14 December - Please insert the word ‘some’ where appropriate
It is at times like these - Bexley Council acting once more like a law breaking bully boy -
that I realise that 14 years of their pubic exposure has been pretty much a waste
of time. Why is it that so many politicians have the nature of the thug who
immediately punches noses if his elbow is accidentally nudged while carrying his pint of lager?
Rational and better educated people might strike up a conversation on how the
mishap could be remedied and perhaps even become friends. But that is not what
politicians do. They sincerely believe that they are superior beings who are
never wrong and even when they clearly are will never admit it, which is why
lying is their stock-in-trade and the metaphorical punch on the nose is the only response known to them.
They can behave like that because rampant nepotism has placed like minded
Neanderthals into similar positions of power to lie, cover up and protect each other against all criticism.
I have often wondered what might have happened if Council Leader O’Neill had
picked up the phone - the number was in the book at the time - and asked me what
my beef with Bexley Council was instead of marching up to the cop shop and
demanding that they arrest me. If she had negotiating skills that went beyond
thuggery, BiB would probably have disappeared very quickly and I would not have had to
spend an hour every day at the keyboard and she might not be quite as widely despised.
Some of the Council Officers are not any better. It’s like the stories retired
Metropolitan Police Inspector Michael Barnbrook used to tell me. If an honest cop didn’t
turn a blind eye to the corruption of more senior officers he would soon find
himself transferred to the other side of London and suffering the house removal
costs and disruption to his children’s education etc. Which is probably why so many Council
Officers appear to be so bad at their jobs. Honesty is not their best policy,
During my last year at BT the top brass decided that direct recruitment to
middle management roles would be a better way forward than nurturing home grown
talent; which is why I found myself working alongside a former CPS barrister. I
couldn’t help but think that a barrister should be earning a lot more than I was
so concluded we had recruited a failure. And so it proved to be - crooked too but that is another story.
One might speculate that much the same applies to Bexley’s Legal Officer,
once described to me by a senior voice within Bexley Council as a confusing flip flopper, and…
At this point, 09:55, I had to stop writing to meet up with half a dozen of those with whom I shared
lunch on Sunday. I didn't mention the subject and none of them have ever made
the connection between me and BiB but they were soon discussing
how poor their meals
at The Morgan were. The phrase ‘gone downhill’ was used again and one who used to be a regular there related how she had seen
an ‘over your head’ chair fight and had heard of a scalding incident which wasn’t taken seriously.
And now that I am back home it is 14:35 and I have completely lost my train of thought, but here we go anyway
… who has not exactly covered herself in glory in recent months. Another case
presumably of a lawyer who was unsuccessful in her own legal circles and opted for a cushy number
in Bexley instead. The same goes
for Highways where Bexley has at the top of their tree someone who could never hold their own
in commercial practice as, for example, my son who provides consultancy services to
governments and major vehicle manufacturers across the globe employing several experts in his field
to support him. I know exactly what he says about roads in Bexley and other Councils and none of it is good.
Recently I have watched @tonyofsidcup try to arrange meetings with Bexley
Council in an attempt to head off some of his disagreements with them but with
limited success. The bully boys and girls are still in charge and when they
cannot or will not answer his questions reach for the double-barrelled shotgun of vexatiousness.
I fully accept that @tony can be a difficult individual, unwilling to take No
for an answer or ready to be fobbed off by metaphorical fists thrown by political
thugs in the direction of his olfactory protuberance. I have no idea what he
does with the collected information; is it like me buying too many DVDs, watch
them once and put them in a box to be quickly forgotten? Irrational perhaps but
strangely addictive. (But technically streets ahead of streaming - but that is another story too,)
It doesn’t really matter if @tony is obnoxious or charming , neither is an excuse for Bexley Council’s absolutely blatant law breaking.
Why don’t they invite him in for a chat? (Because they have not learned a thing
since Teflon Tess pleaded with her military wing to have me arrested “for criticising Councillors”.)
More than 100 of his FOIs were answered, apparently quite happily, but then someone decreed that he would not be allowed
to make any more. To quote the Council’s response verbatim “we do not have to provide
you with a refusal notice if we decide not to deal with any further requests for information received from you”.
Contrast that with what the Information Commissioner says on its website. “You
cannot refuse a new request solely on the basis that you have classified
previous requests from the same individual as vexatious”.
I do not know where @tony is going with his complaint next, he and I do not
enjoy the same relationship as I did with Mick and Elwyn Bryant years ago, but I expect
him to be in touch with the Information Commissioner before long.
Will he win his case easily? I doubt it very much for the reasons already
stated. “Rampant nepotism has placed like minded Neanderthals into similar
positions of power to lie, cover up and protect each other.”
There really is no hope left for this country. It is corrupt from top to
bottom and I do not believe there is the will among the present population to do anything about it.
I think I did well and truly lose the direction of travel on this one. Never
mind. If I remember what I meant to say there is always tomorrow or the next day.
Note: In Bexley the majority of the current crop of
Conservative Councillors were first elected in 2014 or later. I had none of them
in mind today but a few of those who date back to 2006 and earlier remain as the
all-powerful ‘thugs’ who dictate the past and present direction of travel. They
are interested in little other than self-preservation.
Regular readers will hopefully know which of the remaining old-timers are exempt from this criticism.