24 January - Depressing

There will be a Places Scrutiny meeting on Tuesday which may be reported here on Wednesday but we are unlikely to hear anything about the state of Bexley’s roads. Potholes possibly, idiotic design; no chance!

Following a couple of blog posts spelling out the dangers designed into our roads by the idiots in Council and the idiots who use them, a driving instructor contacted me to add weight to my complaints. Pedestrians dressed in black, cyclists overtaking traffic queues by being in the middle of the road with no lights against a background of LED headlights, drivers who rarely indicate their direction, defective car lighting, pinch points in roads that have existed for years that could be corrected in a day, etc. etc.

Yesterday evening something was going on in Sidcup because buses were using The Green again. Before that I was in a queue from Cleeve Park School to the single-tracked with passing places Rectory Lane because cars trying to enter and exit it were grid-locked and holding up through traffic. Very few of those idiots need to access property in Rectory Lane, Is there any?

One thing I learned from the driving instructor - I should have thought of it before - is that the multitude of near invisible Keep Left signs are invisible not because the reflectors are covered in dirt but because they are of the older illuminated design and the lamps failed years ago - and Bexley Council doesn’t care. Or is perhaps even more stony-broke than we thought.

" The other topic which filled the postbag - well two contacts actually - followed up on @tonyofsidcup's failure to get into the reopened Sidcup cinema using his old Storyteller membership card.

I do not know what complex arrangements are in place that prevents flashing the old card at the box office for free or discounted admission but whatever it is the management insists on a rigmarole. Both correspondents reported the same thing. Go to cinema, find a manager, show proof of payment for Storyteller membership and get a new card.

One reported taking in two friends, one definitely free and the other one discounted I think. Two free entries per member per performance are permitted. She sat with her friends and two other people and came out thoroughly depressed. Not at how few people were present and how the long term viability of the cinema might be affected, but because she thought the Shakespearian Hamnet was far from being a bundle of laughs.

21 January - Shameless

It is more than eighteen months since these two photos first appeared on these pages. A large hammer went flying through the window of @tonyofsidcup’s house and landed on his daughter’s favourite chair.

The suspect had issued a threat, he had a very obvious motive, he was photographed and video’d at the scene of the crime. The police did nothing. Two senior political figures intervened to request some action following which the Crown Prosecution Service said the submitted police file was poorly prepared and asked that it be done again. Properly next time.

And still @tony waits.

Detective Superintendent Melanie Pressley, apparently unaware that the case has already been submitted to the CPS, blames their failures on possible “lack of evidence, lack of CCTV or forensic evidence”.

How is it that throughout the public services total inadequates are promoted to senior positions?

Meanwhile, dangerous criminals roam our streets.

20 January - Malicious or incompetent?

As mentioned before, my four and occasionally five trips to Bromley and back each week have given a greater insight into why Bexley’s roads are so congested. My son once said - pictured here last week at a crash test facility in Washington, D.C. - that whoever designs Bexley’s roads is either incompetent or malicious. Maybe it is both.

Bromley may be worse for potholes but the idiocies belong mainly to Bexley. Why do they think it is a good idea to extend the footpath into the road at pedestrian crossings leaving the pedestrians in effect standing in the path of oncoming traffic? In the dark, at this time of the year in a dark coat and with no street lighting. It seems to go off at about 7 a.m., an hour before sunrise.

Why is that width restrictor on The Green in Sidcup there at all and why is it at an acute angle to the road? Anything bigger than a motorbike cannot get through it without swinging into the adjacent Church Road to try to get a straight run at it. My not very big car can only get through with tyre walls rubbing the kerb. Fortunately they are quite bulbous and no real harm is done, In the other direction a bus can get through so what is the point? One might ask what the point of the whole Highways Department is.

Apart from cars with no rear lights at all, cars parked on the wrong side of the road with headlights full on, cars emulating bikes with only one front nearside parking light working, overtaking on roundabouts and pedestrians in black at night, inconsiderate parking has become a major bugbear.

