
In the new age of electric motoring a sudden two feet of snow falls on a
motorway bringing all traffic to a halt. All the batteries would be flat within
[quote] 30 minutes and everyone would freeze to death.
Polluting cars never run out of petrol of course and Ian Collins, the sometimes
not very bright Talk Radio presenter agreed with him.
The caller warmed to his theme. Next day there would be a thaw and with thousands of
cars occupied by dead and dying drivers it would take weeks to clear the road.
It prompted me to go to my car this morning and look at the data for when it is
put into Utility Mode which is intended to be used when only minimum services
are required while parked. I only ever used my Utility Mode once when I had to
wait outside QEH A&E through the early hours with just the radio for company.
With the seat heaters at full blast the power consumption read out told me that I could sit
in that two feet of motorway snow for more than a week - assuming a well filled battery. If I was really
stuck there until a thaw came 24 hours later I would simply touch the
accelerator pedal and drive away: an attempt to drive automatically cancels Utility Mode.
24 hours with a petrol engine ticking over might well empty the tank just as
it could with an EV if it was low on charge when the snow came down, but I bet no
petrol car could be on tick over to run the heater for a whole week and not run out of fuel. An EV
driver might well die of starvation but a combustion engine car driver would have succumbed to the fumes first.
Damn! Have I just made Khan’s case for him?
26 November (Part 1) - The lowest form of wit
On the
day The Daily Telegraph reported that Kneel Starmer said his party is in favour of
cutting taxes for working people his right hand man in London decided to impose
a London wide tax on all the poorest drivers in the capital. But 8th October
1970 was not really one of the saddest days in the nation’s history was it? More
motoring taxes are a good thing aren’t they? My weekly 21 mile journey to North
London is fairly consistently done at an average 11 miles an hour.
A trip to Bexley on Thursday was much better at just over 12 m.p.h. It will be truly wonderful if Sadiq Khan drives the plebs who cannot
afford to buy a £32,000 electric car (since increased to £40,000 for few advantages
and some quite serious downgrades) off the road while the rail companies slash
services and the Mayor cuts bus routes.
The EV has cost next to nothing in fuel and my old banger would have burned its
way through £5,500 of fuel at current prices. Much cheaper to service too. (I
have never yet found the need to use a chargeable charger in four years.)
Obviously I am never going to get my money back but it is worth it just to see
the look on the faces of the lower classes as you leave them standing at the
traffic lights. What can be better than rubbing the noses of the poorest members
of society into the dirt and restricting people’s liberty and ability to work?
Good ’ol Khan; the Mayor is an absolute hero.
I never voted for him but he must love me nevertheless. What a nice man! It is a delightful irony that there
must be a fairly direct correlation between the dregs of motoring society and
the sort of idiots who vote for Labour Mayors and cannot afford a decent car like mine.
Such a richly deserved come uppance is something to be celebrated. Spending that
amount of money came about because certain circumstances convinced me that having savings was not worthwhile.
It has proved to be an immensely satisfying decision and it will be better still
when Khan allows me to drive in relative isolation.
You will know of course that the foregoing is total sarcasm. Khan is a liar.
What he announced yesterday has nothing to do with pollution but is a
precursor to his dream of a London wide congestion charge and an economic
disaster zone. if it was not exactly that the ANPR installation expenses could never be justified.
Khan claims that charging the poorest people £12·50 a day to move will save
4,000 lives a year. Modern internal combustion engines are at least ten times cleaner
than they were 20 years ago; some estimates put the figure close to 100.
I do not recall half a million pollution related deaths in London when I first
lived in Bexley and I am old enough to remember the London smogs seventy years ago.
My mother would walk in front of my dad’s car because you quite literally could
not see your hand in front of you.
It killed my pet guinea pig and according to records about 4,000 sickly people.
Exactly the same number as liar Khan claims that a few old cars cause.
They won’t be on the road for much longer so Khan is very obviously lying and he
is perfectly happy to see the air polluted so long as you pay the daily impost or buy a vintage car that runs on
choke most of the time. They are exempt.
Conservative Outer London boroughs should charge the liar punitive wayleaves on
the use of their lampposts and deny him the electricity to run his Chinese spy cameras.
25 November - Nothing to see here
I used to think that
a handful of Bexley Councillors were politicians solely because the position
provided business opportunities and maybe a few backhanders, but those I would
have pointed a finger at have all gone now. Or have they?
I don’t know the Cabinet Member for Growth especially well except that one of
his colleagues told me he was the Leader’s blue eyed boy - which cannot be good
- but on the other hand when he was part of a gaggle of Councillors I bumped
into a few years ago he was the only one with a civil tongue in his head.
I understand he is is a small time landlord and business man which is not yet
illegal but I didn’t know that he was into healthcare too; not until @tonyofsidcup
stuck his nose into what had happened to the derelict public toilets just a
short walk from his home.
I have not been near to the old bogs since I gave up on going to the Sidcup
Place restaurant, I forget why, so I hadn’t even noticed their closure, but
Bexley is not a bladder friendly borough so it is no surprise that Bexley
Council flogged them off to guess who? Cafer Munur the Cabinet Member for
Growth. He bought the adjacent car park too.
