Sir Albert in class war row
Labour’s weekly classroom sessions on how to be a Birmingham city councillor have been attracting a large following.
This is because attendance is compulsory for anyone who hopes to get on the list from which council candidates are selected.
Two or three hours sat listening to Sir Albert Bore witter on about how to draft an amendment to a motion or how to ask a question in the council chamber may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but most of the comrades have decided to grin and bear it.
One amusing incident has reached me.
Enthusiastic young Labour hopeful is asked to write a press release rebutting Iron Angle’s less than complimentary remarks about Albert’s lessons.
His effort began: “Criticism of Labour’s training sessions shows that Tory and Liberal Democrat councillors have special needs.”
This was too much for some of the more sensitive souls, who complained about the political incorrectness of mentioning special needs.
When the young lad read out the first line of his rebuttal, most people in the room collapsed with laughter. Albert seized the moment to suggest that journalists would surely read on to the end of such a witty missive.
Actually, most journalists would jettison such rubbish in the nearest bin.
And wild horses would not drag from me the name of a Labour stalwart who happily rubbished Albert to journalists, but when it came to attending one of the sessions stood up to praise the idea as a marvellous initiative. The brown-noser of the week award goes to......no, it would be too cruel.
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It must be awfully challenging living in bohemian Moseley when it comes to difficult moral issues.
Here’s Liberal Democrat councillor Martin Mullaney’s account on The Stirrer website of the mental agonies he went through in deciding whether to dust off those old glam rock LPs and give them one more spin on the record deck.“Let’s be honest, Gary Glitter did a whole series of brilliant songs. His performances were fantastic – indeed, if it wasn’t for this child abuse stuff, he would probably be doing nightly gigs at Wembley Stadium and be a national icon.”
Ah, yes, if it wasn’t for that child abuse stuff, as Martin so diplomatically puts it.
But don’t worry, convicted paedophile Glitter has not been forgiven in the Mullaney household.
Martin adds: “Saying all that, I would feel uncomfortable playing his songs. Equally if I play Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, which is an all time classic album, I keep the volume down just in case the neighbours get the wrong impression of me.
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Starting today, Iron Angle’s “It’s About Count”, reflecting the annoying habit that everyone in public life seems to have of peppering speeches with It’s About.
Runaway winner this week is Human Rights Commission chief executive Nicola Brewer, who managed ten Its About moments in a 15-minute speech in Birmingham, before Iron Angle fell asleep.
