Animal loving councillor supports violence against men
I almost choked on my foie-gras and unethically produced coffee at breakfast this morning when I read Cllr. Blanchard’s latest letter in The Press.
Some of you may recall last Saturday’s story about Grace Fletcher-Hackwood (who used to be Fletcher-Hall so I assume she has entered into a civil partnership since failing to get elected for Labour in last year’s council elections) being forced to resign from her position as York University Students’ Union’s academic and welfare officer after striking a male student in the face during a drunken argument. Now let me think… student welfare officer attacks student? Er… yes resignation would seem in order, and the vote of no-confidence by other students tends to support this line of thinking.
Supporters of Miss (or should that be Ms?) Fletcher-Hackwood have criticised the innocent victim of the attack, Dan Taylor, a history and politics student, for allegedly using Facebook to rouse support for his campaign against her. This is where Cllr. Blanchard’s intervention is particularly thought provoking for those of us who like to jump on hypocrisy and double standards from our public servants. Blanchard is a, not particularly well-known, animal rights activist and self-publicist who likes to rouse support for his campaigns against restaurants legally going about their business using - yes you’ve guessed it folks! - Facebook!
In his letter he also states that, in his opinion, her resignation is “simply too excessive a punishment”. I can’t say I agree; a prison sentence might have been considered excessive but considering she could, and possibly should, have been arrested and charged with common assault I would say that she got off very lightly.
Cllr. Blanchard’s support for this violent misandronist hardly does anything to confirm the image of himself that he likes to portray as a caring and compassionate individual. All it says to me is that he thinks it’s acceptable for one of his sleazy Labour cronies to attack a man and have it laughed off as a “drunken incident” yet he gets on his high horse and starts preaching to all and sundry about humans being cruel to animals!
I have to question whether a man who regards the welfare of animals above that of humans is fit for public office.
See you soon…
February 16th, 2008 at 08:47 pm
Much as I agree with most of what you are saying here i do have a nagging sympathy with anyone who commits a minor offence that in a normal crowd of people would lead to nothing but bad feeling, but in some cases, teachers being the most vulnerable, leads to the loss of their employment. Career criminals are given chance after chance.
It does really depend on how hard he was struck and what with, and I will never know that.
Good luck with this site, It’s a loss you being removed from the Press, though if you are reading the comments you will have gathered that.