Grant Shapps MP, the Tory by-election campaign manager in Ealing Southall, gained some level of infamy last week when he was caught red-handed pretending to be a Lib Dem member posting comments to YouTube.
Mr Shapps’ weak excuse – that his account password was set to ‘1234’, and hacked by opposition parties – was widely derided.
So it comes as some surprise to see this story in today’s Times:
The Conservatives claimed to have identified a woman who confronted Mr Cameron during a walkabout in the constituency as a Labour supporter involved in the party’s campaign. …
Referring to Mr Cameron’s heated exchange, Grant Schapps [sic], the Tory MP running his party’s campaign, said: “The Labour Party is resorting to dirty tricks by a party apparatchik posing as a member of the public to harangue David Cameron.”
It’s hard to top that, frankly.
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GOOD LUCK to the Lib Dem campaign teams in both Ealing Southall and Sedgefield.
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6 Comments
Sock horror! Person in street, member of party, whatever next? Never mind that though. There is a by-election going to rack and ruin just down the road. Is Grant Schweppes up to his tricks yet again? Right over on the dark side. Police should start by investigating this rather than teller-gate. In short Lit supporting Sikh hotheads (or impersonators) have proclaimed one of the candidates dead by suicide to drive votes for Lit and/or suggest the by-election will be cancelled.
PS I did think the irony of having John “Two Jobs” Leech standing up in support while Nigel said he’d be full time was pretty rich on the irony front! Leech was probably missing a few Council-related meetings as he stood there!
Shapps is setting a new standard for cynicism.
All sorts of wierdities in Southall.
What IS the story behing the alleged free food offered by the Tories at events held at Sikh Temples? The ‘Treating’ laws may have been relaxed just a little but surely not this much? Mind you the religious duty placed on Sikhs to share food after their cermonies may have a bearing here.
And all these posters in shop windows. When I started in the Election Agent game mumble decades ago it was drilled into me that we could NEVER try to get a poster up in a commercial premises window as there were laws on the books to protect businesses from backstage pressure by local magnates. Only businesses whose MAIN purpose was the provison of advertising space could be approached. Was I wrong then, or has the law changed since my prime, or is this just another example of Tory high-handedness in Southall?
Weren’t there also free health checkups by Tory-supporting nurses and doctors? Apparently they were okayed by the authorities. All very dodgy, if you ask me.
John Loony calls Southall for lib dems
266. Hopefully getting some rest and not tiring myself out, so that I can be alert and awake through the count and then afterwards so that I can get the first tube train home at 04:53 tomorrow morning.
262. I may as well tell you what my prediction in the competition was:
Southall
LD 35.6
Lab 31.2
Con 19.3
Sedgefield
Lab 44.1
LD 36.2
Con 8.7
by JohnLoony July 19th, 2007 at 5:49 pm