Steph Booth: Not Running for Parliament! [en]

[fr] A la lumière des récents événements, il ne m'est plus possible de rester dans la course pour le Parlement britannique... Article en Anglais pour toucher l'électorat un maximum.

It seems that my attempts to subvert British democracy by running in the forthcoming parliamentary elections are starting to be hard to keep under wraps, despite my careful use of a wig and face mask for public appearances. As I will be travelling to Leeds on Sunday, and in the light of recent controversy, I would like to put to rest the question of my participation in the elections.

I think it is quite clear now that given the current circumstances and the facts that have come to light, I cannot run for MP. My lack of involvement in local Calder Valley politics is starting to be hard to camouflage, and the fact that I have my main residence abroad is clearly an issue for many.

I deeply regret this, though, for had I stood a chance in this election, free bandwidth, Twitter accounts, and Swiss chocolate for all would have become a reality, as well as “change that we can believe in”. My meteoric rise to fame in the recent weeks, however, has convinced me to leave the Labour party behind and put my efforts into the creation of a proper Pirate Party in the United Kingdom.

As you are now most certainly aware, it is the discovery of my secret blog by an astute member of the Hebden Bridge Web Forum which has set all this in motion. I would like to assure those of you who know me as a social media strategist and consultant that my writings on Climb to the Stars will not cease, even though they have been judged pretty harshly:

Stephanie Booth’s blog will on its own cause plenty of people to doubt her fitness for purpose as a prospective MP. Big chunks of it are in French and most of the rest is geeky drivel about her phone, computer, Twitter et al. No local issues, or much at all outside herself. Hardly evidence of a shrewd political mind keen to grapple with the economic and social problems of the Upper Valley.

Graham Barker on Hebden Bridge Web Forum 2009

The geeky drivel which has entertained and enlightened you over the past nine years will be the backbone upon which I will build the future of my political career, and I trust that all of my supporters will follow me on this new path. In the meantime, if any of my fellow candidates would like to benefit from my expertise in social media, now that I am out of the race, please feel free to get in touch.

Disclaimer: the other Steph Booth is not a social media consultant (but at least she’s using WordPress). No hard feelings, but I’ll be very upset if she gets her Wikipedia page before I do. Many thanks to Suw for drawing my attention to this issue, and for her editorial assistance in preparing this declaration. She and her husband Kevin have already been hired as the official speechwriters for my next campaign.

12 thoughts on “Steph Booth: Not Running for Parliament! [en]

  1. But you can run as EMP? I got my polling card in the post today and I was ready to vote for you in the European Elections on 4 June. You had my vote with free bandwidth.

    I don’t vote in the European Election as I don’t recognise its parliament. Just because they have labeled it a parliament does not mean it has fully parliament powers. I got tempted to vote for you anyway – I need to do some soul searching me thinks.

  2. Hm, basically your post says there is someone else with your name and her possible voters think that her is you, correct? It’s so confusing. So many Stephs in the post, so much politics. Anyway if it’s really satire, and I highly guess it is, it’s good.

    We had a quite similar – even more macabre – incident in Germany: After a school shooting, the press googled the shooter’s name and stumpled upon someone with the same name, who had a profile at some Social Network. People and press posted the pictures of his Web profile page on Twitter and even old media as if it were the shooter’s. Unfortunately it was the wrong one who’s only mistake was to have a name everybody googles.

    Is this the future? How could we avoid that?

  3. Ravale ton égo, elle s’appelle : Stephenie Booth, et rendors-toi tranquillement ta page wikipedia t’attendra…

  4. Hilarious. MAkes me think though. Let’s do a political tech party for Europe focussing on tech innovtion. There must be something to that… 🙂

  5. Arne, there is the Pirate Party (it’s originally from Sweden, but we have one in Germany, too and there are probably much more).

  6. About a week ago, Graham (the author of the initial posting that sparked this blog post) sent me an e-mail to apologize for the mix-up. He kindly authorized me the share it with you 🙂

    Hi Stephanie

    I owe you a cringing apology. I’m the halfwit who mistook your blog for that of Steph Booth, parliamentary candidate. No excuses (though I do have some in reserve for emergencies) – I should have spotted the difference.

    Now that I understand the context correctly, my ‘geeky drivel’ remark doesn’t remotely apply. And now that I’ve studied both blogs, yours is far superior.

    The ripples from this will probably last a little longer, as the other SB is a controversial lady who is, shall we say, having trouble making friends at present. Were you to take your non-political non-campaign further and cause electoral chaos by standing for parliament on the same ticket, you would find lots of people round here eager to buy you a drink. You might even win.

    I’m genuinely sorry if I’ve unwittingly caused you any problems. Let me know if I can make amends, though please stop short of suing me. Given my record, I could be your Damien McBride. Just tell me whom you want insulted next, and consider it done.

    And give my regards to Leeds. I’m from there originally.

    Best wishes

    Graham

  7. The frightening part about Graham’s post is that he based his views purely on an ad hominem argument. Your blog certainly isn’t drivel (as he noted…after the fact). If he had taken time to read it before posting (and look at your about page), he would have known the deal. But, now that he knows you are not the SB he was going after, everything’s fine. But, what if you had been his SB. He would have written off a lot of good information due to the person behind it.

    On another note, I think I’m the only “Rashunda Tramble” on the planet. I don’t think I’ll have this problem.:-)

  8. Ah, the confusing aspects of modern life, where we need to fact-check and validate our own information before responding. This had me laughing.

    Last month a similar thing happened which wasn’t funny at all. Some guy killed 7 people while trying to crash his car into a bus carrying the Dutch royal family. A national newspaper googled his name and then splashed a Hyves (the Dutch facebook) profile photo all over their front page. Except….it was the wrong guy. Same name, different man.

    Your posting had me laughing though. 🙂

  9. As an English-ASL interpreter with at least a small reputation I feel your pain. The election will pass but Wikipedia remains. Am I not owed at least a disambiguation page? Is there nothing I can do but mess with the occasional email meant for him that comes my way?

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