There’s a video circulating around the Isle of Wight. Apparently, its source tells us, it was shot on Friday night outside the Cowes Yacht Haven.
We’ve heard many stories about alleged events at the Friday night charity Valentine Ball, hosted by Isle of Wight Council chairman Cllr Arthur Taylor.
As we weren’t there, we’re not going to dwell on them, as those reports are second-hand, no matter how reliable the witnesses.
What we have seen is the video.
We’ve watched this video many, many times over. We’ve listened to it over again without the watching the video – through speakers and headphones. We considered if it’s a hoax or a setup.
Update: The video has appeared on YouTube
The voice of David Pugh
We’ve been in enough Isle of Wight council meetings to recognise the voice of the Leader of Isle of Wight, David Pugh. At the start of the video, we’ve heard David Pugh’s voice talking to a lady who we can’t identify.
Asked if he’s alright, he replies with what sounds like, “Yeah … Carole’s just in there.”
The Carole in question is the partner of the Island MP, Andrew Turner, who was, we understand, offering to give a lift home to the person Cllr Pugh was with.
The next sound is an explosive voice, shouting, “Carole, you F***ing leave us alone!” Some other words are spoken with the voices over each other by the woman – we assume is “Carole” – with the male voice ending with, “… you’ve crossed the line.”
No Comment
We phoned David Pugh’s mobile phone Tuesday before mid-day and left a voice mail asking for a comment. We also sent him a text yesterday afternoon. We’ve heard nothing back.
Update: At 9.47am this morning (Thursday) we received the following statement from Cllr Pugh
Having departed from a charity fundraising event, there was an upsetting situation outside, and I directed a comment at the MP’s parliamentary assistant. My girlfriend and I removed ourselves from the situation as quickly as possible and left together. I regret using language which I would not normally use in public.
We called Carole on Monday and she chose not to speak on the record about the event.
Before 9am yesterday morning we sent an email to the Comms department of the IWC requesting a comment. It took them all day, until 5:27pm, to get back to us with “The Council only comments on matters relating to the public role of members and/or officers. We are unable to comment therefore on what we understand was a private matter that took place after the event.”
Image: Every Spoon under CC BY-SA 2.0
