Teresa Pearce MP

Today Mr Ian Clement former leader of Bexley Conservative Council and former deputy Mayor of London stood in court and faced five charges of fraud relating to allegations regarding his use of a corporate credit card. He declined to enter pleas to the charges at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court and the case was adjourned until 6 October.

Mr Clement resigned  his post of deputy mayor after his corporate credit  card was confiscated when it was revealed the he had been using it for personal expenditure on items such as groceries and  meals. The GLA spotted the mis use of the credit card as they have checks and procedures in place to do so.

It is a great concern to me as a Bexley resident that he had a similar pattern of expense claims whilst leading Bexley Council which went unchallenged. Bexley appeared to have no process in place to make sure that corporate credit cards are used for appropriate reasons and there are serious questions to be asked of the former Chief Executive and Finance Director as to why there was no due diligence in authorising that use of public money. In my opinion if they knew and did nothing to challenge the expenditure they are complicit and if they did not know then one might say they were incompetent. 

On a personal note ( I know this wont be popular) I did feel sorry for Mr Clement today. He cut a lonely figure with only his legal team for company. If one of my friends found them self in his position I would hope that although I would nt condone, in any way, the actions that had resulted in such serious charges I would not turn my back on a friend in a time of need they way his ex colleagues seem to have done.

I think it is a tragic waste  that Erith does not make more of it’s history. The wonderful people who have kept Erith Museum going know only too well that there is much to interest us if only it was all brought together. With this in mind I accepted an invitation from the British Library to a viewing of their exhibition  “Henry VIII – Man and Monarch” which was fascinating.

As local historians will know Erith played a part during the reign of Henry VIII (1509 – 47) .  Henry is believed to have spent a night here on his way to France . Part of his naval dockyard was founded at Erith, and his famous warship, Henri Grace à Dieu or ‘Great Harry’, was fitted out here in 1515.

Erith has a rich and varied history that is rarely discussed or celebrated. There is a fascinating  history of smuggling in the 17th and 18th century, as well as the more recently uncovered role in the East India Companies trading and I am sure that many people moving to the area do not realise that the reason there are roads around the “pom pom ” area called Friday and Crusoe is because the real life mariner Alexander Selkirk ( upon whom Robinson Crusoe was based ) came back to UK after his shipwreck arriving at Erith on 14 October 1711.

I think Erith deserves a permanent building to house a visitors and education centre to celebrate the history or Erith and the river and I will be campaigning to make that happen.

A great time was had by all the families who attended the Fun Day on Thursday in Belvedere.  The organisers from Forums worked very hard from early in the morning to make sure that the Marquee was erected and the events were ready for the 100s of visitors than arrived  ( along with the sunshine!) later that morning. It was a wonderful day and I enjoyed it very much.

On Monday 11 August the Audit Committee will meet at Bexley Civic Office to consider the investigation into the use of a Bexley Council Corporate Purchasing Card issued to Mr Clement, former Leader of the Council. The card was used during the period from 1 July 2007 to 4 May 2008.
The investigation will detail findings against the reviews terms of reference and conclude whether or not there is prima facie evidence of fraud or improper expenditure.

The public can attend this meeting but have no speaking rights.

I will be there and I would urge all other interested parties to attend.

Its at 7.30 at Bexley Civic Offices

The power supply to most of Bexley and some parts of Dartford was cut off yesterday at midday due to suspected vandalism. Since then EDF have worked around the clock to try to get supply reconnected. A few areas are reconnected but most postcodes are being supplied on a rota basis, for instance we had power switched on in our postcode at 3.00 this afternoon  it will go off at 6.00 pm. There are two surprising things, one a happy surprise the other not.

First the happy surprise , the traffic lights are out but motorists are being very courteous and self regulating themselves at junctions. In fact its been much more polite motoring than when the traffic lights are fully working!

Second not so happy suprise is that tory  Bexley Council appears to have no Business Continuity Plan. There was no telephone tree for staff and no plan for working at alternative sites. The website is kaput and heaven knows how they are managing to deliver social care to the vulnerable…my fear is that its chaos.  Bexleys slogan is “Listening to you, working for you”. Well they are nt working at all at the moment and as for listening…it appears there is no one home!

