The BBC is boycotting mayoral briefings in Bristol after the council banned a reporter for asking a Labour politician why he flew across the Atlantic to give a 14-minute speech on climate change. MailOnline has more.
The BBC is boycotting mayoral briefings in one of Britain’s wokest cities after the council banned a reporter for quizzing a Labour politician on why he flew across the Atlantic to give a 14-minute speech on climate change.
Local democracy reporter Alex Seabrook, who works with the BBC and the Bristol Live website, had questioned Labour mayor Marvin Rees about the “irony” of travelling to Canada to give a TED talk about saving the planet when he could have done it on Zoom.
Mr Seabrook, who asked Mayor Rees why he saw fit to jet across the Atlantic having previously declared a “climate emergency” in 2018, will now no longer attend the press conferences after his bosses accused the council of stifling free speech.
Other journalists have rallied around in support, with the BBC and other local news outlets confirming they will not be sending representatives to mayoral briefings while he remains barred from attending and demanded the ban be lifted.
In a toe-curling press conference, Saskia Konynenburg (pictured), Head of Communications at Bristol City Council, intervened saying she disagreed that Mr Seabrook’s question on the mayor’s 9,200-mile carbon-spouting round trip in April to give a climate talk was “legitimate”.
Ms Konynenburg describes herself as an “influential communications leader, focused strategist and innovative content creator” and was only a reporter for three months in her career largely working for the public sector and charities, according to LinkedIn.
When Mr Seabrook said his job was to hold the mayor to account, she replied: “I think it probably is from a journalist from a newspaper, but I can’t quite see the link to LDR, but I’ll leave it there.”
Mayor Rees was last year branded a “bully” and an “egoist” after councillors – including from his own Labour group – accused him of sidelining them and shutting down debate.
Bristol City Council was branded woke after it paid for purple lightbulbs to be installed to mark the death of George Floyd at a BLM vigil. The city’s mayor joined protests in his city against Brexit.
He also called the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in the city as an act of “historical poetry”. In May 2022, a referendum took place in Bristol to decide if the city should continue being run by a mayor or a council-led committee system. The city voted 59% in favour of abolishing the post. Rees will continue to serve as mayor until 2024 before the job is axed.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service is a news agency funded by the BBC, with reporters working on regional titles across the U.K. covering local authorities and other public-service bodies.
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If you feel threatened by a group of ladies carrying out a vigil on behalf of a lady raped and murdered by a policeman then maybe you’ve made the wrong career choice? But what other job in the UK offers a psychopath the opportunity to indulge their blood lust against innocent, defenceless civilians? Maybe these poor threatened coppers could go and volunteer to join Putin’s army?
“Maybe these poor threatened coppers could go and volunteer to join Putin’s army?”
If this is sarcasm it misses the point. If you are serious you have a faulty understanding of the Ukrainian situation.
So Putin’s army are not brutalising innocent civilians?
Innocent civilians are brutalised in all conflicts. The argument made by Russia is that they’re aiming to stop the brutalisation of innocent civilians in the east of the Ukraine, by demilitarising and denazifying the country. Worth remembering that this is after eight years of attempts to resolve diplomatically, during which thousands died in indiscriminate shelling; very well documented and not really in dispute.
While there is always the chance that elements in any military ‘go rogue’ and commit atrocities, it is not in the Russian state’s interest to cause unnecessary suffering in a country that sits on their border. So I believe them when they say they are trying to avoid killing civilians. They are not trying to conquer the country, despite what western talking heads say. They don’t want it – they just want it to not be a threat to them, which it categorically was and increasingly so.
I doubt any of these coppers would last an afternoon in Putin’s army. What you and many others seem not to realise is that Russians feel existentially threatened by the West and for good reason. They have been looted, undermined, humiliated, ignored, interfered with, attacked via proxies, blamed for things they had nothing to do with, vilified, lied about, deceived, and disrespected for the entire post-Soviet period. They have had enough; it’s a catastrophe that Ukraine is now feeling the brunt of this, but ultimate responsibility lies with the criminal gangsters in Washington, who have only ever seen Russia as a target for exploitation. Those days are over.
I haven’t read the article in full so these comments are based on the above synopsis.
Given the utter stupidity of the comments quoted by various members of the police gang members I seriously wonder if their mental faculties had been properly evaluated prior to employment.
A large crowd of predominantly women gather at a vigil to remember another woman who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a police gang member and some women direct verbal anger at the attending police. Perfectly understandable.
Clearly the most senior copper in attendance did not have sufficient intelligence to tell his gang to back off which would have been the most sensible course of action. Oh no, the vigil had become an anti police protest. What the firkin hell did the police expect?
A gang of police surround a crowd of peaceful women mourning the death of another woman and then voices are raised! Plod didn’t see that coming? Good grief.
A crowd of women are surrounded by a gang of police who decide their vigil has become an anti police protest and who decide to wade in and make arrests.
Of course there are bad apples but Sarah Everhard was FAILED by the police who recruited the murderous Couzens. His psychopathic nature had not been detected during recruitment so the anger of the protesting women is understandable.
The women were breaking C1984 rules.
FFS.
Some senior coppers should have lost their jobs over this.
What a bunch of mendacious, petulant pansies.
Very well said HP. Especially the last sentence
Thank you CG.
Interestingly, as a teenager (nearly 50 years ago), I remember commenting to my dad that the two worst male bullies in our year had joined the police force.
My dad (born in 1918) said “it was ever thus!”
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