Its taken a day or more to clear up the mess left by Saturday morning's goons. Broken glass, like sand, gets everywhere and, no sooner have you cleared up one room than more glass falls down from behind a shelf. Its down the back of chairs, under the carpets, even in the kettle. But doing the clearing up gave me time to think about what has happened and the message that it is meant to convey.
Obviously I wonder if Somerton Town Council had any involvement and I guess that you wouldn't blame me. After all, the Town Council acted in some sort of unison on 23rd June in their attempt to intimidate me during the Council meeting (excepting Cllrs Raybould and Harrison who took something of a more neutral stance). The Chair of the Council, H E Keenan, orchestrated the abuse and a number of the Town Councillors joined in, including Cllr Martyn Smith with his memorable "bugger off" comment.
So what exactly am I meant to take from this latest appalling act of deliberate intimidation? Well, quite obviously it seems that having an independent viewpoint in Somerton is tempting fate. Disagreeing with Somerton Town Council and its leadership looks to be controvertial. But then I wonder what exactly am I doing that seems to have got so far up peoples noses?
What I've been doing is looking at the records of the Town Council to find out what they've been spending and who's been spending it. In any well regulated organisation, in any honestly run organisation, such enquiries would give said organisation the opportunity to show, quite openly, that everything was hunky dee. So what's the problem with Somerton Town Council? Why is it that when you start digging, they clam up. When you start looking a bit more deeply into the financial affairs of Somerton Town Council, all of a sudden you are persona non grata. When you start to look a bit more deeply, even the Council's minutes become unavailable to you.
And then, when it becomes obvious that you've contacted the external auditor with a formal complaint, obviously completely co-incidentally, the goons show up and throw rocks through your windows at 2am, timed, I suppose, to cause maximum alarm and distress.
So what am I meant to take from this experience? Its already quite obvious that Somerton Town Council doesn't like anyone asking questions about its activities. Its already quite obvious that Somerton Town Council doesn't like anyone who tries to make Somerton Town Council accountable. And now my windows are smashed in. Maybe 2 plus 2 does equal 4.
Last year, Somerton Town Council sent the lawyers round to put the frighteners on me and now, completely co-incidentally, the thugs have turned up. I hope that it stops here but, given Cllr Martyn Smith's rather distasteful encouragement to the racists in the community, I fear that the final bill will be higher than the £1,000 that repairing our windows is going to cost. I'll remember this when Town Councillors start waffling on about how they deplore vandalism.
Till next time, may your God watch over you.
Niall