Has CCHQ made a fool of Iain Dale again?

After the all-round rubbishing of the Grant Shapps “but my password was set to 1234” story which Iain Dale published (and is pretty much the only person to say they believe) you’d have thought Iain would be a bit more careful about stories he is fed in future.

But it would seem not … for his latest outburst about the Liberal Democrats using a photo of the Conservative candidate and thereby breaching the law, leaving themselves open to massive legal costs (and probably being guilty of eating babies too) is left looking really rather odd by one small fact.

Can you guess what the leaflet the Conservatives have been distributing today in the Ealing Cleveland council by-election includes?

Oh go on, I’m sure you can… (hint: it’s a photo, it’s of the Lib Dem candidate, and it’s taken from a Lib Dem website).

Now, if using such a photo is a heinous crime, do pray tell us Iain what that means the Tories in Ealing have been up to. After all, it’s not as if you would be saying that there is one rule for the Tories and another for everyone else is it?

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32 Comments

  • The Ealing Lib Dems have fought in a particularly dirty way, you cannot blame the Tories for striking back.

    They are ditributing leaflets with deliberate lies. One leaflet claims that the local recycing rate is below its target of 20%. Actually, these are very old figures, the recycling has increased by more than a third since the Tories took control of the Council and is at 25%. Green waste recycling has increased by 300%. The Lib Dems know the truth but they say the opposite.

    The more egregious lie is their latest claim that the Council is planning to introduce fortnighly waste collection. The Council has repeatedly ruled this out. The Lib Dem leader in Ealing actually criticised the Tory Council for not considering fortnightly collections at a June Cabinet meeting.

    The Cleveland Lib Dems have form when it comes to lying in leaflets. In 2002 they claimed a Lib Dem Council would cut Council tax. In fact the Lib Dems on the Council opposed every Labour budget from 1994 on the basis that they had not put Council tax up enough. Two months after the tax cutting leaflets went out Lib Dem councillors voted for Labour’s notorious 26% tax rise.

  • Dale doesn’t need anyone’s help to make a fool of himself. Sad little Toryboy that he is.

  • Richie

    It is not that they voted against the budget, it is that they said year on year that they would have preferred to see higher tax increases. They said in the Council Chamber that the average 10% increases Labour were putting through were not high enough for the needs of Ealing. The first time they voted for a budget was in 2003, when labour did what they had been calling for – and voted fora 26% tax hike. Yet leaflets in Cleveland in the 2002 election said the opposite. Lib Dems told residents at election time Council tax was too high and Lib Dems would do in Ealing what they did in Islington – ie cut taxes – but they said the precise opposite in the Town Hall.

  • I hope the next LibDem leaflet in Ealing will have a pic of Tony Lit donating £ 5,000 to Tony Blair recently . Vote LIT get Labour

  • In 1990, The Conservatives came to power in Ealing promising to outlaw backland developments.

    However, one year later, they surreptitiously altered the text of the Draft UDP in order to weaken, rather than strengthen, the backland policy. And they ousted the Planning Chairman, Norman Pointing, who refused to go along with this betrayal.

    Why?

    Because they were desperate to sell off surplus Council land in Hanwell which could only be developed if two street frontage houses were demolished.

    They also denied the existence of covenants protecting the land in respect of which they had taken out a £2.5 million insurance policy five and a half years earlier. Shamefully, residents had to spend £5,000 of their own money proving what the Council already knew.

    Three Tory councillors lost their seats over this.

    They also limited the maximum size of a backland site so they could sell off Dormers Wells High School playing fields to developers.

    And they tried to sell of both Brent Valley golf courses (each on Metropolitan Open Land).

    I don’t suppose they’ll be trumpeting these episodes in their byelection campaign, but some people do have long memories.

  • M – what with Tory smears on poster campaigns (never backed up with evidence); the Tory agent, an MP, attempting to post comments on You Tube whilst pretending to be a Lib Dem; and complaints about copyright infringement whilst the local Tory party are doing exactly the same thing, I think everyone knows who’s fighting this campaign in a “particularly dirty way”

  • Do you support the tactic of Lib Dem lies in Cleveland leaflets?

  • “Do you support the tactic of Lib Dem lies in Cleveland leaflets?”

    I haven’t been to Cleveland, I haven’t seen the leaflets. So I can’t comment.

    Suffice it to say that I incline to believe in the honesty and integrity of the Lib Dem agent in Ceveland until I am given reason to consider otherwise by a neutral source.