I will be asking questions at the earliest possible moment.

We are reading in the papers about the expenses claimed by BBC executives for such things as dinner parties and gifts. However the amount claimed is not the actual cost to the BBC, this is because the tax treatment complicates matters.

Items that are not “necessary” for you to perform your job such as expensive dinners and gifts are taxable. However it’s highly unusual for executives to be taxed themselves and what is  normal is for the employer (in this case the BBC) to settle the tax and NIC on any staff entertaining or gifts.

This is usual  for large business but it’s extremely expensive because of the way the tax is “grossed up”.

Let me try to explain it in layman’s terms. If you  are a 40% taxpayer and bought something for  £100  out of your salary you would have to earn around £180 before tax and NIC to have the £100 you needed to spend, therefore if a BBC executive has £2000 of taxable expenses the BBC has to account to HMRC as if that £2000 was “after tax and NIC”.   In short every £100 of taxable expenses costs the BBC an additional £80 in taxes.

It’s accounted for annually in something HMRC call a PAYE  Settlement Agreement (PSA) and means that when you read that £360,000 has been spent by BBC there could also be £288,000 of taxes.  So the true costs to the licence payer of those bottles of champagne and executive dinners is a whole lot more that it appears at first glance.

Sorry to be a tax geek but its all those years of tax training and auditing!

We have had months of press coverage about MP’s expenses, with headlines and headline about taxpayers  money being wasted. And it’s not just  public money spent by MPs that have so outraged our newspapers, we have had numerous articles about the amount the BBC spends on its “key talent” like Ross and Wogan, and only a couple of weeks ago there were front page stories expressing outrage about BBC parties, flights and a £100 bottle of champagne given to Bruce Forsyth as an 80th birthday present by the BBC.

These reports all made valid points about greed and waste but hang on what do we have here…………leading politicians are holding summer drinks  parties.  Night after night during July cabinet members and shadow cabinet members host free drinks parties but there is not a peep in the press about who is footing the bill. That may seem strange until you realise that the guests at these free drink soirees are the very same journalists that were so puritanical about “our” money being wasted.  Seems to me an indefensible waste of money that Westminster free parties are held for Westminster journalists whilst the dole queues grow.  Its reminiscent of Nero fiddling whilst Rome burns.

I want to know how much these Summer parties cost , not to mention the ones they also hold at christmas….I feel a freedom of information request coming on as its the only way we will ever know as I am certain there wont be any outraged front page s exposing it!. Funny that eh?

I have spent many hours reading in newspapers and on blogs the thoughts of members on the current problems facing the Government and one of the things has become clear to me is this……..  In the main the members of the Labour party who are most vocal in shouting ” Change the leader, change the leader” are the ones who either joined the party since Blair or because of Blair and therefore have no real experience of what it takes to steer through such difficult times.  Those of us who stuck with the party through the awful years of Tory rule when admitting to people you were a Labour party member would get at best laughter or at worst abuse know that there are no easy or quick answers.

I would say to some of the “newer” members of the party that in a way you have had it easy, 12 years of being in a party in government with an opposition in tatters. But all that was possible because the party had strong roots which sustained it through the defection of previous cabinet members to the SDP, and kept the party alive so that it could regroup and refresh itself. The grassroots kept Labour going during those wilderness years and its those roots that must been drawn upon now.

You can rarely change the fortunes of a party by just changing leaders, this is evidenced by the number of leader changes the Tories have had since Thatcher which did not bring about any magical change in fortune for them. Cameron is doing better than the rest because parts of the PLP are so distracted with in fighting that he has been given a clear road.

Spin, cosmetic changes and personality contests do not run a country.  The Cabinet is dealing with rising unemployment, recession and a crisis of parliament not an episode of Changing Rooms, we need strong leadership not Llewelyn Bowen.  Being in the Labour Party especially when in government is not a popularity contest nor should it be. The right decision is not always popular but if it is right it may become popular.

