2 January - The Commies are optimistic for the longer term

When the end of year blog linked to my list of wrong-headed, stupid or malicious decisions of the worst Government of my lifetime I half expected some kick back from demented Socialists and it only took an hour for the first of them to arrive.

@tonyofsidcup said I was “too harsh on Labour”. How could a list of actions collected only from Main Stream Newspaper headlines be too harsh? They were facts presented in abbreviated form; maybe in an unsympathetic manner but facts neverthless. Nothing came from X gossip or anything of that kind. Everything has been in the Telegraph, Times Guardian or Mail.

I told @tony that a defence of Starmer and Co might be interesting. Were former Bexley Councillors Daniel Francis and Oppong-Asare right to risk condemning old people to death? Would a man brought up in a Communist State be able to provide a rational explanation?

I am going to reproduce his reply in full, maybe with a few footnotes.

Oh, what is this doom-and-gloom talk, Mr K? Let the man pronounced by Bexley Labour to “be perceived as against us” lift your spirits and appreciation of our new government.
One thing to cheer is being retired when a recession is about to hit. As much as Daniel Francis MP, for example, may “sell” Labour’s first budget, this is a budget that raises taxes and reduces spending, and the economic impact of this combination is quite clear: some of the retail workers Daniel is taking selfies with will soon be out of a job.
Welcome to Labour’s Austerity, the payback for Tory sins! As a contractor, with private-school bills to boot, I look to 2025 with unease. Do I wish Tories stayed in power? Absolutely not! Memories of Tory incompetence and corruption are just too fresh, and evidence of the country’s decline under Tory governments - after a good run under Blair and Brown - is impossible to ignore, with A&E horror stories off Twitter only the latest.
How many people would like to swap Starmer for the hapless Rishi - never mind his peculiar replacement – and go back to the time when every week brought a new government scandal? Not me.
Thankfully, the question is theoretical: Starmer has enough time to ride out the economic cycle and come to the next General Election in a good shape. Back in the 1990s, Belarusian then-fresh-faced President Lukashenka famously reassured voters about his economic-reform plans by saying “You will live poorly, but not for long”. At the time, this was taken as a promise of a miserable and short life – delivered 100% - but with Starmer and Labour, I insist on the positive interpretation.

It is a relief to see that @tony makes no attempt to undermine my doom list. The Conservatives nationally were absolutely hopeless. Definitely incompetent and probably corrupt. You never read a good word about Rishi Sunak here and for the first time in my life I did not vote Conservative six months ago. However unlike @tony; if there was a choice of only Rishi or Two Tier I would vote for the one who did not grow up a Trotskyite who hates the UK.

Obviously I would prefer a wider choice but even if there is a better one within Conservative ranks the party is finished unless it can expel all its wets. And it won’t.

@tony’s “good run under Blair and Brown” ended in a financial crash and a note which said “There is no money”.

Starmer will never recover from his present position, nor should he. He is unpopular now and that will continue. Have you seen the tax rises planned for April? In approximate terms Vehicle Excise Duty is due to near double and in some cases go from nothing to almost £200 a year.

With the history of five Labour Prime Ministers and even more Labour Governments behind me I can confidently forecast that Labour will fail spectacularly and sanity will return to Bexleyheath and Crayford. No one likes a Granny killer. Not even @tony.

 

1 January - Absent for ten years but still reliably wrong

I might have guessed that @tonyofsidcup would feature in the first post of the year just as he did last year but I was unprepared for seeing him resurrecting the name Greg Tippett.

That name appeared on Bonkers 27 times between May 2011 (unlicensed CCTV cars) and July 2015 (Bailiff malpractice) and none of them complimentary (illegally setting the police on a resident). I thought he had disappeared along with the senior management team that wrecked Bexley Council’s reputation all those years ago. But no!

@tony twice reported a motorcycle leaning against a shop front on Market Parade, Sidcup last October and was ignored by Bexley Council. Not a wise move when @tony is involved. The inaction provoked yet another Freedom of Information request.

A response came from Mr. Tippett who maintained that Market Parade is not part of the Public Highway which he backed up by saying the demarcation line was clearly indicated by differing footpath surfaces. (See Photo). He went on to say that the motorcycle was not a danger to the public despite it being an obvious trip hazard and did not obstruct any access to premises which if such criteria were essential for a successful prosecution would invalidate many if not most parking offences.

@tony countered this by saying that unlike Mr. Tippett he had seen the site and passage was obstructed. More importantly he referred to the legal judgment made against a Mr. Robert White who leaned his motorcycle against a wall in Brewer Street, Westminster. He thought he was safe parking beyond the demarcation line (pavement lights) between public and private property.

Whilst the Judge accepted that the bike was parked on private land, he said that various precedents had defined a highway as…

“a route which all persons rich or poor can use to pass and repass along as often and whenever they wish without let or hindrance and without charge. Brewer Street is a busy thoroughfare in the heart of the West End and it seems to me obvious that generally speaking it is a highway within this definition.
The point is whether the highway extends right up to adjoining buildings and I am assisted by the views in a number of similar cases which I regard as highly persuasive and take the view that the extent of the highway is indeed indicated by its natural boundary, namely the building line.
I share the broad view that where there are no physical barriers and the public has been apparently free to walk over the whole width of the street for many years, such evidence suggests it is part of the highway. I too find that it is.”

Mr. White lost his case against the penalty issued by Westminster Council. What excuse will Mr. Tippett come up with now? In due course @tony will no doubt let us know. So far he has asked only for an apology for Bexley Council’s ignorance of established case law.

If Bexley Council adopted Westminster’s policy in Abbey Wood I can think of several traders who would be very upset about it. If Mr. Tippett has any sense he should acknowledge that @tony has the law on his side but Bexley Council as a matter of policy, has decided not to pursue parking offences on private property.

And then correct the untruth on his website which speaks of being unable to enforce parking on private property. It is not unable, it is a conscious decision just like their decision not to enforce the 50 centimetres from the kerb rule.