Tuesday 15 April 2014

Time for Councillor Tom Davey to resign?

This evening I was forwarded an email exchange between disabled rights campaigner John Sullivan and Councillor Tom Davey, Barnet Council cabinet member responsible for housing. Mr Sullivan told me that he was too upset for words to write a coherent blog, in light of information revealed by the Hendon Times website today regarding Mr Davey. He has asked me to try and present the facts in a fair and balanced way. So lets start with The exchange

Mr Sullivan wrote the following email to Cllr Davey
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From: John Sullivan 
Sent: 12 April 2014 10:43
To: Davey, Cllr Tom
Subject: Ethnic Cleansing of Barnet Benefit Claimants

 
Dear Cllr Davey,
 
In light of your recent comments and apparent determination to ethnically cleanse Barnet of benefit claimants, which incidentally includes all disabled people and future disabled people in Barnet such as my fifty year old daughter and her peers.
 
Do you think we would be wise to move out of Barnet in order to secure the future quality of life for our daughter before we die, and before your dream of a pure society of the rich and well heeled, completely ethnically cleansed of the benefit claimants and the disabled becomes a reality in Barnet.
 
Or am I reading your rhetoric wrong, am I incorrectly assuming you have openly pronounced your detestation of the poor, the sick and the disabled , and believe they are  not fit to reside in Barnet.
 
Kind Regards
 
Mr J J Sullivan

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Councillor Davey replied
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From: "Davey, Cllr Tom"  Cllr.Davey@Barnet.gov.uk
Date: 13 April 2014 12:29:57 BST
To: "John Sullivan"
Subject: RE: Ethnic Cleansing of Barnet Benefit Claimants

Dear Mr Sullivan
 
All housing allocation policy is clearly set out and avaialble for the public to view. There is not, has not been, and never will be an attempt to "ethnically cleanse" Barnet and i think many residents would find this suggestion deeply insensitive and offensive. I can only apologise if you have misunderstood any comments and offer you fully assurance that the Council and its policies comply with all relevant legislation.
 
For clarification, to the best of my knowledge i have never pronounced "destesation of the poor, the sick and the disabled". 
 
If you have particular concerns on policy, please email those concerns to Barnet Homes and an officer can provide a detailed response. I hope this helps and trust i have answered your question.
 
Best
Tom
  
In this, as you can quite clearly see, Councillor Davey states that he has never, to the best of his knowledge, pronounced "destesation of the poor, the sick and the disabled" which is quite clearly something he sees as " deeply insensitive and offensive" to quote his own words. What sort of a man would pronounce  a dislike of the poor? What sort of a man would not care for the disabled? What sort of a man indeed?

So when Mr Sullivan saw this article in the Edgware Times  http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11150246.Claims_Tory_Councillor_is__not_fit_for_office__after__disgusting__Facebook_posts/?ref=var_0 , highlighting these Facebook messages from Mr Davey, he felt that it was time for Mr Davey to be held to account


tom-davey-benefit-scum


The posts, made by Cllr Tom Davey of Tory-run Barnet Council, were revealed just days after he was caught advocating ‘social cleansing’ in a shocking video.
tom-davey-1



tom-davey-shipman-joke

Davey said the sick joke was “probably misjudgement in hindsight” – but that despite being open to tens of thousands of people in the LSE Facebook network, it was a private joke between friends.
He admitted:
“I have a very dry sense of humour”
tom-davey-domestic-violence-joke
Defending perhaps the most disgusting post, in which he says he is “smacking his bitch up…that’ll teach her for ironing loudly whilst the football is on” – Davey said he was being “ironic.”

Just remember, Councillor Davey said in his own email "For clarification, to the best of my knowledge i have never pronounced "destesation of the poor, the sick and the disabled" As Mr Sullivan reminds us, his 50 year old, Downs Syndrome daughter is the "Benefit claiming scum" that Mr Davey berates in his Facebook message.

It is interesting to note that Councillor Davey thinks a disabled black lesbian may have more luck than him in getting a job. Now if Mr Davey was an all in wrestler, the type his political mentor, Councillor Robert Rams is so keen on (http://robertrams.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/who-is-the-labour-councillor-who-has-allegedly-been-summoned-to-court-for-non-payment-of-1400-of-council-tax/), maybe he would have some sort of a point, however Mr Davey was seeking white collar jobs where sound judgement are valued. Is there a clue in his Facebook messages as to why he had such problems?

