Apprentice star Bill Cullen blasted the Greens as hypocritical after the party’s Twitter described him as a ‘permatanned snake-oil selling charlatan‘.
The message was posted at the weekend by a party worker, and later deleted ‘as the tone was inappropriate’.
Millionaire Cullen, who became a household name after writing the bestseller ‘It’s A Long Way From Penny Apples’, blamed the Green party on Friday night’s Late Late show for a 70% slump in car sales.
‘I’m a straight talking guy and I always speak face to face with people who have problems with me,’ he said.
‘I never feel the need to go into little hidey holes like the Greens with their hypocritical thoughts such as those expressed apparently in their Twitter site.’
‘The Green Party has been using twitter for several months and we’re still working out on how to best use it,’ a party spokesperson said.
The party has invited bloggers to the Dail to discuss online communications with them, she added.
Party chairman Senator Dan Boyle later posted a response to the entrepreneur’s Late Late Show remarks on his website.
A tweet from the party described the senator’s article as ‘a more appropriate response to Bill Cullen’.
[A version of this article appeared in today’s Irish Examiner. You can read the full story at faduda.net]