April Pond has a moat! shouts the headline on Tory Iain Dale’s blog, as he tries (a little too desperately) to rattle Lib Dem cages with campaigning in the Norwich North by-election enters its final fortnight.
Iain’s write-up is light-hearted enough, no doubt the better to distance himself from it with amused irony when the sheer hypocrisy of his posting is pointed out. Here’s what Iain says:
Not that I am being ‘remoatly’ ‘moatist’. Every house should have one. But seeing as though a Tory MP got the mickey taken out of him for having one, I’m not sure LibDem candidates should escape the ridicule. It wouldn’t be fair.
Do you see what Iain’s done there, reader? He’s suggesting the only reason Tory MP Douglas Hogg ‘got the mickey taken out of him’ was because he had a moat. No mention in Iain’s blog of the little matter of him charging the taxpayer £2,000 for it to be cleaned. Funny that.
The contrast between April Pond and Douglas Hogg doesn’t end there. For April is a self-made businesswoman, born in a council house, who has done very well for herself – including being able to afford a large house – thanks to hard work and effort, and is committed to refoming MPs’ expenses. Douglas Hogg, meanwhile, is the son of Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone, a former Lord Chancellor, who inherited the Viscountcy in 2001, and was educated at Eton and Oxford.
Unbelievably, Iain’s piece then segues into an attack on April Pond for ‘shameful’ smearing of her opponents. Truly, you couldn’t make it up.
PS: Nich Starling’s Norfolk Blogger blog also takes issue with Iain Dale’s posting.
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12 Comments
Is there a duck house? We need to know.
Is the reason your moat lady candidate in Norwich North won’t sign the ‘clean campaign pledge’because her slogan is
‘From Norwich,For Norwich’?
john – if you’re really going to try and make out that April isn’t local, well, good luck to you.
But she lives on the Suffolk border. How is that local?
Apart from claiming that you live in Norwich when you clearly don’t,living on the Suffolk border is rather remoat from her constituency?
Yes, it was a cheap shot. Wonder if he used Conhome London to Norwich rtn £15 away day fare?
Ahhhhh the old ‘I’m more local then you’ argument.
I’m curious. April Pond was quoted in the press as saying that she hadn’t seen the “extremist” press release about Rupert Read, and that the word shouldn’t have been used. Yet Iain Dale links to Lib Dem literature describing him as “extreme”. Has she changed her mind or what?
April Pond, more like April Moat.
It looks like it was a shrewd move to kick her out of Broadlands based on this.
Why won’t she sign the clean campaign thingy ? Seems a little odd to me.
Oh come on . iain d is making an amusing point. Anyone who has aver been in a liberal by election campaign knows that we stop at nothing.
where does she live?
I’m happy to challenge ‘over the top’ campaigning from my own party [had a few sharp words in C&N] but can I just point out the following to John Zims, Sam, Iain Dale etc
“From Norwich” … er yes, she’s from Norwich
“For Norwich” … er yes, simply a statement that she would work for the city
I’ve seen nothing claiming that she lives in Norwich.
Nor that she’s claimed public money for property maintenance.
Has Ian ever apologised for describing her as “whoring herself” – or even admitted that his language might not have been all that could have been expected.