Thursday, June 16, 2022

Wakefield by-election candidates compete to deploy the most unsettling argument


There seems to be a competition among the 15 candidates in Wakefield to put forward the most unsettling argument as to why you should vote for them.

First there was Paul Bickerdake of the Christian People's Alliance, whose leaflet began:
"I have been a foster carer for over 14 years and have never sexually assaulted anyone. I am happily married to Janet."
Then, says YorkshireLive:
In response to questions about the leaflet, Mr Bickerdale said: "I do look at children but I look at children in a proper way, not the way that the previous MP was looking at children."
It's a big ask, but today, the Conservative candidate Nadeem Ahmed may have topped that today.

As the story is behind the Telegraph paywall, it's over to indy100:
The Telegraph's Whitehall correspondent Tony Diver was in Wakefield ahead of the by-election next week that has been called after the former Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan was convicted for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. 
Diver spoke to Tory candidate in the Wakefield by-election, Nadeem Ahmed, who claimed Khan was "one bad apple" and argued "we still trust GPs” after notorious serial killer Harold Shipman killed 250 people. 
Tory hopeful Ahmed said: "The people of Wakefield know that he [Khan] was one bad apple. As you know, Harold Shipman committed suicide in Wakefield prison. 
"He was a GP – one of the most, you know, a trusted professional like teachers and others… Have we stopped trusting GPs? No."
And here is a tweet from Diver to prove it:
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1 comment:

  1. Alex Macfie17 June, 2022 15:21

    By-election voters don't generally look back to the event that caused the by-election, except perhaps when the political class artificially makes it about that (e.g. Southend West 2022, Batley & Spen 2016). So it's difficult to understand why the CPA candidate feels the need t emphasise that he's not a sex offender. One would hope to be able to take that for granted.

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