29 October - The best of Labour
I am probably not alone in finding it near impossible to
hold any Labour politician in high regard. One might have thought that 14 years
in opposition was ample time to produce a fully costed plan on every aspect of
British life but there is no sign that was done despite what they claimed
before July 4th. Since then nothing but lies, malpractice, misjudgment, bad decisions
and profligacy all topped up with a fair dollop of corruption and occasional treachery.
Even those such as I who lived through Labour in the 1960s and 1970s who warned
that another Labour Government would be a disaster have never seen anything like
Starmer’s first 117 days which have seen him relegated 40 odd points on the
popularity scale. And that is before tomorrow’s budget. Even Labour Chancellor
Denis - tax ‘em till the pips squeak - Healey who broke the country in 1976 and
had to call in the International Monetary Fund is a mere amateur country
wrecker compared to what Rachel from Accounts has been threatening.
With
views like that it is perhaps unsurprising that very few of Bexley’s Labour
Councillors have ever spoken to me but there has always been one exception who
will greet me like an old friend and send friendly emails from time to time.
It is more than three months now since Reform UK’s General Election candidate in
Old Bexley wrote to me via her solicitor that I must pay her £4,800 within fewer
than two weeks to compensate her for
my election coverage
and demanding the removal of every reference to her on BiB over the past eight years or so.
Somewhat shocked and maybe a little panicky I let those Councillors who had
shown friendliness towards me, anything from regular phone calls to a hand shake
in the Council Chamber, know what was going on in the hope that I would at least
get some sympathy if not a little advice.
On the Labour side the numbers involved were few; the Leader Stefano Borella and
my own ward Councillors Daniel Francis and Sally Hinkley. Stefano came back
quite quickly with some of his past experiences with the aforesaid General
Election candidate and more recently, all of which must necessarily remain
confidential except perhaps “happy to offer support”.
From my own Councillors - one now elevated to Parliamentary grandeur - there has been total silence which
perhaps illustrates the real level of concern they have for residents. I suppose
I should not be surprised that someone who votes in support of an estimated
(their estimate!) 4,000 elderly people dying of hypothermia cares little for
anyone else either. And the same presumably goes for his office support worker too.
Stefano stands head and shoulders above the lot of them.
I wrote similarly to a handful of Conservative Councillors. Were they any better?