Sussex Police have arrested ex-Labour defence minister Ivor Caplin, MP for Hove between 1997 and 2005, in Brighton on suspicion of engaging in sexual communication with a child

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/former-labour-mp-ivor-caplin-34463923

Ivor Caplin, 66, was apparently arrested in Brighton yesterday and his flat searched after a sting operation by paedophile hunters. It is alleged that he thought he was on his way to have sex with a 15yo boy. His X/Twitter feed, maintained in his own name and followed by many senior Labour figures, was reportedly littered with explicit sexual images from which it would seem he has a strong sexual attraction to very young men. Odd behaviour for an ex-MP running a consultancy of some sort now.

This news story from some months ago was from around the time he was either suspended or chucked out from the Labour Party after undisclosed serious allegations. It may of course be a coincidence. No charges appear to have followed this incident, according to people digging around and reporting back on X. https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2024/06/20/hove-man-arrested-over-alleged-sex-attack-on-homeless-person/

He was on GB News a few days ago objecting to Elon Musk's wild rants against Jess Phillips and Keir Starmer. This is being portrayed on X as Caplin not wanting too much scrutiny of paedophile activity. I'm sure this couldn't possibly be the case.

Would it be possible to follow him and not have your timeline full of porn? I don’t understand how these high profile accounts could have followed him and not noticed and unfollowed.

That guy got done for looking at tractor porn in the House of Commons, surely there was a risk of being caught with a cock on your screen while scrolling through your work twitter account?

I very strongly suspect that (a) many MPs dip in and out of X and other social media, or perhaps get their staff to monitor their feed, so would easily miss a lot of stuff and (b) they may have muted Caplin, which he wouldn't know they were doing, I believe. They may have felt unable to say anything for fear of being accused of homophobia. This inability to speak out for fear of wrongthink accusations is at the root of much that's happened in the last 20 years.

I think maybe only musk would know if it's possible to follow him and not be aware.

It sounds like the censorship algorithms on twitter were deep and complex and included Shadow banning - which I don't fully understand but I think means you wouldn't show on some/all followers timelines.

It seems clear that Caplin was running his own Twitter account and either didn't know or brazen enough to repost porn and state what he would like sexually done to him.

Other Labour bigwigs probably don't run their own accounts, BUT their staff should've reported what they say coming out of his account UNLESS they thought this was perfectly acceptable and to raise any concern would be homophobic. Essentially replaying the whole mess with the grooming gangs again.

As Venice Allan tweeted, it shows how normalised porn has become in Labour circles.

I actually thought he must have been hacked when I looked at his X feed.

It would be an interesting question to ask Musk - not that any of us would ever get the chance. He seems to be genuinely outraged about the grooming gangs, which is the reaction any decent person would have and fair enough. Does he not think allowing this filth on twitter enables these monsters? In this case, it would seem (allegedly) so. When such awful images are allowed, surely it emboldens abusers. A bit like Wayne Couzens was emboldened when his indecent exposure resulted in no sanction- then he must have thought he could get away with anything. It's well know abusers escalate.

Yes. Well said,

I haven’t checked veracity but this seems a lot of similar types:

x.com/wolsned/status/1878449933671420223?s=46&t=TMUOZCqGbx3Pv9MjeQqrig

Totally agree.

This inability to speak out for fear of wrongthink accusations is at the root of much that's happened in the last 20 years.

That is very true, but surely after seeing some of the things he tweeted, other MPs would just quietly unfollow him.

A surprising number of Labour MPs and Labour MSPs haven't dared to unfollow former MP Eric Joyce on twitter, and he's already been convicted of downloading child abuse images.

A surprising number of Labour MPs and Labour MSPs haven't dared to unfollow former MP Eric Joyce on twitter, and he's already been convicted of downloading child abuse images.

What do they think will happen to them if they do unfollow him?

I thought he’d been hacked. The posts are so bizarre.

I wonder if there are any sort of political social media guidelines about this sort of thing (I suspect now that this has come out there's someone writing one right now if not). Will they be given a list of people to unfollow?

Wes Streeting follows nearly 10k people, for example. If an intern has muted the porn account it might not even occur to him that he is following it.

I suspect it’s more a case of them not realising they are following him - either because they follow thousands of people and he is muted, or because they have staff to manage their SM accounts and don’t actually log into it themselves.

Yes, but the "haven't dared to" bit, is that just being suggested as the reason, or is there some evidence to suggest that unfollowing would be a problem for them? Cos I don't see why it would be, and surely them simply not being aware, because they don't/can't oversee their SM accounts personally, seems much more likely.

It is a really poor excuse to say that someone else is managing their SM accounts, because if they are being managed then that person should be much more savvy about SM as that will likely be a main part of their job.

And surely journalists who would've been snooping for about a year, since he was suspended for "undisclosed allegations". There's too much Westminster gossip. I just can't see how no one within Labour would've not known about his SM account, therefore a blind eye was turned yet again.

I'm suggesting they must be scared, because I can't fathom why, for example, the official Labour Party twitter account unfollowed then Labour MP Rosie Duffield years back in reaction to her gender critical posts, while continuing to follow Eric Joyce. I can't see how you could be a Labour MP or Labour staffer and see following Rosie Duffield as a reputational risk while simultaneously being unaware of Eric Joyce's conviction for downloading videos of children being sexually abused.

Maybe they're just lazy and not very bright? It's an explanation that has the benefit of simplicity.

Caplin was suspended from the Labour Party last June. Judging by his X timeline 😲, he hasn't been planning to run for elected office for quite some time. He hasn't been an MP for 20 years. If people want to make a party political thing out of this, it's hardly the scandal of the century.

For as long as I can remember there have been actual sitting MPs of all parties being caught committing a variety of sexual offences every couple of years. Hence why you won't see any other party publicly gloating about this case because they know it's quite likely that someone from their own ranks will be next. For the Tories you have, just in the last 5 or 6 years, Neil Parish, Rob Roberts, Imran Ahmad Khan (whose victim was also a 15 year old boy), David Warburton, and Chris Pincher, the defence of whom was the last straw that brought down Boris Johnson as PM.

He hasn't been an MP for 20 years. If people want to make a party political thing out of this, it's hardly the scandal of the century.

The issue here is twofold. First he was on TV just days ago arguing against a national enquiry on grooming gangs. Second he was followed by some very senior Labour people, who continued to follow him after he was suspended from the party and was posting some very explicit stuff on twitter.

The relevance is pretty obvious I think because it relates to one of the most high profile issues facing the government. And yes I would be saying this if it was an ex tory and the tories were currently the government.

Musk has cleaned up X a lot. Do you not remember the TRA campaign of posting explicit pornography to JKR’s thread calling for children’s artwork for her Ikabog book? That was pre-musk.

Ssshhhh we're not meant to apply the same standards

Has he not been hacked? It seems so bizarre that it can’t be real

Wife yikes having seen his twitter/X account I thought he was a single gay man.
Warning that his account is full of dick pics if anyone was thinking of looking at it. Though there's plenty of screen shots of it online with the dick pics sensored