Twitter airport bomb joker loses second job

Paul Chambers, the Twitter joker victim, has been sacked from a second job a week before his appeal against a widely criticised conviction for sending a "threatening" message to to blow Doncaster airport "sky high". Chambers, 27, got into a world of hurt after posting an ill-conceived update on 6 January, after inclement …

[Cylindric]

Bonkers

Bonkers. If I wear a t-shirt saying "I hate you" will I get arrested too?

[LinkOfHyrule]

Yes!

Yes, you will. By the Grammar Police! You forgot the full-stop after "you".

Mines the one that says on it "They've got a week to get their shit together or I'm blowing the airport sky high!"

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a public information broadcast from the real Grammar Police...

It seems there are several unfortunate persons impersonating Officers of the Grammar Police.

These false Officers are usually easy to spot if you pay attention. They tend to make mistakes when correcting poor grammar as in the example below:

---

Yes! → # ↑

Posted Friday 17th September 2010 09:46 GMT

Yes, you will. By the Grammar Police! You forgot the full-stop after "you".

Mines the one that says on it "They've got a week to get their shit together or I'm blowing the airport sky high!"

---

Did you spot the obvious mistake? "Mines the one that says..." should read "Mine's the one..." as it is a contraction of two words - mine and is - which always requires the use of an apostrophe.

Do not fall victim to these fraudsters, otherwise you will be using apostrophes incorrectly in many ways, such as "I remember the 70's... well actually I don't" when the correct usage should quite clearly be "I remember the '70s...".

If you suspect you have been a victim of a false Grammar Police Officer, please contact our Public Liaison Officer, Sarah Bee...

;)

[Sarah Bee]

Re: This is a public information broadcast from the real Grammar Police...

Please be aware I am armed.

[VinceH]

Letters, Digits.

I assume you are legged, as well, since it's still a bit too early to be legless.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that...

"Please be aware. I am armed."

or

"Please be aware that I am armed."

How about a compromise? If you'll settle for

"Please be aware: I am armed."

then so will I :)

[Tigra 07]

Did i win?

Nobody noticed that i spelt publicly wrong so do i win this for correcting myself?

[Scott 53]

Re: Did I win?

You put a hyphen in "full-stop", so you don't win anything.

[Just Thinking]

Grammar Police and apostrophes

Can you get done for possession?

[ElReg!comments!Pierre]

Armed?

Lewis called, he want his paperweight back.

[LinkOfHyrule]

I swear it's the fault of the Firefox spell checker!

They ALWAYS pick on me! I swear it's the fault of the Firefox spell checker, I swear! (Which by teh way, wants to correct "Firefox" to "firebox" - see told you it sucks!)

"Do not fall victim to these fraudsters, otherwise you will be using apostrophes incorrectly in many ways, such as "I remember the 70's... well actually I don't" when the correct usage should quite clearly be "I remember the '70s...".

Oh, I didn't know I had been shoving the apostrothingy in the wrong place, I shall try to remember that one! So don't say I don't try to learn from my mistakes! You'll probably find something else to pick on me with next week though!

I wasn't even impersonating you, I was trying to be a good citizen!

[peter 45]

Ahem

teh..>..the

Cough

[CapitalW]

I wonder.....

"...as it is a contraction of two words - mine and is - which always requires the use of an apostrophe."

Would that be an apostrophe catastrophe?

[Paul 106]

Pedantic bar steward

Unless they are actually laying mines under the one that says on it.... In that case the grammar is correct.

I would suggest your initial assumption is correct, but calling the grammar police and convicting someone on an assumption (or locking them up for 42 days without charge) seems a tad judgmental and extreme.

[Anton Ivanov]

No

You are not saying whom you hate. So that does not count.

[Tigra 07]

Maybe

You may not get arrested, but you may get punched publically

[Anonymous Coward]

possibly

But if your the pope you can just call everybody Nazi's and get away with it :\

[Daniel B.]

Optimus Prime

"Bonkers. If I wear a t-shirt saying "I hate you" will I get arrested too?"

Maybe not, but if you're wearing a Transformers T-Shirt, you will be. Especially if you're in Terminal 5.

[Greg D]

I didnt realise he got convicted!!

This sets a very bad precedent for free speech.

Hope he gets enough donations to sue the fucking police for this utter disgrace.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sue Who?

Why would he want to sue the police?

The *airport* reported him. The police investigated it because they are legally obliged to.

The police then submitted a report to the Crown Prosecution Service - who made a decision to go ahead with the prosecution.

The magistrates court convicted him.

Parliament enacted the law in the first place.

I don't see why it is solely the police that should get it in the neck.

[Martin 49]

OMG !

".....to sue the fucking police....."

Please tell me they're not policing *that* now too !!

[The Beer Monster]

@Martin 49

They've obviously RTFM then.

[Gweilo]

J O K E

"This is not about taking away his right to free speech, only about him writing something on Twitter that someone thinks is a threat."

According to the article, nobody thought it was a real threat. They were criminalising something that was obviously -- to EVERYBODY involved -- a joke. "Shouting fire in a crowded theatre" is different, it's quite reasonable to assume that's a real warning.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Consider.

"only about him writing something on Twitter that someone thinks is a threat"

Consider the implication of your phrase starting with "only" and ending with "somebody thinks".

Consider that you are an utter moron.

[Daniel Owen]

Crazy

Couldn't believe this got media attention to start with AND IT'S STILL GOING ON!!!

If it could have been considered menacing, then why did they not call in the bomb squad?

Surely to make a serious threat you have to actually direct it at said establishment?

[Anonymous Coward]

out of control

security paranoia is the norm in aviation now. Security staff have no authority to use their discretion.

An acquaintance of mine recently landed a conviction and fine for using the 'b-word' in a certain regional airport despite being the partner of a member of staff there and thinking it would be taken in good humour.

It doesn't help that the security staff love the sense of importance they get from indulging themselves in this behaviour.

[Wize]

You do have to leave humour outside the door...

...when dealing with security people.

Anyway, how do you regulate that someone really was joking? Someone bursting into a bank with stocking over their head and waving a fake gun to later claim it was a joke may be thought to be acceptable to some but not everyone.

Where do you draw the line? Simple answer is at zero to avoid any confusion.

[Britt Johnston]

Message from the funny party

...but who are these guys who make it prosecutable to attempt a joke?

And if that must be, can't lack of understanding, intolerance, overstepping the mark and narrow-mindedness be an offence too?

[Anonymous Coward]

A correction

Chambers' testimony that the the message was "innocuous hyperbole" was rejected by cretins....

[Velv]

Lack a sense of humour

Airport TV programme - the guy from Chicago carrying the violin ?

Security: "What's in the case?"

Guy: "I'm from Chicago, it's a machine gun (big grin)"

Cop: "you have right to remain silent, etc"

Free speech is a right that needs protected. However, with rights come responsibilities, one of which is to remember that not everyone has a sense of humour. While you have the right to say what you want, you have a responsibility to ensure it is taken in the right context, and to the right audience.

I'm not commenting on the merits of this particular case. Both this case and the guy on Airport highlight what goes wrong when free speech is exercised out of context.

[Anton Ivanov]

Depends where

Once upon a time you could do that in the UK. You cannot today.

There are places around the world where people at an airport are still sane enough so you can joke about it. My favourite answer to "are you carrying weapons" at Sofia airport is "Nothing short of a couple of 10Megaton Nukes I am afraid". There it causes some chuckles and a wave through.

I would not try that one at Gatwick though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we have a "pompous twat" icon?

"free speech is exercised out of context" Wtf are you talking about? Are you American per chance?

This is a simple case about idiocy. The prosecution has managed to claim that the guy was a threat even though the airport didn't treat him as a threat (other than reporting it). That it's happened this way is embarrassing.

In your almost completely irrelevant example, any security force that treats someone as a threat purely because they said something puerile, should be removed. Or replaced with an automaton (same problems but a lot cheaper).

[Elmer Phud]

But all I said . .

Was 'Jehovah'!

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Re: But all I said . .

YOU ARE ONLY MAKING THINGS WORSE FOR YOURSELF!!!!!

[Darren Poulson]

Actually!

To be fair, I remember that program. He made the joke and then refused to open the case. After numerous requests to prove he was joking the detained him. Pretty sure this was pre-9/11.

All he had to do was open the case and he would've got off with a scolding.

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember that

I thought the policewoman was going to have an orgasm at the fun she had crapping on that guy's day. She knew it was a joke, the staff knew it was a joke, the viewers knew it was a joke but that pathetic woman, and the sack of shit from United who insisted on the arrest, were revelling in pushing this poor bastard about for no reason.

Just as the priesthood attracts people who want to be near children, security attracts bullies that like to make people's lives miserable. Fact of life, unfortunately.

[Anonymous Coward]

UK is a f...ing joke of a country

Overrun by histeria, hiprocrey, bulls*it and political correctness rubbish.

