Alex Salmond must have been too busy with his book signings to actually check his facts. Literature going out in his name in the Gordon constituency makes some interesting, and easily disprovable claims. From the Scotsman:
Free personal care and the Scotland-wide free bus travel pass scheme was brought in by the Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition which preceded the current SNP administration at Holyrood. But literature being distributed by Mr Salmond’s campaign team in Gordon claims the SNP “led the way” on this policy.
Even for Salmond that is a cheek, as our candidate Christine Jardine pointed out:
Experience has taught us that Alex Salmond sometimes has problems remembering the fine detail of the actualité, but, even by his standards, these are blatant untruths. It’s typical of the SNP’s attempts to rewrite history, but I’m confident that voters in Gordon will see past these false claims and remember that the Lib Dems have a genuine record of working with like-minded colleagues to deliver real improvements
Cj’s campaign is going from strength to strength. She has party legend Sheila Ritchie as her campaign manager. Sheila is no stranger to hard work as I remember from way back in Kincardine and Deeside in 1987. Sheila has been heard to say that she has never worked so hard and achieved so much in an election. If you can, go and give the campaign a hand over the next few days.
Last night, they had a very special visitor as Miriam Gonzalez Durantez continued her tour around the UK helping women candidates.
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Despotism Renewed? Lord Hewart Unburied by Neil Hickman
Conference moves on to Harrogate
Getting things done - Victoria Park #dundeewestend
Welsh Labour's half empty echo chamber
Lib Dems gain seat from Labour in Bromsgrove with a 27% swing
Mid Suffolk Town and Parish Councillors meet
David Symonds
Geoff Reid
Nigel Jones
David Garlick
Marco
12 Comments
AS is beginning to sound like Kim Jong-Un, claiming credit for all these goodies. No wonder the North Korean ‘dear leader’ was about the only head of state to back Scottish independence in September.
What does “going from strength to strength” actually mean or infer. Would you put £50 on a Lib Dem win in Gordon?
That is the test.
I really know little about Scottish politics,but just watching a debate in the Scottish Parliament, in an attempt to get away from blanket coverage of the royal birth,( though I wish them well,) I was impressed by all leaders of the parties, there, Libdem, Labour and Conservative.
Nicola Sturgeon was asked whether she would rule out another referendum within the next five years and though presented with quotes from various potential SNP candidates, indicating this, Nicola Sturgeon was just as slippery as our MPs South of the border, deflecting and refusing to answer questions.
She was pulled up for her record there in education, etc, but spluttered and blocked, just like many of our MPs.She has impressed many of us, South of the border, with her sense of conviction , but it is a worry that the SNPs do not seen to have a great record there,.
They just seemed to try to bluff, over getting a currency union, etc, during the referendum .
“Alex Salmond tries to claim SNP credit for policies introduced by the Lib Dems”
And why not? The Tories have been quite successful in juggling the ‘whose policy was whose’ pack and pretty much getting away with it.
Open season on Lib Dem MPs and our policies.
Opportunity for all perhaps?
Nicola Sturgeon visited Skye today to campaign against Charles Kennedy. The SNP claim to have 2500 members in Charles’ constituency yet they could only muster a pitiful 51 for a march across the Skye Bridge.
Those 51 couldn’t even manage to march across the whole bridge as they got half-way up and then marched back down the way they’d come. The Grand Old Duke of York would have been proud of them!
I sense that the fortunes of the SNP may also be on the turn. Certainly they are getting very irritated as Charles takes the fight to them with some superb campaign videos on his FB page.
The SNP don’t like it when the Lib. Dems. fight back.
The SNP have over 100,000 members so 2,500 in Ross and Cromarty isn’t exactly a stretch given there are only 59 seats in Scotland.
And given that this seat is the largest in the UK and Cromarty is the best part of 100 miles from Skye activist turnout can’t be judged by the same standards as somewhere urban.
I hope Charlie K holds his seat – but the Scottish Lib Dems conversion to unionism will come back to haunt them – and good people will lose their seats as a result.
