“Humphrey stands firm”… on quicksand
More articles appeared in the local media today (24/8), and we’re starting to see a pattern form. Cr Humphrey makes some emotive statements (some might even say specious), fails to support any claims with actual fact, and seems to think readers should simply believe him! Too bad his perception of his own popularity appears flawed like his arguments (for a reminder, Click here).
In the latest articles, in the same paper no less (”The Echo”), Cr Humphrey manages to make a bunch of statements but completely miss the point (yet again). From this article (Click here), here are some quotes and our comments in response:
- “Cr Humphrey said he took offence at the claim that he gave out false information” - Cr Humphrey has failed to justify any of his claims with actual facts, references, statistics, or other corroborating data. Reach your own conclusions!
- “Nude beach issue started in October last year and the nudist group had plenty of time to put their views to council” - Conveniently, council minutes on the Surf Coast Shire website only go back to January. All available minutes were searched and no reference was found to this issue. If the issue did indeed start in October 2005, Cr Ron will have no problem providing us (and the media) with the corroborating evidence to prove his claim. We welcome the opportunity to review this information. As a side note, even if the issue did in fact start in Oct 2005, there is no evidence that council attempted to contact any affected community groups for input - a clear breach of councils own Governance Manual, and more evidence highlighting a willingness on Cr Humphrey’s part to mislead council (deliberately or otherwise) to further his own agenda
- “It’s time they cleaned up their own area” - fair point, except the police tell us there have been no reported incidents, and Cr Ron stated in a previous article (Click here) that the incidents he was aware of happened outside the beach!! You can’t have it both ways Ron, nudists are not going to clean up the streets for you!
- “all beach users were entitled to walk the area without ‘fear of being accosted’” - perhaps Cr Ron should have phrased that to be “users of all beaches”, since inappropriate behaviour is often in non-sexual forms, such as fighting, bullying, offensive language, harrassment and other anti-social behaviour, and it occurs on the textile beaches regularly - and that’s before we start talking about violence in the water at surf beaches as surfers fight for waves
Reach your own conclusions from the above, but our view is that Cr Humphrey is starting to run out of steam - the claims as he presents them simply don’t add up, and the emotional rhetoric of his arguments are not even consistent between news articles. His claims are weak, his arguments are limp, and the discerning reader can clearly see Cr Humphrey has built his case on quicksand…
But we’ve saved the best for last - in the same newspaper, Cr Humphrey took it upon himself to write a letter to the editor (Click here), which is interesting for two reasons:
- Cr Ron is refuting comments made by Ray Gully who only recently wrote a letter to the media himself urging Ron to give up politics!! Click here to read). Apparently Ray and Ron have a bit of shared history that has not ended so well!! Others have also commented on Ray and Ron, indicating Ray actually recruited Ron to the “Save the Surf Coast” election team, only to want him out after 10 months!! Ron must be really unpopular these days!! (Click here and search the page for “Ray Gully”)
- Cr Humphrey’s letter states “I will continue to fight for any resident in our shire… that asks for help” - that’s great Ron, how about fighting for the nudists in the shire, so we can all work towards achieving a good outcome together? Or would you rather fight against us?
Unlike Cr Humphrey, the Victorian nudist community bases its arguments and claims on facts and research - and we don’t take much notice of bluff and bluster. We do have to admit though, Cr Humphrey is providing an excellent stream of fodder for our researchers to sink their teeth into - some believe that we may never see an actual fact come from any of his claims, but should he actually manage to locate one, the nudist community can rest assured that it will be thoroughly (and relentlessly) dealt with!! The good news for the nudist community is that our support base is growing rapidly as more people become aware of the issue - and we’re getting the impression that Cr Humphrey’s supporters are falling away just as fast, since we’ve not heard from a single supporter of his for quite a while now!
As a side point of interest but not directly related to the beaches issue, our fascination with Cr Humphrey has lead to the discovery of other newspaper articles where he features on other topics. While we’re not going to list them all out here, there are occasions where his stance has been directly opposed by other councillors. Cr Humphrey was even against a motion supported by other councillors that would make all councillors (himself included) more accountable for petrol mileage. Apparently saving residents money would be a “barrier to good governance”!! Who would have thought
