Oh dear…
A number of posts on [Liberal Democrat council by-election candidate Dave Stones’] Facebook page were seemingly calculated to deliberately offend Muslims — including spreading outright smears. Stones claimed that the Royal British Legion were “not selling poppies in certain areas of the UK”, implying that objections from Muslims were behind the decision
The comments have since been removed and an apology issued:
We welcome Mr Stones’ unreserved apology and acceptance that the comments he copied and pasted were completely unacceptable.
* Prateek Buch is Director of the Social Liberal Forum and serves on the Liberal Democrat Federal Policy Committee
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4 Comments
I hope he loses his by-election.
He’s wrong about poppies anyway. I live in Keighley where Muslims are about 20% of the population and poppies are certainly sold here.
Of course, Labour are the past masters at such unacceptable comments – lest we forget:
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2010/08/phil-woolas-election-leaflets/
“I hope he loses his by-election.”
He did. There was a swing of more than 15% from the Lib Dems to Labour:
http://www.aldc.org/elections/by-election-results/2628/19/01/2012/Redcar_and_Cleveland_UA_Newcomen
The ALDC commentary castigates Labour for running a negative campaign, without explaining why, beyond describing an article on Stones’s Facebook site as “controversial.” Wouldn’t it be better not to try to defend this kind of thing?