Here’s a nice Twitterspat that has emerged between two Tory PPCs over David Cameron’s remarks on the BNP at Imperial College London yesterday.
Now I’m checking with CCHQ exactly what Cam did say, but novelist and wannabe MP Louise Bagshawe thinks he described the BNP as “retarded racists”. [UPDATE: It turns out Cameron did use the phrase in the Q&A not his speech]
She Tweeted:
David Cameron: the BNP “are retarded racists”. No fence sitting there!
However, another PPC Maria Hutchings – who famously confronted Tony Blair about the lack of facilities for her own son with special needs – didn’t see the funny side.
@LouiseBagshawe Sadly not a very positive message for learning disabled people.Particularly sad after Mark Harpers’ impassioned plea at PMQs
Bagshawe stood by her party leader, though, replying with this Tweet:
@MariaHutchings a beloved cousin has Down’s, so I see your point, but IMO “retarded” is accurately employed for BNP, not for the disabled
UPDATE: A spokeswoman for David Cameron says: “David has strongly held views on the BNP but he didn’t mean to cause any offence with these comments”.
Eurgh, I never cease to be disappointed by David Cameron.
As a ‘retard’ myself (I have high-functioning autism and a learning disability) I find this so personally offensive I’m finding it hard to type!
I’ve spent literally days/weeks/months working on my website to ensure the election information is available in accessible formats for learning disabled adults – NONE of the political parties are remotely interested in US as votes it seems – oddly really, since there are over one million learning disabled adults in the UK who are eligible to vote (according to MENCAP’s Get My Vote Campaign).
I’ve written articles about this, no one wishes to publish because ‘learning disabilities aren’t interesting to people’ – I give up, I really do. There is SOOO much myth-information about LD adults and absolutely no media organization wishes to help us(those of us in the LD community) to raise a positive (and realistic) profile of any of us.
I’ve lost count of the amount of times people have recently said they’re “speaking up for us as we’re unable to speak for ourselves” well, that’s great, seriously, I’m glad people DO but many of us within the LD community ARE perfectly capable of voicing our own concerns – if only anyone would publish them.
Also to say, just for good measure, I’m tweeting and Facebooking the link to this page all over the place. I’m @autismwales on Twitter.
Can I also say, for the record, that despite being learning disabled, I wouldn’t vote for the BNP if they were the last Party on earth – they expound heinous views. This whole comment by DC is just so offensive to me personally.
Thank you – I have written to you about your comments …