It is also interesting to note that given the poor Tory record on the subject of violence against women, with Councillor Brian Coleman being arrested for assaulting a woman, that Councillor Davey seems to think beating women up is a laughing matter.

Councillor Davey, in the above link to Robert Rams blog, calls for Labour Leader Alison Moore to resign, based on poor judgement. Our advice for Councillor Davey is to go away, spend some time on the bench and get some life experience. We sincerely hope that he will in time mature, but it is clear that at the moment he does not have the life skills to be a senior official with an important portfolio in local government. If these remarks were dug up from 20 years ago, then that would be one thing, but they were made when Davey was active in local politics in recent years. There was no hint of any sort of apology to those who might be offended. Mr Davey claims that the jokes were "saloon bar humour". Whilst we have no doubt that these are the sort of jokes Councillor Davey shares regularly with his mates in the pub, if you are a politician and on facebook, you should have a little bit more sense.  None of us are perfect, I am sure Facebook and Twitter and even blogger sometimes tempts us to make mistakes and say silly things. Being a dyslexic, I sometimes say things which are misconstrued, sometimes my humour is misunderstood. If someone genuinely claims I've upset them I apologise. In Mr Sullivans case, I am sure he will be awaiting Councillor Davey's apology with baited breath. Because it is clear that not only was Mr Davey being extremely offensive about Susan Sullivan and all her disabled peers. No one can doubt that, in light of these revelations. He mislead Mr Sullivan about his views on the disabled and the poor, who he clearly thinks it is absolutely fine to mock and humiliate.

For the absence of doubt, this story from the Times details how Davey was elected in 2008
http://www.times-series.co.uk/archive/2008/05/02/2243037.Conservatives_hold_on_to_Hale/

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is regarding councillor Tom Davey we are sorry we do not agree with you my husband is disabled and now is suffering from cancer counillor Davey is excellent at his job my husband and myself have had alot of issues over the past year so we turned to councillor davey, hes been excellent always picks up the phone and if he cant will always ring us back hes doing a very good job for this borough and should count yourselves lucky this borough has such a good man to run housing,

Rog T said...

Well I'm very pleased that Cllr Davey has helped you and you have had a good experience. I must ask however, do you think he was wrong telling lies to Mr John Sullivan about his comments about benefit recipients and the disabled? We must also ask whether you think Councillor Davey should be more circumspect in his comments on Facebook?

Anonymous said...

hello again i really cant see the point of this i blog nobody has commented to you only me, and thats because councillor davey is doing a BRILLIANT job and people like you are very nasty so instead of throwing the mud at people maybe look deep into your own life and think what a sad person you are, shame really you really are a bitter twisted person GO AND GET A LIFE and maybe stay out of other peoples lifes instead of peering behind the net curtains SO FROM NOW ON YOUR NAME IS MR SNOOP.

Rog T said...

I see from your letter to the local paper that you live in the same small cul de sac as cllr Davey. Just out of interestt can I ask whether you knew him prior to seeking his assistance? Whilst helping anyone is always comendable, helping people you know who live in your road is not quite the same as actively helping complete strangers is it? As to your comments about snooping, there is a world of difference between peeking behind curtains and looking at an internet site for a local politician. Surely you realise people usually make comments on facebook because they want people to see them. they draw curtains to protect privacy. You really sjould apologise for such an obnoxious comment.

Anonymous said...

I have never met cllr davey and the newspapers were told in advance now if thats it i cant be bothered to keep bantering with you i have a sick disabled husband to look after who also has found out has cancer to so GOODBYE.

Rog T said...

I too live with the big C so I wish your husband the very best with hus treatment

farina said...

Although not nearly as damning as these latest revelations, I was distinctly unimpressed when upon being elected Mr Davey stated, as per your link: "One of the things I'm keen on is making sure the introduction of recycling goes in properly" and yet shortly thereafter, I was shocked to see a skip outside his residence filled to the brim with many childrens' books in mint condition, and brand new toys and action men still in their boxes. Instead of recycling them by donating them to a charity shop, and before anyone could rescue them, when I next went past they were buried under a pile of rubble. I also heard him respond to complaints about the hike in parking permit charges that this was necessary to pay for things like potholes. I was astonished that he did not seem to know that it was being strongly argued that this motivation for parking charges was illegal, something that was confirmed by the courts thereafter, and the excess charges had to be refunded.

Anonymous said...

I just want to commend you for the way in which you dealt with that anonymous person. They were clearly looking for an argument and being combative, while you stayed calm and pleasant. Patience is a rare skill these days.