11 March (Part 2) - Well that told ’em
As I was saying,
the Conservative Councillor for East Wickham was next to speak in the budget
debate. Would Caroline Newton provide some much needed gravitas? She immediately
made her position clear. She was going to vote down more money for BexleyCo.
Labour Councillors Borella, Amaning and Asunramu had all made “critical
disparaging comments of the work this Council has done in relation to education.
While we work with partners we have seen nothing but negativity in their Press
Releases and Social Media posts from Labour and their acolytes enabling others
to be abusive towards those trying to make things better.”
There have been Joint Scrutiny meetings held to address the SEND problems and for
Labour to suggest that nothing has happened is “remarkable. The spin,
inaccuracies and completely incorrect statements are disgraceful.” The Chairman
had to interject to quell the Labour interruptions.
“You might think my email and phone would be red hot with opposition contact but
there has been nothing.” Since becoming a Cabinet Member Councillor Perfect
(Labour) has brought two items of case work to Caroline’s attention but she was already working on them.
There’s been no other contact.
“Their Press Release (PDF) is a work of fiction and thanks to that release
a
journalist summarised the comments as their Group has consistently raised
parents’ concerns but these were ignored with Cabinet Members claiming the
issue was fine and not a problem’ suggesting schools, parents and carers had got it wrong.”
“It suggests that I as the incumbent Cabinet Member am of that view. If the Leader of the
Opposition attended Scrutiny or his colleagues accurately reported it [he would
know] that’s far from my opinion. The spin does not deliver any solution and
neither does this Amendment. Political posturing does not a solution make. No
solution to managing more than three thousand [inaudible but probably EHC] cases, no solutions to their increasing
complexity, no solutions to increased placement costs, no solutions to increased
transport demands, no solutions to increased transport costs. That is
disgraceful given the sermon we had earlier.”
I think Caroline may have fallen short of gravitas (and me with bad puns) but she was clearly
annoyed and justifiably so. My favourite piece is her reference to
acolytes. I think I know who she means and they really are the most obnoxious
and unscrupulous characters that you would ever hope never to meet. A well known
Councillor provided me with another example of their dirty tricks over the weekend.
“Nasty” was the word used. How very restrained!
Who’ְs next? Oh it is Councillor Leaf. I had better leave that one until tomorrow in case he didn’t know when to stop.