It is obvious that some cars are always legally parked on major roads in the same place every single day causing hold ups even on days when no Council dustcart has stopped opposite a traffic island. Yesterday, soon after 06:30 I was lucky enough to get in front of it at a roundabout as it headed on its mission to create chaos in Foots Cray Lane.  Brampton Road, Penhill Road and Footscray Lane host the worst of the all day parkers in Bexley but Bromley is generally worse. Why have two carriageways on the approach to Chislehurst War Memorial when in is a permanent car park and where the junction is now a Yellow Money Box making the queues far worse than they used to be? There are around 50 regular offenders between Abbey Wood and Bromley every single day.

Why is parking allowed to within two car lengths of give way lines at roundabouts and traffic lights forcing through traffic into the middle of the road in dangerous places?

But good news. The road by the Sidcup branch of Waitrose has a nice new surface; maybe the Council will do the opencast mine which is Danson Underpass soon. Actually it is due to be done in March; and about time too.

18 January - Bexley is not only Bonkers but very forgetful too

On or about 1st December someone put cones in the middle of the Harrow Manorway flyover for what reason is unknown but they also dumped a couple of concrete blocks in the gutter. Since then there has been no cycle track in either direction and buses are forced into the middle of the road immediately after leaving the Abbey Wood station bus stop.

Not a soul has ever worked at the site in the six or seven weeks since the idiots first created the hazard.

The flyover is wholly the responsibility of Bexley Council. As is well known they are not really interested in the far north west corner of the borough. It would not be the first time that Bexley Council forgot to complete a flyover job.

17 January - Buses cancelled, trains slow

The quarterly Transport meeting was once again a disappointment, not because the Committee is sub-standard or the Chairman is useless but because invited guests fail to take it seriously. The lady who delivers excuses on behalf of TfL simply failed to show up. No one knows why. The police are always shambolic and had failed to respond to their invitation to the meeting which led in turn to the Committee not preparing any questions for them. Why should they when they so infrequently show up?

Murphy’s Law and all that, but just before the meeting began a policeman showed up on a video feed from Lewisham. A substitute officer (“the guvnor is tied up”) probably even more ignorant than the regulars usually are. With no prepared questions available the Chairman politely told the copper that he would be let off the hook, and muttered his real opinion after the video feed went off air. I can only guess at what he said because the acoustics were even worse than usual. There were no spare chairs available so my recorder was consigned to the floor and the audio quality is very poor. Barely audible.

The highlight of the meeting used to be the chaps representing Network Rail and Southeastern Railway. Clearly enthusiastic about their jobs and now all we get is a lady representing both organisations who can present a few facts but is generally unable to answer questions.

On top of all that Cabinet Member Richard Diment was present only on Zoom so as to keep the remnants of his flu bug away from us and the Highways Manager was entirely missing, probably for the same reason.

Unsurprisingly the meeting was over in under an hour.

The Chairman said he was trying to arrange a meeting with the operators of the poorly performing 229, 428 and 492 bus routes but they would only accept a day time appointment. Councillor Sally Hinkley who like me lives in a part of Belvedere that used to be served by ten buses an hour but is now down to six and about to reduce to five, said she had to make alternative arrangements to get to the meeting when her bus app showed no 229s in the following half hour.

The Chairman said something inaudible about road safety at which point the Cabinet Member commented that the police do one speed check operation in Bexley each week and next week they will be in, well perhaps I had better not say except that I will be looking out for them on my daily trip to Bromley. Only the foolhardy who drives without regard for tyres or suspension does more than 30 on that section of road so being caught out is probably deserved.

The railway lady said that the underpass at Bexley station had been filled in as planned but the lifts are not as reliable as they should be. Southeastern operates 109 lifts across its network and is building up a stock of spare parts because contractors have been too slow to obtain them on demand.

36 refreshed class 376 coaches are coming this year with the first arriving last month. What refreshed means beyond new upholstery, floors and grab handles was not explained but if you are hoping for air-conditioning, forget it.

Punctuality which is generally above industry averages dipped a little in December because of weather related speed restrictions but is now affecting fewer than 2% of services. (Within three minutes of scheduled arrival times.)