So there’s a nice little scandal for you; a Councillor with his nose in the trough. But
hold your horses, it may not be like that.
Bexley Council placed a For Sale advert in the Estates Gazette and Cafer Munur
put in the second highest bid (out of 11) but the highest laid down conditions
relating to guarantees on planning permission. That was deemed unacceptable and
in any case there was only a two and a half grand difference so Cafer won the
bid fair and square.
So we are not back to property developers, estate agents and assorted ne’er do
wells more interested in themselves than electors and any criticism of Cafer
would appear to be misplaced. If you don’t like having business men as
Councillors, don’t vote for them.
Incidentally, despite appearances, @tonyofsidcup takes the same view as I do one
this one. Superficially it may not look good but it doesn’t look nearly
as bad as this one. Bexley Council was down by a million quid on that.
23 November - Not me this time
If
you take a look at the SE2 Facebook page, and I confess I rarely do, you will see that it is
awash with comment about the parking problems brought about by
Crossrail and 20 buses an hour up and down New Road, Abbey Wood.
Bexley Council deservedly gets the blame for doing absolutely nothing to solve the problem except
double parking fees which drives yet more vehicles into residential roads.
My road now regularly attracts up to five old vans and very occasionally more
and the gossip is that they are all driven by residents of one of the flats.
They sometimes park on the footpath and very often away from the kerb. At night
the only way a fire engine could get to my house is if it drove over the pavement
and of course it would so the danger should not be over-exaggerated.
Occasionally it has not been possible for even a car to get out on to Abbey Road without driving over the footpath.
If Bexley Council could get off its backside there would be money to be made
from parking infringements, The van shown has been parked where it is for the
past four or five hours and still is, preventing both of my nearest neighbours
getting their cars on to their own shared drive.
For those readers still clinging to the hope that police corruption is confined to a few bad apples,a read of
the latest blog by Michael Gillard may throw some doubts on their conviction.
In it the journalist author of several books on crime and the police involvement
in it exposes at considerable length a largely unknown cover-up behind the
Stephen Lawrence investigation and in particular how the Met did not hand over vital evidence to the Macpherson enquiry.
Michael Gillard, who I met in 2004 at the publicity event for his book
‘Untouchables - Dirty Cops, Bent Justice and Racism in Scotland Yard’ has a long
history of exposing police corruption yet to be challenged by the police
although he did have to hide overseas for a few years when his life was threatened.
Dishonesty and corruption is everywhere.
20 November (Part 2) - The Matrix revisited
Dave Putson has let me know that his friend Alan Simpson
will be giving a talk on the cost of living crisis via Zoom at4 p.m. this afternoon
and you are welcome to take a look. The following doesn’t mean much to me but if you are
familiar with Zoom the log in info is…
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89668347197? pwd=dVVFUFRSKzdTOXhER0tGVVAxQnJHZz09
Meeting ID: 896 6834 7197 Passcode: 465378.
Behave yourself or you will be flung off!
20 November (Part 1) - Escaping the Matrix - a search for post-fantasy politics
Ever since the banker Sunak sneaked into No. 10
after being rejected by Conservative Party members and a traitorous Hunt
decided to condemn us to increasing poverty until at least 2028 I have wondered
if I should mention what I thought about them - as if the preceding words fail to do so.
As someone whose political history began in 1959 when I was thrown out of a
Labour party hustings for heckling on behalf of the Conservative candidate I
have been solidly to the right of politics, never once deviating at a General
Election. When writing here I have tried to report things factually which very
often in Bexley equates to Tories “dishonest” and Labour “ineffective” but never once have I
been accused of straying from facts, only that I am a Labour stooge (very
occasionally) and attracting legal challenges from the extremities of the
Labour Party which continues to attract those who regard all Tories as “scum”.
I now find myself one of the many who will never vote Conservative again. Unless
a latter day Robert Catesby solves the problem that will never change. I have
had serious misgivings about the Conservatives ever since David Cameron said he was
heir to Blair but things have gone well beyond that now. If every last one of
their MPs lost his or her seat at the next election that result would be richly
deserved. Starmer and his cronies would be a disaster for Britain but so is
Sunak - so what’s the difference?
I have gone on for far longer than intended, the foregoing was meant to be a
brief introduction to something my former Councillor Dave Putson sent me. Dave
has always been a good bloke in my book but widely regarded by his colleagues as
far too left wing. One even wrote to warn me before he was first elected in 2018.
He was thrown out of the Labour Party three years later.
The document reproduced below was written by Dave’s colleague Alan Simpson who
was MP for Nottingham South until 2010. What is happening to politics when a
dyed in the wool Tory finds himself agreeing with a good deal of what a Tribune
magazine board member and former Treasurer of the Socialist Campaign Group from
a mining constituency has said? Not all of it but the exceptions are few.
Note: The original is illustrated but the graphics add
little to the narrative. The blog title is Alan Simpson’s.
Few people would ever mistake former Tory Health Minister, Matt Hancock for
Keanu Reeves. However, his involvement in the ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out
of Here’ TV series has become almost as mind-bending as ‘the Matrix’.
