News / Politics
Opposition leaders unite to accuse Rees of ‘rank hypocrisy’
Bristol’s three opposition party group leaders have taken the unusual step of writing a joint letter to Marvin Rees following comments he made to a councillor.
The mayor has faced growing criticism since the exchange that he had with Carla Denyer on Tuesday, in which he said that his “heart often sinks” when he sees her name and that the way she does politics is “demoralising”.
The letter from Jos Clark, Mark Weston and Paula O’Rourke said that “maligning councillors… is cheapening the political discourse of Bristol”.
is needed now More than ever
Here is the letter in full:
Dear Mayor Rees,
We wanted to write to you following this week’s Full Council meeting, and your choice of words towards both individual councillors and the whole chamber. In your State of the City address in 2019, you said that “we urgently need an improvement in the quality of our civic discourse” and we are all in agreement with that statement, but unfortunately, we do not feel that your comments in recent Full Council meetings meet the standard of quality civic discourse.
While we completely respect your right to disagree with our policy positions, as we all disagree with each other on policy, we must preserve the respect towards each other in our discourse in the chamber. To say that “your heart sinks” when you see a specific councillor’s name on Members Forum, or to say that “the step down in integrity and dynamism is disheartening” when referring to the chamber is very disappointing behaviour. We feel that your comments show rank hypocrisy when you have previously echoed Michelle Obama’s “When they go low, we go high” quote.
Maligning councillors from the dais is cheapening the political discourse of Bristol, and if we are truly to tackle the many issues that Bristol is facing, from the climate emergency to the housing crisis, we must work together, and maintain respect in the chamber. This week’s Full Council showed that when we as parties work together across the aisle, we can craft and support motions that help fight Bristol’s multitude of long-term issues.
We hope that you will bear this in mind at future meetings of Full Council so that we can all improve the quality of our civic discourse and “go high not low”.
Yours sincerely,
Cllr Jos Clark
Lib Dem Group Leader
Cllr Paula O’Rourke
Green Group Leader
Cllr Mark Weston
Conservative Group Leader
On Friday, Rees will be appearing on Channel 4 News when it is broadcast live from Bristol Beacon as part of Channel 4’s Black to Front initiative.
Main photos: Bristol City Council
Read more: Rees scolds Bristol’s youngest councillor for asking ‘disappointing question’
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