Tourism chief sacked for Twitter joke

A London tourism boss has been given the old heave-ho after apparently failing to understand the purpose of his job.

Neil McCollum lost his £60,000 a year job as head of tourism for Greenwich after a Twitter post about street crime that mocked part of the borough he was paid to promote, according to the Evening Standard. 

In August, he wrote: "Guest appearance in Woolwich today. Wonder if it has changed. Mental note, make sure wallet is not visible."

McCollum, who was also in charge of Greenwich's Olympic welcome strategy, lost his job after a three month probe into the tweet, which one local described as "honesty and common sense" on an online message board.

"This shows how we allow political correctness to take priority," they wrote.

But another said: "He's an idiot for posting every thought that pops into his head on Twitter but what he said is correct."

The council released a statement: "Greenwich Council can confirm that one of its employees who worked as a tourism officer has been dismissed.

"The reason for this dismissal is that the individual brought the council into disrepute and breached the council's rules of conduct.

"The individual has the right to appeal against this decision."