Having discharged care-home patients from hospital, without any
pre-screening for Covid, Hancock deserves having slurry and insects poured
over him. Those who suffered the bereavements and traumas that followed
might wish this to continue indefinitely. But there are wider issues about
Britain’s descent into dystopian politics that the Game Show should not distract from.
Britain’s care system remains massively over-stretched and under-resourced;
the NHS even more so. The decision of NHS nursing staff to go on strike is
unprecedented. It reflects the desperation of those who held lives together
throughout the Covid pandemic but who are now leaving/retiring early in
droves through sheer exhaustion and overwork.
Despite this, calls for a substantial boost to NHS pay, a national training
plan and an immediate/international recruitment programme all die in the
snake-infested jungle that passes for the British
parliament. The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement only makes matters worse.
Arbitrary austerity
Let’s be clear about two things. First, the economic debate is being boxed
in between 2 targets/objectives that are wildly speculative. Move the target
dates around, even slightly, and you may not be chasing deficits
at all. This isn’t to say Britain doesn’t have massive structural issues to
address - we do - but throwing the country into a period of arbitrary
austerity is a political choice not an existential one. Second, the only
people not responsible for Britain’s current economic crisis are its
workers. Everything that spirals into crisis comes from elsewhere.
Britain’s energy prices are set by the marginal cost of the most expensive
fuel (gas). Russia’s war in Ukraine is the main driver of the price hike and
shows no sign of ending soon. Food prices are similarly driven by
increased import costs (and the associated impact on fuel and fertiliser
prices). Neither have been pushed by UK wage demands.
Extreme weather events across the planet have massively disrupted food
production and farming. You can’t blame the workers for that either. And no
one, apart from Liz Truss and her insane advisors, can be held
accountable for the bonkers Budget that caused a run on the pound, a huge
increase in import prices and the spiral of rising interest rates.
When you’re in a hole…
Today’s combination of an economic crisis and a climate crisis calls for a
radical change of direction. It is an upheaval barely glimpsed at by the
Chancellor. Insulating Britains’s homes was as close as he got. But even
this was more of an apology than a policy. The extra £6bn of promised
energy-efficiency spending won’t kick in until 2025 (!). This is a ‘stay
warm in the afterlife’ gesture, not a serious fuel-poverty intervention.
Previous Labour programmes for tackling the scandal of ‘cold homes’ were all
ditched by the Tories post-2010. The number of loft insulations have
plummeted. Cavity and solid wall insulations followed suit.
Now Britain must reconstruct a sector that successive Conservative governments crudely trashed.
The insanity of this is that any policy wanting to reduce energy bills, cut
back on energy imports, lower carbon emissions and boost domestic employment would have had this as its centrepiece.
Was it really too much for the Tories to grasp?
Britain has had a decade of Conservative governments throwing more subsidies
at polluting corporations than at rescuing fuel-poor communities.
Even today, the pretence of windfall taxes on the oil and gas sector is
wrapped up in ‘tax allowances’ that promote research into new fossil fuel
production! The Treasury gets very little in extra taxes from fossil fuel sectors that have been profiteering the most.
Just ending pollution subsidies and allowances would make a huge difference.
The most idiotic of these is possibly the UK subsidies for bio-fuel
production. Land that could grow crops to feed people has, instead, been used to feed vehicles.
Some 3.5 million people in Britain could be fed from land currently used for
bio-fuel production. Shifting subsidies from fuel to food would reduce
Britain’s reliance on food imports, cut the cost of food and
make better use of the farmland we possess.
This isn’t rocket science. It just doesn’t suit the interests of the big
corporates who bankroll the Conservative Party.
And for all the Chancellor’s ‘pocket-money’ handouts aimed at covering this
winter’s energy bills, none open up the debates Britain most urgently needs.
Neither radical restructuring of the UK energy market around decentralised
renewable energy systems, nor an accelerated shift into net-zero ‘circular’
economics, even got a mention. We must wait to see if Labour grasps the moment. The signs aren’t good.
The COP-out conundrum
Back in Egypt, moves to save the planet face similar obstacles. A legion of
fossil-fuel lobbyists and oil producers block the roads to any Conference Statement committed to radical decarbonisation. Inside the conference halls, ‘Just Stop Oil’ protesters have been replaced by the ‘Just Stop Everything’ lobby.
Corporate (in)activists spray-paint their objections over clauses that even hint at carbon taxation or the
introduction of (reducing) carbon budgets. They glue their hands over paragraphs that would otherwise set
phasing-out targets or timetables. None will be fined or imprisoned. It is only the climate activists who are to be criminalised and silenced.
Britain does not (yet) ban the climate activism that might avert catastrophic climate breakdown. But it may
not be long. Criminalising public protest may be the one thing Tory free-market buccaneers may hope to
salvage from their disastrous leadership spell. No less worrying is the prospect of Labour supporting them.
The real danger is of Labour creating a delusionary world of its own. Much
as I would love to ditch this squalid Conservative government, I can’t pretend Labour currently offers a
visionary alternative. ‘I’m a Nonentity, Get Me Into There’ is not the answer to ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’.