Peter Chegwyn, I liked Charles’s Facebook after checking it out after you recommended it last night. He made some very good posts and he engages with people too. I particularly liked the post where he said the following:
“First and foremost I’ll stand up for local interests, sometimes that means going against the party line.
I don’t agree with every Liberal Democrat policy and that was the case even when I was leader of the party, that’s healthy and a good thing for democracy.
It worries me that this stance isn’t shared by all other parties, especially the SNP. The SNP candidate refuses to back calls for an independent review of healthcare in Skye & Lochalsh.
Why?
Because the decision was made by an SNP minister and in the SNP, you don’t challenge the leadership even when local interests demand it.”
I also liked when on his recent Question Time appearance he stood up for the defence budget.
it must be extremely difficult campaigning in Scotland in the present circumstances. I had hoped to join Peter Chegwyn on his visit to Charles’ campaign.
But as soon as polls close next Thursday we must draw a line under the campaign and think carefully before we make any hasty judgements, or impose any redlines.
Cameron has been stoking the fires of nationalism and we have loitered on the edges of dangerous ground.
I recommend every one reads N Cohen in the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/02/beware-siren-calls-of-nationalism?CMP=share_btn_tw
And remember the words of Gladstone who Cohen reminds us ‘beseeched the Commons to be generous and remember there was a difference between “giving with freedom and dignity” and “giving under compulsion – giving with disgrace, giving with resentment dogging you at every step”’.
“Alex Salmond tries to claim SNP credit for policies introduced by the Lib Dems when he wasn’t even an MSP”
Er, the policies were introduced by a Labour/Lib Dem coalition, not “the Lib Dems”. According to the Telegraph, Labour led the way on both these policies :-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11575445/Alex-Salmond-accused-of-telling-voters-blatant-untruths.html
This article is a blatant case of Lib Dems trying to claim credit for Labour policies.
Dan Falchikov – Charles Kennedy’s seat is over 200 miles x 150 miles, far larger than you suggest, and different boundaries too. But despite the distances to travel one might have expected more than 51 of the SNP’s claimed 2500 constituency members to attend one of their biggest photo-calls of the campaign, especially as Nicola Sturgeon was also on Skye to support her international banker candidate.
Fact is the SNP are full of puff and wind but when challenged by a candidate as good as Charles Kennedy they disappear into the Scotch mist faster than the famous Scottish midges.
After campaigning for Charles in the NW Highlands over the past week I sense the tide is turning away from the SNP (just as it did in the last days of the referendum campaign). Yes they may still do well but not so well as the polls have been forecasting. Tonight’s live TV debate in Scotland between the four Scottish Party Leaders could be interesting.
Is he the only one telling untruths? Leaflets posted by the CSER SNP candidate (whose registered address is in Charles’ Kennedy’s constituency) say
>> in recent years I have founded two charitable groups. The first of these is ‘Food for Families’ based in Invergordon that provides food and basic living supplies to individuals and families that are struggling to make ends meet as a direct consequence of the austerity agenda imposed on the people of Scotland by the UK Government.
Not according to this report where credit is given to someone else
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/plan-to-deliver-over-1000-meals-to-hard-up-inverness-families-over-festive-season-1-2629020
Monaghan is a director of the Highland Homeless Trust which is named as the overall coordinator.
The same is hinted at here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4g8jViaxpc
Endole has him down simply as a director
http://www.endole.co.uk/company/SC441921/food-for-families-ltd
(Splitting this because of limits on URLs.)
>> The second is the ‘North Highland College Foundation’ based in Wick. The Foundation holds cash reserves of £1.25 million and was founded by myself and two colleagues to facilitate access to further and higher education across Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.
Endole says he is only a director
http://www.endole.co.uk/company/SC466428/the-north-highland-college-foundation
The minutes of the meeting when it was created say similar
http://tinyurl.com/pw5tx5e
What would the Electoral Commission say? If he’d used the statement on his SNP profile, not much I assume.
http://www.snp.org/people/paul-monaghan