6 June - Does a Conservative deserve my vote?
I wish I lived in the Old Bexley and Sidcup constituency because the voting
decision would be a lot easier for me than it is elsewhere in the borough. The
Conservatives have totally screwed up the past five years with their botched Brexit,
a Covid response we now know was based on scare tactics and lies, a
wrong-headed energy policy, broken tax promises and well… basically incompetence
and dishonesty at every single level. Try as I might I cannot think of a single
thing that has been good for me or even particularly good for the country. Even
my pension triple lock increase worked out at little more than half the headline figure
because of frozen tax thresholds. I sincerely hope that Jeremy Hunt suffers a
severe kicking in Godalming and Ash, an area I used to know well because it was
within biking distance in the days when kids could be kicked out of the house
with a packet of Smith’s crisps in the morning and told not to come back until teatime.
It’s no good voting Conservative again because their HQ has been parachuting
candidates into the safest seats who are wets so another five years of Rishi
will be another five years of bad decisions and broken promises.
I do not know whether Louie French in Old Bexley is a wet or a proper Tory but
at least I know he is not crooked. He might get my vote for no better reason
than not being one of the others.
It is not just high taxes and poor decisions that have wrecked the Conservative
party beyond repair, it is the way they tolerate and encourage unfairness in society - which
is I suppose another poor decision.
Families without a single worker are given more money than those in humble jobs.
People who invade our beaches are fed and given a roof over their heads with a
GP on call (not been able to see one myself since January 2000) and some go on
to rape and murder our women after being spared jail by a soft-headed judiciary
steeped in left wing ideology.
Is it any wonder that
there is so much unhappiness around and maybe rebelliousness too? I have been personally struck
by the large number of cases reported in recent months of landlords with
houses wrecked by bad tenants who have to get them repaired at huge cost and then
find them difficult to sell. Our idiot Government permits Councils to charge
them double Council Tax after twelve months when logically they should be paying none because no
Council services are being consumed.
It is perhaps a niche niggle but it may very well be the one that finally
convinces me not to vote for my local Conservative candidate. (Who is he by the
way? I have no idea.)
Bring back the Community Charge for fairness.
Unfairness is everywhere; imposed by politicians and bureaucrats who by rights
should spend a day in the stocks. This week Facebook has been full of complaints about
Bexley’s yellow box junctions. They are there to raise money. Seven years ago
the Finance Director admitted as much in Council. (Third paragraph from end
of blog.)
Enforcement is automated and the algorithm does not understand the law. You can
stop in a yellow box junction in some circumstances but our home bred thieves
are not interested. The boxes are also unnecessarily large in order to ensnare as
many people as possible. Cabinet Member Diment should be ashamed of himself and
maybe he is but constrained by Jeremy Hunt.
In Avenue Road/Broadway (Photo 1) if there is a continuous queue of traffic
turning left into Broadway and there often is, it is impossible to cross the
junction in a west east direction. It’s gridlock or £65 and another reason not
to vote Lib/Lab/Con. On Knee Hill (Photo 2) which is artfully placed one car
length before traffic lights (note the white line) extreme care is required and most drivers observe
the rules but twice I have seen people stop unexpectedly, once for an ambulance,
the other for a red light jumper. Bexley Council would prefer to see a smash up.
Avenue Road, Knee Hill, Upton Road, Danson Lane, Sidcup Station, Central Avenue Welling, Central Avenue Welling again, Crayford.
The two Central Avenue boxes (Photos 6 and 7) are separated only by a railway bridge - the railway is just visible in both pictures - and between them is a bus stop. If a bus is waiting there it is impossible for strangers to the area to know they are likely to be trapped in a box especially as the second one is further hidden by a bend in the road. Bexley Council; liars and cheats at every possible opportunity.