Lines are being reopened more quickly following trespasser incidents because of the deployment of drones. Two operate from a control centre at London Bridge with more to come. This is quicker than sending search parties out on foot.

There will be no trains through Dartford on 7th, 8th and 14th through to 22nd of February and again on 1st March and 5th April while ten million pounds is spent on 400 yards of track and ten new crossings. There was no information about the availability of replacement bus services for the loop line trains which will have to terminate at Slade Green, Barnehurst and Crayford. The timetable will be amended.

A Metro Study is scheduled for publication in the Summer of 2026 planning for rail services until 2055 and the Chairman wondered if it could possibly account for the new planning regulations which will see even more housing clustered around railway stations.

Councillor Hinkley asked a number of questions relating to the statistics on cancellations and late running but no answers were forthcoming.

On buses it was once again Councillor Hinkley taking the lead. Without any input from TfL she observed that the Committee makes comments and offers reports and gets promises in return but nothing ever improves. The Chairman agreed. In a context which was lost by the poor acoustics he referred to TfL as “shocking’.

He did however hold out a flicker of hope that the SL3 might serve Bexley as there had been contact with the Deputy Mayor who reluctantly gave a luke-warm reception to the idea. “The door is slightly ajar.” The SL3 has resumed the original planned route along Penhill Road after the short term diversion along Hurst Road which brought it close to Bexley station. This is thought to be because the new electric buses are better able to negotiate Bexley’s narrow roads and sharp bends than the longer ‘Boris buses’ rather than a two fingered salute to Bexley Council.

Councillor Davey repeated his view that the SL3 should make an extra stop in his West Heath ward. This may have more merit than his idea to cut the Lion Road stop.

Sally Hinkley, her again, was first to speak under the roads heading. Living just a few yards beyond the AW1 CPZ boundary and suffering the inevitable parking displacement problem she was pleased to see the Belvedere Station Zone is scheduled for introduction on 26th February.

Her comment led to a discussion on the generally crazy signage associated with the AW1 Zone. Councillor Davey said the signs in his West Heath Zone were just as bad. As reported earlier, the next set of Parking Permits, being printed now, will be for six hours of validity.

Bexley showing up well against other London boroughs in the pothole stakes was reported and the Highways team was congratulated. My regular trips to Bromley, just the one fixed route of course, lead me to suggest that Bromley offers a much bumpier ride than Bexley which nevertheless has a few whoppers. I hit a really bad one in the dark in Penhill Road about a week ago. Bexley tends to fix the worst of the holes by extensive resurfacing. The associated picture is of Hadlow Road, Sidcup.

On a personal note once again; what is the point of placing yellow warning signs by the side of roads approaching Sidcup which provide a long essay in a tiny font on something or other, I know not what? how am I expected to read them while driving by?

15 January - Transport meeting falls into a pothole

There was a Council meeting last night, the first of any note since Guy Fawkes’ Night and I braved the rain and the SL3. It was probably not worth the effort because I learned little more than what I had already read in the Agenda.

It was the shortest meeting ever due to the Cabinet Member and Highways Manager not fully recovered from winter ailments and the absence of the TfL representative due, presumably, to embarrassment. The police might have been there if they were not so incompetent.

There were a few details on the week and a bit long closure of Dartford station, or more pedantically, the replacement of the track and junctions that serves it. 36 trains are to get new moquette but no toilets or air con. Whoopee! The first is already in service with more to come.

The bus services get worse; slower and less frequent and I am not the only one to have noticed that the implementation of the Abbey Wood CPZ and the one up the hill - whatever that is called (†) - has been poor. Inconsistent and missing signage. Something you may wish to know before a longer report appears here at the weekend is that Civil Enforcement Officers have been told to accept the five hour Visitor’s Permit for the whole of the six hour restriction period. The fact that a Permit doesn’t cover a whole day was an oversight. If you have been fined, appeal it.

† West Heath.