[Anonymous Coward]

re: "UK is a f...ing joke of a country"

Judging by the quality of your comment, you're still somewhat butthurt about the comprehensive education system, I suppose?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep 100% correct

I wouldn't be suprised if this poor bloke who is clearly getting hounded out of normal life by the authorities for no good reason, completly loses it and finds himself plotting to blow the airport sky high for real!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Yep 100% correct

"I wouldn't be suprised if this poor bloke who is clearly getting hounded out of normal life by the authorities for no good reason, completly loses it and finds himself plotting to blow the airport sky high for real!"

Well, to a certain extent, that's how terrorists are made: take away a person's or a people's ability to uphold a decent life and they're driven to doing desperate things because they have nothing to lose. Of course the fairytale about terrorism instilled in every aspiring Britard is that terrorists are born evil and are inherently evil ("and that's why we need to be vigilant in our never-ending war on terror, young Britard!"), but actual observations from the real world contradict this. Of course, the fairytale serves as a convenient way to not think about how one's own country might be causing people to become terrorists and thus lets everyone feel even more entitled to their nice lifestyle while advocating blowing other people up with expensive weapons.

[Cunningly Linguistic]

And illiteracy

That is all

[Anonymous Coward]

"hiopcrey"

You've been reading the Daily Mail again, you naughty boy?

I've warned you about that before.

Now go to your room.

[Cameron Colley]

British justice at its finest.

A man who has done nothing wrong is now unemployable -- that about sums up the idiocy of this country's legal system.

In other news, the head of an organisation founded on theft, murder and torture, which is known to cover up child abuse by its members and is happy to encourage behaviour which leads to the passing on of sexually transmitted diseases is treated like royalty.

Double standards?

[Anonymous Coward]

minor misconception there fella

"and is happy to encourage behaviour which leads to the passing on of sexually transmitted diseases"

fair enough on the other points, but you're a little off the mark on the last one. The pontiff's positon is :

birth control is bad

banging anyone and everyone with a pulse is bad

and if you avoid doing the second thing then sti's aren't really a problem.

Anyone who thinks the catholic church encourages the transmission of sti's has been listening to Peter Tatchell too long

[Sarah Bee]

Re: minor misconception there fella

'misconception' tee hee etc.

[Cameron Colley]

RE: minor misconception there fella

In a perfect world where everyone did everything expected of them you have a point.

However, people will have sex with other people outside of marriage -- even supposed catholics can, and do, give in to weakness. A good catholic, however, on giving in to weakness and having sex outside of marriage will not want to compound this by wearing a condom -- it's also a pretty good excuse not to wear on if you don't want to.

You see, carrying condoms and being prepared to use them is an intellectual decision -- having sex because you're a little drunk, or bored, or just plain horny is not an intellectual decision.

There is also the fact that catholicism is responsible for quite a lot of anti-condom feeling around the world -- making it harder for non catholics to get condoms.

So I stand by my point that the catholic church is encouraging the passing on of STIs -- it might not be a stated policy, but that's the net result.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well said

And it looks like your (And the previous) post have hit a small nerve (judging by the down voters) - I expect that none of the down voters watched the linked video (or even wanted to....nah-nah-nah - not listening- nah -nah.)

PS. Just watched 'Religulous'....fantastic. I recommend to everybody.

[Anonymous Coward]

To all the down-voters of this post....I quote.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the Pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon, where he began a seven-day pilgrimage on the continent. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

Internationally, people were stunned at the Pope's scientific ignorance and indifference to human suffering.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this comment in the right place?

Anyway.

"Anyone who thinks the catholic church encourages the transmission of sti's has been listening to Peter Tatchell too long"

You talk rubbish sir. The catholic church actively campaigns in Africa STATING THAT CONDOMS CAUSE AIDS. May I direct you to the following - which is EXCELLENT

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbvr0m_shortfilms

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Is this comment in the right place?

Well the church is only saying that if you have the attention span of a gnat-on-speed and can't be arsed to read passed the headlines.

The "slighlty" longer version for the ADD crowd is :

Condoms promote promiscuity, or at least don't discourage it.

Sexual promiscuity leads to the spread of STI's.

Now add onto that the cultural problems in Africa of getting men to use condoms in the first place and teaching abstence as a method of preventing the spread of STI's isn't such a crazy idea.

Of course if you want to stick to your McNuggets version of what's being said, then the next issue of the Daliy Star will be along shortly.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/oct/07/catholic-church-condoms-africa

[Anonymous Coward]

I refer you to the words of your 'righteous' leader.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms, - on the contrary, it increases the problem."

