Here we go again.......
I am irritated that the standards system at Wiltshire Council has decided to investigate me for alleged breaches of the town council code of conduct even though I've actually left the town council.
There is no useful purpose as obviously nothing can be done about anything in the past.
For the record, I stand by everything I've said and done. Indeed, there is no argument about what I said as everything that my accusers say was a breach is contained either in emails or Facebook posts.
This is all about me attempting to put pressure on people involved in politics to discuss the issues in public. One accuser thinks I am out of order to mention where she lives because i was making the point that I don't care what she thinks about me or what I say as a local councillor as she is not a local elector and certainly not one who could vote against me anyway and another accuser simply did not want an argument between me and her about the lack of a post office and how she could help the town council to set one up etc put into the public domain. I'm actually accused of bullying.
This is simply an occupational hazard of being a busy councillor who is prepared to engage in argument with people about local political issues.
I have been accused of bullying virtually every year for the last 16 years and been through many investigations and none of the allegations have been held up - indeed, they've always been dismissed as unfounded. On one occasion only, I was found in breach but that amounted to "disrespect" while allegations of bullying were dismissed in a situation where I entirely agreed with all the detail of what I was alleged to have said but don't agree that it was any breach as all I did was criticize someone who was able to defend themselves and did so ...
The reason the people involved are pushing for investigations to proceed after I have resigned as a town councillor is because they want to smear me because I am still a Wiltshire Councillor and want to claim that I resigned as a town councillor to avoid the investigations. Nothing could be further from the truth. I decided to resign before the events in question took place and then delayed resigning to engage in the usual preliminary process when I expected the accusations to be dismissed. One of the reasons I resigned was because of all the nonsense going on within the town council to prevent it setting up a PO in Westbury, when clearly no-one else is bothering to provide a proper town centre PO.
Unfortunately, the whole councillor standards process has now got itself thoroughly caught up in PC nonsense which ignores Freedom of Expression rights that councillors have to say what they think... and politically-motivated councillors who want to use the system to attack others based on an incorrect application of the law. The system now is fundamentally based around a Kangaroo Court made up of councillors with no proper independent investigators or appeal process.
The complainants don't realise yet that I am entitled to totally dismiss any findings and publicly explain my view of what happened. Both complainants fundamentally object to and are complaining about me trying to make public the things I said.
Well .... they have a shock coming. It is going to all end up in the public domain. I will get my say about them anyway - not least here and elsewhere online and there is absolutely nothing any of them can do to stop me.
There is no contempt of court principle when the so-called tribunal is nothing more than a council committee. It is just a Kangaroo Court which makes no real attempt to be fair. Accused councillors only get a few minutes to put their case yet corrupt investigators get as long as they want to speak. It does not follow normal rules of natural justice, not least because there is no appeal system to an independent properly-recognised judicial body ... except via judicial review on a point of law to the High Court.
I now look forward to it.
