Alan Blumenthal
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Alan Blumenthal is a 58-year-old Zionist businessman who has lived locally in Hall Green for his whole life. He is a board member of a Birmingham community group and is married to Karen.[1]
On 9 September 2017, Alan and his sister Mandy Blumenthal attended a West Midlands Palestine Solidarity Campaign (WMPSC) event in Birmingham where Israeli Arab member of the Knesset Ms Haneen Zoabi was speaking. When they started heckling Ms Zoabi, a WMPSC activist grabbed Mandy Blumenthal’s smart phone as she was recording the proceedings and ran with it to the other side of the room.[2] Mandy was seen running after her at which point the two were on the ground wrestling as her brother Alan tried to help. Alan was then grabbed by several of the crowd, but he held his arms high in the air as if to say he was not a threat. Mandy emerged from the floor with scratches and bruises and, after some other exchanges, Mandy, Alan and another man were ejected.[3]
Birmingham councillor
Alan Blumenthal is both a seasoned candidate for UKIP and an experienced Birmingham City Councillor, having was a councillor for Bournville for 12 years from 1983. During his time as a councillor, Alan was the opposition spokesman for the following committees: Technical Services; Women’s Committee; Markets; and Personnel and Equal Opportunities. He was also a member of the following committees: Appeals; Housing; Planning; and Environmental Health. He also represented the City on the Repertory Theatre Board. He served for several years as a Governor of a Faith school.
Whichever party you may have supported in the past there is no denying that the way in which our City Council is run leaves a lot to be desired. The details of this were made clear by the Kerslake report which analysed the problems. Since this was published very little has been achieved in terms of reform.
Our Council is heavily in debt and both putting up your Council tax bill and reducing services as a result. Our children’s services are unsafe, our schools are not properly run and yet the Council leaders are paid massive sums and no-one is held to account. Birmingham City Council is hugely wasteful and inefficient. This is where I will be your voice. I will ensure transparency of the issues and make sure that you know what is and is not being done to put matters right.
As your councillor I intend to scrutinise and ask the questions others dare not ask for fear of not getting promoted within their party. We need some tough questions to be asked on your behalf and I am the man capable of doing it.
(Motorists do not require signage to mark the boundary between Birmingham and Solihull — it’s apparent from the unfortunate state of repair that can be observed in the roads on the Birmingham side!)
Antisemitism
Two people who have featured as candidates in this by-election have been making the headlines for the wrong reasons – both a Conservative and a Labour candidate have been deselected from their parties due to alleged "anti-semitic/racist views".
The Labour Party were able to select a replacement (so this candidate is not their first choice!), but in the case of the Conservative Party the candidate was deselected after the deadline for nominations, although he will still appear on the ballot paper as the Conservative Party candidate. There is no official Conservative Party candidate running in this election. Alan deplores all forms of anti-Semitism and racism and asks for your support in demonstrating to the Council that this is always unacceptable.[4]
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:President Abbas’ Rebuke to Theresa May over Palestine | blog post | 24 September 2017 | Craig Murray | The ignored part of the Balfour Declaration to which Abbas referred is of course: “It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” |