There isn’t a viable Green New Deal if you don’t get out of oil. You can’t create sustainable food systems if
you don’t radically reduce food miles and shift into low-carbon lifestyles and farming. ‘Growth’ delusions,
tied to obsessions with increased consumption, will kill us all unless they are replaced by a new economics of circularity.
Beyond the Matrix
All this is still possible. But it is only accessible to Parties that are
themselves open to radical, fresh thinking that embraces the unorthodox, the accountable and the inclusive.
This isn’t where the Labour Party currently finds itself. You don’t lose 200,000 members by accident. You
don’t invite fresh thinking if Members, Branches and Constituencies are suspended for even wanting to
discuss issues. And you can’t deliver a transformative parliamentary party if the Party machine blocks the
most visionary candidates from selections, just in case local party members might choose them.
We cast a scornful eye on countries that systematically hound, exclude and criminalise those calling for a
more open, inclusive and accountable democracy. We call them tyrannies. COP27 is besieged by them;
some are corporate, some national. But the reality is this: the world cannot build either a sustainable politics
or a survivable planet without escaping from a Matrix obsessed with control and yesterday’s delusions. This
applies to all Parties, on all continents; Labour included.
Where are you, Keanu, just when we need you?
Alan Simpson
Nov 2022
19 November - On patrol in Hurst Road
When I lived in Hampshire
40 years ago there was a road I crossed on my way to the station every day which
was about three quarters of a mile in length, quite wide and dead straight. It
was the only road that would take you to the biggest nearby town, Aldershot, and
there was a bus once an hour in each direction. By today’s standards it was a
haven of tranquility and had a 30 m.p.h. speed limit.
I don't remember it being difficult to cross or particularly busy but it had a
reputation for being an accident black spot. A safety campaign elicited the
response from the County Council that they would not install a pedestrian
crossing until people had been killed; memory says three people but I may have got that wrong.
Since then I thought it was pretty well known that Councils only take road
safety concerns seriously after there had been a fatal event. I suspect that the MP, GLA Member
and Councillors pictured here know that too and were out virtue signalling just as they have been about
the Southeastern train slashing after the nationalised
railway company was given permission to ignore local travel requirements by the Conservative Minister back in August.
It is of course what politicians must be seen to do but it can look a trifle hypocritical.
When our new thorn in Bexley Council’s side (†) attempted to establish the accident
statistics relating to Hurst Road the official response was that Hurst Road,
despite suffering one fatality, was not in line for a pedestrian crossing.
So once again we have dishonest politicians campaigning for something that their own Council’s policies have ruled out.
Click extract to read the full reply.
Bexley Council has used the
“pedestrian crossings cause more accidents than if they didn’t exist” excuse before which may be statistically correct but it
doesn’t make it any less stupid. Last time they did so I sent a quick text message to
someone who started his career at the Transport Research Laboratory analysing
fatal accidents and now sells his expertise in the field across the globe.
He replied to the effect that if Bexley Council is comparing a bent bumper with
broken bones and burials then they are the total idiots that Bonkers’ readers know them to be.
† @tonyofsidcup
18 November - Putin’s War, Covid or twelve years of Tory incompetence? Which is to blame?
Bexley Council’s Cabinet met on Tuesday to assess the current state of their
budgeting. I suppose they have done quite well to be still scraping by after 16
years of slash and burn compared to their colleagues in Westminster who in only
twelve years have driven the British economy on to the rocks through poor policy
decisions which they absolutely refuse to recognise and pushing half the population into penury.
What did Bexley’s financial fiddlers have to say for themselves?
The Director said that as at the end of September with both inflation and
interest rates having “a detrimental impact” there is a £1·6 million overspend
which is £400,000 worse than a month earlier. ‘Places’ is the problem
particularly waste services. Recyclables are not providing the expected income.
Parking revenue is down too. It would have been worse had it not been for an
unexpected government grant and £3·1 million drawn from reserves to cover pay awards.
The Capital spend is down by £39 million due to reduced expenditure on SEN
schools, on Erith developments, BexleyCo and highways. Council Tax collection is more difficult than it was too.
Slippage of projects into future years.
Cabinet Member David Leaf blamed global pressures, Covid and Putin’s War for the present situation
but appeared to contradict the Director on the subject of Tax collection.
The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services regurgitated his near standard issue
speech about higher quality services at lower costs. Keeping more children
within their own family circles has been a priority and it obviously saves money
but costs are rising. Recruitment is difficult. Nine years ago permanent social worker staff
measured around 30% and that figure rose 90% at its best but is falling again with increased ‘churn’.
Cabinet Member Peter Craske spoke only about the impact of Covid on the economy while it would be more accurate to
say that it was the lockdown which did the damage. Who would have guessed that
closing the economy down for well over two years would do irreparable harm?
Labour Leader Stefano Borella said the outlook for Bexley was bleak but blamed the Truss/Kwarteng budget that never was
for it. Putin etc. were incidentals but his assertion that the present crisis
was “made in Downing” Street is all too obviously true. In Bexley “schools are on their knees” he said.
