Labour candidate wanted 'slave grown' banana

Vulture

You are writing like a PC, humourless, Nanny State wanker, James: very much like a Liebore candidate in fact. Hattie Hatpin comes to mind.

This was a joke. That's spelt J-O-K-E. Lighten up.

Publius

Even slaves have to work.

barnacle bill

"This scandal is embarrassing for Labour."
Not as embarrassing as the Steve Purcell scandal?

djw2009

James Forsyth, you could be in Labour Party. Amazing how the core philosophy of the political elite is unvarying between the parties so that politicoes such as yourself could really be in any party. You clearly believe in the promotion of PC and the hunt for so-called gaffes and then the synthetic outrage to get apologies. There is nothing this Labour candidate has said that is wrong in any way - what is wrong is your PC approach. It is clear that Cameron will be Blue Labour - like Labour, but probably even worse...

Ben

If the election is coming down to this it is a bit pathetic. Our MPs will be frightened to open their mouths and that is not good.

Holly ......

Standard language from the really nasty,
spiteful,hate filled Labour bods.
Vile and nasty is part of Labour DNA.
Yesterday it was three men in their boat,
today it's Adonis, pleading Lib Dem voters to vote for Labour.
If Lib Dem voters want to vote Lib Dem that is THEIR right.THEIR vote..NOT Labour's vote
Where are the Labour costed savings?
Where is Brown's 'vision'?
Why are we in such a mess to start with?
Why does someone educated at one of England's GREATEST schools get vilified for being educated....oh I forgot,under Labour we ALL have to be thick.
Why are Labour bods so inept at showing us how THEY will fix things...sooner rather than later is the preferred option of the voter...Labour would do better LISTENING to us for once!
This nasty,vile,hateful stuff will turn the voter off.
I am already switching channels whenever Labour bods are muttering rubbish,instead of telling us what they plan.
I have already started to 'tune off' to the negative and LISTEN to the positive.

Silent Hunter

Why is what this odious Labour PPC said, such a surprise to everyone?

Helloooooo! This IS the Labour mindset - they know best!

They "deserve" to be in power ad infinitum despite taking us back to the financial dark ages.
As the years go by; we will come to regret our decision to vote for New Labour in 1997. Even now, every child born in this country has a ready made debt of over £23,000,hanging over its head, thanks to New Labour and their corrupt mismanagement of the economy.

What this bozo said is simply symptomatic of Labour and all it now stands for as a party.

A vicious, authoritarian, repressive, corrupt regime who thinks we should all be grateful to be 'proles' of the Great Labour State Machinery.

If Stalin were alive to today, he would be a card carrying member of the Labour Party.

Remember - if Labour win; we will all be forced to carry ID cards and the police will be able to stop us and detain us for 42 days without having to provide a reason.

Welcome to "1984" with Labour.

Ronnie

A scandal symptomatic of the politics of the PC robot. Safe, sterile, utterly predictable and incapable of offering inspirational leadership.

Silent Hunter

Vulture:

And the quip about the old lady sitting opposite him on the train (not in 1st class, poor chap)?

Presumably 'that' was just a joke as well.

I think the four letter word that best describes this Labour PPC and his supporters is . . . S C U M.

Silent Hunter

I see the Labour Rapid Rebuttal Squad (Hi Derek!) are out in force this morning to try to stifle this embarrassing Labour gaff. LOL

Yam Yam

David Miliband should perhaps have a quiet word with MacLennan about the pitfalls of working with bananas.

wolfstar

That's so obviously a joke.

Dave

This is laughably absurd faux-outrage, the man told a joke - is this THE END OF HIS POLITICAL CAREER?

Is there a way to turn off Forsyth's nonsense/entries?

Rhoda Klapp

Blimey. Labour supporter I am not, but give the guy a break, willya.

Andre

The interesting point about this is not just the actual content of the msg but the reaction to it of the guy's bosses. This is a clear example of the internet taking over the election.

cg

I'd vote for this Labour candidate, it sounds like he's got a good sense of humour.

