Cllr Mike Pollard is the Chief Whip of the Conservative Group on Bradford Council
My Conservative Group colleagues and I stood for election because we wanted to improve the quality of local government services and hopefully by extension the quality of lives of the residents of our districts. However small this improvement may be felt or realised by some, that is in line with what we believe the majority of British Citizens consider to be our role. We have no reason to doubt that the vast majority of our colleagues across the country held the same motives when they put themselves forward for election.
In recent times however, it has become impossible to not notice, that an increasing number of councillors and also residents, consider these priorities to be secondary for councillors, to discussing overseas armed conflicts, though far from all of these conflicts.
A number of MPs across the country have been threatened, their offices have been invaded or attacked and even the homes of MPs and Councillors have been threatened in relation to the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Councillors throughout the country, some on authorities with massive service and or finance problems, have chosen to spend time debating which demands their council should make primarily of Israel, but also Hamas, despite it being as far outside their remit as one could imagine and there being absolutely no prospect of influencing the behaviour of either of the combatants.
In some cases members opted to do so due to the very real prospect of losing their seats in the next municipal elections if they did not and in other cases, members know that a significant number of those who argue for this inappropriate reordering of council priorities are prepared to use crime or the fear of crime to subjugate those who do not concur with their agenda, as proven by their conduct towards councillors, including my colleagues, who refused to capitulate to the Pro Palestine lobby.
Neither of these motivations should have any influence on local or national United Kingdom politics. It is absurd and wholly unacceptable that some councillors in controlling groups on failing councils are at a higher risk of being voted out for their stance on the Middle East Conflict, than they are for presiding over the catastrophic destruction of services and finances.
It is increasingly blatant that, whilst the people insisting that their local councillors do not “turn a blind eye” to the 34,000 (approximate deaths to date) during the Israel v Hamas war, they themselves show no interest in and turn a blind eye to, the much higher numbers of casualties in the numerous major ongoing wars around the world.
There are no marches in the streets near Parliament, protests outside Town Halls, or hecklers in the public galleries of Council Chambers, carrying placards demanding ceasefires following the 500,000+ deaths in the Russia/Ukraine war, or the hundreds of thousands of Muslim civilians killed during the Muslim on Muslim, Shia versus Sunni Yemen Civil War, the one million plus Muslim deaths lost to date in the Muslim on Muslim Somali Civil War, or the 180,000+ deaths of civilians of all faiths and none lost in the secular Myanmar Civil War, or…I could go on, but I think you get the point.
If councillors were to bend to pressure from campaigners on behalf of the casualties of all ongoing armed conflict on the planet, to debate what demands to make of the combatants, they would have insufficient time left at council meetings to conduct actual council business, to the detriment of the services they provide and also the United Kingdom’s democracy.
One theory gaining momentum is that this is due to an uncomfortable truth, that the protesters are judging the actions of the belligerents and valuing the lives of casualties on a sectarian metric and some of the facts on the ground provide support for the suggestion.
A significant section of the public suspect and fear that the pro Palestine lobby do not value non-Muslim lives as highly as those of Muslims and that the lives of Muslims killed by Muslims are not as valuable as those of Muslims killed by non-Muslims. People can identify no plausible alternative explanation for the reaction to the deaths of Gazan Palestinians other than an unsavoury mixture of sectarianism, with a major ingredient being anti-semitism.
My colleagues and I feel that it is time for Council Constitutions to restrict motions discussed at Councils, to issues which they have responsibility for or can realistically influence, rather than cherry picked conflicts taking place many thousands of miles away, to prevent the sectarianisation of Parliament and Local Government.
I will sign off by suggesting that a ceasefire in Gaza is needed to give sufficient ‘bandwidth’ for an urgent, comprehensive, international re-think of how Hamas terrorism can be crushed, whilst simultaneously creating a plausible framework for the longed for ‘two-State solution’. If I were to work that thought into a speech in the Council Chamber, that would be me falling for the trap I’m suggesting other councillors have already fallen into, with malign effects.
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Author: Mike Pollard
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