My social media pages are a useful way for me to keep constituents up to date with news on my work in our community, at the Town Hall, and wider Great Yarmouth. As such, I would like to ensure they remain a constructive and informative space for everyone. My platforms are not a space for others to use for their own political agenda, as I believe this can have a negative effect on the experience of my constituents who visit and interact with my social media pages to see how I am representing them.
I have a zero tolerance approach to abusive, defamatory or repetitive comments. Any comments like this will be deleted and I will block those who made them.
I do not respond to policy queries or concerns regarding the Conservative Party on my social media.
No GP would diagnose a patient over Facebook, and my approach with politics and social media is much the same. Concerns about politics can often be complicated, and I don’t believe these issues can be discussed effectively in the comment section of Facebook.
With this in mind I wanted to outline my approach to using these platforms and what I expected from those engaging with me on social media in return.
- 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: I welcome lively debate, but personal attacks, name-calling, or aggressive behaviour will not be tolerated. Respectful, constructive conversation only.
- 𝐙𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐓𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐜𝐡: Any form of hate speech, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, or discrimination will be immediately removed.
- 𝐍𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐕𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: Threatening language or incitement to violence will be immediately removed.
- 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐎𝐧-𝐓𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜: Please ensure your comments are relevant to the topic at hand. Off-topic posts will be removed to maintain the focus of our discussions.
- 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬: I do my best to read and reply to comments but if you have a direct question for me or need assistance, please email me at [email protected].
- 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠: I will not routinely block people as I want to engage with the broadest range of constituents as possible – but anyone who consistently ignores this guidance and people who are clearly not from Great Yarmouth but using my social media to spread hate or abuse, will be blocked.
If you are a constituent and have any questions or concerns, you are more than welcome to contact me via email at [email protected], so that I can responded to these effectively.
I am also very happy to discuss any questions and concerns you may have during a surgery appointment. Please contact me via email at [email protected] with your full address and details of the issue you would like to raise, and I will arrange a suitable time for us to meet.