Hiya,
Can I just begin by saying that my blog will be covering other subjects in addition to Councillor Terry Kelly. Normal service will be resumed and he will be nothing more than an occasional update. However I find his latest post rather alarming and think a further post might be the best way to tackle it. Unusually for me I am actually being totally serious here.
'I would compare most of them (bloggers critical of TK) with people who, years ago before blogging, used to get their kicks by writing anonymous poison pen letters particularly to vulnerable people, ( someone is watching you type of thing ) I suppose though that blogging provides a kind of safety valve for them, who knows what some of them might get up to if they couldn't take out their frustrations in this way. I wonder if the figures for certain kinds of crime have dropped since the advent of blogging?'
As with most of Mr Kelly's other assertions he does not give examples or explain what leads him to think this way.
He continues
'I, and now, to a lesser extent my family, still get sent horrible stuff, mainly racist, lurid and threatening because some folk don't like my opinions and blogging has liberated them.'
He does suggest that his readers google him to see the blogs indulging in this sort of behaviour. I have done so and whilst I've certainly found some colourful language and fair bit of ridicule I have been unable to find any examples of racism or threats. This maybe down to my poor computer skills than anything else, so if any of you have any luck do enlighten me.
What does concern me is that not only my blog but several others critical of Councillor Kelly do turn up. Whilst I can understand why he does not wish to give the blogs making racist remarks and threats any further publicity I am very worried that people may think he is referring to me and several other perfectly reasonable bloggers. For that reason I find his failure to make clear that he was not referring to me and several others irresponsible to say the least.
I am not for a moment suggesting that this is a deliberate smear or attempt to intimidate and silence his critics on Councillor Kelly's part but the effects may well be similar. In particular racism arouses strong feelings and an accusation of this nature could have very severe consequences for the accused. I freely admit that I am a cheeky cow and am happy to take the consequences on that score, however I don't think that includes being lumped in with racists and people making threats or having my personal safety jeopardised, albeit indirectly.
My suggestion to Terry Kelly would be to report all threats to the Police and at the very least, amend his post to make clear who he isn't referring to. As it stands it looks like everyone who appears in a google search for him is being tarred with the same brush.
Cheerio
19 comments:
Kelly is obviously employing the ever popular "if you don't support the war then you're a traitor' smear type arguement.
Though anybody using that to justify their own existence is either a halfwit or a George W Bush.
He does remind me very much of a left wing George Bush. I'm truly shocked by the whole thing.
I wouldn't worry about it. Writing on the internet is like standing up in a comedy club: you get heckled, and because people are anonymous they tend to heckle much more rudely and aggressively than they would in person. Lots of people who are new to the internet take things very personally at first (er, like I have been known to) and I think he's probably one of them. And no one could possibly think that he was referring to you anyway.
I googled 'Councillor Terry Kelly'. The first thing to come up was the Standards Commission verdict, which led to his suspension. Well, if he wants to advertise that, then fine. Are the Standards Commission all creepy weirdos who would get up to no good if they didn't have a computer? I wonder...
Clairwil I have a blog at http://dokcyezz.blogspot.com/ and Katy you have provided the inspiration for my first post; heckling.
Jesus, this is getting a bit boring. Why don't you just karate chop him in the throat and have done with it?
I'm all for political debate, but my mind starts to drift after a while. If there isn't a car chase and a shoot-out soon, I'll lose all interest.
I suggest you tear out his heart and show it to him, that's always worked for my mate Conan.
Cheers all,
That's quite enough about our chum the Councillor for now. I need at least a month to recover from being exposed to such high grade idiocy.
Oh My God!
I have just checked my e-mail. Look can I just clarify something here? Please, before I have an attack of nerves. The 'TerryWatch' thing is intended to be a monthly round up of his antics, not the entire content of my blog, whatever impression I may have given over the last few days.
It's very kind of you to try and help out but I really don't need constant updates and links to all things Terry. I have no wish to say anything further about him at this time. Some of you have blogs, why not write your own post or start a Terry Watch blog.
If you have any links etc that you wish to draw my attention to, please make use of the comments here and not my e-mail and I make make use of them at a later date. But please can I have a break now?
