London Assembly Member Brian Coleman has launched an extraordinary attack on Britain’s Olympic winners.
This is the report over at the BBC website:
"Conservative Brian Coleman criticised the winning athletes in a column for newspaper North London Today. "If you are looking for young heroes and role models, forget the highly paid athletes who leave their consciences at passport control," he wrote.
London Assembly Conservatives said Mr Coleman was entitled to his own views. Mr Coleman, who also chairs the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, criticised athletes for taking part in the "two-week orgy of sport".
"While Britain’s athletes may have won more medals than usual they must remember that they are tainted with the blood of Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, and Roman Catholic priests who are being tortured and held in labour camps just a few miles from the glittering ‘Bird’s Nest stadium,’" he wrote. Mr Coleman added that "our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq" were more worthy of admiration than Britain’s Olympic medallists."
China’s human rights record is deplorable but Mr Coleman’s anger should be directed at politicians who said too little about abuses rather than our athletes.
Boris Johnson has distanced himself from Mr Coleman’s remarks.
The openly gay Mr Coleman is widely regarded as a loose cannon. Only last week he courted controversy by blaming homophobia on his failure to secure a promotion. He has also suggested Edward Heath undertook cottaging.