Tory MP says constituent is “talking out of his arse” in letter
Shocking: Guto Bebb.
Guto (pronounced Gee-toe) by name, git by nature, it seems.
The Conservative MP for Aberconwy, Guto Bebb, has responded to a strongly-worded letter from a constituent with an equally strongly-worded response.
But, while the letter from Eurwyn Thomas did not make any personal references to Mr Bebb, the MP was happy to accuse the local voter of “talking out of his arse” in the second example of un-Parliamentary behaviour we have seen from the Conservatives in as many days.
Mr Bebb says he was justified in the personal response because Mr Thomas had vowed to get rid of him.
But Mr Thomas takes the view that Mr Bebb’s verbal attack was entirely unjustified, and has published a (translated) copy of his letter, on his Facebook page, to back himself up.
It reads as follows:
“Dear Mr Guto Bebb MP,
“Seeing as you voted against the motion to increase the salaries of public sector workers in the recent vote, may I ask the following.
“Were you one of the hundreds of Tories that laughed and chortled like pigs in a trough following the result?
“Snorting and rolling over the benches of democracy after winning a vote that was dependent upon the support of the fascist, right wing and anachronistic DUP party.
“This, coming on the back of Conservative hypocrisy about the bravery and strength of our emergency services following the recent awful tragedies.
“Nobody expected any less from you or any other career Conservative (three line whip probably), but, as long as I have a hole in my arse/bottom – that laughing and spiteful celebration will come back to haunt every Conservative candidate in the next election!
“Sincerely,
“E Thomas.”
Here is an image of Mr Bebb’s reply:
Unfortunately This Writer’s own knowledge of Welsh is not that good, and the person I know with a really good command of the language wasn’t working at my local today, so I cannot confirm for certain what he says. Perhaps a reader with a good knowledge of the language would care to translate?
Mr Bebb said: “Mr Thomas wrote two abusive and rude emails to me in Welsh where he stated;
“’as long as I have an arsehole I will work to get rid of you’.
“The exchange was in Welsh and it’s a commonly used phrase in Welsh that somebody is ‘talking through their arse’. I therefore told Mr Thomas that he clearly still had his since he was talking through it.
“I would write the same letter again.
“As a paid public employee I do wonder why I should be subject to constant on-line abuse and vindictive, spiteful and rude emails. Would a Doctor or a Teacher expect such a barrage of abuse?”
It wasn’t a barrage of abuse, though.
It was a strongly-worded criticism of the way Conservative MPs celebrated their latest success in cutting the pay of working people – including teachers, as we discovered this week – that only referred to Mr Bebb in conjunction with his Parliamentary party colleagues.
I am reminded of the criticism of Conservative trolls on the social media, which I quoted in another recent article:
Social media will never work for Tories. They rely on lies and there are too many people around to counter them. Their days are numbered. https://t.co/u98tFM3vJa
— Tweets by Sue (@marthasydenham) July 10, 2017
Mr Bebb’s response seems doubly strange as, following the general election in June, he has a massively-reduced majority – cut from 3,999 in 2015 to just 635 this year. He is in no position to go hurling insults – especially on such questionable grounds.
Perhaps Mrs May should suspend him from the Tory whip, as well as Anne Marie Morris? Or would that reduce her working majority too much?
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Perhaps the letter to Mr Bebb was a tad offensive, but we expect our elected representatives to set a better example in their replies than Mr. Bebb, who shows himself to be just a bit on the foul mouthed side himself.
It is an indication of what Tories really think of the majority of the British public.
I’ve done a rough translation but when I try to post it the post comment button disappears maybe its too long!
I’ll try it in bits! My Welsh is not that great so apologies and don’t take this as Gospel and do ask someone who really knows the language! But as far as I can make out this is what he says: Dear Mr Thomas
Thank you for your childish email.
It seems you should not worry about your arsehole, it’s obviously alive and well as you are talking through it.
Guto Bebb letter continued…..Neither myself nor any other member voted against anyone’s payrise. Very simply, a Labour amendment was dismissed (the nearest sense I can get to the next bit is “which wouldn’t have been put into operation even if it had been received……..sorry, my Welsh falls down here!) A fact that you did not bother considering.
Furthermore it is irresponsible to say the least to claim that public spending of around £9bn is possible without raising everyone’s taxes. It is also fair to ask why workers who earn more than the national average and enjoy better terms of employment are subject to promises from such as Labour.
Guto Bebb letter continued…..I’m proud of your commitment to get rid of Conservatives like me—political action is a good thing. Great respect to a good Welshman like you for wanting to see Labour hold the Aberconwy seat—the same Labour Party where local members reprimanded farmers at the agricultural hustings for asking questions in Welsh.
Arseholes to Welsh as well is part of your local priorities it seems
Warm wishes
Guto Bebb
That last line is a charming extra feature that we didn’t expect, isn’t it?
Well it certainly indicates that the Labour party ought to be rather more respectful of the Welsh language, and people who ask questions in it, if they don’t want to alienate people and give their opponants ammunition. Local issues can easily trump wider ones!
Can you prove that Mr Bebb wasn’t just making that story up?
I’ve no idea whatsoever if the thing about the local Labour party snubbing questions in Welsh is true or not.However If there is any truth in it they need to get their act together!
Teachers and doctors deal with proven facts. Having discarded expert knowledge, Tory MPs only deal with whatever the script of their party’s current dogma happens to be, after appropriate spinning – smoke, mirrors, half-truths, innuendo, rumour and lies e.g. £350 million per week for the NHS!
Makes you wonder how somebody like him gets to be the Tory candidate in the first place unless he was considered to be the “best” in a group of awful people
i would say its more likely because tories en masse think they can say and do what they like to us “plebs” because they think we are beneath them and beneath contempt…. roll on the GE. lets show them that they should be afraid.. very afraid… of us..because if anyone is contemptuous its them.