Host action against a member...

[Denzil_DC]

6. When we decided by concensus that you folks were to be mods,

I believe we left it to you to sort these things out collectively as you see fit.

I think it would have been better if you'd done that first, not least because you're the "junior member" on the team. There are at least two others on the team who have more experience of DU and acting as hosts and mods, and it might have been helpful to draw on their experience.

I'd rather we didn't have to second-guess all your actions as mods whenever something happens, but applause for bringing it here so we can clear this up.

I completely disagree with banning Ken for this. He's obviously worked up about things right now, some of his posts may be provocative and he may bang on a bit - but then I'm guilty of that, too! And so are others. We've had quite a few pretty intemperate allegations made in the last few days - Corbyn's an anti-semite, for instance, which is demonstrably untrue. And these from people who aren't regulars on the UK Group. They've been allowed to stand and nobody else has been blocked.

If Ken's post crossed what you consider a line, it could have been alerted on in the usual way, the thread could have been locked, you could have tackled him as a mod on that thread and asked him to delete - there were a number of courses of action, but I think unless it was a deeply urgent problem that had to be addressed right there and then, you should have discussed it with the other mods before anybody took any action.

As I said, you four are the mods, it's up to you how you run this group while you hold those posts, but that's my input as a humble poster. If I had a vote, it would be to reinstate Ken immediately.

ETA: BTW, I've just looked at his post. I'm Welsh-born and bred, nowadays more or less a naturalized Scot. I saw nothing wrong in what he posted last night, and I can't see what's wrong with it today. It was obviously a sardonic riff on the concept of that old trope, the "self-loathing Jew". His being Scots-born and Welsh-brought up doesn't necessarily make him any more palatable than any of the other Tories, though perhaps a little more interesting as a change. This may touch on issues I'm insensitive to, so maybe someone could explain what's so bad about it.