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Blogger 1 – Council 0

October 30th, 2009 · Posted by Skuds in Politics · 3 Comments · Politics

Let me see if I have got this right: somebody writes a blog with posts that criticise the performance and bahaviour of his local council, and the majority of councillors resign.  Sounds a bit unlikely and too good to be true.I’m not disputing that there is a blog and that the councillors resigned, just the nature of the cause and effect.  The (ex) councillors seem to have been very successful in implying that the blog in question (Muck & Brass) is to blame and in getting media reports to concentrate on a few published insult like comparing a council leaflet to ‘a Nazi call to arms’.  The impression you get from the reports is that this was a site full of name-calling and petty insults.

In reality such comments are few and far between, with most of the site contents being devoted to rather more substantial matters like conflicts of interests and suggestions of poor financial management, which if they are true would be rather more of a reason to resign than being called a few names.

Now I think it is taken as read that I am not a fan of our local Tories and, with one or two exceptions, have a very low opinion of them, but I can’t see them standing down in a huff because somebody said bad things about them.  Unfortunately. They have more backbone than that – or stubborness or bloody-mindedness or arrogance or sheer front, depending on your point of view.  I don’t think they would even consider resigning if somebody published 100% true details of proveable malpractise, so why are the Somerton councillors so comparitively easy to topple?

There must be more to it than is in the news so far.  Might be worth adding Muck & Brass to the old RSS reader to find out.

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3 Comments so far ↓

    • Skuds

      Thanks Damian – I did see that when you posted the link as a comment on one of the other Andrews’ Facebook updates.

  • Niall Connolly

    There is an awful lot more to this story than has been reported in the press. ‘Lone blogger brings down Council’ is such an easy headline but the more interesting headline would be, ‘Where has the £1.65M of taxpayer’s money gone?’ or ‘Why did Somerton Town Council never get competitive tenders for work?’ or ‘Why did ex-Cllr Canvin present an invoice for £2,174 for providing invoices?’ or ‘Why were descisions about contracts taken in secret?’ or ‘Why did Somerton Town Council buy and convert an industrial shed on the furthest edge of town and located on an industrial estate owned by ex-Cllr Canvin, into a community hall which the town doesn’t use?’. Those headlines are definitely boring but they may just tell you more about the story. But the lone blogger is much easier and far more attractive to dunderheads.

    Regards and best wishes.

    Niall