I don't mean to be rude or unfriendly and I do like getting readers e-mails but you know enough now please.
OK, thanks for sending me this. It did raise a chuckle but enough now.
http://www.bloggers4labour.org/2006/09/new-bloggers-july-september.jsp
Good idea. I'll add a Terry Watch.
Great stuff. Keep spreading the word.
Me too...
http://strikethirteen.blogspot.com/2007/02/scottish-politics.html
... he's unique.
Wonderful, keep it coming.
Liked your question to him about his church membership, but you know what his reply was totally false , check his councillor's statement in 2005(updated) - "member of the roman catholic church"
Doesn't surprise at all Mo and I will check the statement again. Might be a case of him trying to have his cake and eat it on the religion front.
I don't know where you're from Mo but in the West Of Scotland identifying yourself as Catholic or Protestant carries associations more akin to tribalism than religion a lot of the time. Catholics are a group that have traditionally been discriminated against in Scotland (it's a million times better than it was), could our council chum be trying to gain a bit of protected status or tip the wink to bigots, I wonder?
Ok, I'm sorry, but I think this TerryWatch thing has gone too far. It really is tantamount to bullying actually. Every blog I click on now seems to have a link to this guy, it's like you've found a beetle with a broken wing and you are enjoying poking it with sticks.
The guy has some weird opinions and is very, very easy to wind up but he also makes some really good points on his blog. Of course, these have been overlooked by Clairwil et al.
I hope you can dial down this TerryWatch thing and you see it as the slightly hysterical playground 'fun' that it is. I appreciate this highlights the rot at the core of Labour in a way, but I just do not respect the bullying that comes with it.
For example this line in your blog Clairwil shows (to me) that you are pushing it too far - "I have been unable to find any examples of racism or threats. This maybe down to my poor computer skills than anything else, so if any of you have any luck do enlighten me"
Why doubt someone who says they have had hate mail directed their way?
And worse, why do you consider it as "luck" if you were to find this to be the case?
I fear that if you push this too far you will lose the moral high ground you had to begin with.
OK, that's my 2 cents worth.
Jeff
PS Love the blog ;)
Jeff,
Thanks for the comment. It's always good to get another perspective. I'd just like to clarify a couple of the points you raise. Can I make clear that I have no doubt at all that Terry Kelly and I suspect all elected representitives get hate mail at some stage in their careers. My suggestion is that Mr Kelly takes this mail to the police rather than using his blog to smear his critics.
What I was objecting to was his assertion that the people likely to be responsible were bloggers who had critisised him.
Perhaps the use of the word luck was a bit ill advised above but all I meant was that I had been unable to find any racist or threatening material in the blogs that turn up when one googles Councillor Kelly. I did and continue to feel that he was irresponsible and dare I say a bit bullying when he implied that all his critics were guilty of criminal behaviour and hold racist views.
In my search I only encountered one blog which I felt had gone too far, though this was more sick humour and certainly not racist. That does not mean that there aren't blogs of this nature writing about Terry Kelly, just that I have been unable to find him.
I certainly don't intend to write about Terry Kelly for a good while. I do not wish to bully him or anyone else. I do however reserve the right to state my sincere belief that he is unfit to hold office and challenge his views. As both a blogger and a local councillor I think he's thick skinned enough to take that.
Good stuff, I've not really read his blog actually so I'm sure you're right about his comments that were irresponsible or just plain wrong.
I think I was just a bit exasperated at doing my daily blog round, trying to find some good chat and every other story on various blogs being about some idiot called Terry.
Anyway, good to see this guy won't be the centre of your attention for a while. I think perhaps I got the wrong end of the stick with how commonly he'd be written about on your blog.
PS To anyone interested, I'm trying to start a region by region, constituency by constituency blog with a slant towards tactical voting. It should be at snptacticalvoting.blogspot.com
Cheers Jeff,
I'll pop a link up to you shortly. As for the T-watch thing it was just a case of everything happening at once.
As I say unless he does something remarkable he's not likely to get more than a monthly mention here.
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