This is in relation to my previous blog.
I’ve been reluctant to write this blog as I felt it might undermine a party that I would still vote for and have friends within, but the more I think about it, the more I’m sure that this case is not unique and is rife across the entire political spectrum, regardless of whichever party and needs exposing.
A week last Sunday on Twitter I was watching The X Factor Results show on Sunday and tweeting along with the show, ranting my opinions on each contestant like most young people too poor to go out drinking. In the heat of the moment I referred to one contestant as looking like a ‘pikey’. Unbeknownst to me, this is an apparent racist term, something which I wasn’t aware of and used it to describe someone who was rather scruffy. Anyway, a couple of tweeters including @snorestore and @ChrispLOL were adamant that I was a racist and as I was Conservative Future Chairman for UWIC at the time they said they were complaining to David Cameron.
In the heat of the moment I regrettably referred to them both as ‘cunts’, which I must say released a lot of anger and tension, I fully recommend it, as does Malcolm Tucker.
Anyway, the following Tuesday I had a call from a person rather high up in the Conservative Party (who shall remain nameless) saying that there had been a complaint addressed to David Cameron that he needed sorting out. He advised me that I should “write a grovelling apology on Twitter” and he would put the mistake down to “inexperience”. Also, after I apologised he said “maybe you will think again before pressing ’send’”.
Looking back on it, I’m furious with myself for apologising and rolling over when he insisted. I’m done with party politics. I may still be a Conservative voter and the people I’ve met in the party have all been fantastic, but the truth is that I can’t be doing with being told what to say, think, write etc. It’s not me.
UPDATE:
I’m rather surprised and heartened at the amount of positive responses I’ve received. A few people have blogged their opinions on it and I think it’s only polite to list them here. Thanks;
Tory Bear: http://www.torybear.com/2009/11/why-i-left-conservative-party.html
Working Class Tory: http://www.workingclasstory.com/2009/11/cardiff-blogger.html
Empire Chronicles: http://www.empirechronicles.co.uk/2009/11/03/we-don%e2%80%99t-live-in-a-free-country-%e2%80%93-and-that-won%e2%80%99t-change-either
Irfan Ahmed: http://www.irfanahmed.org/2009/11/councillor-gets-sacked-for-being-93.html
James Burdett: http://jamesburdett.co.uk/2009/11/03/sad-new-about-cardiff-blogger/
Organised Chaos: http://eventsdearboyevents.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/shame/
Sharpe’s Opinion: http://sharpesopinion.co.uk/2009/11/cardiff-blogger-cuts-ties-with-party-politics/
Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal: http://linlithgow-libdems.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-i-find-surprising-about-caroline.html
Popularity: 100% [?]
Why I left the Conservative Party
Alas, party image is everything these days, and the hired pros will do anything to protect it.
You know what I thought.
All I will say is: Now you are beholden to no party, you should use this blog’s popularity to make your feelings clear about those who complained about you.
I think you raise a number of interesting points in relation to what people active in party politics (at whatever level) are allowed to say/expected not to say in public, the extent to which individual views and opinions can be tolerated within a party structure and what approaches a political party takes in either disowning such comments or extracting apologies from alleged miscreants.
I have been pulled up myself for expressing what might be called strong views about the Conservative Party’s decision to leave the EPP and the resulting departure of an MEP from the Party. I was telephoned in a manner similar to you and in a manner and tone I found to be inappropriate. I my position, as a PPC, I find it part of my role to present my own views in a way that is suitable to me as an individual. As long as I am in broad agreement with the Party’s core agenda, then what is the issue? Indeed, healthy debate and different positions within a BIG party, a Party of Government, should be expected and indeed celebrated.
Arnie – Fickle cunts.
Rene – I applaud you for telling us about that, I wonder if you’ll get a call tomorrow morning lol. I agree with the core principles, hence why I’m still a Conservative voter. But I don’t want to be instructed on how to behave etc.
It’s a wake-up call for Twitter users. In private conversation you should feel free to say whatever you like and any decent supporter of freedom and democracy will defend your right to do so. But Twitter is not ‘private conversation’ its a public broadcast. And so it comes with all the obligations of public broadcast. Good manners, civility. Others will fall foul of this if they aren’t careful.
