UK Politician Tweets About “Retards”

A politician from Hull in the UK described protesters as “retards” on Twitter, the BBC reports:

Conservative group leader John Fareham made the comment after Friday’s meeting, which saw the council approve a controversial £65m savings plan.
[His tweet read:] “15 hours in council today very hard hitting day and the usual collection of retards in the public gallery spoiling it for real people.”

I’m not up on foreign usage, but here in the UK “retard” is a term of abuse that’s used to describe people with physical disabilities. It’s also a word that career-minded politicians really, really shouldn’t use.

I’m constantly amazed how many people use social networks on the assumption that no-one’s paying attention. Folks: the whole world is paying attention.