8 February (Part 2) - Blog withdrawn
it took less than an hour from making the changes for two
readers to ask why recent blogs had been allocated new dates and one had
disappeared altogether so I suppose an explanation is due.
Most readers will be aware of @tonyofsidcup who one might say has taken the
place of the late Mick Barnbrook by keeping Bexley Council on its toes with
innumerable FOIs and a succession of less formal questions. Somebody has to do
it because without such people Bexley Council can ride roughshod over everyone
and even fewer residents would know what they are up to.
Bexley Council tried to ban @tony from asking questions and won the support of the
Information Commissioner with the aid of a few fibs. Fortunately a judge saw
through it all and decided that @tony was performing a public service and that
his use of this website was very much a positive in that regard. I had no idea
that @tony had taken that line but raised no subsequent objections.
One of @tony’s stories was not anti-Bexley Council, in fact on the periphery
they helped him, was how the police were reluctant to investigate the hammer which
flew though his front window nineteen months ago.
There have been more than a dozen mentions of the incident since then and last Tuesday he sent me a copy of
the correspondence which told him that the Crown Prosecution didn’t think there
was enough evidence to prompt them to get off their backsides.
Obviously, readers who had followed the saga needed to be told that there was no justice in Bexley so a blog was prepared.
Rather than simply make that brief announcement, Bonkers ran a pictorial reminder
of what had gone before. No comment, just five images @tony had previously sent for
publication which were used here at least once and some several times.
The blog did not mention Bexley or @tony or hint at his home address. In some ways I
felt it was inadequate because it would make no sense to new readers.
Nevertheless @tony objected to it and demanded its removal. I reminded him that
it contained nothing that was not already in the public domain, apart from last
week’s decision by the CPS not to proceed and leave Bexley residents unprotected. As such I saw no reason to remove it. @tony
disagreed and there is every reason to suppose his arm is being twisted. Four
emails later I caved in. I am not here to create unnecessary disputes.
The blog took a little time to prepare, the words were few but hunting down the
old pictures and cropping them for the new layout took an hour or so. Time which
is now wasted. I don’t propose to do that again and so for
the foreseeable future you will not be seeing anything new from @tonyofsidcup on Bonkers.
This should come as a big relief to
the
would-be Councillors for Sidcup who sent @atony a
less than helpful two week late reply to a simple enquiry.