Imaginary friends

ANNA Bligh's most important candidate has been caught out having campaign workers masquerade as legitimate locals.

Ashgrove MP Kate Jones earlier this week used social networking site Twitter to post a photo of herself doorknocking her electorate. In the picture Ms Jones is seen talking to a person on a veranda.

However, an outraged local later contacted Ms Jones's office because it was his front deck but not him in the picture. - The Courier Mail

We all have imaginary friends, and politicians seem to have more imaginary friends than most of us, but this Queensland story seems especially piquant. I remember that I had three imaginary friends when I was a kid. Maybe I could loan one of them to Jones?

This Queensland story was amusing, too:

One column published on 5 January, told readers about "Kurt" and "Hannah". "Kurt", a 28-year-old electrical contractor was reported to have been single for eight months. "Hannah" was a 27-year-old who worked in Emergency Services. The story said "Kurt" had volunteered for the Savvy Setup because "I just moved here in the last few months and don’t really know many people yet, especially females".

But "Kurt" and "Hannah" never went on a date. "Kurt’s" real name is Andrew Mackey. He lives in Brisbane, is 29 years old and works as a driver. He only found out about the "date" when a friend of his in Townsville sent him a photograph of the article.

A fictional story about an invented relationship between two real people with fake names. Not sure if that's some kind of record?

I guess some imaginary friends are more imaginary than you could imagine.

UPDATE! - Both  the right and left of politics have scandals but right-wing scandals tend to be much more entertaining:

CONTROVERSIAL Cairns LNP candidate Gavin King is in hot water again after a female campaign worker was linked to more than a dozen "extreme" groups on a social networking site.

Izzy Gualtieri, a campaign worker for Mr King, "likes" several racist and degrading groups on Facebook including "I didn't steal your land, so why'd you steal my bike", "The awkwardness of Nigeria vs Germany and the scoreboard says Nig-Ger" and "throwing salt water at sluts to keep their crabs fresh".

 I mean, it's all right to pretend that a member of the public likes you, but if you like a facebook page? Then you are DAMNED TO HELL FOR ETERNITY or at least a short-time anyway.