The meeting was a short one, Councillor Craske famously described by the News
Shopper in 2012 as “a 42 year old man from Sidcup” needed to get home to celebrate his birthday.
16 November - There but for the grace of Bexley’s Guardian Angel
Most people will have some recollection of the 2009 case of Baby P (Peter
Connelly) who died in his Haringey home from neglect and abuse after that
Council’s Social Services turned a blind eye. His mother spent 13 years in prison. Not so well known is that at the same
time Bexley Council had a similar case in the form of Rhys Lawrie. Despite being
referred to Bexley Council by both GPs and school teachers Rhys died with 39
injuries to his tiny body. (Shocking pictures here.)
Bexley Council successfully excused their lack of involvement and appointed a
previous senior manager in Bexley to author the Serious Case review. He had worked alongside some of those who failed young Rhys.
The responsible Cabinet Member refused to answer questions relating to that appointment. The story is related in somewhat gory detail
elsewhere on Bonkers.
Today’s headlines reminded me of that story. A coroner ruled that two year old Awaab Ishak died because
a housing association refused to attend to the damp and mould in the flat in which he lived with his Sudanese parents.
The
report reminded me not so much of Rhys Lawrie but of L&Q who condemned an old
lady with a multitude of health problems including emphysema to live in a house which was very obviously damp.
They were supported by Bexley Council which washed their hands of the case, dishonestly claiming that all the problems were resolved.
I visited the premises half a dozen times and it was little better than a slum
and was occasionally very concerned for the lady’s health. I was surprised when I
learned that far from being older than I am as I had imagined was in fact quite a lot younger. Bad housing had taken its toll on her.
I really must make another visit because there has been no response to email or text message which was the usual means of communications.
To be honest I fear the worst. Do we have another old lady killed by Bexley Council?
15 November - Labour MP exposes Tory MPs’ lies
During a prolonged quiet period for Bexley Council news I have resisted the temptation to write any inconsequential filler blogs because I
feared getting carried away with my views on our failed Conservative Government
headed by the totally incompetent if not traitorous Rishi Sunak, the architect of at least half of the country’s financial woes.
He is worse than I could ever
have forecast and is giving away eye watering sums to foreign lost causes while people at home wonder where the next penny is coming from. I would
gladly see him and his Cabinet at the bottom of some Australian snake pit and
hope that the reptiles are more venomous than they are.
So, and there has to be a first for everything, when my MP Abena Oppong-Asare made public her exchanges with the Minister of State at the Department for Transport
today I was delighted more than surprised.
It
is an explanation for why South Eastern have been so confidently Tweeting that
they will introduce their new timetable on 11th December
with no concessions whatsoever to the campaigns organised by local Conservative
Councillors with a history of public deception and MPs David Evennett and Louie
French who are doing their best to emulate them.
Abena has secured confirmation from Huw Merriman, Minister of State at the
Department of Transport, that Southeastern asked for permission to dodge any
public consultation before slashing services and was given it.
A publicly owned railway was given formal permission to ignore public opinion
and two MPs and the Tory Councillors’ propaganda machine decided that they would
have to deceive the public rather than incur their wrath.
And Abena caught the buggers out!
With me most definitely not seeing any redeeming features among anyone on the government benches I have been looking at the websites of
political parties that might show some sign of wishing to be conservative. In
some ways I find UKIP’s the most attractive but I suspect their time has gone
and retaining the old name doesn’t, in my opinion, do them any favours.
With other more prominent parties I am not sure if my payment would be a
membership fee with meetings and news letters in return or whether it is just a donation
to boost the egos of smooth talking millionaires. I rather suspect the latter and there have been times when it has been
beneficial to be able to say I am not a member of any party. It’s an almost
incredible 30 years since I quit the Tories, or should I say, they abandoned me and their principles.
10 November - Bexley Council has a plan…
…and
at the last Council meeting the Leader was loudly proclaiming it, beginning with
the somewhat exaggerated boast that Bexley residents overwhelmingly chose a
Conservative administration at the last election. The truth is that
they gained
only 47% of the vote against Labour’s 41. Nevertheless that is first past
the post democracy; she is in charge and determined to impose her will on the borough.
“We set out our ambitions and aspirations for the borough to make it even better
and they voted us back in.” Very carefully chosen words.
Bexley Conservatives don’t make well defined Manifesto promises any more. There must be no repeat exposure of
the ‘every Manifesto promise since 2006 has been fulfilled’ lie. Now we make do with
aspirations which included increased investment in services “like street
cleaning, recycling, road repairs and parks”. ‘Like’ being beautifully vague. “Push for” is another one.
“The Corporate Plan shows how we will deliver
that Manifesto within the four
year term just as we have done previously.” Just to remind you, it promised
little that was definite and as if to reinforce it Councillor O’Neill would only say that “the Plan
contains many aspirational deliverables”.
She has “visions” for town centres, recycling, health, CCTV and better policing.
She “champions” volunteers and is “mindful of the climate but it is not an emergency”.
“The plan is a living document which will be updated and amended as needed and
in 2026 will show residents that we delivered what we promised.” That is, nothing tangible.
