Having previously voted down a suspension of standing orders to hear Philip Grant's deputation on achieiving high standards in council conduct, Brent Labour went on to vote down an independent inquiry into the Cara Davani Employment Tribunal case.
Only Brondesbury Conservatives and Helen Carr, the Liberal Democrat councillor, voted for the motion. Kenton Conservatives abstained.
In the process of supporting the motion 'with regret' Helen Carr launched a snarling personal attack on Philip Grant that went on far too long before the Mayor, Cllr Lesley Jones, stopped it when new Chief Executive Carolyn Downs grabbed her arm.
Cllr Muhammed Butt was cock-a-hoop and came up after the meeting to congratulate Cllr Carr on her attack, asking if he could have a copy of what she had read out.
Other Labour councillors approached Philip after the meeting to express sympathy and distance themselves from what Carr had said,
Welcome to Brent Carolyn.
Only Brondesbury Conservatives and Helen Carr, the Liberal Democrat councillor, voted for the motion. Kenton Conservatives abstained.
In the process of supporting the motion 'with regret' Helen Carr launched a snarling personal attack on Philip Grant that went on far too long before the Mayor, Cllr Lesley Jones, stopped it when new Chief Executive Carolyn Downs grabbed her arm.
Cllr Muhammed Butt was cock-a-hoop and came up after the meeting to congratulate Cllr Carr on her attack, asking if he could have a copy of what she had read out.
Other Labour councillors approached Philip after the meeting to express sympathy and distance themselves from what Carr had said,
Welcome to Brent Carolyn.
56 comments:
Having witnessed Cllr Carr's disgraceful attack on a resident during the full council meeting I will be lodging a formal complaint with the Council Standards Committee.
What was said between Conneely, Stopp and Grant at the end? Looked intense.
Possibly swapping stickers.
"Cllr Muhammed Butt was cock-a-hoop and came up after the meeting to congratulate Cllr Carr on her attack, asking if he could have a copy of what she had read out"
Can this be published.
It has been - on this blog! I was talking to Helen Carr telling her that her attack was unjustified when Muhammed Butt came up to congratulate her so witnessed what he said..
What was the basis of her attack?
I am glad to hear that an official complaint will be made. The leadership of Brent Council are a complete disgrace. They talk about equalities and treating people with dignity and respect. Cllr Helen Carr and Mo Butt should be ashamed of themselves. Carolyn Downs clearly needs to do more than take Helen Car by her arm - she should show her the door and have a strict word with Butt. What happened is clearly no way to treat a concerned member of the public. No wonder Brent ignores issues poor conduct of bullying and harassment!
I hope the press make enquiries
Can the copy of what she said be published.
Cllr Carr should be charged with humiliating a respectable local resident - one who does careful research and asks poignant questions, which are in the public / local tax payers interest. It was disgraceful conduct and could be construed as a form of bullying. It was a public disgrace the way she ordered Phillip Grant to stand up, to show his face, saying she wanted to see him - then went on to say she felt forced to open his emails that were hate filled, like poison pen letters, which were full of venom ..words to that effect. It flies in the face of Equalities and the right to be treated with dignity and respect. Thank heaven Phillip could stand up - but what if he had some medical condition and couldn't !? This is a clear illustration of how poor the standards and conduct is of many of our officers in Brent. Stay strong, Philllip!
It's in the public domain on brent's website
Safe to say Philip... looks like you have tasered right into an already excruciatingly-painful sciatic nerve!!! Judging by the response, I'd say you've got that animal well-and-truly cornered!
Cllrs Conneely, Stopp, Tatler, Daly, Moher and a number of other Labour councillors (I apologise to those I have not named) all came up to me after the meeting to express their concern at the way Cllr. Carr had spoken. Some made the point that, although they disagreed with me on many things, they did not feel that any resident should be treated in that way at a Council meeting.
It probably looked intense because I was still in a state of shock, and they were genuinely worried. I will take this opportunity to thank them for their response, which reassures me that, though we may disagree, we are still human beings. I will reply in a separate comment above in respect of Cllr. Carr.
Philip Grant.
Although I was surprised and shaken by Cllr. Carr's action yesterday evening, here are my thoughts on it today, as set out in my reply to an email I received from a Labour councillor, apologising to me for Cllr. Carr's conduct:-
'Thank you ... for the support of yourself and a number of your colleagues after the meeting, following Cllr. Carr's outburst.
I will not be making any complaint about Cllr. Carr's conduct. I think that she needs help and guidance - it must be very difficult for her, newly-elected in 2014, and with no other experienced councillors from her party to sit alongside her or to discuss matters with.