Stevie

Vulture-I suppose it's okay to tell 'nigger' and 'paki' jokes too is it? Maybe lambast a few queers while we're at it? While we're at it let's give the Jews some abuse too.

vi_sa

I am amazed by the difference in reactions - imagine this was a Tory candidate..this would be splashed all over the newspapers and the liberal elite would be horrified. But no, it is a Labour candidate - so of course, it was just a J-O-K-E!

David Bouvier

What is interesting is that in searching for the opposite of "fair trade" he didn't think of capitalist, open market, or even "multi-national exploitation" banana, but slave-grown banana.

That is quite a leap. Does he actually equate international trade with slavery, or is he just an twit?

wrinkled weasel

If I were you, I would abort this post altogether. There is no story, move along and get a life.

Thomas Cussans

Vulture and djw2009 are both right. But the point is that synthetic outrage has become a NuLab speciality. If you can become exercised, spluttering with indignation, over Grayling's wholly innocuous remarks about B&Bs, how much more can you jump up and down in fake, horrified outrage over these comments?

Ergo, they are hoist by their own petard.

But it will be interesting to see if the BBC mentions any of this, of course.

Bob Dixon

True or false he will be elected so whats the problem. Turkeys do not vote for Christmas

Dave B

I can't believe this is an election issue. The man was making a joke. Storm in a teacup.

addenough

What a pathetic article,"truly shocking", which questions the status of the Spectator as a serious contributor to intellectual argument. From long term reading of this blog it seems that the comments are generally superior to the articles. The owners seem to be paying a lot of money for some third rate rubbish such as this! Perhaps they should consider employing Moraymint et al.

David B

This is a case of do as I say not as I do. It may have been a joke, but if the Labour Party our trying to imprison others for making similar jokes, you would not expect a PPC to make such jokes.

This is not about supporting the Labour party policy, it is expecting politician to play by their own rules.

woundup

No- the tweets demonstrate a pathetic character certainly unsuitable to be any sort of politician (or much else for that matter). Nothing to do with 'PC'.

Dave B

ConHome has more of this chaps 'tweets'. He doesn't seem like a great ambassador for any organisation.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/leftwatch/2010/04/labour-candidate-under-pressure-to-quit-over-offensive-and-obscene-tweets.html

Paul Wright

I wonder is James this tedious in real life, or only when he's engaging in witless, pro-Dave boosterism? Still, it's reassuring to know that the lobby is still full of fearless hacks like Forsyth. I would hate to think Bruce Anderson felt lonely, every time he squeezed himself into place in the press gallery.

Fees Office Clerk

Vulture: "This was a joke"

Yep...it's a only a joke when it involves Labour! Your effort at damage limitation is pathetic.

toco

How low can you get in the Labour Party.Is it seriously being suggested with the form this awful man has he is a fit person to serve in Parliament and swear loyalty to the Crown.Someone should hand him a whole bunch of bananas and suggest he applies for a job in the zoo-preferably in a cage where he can cause no damage to those around him.

Any Colour but Brown

"Bob Dixon

Turkeys do not vote for Christmas"

On the basis of recent elections, where they have a postal vote, they do.

Andy Carpark

Mr MacLennan's joke is a natural antipersistaltic reaction to being force-fed pious totalitarian cant, cant which you exemplify in the word 'acceptable'.

You didn't get the joke and therefore the joke is on you, Mr commentariat pharisee.

Frank P

Disinter Bernard Manning FFS. This country has lost its sense of humour. This is a backfire job, James, and will collect more votes for Labour than it loses. Scandal my arse! I hate socialism with a fervour that is unequalled in the history of our species, but the the stifling of free expression and thought(particularly when it is merely an election-time, petty point scoring device) is worse. Foxtrot Oscar James. You are testing my resolve to vote Conservative to its limits! You are either being disingenuous or sanctimonious. Whichever, it is twattish journalism, in fact it's not even journalism, it's Cameronian petty hackery of the worst stripe.

