Council Boss Defies Reform Leadership Over Pride Flag
The Chief Executive of Warwickshire County Council has defied the authority’s newly elected Reform leadership by refusing to take down a Pride flag, leading Zia Yusuf to warn that “a coup d’etat is underway in Britain”. The Telegraph has the story.
George Finch, the new leader of Warwickshire County Council, ordered Monica Fogarty to take down the banner flying outside county hall in line with the party’s manifesto policy to only fly British flags.
But Ms Fogarty, who previously headed the county’s race equality partnership, refused and said: “I am afraid I will not be taking the action that you are requesting.”
Zia Yusuf, the head of Reform’s department of government efficiency, claimed the refusal showed that “a coup d’etat is under way in Britain”. He accused Ms Fogarty of “subversion of democracy” and acting like the “monarch of Warwickshire”.
Mr Yusuf said: “Unelected bureaucrats are defying instructions from duly elected officials. They’ve seized control of the country, sabotaging the will of the people.”
Reform won the most seats in Warwickshire during local elections in May, when it secured a foothold in local government for the first time. It won 22 seats and now runs the county as a minority administration.
The party’s local election pledges included only flying the Union Flag and other British symbols such as the St George’s Cross outside municipal venues.
The banner flown was not the traditional rainbow flag but the more recent Progress Pride one, which includes the colours of the trans rights movement.
In her earlier response to the request to take the flag down, Ms Fogarty – whose salary is between £196,303 and £213,001 and varies each year on a four-point scale based on performance – wrote:
From: Monica Fogarty, Warwickshire County Council CEO
To: George Finch
RE: Flags
Dear George,
I am afraid I will not be taking the action that you are requesting.
Hitherto the decisions around which flags to fly at Shire Hall have been left to me as CEO. This has been the custom and practice for the duration of my tenure as CEO end I have never received a request or instruction from an elected member or the Leader on such a matter.
The Pride flag has been flown annually during Pride month for many years and I see no reason to diverge from this approach.
I had agreed with Councillor Howard that both the flag of St. George and the Pride flag would be flown and in my view that arrangement continues.
This council does not have a formal policy around decision making on the flying of flags and should you wish to promote the introduction of such a policy then this would be a matter to be agreed as an Executive Decision.
The Union Flag is flying over old Shire Hall as it does permanently.
The Armed Forces Flare also flying this week in recognition of Armed Forces Week.
The Fade Flag is due to come clown after the coming weekend at which point the Ukrainian Flag will be lifted again.
Given that there are currently three flags only at the front of Shire Hall there is then a decision as to whether the Union Or the County flag be hoisted.
Regards,
Monica
The flag was taken down on Monday in line with her statement that it would come down at the end of Pride month.
Worth reading in full.
The Telegraph today has an interview with George Finch, the 18 year-old council leader, who stepped in after the recently elected leader, Rob Howard, quit citing health reasons last week.
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Council Chief Executives are appointed by the Council. It’s probably not the case, but it should also be easy to unappoint them. They should, as the Americans say, serve at the pleasure of the Council.
The flying of flags other than the flag of this country and the flag of the county is a political decision so the council officers should have no say in the matter.
A Council is not empowered to endorse or oppose any cause no matter how worthy or controversial. They should fix the potholes and empty the bins once a week.
She should be sacked and lose all pension and other benefits, befitting her role. Maybe, if they are feeling kind they could give her one written chance to comply, and if she does she is then expected to step down but retain her benefits!
They should not get to decide what rules they will obey and which they won’t.
I don’t recall the Ukrainian flag being a recognised British or English flag, whatever views you may have of the conflict.
This should be interesting. I assume Reform are taking advice as we speak. Either officials have to do as the elected council demands or there is absolutely no point in having elections.
This issue was going to come up sometime when Reform took office somewhere and it might as well be dealt with by the Supreme Court now as later.
The most sensible thing would doubtlessly be to make a proper council executive decision about this, that is, a vote by the council leader and his appointed cabinet, which will then come into force after the proper procedures for that have been followed (basically, councillors who are not members of the cabinett are supposed to have some time to react to council executive decisions should they so desire).
Richard Tice was interviewed and asked what would Reform do – let’s wait and see he said.
Looks like they are “taking advice”.
I wonder if officials acted in the past solely following such detailed process. I do t disagree but if the officials want to play hard ball the governing councillors could too.
Fire her for cause – she’s not elected.
A flag is supposed to be a symbol of unity not “diversity” = apart – representing the common heritage and interests of the whole society.
This is one of those rare occasions when my sentiments align with those of our Muslim citizens, so I wonder if we could ask a friendly member of the local Muslim community to climb up and remove the flag.
Any subsequent criticism by Monica could be directed to the local mosque where she would be given the opportunity to express her views in front of the congregation.
🙂
sack her, she was not democratically elected, she has put her will and beliefs over that of the citizens who pay her wages. Time for M Fogarty to get a dose of reality, she is an employee, a servant of the people not the other way around.
She can leave, start up her own private business and then fly whatever darn flag she wants with her own money, but not mine.
It also shows an individual with an extremely petty attitude. I mean, it’s just a dumb flag, FFS. Hardly an excuse to not do as you’re instructed. But also it shows the strength of her conviction and support for this horrendous ideology and all the harms it encompasses.
Also note that the armed forces only get a week. Who on earth got the final say that this ‘Pride’ sham should be shoved in everyone’s faces for an entire month? It’s a horrible thing, symbolising a dangerous and degenerate movement, and I’m firmly on the same page as Viktor Orban on this.
Meanwhile, WTH is this latest lurid abomination?
https://x.com/boswelltoday/status/1939970568154935358
“Elle a des idées au-dessus de sa gare.” – Terence Rattigan.
The line between elected councillors and paid executives has long been blurred- especially in planning, where Democratic Services are routinely ignored. The Chief Planning Officer is appointed, unaccountable and wields significant power. MPs are required not to intervene in Local Government and “members” (elected councillors) must claim their expenses. Good luck with finding out how that works.
Yesterday in another context I mentioned Camden Council’s approval of a 26 storey tower block. This is a battle that has been going on for over 10 years. As part of this the developers with approval of planning dept. had an amendment. The 3 councillors on the sub committee of the Planning Committee decided it should go to the full Planning Committee, but the Director of Planning said he had delegated authority to approve it himself and did so.
Yes, it’s tyranny. My LPA is flatly refusing to prosecute a breach of an Appeal Decision, boasting that it is for the Council, not the Planning Inspectorate to make final decisions and anyway the transgressors should be assisted (talking National Landscape here) not prosecuted. Councils are too big for their boots, arrogant, unsackable and over-mighty.
You forgot to tack on corrupt in your last sentence.
Fire the overpaid CEO and remove that Ukrainian rag at the same time.
Can you provide any instance of a Council employee being sacked?
Perhaps a good place to start.
They are not sacked just invited to change places on the roundabout.
“this would be a matter to be agreed as an Executive Decision.”. A contradiction of terms?
Why where we not allowed to comment on the previous article?
I bet Reform UK secretly want her there, so they can point to her arrogance at the next election. Like Starmer, Reform UK are getting canvassing for free.