Would you want this ex neo Nazi, internet troll, misogynist, racist ex con on your council?

[DorsetMermaid]

Kemi Badenoch says he deserves a second chance. Would you want him on your council?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l1q6167d3o

Yikes. Can they really not find better candidates from their membership? I suppose they have been so mad for so long they have very few members.

Mind you, I was at a hustings 10 years ago where the Con candidate fell asleep - on the platform!

Absolutely not. He was old enough to know better. By all means let him play a role in society if he has reformed, but putting him up for elected office? No way.

Conservative vetting procedures: you can't stand for us if you believe in Net Zero but if you've been convicted for neo-Nazi propaganda and a sustained campaign of racial harassment, step right up!

In theory I'm not unwilling to accept reformed characters. And Road to Damascus converts can sometimes be the most effective deterrents for others.

So it matters quite a lot whether this guy truly is such a reformed character, or just a grifter who has found a new grift.

[Edited because I hadn't paid attention to the fact he's standing to be a local councillor, not as an MP, so he wouldn't be present in the Houses of Parliament with Luciana Berger.]

Kemi Badenoch needs her head examined.

Once a racist always a racist. Imagine the outrage from Kemi if any other party had selected a neo nazi as a candidate.

There is no such thing as an ex-nazi.

Imagine the outrage from Kemi if any other party had selected a neo nazi as a candidate.

Indeed.

Quite apart from his horrific harassment of Luciana Berger,and other anti-semitic actions, which are terrible, he has many instances including criminal convictions for downright dishonesty, even burglary, as well as spreading deliberate lies and harmful hoaxes on social media. While he claims to be a reformed anti-semite, even if that is true, his general dishonesty cannot be brushed aside. As a Somerset person, I am horrified that he claims to be a suitable candidate to represent us. I trust that the sensible, kind and decent good folk of south Somerset, which I know and love, will never entertain even the idea of voting for this obnoxious and unreliable character. He is entirely unfitted for public office.

Blimey, I've just read his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Bonehill-Paine

Born 1992, so although he was about 23 years old when he was jailed in 2015, it doesn't seem to have been a brief, youthful lapse of judgement.

According the WP page he was expelled from his public school for his behaviour, and was put in care at the age of 13.

He seems to be a life-long loose cannon and extremist, and a career attention-seeker. He's been running blogs and a YouTube channel, so presumably monetised to make a living from his prolific rage-baiting lies.

He may have decided to move on from targetting Jewish people (for now), but I'd be surprised if he's moved on from his behaviour.

The "oh I just want to give back to my community, and to thank them for being kind to me" just sounds manipulative.

I could be wrong. But he sounds like an absolute liability.

Let me think about that for a minute............................. err....................... NO!

Kemi, please note I'm not too keen on an MP from a party that could run him as a candidate either.

My brother-in-law (Devon born and bred) always said they were thick in Somerset.
Here's his proof.

Kemi has just gone right down in my estimation.

I find it very weird that CCHQ has not stepped in (let alone allowing him through the Parliamentary candidate assessment process to begin with) but has instead doubled down.

Perhaps this is one of the ways in which Kemi is looking to become more Reform-like in terms of dodgy candidates and vetting processes?

NO!

I get that we all did foolish things when we were in our early 20s, but there is a difference between "a tendency to one too many vodka red bulls on a Friday night" and "pursuing a targeted online campaign of racial harassment".

To be fair, Badenoch wasn't the one who selected him; that will have have been the Tory party locally.

But she has come out to bat for him.

I don't think I'd be spending my political capital on someone this risky.

And it does seem rather extraordinary, a few very short weeks after the murder of Ann Widdecombe and all the professions of concern about MPs' safety, to choose as a candidate a man actually jailed for a sustained campaign of hatred and harassment against an MP.

I think this guy needs a few more years' clear blue water between his criminal behaviour and asking for public office. At the moment it looks suspiciously like a swivel for early release.

This was posted on another thread:

This. Whether he is ‘reformed’ or not the optics of it are awful. Why bother backing him so publicly? He is gods gift to local councilling or something? Such an unnecessary own goal.

Badenoch will pay an incredibly high price for this act of self harm at election time.

Polanski has waded in to say that despite not knowing the specifics of the case he did not believe "anyone should be pushed out of public life permanently". He added "there has to be spaces for people to rehabilitate, no matter what they say or no matter how heinous what they do is."

Nobody cares if you’ve been called a nazi or a racist. Name someone who hasn’t been called that, who isn’t just a beige people pleaser.

On the contrary. Try reading the court notes above.

I mean, I always want to believe in rehabilitation.

But there are just some dumbass things that a person does that exclude them from public office.

If this isn't that, then what the fuck is?!

you'd be okay with him because I wouldn't it's not like he was a young lad who shoplifted or something