A stall promoting gay sex was set up next to a children’s colouring table in a public library, with a large purple sex toy on open display. That is wrong, and one brave councillor had the courage to say so. Now Devon County Council is punishing him for it. On 19 October 2025, Exeter Library hosted a “Young Person’s Day” as part of the city’s Out There Queer Fest, billed as a “bold celebration for LGBTQIA+ young people and friends”. In the library foyer, right beside the children’s art and colouring area, a sexual health charity was given a stall. It displayed a large purple prosthetic penis, a penis-measuring device and literature about “chemsex”, where gay and bisexual men have sex while high on dangerous drugs. Young children walked straight past it. One mother had to explain to her young children why the items were there. It was “not a conversation I was expecting during a routine library visit,” she wrote. Cllr. Michael Fife Cook did exactly what we would want any councillor to do. As leader of the Reform UK group on Devon County Council, he raised the alarm. He challenged council officers directly: “I think this makes it clear our council officers can’t be trusted in safeguarding children ... any normal person would look at what was on show at this event and would believe it was not appropriate for young children.” He was right. Sex toys and drug-fuelled gay sex literature have no place anywhere near young children. But instead of fixing the problem, the council turned on him. Two senior officers complained about him. He asked for a public hearing, but on 29 July 2026, the council’s Standards Committee met behind closed doors. It threw out the claims that he had bullied anyone. Even so, it found him guilty of failing to show respect and of bringing the council “into disrepute”. The disrepute finding passed by a single vote, four to three. The committee then ordered him to write an apology and undergo one-to-one “training”. Cllr. Fife Cook, a 72-year-old great-grandfather, is standing firm. “This is an attempt to gag me, but I won’t be gagged,” he said. “I am here to speak for the people, and that has to be the priority over everything else.” https://cgo.ac/scs2rgmun