I suppose it is easy to pointificate when you are hiding behind anonymous identity!

“if I was you”

After “if”, use the subjunctive.

“false untruthful lies”

Triple tautology.

“that you now are a PPC for,”

Never end a sentence with a preposition.

Three reasons why Jon Leech was a much better choice, and they are only trivial ones.

We want level-headed folk who get on with the job as our MPs, not whiners and obsessives.

BTW, how many votes did Yasmin Zalzala actually get when she stood against Jon Leech in 2005? Remind me.

I personally am very disappointed that Susan Cooper was not re-selected. In the past, the Liberals knew full well the advantage of selecting a local candidate with a proven record, while the Conservatives selected someone from miles away and then wondered why they lost. Now we select someone from miles away – and when the result comes in ….. A candidate who says I will be a local and moves in for the by election just won’t cut the mustard.

I’m afraid that the decision was a bad one and will be seen to be so when the result is declared. However, what is clearly lacking in this debate is any indication as to how we got into this situation. The constitution is clear, but at what stage we dropped Susan Cooper is not. I belive she stood for selection, but didn’t make it onto the final list. So who on earth decided that although she was good enough for us to put forward as a General election candidate to the people of Henley, she wasn’t good enough to put forward at a by election. Was it the local selection panel, Cowley St, the local panel on the advice of Cowley St or who? In any case the end result shows total incompetence.

I’d remain quiet from now on if I was you.

As for the code of conduct, I remember reading that councilors should behave with dignity and not bring their office into disrepute.

Saying false untruthful lies in a public forum about someone else is hardly dignified behaviour and it brings Manchester City Council and the Bolton Constituency that you now are a PPC for, into disrepute by association.

I have stated what I honestly believe was said at a meeting more than four years ago. You were very angry at the time and may well have forgotten exactly what you said, but I am entitled to state what I truly believe happened at an event.

It was a long time ago, so I do not recall the exact words used, but I do recall the clear impression which I (and others) had of what you said and the astonishing anger with which you said it.

I am not aware of any part of the code of conduct which prevents me from stating what I remember. Remembering something differently from yourself (which it seems I do on this occasion) is not in itself a breach of code of standards.

When you pretty much (or so it seemed to me sitting in the room) accused some of my colleagues of paying more attention to the submissions of white people and men, that to me sounded as much as accusation of racism (and sexism) as it would have done if you had used the word racism itself. You have confirmed that you used the words “white people”. I cannot think of a context in which you could have used those words in a discussion of Ward boundaries which could be not have been construed by those of us listening as a suggestion of racism. If that was not your intent, then clearly we all misunderstood what you were trying to say.

Your comments are untruthful, defamatory and libellous. You have put them now in a public forum for all to see.

Even at the time of the Peter Rothery investigation, he admitted that could not find any evidence to support this. The only time the words were used was in the email to Simon Ashley. I then wrought an apology and withdrew them.

I put this in my CRE RA Questionnaire from which I quote:

‘And the only occasion is the email to Cllr Simon Ashley on 08.07.02. This was confirmed by Cllr Peter Rothery when he came to my house in October 03 and I wrote the handwritten withdrawal of the words, sexist and racist. Peter Rothery said he pushed ‘them’ i.e. david sandiford and co to produce evidence for me calling them racist and sexist yet nothing came forward.’

Someone else made a similar allegation after the meeting at the time so I rung Bill Fisher to check. He confirmed that I had not said the words racist and sexist but ‘white people’.

As part of the Lib Dem response, you Jackie made further untruthful allegations. But now you have made them in public so you and others are going to be held to account.

The English Standards Board cannot refuse to investigate now. And of course there is the court case.

I don’t want to go over old ground, but I was at a meeting in a room full of people when you specifically accused two senior Councillors of racism because they didn’t agree with you on the proposed boundary changes which we were going to put to the Boundary Commission as the Liberal Democrat proposals. This caused a lot of offence, especially as the Councillors in question had worked very hard at assembling a complex jigsaw of proposals. You left everybody there the impression that if somebody didn’t agree with you then it had to be due to racism and sexism. An prompt and sincere apology would have stopped the whole sorry saga right there and then.

The Federal Appeal ruling said that it had no power to change anything (see posting on LoL ethnic cleansing Yasmin Zalzala) They bounced it back to the Manchester City Liberal Democrats and the sub panel chaired by barrister with a leading chamber in Manchester Peter Rothery (he since left the council as a member of the Lib Dems)

The panel asked questions relating to aspects that are different from the original criteria under which the Manchester City Liberal Democrats approve candidates. And they kept asking me why I had called the party and seniour councilors racist.

I explained that the above is untrue. That I had never called either the party or any councilor racist.

And so on. I have transcripts written by an observer from the Regional NW exec.

At the end Peter Rothery told me they will uphold the decision and severak days later he wrote a several page justification that trailed back to finding excuses to justify the decision to stop me standing in the local elections.

I hope to bring these issue to an open court as this is becoming farcical.

Please also see posting on LoL ethnic cleansing yasmin zalzala where I have posted transcripts etc

And, of course, the thread was not about deposing PPC’s – you introduced that – it was about pressure being put on a Local Party to select their candidate in a particular manner…

“The background is that the local [Tory] party had a timetable it wanted to follow for selecting their candidate, including the use of an open primary. Conservative Central Office tried to talk them out of both, sending John Maples to tell them what to do. According to a well-placed eye-witness John Maples’s pleas were rebuffed and David Cameron then had to meet personally with the local party to get it to fall into line.”

That’s the controversy the story points out – that CCHQ/Cameron put pressure on the local group to do things a certain way even though presumably the local Conservatives were following the rules. It’s a variation of CCHQ seeking to impose a candidate (Ealing Southall anyone?)

The comparison you’re trying to draw is with LDs following their selection rules with a by-election, which provide for a new selection even where a PPC has been previously selected. Although you might not want to hear it, it’s not the same . ..

In any event, you’ve not actually asked the party whether it would provide you with what you want – you’ve just posted something on an independent website.

The party of openness, accountability, transparency etc etc complains and regards it as something of a crime to as for info under the FOI ?

Is that how far Lib Dem principles and policy go?

Ok, you asked for it. I am going to start a blog and am going to put EVERYTHING re Man Withington Selection on the net including lies by current MP’s and councilors.

I feel sorry for the many hard working dedicated members who used to believe in the Liberal Democrats like I used to.

They are being sold down the rive by the current leadership, especially in the House of Lords

Ealing Southall was another great example of the fair an open processes that the Conservatives use to select by-election candidates.

As ever, thank you for confirming my suspicions about Yasmin.

Indeed, the reference to freedom of information requests leads me to suspect that the members of Manchester Withington got their choice right…

Tony Greaves