Simon Danczuk Harassment Hypocrisy

While Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk waits for his party to come to a decision as to whether he should be readmitted to the fold, or cast out into the political wilderness, he seems to have plenty to keep himself busy, and one subject that is high on his agenda today is harassment. In fact, Si is talking about harassment a lot, especially the online variety, which might surprise seasoned Danczuk watchers.

What Danczuk has also been doing of late is becoming reconciled with ex-wife Karen, to the extent that the two of them have had no problem being seen in public together. That, when it comes to talking harassment, puts Rochdale’s MP in what Spike Milligan might have termed A Very Difficult Position, as all those who have found themselves on the wrong end of Kazza’s self-promotion efforts know only too well.

So when Danczuk takes to Twitter to muse “This is exactly what's needed: Yvette Cooper calls for greater monitoring of online harassment … Why should people have to log off because there are people harassing them. That's totally unfair … Reading @cpsuk guidelines on prosecuting cases involving social media. Can't understand why more cases are not brought for harassment”, he should be careful what he wishes for.

Take, for instance, the aftermath of the split last December in the relationship between the MP and Leyland Councillor Claire Hamilton, who first Tweeted “You might think I had broken up with Karen rather than my actual ex Simon Danczuk with the way she keeps mentioning me in interviews” before exasperation set in only the next day.

“Today I met with police about harassment I have had from Karen Danczuk. Tweets & texts from my phone were downloaded. Statement made. End of” she announced. And Ms Hamilton was not the only one wishing that Kazza would pile off and pester someone else, as Heywood and Middleton MP Liz McInnes can attest after she thought she was just correcting Kazza on Twitter, only to be accused of drunkenness (pot and kettle, anyone?) and probably wishing she had ignored yet another attempt to get attention.

On top of that, Danczuk has a history of harassing others, notably, as Zelo Street pointed out recently, a particularly nasty smear campaign against Rochdale councillor Farooq Ahmed, which ended up with Ahmed being reinstated by the Labour Party after Greater Manchester Police concluded there was no case for him to answer on accusations he had been smoking cannabis. Ahmed had fallen out with Danczuk.

So that’s another case of “Physician, heal thyself”. High principles, eh, Si?