So, farewell then Paul Chaplin, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Gillingham and Rainham, council candidate for Watling, and chair-elect of the Medway branch of the party, who suddenly resigned from the party yesterday. Following a Twitter spat over whether or not Scotland was part of the UK. Obviously.
Chaplin stood for the Lib Dems in parliamentary elections in 2015 and 2017, coming 4th each time, with 3.6% of the vote in 2015, and then surging to 2.8% in 2017.
He rather quickly developed a reputation for his ‘interesting’ style of discourse on Twitter;
- Criticising Lib Dem policies
- Taking on one of the few popular MPs in parliament
- Displaying a staggering lack of self awareness.
Of course, when challenged, this became the regular view that other users ended up with.
Fast forward to yesterday, where a silly comment about the SNP led to the most spectacular of Twitter meltdowns.
Obviously the issue here was highlighted, not least of all by a retweet from The Political Medway, who helpfully enquired about whether or not Scotland was still part of the UK, and it only went downhill from there.
Other users tried to point out that he had indeed said he subsequently said he wasn’t saying, and he particularly took against @MedwayPolitics
Then suddenly, he was gone.
Rather than being #BlockedByMedwayPaul yet again, his account had simply vanished. A subsequent tweet, from the account of his employer, shed further light on the situation:
Sources tell us that he had been threatening to resign from the Medway Lib Dems in recent weeks following a number of internal bust ups, but it seems it was a stupid tweet about Scotland that finally put him over the top.
We asked Medway Lib Dems for a comment but have currently received nothing printable.
What now for the Medway Lib Dems? Who will step up and fill the Paul sized hole in their ranks? Do you also think Scotland isn’t part of the UK? As usual, let us know in the comments, or on Facebook or Twitter.