Blogger Humiliates Town Councillors Into Resigning

Dr_Barnowl writes "In an occurrence first postulated in sci-fi and later lampooned by stick figures, it seems that a blogger has actually been responsible for the mass resignation of elected officials — a British town council — largely by calling them 'jack***es' and Nazis. What's next? The deposition of a president with 'your mom' smacktalk?"

Comments

Can we get rid of the US Congress so easily?

[LatencyKills]

TFA is atrociously thin on what I'm certain is a long-ongoing feud between many townspeople and not the inflammatory comments of a single blogger. I think all rational people realize that when someone whips out the Nazi comparison that they're just behaving irrationally and will most likely be ignored, so the argument we're supposed to believe is that 12 counselors resigned over being called jackasses? Seems unlikely. For those of you hoping to start a grass roots revolution so easily, I'd be willing to bet that at least some level of phone calls to their homes at all hours and perhaps a few loud townhall meetings were involved (both of which, incidentally, you can't do at either the US House or Senate).

Re:Can we get rid of the US Congress so easily?

[gowen]

To be fair, looking at his blog (see here) he's not exactly clear about his allegations. Having read his droolings, I firmly believe that people would quit working for a council to avoid having to deal with that paranoid mental case.

Re:Can we get rid of the US Congress so easily?

[Anonymous Coward]

The associated blog itself only hints at the underlying cause - it *appears* that a direct enquiry as to why the said council was not responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act let to a mass "spontaneous" resignation. It all appeared to be quite an orchestrated circus, the mass walk-out that is, and so was probably foreseen by the said council members. Funny how they all had letters of resignation ready to submit.
Methinks they doth protest too much, and one anticipates exposure of earlier ill-deeds by some of the outgoing council, perhaps even legal actions.
Overall, kudos to the blogger for speaking truth to power - more evidence that the current "blogger's revolution" referenced recently here on slashdot will see our modern media overturned in short shrift.
And from the comments to the blog, it looks like it's riled up the peasants somewhat, and we'll see more citizen action in the near future. It's so heartening to see grass-roots action affecting real change.

Re:Can we get rid of the US Congress so easily?

[BasilBrush]

paranoid mental case.

His concerns seem valid. There looks to be manipulation of the planning system for personal profit by a councillor who is also a property developer.

Re:Can we get rid of the US Congress so easily?

[AmiMoJo]

You are correct, they resigned because of sustained pressure not just from this blogger but from local press and constituents (voters). They are just blaming the blogger to elect sympathy (no pun intended).

Re:Can we get rid of the US Congress so easily?

[NickFortune]

I agree entirely. There's this meme going around that holds that if newspapers die, investigative journalism will vanish from the face of the earth. I think this case could well serve as a counter example.

Incidentally, is it me or is there a a strong subtext of "don't try this at home, kids!" to many of the posts on this topic? You'd almost think some people were worried in case this sort of grass roots political activism should catch on....

Re:Can we get rid of the US Congress so easily?

[WillDraven]

Just because something is common doesn't mean it's right.

Re:Can we get rid of the US Congress so easily?

[Daniel Dvorkin]

I think all rational people realize that when someone whips out the Nazi comparison that they're just behaving irrationally

Normally you'd be right, but you know, when the council voted to invade Poland, someone had to dare to speak the truth!

Re:Can we get rid of the US Congress so easily?

[estarriol]

The cameras in people's homes are a UK Gov plan that the councils have no choice but to follow - blame the cabinet for that cracking idea

There is always an alternative choice, though it may not be the most pleasant of things to think about. Us American's kicked your government to the curb over a few tax disputes (and a few other issues). Placing cameras in private citizens' homes seem to me like a much bigger issue.

You guys could at least throw a few riots or something. And no, angry postings on slashdot do not count. By excusing this sort of behaviour all you are doing is shifting blame from your government to yourself.

Three big flaws in your argument here even at a casual glance:-

1) The proto-Americans had the advantage of an ocean between them and the people they were rebelling against, and the advantage of being on home territory against an enemy who had generally never even been to the rebels' continent. The situation would have been radically different if the American rebels were living in Clapham.

2) It's not "Us Americans" who rebelled at all - you personally had nothing at all to do with it - so it's rather precious of you to advocate that others risk their lives to do something that I suspect you have never done yourself.

3) The modern USA is exactly the sort of imperialist superpower that England was back then.

Overall, the pretense that modern Americans are some kind of ninja rebel outfit who would overthrow their government at the first sign of totalitarianism isn't helping anyone, especially when you sit in your comfy chair behind your (no doubt very rebellious) warrior keyboard and advocate that others risk their lives.

