9/22/2007

Why would the Labour Party endorse a councillor who admits to stirring up a homophobic campaign ?

A Labour Councillor, Miranda Grell, a so called "rising star" and leading force in Waltham Forest Labour, has been found guilty in court of maliciously telling lies about her political opponent and has been fined and banned from political office for three years.

The question though is, given her defence that she claimed that she did not accuse her Lib Dem opponent of doing anything illegal (the court disagreed), is why she thinks it is okay to say that all she did was "out" the Lib Dem candidate of being gay and of having a boyfriend 20 years his junior (although this was untrue) ?

Her defence seems to be that she has sirred up homosexual hatred, and that is all. in my view this is bad enough in itself, but given that she has admitted this, why has the Labour Party been standing by her ?

The court actually saw things differently. They believed the numerous witnesses who said she had told them that the Lib Dem candidate had an underage boyfriend and that she had implied he was some sort of pervert.

What action will Labour take on this. The gay press certainly should take of its rose tinted spectacles when it comes to the way they view Labour. I ran a by-election campaign in Norfolk in 1994 where the Lib Dem candidate was openly gay and Labour used it on the doorstep to put people off him. it didn't work because he was so "open" that people already knew, but it told me a lot about the values of the Labour Party.

When you realise that Miranda Grell, the woman in this case still has the vocal support of Labour MP's and Labour activists (as highlighted by Lib Dem blogger Andy Mayer HERE), you can see just how nasty a party the Labour Party really are.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I note that Leyton ward labour page has been taken down!

Anonymous said...

There seems to be a view amongst some Laobur people that anything goes in politics, and the truth is not important. That is very sad.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

What I find incredible is that, in her position, she could have been so stupid as to make those remarks in the first place. Yes, it does show the hypocrisy of the party in question, but I'm not sure the others would behave any better.

Nich Starling said...

WL - This difference from my point of view is that as a Lib Dem supporter, I would not use my blog to continuet to defend someone of they were a Lib Dem and had done this. As it is, there are a number of Labour bloggers who continue to support her, and at least one who is making threats against the Lib Dems.

All parties have some level of nastiness, it is how it is dealt with afterwards that matters.

A case in point was in Tower Hamlets 15 yeas ago when a Lib Dem leaflet was thought by many to be racist. A number of Lib Dems were expelled as a rsult. The aprty actually lost control of the council as a result and has never recovered in that area. At the same time Labour actually talked up the chances of a BNP victory but had no enquiry, although everyone could see they shared the blame. Labour took no action at all.

Anonymous said...

The Lib Dems should now refer her to the Standards Board to, hopefully, disqualify her from Office. The Waltham Forest Lib Dems may also want to re-consider their pact with the Labour Party on the local council...

Princess said...

It doesn't matter what the party,there are always going to be liars and deceivers.

As a disabled person, I am so confused with the rhetoric, as to my benefits that my head gets in a spin. I suffer with spastic paraplegia and have other problems related to toxins that I was exposed to in the 80's.

You can never get a straight answer, and you feel like you are left out in the wilderness.

This labour councillor made a political comment that should I guess for the sake of her position would have been better left unsaid.

Anonymous said...

Bermondsey

Nich Starling said...

oh ther bravery of an anonymous poster.

I had hoped we had moved on in the 25 years since the Bermondsey by-election. It appears though that Labour equate the Liberal's use of "straight choice" and with a Labour activists going around accusing someone of being akin to something like a paedophile. A strong comparison, but both are wrong.

For A Labour activists (which is who the anonynmous psoter must have been) to think the two are equal is a shocking indictment of the Labour party.

Oh, and one was illegal and one wasn't. Guess which party bropke the law !

Pages