Since I moved to Newark, my main sources of Tollerton news are the village magazine (which my daughter posts up to me), and my half-dozen Tollerton Ladies Circle friends who still live in the village and ring me up for a chat now and then. I miss them, I miss the Wednesday afternoon drop-in, cup-of-tea sessions in the Methodist, and I miss the book club (though I hope to be able to make the next one!).
I don’t do social media (unless the book club meetings and the occasional Ladies Circle afternoons in the Air Hostess count?) so I don’t get the regular ‘who is doing what to whom, why, where, when, with what, and for how much?’ briefings. But yesterday afternoon, while having a cup of tea with a couple of friends at Birds Café, in West Bridgford, I got caught up on what seems to be a widely-known point of interest.
A Facebook gossip/rumour page (or is it a gossip/rumour group?) known in the village as ‘Friends of Rushcliffe Conservatives’ (not its real name, I’m withholding that for reasons which shall become clear) is parroting the attack lines of a certain RBC councillor; attack lines have been spoken in semi-public gatherings (just so there’s no misunderstanding of attribution).
The Facebook page/group was set up, according to its original ‘bio’, for another purpose entirely, but it has deviated from that objective through, one must assume, a lack of ammunition and the inability to achieve those goals. Now it just publishes near-libellous statements about anyone the writer and their informants feel are reasonable targets, and outright RBC defence pieces. No, seriously, that’s all it does (hence its nickname)!
Apparently, the writer, (known in the village as ‘Emmit’), is being fed information by a certain RBC councillor, and their friend and fellow supporter. Emmit is guided in what should/may be published (and in some cases, what absolutely must be deleted pretty quickly because it is deemed to be “too sensitive” – by the councillor). This behaviour apparently causes much amusement in the village.
Apparently screenshots of everything this page/group publishes are taken before they get deleted, and are being passed around the village WhatsApp group. The wider question, though, would be why is the councillor doing this? What does the councillor hope to achieve, especially when everyone seems to know who they are?
And why is Emmit such a willing slave to the councillor’s ambitions at the expense of their own credibility in the local area? What dirt does the councillor have on them?
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