Watch the video linked earlier (the Stephen Fry one). Nobody says abstinence is not a valid tool, neither too is being faithful - but to reject condoms as a valid 3rd option (and claim they increase the problem) is bloody absurd - but I expect nothing less from this (or any) religion, to be honest.

PS. Better to read the DAILY Star (which I don't) than The Tablet (which you probably do). There's more truth in the former - and that's saying something.

[Joe 3]

Re: Re: Is this comment in the right place?

You can't stop people shagging!

They've always done it, they're always going to do it. You can give people a million reasons not to, they're still going to do it.

Preach abstinence all you want - be my guest, knock yourself out - but don't for a minute tell me that condoms exacerbate the spread of STIs. Next you'll be saying they have tiny holes which HIV passes through!

[Rolf Howarth]

Read some history

The head of an organisation founded on theft, murder and torture? You mean our prime minister? Don't forget things like slavery and exploitation of colonies. How do you think ANY modern state or democracy was formed? All goodness and light, throughout history, with no greedy powermongers backstabbing or exploiting others for their own benefit along the way?

[Anonymous Coward]

re: British justice at its finest.

"A man who has done nothing wrong is now unemployable -- that about sums up the idiocy of this country's legal system.

In other news, the head of an organisation founded on theft, murder and torture, which is known to cover up child abuse by its members and is happy to encourage behaviour which leads to the passing on of sexually transmitted diseases is treated like royalty.

Double standards?"

^ This

[Anonymous Coward]

Royalty

"In other news, the head of an organisation founded on theft, murder and torture, ....... is treated like royalty."

Indeed, bad logic. Theft murder and torture do not automatically make you royalty. Looking back at history they do seem to have been prerequisites though.

[Rogerborg]

Don't worry, the grown ups will sort it out

Magistrates are the Special branch of the Judiciary. Special as in School. Once it gets before some real judges, they'll throw it out and send the CPS away with a bee in their ear.

It's up to the prosecution to make their case that a "reasonable person" would find the message threatening *in context*. They weren't required to do that by the Magistrates - and in fact, couldn't, since nobody involved in the prosecution has ever suggested that they did consider it "threatening" - but the grown ups will certainly look into that curious lapse in the burden of proof.

[Anonymous John]

Letters and punctuation, no digits.

He got or held the job (until now) despite the conviction. And he may well be acquitted on appeal. It seems a strange reason to sack him at the time.

[irish donkey]

A Pedo wouldn't get this much trouble

This is just crazy. I sure if he was an illegal immigrant, muslin, Christian, serial killer or some other minority group he could sue under the human rights act. But being a local. Bad luck friend.

Murderers get away with less trouble than this. I blame the police trying to up their figures without penalising some minority.

Something has gone seriously wrong in this Country

[Anonymous Coward]

Muslin?

I'm pretty sure cheesecloths aren't covered by the HRA...

[Anonymous Coward]

Overrun by what?

"Overrun by histeria, hiprocrey, bulls*it and political correctness"

Well for a start, perhaps if people took the time to learn to spell properly, they would be able to communicate more effectively. "Hysteria" and "hypocracy", for example.

As for political correctness - isn't that the thing that makes people write "bulls*it" instead of "bullshit" in public?

[Sarah Bee]

Re: Overrun by what?

Oh, it's just too perfect.

[Code Monkey]

Title

That's made my (previously crappy) day

[Anonymous Coward]

@Overrun by what?

Would you mind telling me what "hypocracy" is? It doesn't appear to be in my dictionary.

If you are going to criticise someone's spelling, try to get your own spelling right.

[Anton Channing]

Hypocracy

From the Greek prefix hypo- which means under or below and the suffix -cracy which means strength or rule. So this new word seems to imply bottom up government. Perhaps this could be applied to the idea of emergent behaviour...

[ElReg!comments!Pierre]

Hypocracy

>So this new word seems to imply bottom up government.

"bottom-up government"? I would express it more as "ruled by arses" myself. Or -perhaps more accurately in this case- "up the bottom" government.

[Anonymous Coward]

Right back at ya

with

"Hypocrisy"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the greatest luxury

Raise the double standard.

[Anonymous Coward]

Overrun by histeria

Did you mean "Overrun by wisteria"?

Like my garden.

[ElReg!comments!Pierre]

Overrun by wisteria

Do you mean "overrun by Listeria"?

After the avian and H1N1 flu (empty) threats, you might be onto the big pharmas' next cunning plan!

Prosit!

[blackworx]

Re: big pharma's next cunning plan

Take it from someone who knows, it's type-G weaponised pubic lice - aka the hypocritters. They stole it off DARPA when the contract got cancelled for being too dangerous.