I have always believed that the closeness between New Labour and the press was a huge mistake. Managing the media is one thing, operating through them is another.  It was no surprise that Purnell announced his resignation to the Murdoch press before he even told the Prime Minister. The press do not understand the Labour Party and never have , they think they do because they know some MPs and Ministers but that is not the party, its just a small part of a much much wider and more complex organisation.

The press have an agenda that is poles apart from ours they want to sell newspapers and have “interesting” stories. Things are ok is not a story, things are a disaster is.  Therefore much of the speculation we have seen is driven by a media that needs to fill a 24 hour rolling news agenda and politicians who want to be famous more than they want to be effective.

I would ask the PLP before tomorrows meeting to remember what your job is, why you are there and who you represent.  This is no time for posturing or sound bites. If you are not prepared to say what you mean out loud and to the party then maybe you should not say it at all.  Get out of the tearooms and the corridors of Westminster into the streets of your constituencies and start listening to your fellow members and constituents and maybe we will then regain trust and pespective which will give us a fighting chance at the next election.

Having just watched Newsnight I am very angry. Apparently some backbench MPs are circulating a letter to try to force the Prime Minister from office the night before national elections.  I am not wanting to debate here the rights or wrongs of Gordon Brown but what I am angry about is that MPs who should be out knocking on doors and getting the vote out are instead in the westminister villlage indulging in smoke and mirrors gutless back stabbing behind the usual “off record” briefings and “friends of” nonsense. Either put up or shut up.

If the grassroots is what they want to connect with then how about joining those grassroots and getting out and doing some work. I am happy to send those people a picture of a front door in case they have forgotten what one looks like during their years of navel gazing. There are hardworking councillors throughout the country who may lose their seats tomorrow and they are the real backbone of the party. Those local councillors dont spent their time touring the Sky TV studios or plotting in tearooms but in delivering services to the people who needs them. The people who depend on us and deserve better than this.

Since winning the selection for Erith & Thamesmead I am usually asked three questions

1)     How did you win?

2)     Why did the London Region take control of the process , and

3)     What happened to the ballot box?

I’d like to answer as best I can in time honoured reverse order.

Third question first. I don’t know and as yet no one except the person responsible knows what happened with the ballot box. Sadly this hasn’t stopped theories being floated and accusations being made. When the vandalism took place the box was at the office of the London Regional Party and the NEC is conducting a rigorous investigation which includes the interviewing of the staff present on that day. Those members of staff have employment rights which protect them from unfounded accusations of misconduct. Therefore, frustrating though it is, we must be patient and let the enquiry run its full course to give the staff their full rights during what must be a very stressful time for them.

Second question. We don’t know why the procedures secretary was removed but given the subsequent events, at least, it meant that the CLP officers had no part at all in the ballot box incident.

First question. During the 5 months of the selection much was written in the press “tipping” candidates to win and stating who was and was not the front runner. All those stories we ignored as they were written by people who had little understanding of the process or the rules and who had an agenda different to ours.

We ran our campaign from the very start as we would any other election, by fully understanding what was needed at each stage, canvassing, doing voter i.d. and then getting the vote out.

We knew where our support was, we knew who was undecided, and we knew who firm supporters of other candidates were. So using our existing knowledge and communicating by personal letters, email, face to face, twitter and facebook we covered a lot of ground with minimal resources.

Most of our CLP members are the people who stuck with Labour through the wilderness years of Tory government who have seen lots of eye catching initiatives come and go from “Labour Listens” to the “ Big Conversation” and can tell the things that matter from the things that don’t. We knew they would not be taken in by spin and gloss.

Knowing our members it was a concern that with eight candidates the amount of door knocking they would have to endure could be counter productive. Some candidates went to see members 4 or 5 times even though they had been firmly but politely told that their vote was already decided.  One weekend a member had a candidate talking to him in the living room whilst two waited in the kitchen. This got too much for some and we even had a member resign so that he could be left alone. Amazingly he still got candidates knocking

There is a heartening lesson in all of this. Even if the national press have written you off, victory is still possible if you stay focused and do what you do best …organise.

So don’t just think that talking about “new” and “change” and “the future” we can win elections.  What wins is hard work, experience, strong organisation and discipline.  Good ideas not new ideas