Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
"One Borough One Fuehrer" Jibe Lands Schmitz in the Schitz
The Haringey Independent carried the following story yesterday* (but you'll have to blame me for the headline):
Harringay councillor has been referred to his party's national standards board for refusing to apologise for a “Nazi slur” made at a Haringey Borough Council meeting.
Labour Councillor Joe Goldberg has accused Liberal Democrat Cllr David Schmitz of drawing an analogy between Hitler's Nazi regime and the council.
Cllr Schmitz referred to the authority’s “One Borough One Future” plan as “One Borough One Fuehrer” at a meeting last Wednesday.
In an open letter to the Liberal Democrats, Labour councillor Goldberg – who, like Cllr Schmitz, is Jewish – said he had “no option” but refer Cllr Schmitz to the national board after the local party failed to order an apology.
In the letter, Cllr Goldberg said: “Your "One Borough One Fuehrer" is a slur on the authority that attempts to equate our authority with that of Nazi Germany.”
The cabinet member for finance originally wrote to the Haringey Lib Dem leader Richard Wilson and the party’s whip Cllr David Beacham to “allow this sensitive and difficult issue to be dealt with appropriately”.
However, the letter was passed to Cllr Schmitz for him to respond directly to Cllr Goldberg.
Cllr Goldberg said: “Instead of the apology I had hoped to receive and which I think would have allowed us to put the matter to bed, I receive a hateful response accusing me of dishonoring ‘the dead to advance opportunistic ends’.
“I am now left with no choice but to make my own standards complaint and a complaint to your national leader Nick Clegg, and the Liberal Democrat party under your own complaints procedure.”
In the email to Cllr Goldberg, Cllr Schmitz defended his comments and said: “Humorous references to the trappings of the Third Reich have been a part of the tradition of European humour ever since Hitler first entered centre stage.
“To partake of this does not dishonour the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, a memory of which I am fully aware because my own grandfather was sent to Dachau in the immediate aftermath of the Austrian Anschluss.
“By contrast, some might say that what does dishonour the victims is the sight of politicians presuming to speak for the dead and the bereaved in order to advance their opportunistic ends.”
Cllr Schmitz said he failed to see how anything he said could possibly amount to an infringement of the councillors’ code of conduct.
He said: “I was of course referring, not to a person, but to a document.
“I made fun of the title of that document because I considered the title to be inept and easily prone to parody.”
Cllr Schmitz added: “Even if I had been referring to any individual or individuals, which repeat I did not do, the use of the term "fuehrer" these days will not taken by any sensible person as amounting to an accusation of National Socialism.
“It would be taken merely as a description of a leader who is overbearing.”
Liberal Democrat whip Cllr Dave Beacham said: “With an election coming up Labour are deliberately choosing to misrepresent this issue in a particularly unpleasant way.
"Cllr Schmitz was making a comment on the dictatorial and undemocratic nature of the council, not making light of extremism in any way - something he would not do and something I would not tolerate."
The Haringey Independent understands that a member of public has also made a complaint against Cllr Schmitz for his comments in the council chamber.
*From time to time we add stories in their totality from third party sources, rather than just linking, since experience has taught us that the stories tend to disappear from publicly accessible local newspaper archives rathar rapidly.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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I do hear ya. Just seems like everyone involved in this was getting it 'wrong' on this occasion and further squabbling doesn't seem likely to achieve very much.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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There's an election in 77 days, that's what this is about! Lot's to achieve.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Hinchcliffe on
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Would that terrible man, who has reduced debate in the Council Chamber to a rowdy sixth form debate (hang on, that's unfair to sixth formers), by which I mean Cllr Goldberg, have reported a colleague on his own side if they had made such a comment? I doubt it. As one Jewish friend and colleague asked, a storm in a bier stein?
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(Declaration: Agent and Chair, Harringay Conservatives)
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If the Labour group want to get stuck into David Schmitz, why don't they talk about this? Was it not a massive failure for him? I know we have Blend and Jam-in-a-Jar up there now but this was embarrassing for David, surely? I will not accept silly libdem conspiracy theories that the council planning staff are Labour people.
I also note with smug irony the prescience I showed in 2011 talking about local businessmen wanting to get themselves onto the council. And I laughed and laughed and laughed.
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Permalink Reply by Philip on
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Interestingly in the past, the Lib dem leadership have come down like a ton of bricks on LibDem public figures who have expressed sympathy for Palestinian Human Rights. Despite this, and despite that I hate the Lib Dems generally, they have many upstanding figures who speak out. Baroness Tonge for one and David Ward in Bradford are doughty fighters for justice (for all)
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I'm a bit miffed that the Independent didn't read the discussion I kicked-off here about the limits to humour. Not for my wise words - I didn't offer any. But other people did. (Including OAE and the always reliable feet-firmly-on-a cloud Claire Voyant.)
But I did link to some comments from Mel Brooks who - asked whether the Producers was a bit tasteless, said: "Of course. But it’s also funny, isn’t it?"
David Schmitz's remark was tasteless. It was also a neat pun. Which some Labour Party people (including me) had already noticed about Joe Goldberg's inane and vapid "One Borough One Future" marketing slogan. If a bit of humour can help prick Cllr Windberg's pomposity I'm entirely in favour. Something and someone needs to.
Similarly with our beloved and revered "Dear Leader". Of course Claire Kober isn't remotely an authoritarian North Korean tyrant, or like one of the other assorted monsters (Fuhrer Duce, or Caudillo) who insisted on deferential if not reverential bowing and scraping and all the other nonsense. But if she doesn't want people like me to take the satirical piss, then she should insist on being addressed and referred to as Claire or Cllr Kober and not "The Leader". And she should stop amassing power and treating her "cabinet" and other councillors like "the vegetables" around Margaret Thatcher.
Mel Brooks, though agreeing that many Jews were "horrified" by his film, also argued that jokes about Hitler and the Nazis were a way that: "by using the medium of comedy, we can try to rob Hitler of his posthumous power and myths."
Jokes and humour are also a way people can approach and discuss serious issues. And not so serious issues about differences - and shared humanity - in behaviour, values, culture and history. Heard one of the many funny stories about a Catholic Priest and a Rabbi?
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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A Guide, or where ones followers are all sheep a shepherd or Pastor, I suppose - even a cuddly German Shepherd.
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Permalink Reply by Friedrich Ernst on
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Der Fuehrer..you can find in many way's in German Language .Not every Person with a "Fuehreschein"* [driver licence],is a Nazi! and the"Stadt-fuehrer" isn't related to "Mein Kampf".
But One Haringey One Future,was not created by Cllr.Schmitz and the Question is really :Is rhre in Seven Sister(Ward Corner) and the Spurs development,one future or is ther the future for the big money?
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on
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Well done David. This personal attack on you suggests to me that the attacker feels vulnerable. You must doing something right.
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