Sorry - Labour candidate apologises for wishing Thatcher had been killed (From Daily Echo)
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Sorry - Labour candidate John O'Farrell apologises for wishing Margaret Thatcher had been killed by IRA
2:24pm Monday 18th February 2013 in News
By Emma Streatfield, Senior Reporter
Labour leader Ed Miliband (right) with by election candidate John O'Farrell campaigning in Eastleigh
LABOUR'S by-election candidate John O'Farrell has apologised for any upset his comments wishing Margaret Thatcher had been killed in a terrorist attack might have caused.
He has been condemned for saying he was disappointed that the assassination attempt - the IRA bombing of Brighton's Grand Hotel in 1984 - had failed.
Mr O'Farrell, speaking in Eastleigh today, said what he had written in his memoirs was an honest account of how he felt “for a split second” at the time, which he had then realised was wrong.
“I could write a book where I said I was a good person, I was a good person, I was a good person,” he said.
“I had a fleeting bad thought. I was an angry young man in the middle of the miners' strike.
“A terrible thought came into my head and I immediately castigated myself for it.
“I was honest because I said how I felt for a split second at the time.”
He said it was not his view now and had been taken out of context.
“I ask everyone to read that book and I think they'll want to vote for me more not less.
“I apologise for the upset to Tebbit and everyone concerned because I didn't want it taken out of context.
“If I wrote that book again I'd have to think about whether a combination of honest writer and politician could work."
The satirist wrote in the book published in 1998: “Why did she have to leave the bathroom two minutes earlier?”
He was referring to the fact that Lady Thatcher's bathroom was destroyed in the explosion, which claimed the lives of five people.
In response, Former Conservative Party chairman Lord Tebbit, whose wife was paralysed in the blast, has described Mr O'Farrell as an “incontinently voiced moral reprobate”.
Cllr Godfrey Olson, the leader of the Conservative group at Eastleigh Borough Council, has branded the comments “deplorable”.
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Comments(30)
NetleyNed
says...
2:57pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Subject48
says...
3:09pm Mon 18 Feb 13
kerching!!! Very clever sir. very clever.
Lost northern bird
says...
3:23pm Mon 18 Feb 13
sfby
says...
3:27pm Mon 18 Feb 13
NetleyNed wrote:He's a Labour candidate.
I hope he loses hid deposit.
In Eastleigh.
I think your wish may come true.
However, he is still a very funny writer.
sparkster
says...
3:28pm Mon 18 Feb 13
The Wickham Man
says...
3:35pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Instead he's magically turned into a moderate smiling kind decent chap who much prefers a good friendly conversation with his electors. Like hell he has. Send him packing Eastleigh. Humiliate him.
sburman
says...
3:42pm Mon 18 Feb 13
CharlieOxbridge
says...
4:11pm Mon 18 Feb 13
MGRA
says...
4:32pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Linesman
says...
4:53pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Subject48 wrote:You do not have to pay to use the library or are you not very clever and did not know that?
“I ask everyone to read that book and I think they'll want to vote for me more not less.
kerching!!! Very clever sir. very clever.
Maine Lobster
says...
5:10pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Lost northern bird wrote:Quite. There are many politicians on all sides of the house who have done or said offensive things to different people. It happened nearly 30 years ago. Move on.
He certainly is not the first politician to say something he regrets...stones and glass houses springs to mind!
His chances of winning for Labour in Eastleigh are about as good as the Tories winning in Glasgow Govan. It won't have any bearing on the outcome of the by election. Expect UKIP to do well though!
cantthinkofone
says...
5:11pm Mon 18 Feb 13
AD1234
says...
5:38pm Mon 18 Feb 13
We've got to start somewhere, and this could be the chance to reject the tired and corrupt LibLabCon-trick.
Read this before giving yet another vote to the complacent OLD parties...
http://www.ukip.org/
content/ukip-policie
s
sarfhamton
says...
5:40pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Stillness
says...
6:13pm Mon 18 Feb 13
jiblet
says...
6:16pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Lost northern bird wrote:So you think it's ok to publically wish somebody dead???? Name me another politician who has done that?..............m
He certainly is not the first politician to say something he regrets...stones and glass houses springs to mind!
oron
elvisimo
says...
