As a slightly left of centre voter, but more than that, a cynic about most things, I\u2019m surprised by how angry I am about the revelations of the WhatsApp group that our local M.P., Andrew Gwynne, actively participated in \u2014 or even led.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
When my wife and I moved to Dane Bank in 2019 I had a brief online exchange where he welcomed us to the area, and I\u2019ve followed some of his social media accounts where a hobby of vintage computers (specifically the VIC-20) helped him seem like a decent chap. There was always a degree of self-promotion that I thought was a bit excessive, and some juvenile digs at the opposition that I didn\u2019t think were constructive, but I put that down to me being an old codger (though less than a handful of years older than the MP) and this coming with the territory these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve recently read \u201cHow Westminster Works \u2026 and Why It Doesn\u2019t\u201d by Ian Dunt and I\u2019d thought of engaging with Andrew Gwynne to try to understand if the Labour government was considering any of the suggestions made in that book to make UK government work better, but I was already getting disillusioned by the new government\u2019s stances and progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Am I angry because it shows that I can totally misjudge someone? Perhaps, though I\u2019ve never met the chap, so I was only judging based on a public facade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
More so, I\u2019m angry because the sanctimonious and condescending way our MP, and his wife and colleagues on the council side of things, refers to their constituents is worse than shameful. I\u2019m angry not just because of what it shows about them, but \u2014 perhaps even more so \u2014 angry because it is likely to let a right-of-centre politician in next who will not be any more caring about their constituents, but will capitalise on their predecessor\u2019s failings to promote a generally less inclusive and less caring society. How can you be so stupid to let that happen? To believe it won\u2019t get leaked and we\u2019ll all be worse off as a result?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not even self-serving, because what do the participants think is next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Nobody is perfect, and I don\u2019t expect our MPs to be, but I do at least hope they are decent human beings. Like many of us I\u2019ve done a reply-all that included people that shouldn\u2019t have seen my response, but at no point did I cruelly and dehumanisingly wish that they were dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
I can\u2019t imagine what it\u2019s like in their home over the last few days. That sick-to-your-stomach feeling when you know that you\u2019ve erred so badly that you can\u2019t see your next step. At least, I hope that\u2019s the realisation and not \u201cwe\u2019ll ride this out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
It pains me to say this, but Gwynne and anybody associated with that group must step down now. It may mean someone I disagree with in the short term, but I have to believe that in the longer term we will choose a better representative, and that only happens if the process starts today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u2018Vile\u2019 Labour WhatsApp group exposes toxic divisions in Andrew Gwynne\u2019s power base<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Labour was told about \u2018vile\u2019 WhatsApp group more than a year ago, says councillor<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a slightly left of centre voter, but more than that, a cynic about most things, I\u2019m surprised by how angry I am about the revelations of the WhatsApp group that our local M.P., Andrew Gwynne, actively participated in \u2014 or even led. When my wife and I moved to Dane Bank in 2019 I… Continue reading Trigger Me Timbers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oooh-bit-of-politics-there","tag-politics","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/internetplumber.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/internetplumber.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/internetplumber.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internetplumber.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internetplumber.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/internetplumber.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":822,"href":"https:\/\/internetplumber.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions\/822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/internetplumber.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internetplumber.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internetplumber.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}