Deputy Leader David Leaf was “delighted with the Plan. It is bursting full of
policies which we are working to deliver. The ULEZ objections and recycling
promises are already delivered and we celebrated the Jubilee.”
He is working on more housing and healthier lifestyles and cutting carbon with
an electric vehicle fleet and is heading “towards Net Zero in a sensible way”.
Labour Leader Stefano Borella said residents were fed up with “managed decline
(and that is surely the Conservatives’ gift to the borough over their 16 years in
office) so why should he support the embedding of the Tory Manifesto into the
Corporate Plan?” His Corporate Plan would have had totally different priorities.
“More cuts are coming forward and efficiencies always mean cuts and the Council
always moves towards providing only minimum service levels.”
Councillor Borella accused the Tories of playing political games. Up until now the Corporate Plan
and Climate Change have always been debated separately and now they are combined
so that when the Labour Group votes against the Plan they can be labelled
climate deniers too. It was the Labour Group, he reminded the game players, who
had pushed the Climate Change Motion in 2019 which the Tories did not debate
until this year. They still have no Cabinet Member with responsibility for Climate Change.
Councillor Daniel Francis (Labour, Belvedere) challenged the procedural honesty of
voting at a Council meeting on things that are already approved - Climate Change
policy - but the Monitoring Officer knows on which side her bread is buttered.
Cabinet Member Craske said a vote against the Plan was a vote against saving our
futures, the new Barnehurst golf course, the collection of unwanted clothes and
electrical items and new libraries - as Labour has done before. The opposition
“is the nasty party but there we go. They are misery guts who wonder why they only get 40% of the vote”.
The webcast then muted but it was evident that Cabinet Member Cafer Munur and Councillor Caroline Newton spoke in support of the Plan.
Cabinet Member Seymour said that health is a priority and he is working towards
75% of GP consultations being face to face and GPs will be monitored and held to account.
He is actively working on the obesity, smoking, drug use and mental health problems all of which are bad in Bexley.
During the course of his speech Cabinet Member for Education Richard Diment said he was working
towards bringing the standards of the Academies up to those of the maintained schools all of which are either Good or Outstanding.
The Plan was approved by the Conservatives alone.
9 November - A bit of a let down. I should have known better
Bexley Labour tweeted on Monday that last night’s Transport Users’
Sub-Committee Group meeting was going to be webcast. It isn’ְt usually but Southeastern’s decision to
slash Bexley’s train services and cut off as many commuters as possible from the
benefits of the Elizabeth line must be among the top aggravations currently faced by residents right now.
I thought Bexley Council must have recognised that fact and indulged in an extension
of democracy by deciding to let everyone know what they might be doing about the impeding problem
behind the scenes. News of the webcast persuaded me to do my usual Tuesday thing and drive
21 miles to a pub quiz. I managed it in a mere hour and 41 minutes. (I have known worse, but not often.)
When will I ever learn that tales of enlightened democracy in Bexley are always
likely to be false? The meeting is not in the webcast archive and I suspect it
never was programmed for broadcast to the plebs. It is scant consolation that
my quiz team won by a margin of eleven points and is £76 richer.
So no meeting report but on a transport related note I managed to find
the new Elizabeth line timetable. The last train, Monday to Saturday, to
Abbey Wood leaves Paddington at 23:59 and Liverpool Street at 00:10 getting
into Abbey Wood at 28 minutes past midnight; hugely better than only a week ago. Sunday is 75 minutes earlier.
What else has trickled through to me recently? A couple of Belvedere things. New
EV charging points in the Nuxley Road car park were reported but the potential user
was somewhat miffed at finding no public toilets nearby to use while
waiting for his car to receive an expensive charge. Is the one at the Splash
Park half a mile away still open?
My own drift towards possibly cheaper electricity went sadly awry a week ago
when one battery was found to be completely dead on arrival and a second one
decided to take up smoking. Fortunately it was the supplier’s electrician that
checked out my wiring and switched on for the first time. Hyundai told me 19 months ago that my car battery
could go up in flames at any time and they would urgently replace it. They haven’t and
it hasn’t - so far. Petrol may be less dangerous.
What else? Someone told me that he has it in writing from his MP Louie French
that he is in favour of retaining the pensioners’ triple lock. I wonder what he
thinks about his new boss. I have yet to see him do anything I regard as
sensible apart from, arguably, accepting the resignation of the incompetent Gavin Williamson.
Incompetence is a sackable offence, possessing a potty mouth maybe not.
How many would be left?
What an appalling mess we are in.
8 November - The Leader’s Report
As usual Teresa O’Neill’s spoken report to Full Council was only a brief summary of what was in the written version. (24 pages.)
Councillor Baroness O’Neill of Bexley O.B.E. chose to highlight the following news items.
• There is to be
a banking hub in Welling, one of only four - for the time being - in the country. She said it was a
personal achievement and perhaps it is. She emphasised the need to shop locally
if the town centres are to survive but omitted to reference the prohibitive parking charges.
• Bexleyheath now has only two empty shop properties in The Mall.
