Pericles - parrhesia.

Central Bath based democracy supporter and Centrist - hope through truth spoken to power

[Mark S @sidcot]

LibDem run Bath in 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, two months work projected completion date 2029…

[Purplereign @Angiemut]

Sad to say we’re having to organise yet another rally to mourn our beloved duck pond 🦆💔
Sunday 20 September | midday
Royal Victoria Park, Bath
A year on and the pond is still in decline. Come show your support.
Full report from Bath Echo (5 Aug):
https://t.co/11tSlfSuNA
#MallardsNotBollards #SaveOurDuckPond#Bath
Please come and support us on the day our children deserve so much better 💔

[Purplereign @Angiemut]

Bath’s elegant Georgian Kingsmead Square is blighted by daily drug use, shoplifting and anti-social behaviour. With little police presence and a council more focused on installing bollards than tackling the root problems, it’s little wonder the area feels neglected. @ASPolice @bathnes

[Purplereign @Angiemut]

Another lorry stuck on Pennyquick Hill today, bringing traffic to a standstill yet again.

This is a direct consequence of Bath’s Clean Air Zone, with HGVs and commercial traffic diverting onto narrow, steep residential roads to avoid CAZ charges or due to poor routing and signage.

The result? Congestion, noise, danger and pollution simply displaced — not reduced. Residents and drivers are left dealing with the chaos while the council claims success.

How many more incidents before this is taken seriously?

@bathnes @bathnesld @WestOfEnglandCAZ @WECA_Metro
#Bath #CleanAirZone #TrafficChaos #PennyquickHill

[Purplereign @Angiemut]

@Leighlines @GoodwinMJ @Wera_Hobhouse you are part of the problem
Telling your constituents we are too white ? 🤷‍♀️

[Turning Point UK 🇬🇧 @TPointUK]

Locals push trolleys into protesting vegans blocking the meat aisle at Sainsbury’s.

Outside of London everyone is fed up with these lunatics.

[Katharine Birbalsingh @Miss_Snuffy]

My open letter to the Education Secretary ⁦@bphillipsonMP⁩

Many teachers and school leaders share my concerns with regard to her decisions but are scared to say.

If you can find it in you, please RT.

My letter is also here: https://t.co/phAiybAov5

[nameorusername @landatthebottom]

Very little new in the story, but I didn't know this:

[Matt Goodwin @GoodwinMJ]

EXCLUSIVE. I've just been sent this by ex-Conservative MP for Telford, Lucy Allan, who was the MP for Telford 2015-2024. This is what happened when she tried to investigate grooming gangs. Unreal🤐🤐🤐

"The horrific crimes perpetrated against vulnerable girls in towns and cities across our country, by groups of Pakistani men, are now finally out in the open.

I feel huge sense of relief that finally Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) can no longer be hidden away as a shameful secret by those in authority.

It has been a long and struggle to get here.

When I started speaking out in Parliament about CSE in 2016, having met Telford victims, the push back was swift and robust.

There was coordinated official response by people in positions of power. The Telford Council Leader (now Telford’s [Labour] MP [@ShaunDaviesMP]) immediately published a letter to the Home Secretary stating that no inquiry into CSE was necessary.

He backed up his assertion with claims that we now know were false. Multiple senior figures were asked to be co-signatories to his claims, to lend authority to them and they all readily agreed.

The Council Leader and his councillors, instead of trying to right wrongs, set about discrediting the messengers; not just me but investigative journalists and victims, even claiming one victim was coming forward so she could sell her story.

I was accused of lying, causing division, racism, being unbalanced, irrational, stupid and motivated not by desire to help victims but to score political points.

This narrative was relentlessly pushed for as long as I campaigned on the issue. It had the intended effect of ensuring that the voice I sought to be for victims would not be heard.

Early on I had an unexpected visit from the Chief Constable of West Mercia Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Chief Constable was disparaging about Rotherham MP Sarah Champion [@SarahChampionMP] suggesting she was exaggerating the issue and was discredited.

He said: “you wouldn’t want to be known as a troublemaker like Sarah Champion. It will harm your reputation and career.”

The then newly minted Junior Minister for Safeguarding, Vicky Atkins MP [@VictoriaAtkins], told me not to speak to the media on the subject as ‘you do not understand the issues.’

I was summoned by Conservative Peer Baroness Warsi [@sayeedawarsi] to explain myself. Then there was the repeated refrain that as 90% of child abuse is committed by white men in domestic settings, why didn’t I concern myself with that as it was a more significant problem.

