In the Seven Sisters by election, news reaches me of an awful leaflet from the Tories – but with rather unpleasant ethnic undertones about the Lib Dem candidate, David Schmitz (see image).
This won’t offend David in the least. David has dual nationality. His parents, originally Austrian, fled from Nazi persecution in the Second World War.
They initially fled to England, but ended up in the States. David, who has dual citizenship, began his career in New York, but has lived in the UK for most of his working life, having left America in his twenties to become a barrister here.
You’d have to wonder why this makes David an inferior candidate in the eyes of the Tories. It can’t be because they think David is a recent blow in, or doesn’t live in Tottenham, as they will know that he has lived in the area for years.
It will be interesting to see what the voters of Seven Sisters will make of the Tory suggestion that having an overseas connection makes you rather suspect, as a Haringey council candidate.
The publisher of the leaflet is a Cllr Matthew Coggins. He is, at least according to London Councils website, the present Leader of Hackney Conservatives. I think the voters of Hackney might be interested in this issue, too.
I wonder what wording, in his leaflet, would be unacceptable to Matthew? ‘The Lib Dem candidate hails from Scotland? The Lib Dem candidate hails from Bangladesh?’ Given that we are in two very diverse boroughs, perhaps he should clarify.
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This won’t offend David in the least. David has dual nationality. His parents, originally Austrian, fled from Nazi persecution in the Second World War.
They initially fled to England, but ended up in the States. David, who has dual citizenship, began his career in New York, but has lived in the UK for most of his working life, having left America in his twenties to become a barrister here.
You’d have to wonder why this makes David an inferior candidate in the eyes of the Tories. It can’t be because they think David is a recent blow in, or doesn’t live in Tottenham, as they will know that he has lived in the area for years.
It will be interesting to see what the voters of Seven Sisters will make of the Tory suggestion that having an overseas connection makes you rather suspect, as a Haringey council candidate.
The publisher of the leaflet is a Cllr Matthew Coggins. He is, at least according to London Councils website, the present Leader of Hackney Conservatives. I think the voters of Hackney might be interested in this issue, too.
I wonder what wording, in his leaflet, would be unacceptable to Matthew? ‘The Lib Dem candidate hails from Scotland? The Lib Dem candidate hails from Bangladesh?’ Given that we are in two very diverse boroughs, perhaps he should clarify.
…
3 comments:
What utter bollocks! "Ethnic undertones" indeed!
This is quite justified.
what are the tories saying? don't vote for X because he isn't British, isn't from round here, isn't one of us, is "foreign"?
Not utter bollocks but the dog's bollocks.
I think Neil's suggestion is somewhat naive. He has no evidence to prove the Tories are racist, if that is what he is suggesting. In fact, the Conservative party has more ethnic minorities in parliamentary positions than the Liberal Democrats- http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/03/liberaldemocrats.women
The Conservatives have put several BME members up for election, including a leading Jamaican agriculturalist. What have the Lib Dems done? not much, sadly.
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