UK MP tells aspy constituent not to comment in public domain

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Disclaimer: I'm skeptical of the quality of many British media outlets.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/to ... an-4166980
http://world.einnews.com/article/222242 ... oHlWYdDWTd
Guto Bebb, the Conservative member of the House of Commons was corresponding with a constituent on foreign policy through email and Twitter. It got heated and Bebb wrote ?I often find that those who are brave on Twitter are cowards in real life. You seem to fit the bill.?

Dylan Barlow, the constituent responded ?I think that comment was completely uncalled for, you know nothing about me or my daily struggles! I suffer from Asperger?s and find some aspects of life extremely difficult, so before you brand people a coward, maybe you should think before sending childish e-mails.?

Later in the exchange Bebb wrote ?If you do have mental health issues then you should possibly refrain from commenting in the public domain since it might create problems for you.?

Bebb of course claims it's taken out of context. It is possible that he meant it's a bad idea for him to publicly reveal his diagnoses, but that's a personal choice IMP. I think its more likely he meant what it sounds like.

Update: Here's a link to the email correspondence from Dylan Barlow's Twitter: http://pastebin.com/i6seGp7m

Last edited by PlainsAspie on 12 Sep 2014, 5:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.

So, the politician is trying to backtrack. That's actually a good thing. He'll be more careful next time. And other politicians will be more careful to treat those of us on the Spectrum and more broadly those of us with a disability with the same respect and courtesy every citizen should be treated with.

PS I believe being on the Aspergers-Autism Spectrum is both a disability and a difference.

fail

Does anyone have a link to their actual exchange itself?

I updated the original post to add a link

Now that I've read the transcript: why does this thread title claim that the official told the guy to "shut up?"

What a typical Tory! Complete and utter disdain for the constituents.

I used no quotes. It was hard to find a title that would fit in the limited space.

Quoted or not, it's an entirely inaccurate description. In fact, rather than trying to shut up this constituent, the MP affirmed that this fellow had a right to express disagreement and asked him to explain his reasoning.

was just going to post exactly the same thing.
come on,its been in the public domain for how long now and they still cant understand that ASD isnt a mental illness?
and these people are running the country?

I think the Member of Parliament is telling the guy to shut up. He's just using a seemingly polite way to do it.

The MP said, ?If you have mental health issues then you should possibly refrain from commenting in the public domain since it might create problems for you.?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/to ... z3DPb0BthY

This so-called MP is kind of telling the guy to stop commenting.

just goes to show you, it doesn't matter where you go, politicians are jerks (to put it mildly).

The mirror are an anti Tory paper. Hence some of the unfounded statements although his reply was rather clumsy.

He said: ?If Dylan claims that some of his online comments should be understood in the context of his mental health issues then I think it was a generous piece of advice for him to think twice before he posts such comments."

Again saying he was being generous with his advice was typical pompous rubbish, but behind that I think he was trying to make a fair point. He certainly isn't saying don't comment. He does need some lessons in effective communication though.

In terms of him calling it a mental health issue. I see the correct terminology being debated on here to the point I've even started doubting myself at times. So for someone that doesn't engage on it regularly it really doesn't surprise me. I think in general understanding and awareness is now pretty good in the UK on my experience, but details like terminology have quite a big lag.

Oh and I agree on the general jerky view of politicians.

What surprises me is that this had gone by pretty much unnoticed in mainstream media. Just imagine he had made the same comments about ethnicity or race, he would have a media uproar at him and probably had to step down from his position while it's just as discriminating and derogatory as he had done now. Perhaps even worse since this is a big middle finger to everyone with a psychological handicap who are largely defenceless and are already struggling and having a really hard time in society.

And at the end went on to imply people with mental health issues have no business expressing opinions in the public domain.

That interpretation is not borne out by the discussion. At the least, the statement was ambiguous, but there is no legitimate way to infer that it applied to people with mental health problems in general; the MP was addressing one specific person with whom he clearly had history.