7:20pm Mon 18 Feb 13
jiblet wrote:no I think you are the moron - have an opinon instead of just abusing.
Lost northern bird wrote: He certainly is not the first politician to say something he regrets...stones and glass houses springs to mind!So you think it's ok to publically wish somebody dead???? Name me another politician who has done that?..............m oron
If you want a few examples of "unsuitable" behaviour:
John Prescotts punch up.
Diane Abbot racist tweets
Aiden Burley - Nazi Birthday Party
Jonathan Aitken - prison
Jeffery Archer - prison
David Chaytor - prison
think you need to learn the concept of context. As for his comment - you have had 15 years to be offended.
MGRA
says...
7:31pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Paramjit Bahia
says...
7:33pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Linesman wrote:How come you are not aware Tory run Hampshire has cut the budget for libraries, because even they are under pressure from ConDem Coaltion government?
Subject48 wrote: “I ask everyone to read that book and I think they'll want to vote for me more not less. kerching!!! Very clever sir. very clever.You do not have to pay to use the library or are you not very clever and did not know that?
skin2000
says...
7:50pm Mon 18 Feb 13
elvisimo wrote:There might be a few more to add onto that list after operation Fairbank.
jiblet wrote:no I think you are the moron - have an opinon instead of just abusing.
Lost northern bird wrote: He certainly is not the first politician to say something he regrets...stones and glass houses springs to mind!So you think it's ok to publically wish somebody dead???? Name me another politician who has done that?..............m oron
If you want a few examples of "unsuitable" behaviour:
John Prescotts punch up.
Diane Abbot racist tweets
Aiden Burley - Nazi Birthday Party
Jonathan Aitken - prison
Jeffery Archer - prison
David Chaytor - prison
think you need to learn the concept of context. As for his comment - you have had 15 years to be offended.
Paramjit Bahia
says...
7:57pm Mon 18 Feb 13
When are his foul opponents going to do that for insulting whole of certain nation and hard working teachers of Schools in Eastleigh area, who have done exceptionally well despite Tory run Hampshire?
My own view. I have never been keen on Tories especially Thatcher but killing people to make a political point has always been and in my opinion remain a very wrong thing to do.
Nice to know as young man O'Farral felt strongly about what Tories had done to miners, hope he still remembers that and starts demanding from his party to campaign for full enquiry into police behaviour on picket lines in Yorkshire, about which truth has started to emerge even from former police officers following real information about Hills borough.
Also why full information about trade unionists including actor Tomnilson, who were framed are not being made available to them? Why even thachearised NuLabour government kept on frustrating him and his colleagues?
Lone Ranger.
says...
8:02pm Mon 18 Feb 13
MGRA wrote:What someon like yourself ....... Makes sense now
you can argue this till the cows come home, but it does not alter the fact the guy is clearly a sociapath and only the utterly deranged or labotomised would vote for him.....
southy
says...
11:25pm Mon 18 Feb 13
ist.com/gab_gallery/
12-year-old-girl-get
s-it-why-dont-you/
http://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=sxnM82SRE
_0
Ed Lavender
says...
10:36am Tue 19 Feb 13
Polly Staight
says...
12:16pm Tue 19 Feb 13
Brave lad admitting that, bearing in mind how disappointing it must be to see what sort of leadership you follow.
Hopkino
says...
1:48pm Tue 19 Feb 13
One elected councillor - Whitbread, representing Redbridge - has never had paid mainstream employment in his life and yet sits on the panel for employment tribunal...... Your life in their hands.
Pot, Kettle?
Same old story for Southampton unfortunately. Recent government 'award' resulted in the contribution of over £600,000 to their already swelling councillors fund, I mean slush fund.
Whilst there is a common opinion of one party being as bad as the other, is it not about time that these party political campaigns of self promoted ego is stopped ?
6079 Smith W
says...
6:30pm Tue 19 Feb 13
http://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=x-4FJcnX0
i8
Dan Soton
says...
2:37am Wed 20 Feb 13
You've made Have I Got News for You watchable again.
colorado kid
says...
10:44am Sat 23 Feb 13
aldermoorboy says...
2:55pm Mon 18 Feb 13
He will be beaten.