Greenwich Down Under.
I think I may be a little late to this story – sometimes I miss Greenwich Watch sorely. But lovely IanVisits has sent this to me and I’m guessing that if I didn’t know about this, some of you didn’t either.
He pointed me to a blog which reveals something I find truly shocking. Dizzy Thinks is politically poles apart from myself, and I note the BNP has also picked up on this which makes me uncomfortable – but hey – allegations like this need to be looked at especially if it doesn’t feel good.
Let me paraphrase. We have a Greenwich Councillor who is currently residing in AUSTRALIA. Danny Thorpe, of the Shooters Hill Ward, has buggered off to Australia on a backpacking holiday, missing, so far, six months worth of meetings.
What’s worse, is that the deputy leader of the council was happy to stump up the cash to fly him home so he could take part in a vote.
The Bexley Times says that the deputy leader, Peter Brooks did not deny he’d paid the fare, though claimed it wasn’t taxpayers’ money. It would seem that the vote was a hastily-arranged affair to avoid a by-election.
How on EARTH can a councillor who is on a BACKPACKING holiday represent his constituency? Brooks claims that “modern communications mean that he is in regular touch with the leader of the council.”
In the outback? His ‘modern communications’ must be better than mine. My mobile goes out of range in the cafe at Waterstones in the town centre. Maybe the council’s paid for a satellite-phone too?
I thought the whole idea of backpacking was to get away from human contact. But even if he wasn’t trudging through the bush and was just sitting by the pool, with nothing to do other than sort out his constituents’ tiniest whims, the fact is, he’s bloomin’ thousands of miles away. Maybe he has a cyber-surgery too.
It just goes to show that all councillors are not created equal. On the one hand we have dedicated people devoted to public service and getting things done for ordinary folk, no names, of course (cough, Mary Mills, ahem) on the other we have young gadabouts who are singing as they watch their billy boil rather than making their voice heard on the council…
Of course, he may just have got lost. Perhaps his GPS has taken him to Greenwich, NSW?
