Wednesday, April 29, 2015
More social media faux pas
It is a feature of modern day life that if you apply for a job or stand for elected office then somebody will spend time trawling through your on-line history and your social media posts in particular.
Thus the latest article in the Independent is only surprising in that they have found a mere five candidates to feature, and they are all Labour.
The paper says that five Labour candidates fighting key target seats at the election have been accused of “blatant sexism” after an analysis of their Twitter feeds found abusive and offensive messages posted online.
One Labour candidate, Jo McCarron, has committed a possibly greater sin in her party's eyes by admitting on-line that she voted for the Liberal Democrats in 2010. She is now standing for Ed Miliband's party in the Conservative-held marginal constituency of Kingswood.
Examples of the tweets can be seen by clicking on the link, but one thing is clear, the excuse given by the Labour Party spokesperson that these tweets were 'silly jokes' is quite weak. I expect more revelations about candidates from other parties in due course.
Thus the latest article in the Independent is only surprising in that they have found a mere five candidates to feature, and they are all Labour.
The paper says that five Labour candidates fighting key target seats at the election have been accused of “blatant sexism” after an analysis of their Twitter feeds found abusive and offensive messages posted online.
One Labour candidate, Jo McCarron, has committed a possibly greater sin in her party's eyes by admitting on-line that she voted for the Liberal Democrats in 2010. She is now standing for Ed Miliband's party in the Conservative-held marginal constituency of Kingswood.
Examples of the tweets can be seen by clicking on the link, but one thing is clear, the excuse given by the Labour Party spokesperson that these tweets were 'silly jokes' is quite weak. I expect more revelations about candidates from other parties in due course.
