COMMENT - THE RISE OF THE KEYBOARD WARRIORS

ALLERDALE LEADER Coun Alan Smith this week has ranted once again in a letter to the Times & Star about opposition councillors apparent ineptitude at recommenced that “if they could get away from their keyboards, and debate as they were elected to do, they could have been more effective.” It isn’t the first time that Coun Smith, who was recently caught up in a controversy about posting of a gollywog in his personal Fyassbewk page, has decried the use of social media as a means of engagement, and The Cockermouth Standard knows why.

The rallying call is for debate to be constrained to the Council Chamber, and whilst this is an apt venue for debate of issues, it is about as effective as Theresa May trying to get a Brexit deal through the Commons. Why, you may ask? Well, the numbers of actual members of the public that aren’t Labour lackies or Tory-boys can be counted on less than one hand. Sadly, normal people don’t want to sacrifice multiple hours of their valuable time listening to Coun “Spit-the-dog” Stoddart bang on about how badly off Moorclose is doing, Coun Jenkinson banging on about some FOI stuff or Coun Peter Kendall banging on, endlessly, about nothing.

No one, in their right minds, would want to voluntarily subject themselves to that, unless they were struggling to sleep at night. So no one attends. The debate is heard by no one other than councillors, officers, lackies and the press if they can be bothered.

The question is this, adapting a famous philosophical question - if a debate happens in a council chamber and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Well, it may make a sound, but it’s impact is nil. Nada. Nothing.

So Coun Smith’s criticism of keyboard warriors is his attempt to control and stifle the debate to the same restricted audience of none. This is why the rise of the modern warrior for democracy is so important - let us celebrate the rise of the keyboard warrior.

The Cockermouth Standard prides itself on showing how ridiculous local politics is. It’s a publicly funded ego trip that we all pay for. Our weekly readership regularly surpasses the 3,000 mark, and if we mention Coun Mark Fryer it will surpass the 4,000 barrier - and because of the unique way Fyassbewk works, we know that the readership is 95% all within the borough of Allerdale. That’s three to four thousand people every week that get to laugh at how stupid these enthusiastic amateurs we call Councillors can be.

So in this world of seemingly never ending politics, let us step back and realise how absurd it all is, and decry how these people waste our money funding monuments to their own egos, whether it be a stadium, a model ship on a roundabout or a sign on the M6 directing people to Silloth of all places. Keyboard warriors are democratising democracy, not keeping it locked away and hidden like the Glorious Leader Coun Smith would prefer.

The world has moved on since the 1960’s. Sadly, Coun Smith and his gollywog posting Fyassbewk account haven’t. It’s time to move with the times, let’s Make Allerdale Great Again.

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