I feel sorry because you are clearly a decent, passionate Conservative. But you did make a mistake, I think. Your mistake was to treat twitter as private, like a Conversation with your pals at the pub. It’s not that and so if you caused offence with your language the advice that you should apologise was correct.
If I were you I’d take some time out, think about it, then come back when you’re ready. Everybody makes mistakes. As somebody I respect once told me: “If you don’t make mistakes it means you aren’t doing anything.”
I think the party forgets that it covers a broad spectrum of the population. When a member, I disagreed with a few various policies of the party, even though I was broadly in favour of most of the other policies. I was encouraged to keep independent though to myself though.
How very weak, you still adhere to the party line yet you hate the contstraints imposed upon you.
So what are you going to do to move forward?
Move forward or remain emasulated?
Wishing you strength
Em
Steve, I understand where you are coming from, however would you apologise if you used a word that to your knowledge wasn’t offensive but some do-gooder that didn’t believe in the politics you stood for decided to make it political and take offence? I apologised on the night for using the word as clearly one person was offended by it. However, I retract my apology for calling them cunts, as that’s what they were being.
Damon, it’s a sad state of party politics. I wish there was a bigger chance for independents to do well.
Em, thanks, I’m just going to blog on what I feel, say what I want and vote for whoever I want. At the moment I’d vote for the Conservatives but who knows what will happen in the future. I always announce on here who I’m going to vote for at any elections coming up and will stick with that routine.
You’ve got a lot of guts to do what you’ve done. I really respect that.
I’m chair of Liberal Youth in Leeds and I honestly couldn’t tell you what I would do if I found myself recieving a similar phone call to you. I know that all parties try to keep a tight rein on their image and, to a certain extent, I understand why (because the bad press that a party recieves from one member stepping out of line is often completely out of proportion). However I think you did the right thing. The moment that I get told what opinions I must hold by the party I belong to will be the moment that I leave that party.
I think you’re blog’s really good and it’s made all the more interesting because I often disagree with what you say. Don’t let anyone bully you into spouting any party’s ‘line’. It’s a trap that I’m constantly having to avoid myself.
Keep up the good work!
Chris
While I have to agree with the adage think before you press send, not just in political circles but any sphere, I think this does show rather over heavy-handedness.
My personal experience of speaking my own mind on my blog, which doesn’t always follow party line was that I once got an email from somewhere high up in the Scottish Party about a very controversial blog post. It was only to correct a inaccuracy in the background not seeking to remove the comments themselves.
From what I’ve seen both in Labour and Conservative blogs sadly is that the party hierarchy see it as something that they ned to control. The Lib Dems possibly in relation to the rest of the party see it not so much as a controllable beast but at least a feedable one.
Welcome to freedom
Here’s to you, mate: http://www.empirechronicles.co.uk/2009/11/03/we-don%e2%80%99t-live-in-a-free-country-%e2%80%93-and-that-won%e2%80%99t-change-either
In part the answer is to do away with first past the post / majoritarian politics – which foster control & authoritarianism and ‘whipping’ everyone into following a party line. Under a reformed system (which will never be perfect) many more people’s votes will count and we might begin the slow march back to a more democratic democracy. Something like AV+ or single transferable vote with multi-member constituencies would be in the right direction.
All the while we have safe seats and the few marginals (with a few floating voters) that essentially decide the next government we will have this sort of control. There was and is a relationship between the MPs who maxed their expenses and the safety of their seats.
I say – lets have pluralist & accountable politics where differences are celebrated rather than homogenised. (But let us also have politics based on good research and evaluation too.)
In the meantime – I guess we all have to watch our language so that we don’t cause inadvertent offence.
This is why I shall NEVER vote for the mainstream establishment. So long as we do not have the freedom to write, or say what we please, we are NOT free.
This Marxist political correctness has spread like thought cancer. It is a cancer of the mind and I shall never capitulate to it. It is a discriminatory system designed to pit people against each other as it highlights characteristics of different groups and arbitrarily selects which characteristics are acceptable and which are not. It is just as bigoted as the racism, sexism and sexual preference prejudices that it supposedly seeks to end.
