Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Moss
Personally speaking, if any member wants to behave like this and expect to retain any sort of respect from the public then for my money you can carry on being ejected from the council chamber in full view of the borough's press.
It isn't something which an 'inexperienced' councillor such as myself would do.
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I think it's a little bit more important than gaining respect (whatever that means in a political context) from the public. Irrespective of party allegiances, we expect our elected representatives to fully engage in the democratic process when reaching the decisions that affect us all. Attempts to sabotage and undermine that process can take various forms in the non-democratic spectrum, of which violent rioting lies in the middle and terrorism at one end. At the other end is the deliberate disruption of meetings of elected bodies, such as occured yesterday and as such it is my opinion that those involved in such actions should be barred from participation when and until they learn the rules.