A former Ukip MEP has provoked outrage on social media today after telling the father of a London Bridge terror attack victim to “grieve silently”.
Godfrey Bloom, who served as an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2004 to 2014, responded to David Merritt’s post on Twitter which has garnered tens of thousands of compassionate responses.
Merrit had targeted the Mail and the Express newspapers, telling them not to use his son’s death to promote their “vile propaganda”.
Grieve silently is my advice
But Bloom hit back at the post, saying:
“As I understand it your son died because he believed early release for jihadists was justified because they could be rehabilitated.
“Society is demanding these releases stop immediately
” A very pragmatic view, nothing vile about it.
“Grieve silently is my advice.”
As I understand it your son died because he believed early release for jihadists was justified because they could be rehabilitated
— General Godfrey Bloom QC (@goddersbloom) December 2, 2019
Society is demanding these releases stop immediately
A very pragmatic view, nothing vile about it.
Grieve silently is my advice https://t.co/yOs4t67Npx
Spank her silly bottom
It’s not the first time Bloom has made the headlines for his controversial opinions.
In 2016 he responded to pro-European remarks by actress Emma Thompson, saying he would “spank her silly bottom“.
The thread was picked up by right wing newspapers, with The Sun splashing with Thompson’s comments and also calling her a “leftie luvvie” and telling her to “shut yer cakehole”.
In December 2008, Bloom was also carried out by an intern after making a speech in the European Parliament while drunk.
It was the second occasion on which he was accused of being drunk in the chamber.
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .
