My favourite campaign gaffe of the year so far

By Mark Pack | Fri 19th March 2010 - 10:50 am

Hebrides News reports:

The prospective Tory general election candidate for the Western Isles has made a hugely embarrassing gaffe by backing a spoof harbour in a landlocked village.

Conservative hopeful Sheena Norquay confusingly insists that developing the fictional port at Achmore in the middle of the barren Lewis moor is a top priority.

The 22-year-old hopeful unexpectedly stressed one of the main island issues is “the building of the harbour wall at Achmore.”

However, the policy is a complete nonsense as no such harbour exists.

Achmore is a dry land village is located in the centre of Lewis, surrounded by hills and moor, and is the furtherest inhabited community in the Hebrides from the sea.

Ooops.

(If you read the full story it does sound as if the candidate unwisely decided to stop talking to the press after making the gaffe, making the final story worse, and didn’t have back up from the party to help her out. There are lessons there both in how to handle the media and also about supporting candidates.)

8 Comments

Chris 19th Mar '10 - 11:30am

There’s more of a lesson about what twerps the people of the Hebrides are. You can just imagine some pillock who’s never been off the island thinking this makes him quite incredibly clever.
Jonathan Calder 19th Mar '10 - 12:00pm

Well, it makes him cleverer than his Tory candidate.
KL 19th Mar '10 - 12:39pm

The dangers of paper candidates!
Andrew Suffield 19th Mar '10 - 1:20pm

Embarrassing, but that seat was never going to the Tories, so she was just a token candidate.
Tim Leunig 19th Mar '10 - 7:37pm

She is a paper candidate – cut her some slack.
Chris 21st Mar '10 - 12:35am

I have sympathy with the woman – making a slip-up like this is every first-time candidate’s nightmare – but it does highlight how important it is to check your facts before you speak, especially when you’re the one picking the subject.

Had she googled the village to find out more before making it a one of her “top priorities”, for instance, she’d almost certainly have noticed this village was somewhat nautically challenged!
James 28th Mar '10 - 6:55pm

Give her a break. That article was a juvenile hatchet job, and startlingly nasty. What kind of bullying hack gets his kicks laying into a 22-year old girl like that?
kennythecelt 13th Apr '10 - 4:24pm

“Chris
Posted 19th March 2010 at 11:30 am | Permalink
There’s more of a lesson about what twerps the people of the Hebrides are. You can just imagine some pillock who’s never been off the island thinking this makes him quite incredibly clever.
”

Well Chris, I think your comment says more about you, than people like me who live on the Hebrides.

So, we are twerps or pillocks who never venture from our back doors.

You have quite a bit to learn sonny boy, start by remembering your manners. That will start you off in the right direction.