Webb guru embarrasses Colin Eldridge's Wavertree campaign
I'm almost tired of writing about how important the internet was supposed to be to this general election.
But it is the truth. Just as it is important for campaigning and keeping the grassroots on message, etc, etc, it can also be a source of great embarrassment.
Cue yesterday's story about Liberal Democrat candidate for Liverpool Wavertree Colin Eldridge's internet guru the ironically named Adam Webb.
He was caught out saying on Facebook that all religious people should f*** off, and posted a link to an online article which suggested women who get abortions do so because they know they child will be useless.
Mr Webb is not the first student to post inappropriate comments on the internet at 2 o'clock in the morning, nor will he be the last.
But that does not stop it being embarrassing for Eldridge.
Read the full story HERE.
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David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
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I know! Let's trawl through the facebook and twitter messages from every member of every political party's election team for the past 12 months or so to see what else we can uncover... I'm sure we can find some more juicy tidbits, especially given the number of students on Luciana's team ;-)
Labour should ask their supporters to delete at least their twitter accounts.
I know of one that would embarrass them to say the least with his very aggressive, provocative and nasty ways to defend the party.
He claims to be a ''Labour-loving, Law-studying Teen with opinions larger than you can imagine...'' Reckon that says it all.
Oh you're talking about Nathan Selby. He actually seems like an okay lad to be honest. The sad thing is though, when Luciana was questioned about him, she denied knowing him... ouch!
Tom in "Labour member is ok shocker"
:)
First thing Luciana does right then.
It is only "embarrassing" because political parties, in their desperation to dig up dirt on each other, make a huge issue out of it.
It then becomes "important" because the media decide to give it the oxygen of publicity.
Let's look at this particular case.
This Adam bloke makes some comments on his personal Facebook page which are a bit foolish and could be offensive to some people. David Bartlett accepts he was probably drunk when he did it.
Labour get hold of it and Joe Anderson approaches Colin Eldridge to try and embarrass him, and also tips off the media.
Colin Eldridge is faced with a choice. Does he run the risk of Labour using this as a stick to beat him with for the rest of the election campaign, or does he act quickly and turn off the oxygen by sacking the
guy?
He chooses the latter. But in doing so, it is turned into a bigger story (albeit one that will become tomorrow's fish and chip paper).
Now I would completely understand the vast amount of space that was given to this story if these were comments made by the candidate. But they were not.
Where is the evidence that this fella was reflecting the views of the Eldridge campaign or the Lib Dems in general?
Haven't we all got work colleagues who have got views we don't agree with or find objectionable? It's not usually a sackable offence unless they're racist or homophobic.
So why is this relevant at all to the voters of Wavertree?
Answer: It's not.
It's froth and nonsense and detracts from the real issues that should be being debated.
Sadly, we are seeing these tactics time and again, from ALL political parties.
We've seen the Lib Dems criticising Luciana Berger because she's not from Liverpool and can't sing You'll Never Walk Alone backwards while walking through the Mersey Tunnel. Or something like that.
Yesterday Radio Merseyside dedicated a huge amount of airtime to news that the Shields family have issued, through the Labour Party, a letter to residents complaining about a photo of them being used in a Lib Dem election leaflet. 'I've never used the Shields family in my campaigning', blasted Joe Anderson, without a hint of irony in his voice. Isn't it the Labour Party who printed the letter for the Shields family? And I guess we must have all been mistaken when we saw Joe taking centre stage in the media scrum when Shields was released.
While this type of yah boo nonsense is presented as news, we will not get any meaningful party political debate.
And that is what is most depressing of all.
To Lib Dem Watcher... I can be bi-partisan you know! ;)
I am a Labour supporter and I agree with depressed take on it. This was a non-story that sadly became one. Unfortunately it is precisely the type of story both Labour and Lib Dems in this city have become known for.
For information...this has just been posted on Louise Baldocks blog. I hope that she can reconcile this with her often-stated wish to raise the political game in Liverpool. Sadly, as long as Joe Ando's in charge with his desperate attempts to lie, cheat and smear the opposition during the run-up to the election, then she's never going to win. Neither will her Party for that matter. By the way...what did Luciana Berger or Tim Beaumont do to help support the Shields family to get Michael released? Answer ...absolutely nothing from all accounts. But Joe wants them to get all the political credit. How pathetic.
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Anonymous said...
Ms Baldock, you know as well as I do that what appeared in that article was not factual beyond my admittedly hyberbolic comment regarding ''all religious people''. I had no idea what else was on those sites re abortion and for your party to drag an advocacy group in for commment was utterly dishonest and shameful.
I appriciate you taking me into consideration here on your blog, I guess you didnt think to exercise such empathy when your people were digging months and months back on my facebook page looking for something, anything, to discredit a compentent, qualified candidate. If this is what its come to to get votes, how can honestly believe that your candidate is qualified to run the area shes contesting? It was an irresponsible selection and this is irresponsible campaigning.
You must realise that the statement was not reflective of any serious opinion I hold, and you must also know that I wasn't trying to promote those points on abortion- they just happened to be on a site that had a story that i did want to raise awareness of. You could have taken that into account, but you're lack of class and desperation prevented such basic human decency. So congratulations on taking down a lowely intern; but you must know you're on a sinking ship if this is what its come too.
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This post must have come in while I was compiling my answer to the Scribe's post on my blog. I am now assuming that "Scribe" is Adam Webb, who I only heard of this weekend. My response, on my blog, shall and will stand.
Agreement I am afraid the level of debate in this city is so poor it is untrue. And they wonder why people don't turn out to vote any more! Mike Storey once claimed it was the politics of contentment but that is complete nonsense - it is the politics of apathy. Radio 4 did a piece last weekend on low voter turnout in Liverpool and what came across most strongly was the feeling that people believe they can't make a difference with their vote. Politicians in Liverpool should hang their heads in shame. I am no Militant supporter - Derek Hatton was on a hiding to nothing, was more interested in his own personal profile and employed bully boys to keep him in office - but at least he was passionate about his policies and would defend them to the nth degree. I don't see any of that anymore. It is more about attacking personality than policy. Somebody I know - who is not involved in politics - once said: 'Is that the best that we can do?' when they saw who had been elected as leader of the council. Sadly it is, and will be for a long time to come looking at the pathetic shower - with a handful of notable exceptions - that inhabit most of the seats in the council chamber.
Scribe asked a simple question before but still no response to "What did Luciana and Tim do exactly to get Michael released"? There's no excuse for Joe Anderson's weasle attempt to use this issue for his own political advantage. This will backfire on them all big time.