Tony Greenstein | 30 July 2016 | Post Views:

Then They Hold an Investigation
into what happened at Brighton & Hove Labour Party AGM
There was only 1 incident at the BHDLP AGM – a race hate attack, currently being investigated by the Police, which involved Harris Fitch, a Progress supporter, registered at the address of Labour Councillor Caroline Penn and associate of Councillors Warren Morgan and Emma Daniels.  Strangely enough this incident hasn’t been mentioned by Morgan or indeed Peter Kyle MP 
The pub where the race hate attack took place
Seema Chandwani and Michael Calderbank, both of whom were abused

Having suspended the BHDLP and reinstated the defeated Executive, the NEC has now decided to conduct an investigation.  Worthy of Alice in Wonderland’s Trial or Kafka.
On July 12th Ann Black, Chair of the Labour
Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) suspended Brighton & Hove District
Labour Party.  This was because of
allegations which were made by those who had lost the elections to the BHDLP Executive
at the 9th July AGM of the district party.  Supporters of Progress had lost these
elections very heavily, nearly 2-1.  It
was an AGM attended by some 600 party members. 
Black also removed, at a whim, the newly elected Executive and
reinstated the old Executive who had been voted out of office. 
The suspension of BHDLP was based on allegations of a spitting incident as alleged by Cllr. Emma Daniel above.  Problem is that there is no victim of this incident, no CCTV footage, indeed nothing.  The only conclusion is that Daniel and the leader of the Council, Warren Morgan, deliberately lied.

Warren Morgan is insistent there was a spitting incident – which is very convenient – since it enabled the losing candidates in the Executive elections to be reinstated.  Problem is that there was no such incident.
There was no ‘unhappy security staff member’ nor was there any CCTV footage.  Warren Morgan has suddenly become disinterested in finding proof of his allegations because the damage has now been done.
Black did these things on the basis of allegations
by Progress councillors Warren Morgan and Emma Daniels that there had been a
spitting incident involving the caretaker of City College where the meeting was
held and more general allegations of ‘negative aggression’.  This account of affairs has been vehemently
denied by local party members and the new Secretary Greg Hadfield has
accumulated some 60
witness statements
.
Pub security log of the race hate incident
City College have since confirmed that no
allegation or complaint has been made to it. 
The allegation of spitting has been shown to be false.  CCTV footage of the area at the time of the
alleged incident has been examined and it showed nothing untoward had happened.
City College statement makes it clear that there has been no complaint about the fictitious spitting incident
Despite this the Party remains suspended, forbidden
to hold meetings of any kind and the elected Executive remains removed because
Ann Black doesn’t have the honesty or integrity to fess up to the fact that
she, at the very minimum, made a mistake.
There was however a nasty hate incident involving a
local thug, Harris Fitch, a Progress supporter and friend of Labour Councillors
such as Emma Daniels and Caroline Penn. 
Fitch is or was registered as a Labour Party member at Penn’s home
address.  A visiting Momentum speaker
from London, Seema Chandwani and her friend Michael Calderbank, were told to ‘fuck
off back to London’ by Fitch and an unnamed friend when they went for a meal at
a pub by Brighton Station, Grand Central.
Warren Morgan and Emma Daniels, who were happy to
promote a fictitious spitting incident have kept quiet and refused to comment
on the hate attack that did occur.  It
seems that their concern about ‘intimidation’ is extremely selective.  For more information see Revealed: The
anti-Corbyn “moderate” in Brighton and Hove who stands accused of the
hate-crime against Seema Chandwani
In the meantime, having suspended the Party and
removed the elected Executive, Ann Black has set in train an investigation into
the very incidents about which she has already made a decision.  Kafkaesque? 
One Katherine Buckingham sent an email, at 8.24 pm on 28th
July to the local Labour Party announcing an investigation was to be held, over
2 weeks after Black’s decisions.  The
email reads:

Dear member,
Over recent weeks a number of complaints have
been brought to the attention of national officers of the Labour Party
regarding Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party.

For that reason, the General Secretary has asked
me to conduct an investigation into recent events in the District Party. I will
be reporting to the NEC Disputes Panel in due course.

You are welcome to send me your views on current
issues in the District Party. If you wish to contribute, please email your
statement to
[email protected]
by Monday 8th August. All submissions will be treated in confidence. If you
have already written a statement to me, the General Secretary or the regional
office these will be considered and you do not need to resend them.

Many thanks,

KatherineKatherine Buckingham
Head of Disputes and DisciplineThe Labour Party

I sent an email today to Ann Black concerning
her suspension of Brighton & Hove Labour Party.  Her actions are made even worse by the fact
that she is on the current Left-wing slate to the National Executive.  The LRC has already issued a statement, which
I endorse, that Black must never again be supported by the Left for election to
the NEC in view of her role in the current witch hunt:
Dear
Ann Black,
Contrary
to your assertion below, the suspension of Brighton & Hove Labour Party has
not been covered in your report of the 19th July NEC meeting .  I would
therefore like to ask:
i. 
Why on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations and innuendo did you, as Chair
of the NEC Disputes Panel, suspend B&H Labour Party on 11th/12th July in an
unsigned email to the Secretary of Brighton & Hove DLP, Greg Hadfield?
ii. 
The complaints made were vague and revolved around intimidation.  The 60
extracts from statements made by those who attended the meeting suggests that
your decision to suspend the meeting was made on the basis of complaints from
those who lost the election or their supporters.
iii. 
The main allegation, of a spitting incident, which was made by Cllr. Warren
Morgan, has now been shown to have no legs.  The alleged incident, which
involved a caretaker of City College, has been demonstrated not to have
occurred.  City College has made no such allegation. No complaint has been
received by them.  No such incident is seen on the CCTV and Warren Morgan
and Emma Daniels, who both asserted that there was such an incident, by their
own admission witnessed nothing.
iv. 
Why did you reverse the decision of the largest AGM ever, of 600 people, to
elect a new Executive instead of first holding an Inquiry?
v. 
Why has it taken till 28th July for Katherine Buckingham (below) to write
stating that she is conducting an inquiry into the AGM of BHDLP of 9th July,
when you have already taken a decision to suspend the party and remove the
democratically elected Executive?  Why did you annul an election before
the Inquiry was begun?  Is it normal practice to suspend a party, remove
its elected Executive and then conduct an Inquiry? 
There
was clearly a meeting which voted to elect a new Executive.  No one has
suggested there were any improprieties in the conduct of the count, why have
you undemocratically overturned the decision of a 600 strong AGM?
This
demonstrates to me that you are unfit to be a member of a grassroots left slate
in future NEC elections if you cannot be trusted to act democratically in the
here and now. 
If
the inquiry of Ms Buckingham is to have any integrity or validity then you
should acknowledge your mistake and instantly reverse your hasty decision to
depose a democratically elected Executive.
Tony
Greenstein
(suspended
member)

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