20 August (Part 2) - The arrogant and dismissive Alan Downing
This
one could go on for days but it may need a recap each time it is resurrected. Mayor Alan Downing was
found to have been disrespectful to a deaf
man when he chaired a meeting but not dismissive
and arrogant when he told him to go away while jabbing a pen in his face. On appeal
Downing was exonerated of
his disrespectfulness and suddenly it is the deaf man who is disrespectful.
There isn’t any dispute over what was said, the man rose a little from his seat, raised his hand
slightly and politely addressed chairman Alan Downing.
I cannot see how it could have been done in a more civilised and gentlemanly
fashion and as noted last week, Bexley council has said that
all chairman should
be mindful of the needs of the disabled. This is Bexley council’s account of the
incident’s opening words - and its verdict on them.
There was no “situation” until the request for Craske to turn on his microphone,
a request that councillor Alan Downing decided to inflame by at first ignoring
the request and then refusing it. Only a cretin denies a deaf man the right to
hear at a public meeting, and Downing is that cretin.
When at the end of the meeting the deaf man said he would be making a formal
complaint, Downing said he “would look forward to that”. According to Bexley
council that was OK because the deaf man was “hostile”. I saw no hostility but
if there was any, who caused it?
The council and Downing claim to be not guilty of a failure to activate the loop, which
obviously needs an active microphone if it is to work, because they had not been
told in advance that a member of the public attending might be deaf.
So in order to benefit from the microphone and loop system you have to give
Bexley council advance notice. Remember that if you go to the Post Office or buy
a train ticket in case it has become the norm elsewhere.
The
Appeal Committee, that's the utterly useless councillor Val Clark and
the pathetic Sybil Camsey, ruled that “councillor Downing’s comment: You must
have personal problems, could have been better” but “in the context” of the deaf
man having the temerity to ask for the microphone to be switched on “was not
in itself disrespectful”. They said that asking for the microphone to be switched on was
“intended to promote a negative response from councillor Downing”. Ignoring the
fact that that is another Bexley council lie, why did Downing not immediately
defuse the situation he claims was hostile by asking councillor Craske
to turn his microphone on? But a sensible response would require a decent and intelligent man
to be chairing the meeting and in councillor Alan Downing we have neither of those things.
As usual, everything within quotation marks is taken directly from Bexley
council’s excuse sheet. More another day…