• The Leader chaired the Strategic Housing Partnership Board and had “a fantastic debate about climate”.
BOOBOBE then invited questions and the first came from Labour Leader Councillor Borella.
“Is the Leader going to stay in post after May 2023? Other Councillors in the
same position have resigned. Will she rule out
double-jobbing?” There followed a criticism of former Prime Minister Liz
Truss and of the many Bexley Councillors who supported her. “Will her [the Leader’s] funding
review be kicked into the long grass?”
Councillor Borella gave credit to the two Labour Mayors for the existence of
Crossrail. Livingstone for its inception and Khan for delivering it. The loss of
the North-South rail connections was roundly
condemned as was the 114% increase in commuter parking charges.
He said that Tory failure to condemn Councillor Davey for his
ill-judged comment on
Nazarin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was racist.
The Leader rightly refused to prejudge the Code of Conduct Committee
investigation onto Councillor Davey’s Tweet but she is going to stay on in Bexley.
She confirmed she had been a Liz Truss supporter and given the alternative was
Rishi Sunak, the WEF warrior, who can blame her?
The Fair Funding for Bexley debate is still ongoing. “It is not right that Greenwich gets twice what we get.”
Ken Livingstone, she reminded us, only visited Bexley once and phoned in advance
to ask where the tube station was.
“Crossrail has been a great success” - may I say I have been on it after 11p.m. for
four successive Mondays and it has been pretty much standing room only? I was
pleased to note that the Leader said there had been lots of complaints about
commuter parking around Abbey Wood. It might have been more encouraging news if Bexley Council had not
doubled parking charges without extending the Controlled
Parking Zones to protect residents. Is “Money before People” their new strapline?
She is for the continuation of the Sidcup to Abbey Wood loop line but extending
the Ultra Low Emission Zone is designed to hit those who can least afford it. A
staff member had paid more than £300 in ULEZ tax to visit a patient in Queen
Elizabeth Hospital over a couple of weeks and there is no evidence of its benefits.
Councillor Frazer Brooks (Conservative.
Falconwood & Welling) said that every ULEZ consultation had
shown a majority in opposition in Bexley. “What action is the Council taking to
oppose or mitigate this regressive hostile attack on our borough? Is it barmy
that the opposition is keen to talk about the cost of living one moment while
simultaneously supporting a plan to hit the poorest hardest and put livelihoods at risk?”
BOOBOBE asked Cabinet Member Craske to answer who said “we oppose ULEZ and it is
a precursor to road pricing. Why else would they spend £120 million on cameras
in Bexley?” He seems to have
come around to seeing things the BiB way.
“Labour cheers on this new tax just as they did Khan’s 43% impost on Council Tax. They
are always in favour of things Bexley residents don’t want and then wonder why
they have lost five elections in a row.”
TfL has already asked Bexley Council if they could hook its ULEZ cameras to its
lampposts. “Well Good Luck with that” he said.
Councillor Cheryl Bacon (Conservative, Sidcup) heaped praise on Councillor
Craske for introducing a recycling service for textiles and small electrical
goods. “How can we promote it and
how will it be used.” He said that Greenwich’s equivalent website advised
their residents to put such things in the residual waste.
Councillor June Slaughter (Conservative, Sidcup) said that the Sidcup Place
Community Garden had been awarded a Green Flag and has a Gold Award from The
Royal Horticultural Society. “Does the Leader recognise its worth? Will she also
condemn the miserable rumour mongers who say the Sidcup cinema will not open
because the operator has gone bust?”
BOOBOBE said that the rumour mongers were indeed miserable people and the cinema
will be fantastic. And yes all volunteers are appreciated and are fantastic.
And there endeth the 30 minutes allowed.
4 November - A quick first report on this this week’s Council meeting
A number of Twitter exchanges over the past 48 hours suggested that Wednesday’s
Full Council meeting might be an interesting listen. I was unable to go, no
let’s be honest, I forgot all about it, but having waded through it I am somewhat disappointed by it all.
There may have been arguments in Chamber but the distant raised voices were never truly audible.
As that implies, the webcast was marred by a number of gremlins both old and new. It is a long time
since the cameras automatically homed in on speakers and the loss of that facility can make the newly
elected Councillors difficult to identify and on top of that the microphones
failed too often this time - which may have been an occasional blessing.
The new John Watson/Mick Barnbrook replacement, Dimitri from Sidcup asked two
questions. He probably wasted the first one by asking Cabinet Member Peter Craske
how he could afford to spend £90,000 on a couple of second hand Land
Rovers but hadn’t got £20,000 spare for a pedestrian crossing.
Easily dismissed by Councillor Craske saying that they were two different
budgets and one was Mayor Khan’s responsibility anyway. I am not sure that is
the whole truth but Craske reports rarely are.
A question about Children’s Centres caused Cabinet Member Philip Read to drone
on for nine minutes with the usual cuts mean improvements theme. Dimitri was not
impressed by the fact that the savings on Children’s Centres were much the
same as resurfacing a stretch of road. Councillor Read said a lot of people have
appreciated the improved road surfaces and I have to confess that I am one of them.
