Stone cold sober?

Councillor Bob Bailey is a man of his word - or at least we are expected to accept what he says is true.

On Wednesday evening, councillor Bailey was expected to speak in support of the Royal Anglian regiment at a ceremony to grant the regiment Freedom of the Borough of Barking and Dagenham - along with former West Ham and England favourite Trevor Brooking and various others who over the years have made their contribution to Barking and Dagenham.

Councillor Bailey never made his speech.

Put simply, he was drunk before the event began. A fact that was clear to senior British army officers, council staff and members of the public who encountered the BNP group leader at the function prior to the Freedom of the Borough event.

And it was for that reason, and for that reason alone, he was subsequently turned away by council staff when he attempted to re-enter the Freedom of the Borough event later in the evening.

On Thursday when approached by the media he "flatly denied that he had been drinking and said the claims about his behaviour were “total rubbish.”

(source Andrew Gilligan's Telegraph blog: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100024202/bnp-man-barred-from-council-ceremony-labour-says-he-was-drunk-he-denies-it/)

Instead he claims he "was barred from attending the event because they were worried I would say something against the war.”

The reality as ever with the BNP and Mr Bailey is rather different.

Councillor Bailey has form when it comes to conjuring up conspiracies.

He blamed ‘a conspiracy against the indigenous people of this country’ when he was banned last year from driving for 18 months, after the former Royal Marine and BNP London organiser, was spotted driving last May without his lights on and refused to take a breath test.

Councillor Bailey also turned up outside his local newspaper the Ilford Recorder in April 2008 and used a megaphone to hurl abuse at a reporter. He called the journo “a nazi”.

When he subsequently apologised he said: “I am not a yob, I'm not a thug or anything barely resembling anything like that. I was a little bit disappointed and I’m sorry for some of the things I said to you. We all have our moments sometimes, I’m sure you agree.”

Maybe we've all got Councillor Bailey wrong. Maybe he was stone cold sober on Wednesday and was barred because he could have made an embarrassing speech about the need for the British army to vacate Afghanistan.
Maybe.. then again, he could just have been pissed as a fart, rude and offensive to staff prior to the event and in no fit state to deliver any speech.

Maybe he was drowning his sorrows because his party had overlooked him as their Dagenham candidate for the General Election. And maybe he's never got over the fact that his colleague Richard Barnbrook unilaterally decided to replace him as BNP group leader after May's local elections.

Whatever the facts (and in this instance there are no shortage of witnesses), one thing's for sure, Councillor Bailey is walking on eggshells. No amount of peppermints can hide the fact that someone has consumed one over the eight.

And word reaches this blogger that council staff in recent days have made several complaints to council officers about the way that Councillor Bailey has spoken to them.

If he was stone cold sober on Wednesday night then that makes his treatment of council employess even more inexcusable.

Then again it might all be an establishment conspiracy....