15 July (Part 2) - If you can’t stand the heat…
Despite the scarcity of blog posts this month, while I tackle the garden and
the winter storm damage which threatens to overwhelm me, there has been a small amount of feedback.
I would not normally mention it but the appalling murder of Ann Widdecombe whose
last broadcast interview I listened to live at around 8 a.m. last Wednesday makes it topical.
I, a political nobody, receive rather too many messages which reveal what I see
as an unhealthy pre-occupation with Nigel Farage’s party; to the extent I have
considered becoming a member in protest. Every time I flirt with the idea of supporting
Kemi Badenoch she comes out with some total nonsense. She claimed that
Britain is not broken, so how the hell can she aspire to fixing it?
Then more recently she said there was no way she would ever consider joining
forces with another right leaning party, thus proving beyond all doubt that she
places the Conservative party above the wellbeing of the country which is
heading for left wing Armageddon at an alarming rate.
And then when Nigel Farage pulled his Clacton re-election stunt she immediately
proved that she is part of the uni-party by joining Labour and
the LibDems by announcing she would boycott it.
Kemi; kindly get lost. How much is the Reform subscription?
Of the feedback, four messages came from Councillors. Three Conservative and one
Labour, but we can forget that one. There was absolutely nothing political about
it. Just a friendly chat. One Conservative offered additional information, which
was welcome and another commented on a photo which was not a problem but the
third I simply do not know what to do with.
Here I must be a bit vague as I do not especially want to reveal the source, but it concerns the week old
blog about the
Finance Scrutiny Committee. The one in which I
expressed doubts about the talent pool within Conservative ranks in Bexley.
It did not go down well in some quarters. The use of the word villain to describe any Councillor was particularly objectionable apparently.
It was meant as a bit of a joke, in the pantomime sense of the word. If I’d
intended to be really serious I might have reminded readers of what happened
the last time the
public was effectively excluded from a meeting, but the circumstances were
simply not in the same league. This time it was annoying but not illegal. Nothing to
justify any formal complaint but maybe worth a cheeky comment.
Believe it or not I gave the word quite a lot of thought
and went through several possibilities, trying not to be too critical and
perhaps just a little bit light-hearted, before settling on the V word.
To the best of my knowledge the Chairman of the Places Committee is a perfectly
decent bloke and competent Councillor but someone who read the blog and
complained may be lacking a sense of humour.
In my view calling a Councillor a villain is pretty innocuous stuff whether in jest or not. It is not a common term of abuse, it almost
shouts ‘joke’ out loud. To me anyway, but evidently not everyone.
I am not going to phone through an apology to anyone. Like it or lump it!
Councillors have called me worse.