MP thinks charity rowers are illegal immigrants

[CandidHedgehog]

Title of thread says it all really.

Group of people trying to row around the UK for motor neurone disease get confused with illegal immigrants.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdd32lnq445o

I did find the comment of one of the rowers rather funny:

”People were asking where the Royal Navy is when you need them. I used to be a Royal Marine so the Royal Navy was on the boat”.

At least it’s getting publicity for the charity and the MP donated £1000.

www.row4mnd.com

It'd be funny if it wasn't so depressing.

It actually sounds quite threatening - the rowers describe a group following them “almost vigilante style”.

As you say, depressing. Hopefully the publicity will help with the fundraising, though.

At least he's made a decent donation and the publicity might mean they get lots more. So some good has hopefully come out of it.

Yes, it's good that they might get more fundraising from the publicity.
All this online fearmongering is scary though, it whips up real life consequences.

The problem with this is that we aren't allowed to describe Rupert Lowe and his band of vigilantes as stupid.

What a muppet but at least he’s admitted his mistake and tried to make it right.

Rowers are tough. Ocean-going rowers even more so. Good job they don’t scare easily as it sounds like it could have been a very intimidating experience. I’m loving the “Royal Navy were on the boat” comment. 😂

What a muppet but at least he’s admitted his mistake and tried to make it right

It's the fact that he hasn't fact checked first though and just jumped straight into a rant.
That's what's dangerous in my eyes. It whips up hysteria.

Reading his wiki profile, his behaviour is actually not a surprise. I know wiki is a long way from verified fact but OMG his profile is eye opening. If Spitting Image (remember?) had moved into writing wiki profiles, this would be an example of their work.

Even more concerning that people voted him into Parliament.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Lowe

He's so mad I'm starting to think it's a comedy character, or a left wing plant.

Yes, that bit worried me too. He'd reported the illegal migrants he thought he saw to the relevant authorities, so why did he need to live tweet it to his cronies, and what would they have done had the boat landed? I mean, this is the guy who was thrown out of Reform for threats of violence against his own party Chair. God knows what he might do to someone he doesn't like...

so why did he need to live tweet it to his cronies, and what would they have done had the boat landed?

Exactly, surely it's incitement?

I’m pretty horrified by this. My eldest son is into sea rowing, is he going to have vigilantes tracking him while he’s out training now?

It reminds me of that vigilante mob in the 90s who attacked a paediatrician’s house because they thought paediatrician = paedophile.

I saw this on the news too. Oh dear, whoops!😂😂

Oh well at least it's cost him a grand in a charity donation.

You're right to be concerned. This is an excerpt of some of the reactions. These people are vile and dangerous.

https://bsky.app/profile/bickerrecord.bsky.social/post/3lvv7cbukg22w

We don't need to call them stupid - they have done an admirable job all by themselves. 😁

Given it’s Lowe it is either stupid or malicious. I don’t have any issues believing he is this stupid but the alternative is much worse.

I have to admit I laughed 😬 it’s so incredibly Partridge, ‘what was I supposed to do Lynn, they looked like illegal immigrants!’

I mean where did he think they were coming from? The Netherlands? Wouldn’t that be about 7 or 8 times the length of the Channel?

I’m completely against the small boats and want them stopped, but this was comedy.

I remember that 🥲

Is there any other way to describe them?!

Descrbing them as stupid would be missing the mark, I fear. They may struggle on the IQ front, but they are not stupid.

Can't we, why not? 😳

Imagine if they were people of colour legitimately rowing? Like someone else said it's laughable if it weren't so depressing

He was in Great Yarmouth.

Did he think that they had taken a dinghy all the way across the North Sea from France? That's a long journey.

It's a classic case of jumping to conclusions.

What would the people have done if they had come ashore? At what point would they have realised their mistake?

I think they mean that you can't say to someone on here they're being stupid even if they are in case of deletion.

Yeah, I honestly think some people need to look at a map a bit more often.