Labour councillor calls for IRA to bomb Tory conference

Cllr Florence Anderson has been suspended as a Labour councillor in Sunderland after she supported a call for the IRA to bomb this year's Conservative Party Conference. Her support for this cause on Facebook was spotted by Mark Wallace who reported it on his Crash Bang Wallace blog.

I am pleased that the Labour Party have suspended her. But they would have done better to have done so in October 2010 when she called for the death of Margaret Thatcher. At the time a press officer at Sunderland City Council, employed at the expense of Council Taxpayers, defended Cllr Anderson's remarks.

Not only did Cllr Anderson retain the Labour whip but she remained Deputy Leader of the Council.

Cllr Anderson is Chairman of the Community and Safer City Scrutiny Committee. It meets eight times a year (although she didn't turn up for the one in December.) For this role she is paid a Special Responsibility Allowance of £12,556 in addition to her basic allowance of £8,369.

According to Cllr Anderson:

The Committee acts as the Council's Crime and Disorder Committee in connection with the discharge by the responsible Authorities of their crime and disorder functions.

Am I alone in regarding Cllr Anderson as an unsuitable choice to be chairman of this committee?

Or that Shadow Ministers such as Peter Hain and Sharon Hodgson are misguided in endorsing her as a "friend" on Facebook?