Narrow, close-minded Tories and Labour

Having been away for a couple of weeks, I have come back to see that the children in the nursery are throwing their toys out of their prams. What I mean is that leading Tory councillor, Ayas Fallon-Khan has attacked Green Ben Duncan as a “cop-watching communist”, and saying that he is unsuitable to be the City’s representative on the Sussex Police Authority. Ben Duncan describes himself as a “proud socialist”.

Coun Fallon-Khan is free to criticise Ben Duncan if he is incompetant (which he isn’t), fails to attend meetings (he has an excellent attendance record) or fails to conduct himself appropriately as a representative of Brighton and Hove (he has my backing and admiration).  

This is typical Tory nonsense.  He is attacking others merely because they have different views to him. Coun Fallon-Khan represents what is nasty about the Tory Party. His approach is the thin edge of the wedge – removing dissidents from any position so that only those with narrow, close-minded attitudes are allowed to serve.  Little wonder that the narrow, close-minded members of the Labour Group are happy to vote with the Tories to restrict the Greens from holding a fair share of positions on Council Scrutiny Committees.

Labour is behaving like bad losers, undemocratic, and close to the Tories

I angered Labour friends during the Goldsmid by-election when I said that Labour activists preferred a Tory win to a victory for the Green candidate, Alex Phillips. Alex’s victory resulted in parity between Labour and the Greens on Brighton and Hove City Council.

Now Labour, once again, are siding with the Tories over the allocation of Committee places.  The Greens asked for, and have every reason to expect, an increased share of positions on scrutiny panels.  But Labour councillors joined with the Tories to denythe Greens the allocation that would reflect the wishes opf the people of Brighton and Hove, expressed through the ballot box.

This action by Labour and their Conservative colleagues is a disgrace.  Green Convenor, Bill Randall, is right when he says that this will not go unnoticed by the people of the City.  Labour is a declining force in Brighton and Hove, and actions such as this will not help the Party in the general election as it comes across as undemocrtatioc, bad losers, and closer to the Tories than to the Greens, a very real and attractive alternative to those on the left.