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News and Comment December 2023

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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.


Information Commissioners websiteRecently 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.

 

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