Hawkeye

Rhoda Klapp said: "Blimey. Labour supporter I am not, but give the guy a break, willya."

Why? He is a socialist. Socialists spend their time calling conservatives dinosaurs, scum, regressives, racists or worse. So for a tory to behave like this would be in line with socialist expectations, but for a Comrade to do it smacks of rank hypocrisy. They portray themselves as "moral" compared to tories. Given some of the language in these tweets I would not be surprised if he had broken some of New Labour's zany "hate laws".

Hypocrisy is always loathed, usually more than just about anything else.

Tim Carpenter LPUK

"slave-grown, chemically enhanced, genetically modified"

Sums up the Labour mindset perfectly. Treat people as slaves, poison them and think you can master nature.

Moraymint

And guess where I live?

General Zod

Vulture, yes it was a joke, but Labour is responsible for the fascistic imposition and enforcement of the PC culture and uses it to destroy the lives of ordinary people (like the nurse with the crucifix), so it is only fit that Labour politicians who make such jokes should suffer the consequences that would be suffered by ordinary people who might make similar jokes in front of the Stasi.

If a Tory had made this joke, he would be pilloried. Just look at Grayling.

Paul Wright

Hawkeye, do you not see how it's exactly the 'free speech, anti-PC' brigade who are being monumental hypocrites here *as well*? Or is it only ever the 'other side' who can be hypocritical as far as you're concerned? Sorry to be pious, but God, such tribalism is soooo boring.

djw2009

Hawkeye, you are living in the past when there was a difference betwixt the parties. If Labour is socialist, then so is Cameron. Are you telling me Labour's spending 52% of GDP means they are socialist, and Cameron's desire to get that down by 1% is somehow proof that he is a shining crusader for capitalism. They are both in a very small ball park -if one is socialist, so is the other.

Owen Morgan

Most of the those leaving comments here either haven't read MacLennan's other reported twitter remarks, or, in the case of the labour stooges, are desperately trying to discourage everyone else from doing so. According to the first report of this story which I read, labour's candidate for the Moray constituency is all of 24. Even before being elected (which isn't a very plausible contingency at this election, unless Moray has an unusually large postal vote), he is already utterly dismissive of ordinary mortals, presumably including those who, he hopes, will vote for him.

I have a well-developed sense of humour, but his comments don't strike me as being very amusing. They certainly do deserve to be exposed.

Bob Dixon, I don't think you need to worry. Moray is pretty safe SNP and the Conservative candidate is more likely to win than this labour clown, MacLennan.

welease woger

Well said General Zod!

Fergus Pickering

I am with the posters here and against you. What do you think about Boris on cannibals and piccaninnies? We are voting ory (partly) to get rid of this PC rubbish. Did you know there is a sort of Google for Jews called Jewgle. Is that OK?

MikeF

'Bang' - it appears he has now been sacked. But then all forms of self-righteous authoritarian thinking sooner or later start to turn on their own practitioners. What about that fellow who was going on about 'British jobs for British workers' - I wonder how long he will last.

biggestaspidistra

indeed David Bouvier hits the nail on the head: in labour newspeak fair trade, as corrupt as it no doubt is, becomes the opposite of free trade. And free trade becomes slavery.

chilling.

Andy Carpark

* Gone! *

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/scotland/8610934.stm

Concerned Sassenach

If Gordon Brown is in Scotland, and being a politician claiming he’s cleaning up politics, he should be asked in depth why there has been no official inquiry nor any investigation into Glasgow City Council and the Steven Purcell issue.

According to internet reports, there’s been no serious questioning of the decision by Audit Scotland and Strathclyde Police to drop this matter. If the media reports have any truth, can there be a more serious issue than what may have been happening in Glasgow council.

