Facebook injects spice into election campaign

With a Conservative majority of 11,904 and a solid history of returning Tory candidates the seat of Penrith and the Border is never likely to be a result that will have us on the edge of our seats wondering which way it will go.

Rory Stewart: ’Great news, but only the start’

But whatever the predictability of the result that doesn’t seem to have stopped some good old fashioned mud slinging courtesy of Facebook.

Labour candidate Barbara Cannon has used her Facebook page to describe Conservative hopeful and media darling Rory Stewart as “a big head” who “doesn’t give a fig about the good folks of Penrith”

She posted a link to an article in the Independent which claimed Stewart had likened the Liberal Democrats to the Taliban. You can read it here

She then went on to say rather cryptically: “I am getting to hear all sorts of things about my Conservative opponent. He has a big head for one thing and lots of rich friends.
Cannon added:” You would like him less if you saw some of the stuff I keep being sent. This man does not care a fig about the good folks of Penrith and The Border - they are his meal ticket to Westminster.
“He is a typical Tory from a privileged upbringing who like them all thinks he is entitled to rule us all. The sad thing is the people of Penrith and the Border will get him but they deserve so much better.
“In fact typical of the type who see Westminster as a little sideline career - this man is really not up to the job - the people of Penrith and The Border deserve much better.”
I am not sure how such comments are going to win Barbara Cannon votes, but at least it’s the first sign of some spice being injected into the campaign.
Let’s hope more Cumbrian candidates take to Facebook and Twitter to trade blows and tell us what they really think.

See Barbara Cannon's Facebook page here