The political fallout over last night’s heated Brighton and Hove City Council annual budget meeting has continued today online.
Last night, Green and Labour councillors joined together to vote through amendments to the Conservative budget, most notably reversing a 1% cut in council tax and the scrapping of cycle lanes in Hove.
Today, councillors and candidates from both parties have been arguing over the latter’s decision to abstain from voting down the Conservative’s budget.
Green candidate Luke Walter accused Labour of “shunning away” from defeating the entire budget – but Labour councillor Warren Morgan said that would have risked losing what the two parties had gained that night.
However, most remarkable was a lengthy comment left by Conservative councillor Ayas Fallon-Khan on Green councillor Jason Kitcat’s blog.
In the comment, which was littered with spelling mistakes and used caps, the online equivalent of shouting, Coun Fallon-Khan addressed Coun Kitcat as “me old mucker”.
He asked: “When are you going to realise that any left-wing consortium/coalition/agreement/cuddling session will never nbe about you, but about the leader of tha labour group’s wish for power??? C’mon ,get real.”
He added: “No doubt, you now CANNOT talk about your amendments seriously again, so we’re looking forward to our next debate with you and what your next crazy policy offerings might be.
“in the meantime, I still like reading your blog and I still think you are a good bloke, so anyone out there who thinks I don’t like the Greens are wrong. At the moment , I absolutely LOVE THEM.”
A more measured analysis of what last night’s budget might mean for the three main parties can be found on the Brighton Politics Blog.
