The fearmongering, lying, racist Richard Barnbrook should not be suspended from Barking & Dagenham council.
As Adam ‘Tory Troll’ Bienkov reports, the decision was handed down by a joint standards committee between the GLA and B&D council. Barnbrook put up a mendacious video saying there had been three stabbings in three weeks in LB Barking & Dagenham when there hadn’t and didn’t take the video down when its falsehood was pointed out to him by the police.
Barnbrook and the BNP try to capitalise on knife crime by making facts up and creating London’s Mothers Against Knives – a BNP front group that just coincidentally had a logo very similar to the actual Mothers Against Knives.
Otherwise, the remedial measures I think are rather appropriate. From the GLA, they are formal censure; a requirement to apologise on the GLA website and on his personal blog; to undergo training on ethics and standards in public life. From B&D, they are suspension for one calendar month without pay; requirement to apologise; failure to apologise leading to indefinite suspension. I’m sure that the press and blogs will cover it. The Evening Standard will, with a bit of luck, splash it on its posters.
I simply that is wrong in principle for anyone to be able to cashier an elected representative other than the electorate. Moreover, it makes it far too easy for aspersions to be cast on spurious grounds – and yes, I am thinking back to Ken’s mayoralty here. If an elected representative has to be removed, let there be a recall election, not a second-guessing of democracy.
xD.