We read:
"A Labour councillor is under investigation after posting a string of outrageous comments on Twitter, including scathing remarks about the attractiveness of his female opponents.
In one offensive tweet, Julian Swainson, the Labour group leader on Waveney District Council in Suffolk, said: ‘It reminds me of the council chamber game “Who would you shag if you had to?” looking at the opposing benches.’
Last night, the Tories sent a formal letter of complaint to Labour leader Ed Miliband, arguing that the communications were ‘so grossly offensive’ that Mr Swainson could have broken the law.
Mr Swainson’s messages on the social networking site included personal attacks on Tory MP Nadine Dorries, a description of the Tories as ‘evil b******s, the Dark Ages party’ and a semi-pornographic reference to Santa Claus.
Colin Law, leader of the Conservative-run authority, said in his letter to Mr Miliband that he was enclosing ‘a small six-week sample’ of Mr Swainson’s communications ‘that are so grossly offensive at least one potentially contravenes section 127 of the 2003 Communications Act’.
Under section 127, a person is guilty of an offence if he ‘sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message ..... that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character’.
Mr Law said he was including examples of comments that were offensive to women and others with ‘racist overtones’. He also accused Mr Swainson of ‘using terms of abuse for his political opponents that relate to mental disability, sexual orientation and parentage’.
Yesterday, Mr Swainson said he had removed the message about the chamber game, and added: ‘I accept that taken out of context it could be seen as offensive and I apologise for that. Things taken out of context are misinterpreted sometimes.’
Source
10 comments:
It's Britain, who cares.
I only care because they are like an early warning system.
-L
3:14 - and who cares about you?!
There are local politicians like that everywhere including the US where a similar story could be reported.
That politician might just be looking for publicity by being outrageous.
"out of context" is the classic standby to excuse what someone has said or written.
Christians and Muslims also use it to evade criticism about obviously objectionable statements in their "holy" books.
No free speech in the new soviet european union
hmm - but the downside is we have to allow bird-brains to squawk jibberish all the time!
Annon 4:58 We have blabbering little dweebs like you though
Anon 402 The canary in the mine.
Anon 4:02, it isn't that early of a warning system anymore!
Yes, to judge by the frequent reports on this site, the US is every bit or worse PC-wise than Britain or Europe!
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