No need for a megaphone, Heather: we get the message loud and clear.
Why do – predominantly Conservative – MPs insist on putting both feet in their mouth by insulting particular groups or places?
The latest to do so is Heather Wheeler:
A government minister has been accused of showing “utter contempt for voters” after appearing to suggest Blackpool and Birmingham are “godawful”.
According to technology journalist Chris Middleton, the junior minister said: “I was just at a conference in Blackpool or Birmingham or somewhere godawful.”
The leader of Blackpool council criticised the “ignorant and ill-advised” comments:
Labour councillor Lynn Williams said … the government was supposed to be working alongside the Lancashire town to tackle social deprivation as part of its flagship levelling up programme.
“We know we’ve got a lot of social inequalities to deal with and we’re actually meant to be working with the government to deal with those as part of the levelling up programme so, yeah, it’s just frustrating.”
Asked about Wheeler’s apology, the council leader appeared unconvinced. “I mean, you said it, you thought it,” she said. She said that making Blackpool and Birmingham the butt of the joke was “more evidence of what the true thoughts are”.
That’s a sentiment echoed by the Labour Party in Westminster,
with Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner saying: “The disrespect is off the scale.”
“The mask has slipped,” she added.
“This minister has blurted out what Boris Johnson’s Conservatives really think about our communities behind closed doors. Heather Wheeler has put her utter contempt for voters on show.”
So why do Tories do it?
Why do they announce big policies to improve lives across the country and then insult its people in the most crass and insensitive of ways?
I reckon it’s because they think they can.
They believe they are better than the rest of us, so they can say what they like.
(And do whatever they want, as the Partygate scandal demonstrated amply.)
Do you want to know why they think that way?
Because they keep getting voted back into power by people who seem to enjoy being treated like dirt. Can you understand that?
Source: Tory MP and minister apologises after describing Blackpool and Birmingham as ‘godawful’
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