John Lines avoids Cairns-like censure over 'scumbag' comment
While most Conservatives never forgave Theresa May for describing Tories as the nasty party and still fewer understood why she believed that to be the case, her comments forced a change in attitude among the image-conscious backers of David Cameron.
So when Tory parliamentary candidate Alun Cairns recently described Italians as “greasy wops” on a live radio show, he had to go.
Mr Cameron sacked Cairns, who had high hopes of winning the marginal Vale of Glamorgan seat at the next General Election.
Foul-mouthed Cairns also resigned as shadow education minister and chairman of the Welsh National Assembly’s finance committee, his political career effectively at an end.
What a strange contrast to the Conservatives’ total failure to take any action at all against Birmingham City Council cabinet member for housing John Lines, who infamously described asylum seekers as workshy “scumbags”.
Quite the reverse, in fact. They continue to lionise Lines, whose abrasive speeches generally bring a smile to the face of Tory council leader Mike Whitby.
Perhaps Lines isn’t important enough for anyone to care about what he says, or far more likely in this case perhaps the Tories think asylum seekers aren’t important enough for anyone to mind whether they are stigmatised and insulted.
Make up you own mind about the interview Lines gave to the Defence Management Journal.
Here is his saloon-bar rant about what he sees as the unfair way asylum seekers are given preferential treatment when applying for council housing, while former members of the armed forces have to go to the bottom of the queue: “We do not afford them (Gurkhas) citizenship. We pay them a pension to go back to Nepal.
“Yet some scallywag, some scumbag can jump on the back of a lorry, come over under the tunnel and never expect to work a day in his (expletive) life.
“And if he’s been here for a time waiting for a decision, we give him automatic British citizenship. The world’s gone (expletive) mad.”
Ah, yes, the authentic voice of the nasty party lives on in Birmingham.
Not that anyone is getting too worked up about Lines. The Standards Board for England, which is the local government ethics watchdog, decided his comments did not breach the code of conduct requiring councillors to treat the public with respect and were not worthy of an investigation.
The board decided Coun Lines had a right to freedom of speech and a right to be abusive, as long as he stayed within the law.
So there we have it. Greasy wops, unacceptable. Scumbag asylum seekers, not a problem.
How much longer, you wonder, will the Liberal Democrats on Birmingham City Council sacrifice their principles by continuing to serve in a coalition which gives top jobs to the likes of Lines?
After all, it was only seven years ago that the Lib Dems were instrumental in preventing Lines from becoming Lord Mayor on grounds that they did not believe he was a suitable candidate to represent the city.
Here’s what John Hemming MP, chairman of the Lib Dem council group, had to say about Coun Lines in 2001: “The Lord Mayor has a responsibility to represent the whole of the city. John Lines, in the past, has campaigned in a manner which one would see as being aimed to create divisions.
“His campaign against councillors being ‘forced to eat curry’ is just one example of that. Not only was what he was saying untrue, but also it can only be seen as an issue because of the nature of the food and its links to an ethnic group.”
Quite happy to prop up the unacceptable face of Toryism today, though.
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The wonders of Birmingham City Council’s contact centre - a switchboard to you and me - never fail to amaze.
Calls to the press office on Thursday afternoon were mysteriously diverted to a unit describing itself as private sector housing.
When asked about this, a somewhat bemused housing lady said: “This is always happening. When they’re all in a meeting they divert the calls somewhere else.”
But why choose private sector housing?
“I’ve no idea. We’ve been wondering about that too,” came the reply.
