Wednesday 17 February 2010

Comment is free but libel could be expensive!

The story about the Youth Parliament elicited many comments which showed a heartfelt antipathy towards the Council from many local people. Amongst those comments are some which I have not published because they contained allegations about individuals which could have resulted in legal action.  To quote Tony Benn, it is issues that are important, rather than personalities.

I am happy to publish comments about local issues, including those which take up matters such as the extent of local democracy, accountability, consultation (or lack of it), neglect of some communities and the key Council areas of education, social care, libraries, parks, transport, planning and housing - but not personal attacks on individuals. These policy areas are of fundamental importance as we approach the local elections in May.

For those who want to air more personal concerns there is the option of setting up a blog of your own and it is easily done - follow this LINK.

Martin Francis

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is however extremely vexing, that those in power seem to get away with the extremes they do because we are affraid of litigation. I have seen Brent a place I love living in because of it's diverse communities, tattered and torn apart by the political wrangling that has gone on since this new administration. Brent is now a population under seige by it council, and they are winning the war against our individuals, who dare to sit up and say no more.
I am punch drunk with frustration at the disgraceful going on, yet as an individual I have no voice in a place I pay to live in, and those individuals who dare to call them out are completely irradicated and left like corpses on the road. We have become by default a dictatorship of immoral acts, and like many persecuted cultures we are floundering amidst the brutal uncaring policies and cut backs and the councils' mismanagement of our assets.
We need a good strong broom to sweep it clean and remove this stain on our town hall.

Arthur Welch, Brent resident

Anonymous said...

I feel I must protest as Seneca did in ancient Rome against the violence of state.In ancient Rome the dictator was Caligula, here the tyrany comes from the dictatorship of Brent.
We are under seige on every moral plain imaginable.
Like all dictatorships the emerge from nowhere to invade every aspect of our lives, ironic really that the Leader of the council escaped the communists coming to a sanctuary in the UK, only to create a regime so corrupt and invasive administration in Brent history. I am bereft of words to describe my fury and disgust about Brent.
Andrew.

Anonymous said...

Seneca was the tutor of Nero, and later his advisor, but the point is well made about the violence of state.
We are the masses in protest, sildnced by the fear of reprisals against us, as has happened in Brdnt to those individuals who stand up and say no to the abuses we undergo as residents in this dictatorship.
Helene, Brent