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Last month I wrote about fakery at the Conservative Party conference. West Midlands Conservatives had doctored a photograph in order to insert a missing candidate. Not a big deal but poignant given the ridiculous calls they made about my colleague James Purnell at their conference.
West Midlands Conservatives are at it again, not with a doctored photograph this time though.
So committed to the European ideal are West Midlands Conservatives that I think they must have decided to spend their lives in Brussels and Strasbourg. They obviously don’t know about the UK’s second city at the heart of the West Midlands region.
Take a look at the West Midlands Conserative MEP’s web site. Notice anything unusual? See the picture at the top of the page? Yep, you’re right – that’s Birmingham, Alabama. I’ve stuck a picture up just so that you can compare.
Should Tory MEP’s Philip Bradbourn, Philip Bushell-Matthews and Malcolm Harbour ever wish to pay a visit to Birmingham,England, I would be delighted to arrange a tour of the City they claim to represent.
19 comments ↓
Still there at midnight Tuesday. Presumably Bradbourn and co are too busy knocking back the brandy and cigars to have noticed.
No wonder their travel expenses are so high…
Shocking behaviour. Google Images can be so dangerous….
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
Bugger – they have changed it (can anyone confirm that the new photo is of Birmingham).
Nice of you nick my story from Jan 3rd without as mucha s a hat-tip! Not only do you want my vote but my blog posts as well! tohttp://westbromblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/i-dont-trust-my-meps.html
[...] We do normally start our day out with John’s A Look Back column, (which will make an appearance around 8 a.m. today) but we figured we couldn’t pass up this opportunity to point out something from “across the pond.” We can thank Tom Watson for pointing out this error on this regional site for the English conservative party. [...]
Thanks for stealing my January 3rd post Tom wihout as much as a hat-tip!http://westbromblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/i-dont-trust-my-meps.html
First you want my vote, then you want my blog posts! lol
Tried “Birmingham Skyline” and got dozens before any of Brum ….
Some researcher’s going to get it. Wonderful. Very funny.
I think it more likely that the MEP’s employed someone to write the website. Do you honestly expect they would spend many hours making a website? Do you honestly think they have the technical knowledge?
Come on Tom – even someone as technically savvy as yourself employed DRD to design (and most likely install) your website. Do you honestly expect anything different from our ‘stiff as a rake’ friends over in Birmingham?
Dear Tom,
You forgot to credit your constituent over at West Brom Blog who first made this public on the 3rd. The local press seems to have got the impression that it’s your own discovery for some reason. Did you send a press release claiming that you’d made the discovery or did they just pick it up off your blog?
When you get a story from another blog, it’s only common courtesy that you credit the source.
It is indeed common courtesy to credit your source. That is why I thanked Gareth from Walsall when he rang me about it yesterday. Goodnight to you sir.
[...] Tom Watson, the Labour MP for Aston in Birmingham (that’s Birmingham, England, not Alabama) makes political capital out of it on his blog and ends up in all the papers today being credited with the discovery. [...]
So they got Birmingham, Alabama mixed up with Birmingham, England…. Big deal.
It is well known that politicians are rubbish at geography. Take Gordon Brown for instance. He can’t tell the difference between Britain and England.
[...] Posted by brigidjones on 10 January, 2008  Am loving this story from Tom Watson, who spotted that instead of their own city, Tory MEPs had displayed their wealth of local knowledge by illustrating their website with pictures of Birmingham, Alabama. [...]
“It is indeed common courtesy to credit your source. That is why I thanked Gareth from Walsall when he rang me about it yesterday. Goodnight to you sir.”
I would like to of seen an amendment to the blog post creditng Gareth in the story and linking back to his posting, several stories have emerged where you have taken full credit. I feel more could be done here to rectify this.
[...] Tom Watson has some fun at the expense of the West Midlands Conservative MEPs. They illustrated their website with a picture of Birmingham. Fair enough, you will say. But this was Birmingham, Alabama. [...]
Hi Tom, I hope that you are going to oppose the adding of any more fluoride to our water? It is high time this poison was removed and this government stop mass medicating us. If kids have rotten teeth then parents should stop them having sweets, not the government make us drink water that causes Hypothyroid, Dementia, Brittle bones, infertiity and cancer!!
[...] you would have thought that West Midlands Conservatives would learn from passed [...]
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