Councillor Larry Ferguson (Labour, Thamesmead East) asked a question relating to the Government’s fiscal
statement and how it will affect Bexley. As the one made on 23rd September has been
effectively abandoned, Cabinet Member Leaf was able to dodge that one as easily as
his colleague Peter Craske did 15 minutes earlier.
Councillor Baljeet Gill (Labour, Northumberland Heath) asked the Council Leader if she was against racism.
Whatever next? How stupid can these questions become but it was of course the
hook from which it was possible to criticise suspended Councillor John Davey for his Tweet about an ungrateful Nazarin Zaghari-Ratcliffe being sent back to Iran.
The supplementary question was why had the Tory Group not publicly condemned John Davey.
Every time I decide that I can never vote Tory again along comes a Labour clown
to make me think it out again. The Tories threw John Davey out of the party and
referred him to the Code of Conduct Committee.
How public are they supposed to be?
What else were they supposed to do? Get out the stocks and provide eggs and
tomatoes? Baroness Bexley wisely said she would not interfere with the agreed processes.
Councillor Curtois (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) asked what impact the “Labour backed” bin strike would have on
Bexley’s recycling record. Councillor Craske said it would take a miracle to
maintain the 18 years long record; not that it ever was that long but he likes
to delude himself. (I will resist the temptation to link back to the evidence as
he appeared to be quite upset about it already.)
There was no time for Labour Councillor Anna Day’s (Slade Green & Northend) question about Southeastern slashing train services across the borough.
Labour Leader Stefano Borella then proposed his Motion which might be summarised as tackling the ‘Heat or Eat’ crisis.
Nearly ten minutes of microphone failures ensured that little is known of the
detail except that there was a Conservative amendment.
Their reasoning was that the Government had already provided more help than the six month old Motion was asking for.
Councillors Borella and Francis complained that the Conservative Amendment bore little relationship to Labour’s
original, the only overlap being the words “This Council notes”, but they were over-ruled.
The webcast, both cameras and microphones, failed to show the Labour Group voting but comment from Councillor
Francis made it clear that that they did not support the Amendment.
1 November - How many Council employees does it take to change a light bulb?
Bexley
Council has contracted out its facilities management to a couple of different
companies over the years and parted company with all of them, most recently
Amey three years ago.
Facilities companies do all the odd jobs, like providing the door staff,
maintaining the lifts and unblocking the toilets. Thanks perhaps to Covid I
never got to hear who took over from Amey but the Agenda to the Finance
Committee refers to the work being taken in-house.
I don’t think I have ever had to report such a thing before but in practice
Bexley Council does not seem to be employing its own Gas Safety engineers but
instead contracting a specialist for every eventuality. That sounds like a
nightmare to manage so we must hope that my summary is not entirely accurate.
Whatever the case, Bexley Council has set itself up with what it calls a
Corporate Landlord and as such various rules, standards and targets have been set.
What did Councillors have to say about the success or otherwise of the new arrangements?
Apart from Labour Leader Stefano Borella not a lot. He thought the report was
inadequate and did not explain things well enough. The Watling Street
headquarters is no longer used as it was when it opened in 2014, there is no
longer a Contact Centre, staff work from home and referring simply to electrical
and plumbing issues is not good enough. What are the long term plans?
“Assets are being sold off, there is no Council Housing and the reserve
situation is not in the most healthy position.
Cabinet Member Leaf said that selling assets no longer in use is good practice and it reduces maintenance costs and total energy
costs have actually gone down this year. He said that consolidation into a
refurbished Watling Street had saved a lot of money and alleged that it was
opposed by Labour. Not really true of course, Labour was fully behind
consolidation but argued that a new build would be even better.
Councillor Borella asked about a suggestion that Bexleyheath Central Library
might be closed and moved into Watling Street. Belvedere Library is on the
disposal list too. What is to be done with that site? The Cabinet Member did not
answer any of the questions and instead hid behind the commercial sensitivity excuse but there were no denials.
Councillor Andrew Curtois (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) by his question
confirmed my own view that the big Amey contact has been replaced by a large
number of little ones which isn’t what is generally meant by in-house. He asked
the Finance Director if his interpretation was true and it is. There are now seven different
contracts each small enough to be easily managed.
The other new Falconwood Conservative, Frazer Brooks, asked about two Council Assets apparently being sold for nothing.
Bexley land sales.
They were in fact just simple road closures (Stopping Up Orders) rather than disposals.
Councillor Daniel Francis (Labour, Belvedere) said that ownership of the
various scout huts and community centres was inconsistent but he was more concerned with the disabled toilets
(Changing Places) opened amid much fanfare four years ago. They had been shut for the past two and
a half years. “There is a revenue cost and the most vulnerable people are disadvantaged.”
No solution to the repeated vandalism has been found but the Finance Director
offered some hope that Social Care would be re-examining the problem.
Councillor Cameron Smith (Conservative. St. Mary’s & St. James) asked if there was any scope for installing more solar
panels on Council property. The Finance Director was quite rightly cautious about the payback time.
it would appear that the new intake of Conservative Councillors is beginning to overshadow the old-timers.
