Councillor to be censured for speaking honestly
Liberal Democrat Councillor (one half of the dynamic duo) Paul Webbewood is not in the good books of the ruling Labour Group of the Council it seems. In the Agenda for next week's full Council meeting there is a motion of censure against him which states,
It must be some sort of joke for them to say that it's "imperative to uphold the integrity of the office of the Mayor" though. After all it's not as if the Mayor's office hasn't been utterly compromised by political interference in the past from the ruling group is it?
"Council believes that it is imperative to uphold the integrity of the office of the Mayor and respect the individual holding that office. As such it believes that all members should conduct themselves in a manner which befits this standard.All he did was say "shame on you Mr Mayor" from what we can tell when the last meeting was abruptly closed. Understandable given that the closire was, apparently, against the rules laid down in the Constitution (soon to be changed).
Council believes that the behaviour of Councillor Webbewood at the conclusion of the Council meeting in November 2006 fell short of that standard of behaviour and regrets that a request conveyed to him via his party leadership to apologise at the December meeting was not acted upon.
Therefore Council censures Councillor Webbewood for this behaviour both at the conclusion of the meeting and subsequently for the continuing his abuse of the Mayor in the Parlour following its conclusion.
Council calls on Councillor Webbewood to apologise for his inappropriate action."
It must be some sort of joke for them to say that it's "imperative to uphold the integrity of the office of the Mayor" though. After all it's not as if the Mayor's office hasn't been utterly compromised by political interference in the past from the ruling group is it?
posted by greenwich.watch at 6:37 am
5 Comments:
Don't worry, Paul, this too will pass. All true democrats will support you. The Labour Group is doing this for the benefit of AEG executives - to make themselves look big and "in control" - it is, though, extremely unwise of them to attempt to make a martyr out of you.
To the Mayor, I would say: respect has to be earned. Recent photographs (and a film on BBC London last week) show that you have cut your hair. You call yourself a Sikh, although you are clean-shaven and have cut your hair. All through the ages, Sikhs have endured imprisonment, torture and death, rather than betray Guru Gobind Singh by cutting their hair. But, even though there is no law in the UK forbidding Sikhs from wearing turbans and beards, those incredibly brave Sikhs needn't have bothered, for all the difference it has made to you. You could have used your term of office to demonstrate your respect for God's creation, and to protect and set an example to Sikhs (and others) everywhere. But you didn't. You sold out the Guru long before you sold out on the residents of Greenwich. Tell us again why we should respect you.
All photos (see links) copyright Greenwich Council, presumably.
We're not quite sure whether the Mayor's religious conformity (correct, incorrect, or otherwise) is particularly relevant to this discussion Indigo.
Attacking him for being a blatent partisan lackey for the Council leadership is fair comment. His personal religious decisions are not.
This particular Mayor's religion would be irrelevant to his office if he didn't actively promote himself as a Sikh. (The BBC London film interview with him was shot in a school playground, with turbanned Sikh school boys running around in the background.)
Oh, yea, and another thing: from the Greenwich Peninsula Chaplaincy's position paper of July 2005, "a code of Sikh conduct and conventions, based on the Sri Guru Granth Sahib’s discouragement of gambling, tells Sikhs not to 'steal, form dubious associations, or engage in gambling.'", adding "in the Sikh Scriptures, 'the gambler’s consciousness is focused on gambling' (Sri Guru Granth Sahib, page 1180, line 7)". The honoured Sri Guru Granth Sahib must be spinning in his grave, thanks to our Mayor's undiscriminating and unconditional support of Greenwich's application for the supercasino licence.
Typical outrageous behaviour from the Labour group, fiddling while Greenwich burns. They should be ashamed of themselves.
As if censuring Webbewood is much more important than forcing their lazy employees to show up to work, fixing the dreadful secondary school system, reducing our Council tax or having an open debate about the casino!
indigo obviously wasn't watching the recent channel four series "£50 says you'll watch this" where a Sikh (complete with beard and turban) Hardeep Singh Kohli took a look at gambling of all forms in Britain and overseas using £7,000 of his own money. He came to the conclusion that the doomsmongers and n'ersaywells were wrong and that Britain has little to fear from the deregulation of gambling in supercasinos, rather that the problem is the accessability of on-line betting opportunities.
I await the link to this programme with interest on her website. I am also waiting for an interactive part on her site so that these myths she perpetuates can be challenged.
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