Monday, 21 November 2011

Beeb go big on tory suspension


Cynics might see the hand of a certain PR professional at work behind the scenes but BBC Wales Online nonetheless think the suspension of a Swansea tory councillor by his own party is newsworthy.

The comment from Central Office is fairly direct:

"These are serious allegations and the Welsh Conservative Party has suspended councillor Hood-Williams from the party until such time as the ombudsman has made a ruling or come to a final decision."

By comparison, Welsh Liberal Democrats are quoted as stating that “no action” has so far been taken against council leader Chris Holley. What a surprise.

Update: Same story in the Beans onToast; although they apparently did not ask if Holley was also to be suspended by the Lib Dems. Perhaps they still think he is being picked on by nasty opposition people.

Further update (23 Nov): Welsh Lib Dems announce no suspension for Holley. They say “we are confident that he [the ombudsman] will find these complaints are without foundation." Does that mean they have conducted their own investigation or just relying on what they’ve been told?

7 Comments:

Valleys Mam said...

Surely they cannot leave a council leader in place with these sort of allegations hanging over him - or can they. should they?

Anonymous said...

The "Beans on Toast" as you put it had already run the story about Chris Holley not being suspended by the Lib Dems.

Matt MkII said...

Give 'em a bit of credit. They carried a massive COUNCILLOR SUSPENDED headline on their front page? Could the worm be turning?

Armpit said...

@Anonymous - when did the paper run the story you mention? I must have missed it.

Oscar said...

The answer is that Lib Dems have not made any comment over whether Holley should be suspended. Could Anonymous be Peter Black making another dubious statement of fact?

Anonymous said...

There is a story on the E Post's website about it dated Fri November 4 when two AMs called for Holley and co to be suspended by their parties. With a comment from the Lib Dems.

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/AMs-suspension-accused-Swansea-Councillors/story-13753177-detail/story.html

Armpit said...

The comment is from Swansea and Gower Lib Dems - what else would they say? Now that the matter has been referred to the police to decide if a criminal investigation (and confirmed that the initial complaint came from the chief executive) its a different game, innit.