[Rafael 1]

the Twitter joker victim

It's too early in the morning, so all I can think is "is there a Twitter Batman"?

[Alex Walsh]

Protect us all...

... from the sin that is "hiprocrey". Whatever the hell that is.

[Rob Crawford]

Personally I'm more worried about

the threat from the Muslin community.

I mean those cheesecloth guys are so dangerous.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Lack a sense of humour

> Airport TV programme - the guy from Chicago carrying the violin ?

Yes, I remember that and was going to mention it. Only difference was there the Heathrow police took a more reasonable line and after getting the person to admit it was a stupid thing to say issued him with a caution ... I think the airline (? Delta I think) also gave him a lifetime ban - but I'm not entirely sure if that qualifies as a punishment!

Not sure of the details in this case but I think when the case came to court the person here initially pled guilty but then decided to change that and argue that he'd not said anything that could be taken as a threat. Perhaps if he'd admitted crass stupidity at the start then he may have not gone further than the police station.

[Craig Chambers]

Violin guy

I'm pretty sure that he was also denied entry to the UK.

[Anonymous Coward]

Menacing...

^<<--<-- (...because They actually *are* insane.)

I will destroy *the entire Universe* next Tuesday afternoon at four.

...Ah, update. Make it five so we can at least finish our tea.

[Oz]

Re: Menacing

Expect your door to be kicked down in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

[Parax]

I'm Seriously Tempted...

to set up an account on twitter for @BigBadWolf and post this:

Those 3 Little legal folks better find an ounce of common sense pretty sharpish, or I'll Huff, and I'll Puff, and I'll blow their courthouse [sky high/down].

(The porcine inference is intended, as it's my taxes that they are pigging out on.)

[Dumple McWhartingcock]

Wasting Police time

If no conviction is made, which there won't be. This "manager" should be charged with wasting police time and he/she should pay for every penny of this whole farce.

[Bif]

hypocracy

S'obvious, innt;

Hypo: under

cracy: rule by

It's where the country gets taken over by mole people.

[The Beer Monster]

@Bif

There's some short bloke called Durin stood here, sharpening an axe and muttering your name under his breath

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Or it just means

our rulers just sit on their arses all day

[Winkypop]

Meanwhile.....

.....no real terrorists have been arrested.

[Anonymous Coward]

Rule by Political Correctness

"Airport is closed. {cute irritated statement}" gets a look by the po-po these days.

Not to stretch that one too far, but to share the thought that it draws to mind: It would seem that liberty and fair sense could be viewed as if they were mere anachronisms, in some climates, these days Instated, we have any number of hair-splitting cultures of local political correctness - evidently, spanning across the pond.

To borrow from that that old V for Vandengraaff movie: "PC Prevails."

In more of reality, it may be far too uptight and unprincipled of a climate for genuine culture to take root in, where the climate is as so - but, by now, I have well since abandoned the primary thread of discussion.

In yokel drawl: "You just wait 'til we get the choppers on you, tell you what..." - while all the reasonable world goes on about its business, largely unawares to the amoebic spread of new trends in PC-ness and cliches...

Anon 'cos wouldn't it make sense if I was a conspiracy theorist, too? Would it, though?

[Sparx]

So...

What would happen to me if i were to suggest I would like to mail a handgranade to the Reg?!

[The Beer Monster]

Well...

You'd probably get a post about your inability to spell hand grenade.

[mmiied]

not to worry

I belev they have an ex army type on staff they will know how to use it properly

[Sarah Bee]

Re: not to worry

Lewis has an old hand grenade on his desk. We don't know if it's still active or not. True story.

[Matt 13]

go on!!

pull the string... its friday afternoon!!

[Anonymous John]

Re: Re: not to worry

Send it up with the Vulture 1-X?

Orbital Grenade Launch Experiment.

[Paul 87]

Free Speech

In the UK we do NOT have the right to Free Speech, in fact, what we have is the right to say anything we want PROVIDING it isn't proscribed by law and boy is there a whole load of things we can't say, such as slander, defamation of character, hate speech, threats (counts as assault if you're believed) and so on.

Seriously, why do people feel the need to speak up for a right that we've practically never had because it's not the way our laws have worked.

[Anonymous Coward]

Organisation..

Can we all re-tweet that phrase at a certain time? See if they can bang 400,000 of us up? It's bonkers...To be fair, what he said was bonkers too...madness attracts madness, it'd seem...

[BorkedAgain]

Excellent idea!

You first...

[andy gibson]

Ha anyone thought....

