Believe me, Middleton is winning nothing.
He is a bully and a control freak, and must always control the narrative in his favour. It will be killing him to see that these tweets are out in the open for all to see. He has been forced to put a reply on to his twitter feed, but it is hidden because of his previous actions and most of those who have seen the article in the Ox Mail or online won't now see his response.
People who had previously believed every word that came out of his mouth are now turning agsinst him. His support locally will be hugely damaged and he will face sanctions from his party and the councils he represents.
And more than this, do you think that the Ox Mail reporters that he is now accusing of twisting the story are going to keep running to him for a quote?
The man is finished, and that will become more apparent in the coming days and weeks. And the best thing is that he'll deserve everything that is coming his way.
Bang on. I know there are some on here who think we perhaps protest too much about IM but don’t forget his level of influence and ability to mislead in all of this. He has had a speaking gig at most OCC meetings, is a reserve for the CDC Planning Committee (which his wife is already on), has written his response to the scoping report and is an active social media user. I’ve had to correct people on Nextdoor who have taken his misleading statements as fact because they have come from an elected councillor. People who don’t scout out all the info as many do on here read his comments in the OM, hear him on Rad Ox and believe him because he was elected to do the job.
Exposing him for his skullduggery remains key to winning the war on misinformation. If he had been honest from the outset and simply said ‘I’m aligned with FOSB and cannot support this in any shape or form’, we would have been viewed him as a pain but probably not one that we’d opt to look into further. As it is, his position has been like a Ponzi scheme – you can only keep it going until people find out the truth. He has always been aligned with FOSB and the neutrality position was a lie.
The article yesterday kicked a stone out of the antis wall. Anything he says and does now will be met with people sharing that OM article. Reputationally, it has damaged him. He loves being the contrarian maverick who sees things only he is able to see and is always right (see his Nextdoor post aimed at Margaret where he claimed that the searching for tweets was because we didn’t have a ‘cogent argument’ against him. P**s off. From a critical thinking perspective, you have been shown up on more than one occasion). The absence of contrition, even in his ‘sorry not sorry’ “apology” on Twitter which few would see since he has protected his tweets, reveals who he is.
Like a wounded animal, he’ll still be knocking around, throwing shade on the club who have been here for 100 years more than you ever have, Ian. Let that happen if you want. I’m going to continue to challenge him and expose him as a liar, charlatan, anti-progressive, anti-football anti-Oxfordshire enemy of this.