I have been watching the furore surrounding John Worrows defection to the Independents with interest and not a little bemusement. Clearly he has the Tories rattled judging by the wild, irrational and frantic reaction on some of the blog posts. Possibly he is right and the local Tory Party is still languishing in the 50’s and 60’s where intolerance was rife. I looked for some examples of this and learnt that Payim Tamiz was frequently referred to as The Foreigner. ( You remember him, Tory candidate who thinks all Thanet girls are ‘slags’ ) I then notice that the well known Independent/Tory Bert Macastree was moved from a reasonably safe seat to a no win seat in Cliftonville, Bert is of course of Afro Caribbean descent. And now we have the row about homophobic comments made by a Conservative Councillor.
I have no ill will towards Brian Goodwin and wish him well in his fight against his illness but the fact remains that he DID post comments that can only be interpreted in one way and that is homophobic, and that kind of language has no place in a modern, progressive political party. I also note that no mention has been made of his remarks about “ having a load of mogs on the Council now” , whatever ‘mogs ‘ are it doesn’t sound very complimentary when speaking about your own colleagues does it now?
To remove any doubt I have reproduced below a screenshot of the Facebook conversation, I have blanked out the name of the Conservative Councillor he was talking to, to avoid embarrassing this particular person as they didn’t seem to respond to the remarks posted.
25 comments:
And of course the Labour party is totally exempt from bigotry and 'isms. That is unless you count 'white people seek to divide and rule' from a Shadow Minister. Could you imagine the furore from the Labour benches if a government minister had made a similiar comment about black people.
Grow up, Mike, you are old enough to have seen prejudice in all quarters and know full well it is not unique to Tories.
Tom I'm a Conservative supporter and a Broadstairs resident. Nobody is suggesting that this is unique to North Thanet Conservatives.. If you are not a bigot surely you would do what David Camron would do if he was reading this, and speak out against it, rather than shooting the messenger by being rude to Mr Harrison
David, Mike Harrrison is repeating a message already trumpetted elsewhere by John Worrow and others. It is not the message itself I object to, but the now ongoing use of it for political point scoring. By implication here and elsewhere, Conservatives are being branded homophobic and the term 'nasty party' is used frequently around the Thanet blogs.
I was not shooting Mike, strangely enough I quite like the man, but simply pointing out that prejudice is not unique to Tories.
I do agree that it should be rooted out where ever it is encountered, but the attacking Cllr Goodwin whilst he is too ill to defend himself demands someone to be his knight. If that is being a bigot so be it.
In any other part of the country John would of got a written apology from the Association chairman - but the fools here are trying to cover it up with a slur campaign against the victim.. a very silly thing to do in a post section-28 world
Tom nobody is attacking Councillor Goodwin, just exposing those that defend his actions.. if the hat fits?
PS
What he wrote is in black and white for all to see - what is there to defend? Maybe you privately support it?
I fully accept that bigotry and prejudice are not confined to any one Party.
All I am trying to do is to bring some clarity to a situation where claim and counter claim have been flying back and forth.
My post shows that the alleged remark was in fact made. What I find distastful are the attempts to deny that this attitude still exists and the refusal to accept that this kind of remark may offend some people.
I expect that Brian Goodwin made this remark without giving a second thought to the offence it may cause in the same way that many people make remarks that cause offence without thinking of the consequences. Dianne Abbot is a prime example of this.
Given his current situation it is also unreasonable to expect Cllr Goodwin to make any sort of apology.
I think I will make a post about Chris Wells and The Golden Rivet and see what sort of row that starts.
Fair comment councilor harrison. I am a LiDem-dem and i support the coalition. But am am aware of the homophobic culture that there is in in Thanet North Conservatives. People that don't know Roger GALE think he is a wonderfil person but he if he had his way a lot of gay people would out side of the law
I'm still convinced that cllr Goodwin was referring to backstabbing rather than a**l s*x...
Mike
Bert "Asked" to run in Cliftonville. A strange request I know but he felt that he had a good chance of winning there.
Nothing sinister I'm afraid!
What are "mogs"?
Mogs could be short for moggies or, translated, a little catty perhaps. On the otherhand, taking the letters, men of gender suspect! Of course, we do not actually know, the chap who wrote it is too ill to tell us and so we speculate to suit our own agendas.
Why do some commentators seem to feel the need to say they are a Conservative from Broadstairs or a Lib/Dem coalition supporter before then attacking the Conservatives. Does this somehow give their otherwise anonymous comment more credibility.
By the way, I am a Labour supporter who thinks Worrow is a disgrace and should offer himself up for re-election.
To try and explain for Peter Checksfields benefit the difference between expressions.
‘Watch your back’ means that you are being warned about someone who is going to betray you.
‘Having your back to the wall’ means you have got yourself into a situation from where there is no escape.
‘ Backs to the wall’ usually accompanied by nudge, nudge, wink, wink, means only one thing. There is a gay man in the vicinity and to prevent any attempt to gain, err, erm, entry, you should stand with your back to the wall and facing the said gay man.
Although what you should do if an attempt is made for a crafty grope of your meat and two veg is unclear!!!!
Squeal possibly, Mike!
I am a Conservative supporter who thinks Cameron is a disgrace for forming a government with the Liberals, who came third and I feel he should call another election. But unlike the person that made that comment above I'm not saying this because I secretly hate him for other reasons
One thing we can be sure of the Mog comment is not a criminal comment
not so strange when you know why he (mr mc castree) left a north thanet ward to stand in cliftonville mr moores.. maybe this will become public
Blogger Tom Clarke said...
Squeal possibly, Mike!
6 January 2012 11:56
Ah ! Would that be in delight or terror,,,,!!
Suppose it depends on both the groper and how you get your kicks. Good to see a sense of fun is still alive and kicking in this day of over active sensibilities.
12:18
David Cameron was elected fair and square as a MP and was the leader of the largest party in the Commons. The country needed governance, could not afford another election and a coalition with the Lib/Dems offered the only possibility of a working majority.
You seem to conveniently forget that Gordon Brown also negotiated with the Lib/Dems or was that different somehow in your book.
As a Conservative I do have serious reservations about the C oalition, but I am prepared to accept that, back in May 2010, it was the only way forward.
Why does hating anybody come into the frame. Since we mainly do not know our political leaders personally, we would not know whether we might hate them or not, though I would prefer the word like. Let's reserve hate for the really bad guys.
Personally I can't think of any cllrs (of any gender) who I'd like to be groped by...
I'm sure there are 56 people in Thanet that will sleep better at night now you have said that Checksfield
57 actually. I'll sleep better too now that I've made that clear.
Mike
There is no excuse for homophobic or any other abuse. An apology when he nfinally recovers will, I'm sure, be forthcoming.
far more worrying, but not at a local level, are the continued racist comments by a woman who only last year sought election to a position that could ultimately have led to her becoming Prime Minister of this country.
Dianne has a lot of form here, over and above her Divide and Rule rant.
We remember her “two posh white boys” rant, claiming that their race should prevent Cameron and Osborne should be senior ministers
We also remember her claim that Finnish nurses shouldn’t be able to work in London hospitals
We also remember her argument that black people shouldn’t be laid off from the public sector
Not to mention her claim that West Indian mums care more about their children than white mums
When can we just accept that Dianne Abbott is a racist? Given that the Labour Party is supposed to stand up for fairness when is it going to condemn this racism? You'll forgive me if I don't hold my breath whilst I wai
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