Muscular Tory-ism on show as Newton Abbot Councellor and Conservative activist denies the rise in poverty
By
PRSD , on Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Twitter profile of Cllr Neil Wilson
The muscular face of the Tories in Devon, Newton Abbot Town Councillor, Exeter Tory agent and brain-box behind the ‘Stop the Debt ‘ campaign Cllr Neil Wilson has been caught up in a Twitter row over poverty – he’s kinda been denying it.
the Daily Record .
Neil took umbrage and tweeted ‘The poor keep getting poorer? What complete and utter shit’. The tweet, which is now no longer there, was picked up, and soon poor Neil was trying to defend himself.
In the process he shilly shallied between absolute and relative poverty and shrilly invoked ‘historical fact’, while calling for requests that he read the Family Resources Survey from the Department of Work and Pensions, and a Guardian report on food banks as ‘anecdotal’.
Here’s a selection of the tweets. To follow the whole conversation we reckon you’re savvy enough to go to the respective twitter profiles and click ‘show conversation’.
[View the story "Poverty debate" on Storify ]
Poverty debate
Twitter row as Tory denies poverty
Storified by · Wed, Oct 17 2012 01:47:54
Local Tory in denial: "@CllrNeilWilson: The poor keep getting poorer? What complete and utter shit. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/easterhouse-on-the-front-line-of-george-osbornes-1378529?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter"Catherine Dawson
@CllrPaul4Cowick Maybe @CllrNeilWilson thinks fast-growing numbers of foodbanks are just lifestyle stores?Simon Bowkett
@cllrdawson Staggering #tweet from @CllrNeilWilson. No wonder so many polls show people believe #Tories are #OutOfTouch.Simon Bowkett
@CllrPaul4Cowick no one’s denying it, but to say they are getting poorer when more have been taken out of tax is a joke.Cllr Neil Wilson
@Simon4Pinhoe I won’t take lessons in social mobility from you patronising, wealth-gap widening clowns.Cllr Neil Wilson
@cllrdawson so you actually think the bottom 10% are worse off than they were, say, 50 years ago? #outoftouchwithrealityCllr Neil Wilson
@CllrNeilWilson @cllrdawson No, Neil. Just since 2.5 years ago.Simon Bowkett
Anyone who fails to realise that society as a whole has progressed and become more affluent over the years, is living on a different planet.Cllr Neil Wilson
@Simon4Pinhoe @cllrdawson that’s a wacky argument, relative poverty has many root causes, not among them are what party is in government.Cllr Neil Wilson
@cllrdawson @CllrNeilWilson The suggestion seems to be that a government’s policies have no bearing. Odd argument for a politician!Simon Bowkett
@cllrdawson If you’re going to debate, why not stick to your principals instead of boring process-related stuff?Cllr Neil Wilson
Hm. Now why would local #Tory organiser @cllrneilwilson need to delete a #tweet where he said reports poor were getting poorer were "sh*t"?Simon Bowkett
@Simon4Pinhoe because certain people seem intent on misconstruing a historical fact, for their own political purposes.Cllr Neil Wilson
@CllrNeilWilson Then why delete? Have the courage of your convictions. Let everyone see you think people aren’t getting poorer.Simon Bowkett
@CllrNeilWilson And think you need to read up on the Family Resources Survey from #DWP. See what happens to poverty whenever #Tories are in.Simon Bowkett
Shocking. Highest proportion of children fed by #foodbanks in the #UK is in the #southwest. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/oct/16/food-banks-trussel-trust-uk-data #Devon #ExeterSimon Bowkett
@Simon4Pinhoe also, you haven’t defended your gov’s awful record on social mobility or justified your assertions in a non-anecdotal way.Cllr Neil Wilson
@Simon4Pinhoe so you concede that absolute poverty is constantly going down?Cllr Neil Wilson
@CllrNeilWilson I didn’t mention absolute poverty, Neil. Still, interested in knowing what your acceptable level of hungry kids is…?Simon Bowkett
@CllrNeilWilson Have you READ the Family Resources Survey from the last 30 years? That’s not anecdotal.Simon Bowkett
@CllrNeilWilson And I’ll have the absolute #poverty debate with you in one year’s time when your maelstrom of #welfarereform has kicked inSimon Bowkett