12 January - Bexley is greener than Bromley

Bexley’s Conservative Councillors got pretty annoyed last year when our Labour MP, you know the one, he voted to allow your healthy grandchild to be aborted at the nine month stage and the unscrupulous to have their cantankerous elderly aunt bumped off should she be a nuisance once too often, mouthed off in Parliament that Bexley was not spending all the pothole money being dished out by central Government.

Cabinet Member Richard Diment and Council Leader Leaf said it was little short of an outright lie and wrote to the Prime Minister to tell him. The Chief Executive said that the MP’s tactics were wasting a whole load of taxpayers’ money.

Well now the truth has come out in the shape of a Government report issued yesterday. Bexley is among the better Councils which are getting things right more often than most. In particular, it gets top marks for actually spending the money, which is in marked contrast to the allegations of our Labour MP. Exactly what did he think he was playing at?

Having said that, Bexley does have some blooming awful potholes, and other Councils being worse is little consolation when you fall into one. Our MP was an OK Councillor but appears to be intent on proving the old adage, all political careers end in failure.

For comparison, Bromley is Amber, Red, Green Red. Greenwich is Red, Amber, Red, Red but Lewisham is Green, Green, Green, Amber.

Click for list of Councils.

11 January (Part 2) - Leader Leaf Late and Long

Judged solely on their performances at public meetings there was never more than two or three Tory Councillors on Bexley Council who with a mixture of showmanship and a convincing display of claimed expertise appeared to be on top of their game. After Gareth Bacon buzzed off to Orpington it left David Leaf as the sole pretender and inevitably he gained the throne at the end of last year.

Councillor Leaf is renowned for his long speeches, encyclopedic knowledge of Council finances and its history, petty Council rules and his readiness to put the Labour opposition in its place, so I was disappointed when he was less than convincing in rebutting Labour’s Bexleyheath MP’s claim that Starmer was going to give Bexley more money than usual in this and coming years. It seemed unlikely; the Prime Minister has a track record of dishonesty but the new Council Leader did not to my mind satisfactorily prove it on this occasion.

@tonyofsidcup - who else? - took David to task in his own inimitable way. On 22nd December he emailed David Leaf essentially as follows. “The trouble is, I struggle to see any cuts in the data you shared. What am I missing? Where are the Labour cuts?” Not perhaps the most patient of chaps, on 29th December with scant regard for two days of holiday and a weekend, @tony asked me to bring the Council Leader’s silence to your attention. I told him it was too early but the continuing silence led to a blog on 7th January.

I found it personally disappointing. Disappointed that David Leaf looked like losing out to a Labour MP and disappointed that @tony was right to suggest my confidence in the new Leader was misplaced.

But things changed yesterday. David Leaf wrote an extraordinarily long and detailed explanation of why Bexley will not benefit from Labour’s claimed largesse. I expect David half expected his reply to appear here but I am not sure that is entirely fair without express permission. And it might bore most readers into submission, but here are some key points.

• The data [on a Government web page see below] shows quite clearly that Bexley is receiving a cut in cash grants from the Government in real terms once inflation is taken into account, and in cash terms once the new funding formula is fully implemented.
• The current financial year [2025/26] is the last year where the existing funding formula and distribution is used. In 2026/27 and 2027/28 there is a transition between the existing formula (the Legacy Funding Assessment) and the new formula (the Fair Funding Allocation), and in 2028/29 the new funding formula is implemented in full.
• Once the Council Tax Requirement is removed from Core Spending Power, the amount of cash grants Bexley will receive from Government reduces in cash terms between the current financial year, 2025/26, and when the new formula is fully implemented in 2028/29.
• Labour has used 2024/25 as the baseline year and claim that there has been a boost to the Council’s finances of £43·8m (£238·4m in 2024/25 rising to £282·1m in 2028/29), which is based on Core Spending Power, but you can see from the table, once the Council Tax assumptions about Council Tax rates increasing and growth in the Council Tax Base are removed – an assumption that receipts from Council Tax rise by £38·5m (£141·4m in 2024/25 rising to £179·9m in 2028/29) – the cash increase from Government grants is about £5·3m. That’s a 5·5% cash increase across the four year period. 5·5% is well below the rate of inflation forecast for the period and therefore represents a real terms cut in the cash grants from government coming to Bexley.
• On average, across the country and across London, there is an increase in grant funding and therefore Bexley’s share of the national pot and London-wide pot is reducing, leaving us worse off as funding goes up overall but goes down for Bexley.