Although I do not know what triggered what appeared to be a personal attack on me, I can only think that something I have written in the past must have upset her so much that her feelings about it suddenly overflowed. I would never deliberately cause such upset, but as a husband and father of two daughters, I know that I occasionally say things which come across as totally insensitive. I believe that this is not uncommon among men, and if I have unwittingly upset Cllr. Carr in that way, then she deserves an apology from me, just as I deserve an apology from her for the unprofessional conduct she displayed yesterday evening.'
As Cllr. Carr appeared to express a fear of opening any emails sent by me (I have sent a number over the past few months to ALL councillors, so that they can read, if they wish to, things they have not been allowed to hear at meetings etc.), I did ask the councillor concerned to forward my email to Cllr. Carr, if she felt that she could properly do so.
I agree that local residents should not be treated the way that I was treated by Cllr. Carr at yesterday evening's meeting, but I do not want her outburst to distract from the main issue, that Brent does need to face the facts over the Rosemarie Clarke Employment Tribunal case, not continue to cover them up, and that there does need to be a return to high standards of conduct by both senior Council officers and councillors if Brent Council is going to pull itself out of the disrepute it has sunk into during the past three years.
Philip Grant.
Grrrr!
Shame on Carr what an utter disgrace, but not surprising considering how Rosemarie Clarke was treated. We are all behind you Philip, don't give up.
In solidarity for truth and community respect
Her being a new Councillor is no excuse for bad behaviour once you are in public office you should be conducting yourself professionally. Disgraceful and even worse that the so-called leader congratulated her, what kind of fools have we elected in Brent? Was not 1 of Butt's reason for the 25% payrise to attract a better quality of Councillors? Wow. Utter disgrace
What a Carr-crash, someone should have told her more clearly to Stopp and Butt out else she'll get into these situations Daly.
You are too kind, Phillip...
Have just seen the video, could have been a more timely intervention from the mayor. Behaviour like that brings the council chamber into disrepute & she should apologise or stand down.
Skip to 8mins 33seconds from end via here http://www.brent.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/189138
What does Alison Hopkins think of this?
I agree with anon 22:56, you are far too kind Philip. You have done nothing wrong.
Was surprised anyone could upstage our supreme leader Cllr Butt on contempt for the public yet congratulations Cllr Carr. The Liberal Democrats will be proud of you.
Lib Dems Con and me glad de 'Carr crashed'!
What disturbs me most of all is the fact that Cllr Butt is trying to take credit for Cllr Carr's vile intervention. That's like the owner of a factory trying to take the credit for a machine malfunctioning and chopping off a worker's hand.
That's a reference to a bygone era when Labour cared about people who worked in factories.
The only two people in that chamber who approved of the attack on Mr Grant were Butt and Carr. Dire stuff, really.
Here's hoping Carolyn Downs sees through the Dear Leader.
#AnyoneButtMo
The chair should have stood up or thumped on the table issuing a strong objection. They effectively condoned this disgraceful behavior. They really dont care how many people face unjust humiliation nor lose their jobs or limbs - as long as they get a pay increase or other payouts.
What a vile and hateful person cllr carr is her response should be sent to every resident in the ward she represents to ensure her career as a councillor is terminated immediately and she is never re-elected. A simple Yes or No would have sufficed to answer Philips questions. As for Butt he should be ashamed of supporting the kind of behaviour. As for Butt as Leader he is probably one of the worst public speakers I have ever heard, cannot articulate at all and frankly sounds uneducated which doesn't surprise me considering the behaviour of Brent Council as a whole.
Should put the clip on You Tube for the rest of Country to see what a bunch of idiots we now have at Brent Council who can't answer simple questions and have total disregard for the residents that pay their wages and voted for them. I hope this serves as a wake up call for anyone thinking of voting for a Labour Council again. Should sack the lot of them before they do any more damage.
Anonymous 00.15 is right. The next day Butt was telling everyone how hilarious Carr's intervention was and hinting that he had organized it.
Anyone know if Carr is actually donating the 25% increase in money to charity like she said she would?
If Butt organised this then he's stupider than we thought. And Helen Carr is stupider than we would have thought if we'd ever heard of her and had bothered to have an opinion on the matter.
Carr's little wobbly has put the Davani payoff issue back on the front pages and in greater detail than ever (see B and K T), so a triumph for Butt's media-management there).
And Ms Carr, in a classic piece of psychological projection, reveals her own malice, spite and venom by attributing those very same qualities (and in purple marker-pen language which could only have been excused if she was making it up on the spot and not reading a pre-prepared rant) to a citizen legitimately pursuing a matter of public concern. Thanks, Ms Carr. It's rare for a politician to be so revealingly transparent in these areas. And thanks Mr Butt for any part you might have played in this new transparency and openness.
Lucky old Carolyn Downs to be associated with quality like this!
