1 December (Part 1) - Defiance!
When Councillor John Davey made his wisecrack about sending Nazarin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe back to Iran because of her
suggestion she might become a Labour Party activist, I was very nearly alone in thinking as I did and actually saying so.
It enraged the wokerati both in the Labour party
and elsewhere.
The Conservative Group in Bexley felt that they had to respond to the humourless and subject
John Davey to disciplinary procedures but in due course
decided that he was not a racist.
How much public money was wasted in confirming the obvious?
Mine was not quite a lone voice, the reliably rebellious @tonyofsidcup has
a soft spot for him too. so much so that he thought he would try to get to the
bottom of what really motivated his critics and
to see if the Monitoring Officer was capable of total transparency.
Using the tactics from the Mike Barnbrook era of ten years ago Tony made several FOI
requests but Bexley Council told him the whole business was personal and exempt
from the provisions of the FOI Act and refused to say if they even had any information on the case.
After jumping through the various hoops and getting nowhere Tony took his
case to the Information Commissioner who soon came to the conclusion that it had not
been as personal and private as Bexley Council tried to make out. Among other
things, the Leader’s statement at Full Council was deemed to be the Council’s
official position and therefore it was not all that private and personal.
The ICO also pointed out that other disciplinary hearings had been given
publicity, albeit sometimes with names redacted, so why not John Davey v Nazarin?
They ordered Bexley Council to come clean and respond in a proper manner…
Did they come clean? Well not really,
Gina Clarke, the Freedom of Information Officer, under orders presumably, continues to refuse to provide any information.
It’s almost enough to persuade me that a dishonest Bexley Council is covering up racism.