Subject: HomeFront - new Chair Hugh

When I read the first episode of this story, I wondered whether Hugh was in fact naive, rather than bigoted, and had allowed himself to be swayed by the mutterings of 'bogus'.  Having read this episode, I can see that Hugh obviously does have strong views and sees his responsibility at the charity as an opportunity to put these into action. Incidentally, looking at the picture, I wonder what the waitress in the Mill Pot cafe makes of all this.

But one important point, which Ben could usefully picked up on, is that Hugh seems to have pushed the allocation meeting in a particular direction without any real evaluation of the Afghani couple's case.  That's poor governance and poor chairing of the meeting, whatever Hugh's views, and wouldn't look good in the Millcaster Mercury.  Talking of which, Ben needs to handle Ollie the journalist with extreme care: it could be an opportunity to get some great coverage but it could be a chnce for a scare story.

For Hugh to tell Ben that he's 'soft' because he's just become a father is simply patronising.  But I'm going to speculate that Buster's arrival has left Ben sleep-deprived, anxious, and with his brain sufficiently addled to make him incautious about what he says.  It might not be prudent, especially in a public place, to ask Hugh to resign or to describe his views as 'possibly racist' - though he could point out that HUgh's actions, if he treated the couple in a particular way purely because they were Afghani, would lay the charity open to charges of racism.

No straight answers to the discussion questions, I'm afraid, but these are my thoughts.

Martin