The Truth, the whole Truth
and nothing but the Truth
There was a time when the heading at the top of this page meant something. Built into our justice system, observing it ensured the highest possibility that a just and fair verdict would be reached. In this age, when people are too busy to do their homework properly, general impression and sound bites govern decisions and actions. The consequences are all too often disastrous, and end up consuming far more time than if the job had been done properly in the first place.
Exeter City Council has dealt with Summerway in this casual manner, sometimes even with a complete disregard for Truth, which is the motivation for our campaign for municipal rectitude, trustworthiness and impartiality. Sadly, today’s world seems largely driven by selfishness and personal advantage, with altruism being discounted in the economic model. People frequently pay lip service to consideration for others without actually practising it. Politicians have misguidedly promoted this state of affairs over the years, presumably to gain votes by appearing to give us material wealth and whatever is perceived to be popularly desired.
It is disturbing to see Devon LTA using similar tactics which obscure the facts. As drafted, its official records of the 2008 Annual General Meeting stated in Minute 9.1 would represent Summerway in a very misleading light, principally by omitting its own role in absolving ECC from blame, thus hardening its position against the Club. Ignoring the minute’s inaccuracies for a moment, please consider the extract quoted above.
Q: Is it factual? A: There is no reason to believe that it isn’t. In that sense, it is recording the truth.
Q: Is it a fair record? A: Certainly not. People will naturally make the assumption that both the Chairman and the CDO would be backing Summerway as a fully affiliated club. There is every probability that Adrian was standing up for us, having spent time studying the documentary evidence and discussing matters with us in some depth. The Chairman, on the other hand, was standing up for the City Council and supporting its position, not having studied the documentary evidence nor discussing issues with the Club. He had his own uninformed views. It seems probable that he would have “put out a press statement on behalf of Devon LTA” if matters had hit the papers, so strong was his approval of ECC’s stance.
Here is a clear breach of the spirit and purpose of minutes, viz. being misleading by telling the truth, but not the whole truth, and depending upon a natural but false assumption to show the Devon LTA in a better light than is actually warranted.
This example was not included specifically in the request for the redrafting of Minute
9.1 as it is not obviously inaccurate at first glance. Also, the request as a whole
was not submitted to antagonise the meeting by nit-
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Extract from Minute 9.1
“He pointed out that the Chairman of Devon LTA and Adrian Cable, the former CDO had tried to bring the two sides together (Summerway and Exeter City Council).”