In an age of miracles, and on a day when invisible libraries become even more invisible, here is something almost as hard to find, as rare as hen's teeth: an apology from Councillor Brian Coleman, to a Jewish victim of his ludicrous and offensive 'anti-semite' slur emails, received, in timely fashion, just as Coleman's Tory colleagues gather for their group meeting, which is reportedly considering the suspension of a certain councillor ....
Ahem. Please note that any grammatical errors are as found, and that this may not be the best advertisement for grammar school education (that's Mrs Angry, if you are wondering).
The apology was dated 19th October, but arrived with the monitoring officer of Barnet Council only on the 29th October. Terrible, the postal service in Finchley (excepting my lovely postman, of course). Brian said:
'In line with the recent standards board rulling. I hereby apologies for any offence caused by the emails in question.
Yours sincerly.
(squiggle)
Councillor Brian Coleman
Update: unconfirmed rumours on twitter tonight suggest that Coleman may now have been suspended by action instigated by the central party, rather than local Tories.
... and updated again, 9pm, it's official: Coleman has been suspended by the Conservative party, rather than by local Tories: see statement tonight by leader Cornelius, confirming this:
"Cllr Brian Coleman has today been suspended by the party board from his membership of the Conservative Party. This means that he will not be participating in the Council as a Conservative until the legal process is completed. He remains innocent until proven guilty."
Indeed Cllr Coleman remains innocent until proven guilty, but why has it taken this long for his suspension to have taken place, and why has it been activated by central party decision, rather than by local Tories, and by Barnet leader Richard Cornelius?
4 comments:
Is that the content of his apology or are you being satirical?
If he wrote that, then it is not an apology at all. He is apologizing for the effect of what he said, rather than actually being sorry for what he thought and said.
Mrs Angry never resorts to the practice of satire, JVK: this is unnecessary, in Broken Barnet, where life is lived far beyond the limitations of irony.
Yes, that is the 'apology', in his own words. The lack of sincerity is apparent not only in the cursory tone but in the appalling grammar, which gives the impression of deliberate lack of care.
Exactly, so I think your title is misleading. I'm worried that people might see a tweet and think Coleman had apologized.
He did not say sorry, he obviously is not sorry for what he said and probably doesn't even understand why people are offended.
It's shocking that an elected official can put out a message like this. He says the message was prompted by a ruling, and he only apologizes for any offence, ie for other people's reaction to his insults. But even so, an apology that doesn't include any remorse, admission of wrongness or the words "I'm sorry for what I did" is NOT an apology.
Sorry. I can only apologies.
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