Steven Purcell, one of Labour's most high profile Scottish politicians, resigns as Glasgow city council leader and is said to have left the country. He’s reported to have admitted taking cocaine, that he had been interviewed by drugs enforcement officers in his office and that he had been connected by them to drug dealers.

This man was in control of an annual budget of public money in excess of £2 billion. There’s been subsequent revelations on the internet involving local authority owned companies, public cash going to the Labour party and contracts to businesses owned by senior Labour donors led to cross party calls for an investigation into the council.

Brown should be asked time and time again why this has not been aired more publicly. Glasgow is, after all, one of the largest councils in the ‘Britain’ that Brown refers to constantly. If a Conservative council had been involved in allegations like this it would be all over the BBC and arrests would have been made.

If the reports are untrue, surely it's in everyone's interest to set the record straight.

Hawkeye

djw2009 - I was not talking about Cameron. Cameron has not made texts about "slaves" and throwing expletives at people which is what this Labour is alleged to have done. Cameron is not a socialist and you are a fool if you think he is.

Paul Wright - Your remarks make no sense. I never said that he should have been prevented from making such remarks and neither did anyone. He can make them if he wishes as long as he is prepared to live with the consequences of making those remarks. That is what Free Speech is all about. Also anyone can be hyprocritical and I will take anyone to task who is, but the subject of the article was a Labour MP and Labour (and socialists) present themselves as being morally "better"

Frank Sutton

Going by the tweets quoted in the link, this chap sounds like a vote winner.
So they sacked him.
How very "appropriate"!

sandy

Concerned Sassenach@1243 is on the money.

Just imagine if Councillor Purcell had been a Tory.

Would this scandal have slipped under the radar of the London based MSM and been almost totally ignored by the BBC?

Aye right.

Marcher Baron

One has to wonder about the obsessive propensity to twitter. Mind in gear before engaging fingers, please.

Woody

As someone of a 'certain age' - I don't view this as just a joke, what it shows is the mindset of Labour and the culture that surrounds them.
I've just been listening to Jim Murphy on the World at One and whilst he was apologetic he made sure that he dragged ALL parties into this row. This is typical of Labour, when they 'switch on the fan' they make sure everyone gets hit.

Paddy

It's nice to know what the Labour party truly think of their constituents.

How can they possibly get away with this as Sarah Brown and Ed Balls were receiving the postings.

djw2009

Look,Hawkeye, the truth is that whatever label you could attach to Gordon Brown, you could also attack to David Cameron. The centre ground is so narrow that there is little between them - apart from personality of course. Gordon Brown is not actually a socialist; like David Cameron, he is a left liberal - a believer in quangocracy to solve all social problems. Don't forget that if Gordon has run up the national debt via spending, that Cameron and Osborne approved of this, and even adopted Labour's spending targets as their own until very recently. So if do have state spending at over 50% of the economy, Cameron is equally to blame. The Conservative Party is a centre-left organisation.

Verity

Silent Hunter writes: "Welcome to "1984" with Labour."

How quaint. The Labour Party has travelled infinitely further along that route than Orwell envisioned.

Polly Gamma

Haha I agree Yam Yam. Methinks they’ve got shares in a plantation!

Verity

Fergus Pickering - Jewgle! That is hysterical! I Googled Jewgle and it came right up, with the tag line "Stop searching and call your mother".

Herbert Thornton

YES! We've no sense of humour.
We've no sense of humour today!

(For those of us who remember the original song)

Fergus Pickering

Glad to be of service, Verity. You should know, that though I am rather rude occasionally, and we will never agree about Cameron, I am a Verity fan. I expect I will agree with you soon. But for now. Let's crush tthe bastards beneath our chariot wheels. By the way, I got Jewgle from a poetry blog. You see, poetry has its uses.

Alexandrovich

Hawkeye: "...as long as he is prepared to live with the consequences of making those remarks. That is what Free Speech is all about."
No, it is not. It is about speaking freely without the fear of the consequential jackboot of PC.

Silent Hunter

Verity:

Yup! That's the point, well spotted.