[Acrylic-bob]

This has gone on longer than "The Moustrap", or does it just feel like it has? Anyway, what have we learned?

That HBC is peopled with councillors of all flavours who are in positions for which they are not sufficiently intellectually, morally or ethically equipped.

Which is nothing strange.

That several councilors of an Asian persuasion exhibit a degree of partiality that would, were it to occur anywhere else, attract accusations of favoritism and possibly dishonesty and might also attract the attentions of the constabulary.

Which, it must be said, is nothing new.

That we have a leader of the council who is such a stranger to the truth that he feels absolutely no compunction in offering an investigation knowing that he can always gerrymander the outcome if it does not suit his purposes.

Which is neither strange nor new.

After having lived with the excesses practised by Nigel D. Macgregor, George Slynn and Brian - sorry Nigel Rix, nothing that this bunch of fools does surprises me anymore. True there are one or two shining lights on HBC, there always have been, but they are usually snuffed out in a year or two, buried by the dead hand of procedure and, to borrow a phrase, "Old Spanish Customs".

I applaud the suggestion that the more public spirited among us gather together a petition to press for a more open investigation, however naive that may be. Nothing will come of such a course of action because it is not in any member of HBC's interest to allow anything to come of it. Because once you let the sh*t hit the fan, there is no telling where it will land and the smell attracts attention to all sorts of things that perhaps some would prefer to remain unnoticed.

Gondola's posts have been diverting and they have certainly served to wake a few of us up. But, when you look closely at what has been said, you find that there is very little meat on the bones that he has graciously cast our way. I appreciate that for an employee of HBC it can be difficult to be as open as one would like, but there are ways of blowing the whistle, if that is gondola's intention, that would not lead to his identification. For example, if I wished to quote scripture at someone, but could not be bothered with remembering the quote verbatim, merely mentioning the chapter and verse where the full passage could be found would more than adequately suffice. If gondola whishes us to know in detail the sins and shortcomings of the town's Fathers and their paid lackeys then might it not be better to tell us where to look so that we may uncover the dread truth for ourselves?

That way he keeps his hands clean and lives to whistle another day.