That the guy in question might just be a dick? These people bring grief on themselves. Lets hear from his recent employer as to why he was sacked.

[unitron]

*Might* just be?

He threatened to blow up an airport.

He may well have been joking, but he was stupid enough not to understand that nowadays it's not a good idea to make jokes like that, because nowadays a threat like that has to be taken seriously by security types (imagine the outcry if he had been ignored and actually did try something).

Would you want anyone that stupid working for you?

But yeah, he's probably a first class jerk as well.

[Anonymous Coward]

Might?

There's no might about it. Only a dick would have posted that. Even if it was intended as a joke he should have had the common sense to realise it was a stupid thing to do. Would he have considered it a good idea to say it out loud at check in?

As for the idea that he'd been sacked from a second job because of the conviction, I'm not so sure that this is as black and white as he makes out. It's the "second" bit that makes me think there is more to it. More likely he applied for the job and omitted to mention the conviction. Maybe the offer of a job was pending a CRB or maybe he was asked to make a disclosure about criminal record and somebody found out about the conviction just because they recalled seeing his picture in the Free Press. Either way I think that he was a bit of a dick when he applied for his new job too.

[Tempest]

This is typical of the Blair/Brown frame of mind

Being British was at one time equated with having independent thought and a dedication to purpose likened to that of the bulldog - tenacious.

Plunkett, Blair and Brown turned Britain into a bunch of conformists, at least from a legal point of view, any deviation from their concepts resulting in an ASBO, or some equally ridiculous penalty whilst reducing rights that have been enjoyed for years.

Then you have this collection of pompous, legal neophytes called magistrates who think the sun shines out of their collective rear ends, usually blinkered and pro-police to the point of stupidity.

My experience of dealing with airport officialdom was that the British were fair, firm and polite with a sense of tolerance and humour. Now you would be hard-pressed to tell them apart from the brain-dead uniformed buffoons that greet me when I go the States.

I, and many others, now choose to bypass the UK, using European airports instead.

[Martin]

Hooray!

I was beginning to wonder where the "everything that happens in this country is Brown and Blair's fault" brigade had got to. I was quite missing them.

Score +1 for the "Plunkett" - that's a new one, but -2 for no reference to NuLabour or Liebour.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh dear

I imagine any educated employer would have sacked the loud-twittered idiot for americanised vulgarity of expression and displaying lack of judgement and self-control. Would he have expressed himself in the same way directly to airport staff? Particularly if the member of staff was over two metres tall and weighed 100 Kg?

Of course one may lament the lack of proportion in official response. But, as for freedom: we are all absolutely free to say or do whatever we want. Conversely, we must also be prepared to take the consequences, foreseen or not.

Now, when will literate English people learn how to use the computer in a literate, considerate manner and stop copying the vulgarity of the latest American sit-com or cartoon? What really worries me: some of these people are applying the same lack of judgement and abilty to express themselves to serious computer programming and design. I wonder if this explains the poor quality of so many web interfaces and computer packages.

[teacake]

@AC 2010-09-17 13:27

"I imagine any educated employer would have sacked the loud-twittered idiot for americanised vulgarity of expression and displaying lack of judgement and self-control. Would he have expressed himself in the same way directly to airport staff? Particularly if the member of staff was over two metres tall and weighed 100 Kg?

Of course one may lament the lack of proportion in official response. But, as for freedom: we are all absolutely free to say or do whatever we want. Conversely, we must also be prepared to take the consequences, foreseen or not."

Anybody else imagining that little outpouring to have been spoken in the style of Noel Coward?

[CD001]

Aaah

So he's not Anonymous after all!

[Magnus_Pym]

Free speech is a right...

... stupidity is a way of life. What did he hope to achieve by his tweet. Bring down the fascist state? I don't think so.

It was the weather that was causing the problem, by all accounts, surely he should have said 'clouds, if don't get yourselves sort I'll blow you sky high.'

P.S. I thought the proper spelling was high-poe-crea-eight

[Anonymous Coward]

but

clouds are already sky-high

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I used to work in an Airport...

And we had a way of dealing with People who made jokes about Explosives.

"Haha, I've got a Bomb in my bag!!" SOP was to call the Police who would have a serious stern word in old-Plod professional style.

We would offload the passenger, let them cool down, then rebook them on a later flight

FOC - free of charge, actually, but they'd learnt their lesson.

End of story.

But...

This was 25 years ago...pre-911 and pre-Twitter.

[brain_flakes]

Counter protest

If this appeal fails then we should organise a national "post an obviously joking bomb threat on twitter" protest day to show how moronic this is.

