No time to blog this fully but:
Waltham Forest councillor found guilty of smearing rival
LABOUR Cllr Miranda Grell has been found guilty on two counts of making false statements under the Representation of the People Act 1983 – the first case of its kind in Britain.
She was alleged to have claimed during last year’s Waltham Forest local election that Liberal Democrat rival, then Cllr Barry Smith, was a paedophile.
Announcing his findings of guilt this afternoon at Waltham Forest Magistrates Court, District Judge John Woollard fined Grell £500 on each of the two charges and ordered her to pay £3,000 costs.
Subject to the outcome of any appeal, that looks to be all she wrote.
Subject to the outcome of any appeal, what a stupid stupid fucking idiot.
Mind you, Labour did force Worcester City Council into NOC after taking a Tory seat in a by-election last night….did take a late Cabinet member’s seat in Birmingham from the Tories….did take a seat in Nuneaton.
One bad apple never spoils an award-winning orchard. And that bad apple can be swiftly dealt with by the pigs.
I cannot find out anywhere which parts of the many and diverse allegations against the erstwhile or suspended councillor Miranda Grell this district judge or stipe actually found proven. Was it just the things she admitted? Telling people – who mostly seem to have known – that someone was gay? And getting the age of someone peripherally involved wrong by more than ten years?
And given that other Lib Dem candidates LOST MORE VOTES than Smith – over local issues like Library Cuts – what was the calculation on Grell’s silly gossip in seeking to change the result?
Telling someone that Smith was gay if he was well known to be isn’t so much different from reminding voters that Grell is black. And an age “mistake” which was put in print and which was designed to affect people’s vote was seen in Ealing Southall … from the Lib Dems.
Another technicality. If Miranda Grell is suspended by the LP pro tem will she continue (or start) to get legal support from the party? Or not?
Chris, you are spinning. Don’t try to defend this.