Whilst people are pitted against each other and minority fights minority, the REAL evildoers remain in power, corrupting everything.
If you still vote Conservative, then you really are not ready to even contemplate who the real enemy is. You probably think it is Gordon Brown. Whilst Brown is undoubtedly a vile, foul, evil, incompetent, treasonous bastard of the worst kind, he is only a puppet. Cameron is a puppet too, and they both have the same puppet-master.
You shall not find satisfaction in a Conservative Government, for they shall only sit like sulking schoolchildren on the sidelines of the EU and reluctantly do as they are bloody well told!
Come December 1st, we will have gone past the “this far and no further” point in our relationship with the EU. The Lisbon reform treaty will be law, OUR law. This means that whatever changes the EU wishes to implement next, we will be utterly powerless to stop as we will have lost our veto. We will only have a choice of COMPLETE and TOTAL IRREVERSIBLE integration, with this country split into smaller regions, regions that span the prior national boundaries, with a common army, police, currency, law, Napoleonic (and utterly alien) Justice system. We will all awake in a foreign country. OR we choose NOW to withdraw from the EU, and take back our country. The next general election after next years, will probably be far too late. With the speed with which decision making can progress without having to consult those pesky voters, the EU will be transformed with breathtaking speed. We may not even have another General election as we NOW know them.
If you want to see the kind of Britain that I know you desire, you will not get it from the modern Conservative party.
I know what kind of Britain you desire, because I am a former tory. I too, believe in freedom. responsibility, self reliance, law, small-government, low taxes, enterprise on an honest and level playing field. Millions of Small and medium sized businesses unleashed from burdensome and un-necessary red-tape. The vulnerable protected and helped, but not trapped into a poverty trap. family values and all that, but that is NOT what we are getting from the modern conservative Party, and anyway, after Dec 1st, it matters not. After Dec 1st we will be dictated to by an unelected country that will be born, it will have a legal personality, an unelected President and will slowly become utterly dominant.
I am NOT prepared to allow this dictatorship to ruin this country.
Now the proud, decent, hard-working, law abiding, freedom supporting conservative voters have got a choice. Will you roll over and allow our country to fall to this overt tyranny?
Or will you give your party a chance to lead this country as a free, independent nation again?
Your party has given up on you. It has caved in on the EU and it has betrayed its promise to hold a referendum.
WE must keep that promise and use the General Election as OUR PROMISED referendum.
THEN when this great nation is restored from the ashes of Marxist dictatorial misrule, we can elect a Conservative Government to put it right and re-build. WITHOUT caving in to the EU or any other foreign power, ever again!
Yet Cameron in Scotland a couple of years referred to English Parliament Campaigners as “sour little Englanders”.This term has been bandied about regularly by media and politicians to denigrate legitamate concerns about the future of the English.
No one has been sacked or had to aplogise.
fuck them.
If you don’t like being told what to think and say (and which way to vote in the HoC) then I fear that party politics is not for you.
Were you actually called upon to resign, or just to apologise? When did you first apologise for “pikey”?
Thanks for all the comment!
Mark, I was asked to apologise, the resignation was entirely my choice. I apologsed about an hour or so after I said it once I’d calmed down. But I was forced to apologise again.
Glad I’m not actually involved to a level with the party that being PC to the extreme is a requirement. Seems the party keeled over and died in the face of the liberal left.
Presumably you explained to the high-up that you had already apologised, so why didn’t they think the first apology was enough? What had you left out?
I was ignored when I said I had apologised. I was told to ‘grovel’ which is something I certainly don’t do. Especially on a Twitter feed that is my own.
I don’t even think the guy read the tweet because he double checked I said ‘Pikey’ and not ‘Paki’ which is rather worrying.
CB
I am a member of the Conservative Party (and former association chairman) and write a blog which is critical of the local Conservative Council whose leaders care more for stuffing their faces with allowances than they do for running and open and democratic administration. The leader of the council, who is also the PPC for the key marginal seat of Finchley (Margaret Thatcher’s old seat) gave an interview in which he called bloggers who oppose him “nutters” “wankers” and “not normal”. But that’s OK it seems.
