Coventry council debate turns into row

[dutchman]

The debate was around austerity but descended into a heated argument



A Coventry City Council debate descended into a series of fiery exchanges this week, when a Tory councillor told the opposition “nobody cares what you think” and accused Labour of anti-Semitism. In a debate around austerity under the Conservative government, Tory councillor for Woodlands ward Gary Ridley hit back at criticism, and the suggestion that Labour is on course to win an election.

A motion for debate had been tabled by Labour councillors Khan and Ahktar which stated: “This council believes that this Government is on a crash course to another period of austerity.

“Their policies yet again favour those that have and, as usual, ignore those that have not.”

Several more Labour councillors stood to speak, including Councillor Christine Thomas (Binley and Willenhall) who was recently suspended from the party after messages she sent using a racial slur were leaked to a national news outlet.

Jewish News reported Cllr Thomas had used a word which is widely considered offensive while describing a Jewish activist. Cllr Thomas apologised in a statement to Jewish News saying she did not realise the term was offensive.

Speaking during this week’s debate she said: “This government is out of touch, out of ideas, out of time, and soon, please God, they’ll be out of office.”

Conservative councillor Gary Ridley hit back at the Labour group for being distracted by national issues.

He said: “The truth is, nothing that you say or do here tonight has any impact on anything; nobody cares what you think about this. What they care about is that you are going to do the things that you are elected for: getting the roads sorted, getting the bins picked up, not putting council tax up.

“You haven’t got anything to say on any of that, you rely entirely on the unpopularity of the national Conservative government to get elected. Do you remember that song from the eighties ‘All You Do Is Criticise’?

“Maybe we should get [council leader] George singing that at the Christmas karaoke, because that’s what it feels like, all you do is criticise. You talk about ‘there’s going to be a Labour government’ soon, the independent member for Willenhall said that, but I don’t know what it’s got to do with her because she’s not in the Labour party I understand anymore.

Cllr Thomas responded: “Councillor Ridley, you know very well what my status is at the moment. You know very well I am still a voting, card holding member of the Labour party.

“The investigation has not yet taken place and I am not going to comment on it."

Cllr Ridley hit back: “We’ve got a member of the Labour party who’s been accused of anti-Semitism, who is still a member. She hasn’t been thrown out from the Labour party.

“Anti-Semitism is rife within the Labour party; we’ve had two members thrown out within a month.”

At this point the lord mayor interjected to say: “This is an insult which can’t be justified and has already been disproven time and time again, thank you very much."