There is a GLA election next year. Councillor Brian Coleman is the Tory candidate for Barnet and Camden. He has (yet again) shown himself to be an very nasty and arrogant man with his comments saying a single mother with a child with special needs should "live in the real world". The story has been picked up by both the BBC and the evening Standard
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24000058-pound-120000-a-year-tory-tells-desperate-mother-to-live-in-real-world.do
As Coleman lives in a charity flat subsidised by the Methodist church, supposedly designated for poor families, despite being a single man with a £120 K a year job, this is highly damaging. If you read the comments on the story, you may think that many Londoners have no sympathy for a woman who merely asked a councillor to do the job he was elected to do - give her some help and advice. You would be wrong. I know from the years I've been writing this blog, that the Conservative Party is a well oiled machine. Activists trample all over anyone who has the audacity to threaten their interests by leaving anonymous and nasty comments. I just hope the poor lady, who's only crime was to believe that a Tory Councillor in Barnet may actually care about her plight, is not too upset by these nasty and ignorant comments.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24000058-pound-120000-a-year-tory-tells-desperate-mother-to-live-in-real-world.do
As Coleman lives in a charity flat subsidised by the Methodist church, supposedly designated for poor families, despite being a single man with a £120 K a year job, this is highly damaging. If you read the comments on the story, you may think that many Londoners have no sympathy for a woman who merely asked a councillor to do the job he was elected to do - give her some help and advice. You would be wrong. I know from the years I've been writing this blog, that the Conservative Party is a well oiled machine. Activists trample all over anyone who has the audacity to threaten their interests by leaving anonymous and nasty comments. I just hope the poor lady, who's only crime was to believe that a Tory Councillor in Barnet may actually care about her plight, is not too upset by these nasty and ignorant comments.
The vitriol in the comments to the Evening Standard miss (what I feel is) the real point of the article.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the ins and outs of her case, the lady writing to the Councillor has an absolute right to be treated with courtesy. Councillors work for us, they represent us (even those of us who did not vote for them). How long are we, a so-called "civilised" society, going to be embarrassed and humiliated by the boorish behaviour of our "representatives"?