There is more and presumably David Leaf will make a very long speech at the next Cabinet or Finance meeting; and firmly put the Labour MP in his place. Even @tony has come to the conclusion that Labour have been pulling a short-term fast one. My faith in David is retored.

The data table to which David refers is here.

11 January (Part 1) - Bexley has almost the highest Council Tax rate in London

And the reason is not hard to find; its managers are as good at making business decisions as Starmer’s Calamity Cabinet. None of them has a clue how to run a successful anything at all.

While it may have been right to remove flags from the two traffic hazards which are the Cob and Fish roundabouts - both demolished by vehicles several times - because they were a distraction to drivers, how can it possibly cost £13,500 to hire a couple of blokes with a ladder, or maybe in this Health & Safety world, a cherry picker?

If Bexley Council had not got rid of every employee who does not go to work in a suit they may been able to call on someone to do the job for a bit of overtime money. The usual false economy we have come to expect from all public bodies. Plenty of work for Reform UK to do come May 7th.

An expanded version of the newspaper report may be revealed by clicking on the image alongside.

10 January - A house and a dozen wheelie bins in Thamesmead for 110k.

A reader with an interest in the property business told me that Ukrainians are buying up London as fast as they can. I have no idea if that is true but if so the following properties being sold off by Bexley Housng Associations may be of interest to them.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87472698#/?channel=RES_BUY - Mill Place, Crayford
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87472707#/?channel=RES_BUY - Thames Road, Crayford
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87489771#/?channel=RES_BUY - 2 Gattons Road, Sidcup
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87490830#/?channel=RES_BUY - 121 Ellenborough Road, Sidcup
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87462990#/?channel=RES_BUY - 54 Fieldfare Road, Thmasmead
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/170495132#/?channel=RES_BUY - 93 Mallard Walk, Sidcup
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/170517776#/?channel=RES_BUY - 16 Heath Road, Crayford
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/170518073#/?channel=RES_BUY - 98 Riverside Road, Sidcup
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/170850209#/?channel=RES_BUY - 7 John Newton Court, Welling
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87446394#/?channel=RES_BUY - 40 Halcot Avenue, Bexleyheath
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87446430#/?channel=RES_BUY - 107 Halcot Avenue, Bexleyheath

Note: One anonymous reader will understand this comment. The code that runs the webform was not written by me and the 1,000 character limit is so heavily embedded that I doubt I can unravel it. I tried the obvious of doubling occurrences of the figure 1,000 but it didn’t work.

List of auctioned Housing Association addresses with links to original blogs. Hover over address for date. (Revised 1st December 2025.)

