Thursday, August 25, 2011

VOTE NOW : Does calling Tom Harris a toad make me a "nasty Cybernat"?

We've learned a lot of intriguing things about Tom Harris recently, most notably that he wants to be First Minister. We also learned at the weekend from his exchange with Kate Higgins on Twitter that one thing he really detests (almost as much as teenage mothers) is online, self-selecting polls. So I thought the time could hardly be better to hold an online, self-selecting poll all about Tom Harris...

On the last thread, Labour Hame contributer Duncan Hothersall complained that by calling Tom Harris a toad (in the context of the whimsical observation that he wasn't so much a "King Over The Water" as a "Toad Over The Puddle"), I had taken a "step too far" if I didn't want to be considered "just another nasty Cybernat".

Question : Is Duncan Hothersall right, or wrong?


You'll find the voting form at the top of the sidebar. Vote wisely!

8 comments:

  1. Given the treatment of, say, Alex Salmond in articles of Tom Harris' Labourhame blog, Duncan has a fucking cheek

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  2. Where's Duncan's bloody humour now? He was just one (of the many) who thought us cybernats (why do Labour numpties think that's a degoratory term these days?) were overreacting and needed to find a sense of humour over articles such as interviews with the First Minister, a Cybernat or Kenny MacAskill.

    If we were supposed to revel in the humour (?) in these articles, what's wrong with revelling in the humour of calling Mr Admin himself a toad?

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  3. Hehe, very good. I look forward to the result.

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  4. Mr Harris it seems has every intention of becoming an MSP in five years time as he said so on Newsnight the other night. In the meantime that will still leave the problem of their being too many chiefs and not enough Indians, when we would have Ed Milliband as Labour leader, Tom Harris as Scottish Labour leader, Ann McKechin as Shadow Scottish Secretary and finally Tom’s deputy who I assume would have to be an MSP (Johann Lamont) in Holyrood. We are all aware of Tom’s right wing leanings, his hostility to immigrants and single mothers, antipathy towards constitutional reform and PR in particular and his hysterical anti-Scottish/Holyrood and pro Westminster agenda (now put on a very distant shelf now that he “wants” to be an MSP, I note!). All great policies for a pro-Blairite, south east of England centric party like new Labour but how will that go down in the traditionally more left wing Scotland. I see he is already espousing reaching out to disaffected Tories on his “Labour Hame” blog. I would have thought that from his front row seat in Westminster he would have seen from the experience of the Lib Dems that you cannot be all things to all people. Wearing too many hats all at once is not working for the Lib Dems why would it work for a Labour party holed below the water line like Scottish labour?

    As for calling him a toad. I think you were using analogous language there and could have easily employed a different construction such as mountain out of a molehill or storm in a teacup. People who deliberately divert the issue by clutching at such supposed slights normally do so because they have nothing else to say.

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  5. I assumed it was a reference to Kenneth Grahame's character 'Mr Toad'!

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  6. Ah the dreaded cybernats. Still at least we're mere amateurs.

    Remember Matthew Marr who wee Wendy bring it oan carefully handpicked to advise her on getting the best press coverage.

    Got off his face at an awards ceremony and loudly shouted that the First Minister was a c**t before being promptly fired.

    Och these Labour types, they can't help themselves.

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  7. Firstly, Duncan must be assuming that to call someone a toad is to insult them. Personally I think toads are quite nice wee amphibians. Rather like referring to someone as a pig, calling a person a toad could quite easily be a compliment.

    In any case as someone who is in the habit of calling Charles fr Rothsay "Big Ears"; the two ugly sister princesses, Chunky and Goofy; Pickles, Humpty Dumpty; Fox, Basil Brush, etc, etc, I hardly think I’m in a position to criticise you for referring to Harris as a toad, even if it was an insult. I can’t help but wonder though that there aren’t any number of toads all over Scotland planning some ghastly revenge on you right now, for a crushing insult to them.

    If Harris gets bent out of shape about a little thing like that, he probably should get himself another job...actually, maybe he should do that anyway. Perhaps Benefits Advisor to Single Parent New Deal or something. That’s the perfect job for a Labour person... Oh wait a minute, what am I saying?

    I may be wrong; who knows what the Labour Party will do these days, down as they are to their last few members. They may well decide that as Harris can read and write, he would make a good leader, even if he is to the right of half the Tories.

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  8. I think it was a poor show to write what you did. It ought to have been "prince over the water" and "frog over the puddle". Close, but no cigar.

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