Labour candidate maybe didn't understand that Twitter could be seen by everyone

Oh dear, oh dear...when Labour Party goes off message they show just how unlovely they are....

Stuart MacLennan, who had been standing in Moray, has been sacked because he posted highly offensive comments about voters, politicians and others on Twitter.

What a damned fool. Is this really the calibre of people they are putting up as candidates for the London parliament? Half a brain cell should have told him that Twitter is not exactly a confidential means of communication.

He branded the elderly “coffin dodgers”; he talked about chavs; he called Commons speaker John Bercow a twat, Nick Clegg a bastard and Dianne Abbot, a f****** idiot (well duh, you thicko, she’s in your party, you’re supposed to pretend to like her!!!!!). And he actually complained about being “up north again”. You really have to wonder at him.

One of his tweets read: “God this fair-trade, organic banana is shit. Can I have a slave grown, chemically enhanced, genetically modified one please?

The sitting MP is Angus Robertson who is defending a 5,676 majority. He called the remarks “totally unacceptable”, while Annabel Goldie, Tory leader, said his comments where "disgraceful".

One of the really amusing things about the whole sorry tale is that MacLennan in followed on Twitter by a host of what passes in Labour circles for "glitterati", including Sarah Brown, Ed Balls, John Prescott, Jim Murphy and Labour’s 'Twitter Czar' Kerry McCarthy (some all-women shortlist MP for Bristol).

Of course, it's fair to say that none of the people concerned would give a fig for what he called them. I guess they have all be called much worse and a little oink's opinions are hardly likely to cause them much lack of sleep. It is the fact that he didn't think that bothers me.

MacLennan, a taxation lawyer, said: “Some of the things I twittered before I became a candidate were very, very silly and I can see they are offensive. I have let myself and my friends down and am really sorry.”

Amazingly he appeared to have predicted his own downfall when he wrote: “Iain Dale (Tory blogger) reckons the biggest gaffes will likely be made by candidates on Twitter – what are the odds it will be me?” Err, pretty high, I'd say Stewie.

So in summation, this guy is a lawyer (therefore potentially bright), he is a candidate for a constituency, he knows that saying daft stuff on Twitter can lead to the downfall of candidates because Iain Dale told him so, and yet he says daft and offensive things about people on Twitter. Nob!

Right. Sorted. I hope he’s never my lawyer.

Pic: Stuart MacLennan

SILLY COUP

It was all silliness, this coup......

......At least that was how Brown dismissed it in an interview with The News of the World. Amazingly, obviously unaware of his lack of drawing power, he also promised to serve a full term as leader if Labour was re-elected.

He told the paper (somewhat disjointedly and incoherently): "I can't answer for the feelings of one or two people. But politics is full of...you know, large numbers of people are involved and they have to make their own decisions. They have got to be free to make the choices they want. I'm sorry it happened. I think it was a form of silliness."

Then the signs of delusion started to show: "I am the Prime Minister and am determined to remain so. I am determined, I am resolute" he said.

Brown revealed too that he had been turning to Tony Blair for advice. "Tony and I talk a lot," he said. "We have kept in touch and I have been drawing on his advice, as I always do. Tony Blair is one of the greatest British Prime Ministers. He served the country with huge distinction and is, to give him credit, responsible for a large number of reforms that we made. He is a very good friend of mine and always will be."

Here we have to be mindful of the publication Brown chose for his post coup interview... TNOTW, it continues: Glamorous Sarah will be thrust into the election limelight after Labour chiefs identified her as the PM's greatest asset. She has redrawn her diary so she can be constantly at her husband's side during the hectic four-week run-in to polling day. Sarah says: "I will support Gordon and the party, the same way I always have."

Still the same old nut job then. He thinks that telling the public that he will be there for another 5 years will be some sort of incentive to vote Labour; he expects us to believe that he and Tony are good friends; and he, who promised that he would never use his family in politics, will be thrusting his wife into the limelight.

It’s a woeful state of affairs when you biggest asset is not in fact your leadership, your intellect, or any of your policies, but your ...erm "glamorous" wife.