Crash Bang Wallace
Libertarian political blog from Mark Wallace; political opinion, breaking news and exclusivesThe Labour Councillor who “Likes” IRA Bombings
Posted on February 16, 2012Councillor Florence Anderson, Sunderland City Councillor, has form for unpleasant behaviour online. Most memorably, whilst Deputy Leader of Sunderland she got in hot water after saying on Facebook that she wants Margaret Thatcher to “BURN IN HELL” (a statement that she stood by on the bizarre logic that “I’m not the deputy leader of the council on Facebook”).
That was pretty distasteful, and typified the way in which some on the Left take their disagreement with people’s ideas to a truly unpleasant level. There are plenty of Facebook Groups planning to party when Thatcher dies, dance on her grave and so on.
But it seems Cllr Anderson has gone a bit further than merely distasteful behaviour, into the downright worrying.
One of the more extreme anti-Thatcher Facebook Groups is called “Margaret Thatcher doesn’t have to be dead before we give her a funeral“. Florence Anderson is a member. Some of its more memorable posts include calling for violence against Baroness Thatcher.
Just being a member is bad enough, but Florence decided to take it one step further. When the admin of the page posted this:
We are appealing to the IRA to find it in their hearts to bomb the next tory conference
Florence Anderson didn’t think “that’s appalling”. She didn’t think “it’s inappropriate for a councillor to be a member of this group”. She didn’t even think “I could get in trouble for being associated with this”.
Oh no, Councillor Florence Anderson, confronted with a post calling for terrorist murder of her political opponents, didn’t do any of those things.
She clicked “Like“.
It’s perhaps worth pointing out at this stage that she chairs the committee charged with ensuring public authorities in Sunderland are fulfilling their duties to fight crime.
What do her constituents think of this? Or the Labour Party, who would come down like a tonne of bricks on any Tory who did anything even approaching this behaviour?
I don’t think Cllr Anderson’s excuse that she’s a different person on Facebook quite cuts it.
Ken Livingstone fans revisit the failed ‘Tory Toffs’ tactic
Posted on October 11, 2011Boris Johnson spoke at a Lambeth & Southwark Conservatives event last night in Lambeth Town Hall, rallying the troops in advance of next year’s GLA and London Mayoral election. In a retro return to the old days, a gaggle of Labour and Trade Union activists picketed the event, heckling guests as they arrived and making a minor nuisance of themselves.
It wasn’t just the sight of lefty pickets at Tory events that was a blast from the past, though – Ken Livingstone’s camp appear to be revisiting the “Tory Toffs” attack strategy that ultimately doomed Labour in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. The organisers told protesters:
We would ask that formal dress be worn; bring your champagne flutes and martini glasses in the hope someone will provide some drink, and join us in trying to ensure that everyone may eat cake.
For those who don’t recall, this was exactly the approach that Labour took in Crewe and Nantwich in 2008 – Labour supporters turned up dressed in top hats to pursue an explicit class war strategy that they seemed convinced would work. It didn’t – the Conservatives got a 17% swing to take the seat, in part because voters were turned off by the stench of class warfare and the politics of envy. Even the Guardian described the toff attacks as “patronising, old-fashioned and divisive”.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that people who support Ken Livingstone are quite keen on things that are “patronising, old-fashioned and divisive”, given that you could plausibly put the phrase on Ken’s business card, but it doesn’t bode well for his election prospects. Particularly given that his old ally Lee Jasper was back in the thick of things, too, promoting the event on Twitter.
So here they are in all their glory, the politics-of-envy, class warriors who Ken apparently hopes will hand him the keys to the capital. I suspect the Boris campaign will be hoping they are wheeled out on a regular basis right up to polling day – as Crewe showed us, the more they do this, the more they will deter voters:
Stat Prawn
Posted on August 19, 2010I’ve had quite a few questions from people asking how the blog is going. Monday was the end of the first month of Crash Bang Wallace, so here is the Stat Prawn to explain how it’s gone on Google Analytics:
16th July – 16th August 2010 saw….
33,132 page views by
23,806 visits by
12,817 absolute unique visitors.
The biggest referrers were:
1. Guido Fawkes
2. Iain Dale
4. Twitter (you can follow me here, by the way)
5. Facebook
It’s interesting that Twitter is the biggest referrer following the big three blogs – viral and organic marketing is getting increasingly powerful. Thanks to all the readers who’ve made this first month a big success – hopefully next month will be even better!
The train conductor who wants a ferry “blown out of the water”
Posted on July 26, 2010The conductor on a train is responsible for passengers’ safety as well as just checking their tickets. He or she has the job of looking out for suspicious behaviour or dubious parcels, and if anything was to kick off then it is the conductor who would try to handle the situation in a way that would protect the passengers.
How would you feel, then, if the conductor of the train you were sitting on was apparently using Facebook to merrily urge bombings against other parts of the public transport system?
In a tie-in between Crash Bang Wallace and The Sun, we’ve today revealed someone who appears to be doing exactly that.
Given the recent riots and shootings in Northern Ireland, I thought it would be worthwhile looking round the various Republican Facebook groups to see what kind of views were being posted. Sure enough, it took about three clicks to get to “People against Loyalist marches where they’re not wanted“.
I’m not suggesting everyone in that group is an extremist – the vast majority hold legitimate views about the Orange Order marches. My expectation was that a few people might be spreading some extreme views – but largely for them to be usual suspects urging more rioting and violence against the police and army. That would be bad enough, but I had not anticipated this:
Click to enlarge
Nice, eh? So here we have someone claiming to be a train conductor who is apparently wishing for his passengers to be blown up after they make their connection to the ferry.
This is unacceptable. It’s unpleasant that Mark Connor appears to think what happened to Mountbatten (and the 14 year old boy who was blown up in the same attack) was a good thing, but it’s downright disturbing that he apparently wants to see something similar happen to hundreds of innocent civilians. How can he be trusted with the security of these passengers on his train if he wants them dead?
While police officers are putting themselves in the firing line trying to keep order on the streets of Belfast, the last thing they need is someone in a position of responsibility calling for rioting to turn into a terror campaign.
The story is in The Sun today, and ScotRail have confirmed they have suspended and are investigating a member of staff.
Crash Bang Wallace is an opinion blog, but I also intend to dig up and break new stories as regularly as possible. This isn’t just hot air, it’s “Politics with a punch”. It’s good to see the first of those punches land.
PS The original post has been taken down, now, but here’s the full screen grab:
Click to enlarge