  • Not sure where you will get a ‘neutral’ source. Take a look at the 3 points I have raised, I’d be fascinated if you can make an argument that they are not deliberate lies.

  • Ah, but I have to take your word for it, M. And I am not inclined to put faith in the testimony of anonymous Tory troll. Sorry.

  • You no ability to form your own judgment? Pity.

  • Wrong, M. I form my own judgment by first ascertaining the facts. Unlike David Cameron, who waded ram stam into the politics of Southall, exploiting community rivalries he doesn’t understand, and has now ended up looking a prize twat whose leadership really has to be in question.

    Come on, M. Drop your mask.

  • Calm down, girls.

  • P.S. M – given the form that the Tories have built up in this by-election (see comment 7 above), I don’t tend to believe a word that you/they say.

  • Iain Dale’s & M’s comments – do show the Tories up for what they really are & like when the heat of an election is on.

  • Have I said anything that is incorrect?

  • “Do you support the tactic of Lib Dem lies in Cleveland leaflets?”

    Given a Lib Dem council wasn’t elected then you can’t really accuse them of not cutting council tax.

    Just because you’ve argued that if you ran the council you’d cut council tax, it’s not necessarily inconsistent to vote against a Labour budget when in opposition because the council tax increase doesn’t support the spending commitments the council is making – and doesn’t imply you don’t think council tax should be lower. Not being a Clevelend Lib Dem I don’t know the ins and outs of it or how they justified their opposition to the budgets, but without knowing more I don’t think there is enough evidence of a “tactic of lies”.

    On the subject of lying to get yourself elected; see my comments in 7 above that relate to the deliberate actions of CCHQ in this by-election.

  • Hywel Morgan 15th Jul '07 - 4:31pm

    “Are the photos on the LibDem website copyrighted?”

    All photographs have copyright (at least for the purposes of this discussion)

  • M, you asked, “Have I said anything that is incorrect?” The truth is that I cannot know. You have made a number of evidence-free accusations. On that basis, I must say that in the absence of evidence there is no reason to believe you.

    And, Edward, when you ask, “But by putting it on a website which anybody can access isn’t there some implied permission to waive its privacy?”, the answer is no. If I walk into Tate Modern am I allowed to reproduce the images of the art I see in there? By your logic I am because they are in a location that anyone can access.

  • Evidence?

    Please see press releases where the Council a) gives recycling figures and b) categorically rules out fortnightly collections.

    http://www.ealing.gov.uk/press_releases/2007/june_2007/pr994.html

    http://ealinglibdems.org.uk/news/000134.html

    http://www.ealing.gov.uk/press_releases/2007/february_2007/pr927.html

    The latest Lib Dem leaflet headlines Tory pklans to introduce fortnightly collections – the opposite of the truth.

  • It looks like Tory-run Ealing has a shameful green record. Let’s hope we teach them a less on Thursday.

  • Correction to 26:

    “lesson”, not “less”

  • “It looks like Tory-run Ealing has a shameful green record. Let’s hope we teach them a less on Thursday.”

    Do you have any regard for the truth? A one third increas in recycling a shamefull record? A 300% increase in green waste recycling shameful?

    Whta is shameful is that the deliberate lying to residents using figures that end before the current administratin was elected.

  • The Tories in Ealing have a frankly shameful record on green issues.

    How about their tampering with the backland policy (so they could flog off council owned land – including school playing fields – to developers)?

    Yes, why was Councillor Norman Pointing given the boot as Planning Chair?

    How about their decision to sell “The Maples” in Acton to the Notting Hill Housing Trust for redevelopment as high-density flats and townhouses – including the loss of a historic Victorian garden complete with pear tree visible from the street? (The planning application came up under Labour, but the Tories were in power when the decision to sell was taken.)

    Not to mention Elthorne Park. Gosh, they had to back down from that one pretty quick!

    And why did the then Conservative Council lie to residents about the covenants protecting land behind Cawdor Crescent, W7 (didn’t know there were covenants, but still took out £2.5 million insurance!).

    One honourable exception – the tree-loving Councillor Nigel Sumner (sorry, Nigel, I hope I haven’t wrecked your career).

  • Just happens that none of that has anything to do with the lies on the current Lib Dem leaflets. You are talking about a period of more than 13 years ago. That may be more convenient than talking about the rather good record of the current administration…

  • Yes, M, 13 years before Tony Lit joined the Tory Party!

  • M, you should be ashamed to be defending the Tories in Ealing, who are pursuing an horrendous and almost wantonly anti-green agrenda. Shame on you.

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