You heard it here first (tm)

[VinceH]

Letters, Digits.

Draw airport on balloon.

Inflate balloon.

Job done.

[Matt 13]

But he wasnt in an airport!

If the chap was in the airport, stood up and shouted, "sort this place out, or come friday, ill blow this place up!" then, he deserves everything he gets... thats just stupid! but...

He was at home, on bloody twitter!!! there is a bit of a difference! Context people! please!

grenade... as im on hold and if the buggers dont answer soon, Ill hunt them down, strap them to a rocket and fire them at the sun..

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares?

When you ban some moron from a large, popular website they usually threaten to sue you. When you point out that it's impossible to do then they immediately resort to threats. The novelty has worn off to the point that my response last time someone threatened to kill me was to suggest that the user probably wouldn't be able to afford an assassain out of his pocket money.

Now, funnily enough I don't have any issues with people being prosecuted for making threats at all, even ones they don't intend to carry through posted on the internet. It's not funny, and making threats has always been severely punished, the fact they are being published on the internet is immaterial.

[Maty]

possible defence ...

'Blowing' has more than one meaning. Rather than using explosives, perhaps the accused could allege he was contemplating offering his er ... services ... as a bribe to get the airport re-opened.

It used to be a crime to blow things up. Then it became a crime to assemble the materials to blow things up. Then it became a crime to read up on how to get the materials blow things up. Now it's a crime to talk about blowing things up. Soon ...

I'll stop now before I get arrested.

Oh, and we seriously need a 'police state' icon.

[dave 81]

Richard Herring

has publicly said the same exact thing, and yet, the police and CPS haven't even looked at him.

shows that the CPS and police are just after easy convictions to meet their blairite targets.

[VooDooMonkey]

What free speech?

What's all this talk of free speech. This is the United Kingdom. We don't have 'free speech'. And while we're about it, we don't have a recognisable constitution either (in the same way that the USA does).

People in this country keep going on about their 'rights'. Apart from those given to us by the EU we have none under British Law.

[No, I will not fix your computer]

Re: What free speech?

Is it relevant that the UK doesn't have a single set of documents that serve as a constitution? Parliment provides the constitution, it's modern and progressive (regardless of your feelings about individual laws), the US constitution is a good framework, but the time it was written in shows how dated it is (and how difficult to change), Bush 2.2 got in because voters constitutional rights were ignored, the patriot act (and other sedition acts) specifically prevent people saying things against the government (unlike the UK) which would be against the constitution, the right to bear arms is specifically so that "the people" could overthrow the government if they disagreed with them, although you're not allowed to buy a gun if you are anti government.

But I competely support your right to say whatever you like (even if it makes you look like an idiot).

[Hans 1]

WTF

Christ, somebody must do something, have we found a way to connect brains with the rest of the body, yet? Some people, especially those working at airport safety, really need that operation.

Come on science, we need you! In any case, once these cretins die we should keep their unused brains for when we can transplant brains. If stupidity hurt, the world would be a better place!

I was gonna put something similar into this comment box, but I do not want a brigade of French police storm my flat.

Cameron Diaz, because she can blow anybody sky-high.

[livefree]

words

I was in Orlando Fl one time with my family, at a wild wave pool, and one of those micro-dust devils came through and picked up my umbrella and made me chase it across the park.

The wind BLEW IT SKY HIGH.

Uh oh, there are the word police at the front door now...

[Anonymous Coward]

A little chlorine in the gene pool

Do y'all have conjugal visits in the UK? I mean, if the girl in Belfast is not banned, I'd hate to see this guy reproduce.

[yeehaw....]

Really stupid...

...but don't you think the guy might have possibly thought that Twitter was the same as being...... here?

.....cue ominous music.......

[Neal 5]

re Oh Dear

I imagine any educated employer would have sacked the loud-twittered idiot for americanised vulgarity of expression and displaying lack of judgement and self-control. Would he have expressed himself in the same way directly to airport staff?

