Councillor Terry

Via Doctor Vee, Will P and Clairwil, not to mention Right for Scotland and Freedom and Whisky, I bring you Councillor Terry Kelly. I have mentioned this chap before, but given that elections loom on the horizon and he could conceivably be re-elected, I’m inclined to help the good people north of the border and highlight just what it is that people get when they put their cross next to the red rose.

Elections tend to bring out a tribal response and people vote a particular way because they always have and their parents did before them. Critical thinking tends to go AWOL. Unfortunately, this can lead to some pretty dire consequences. Councillors such as Kelly being one of them. This man claims to be a socialist (bad enough). He’s proud of it (worse). I was once – I’m ashamed of it. But worse, far worse, his politics are more in line with Stalin and Castro than Wilson or Bevan. Indeed, he openly praises the dictator of Cuba as if, somehow, the abominable mass murderer has some redeeming features. Although I suppose it’s true; even Fidel Castro must love his mother…

Reading Kelly’s blog you see before you a semi-literate bully; someone who hurls insults at anyone who dares to disagree with his entrenched viewpoint. This, coupled with an apparent inability to follow a line of reasoning makes discourse chaotic and unintentionally amusing to read. Consequently I find myself dropping by to sneak an illicit look, much like the rubberneckers gawping at a particularly bloody road accident.

I particularly liked his comments on strike action and solidarity:

I have fond memories of bringing their operations to a grinding halt with a bitter two month strike, which we won and many were politicised, people like you wouldn’t undestand that it’s called solidarity.

I too have memories of strike action and standing on a picket line. However, my memories are not fond ones. There are no winners with strike action. The company is damaged and the strikers are simply killing their golden goose. Perhaps worst, though, is that working relationships become embittered and damaged, sometimes beyond repair. Maybe that is what Kelly means by solidarity.

I notice that Terry has been taking notice of the attention he is attracting:

The problem is the quality of what is written, it is depressing, most of it is reactionary stuff and very predictable but it seems to be written by inadequates who are consumed by hatred.

Pots, kettles and black spring to mind (if you’ll forgive the cliché). The point these people are making is missed on the subject of their ire. I suspect that it will be missed by the voters in Renfrewshire, too.

Go read his blog; I urge you. For sheer awfulness, it takes some beating. Poorly thought through, riddled with ad hominems (if you disagree with the councillor, you are mentally ill, it seems) and some of the worst written English I’ve seen on a blog for an awful long time. That experiment with comprehensive education was a bit of a fuck-up, wasn’t it?