The Guardian reports:
The Conservatives have been forced on to the defensive in Eastleigh byelection campaign after doctors signed a letter condemning its candidate for suggesting the local state schools were not good enough for her son who wanted to become a surgeon.
A letter from cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, another surgeon and six named GPs states: “As GPs and surgeons who all started their education at state-funded schools, we are proof that Maria Hutchings’ assertions are not true. The education system in this country provided us with the knowledge and skills we needed to follow our dream career.
“It’s such a shame that Conservatives like Maria Hutchings want to do our education system down instead of sending the message that whatever your background, you can achieve what you set out to do in life.”
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
3 Comments
It does look like you’re going to win this one. I was thinking that the number of disaffected tactical and centre-left Lib Dem voters that are likely to stay at home or vote Labour would have given the Tories an advantage, but I’d forgotten to factor in the Tories. They seem to be deliberately throwing any attempts at re-election in 2015 as well, as demonstrated by Iain Duncan Smith’s inane and offensive comments about the workfare scheme yesterday . The vast majority of the comments I read on the on-line right-wing newspapers condemned his words.
People might be interested in this very interesting article on this issue about why the Tory candidate is so wrong about state education. It seems that a leopard never changes its spots, and it’s why the Tories cannot be trusted with things as valuable as state education:
http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2013/02/18/comment-hutchings-is-utterly-wrong-on-state-schools
There is only one realistic candidate for Eastleigh and he is ours.I’ll be coming to help as I know many of our colleagues will.