American spelling accepts only -ize endings in most cases, such as organize, realize, and recognize.[56] British usage accepts both -ize and -ise (organize/organise, realize/realise, recognize/recognise).[56] British English using -ize is known as Oxford spelling, and is used in publications of the Oxford University Press, most notably the Oxford English Dictionary, as well as other authoritative British sources. The OED lists the -ise form separately, as "a frequent spelling of -IZE..."[57] It firmly deprecates usage of "-ise" for words of Greek origin, stating, "[T]he suffix..., whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek -ιζειν, Latin -izāre; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling in -iser should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic." It maintains "... some have used the spelling -ise in English, as in French, for all these words, and some prefer -ise in words formed in French or English from Latin elements, retaining -ize for those of Greek composition."[58] Noah Webster rejected -ise for the same reasons.[59]

Other references, including Fowler's Modern English Usage, now give prominence to the -ise suffix over -ize.[60] The Cambridge University Press has long favored -ise.[60] Perhaps as a reaction to the ascendancy of American spelling, the -ize spelling is now rarely used in the UK mass media and newspapers, to the extent that it is often incorrectly regarded as an Americanism.[56] The ratio between -ise and -ize stands at 3:2 in the British National Corpus.[61] The -ise form is standard in leading publications such as The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Economist. The Oxford spelling (which can be indicated by the registered IANA language tag en-GB-oed), and thus -ize, is used in many British-based academic publications, such as Nature, the Biochemical Journal and The Times Literary Supplement. In Australia and New Zealand -ise spellings strongly prevail; the Australian Macquarie Dictionary, among other sources, gives the -ise spelling first. The -ise form is preferred in Australian English at a ratio of about 3:1 according to the Macquarie Dictionary. Conversely, Canadian usage is essentially like American.[62] Worldwide, -ize endings prevail in scientific writing and are commonly used by many international organizations, such as the ISO and the WHO. The European Union uses ise in its English language publications, though the EU may, even on a single page, show "organized" but "publicise" as well. "Synthesize" is used in international chemical journals.

Courtesy wikipedia, that clarifies the situation I believe. Americanized

[Rolf Howarth]

Carpets

Just yesterday I was moving a deep pile rug. Rugs are bloody heavy and a neighbour had to give me a hand, so we joked about there being a body in it. Does that mean we can now look forward to a conviction for conspiracy to murder?

[Ben Norris]

Missing information in the story

So what did he actually get sacked for this time? Surely nothing new regarding the case has happened since they employed him so unless it was something completely unconnected they would have no grounds?

[abueloeddie]

Who's running this 'ere asylum?

Re the Twitter bomb threat...

This man is a bloody idiot ! His actions betray his mental instability. What should we do with such a person? ( Always supposing that this country knew how to care for its mentally ill people, which it doesn't) He should be confined in Broadmoor, but will probably end up as yet another malcontent, drawing the dole and replying to Nigerian scam messages.

[abueloeddie]

Where'd it go?

What happened to my pithy ( hopefully) comment posted at 09.17 today relating to this topic?

[Sarah Bee]

Re: Where'd it go?

Your incisive and thoughtful comment is up. There's always a large backlog to deal with after a weekend.

[Chris King]

@Ben Norris

Maybe he didn't declare his conviction on his job application, and his employer found out about it from one of the news reports ?

There's no way to tell if the second sacking is related to the original incident - for all we know, he could have been sacked for something totally unrelated, and Chambers is milking this for publicity.

There are two sides to every story, but one side seems to have protected its Tweets.

[No, I will not fix your computer]

@Chris King

He said "I thought they knew", you would have thought that either the conviction was trivial and unimportant and therefore why is he still bleating on about it, or that it was an important life-changer and that he'd make damn sure they knew, the third option is that he is an idiot and didn't tell them about a highly publicised conviction.

[moonface]

Credible threat?

I just wonder if Paul Chambers had not identified himself, so clearly through his twitter account and the tweet had appeared via an anonymous untrackable account. Would Robin Hood still be in a state of high alert looking out for TheRealBinLadin, TerryTaliban, SemtexSamir, etc.

The whole affair is quite ridiculous, apart from the criminal record and ruined employment prospects.

[VulcanV5]

Why we need Trident. Why we don't need accountants.

This is an instance the anti-Trident mob would love to hush up. . . because it demonstrates, beyond doubt, why this country needs to spend £billions on Trident.

Only nuclear missiles from a hidden submarine are going to be enough to deter failed accountants with Belfast girlfriends from executing their terrorist plans on UK soil.

We have the technology to track down these people. And in Trident, we have the means to wipe 'em out -- and they know it!

Yes, there may be some collateral damage.

But that surely is a small price to pay for defending beacons of Liberty such as Robin Hood Airport, Doncaster.

From which, or so I learn, EasyJet has just absented itself after arriving there amidst much hulabaloo in April and will now not fly anyone to anywhere if it's from Doncaster.

Had there not been all this uncertainty over renewal of Trident, I am sure Easyjet would still be there.

Yet again, an accountant is at the bottom of all this.

Robin Hood fought long and hard tol build his airport there. As a nation, we should hang our heads in shame.