Hornsey and Wood Green MP criticised for 999 call

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Alison P on December 13, 2008 at 21:09

Call me cynical but I wonder if she'd been have called dizzy if she was a he.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Adam on December 13, 2008 at 21:58

after posting this i thought perhaps I should i pull it, only because of the reputation of Brian Coleman who made these comments. he has openly criticised anything to do with Haringey and is famous for speaking without engaging his brain. See more on Coleman here and here

he also had the highest taxi bill of all the Greater London Assembly members in 07-08 and was banned from driving for amassing 12 points on his license

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by matt on December 14, 2008 at 10:36

Yes you should but mainly because this is a non-story.

It is also important, as the London Fire Brigade says, that people do not hesitate in calling either the LFB or The National Grid Emergency service if they feel something is urgently wrong with their gas services (including boilers).

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on December 14, 2008 at 12:18

Lynne Featherstone felt scared and vulnerable for herself and her daughters. She took no chances and called the Fire Brigade. They assured her that she and her family (and presumably the next-door-neighbours?) were safe and that she had done the right thing to call them. Lynne later blogged to thank them for coming. That seems generous and positive to me.

So why couldn't Brian Coleman just leave well alone? Because she is a LibDem MP and everything now has to be reduced to party point-scoring.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on December 14, 2008 at 16:34

Alan, you're probably right about the party political point scoring. In theory Brian Coleman was right about the opportunity cost (i.e. that fire engine and crew were not available for something else) but in practice, the risk was not high, as the number of fires has fallen significantly over the last 10 or 20 years. The crew may have been happy for the practice.

There is another less PC aspect of the MP-noisy-boller case: at the risk creating too much excitement, I suggest that there is a sexual aspect that most have overlooked or are too polite to mention. I would like to think that most blokes would have spotted the source of the problem early on. I'm not saying a hammer airlock wouldn't be alarming – I'm sure it was. But certainly I would not be able to hold my head up in the White Lion if I admitted to calling the fire brigade over a plumbing issue.

I note that Lynne choose to describe the members of the fire service as fire-fighters, rather than firemen. Her heroes who offered reassurance were doubtless three big burly uniformed men. Ms Featherstone is a hard-working MP and may well have had her mind on things other than plumbing hardware.

Now before some Sheilas get their knickers in a twist, I have to report that in this context today, one female did admit in a candid moment, that a male perspective on things is sometimes valuable!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by james walsh on December 14, 2008 at 17:42

clive have you ever heard of freudism ?
be careful where you tread.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John McMullan on December 14, 2008 at 21:50

Have you been on the turps Clive?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by frank demster on December 25, 2008 at 21:40

Had she?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by james walsh on December 14, 2008 at 14:29

any news on haringey (since baby P) is in the "what they been up to now" category for the third estate.
part of colemans strategy is the old "i know she isn't an air head but let her deny it" mud fling.

• ▶ Reply