1. Conservative candidate John Howell is asked a dozen questions about his links to developers – but repeatedly refuses to answer them fully.
2. John Howell is a county councillor, but misses two key votes on whether a new town should be built in the Oxfordshire countryside.
3. And then to round it off, John Howell has been talking about how important campaigning to save the local hospital has been to him, but the two key hospital campaigners have pointed out that:
The Townlands Campaign has always been a community based campaign led by local people. The first time I was ever aware of John Howell was after he was first selected as a candidate in the by-election.
No-one I have spoken to on the Townlands Steering Group is aware of any contribution he has made to the campaign to save Townlands Hospital
and
John Howell has never been heard of until this election started.
The local Conservative Party has watched from the sidelines, whilst the Henley Residents Group has inspired the Town Council to fund the ‘Support Townlands campaign’ to the tune of £30,000. (Source: henleylibdems.org.uk)
P.S. I don’t think his attacks on the Liberal Democrats for wanting a full-time police station in Henley are likely to turn out too well for him either. There’s a distinct whiff of panic about rushing out a poorly printed leaflet attacking another party for wanting better policing.
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10 Comments
If Henley had had a full-time Police Station, George Harrison might not have had to defend himself against the mentally ill man who broke into his house and attacked him.
He would have. The police are mostly a cleanup crew (except when they’re picking off easy targets so they make their government imposed targets…)
What exactly did Howells claim about supporting this hospital?
That it was his “proudest achievement”.
Are we running a relentlessly negative personal campaign in Henley, or have I got hold of the wrong end of the stick?
Nope, we’re doing what’s known in the trade as ‘shooting at open goals’.
Andy
Thank goodness for that. From what I’d seen, I did think it looked like a relentlessly negative personal campaign, but I’d been praying I was wrong. Obviously I was – thank goodness.
This is interesting: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7465019.stm
I don’t think the Tories understand how this works – Chris Rennard will be rubbing his hands with glee because you know you’ve got your opponents on the ropes when they start reaching for their lawyers 😉
Hmmm- Anonymous, I’m not sure. I don’t think it is as bad as their campaign, but upon canvassing I have been told that we won’t be voted for because our campaign is too negative
Having said that, Andy has a point- and we’re well within our rights to mention a) property developer angle b) hospital
I’d like to see this Boris thing the Tories want to sue about though
I hadn’t heard about the Boris thing, but here it is:
http://tinyurl.com/3hkg9b