Republican ad warning of bleak future under Democrats features derelict English village

A Republican running for Congress in Illinois used a photo of a dilapidated English village to envision a dreary future under Democratic rule. The ad was scrubbed from social media after causing extreme offense across the pond.

To illustrate the horror that awaits America should Democrats prevail in November’s midterm elections, congressional candidate Nick Stella decided to repurpose an unflattering photograph of Jaywick Sands, a village in Essex, showing unpaved pot-holed roads and neglected homes.

“Only YOU can stop this from becoming reality!” the image, which was briefly posted to Facebook, warned. “Help President Trump keep America on Track and Thriving!”

To give the English village a more American feel, a billboard featuring a smiling Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was photoshopped into the dystopian nightmare.

The election ad was quickly deleted from Facebook after provoking anger over the misappropriation of the rundown Essex town.

“I know that many Jaywick Sands residents will be outraged at being smeared in this way – and rightly so,” Paul Honeywood, a town councilman who represents the village, told the Guardian. According to Honeywood, the photograph is outdated and misleading, since the village’s unsightly streets were repaved last year.

He also extended an invitation to Stella to visit Jaywick Sands to “learn about how we really get things done, rather than engaging in this sort of negative campaigning.”

A spokeswoman for Stella defended the image’s use, explaining that “our intent was never to smear the town in the photo.”

“We never used the name. For us it was an example of a town overburdened by poor governance, which is exactly what we in our district are seeking to prevent at every level.”

While the campaign could have easily featured a rundown neighborhood closer to Illinois, there appears to be a fairly innocent explanation for the gaffe: A UK government index ranked Jaywick Sands as the most downtrodden neighborhood in England in 2010 and 2015, and the image used by Stella’s campaign appears among the top results when you search Google Images for “poorest town.”

Although the harrowing image of Anglo-Saxon poverty has been pulled, Stella is still flaunting a different, perhaps equally odd ad – in which he compares himself to the refreshing taste of Stella Artois beer.

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