Welsh councillor who used term 'Muzzy' did not breach ethics, council watchdog rules

South Wales Argus reports that a Torfaen politician who used the derogatory term “Muzzy” in an outburst about Muslims on Facebook will not face any disciplinary action by the council regulator despite the comment being deemed “offensive” in its official ruling.

The Independent councillor, Mike Harris, posted the ‘anti-Muslim slur’ online in August 2014. It read: “Once a Muzzy!” alongside a Daily Mail article about 11 reported executions by Hamas of suspected informers.

Harris, who was at the time Chair of Torfaen council’s Safer Communities Overview & Scrutiny Committee defended the use of the word “Muzzy”, claiming the term had a different meaning in his post. Harris said it was intended to show that “They are executing people so they must be confused and not able to think clearly or muzzy as it says in the dictionary.”

Torfaen council’s Ethics and Standards Committee, which investigates and hears allegations against Members, refused Harris’ explanation with the South Wales Argus noting that “The committee decided that a reasonable observer would conclude that the intention was to refer to Muslims.”

The committee’s report referred to a complainant who said the post displayed “offensive, racist, Islamophobic, prejudiced views.”

The report itself concluded that “The wording of both posts were offensive” but because of the “the higher level of protection afforded for political expression to Cllr Harris under both the common law and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights [it] concluded that there was no breach of the code in relation to both postings.”

Harris, who represents Pontypool Ward on Torfaen Council said on Tuesday: “This is a victory for freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

The council watchdog’s ruling is shocking when considered alongside previous anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant comments posted by Harris on his Facebook page.

In 2012, the councillor confirmed his support for BNP’s immigration policies and called for “an Act through Parliament to reclassify all immigrants as being illegal immigrants.”

His tirade of abuse against immigrants includes further comments on Facebook such as: “Towns and cities all over our beautiful country now resemble parts of Asia and Africa” and “Muslim extremism is flourishing on the streets of Britain.”

He also posted the comment “What would our war heroes think if they could see Britain today? They fought to keep this country British. They fought to keep our nation free, sovereign and independent. They did not fight for multiculturalism, political correctness, or to see our country flooded with foreigners and our own people made into second class citizens“.

It is remarkable that the Ethics and Standards Committee did not regard these collective outbursts as unbefitting a local politician.