After yesterday's post on Ken Livingstone, I have been shown a story where Cllr Muhammed Butt is now being forced to make an apology. Cllr Butt has been involved in a number of issues which indicate that he has insufficient understanding of equalities issues, notably in dealing with racist bullying at Brent Council, but also controversies with a specifically Jewish dimension, such as the BDS demands over the Veolia contract and the Tricycle Theatre.
As I said yesterday, the time has come for my party to stop simply shrugging these controversies off. Cllr Butt's ignorance and lack of thought are all the more deplorable as he is lead for equalities on London Councils.
UPDATE
In answer to the comment below, my complaint about Cllr Butt's behaviour on the Veolia contract is that he followed his standard practice of stringing people along. In this case he gave the campaigners on that issue the impression that there was some way in which the Council could simply not award the contract because of a dislike of Israel, when such a decision would have been simply unlawful.
I have subsequently had two more comments on the subject from (I think) the same anonymous commentator. It doesn't appear to have occurred to him (her?) that the week of the London Mayoral election might be a bit busy for anyone involved in politics. The second of these comments, which I am not going to publish, reminds me of the jilted woman's letter in Nicholas Nickleby which ends "I despice you, and pity your ignorance" (although the language is less polite).
1 comment:
What is your criticism of how Cllr Butt dealt with the Veolia/BDS issue?
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