5 ms·

Given the murder of David Amess, I can see why MPs are a little twitchy over people who are potentially out of a given area (though not constituency) attending

Given the murder of David Amess, I can see why MPs are a little twitchy over people who are potentially out of a given area (though not constituency) attending Perhaps involving the police was heavy-handed and there could have been another way…

some_random 4y ago
Another way to do what? Intimidate a woman into silence for the crime of petitioning her elected official?
- mikrl 4y ago
  I bet their petitioning elected official licenses were expired.
alistairSH 4y ago
Perhaps informing the women that the meeting was only open to town residents? Oh wait... After emailing him, they were told the meeting was specifically for residents of Chideock... Looks like the police were sent anyways. Unless there was more content in the emails than has been reported, this was absolutely heavy-handed intimidation.
- ghufran_syed 4y ago
  they weren’t “sent”, at least, not by the MP. The police were advised by the MP of the unusual email for security reasons, the police made their own decision, and later apologized
  - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
    >The police were advised by the MP of the unusual email for security reasons, the police made their own decision, and later apologized Right, but the MP almost certainly knew exactly what process he was kick starting by telling them to look into it. The beauty of the system is that everyone has plausible deniability.
    - lostlogin 4y ago
      Give it a few weeks. If this is a pattern it should start to come to light once a few cases are publicised.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    Complaining to your MP about toxic conditions in local waterways is "unusual"? That's exactly the type of correspondence an MP should expect. Referring such correspondence to the police is ridiculous. The MP should have told the women the town hall was closed to non-residents and left it at that. The cynic in me believes the MP knew exactly what the police were going to do when forwarded "unusual" emails.
    - ghufran_syed 4y ago
      interesting that they didn’t publish the emails - that’s suggests that they somehow don’t support the narrative “ After emailing him, they were told the meeting was specifically for residents of Chideock, but Mr Loder replied: “Let me know which villager has invited you and I will come back to you to see what we can do.” Which implies the two women claimed to have been invited by one of the villagers eligible to attend the meeting? Strange that that wouldn’t be explained in the article if it was true, suggesting the claim was NOT true. And that I think could reasonably be seen as unusual by someone responsible for security for an event.
stuaxo 4y ago
Its suspicious that they tried to meet him before and he got out of it with excuses like his laptop battery being broken. Tory MPs often seem to be in bed with privatised industry and its not a leap to suppose that's what's happening here.
joshenberg 4y ago
Worse, the MP was clearly giving them the run-around from previous meetings. Sending police to ask questions the citizens themselves likely answered in their emails, or answerable via telephone, is an escalation of this tactic. Political assassins seem very very unlikely to politely inquire about attendance.

some_random 4y ago

Another way to do what? Intimidate a woman into silence for the crime of petitioning her elected official?

mikrl 4y ago
I bet their petitioning elected official licenses were expired.

alistairSH 4y ago

Perhaps informing the women that the meeting was only open to town residents? Oh wait... After emailing him, they were told the meeting was specifically for residents of Chideock... Looks like the police were sent anyways. Unless there was more content in the emails than has been reported, this was absolutely heavy-handed intimidation.

ghufran_syed 4y ago
they weren’t “sent”, at least, not by the MP. The police were advised by the MP of the unusual email for security reasons, the police made their own decision, and later apologized
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  >The police were advised by the MP of the unusual email for security reasons, the police made their own decision, and later apologized Right, but the MP almost certainly knew exactly what process he was kick starting by telling them to look into it. The beauty of the system is that everyone has plausible deniability.
  - lostlogin 4y ago
    Give it a few weeks. If this is a pattern it should start to come to light once a few cases are publicised.
- alistairSH 4y ago
  Complaining to your MP about toxic conditions in local waterways is "unusual"? That's exactly the type of correspondence an MP should expect. Referring such correspondence to the police is ridiculous. The MP should have told the women the town hall was closed to non-residents and left it at that. The cynic in me believes the MP knew exactly what the police were going to do when forwarded "unusual" emails.
  - ghufran_syed 4y ago
    interesting that they didn’t publish the emails - that’s suggests that they somehow don’t support the narrative “ After emailing him, they were told the meeting was specifically for residents of Chideock, but Mr Loder replied: “Let me know which villager has invited you and I will come back to you to see what we can do.” Which implies the two women claimed to have been invited by one of the villagers eligible to attend the meeting? Strange that that wouldn’t be explained in the article if it was true, suggesting the claim was NOT true. And that I think could reasonably be seen as unusual by someone responsible for security for an event.

stuaxo 4y ago

Its suspicious that they tried to meet him before and he got out of it with excuses like his laptop battery being broken. Tory MPs often seem to be in bed with privatised industry and its not a leap to suppose that's what's happening here.

joshenberg 4y ago

Worse, the MP was clearly giving them the run-around from previous meetings. Sending police to ask questions the citizens themselves likely answered in their emails, or answerable via telephone, is an escalation of this tactic. Political assassins seem very very unlikely to politely inquire about attendance.