A Conservative Birmingham City councillor has been arrested over allegations he called on Twitter for a female writer to be stoned to death.

Erdington councillor Gareth Compton made the remark about Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on his Twitter page.

Police said he had been arrested under the Communications Act 2003 and bailed. He has since apologised.

Ms Alibhai-Brown said she found his attitude "loathsome" and that a "flippant apology" was not enough.

She had appeared on Radio 5 Live's breakfast show on Wednesday discussing human rights in China.

Afterwards, Mr Compton allegedly tweeted: "Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really."

Later, he wrote on Twitter that he had not called for the stoning of anybody.

He said: "I made an ill-conceived attempt at humour in response to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on Radio 5. I [apologise] for any offence caused, it was wholly unintentional."

The Conservative Party has said his membership has been suspended indefinitely pending further investigation.

Ms Alibhai-Brown said she had been upset that somebody felt it "was OK" to say such things.

She said she had not known until the early hours, when she received a call, that anything had been written about her.

"My daughter had seen it earlier and not told me so I realised why she had been upset before she went to bed," she said.

"If I, as a Muslim woman, had said about him what he said about me then I would be arrested in these times of the war against terror," she said.

"He does not have more of a right to say these things about me that I do about him and I think words matter when you are in public life."

Roger McKenzie, Unison's West Midlands regional secretary, said he had been inundated with complaints from city council workers outraged at Mr Compton's comments and he called on Mr Compton to resign from the council.

He said: "Birmingham is a multicultural city and the council's workforce reflect this.

"It is clear that Councillor Compton is out-of-touch with both his city and the council staff.

"It is wholly unacceptable for a public official to make such racist comments. Councillor Compton must resign his seat immediately."

A Birmingham City Council spokesman said: "Any complaints that are formally received about the conduct of a city councillor are considered by the Standards Committee to determine if there is any case to answer."

The Leader of the Commons, Sir George Young, told MPs the comments were unacceptable.

"Stoning to death is a barbarous form of punishment which the government and I am sure every honourable member of this house deplores, and I hope that no elected person will threaten any member of our society with that sort of punishment," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bi ... m-11736154

He's a prat, but the overreaction's hanging out of this...

And there in lies the problem.

There's nothing wrong with jesting that someone should be stoned to death, especially if you're genuinely appalled by their existence. It's simply an expression of your thoughts. It's in no way a call to arms, and only a complete imbecile would take it literally.

What is wrong is the "war against terror" where such horrors are made real.

"Thought crime" is not a crime. Actually killing innocent people is.

Yes but as a public servant he should not be doing that. What he said was wrong and could be construed as requesting an killing. It may have been a joke but it was in exceptionally bad taste. A lifetime ban from political office should be punishment enough, plus a criminal record. He does not need to serve time for it. Having a criminal record will be punishment enough.

If that deserves a criminal record, then the far worse things certain people have said on here must surely deserve far worse recompense. I'm talking about the calls for murder and mutilation posted in this very forum.

Or should the law discriminate according to your job?

Yes but politicians should not effectively be asking someone to break the law. Making a joke is fine, even if it is in very bad taste. This was not a joke.

A bit off topic but still related, Paul Chambers lost his appeal. He who tweeted about bombing an airport.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-so ... e-11736785

I have to say I find it rather bizarre that you are against the conviction of the bloke who made the bombing comments on Twitter, and yet support this?

This whole sorry episode (in addition to the Twitter bomb thing) strikes me as a storm in a teacup, and if the authorities can find the time (not to mention the inclination) to prosecute cases such as this, then something has gone horrible wrong somewhere.

The Airport twitterer was clearly a joke. There was absolutely nothing to link him to any threat real or imagined. As you say a criminal record for what is a stupid comment.

The councillor really should have known better. Yet no charges are being levelled against him I see, yet he was asking someone to commit murder, which is incitement to a hate crime. Just because she is a muslim dopes not mean that she is not entitled to the same protection in law. If the airport case gets a criminal record then this definitely gets one in my opinion. The law should be at least consistent.

Woah, let's establish something here, he made a general comment about someone being stoned to death; that's the equivalent of me saying "I could just kill X, or I really wish X would get hit by a bus. Anyone with the slightest grip on irony would know he was not being serious, it's not as if he specifically asked someone to act on his behalf or was being genuine, and as such I can not take this seriously as a threat to kill/incitement to murder.

I am also holding this case up as how the term "racist" gets thrown about inappropriately, just because the "victim" is Asian and Muslim this does not automatically mean the person making jokey comments about stoning is racist.

How can that not be a request?

It may be an attempt at irony but not very good. If I were to say something about some one else from a different ethnic background it could be regarded as racist.

It's still no different to say "Could someone please hit "Call me Dave"/Blair/Brown/Maggie with a bus". It's clearly not meant to be taken seriously, it's a joke posted for all and sundry. Had it have been, say, an e-mail or private message then it might be a different story, but in no way does that tweet strike me as genuine incitement to murder, or even to cause harm.

Yes but "Call me Dave"/Blair/Brown/Maggie all deserve a slap. I would not go as far as hit them with a bus. But she was a journalist, and not worthy of such vitriol. She does irritate me at times but still not worthy of a stoning, a particularly islamic form of punishment, which is where the racist element increases.