Thursday 12 April 2012

Appallingly immature but still a candidate

Labour's response to Shahid Hussain's outbursts on Twitter has been to give him a bit of a telling off and hope the whole thing goes away.

Kevin Madge, Labour's leader in Carmarthenshire, weighed in with his tuppence worth in the Carmarthen Journal:

I have pointed out to him that Twitter is dangerous and it's not something I support.

I don't use it and I do not want any of our political candidates to use it — it's only for young people and not a good thing to use for politics.

Phil Grice, Labour secretary in Carmarthenshire, described Hussain's comments as "appallingly immature".


But Shahid Hussain, who is an immature 31, is still the party's official candidate, and Kevin Madge said the party would be putting resources into Glanaman, presumably in order to get Shahid elected as a county councillor.

Let's go back to Kev's comments. Is Twitter dangerous? Well it's a bit like everything else, isn't it? Facebook and e-mail can be dangerous too. So is putting pen to paper if you write something you may live to regret. If you're a real idiot, you could poke your eye out with the pen.

Kevin Madge may not know anything about the social media, but he does like talking. He cannot get through a council meeting without bobbing up and down, usually several times. Sometimes he goes off for a trip down memory lane, reminiscing about going to Top Rank in Swansea and the good old days when people got legless on cider and had a good bop. Or he reminisces about the bad old days, and contrasts them with the new Golden Age of Carmarthenshire ushered in by Meryl and Mark, his "dream team".

The Labour councillors behind him sit stony faced, trying not to show their embarrassment.

When Meryl got into trouble for calling protesters "rabble", Kev came to her rescue. You could tell she  would really rather he hadn't. "Come on, it's the sort of thing we've all done", he said. "I've done it, you've done it, we've all done it." The "it" in question was of course engaging mouth before putting brain into gear.

Yes, we've all done it, but then we are not all deputy leader of Carmarthenshire County Council making decisions about other people's lives. And unlike Kevin Madge, most of us don't do it every time we speak.

See, Kev, speaking can be dangerous too.

Look at Shahid, for instance. When asked if he had deleted his Twitter account, he blurted out, "Following orders, yes." Actually, that bit of probably unintended honesty was to his credit.

What Kevin Madge is telling us is that it is OK to stand for election if you're stupid and hold lots of nasty prejudices. Just as long as you don't tell anyone.


6 comments:

MuppetMan said...

Actually, what Madge is saying is "Don't, for the sake of all that's Holy, actually do something that makes you accessible to the people who elect you in the first place."

Interesting to reflect of course that if Twitter is "only for young people" and "not a good thing to use for politics", noone seems to have told @Ed_Miliband, do they?

Martin Milan said...

Actually, what Madge is saying is "Don't, for the sake of all that's Holy, actually do something that makes you accessible to the people who elect you in the first place."

Interesting to reflect of course that if Twitter is "only for young people" and "not a good thing to use for politics", noone seems to have told @Ed_Miliband, do they?

Anonymous said...

as long as the good people of Glanaman are fully informed about the incident that's fine. It just worries me that had a Plaid candidate done this, Labour would have made a massive thing about it and everyone in the area would have heard by now. What are Plaid doing?

Tessa said...

"Only for young people...."?!
Priceless!

Anonymous said...

think i'll hang up my boots then. madge has told me i'm too old for twitter.. best delete my facebook. and my forums.. and my email. best get shot of my mobile as well if i get tempeted to browse the net. sell my computer.

haha, has madge told cccpress not to use twitter as a source of info?

word of mouth system is king. what you can't hear causes no harm. or in madge case, it's what you see.

yes there would have been a stink if plaid or anyone else did the same - double standards.

no wonder they call it the amman valium. (anon 2)

Anonymous said...

IF anyone has met Kevin{ Bless Him }Madge - full time politician & not brain of Garnant you would realize that technology is too modern a concept and in any case Meryl has not told him what to think