Bexley
30 Bourne Mead - £165,000
2 Eynsford Crescent - £190,000
15 Marden Crescent - £300,000
Pengarth Road - £160+,000
34 Pengarth Road - £300,000
53 Pengarth Road - £310,000
Rye Close - £320,000
44 Stansted Crescent - £170,000
44 Stanstead Crescent - £140,000
Bexleyheath
Grove Road - £145,000
40 Halcot Avenue - £320,000
94 Halcot Avenue - £195,000
107 Halcot Avenue - £330,000
121 Halcot Avenue - £210,000
33 Oakhouse Road - £360,000
Parkside Avenue - £260,000
80 Pelham Road - £260,000
Crayford
Crayford Road - £270,000
Dale End - £139,000
1 Dale Road - £295,000
38 Dale Road - £270,000
65 Dale Road - £295,000
16 Heath Road - £310,000
60 Heath Road - £249,000
83 Heath Road - £260,000
22B Iron Mill Lane - £275,000
179 Iron Mill Lane - 155,000
187 Iron Mill Lane - £135,000
235 Iron Mill Lane - £320,000
176 Maiden Lane - £255,000
191 Maiden Lane - £160,000
191 Maiden Lane - £160,000 (2nd auction)
206 Maiden Lane - £250,000
230 Maiden Lame - £250,000
234 Maiden Lane - £250,000
234 Maiden Lane - £175,000
4 Medway Road - £210,000
4 Medway Road - £270,000
4 Medway Road - £225,000
Mill Place - £310,000
Russell Close - £155,000
44 Stansted Crescent - £170,000
20 Stour Road - £205,000
Thames Road - £275,000
Erith
21 Athol Road - £220,000
Hilden Drive - £285,000
52 Jennington Road - £250,000
Springhead Road - £255,000
Sidcup
Burnham Road - £190,000
11 Diana Close - £275,000
Ellenborogh Road - £149,000
Ellenborogh Road - £155,000
Ellenborough Road - £269,000
5 Ellenborough Road - £210,000
121 Ellenborough Road - £140,000
63 Foots Cray Road - £325,000
2 Gattons Way - £290,000
2-48 Heron Crescent - Not priced
Ladbrooke Crescent - £220,000
Maddocks Close - £255,000
50 Mallard Walk - £180,000
93 Mallard Walk - £175,000
Maylands Drive - £320,000
56 Maylands Drive - £200,000
56 Maylands Drive - £180,000
17 Partridge Road - £300,000
Pembury Crescent - £129,000
Pembury Crescent - £135,000
98 Riverside Road -£410,000
30 St. Andrew’s Road - £240,000
Welling
29 Beal Close - £250,000
19 Berwick Road - £275,000
39 Burnell Avenue - £300,000
18 Burnell Avenue - £280,000
79 Darenth Road - £275,000
47 Denton Road - £145,000
7 John Newton Court - £165,000
17 Ridley Road - £235,000
77 Tyrell Road - £290,000
2 Wycliffe Close - £310,000
Welling
54 Fieldfare Road - £110,000
Index to related blogs.

8 January - @tony’s take

In the absence of any response from Bexley Council’s Leader, @tonyofsidcup has applied his own accountancy skills to whether or not the Labour Government has increased its grant to Bexley Council. His argument goes like this.

We have three “metrics” in play
• Grant
• Council Tax
• “Core Purchasing Power”, which is Grant + Council Tax

Core Purchasing Power is going up by 6%, assuming a 5% increase in Council Tax. (This is a very safe assumption - every Council (Tory, Labour and Reform) is raising CT by the allowed maximum, typically (depending on what services are “in-scope” for the council) 5%).
Grants are going up by 5% (or 2-3% adjusted for inflation). *No assumptions about CT are needed*.
So to me, Francis is right, Leaf is wrong.

Who will argue otherwise? Not me. And The Council Leader’s silence may well be the ultimate confirmation.

7 January - Silence reigns

At the end of last year Labour said it had provided Bexley with a bigger grant. Bexley Council’s Leader put out a statement to the contrary. Smoke and Mirrors he said but the figures he supplied did not to my mind prove his point; although a reader’s message lent him some support.

Labour’s Fair Funding is replacing the legacy funding of old in Bexley and elsewhere. That is where you see the £43.3 million in 2026/27 in the published table. Legacy Funding disappears. The big question is how much will Bexley have if it increases Council Tax by the maximum and receives the Government’s newly announced cash. In essence you will see year on year an increase of around £9 million both before Fair Funding and afterwards. And that is dependent on Council Tax going up by the maxim allowed. So essentially there is no new money tree. David Leaf is correct and our Labour MP is making an absurd claim.

I was not alone in not following the argument fully. @tonyofsidcup was confused too.

On the same day that the issue was last reported here, 22nd December, @tony wrote to the Council Leader asking for a simpler explanation. "What am I missing? Where are the Labour cuts?" Two weeks later and @tony has heard nothing. You would think Councillor Leaf would be pleased to explain further how he is right and Labour is wrong. But apparently not. Labour is probably fibbing, they usually are, but it would be nice to be more sure.

