Fallowfield Labour threaten Student Direct journalists
At a recent Student Union hustings, where the Liberal Democrats were represented by John Leech, Labour failed to send a representative. Obviously, this is pretty embarrassing, and suggests that Labour don’t take students and the student vote seriously
What makes it much worse, and the reason I’m posting about it, is that when Student Direct investigated, a Fallowfield Labour councillor decided to threaten news editor Girish Gupta for exposing the organisational incompetence which lead to the Labour no-show. This is clearly unacceptable – they should have just owned up to the mistake, admitted that they got it wrong by failing to engage with the Student Union, and moved on. Threatening a journalist to cover up your own mistakes is just inexcusable. It’s an attack on journalism, and an attack on students. No matter which party you stand for, this behaviour is just not acceptable for a councillor. I’m glad that Girish has the integrity to publish the story, including the Labour threats, and stand up to the bullies.
Fortunately, this particular Fallowfield Labour councillor is standing for re-election on Thursday. By voting Lib Dem in Fallowfield, you can send a message that bullying and intimidation from our elected representatives cannot be justified.
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have your say
Girish Gupta’s article was shabby political electioneering for the Lib Dems. He was threatening the Councillor concerned by saying he would print the lie that he had confirmed his attendence and failed to show. The councillor in question mearly defend his rights.
We have all been active in student politics and this old game of organising a meeting and then “pretending” a particular party has failed to send a representative is quite frankly a bit lame.
Fallowfield did send a message to the Councillor concerned – you have done a great job representing us and we will re-elect you with an increased majority!
Girish’s article doesn’t state that Mike Amesbury had confirmed his attendance and failed to show. The UMSU hustings were well advertised, so it’s not like anybody could have gotten away with such a sneaky trick.
It’s clear that there was a breakdown in communications between Mike Joslin and Mike Amesbury. That’s unfortunate but excusable – I’m not going to pretend that such events don’t occur in the Liberal Democrats! If Labour had put their hands up to the mistake, I don’t think it would have been a story. However, by threatening to “come down on you like a ton of bricks”, they appear to be attempting to silence criticism and journalism, and I don’t think that’s on.
Labour in Fallowfield now have the lowest majority in terms of vote share since 2006 – any increase in the raw majority seems to be down to the increased turnout due to the General Election.