Revealed as feeble...

[CaptainOfSpray]

And what prevented those councillors from telling their side of the story?

Clearly they had no real response to this blogger, and so just folded.

Leaves me wondering whether they were guilty or merely incompetent.

CounCILLors!

[earthloop]

They're councillors. As in, people on a council.

Counsellors are a different breed of people altogether, like Troi.

On the other hand, it's Somerton

[Kupfernigk]

Disclaimer: I live in the Somerton and Frome constituency. The East side (where I live) is part of the 21st century, The politics is mainly Lib Dem (the only mainstream UK progressive party- and no, I am not a member.) The south-west side is deeply conservative and rural, and the local grandees have a huge sense of entitlement. They think that they have a right to run things and nobody should be allowed to criticise them. (They are also the area's Nimbys - they try to block industry or anything that will modernise the area and provide well-paid jobs for non-landowners.)

Now someone thinks they have the right to comment on Council decisions - and the toys get thrown out of the pram.

This is not about bloggers. It's about rural Conservatives finding their views called into question. It would be exactly the same if it was a campaigning newspaper, or if the people in subsidised housing started a resident's group and sent someone to see what happened in Council meetings.

This blogger was lucky

[CdBee]

In the UK its fairly easy to get sued for making written statements about people unless you are scrupulously accurate, and having looked at the blog in question he's taken a fair few risks..

Probably the traditional British tolerance for ecentricity is the only thing preventing the targets of his jibes from crucifying him in a civil court...

Re:This blogger was lucky

[jabithew]

I refer you to the case of Simon Singh v. Assorted Lunatics. What he said was materially true, but he will most likely lose the court case.

Mr Justice Eady has a lot to answer for.

There's more details on the Singh case in the current Private Eye, for any Brits out there.

Read the blog itself

[Mathinker]

Just reading a few of the last entries of the blog:

• Town Council would have approved the building of a recycling center, itself a business opportunity for one of the council members, except that 100+ residents actually showed up at the Town Council meeting to protest.
• A post ridiculing a plan to build a new cheap aluminum doorway in a historic building.
• Critique of the Town Council buying land for some kind of project, the project being canceled, and various interests connected with the Town Council profiting from the sale of the rezoned land, whereas there didn't seem to be much problem with actually managing to get this project finished rather than canceled (and that would have been more transparent and equally beneficial to the community).
• The blogger's car was torched and his house vandalized.

So no, I don't think it's exactly a newspaper. It's more focused and more dangerous, like being an opposition leader in an only semi-democratic country.

Re:Read the blog itself

[nurb432]

The blogger's car was torched and his house vandalized.

Another good example of why the net should be as anonymous as possible

Re:Read the blog itself

[FlyingBishop]

I think you need to read up on the historical role of newspapers. Pedro Chamorro Cardenal was the editor of La Prensa in Nicaragua, and he was a powerful opposition leader in his own right. His murder effectively started the Sandinista revolution.

You've just become accustomed to "newspaper" meaning "establishment drivel."

Re: Thats so not what its about

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all, I live in Somerton, and its not a backwards place like Kupfernigk is trying to make out.
We are just a normal town, and from the sounds of things Kupfernigk has probably hardly ever been to Somerton and thinks the have the right to criticise what they no NOTHING about!!

This isnt about blogging. A lot of people here think that some members of the council were out to make money, and there are strong rumours that local people were trying to get them kicked off the council, so they ran instead.

Re:So?

[smoker2]

You are wrong on so many levels. Firstly, they are not volunteers. They get paid for every meeting they attend and they get expenses paid for any work they undertake as a council member. Secondly, are you suggesting that democracy means you cannot exercise free speech ? Thirdly, are you suggesting that elected officials, who presumably had to canvas support in order to get elected, are so unsure of their position that a single person can force them to resign without so much as a struggle ? And lastly, if you as a member of the electorate exposed a scandal involving the council and publicised it, are you then guilty of something or are you doing the electorate a favour ?

Seriously, if they resigned over one persons so called ravings, then they didn't have much authority to start with, not to mention cahones. I know that if I found financial irregularities in a councils spending and could reliably document it, it would be my duty to inform the electorate. I have no interest in being a councillor, but that doesn't mean they can get away with it. Why should I invest time and money in making myself electable merely to point out the illegal activities of others ?

I repeat, if the whole council resigns over 1 persons unsubstantiated rant, then either they have got skeletons to hide or they are worthless as politicians. Politicians argue all the time, that's what they do. But one non elected person can force their resignation ? Please .... Are they going to take their toys and go home ?