Plonkers Plonkers, Plonkers, Plonkers,
Plonkers!
As a Wyre Forest District Councillor I have received a letter from The Standards
Board for England. Apparently they received a complaint from Cllr Stephen Clee
(Tory Leader of Wyre Forest) “that a posting was made on the Liberal party website
in relation to the elections; referring to Wyre Forest District Council as “plonkers”.”
By “website” they do of course mean this weblog.
Their “Decision” states that:-
“It was noted that there is no information to suggest that the posting was
made by or in anyway attributed to Cllr Oborski.
It was further noted that the comment is not disrespectful to any named
individual.
In all the circumstances, it was considered that the alleged conduct (even
if it were found to have occurred) would not have involved any failure to
comply with the authority’ Code of Conduct. This is not to suggest that the
Board condones of any such alleged conduct.
Accordingly, the decision was that this allegation should NOT BE
INVESTIGATED.”
The capital letters are theirs.
Firstly, I am intrigued that a “decision” was reached without even talking to me
or telling me that there had been a complaint.
Secondly, how much has this deliberation cost the public purse?
Thirdly, why is it that I now suddenly remember and cannot get out of my head
a speech that I made outside the then Communist Polish Embassy in London
sometime in the early/mid 1980s. Polish Liberal Stanislaw Kotowski had been
arrested driving back from the Polish coast to Warsaw. He was arrested for
possession of printing ink and paper. It was a very small quantity. He was
thrown into a tiny damp and unlit underground cell. He suffered very badly.
I said that “When Stanislaw Kotowski lays his hands on a few reams of paper
and a few tubes of printing ink he is beaten and thrown in prison
indefinitely and without trial. When I I lay my hands on a few reams of
paper and a few tubes of printing ink and actually print and distribute
what I think I get elected with a bigger majority! That is the difference
between communism and democracy.”
My throw away remark was reported on the Polish Service of the BBC and
later took me into a Polish Dictionary of Quotations.
Nowadays it would be harder to claim that I can “distribute what I think”!
I remember that I spoke under a banner proclaiming, of the then Polish
Communist Head of State, “Jaruszelski Go To Hell”.
It is just as well I didn’t call him a “plonker” or I might have been in real trouble.
The Notification from the Standards Board will be duly displayed,
un-perforated I hasten to add, in a small room in our house as a permanent
reminder.
I would like to place on record my opinion that Cllr Clee is of course a real pl…
(long pause to make coffee, open the post, deal with ward work, water the
plants, mow the lawn, feed the cats, pop into town, listen to new CD, contemplate
infinity)
…easant fellow and I enjoy working with him.
