Mugabe-what a name!

A British councillor was this week asked to resign after she said one of her colleagues was behaving like Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.

Clr Victoria Silver had tweeted “Why do I keep thinking of #Mugabe” in a discussion about fellow councillor Thaya Idaikkadar who abandoned the Labour Group to form the Independent Labour Group.

The Independent Labour Group called on Silver to resign, saying “in view of Councillor Silver’s disgusting comment to compare Thaya to Mugabe and within the context of what the Labour Group is doing to harass the members of the Independent Labour Group, she should resign now”.

She responded: “We face an extraordinary situation in Harrow where a leader lost an election but has assumed power anyway – backed-up by local Tories when people actually voted for a Labour Council. And where, in this case, a simple reference about a leader who also couldn’t accept the loss of power is distorted to the extent that it fuels a drip feed of accusations which is really sad for Harrow.”

According to her twitter discussion, Silver said there was no intended mudslinging. “Just madness and dismay. My daughter is studying A-level politics and we have been talking about dictators.”

One of her followers responded: “I don’t think you should delete the tweet. The comparison is valid. No election=no democracy. That’s how Mugabe works too.”