Friday, January 25, 2008

Council Meeting Sit-In on South Tyneside

I don't normally cover local council stories, but THIS meeting of South Tyneside looks to have been a bit fiery. Labour councillors tried to get the public gallery cleared but they staged a sit in. The Police were then called and the Council Chief Executive branded the onlookers "lunatics". This isn't Australia, you know!
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13 comments:

  1. Man in a ShedJanuary 25, 2008 4:59 pm

    Curly's corner shop blog has this in more detail from the viewpoint of a councillor himself.

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 25, 2008 5:07 pm

    Incredible. I think this line sums it up:

    "For the leader of the council to brand members of the public and elected members as lunatics taking over the asylum is absolutely shameful."

    Truly astonishing, in my view. Could you imagine the Commons being like that?

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 25, 2008 5:08 pm

    I love the poll by the side, incidentally!

    ---
    Were the public right to refuse to leave last night's council meeting?

    71% Yes
    29% No
    ---

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  4. AlexJanuary 25, 2008 5:08 pm

    Seems the fuss has its roots in 18 missing ballot boxes at the last election.

    The good news is that one of the motions last night called for webcasts. Should be worth watching.

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  5. NewmaniaJanuary 25, 2008 5:12 pm

    The North East and Labour ... its another country

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 25, 2008 7:38 pm

    Aah the Labour heartlands, such joy!

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  7. AnonymousJanuary 25, 2008 8:06 pm

    One needs to understand that the Independents and their supporters who were the cuase of the disgraceful scenes are mainly ex "Old Labour" councillors led by a millionaire dentist, they have an agenda which is "Luddite"

    Check my post on yesterday's antics. a bunch of crazed Luddites, the council leader Paul Waggott is not your sterotypical lefty he's quite moderate and so is the ruling group, his description of lunatics running the asylum might have caused him some embarrassment but it amused me. He was talking of former colleagues.

    If I'd been in the Mayor's shoes I'd have emptied the Chamber after the first five minutes!

    You need to understand how difficult it is being a Conservative supporter up here, there are only three on the council.

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  8. AnonymousJanuary 25, 2008 9:16 pm

    Curly is not a Councillor and if he is going to write Bullshit, keep it on his own blog.

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  9. AnonymousJanuary 25, 2008 9:18 pm

    Iain: Go on -

    thenorthernherald.blogspot.com

    And you will get the truth about this Isue.

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  10. hatfield girlJanuary 25, 2008 10:38 pm

    Newmania said...

    The North East and Labour ... its another country

    It's the past, too.

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  11. AnonymousJanuary 26, 2008 1:39 am

    Mr. Shaw at 9.16 p.m.

    Curly is a former councillor and says so on the About Page in Curly's Corner Shop, and you know it well.

    Man in a Shed made a typo error, simple.

    Now go back to your ways of shouting the opposition down in a very non democratic "I used to be a solid (Old) Labour" voter fashion.

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  12. AnonymousJanuary 26, 2008 7:10 pm

    For the record Curly left the meeting a full 2 hours before it ended and it's the first full council meeting he has attended in a long time. If he had stayed a bit longer he would have seen his beloved Tories voting with labour time and again, seen numerous examples of extreme provocation and witnessed first hand the distain that his labour associates have for the public that they allegedly represent.

    The most recent example being a leaked e-mail from the leader of the council to amongst others the Chief Executive, Senior Labour Councillors and the Head of Corporate Governance. Copies of the e-mails in question will be published in full later tonight on the borough’s other political blog, The Northern Herald.

    Strange then that an individual who values free speech so much as he claims is yet to comment on the gerrymandering of his labour associates and in particular how they continually relied on the Head of Corporate Governance’s interpretation of the council’s constitution to quash open debate and public participation.

    Since the Brenda affair it seems that bloggers on the local political scene have relocated elsewhere. If you want to learn more about what has been happening in South Tyneside in recent months (it reads like a fairy story) a good place to start is the Shields Gazette our local newspaper, Curly does not always see eye to eye with it however, it does offer an alternative view of what is happening in this part of the world. Alternatively check out http://thenorthernherald.blogspot.com

    Here’s a few links to stories that I’m sure will interest your many readers:

    http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/Chaos-at-council.3712808.jp
    http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/Police-probe-into-18-missing.3501687.jp
    http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/Desperate-search-in-skip-for.3504662.jp
    http://www.shieldsgazette.com/letters/Pulling-out-all-the-stops.3679246.jp
    http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/Plan-to-preserve-seafront-rejected.3665887.jp

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  13. CurlyJanuary 29, 2008 9:56 pm

    Ahmed, you a genuinely nice fellow, but you must accept that you need to play by the rules too.

    I dislike the Labour Party rule in South Tyneside as much as anyone but I realise that they have a huge majority and a popular mandate. We know that they will use all of the tricks in the book to hang on to their power but shouting down the borough council and disrupting meetings is not the way forward.

    Stooping down to this level reduces the impact of your own argument.

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