Double trouble: Councillors comments cause race disputes

Name calling landed two councillors in political hot water last week.

First, Lib Dems Reading Borough Councilor Warren Swaine resigned last Monday after a Twitter message he sent during MP Chuka Umunna BBC's Question Time appearance prompted a race row.

Swaine’s tweet said: “I am waiting for the Labour guy to claim, ‘Is it because I is black’ as a defence for being a muppet.”

And another- a Tory Councillor named John Major got himself in trouble after praising an Asian candidate applying for a top job – then saying “shame he is black”.

The 79 year-old Conservative councillor Mr Major, was later found guilty of breaching the code of conduct in public office and criticised for the racist remark.

He had made the remark while sitting on an interview panel to find a new £95,000-a-year council chief executive.

The Adjudication Panel for Wales ruled that Mr Major had breached the rules. He was reprimanded but kept his job representing Caldicot on Monmouthshire county council.

Major denied making the offensive remark saying; “What I said was ‘He’s a breath of fresh air – and he’s black’. I didn’t use the word ‘shame’. I never said that at all. I have never been a racist.”

But chairwoman of the panel Helen Cole said: “The remarks were discriminatory, racist and inappropriate.”

And Labour councillor Armand Watts, who was also on the committee, said: “I couldn’t believe that anyone would say such a thing. “There is no place for comments of that kind.”

Former Reading Councillor Warren Swaine, whose mother is Sri Lankan, on the other hand has made no apology for his remark, but compounded his mistake by levelling accusations against the Reading Council for Racial Equality (RCRE), which he was a member of, saying they too have used similar language.

To which RCRE Director Rajinder Sophal retaliated by saying: “Cllr Swaine always uses the fact that his mother is Sri Lankan but you don’t have to be white to be racist.

“At his age he should stop hiding behind his mother and should stand up for himself.”

According to Get Reading news, Swaine’s last words that he would make only one comment, said; “It’s complete bull***t.”

How did he get elected?

Winsome-Grace Cornish

Main picture: Lib Dems Reading Borough Councilor Warren Swaine