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Over-the-top heckling makes a mockery of political debate
• YOUR story underplayed the extent of disruption that Mrs Ellen Luby has persistently caused at council meetings over many years (Police in town hall fracas, September 14).
While politicians should, quite rightly, expect a degree of rough and tumble at council meetings, the constant heckling makes it difficult for members of the public to follow proceedings.
Many people tell me they have given up attending meetings as it has become simply impossible to hear anything from the public gallery.
We need to make sure that the democratic rights of the minority do not overshadow those of the majority and that open and accountable government is allowed to take place.
The council has struggled for many years to find a balance between what is acceptable conduct by members of the public wishing to express their views and that which is negative and persistently disruptive.
At last week’s council meeting the behaviour of Mrs Luby and others clearly overstepped this mark, which led to the meeting being suspended twice. This serves no one’s interest, particularly the democratic rights of the people of Camden.
We very much welcome public participation in the council’s business and are actively seeking ways of bringing decision making closer to the public.
However, there is a big difference between genuine participation and the sort of persistent disruptive behaviour, which I do not believe it is reasonable for us to be expected to tolerate.
CLLR KEITH MOFFITT
Leader of the Council
Town Hall
Judd Street
WC1
• IF Ellen Luby can claim the right to vent her spleen at all and sundry from the council chamber gallery, then so can everybody else.
But the resulting bear garden would stop important decisions regarding, for example, housing and social services being taken. The issues involving the recent ejections of members of the public from the gallery when the Camden Council are in session are not concerned with the principles of free speech.
The cause for concern is the assumed right to say what you like, and to hell with anybody who has the temerity to object.
May I remind Ellen that at the time of the famous rent strike, 46-years ago, when she was among the tenants protesting from the gallery at the vicious Tory rent scheme, the tenants’ leaders never complained about their ensuing ejection being a denial of free speech. Nor did they troop back into the gallery at council meeting after meeting.
Protests against a council’s policies are very often justified. But to appoint oneself as a type of permanent gallery councillor with a claim to be allowed to speak at the moment of one’s choosing is hardly in keeping with the principles of democracy.
Finally, for Ellen to claim that “I am not a heckler” must qualify for the best joke of the century so far.
PETER RICHARDS
Highgate Road
NW5
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