Comments on my post Helmer tells schoolgirl: culled seals are not "innocent" suggest I may have been unfair in calling Lincolnshire MEP Roger Helmer rude.
Tonight's Lincolnshire Echo carries an interview with the schoolgirl.
The schoolgirl claims Mr Helmer was offensive in his letter, patronising and belittling of her efforts to protect Canadian seals.
Mr Helmer claimed that clubbing seals to death is "humane". Of course, he is entitled to those views and to express them forcefully.
But I do think he was rude - and patronising - telling a schoolgirl that she should concentrate her efforts on caring for people rather than "dumb animals".
To add insult to injury, it turns out she wants to train as a vet!
The Echo carries the full textof the schoolgirl's letter as well as Helmer's reply.
Having read her polite letter and his full response, I still think the MEP was rude to a young constituent. At very least he could have picked his words a little more carefully.
Judge for yourself. I'd welcome your comments.
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6 comments:
yea i think you are a cunt. Lay off Helmer scumbag.
Having read the full version of the letter I'm still struggling to find it "rude". If it were my child who had received that response I might suggest they take issue with a couple of the points, perhaps write back to request clarification/evidence on a couple of points, but I wouldn't encourage they to think of it as a "rude" response.
It's interesting that there's a small variation between what you first quoted and what the supposed full version of the letter says:
You first quoted:
"I am not prepared to join the seal campaign, because while I agree that the culling of seals by beating them over the head is not very pleasing and aesthetic
whereas the supposed full version is missing the part I've put in bold above:
I am not prepared to join the seal campaign, because while I agree that culling seals by beating them over the head is not very pleasing
Any idea what the cause of the difference is?
Also, in your previous post, I notice that you quoted this line:
"Your sympathy for dumb animals does you credit, but my advice would be that you save your concerns for people rather than animals."
but I'm not seeing that anywhere in the version that you point to as the "full text".
Any idea what's going on there too? Is the "full text" not really the full text?
She's 17 for gods sake. The reason you don't like Roger Helmer is because he tells it the way it is.
Why don't you try and engage on policy such as the benefits of staying in the EU instead of making personal attacks?
AS a Lincolnshire councillor - and given lincolnshire is quite rural what are YOUR views on farming and the raising of livestock for food? Do you agree with the methods used to kill pigs? Do you regard pigs as equals to humans?
Helmer is a crude fool and deserves to be exposed. He is an awful MEP and I hope we finally give him the boot (humanely, of course - which means it could be over the head) in 2009.
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