Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Sorry seems to be the hardest word...

Still no signs of an apology by Mike Whitby, the Leader of the controlling Tory/Lib Dem coalition on Birmingham City Council who more or less told a councillor who politely asked why the make up of the Council's Cabinet and Scrutiny Chair's was composed of all-white men to, shove off to Burnley or Oldham (makes a change from 'if you don't like it, bugger off back to Pakistan, I suppose) if that was how she was going to behave. Rather than have the good grace to admit he was wrong and apologise, Whitby insists on making matters worse in the media by stubbornly sticking to the view that asking this sort of question is 'nasty politicking'. Interestingly, Whitby's Lib Dem colleagues seem to defend their coalition leader's stance, although a party that distributed torture photos of Abu Grahib prior to the General Election in predominantly Muslim areas of the City would know all about 'nasty politicking'. Someone I spoke to last night indicated that it is not just the remnants of the People's Justice Party (formerly, Justice For Kashmir) who have joind the Lib Dems, who are less than happy with Whitby and the Lib Dem leadership. But will they have the cojones to do anything about it?