Mike Hine
How right you are! Butt always has a script in front of him and stumbles over ever other word. If he had a genuine problem with public speaking I wouldn't mind as long as the content was of some substance and genuine, but it clearly isn't.
Yucky Butt!
Yes and oh how cringeworthy was the recruitment video for the new chief exec.....
I thought senior leaders from our UK establishments, including, Local Authorities were supposed to have a credible knowledge about Equality and Human Rights matters - including a simple expectation that one should not subject anyone to inhuman or degrading treatment .. including treatment which may cause humiliation and suffering. One would have thought they would have learnt by now as it's precisely this sort of behaviour, which they have ignored, that brought them to account for their actions at Employment Tribunals. Ironic really...
Cllr Helen Carr actions contravenes the council bullying policy. If Mr Grant follows the process Carr should be disciplined.
Carolyn Downs needs to take the bulls by the horns and shake Butts
I think that Carr's *intention* was certainly to humiliate and bully a non-politician who she imagined she'd be able to intimidate because she was on 'home ground' (though where that might be for a LibDem these days is anyone's guess) but what was the actual outcome? Philip found new support from the Labour ranks, the issue was given more oxygen than he probably could have achieved any other way, and Ms Carr revealed herself to be a peevish bully with zero self-awareness (and a bit of an image problem going forward, as they say).
If anyone was 'degraded' by this tawdry spectacle then it was surely the Legacy LibDem Councillor for Mapesbury, Ms Carr.
If I were her I'd complain. Possibly to the Ombudsman.
Mike Hine
Brent do not discipline people for bullying - an investigation into such matters, during the Crony years, would confirm this as fact.
Perhaps Brent should acknowledge the well known fact that, ' Organisational Abuse happens when standards are poor'. Caroline Downs has certainly a lot to do to improve standards.
Just watched it. What a vile woman.
That's right - she really ought to apologise to Phillip.
Bullying now encouraged by the leader at Brent - chief executive must choose to collude or oppose.
Seconded!
If you pick out the meat from the bile in Ms Carr's little posset it seems that she finds the responsibilities of the councillor role, (receiving emails, dealing with contentious issues, communicating with the public, that kind of thing), disappointingly stressful. As she only got in by 17 votes, most of whom will now be regretting that they ever gave her the benefit of the doubt, she wouldn't be disappointing that many people, and she'd probably be much happier herself, if she decided that local politics was really a silly career move and it would be better to cut her losses and get out now before it all became even more tiresome and embarrassing.
Time for someone to have a word, maybe.
Mike Hine
Hegemony Replacement Therapy?
Sorry Philip you are too kind to the members in general - those who came to speak with you to after the Carr crash perhaps are well meaning - but are in reality rubberneckers at the scene -concerned but their failure is their morbid curiosity shared by each member of the group: all knowing that none of them called the ambulance to this Carr crash when it was needed - and that none of them will now irrespective of the eventual consequences for the innocent party. Blunt - perhaps cynical- however yesterday 9/11 brought back to this statement for me: "It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury". Philip please don't be buried please - we are still human beings but some of us are only 45 minutes from extinction.
Stay strong PG and be inspired by those who speak truth - with heartfelt compassion like JC ;)
I take it u mean compassion for others - unlike the majority elected councillors of Brent!?
Remedy Hearing is Starting today at Watford Employment Tribunal Good Luck to Rosemarie Clarke, Hit Brent and Cara Davinie where it hurts
Watford 16 Sep 2015 3302741/2013 BOC, RRD, SXD, Ms RC Clarke London Borough Of Brent Council 10:00
UDL, WA, Harrow Wembley
WTR(AL)
Ms Cara Davani
Wembley
Updates please
It was settled out of court 10 minutes before the hearing was due to begin. No details available.
Apologies to the questioner on the 9th, I missed their question. I think Philip Grant is brilliant. He's managed to maintain a consistently courteous and methodical stance whilst being forensic in his interrogation of Brent Council, its officers and members. I do not think it acceptable for ANY member or officer of any council to attack ANY resident. It is against the public service ethos for one thing, sheer bad manners and it's also pretty stupid politically, although that ought not to be a consideration. And by the way, long before I was a councillor I was attacked in writing by a current Labour councillor. I chose to ignore that person.
That's my personal view, anyhow.
PS: Can I just make it clear I'm NOT suggesting Phillip should or even can ignore what took place!
FOR INFORMATION
On 16 September, I received a written apology from Cllr. Helen Carr, addressed both to me and to her colleagues on the Council, for her conduct at the Full Council meeting on 7 September 2015. I have accepted that apology, and as far as I am concerned that is the end of the matter (in as much as it involves Cllr. Carr).
Philip Grant.
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