Monday, August 11, 2014

Glasgow Tory councillor David Meikle is urged to resign over his student politics stunt of flying the Israeli flag out of the City Chambers in Glasgow, we can safely rule out Councillor Meikle as future UK Foreign Sec




















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.


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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