Any attempt to silence me by Central Office (or whatever they call themselves this week) would be met with a rather brief response!
We have as party leader someone who did something at University which he would not do today. That is also OK, but it would appear that the party is more forgiving of some than of others for the exuberance of youth.
[...] Apparently so. Because nothing else can explain the story of a fellow blogger Cardiff Blogger, who preferred leaving the Conservative Party instead letting it to curb his personal liberties to say what he feels. A week last Sunday on [...]
I empathise entirely with the situation you have found yourself in. Despite politics being the life I have chosen (academically rather than as a career) I have certain misgivings about the nature of party politics and the characteristics of parties. I have my own experiences of internal party politicking which led to my leaving the Scottish Parliament and returning to academia.
Remember, I guess, that parties and politics are two different things, and you can still be enthusiastic about one without the other.
Malc, it’s the same with me. I do love politics, even more now that I’m not affiliated and my degree is in Politics which I’m thoroughly enjoying.
I completely agree with you. I am a member of the SNP and by and large agree with their policies. I frequently blog to this effect. If ever (and, to be fair, it has never happened) someone from the SNP told me that I couldn’t put something on my blog, or say a particular thing in any way, I would immediately resign.
I applaud what you have done and I completely agree with it. This is the way to lose good people.
Perhaps they will come to their senses soon and the silly side of political correctness will melt away. I think in the case of the Tories, that Dave is just trying so hard to get rid of the image that accompnies the party of racist, homophobic, xenophobic, upper class superiority. He’s overdoing it.
[...] conservatives, facebook, twitter by Shane Recently fellow blogger extraordinaire Benny Austwick announced to the world that he has decided to leave the Conservative Party and shift his blog to an [...]
Frankly I thought you were bigger than this. I hope you reconsider because it seems to me you are cutting your nose to spite your face somewhat.
I see where you’re coming from James. However, this has been a long time coming and was just the final straw. I’ve never been a big fan of party politics and always considered going non-af. As soon as they pryed their way into something I said on a personal Twitter account then I knew it was definitely not for me.
These people who complained are indeed cunts and should be treated as such. Feel free to engage in some character assassination.
Quite right to tell CCHQ where to stick it. But remember that it says in the bible that what is whispered in secret will be shouted from the rooftops, so watch your language. One of my friends, who was a coach driver, adopted the phrase “Thank you, friend!” when people cut him up, and he told me that he could get so much more emotion into this phrase than into any number of expletives. Perhaps a new descriptive word is called for. Maybe, in honour of our Prime Minister, you could call them “Brownies”, or follow Guido and use the word “Hoon”.
I do worry about the atempts by CCHQ to control everything. My understanding of systems theory is that a distributed system with light control and a more developed feedback subsytem is much more efficient and effective.
You asked if I would apologise if I said something I didn’t think was derogatory. Yes, I would. I’d explain that I didn’t realise I would cause offense, but that I was sorry if I had. Apologies cost you nothing. If you might have offended somebody, even if that somebody is a complete tool or is ‘pretending offense’ to cause trouble, by apologising you prove yourself the better. Don’t beat yourself up over the apology you made, you are no less because of it.
Its sad to see you leave the Conservatives, but I suspect you might be in good company once this Lisbon business is finalised. I admit to benefitting from your leaving though… you were one place above me in the “Top Conservative Blogs” awards, so I’ve just risen one place in the rankings… ; )
Best of luck with whatever you choose to do next.
I can recommend this interesting little video clip from youtube.
The New World Order for Dummies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRLE_-oVkW0
Blimey Cardy I missed this one !
Not sure what to make of it, but sad to say (I think !) I agree with Steve Tierney – one of the things that social networking technology does, is make us ALL accountable for what we say – and not just a few politicians. It’s easy to get drawn into petty squabbles on Twitter (I did so only last night) – I do recall your pikey comment and felt it “a bit off” – how can anyone NOT know this is about Gypsies – Don’t think you need to stand down though – I think you should feel pleased that they considered you important enough to get in touch with.
Or maybe you stood down because in your heart of hearts you secretly & subconsciously know that the Tories are the nasty party ?
You’ve always done a good blog though !