Hate Mail

X-Mailer: b2evolution 1.10.2 - PHP/5.2.13
X-Remote-Addr: 94.196.87.117
From: sam <sam_248@yahoo.co.uk>
Message-Id: <E1O8XKr-0006IK-9T@host.qliqdns.net>
Date: Sun, 02 May 2010 07:27:45 -0400

You are such an bastard

Sadly the from address is a fake so I was unable to strike up a conversation with Sam to find out why it is he thinks ‘an’ is the appropriate indefinite article to use with ‘bastard’.

I get quite a few comments like this which I generally delete. I thought this one was worth sharing for the insight it provides on the average Labour supporter though:

20/04/10 @ 04:23 ·
Email: lazy.lad@hotmail.co.uk ·
IP: 87.194.109.160 · No Spam Karma
In response to: Labour Now In Third Place
Comment from: Adam Paigge [Visitor]
you naive little twat! the labour party is the biggest in england, even with the polls as they stand labour will have an overall majority! also the polls are conducted on 1000 people who accually answer i.e people who have time or arent working because they’re shitting money! (all tories)

Like all political bloggers I think, I get some email and comments that can only really be described as hate mail. I don’t like to censor blog comments that aren’t spam and/or obviously likely to get me sued but, at the same time, I don’t really feel the urge to publish comments that are just personal abuse rather than abuse of my opinions. As a compromise, I’m going to put them in this blog.

First up, here’s a comment from hopkins.shelly@live.co.uk (I have no way of verifying that so, if you’re the real owner of that email and you didn’t write the comment, please let me know and I’ll edit you out):

Email: hopkins.shelly@live.co.uk · IP: 80.176.141.201
In response to: Nothing To Hide, Nothing To Fear!
Comment from: What? [Visitor]
you really are a sad, small, little person. I hope that the time you waste writing this drivel prevents you from having a social life and partner.

Sorry to disappoint, but I do indeed have both a partner and a social life and, despite my best efforts to hold off the deep fried mars bars, I’m not as small as I would like. It’s heartening to get this sort of comment though since, when the only response someone can make is personal abuse, you really do know that you’ve won the argument.

Next, here’s an email from a Labour supporter. This one does have some relevant argument along with the personal abuse. I got this one before I changed my FAQ to say that I reserved the right to publish emails sent directly to me so I’ve not included the name of the sender for that reason:

Came across your unfortunate site by accident. It would seem that Labour have not lost the next election if desperate sites like this have been set up.

Not sure how old you are? I remember the boom & bust of the Tory governments, interest rates at 15%, whole communities decimated by the Tories. I am white, middle class, own my own business & although struggling like everyone else in this GLOBAL downturn I will always vote labour!!

You have given me heart the battle is not lost!!

If its that bad here just piss off abroad!

Angela xxxxxxx

I am, sad to say, plenty old enough to remember interest rates at 15% (unlike you though, I actually remember that they never went to 15% in reality as the rate was dropped back to 10% before the end of the day in question), I’m also old enough to remember inflation at 20%, the three day week, rolling power cuts, British Leyland cars and the IMF being called in to bail us out under the previous Labour administration - I know which situation I prefer. Incidentally, if anyone really doesn’t understand why low interest rates are not in any sense a good thing in their own right, FT Alphaville has this article.

I wonder if Angela still thinks Labour are going to win the next election?