Dear All
In Gaza at present there is fighting
between the Israelis IDF and Hamas, many people have died including young children, the situation is
serious.
Andrew Morrison, the Conservative Candidate
has written an interesting piece on Think Scotland.
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkliving/articles.html?read_full=12684&article=www.thinkscotland.org
Think Scotland likes to have different
views from across the political spectrum which is why I think it is worth a
read. If you get the time drop by and dig in to it.
Andrew says in his article regarding
Glasgow City Council decision to fly the Palestinian flag:
“This decision to fly the (Palestinian) flag
from City Chambers is therefore an anomaly, which must be considered and
questioned.
He is right, it is an anomaly and in a
country that has free speech and freedom of expression, it should be questioned.
Did the City Council do anything wrong?
No!
But how much better would it have been
if Glasgow City Council had flown the Israeli flag alongside the Palestinian flag?
Glasgow Jewish Representative Council
president Paul Morron said:
"Flying the flag is the worst kind of
gesture politics."
I wonder would he have objected in the same
strong manner if the Council had hoisted the Israeli flag.
Probably not, I doubt he would be repeating his
earlier condemnation:
"Flying the flag is the worst kind of
gesture politics."
So, Glasgow hoisted the Palestinian flag up
the pole.
Then comes along Tory Councillor David
Meikle, he decides to wave the Israeli flag as civic leaders raised the
Palestinian flag over Glasgow's city chambers on Friday.
You can see his pictures online, he has
taken a fair amount of abuse and been mocked.
Personally, I can't say I am a fan of
Councillor David Meikle, however that isn’t based on him being a Tory but
rather than who he associates with.
After his student politics stunt, almost
2,000 people have signed a petition urging the Glasgow councillor who flew the
Israeli flag to resign.
Is this a resignation matter?
No!
In politics when someone makes an arse of
themselves the rule of thumb is that some people pile in and demand their
resignation. If I am going to ask someone to resign, it isn’t going to be on
the basis on them acting stupid and certainly not the basis of waving a flag out of a window.
Conservative councillor David Meikle has
the right of freedom of expression, even if everyone else thought his act was
silly.
He has already been punished enough by people
laughing at him.
As to him and Alistair McConnachie which has surfaced that is
a matter of poor judgment considering he allegedly said that he knew that Alistair
McConnachie was a holocaust denier.
In an email to Ukip members, Alistair McConnachie
wrote:
"I don't accept that gas
chambers were used to execute Jews for the simple fact there is no direct
physical evidence to show that such gas chambers ever existed... there are no
photographs or film of execution gas chambers... Alleged eyewitness accounts
are revealed as false or highly exaggerated."
You can read this article:
The flag business was a silly stunt, I
wouldn’t punish him for that one, however, someone needs to speak to him about
the Alistair McConnachie matter and ask for an explanation.
An online petition has since been set up in
response to Meikle’s actions signed by 2,000 people; the petition says waving
the Israeli flag was "very insensitive to the majority of his constituents
and Glaswegians at large".
Obviously a sizeable number of unhappy
people, but we should remember that Tory Councillor David Meikle was exercising
his human right of freedom of expression. If the 2,000 people don’t like it then
they are free to disagree using their human right of freedom of speech!
It isn’t a resignation matter; it is a
laughing stock matter….. case closed.
Finally, we can rule out David Meikle as UK Foreign Sec.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
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