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

A Jew hater who continuously harassed a pregnant woman MP? No way is he a reformed character. He was an adult man when he did all of that.
Kemi Badenoch must be losing her marbles asking voters to support him.

No. I'm happy to accept that people can be rehabilitated, deeply remorseful, return to society and wish to provide service as some recompense for their past wrongs. And this man's anti extremism work seems appropriate.
Absolutely no need for him to take up a role he has been explicitly told is distressing to his victims and offensive to the Jewish community. Anyone genuinely remorseful would take these responses on board and stand down to avoid causing further distress.
I can't imagine what has possessed Badenoch to ride rough shod of the concerns of the Jewish community to support this man. As she said herself she's not usually a believer in rehabilitation. So why is he an exception and what does that say about the value she places on Jewish people?

Polanski needs to start checking things out properly before he speaks. He's too fond of not noticing iffy photos, not knowing the specifics etc., but opening his gob anyway.

What does it say about the value she places on anyone? It’s absolutely incredible that she worked so hard to try to rehabilitate the Tory party’s reputation and has destroyed it all at a stroke, this will follow her for the rest of her career. It’s beyond stupid.

Ah okay that’s really interesting. Kemi is aligning herself further with Nigel and Rupert by doing this.

Having read more about him, no, I wouldn't be OK with this guy.

He's changed his targetting away from Jewish people, and looks like he's trying to keep it just the right side of the line and calling it satire.

But he's still making his living from online attacks on individuals. So his fundamental behaviour hasn't changed: he's just got better at it.

The Tories might find him attractive right now because they like who he's currently attacking. But the moment that changes Badenoch will regret attaching herself to this guy.

On this, I agree with you. Totally stupid decision, and I can't for the life of me work out why Kemi has come out to bat for him.

Of allllll the people to choose from, she’s choosing him to support?!

As she said herself she's not usually a believer in rehabilitation. So why is he an exception

Indeed.

But they haven't done anything that bad have they Maybe they have I don't really look at the other parties I can't see that anyone would let him stand - well maybe the man from the greens have said it so perhaps he would let him stand

Perhaps he can switch and stand for the Greens instead if Polanski is defending him.

I am absolutely shocked that this man was even considered for selection, yet alone chosen and then publicly backed and defended by the party leader. There really is no hope.

Unbelievable.🤯🤯🤯

No.

As per usual Polanski wades in with a half thought. He wants to defend the right to rehabilitate. Fair play. Lacks the depth of thought to conclude that part of rehabilitation is concern by the perpetrator for the impact he had on his victims, and that there are many ways of being a useful member of society that don't involve thrusting yourself in their faces.

To a PP: there is a huge spectrum / world of difference between being a "beige people pleaser" and someone who has been convicted for racial harassment.

Some of the more extreme anti-immigrant and anti-muslim types are big fans of replacement theory. That has anti-Semitic routes because the full idea is that it's Jewish people pulling strings behind the scenes to flood Western countries with immigrants especially Muslim immigrants and replace the white and Christian populations. That absolutely isn't the case for everyone opposed to immigration. But it definitely is for a subset. So it's not that unusual for former Nazis/anti-semitites to apparently switch focus to being anti-Muslim. There is a pipeline where they get radicalised against Muslims by anti Semitic conspiracy theories.

I'm not saying that the case for people like this guy. He might be completely reformed. But it's not always as simple as "oh he used to really hate Jews but now he's stopped that to campaign against immigration/Shariah law". The two things aren't exclusive to each other.

Not just racial harassment but a sustained campaign and against more than 1 person. Reading the court notes is sickening. It's not a youthful error it's a fundamental character flaw

I cannot for the life of me understand why Badenoch is expending political capital on this vile man. I'm not Jewish but I can imagine how distressing it must be for Jewish people to see this man being given a platform after his appalling criminal behaviour.

Exactly. If JB-P was truly repentant he wouldn't even consider standing.

You either believe in redemption or not . A reformed house burglar is probably a good person to advise on protecting your home but I think politics is all about optics and this character is not good .

Yes it's even considering standing for public office that's galling and displays little thought to those he severely negatively impacted upon with his social media posts.

Badenoch doubling down is totally disrespectful.

Typical political excuses. Convicted criminals shouldn't be allowed to stand for any variety of public office and promptly booted out if found guilty of a criminal offence while in office.

Jeez the bar us set very low these days.
No thankyou.

Did you read anything about him or do you just come to the defense of Nazi thugs, no matter what?