‘Give us weapons’: Mayor at warmongering event in Sussex seaside resort

Niall McCrae

Back in August my eldest daughter told me of a gathering of about two dozen people on the seafront in our home town of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex. This was a public event in support of Ukraine, attended by the mayor and councillors and several children (some apparently Ukrainian). My daughter was troubled by a placard calling for people to send weapons, held aloft next to the mayor. She saw it, rightly, as promoting war and killing. I wrote the following complaint to the council office. 

 

25th August 2022

Dear Rother District Council

I am submitting a complaint about an event involving Bexhill town councillors and particularly Mayor Paul Plim, on 24th August 2022. 

My wife and three daughters (aged5, 10 and 12) were on the promenade at Bexhill when they came across a gathering of children and adults in support of Ukraine. My daughters were troubled by a prominent placard urging ‘give us weapons please’.

As you can see from the photograph, the mayor and fellow councillors stood beside the young woman bearing this placard.  While the right to protest is sacrosanct in a free society, I believe that the message crosses the line into inciting violence. It certainly caused distress to two f my daughters, who were bewildered to see such an open display of warmongering at a seemingly family-orientated event, which was obviously meant to draw attention on a seafront busy with families in the summer holidays. . 

It is indefensible for elected councillors and the mayor to give public support to such messages. There were not many placards, so it is unlikely that those in attendance did not see the wording.  I would expect the mayor and colleagues to use their political nous to check that they are not associating themselves with hateful or other inappropriate expression at a public event.  Tacit official support for this message is profoundly distasteful and a discredit to the town. 

Councillors should be impartial and focused on local priorities, rather than political propaganda far beyond the scope of council responsibilities. I am also concerned at the Ukraine flag that has been flying continuously for several months at the town hall. 

Whatever opinions councillors may have, the UK is not at war with Russia. I am sure that there are people of Russian origin in our area, who would find this unprecedented partisan activity offensive. Councillors are taking a one-sided and ignorant view of the conflict. It did not begin this year but in 2014, after a US-sponsored coup led to military bombardment of Russian-speaking areas, with carnage in Donetsk and a massacre in Odessa. Fourteen thousand people – mostly unarmed civilians – died in this eight-year period. 

I also see a placard mentioning Azovstal, the steelworks in Mariupol, and a redoubt of the brutal Azov battalion, whose thugs persecuted local citizens and boasted of their exploits on social media (typically with Nazi insignia).

I would ask the mayor and councillors to reflect on this event and their support for war in Ukraine. Bexhill promenade is not an appropriate site for militaristic messages about deadly weapons, which inevitably kill ordinary people as well as soldiers. 

Yours sincerely, 

Niall McCrae  

I chased a response several times. Meanwhile Malcolm Johnston, chief executive of Rother District Council, addressed a specific point in my complaint: – 

With regard to your comment concerning the flying of the Ukrainian flag from the Town Hall, I would advise you that Rother District Council was flying this as a symbol of solidarity with the people of Ukraine and everyone affected by the conflict and humanitarian crisis.

This flag has now been a constant presence for six months (briefly interrupted by St George’s Day and the half-mast mourning for the Queen). To my knowledge, there has not been no public consultation on this unprecedented display of support for a foreign country of no established ties to the UK or Commonwealth. The Yemini flag hasn’t been raised in response of that country’s ongoing military assault by Saudi Arabia, among numerous other cases.

Last week I finally got a response from Bexhill Town Council, but not from the mayor. Julie Miller, the town clerk, wrote: –  

Dear Niall 

I’ve received a copy of your letter and can only apologise for any distress that this has caused you and your family. 

Councillors aren’t impartial, they are entitled to have their own views and may speak on these in public. 

Individual councillors views may not concur with the agreed policy of the council all the time. So long as they make it clear that it is their own view, and not that of the corporate body, they are able to speak freely on any subject.  If a member of the public feels that the councillor acts outside of the Code of Conduct, then this is reviewed by the District Council.  In terms of your complaint, the District Council did not feel that the appearance of the Mayor and councillors at the Ukraine march was in contravention of the Code.

I will pass a copy of your letter to the full council to note its contents so that they may be aware of your feelings concerning this matter.

Regards,

Julie

I am grateful to the town clerk, albeit nearly three months after I submitted my complaint. But why did the mayor not explain himself directly? It seems that Ukraine is like Covid-19 vaccines: any concern or criticism – however legitimate – is an affront to the official narrative and should be ignored.