Labour Cllr Ramesh Patel shows typical champagne socialist double think.

Yet more New Labour double standards. Yet more of their I shall do as I like, you will do as I dictate attitude.

A COUNCILLOR campaigning against mobile phones funded by the taxpayer used his for seven months after being asked to give it back.

Ramesh Patel has been accused of hypocrisy by a senior Liberal Democrat in Cardiff after he criticised last year’s £375,000 bill for council staff mobiles and BlackBerries.

Culture executive member Nigel Howells said Coun Patel, who represents the Canton ward, kept using a BlackBerry issued to him as chairman of the city’s housing appeals committee even after losing the post after last May’s elections.

The Labour councillor spent £287.67 on the email-enabled phone between being asked to return it on July 8 and the day he handed it back on February 9.

Coun Howells called on him to repay the money.

He said: “It is hypocritical of him to criticise council officers who are legitimately using mobiles and BlackBerries for their work when he has refused to give back a BlackBerry and continued to use it at taxpayers’ expense.

But he is one of the righteous, laws and morals are for little people not the likes of him.

“The proper course of action for him would be to pay the money back straight away.”

Last week, Coun Patel called on the city council to slash its annual mobile phone bill by scrapping the 72 BlackBerries given to council staff based in offices and reducing the 980 mobiles for staff in fixed locations.

Among the total number of 3,000 council mobiles and BlackBerries in Cardiff, senior councillors with responsibilities as executive members or chairmanships of committees are given the mobile e-mail devices to help combine their roles with their working lives.

Backbench councillors are given a taxpayer-funded home phone line and a laptop computer, but no mobile phone.

Although Cardiff council defended its bill, it has since emerged that Caerphilly council is planning to make £100,000 of savings by slashing the number of mobiles issued to staff.

Coun Patel said all councillors should have mobiles to contact constituents.

He said: “If he wants me to pay it back, I’ll pay it back on the understanding that he pays back everything that he uses on his BlackBerry.

“Why should executive members be entitled to them when backbench councillors are not?

“I did not use it for personal use at any point.

“Mine was purely used for council business.

“As elected members, I have always been a strong believer that, because we are mobile, it is an essential tool for us just as it is for mobile officers.

“I’m having to use my own mobile to ring constituents, which I pay for out of my own pocket.”

Coun Patel said he would be happy to see his taxpayer-funded landline telephone replaced with a mobile.

Sadly he won't be resigning based on that.

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