00:00Honestly, it makes you want to rip your hair out.
00:02Now, imagine having the misfortune of having to sit through a council meeting
00:05and listen to this absolute nonsense.
00:08Although I suppose it's true, if they're going to govern like clowns,
00:11then why wouldn't they dress like them?
00:12It's embarrassing.
00:13You know, we've got a white man being offended on behalf of different ethnicities.
00:17But when you actually speak to them and you say,
00:19is there any reason you couldn't wear a shirt and tie?
00:21They go, absolutely not.
00:22So actually, I would say that it's quite offensive to say
00:25that certain ethnicities can't wear a shirt and tie.
00:27Absolute nonsense.
00:29Of course it is.
00:29I mean, it's a standard dress code.
00:32It's a code of conduct.
00:33It's a code of decorum.
00:35It's a code to show that you're ready for work and businesslike.
00:38And we happen to be in the United Kingdom.
00:40What's his plan be?
00:42Well, you dress in a sari?
00:45You tell me.
00:46I don't know what they're going to turn up in next.
00:48Well, I can tell you, if I was the chair of the meeting,
00:50because it's at the chair's discretion,
00:52if anybody turned up without good reason,
00:54I would tell them to leave the meeting and the story,
00:56because we've been elected by our constituents.
00:58If you can't be bothered to put a shirt and tie on
01:00and show the respect to the people who have put you there,
01:03then don't bother coming.
01:04Now, of course, there are exceptions.
01:06There's people who an emergency has come up
01:08or they've got back from work later than they expected.
01:11Fair enough.
01:11We'll make exceptions as one-off.
01:12But to make it a blanket rule of dressing however you like,
01:15absolutely ridiculous and shameful.
01:18Yeah, I mean, you could be like Justin Trudeau.
01:20You could wear a pair of green Adidas trainers to meet the king.
01:23I mean, there is a certain contagion to this lack of dress code,
01:27but on a serious point.
01:29You know, nobody is saying that it should be mandatory
01:32to wear, you know, to strip out your cultural origins,
01:37to comply.
01:39It isn't that.
01:40This isn't this idea of like a French style,
01:43no wearing of any religious attire.
01:47This is a straightforward him taking offence
01:50on behalf of somebody else who...
01:52I mean, has anybody ever complained about this in the past
01:54in this council?
01:56And that's the exact thing that was discussed on the night.
01:59Nobody had ever made a problem over it.
02:01But the sad thing is, I was the lone voice in the chamber
02:04to say this is absolute rubbish.
02:06So afterwards, they said, OK, we'll take a vote
02:08on whether to send this back to a working group
02:10to review the wording to see if it is offensive
02:13and whether it's fit for purpose.
02:14I said, well, let's make it a recorded vote.
02:16I was the sole councillor out of all of them
02:19that said, nonsense, let's play our head.
02:21The Tories joined forces with them,
02:23and that's why they're currently unelectable, both parties.
02:26And what is that about?
02:28Is it just a total fear, a total lack of a backbone?
02:33They just want to keep their heads down.
02:35But, see, the problem with that is that as soon as you just
02:37keep silent, this becomes the new norm.
02:40How long before anybody could turn up in anything
02:42they want to work?
02:43And that is not the way we conduct business in this country.
02:49Exactly that.
02:49People are scared of being offensive,
02:51and that's why I love being part of reform.
02:53I make no qualms about it.
02:54I used to be a conservative.
02:55I joined reform when we were polling 8%, 9% in the party
02:58because I believed in the party's principles
03:01and the convictions, and I had the courage to join.
03:04But we've certainly got to stand up
03:05and we've got to fight back this nonsense.
03:07The fact that reform are polling so well now
03:09shows that actually we've got the majority
03:11or a good swathe of the country behind us.
03:15What I would say, though, is I don't think the majority
03:18of the public are actually aware of the conduct
03:20of their elected members.
03:22Most people don't know who the local councillor is,
03:24and so they don't know what's being said.
03:27Although I suspect if people, if the electorate,
03:29were aware of the comments that were made
03:31by this certain councillor,
03:33he would be getting booted out of office
03:34and it wouldn't be too soon.
03:36And the interesting thing is,
03:37he's actually a ward colleague of mine.
03:38He's another councillor.
03:40I can tell you, next year I'm up for election.
03:42We're going to really work hard
03:43and we're going to be delivering the message
03:44that reform is the serious party.
03:47Well, I'll tell you what,
03:48I think one of the things we're going to see now
03:49about so many reformed councillors out there,
03:51so many reformed councils being taken over by reform,
03:54more and more of these kind of stories coming out.
03:57And I think maybe that's what the general public needs,
03:59just to sort of have the sunlight,
04:02the bleach of sunlight,
04:03to show us what's going on.
04:04That's what I did when in the European Union
04:06just exposed their cocktail parties,
04:08their foreign jaunts,
04:10the wastage,
04:11the £5,000 leather armchairs.
04:13That's your job.
04:14Thanks for joining us, Oliver Friesen.
04:16Thanks for joining us on the show.
04:17Now, we contacted the Labour councillor
04:19in question for a comment
04:21and we haven't received one yet.
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