This was a blatant denial of the existence of groups of interrelated men of Pakistani heritage, preying on young girls, at school gates, in takeaways, taxis and playgrounds. They did not want to know.

Then there was the appalling victim blaming, referring always to the victims’ ‘risky behaviours’ and the fact that the victims had ‘sought contact with multiple males.’

In one case a young victim was described to me by police as ‘having been in contact with 53 different Asian males’ as if it were by choice, illustrating complete denial that these men were related to each other through cousin marriage and were engaged in a joint enterprise.

I thought the desire by the authorities to hush it up was to disguise shortcomings in the organisations they led. But now I know it wasn’t just that: the people in power believed that being honest about what had happened would fuel racial tensions.

They pushed a narrative that hiding the problem was in the interests of the community that looking the other way would cement social cohesion and protect society.

I know now that that this was the line pushed by Home Office officials themselves.

Junior ministers both Conservative and Labour have spun the same lines almost word for word, clearly at the behest of Civil Servants.

People have accused Telford’s Council Leader of a cover up. It is more complicated than that.

His public statement saying no inquiry was necessary was signed by him, but I do not believe it was written by him. Whist he may have been willing to collude with officials to protect his career, he was not the instigator of the pretence. Public denial of these horrific crimes was the standard response by officials both locally and in Whitehall.

It takes bravery for a politician to speak up and the repercussions can be costly. If Telford’s Council leader had been courageous, if he had done the right thing, it is unlikely he would be in Parliament now sitting on the Home Affairs Select Committee, tasked with holding the Home Office to account; perhaps in it was more cowardice and self-interest than cover up.

The denial strategy may be motivated by good intentions, but it is fatally flawed. At best, it is an insult to victims and to all fair-minded people.

At worst, it is a deeply divisive, dishonest policy that destroys our social fabric and the social contract between State and individual.

Officials have actively sought to hide reality from politicians and too many politicians are willing to collude. We know now we have been routinely lied to by the State and now we can no longer trust the State.

Lucy Allan was the Conservative MP for Telford 2015-2024 and a campaigner on Child Sexual Exploitation throughout her time in Parliament.

[James Wright @JPBWFarm]

Each bollard that Bath’s Liberal Democrat council installed could have funded 16 SEN placements, they chose to install over 52 of them—diverting resources that could have supported 833 children in need. They talk a good game but govern with misplaced priorities. 👎 #Bath

[James Wright @JPBWFarm]

Today’s the day! 🗳️ Vote for someone with a track record of delivery and who will stand up for the issues that matter in Bath #VoteForJamesWright #GE24 #GeneralElection2024

[James Wright @JPBWFarm]

The work to re-open Bath's police station was led by the then Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner @ShelfordMark - he also helped deliver 558 extra new police officers serving in Avon and Somerset. Making Bath and beyond a safer place to live and work.

[Jake Wallis Simons @JakeWSimons]

Heed the leader of Singapore

[James Wright @JPBWFarm]

Great to see Bath's council finally embracing connectivity! Planning applications were previously rejected by the Liberal Democrats due to conspiracy theories about 5G dangers. It's time Bath had representation that encourages investment and progress. https://t.co/i25GzEVGki

[James Wright @JPBWFarm]

Bath deserves an MP who is willing to stand up to the council, who will work to secure investment in our local economy and ensure that the city's priorities are championed at home and in Westminster.

https://t.co/ZqJnhWDpb8

[Pericles - parrhesia. @Pericle85236137]

@ShelfordMark You will be missed for your professionalism, honour and just goodness with good sense. I hope you feel proud of what you achieved - you so should.

[Pericles - parrhesia. @Pericle85236137]

@ClareMoody4PCC Stop being disingenuous! Most recent Police figures seem to belie your claim - up 500 odd new warrent carrying Officers now in the Force.

[Pericles - parrhesia. @Pericle85236137]

@LauraBlumenthal The application of the intellectual Titan that did this for Typeface Graphic Designer of the year is noted with alarm. Or is it an opposition policy?

[nameorusername @landatthebottom]

Govt stats show the total motor vehicle traffic miles in @bathnes 15 years ago was 732 million. The latest figure (2023) is 729 million miles. Pre-covid the highest figure was 781mn. That isn't doubling.

[Mark S @sidcot]

Somebody has to pay for the LibDem’s £5000000 overspend on dysfunctional bollards. https://t.co/0dSB3CSIiP