Forum Topic

No statement from Ealing Council on Sri Lankan massacre

I have searched but as far as I can see there has been no statement from Ealing Council about the massacre in Sri Lanka. The previous month when there was a similar atrocity in New Zealand the Council offered their thoughts and prayers to those affected and issue a message of solidarity. Although the latest horror involved a much larger number of people and British citizens were killed Ealing has not done likewise this time. This seems incongruous.

Gordon Southwell ● 2425d5 Comments

Not their job and certainly no requirement whatsoever to comment on anything that's not directly Council and/or local related.

Rosco White ● 2424d

This is probably well-intentioned on the part of the Council. Whether consciously or not there is probably a feeling that it is more important to distance themselves and us from an act committed by a white supremacist as a opposed to one by Islamist terrorists. Nevertheless, they should probably leave expressions of regret to individual residents rather than insisting on doing it collectively.

Andy Jones ● 2424d

Yes the question is true about who gets mentioned. There is a sizeable Sri Lankan population in our borough and it is important to stand with them. The horror of attacks on churches is hard to take. Very sad. Mosque, church or temple we need these places to be a place of peace.

Peter Chadburn ● 2424d

It is a very tricky issue and I tend to agree local authorities should avoid making comments on mass killings. If they do then with any thing in local government they  will have to lay down guidelines stipulating things like the number of deaths, whether it was a natural disaster or terrorism, geographical proximity. It is very hard to see how New Zealand ranks higher than Sri Lanka on these grisly measures.Some football clubs have got themselves into a mess over this having honoured former players or managers who died and then finding fans are complaining about how another hasn't been similarly honoured. So they set the number of times a player has played for the club to determine whether he gets a minute's silence before a game. The problem then arises that before nearly every fixture the silence is held often for a player from over sixty years ago that even hardcore fans haven't heard of and the whole process has become devalued.

Andrew OSullivan ● 2424d

An anomaly, by the sound of it but I can't honestly see why it's their place to comment on these things at all.

Susan Kelly ● 2425d