5 January - Nice work if you can get it

The gravy train which is Local Government salaries never fails to arrive ahead of time and deliver the goods for its passengers. In Birmingham where year old rubbish litters the streets the Government appointed Commissioners are travelling First Class.

Among the lucky recipients of £1,100 a day you will see the name Jackie Belton. Ms. Belton went to Birmingham from Bexley where she was Chief Executive having arrived here via Newham and Lambeth and earning various Golden Goodbyes along the way.

In her defence one can only say that she was not the worst of Bexley’s Chief Executives one of whom deceived the Borough and was rewarded with a massive pension for an imagined health problem.

Note: Images extracted from Daily Telegraph report and readers’ comments.

4 January - Twisters

Our old friend @tonyofsidcup has been in touch to say that he has been told that a Story Teller Card (I am not sure what that is) is not valid at the new Sidcup cinema but his was a Membership Card and still not accepted. Presumably Membership and Story Teller Cards are not the same thing.

He has been invited to exchange his Membership by applying to a manager in person on the site subject to various conditions. @tony is no longer sure he has the receipt demanded. Isn’t the card in his hand good enough proof that he bought one?

Why couldn’t old cards simply be accepted until they expired? People who bought into the Story Teller Membership scheme have already lost five months of benefits due to the closure. Maybe the new operator is not particularly customer focused.

@tony recommends not buying the popcorn if tempted to go to the cinema; why would anyone buy that tasteless stuff anyway?

3 January - Starmageddon

When the Starmageddon file was created 18 months ago to record the anticipated idiocies of a Labour Government it was not foreseen, even after seeing Wilson, Callaghan, Blair and Brown at work, that Starmer could be quite as stupid, vindictive and traitorous as he has been. With the file entries fast approaching 250, perusing it required far too much scrolling. Over the past few days the computer code has been re-engineered to allow more flexible presentation. The most obvious manifestation is that the sequence has been reversed which reduces the need for scrolling. It is now most recent idiocy first.

2 January - Story Teller telling tall stories

Bexley Council said that the reopened cinema would be refurbished but it was not in any meaningful way. The bar has been revamped.

They also said that old Story Teller Memberships would be honoured but Members (BiB readers) are being denied their discounts. What was the point of being a Member?

Index to Cinema blogs.

1 January - The downward spiral of Labour’s Britain

What an awful year 2025 has been for freedom lovers, entrepreneurs, businessmen and anyone who loves Britain. Does Rachel Reeves from Complaints never stop dreaming up new taxes and increasing old ones? Has she no idea how a thriving economy works? A simpler question would be does Keir Starmer ever stop lying? At least the answer to that is only too obvious.

When Labour came to power in July 2024 I decided to keep a record of all the stupid things the tool maker’s son’s government did. Having lived under every post WWII Labour Government I am only too aware of how bad they can be. The deluge of mistakes and miscalculations by Starmer and Co. would be otherwise too easily forgotten. My forecast that Starmer would last only 18 months may be a little wide of the mark but I was right about him handing control of Gibralter’s border to the Spanish and the loss of Diego Garcia. Traitorous behaviour is in this Labour Government’s DNA.

Some of his changes are small but far reaching. Funding to combat Female Genital Mutilation has gone. Low value parcels privately imported from overseas will be subject to Customs Duty from 2029. Tax on savings up from 20% to 22%. The recommended minimum width of roads has been reduced, there is an extra tax on the manufacture of gas boilers, you can no longer buy hot chocolate in Wetherspoons, proposed VAT on health insurance and taxi fares, the unemployed will no longer have to look for work to get benefits and Councils allowed to sell allotments without consultation. And that is just in the last three months. Don't even look at your higher tax bills and rocketing prices.

Labour has to go. May 7th is not too far away if London elections are not cancelled along with the 63 County Councils.

Below is not a comprehensive list of attacks upon the country, it is merely those that I noticed in 2025.

2025. The year when incompetence, stupidity and corruption ruled

This list is extracted from the database that creates the Starmageddon file accessible from the banner above.