“I would never intentionally upset Shirley Smart, her and Harry Rees were my friends and they came to dinner” – that was the message from Councillor Geoff Brodie after Isle of Wight Council leader Dave Stewart said he should be ‘ashamed’ of his behaviour during last Wednesday’s Isle of Wight Council budget meeting.
In a tweet last week, Cllr Stewart wrote:
“I hope the councillor who chose to interrupt [and] upset a colleague at [full council] on Wednesday is ashamed”.
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The incident occurred during an emotional moment when Cllr Shirley Smart was attempting to point out the amount of work her late husband and fellow Isle of Wight Councillor Harry Rees to get support for the Isle of Wight from Government and the EU.
Cllr Brodie interrupted her to try to make a point of order about an amendment he wished to make to a motion being debated. Cllr Smart was at that point becoming upset and emotional while speaking about her husband.
Cllr Brodie repeatedly called for a point of order and said his amendment had not been brought forward, he was ‘once again being treated appallingly by the council’ and it was a ‘disgrace’.
Cllr Smart apologised to Cllr Brodie for speaking as she said she was unaware the motion was coming up and stopped talking.
Due to the meeting being held online, during pauses for councillors to read Cllr Brodie’s amendment, an upset Cllr Smart could still be heard.
At the time, Cllr Brodie said he was sorry Cllr Smart was feeling distressed and did not know what was going on, saying his connection into the meeting was poor.
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Brodie said:
“When I was raising a point of order on Wednesday I had no idea that Cllr Smart was talking or indeed talking about her late husband when I raised my point of order. All I had on the laptop screen was her face.
“The suggestion that I would deliberately upset Cllr Smart when she is talking about her late husband is a gross insult.”
Yet another example of Dodgy Dave’s desperation for control.
Rude, arrogant, incompetent, inconsiderate …
Time to go, Dave!
If comrade Brodie could see Shirley Smarts face why couldn’t he see that she was talking?
some times streaming is really bad it will stop the video were ever it is if the connection is lost
same happens with tvs if the signal is bad.
When you’ve got a screenful of faces it’s impossible to watch them all at once, and if the moderator has un-muted you as speaker you can reasonably suppose that it’s your turn to speak.
If anyone should be ashamed of there behaviour, it’s our hard working (sic) Dave Stewart.
Putting up council tax with gay abandon and trampling all over the hard working local people who are cash strapped right now. I can almost hear the sound of rusty locks being cleaned and the coffers being opened, all in readiness to take all our hard earned cash. Dave Stewart YOU should be ashamed and no-one else.
Seen this type of thing on national news recently.
Not jumping on the band wagon surely?
Probably.
It’s a shambles and the Isle of Wight council should be closed down now they know how the rest of us feel as we are being shunned so taste of your own medicine! No get a grip of reality and think of others other than yourself for a change.
Unexpected excitement indeed! Are we to have open local government every time they meet or will it be permitted only in the run up to elections?
What makes me sick is people who are obviously not from IW getting all arrogant & pompous about our Island ! It’s typical of them oop thir !!!