Sunday, November 25, 2007

Through Gritted Teeth

Full Council was somewhat unusual last week. If you looked at the headlines of the minutes, you would have thought everything was hunky dory, tickety-boo and the two main parties agreed on everything. This didn't cover the whole story.

After a mixed bag of questions, I proposed a motion, graciously seconded by Council Leader Sean Brennan, asking for the law to be strengthened, making the defacing of a war memorial a specific criminal offence. This follows the appalling theft of the yorkstones surrounding the Carshalton War Memorial just before Remembrance Sunday. A stonemason Samaritan stepped in to replace the stones allowing 250 people to commemorate the fallen. The police apprehended the thief. Anyway, the motion was passed and a clear signal was sent by the Council.

The second motion was moved by my colleague Barry Russell, asking for the Union flag to be flown daily above the Civic Offices and the Mayor to sit under the Borough Coat of Arms rather than the European Flag. An exchange of emails between Barry and Cllr. Tope raised the hoary issue of Health & Safety as the wall above the Mayor contains asbestos within the Artex. Despite this, since there seemed to be a willingness to get this change made, we amended the motion to allow further investigation of costs etc. Failing this, I'm sure one or two of our larger councillors can do the heavy lifting with the requsite safety equipment. I'll cover the LibDem motions in the next post which should have been straightforward but became flashpoints despite the fact that we all agreed in the end.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Earlier comment was deleted because of repeated offensive pseudonym used by poster.

Comment said "I was in the audience at that particular meeting. It was quite an interesting debate, but I question the motive of flying the flag. Have the tories all of a sudden had a pang of conscience about this? After all they refuse to talk about europe in a positive way and Hague's pathetic "save the pound" campaign of a number of years ago has been quietly sidelined. Is this another Cameroonian attempt to jump on any bandwagon that appear popular?"

Unknown said...

To answer the poster above, flying the flag is simply the right thing to do. The Civic Office is a public building and should be the centre of civic pride which includes our national emblem. The Mayor should sit under the Coat of Arms as she is the First Citizen of the Borough.

I was a little surprised that your boy didn't say anything.

Anonymous said...

Asbestos at the Civic?

What colour?

Anonymous said...

I take great offence to Cllr Scully's reply. To completely delete my post, just because he does not agree with it smacks of facism - not so called "Tory" democracy. For everyones notice, I used my initials. I live in Sutton South, but do not wish to be known, save that the Tories both locally and nationally are a disgraceful caricature of what they claim to be. It's all very well for Cllr Scully to tag me with what he thinks I am, but he could be in, and will be in, for a big surprise come the next local elections..and does he delete those who post under anonymous? In no way does he, because they are rigged posts by his friends and political allies whom he defends to the hilt, whilst castigating anybody who posts anything against him.

Anonymous said...

Many congratulations and all the credit to the Conservative opposition. It's about time we all did our bit to gather up the political correctness twaddle peddled by the council and stuffed it down their Lib Dem throats. With a bit of luck we'll see them off at the next election.

Anonymous said...

I think the Sutton Conservatives deserve a real pat on the back for this. As the last person says this is striking a blow against political correctness.

Whoever this lame stooge is posting on here should be ashamed of themselves if they purport to be a proud Briton. The relentless anti-conservative flavour is pretty damn obvious.

As for deleting comments Paul Scully has a proven track record of deleting offensive or gratuitous names only and then reposting the content of the postng. To suggest he is fascist is laughably ridiculous.

Again well done to all the Tory councillors for this.

Anonymous said...

I reckon you lot should be proud. Well done. :)

Unknown said...

Mr Spandit

I would agree with the first part of your post if I had actually "completely deleted" your post. Closer inspection would clearly show that I had merely deleted your puerile pseudonym, but included your comments in full in my replacement post.

I don't want to censor this blog. However, my name is attached to this and so becomes associated with comments and debate. You have chosen to remain anonymous so carry no responsibilities for your actions or words. My site counter logs visitors to this site and has shown examples when one person has logged on leaving comments with up to ten separate pseudonyms. Either someone is having a blog party, has multiple personality disorder or is shying away from real debate to push the UKIP line.

UKIP purports to be a party of substance, so discuss the issues, suggest alternatives instead of personal attacks that reflect so badly on you.

Anonymous said...

Well said, Mr Scully.

Anonymous said...

What is this Spandit chaps problem?

Why shouldn't the Civic Centre fly the Union Flag? It is, after all, the seat of a local government authority within the United Kingdom.

Go to any other county in the world and a building of a similar nature would fly that country's national flag without doubt.

Anonymous said...

good stuff, about time was a bit of pride in Sutton.

Anonymous said...

What a pity it's took the Tories so long to realise it. There are many skeletons in their cupboard as well.

Anonymous said...

I am very pleased that the Council is beginning to recognise our heritage. It is entirely appropriate that the Union Flag should fly above the Civic Offices. I see no logical opposing view.

I am also extremely impressed with the idea of making defacing war memorials a specific crime. Those who do such things must receive the full punishment the state can bestow.